a week full of concerts

3/19/06

i somehow managed to go to 4 concerts this week. my poor ears.

concert 1

sunday night, i saw the Flock of Seagulls. yes, the old school 80’s band that is famous for their wacky hair. i really didnt want to pay the 20$ that this show cost, but at the last minute, my brother talked me into going. when else would i get a chance to see Flock of Seagulls? halfway during my drive up to SF i realized that i couldn’t think of a single song that they had ever done. my brother could remember only one, “i ran”. uh-oh… why had i ever decided to go to this?

once inside the concert, i regretted being there even more. all the people there were super old and all of a sudden i realized that when this band was big, i was only 10 years old. when they came out and played, everyone i the audience looked bored out of their mind. people weren’t even nodding their heads to the music. even opening bands get the crowd more pumped than this. everyone there had one goal and one goal only: to hear a couple of songs from one album written back in the early 80s. no one cared about any of the new material. it was a really sad scene really. seeing these guys who used to be really famous, and now they could barely get a 100 people to come to their show and they played mostly songs that nobody cared about. i dont know what would be more depressing: having something wonderful and just letting it fade and disappear into the past, or instead to drag it with you and keep milking it till it’s on its last legs. finally, they played their hit song “i ran” and everyone was excited and started dancing. oh, and the flock of seagulls haircut that they are so famous for… gone. the guy was wearing a baseball hat and i bet that he is bald.

concert 2

Wednesday night, through some mailing list, i somehow won tickets to go see The Guillemots. not only had i never heard of them, but i didnt even know how to pronounce their name. i pretty much had no idea what to expect from them other than that they were British and that their music was somewhat experimental. they ended up actually being pretty damn good. some of their songs were a bit boring, but some of them were really fun. they kind of have a “badly drawn boy” kind of feel to them. at one point though, everyone left the stage except for the lead singer who started singing without a mic and plinking away on this tiny little keyboard. he was so quiet that all the murmuring in the back almost drowned him out. that part was a bit hatin’ it.

concert 3

thursday night we went up to see Vitalic, a super good electronic artist from France. he was supposed to play at Boca, a brand new venue, but unfortunately, Boca somehow managed not to open during it’s opening week extravaganza, and so the show got moved to the mezzanine. the venue was way to big for such a small show, so it seemed really empty and weird. the show itself was pretty cool though. he didnt play too much of his more mellow stuff, probably cause he was playing at midnight set, so all the music was kind of harder techno-ish stuff. still cool.

concert 4

friday, we drove up all the way to Reno to see Franz Ferdinand play with Death Cab For Cutie. after being in Vegas just recently, Reno was looking pretty sad. one second you’re driving through downtown, and a second later all of a sudden town is over. the casinos here try to be all shiny and glitzy but sadly enough, they just kind of look cheesy. oh well, we were here for a concert and not for the town. we did get a bunch of games of Craps in. i didn’t win much (any) money as usual though.

the concert itself was really good. Franz Ferdinand was first and they had crazy energy. all of their stuff is just so fun. after they came on, i really wondered how Death Cab could keep the energy level up. i like death cab better, but they just are so mellow. it really didnt seem to make sense to have them second. surprisingly though, they totally rocked it. their stuff was way less mellow live than it is on CD and people really got into it. plus, the set they had on stage was way cool with these weird angular houses, tree backdrops, and a screen that looked like highrises in the back.


Reno Hilton


Franz Ferdinand


Death Cab For Cutie


Death Cab For Cutie

-v

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