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