Modern Minstrels

Last.fm

I recently set up a Last.fm page, so now anyone can see the shear magnitude of my current Death Cab obsession. . It's a great way to share your musical interests and discover new bands. There really wasn't much to setup. I installed the iTunes Audioscrobbler client set up on both my Powerbook and my work computer and then just listened to my music. It uploads the current track and then as you get a large track listing built up it computes charts of top artists, top songs, etc. Then it links you to "neighbours" who have similar musical interests. Finally, everyone has a personal radio, so you can stream your music, or someone else's. Great for the occasional day when I forget to take my iPod at work. The service is completely free, though they request a donation for using the radio after 30 days of use. I definitely recommend giving it a try.

Piano Rock x2

Straylight Run and Something Corporate @ The Fillmore on February 7. Rock on!

Cigarette

One thing I don't think I've mentioned before is that in California, there isn't any smoking allowed in the clubs, which I think is great. No more smelling like smoke after shows, or ending up standing right next to, or worse, behind, someone that's smoking.

The Perfect Ending

The concert tri-fecta ended on Sunday with Straylight Run at Bottom of the Hill. Andrew joined Nick and I this time around. He hadn't been to a show before, so I lent him their CD and he really liked it. It's funny, when I saw them in Cleveland a bunch of people who didn't go to any other concerts (Angie, Tim, Jeff, and Dave) all came. I guess that just shows that Straylight is good stuff.

There were three openers: Say Anything, Northstar, and Hot Rod Circuit. I just recently started listening to Say Anything, so I enjoyed their set. Their songs and lyrics are just fun to listen to.

I haven't really heard much Northstar or Hot Rod Circuit before the show. Both were decent, but didn't greatly excite me. One interesting note is that Northstar is from Alabama, definitely not the typical pop/punk band home.

Finally Straylight took the stage. They played all the songs on their CD and John and Michelle covered Radiohead's I Will. Every song was great. Apparently no one knew the Radiohead song, because it was quiet for a second after they finished, but Nick being a huge Radiohead fan quickly started the clapping.

I absolutely love Mistakes We Knew We Were Making, and The Tension and The Terror was great live. And they totally rocked out at the end of their last song, Sympathy for the Martyr. Even MIchelle was tearing it up on the keyboard.

There was one amusing moment during the show when someone shouted "John!" in between songs. So John says, "Yes?". "You're the man!" "You're right, I am the man, thanks for pointing that out" Silly John.

After the show I was able to get everyone to sign my liner notes. And I even talked to Michelle a little this time, she was really nice and is such a cutie. :-)

Oh, and if going to this show makes me a jackass, then I'm proud of it!

Why You'd Want to Live Here

On Saturday Nick and I went up to the Warfield for a band I've been waiting a long time to see live, Death Cab for Cutie. I've mentioned them and Ben Gibbard here numerous times before. They were simply fantastic.

And stealing the list of songs they played (not in order) from NIck:

* Pictures In An Exhibition

* Title Track
* Employment Pages
* For What Reason
* Lowell, MA
* Company Calls

* Photobooth

* I Was A Kaleidoscope
* Styrofoam Plates
* A Movie Script Ending
* We Laugh Indoors

* The New Year
* Title And Registration
* Expo ‘86
* The Sound of Settling
* Tiny Vessels
* Transatlanticism

* This Temporary Life

The standout songs for me were Photobooth, Title Track, I Was a Kaleidoscope, A Movie Script Ending, The New Year, Title and Registration, and of course the closing with Tiny Vessels / Transatlanticism.

There's also a slight mishap to tell about this show. When we arrived, we went to the will call booth and Nick gave them his credit card and they said they couldn't find our tickets. So they called Ticketmaster, and apparently Nick had selected the print at home option. Fortunately though they wrote us up tickets. But here's the best part. By the time we found out about the show, only balcony seats were left, but the tickets they wrote up for us were GA tickets! Huzzah! So we ended up dead center of the tier above the pit, right at stage level. It couldn't have been more perfect than that

I also got a really cool DCFC shirt which I'll have to post a picture of at some point.

If you haven't checked out Death Cab yet, you really should. You don't know what you're missing. And if they're in your town, go see them live.

All You Need is Hate

So two weeks ago Nick and I had 3 concerts in the city in a span of just 4 days and now I'm finally getting around to blogging about them.

On Thursday, Nick, Eric, and I went to Bimbo's 365 to see a British band called The Delgados. I hadn't heard of them before, but Nick sent me some mp3s and I liked what I heard so I decided to join him. There were two openenrs. The first was 3 guys from California, can't remember their name, pretty standard rock, nothing exciting. Next up was a guitarist who went by the name Crooked Fingers. Nick had seen him before when he was in London, and promised he was good. And indeed he was. He played at least 4 different guitars throughout his set, the acoustic stuff being the best, in my opinion. He also broke out a harmonica for at least one song. Then the Delgados came up and put on a good show. Easily my favorite song of theirs is a little upbeat number called All You Need Is Hate.

Update:
I forgot to mention that the bouncer lady was convinced the picture on my driver's license wasn't me. She asked me my birthday, zipcode, and I had to get out my college ID, which looked even less like me, and show a credit card. She never really acted like she wouldn't let me in, but she was certain the picture wasn't me. I don't know what the deal was, I've not had a problem before and I showed it to people at work and they were like, "that's pretty much you."