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12.13.08 | Red 7 | Austin, TX Rumors swirled around this year-end show…partly due to the recent downsizing of Trail of Dead and partly because they were playing with Glorium again. The bill reminded me of a mid-90’s gig in College Station…home of the Texas Aggies, whom are known more for honky-tonk and beer hall fights than bringing the rock. Believe me…I lived there once...
8.2.08 | Largo | Los Angeles "What, this? It's just a mini Flying V." -Bret from Flight of the Conchords Who knew Los Angeles had such a devoted Kiwi following? When it was announced that Largo would be home to the 1st National International New Zealand Day at a Bic Runga show in July, the buzz quickly built to a fever pitch and the show was sold out weeks in advance before a real line up had even been announced. Because it was the first (and hopefully not last) annual show, the audience can be forgiven for not knowing what exactly to expect. Was it going to be a variety program? A serious, straightforward evening of music?...
The Roxy Theatre | 6.25.05 | Los Angeles Thirty Seconds to Mars released a torrent of sound on a crowd of devoted fans at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood on Saturday, June 25. Anthony Kiedis, Lindsay Lohan, The Used, and Incubus's Mike Einziger were among those who crowded into the VIP lounge at the standing-room-only venue to hear 30STM in their first L.A. appearance since February of 2004....
Wiltern | 11.25.06 | Los Angeles To be a nonbeliever in the halls of the faithful is an unenviable place to find oneself and, to be sure, the presence of a skeptic is no more welcomed by the devout themselves but I'm getting ahead of myself. I would be lying if I said I was an admirer of 30 Seconds To Mars, not because I detested their music, but because I quite simply had not been exposed to it before the night of their appearance at the Wiltern as part of MTV's $2 Bill Tour.
Santa Barbara Bowl | 10.20.05 | Santa Barbara Punk-funk veterans 311 are an interesting study in duality. Their songs feature social commentary on topics ranging from police harassment to flatulence, sometimes in the same song. Their lyrics are alternately powerful and stupid: for every "overcrowded prison where a rapist gets paroled/ to make room for a dude who sold/ a pound of weed/ to me that's a crime", there's an "amber is the color of your energy." The band has charted no less than a dozen radio staples, yet there is something over-the-top and undeniably Journey-esque about them that make them the kind of band you only bump in your car when your windows are up....
UNO Lakefront Arena | 5.27.04 | New Orleans The space is dimly lit. Large metal branches ominously creep overhead. Iron bars form a large elevated cube encased by four panels of white fabric. Projected light reveals this box contains an occupant. Maynard James Keenan performs A Perfect Circle’s first song entirely enshrouded within this framework. His shadow moves with the shifting light giving a frenetic and jerky effect. The movement is somewhat disturbing and yet alluring. What is possibly more disturbing is that Maynard may remain in this structure for the duration of the show.
2.12.09 | Fonda Theatre | Los Angeles, CA I may or may not have fallen in love at the Henry Fonda Theater. Standing in the photo pit before Airborne Toxic Event hit the stage, I was readying my camera gear and greatly anticipating the pop hook goodness of music that is customary from the Los Feliz quintet. And there she was, purring in a beautifully forceful voice, “Hey you with the camera! Can I come up front with you?”
4.15.09 | Aragon Ballroom | Chicago, IL The All-American Rejects’ current headlining tour features bands with a wide variety of sounds. Ace Enders soothed the crowd with his mellower, less poppy sound. Shiny Toy Guns provided us with ear candy meant to make us dance and AAR simply brought the rock...
Alternative Press Tour 2008 w/ The Rocket Summer, The Matches, All Time Low, Forever The Sickest Kids, Sonny 3.25.08 | Fonda Theatre | Los Angeles Here's a thought: when several hundred screaming teenagers are all packed under one roof for a concert, does it really matter what they're listening to? That idea was tested at Hollywood's Henry Fonda Theater as the annual Alternative Press Tour rolled into town delivering a healthy dose of solid rock to the masses....
3.24.09 | Echoplex | Los Angeles, CA If there was ever any doubt in your mind that Tegan and Sara have excellent taste in music look no further than An Horse. The Australian duo of Kate Cooper and Damon Cox began its road to notoriety in support of the Canadian rock combo and have since garnered the goodwill of the music press and a fiercely devoted following, due in part to the sisters Quin...
11.13.08 | Knitting Factory | Hollywood, CA “Does your mother know about these?” I asked skeptically with a raised eyebrow. A huge yet shameless grin splayed across Slade Echeverria’s boy-handsome face as he said, “Yes, she does!” I was at the merchandise table and I stood there with a pair of white trimmed green booty shorts with “Anarbor” in funky cursive across the backside. Disgraceful. Slade Echeverria (vox/bass), Adam Juwig (guitar), Mike Kitlas (guitar), and Greg Garrity ( drums) hail from the desert-dry of Phoenix, Arizona...
8.19.09 | Knitting Factory | Los Angeles, CA “Yeah, we’ll come to New York and we will stay with you.” Mid-way through their set at Hollywood’s Knitting Factory, arguably “too small” a venue for the larger-than-life Angus Khan, frontman Dirty D replies to a screaming fan’s lurid proposition with the equally salacious: “You better have a really small bed!”...
2.26.09 | Fonda Theatre | Los Angeles, CA One trip to myanimalhome.net, Animal Collective’s website, will instantly put you in a great mood. Though the site lacks the helpful tidbits one usually encounters on a band’s official site - tour dates, bios, maybe a photo gallery? - What appears is a Blue Man Group inspired music video of “My Girls," one of the freshest songs just released from their ninth album, Merriweather Post Pavilion...
11.14.08 | Spaceland | Los Angeles, CA Apollo Sunshine should be the 1st band on the Moon but Friday night they landed in Silverlake. I've seen them here at Spaceland numerous times, and this was a particularly vibrant gig, with the new songs from their 3rd release Shall Noise Upon sounding extra grandiose. They opened the set with "Money," a fairly mellow yet jamming song, a bit of folk rock played hard, like Simon and Garfunkel with a bit more muscle...
9.17.09 | Knitting Factory | Los Angeles, CA Stephan Groth is Apoptygma Berzerk. Keeping that in mind is essential when you consider the myriad changes to the band’s line-up over the past 20 years, and especially since the beginning of this summer. Having a chance to interview Groth a few hours before...
The Echo | 6.28.05 | Los Angeles Architecture in Helsinki took the stage at a very packed The Echo on Tuesday, June 28th 2005 in characteristically dramatic fashion. From a palate of total darkness, the lights lifted to a funeral procession soundtrack as the eight band members slowly rose, from figures strewn on the stage floor to full animation...
Troubadour | 10.18.06 | Los Angeles What kinds of jokers still call Asobi Seksu "shoegazers?" Oh yeah, damn near everyone who reviewed their latest album, 2006's luminescent Citrus. But while the coy vocals of Yuki and the heavily processed guitars immediately bring to mind the racket of My Bloody Valentine, their sound is an endless...
10.31.08 | Echo | Los Angeles, CA But I digress. It’s Halloween night and we’re all here to hear Asobi Seksu. My black, crappily-applied nail polish is still on. But instead of me being the weirdest freak in the place like I was at my office, I’m the squariest square that ever squared here at the Echo...
3.15.09 | The Casbah | San Diego, CA Thank you for contacting Asobi Seksu Customer Service. Please listen carefully as our options have changed. Press one for information about version 3.0 of our software, Hush. Press two for skeevy journalistic slobbering over Yuki Chikudate. Press three for hackneyed "but she sings in English and Japanese!" cultural analysis. If you were attempting to reach the My Bloody Valentine Coachella Reunion Complaint Hotline, please hang up and dial 1-800-HOWSMYSHOEGAZE...
1.17.09 | Fonda Theatre | Los Angeles, CA When we last left our heroes Autolux, the daring trio of indie rockers had emerged from the nether regions of relative obscurity with the boon of one of the best radio singles of the decade in "Here Comes Everybody." The band seemed destined to be the heir apparent to My Bloody Valentine's (formerly) vacant spot atop the noise-rock throne and then, just as quickly as they had burst onto the scene, they disappeared off the radar for most...
Soma | 10.7.05 | San Diego Avenged who? Avenged Sevenfold, the 5-piece head banging ensemble from Huntington Beach, California have now become a common household name across the nation as well as internationally. Since the arrival of their new album City of Evil...
Troubadour | 10.18.06 | Los Angeles A chain-smoking teddy bear of a guy, Badly Drawn Boy (AKA Damon Gough) recently played two sold-out shows at West Hollywood's Troubadour in support of his latest release, Born in the U.K. I was in attendance the first night and was lucky enough to see him in such an intimate venue....
12.11.08 | The Troubadour | W. Hollywood, CA Barcelona hail from Seattle, a city with every right in the world to be proud of its music spawns (where would the world be without Soundgarden or Sir Mix-A-Lot?). What Seattle has offered up this time is a four-piece band (currently three-piece while on the road) that specializes in sounds beautiful and propulsive, sounds melodic and rocking, sounds radio friendly and full of potential under the pop/rock umbrella. Brian Fennell (vox, keys), Chris Bristol (guitar, vox), and Rhett Stonelake (drums) surprised me...
Gibson Amphitheatre | 7.23.05 | Los Angeles As evidenced by the crowd at Beck’s Gibson Ampitheatre appearance, his fans are firmly divided into two camps. There are those who allow themselves to be entranced by the psychedelic lull of Beck’s strongest work—displayed on this night in the dreamy "Paper Tigers" and a wistful rendition of "Broken Drum"—and then there is the other camp, who just love their KROQ....
6.19.09 | El Rey Theatre | Los Angeles, CA Through the years of live music, certain artists have created a loyal army of fans who cherish their music and defend it with passion. Take Weezer for example, they have the kind of fans who, even though their latest offerings have been weak, the fans are still so thankful for The Blue Album and Pinkerton that they still worship and defend them against the harsh critiques the music press currently gives them...