Sunday, April 5, 2009

brand new, pinback @ usc springfest

I found out brand new was playing a free show in LA...about 20 minutes after i had just driven home from LA last night. But whatever. I went to the show and got there during the band before miniature tigers, and this band was terrible, think a bad red hot chili peppers. Miniature tigers was good, played a shorter set than last night. Then the submarines went on, girl singer/steel drummer/guitarist, which was pretty cool. blah blah more bands.

Pinback went on right before the 'secret' headliner. I dont know them well, but they played really well and i enjoyed it, despite the idiots behind me who wouldnt stop yelling at them. The bigger singer was very vocal between songs, yelling at anything he could, like the palm reader, saying "hey look, palm reading! guess what FUCK YOU. you're making the world stupider, you cunt. " after they were told they had one song left when they clearly had at least two, they started breaking stuff down and this guy in a leather jacket comes on stage and starts talking. the pinback guy grabs the mic from him and says "who the hell are you?" and the guy says, "adam aids" so pinback guy says, "oh. does anyone know who this is or why he's onstage?" and there were crickets. he laughs, and gives the mic to the guy, who says "yeah, i have a job where i get paid to come back onstage and kill 5-10 minutes" at which point pinback guy AGAIN grabs the mic and says "oh, thats cool, since they just told us to cut our set short by 5 minutes. nice" gives back the mic, adam starts talking and pinback guy gives him a LONG kiss on the lips. hilarious. so adam aids goes "yeah so apparently no one knows who i am, well im adam aids, im big in africa" and the people go "......................." so he went away, and brand new techs were setting up.

apparently they didnt have a proper soundcheck so they checked EVERY SINGLE FUCKING GUITAR and it took forever. finally, FINALLY, they come on, opening with "you don't know" into "sowing season" and then "the quiet things that no one knows" as well as playing tommy gun, jaws theme, jesus, degausser, archers, and closed with bangkok. they played pretty tight, bangkok was a cool closer one (of the 3) guitarists dove behind his amp at the end of the song, and they had two drummers the whole set. i'd give a better review if i werent scared for my life the entire time.

This is the part where we talk about the (lack of) security at this show.

Here is a picture of the setup. notice it is called "idiots.jpg"


Thats right. in the middle of the GIGANTIC CROWD were unsecured steel barricades which you use to control a line, to keep a little cool kids club for the people in the usc events committee. well guess what, you planned this event POORLY.

So, first song. basically exactly where the arrow is pointing, i saw it tilting, i yelled at the security guard to come over, she reluctantly did. as soon as she got over there, some older white gentleman standing on the normal barricade (no event shirt/or jacket on) motioned for her to come back. she left and i said "WHAT? WHERE ARE YOU GOING ITS GOING TO FALL OVER?" i was motioning with my hands wildly, she started to come back and teh guy again made her stay where she was, she turned around and started paying attention to i guess making sure only the cool kids were allowed in the club. im yelling. "WHAT ARE YOU FUCKING DOING? ITS GOING TO FALL OVER?? ARE YOU STUPID?" and you know what happens IT FUCKING FELL OVER GOD WHAT DID YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN?

female security guard oblivious, as were the cool kids, to the fact that THE BARRICADE FELL OVER AND PEOPLE WERE SPILLING OVER IT, i grabbed one of the cool kids and told him to get the security guard. he doesnt. so i threw him in that direction, FINALLY she comes over, tries to get control, picks it up. somehow no one is hurt. the solution was, no, not get rid of the entire shitty steel barricade, but to remove ONE SECTION(??????????????) (the one that fell over) and try to close it and have A SMALL SKINNY OLD MAN try to regulate the gap. of course he just lets people in.


so the entire time im worried that a mosh pit is going to erupt behind me or some crowd surfer will pulse the crowd pushing them forward onto me. during pinback , hardly anyone was standing behind us, during brand new it was a sea of people. three or four times i was convinced that it was game over for us against the barricade, but the people behind us took every precaution they could to keep the masses at bay.

Now, let's talk about crowd surfers. This was an all ages, free to the public show. Usually, when someone crowdsurfs at this type of event (as the real barricade was set up), the bouncers/security will grab incoming people and set them down as best they can so they do not hurt themselves getting thrown over. Apparently, CSC security has a different school of thought. Their idea is, "try everything you can to not let them over the barricade and yell at them and pull them down into the crowd". so when a 15-16 year old girl was thrown over, the bouncer was taken by surprise and then didn't know how to handle the situation, instead of A) guiding her to the side or B) telling her to go to the side, i saw him reluctantly grab her off the crowd and toss her into the clear area behind the barricade, and then pushed her to the side violently. obviously scared, this girl started running from him and he pushed her again, and then chased her INTO THE COOL KIDS CLUB (which was now filled with any type of people because of the broken barricade). run right in front of me, after the girl gets by, i put my arm out stopping the bouncer, hoping this girl makes a getaway as best she can. he is confused to what im doing stopping him in his "job" long enough for her to blend in for a little while, a ton of security comes over as well as a campus security guard to look for the girl i guess and they finally figure out that there is a real problem with the barricade, but of course dont do anything about it. after they leave, i saw the girl coming back and i said 'you ok?' and she just looked sad.

so after the set is done, im leaving AND SEE THE GIRL GIVING A STATEMENT TO A COP, i walked over and the same campus security guard was there. i said "i saw everything that happened. this is the girl that was being pushed around for no reason by the security guard" and then the campus security guard said "thats enough, move along"

GREAT GUY.

i bid the girl, who was fucking crying (imagine a giant black man is pushing you around for no reason) a better night and she thanked me profusely, and i left.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

the get up kids at the troubadour

Got to this show with a few people on line, hoped no one would snag my expected spot on the stage right side nook, and no one did, so i had a great spot. The couple next to me had driven from tucson for the show and got there just a little after I had, and were driving back, that night. The opening band's drums and keyboard were RIGHT in front of us.

Miniature Tigers opened up, can't really explain their sound but it was...pleasant. I enjoyed them and the drummer made me laugh. Would see again. They are opening up the upcoming east coast kevin devine tour, so check them out if you are going.

The Get Up Kids came on next, with Jim standing RIGHT in front of us, and James on the other side looking like he had just gotten out of bed. The band seemed into it and excited, and played tight, joking with each other and the audience. I thought anne arbour was on the setlist but when i realized it wasn't 2-3 songs in, i started yelling it...and after doing that for a few songs suptic said, 'you have to ask matt' and he tried getting matt's attention but couldn't, so he said into his mic, 'matt, this young man has a request' and then...they played it. 2/2 on getting them to play that song, excellent. Great time.

Setlist, in order:

Holiday
The One you want
No Love
Valentine
Up on the Roof
Never be Alone
Woodson
Red Letter Day
Anne Arbour (!!!!!!!!)
Out of Reach
Martyr Me
CLose to Home
Coming Clean
Campfire Kansas
Holy Roman
I'm A Loner Dottie, A Rebel
ten minutes
walking on a wire

-encore break-
Close to me (the cure)
man of conviction
action and action
ass pike
my apology
don't hate me
i'll catch you