Arcade Fire turn earth into heaven at Big Sur

Stick Arcade Fire in the middle of a forest and magic is bound to happen. It's hard to describe how unbelievably special it was seeing the band play the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur on Oct. 5. Thanks to lucky and kind friends, I was able to score a ticket to this once-in-a-lifetime show, seeing the band perform with 250 others amidst a wonderland of trees thriving next to a breathtaking ocean expanse. It's hard to imagine a concert more glorious  — take one of the most stellar live bands around these days, add the ethereal atmosphere of Big Sur, a few hundred ecstatic fans, and a sprinkling of rain to remind you, "Hot-damn, yes we are watching one of the best bands of the modern era in the center of nature." Most of the audience wore perma-grins being present at such an event, and Arcade Fire's seeming pleasure at performing at such a special place as Big Sur only enhanced the thrill of being there. It certainly proved how accessible — and normal — these "music superstars" really are. How cool was it to see frontman Win Butler and company mingling so freely among the crowd, before, during and after the show? Butler practically spent more time roaming the audience than onstage — fans could spot him catching the pretty amazing sax theatrics of Colin Stetson's opening set, standing beside throngs of fans during "Haiti" to enjoy his wife, Regine Chassagne, and the rest of the band performing in this special place, and just generally being his antsy self onstage, jumping into the crowd whenever he felt like it. The musical highlight of the night most certainly was "Month of May," which found the band at its most intense and the kids in the audience going absolutely nuts, segueing into "Rebellion (Lies)". Other absurdly awesome moments included "Ready to Start," "We Used to Wait," which brought Stetson and his superior sax skills back onstage, "Neighborhoods (Tunnels)," and a rousing version of "Power Out," made even more interesting by the rain that began to fall and threaten a real power outage. Oh, that rain. Yeah, it prevented Arcade Fire from getting to soundcheck before the show, and did cut the night short by one song ("Intervention"), but how cool was it to be doused in raindrops during the beginning of "Wake Up," only to have the sky clear by the end of the song? This show was but a dream. Setlist: The Suburbs The Suburbs (Continued) Suburban War Crown Of Love Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) The Well And The Lighthouse Keep The Car Running Ready To Start Month Of May Rebellion (Lies) Neighborhood #2 (Laika) No Cars Go Haiti Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) We Used To Wait Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) Wake Up "Month of May" into "Rebellion (Lies)," Big Sur, Oct. 5"

Missing a Titus Andronicus show sucks

Damn it -- I should have listened to that coin. 

Titus Andronicus doesn't really roll round these parts too often considering the band's all East Coast, so I really should have dragged my arse out to San Francisco on Wednesday when they played the Independent. 

There's not too many bands out there these days that ooze the spirit of one Titus Andronicus -- total punk rock energy, loud, jolly crowd singalongs, just crazy fun really. Or at least from what I've heard through the online grapevine. 

I didn't make the show for a combination of reasons (worked late, long drive to S.F. and shitty parking situation around the Independent didn't offer hope that I'd catch even half of their set), but the main reason was that my dumbass didn't jump in my car right when I got home from work and head out to the show. Instead I debated back and forth, sorta Clash-like, "Should I stay or should I go?"


I even flipped a quarter -- heads-up meant I should not have missed the show. And heads were up, bitches.

But I disobeyed the coin and procrastinated until it was truly too late. I stayed home and proceeded to listen to The Monitor for the rest of the night, falling even more in love with the album. 


On a positive note, missing this show and soaking in Titus Andronicus' music over the next few days made me feel completely inspired by the band, their energy, love of life. An "absence makes the heart grow fonder" sorta thing.


And l learned something, too. Just as Aesop teaches in one of his more modern fables: Screw the drive and crappy parking -- a show will always be worth it. 

Holy redwoods! Arcade Fire to play Henry Miller Library in Big Sur on Oct. 5

Get your keyboard-clickin' fingers ready, because what could be the show of the summer in the Bay Area goes on sale this Wednesday, Aug. 18 at noon.

Arcade Fire.

The Henry Miller Library in Big Sur.

Oct. 5.

I've only been to one show at the Henry Miller Library, seeing the Entrance Band, and it was a beautiful experience.

First of all, the atmosphere can't be beat -- you're in middle of the forest and feel hundreds of miles removed from conventional society.

Second, it's as intimate as you can get at a show -- the maximum capacity is 400.

Not to mention the Entrance Band rocked the shit out of those trees. Imagine what Arcade Fire could do.

I already have tickets to see the Flaming Lips on Oct. 2, when the Arcade Fire plays the 8,000-capacity Greek Theater, so Big Sur's my only chance to catch them here.

I don't want to say it'll take a miracle, but I just hope I'm one of the lucky 400 to win the concert lottery this Wednesday.

Show review: Autolux @ Great American Music Hall, Aug. 11

Carla Azar beams "The 

Bouncing Wall" into the

GAMH ether on Aug. 11.

Holy crap is it great to see Autolux back in action.

Six years have passed since the L.A. trio released its debut album -- or, six years that the band has had to take a Louisville Slugger to the question, “When is your next album coming out?” 

With that, last week Autolux liberated Transit Transit from the confines of record label turmoil, offering up a solid follow-up that expands on the dreamy art rock of Future Perfect by dipping into more sonic effects, piano-driven Beatle-esque melodies and drum machine grooves.

Translating this more complex sound live is a bit more complicated than the three-piece blissed-out rock of live performances past. Their tour kickoff show at the Great American Music Hall on Aug. 11 went off grandly with only a few hitches that are expected of any first show, but the band has plenty of time on their month-plus tour to work out the kinks.

If there’s anything Autolux proved to the packed GAMH it’s that they’re ready to move the *cuss* on. They played the entirety of their new album, bookending the show with the opening first two tracks and closing with "Heartless Sky," despite an audience pleading for "Capital Kind of Strain."

Good move. Some members of the crowd -- which contained a few overenthusiastic frat-packers up front who insisted upon an awkward "Autolux! Autolux!" football chant at times -- perpetually requested tracks from the Future Perfect canon, but the band didn't cave.

Vocalist/bassist Eugene Goreshter seemed surprised at the shout-outs for so many "oldies but goodies." But I think Autolux proved their new songs' worth with energetic renditions of "Audience No. 2," "Census" and the epic "The Science of Imaginary Solutions."

Sure, the guitar could have been louder at points and technical issues didn't do "Spots" and "The Bouncing Wall" justice, but the songs of Transit Transit are perfectly Autolux -- beautiful, drugged-out, but not in a junkie kind of way, and utterly rocking.

That's not to say they ignored their first record, as those "oldies" are still damn good. "Plantlife" toward the end of the show served as a peak for me, seeing these three beast musicians attack their instruments, particularly Carla Azar on drums.

I left the show on an Autolux high, contemplating a drive to L.A. to catch the last show of their tour, Sept. 18 at the El Rey.

Show review: Wolf Parade @ Fox Theater, July 30

Wolf Parade rocked the Fox Theater in Oakland in a way I haven't seen them rock before.

I don't know if it was the absence of sound manipulator/synth player Hadji Bakara, who quit the band to work on a Ph.D., or vocalist/keyboardist Spencer Krug's longer hair, but for a band that often infuses their sound with baroque keyboards, Wolf Parade had a respectably rowdy crowd thrashing about the front of the stage throughout the entire show.

Part of it could be the excitement generated by their setlist Friday night -- they played an equal mix of songs from all three of their albums, yet placed their most epic tracks where they counted most: opening with "You are a Runner and I am my Father's Son," the song that launched their classic debut Apologies to the Queen Mary;  peaking midway with an orgasmic rendition of "I'll Believe in Anything;" and closing their first set with "California Dreamer" and finishing the show's encore with "Kissing the Beehive," colossal tracks from their second record, At Mount Zoomer.

I have to say the songs from their latest album, Expo 86, sound even better live, despite the Fox Theater's sometimes inferior acoustics (Wolf Parade's delicate keyboard lines sounded a bit fuzzed over on Friday). Expo 86 hasn't grown on me as immediately as their first two records, but "Cloud Shadow on the Mountain" and "What Did My Lover Say" especially earned a deserved spot on Wolf Parade's setlist.

One thing that really stood out was vocalist/guitarist Dan Boeckner's fired-up presence. Sure, Wolf Parade has always been balanced with Krug and Boeckner's alternating vocals, but I've always been a Krug girl, enjoying Krug's odd yelps a bit more than Boeckner's deep-throat crooning. I guess I'm not the only one who felt that way, as I overhead a fellow concertgoer exclaim "Go Dan!" and "See?" during the second song to his obviously Krug-loving wife.

But after Friday it ceased to be a Krug-or-Boeckner question. Wolf Parade is the ultimate yin-and-yang band.

San Carlos Library: A cheapskate music lover's dream

Going broke ain't no joke in the Bay Area.

Nevermind the ridiculous cost of living, every goddamn band in the world is touring through these parts, like, all the time. This isn't really a problem, per se. In fact, it's like winning a small-jackpot lottery when you find out your favorite band is coming through town.

But I spend too much goddamn money on shows. So much money that I never have the funds to buy all of the albums I want.

My cheapskate solution? Raiding my local library's CD racks.

While I've espoused the glory of the Millbrae, Pacifica - Sanchez, and South San Francisco branches, it is the San Carlos Library that is the real king of the bunch in terms of the best music collection.

Check out my score this weekend: Liars - Sisterworld, Passion Pit - Manners, Handsome Furs - Plague Park and Face Control, Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation, Sonic Youth - The Eternal, Conor Oberst - S/T, Baroness - Blue Record, Polvo - In Prism, Why? - Eskimo Snow, New York Dolls - S/T, Dredg - The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion, deadmau5 - Random Album Title, Other Lives - S/T.

Sure, some of these came out awhile ago, but for a measly 75 cents you can place a hold on newer albums, which tend to be checked out more quickly, and get 'em fairly fast. I've got The Arcade Fire's newest (coming out Aug. 3) in my hold queue already.

The library is a hip, hip place.

I think it's love. 

Give the sun the finger this weekend: Pitchfork Music Fest streams live

Those Chicago folks have it good, getting what may be the best overall festival of the summer for indie music fans in this weekend's Pitchfork Music Festival.

Well lucky for us West Coasters, Pitchfork is broadcasting some of the sets on the Internets, and today just might be the best day -- there's Real Estate, Titus Andronicus, Wolf Parade, LCD Soundsystem and Panda Bear, who played this "Untitled" track at Spain's Primavera Sound Festival this year that floats my boat into an ocean of holiness, not to overstate its awesomeness. I'm frothing at the mouth for Titus Andronicus, as well. Worth forgoing a bit of that Saturday California sunshine to tune in.

Saturday July 17 

1:00  (11 a.m. PST) Free Energy
1:45 (11:45 PST) Real Estate
2:30 (12:30 PST) Delorean
3:20 (1:20 PST) Titus Andronicus
4:15 (2:15 PST) Raekwon
5:15 (3:15 PST)  The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
6:15 (4:15 PST) Wolf Parade
7:25 (5:25 PST) Panda Bear
8:30 (6:30 PST) LCD Soundsystem 


Sunday July 18 

1:00 (11 a.m. PST) Allá
1:45 (11:45 PST) Cass McCombs
2:30 (12:30 PST) Girls
3:20 (1:20 PST) Beach House
4:15 (2:15 PST) Lightning Bolt
5:15 (3:15 PST) St. Vincent
6:15 (4:15 PST) Major Lazer
7:25 (5:25 PST) Big Boi
8:30 (6:30 PST) Pavement 

GAMH to sail the seas of Primus

Well hello there. 

What is this I see?

A show announcement, a BIG show announcement today.

Primus will play unarguably the best venue in the Bay Area on July 18. 

Great American Music Hall bitches!

Tickets go on sale Friday July 9, 10 a.m. sharp. 

Try to score tickets my little pretties, just wash, rinse and repeat: "I think I can I think I can I think I can."

Autolux announces Transit Transit tracklist, opening slot for Thom Yorke

Yes, we are still waiting on a release date for Transit Transit,  however Autolux did announce that their sophomore record will come out on tbd records.

And the Transit Transit tracklist!:

Transit Transit

Census

Highchair

Supertoys

Spots

The Bouncing Wall

Audience No. 2

Kissproof

Headless Sky

The Science of Imaginary Solutions

In other good/bad news:

Thom Yorke asked Autolux to open for him and Atoms For Peace at the Santa Barbara Bowl on April 17. I wish I knew the band so I could say congratulations! 

But the little devil in me is also jealous that Autolux isn't opening the Oakland shows, too. Here's hoping they schedule a Bay Area date, hmm, say, Monday, April 12?

Transit Transit = most anticipated record of 2010, no doubt. I have a feeling I'll be sneaking over to their MySpace page for a listen of "Audience No. 2" at least daily until the record is released. 

Coachella band of the week: Frightened Rabbit

Two bunny-monikered bands will play Coachella, and I already know White Rabbits is the shit.

The other, five-piece Scottish group Frightened Rabbit, plays songs that fall on both sides of the rock spectrum – more manic and loud rocking out type of stuff but also quieter, acoustic-based folksy stuff, all delivered in singer/guitarist Scott Hutchison’s thick brogue.

Not to be cheesy, but here’s the cheddar: What’s most lovable about Frightened Rabbit is that their humanity, sincerity and optimism shine through on their songs, which tend to touch on universal themes like getting your heart broken into a trillion pieces. Indeed.

And if they are as excited live as they come across on record, this will not be a band to miss at Coachella.


Frightened Rabbit doing "Fast Blood" live:

Coachella band of the week: Céu

Coachella always offers a diversified lineup that includes a few world music artists, and this year is no different.

I remember how hard Venezuelan Latin-disco-funk band Los Amigos Invisibles rocked the festival on an early Sunday afternoon in 2006, and it wasn’t just the vodka talking. Tons of dancing and floatiness, if you know what I mean.

On this year’s lineup Brazilian singer Céu, playing early on Friday, April 16, seems like a good bet if there aren’t any conflicts.

Her smooth vocals come through in Portugeuse, sometimes in English, riding dreamy musical waves of samba, afrobeat, R&B, jazz, and heavy bits of percussion.

It’s a groovy sound to enjoy laid-back-style, a light sonic break from the overbearing heat of the Coachella Valley sun.


Only 58 days til.


Céu's "Rainha":

Phoenix at the Catalyst will be the second best event happening April 17

If my weekend of April 17-18 wasn't already booked with attending Coachella 2010, I would definitely be hitting up the Catalyst in Santa Cruz on Saturday the 17th to catch a certain French band that likes to sing songs about the turn of the 20th century.

Sure, I'll see Phoenix live at Coachella, but their appearance at a club as off-the-beaten-path as the Catalyst presents a rare opportunity to rock out to "Lisztomania" in a pea-sized venue.

Don't know when tickets go on sale yet, so prick up your ears.

Bonnaroo 2010 -- it's aight

The Bonnaroo 2010 lineup unveiled today in a manner that kept potential festival-goers and curious music fans glued to their computers watching the festival’s MySpace page: Bands were revealed at the rate of one every six minutes, infinitely spicing up many a cubicle-dwellers’ 9 to 5 existence.

Honestly, the lineup is so-so.

Some highlights: Flaming Lips doing Dark Side of the Moon, Phoenix, Medeski, Martin & Wood, The Entrance Band, Jay Electronica, The xx, Damian Marley & Nas, The Black Keys, The Melvins, The Dead Weather, Kings of Leon, Jimmy Cliff, Isis, LCD Soundsystem, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Dan Deacon Ensemble and Stevie Wonder.

Overall it’s a diverse batch of artists, yet a bit too diverse for me to shell out the funds to fly to Manchester, Tenn.: Dave Matthews Band, Weezer, Gwar, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Rise Against … Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers, anyone?

Yet there’s one name that would have enticed me to forgo fiscal responsibility and head east mid-June.

Sorry, Bonnaroo – Coachella has Thom Yorke.

Coachella band of the week: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

So there's this band I used to like -- and still do, really -- called Ima Robot. They were a fun, manic dance punk band that gained a bit of popularity and radio airplay when I discovered them around 2003, however they quickly faded away after releasing their second album.

Flash forward to today: I've been reading a lot about this L.A. band Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, who before hearing I understood to be some sort of hippied out Polyphonic Spree with hella band members privy to wearing white robes and prairie gowns.

Then I found out this Edward Sharpe character was none other than Ima Robot singer Alex Ebert, who grew a beard, reinvented himself as Sharpe and recruited nine members to form this group.

Sometimes I'm skeptical when a band has more than six musicians because it just seems like an easy way to create a spectacle and elevate the grandiosity of one's look and sound; gimmicks meant to distract listeners from the fact that the band isn't really focused on the music.

Nevermind the symphonies.

But then I listened to Edward Sharpe and his crew and discovered the songs are quite good, and they're definitely a band to further explore.

It's a throwback kind of sound -- catchy, pop-type stuff brimming with harmony from the band's male and female vocal leads, and infused with lots of things to make it interesting like '50s doo wop, country, the Old West and blue-eyed soul.

They're playing Coachella on Saturday, April 17, and also Bimbo's in San Francisco on Feb. 28 for the Noise Pop festival.

Check out "Home" as played live on KCRW:

Coachella band of the week: Little Dragon

Only 78 days until Coachella, or, 78 days to get schooled on all of the bands I've been heretofore unfamiliar with.

So this week I discovered Little Dragon, a Swedish electro-pop foursome playing the festival Friday, April 16.

Now I usually abstain from synth pop and female-fronted bands  (not a hard rule, I just tend to enjoy male singers more), but these guys have enough darkness and soul to their sound to avoid coming out robotic.

Will definitely be checking out this band at Coachella, and apparently I have two albums to catch up on -- 2007's self-titled LP and 2009's "Machine Dreams."

Blinking Pigs - Little Dragon

First great show of the summer announced: Pavement, June 25, Greek Theatre, Berkeley

Pavement will bring its 2010 reunion to the best outdoor venue in the Bay Area on for the bargain price of $39.50.

A proper reaction?

Step 1. Pencil "best indie rock band from Stockton ever" into the June 25 spot on your calendar.

Step 2. Buy a ticket during the Thursday, Jan. 28 presale @10 a.m.

Step 3. Only 148 days to go! Live renditions of "Box Elder" and "Trigger Cut" shall soon be yours.

Trigger Cut/Wounded Kite at :1...

Following Radiohead's Haiti show tweets with all the other geeks

It's Sunday night, and I am officially a geek.

How else could I characterize myself after spending a perfectly good weekend evening sitting in front of my computer following people's Twitter updates?

Damn Radiohead fixation.

It's the only way I could cope with the fact that I'm not one of those lucky (rich) fans with enough fortune to have attended tonight's Haiti benefit show at the Henry Fonda Music Box Theater in Los Angeles.

So instead of rocking out with my favorite band, here I am following the tweets of people at the show so I can learn of the setlist in real time.

Just like all of the other Radiohead geeks.

Sure, reading about what's happening at an event doesn't even graze the ass of attending the real thing, but it's still a way to feel some connection to it.

Let's just hope I don't get to the point of joining the message board world -- but with a band like Radiohead, there are no limits to one's dorkdom.

Radiohead setlist, Jan. 24, 2010, The Music Box Theater

1. Faust Arp

2. Fake Plastic Trees

3. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi

4. National Anthem

5. Nude

6. Karma Police

7. Kid A

8. Morning Bell

9. How to Disappear Completely

10. Wolf at the Door

11. The Bends

12. Reckoner

13. Lucky (lucky 13, ha)

14. Bodysnatchers

15. Dollars & Cents

This is where took a request: Just or Airbag?

16. Airbag

17. Exit Music (For a Film)

Encore 1

18. Everything in Its Right Place

19. You and Whose Army

20. Pyramid Song

21. All I Need

Encore 2

22. Lotus Flower

23. Paranoid Android

24. Street Spirit

If did pay the minimum $475 ticket price to get in, would I have sacrificed my own experience to provide constant updates to the ladies and gentlemen at home?

I think timmayb sums it up well:

"While I am thankful and living vicariously through y'all, I cannot understand the need to tweet during a Radiohead show."

Amen.

But in all seriousness, even though us fans at home couldn't afford to support tonight's good cause, there's no reason to complain about it -- not when hundreds of thousands in Haiti are dead, buried, injured, homeless, hungry and grieving.

So stop your bitching, bitches.

I'm thankful there are famous faces out there willing to use their talents, or celebrity, or position to convey important messages to masses of people, to entice the more well-to-do folks to part with unneeded cash.

The sum of Radiohead's efforts tonight: $572,754, for those who really need it right now.

Back from the dead: Coachella lineup in T minus seven hours!

I'm so excited ... some serious rumors of a Thom Yorke appearance have been making the rounds.

Serious rumors, ya know.

But any combination of the bands below would be just lovely.

Blur
Soundgarden
Pavement
Flaming Lips
Deerhunter
Spoon
Fever Ray
The Strokes
The Antlers
Memory Tapes
St. Vincent
Entrance Band
Vampire Weekend
Major Lazer
Phoenix
The xx
Real Estate
Titus Andronicus
Sunset Rubdown
Panda Bear
LCD Soundsystem
DOOM
Raekwon
Andre Nickatina
Dan Deacon
Arcade Fire