An Open Letter to Denver Concertgoers

Dear Denver,

Since 90% of you seem to need this, here’s today’s lesson in concert etiquette: Shut The Hell Up. If you’re there to see the band, take an Adderall and close your mouth for 90 minutes so you can enjoy the music. If you’re not there to see the band, why are you there? Is it really worth spending $40 + service fees just so you can drink $7 Coors Lights in plastic cups and act like an annoying douchebag? Next time you feel the need to shout over music while drinking shitty beer, there’s about 300 bars in this city with a jukebox and no cover. Try one out. Hell, try them all out. Just don’t stand next to me at the next show I go to and shout drunken bullshit in some girl’s ear all night. She doesn’t think you’re funny, and neither do I. Cheers.

"Just as modern as any city in the Federated States of Amerigo"

For anybody looking for a insider’s tour of the city before the DNC hits, welcome to Denver, y’all.

Fantastic.

Link from The Denver Egotist.

Interactive

Elbow at the Bluebird Theater. I always prefer small venue shows for a lot of obvious reasons—clearer sound, actually seeing the people onstage, and the chance for the artist to embrace and interact with their audience, an opportunity Elbow’s lead singer Guy Garvey grabbed with both hands last night. Kicking off off with “Starlings,” the opener from their new album, Elbow proceeded to mix their “golden oldies” with several more new songs. Elbow’s lush and layered sound came off surprisingly well live (if you’ve never heard their music, imagine Peter Gabriel fronting an older, smarter, and more cultured Coldplay). The band sounded tight, switching smoothly between rockers and the more mellow acoustic stuff. I was happy to hear “Scattered Black and Whites,” “Leaders of the Free World” and “Grace Under Pressure,” and the new single, “Grounds for Divorce” was a high point as well. The only disappointment for me was no “Fugitive Motel” in the set, but overall, I left quite satisfied. And openers Air Traffic showed a lot of promise, despite wearing their influences pretty blatently on their sleeve (I’m betting Coldplay, Muse, and even their tour mates are in heavy rotation in their van). They impressed me enough that I bought their album, and I’m happy to say it was well worth the $10.

But what stuck with me most on the night was Garvey’s electric personality and ability to handle the crowd. He provided interesting banter between each song, convinced a group of fans to buy the band a round of shots, drank toasts with the audience throughout the set, had the front row grabbing for his hand like some superstar televangelist, and shamed the ubiquitous howling Denver douchebag contingent into silence with a brilliant display of Northern English charm and wit. He even convinced the audience to sing a song of our choice instead of stomping and clapping to get the band to return for an encore. Unfortunately, the only song we could come up with that everyone knew was “The Wheels on the Bus.” Pretty lame. Still, I can count on one hand the shows I’ve seen where a performer has had the audience in the palm of their hand the way Garvey did last night. It’s an incredibly difficult stunt to pull off, which makes it all the more exciting when it happens. Most impressive.

Festivus (for the rest of us)

Summer approaches, and that means summer music festivals. I’ve got several options to choose from this year. I can stay nearby for the return of the Monolith Music Festival at Red Rocks (which was a great success, for me anyway, in its inaugural year but has yet to announce a lineup for this year) or the new, well-intentioned but somewhat mish-mash Mile High Music Festival at DSG Park. If I feel like traveling (which seems likely, since Radiohead has decided not to play a solo show anywhere within 1,000 miles of Denver), there’s the pretty spectacular lineup of this year’s Lollapalooza in Chi-town.

But as fun as festivals are, they also have their drawbacks. Weather (hot or wet), overpriced food and beverages, and general music fatigue from watching 30 or 40 bands over 2 or 3 days can sometimes make festivals a trying experience, not to mention the high prices promotoers can charge for gathering so many artists in one place. So to avoid all that, I decided that this year, I’m flipping the script and putting together a summer music festival the way I want it. To start, I’ve worked with different concert promoters to spread the bands out so that this is truly a “summer” festival. None of this BS 3-day nonsense. This puppy lasts four months (from May to September). By spacing the artists out this way, I avoid music overload, but get the privilege of paying the ridiculous food and beer prices on multiple occasions, not to mention getting to see a good number of the more disgusting bathrooms in the Mile High City. Plus, as an added benefit, this setup lets me give Ticketmaster a lot more of my money. And trust me, there’s nothing I enjoy more than paying an extra 50% on top of the ticket price in “convenience fees,” “venue fees,” “sales tax,” and whatever other bullshit those greedy bastards have come up with so that their fat fucking pig of a CEO doesn’t miss out on his $12 million bonus check this year.

Aaaaaanyway... I’ll be announcing more acts as they come along, but so far, I’m pretty excited about my lineup. (Confirmed means I have tickets, unconfirmed means I’m still debating.)

April 28: The Raconteurs @ The Fillmore Auditorium (I’m considering this a pre-festival warmup show—Unconfirmed)
May 2: Elbow @ The Bluebird Theater (Confirmed)
May 16: Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s @ The Larimer Lounge (C)
May 20: Sea Wolf @ The Bluebird (U)
May 29: The Kooks @ The Ogden (U
June 2: The Roots @ The Fillmore (U)
June 3: R.E.M./Modest Mouse/The National @ Red Rocks (C)
June 5: Rush @ Red Rocks (U)
June 14: Drive-By Truckers @ Westword Music Showcase (U)
June 21: Robert Plant & Alison Krauss @ Red Rocks (U)
July 21/22: The Police/Elvis Costello @ Red Rocks (U)

So far, so good. Rock ’n’ roll will never die. It just gets more expensive.

Triple Threat

Editors, Hot Hot Heat & Louis XIV, Ogden Theater. As my friend Luc said last night, there's a reason you go to see bands live. I own both Editors albums, and had seen about half of their set at the Monolith Festival last summer, but none of those things in any way prepared me for their thunderous live sound. In a way, Editors are Coldplay’s evil twin. Both bands play moody Brit rock, and have lineups consisting of guitar/bass/drums and a hyperactive lead singer who alternates between guitar and piano. But while Coldplay set themselves firmly on the path to the mainstream by following in the footsteps of mid-80’s U2, Editors were burying themselves in darker 80's music—The Smiths, Joy Division, The Cure and Echo & the Bunnymen. Much like all of those bands, Tom Smith’s lyrics find the tragic beauty in the grand Romantic themes of love and death, while live, the band leans heavily on their rhythm section (something The Cure has always done to great effect). On Editors’ studio stuff and even when I saw them outdoors last summer, it was hard appreciate the power of their drums and bass, but in the Ogden last night, that solid underlying groove was impossible to miss. Plus, I love what this allows the lead guitarist, Chris Urbanowicz, to do with his instrument. He very rarely plays any chords, instead either playing chiming melody lines or ripping off squealing fills behind the melody, which creates a really interesting texture (and also increases the similarities to 80’s Goth). I said in my Monolith review that I was intrigued enough to want to see Editors in a different setting, and I'm glad I did. They put on a great show (although at 1 hour and 10 min including encore, it could have been longer). But with the two openers, it was a pretty solid night of music top to bottom.

I could say many of the same things about the sound of both Hot Hot Heat and Louis XIV. I had heard some of their studio stuff, but they sounded a lot heavier live. Louis XIV sounds like the bastard child of AC/DC, Kiss and David Bowie, while Hot Hot Heat made me consider the result if Rush had been into punk instead of prog rock. I don't know if either band made me a fan, but I'd certainly like to hear more of their stuff. The nice thing was, both of these groups have enough of a following that the theater was full and rocking for all three sets, instead of the small and half-interested or nearly silent crowds that usually show up for the openers. It always surprises me a bit to see what a difference an active crowd makes to my enjoyment of a band, but I guess that, too, is part of the appeal of seeing live music, and definitely a part of why I keep going to shows.

Speaking of which, this was show #92 all-time for me (yes, I’m anal enough that I have a list), and looking back, I’m happy to say that almost all of them have been enjoyable. I guess that makes sense, since I’m not likely to go see too many bands I don’t like, but you’d think there might be a few more bad nights or bands that just suck live. Happily, I’ve been pretty lucky. Anyway, stay tuned for some kind of special thing when I get to #100. Maybe I’ll give myself a special award or something... ;-)

Old Man

Neil Young at The Wells Fargo Theater. I’ve missed a lot of Neil Young shows in my day, and for a lot of reasons. I missed a couple because I was out of town. I missed at least one because I was too poor to afford tickets. I skipped one because I was going through a stupid and short-lived “I’m so tired of Neil Young” period. And there were at least two where the scalpers got all the tickets before I could. In between, tinnitus and an aneurysm (and let’s face it, the slow march of time) threatened to end his career. But tonight, 18 years after falling in love with his music, I finally got to see Neil Young live, and it was completely worth the wait.

In six days, Young will turn 62, but you never would have known it tonight. Splitting his show into two sets (solo acoustic songs followed by electric stuff with a full band), he managed to bookend his career, mixing some new songs from Chrome Dreams II with some of his earliest work. The acoustic stuff sounded fantastic: Just Neil, switching back and forth between one of the multiple guitars he had onstage, his harmonica, and his piano. At one point, he even broke out a banjo. There were a couple songs I didn’t recognize, but the majority came from the early days. He kicked off with “From Hank to Hendrix,” from Harvest Moon, and headed backwards from there through an eleven song set, incorporating three tracks from his classic album Harvest (including the highlight to close out the acoustic set, an amazing version of “Old Man”).

After a short break, Young came back to the stage and ignored his near-senior citizen status by bringing out his band and cranking the electric, tearing through several new songs plus some old gems like “The Loner,” “Cinnamon Girl” and “Tonight’s the Night”. I was well pleased to hear some personal favorites, “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” and “Winterlong”, and of the new stuff “Spirit Road” held up pretty well against the classics. The band, comprised of players from various stages of Young’s career, sounded really tight, and Young doesn’t appear to have lost a step either, still stomping his way around the stage during his solos.

“Old Man” and “Cinnamon Girl” alone were pretty much worth the price of admission, but for an artist who’s released so many live albums throughout his career (I can think of seven off the top of my head), I wasn’t sure Young could possibly bring anything new to some of his old favorites. Thankfully, I was wrong. I was impressed with how clear his voice was, even over all the distortion in the electric set. For a guy in his 60’s whose nickname is “Shakey,” he sounded incredible. And hearing the songs live with my own ears (as opposed to a recording) brought a whole new level of depth to each one. I picked up on some lyrics that I had never been able to make out on his recorded stuff, which is a testament both to his sound guys and to the acoustics in the Wells Fargo Theater. And I gained some new respect for a few songs like “Oh, Lonesome Me,” from After the Gold Rush, a track I usually skip over when it comes up on my iPod. After hearing it live, I’ll have to revisit it.

I’m sorry I had to wait 18 years to see Neil Young live, but I’m glad I caught him on a good night, and at a great point in his career. I would have been really bummed if I had waited that long only to find him a shadow of his former self. He may be heading into the twilight of his career, but he still puts on an incredible show. He’s become comfortable with his status as elder statesman, but not so comfortable that he’s willing to just rest on his laurels. How many other artists can say they’ve stuck to their guns and remained relevant and prolific for 40 years? At this point, when most of his still-active peers are simply cashing their checks on greatest hits tours, Young is cementing his legacy by continuing to put out albums worthy of his name that have some fire behind them. He’s not just making music to extend the brand (cough*Rolling Stones*cough), he’s doing it because he still has music to make, and that comes through in his live shows. It was clear to me last night that he still cares a lot about these songs, and I got the impression that if he ever stopped caring, he wouldn't be touring anymore. Ultimately, that passion is why people will still be listening to his music long after he’s gone. Almost 30 years ago, Young first sang, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.” Happily, he no longer has to worry about either one. Which means I might actually get to see him again someday, and make up a little more for all those shows I missed.

UPDATE: Set list here.

British Invasion

Bloc Party at the Ogden Theater. It’s a rare thing when a band’s performance can pull you up out of a down mood. Luckily, thanks to a surprising opening band and a well-managed, high energy set from the headliners, this show did just that.

I was feeling lazy and tired and really not in a concert mood tonight, and the idea of standing sober in a hot crowded room with a bunch of hipster douchebags just wasn’t all that appealing. But since I’d already missed one chance to see Bloc Party last summer, I wasn’t about to pass this show up. So I sucked it up and Doug and I headed for the Ogden. We arrived during the first song of The Noisettes’ set, and as opening bands go, I was pleasantly surprised. Kind of a combination of Blondie, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and the White Stripes, only more punk and fronted by a really sexy British girl. They ripped through six or seven solid songs, then turned over the stage to Bloc Party.

As it turned out, this show was being recorded (I assume for the tour DVD), so there were cameras all over the place. Bloc Party came out and played a smart but short set (about 75 minutes in all). I didn’t really feel cheated, though, because all their big songs were in there, and they managed the setlist very well. They started strong, mixed slow and fast songs throughout the set, and finished strong. Unlike a lot of bands I’ve seen recently, Bloc Party never gave the audience the chance to get bored, and their energy was infectious. By the time they were three songs into their set, I had completely forgottten about not wanting to go to the show and was clapping, dancing, and singing along. Even the unfortunately high level of air drumming from the idiot next to me didn’t bother me too much. Lead singer Kele Okereke (above) did a good job of keeping the crowd engaged without playing too much of the cheerleader, and the band played off the crowd very well. I hope the recording is released to the public, because this was a show worth seeing again. (Besides, I’ll admit it. I’d love the chance to see myself in the crowd.)

As best I can remember, this was the setlist:

Song For Clay
Positive Tension
Blue Light
Hunting For Witches
Waiting For The 7.18
Banquet
Where Is Home?
This Modern Love
The Prayer
Uniform
So Here We Are
Like Eating Glass

ENCORE
I Still Remember
She’s Hearing Voices
Sunday
Helicopter

Thanks to Blog Party for helping me piece it together.

Live Art

Béla Fleck & the Flecktones at the Paramount Theater. These guys are never disappointing, and seemed to have some extra energy last night since they were hopping a plane at 6:00 this morning to head to the Grammys (where they’re nominated for Best Pop Instrumental and Best Contemporary Jazz Album). My only gripe is that they leaned a little too heavily on songs from their so-so newest album, The Hidden Land, but they made up for it with some inspired solo pieces and a couple sick covers (The Beatles’ “Come Together” and the famous surf-rock tune “Wipeout”). All in all, a typically great show from an outstanding live band.

Golden

My Morning Jacket at the Ogden Theater. Two straight hours of psychedelic Southern rock in a late 60’s/early 70's classic rock vein. Not a band to waste time with idle chatter, no one onstage even acknowledged the audience until an hour and a half into the show, when lead singer Jim James babbled some incomprehensible lines about "doing it Denver style," then promptly made us forget his nonsensical mutterings with a bone-crushing version of "Magheeta" from It Still Moves. I'm afraid to jinx myself, but I have yet to see a bad show since I moved to Denver.

Under the Rainbow

Well, here's a sight that I didn't see much of in Indy. I took this photo from the roof of my building about an hour ago. My lens didn't go wide enough to get the whole thing, but it was a pretty amazing sight. I could see pretty much the entire rainbow from up there, and my camera definitely doesn't do it justice.

But as I've quickly discovered, rainbows are just one of the many differences between Indy and Denver. Despite still being busy at work (and spending a lot of free time working on my redesign plans), I'm finally beginning to feel settled in out here, and I'm starting to notice a quality of life change. A lot of the nagging health issues I was dealing with in Indy have disappeared, which is probably due to a lot of things: eating better, sleeping better, exercising more, enjoying my job again, and better weather. With the exception of an atypical two-day rainstorm, it's been sunny every day since I moved here. There are thunderstorms that roll through (like the one that caused the rainbow), but they hardly ever last more than an hour. And except for the couple of days that it got over 100°, even the hot days are pleasant.

Another change is that I've hardly been watching any TV, mainly because I have lots of better stuff to do. I'm still exploring Denver, but I've also been able to read a ton of books, catch a few movies, go out for beers, and anything else that doesn't involve sitting on my couch vegetating. Today alone I walked around downtown for a little while, redesigned the restaurant section of the magazine, saw Clerks 2 (another disappointment from Kevin Smith, who apparently should have retired after Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back), read a few chapters of the latest book on my pile, A Storm of Swords (Book 3 of George R. R. Martin's excellent Song of Ice and Fire series), and worked out. And on top of that, I did manage to squeeze in a little TV-viewing when I watched the MLS All-Stars upset Chelsea, champions of the English Premier League two years running who are basically All-Stars themselves, having the most expensive roster in the world (including 16 players who represented their countries at the World Cup). Anyone who didn't see the match won't read too much into the result, but contrary to the way exhibitions and All-Star games usually go, this match was hard-fought and a well-deserved victory for MLS. Chelsea is in their preseason, and it showed, but it wasn't like they were mailing it in. That much was obvious when John Terry, their captain and central defender, pushed up to play forward for the last 10 minutes of the game trying to score the equalizing goal. Doesn't sound much like a "training match" to me. It was a good game, and nice to see MLS earn a bit more international respect. Chicago's new Toyota Park looked great as well, especially with a sell-out crowd in the seats. Along with the game, MLS also made the exciting announcement that they've signed a new deal with ESPN and ABC. OK, obviously that's good that the league will continue to be on TV, but here's the kicker: For the past 11 years, MLS has basically been buying time from the networks to show their games. No more. For the first time, the money will be going the other direction, with ESPN paying rights fees to show MLS games. This is fantastic news for a league that has struggled to make money for its entire existence. With TV money flowing in and more teams owning their own stadiums (thus controlling all the revenue), the league is suddenly looking financially solid. And that can only help the product on the field. More money = better players. It's that simple.

SOUNDS
The Eraser, Thom Yorke
1, The Beatles

IMAGES
Clerks 2

WORDS
A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin
A Clash of Kings, George R. R. Martin
A Storm of Swords, George R. R. Martin

A Work in Progress

New city + new job = a lot less time for blogging. I hope my three regular readers haven't missed me too much.

In between trying to adjust to a new system at work, balance a variety of new responsibilities, redesign a magazine, find my way around a new city, find a permanent place to live, and stay in touch with everyone back east, I have managed to read a few soccer articles. It's interesting that the tone of the American sports media has changed appreciably since the end of the World Cup. I think the TV numbers really woke some people in the industry up to the fact that there is a huge untapped market of viewers and readers out there, and that's been reflected in a very welcome and sometimes startling respect being given to all aspects of the game—international, European, and even MLS. A perfect example? SI.com discusses the announcers for the 2010 World Cup... nearly 4 years in advance! If that's not a sign of soccer's increased media footprint, I don't know what is.

SOUNDS
The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album, Sufjan Stevens
Powder Burns, The Twilight Singers
In Dreams, Roy Orbison

WORDS
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain
Bangkok Tattoo, John Burdett

Dazed and Confused

Well, after 5 days, I'm finally starting to feel settled in Denver. It's still a bit disconcerting to be living in a furnished sublet. I feel like I have to be on my best behavior since it's someone else's stuff (although given the state this place was in when I arrived, I don't think that's much of a worry), and despite being completely unpacked, I still don't feel like I live here yet. My life for the past few days has been a blur of wandering around downtown, searching maps to find nearby stores for cleaning supplies and things I forgot, trying to learn the ropes at work, and catching World Cup highlights whenever I can. All of this is made more difficult by the fact that I'm heavily jet-lagged due to the switch to Mountain Time. I keep nodding off around 9:30, and I wake up at the crack of dawn every morning raring to go. I did finally start to catch up a little this afternoon when I came home from work and grabbed a quick nap by the rooftop pool.

Overall, the decision to move out here seems to be a good one. Once I get comfortable at work, I think it's going to be a great spot for me, and the city itself has been nothing but amazing so far. The weather's been fantastic, and it just smells clean and healthy here, a welcome change after downtown Indy's ever-changing assortment of unpleasant scents. That said, there are some things I miss about the Circle City. Most of them will fade soon, but as long as AB is still there, I'll always be thinking about Indy.

Meanwhile, I'll try to find ways to amuse myself out here. With the holiday weekend coming up, there should be plenty of chances for fun. The Rapids apparently put on a great fireworks show every year, although the fact that they're matching up against the Revolution may not produce many fireworks of the goal-scoring variety, as neither team has been finding the back of the net too often lately. Thankfully, I'll have World Cup matches to keep my thirst for soccer sated. There's also a little movie coming out on Wednesday that I want to check out; haven't seen much publicity for it, but I think it's based on an old comic book. And in true competitive fashion, Marvel has cleverly timed the release of the teaser trailer for Spider-Man 3 to steal a little bit of DC's Superman thunder. Looks like, as rumored, Venom and Sandman will be the baddies this time. Hopefully, it stays truer to the quality of the first two movies and doesn't go the way of X-Men.

I'd talk about the US's early exit from the World Cup, but I'm still too annoyed to think coherently. I don't think Bruce Arena should be fired unless they have a better candidate lined up (too bad Guus Hiddink's not available), but I do think some new ideas would be a good thing for that coaching staff. Obviously, there were plenty of cracks in the dam, and when the pressure was on, they all burst. Mostly, what I learned from this World Cup is that the Yanks aren't anywhere near as good as they (or their fans) would like to think, and Clint Dempsey is the only US player who showed up. I'm guessing at least a few Euro clubs took notice.

Go West

Ladies and gentlemen, all aboard for the next stop on the Idle World Tour: Denver, CO. It's with a small amount of sadness and a heapin' plate of excitement that I bid farewell to the Circle City. Other than a few people I'll be leaving behind (one young lady very much in particular), I can't say there's a lot about Indy that I'm going to miss. I tend to follow the George Costanza line of thinking... I'm goin' out on top, Jerry. I've done what I wanted to do here, I've gotten about as much as I could out of my time, and when I knew I was ready to leave, an ideal opportunity came along to take me to Denver. I can't ask for much more than that. Also, the thought of living in a city where's people's first inclination is to go outside and play is literally a breath of fresh air, especially after spending three years amongst the overweight tobacco slaves of Indy. So in just about a month, I'm off to greener pastures and higher altitudes. As some of you may remember from the very early days of this blog, I do love me some outdoorsy-type activities.

More, obviously, to come on this rather dramatic and important development.

IMAGES
Jarhead
The Squid and the Whale
Art School Confidential

SOUNDS
How We Operate, Gomez
Decoration Day, Drive-By Truckers
Inspiration Information, Shuggie Otis