Friday, April 30, 2010

Hoodwink Review - shockingly good.

so i ended up with a free ticket to the hoodwink. i wanted to see saves the day play pinkerton and steel train as saves the day, so i went.

i didnt want to pay $20 parking (actually $25), so when i got there i said i was going to the racetrack, and they didnt make me pay. lol.

so i was willing to go because i heard it was a pretty small affair, and it was pretty much. the first band covered britney spears, and didnt play "hit me baby one more time". they were also terrible. the second band covered kanye west, i dont know enough about him to say if it was good or not


Next up, was Saves the Day by Steel Train. I was looking forward to this. They went on, it was obvious that jack the singer was excited to be playing the songs. Unfortunately, the sound was either bad or it just wasnt too good (i'll blame the sound). Additionally, hardly anyone knew the songs. Chris Conley watched from the side of the stage and sang to himself. The Setlist was: shoulder to the wheel, certain tragedy, my sweet fracture, all star me, freakish, an interesting version of jessie and my whetstone, three miles down, and closed with at your funeral.

After that, some band covered taylor swift and the band that covered kanye interrupted them.

Then,, some band named Emmure covered rage against the machine. Terrible vocals, terrible setlist. Played bulls on parade, bombtrack, down rodeo, people of the sun, and killing in the name of. the people chanted for one more, and they came back and played an original song, terrible.

Next, the surprise of the day: a band named [All the Day Holiday covered The Beach Boys. It was EXCELLENT! They opened with Wouldn't It Be Nice, closed with Surfin' Safari into Surfer Girl. They also played California Girls, Good Vibrations (!!!!!!) (How did they do it?!), I Know there's an Answer, Do you Wanna Dance?, I Get Around, and Don't Worry Baby. They only had limited time, so i didn't mind that that was all they played. They also played everything great! It was a total surprise how good it was. It seemed like a lot of people didn't get it or know what they were playing, and no one was more excited than me.

some band covered everclear next, hardly knew the words, it was ok.

Then, Say Anything covered The Misfits. I dont really like say anything, BUT! They were pretty good. Seemed a lot of people again had no idea. they talked about how happy they were to play a misfits set in jersey. Opened with last caress, also played die die my darling, skulls, astro zombies, where eagles dare, teenagers from mars, and closed with we are 138. They may have played a couple more, but i dont think so.

A band covered nine inch nails next but i didnt pay much attention. They played the perfect drug which was interesting.

some band did some 60s covers next i guess, dylan, simon and garfunkel, etc.

Headlining, was Saves the Day performing Weezer's Pinkerton. They absolutely nailed it, i was surprised they didnt change it around or do something stupid. HOWEVER THEY DID DO SOMETHING STUPID WHEN THEY DIDNT PLAY FALLING FOR YOU (or no other one). It seemed like about half the crowd knew the songs, if that, but there were a lot of \/\/'s in the air. After they played butterfly, they came back and played At Your Funeral. It was a good time.

a shockingly good time.

Monday, April 26, 2010

foxboro hot tubs weekend

Okay, so,

Friday Night: Don Hill's New York. Line-up mandated at 4pm "police presence", Doors at 6. Capacity ~300 (probably less).

we got there at about 2:30. got on line, got handed a #39 "line placement" ticket. Found out they had just been selling tickets at the door, but we went there and were told they had stopped. hung around for a little bit and stache went to use the restroom, he came back and said "COME HERE NOW!" And they were selling tickets again. actually, they had stopped but the bouncer said to him "where's your friend? get him."


so we walked around and drank and came back around 545 and got back in our places in line and waited around and got in and i grabbed a spot on the raised area to the side-stage. honah lee went on first and were pretty good, a mix of pop punk and non-grungey mid 90s alternative. they closed with a dramarama cover.

up next was mystic knights of the cobra. "mike the magician" performed some tricks bewteen sets. so they go on, and opened with the EL CAMINO theme, and it was great. they continued their great set, putting the crowd into an uproar.

so after a while, foxboro hot tubs went on, opening with stop drop and roll and played the rest of the cd (maybe not red tide?) and high way 1. they also played a new song called "its fuck time" a few times during the set, as well as supermodel robots (the network) and blood sex and booze. lots of people into it, jason frees yelled "fuck!" when billie invited everyone to come on stage, closed with the last song from the cd, pieces of truth. some of them left the stage, and a richard belzer-looking mike dirnt was standing to the stairs (mind you i have never seen this band do an encore) and he goes "we're coming up with a plan so you guys better fucking like it"

so they come back and play st. jimmy (SHOCKING! WHAT?), then played stop drop and roll scattered through the hour-long encore 7 more times, its fuck time a few times, 27th ave shuffle again, earth angel, random covers, and closed with a quick one while he's away. excellent time, excellent set.

Sunday, Bowery Electric, lineup at 8pm ("or you will be turned away"), doors at 11. capacity: 150.

we got there at 6ish and saw a bit of a line, surprisingly as i pulled up i saw bill cashman on his bike turning into the same intersection i was, i honked at him and he pretended to get hit by the car, drawing gasps from the crowd. parked, got on line as they were passing out line placements again. the person in front of me got #100 and i said "oh, are there any more?" and the guy said "no, theres only 100 tickets" and i said "oh, if only this guy in front of me were to give me his 100" and jamie goes "that's a woman" and i said "uhhhh" and then she turned around and said "does anyone really want to see this show?" and we said "well yeah, what?" and she said "i dont really care, here" gave me her #100, and walked away and left. i figured that at least one person in front of us was under 18 and would get turned away.

anyway, the people co-ordinated with the venue so the line placements were king. multiple times they said "100 is the last person" (jamie was #101). at one point, the fan who handed out the placements said "it ends with jawbreaker" (as i was wearing a shirt) and i said "it always does!"

so they started selling tickets at around 730, it came down, and i was next and it looked like they were going to stop selling but the bouncer who was told "it ends with jawbreaker came out and saw me and said "wait, there's one more." i walked up, and got the last ticket. then we had to figure out how to get stache in. he ended up getting in after trying some ways to get in, but not until the second half of FHT's first set.

so the first band on, at 11, was emily's army, billie joe's son's band (he's the drummer). they were all about 14-15 and played punk rock and it was fun. they had a song called "statutory date rape" and they threw shirts into the crowd, one of which landed on me after the people in front of me couldn't hold onto it. i then saw it was a small and decided it should be stache's consolation prize, as it was an emilys army/foxboro one off shirt (he lost it later). later, they covered "do you wanna dance?" and only about 4 people in the crowd knew it. tre, mike, and billie watched from the side-stage stairs, while adie watched from the small balcony behind me, pretty intense.

so FHT goes on, plays pretty much the same set including encore. the highlight was during its fuck time, billie starts staring at adie and jumps on the crowd and makes her way towards her, never breaking eye-contact, and then at the chorus goes "OH ADRIENNE ITS FUCK TIME!" excellent. great weekend!