Category: Entertainment

The Year in Concerts

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I decided early on this year that I would try to see as many concerts as I possibly could. There was a wealth of great bands coming to DC that I really wanted to see, and I ended up going to 17 concerts in all. Here’s a quick (but still long) review of what I liked and didn’t like.
First up was the Verve Pipe at the Barns at Wolf Trap. I had never been to a show at the Barns, only their outdoor venue in the summer. The Barns was a cool place to see a show, and even though I didn’t know all that many songs, it was still a good performance to start the year.
I was surprisingly impressed with We Were Promised Jetpacks at Jammin Java. They ended up playing a show later in the year at the much larger 9:30 Club, so I felt pretty lucky to see them in a smaller venue.
The most fun show of the year had to be the Legwarmers at the State Theatre. I went with a group of friends for my birthday and we went full on 80s retro garb and just had a blast singing along to every hit.
Black Star was the first of several shows at the Anthem, a venue I still can’t quite get behind. The floor is way too big, and I’d rather go to the 9:30 Club, though I understand the desire to sell more tickets. Everyone was super into this one which made it fun.
I took Lisa to see The Accidentals at Jammin Java. They were great performers, even if the crowd was a little restrained. I’d go see them again for sure.
Probably the biggest surprise for me was going to see HAIM at the Anthem and being more entertained by the opening act, Lizzo. She and her dancers and DJ were on fire, it’s too bad there was too long of a gap between them and HAIM, it might have been my favorite show.
Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats always put everything out there for their shows, but again, the Anthem just didn’t seem like the right spot for them to play.
We saw three fun bands at the Nottoway Nights concert series this year. Karikatura was a funky sound from a NY band. The Hot Lanes Big Band played just the kind of music you think they would. And Maybe April will probably be big on the country scene in a few years.
We took the kids to see Barenaked Ladies on the lawn at Wolf Trap. They’ve maybe lost a step lately, but still very entertaining. We’ll probably go see them with Hootie next summer.
Japandroids is my favorite band so it’s no surprise that their show at the tiny Rock and Roll Hotel was my favorite this year. I got there early and enjoyed Bacchae from right next to the stage. I chatted with a guy I recognized from the Pup show there the previous year. And then we got sweaty and loud and it was awesome. I even came away with one of David Prowse’s drumsticks!
Weezer and the Pixies and Sleigh Bells was at Jiffy Lube Live, a venue which I probably will only return to when absolutely necessary. Unfortunately a storm made me miss most of the Sleigh Bells set. The Pixies were pretty blah. But Weezer was so great.
Future Islands was another weird Anthem show. It was fun but I still maintain they should have played at 9:30.
The most frustrating show of all was AJJ/Kimya Dawson/Rozwell Kid at the Black Cat. It didn’t help that I was really tired, but after Rozwell Kid got me rocking, I felt like Kimya Dawson was out of place in this lineup, and since she was technically co-headlining, she played for a lot longer than I wanted, and I ended up leaving in the middle of AJJ’s set. Disappointing.
The year almost wrapped up where it began, back at the Barns for The Lone Bellow and Tiny Desk Contest winner Naia Izumi. Izumi is super talented and the Barns was a great place for his voice and guitar to resonate. The Lone Bellow are also fantastic performers who I would recommend anyone see even if you don’t know their music.
The year did close out with The Menzingers at the Black Cat. After getting to the show a little late, I squeezed up toward the front for some last sweaty, loud action. Super fun and energetic performers as well.
All in all, a good year of concerts. Even though next year won’t have as many concerts, I’m sure that music will continue to have a big place in my life.

My Last Concert

Brian2 Comments

Yesterday, thanks to a presale code I received from the Michigan State email list, I bought two tickets to the U2 concert in East Lansing, MI next June. Combined with the Bruce Springsteen concert we’re going to tomorrow night up in Baltimore, I think that this is the last concert that will be a “must see” for me.
I didn’t go to too many concerts until I was in college, so I missed out on Bruce and U2 and others back in the 80s and 90s for the most part. But in the past ten years, I’ve been lucky enough to afford to be able to see concerts like those and Billy Joel (with Elton John), and even Bon Jovi and Def Leppard (making up for missing them in my youth). Looking around at some of the top concert tours going right now, I find little else I actually want to go see. The Eagles and Dave Matthews Band seem to be the highest draws that I might want to see, but they’re not must see material for me, definitely not for what tickets cost these days. The only “new” artist I’d be interested in seeing is Arcade Fire (not on tour), and the “old” artist would be Beastie Boys maybe (also not on tour).
What do you think? Is there a great concert out there that I “must see?”

Chuck Brown, DC Institution

Brian

I can now check off another unique DC institution from my list: I have now seen Chuck Brown, the Godfather of go-go, perform live in concert. Chuck Brown has been performing for decades around the DC music scene, doing his unique blend of funk and jazz and continuous drum beats. Yesterday, he was performing for free at the Reston Festival, and the wife and kids were out of town, so I decided to ride my bike up to go see him play. What a show! The wall of sound hits you from the first note and never lets up (I felt bad for the conga and drum players, who never got a break in the late afternoon heat). The crowd was predominately African-American, but everyone was into the groove and chanting along, “Wind me up, Chuck!” It really was a great show, and I admire the guy for performing at such a high level into his 70s. I can’t describe how glad I am that I was finally able to catch his show. Awesome.

Bad Joke

Brian

The first thing I thought when I saw that Charlton Heston died was: “Well, I guess you can pry the gun out of his cold, dead hands now.”
I’m a bad man.

Pushing Daisies

Brian1 Comment

I was skeptical of the critics’ raves for Pushing Daisies, the new show on ABC. I had been disappointed by the premieres of Chuck (it’s got potential, but at times is just too far-fetched, yet predictable as far as the spy scenarios go) and Bionic Woman (didn’t much care for the lead actress, which is not good when she IS the show), so I decided to record Pushing Daisies to see if it could fill a spot in my rotation. It definitely is.
The show has the fantastic look and soundtrack of Tim Burton films like Big Fish and Edward Scissorhands. The cast combines relative newcomers Lee Pace and Anna Friel with veterans Chi McBride, Kristin Chenowith, and Swoosie Kurtz, and they all click, filling their roles perfectly. Even the voiceover, which was a bit overdone, seemed to blend right in with the rest of the show.
In short, this show is getting added to my season pass list, while Chuck and Bionic Woman are on hold until I see something good from them. You can watch the Pie-lette episode on abc.com to catch up before the second episode airs tomorrow at 8pm.

Posted in TV

Bionic Woman review

Brian

So I watched Bionic Woman last night and this morning. Sort of like the Heroes premiere went, it was largely a setup episode to get Jaime her bionic body, and introduce the Katee Sackoff character (she just wants to be loved, is that so wrong?) and a few others who will come into play later (her boyfriend’s possible evil dad). It has potential, but I was pretty disappointed in the performance of Michelle Ryan. She was pretty good in the action scenes, but was fairly bad in anything that required, oh, acting. Hopefully she’ll get better, but she’s no Jennifer Garner.
I still have the Chuck premiere on Tivo to watch. But I did watch the Prison Break premiere, which was the best premiere for that show so far. Too bad the audience didn’t show up for it (down 2 million viewers from last year).
Just for fun, check out user buckshotwon (aka Adrian Pasdar) on YouTube. Some good behind the scenes videos there.

Heroes is Back!

Brian

Unlike other TV faves Battlestar Galactica and Lost, Heroes premiered last night, like most normal TV shows, in the fall. I have to say it looks like it’s going to be an interesting season. (By the way, you can get a bit of background on Maya and Alejandro by reading the graphic novels on NBC’s website. Kind of confusing otherwise.) Aside from the god-awful Irish accents near the end of the episode, they put together a good episode, giving you an idea of what’s been going on for each of them for the past four months. Oh, and how bizarre is it that Sark from Alias is Takezo Kensei, Hiro’s hero?

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I Miss The Comfort In Being Sad

Brian1 Comment

Making its way around the intertubes is a funny “Thriller” video. For you kids, that was a big hit for Michael Jackson before he went all crazy. If I’m ever incarcerated, I want to go to the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines.

And here they are doing “Radio Gaga” by Queen. Not as awesome, but funny when they do the clap-clap part of the chorus.

On an only vaguely related (by music) note, I got Nirvana’s “In Utero” from LaLa a while back, after reading “Life is a Mixtape.” I’m not going to go by a shotgun like Kurt, but even if you couldn’t understand everything he sang, he wrote some pretty good songs. And as “Life is a Mixtape” suggested, I really do relate, at times, to the songs on this album. Worth revisiting if you’re all groweds up now and last listened to it in college.