iamserio.us

I held out on buying a ticket for this show in hopes that Live Eye TV would pick it up and get me in on the cheap (RE: free). Turns out that’s what happened and off to the show I went.

Black Taj were very jammy/bluesy rock that I could get into. Toe tappin’ you might say. They verged on becoming noodly but maintained enough composure not to fall into the dark side of, well, you know… jam bands.

Zombi, whom I have seen and taped twice before, were as awesome as always. It’s always cool to see them get such a great response from the crowd as an opening band who plays what can only be describe as “80’s action movie music”. And I love it. I love it so.

Trans Am was something else to be sure. I had never heard them before but I had certainly heard of them. They’re fairly prolific as far as their discography goes (reaching all the way back to 1996) so it’s kind of hard to miss their presence if you listen to enough music. They proceeded to melt faces and shake asses all across the venue. The crowd wasn’t that huge (they didn’t even open up the mezzanine) but it was still a good time for everyone involved. It sort of felt like a “fans only” affair since everyone was so into it and getting jiggy and whatnot. Hoo-boy I said jiggy.

Update: Zombi set now included!

Trans Am – 2007-04-23 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: transam2007-04-23.akgc1000s.sbd.matrix.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: transam2007-04-23sample.mp3

Black Taj – 2007-04-23 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: bt2007-04-23.akgc1000s.sbd.matrix.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: bt2007-04-23sample.mp3

Zombi – 2007-04-23 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: zombi2007-04-23.akgc1000s.sbd.matrix.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: zombi2007-04-23sample.mp3

Last year when I taped the Suicide Squeeze 10th Anniversary shows (three nights in late June/early July), a comedian by the name of Eugene Mirman MC’d the festivities. He mostly offered up banter in between bands and introduced them with his own brand of charm.

On the first two nights, however, Eugene volunteered two five minute segments of comedy that still make me laugh as much as they did when he told them the first time.

The first bit he did took a few jabs at Myspace and made fun of shitty amateur musicians (as well as dispelling myths about bears). His second bit was a makeshift quiz show where he made fun of audience members who willingly participated in his shenanigans and good fun was had by all.

Technical Note: the clip from 2006-06-29 is just an AUD source and the clip from 2006-06-30 is an AUD/SBD matrix. Just an FYI there.

Eugene Mirman – 2006-06-29 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
FLAC Download: emirman2006-06-29d1t01.flac
MP3 Download: emirman2006-06-29d1t01.mp3

Eugene Mirman – 2006-06-30 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
FLAC Download: emirman2006-06-30d1t01.flac
MP3 Download: emirman2006-06-30d1t01.mp3

I like it when a band can calm people down and make them pay attention. Tonight at The Crocodile, The Six Parts Seven did exactly that.

As they began their set, the crowd was chatty. Throughout the modest beginnings of the set they kept talking. But then the songs got heavy and complex and catchy and slowly everyone was paying attention to the music they paid to see. It was awesome.

Recording turned out pretty nice too. They played every song from their new album Casually Smashed To Pieces except for Night Behind The Stars.

The good news is that they played Night Behind The Stars when I saw them in May of 2006. I taped that show too but this was before the new album was out so they asked me not to post it. And here we are with the new album on store shelves (go buy it!) and I can finally post that show! So here you go!

The Six Parts Seven – 2007-04-10 Crocodile Cafe – Seattle, WA
Download: sps2007-04-10.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: sps2007-04-10sample.mp3

The Six Parts Seven – 2006-05-21 Crocodile Cafe – Seattle, WA
Download: sps2006-05-21.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: sps2006-05-21sample.mp3

I love going to see bands that you know are going to make the place go nuts. It’s weird how that happens… like a band’s reputation for making a crowd dance and move perpetuates itself to a point where people go to their shows just because they heard how crazy things get. And then they go to the show and get crazy themselves.

Lightning Bolt is that kind of band.

Like always, they set up on the floor in the corner of the venue. Stack of amps and speaker cabs tall as the shoulders of gods. Their amps are so loud that they don’t even mic them into the venue’s PA system.

They rock and jam and shred for an hour straight. They really know how to entertain for $7.

Opening acts were pretty good too. I didn’t tape the two first bands because I hadn’t yet set up my gear by the time they played but Teeth And Hair was really good dancey rock music (much like Q And Not U) and Bug Sized Mind was face-melting sound textures that peeled your eyes back for twenty solid minutes.

Teeth And Hair – 2007-04-07 The Vera Project – Seattle, WA
Download: tah2007-04-07.akgc1000s.sbd.matrix.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: tah2007-04-07sample.mp3

Bug Sized Mind – 2007-04-07 The Vera Project – Seattle, WA
Download: bsm2007-04-07.akgc1000s.sbd.matrix.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: None

Lightning Bolt – 2007-04-07 The Vera Project – Seattle, WA
Download: lb2007-04-07.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: lb2007-04-07sample.mp3

I hate being forced to stealth when the band in question is an open-taping band. The times when this happens are when there is some film crew doing a big production at a show and I really don’t have a problem with that except for the fact that I never see anything come of these filming projects. Think about it. When was the last time you were at a show and there were five or six guys with high-end cameras and when was the last time you ever saw a finished product from those people?

Yeah, I haven’t seen one live DVD be produced from one of these things. I don’t care if you want exclusivity rights over a show but at least publish something that people can watch/listen to.

Oh yeah: Jesu blew me away.

Jesu – 2007-04-03 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: jesu2007-04-03.at943.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: jesu2007-04-03sample.mp3

Well shit. I’ve heard so much hype about Genghis Tron for the last year or so but I’ve never actually had a chance to listen to them. I heard a lot of people comparing them to Lightning Bolt but that seems a little elementary to me. They sound more like Ratatat riding The Locust bareback. And that is a good thing.

There is some shredding going on. There is some screaming going on. All kinds of digital drumming and then even more shredding. And I mean shredding. Just ripping the thing to pieces. To fucking pieces. Also, LiveEyeTV did a four-cam recording of this show so I’ll try and get a copy of the final DVD from them and torrent it on the Internet. THE INTERNET.

So go ahead and download this crap because you know you want to.

Genghis Tron – 2007-03-30 The Vera Project – Seattle, WA
Download: gt2007-03-30.akgc1000s.sbd.matrix.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: gt2007-03-30sample.mp3

I wasn’t planning on going to this show but John from Live Eye TV asked me if I would record audio for him.

So I went and it was a fun time. The opening acts were less than good but they were interesting nonetheless. I’d never heard OOIOO before this show but they really impressed me. Very cool proggy pop music.

OOIOO – 2007-03-23 Chop Suey – Seattle, WA
Download: ooioo2007-03-23.akgc1000s.sbd.matrix.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: ooioo2007-03-23sample.mp3

UPDATE: Sets from the openers for those who requested it:

Eyvind Kang – 2007-03-23 Chop Suey – Seattle, WA
Download: ek2007-03-23.akgc1000s.sbd.matrix.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: ek2007-03-23sample.mp3

Kinski’s Bukkake Climax – 2007-03-23 Chop Suey – Seattle, WA
Download: kbc2007-03-23.akgc1000s.sbd.matrix.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: kbc2007-03-23sample.mp3

I’ve been looking forward to seeing Red Sparowes for many months. On Monday night I finally got that chance and it was worth the price of admission. These guys put on an amazing show and I recommend seeing them.

I got a soundboard feed that wasn’t total shit so I ended up using it. There are some trade-offs to this because while it does give the instruments a cleaner sound and brought out the drums tremendously, it also picked up some of the effects the band’s soundguy was doing to the instruments on the fly. You couldn’t really hear these effects as well in the audiences but they’re very pronounced in the board feed. They sort of sound like glitches but they’re not. I watched the soundguy too… he was turning knobs like crazy at certain parts of the music.

I also taped William Elliott Whitmore and Saviours. I’ll probably put up the WEW set later tonight since I know there are some fans of his out there. I can put up Saviours too if there is any interest.

Red Sparowes – 2007-03-19 El Corazon – Seattle, WA
Download: rs2007-03-19.akgc1000s.sbd.matrix.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: rs2007-03-19sample.mp3

Saviours – 2007-03-19 El Corazon – Seattle, WA
Download: saviours2007-03-19.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: saviours2007-03-19sample.mp3

William Elliott Whitmore- 2007-03-19 El Corazon – Seattle, WA
Download: wewhitmore2007-03-19.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: wewhitmore2007-03-19sample.mp3

In May I am going to tape the following dates of the Explosions In The Sky tour:

05-03: WOW Hall – Eugene OR
05-04: Wonder Ballroom – Portland, OR
05-05: Croatian Culture Centre – Vancouver, BC
05-06: Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
05-07: Neumo’s – Seattle, WA

If you have a camcorder and are going to any of these dates, I need you! I’m looking to put together multi-cam recordings for all of these shows so if you are going to any of these shows and you have a camcorder, get in touch with me and let’s do this.

I will handle audio for all of these shows as well as maybe one camera if I can swing it. Some of these shows will have other tapers at them but that is not certain so I want to make sure this gets done right.

So let me know! I really want this to happen!

UPDATE:

I’ve got someone on-board to do a three-cam recording in Eugene and in Portland. I know I have one filmer in Vancouver so now it’s up to you Seattlites to come through!

In the world of instrumental rock, there are those who lead and there are those who follow. For every Explosions In The Sky there are dozens of “me too!” band that follow.

Do Make Say Think has always led. There is quite literally no other post-rock band that sounds like DMST. Their liberal use of saxophones and trumpets trademarks the jazzy sound that they have crafted over their five-album career of the last decade.

After opener The Berg Sans Nipple finished their set (which was actually very good, so check out that recording too), DMST took the stage and played for a solid hour and forty-five minutes. Some of the newer songs with vocals seemed to throw the flow of the set off a bit, but the inclusion of songs like Frederica, The Landlord Is Dead, and A Tender History In Rust; the set was more than satisfying.

So download this and enjoy it. I guess I don’t often say “This is a good one, listen to it!” because I think all of my recordings are that way to a certain degree. But in this case I am saying that. This is a good one. Listen to it.

The Berg Sans Nipple – 2007-03-07 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: bsn2007-03-07.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: bsn2007-03-07sample.mp3

Do Make Say Think – 2007-03-07 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: dmst2007-03-07.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: dmst2007-03-07sample.mp3