Quiet, Too Quiet

My fiancee bought us tickets to the Los Campesinos! Valentine’s Day show in NYC!  Best Valentine’s Day ever, I’m sure. Best like whoa.

Kat and I saw a great show on Friday night.  Built To Spill headlined, and The Meat Puppets and Dinosaur Jr opened for them.  I was a bit surprised about the order since I kinda feel like bands with seniority should be the headliners.  But when I heard Built To Spill’s set, I understood.  They were so much stronger.

Kat and I got pretty bored during the Meat Puppets.  They were doing some sort of grunge bluegrass set I didn’t really get.  And the same with Dinosaur Jr.  I’d always wanted to see Dinosaur Jr, so I’m glad I got the chance.  But their music is more sit-in-your-room instead of being surrounded by hostile fratboys.

J. Mascis’ setup was insane.  He had three or four Marshall stacks surrounding him as monitors.  I can’t imagine what his hearing must be like nowadays.

Built To Spill’s set was amazing.  They played all of Perfect From Now On and a bunch of other songs too. The weird part was at the end.  It’s the climax of the set and they’re jamming away.  And then the guys from the other bands start to come on stage too.  They switch drummers out, not stopping the song, mind you.  The crazy Meat Puppets bass player comes out and switches from bass to cello to crazy voices on the mic.  Meanwhile, J. Mascis and the Built To Spill guy are having some sort of guitar showdown.

It sounds awesome, and it was at first.  But after 20 minutes, a climax kinda becomes a plateau.  It got pretty boring.

Great show though.

I have photos here:

Someone took some pretty good footage of Tullycraft playing Twee at the nycpopfest 2008 show.  I think I’m one of the guys with their hands in the air.

This was just awesome.  Tullycraft were so good. I wasn’t expecting it to turn into a mosh, and my toes are feeling pretty sore from all the trampling, but man it was good. Everyone just started dancing.  I’m not sure what people do for Tullycraft in other towns, but I think NYC held its own last night.

I was too busy dancing and getting completely sweaty to take many photos, but I have a couple and I’ll post them soon once I get to my computer.

From Bubblegum To Sky did well too, considering that they were playing with a sit-in drummer and having trouble with their guitar tone.

After Tullycraft finished, Kat and I walked over to Don Hill’s, for the Mondo dance party, where Cats on Fire played. I’m used to the Don Hill parties being super trendy annoying affairs, all either mod or scene.  The Mondo thing was much friendlier.  Maybe it was that it was all the twee kids, but it seemed like that’s their thing, at least according to their website.

More nyc popfest shows tonight!  I’ll be the guy in the crowd having a good time!

It’s tonight! I’m pretty excited. Kat and I will see 

• Love Is All (Sweden)
• The Secret History (NYC)
• Oh! Custer (Sweden)
• In Interview (NYC)
• The Foxgloves (UK)

NYC Popfest 2008 tickets have finally gone on sale.  At least, the week passes are available.  Better grab them up if you want to be sure you can see Tullycraft.  Some of these venues are small.

I finally uploaded the photos I took from the Kevin Devine show from last Sunday.  I hope you like them.

I should probably also mention that his album Put Your Ghosts To Rest is being re-released by the label Procrastinate! Music Traitors.

Kat and I saw yet another show last night, making for a very exhausting weekend.  Luckily it was the always great Kevin Devine, along with Brian Bonz opening.

I wish I could find a photo of the line up Kevin used last night, but it changes so often I wasn’t able to.  That’s too bad because I’m friends with his backup singer Carey, who had an amazing duet doing a cover of a Pedro the Lion song.  And my roommate Russel played guitar with him last night as well.

He gets a bit of a younger audience, which gets kinda cute.  A girl yelled to him, “will you go to my prom?” There was also another teenage girl weeping softly in her hoodie in a corner. They all sing along with all the lyrics too. It sounds pretty good on the quieter songs where you can hear them.

One of the things I really love about Kevin’s shows is how he brings on the musicians from the other bands to play with him. At one point he had seven people on the stage with him. It makes the event feel really special.

It’s been pretty great watching Brian’s music grow. I remember when he was just this kid that crashed a party I was at five years ago. He plays with EJ and Jinda who used to be in Nixon Agnew. Actually, all these guys have been in tons of bands, so I won’t enumerate them.

The Paxen Films guys were there too.  I guess they’re working on a concert movie.  They had a pretty serious film crew for the concert.  They were pretty busy so I didn’t get to chat with them too much.

Kat and I got to see Palomar and My Teenage Stride last night at Union Hall. It was a great show. I’d seen Palomar several times about five years ago. But the funny thing is their bass player’s boyfriend is now a coworker of mine and they live right down the street. It was good to see them again.  Apparently they haven’t been playing as much as they used to so I’m glad I got to go.

It was pretty packed in the basement.  Palomar had gotten a mention in one of the AM/Metro papers.  It might have sold out, actually. So good for them.  They were fun, just like I remembered.

My Teenage Stride’s show was amazing. I had seen them before last year at NYC Popfest and had bought their album.

I don’t know if their sound has changed. Maybe it’s their new bass player, but they blew me away. I felt like I had learned something about how to compose a song. They have three guitar players each doing their own thing and the bass is what’s keeping the song together. I guess that doesn’t come through as much on the album which is mixed more traditionally.

Also ran into Courtney, the queen of the twee scene again. Kat and I saw her at the last show we went to as well, Peggy Pains’ Birthday Extravaganza. If I do this enough times, maybe she’ll remember me.

 Kat and I saw The Insect Guide band play at Peggy Pains’ Birthday Extravaganza at Cake Shop.  Great show.  They also played with Manhattan Love Suicides and The Pains of Being Pure At Heart.  I think I would have liked a little more variety in the line up, although I loved each band individually.  Manhattan Love Suicides could have played a longer set too.

There was also this terrible band that I think snuck into the show.  They weren’t listed on any of the signs and the girl manning the door had no idea who they were.  They did this sorta punk cover of Thank Heaven for Little Girls (I think) on toy piano.  And their drummer looked like Dave Grohl in fur.