Sparks, February 14, 2015 at the Theatre at Ace Hotel

Even though Sparks were a big deal at some point in time, in their native southern California and on KROQ (before I ever had it), I never knew them, and what I got later didn't make me regret it.  A comeback album in the mid-’90s when I was consuming anything remotely near being considered “alternative” music didn’t hold much for me, and I probably would not have returned to them at any point if not from my brother Paul (James).  He's been a big fan (though not when we were kids), though he said to convert me to one would take more time than he had or I would be willing to give (such is the challenge of him as my brother).  But the band were doing a very unique show, playing their well-regarded Kimono My House (even if it meant nothing to me) in its entirety, and the few performances were anywhere but Indiana, so he came out, along with Susan, down from Seattle (since she apparently had the time and he was willing to give the effort to indoctrinate her as a fan).  Carla & I went along for the ride.  They both stayed with us, with the show as the centerpiece of their weekend visit.  I was happy to see my brother and my friend, the show was extra.  The album might have been an acquired taste, and everyone else has had over 40 years to come around to it, so hearing it on its own, even played live and with an orchestra behind the Mael brothers, was beyond me, and not enough for me to research it after the event.  Maybe I'll wish I got it better later, but at the time it was just a show.  They did a few of their relative “hits” in a second set, and those escaped me as well, though I recognized a few of them (including "Dick Around", which didn’t sell me as much as left me wondering what the big deal was about).  Though Alex from Franz Ferdinand came out for one song.  (This show happened while both bands were working on what would become FFS.  They even mentioned they couldn't mention the band's name at the time.)  Probably not a bad show, and there are plenty of bands I've acquired the necessary taste for and no one else understands, but this one was out of my purview, and just couldn't do anything for me at the time.  So we were left with a singular performance, something we wouldn’t follow up afterwards (except for a Pandora station we couldn't remove) but could say it was a nice evening out (as well as a visit to downtown L.A., which is often welcome).  My brother surely had to have enjoyed it, and that was enough for me.  To facilitate him seeing a band he loves in a very unique show was a mission accomplished.  Even though, while we could possibly get together for an Electric Six or Morrissey show, there’s probably no one else he both would have interest in (in the rare event he would even want to get out for a show).  (Though, as a side-note, apparently Morrissey was at that Sparks show.  They can all be on the same wavelength -- I’d still rather see the Replacements.)

Sparks' set-list:
"This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us"
"Amateur Hour"
"Here in Heaven"
"Thank God It's Not Christmas"
"Hasta Manana Monsieur"
"Talent Is an Asset"
"Complaints"
"In My Family"
"Equator"

"The Rhythm Thief"
"Get in the Swing"
"Let the Monkey Drive"
"Looks, Looks, Looks"
"Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat"
"Excerpts from The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman"
"Dick Around"
"When Do I Get to Sing 'My Way'" (with Alex Kapranos)
"The Number One Song in Heaven"

"Change"

Fleetwood Mac, December 6, 2014 at the Forum

When I saw Fleetwood Mac in ‘03, I figured that was enough for me for the rest of my days.  For as much as that show exceeded my expectations, with the amount of songs they played, hits as well as deep cuts off their newest album, I figured there wasn’t need to want for a show that was any more.  I even saw Buckingham at a solo show, so that was covered as well.  Granted, Christine McVie wasn’t with them but there was only little hope that after being away for so long she would ever come back.  But as it is in hopes for rock group reunions anymore, as long as they’re not dead, chances are they’ll get back together again.  And so it was, that McVie came back, and there would be a massive tour, with multiple nights in L.A. (apparently a bigger deal to play a few nights at the Forum rather than one at Staples).  I’m not sure why I even hesitated to get tickets, since McVie being present would meant that they would get to the Tango in the Night songs that they largely left out of the shows when she wasn’t there.  It was actually Carla who get the tickets, as a holiday treat (and a story about how she traded for tickets to another night, and completely by coincidence got almost the same seats), even if she wasn’t as big a fan as me (even though it’s still baffling why I am, and to the degree that I am).  And so (after an aborted dinner at Red Lobster that became dinner at the Sizzler across the street (though I won’t complain)), we saw the band -- the whole band -- in their completed glory.  It wasn’t dissimilar to their regular touring show, as impressive that it was only the four or five of them on stage, largely without supplemental musicians, but with McVie contributing and Tango in the Nights songs shuffled in at regular intervals.  “Dreams” still came early and Buckingham still did a “Big Love” solo that was furious enough to belie his years.  Not that a McVie-less show was ever incomplete -- they actually did just fine with out her; her loss -- but to see all five of them on stage together in this day and age was a grand event.  And for me, for whom Tango in the Night was a soundtrack to the formative year of seventh grade, it was a singular experience.  Even if it was just another show, rolling through a set-list they’ve played for most of 40 years by muscle memory, making us sit through unnecessary band introductions and forcing appreciation for McVie coming back night after night before moving on through a relaxed touring schedule, those seasoned musicians at least made an argument for making it feel like this was the only night they were doing such a special show.  Even if one particular oldie, in a sea of oldies around us, told me to keep it down when I was talking to Carla during a clear lull in the show that surely even the band would admit to.  Hey, man, I’m at least as big a fan as you, even if I’m younger than you, and no one, including you and the band, was all that interested in that song.  But whatever.  Since they played so many hits, out of many hits, and now included songs that had been (voluntarily) off-limits for a while, even if McVie held up a complete show for so long, at least she came back within our lifetimes, so she could do whatever she wanted to the end.


Fleetwood Mac's set-list:
"The Chain"
"You Make Loving Fun"
"Dreams"
"Second Hand News"
"Rhiannon"
"Everywhere"
"I Know I'm Not Wrong"
"Tusk"
"Sisters of the Moon"
"Say You Love Me"
"Seven Wonders"
"Big Love"
"Landslide"
"Never Going Back Again"
"Over My Head"
"Gypsy"
"Little Lies"
"Gold Dust Woman"
"I'm So Afraid"
"Go Your Own Way"

"World Turning" (with drum solo)
"Don't Stop"
"Silver Springs"

"Songbird"

Afghan Whigs/Joseph Arthur, October 25, 2014 at the Fonda

We would be loathe to miss an Afghan Whigs show, as a reward after their being gone for so long, but after seeing them twice on the previous tour less than two years before, this seemed only like a companion show. Of course we had to hear the new material, from Do to the Beast, in a set more full than the Coachella one, with the highlights from the best-of set (that we'd already heard) -- all of it boiled down into just a one-night stand. It was the same band, still lacking the intensity (and drugs) of the old days, so Carla wouldn’t be able to experience that, but even if they were more stately these days, it was still a good run-through (even with "Gentlemen" but no "Debonair."  Surely the people there were true enough fans to be over their one radio hit). Dulli hasn’t been as chatty since even the early days of the Twilight Singers, but he can let the music speak for him, and that’s good enough. A highlight of the evening was the opening set by Joseph Arthur, who I’d caught years before (from KCRW, notThe O.C.), though I stopped before he started putting out too many albums to keep up with, and I'd never seen him even though he played L.A. regularly. His show that night wasn’t so much about the music, which was fine, since at the same time as he played he was painting on a canvas. This is a gimmick only if you’re expecting it to be all music, like most any other concert and with any other expectations for such, but in a context of the whole performance being art, even if the music wasn’t so avant-garde, it worked, and was at least a swerve from the norm.  Maybe he’s a better musician than painter (though the painting wasn't bad), and maybe he got as big as he’ll ever get years ago, but it was at least a display that made for a stand-out in an otherwise satisfying but not explosive evening.

Afghan Whigs' set-list:
"Parked Outside"
"Matamoros"
"Fountain and Fairfax"
"The Lottery"
"Step Into the Light"
"Now You Know"
"Algiers"
"Royal Cream"
"I Am Fire" (with Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" snippet)
"Gentlemen"
"Turn On the Water"
"It Kills"
"Can Rova"
"John the Baptist"
"My Enemy"
"Son of the South"
"Lost in the Woods"

"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" (The Police cover)
"Heaven on Their Minds" (Andrew Lloyd Webber cover)
"Somethin' Hot"
"Going to Town"
"Across 110th Street"/"Faded"

Joseph Arthur's set-list:
"Devil's Broom"
"I Used to Know How to Walk on Water"
"The Ballad of Boogie Christ"
"Honey and the Moon"/"Travel As Equals"
"Gypsy Faded"
"Heroin" (The Velvet Underground cover)
"I Miss the Zoo"
"Blue Lights in the Rear View"

TV on the Radio/Natasha Kmeto, October 22, 2014 at the Fonda

It’s not such a rare thing to see TV on the Radio, and it isn’t like we haven’t seen them numerous times before, and it’s not like we were all over their new album (Seeds, which we didn’t have; Carla nor I had just not gone out of our way for it), but we like them enough that we might as well go when they did a show (originally booked at the Regent, which would have been the first time we'd have gone there; the Fonda worked better for us anyway). As great as their recorded stuff was (never hurt by top-notch production), they were consistently inconsistent in concert -- a dull show or two for every few pretty good ones -- but we knew that they could pull out at least a few good tunes if nothing else, and we could check out the new stuff. It turned out to be one of the pretty good shows -- a little heavy on the atmospherics, and maybe not the barn-burner that made their name in the days before we ever heard of them, and not enough of their top tunes to mark it in our memories, but they made enough of an effort to pull off a performance that wasn't one of the dull ones. Natasha Klemto (if I got that name right) went on first, either a DJ or someone just playing music to warm up the crowd, but her stuff sounded great in either capacity, the infrequent opener we were at a show early enough to see, and apparently Google-proof. Or we were there at that time for a standard band playing the place, but TVOTR went on late enough that their opener was playing when they should have. They played well enough but the show itself was hamstrung by feeling shortened, being over just when they could have started to kick it in. They went on way too close to midnight, for whatever reason (as not a lot of other bands outside of a festival headliner or Guns n’ Roses get play that late), enough that the set-list looks like they played mid-day at a fest, and without "Staring at the Sun" (which apparently was planned for the very last but they ran out of time). We didn’t know that we would go ahead and see them twice more on this tour, so maybe we could have skipped this show, but with Andrew, Heather, Max, and Linda, it wasn’t a wasted evening (if over very late).

TV on the Radio's set-list:
"Province"
"Could You"
"Careful You"
"Blues From Down Here"
"The Wrong Way"
"Dancing Choose"
"Wolf Like Me"
"Repetition"
"Trouble"

"Ride"
"Lazerray"

The New Pornographers, October 17, 2014 at the Wiltern

The New Pornographers were a good enough idea at the beginning -- basically an indie super-group -- then it was astounding when Neko Case went from a studio buddy to actually touring with them, and she actually kept sticking around. She probably could have sold venues just as well as the whole band but whatever kept her traveling with them, not just continuing to make music, was welcome, as was their coming to town. We might have seen them enough for a while, and Brill Bruisers wasn’t an album that needed a particular amount of support (though it raised up Together by comparison) but when everyone else said they were in for it we threw in as well. Even better to come out when they’d graduated to the Wiltern (but two nights at the Fonda was pretty good too).  As it was it was a standard show, a run-through of their stuff, a few decent deeper cuts, and a comfortable crowd of great musicians on stage, most of which could do -- and actually do -- their own solo stuff (not just Neko). Not as extraordinary as when they’ve had stronger material to draw from (not that their latest was lesser material, but their first three albums set an incredibly high standard) but still a treat to see them all.  Even if they kept putting out merely good albums, as long as they have those elements in the mix, they’ll be worth supporting. Another draw for us was seeing openers Pains of Being Pure at Heart, a band good enough that it almost could have been a co-headlining tour that New Porn just happened to close every night, but, being a Friday night to have dinner with Tana & Jamin and Jake & Lauralee, we missed them -- a disappointment but their latest album Days of Abandon didn’t seem like it was going to supplant memories of seeing them for their earlier stuff.


The New Pornographers' set-list:
"Brill Bruisers"
"Myriad Harbour"
"Use It"
"War On the East Coast"
"Moves"
"All the Old Showstoppers"
"Champions of Red Wine"
"Jackie, Dressed in Cobras"
"Another Drug Deal of the Heart"
"The Laws Have Changed"
"You Tell Me Where"
"Testament to Youth in Verse"
"Wide Eyes"
"Crash Years"
"Adventures in Solitude"
"Spidyr"
"Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk"
"Backstairs"
"Silver Jenny Dollar"
"Fantasy Fools"
"Born With a Sound"
"Mass Romantic"

"Dancehall Domine"
"Sing Me Spanish Techno"
"The Bleeding Heart Show"

"Execution Day"
"The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism"

Pixies/Gogol Bordello/Cat Power, September 28, 2014 at the Hollywood Bowl

Pixies have played every other venue in L.A., if not the rest of the world, that when they play a new place it doesn’t seem like fresh exploration so much as checking off another one from a list.  Playing the Hollywood Bowl should be a big deal for any band, even one who has been around the world so often, but for them it just seemed like an obligation.  It’s almost like it must be something in their contract to not play a stage they’ve already been, even if they don’t sell it out.  It would have been a momentous occasion to see them there if they hadn’t already tried to wear out their welcome everywhere else.  As such, we didn’t rush to get tickets.  We might have even skipped the show, having already seen the best of what they have (and more -- or less -- at Coachella that year), even when they switch up the set-list every night (making a case for seeing them multiple times) but now mixing in new stuff that didn’t need to be experienced more than once (or at all).  It was the under-card of the event that had us, and when the drinking kids were going to make a night of it, we figured we might as well be in too.  We tried out a new picnic spot and didn’t hurry in to see Cat Power.  It’s great that they got her for that show and I count myself as a fan, but anyone would know that her demure angst wasn’t going to electrify the place.  And indeed it didn’t.  What is a welcome, intimate listen through headphones on a bad day doesn’t convey the same energy in such a big setting.  Her festival-appropriate performances with her Southern-blues band fit her, but that night was back to the quiet confessional that just wouldn’t get anyone on their feet.  But if an opening band is a warm-up then she was good enough if she had to be.  However, there’s also the risk of an opening band eclipsing who they’re opening for, and anyone who hires on Gogol Bordello to play before them hoping to retain their audience clearly don’t know what they’re in for.  Gogol Bordello explode any line-up and it’s up to the other bands they play after to catch up, if they can.  It was either lack of forewarning, straight stupidity, or another sign that the Pixies really don't care to let such a band go on before them, but it was a selling point for us.  The gypsy-punks of Gogol Bordello are a hand-grenade dropped in the middle of a crowd, maybe a little more new-school than the oldies coming to see the Pixies would expect but it’s more of an effort to resist an explosion than to let it take you over.  Rock music is rock music.  Gogol Bordello can fill any time-slot, whether it’s their show or for another band, and they blow it up in their own unique way without a challenge.  Even the open-air lack of confines couldn’t pin them down that night, as ever.  They bring it all on the stage and don’t take anything back with them.  Eugene even started with wearing a button-down shirt -- yeah, quickly gone.  It could have been easily forgiven for any new fans to jump ship from the Pixies to the Bordello that night, especially when the former wouldn’t bother to attempt to recapture the energy of their (second) openers.  The Pixies were and are as sturdy as they ever have been.  They’re a good band, proficient enough with the great songs of their past, not matter how many times we’ve heard them and seen the band (as unavoidable as they’ve been with festivals and shows since their reunion, now running much longer than their original incarnation).  Like any other band, it’s up to their front-person to set the stage and their presence -- or lack of it -- can make or break a show.  Frank Black Francis is famously a turgid presence and generally no one seems to care.  Early on in the reunion he was still shredding his voice and might even engage the audience (though any effort was leagues beyond what he used to).  Now he seems like this whole reunion thing is just dragging out and he would rather be anywhere else doing anything else.  At one point we could have been happy that he was out there with all of them together doing those songs we love so much but it’s been so long that it seems like they’re going on with it just because they don’t want to have to be annoyed by their lives when they’re not being the Pixies (the spearhead of that being Black himself).  An old band could bring it back again with new songs and a renewed purpose but Black hasn’t bothered with that either; his own begrudging obligation to have to put together new stuff for the band is clearly the basis of any of the new tracks, and they clearly did not refresh or energize them.  Even bringing on Paz didn’t enliven anything.  More than any other time, Kim's absence was felt, as a counterweight to Black's apathy if nothing else; we can get over her not being with them anymore -- we know she can go on to other worthy stuff (and maybe she’s the smart one for getting out while the getting was good) -- so we won’t hold it against Paz.  She could get some sympathy for being the one person excited to be up there.  Joey and Dave try as much as they can but without guidance for a leader then they’re just going through the motions and pinning it up as another shift to punch; it can only be draining to have to have a leader who hasn't cared in years.  Dave even noted that that day was an anniversary of their first album being released -- an auspicious occasion and one to be celebrated (even if it surely was only by coincidence on the same night that they had to play the Bowl) -- but the fact that it took the drummer to announce it when the singer -- the guy that everyone is listening to -- couldn’t be bothered just showed how apathetic some of the disparate parts could be (as if it needed to be further emphasized).  It wasn't a bad set, even with the new material, but it was fairly standard, as maybe it was supposed to be playing such an important show, even if that was lost on the band.  It was what anyone would expect, no surprises, probably just the standards that Paz knows.  It could be imagined that the rest of the band finished the show and went home like it was any other night and any other show, that they might or might not have even wanted to do.  We in the audience left the show and went home, a shame the night couldn't mean more for us since it didn't mean much for them.

Pixies' set-list:
"Bone Machine"
"Wave of Mutilation"
"U-Mass"
"Something Against You"
"Hey"
"Gouge Away"
"Bagboy"
"Crackity Jones"
"Caribou"
"Magdalena 318"
"Nimrod's Son"
"Indie Cindy"
"Here Comes Your Man"
"La La Love You"
"Greens and Blues"
"Isla de Encanta"
"Monkey Gone to Heaven"
"Debaser"
"Tame"
"Vamos"
"Where Is My Mind?"

"Planet of Sound"

Gogol Bordello's set-list:
"Ultimate"
"Not a Crime"
"Wonderlust King"
"The Other Side of Rainbow"
"Last One Goes the Hope"
"My Companjerav
"Immigraniada (We Comin' Rougher)"
"Start Wearing Purple"

Cat Power's set-list (incomplete):
"The Greatest"
"Cherokee"
"Manhattan"
"Shivers" (The Boys Next Door cover) (With "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" snippet)
"Sea of Love" (Phil Phillips cover)

FYF Fest, August 23 & 24, 2014 at L.A. Sports Arena and Coliseum, Exposition Park

Just when we were getting to really like FYF Fest at Historic Park outside of Chinatown, they changed it to Exposition Park outside of USC. Both have their pros and cons, but just the change shows that FYF was moving toward being a much bigger deal than our local fest with increasingly recognizable bands. This made them more capable of getting bigger and better acts but it was quickly approaching being another Coachella, with the negatives that come from that connotation. Still, we would take it as we could have it and enjoy it for what it was. The change in geography might not have been the worst move in the world, and it was because the park was closed down due to a massive renovation (though with no promise that it would ever go back there). There was nothing we could do and we trusted the festival enough to follow along wherever it went, though still being local helped a good deal. This was another weekend with the drinking kids, all the familiar faces, and had already become our traditional get-together weekend (not so much the easy rote to see off summer, since we kept partying the rest of the year, but we’d take any celebration to make an event). The line-up for the weekend also didn’t disappoint, though we probably would have showed up for a lackluster list, knowing we could trust the organizers to get obscure but worthy bands for us to discover, and since a lot of it was about all of us hanging out anyway. Though there were some great surprises that could have gotten us out to even an unfamiliar festival. And the easy (though distant) parking or taking the subway -- either way to get there, whatever worked best -- never hurts. One of the most significant acts they got were Slint, a relative legend from the ‘90s that I missed completely (as they were nowhere near the KROQ rotation back then). It was indie-rock all the way, and it wasn’t hard to see that something so challenging could have gotten big, no matter how rewarding once you got into them. Scott, my right-hand man at work, was more clever with that corner of music than I was and he got me a copy of Spiderland which I enjoyed, even if I still hadn’t really gotten it even after seeing them. They were our first act of Saturday, one of our must-sees if only because we knew it was a big deal for them to be there and might never see them again. It was also welcome to be in the air-conditioned comfort of the interior of the sports-arena, after whatever effort we put in to get to the festival. They were still a challenge to me even after seeing them, but their live show expressed that I should have more familiarity with them (and that I should get to those bands I missed back then); Slowdive being there was the biggest deal for me. I got into them in drips and drabs over a number of years, having missed them originally (and being in the wrong country for them), but they became a band I liked without being obsessed by, showing how limited they were to me for quite a while. I was always about Souvlaki, said to be a classic in every music magazine I read, and it was always an album that I could get back into without being so familiar as to be fully immersed in and could always listen like it was new and get something fresh out of every time. It wasn’t until much later that I rounded up more of their stuff but the rest of it was more of the deep sound that I finally got to discover.  Their showing on the FYF line-up was a great surprise, not that FYF is only about punk bands, but that they included an obscure (in the U.S.) shoe-gaze band years and years after their peak, with fans that had likely aged out, was astounding. And they didn’t disappoint live, bringing the washes of guitar that sound so great in headphones to the open field of the park. They never bothered with pop so they didn’t have to go back to their singles but what they put together was a sturdy representation of anything they ever were, and showed the range of the festival and knowledge of the FYF organizers; it seems a surprise when Against Me! don’t play FYF, since they fit in so well with what the festival is about.  As such, we saw them mostly in passing, figuring we could catch them any other time and since we’d seen them a few times already (including at least once there).  It’s a shame they could only score being a reliable but mid-tier festival act, since being the best at what they do deserved more, but if they wanted to keep riding on New Wave (which they didn’t necessarily keep bothering to do) (and pardon the pun), then surely the people of FYF wouldn’t mind, and they would be back again; Interpol weren’t necessarily a big surprise but they’re always welcome on a festival line-up.  We were going to be there anyway but having them is always a big point in an event’s favor.  By this time we had seen them enough that we didn’t have to pay attention like we might never see them again, and at that time of the evening navigating the beer lines was a consideration, but from what we saw they still put on a sturdy performance.  They always play “Evil” ("Rosemary") too early in the set but at least they keep including it.  A lot of the rest was from El Pintor, which we didn’t know at the time, but they could keep on putting out more of the same (which is forever a cop of Joy Division anyway, as if I have to tell you) and we wouldn’t mind; Phoenix weren’t a big draw for me, and I’m still mystified that they ever capture headliner status at a worthy festival. I don’t mind that brand of French-to-American pop, and a lot of their stuff is likable, but it just doesn’t have enough of an edge to keep me in it.  A little too twee (and I like plenty of twee). But we didn’t have to stay for much of them, as we were just rounding everyone up and seeing one last band as a push before being done for the day. We were tired enough so it was probably good that it wasn’t a band that we needed to give more to or expected much from us, so we could just see the first half of the set and make our way out. My attention was finally piqued when they started "Too Young" -- their best track that should have gotten more notice but it was years before everything else would hit for them -- but it was just a tease to go into different song. That would have been enough for me to abandon them there, especially since that meant they wouldn't go back to it for the rest of the set. They were touring on the album after their big one, and the best of the latter was just for the encore if anyone cared to stay, so we knew we weren’t missing much. It was actually a pretty good ending to a day that peaked mid-way, so relaxing on the downhill was welcome.

Sunday was a day with much fewer hopes and expectations. As such we we didn't hurry in, also because we had something going on early that afternoon, being a Sunday and all. The first band we got to was Balance & Composure, some harder-than-average rock act that didn’t make much of an impression but it was early and we were getting our bearings; a lot of the rest of the day must have been drinking in the beer gardens and breezing through stage areas and other bands since we only saw a few more barely enough to say that we were there. Apparently we saw the Presidents of the United States of America, a band that I didn’t have to see even when they were big (which actually, somehow happened), and might have been fun if for no other reason that they were completely opposite of most of the acts they have there (except for having guitars and being now fairly obscure) but they pulled a surprisingly big crowd so whatever we saw was as we navigated the outside of the crowd to get somewhere else, and hopefully that didn’t include us having to stand through “Peaches”; I don’t know why I thought Murder City Devils were a female band. As it were, they were a big draw for Carla and it was great to happen upon them.  Even better to see a legitimately punk band, out of a sea that we missed, and one with enough miles to put down a ferocious and high-energy performance. An unexpected stand-out for me; since we left early, Haim became the Sunday headliners for us. They might have been big in other parts of the world (I heard them on the radio when I was in Indiana) but we could still claim them as ours -- and not even just for L.A. but for Sherman Oaks, just across town from us. Even still, we had yet to see them anywhere along their ascent so it was a special thing to see them there, which may have been their peak (or at least an early one for them). They were appreciative of their home-town show and if every performance they put on wasn’t always a celebration, that night was, for them and for all of us maybe in equal measure. They might have gotten a bad rap by the legit music snobs, an indie band that crossed over to mainstream and could never go back again, but there was a buoyancy in their music, enough that it was a fairly unique thing in that space between alt and pop, not that that was a uncrowded place but that they could actually do it with some legitimacy and display of quality, instead of being another crap KROQ band that went big because there was nothing better happening or relied on their long-legs and good looks (which never hurt but they didn’t even need it).  We knew we’d run into them again but that night they lived up to whatever promise that fueled them on their way up to it.  And it was good enough for us to end on, and missing the big acts of the night made it a breeze to get out and home, chalking up another satisfying FYF event.

Missed: Albert Hammond Jr., Julian Casablancas (there was a strong Strokes presence at the festival, which is great for Strokes fans, which we absolutely are, but we didn’t have much concern for their side-projects, especially after seeing some of Casablancas’s lackluster set at Coachella earlier in the year), Grimes (knew by name, not as much by sound), Ty Segall (for as much as I should be into his stuff, especially from listening to Rollins’s show even intermittently, you really can’t get away from him, but I still hadn’t done it then); The Bronx (something tells me I should know them better); Darkside (which were a big deal to be there, for whatever reason, since I didn’t really know them, though I saw an instant of them inside probably while I was waiting for someone to come out of the restroom); the Strokes (crazy that we missed them but we’ve seen them enough, and knew that their best stuff was what we’d already seen, so we opted for leaving earlier instead), Deafheaven (my biggest conflict of the weekend, between them and leaving at a reasonable time. Missing them here stuck with me for a long time since I had been into them for a while, being the rare shoe-gaze band that came up on the radar in a long time); Jamie XX (somehow I missed the connection to our much-loved The XX. Apparently the letters being in his name seemed like it could have been a trick or laziness for the lesser member of the band to ride some coattails, and I still didn’t get on the train until a lot better. Though even if I had known and thought it through there were other conflicts with seeing him, including leaving early to beat traffic and be capable of working the next day, which won out).

Interpol's set-list:
"Say Hello to the Angels"
"Evil"
"Hands Away"
"Anywhere"
"Length of Love"
"NYC"
"Take You on a Cruise"
"C'mere"
"All the Rage Back Home"
"Not Even Jail"
"PDA"
"Slow Hands"

Haim's set-list:
"Falling"
"If I Could Change Your Mind"
"Oh Well" (Fleetwood Mac cover)
"My Song 5"
"Don't Save Me"
"Forever"
"The Wire"
"Let Me Go"

Slowdive's set-list:
"Slowdive"
"Avalyn"
"Catch the Breeze"
"Crazy for You"
"Machine Gun"
"Souvlaki Space Station"
"When the Sun Hits"
"Alison"
"She Calls"
"Golden Hair" (Syd Barrett cover)

Slint's set-list:
"Breadcrumb Trail"
"Glenn"
"Washer"
"Nosferatu Man"
"Don,  Aman"
"Ron"
"Good Morning, Captain"

Nine Inch Nails/Soundgarden/Cold Cave, August 21, 2014 at Sleep Train Amphitheater

On March 8, 1994, I bought The Downward Spiral, not Superunknown. Back then, my allegiance was definitely with Nine Inch Nails. I (with Brian) even drove to Mad Platter in Riverside that day and I paid full price for it. I later became something of a Soundgarden fan -- though mostly just for one album (not Superunknown, which I later got through Columbia House or something, and ditched not long after that) and a few singles -- but mostly because they got lumped in with a lot of my other favorite bands. Back then not much stood up to my deep love for NIN.  Though well after college and nearing something nearing middle age, I still considered myself a fan and would pick up whatever they put out but I couldn’t get too excited about seeing them in concert again. I’d already seen them at Lollapalooza the summer before and they were challenging bordering on disappointing; we could have seen them at Outside Lands but passed on it easily enough. But seeing a show with Corey is a singular experience, especially in going back to seeing NIN like we did back in the day (maybe the fourth concert I’ve ever been to, when they were still playing clubs).  And it would be a day out with Corey. He got the tickets fairly late and might have even intended to take a chick with him, but when he offered me the ticket, I took it.  So it was an easy drive to San Diego and a trip to the corporately-titled Sleep Train Amphitheater. As a call-back to arriving at shows by the time it says on the ticket (hopefully less than paranoia of missing anything -- as if Trent Reznor has performed during the day in 23 years) we got there early, among maybe the first few dozen through the door. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a concert venue early enough that it was empty.  We killed some time waiting it out (which had to have been excruciating for Corey since he doesn't drink).  But we had pretty good seats, the front of the section about halfway up. It wouldn’t be the Palace but I didn’t need to be so close up again (and I wouldn’t mind keeping my hearing for the next few days after). There were tickets for the show on Groupon, showing that even putting two once-gigantic bands on the same bill together wasn’t the same kind of draw they once were (who could have easily filled that venue or bigger by themselves back in the day), but we can say that it’s due to their most die-hard fans aging out and the music industry moving past them rather than no longer being able to put out worthwhile, relevant music. Count them down however you like for relying on the nostalgia factor, but this show had an extra gravity for anyone knowing their shared history, especially that of that day (and caring, which is where the trick is). Or it was just these two bands playing together, whether you were a fan of either or both, from the '90s or more recently. Finally we had something to watch, though it was only Cold Cave, who were making some mildly abrasive noise-pop but didn’t move much and the background visuals were a nice touch but couldn't completely save them. (Death Grips opening the show was what got me originally excited about going, if nothing else, but they bailed on it.)  Soundgarden did their thing and it was a fine performance. Nothing like the early-cycle celebration of their return at Lollapalooza '10, as this was just another tour stop, and there were no surprises or fireworks, except that they’re still doing it, as loud as they’ve ever been, and Cornell’s voice has stood up for so long. I didn’t recognize the deeper cuts, and I might have thrown in a few different tracks (“Pretty Noose," "Birth Ritual"), but what they did was satisfying. At last it was time for NIN. I had read that they had switched up the set since I had seen them last, toward the beginning of the tour to one of the last stops, and I was looking forward to seeing something different.  With the house-lights still up, Reznor swiftly stomped across the stage, grabbed the mic, then jumped into the first song before most of the crowd knew what was going on. Then the band blew through the rest of the set and it was a Nine Inch Nails show. Unfortunately, it was the same I’d seen before -- if they had changed their set after the initial run of festivals, they had changed it back, or there were changes I just couldn’t notice -- but this time had the benefit of me lowering my expectations, increasingly more as the night went on and I realized that it wasn’t so different. But if that’s what Reznor wanted to do, he could have let it be it worse. The effort was appreciated even if he wasn't destroying as many instruments, and the new stuff at times sounded better than the old material, as it had a little more electricity than the well-worn tunes we’d already heard and that the band were dragging out yet again. It was also an unofficial celebration of 20 years of The Downward Spiral -- even if the exact-same anniversary for Superunknown didn’t have the same recognition -- so those songs had a little extra poignancy. Reznor even addressed the crowd toward the end of the set, expressing his appreciation of his fans sticking around for so many years and noting that it might be a while before he came back with more NIN but it would indeed happen at some point -- that much talking, above explosively-furious complaints of equipment not working, was nowhere near any earlier NIN show, but it was warm, honest, and appreciated. The set was a little too well-lived-in to provide the kind of spark they had in the early days but it was a good enough show.  Put the two performances together and it was a pretty good deal. Thanks to Corey for the ticket.

Nine Inch Nails' set-list:
"Copy of A"
"Sanctified"
"Came Back Haunted"
"1,000,000"
"March of the Pigs"
"Piggy"
"Terrible Lie"
"Closer" (with "The Only Time" snippet)
"Gave Up"
"Disappointed"
"Find My Way"
"The Great Destroyer"
"Eraser"
"Wish"
"The Hand That Feeds"
"Head Like a Hole"

"Hurt"

Soundgarden's set-list:
"The Telephantasm" (introduction)
"Searching With My Good Eye Closed"
"Spoonman"
"Flower"
"Outshined"
"Jesus Christ Pose"
"Black Hole Sun"
"The Day I Tried to Live"
"My Wave"
"Blow Up the Outside World"
"Fell on Black Days"
"A Thousand Days Before"
"Rusty Cage"
"Beyond the Wheel"

Electric Six/Yip Deceiver, June 13, 2014 at the Roxy

The Electric Six had a Kickstarter some years before (among the numerous Kickstarter campaigns they’ve had) where one of the level rewards was a ticket to every Electric Six, for the rest of life.  I’ve often thought about how much money I could have saved if I had jumped on that.  As it is, when they play a local show, they might as well charge me for a ticket straight off and let me know since, as anyone knows, I’ll be there.  (Not always the L.A. date, but one nearby if not.)  And so we saw them at the Roxy, one of the only venues smaller than the Troubadour to play without dishonor.  Maybe they just wanted to play such a legendary place, as often some bands do.  So they were there and so were we.  It was much the familiar show, with a few new tracks -- including the death-metal chorus of “Adam Levine” -- though if I minded seeing the same thing I wouldn’t see them so often.  The biggest significance for this show was Dick beginning counting off the numbers of the songs, keeping track of the order as they played them, though it was probably printed on his set-list more than he remembered their numbered order (and hopefully they didn’t play the same set enough to make the latter a simple proposition).  Some apparent technical problems in the middle also gave Dick the space to play “Jimmy Carter” by himself on an acoustic guitar, a rare glimpse of a Valentine solo show that confoundingly Europe gets frequently and we don’t (though he added the song to some encores on later tours).  And if the Six were frustrated with having to play such a small place (after playing increasingly smaller spaces), they took it out with smashing through a set possibly more furious than usual for having been so confined.  One of the more satisfying shows they had done recently.  The opening band was Yip Deceiver, which, even while in the vein of hyperactive indie bands like Hockey, didn’t leave much of an impression for as much as we saw them, until they came back on stage with the Six in the encore and did a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Everywhere,” of all songs.  There’s probably a story for picking that one, and it's probably all tongue-in-cheek, but it fit among anything else they played with any more or less irony.  This was also the show when I realized that I should have gotten Dylan to come, and it might have worked out since it was Friday night but I only came up with it when we there.  The next night they were playing Santa Ana but he was away that weekend anyway so it wouldn’t have worked out after all, though it planted the idea for next time.

Electric Six’s set-list (originally posted by me):
”Nom De Plume”
”After Hours”
”Devil Nights”
”Down at McDonnelzzz”
”The New Shampoo”
”Gay Bar”
”Gay Bar Part Two”
”Jimmy Carter”
”Naked Pictures (of Your Mother)”
”Hello! I See You”
”Jam It in the Hole”
”Show Me What Your Lights Mean”
”Future Is in the Future”
”Danger! High Voltage”
”Adam Levine”
”Dance Epidemic”
”I Buy the Drugs”
”We Were Witchy Witchy White Women”

”Everywhere” (Fleetwood Mac cover) (with Yip Deceiver)
”Dance Commander”

Billy Joel, May 17, 2014 at the Hollywood Bowl

I’d seen Billy Joel years ago and that was probably good enough for the rest of my life but in the time since I’d developed more of an appreciation of his catalog (even if it was still only off the first two greatest-hits volumes) and I wouldn’t have minded seeing him again.  Playing the Bowl was an event in itself, maybe even rivaling the show at the MGM in Vegas with Elton John where I saw him the first time.  He had said that it wasn’t going to be a greatest-hits set, and he could be forgiven for not going down that road yet again.  Heck, this was after how many times that he’d said he had retired.  So I hadn’t jumped on tickets but Carla knew I had some desire to go, and she knew we could make a great night of it, and that became my birthday present.  Not bad.  We jumped into Bowl-mode, getting a picnic dinner together and having time outside before going into the show, which was as full as we’d ever seen it.  The set turned out to have enough hits to satisfy us, more than half, and we didn’t feel like we missed anything by not knowing every single song, since those songs were still as solid as any other popular thing he’d done anyway.  This was more of a show by an artist, performing for the crowd that came to see him, rather than pandering to what he thought they wanted.  And that worked fine, since a master showman like himself knows just how much to dole out.  The high-point for me came early (and it would have been as great a shock as I’ve ever gotten at a concert if I hadn’t looked at his recent set-lists beforehand) that he played “Pressure,” a criminally-forgotten gem not only in his catalog but in the entire oeuvre of great rock music.  I never understood why no hard-rock band has ever turned around a cover of that song, especially back in the late-’90s when every nu-metal band tried to make their name on an easy ‘80s cover (and, unfortunately, some of them succeeding).  It came too early in the set, with Joel and his band not quite warm enough to bring much heat to the tune, but the fact it was included and that they made a go of it was enough for me.  The rest of the night might have been a typical evening at the Bowl but that’s nothing less than reliably extraordinary and special.  And if Joel isn’t going to actually, officially retire, maybe he has another series of shows like this still in him, maybe with some other hits, maybe with a pick-up band to tear down his catalog like it hasn’t already been done.


Billy Joel’s set-list:
“Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)“
“Pressure“
“Everybody Loves You Now“
“Vienna“ (audience chose between this and “Summer Highland Falls“)
“The Magnificent Seven Theme“ (Elmer Bernstein cover) (snippet)
“The Ballad of Billy the Kid“
“Zanzibar“
“The Entertainer“
“Where's the Orchestra?“
“Allentown“
“Say Goodbye to Hollywood“ (first time since the '80s)
“New York State of Mind“
“Sometimes a Fantasy“
“Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)“ (“Layla“ interlude)
“She's Always a Woman“
“Don't Ask Me Why“
“The River of Dreams“ (featuring part of "Surfin' USA")
“Scenes From an Italian Restaurant“
“Piano Man“

“It's Still Rock and Roll to Me“
“Big Shot“
“You May Be Right“ (with Adam Levine)
“Only the Good Die Young“