Cloud Cult, Lincoln Hall, Chicago, Illinois

Music, Paint, and the Origins of the Universe

Cloud Cult filled the stage with half a dozen musicians, including from left to right, 1) a cellist, 2) a violinist, 3) front man and guitarist Chad Minowa, 4) a drummer who was one of the dorkiest looking people I’ve ever seen, 5) a bassist, trombonist, and occasional banjoist, and 6) a keyboardist and

occasional French horn player and trumpeter. We arrived fairly early and secured a great spot, about 6 rows back on the right side, though my left view of the stage was better. Most of their songs are quite catchy, even though many deal with spiritual themes related to self and universal discovery. Lead singer/front man Craig Minowa is talented and personable with a pronounced Minnesota accent. A good part of the audience, especially up front, was singing along for much of the show, even to songs from the new album which were released less than 2 months ago, which speaks to the loyalty and intensity of their fan base, especially when contemporary audiences listen to so many mixes and singles. Perhaps it stems from the tendency of their albums to be integrated stories, with one track seamlessly blending into another. Or perhaps I’m just projecting my own penchant for concept albums. The short encore break was also appreciated.

While I’m not intimately familiar with the entire Cloud Cult catalog, I was mostly pleased with the setlist, which included more songs from their new album, Love (2013), which I have listened to extensively, than anything else. They also pulled quite a few songs from Light Chasers (2010), the album that initially got me into the band in the first place. They also played a pair of songs, or parts of songs, from Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus (2005), Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes) [2008], and The Meaning of 8 (2007). I was however disappointed that they didn’t played my favorite song, “The Lessons: The Exploding People” from Light Chasers.

In addition to their full musical ensemble, they also included a pair of painters on stage with them, who each created an individual and unique piece of art on a rotating/spinning easel over the course of the set. At first it appeared as if the painters were just throwing paint on a canvas and spinning their artwork at high velocity. I initially assumed each would end up with a Jackson Pollack-esque

creation, but as time passed, each artist slowed down and the image on the canvas took shape. The man on the right painted a portrait of a woman with wavy hair, as if Medusa were a goddess instead of a monster. The woman on the left (who happened to be Craig Minowa’s wife) also painted a picture of a woman with wavy hair but sitting in a circular tub with birds over her head and connected to her hair. While I liked the one on the right more, I was more invested in the creation on the left because I had a better view. I don’t think I’ve ever watched someone paint a picture from start to finish before, at least nothing as detailed that it would take a few hours to create. Towards the end of the show as the painters were wrapping up their work, they joined the band as background vocalists on a few songs. They paintings were available for sale at the end of the show via silent auction. Unfortunately, within a few minutes, there were already bids approaching $1000, substantially more than I was interested in paying.

Setlist:
All the Things We Couldn’t See
Chain Reaction
The Escape: Running with the Wolves

Meet Me Where You're Going
Sleepwalker
The Baby: You Were Born/Transistor Radio
When Water Comes to Life/The Mission: Unexplainable Stories (Journey to the Light, Pt. 1)
1x1x1/It’s Your Decision
Chemicals Collide
Complicated Creation
Love & the First Law of Thermodynamics
Good Friend
You're the Only Thing in Your Way
The Invocation: Blessings (Invocation, Pt. 2)
The Calling
The Arrival: There's So Much Energy in Us
Fire/Clouds
Encore:
We Made Up Your Mind for You/Show Starts
The Invocation: You'll Be Bright (Invocation, Pt. 1)

Sigur Rós, UIC Pavilion, Chicago, Illinois

Damn you blogger!

My write up for this great show appears to be lost and gone forever, so it will have to suffice to just post some photos and the setlist, ugh.

Setlist:

Yfirborð
Ný Batterí
Hrafntinna
Vaka
Sæglópur
Fljótavík
E-bow
Varúð
Hoppípolla
Með Blóðnasir
Kveikur
Olsen Olsen
Festival
Brennisteinn
Encore:
Glósóli
Popplagið

moe snoe.down festival, Spartan Arena & Bear Mountain, Rutland & Killington, Vermont

Music, Skiing, Shenanigans

While a repeat of the moe snoe.down Music Festival, first held in March 2006 in Lake Placid, New York, lured us to the snowy hills of Killington Ski Resort in Vermont to celebrate Ben’s Bachelor Party, the weekend was more about skiing and late night comradely rather than music.

Nonetheless, most of us secured tickets for their Friday and Saturday night shows at Spartan Arena, home of the Castleton State College Ice Hockey Team, in Rutland, Vermont, a short drive from the slopes of Killington. After a little back and forth on whether we would actually follow through with attending at least the first night of the shows, a large group of us drove from our condo on the slopes to the concert venue. It was quite a hike to the festival, perhaps 35 minutes, something that no one really realized when we originally planned the weekend.

The event itself was very community oriented with local high schools selling water and food as part of a fundraiser. Fortunately, they outsourced beers to organizations of age and our group made sure to down our fair share. However, I volunteered for the role of designated driver, so I had a bit of a different festival experience than a few of the others in our group. It was fun if a bit strange to watch a show in a hockey rink. And not a large NHL arena, but a smaller rink with the boards and glass still intact, a venue which I imagine isn’t thawed for a concert too often.

We missed any opening acts and arrived as moe’s first set was starting. We stayed through the set break into the second set, though not till the end. I’m more of just a casual moe fan, but the show was good and the long, meandering jams were enjoyable, even though I can never keep up with their massive catalog. A lot of others in our group knew even less. The show wasn’t very crowded, which makes it easier to move around but makes it feel like less of a party. At the very least, it was a good excuse to get out of the house for the weekend.

Night 1 Setlist (March 22^nd) at Spartan Arena, Rutland, Vermont

Set 1:

Captain America

Recreational Chemistry

Bring It Back Home

Happy Hour Hero

Cissy Strut

Bullet

Kyle's Song

Set 2:

Billy Goat

Tailspin

Opium

Faker

Tubing the River Styx

The Pit

Wind It Up

Encore:

St. Augustine

The next day, moe played an additional set at the bottom of the slopes on Bear Mountain. I skied by for a few songs.

Daytime Setlist (March 23^rd) at Bear Mountain, Killington, Vermont

Stranger than Fiction

Spaz Medicine

Blue Jeans Pizza

Waiting for the Punchline

Jazz Wank

Akimbo

Okayalright

Encore:

Spine of a Dog

We didn’t make it back down to Rutland the following night for the second night of the festival. Overall, it was a fun weekend and the festival added an extra incentive to make our weekend getaway happen on a particular weekend in Vermont rather than some other random time and place. However, what made the weekend fun was the skiing and the late night shenanigans back at the condo, not so much the festival.

Guster, House of Blues, New Orleans, Louisiana

House of Early '00's College Rock

While I’ve been to New Orleans many times over the years, Guster at the House of Blues was my first opportunity to see a show at a club. Despite the name, the House of Blues is not some historic New Orleans institution. In fact, the chain was started in the early 90’s in Boston and only came to New Orleans later, when the brand was expanded as part of Live Nation. Nonetheless, the venue at least looks authentic and is a good place to see a show in arguably city that is the actual home of the blues. I’ve seen Guster many times before, so I knew what to expect and this show wasn’t too much different. We were also pretty close and it wasn’t very crowded, which were pluses. They played a good, fun setlist, though I’m heavily biased towards wanting to hear their older music

Setlist:

Ramona

Barrel of a Gun

Architects and Engineers

Amsterdam

Hercules

Rocketship

This Is How It Feels to Have a Broken Heart

Do You Love Me

Backyard

Two Points for Honesty

On the Ocean

Manifest Destiny

The Captain

Either Way

Satellite

This Could All Be Yours

Fa Fa

Encore:

Lightening Rod/That’s No Way to Get to Heaven

What You Call Love

Demons

Come Downstairs and Say Hello

2012: Year in Review

Another year of concerts. Even with spending almost a quarter of the year in a country where live music is illegal, I was able to match my 2011 total number of attendances with 27, including 21 concerts (exact same as last year), 1 single day festival, 4 multi-day festivals in which I only attended one day, and 1 multi day festivals in which I attended each day, bringing my average up to an event every 13 days. At least thirteen of these shows were sold out, perhaps more that I didn’t realize.

Again, I saw more shows in the DC area than anywhere else (14), with 9:30 Club (5) the most common venue. The cities and venues were a lot more varied this year than many previous including five shows in Chicago and additional shows in Harrisburg, Los Angeles, Dover, New York, and Philadelphia. Oddly, I only made it to one show in Baltimore, the city I called home for most of the year.

Again, I saw at least one show on every day of the week, but this year Sunday (9) was the leader, following by Tuesday (5) and Thursday (5). I didn’t end up going to too many shows on Friday (2) and Saturday (4) nights.  July was the leading month (7) with June (6) close behind. Somehow January and March were both barren. October and November were also, but that is because I was abroad for nearly the entire time in a country which live music doesn’t exist.

Including all the bands that I specifically remember seeing, and therefore wrote about, I saw a total of 69 performances by 62 artists. Of those, only 12 were bands that I have seen before; the remaining 50 were artists that I was seeing for the first time. This included 23 acts at single concerts, another 16 at the multiday Firefly Music Festival , and 30 at other festivals. I saw Modest Mouse three times and several bands twice, including Bruce Springsteen, Death Cab for Cutie, Explosions in the Sky, The Killers, and Sigur Rós. For both Bruce Springsteen and Sigur Rós, neither event was at a festival. Both Explosions in the Sky performances were at a festival, though I would have gladly paid to see them do their own show.

Concerts are always more fun with friends, but this year due to various circumstances, I saw five shows, including two festivals, by myself. For the first time since I’ve been keeping track, Jeff Schiz (5) wasn’t the top person to attend with me, though he was still high on the list. Ben Trajtenberg (8) was number one followed by Lindsey Havko (6). Rick Nieves (4), Eric Stahl (4), Ben Summers (2) and Samet Gursel were the only others with more than one. 

I also went to a much pricier set of shows with year with a total ticket cost of $1,565, over 40% more than last year.

The Killers, Patriot Center, Fairfax, Virginia

Consistently Among the Best

A chilly December evening would be my fourth time seeing the Killers, including my second time seeing them this year and my second time seeing at George Mason's Patriot Center, a modest size arena capable of holding about 10,000 people. Unlike my previous time at the Patriot Center and other times further back on the lawn at festivals, I arrived earlier enough to be fairly close and have a dead center view of the stage. Even though I wasn't particularly close for all of my other Killers' shows, they have been one of the most consistent live acts that I've ever seen. Every Killer's show that I've seen has been amongst my favorite of the year. I love their whole catalogue, they always have spectacular visuals, and their music is very danceable. Every time that I've seen them has just been a blast.

So I had set the bar very high and despite a few issues making it far less than a perfect show, it was more or less a great show. One of these issues was the sound. For starters, the Killers had cancelled their past few days on tour because lead singer Brandon Flowers was getting over some laryngitis. While he sounded pretty good, his voice wasn't all there and I could hear the difference. This was exacerbated by poor speaker placement. Despite being reasonably close to the stage and dead center, there weren't any speakers pointed directly towards us, so the overall clarity and detail wasn't up to snuff.

My other complaints related to the setlist and the visuals. The Killers put on an amazing visual performance - a large LCD, lights, lasers, and pyrotechnics. However, none of it kicked in till after they had finished their first song. I'm not sure if they were just delayed in getting it set up or if it was purposeful, but when they took the stage and kicked off the evening with “Mr. Brightside,” a high energy anthem and one of my favorite of their songs, it all just fell a little flat. While I never like waiting longer than necessary for an act to hit the stage, this time I would have gladly waited a few extra minutes for everything to be ready. I would have preferred to hear “Mr. Brightside” later in the set no matter what the conditions but the lack of aesthetics made it particularly noticeable. I'm not sure if it was because of any of these issues or not, but the crowd was not nearly as lively as I would have preferred. They gradually warmed up a bit toward the end though. Flowers also introduced the band at the very end of the show, after they had already finished the bulk of their final song; I thought it a bit strange, but it wasn't a big deal.

Otherwise, the show and the setlist were great; lots of jumping and wiggling. They played nearly all of the same songs as they did the last time I saw them, at the Firefly Music Festival in Delaware, though a little longer (which I liked) and a few less old songs in favor of a few newer songs (which I didn't like as much). All and all, they played seven songs from their new album Battle Born (2012), three from Day & Age (2008), four from Sam's Town (2006), and five from Hot Fuss (2004). I hadn’t been as crazy about their new album as I had some of their others, but hearing some of the newest album live made me appreciate a few of the songs much more, including great versions of "The Way It Was, "From Here On Out," "Miss Atomic Bomb," and even the title track "Battle Born," even though I wish they wouldn't have ended the show on it. So despite a few issues, the Killers remain one of the consistently best bands I’ve ever seen.

Setlist:
Mr. Brightside
The Way It Was
Smile Like You Mean It
Spaceman
Heart of a Girl
Bling (Confession of a King)
Miss Atomic Bomb
Human
Somebody Told Me
Here With Me
For Reasons Unknown
From Here On Out
A Dustland Fairytale
Read My Mind
Runaways
When You Were Young
Encore:
Jenny Was a Friend of Mine
All These Things That I've Done
Battle Born

Punch Brothers, Vic Theatre, Chicago, Illinois

Proof bluegrass can be fun, even without the foot stomping

The Punch Brothers are the new project of mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile, who first gained famed as part of Nickel Creek in the 90's and early 2000's. Since the Punch Brothers' formation in the 2006, they have released three progressive bluegrass albums. I had actually seen them twice before, once at Bonnaroo and another time opening for the Dave Matthews Band. So I knew what I would be getting but looking forward to seeing them on their own set. An all string quintet, the Punch Brothers' music is often based on complicated instrumentation and classical music elements. This makes it a relatively quiet variety of bluegrass. Unlike the catchy, foot stomping sound of Yonder Mountain String Band, The Steeldrivers, or The Wailin' Jennys, the Punch Brother's are much more subdued and introspective.

With several of the members hailing from the Midwestern US, they were excited to sell out the Vic Theatre, a 1,400 person venue in Lincoln Park. We were fairly close to the stage, which was helpful considering just how quiet their music is. Certainly didn't need my earplugs that evening, except for a few loud cheers from the crowd. While I don't have their setlist, I remember a good mix of songs from each of the three albums, with only a few familiar enough with the audience for everyone to sing along. Chris Thile sang lead vocals on most of the songs, though I found Chris Eldridge's voice, who lead on one song, as good or even better than Thile's. I was even willing to look past his southern accent despite his Wikipedia page indicating he's from Fredericksburg, Virginia (accent is not impossible, just a bit suspect). At the beginning of the encore Chris Thile played the 4th Movement from Bach's G Minor Sonata, without the aid of a a microphone. After all the shhhing, it's nice to hear a completely silent audience with everyone keenly listening to the strings. The band, as well as opening act, The Milk Carton Kids for one song, joined to finish up the show.