October 24, 2008

[Ross]

SO Steve and I went to see Chicago (the band) at a nearby casino last night. WE both really enjoyed it, although the acoustics were less than optimal.

Of all the great stuff they played, I had "You're the Inspiration" stuck in my head all day

QOTD: What's the last concert you went to? Give us a review!

[jack]

Songfight Live! Hot and Sweaty.....that hoblit guy rocked himself to death!

[drë]

ahh great question Ross.

DRC + QOTD: i had plans for a road trip this weekend to Alabama to catch MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO,great fucking band! http://www.myspace.com/magnoliaelectricco
(thanks Hoblit), as they don't play in FL.
either way my plans got shot, cause i have to work Saturday night due to a major code rollout, fuck!
i got over it, once a former cowoker told me she was going to be at That1Guy http://www.myspace.com/that1guy
show Friday night. i was like cool, i can catch up with her, then found out the show was already soldout earlier today(Friday) fuck..
so am stuck here at work, working on my next music video. lame.

couple weeks ago, i did a road trip to Virginia to catch Okkervil River http://www.myspace.com/okkervilriver
and see my cousin. Okkervil River sounded great for a small indie band, as it was mostly college students that knew the stories behind a lot of the songs.

But now the BEST rock show i seen in recent years, had to be MATTHEW GOOD and his Band in Buffalo, NY, in August.
Man, the man played close to 3 hours of A+ material, in a small venue that just took everyone by storm.
oh and i got to meet him after the show, then it was off to the stripclub.
Canada's Matthew Good has to be one of the most underrated songwriters of the X/Y generations.

[Paco Del Stinko]

I went to see the Mars Volta at the Orpheum Theater In Boston last month. Sound was a little boomy, but the show was heady and rocking. Probably the best professional rock drummer that I've ever seen, he was inhuman and unstoppable. Many elevating psychedelic moments punctuated by thunder and noise made me long to drop acid, but unneeded. While not the second coming of whoever, those guys definitely have their own thing going on. Worth the trip if you have the chance to go.

[JonPorobil]

DRC: First paycheck from the new job came in today. Payday is weekly, which is a nice and unexpected perk.

QotD: Just saw Martin Sexton at a solo show without his band. Just the man, his guitar, and two microphones. I wish there were a clip of this on Youtube, so I could ask how the hell he did it, but he managed a really close approximation of an electric guitar solo using just his voice and the second mic, which had some kind of effect put on it.

Jack's Mannequin just did a show at the same venue last night, but I had to pass because money's tight.

I am, however, going to see TV on the Radio next week. I bought those tickets and the Martin Sexton tickets before I got fired, so... whoops? At least I'm employed again.

[Reist]

Elton John.

And here's a story for the ages, as told on facebook by Jeff (Jeff Travis Henderson to you SFers)

We bought tickets in section 301, which is the nosebleeds. Then suddenly while wandering the halls, a man comes up to us and he says, "Hey I work for Elton John. We need some energetic people to sit in the front row. Are you feeling up for it?" Heck yes we were! We were really excited.

This is Elton John playing a song. He winked and pointed at Andrew and I the entire night.

This is Elton John signing autographs. I got my ticket signed. This is also the time when a drunk 40 year old lady kept hitting on Andrew and trying to grind with him. It was pretty gross, but also kind of funny.

Right after this photo was taken, the same man who works for Elton John who gave us the tickets came into the crowd and said that Elton John wanted our phone numbers. We gave them to him. A few minutes later we got a phone call saying that Elton would like to have a drink with us.

So we met him at his hotel. Andrew and I ordered some Coca-Cola and he ordered some non-alcoholic beer. We talked for about a half hour. We chatted about music (he's listening to MGMT and Vampire Weekend these days) and what he is doing in Calgary for the next 10 days, and all kinds of other things.


Now, to be totally honest, I was pretty much starstruck the whole time. Jeff handled himself much better ... but what are you supposed to do when you're hanging out with Elton John in his deluxe suite? I don't really know either.

So ... can anybody's concert experience top that?

[Caravan Ray]

... but what are you supposed to do when you're hanging out with Elton John in his deluxe suite?

Ask him who he thinks he kidding with that stupid wig.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Reist! Hahahahaha. Oh the jokes that fill my head right now are almost unbearable. All I can think about are the stories of rock bands that had guys that spotted the hot girls for the band, to go back to their rooms after the show.
But that is a pretty cool story, Andrew. Not many get that lucky.

[Caravan Ray]

Reist! Hahahahaha. Oh the jokes that fill my head right now are almost unbearable. All I can think about are the stories of rock bands that had guys that spotted the hot girls to go back to their rooms after the show.
.

I thought it best not to touch on that. (whether Elton thought that too - well, that's up to Reisty to tell us).

[Billy's Little Trip]

Yeah, I almost didn't hit submit. But I would have exploded into a million little pieces if I didn't.
Andrew knows that we just like to goof on him. Nothing but love for the Reistmeister.

[Lunkhead]

Wow, amazing story. I love it. I seriously doubt anyone here can top that. I'm glad you had pictures to prove it, too, or I wouldn't have believed it. Please tell you guys tried to get Elton John to do Song Fight!

QOTD: Erin and I saw Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds recently and they were really excellent. Great show. Although, I found his crazy mountain main fiddle/electric mandolin player to be a bit annoying.

[Ross]

So awhile back someone (Leaf) suggested Andrew change his avatar pic because he had grown up. Looks pretty accurate to me

[drë]

Boy, no kidding.. amazing story.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Andrew, you can pay it forward some day when you are an old rocker.

[fluffy]

this week suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked

Specifically I spent most of my time waiting on a coworker to finish something that would "just take a few more hours." ALL FREAKING WEEK. Finally today he got it working to the point that I could tell that it wouldn't actually work right. So I took over (which I really hate doing but sometimes you just gotta do it) and in about 5 hours I refactored it to not be such a maintenance nightmare. Of course it still doesn't work quite right but at least it's in a state where it's fixable.

qotd: I gotta think about that since I don't go to many concerts. I think it was Plaid. They were pretty good (and not just because of the name).

Nope, according to last.fm, that was before the SF 2008 Tour. So it's either the SF 2008 Tour Moscow stop or it's the crappy punk-rock show my friend Rachael dragged me to. Those were around the same time and I didn't bother to record the latter in my last.fm profile.

[Spud]

I think the last show I was at was MC Frontalot in Seattle, at the High Dive, back in August. Damned if Breaker Breaker didn't play the same joint the night before and I missed them. Like what am I going to say to Colin, anyway, "thanks"?

On a somewhat, ahem, larger scale, I have recently seen (that would be in the last few years, at my age) Arlo Guthrie, David Byrne, and Joe Cocker (not on the same bill). Before that, it was Dylan and Paul Simon (on the same bill, but not at the same time, except for one song).

I did sit at the next table to Joe Cocker at a club in London once. I kept thinking it was him, and then no, and then yeah, and then no, and finally two big black buys walked up, clearing the way to the door, then stood next to him as he and his lady friend got up and walked out with the two of them following. I said "yup, that WAS Joe Cocker".

[Caravan Ray]

Wow, amazing story. I love it. I seriously doubt anyone here can top that.

What! Are you kidding. I once got completely drunk and crawled up on stage with The Johnnys and sang backing vocals. And Ithey let me finish the song without the bouncers dragging me off and beating me up. I think a long forgotten Melbourne cowboy punk band trumps an old hirsuitically challenged homosexual any day. At least The Johnnys never releaesed a vomit-inducingly awful tribute to some dead fucking princess.

EDIT:

Actually - I just remembered another pathetically inadequate claim to fame:

I once saw The Monkees - THE ORIGINAL MONKEES - minus two (only Davie and Peter were there) - at my home town of Newcastle NSW - and while seeing them, we were so pissed and obnoxious - my mate got slapped in the face by a girl, who several years later went on to be Eoywn in the Lord of the Rings!

[roymond]

Andrew, that's a pretty unique experience. But yeah, Elton is famously "hands off" (as in voyeur) so I wonder about what he wished he would see...

My wife and I go to a local venue that's pretty awesome, Barbes (about 20 chairs in rows, plus three small tables, and standing room for about 20. Last week we saw a guy who wrote and arranged songs about strange events in American history. Really great band, with pedal steel, tuba, drums, violin, uke, and he played guitar. I can't remember his name right now. Turned out he's a producer for the history channel.

My ex wife worked in rock and roll lighting so we went to many shows. One that sticks out is the Stones in 1992 or so (Steel Wheels) at Yankee Stadium. It was a cloudy day and we had seats in the 40th row or so. But when we walked past the sound and lighting tower (dead center row 30) someone shouted down to Kori and told us to "come up and hang, we have wine and cheese". So there we watched the show, snacking happily. Half way through the 3+ hour show it started raining, so while everyone else was drenched we were dry, too. Happy times.

[Reist]

Reist! Hahahahaha. Oh the jokes that fill my head right now are almost unbearable. All I can think about are the stories of rock bands that had guys that spotted the hot girls to go back to their rooms after the show.
.

I thought it best not to touch on that. (whether Elton thought that too - well, that's up to Reisty to tell us).

Haha guys.

For sure, I felt a little creeped out by it at first, but I dunno ... it's Elton John! There's nothing anybody can say, because they're obviously just jealous.

[Billy's Little Trip]

The last show I saw earlier this year was Social Distortion and Angel City Outcasts at the House of Blues in Anaheim. I generally go to at least one Social D show a year. They still rock and Mike Ness is the epitome of coolness. I can't top Andrew's Elton experience, but Mike always kicks it before his shows and chills with a club soda with a twist to watch the opening bands. I've talked to him on many occasions.
Here is a vid of them at HOB in 2003 that I was at. My theme song that I live by, The Story Of My Life.
[youtube]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/B9FRZLLLhV8&hl ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/B9FRZLLLhV8&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]
Getting old isn't just for old people anymore. ~Mike Ness

[jack]

wow, that is cool reist. your forest gump moment for sure.

i've had a few. one year i was backstage at neil young's bridge school show he does every year at shoreline. i was kind of standing out of the way off to the side when this bald guy comes by in this beautiful long black cashmire coat (it's pete townshend) and basically walks over right next to me and starts talking to some roady looking guy who's with his girlfriend standing next to me (it's billy joe from green day). then this other guy walks over and introduces himself to billy joe and it's eddie vedder with his girlfriend.

at that moment, i felt more like a rock star than i've ever felt in my life.

[fluffy]

When I was in college I won tickets to the Page/Plant concert, including backstage passes. I only got to meet the opening act, though (some Egyptian band I'd never heard of before or since). The concert was pretty okay but the seats were actually pretty terrible.

If I were to go to an Elton John concert, I don't think I'd look gay^H^H^Henergetic enough to catch Mr. Dwight's attention.