the Airborne Toxic Event, December 4 at Walt Disney Hall

Usually a band has to have more than one album out before they do a big, important show. The Airborne Toxic Event didn't have massive success with their first, self-titled album, at least not relatively, as they still played mid-way up the bill at big festivals but they were able to play places bigger than Spaceland at least. How they got to play the Walt Disney Concert Hall is beyond me. Even playing a hometown show at that place should have been beyond a a band that had had, at best, modest success (despite my well-publicized love for them). Not that it mattered what they did to get there anyway. It was the last date on a string of tours (this leg beginning near L.A., and of course I was there) and the band seemed excited and energized for a special show. The Disney Hall is where the L.A. Phil plays winter shows and it's not generally where rock shows happen but I know that there have been electronic acts there like Air and M83 in the few years since it had opened. I had never had reason to go there, which was a bit of a shame because it's a really nice place. Airborne could maybe justify a unique show there that night since they were playing with the Calder Quartet, which was mostly just having strings in the first half of their set, which was mostly acoustic. Then after an intermission (something else to set it off from the standard rock show) a high school marching band entered, playing, from the back of the place to the stage, followed by the band, and a cover of the Ramones' “Rock n' Roll Radio”. Usually they can just rely on the strength of the songs – and that's enough – but this time there was something infused into the performance, from guests to a feeling of joy and wonder at playing such a show (which was pretty good for me in particular since there wasn't much reason to keep seeing the same show I'd been seeing before). Honestly, if it hadn't have been a show at the Disney Hall, I might have skipped it (though, knowing me, probably still not). But I knew that this show would have to be something extraordinary. Besides, I'd never been to the Disney Hall and this was a good excuse to go. They played new songs and the surroundings gave the music a different texture than it sounded in a dingy club or the middle of a field. And it was an appreciative and audience, maybe skewing a bit older than their usual shows, perhaps relatives of the band. It set out to be a special show and it was. There are certainly worse ways to cap off a few years of a seemingly-neverending tour. The next time they play that place they can have the full symphony. Or, as their trajectory might suggest, they'll headline the Hollywood Bowl.

I seem to have misplaced the set-list that I recorded. However, I've read that they're going to release this show on DVD in a few months and it will be easy not see what they played, as well as experience the concert itself (on your TV screen at least).

Brenden Benson, November 16 at the Bottleneck

Sometimes you just wind up at a show. I was in Lawrence, KS for a few days for some time off and visiting Seth Jones and his merry band of brigands and we looked around for shows going on that weekend. Not much going on in town, or even in Kansas City, but we were in Lawrence during the day at a football game and drinking the entire time and we probably would have wound up at the Bottleneck anyway, despite who was playing that night. It just so happened to be Brendan Benson, someone we knew of, at least from being part of the Raconteurs. But let me emphasize again that we had been drinking all day and generally hanging out with each other and playing pool and I was hitting on a chick and drinking more was more of a consideration than seeing the show, which would have been a spectacular performance if it had been an ordinary bar-band, but we were hoping for some Raconteurs tunes, and I wouldn't hold it against him that he didn't play any, but there wasn't much to engage us more than what just a good local band would do. However, he ended on a cover of Tom Petty's "American Girl" which was enough to have us dancing. It was a good night. I even remember a lot of it.

(Alternate review including set-list and photos.)

Electric Six, November 11 at the Key Club

Why yes, I'll see the Electric Six every time I possibly can. This time Vanessa went along. I don't know if she was really a fan of the band from before then or if she just wanted to go to drink but we had a great time. It was a show that I've seen before but, man, I could see that show once a week and never get tired of it. The band is tight, honed sharp from years on the road playing clubs like this, and Dick Valentine might be the best frontman currently alive, if you're into that kind of music, kind of heavy metal-disco with tongue planted in cheek. All of that is fine with me. It's a good combination and one that's hard to pull off, especially with any consistency. As big of a fan as I am I won't say that every single album of theirs is genius but they know what their best songs are and they always put on a good show. It also doesn't hurt that their songs are short and it seems like they play for hours when they really just have an hour and a half or so like anyone else. However, this night was a bit different. The band put on another great performance and I think Vanessa was converted to a fan, if she hadn't been already. The song they sandwiched between “stop” and “continue” in “Improper Dancing” that night was INXS' “Never Tear Us Apart” which was performed more playfully than INXS ever did but still a lot more serious than the Electric Six usually are (which is part of doing the song on a goof). The band did an encore ("the 'Dance' trilogy" as Dick noted) and left the stage and the house music came on and the crowd started to leave but for some reason the lights didn't come on and the roadies weren't clearing the band's gear. We hung around for a bit, just to see if anything would happen, and Percussion World even passed by us and I asked if they were going to do more and he said that he wished they could but they couldn't and I told him that they weren't clearing the stage then it was like he remembered something and hurried back backstage. A few of the members of the band wandered back on stage like they were going to get something going, Dick had even taken off his suit and put on a T-shirt (that said “Don't taze me, bro”) but they just didn't start back up. We stuck around for a few more minutes then decided it was late enough and took off. We even asked the bouncer if the band was going to play more and he said to not bet on it. Vanessa and I left the place and crossed the street to where we parked and only by the greatest coincidence looked back into the Key Club and saw the band back on stage. We rushed across the street and back into the place and the band kicked back into it again. Most of the crowd was gone but the Electric Six doesn't need a packed house to melt faces. Dick announced they would play “five more songs, one for each member of the band” (except himself, obviously), though I don't know if those songs corresponded to individual members of the band. And play they did, rolling out probably the rest of the songs they usually play on tour but had rotated out for this night's performance. We ended up getting most of Fire that night and some extras. I'm not usually confident that Electric Six shows can top the awesomeness that they always are but that night they certainly were. They went above and beyond. And I'll be there next time to see them play as well.

Electric Six's set-list:
I thought the first song was off the new album but the vocals were really low in the mix early in the show and I couldn't make out the lyrics better than "listen" and "said" and I couldn't find the song on Google and I didn't remember it when I listened to the album again trying to find it
"Dirty Ball"
"Down at McDonnelzz"
"Jimmy Carter"
"Egyptian Cowboy"
"Improper Dancing"/"Never Tear Us Apart"
"Danger! High Voltage"
"Slices of You"
"Body Shot"
"Formula 409"
"Steal Your Bones"
"Gay Bar"
"Gay Bar Part 2"
"You're Bored"
"I Buy the Drugs"
"We Were Witchy Witchy White Women"

"Dance Pattern"
"Dance Epidemic"
"Dance Commander"

"Techno"
"Naked Pictures"
"Randy's Hot Tonight!"
some song about raining lies and forty days and forty nights
"Getting into the Jam"

Pixies, November 5 at the Palladium

The second Pixies show, with Ahmed and Gary, drinking way-overpriced beers (made easier by the drinks we also had before the show). Same concert as the night before, with little variation beyond the band playing tighter, no screw-ups from Kim, and a bit more straight-faced. The encore, however, was completely different, including "The Holiday Song", one of my very favorites, and one I had only seen them play maybe once before. Another great show but by this point I was glad to have skipped the third show, as the only way they could have changed it up was in the encores, most likely with songs I've already seen them play (though it would have been worth it for "I've Been Tired" or "Dig For Fire" or "Levitate Me" or "Letter From Memphis" but I wasn't going to hold out hope for that).

The Pixies' set-list:
"Dancing the Manta Ray"
"Weird at My School"
"Bailey's Walk"
"Manta Ray"
"Debaser"
"Tame"
"Wave of Mutilation"
"I Bleed"
"Here Comes Your Man"
"Dead"
"Monkey Gone to Heaven"
"Mr. Grieves"
"Crackity Jones"
"La La Love You"
"No. 13 Baby"
"There Goes My Gun"
"Hey"
"Silver"
"Gouge Away"

"Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)"
"Into the White"

"The Holiday Song"
"Nimrod's Son"
"Vamos"
"Caribou"

Pixies/No Age, November 4 at the Palladium

The Pixies performing Doolittle, my all-time favorite album (by a country mile)? Yeah, I'll be go to that. Hell, I'll get tickets for both nights (later a third added but I passed on it). The first night I was solo, getting there in time to see No Age, who changed my mind. I had tried to get into them earlier in the year and I just couldn't get my head around the noise. For whatever reason that night it clicked with me, or maybe it was just that they seemed more focused, in a place where I could enjoy them, or they were on their best behavior opening for their heroes. The Palladium's floor is a wide-open space, half-full by the time I got there, and I was able to move up most of the way by the time the Pixies went on, getting within a few feet of the front barrier when they hit the stage and the crowd crushed their way in. I was surprised by the people around me, mostly kids, which isn't a surprise to be in the thick of the crowd for a rock show, but the Pixies were big (the first time) before most of them were born. And those kids were as crazy about the band as anyone else in the crowd (except for the guy older than me who asked if whatever they just played was on Doolittle. Well, duh, dude, that's what they're playing. Then he said he didn't really listen to that album and I realized that I did not need to pay attention to him). The show started with a film, apparently the one by Fellini that Black Francis took inspiration from, with close-up eyeballs being sliced, which got the crowd going, but it went on for about 15 minutes and I just didn't see the point, even as an introduction. The band took the stage and they confounded the crowded by not diving into Doolittle but by playing some Doolittle-era b-sides. The crowd was patient but even I'll say that those non-Doolittle tracks from that time were not their best. A smart move? I can't tell. That immediately-post-Doolittle era might be when you could say that that was when they started their downhill climb (one that Frank Black has yet to recover from). But the crowd was grateful, though they almost exploded when Kim started the baseline to "Debaser" before stopping when she realized that they had planned to play another song or two before that. Kim was particularly loose that night, as was the rest of the band, but better to tighten later than start tight and have nowhere to go after that, I suppose. Once Kim starting playing the right song at the right time, "DOOLITTLE" appeared larger than life on the screen and the crowd, as they say, went wild. Kids half my age were crawling over each other and pushing to the front, a few mosh pits broke out, and everyone was dripping sweat -- an appropriate show of appreciation. True to their word they played the whole album, then a few more B-sides, then left the stage. They played it as well as it could be, not adding any flourishes but not having a keyboardist either (like they did when they originally toured the album). To be honest, I couldn't see the point in making a big deal that they were playing the whole album, since they played most of it every night when they were touring after reuniting. The one exception was "Silver, which they've never played (but which I could skip, if I had to pick any track), and filling in a few of the tracks that I missed at the other shows I had been to (somehow I'd never heard "La La Love You" live up to that point). The encore was a few songs from the other album, which was fine but too short for my tastes. Doolittle is something like 36 minutes long. Yes, filling up a set-list with B-sides is appropriate, as is playing a few other tracks for anyone who wasn't as obsessed with the album as I am (though I wouldn't understand how someone could be like that). As far as I was concerned, playing Doolittle was just a starting point and they couldn't have gone anywhere from there, though they didn't try to go far, which was fine with everyone and I certainly won't complain.

The Pixies' set-list:
"Dancing the Manta Ray"
"Weird at My School"
"Bailey's Walk"
"Manta Ray"
"Debaser"
"Tame"
"Wave of Mutilation"
"I Bleed"
"Here Comes Your Man"
"Dead"
"Monkey Gone to Heaven"
"Mr. Grieves"
"Crackity Jones"
"La La Love You"
"No. 13 Baby"
"There Goes My Gun"
"Hey"
"Silver"
"Gouge Away"

"Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)"
"Into the White"

"Isla de Encanta"
"Gigantic"
"Where Is My Mind?"

Silversun Pickups/Dandy Warhols/Matt & Kim, November 3 at the Gibson Amphitheater

I was minority obsessed with the Silversun Pickups for most of the year (including awarding their Swoon my #2 of the year) and seeing their hometown show was a given (despite that I had not seen them before in L.A. proper). The tickets were (relatively) cheap ($30 before Ticketmaster fees) and there were other bands included in that as well. I got my own ticket and got a pit-seat, which I thought was lucky but apparently it was pretty easy to get such a ticket for the show. The show was heavily advertised up to the day (in the Weekly, at least, so it was visible to me but the newspaper also sponsored the show) and it didn't even sell out (and it was probably so advertised because it didn't. If it had sold out they could have stopped their advertising campaign). Part of the amphitheater was actually sectioned-off, which I'd never seen before. Apparently the Silversuns can't sell out 5,000 seats even in their hometown and with a half-dozen other bands in the line-up. I got there in time to miss Dengue Fever but I saw Matt & Kim, a bundle of energy and confetti on a stage completely empty except for them and their drum kit and keyboard, and who invited everyone down to the pit, which was probably hell for security to get them out of there when they were done (not that the entire audience couldn't have fit in the pit anyway). I had a seat and ate popcorn then went to the pit, which was about 80% empty and probably only got about half-full at the peak of the night. The Dandy Warhols seemed to be an odd pairing with the rock professionals of the Silversuns but they came on cool and focused, a departure from being the shambling, disorganized -- but brilliant -- mess I've seen them be in the past. The druggie-slacker vibe is a little sad now that they're all close to their 40s but they've stayed together anyway and now they rely on their songs, focusing that night, at least on, ...Come Down (as they should). Zia looked sexy as usual, all in a black jumpsuit and looking like a spy. They're still an opening band even after all these years or just better headlining a club or playing halfway up the bill at a festival. The Silversuns are where it's at, exploding onto the stage in fuzz guitars, a heavy bass, and a drummer going crazy with a cymbal that's about 10 feet up (which can't be easy but looks kinda cool). The Silversuns have been great and consistent enough that they've gone far beyond the lazy Smashing Pumpkins comparisons (though the Pumpkins not putting up a fight makes that easy) and now they just concentrate on rocking out. It was firm set, starting strong, but no surprises, except for "Kissing Familes," which I've seen them do every time and it should be expected by now but I'm always excited and shocked and amazed and surprised when they play it. Brian is still a bit of a shy frontman but when they rock as hard as they do, they can leave banter and desperate charm for bands who don't have the volume.

The Silversun Pickups set-list:
“Growing Old Is Getting Old“
“Well Thought Out Twinkles“
“Sort Of“
“There's No Secrets This Year“
“The Royal We“
“Little Lover's So Polite“
“It's Nice To Know You Work Alone“
“Future Foe Scenarios“
“Kissing Families“
“Catch and Release“
“Panic Switch“
“Lazy Eye“

“Substitution“
“Creation Lake“
“Common Reactor“

The Bob Mould Band, October 19 at the Troubadour

The Bob Mould Band didn't put on another incendiary show like they did at Coachella but they didn't have to. Once I saw them at the festival, though, I knew I had to check him/them out again for a full show. I've been a big Sugar fan since the early '90s but never got to see them when they were together. The Coachella performance was amazing, and was all that I could ask for. Maybe Bob had more to prove there or he knew that he had a more captive audience that might be there for other bands and he wanted to really sell himself to them or he was pissed about having such an early slot. Whatever it was, I could be a fan for life just for that Coachella performance if nothing else, though that's not to say that there was a thing in the world wrong with the Troubadour show. Just as many Sugar songs and, predictably, more from his newest solo work. I didn't have any Hüsker Dü stuff until just before this so I didn't know any of that, though what he played of it (seeing the crowd's reaction to it, knowing that that was the classic stuff), was great. I'd love to get a set-list so I could see what I heard but didn't realize the greatness of at the time (except that I recognized "New Day Rising" toward the end) but I couldn't find anything. Bob's solo stuff was always hit or miss with me, as I always liked the raw volume of Sugar and his stuff without them is sometimes too acoustic or too experiments, but he mixed it all up together really well, starting with Sugar tracks, going through solo stuff, and ending with mostly Hüsker Dü. As a retrospective of a career up to this point, it was well-rounded and sounded great and in a great venue for it. Opening for him was Spiral Stairs, the other guy from Pavement, and it was a likable set but I never got around to investigating the music more.

Thom Yorke, October 5 at the Orpheum Theater

I found out that Thom Yorke was playing a solo show in L.A. just two night before the tickets went on sale, and even then I only lucked into the information and probably wouldn't have found out otherwise (thanks, Consequence of Sound!). Now, you know I'm a big Radiohead fan, even more for the weird, experimental stuff they do, but Thom's solo album usually just goes through me. Frankly, I probably could have lived if I missed the show, but seeing Thom on his own, especially when he wasn't doing a full tour at the time, seemed interesting. What put me over the top was that he had Flea on bass. How does that happen? I thought I'd give it a shot. I was working at a place in Hollywood and planned to get in at 10 a.m., which was also the time when the tickets went on sale. I called my mom to see if she could go on to get tickets for me but she was busy that morning. It would have been easy enough to get to work early but there was street-cleaning that day so I had to park a few blocks away and didn't get in and on the computer until after 10, and didn't even think about it until a quarter after. I'd been to the Orpheum Theater before and knew it was a tiny place and that those tickets would go quickly but I'm not the kind of person to just dismiss it and my curiosity got me to see if the tickets had, indeed, gone that quickly. I logged on to the site to look around and clicked on the event and somehow tickets were still on sale. I clicked through to get a pair and they came up with something in "BOX R", whatever that was. Well, they were tickets, so I went for it. And I got them -- a pair of tickets for a Thom Yorke show a tiny fraction of the size of a place he would normally play at. Surely I'd get someone to go with me or I could scalp them later. I didn't give my amazement at getting tickets too much time but I had to line up someone to go in less than two weeks from then. I started e-mailing and texting around, a few passing interests (Vanessa was almost a go, and she realized later that she should have taken me up on it; Jerry, the only bigger Radiohead fan than me, was out of town), but on the off-chance I texted Seth, who is in Kansas with a wife and kid, and he was interested. We got on the phone and talked it over. By the end of the day he had booked a plane ticket to come to L.A. for two days, to make it to the show. He flew in on the Sunday before and, amidst a flurry of activity, we spent Monday in Hollywood before heading downtown for the show. Thom had played the Orpheum the night before and also a secret show over the weekend and the only thing I read was that he played all or most of The Eraser. Turns out we had box seats, like the ones that presidents get shot in. The Orpheum is such a small place that we could have been in the last row and still have been closer than we'd ever been at any Radiohead show, but the box seats were right off the stage, and we happened to be in the second row of them (after assuming we could push our luck to the very limit and mistakenly thinking we were in the very front, mostly because there was no one sitting in those seats when we got there, but we ended up making friends with the people in that section. We found out that they had paid a few hundred dollars for their tickets). We could have jumped off the seats and been on the stage, we were that close (though from that angle we couldn't see the right third of the stage. I didn't even know Thom had had a guitarist the whole time). Some art-thing called Lucky Dragon opened. Probably the most obscure local band that Thom had heard, fair enough. Finally Thom's new band went on stage, including Flea, and knocked out The Eraser in its entirety. Suddenly the entire album, seeing it performed there in front of me and feeling a part of it, inside of it, it all made sense to me. Not that a live experience should be necessary to enjoying an album but it definitely opened it up to me. Thom's band were mostly studio guys and it showed but that stiffness contributed well to the sterile, sometimes airless spaces of the nooks and crannies of the album. The band included his producer, the legendary Nigel Godrich, defying some kind of record-making rule of producers playing live shows, but it makes perfect sense, in trying to recreate those soundscapes, that there couldn't have been a person brought on that could do it better than the one who helped create them in the first place. It was a high-wire experience, trying to redo live what had been done in the confines of a studio but it worked. Even with Flea, who played other instruments as well as the bass, showed amazing constraint, to the point where you wonder why he was there in the first place, if for no other reason other than just wanting to be part of the music and because he's a superhuman musician. A short break then Thom and company came back to do more stuff, including Radiohead b-side "Paperbag Writer" and some new tunes which were welcomed by the crowd (a rare feat, since they usually only want the stuff they know already. Clearly there were a lot of serious music fans in the audience, which shouldn't be a surprise since The Eraser wasn't exactly a huge hit and wouldn't really turn on any casual Radiohead fan). Drinks before the show, drinks after the show, it was a great night. It was amazing to have Seth come out just for a show but I think it was worth his while. Thom knows how to put on a show, even when -- or maybe especially when -- he's on his own.

Thom Yorke's set-list:
"The Eraser"
"Analyse"
"The Clock"
"Black Swan"
"Skip Divided"
"Atoms For Peace"
"And It Rained All Night"
"Harrowdown Hill"
"Cymbal Rush"

"Lotus Flower"
"Open The Floodgates"
"Super Collider"
"Paperbag Writer"
"Judge, Jury & Executioner"
"The Hollow Earth"
"Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses"

the Airborne Toxic Event, September 17 at the Fox Theater

The Airborne Toxic Event started their fall '09 tour in Pomona. I don't know how long they've been touring or how many times they've played in L.A. or the local area since I got into them late but considering my well-publicized obsession without them, of course I had to go to the show, even though I had to leave work early and drive the 40 minutes from Santa Monica to Pomona. I'd never been to the Fox Theater before but apparently it had been re-opened recently after being renovated and they booked some good artists (many of whom have also played in L.A. on the same tour but this is outside that area so they could do another show nearby -- apparently a contractual thing). The Fox is nice, well worth the drive, with local, free parking. Also not as much of a scene, not being so close to Hollywood, and maybe attracting a younger, more excited crowd. The place doesn't have the same grimy charm that goes so well with a rock show as the Glass House across town but as a theater doing concerts, it's pretty great. Openers the Henry Clay People had a lot of energy but I wasn't there for them. Airborne were early in their tour, less fresh then they should have been but still solid, already tour veterans, less for years touring but for the impressive volume of shows they've already played. They're big enough to headline a tour on only one album -- and one that's less than 40 minutes long -- and there were even some tracks from their album that they didn't play. They might be better served for promotion by opening for a bigger band on a bigger tour but they seem to be doing fine on their own. They had to fill their set with covers, which was fine, but it showed more clearly than it needed to be that they don't have enough material for a whole headlining show. Fortunately they're not afraid to play new or unreleased stuff, which was plentiful and still sounded like their familiar stuff. I convinced some friends to go see them on another date in another city and it didn't go nearly as well for them as it did for me. But some people just have no taste.

“Does This Mean You're Moving On?”
“Something New”
“This Losing”
“This Magic Moment” (Ben E. King)
“Gasoline”
“Girls In Their Summer Dresses”
“Sugarcube” (Yo La Tengo)
“This Is Nowhere”
“Letter to Georgia”
“Wishing Well”
a song about singing me anything, and cool, love, long, boring, boxes, young
“Sometime Around Midnight”
“Googbye Horses” (Q Lazzarus)
new song
“Innocence”
“Missy”/”Ask”/”Panic” (The Smiths)

Nico Vega/the Silent Years, September 8 at the Roxy

Sometimes you just have to get out for local shows. Especially when Noa wants to hang out. I don't know why she wanted to see Nico Vega but she invited me and I'll go out to see a show when I have the night free and I have someone to go with. I don't know what the band was about -- some post-glam, tribal thing whose songs changed so much from each to the other that you couldn't tell if any of them were any good. The singer might have been named for the band but she was trying way too hard to be the next big Hollywood thing. I doubt they'll ever get beyond L.A. but they sure play around town a lot. You probably don't need to hear of them again. But the highlight of the show was opener (if it was actually a headlining show for Nico Vega) the Silent Years, an indie-pop group a la Fountains of Wayne that I'd never heard of but were worth seeing and I wish we had gotten there in time to see more of them. As it was, it was a night out with Noa and we drank.