BigYawn

If you were a viral young man in the early to mid 90’s who was interested in alt-rock women, you either longed for Dolores O’Riordan or Shirley Manson. Sure you could add PJ Harvey, Courtney Love or Liz Phair to the mix, but only if you liked having sex with corpses, wanted to catch an STD, or enjoyed a woman discussing her uterus as she squeezed your nuts.

As I was saying, you had two choices, both of them were on the thin side, both had hot accents — Scottish and Irish, rrrrowrrr — and both were apparent bad-asses. As the years went on, Manson and Garbage continued to make edgier alt-rock, and Manson lives in LA and even acts now. And she did this ad for PETA. Dolores and the Cranberries(294) made some good music, and she ended up doing some solo stuff, got married (to Duran Duran’s old manager) and had kids. Oh, and she lives in a log cabin in Canada. Where am I going with this? I think I might have been too innocent to realize Dolores isn’t really all that bad-ass at all, her band just makes her seem that way. Read on to see my point…

Firs off, one has to wonder how exactly Griffin House(293) got the opening slot for the Cranberries’ US reunion tour. He is, after all, a “guy with a guitar.” At first I thought it was only this show, but it is actually the entire tour. After looking at the full schedule, it seems this tour is clearly geared toward the older crowd, as the venues in every city they play are not your average rock clubs, but more the theaters that are easily accessible. Take Ramshead Live for example, the Baltimore venue the tour hit first. It is pretty much a Disneyland for adults, with multiple levels, a ton of bars and specialty drink areas, and some actual stadium seating, if you are into that thing. I can’t say I am, or into any of it really, but there is obviously a market for it.

Getting back to Mr. House, he obviously appeals to this type of a crowd. Which likely explains why he’s in it for the long haul. I feel like a more junior alt-rock band would have suited this tour a little better, but what do I know.

Seeing the Cranberries live for the first time was interesting. It is a “Hits” tour, so I pretty much heard every song I know, plus a handful of others, including a couple from Dolores‘ solo albums. The promo language for this tour suggests they will be playing some new songs they have written, but we did not hear any. Maybe they are writing as they tour?

Regardless, it was a neat experience, and I use the word neat because it fits most appropriately. I got to hear song songs I really liked live, which was great, good clean fun had by all. But the performance itself was a bit flat, as the rest of the band just kind of stood there and played their parts without even smiling most of the time. Don’t get me wrong, I understand Dolores is meant to be the focal point, and she did her best to be — the fact she is a mom and still looks like that and has the vocal range she does is amazing, but as a whole, the lack of energy on stage combined with the note for note playing of the songs makes me wonder why the band got back together in the first place. Now, to be fair, the Cranberries‘ music has never had a lot of “rock out” moments. Most of their singles have been nice pop songs. Yes they are from Ireland, and yes their lead singer usually has a punk hair cut and army boots on, but with some exceptions their music is pretty tame. And maybe that is the realization I came to while seeing this show. Sure, “Zombie” and “Salvation” are rockers, but they are still in the Cranberries’ style: unoffensive pop-rock.

I’m not trying to say this was a bad show, not by means. I enjoyed myself, but in a nostalgic kind of way. I have a hard time seeing the Cranberries as relevant anymore, though they are still far more current than say, Reo Speedwagon. It will be interesting to see what comes next for the band, if they do write more music or simply maintain a career as a touring reunion act every few years. Worth seeing either way I’d think, but more because of their history as opposed to their future.

So, for those of you who followed Dolores and not Shirley, this doesn’t invalidate those years of fantasizing over that Rolling stone cover, it just means you are just a little softer than you thought. And she should have done that photo with a fox carcass.

I read something once that said you can’t blame emo fans for liking the bands they do, because they are trying to like good music, they just aren’t quite there yet. This, I find,  is a very true statement.

There are good emo bands, and there are bad emo bands. We can argue civilly over what defines good and bad, but if you are in your 30’s like me, it should be pretty obvious who belongs where. For those of you not keeping score at home, emo is a genre of rock/punk music that by definition means  “emotive.” Yet, there other key identifiers. Does their audience wear a lot of mascara, regardless of their sex? Emo. Does a member of the band, often not the lead singer, scream a lot? Emo. Are the lyrics about pain and suffering, often regarding a failed relationship or death of a loved one? Emo. There are other identifiers, but I’m trying to paint a picture here.

So, I’ll say it, I think it is more than ok to like Brand New(292). Their style of emo, especially on record, is very unique, and their songwriting skills are tops among their peers. The band writes very intricate and complex pieces, that even a layman can see have real depth. The openers on this show? Not so much.

Crimes in Stereo(290) were very generic. They seemed like a group of young guys who should start thinking about playing different types of music. Listen guys, there is still time. Yes, as a more indie rock band you will play much smaller clubs to far less people, but at least you have a chance to build a following the right way, rather than open for bigger emo acts at large clubs you yourself will have no chance of ever filling on your own. I’m just saying.

Thrice(291) used to be a big name in these here emo circles, but not surprisingly they have started to write more straightforward, dare I say even bluesy, rock and roll. They apparently just came out with an new album, and according to the band, they played a number of songs off that album during their set. This makes sense, as the band is jumping ship before the H.M.S. Emo hits that iceberg. I can’t say their new style of music was all that great, but at least they are trying. I still resent the band for all those damn MTV2 commercials I had to sit through when I used to try to stay up and watch Subterranean on Sunday nights, but at least they are showing some diversification

Brand New were the obvious best in class for the evening. The band does not tour often, and the sold out crowd was very much all there for them, jailbate and all. I even braved a cold and rainy night for the chance to score a ticket outside — which I did — just to see them. True to form, they were loud, dark, and impressive. They played almost equal amounts from their last three albums, and included two from their debut, which is about as many as you’ll ever get. The crowd sang along with every single song, including the material off the recently released album, Daisy. This doesn’t surprise me, as these emo kids are nothing if not dependably obsessed. Hey, I wished I knew all the songs too, but, you know, I have a life.

My one complaint is that lead singer — and main song-writer — Jesse Lacey used an effects mic for a lot of the songs. This mic in effect shredded his voice, making it easier to yell and scream without actually shredding his voice. I get this, and understand why he uses it, as it is a long tour. But I felt he used it far too often, including it on songs that sound much better when he uses his unaugmented voice. This is a minor complaint, but it did effect a few songs I really like, so I feel the need to mention it here.

There is talk of this new album being about “things ending…” which has led folks to wonder about the future of the band. If this ominousness is true, and they called it quits today, I would be happy knowing I finally got to see them. But hopefully they will continue on and keep working to define their own sound, whatever over-used genre it might best fit in.

I had been thinking to myself for some time, that I needed to just go to a show and get trashed. The maladies in my life, whether they be the job situation, the family drama, the walls closing in on me in the small apartment I spend way too much time in, the inconsistent hockey team, all of it was starting to squeeze me a bit. And music being my outlet, I felt seeing a show I was excited about and letting loose if you will, was going to help me release some of the pressure from the all the crappy things slowly beating me down. [Editors note: the crappy things do not include my wonderful and supportive girlfriend, however.]

Well, I hate to say I was right, but, you know, I was. It started slowly however, and I am glad I was sober enough to appreciate the Life and Times(287), a new band I was pretty excited about. And they did me proud by being one of the better opening bands I’ve seen all year. Their debut album is one of my favorites of the year, and their style of indie rock is really not rocket science, but it is the kind of science I like to listen to. They were also very loud, just what the doctor ordered.

Kevin Devine(288) was the wildcard. I was excited about the opener, and love the Get Up Kids(289) but didn’t know what to expect from a solo artist. Well, happily he had a small band, but it almost didn’t matter. Not your average “guy with a guitar,” Devine sings songs about things far more interesting than broken hearts. Take a lyric like, “Argentine schoolgirls gagged and bound.” Presumably not about romantic angst, but hey, whatever you are in to I suppose, as long as it is consensual. As Kevin’s set went on, I could feel the happiness of chemicals and fermenting things effecting me. This could be one of the reasons why I liked him so much, but I don’t think so. He verbally sparred with the crowd, looked like he was just in a bar fight, and is signed to Brand New’s record label. Not much not to like here.

So, yes, the music of the Get Up Kids, especially their album, Something to Write Home About, was very much in my wheelhouse. It just so happens this tour was celebrating the 10th anniversary of that very album. Good times. But, for all the heart on their sleeves music, i.e. the stuff I was excited about, I was also concerned my partner at the show, a friend going through some rough times herself, was not going to take it well. But she seemed to be a trooper throughout, and despite my offering a sleeve for tears or a hug for sympathy, she required neither. Which might have been a good choice, cause as the show went on I sang louder and screamed more and more, likely causing some of my various drinks to spill on me. So, the hug might have smelled like Jamison’s Whisky.

The band was in rather fine form, hitting 6 or 7 songs off of Something to Write Home About as well as a bevy of hits. I gotta say, it is a little hard to read my notes from their performance, as they are scribbled in a language you can only read at 3 am when the bars close. But, I think my thoughts were of excitement, and lots of it. Their was moshing and crowd-surfing, two things rarely seen at DC shows, at least, the ones I go to. This show, for me, was a complete success, regardless of what my notes may or may not say. Awesome set, good liquor, and hopefully I was able to cheer a friend up, at least a little bit.

You know you’re starting to show your age when a 10:30 show on a Sunday night is just way too much. And fine, I’ll take some shit for that. But a full out danceathon on Sunday night at 10:30? By myself? I think you can see why I was not looking forward to this show.

As it turns out, there wasn’t much to dance to, at least not with openers The Phenomenal Handclap Band(285). I’m not going to criticize band names, as the band name my best friend and I chose for ourselves — and we never played anything — was Urinal Cake. But I’ll just say this, anything with hand clapping in it would not have been my first choice.

The band’s music was a hodge-podge of the Happy Mondays, Rusted Root and some of the more electronic jam band music out there, maybe Galactic with a little STS9 thrown in. It isn’t hard to see how all those artists can go together musically. Unfortunately, it is also easy to hear why the Phenomenal Handclap Band need to limit how their influences come through in their music. The band can obviously play well, but the vocals were not a highlight. And honestly, they just sounded like watered down versions of the bands they pull so much from. And while a little water takes the Mondays from shake your ass to tolerable, Rusted Root can’t afford to loose any of their full flavor. Hell, even at their best they can kinda suck. And that last statement may best describe the Phenomenal Handclap Band as well.

Simian Mobile Disco(286) — an odd tour mate of the Phenomenal Handclap Band — had some sort of post-apocalyptic mechanical mass on stage. The sort of thing you expect to see in an insane scientist’s lab after the bomb hits, maybe in one of those Xbox games, Call of the Afterlife, or whatever that crap is called. Needless to say it scared me a bit. As the set progressed, the duo moved around the mass, plugging in different things, turning different knobs and flipping different switches. It was, rather fittingly, music made exclusively from machines. This was an obvious dichotomy from their opening act, who actually banged on various tambourines and other percussion instruments, as everything here was synthetic. When you tied in the enormously ridiculous yet wonderful light show, it became a scene out of a movie where the evil warlords ruled whatever was left of the Earth from their mechanical layer, except these warlords weren’t evil, and they only ruled a few hundred people, as not many folks turned out for the show.

And the music was good, but not great. As always, I had a hard time knowing when one song ended and another began, but from my position way in the back — I wasn’t gonna dance all by my lonesome — it seemed like the people who were in attendance really liked what the were hearing and seeing.

Right, so, yeah, this was actually a wedding. The marriage of Liz and Tim, see the photo to the right. Tom Brett(284) was the Irish singer playing their cocktail hour. You could say that this was stretching it, even by my already loose standards, but I beg to differ. The rules have always been three songs. Hell, I heard this guy play 45 minutes of Irish ballads and bar songs.

Tom’s photo was a little too tiny and he doesn’t have a myspace page — c’mon Tom!, or I’d try to tell you more about him. Which is why I included the photo of the lovely new couple. Tom wasn’t bad, and the wedding was great. Probably the best wedding food I’ve had all year, copious amounts of alcohol, and six long hours to get trashed. And plenty of time afterwords to watch the world series and drink some more. I mean, the flowers and the country club and all that were good, but I was only focusing on the important things. I wonder, when we are 50 and attending weddings of the next generation, will we still focus on what is important?

Think about it for a minute, if this wasn’t the second to last show ever at the Spectrum, in a Philadelphia completely overcome by sports psychosis, on a weekend where the city could finally steal the spotlight from its rival city to the northeast in all thing important, would it have been this great? The answer? Probably not.

I will start my review of Five Against One(281), the band playing the parking lot party outside (Philadelphians like to party outside) by saying that they are the self-professed”Philadelphia’s tribute to Pearl Jam.” And I will end it there.

Getting back to the point I just made that folks from Philly like to party in the parking lot, it seems they do so up until the last minute possible. The Spectrum was maybe 10% capacity when Bad Religion(282) went on, prompting lead man Gregg Graffin to very sarcastically state “Uh, thanks” when the band came to out a small spattering of applause. And let’s get to the point, Bad Religion deserve so much better than that. They tore through a 40 minute set, playing many of their hits, including “21st Century (Digital Boy),” “American Jesus” and “Sorrow.” For guys well into their 40’s playing punk, they still sound really fucking good. Let’s face it, punk is a kid’s game now and there aren’t many aging bands that hold up, but Bad Religion is absolutely one of them. Name me another band that can headline the Warped Tour and open for Pearl Jam(283) in the same year? And no, My Chemical Romance is not the right answer.

For whatever reason, I gave up on Pearl Jam right about the time Vitalogy came out. College was weird for me, I listened to some random crap. No, not Phish or DMB, I wasn’t that cliche. But when PJ was morphing from grunge to straight-out rock and roll, I was lost in the horrible musical landscape that was the mid to late 90s. And the band’s later albums never quite did it for me, largely due to the fact that the only single you ever heard on the radio was “Last Kiss.” Soon after I stopped listening to the radio, the terrestrial variety, at least.

So, here I found myself, at my first ever Pearl Jam concert. Where, Eddie Vedder apparently talked abot playing every song they knew over the course of four nights in Philly. They didn’t, but it seems they likely came rather close. We got 31 songs over the course of a set and two long encores. I’m not gonna include the set-list here, it is pretty easy to find, but the band pulled out songs they haven’t played regularly since 1995. While impressive, this comes with the down side that the band, who is already playing from albums I’ve barely heard, is also playing songs that most average fans haven’t heard much, if ever. Safe to say, I knew very little of the material. You would think this would have made for a shitty show, but you’d be wrong.

It is impossible to put in words the energy on stage, in the stands, it was invigorating to say the least. Even if I wasn’t singing along, I still felt a part of something so electric and positive that it was a bit overwhelming at times. I respect a band that can change set-lists every night, but to pull so much from a nearly 20 year career, and to play songs on any given night? Well, Pearl Jam just might be the best band out there.

But yes, this was part of the farewell to the Spectrum, which was somewhat universally loved by both fan and rock-star alike. Me? Well, hey, it was obviously on its last legs. Food options were limited, the place stunk of something unidentifiable, and there were actually pieces of crumbling concrete by my seat. And yes, our seats sucked, we had our backs against the wall in the 400’s, a zone where no usher dare peak in on, which is why everyone was smoking something or other. So no, I won’t miss the Spectrum, but it certainly served its purpose in my life; giving me a chance to experience rock majesty on the grandest of scales. So for that, I’m grateful.