The Shins are apparently the next big “thing.” I had never heard what they sound like and decided to go to the show based on word of mouth. I would say that they have about four songs that are GREAT and worth listening to many times. They have many songs that I would say are “good”, and then they have many songs that are mediocre at best. They are best when they are rocking out. Their ballads are mostly wimpy and repetitive, not so interesting at all. Perhaps if i’d been able to understand the lyrics I would have appreciated them more.

Its always good to hear live music and dance. But its definitely more fun when you know the songs at least a little bit going into the show. Not sure why that is, but it is totally true.

I feel like this band probably reads better on their studio recordings.

Also, the audience was full of obnoxious, baseball cap-wearing frat boys, which illegitimizes the quality of the band in my eyes. At moments I felt like I was at a Barenaked Ladies concert (both due to what the band sounded like and the crowd). Their other (more positive) influences are definitely in the modern indie rock world meets seventies glam rock. Definite elements of Velvet Underground and even some Bowie mixed in there. If they go more in that direction, I will like them. If they do more ballads-for-frat-boys, I will write them off as a lost cause. We shall see what the future holds in store for the Shins. I wish them all the best.

Going to see a band that you used to LOVE but have recently neglected, is kinda like going home again. The songs you hear/ people you see are familiar and you’d forgotten how much you love them.

After ten years as a band, Garbage is back and better than ever. Having not heard their most recent album, Bleed Like Me, I was curious to hear what direction they were taking after their great, but comparatively dissappointing third album. Glad to hear their fourth album sounds more like their first; gritty, raw, angry, and deliciously sexy. Speaking of sexy….Shirley Manson must have made a deal with the devil, she looks younger and more gorgeous than ever. Her stage presence and theatricality has really grown over the years, and she is no longer the moody, pretty singer of a band. She is a commanding front woman. Shirley IS Garbage. And her voice sounds better than ever, it sounds like she’s been taking voice lessons. She was improvising and going for some higher notes than she sings on the albums, and the tone of her voice is clearer and higher than it has been in the past. She has mastered the art of fronting a band. She would just stick the microphone in the audience and we would sing entire chunks of lyrics back to her (i.e.; Pour your misery down…etc. in “I’m only Happy when it Rains”). She looked monumentally pleased and humbled that so many people sang back at her with such ferocity.

Looking forward to getting the new album. They played every high impact, fun, fast, dance-worthy song from their first and second albums, and only one from the third (incidently, the only song Shirley fucked up the words in). They did no ballads, the whole show was a giant ball of furious, fun, sexy energy.

Noteworthy was how great the crowd was. Everyone was dancing and singing along, SO respectful and great. Shocking for a show at Hammerstein.

Also, technically, the show was gorgeous. The lighting and video projections on several large screens flashed images and words to correspond with the songs. Very post-modern of them.
I was most blown away by how happy and humbled they seemed to be. She kept pointing out how lucky they were and how shocked and pleased they were to be welcomed by the american/ new york audience. I would welcome them back any time, it was an amazing show.

First time at Carnegie Hall and we’ve got the best seats in the house. Thank you, rich Skidmore donors who couldn’t use the tickets. Patti sang a night of torch songs. Songs about lost love, pain, mysery, regret, etc. Her powerful belt, fierce vibrato and hightened dramatic presence were an excellent match with this style of music. Mostly I was just excited to hear her sing live. Oh my goodness, does this woman live up to her reputation. One of the most unique, powerful voices of our time, with the ability to “sell” a song like I’ve never seen. She kept us captivated. She certainly deserves her reputation as one of Broadway’s leading Divas. I hope she sticks around for a good long while (hey, Barbara Cook is 88!).

Throne is a CT-based, modern-rock sounding band of three glam rock-looking guys. Chris’s brother Aaron has been volunteering for them and working as their roadie, traveling around the country in a big van, living the rock and roll lifestyle. They came to NY to play a show and we had to go check it out. The band was really good for their specific style of music. Its not my favorite genre, but it certainly has its very lucrative place in the music industry. The small but appreciative audience was predominantly teenage girls, and this demographic has money to buy cds. So I can definitely see these guys having a successful career, with some luck and a little more hair gel.

What angered me about the night is the fact that we had been told we would get comped in by Aaron, but then there was no guest list and we had to pay the seven bucks each for cover. I was mad until Aaron explained that if enough people don’t pay a cover, the band doesn’t get paid. Nothing. They would be playing for free. I don’t know if that is normal to do to a group, but I think it is horrible and insulting and it makes me never want to go back to Arlene’s grocery again. To make me hate the venue even more, the drinks were ridiculously overpriced to boot. Don’t go to this venue. The end.

The Magnetic Fields are technically “indie rock,” but they are so much more than that, and their show at Town Hall truly showcased their talents. Steven Merritt, with his gorgeous bass voice and little ukelele, is a man of paradoxes. Masculine yet homosexual, embittered yet hilarious, witty yet melancholy. His lyrics are full of truth and beauty, but always stated simply, and always with an ironic twist.

I like the choice that was made to reduce the sound of the band, this way, the songs stood for themselves. It was only piano, guitar, cello, and ukelele. I did miss their synth-pop sound of some of their previous work. However that’s just another thing that makes this band so interesting, the can take a song and make it sound nothing like its original version.

The highlight of the show, for me, was a little tune called “Busbee Berklee Dreams.” I got teary, everyone must hear it.

In between songs, Steven and Pianist/ Backup singer Claudia Gonson had such great chemistry and banter between themselves and with the audience. Everything they said was funny and engaging. Merritt’s comic timing in his ad-libbed speech is better than most actors I know.
The opening act, a lone performer named Andrew Bird, was excellent as well. He sang with the emotion and ferocity of Jeff Buckley. Unlike Buckley, Bird accompanied himself on the violin, the guitar, and was playing some kind of sample track that he mysteriously controlled by several switches at his feet. I wonder, what would he sound like with a full band. However, his one-man-band show was an amazing feat of talent and songwriting. I definitely got lost and wrapped up in his gorgeous sounds, as if an ocean wave was carrying me away.

Friday the thirteenth of February at the Beacon Theatre. Rufus played a sold out show to his hometown crowd who clearly adores him. A member of his band, a female singer songwriter who looked like Barbie, was the first opener. Second was the dynamic drag-cabaret duo, Kiki and Herb. Kiki being a huge drag queen songstress and Herb being the piano player. They were fabulous. She did a painfully beautiful yet also funny version of Radiohead’s “Exit music for a film.” And of course they closed with “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Again, touching and funny. Then Rufus came to the stage in all his fur-clad glory. He is a classically trained pianist with a soothing, beautiful pop-rock voice. Throughout the show, he switched from piano to guitar but his smooth melodies never wavered. I found myself not even always listening to the lyrics, just getting lost in the melow mood the music created. Not to say his lyrics aren’t interesting too, they are. He takes silly thoughts (”My phone’s on vibrate for you”) and mixes them with true poetry and his amazing voice, and there you have it. And it was beautiful. His banter largely dealt with his song content, which seems to mostly be about boys he has either slept with or not slept with. He also made a comment about how we “must get rid of Bush.” And of course the audience went nuts. At the last encore, he and the band (and Kiki) came out in black witches’ hats and capes and sang the last song like that, claiming that he is more of a Halloween guy than a Valentine’s guy. All in all, his live performance definitely made me want to steal all his music from the internet and listen to it while I fall asleep each night.

I went to see one of my new favorite musical acts last night at Joe’s Pub. I ordered a salad. It was three pieces of asparagus, three silces of tomato, and three chunks of mozzarella. I was angry but the music made up for it. The Dresden Dolls are an amazing two person band from Boston. The singer/songwriter/keyboardist and the drummer. Their music is not easily categorized but I would loosely call it feminist goth rock. They dress in spooky Halloween garb. She wears black with stripey stockings, and they both paint their faces in a design that makes them look like living dolls of the undead. Love the makeup design.

Their musicianship and songwriting are where they really shine; their stage personas are just an added plus and do not detract from the fact that they are amazing. The songs are mostly dark and extrememly personal. The lyrics are biting, witty, cynical, analytical, and tortured. But not in a trite goth way, “oh boo hoo i’m so sad and lonely.” Not like that at all. Beautiful and poetic and full of rage. Amanda, the singer, has the rage of Courtney Love with the piano and poetry skills of Tori Amos. “Girl Anacronism” is a song about a girl who is sick in the head. An exploration of how medication effects her and her family’s need to ignore her because the attention just encourages her behavior. “Miss Me” is a bitter little tune about men. At the beginning you think its a simple break up song, then you realize the man in the song was kissing a little girl and is now in the County Penn. The end of the song rages about how she is sure he misses her as he rots in jail. Their most popular song is clearly “Coin Operated Boy,” a funny little jem about how she wants a boy made of plastic and elastic to fulfill her needs and dreams. Thats the A and C section of the song; the B section is a flowing, melodious exploration of lonliness and pain (having to deal with actual living men) and then jumps back into the happy world of the coin operated boy.
The Dresden Dolls make music that is definitely not for the mainstream. Their musicianship is incredible. Both members have clearly been playing their instruments since birth. Their live shows are vivid, intense, and theatrical. It seems they have had a great deal of theatre training as well. Her annunciation sounds like she’s had acting lessons. She spits her words out clear as day so they are extra sharp and you don’t miss any. In addition, she has a stage light rigged under her keyboard that hits her face from underneath, giving her a ghastly horrid glow throughout the show. Despite their good qualities, they are too savant guarde and will never be mainstream. But then again, most acts that deserve to be, never get there. C’mon, masses! Support creative indie musicians! Stop buying those Britney albums! No offense to her but she has enough of your money already!!!

Ah, David. 56 years old and still the hottest man in show biz. This was my second time seeing the living legend, the previous being far superior. This time, he was playing Madison Square Garden so I had to share him with 15 thousand others. The last time I saw him was in a tiny club in London with about 300 people. For a third of the price as well. Goddamn it, NY. Anyway, he puts on an amazing show, I highly recommend even for non-fans. His set list didn’t disappoint anyone. He didn’t do the dreaded no-oldies-just-new-crap routine. He did three or four from the new album (”Reality:” it is excellent) and a lot of crowd pleasers. “Rebel rebel,” “Gene Genie,” “Suffregette City,” “Ziggy Stardust,” “Life on Mars,” “Ashes to Ashes,” “Fame,” “Fashion,” “All the Young Dudes,” “Under Pressure,” “The Man who Sold the World,” “Little China Girl,” “Changes,” etc. I was thrilled that he did “I’m afraid of Americans” from 1997’s “Earthling.” He prefaced that one with, “When i wrote this song, it was kind of a joke. Now, its the absolute truth.” Well, David, I hear you on that one. I was also surprised and happy to here “Hello Spaceboy” from 1994’s “Outside.”

I couldn’t help but notice the obvious parallel in instrumentation to that of Radiohead. The ambient, otherworldly synthesized high pitched sounding stuff sounded just like their latest record. Its fascinating to think that someone who is such an innovater is still influenced by newer artists. On the other side of things, Radiohead is obviously influenced by Bowie as well. Then again, who isn’t. He has made such an indelible mark on pop music and culture. And has looked damn good while doing it. Unlike other grandaddy rockers, I don’t think he’s doing this for the money. He truly looks like he’s having the time of his life. And he speaks to the crowd as if we are all his best buddies; cracking jokes, telling stories, and being honest about song origins. He makes us fall in love with him over and over again. I hope he continues to write music and tour for another century.

He should run for president of the world.

The illustrious Sandra Bernhardt performed her cabaret act at Joe’s Pub, in the Public Theatre. The room was full of simply fabulous people, myself included. She was funny, witty, satirical, angry, dirty, and wonderful. Her vocal range surprised the hell out of me. You’d never know from the way she speaks but she can both belt and sing high soprano notes. Even I was impressed. Her diatribe about how she was really the first to make out with Britney was the highlight. As well as her closing number of Prince’s “Little Red Corvette.” She also sang the crowd pleasing “What’s going on” by For Non Blondes. The last verse she interjected what she feels are some of the more ridiculous and awful current events and punctuated how she feels about their ridiculousness but asking the question, “what’s going on?” Mentions of the president, Paris Hilton, Michael Jackson, etc. were all there. I found myself wondering, really, what the hell is going on. What truly stole the show were her knee high sliver sparkly high heeled boots. Sandra was a little sick, she had to run off stage to have a coughing fit, but we all forgave her. To boot (no pun intended) she had just finished another show with virtually no break in between. She had been performing for 4 hours straight and despite the strain and the sickness she was funny and fabulous. I would love to have a career as varied and interesting as hers has been.