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.

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!

Miniature Tigers/Morning Benders Review @Johnny Brenda's

The short version: miniature tigers played all one one unreleased song. each new song sounded real good. but i only knew one song. morning benders played a fantastic set of songs from their newly released "big echo" LP.


the long winded tirade version:

Last April, I saw the miniature tigers open for the get up kids at the troubadour in LA. While I usually don't care for opening bands at this old old age, there was something about them that captured my attention. I loved the set, and ended up getting to a show the next day about 4 hours earlier than i would have just so i could watch them again. Again, they played a great set. I went on to find and enjoy every release they have put out, a demo EP, two 10" EPs, and a full length.

When I found out that they were going on tour, I was excited and upset at the same time. Excited because, great, I get to see this band! Upset because, they were not headlining the tour, but opening for a band I had never heard of, The Morning Benders. I decided to check out the morning benders, and was pleased with what i heard, but not entirely drawn in.

Then, my friend Mike Smeen said to check out Big Echo, the morning benders new record. I did and enjoyed it even more than anything I had heard from them so far, and this greatly excited me for the show.

So, I grabbed a ticket and drove to Johnny Brenda's in Philadelphia to catch this show. Opening was Acrylics, with a female singer with an acoustic guitar, and a full electric band behind her. They sounded good.

Up next was what I had been waiting for, The Miniature Tigers. They opened with a song I had never heard. It sounded great. They played some more songs I didn't know. They all sounded great. After the third song, some people in the crowd started shouting song titles that they knew, these requests went unheeded. They played ONE song from their entire released catalog, bumming out even the people that only knew the single, "Cannibal Queen."

Here is the Setlist:

Unreleased New Song that no paying fan knew
Unreleased New Song that no paying fan knew
Unreleased New Song that no paying fan knew
Unreleased New Song that no paying fan knew
Tell It to the Volcano
Unreleased New Song that no paying fan knew
Unreleased New Song that no paying fan knew
Unreleased New Song that no paying fan knew
Unreleased New Song that no paying fan knew

(i grabbed the set list. this is it: mansion, bullfighter, tropical, dark tower, volcano, gold skull, japanese, lolita, coyote).

As they played their new songs, the people that were there for the morning benders were enjoying it, while the miniature tigers fans were just annoyed. when they played the one song, the people sang along and looked happy. Mix in 3-4 new songs, maybe, fine. But just one song that anyone knew? That's just disrespectful.

Before Morning Benders went on, I ended up talking with another MT fan who had said the set was "Garbage" (which i dont agree with. they played real well and the new songs sound great). I said, "If morning benders played just stuff from their new, released record, it would be a different story. i like it more than the first record, and at least we have had a chance to get to know it."

So the Morning Benders took the stage. They opened with "Stitches" from their newly released "Big Echo" album. It sounded good, and they went into "Promises", and the singer, Chris Chu, shook the venue stomping on the stage, bringing everyone into the moment. The percussionist from the miniature tigers played keyboard and drum for the morning benders set, his second show with them. He also really helped bring the sound together. The band went on to play an entire set consisting of songs from their new record, and the crowd loved it. They sounded great up to their last song, "Excuses," where they really brought down the house with the whole place singing "da da dum" over and over with no music playing. Fantastic set.

Setlist:
Stitches
Promises
Wet Cement
Cold War
Mason Jar
Hand Me Downs
Pleasure Sighs
All Day Daylight
Excuses

So what this show did was turn a miniature tigers fan who had never heard of the morning benders before, into a big morning benders fan. After the new miniature tigers LP is released, I'm sure it will be enjoyable seeing them again, but unless I hear them open with an old, familiar song at the Mercury Lounge next month, I'll be in the back.

The 4/22 mercury lounge date of this tour is sold out, but the morning benders are playing there the next week, 4/28.

the hope conspiracy at the cake shop

got to the cake shop and i thought there would be no one there. however it was sold out in advance, though they let some people in at the door. waited a bit for the crowd to thin and walked in. got a great spot sidestage. watched mothers of mercy, pretty good. united nations was alright until the last three songs which were really good. blacklisted played just one song i knew because i only know some early stuff. kids were real siked for them, taking down the christmas lights they had up around the stage. but people were also taking a billion pictures (of them and UN) it was annoying. by the time the hope con went on, the sidestage area was packed with people to the point of there being hardly any reason to be there. right before they went on, the guitarist from UN, who was also playing for hope con, tried to fix some of the lights because he got shocked by them. i pointed out that he let the cut exposed end right where his head could hit it. he touched the ceiling with it by accident and shorted out the entire strand.


so the hope con goes on, opening with departed into defiant hearts. i tried to keep my composure (and spot) but couldn't during the end of DH. i went back to where i was as they played a song i didnt know, but there were way too many people pushing and it was unbearable, so i walked to the back. but the kids loved it. other songs they played include escapist, truth and purpose, fallen, etc. pretty much what you saw on the list of songs they said they were going to play..... i was standing in the back by the merch tables and could not even see the stage. and then kevin goes, "who has endnote? you probably all sold it by now. this song is from it." then.... they played For Love. In a move i have not pulled since i was a young'n, i ran through the crowd to the front to sing, what youthful exuberance. it was great. then, i left.

Broadway Calls at Garageland/AVA House

So this venue is pretty weird, its a giant room up a flight of stairs thats been converted into a 5 room apartment, but with a TON of open space (though the kitchen is in a corner of this large room.). anyway, dave house played first. pretty good, i liked it.

broadway calls played second, before the menzingers and bridge and tunnel. there were a bunch of people crowded in to watch them. reading my mind, they opened with to the sheets. they went on to play (pretty much mostly in order): basement royalty, suffer the kids, back to oregon, be all that you cant be, van rides and high tides, midnight hour, tonight's alive, save our ship, and call it off. the sound seemed a little off, but i didnt let it bother me too much. they should grab a second guitar player to fill out their sound. but kids up front singing along, etc. good time.

mets at padres, august 7th

I went down to the tilted kilt, a much more sports barsy-like hooters, with hotter girls, which is literally next to petco, to watch the yanks/red sox game before hand. burnett/beckett both pitching great, missed the first few innings of the pads game to keep watching the yanks game , but left after the 9th because mariano had already pitched and i didnt want to see them possibly lose.

i had a park pass (SRO), but old man hooked me up with a seat next to him and mike at the foul pole above the mets bullpen. spent the entire game yelling at Jeff Francoeur and the mets bullpen. mets winning 2-0 into the 7th, perez still pitching, gives up a run. relievers did alright, though as stokes went in i yelled, "your whole season depends on this!". f-bomb (krod) starts warming up, im just yelling at him. he goes in bottom ninth, i said "HEY, DONT BLOW IT F-BOMB.!" game tying triple to our corner, francouer comes in to field it we're all yelling at him "YOU SUCK FRANCOEUR!!!!" missed the runner at home by a smidgen, i yelled "nice arm franceour!"

THEN FBOMB GAVE UP A GRAND SLAM

HAHAHAHA SUCKER

Brand New, The Troubadour, July 18

So, I either overestimated the traffic into LA, or my circumvention of the anaheim into Hollywood traffic worked, either way i was in LA in about two and a half hours...leaving me with a lot of time to spare. I killed some time, grabbed some food and swung by the venue at around 5:30 to see there was already a line, and a much longer one that I'd have thought for it being so early. With about 50 people already in front of me, i took my spot in line to get into the troubadour.


Eons later, the line was condensed and then the security decided to move all the people whose actual names were on the will call list to another line...except the entire show was will call, and confusion was abound. after it was all settled we all got into the same line same places, and went into the venue...


i was absolutely sure that someone would be in my facorite troubadour spot, which is stage right to the side so as not to be bothered by hordes of people, but still be right up front. This night, brand new's lighting called for a light fixture to be placed in a perfect spot, placing a huge speaker on the floor in the perfect spot allowing me to get a better view and have zero people behind my due to a poll and still not having to deal with a million people.

ANYWAY Dios went on, and were much better than i had anticipated. the coolest part was during their second to last song, the keyboardist threw in a riff from "You Still Believe in Me".

Well, Brand New finally took the stage, and opened with The Shower Scene. While it seemed a little slow and not exactly right, it was still fun. Then, they played one note of Quiet Things, and the crowd responded with a brilliantly loud cheer...I didn't even know that song was identifiable by one note. After that they played sic transit gloria into sowing season. they played three new songs. they also played, not in order, tommy gun (with an awesome intro reminiscent of god and devil or newer stuff), jaws theme swimming, jude law, mix tape, seventy times seven, flying at tree level, jesus, and degausser. the god and devil stuff was played the best and sounded awesome. they closed by playing you won't know, with the bassist and drummer leaving during the end but the (3) guitarists remaining on stage for an extended outtro, leaving jesse there in the end, who played soco amaretto lime by himself.

great time!