From the moment we pulled into the notorious upper parking lot at Red Rocks Amphitheater tonight, I knew we were in for a trip - nay - aspill down memory lane. Not only was Stone Temple Pilots returning to Colorado after a mind-numbing show at the Fillmore this past fall (see previous entry: STP Still Rock to the Core!), they were bringing with them an arsenal of music that mixed the new with the old and the wicked (garden)! But I digress...
Pulling into the lot, I threw the car into "park" just in time to inhale the my-so-called-life90s nostalgia around me (if you did not get that reference, please close your browser now and know that Jared Leto hates you). To my left, Eddie Vedder's baritone droll escaping a set of car speakers to remind me how to keep my flow even; and to my right, a fellow concertgoer (female, mid 30s) downing what appeared to be the last six-pack of Zima known to man, literally! "This is going to be GOOD," I recall thinking as I soaked in the scene. I hadn't seen more 90s pride since the Lillith Fair announced its (triumphant?) return to the touring market.
Fast-forward more than a decade, and almost as many cocktails (I figured if Scott Weiland was going to be sober that left more for us), and we find ourselves in the nice, cushy seats of the Mayor's Box at Red Rocks. Now let me just say, if it's not too late, vote Hickenlooper for Govener! This guy knows how to party! I mean, despite a lack of presence at the concert from the potential Governor-elect (what, like it's a voting night?!), one could tell by the quality of his seats that he knows how to take in a show!
Following an opening set from Cage the Elephant - whose desire to wax Nirvana played nicely into the theme of the evening - Stone Temple Pilots took to the stage like kids to the playground at recess. Now I have seen some STP shows in my life, but the energy that prevailed tonight was impressive if not motivational, considering this act has been going at it for over 20 years (less a minor break during Weiland's Velvet Revolver days...don't nitpick).
What unfolded from here was a steady stream of juke-box hits and fist-pumping excellence, with the occasional new track thrown in for good measure (during which you feigned excitement or risked being in the minority). And although it appeared like age may be finally catching up with the STP crew (several of the band's members sporting grey hair and guts), they still rocked it like it was 1995. Hammering out studio-perfect versions of Interstate Love Song, Big Empty, and Creep (with added audience participation in the chorus), STP kept the audience thoroughly entertained with its nostalgia novocain. With a live show that pays as much homage to the past as it does attention to the future, Stone Temple Pilots proved tonight that they can still capture an audience; but with new music on hand captivating a younger generation, STP has become an anomaly in downsizing the age of their audience. A fact which tells me one of two things: 1) musings of the grunge-era are as timeless as stone-washed jeans and flannel shirts, or; 2) I had better hold off on having kids until this whole thing blows over.
The month of April has been great for music, and tough on the wallet. With so many good bands on deck to play in Denver, how does one decide which acts to see? Do you follow the crowd and go where your friends go? To the "brought to you by" concerts which feature more advertising than music? Or do you stick with the up-and-coming acts? The "starving" musicians whose fame may be the horizon, but for now they play to half-empty bars through a broke-down PA system? Or do you cut your losses and just go broke? Hitting up every concert you can, likely sharing the same "starving" fate as the musicians you admire?
Picking and choosing which concerts to see can be a painstaking process for the die-hard music fan, one that often leaves a stale fear of regret that you may not have chosen wisely. I can relate this emotion to how a parent must feel when asked which of their children is really their favorite, because the answer is always "I love them all!" But in this troubled economy you need to make your dollars stretch. And when the tour season kicks into high gear like this, you may have to abstain and accept that your pockets just ain't deep enough to cover them all! So how do you decide where to go to get the most out of your hard earned cheddar? One suggestion is to do your research, and as I always like to say at Chunks of Change, let the music speak for itself.
My recent experience seeing Passion Pit with Mayer Hawthorne (and Bear Hands) at the Ogden reminded me that going to a show can be as self-gratifying as a 30 minute workout—but with the added bonus of being amongst your friends (and not having to put your gym shorts on)!
In an attempt to inspire, I have listed some of the concerts on my radar that are coming to Denver in the next 30 days. Again, there is a LOT of them, each as quality as the next. There's no way I can make all of these! But the beauty of music is that it is subjective. It is up to your discretion where and when you support it, just as long as you do support it! Westword, The Denver Post, The Onion—these are all great publications double as a resource for local music. Pick one up! Thumb through it! Get the ink on your hands and rejoice in the lost art of the playbill! One fact you can't deny: you will never know far good music has come until you put that Led Zeppelin album of yours on pause (you know who you are) and start experiencing something new for yourself! Go see live music! And don't forget to support your local legends, the bands from your own town that strive to live out their dreams. They are the foundation of the spirit of rock and roll.
With an empty wallet and happy ears,
Chip
@ chunks of change.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Blue = 100% expect to see me there Green = Local Legends/Support your local musicians = Already saw it, check checkthe "2-cent" live review!
Fair To Midland, Something To Burn, Speakeasy Tiger: The Marquis Theater, Denver,CO
2-cent review: Live, this band sets a new standard for "high-energy." Singer Darroh Sudderth is modern-music's answer to a lost generation of Mike Patton-style frontmen. The entire group manages to walk a fine-line of chaotic-composure. Weaving in-to and out-of bursts of earth-shattering distortion and energy, they exercise perfectly timed dynamics to create the highs and lows of a live experience that you can actually feel, let alone hear. Fair to Midland played on a Wednesday night to an absolutely packed house. A particular favorite of mine is any time the collective voice of an audience actually overpowers the band in singing their choruses. And when a frontman is not too caught up in his own world to encourage the audience's singing, that's what I call a true concert experience. Awesome.
4/16
The Books: Fox Theatre, Boulder,COLotus, Beats Antique: Boulder Theater, Boulder,CO
Michelle Shocked : Swallow Hill, Denver,CO
The Bronx, Mariachi El Bronx, Sean Wheeler & Zander Schloss, Violent Soho: Bluebird Theater, Denver,CO
4/17
The Epilogues: Gothic Theatre, Englewood,CO
4/19
Them Crooked Vultures, Mini Mansions: The Fillmore Auditorium, Denver,CO
4/20
The Avett Brothers, Truth & Salvage Co.: Boulder Theater, Boulder,CO
2-cent review: So Phoenix gets a lot of love from Denver. This much I can deduct from from seeing their sold-out show in Denver. They had the Ogden more packed than a drunk-tank on Saint Patty's Day. Live, the band offered honest and powerful renditions of the songs that make their house payments; but they also anted up enough of the music from their 10 year career to imply: we know where we came from. Equal to the size of the crowd in attendance was the size of the band's music. I believe "wall of sound" is the appropriate term. Their sound seemed to fill every spare nook in the venue; and any spot unclaimed was surely consumed by the aurora borealis-grade light show. Phoenix does indeed offer a full spectrum concert experience, complete with audio, visual, and unforgettable.
Dr. Dog, Sean Bones, Giant Cloud: Gothic Theatre, Englewood,CO
4/21
The Avett Brothers, Truth & Salvage Co.: Boulder Theater, Boulder,CO
Jonsi, Death Vessel: Paramount Theatre, Denver,CO
Dusty Rhodes and the River Band: Hi Dive, Denver,CO
This week's "chunks of new music" list presents exciting new releases from talent, some known and some soon-to-be-known.
With the spring/summer concert season kicking in to high-gear, festivals from South by Southwest to Sasquatch! are starting to confirm lineups which place top acts alongside the showcase artists you are all about to become familiar and (dare I say!?) fall in love with.
A typical byproduct of this onslaught of concert bookings is an array of new music from bands that polish up their best songs, release albums and EPs, and start promoting and booking shows like the world may end tomorrow. If indeed we were facing an apocalypse, these are the new releases from bands that I would likely be listening to as the sky is falling:
Family of the Year, Through the Trees (EP) Pound for pound the most amazing EP I have seen from a group to date. If this is any indication of the music that lays ahead for this young Silver Lake, CA crew, then there is just no stopping them. Playful post-indie folk tunes with casual cussing and narratives about childhood memories? You can't go wrong! Their music is simply joyous, and quite frankly pioneering of a sound that I expect to hear a lot more of in the next phase of the music industry. Bonus: at their live show the band offers a just representation of their studio work. Not an easy feat. Auto-tune schmato-tune I say! Bring on folk 2.0! Listen to:
Broken Bells, Broken Bells Danger Mouse and the Shins had a baby. Broken Bells the atmospheric collaboration from Brian Burton (Danger Mouse) and Shins front man James Mercer. Though I doubt there was nearly as much acid-educed production to this collaboration as it may seem, the end result on this self-titled debut is indie-rock's call to 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's adventurous, melodic and comes complete with an interactive "universe" website which deserves a heeded warning: "do not attempt to operate this awesome website under the influence of heavy drugs (you may never leave your computer again)." Listen to:
Portugal. The Man, American Ghetto A caution to members of PETA, Portugal. The Man's new song "The Dead Dog" is not meant to be taken literally. What you can take literally from it though is how seriously these Alaska natives have stepped up their game on their latest effort, American Ghetto. Not to mention that I hear more buzz about this group than what Miley Cyrus would look like with her shirt off. This album is exquisitely fun to listen to, and Portugal. The Man is keeping the torch alive for progressive-indie fans. Listen to:
Frightened Rabbit, The Winter of Mixed Drinks My first thought on this album was, "does a Winter of Mixed Drinks mean a Spring Hangover?" So typical of a Scottish band! Not to worry though, the only thing toxic about this release is it's infectious and melodic song composition. The song "Swim Until You Can't See Land" is more than just a clever insult in the vein of "go take a long walk off a short pier," it's full of sweeping tones and backup vocals. It's the type of song that would be great as the soundtrack to a dream. Floating high above the ground in harmonic excellence. Vocally, front man Scott Hutchinson may draw comparison to a more subtle Modest Mouse sound, but it is certainly in this subtlety that Frightened Rabbit separates themselves from any comparisons. Listen to:
I could gush on and on about the multitude of good bands spawning up from around the globe right now, but the only person that would be fun for is me I'm sure. SO, rather than make you sift through my garb, I will let the music speak for itsel (plus it's much more fun this way). The following is a list of the bands which have made my forecast to do bigger and better things in 2k10. For your enjoyment, I have simplified it even further by dropping some of the finer examples of music from these groups into the single playlist you see here (hosted by the delicious lala.com digital music distributor). So please enjoy, share with your friends, and as always, be sure to support these hard working bands. These days, the cost of good music is cheap, so don't you be!
Stone Temple Pilots, Fillmore Audotorium, Denver, 10/13/09 (live show review)
You know what makes a STP show so damn exhilarating?! It's because every time you see them it's like you we're the first one at the Pub, and you loaded the juke-box with all your favorite music before anyone else had a chance to. It is classic after classic song, stirring the emotions you get from a good, no, great melody, coupled with the feelings of nostalgia you get from realizing you are listening to the same band that made you love music this much when you were a young buck. May I make a motion to replace "Livin' on a Prayer" with STP's "Plush" as most all time rockin' karaoke and end-all bar sing along? We can do it people!
All-star front man and top notch character Scott Weiland come to the stage with a presence that begs, "I dare you to fuck with me." Bobbing side to side with the intensity of a tennis player awaiting his opponents serve, Weiland staggers around stage absolutely owning it as the band tears through a set of phenomenal tracks that include: Wicked Garden, Vaseline and Interstate Love Song. Twirling as if on a solo merry-go-round, Weiland moves between band-mates the brothers DeLeo (without whom this amazing music would not be complete).
If you imagine Stone Temple Pilots as a concrete sidewalk, cracking and torn apart from years of use (bare with me I DO have a point), the massive chunks remaining that you skip between to avoid falling in the cracks are hits like "Plush" and "Big Empty," but it is the music that slips into the cracks that you can really cherish about this band. The putty that makes the sidewalk whole again, as timeless as a broken wristwatch. As the band meanders through these chunky hits which gave them their name and recognition, they also stop to fill the gaps with songs like the Beatlesesque "Lady Picture Show," and "Crackerman" where Weiland dons a megaphone in the chorus, a signature move as iconic as Hendrix playing solos with his teeth. And as for the smoothed out "Sour Girl" well, this is the only band that I've seen pull off a light display of falling rose petals to a song and actually make it look cool.
This was the second time in under a year I have caught this act live, the first being just as memory-forging as this one and thus proving that it is not a fluke for this group to pull off a stellar show. They come with the lights, the attitude and of course the music to kill it every time, and they do it with a firm conviction that they know they deserve your attention.
As a favor to the child that still lives inside you, at least pick up a copy of the band's greatest hit's album Thank You, and give it a whirl. The nostalgia will knock you flat, and you don't have to thank me when you rediscover one of the band's that started it all.
I have discovered that if there is any place the rain is more acceptable to your environment than Seattle, it is Paris. Creating an environment of warmth that contradicts the air so crisp, your breath says "Bonjour!" in a visible puff with every word. Amidst a sea of designer umbrellas and children far too fashionable for their own good, I have found myself in love with a new city. Drenched in passion and a little bit of Kronenbourg, we have meandered the streets of this fair city, finding ourselves lost and mingling with local students and artists; listening to music the words of which we do not know. Every day seems a dream come true. The chore will be maintaining these romantic emotions upon our return home.
I sit here, wreaking of A & D ointment from a freshly inked tattoo, an admittance of love for my new wife, my new life. I could not find more happiness with a magnifying glass. The more we wander the cobblestone sidewalks, the more we get lost, the more we find in each other; and above all this is true: I am here with my best friend. My lover. True to myself this time would not be complete without a good soundtrack to the little life we've established here. So to stay consistent with my entries, and to inform the seven of you who actually read chipspicks, here is the music I am obsessed with as of late. I am going to keep this rather brief in a "microblog" fashion a la twitter. After all, I have a better half to pay attention to, butgo buy these now:
Halloween Alaska: Champagne Downtown (www.myspace.com/halloweenalaska) Ambient rock at its finest, this Minnesota group has made a new art out of creating gratuitous rhymes like "the end is near/so you steal a cue-card from the token queer ". Subtly poppy in it's melodies, this album is truly a fantastic soundtrack for walking in the rain, preferably in Paris, but your backyard will do just fine. Key tracks: Hot Pink, In Order, Champagne Downtown
Stars of Track and Field: Centuries Before Love and War (http://www.myspace.com/starsoftrackandfield) This is an older album that I have been paying more attention to lately. SOTAF are big on their delivery and aside from their name making them sound like the jocks you spent your life hating but secretly admiring in high school, this group is superb at paying off their build-ups. Every chorus releases the tension like a lucky kid on prom night (did I just go too far?). This is an album to listen to in its entirety every time, and always sounds good while sipping coffee. It's again more on the ambient side, but apparently that's what I beckon for at the moment.
My appreciation goes out to you for checking up on us. Despite the expressed concerns of some of my colleagues, there is more to blog about while on your honeymoon than just bedroom shenanigans. But not much more. Now I know I've gone to far. C'est la vie! Life's too short to beat around the bush (what a killer pun). I have to go now. The school across the street is getting out and I have to go watch the children to pick up some new fashion tips. Here's a tip ladies: high boots and scarves are in like Flynn this season. Guys: don't even bother.
That is all! Gotta go dance on Jim Morrison's grave like the ugly American he wanted me to be!
I don't know what a "Passion Pit" is, but I-eee Like it! There is something infectious about this East Coast outfit. Maybe it's their singalong choruses, or their melodies that etch into your brain like its granite, or maybe its the elementary school choir they use as an unofficial sixth member of the band! Whatever it is, the first time I heard Passion Pit my reaction was purely primal. All I could do was dance and beat my fist in the air in rejoice, for I had fallen in love with music all over again!
The track "Little Secrets" opens with such an all-out danceable melody that you'd have to be dead to not move your hips to it. Match that introduction with a vocal melody that acts like crystal meth (one time and you're hooked!) and you have a purely enjoyable, fun-listening song. "Moth's Wings" brings in a display of the band's instrumentation skills. Piano driven and a large chorus, the song is worthy of a stadium of singing fans. "Sleepyhead" delivers more of the electro-infectiousness that will make this band big (if they're not careful Kanye West will try to steal this beat from them). Lead singer Michael Angelakos delivers more of his soon-to-be-signature falsetto fringe, alongside more sensational synth melodies.
My itunes download of this album only set me back about ten bucks, and I honestly feel like I stole from the band. In the coming year I think we are going to hear a lot more about Passion Pit. I can see them uniting us all in dance at their shows as the audience progressively gets larger and larger. So let your Passion Pit hang out...or be free...or whatever a Passion Pit does, because it's good. Real good.
To get in to the album: listen to "Little Secrets" in a car full of crowded people on your way home from the club, your arms hanging loose out the window like spaghetti, and let the music take you over.
Key Tracks: "Little Secrets", "Moth's Wings", "Sleepyhead", "The Reeling", ....Oh hell just pony up and buy the album!
Dredg, I Don't Know (single) When I played this new single from the upcoming Dredg album for my dog Winston, he had the right reaction: rolled over, eyes up to the ceiling, and play dead. The song hits you with the intensity of a grizzly bear, and the only good reaction to it is to feign death and take what's coming to you. This song grabs you with its catchy hooks, massive melodies and insightful lyrics. At the climax singer Gavin Hayes recites "I don't know if I'll go somewhere special when I die/so I'll just go on living my way," in an epic ode to the unknown, and you can't help but appreciate the Zenfully influenced ponderings that thread the song. The new album, The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion, is set for a June 9 release. Let me publicly state that i am NOT down with the few leaks of the album I've seen online. This band is hard working and deserve a good release. So quit stealing their music and go pick up the single "I Don't Know" on iTunes for .99 cents ya cheap bastards! It's worth a buck. And If you haven't picked up any of Dredg's previous material yet, each album is amazing in its own right: Leitmotif, El Cielo and Catch Without Arms. Key Track: "I Don't Know" streaming on http://myspace.com/dredg and available at iTunes now!
Empire of the Sun, Walking on a Dream Following the current trend in Electro/Indie Pop-Rock, I present you with Empire of the Sun and their debut album Walking on a Dream. If you can, try to imagine MGMT on a month long ecstacy binder and you'll come close to imagining this Australian duo. With over the top imagery that is matched by their insanely poppy brand of electro pop music, Empire of the Sun looks like they stepped right out of sci-fi flic and into the musical spotlight. "Standing on the Shore" is the opening track on the album, and introduces you to the Empire with a guitar riff of epic potential. The band likes their chanting choruses almost as much as their spacey lyrics. The title track "Walking on a Dream" is a dancefloor grind waiting to happen, with lyrics that express "running for the thrill of it" in such a way it'll make you think about abandoning your job for the sake of just dancing. The album has gone platinum in their homeland of Australia, and it's easy to see why. Full of catchy hooks and creativity. Singer Luke Steele has a unique vocal performance on the album, sounding a bit like he's singing with his mouth only open enough to let the words escape. I personally can't put aside the comparison of Empire to the boys of MGMT, but as long as they list them as an inspiration I'm fine with it! To get into the album I suggest you listen to "Walking on a Dream" on a crowded dance floor, grab the nearest set of hips to you and dance, just dance. Dance like you'll die tomorrow. Key tracks: "Standing on the Shore", "Walking on a Dream"
From the moment we pulled into the notorious upper parking lot at Red Rocks Amphitheater tonight, I knew we were in for a trip - nay - a spill down memory lane. Not only was Stone Temple Pilots returning to Colorado after a mind-numbing show at the Fillmore this past fall (see previous entry: STP Still Rock to the Core!), they were bringing with them an arsenal of music that mixed the new with the old and the wicked (garden)! But I digress...
