Thursday, May 22, 2008
Andrew Bird May 17
Monday, May 19, 2008
Radiohead w/ Liars
So my superfandom may already be on the table for this one, but anyone would be hard pressed to argue that the set list laid out by Radiohead in St Louis the other evening was not near perfect. No, there was nothing from Pablo honey, but after hearing Prince do Creep at Coachella (via youtube) I was content with hearing all of the In Rainbows material mixed with some of the other reworked older material. (So that is a lie, I would like to hear Creep, but it really might disrupt the flow they create with their later material)
If anyone happened to hear their set on BBC last month, or the set that has been making the rounds on VH1, they may of noticed that songs from OK Computer and such have a new intensity that adds to the power already inherent in them. Even some tracks left for dead from Hail to The Thief now seem fully realized.
As they have been doing for a lot of their North American tour, Radiohead started the show playing All I Need. Now, I tried to get a photo pass to shoot Radiohead, but the best I could get was a pass to just shoot the Liars. Which I cannot complain all too much about, since it gave an interesting look into the running of a large venue in another region, and let me get a close up view of Radiohead’s gear and set list. But I degress…There was still a bit of sunlight when Radiohead walked on stage to the synthetic tinkerings to the intro of their live rendition of All I Need. A brief pause and the onslaught of one the most perfectly refined sets. Check youtube for some of these, because words can hardly convey the mastery of some of these renditions. Kid A had to of been the highlight. But then a second encore that began with Pyramid Song? If this was the only time I saw them this year I would be content….. Now to properly photograph them! I couldn’t of picked a better start to the outdoor concert season….
All I Need,
Jigsaw
Airbag
15 Step
Nude
Kid A
Weird Fishes
Gloaming
You and Whose Army
Idioteque
Fast Arp
Videotape
Everything
Rekoner
Optimistic
Bangers n Mash
Bodysnatchers
Encore 1
Exit Music
Myxamotisis
Iron Lung
There There
Green Plastic Trees
Encore 2
Pyramid Song
House of Cards
Paranoid Android
Radiohead's................... gear!
The Liars opened.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Clinic
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Friday, May 2, 2008
Elbow : Photo Blog
Foals at Subt, First Post.
Not to be too Anglophilic in my writing here, but there is sometimes a striking difference between the sounds created from across the blistering North Atlantic, for better or for worse. Luckily for the crowd at the near capacity Subterranean in Chicago, this was to all of ours advantage. Hailing from Oxford, England, the city of one of Western Civilizations oldest universities, (and the home of another little English band, Radiohead) the Foals made a stop here on their first proper tour of these United States.
When asked about their impressions of Chicago and their general opinion of touring the states, Yannis referenced his recent reading of John Steinbeck’s classic dust bowl novel Grapes of Wrath, with its striking descriptions of the hugeness of the American continent. Vast was the word used, I believe, that best described their opinion of the country. And their opinion of Chicago, in the few hours they had to walk around? “There seem to be a lot of hipsters.” There, in the heart of Wicker Park, I wasn’t sure if I should defend this element, or agree of their destructive force. I agreed, saying “yes, for better or worse”.
Probably for worse.
I changed the subject to their next Chicago appearance, Lollapalooza. Apparently they had not wandered to the proper downtown area, and I described the occasional wonders of our largest spanning rock fest. And the autumnal nature of the weather this past Saturday night Yannis mentioned? That will be a distant memory the first weekend of August. Though something else to look forward to? A Lollapalooza after show with the Foals and Battles “in a warehouse somewhere”.