entombed in the shrine of zeroes and ones

Although this is the first gig review since the failed Battles concert, i have actually attended one other gig since then: Soundgarden at the Bill Graham Civic Center.  Opening band: the Mars Volta, who were far better and tighter than i expected, and played stuff from an upcoming release (it's probably out by now, i should look for it...).  Soundgarden sounded like they'd barely missed a step; it was fantastic to hear Kim Thayil shredding again (even though, for some goddamn reason, the sound guy screwed us all by mixing Kim in at a very low volume).  Chris Cornell couldn't quite belt it out as before, but it wasn't much of a loss.  Matt Cameron was the usual pro's pro behind the kit, and Ben Shepherd was flat-out nuts, torturing amazing sounds out of his bass.  Short summary: fucking awesome.

Back to TJF: i hadn't secured a ticket for last week's show, which later sold out; luckily, lammah had bought tickets for both Monday and Tuesday, but then decided he didn't want to go to both shows, so i got to pick up the slack.  I ate at Tsunami (good but overpriced, except for a fantastic cocktail called The Cloister, of which i had two) with one of Sam's friends and his cousin, then walked two blocks to the Independent.  The two opening bands were Big Black Delta, who had some songs with potential, and a good drummer with style, but an annoying frontman; and A Place to Bury Strangers, who were technically adept but whose songs were dull, and the guitarist (who looked like Nicolas Cage in "Raising Arizona") and drummer looked like they hadn't showered all year.

The Joy Formidable was everything i'd hoped they'd be, with two tiny and one small complaints: the setlist shows that they neglected to play "Chapter 2", and also that they fake-ended their set after a mere 9 tracks, which is pretty damn horseshit in my book for the main attraction.  But they know they can get away with it because the music's so good, they have so much damn fun on the stage, and look genuinely happy to be playing in front of the crowd and with each other (and unlike APtBS, are all so handsome and well-dressed).  They were augmented by a harpist named Stephanie on "Llaw = Wall" and "Whirring", and that worked out pretty damn well.  I look forward to a subsequent tour after they have another album under their belt, so the set isn't so short.

Yesterday, i had soccer at 17:00 with Quakes (we won 4-2; my defense performed admirably and i had a nearly flawless game), then came home, showered, and on our way out to San Francisco, we stopped for food at El Pollo Loco, but the drive-in line was huge, which caused us to arrive at the GAMH a tad late.  Then i forgot to get the earplugs from my emergency stash in the car, so i had to run back to get them, then on the way back i realized i lost my ticket, so i had to track back my steps; fortunately, i found it in the parking garage, so in we went.

Saturna opened, and they did a good job.  I went downstairs to buy their CD; Matt, the drummer, couldn't unlock the cashbox, so he told me to just take the CD gratis.  I dropped by later to pay, so he gave me their EP for free.  Swell guys, and their music was good, too.  What more can a fan ask?

Bob Mould came on and opened with the best possible song he could have played as an opener.

• The Act We Act
• A Good Idea
• I Hate Alternative Rock
• See a Little Light
• Hoover Dam
• I Am Vision, I Am Sound
• The Silence Between Us
• Hanging Tree
• Miniature Parade
• Your Favorite Thing
• Hardly Getting Over It
• Changes
• Paralyzed
• Can't Help You Anymore
• I Apologize
• Celebrated Summer
• Divide and Conquer

Encore

• Egøverride
• If I Can't Change Your Mind

Encore

• Chartered Trips
• Makes No Sense at All
• New Day Rising

Leave it to me to find flaws in what was practically perfection: seeing how often he dipped in the Sugar and Hüsker Dü well, i would have killed to hear "Tilted" and "In a Free Land".  And the drummer was awfully sloppy during the first few songs (or maybe i'm just too attached to the beautiful precision of Malcolm Travis's beats).  But, damn... it was good.  Great.  Awesome.  I heard stuff i'd never thought i'd see Bob play.  One funny thing was that Kim and i sat next to these two twenty-something kids who had a completely bored expression throughout the whole show.  On our other side, a man and woman sat listening to the show with their earplugs neatly sitting in front of them.  Down the way, there were two girls dry-humping, in an apparent attempt to titillate their boyfriends.

This is the third time i've seen Bob play and i'm sure i'll be back for more... so long as i don't forget my earplugs.

Look, Rodrigo y Gabriela just fuckin' rock.  I will belabor this further, but that's really all you need to know, and if you're in San Diego, Tucson, Melbourne, Sydney, or Brisbane, buy a ticket now and go see them on their current tour.  If you're in Denver, Austin, or Tokyo, good luck finding a scalped ticket.

2wanda and i picked up elmuchacho and had dinner near his place at Yama Sushi (excellent prices, and they had mirugai sashimi... mmm, mirugai).  Afterwards, we headed to the show.  The openers were two random dudes, one on electric guitar, the other on harmonica, xylophone, and saw.  They were mediocre at best; not offensive, but clearly not very good musicians.  Afterwards, the sound guys played a Shakti track that was really good; it wasn't very long, so i'm guessing it was "Lotus Feet".  Right before R&G came out, they played Tool's "The Pot", which really warmed the crowd up; i've never seen intermission music used so effectively before. ( set list )

They're intensely engaging, stopping songs in the middle to incite applause and ripping right along after, urging clapping and yelling, and just displaying general showmanship.  They swear a lot.  They have a lot of fun on stage and it is quite contagious.  My only regret was that i wished that they'd played "Take Five".

After more than 20 years, i finally got to see Soda Stereo.  palecur and i flew to Los Angeles to see them at the Home Depot Center in Carson (we expected the airport to be a mess on the day before Thanksgiving and on Thanksgiving morning, but it was quite normal).  We brought along my college bud Ronnie, who kindly let us crash at his place and thus avoid a hotel.  Despite almost suffering a car crash when some idiot drove past the traffic cop that was guiding us into the parking lot, we managed to make it there safely and only barely late, but not as late as the band.

( set list )

I dropped over $250, including travel and food, to go see Soda Stereo.  I don't regret it, not one bit.

I first heard about Battles when warrenellis brought to my attention their video for "Atlas", a march for a "fascist Smurf society."  It was certainly captivating, but when i later found out somehow that their drummer is John Stanier, once of Helmet, well, i was sold.  Stanier's work on Helmet was top-notch, and he's one of my favorite drummers.

I was hoping that elmuchacho would join me at the show, but it was sold out, so i went in alone.  The opening band, Ponytail, was terrible.  Flat-out awful.  The vocalist was a pint-size girl essentially imitating a strung-out-on-sugar Björk imitating Diamanda Galás, and the two guitarists emitted dork radiation.  The songs themselves were disjoint and unlistenable; occasionally, the guitarists would put together a melody, but that only lasted for a few measures. Only their drummer, who was solid, saved them from being a total loss. I can't decide whether Ponytail, or watching Mark Eitzel open for Bob Mould, was the worst show i've ever seen.

Ponytail's set was eventually and mercifully over, and in between sets we were treated to a Speed Racer episode.  Then Battles came on; first, it was just Konopka who came out, played a short time on the bass, and looped it.  Then the rest of the band filtered in and everyone got to work.  And they rocked the hell out of a very, very packed house, easily the fullest i've ever seen Slim's.  I was surprised by the amount of women at the show, maybe about 40% of fans; i wouldn't've expected this kind of music to be popular among women.  I only recognized two songs, "Atlas", which they played around the middle of their set, and "Bad Trails", which they played as their encore.  One interesting piece of equipment was a huge square amp that had a microphone fixed to a bracket, pointing directly at the speaker.  At one point in the show, i offered my spot to a guy with a nice camera who was having a tough time getting a good shot of the band because there was some 6'6" guy blocking his view.  As the show was winding down, i asked him if he was putting the pictures online, and he said he was, so i asked him to send me the URL.  Behold!

The whole band was dripping sweat by their second song, except for Stanier, whose black shirt and pants were drenched.  He looked hot in every sense of the word; you watch him play his drums and see the expression on his face that belongs to a man who is consumed by playing drums, who cannot conceive of doing anything else.  In the video, you might have noticed Stanier's unusually high placement for his ride crash cymbal; that is how he had it set up on the stage as well.  He plays it less often that way, and therefore it is more dramatic when he looks up and reaches up to smack it.

If it sounds good to you, they'll be back in SF at the Great American Music Hall in November.

Some time ago, captain_nesky texted me and Kim, letting us know about this band she caught in Santa Cruz that she was sure we'd love; unfortunately, before i got a chance to check them out, i blew away my phone's inbox after getting a bit of a page storm from work that filled up its memory.  Later, marc_andreessen posted about them (and if you had any doubt that Dave Winer is a douche, check the comments).  I was really impressed, and upon visiting their Web site, i saw they were playing nearby soon, so i bought tickets.

The show was simply excellent.  Rodrigo and Gabriela are really good musicians and showpeople.  The crowd at the Mountain Winery was diverse in many ways (young, old, straight couples, gay couples), but everyone was decidedly rich-looking, so i didn't expect a lot of energy from them.  However, Rodrigo and Gabriela's music had everyone jumping, singing, dancing, and clapping along.  The tickets were a bit expensive, but the venue is very nice and, because it's not enclosed, no earplugs were necessary.  The woman in front of me complimented my singing of "Wish You Were Here", which was quite flattering.  R&G also covered Metallica's "One" and "Orion", and their signature cover of "Stairway to Heaven" was excellent, but the one that took the prize from me was their cover of Brubeck's "Take Five"; i can't begin to describe the length and subtlety of it.  And these guys headbanged often through their songs, Rodrigo on lead, and Gabriela on rhythm and percussion, strumming and whacking her guitar in the same motion.

They just played at Glastonbury, so i'm wondering if any of my Glasto-attending friends caught them there.  They're touring constantly, so you should definitely catch them if they come by your neck of the woods.  It was easily one of the best 5 shows i've seen. Look for them on YouTube, too.

Kim, last-minute addition sandollar17, and i got to The Attic a little late, almost halfway into Dolorean's set.  They were OK in an alterna-folk-country sort of way, like Wilco or Ryan Adams or the Jayhawks.

Afterwards, The McCarricks set up a video screen and started playing their songs backed by video.  The videos were fairly edgy, sometimes in presentation, sometimes in content, sometimes both; the most disturbing one was like a nightmare designed by Dalí if he knew about furries.  Their music, though, was quite enjoyable, cello and violin over synthesized music, loud and energetic and matched up perfectly with the video.

Once they were done, i ducked out to buy some earplugs.  When i got back, Billy, Kristin's manager and husband, wished all mothers a happy Mother's Day and gave Kristin a smooch.  She was joined by her 50 Foot Wave bandmates, Rob and Bernie, and the McCarricks. ( le setlist, c'est moi )

On Friday, i finally got to see bebopmonkey's band The Drift.  They were opening for World's End Girlfriend and Mono.  I didn't recognize the first song, but they then played "Invisible Cities", "Transatlantic", and closed with "Gardening, Not Architecture".  During the break, i said hi to Safa and introduced him to Kim.  After the break, WEG played disjointed, loud guitar that quickly became obnoxious, so Kim and i left to get some food; we stopped a block up O'Farrell at Thai Stick 4.0, where i had some fabulous garlic calamari.  We then walked back to check out Mono, but the noise was so brutally loud just walking through the front doors that we got our parking ticket validated and went home.  Despite the disappointment of the two latter bands, seeing The Drift was a lot of fun.

Kim and i went to see Lindsey Buckingham play at the Flint Center a week and a half ago.  He seemed a bit shy at first, but as the show went on, his music got louder and his performing persona came out fully fledged.  Kim and i sat in the front of the balcony, and the music was almost unbearably loud there.  Buckingham changed guitars after every song; i presume he's extremely finicky about having it in tune, as a couple of times he seemed to switch to another model of the same guitar.

I didn't compile an exact playlist, but memory suggests that he played:

Fleetwood Mac
• "World Turning"
• "I'm So Afraid" (long, reworked version)
• "Second Hand News"
• "Never Going Back Again"
• "Go Your Own Way"
• "Tusk"
• "Big Love"
• "Red Rover"
• "Steal Your Heart Away"
• "Say Goodbye" (the last three are from the recent FM album Say You Will, which contains tracks from an aborted solo project)

Solo work
• "Trouble"
• "Go Insane"
• "Holiday Road"
• "Not Too Late"
• "Cast Away Dreams"
• "Under The Skin"
• "Show You How"

Overall, it was an excellent show.  Buckingham knows his way around a guitar and a stage, and a stage with a guitar.  His drummer played electronic drums, which wouldn't normally bother me except it was obvious from the sound.  An amusing moment occurred when a yokel yelled, "Lindsey, that song ROCKED!"  Buckingham's rejoinder was, "You sound surprised."

We actually got there early enough to get some cash, find parking, and get a beer before the opening band came on.  Rupa and the April Fishes have this French gypsy band thing going on; Rupa reminded me of Valeria Golino, so i half-expected her to start singing "The Man I Love".  Kim didn't care for their musicianship; i didn't mind the sloppiness, but it did get old near the end of their set.  The drumming in particular showed little range; it was the same beat for all the songs, except for one song which was a waltz.  The accordion solos, though, were a high point.

Aterciopelados came on to much acclaim.  Andrea Echeverri wore some very colorful jodhpurs, and was much more present than when we saw her just over three years ago, where she was quite loopy.  I didn't get a set list down, but they kicked off with "Complemento", and also played "Que Te Besen", "Don Dinero", "Canción Protesta", "Oye Mujer", "Insoportable", "Paces" and "Fan #1" off the new album, Oye.  Add to that "Maligno", "El Álbum", "El Estuche", "Rompecabezas", "La Pipa de la Paz", and "Luz Azul".  They also played "A Eme O" off Andrea's solo album, and "Altísimo" off Héctor's solo album.  There was one other song i didn't recognize, and we left after the second song in the encore; i'd bet a dollar they closed it with "Florecita Rockera".  The concert was very good, and Slim's still rates as my favorite venue in SF: good food, good drinks, good sound, and it's easy to find parking.