Modern Minstrels

Tunes in Berkeley

Last Saturday Nick, Mike, Lora, Tristan, and I went to Berkeley to see Matt Nathanson, Howie Day, Guster, and O.A.R at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. I had only heard of Guster and O.A.R before, but it turned out to be an excellent show. A few days before the show I got Matt Nathanson's new CD, Beneath the Fireworks and became completely addicted to it. His music has a peppy beat, the lyrics are meaningful, and he has a great voice. In just over a week, I've listened to the entire album 20 times according to iTunes. And oh yeah, he's incredibly funny during his live show. Here's from the Bay Area and Nick said he plays a lot of shows here so I'm definitely planning to see him again.

Up next was Howie Day. After the standard break between sets he comes onstage, but I'm not expecting him to start playing because there wasn't anyone else on stage with him. I was expecting an entire band with him, like Matt Nathanson had. But no, it was just him, a guitar, and his foot pedal controlled recorders. He would start playing and then use the foot pedals to record and play back guitar parts and vocal parts. It was quite amazing to see and hear. Nick purchased his EP and posted the live version of Bunnies. Download and you can get a sense of the sound, but it's still not the same as watching him doing this right in front of you.

Guster played third and was the band 90% of the crowd was there to see. I was only familiar with a couple of their songs. I did enjoy their set though. Mike didn't like the songs off their new album which were quite a bit slower than their other songs. The best part about watching them was the drummer. He didn't use drum sticks, but instead had white tape around his fingers and played drums, bongos, and cymbals all with his hands. It was pretty crazy how fast he would move, and hitting the cymbals looked like it had to hurt.

The headliners were O.A.R.. None of us were terribly impressed with them. Mike described their music as "Jamaican Island Ska." Everyone was pretty tired, so we started to leave after their second song. But just as we were about to leave the venue, we hear their singer say Matt Nathanson's going to come out and sing a song with them. They played a cover of U2's Sunday, Bloody Sunday and it was great.

After that we left and stopped by a frozen yogurt place on campus. We got huge cups for under $3, easily 2-3 times the amount of Gelato I was used to getting in Cleveland for the same price.