I've seen you in a memory of a dream.
Brown hair, bright eyes.
Astute.
There is a sadness in you.
You are short for this world.
Like we all are,
but you feel it.
You know it.
It rains all the time there.
Dark greens and light blues,
pour across the dream,
and we are always going together.
I've taken a dozen car trips,
holding your hand.
Where are we going?
Where did we go?
My Lineup: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Tool, Animal Collective, TV On The Radio, Arctic Monkeys
This was one of the shortest days I spent at Lollapalooza. The lineup for the earlier part of the day wasn't great and Joe and I had some friends in town that didn't have tickets to the festival, so we ate breakfast/lunch and then rolled into the festival pretty late.
I bought a ticket for my girlfriend to go the next day, but this day was just me and Joe.
Arctic Monkeys, a band that I really like, were actually boring. They played too many slow songs in a row and completely lost me.
TV On The Radio were good, and Animal Collective were strange.
Animal Collective played nothing but a looping formless electronic cacophony of sound for the last 10-15 minutes of their set. It had little musical quality, but it was great to space out to.
This was one of the only times where I decided to split the headliner. Beastie Boys were originally on the lineup, but they cancelled and were replaced by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
I stood in the back of the south field and watched Tool first. My eye sight is really bad at a distance, so it looked like Maynard Keenan was just wearing a black diaper and shoulder pads. Pictures that I saw later would reveal that I was pretty much correct, however he did change clothes at some point and put more on.
I walked across Grant Park after a few Tool songs (45 minutes into their set), and I caught the last half of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. They were great and Karen O wore this awesome Native American looking costume with a huge headdress.
Despite some solid performances, my favorite moment of the day was my walk across the park while the headliners played. A mostly empty festival, lit up the way it was with random hopeless woozy couples sitting and strolling around was something to behold. There was this festival going on in-between the music that I hadn't really noticed before.
Some people didn't require anything but a nice night in August and the promise of something right beyond their own bubble to have a great night.
The people walking or hanging around in the middle of the festival almost seemed happier than those that were watching the music.
110. January 16, 2017 – Columbus, OH – Run The Jewels, The Gaslamp Killer
Venue: House of Blues
A recap in bullet points:
-Bought girlfriend tickets to this show, because she liked Owl City.
-I don't remember anything about Paper Route.
-Lights were bad.
-Remember Owl City? They had a poppy song about fireflies and then they fell off the face of the earth.
-I don't hate Owl City, but I have never really liked them either.
-Super happy youtube music. Bleh.....
Venue: Cleveland Masonic Auditorium
This was the third time that I saw Wilco.
I have always been just enough of a fan of Wilco to go see them live, but not enough of a fan to exhaustively acquire and listen to all of their music. However, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot remains one of the favorite albums of the first decade of this century.
Wilco and I have a casual relationship. I kind enjoy not knowing all the songs I am going to hear, and then working things in reverse. For example, they played a rare B-side called Panthers at this show, that I had never heard and really liked, so I came home and found it online.
Their show in Akron the previous year was really good, and they played my favorite Wilco song, Poor Places. It was unfortunate that while they seemed genuinely happy to be in Akron, they seemed a little on edge, and maybe even a little tired this night in Cleveland.
The Masonic Auditorium (a beautiful venue) was only about 2/3 full, and seemed to send back the same tired and semi-interested vibes. Not that Wilco didn't play well or have energy, but just that they sent out a vibe that kept things muted and distant.
I went with my friend Chuck, and we were surprised to see an acquaintance of ours there with a group of girls that he always hung around. His name is Steve, and at the time I harbored an only half-joking hatred of him, because he would occasionally beat me and my team at trivia at a local bar.
At one point, Steve wanted to go out a side door and get some fresh air, and I was watching from a distance as Wilco were going through the motions. Steve is over on the side of the pit and trying to convince a security guy to let him outside and he grabs the guys arm in a non threatening manner and the security guard almost punches him. Steve back off and they go back to watching the show, only to disappear a few songs from the end.
This was also one of the many shows where a stumbling drunk moron was dancing like a maniac one minute and then being hauled off the floor the next by a bunch of angry vigilante crowd members. I remember overhearing that the drunk guy touched a girl inappropriately.
There was a lot of crap going on at this show, but I sadly remember little of Wilco's part in it.
Impossible Germany and Via Chicago were good!
Shows Added (21 shows attended in 2016):
109. December 02, 2016 – Columbus, OH – Band of Horses, Warpaint, Hamilton Leithauser
108. October 20, 2016 – Cleveland, OH – Sunflower Bean, The Lemon Twigs
Venue: Promowest Pavilion
The Shins, Death Cab For Cutie, and Modest Mouse received a huge amount of my listening time throughout the 2000s. They were the holy trinity of Alt-Rock and I loved almost everything that they put out.
By 2012, I had seen Death Cab and Modest Mouse, but The Shins had managed to escape me. They didn't play close enough or it just wasn't the right time and I kept missing them.
The Shins were touring on their fourth album, Port of Morrow, which was an album I liked but didn't fall in love with. There are some extremely good songs on the album, and they played most of them at the show, but one song surprised me...
The final song on their new album is just called 'Port of Morrow', and it came across incredibly sad and affecting at the concert. I recall being kind of bummed out by it, and not because of the lyrics, which I didn't know 100%, but just because of James Mercer's beautiful singing.
Their final song was 'One By One All Day', off their first album; a slight, unassuming and neatly arranged super-indie sounding track that seemed to leave an empty space at the end of the show. No big rock ending. No memorable single.
An odd band ending their concert in an odd way. Here's the lyrics to One By One All Day. A beautiful poem, if nothing else...
One By One All Day
"Howdy, lem," my grandfather said with his eyes closed
Wiping the eastbound dust from his sunburned brow
A life before doubt.
I smell the engine grease and mint the wind is blending
Under the moan of rotting elm in the silo floor.
Down a hill of pine tree quills we made our way
To the bottom and the ferns where thick moss grows
Beside a stream.
Under the rocks are snails and we can fills our pockets
And let them go one by one all day in a brand new place.
You were no ordinary drain on her defenses
And she was no ordinary girl
Oh, Inverted World
If every moment of our lives
Were cradled softly in the hands of some strange and gentle child
I'd not roll my eyes so.
I've Seen It
After eleven and we're in a basement in Cleveland.
You like the band and I still like you, so we are here.
Hearts and thoughts have been worn thin.
We are fraying and complacent.
We are derelict and sinking.
I ask the singer too many questions.
I ask things on your behalf.
And now I'm your idiot parent.
Cold silence on the walk to the car.
I ask for directions out of town. I get nothing.
I ask for instant forgiveness.
But I should not want it.
I don't deserve it.
I continue fighting, but
I've seen it.
It's done.
Venue: The Grog Shop
Hail Hail
Is there room enough for both of us?
Both of us apart?
Are we bound out of obligation?
Is that all we've got?
Get the words, and then I get to thinkin'
I don't wanna think, I wanna feel
How do I feel?
How do I?...
If you're the only one, will I never be enough?
Hail, hail the lucky ones, I refer to those in love
Swore I'd love you till the day I die, ah and beyond...
Are we going to the same place? If so, can I come?
It's egg rolling thick and heavy
All the past you carry
Oh, I could be new... you underestimate me
If you're the only one, will I never be enough?
Hail, hail the lucky ones, I refer to those in love
Sometimes realize, I could only be as good as you'll let me
Are you woman enough to be my man?
Bandaged hand in hand
I find it on the run in a race that can't be won
All hail the lucky ones, I refer to those in love, yeah
If you're my only one, so could you only one?
I want to be your one, enough...
Your one...your one...your one...
Venue: US Bank Arena
Venue: The Agora
This was one of only a couple of shows that I have seen in the Agora Theater. It's a big place and wasn't full for The Hives this night.
It was cold that night and for some reason we parked down the street in a weird private parking lot. My girlfriend and I stood towards the back of the theater floor behind the general admission area.
The Donnas had amazing energy, but played to a mostly uniterested, very light crowd.
The Hives were awesome. They had more energy in their tight set than 90% of the bands that I have seen. They were touring on the 'Black and White', which was a solid album compared to their next effort 'Lex Hives'.
My girlfriend wanted to see them play the weird country-ish song off their new album called 'Giddy Up!'
I checked the internet. They've never played 'Giddy Up!'.
Venue: CSU Convocation Center
I saw The Cure with my girlfriend-at-the-time Megan. She was a bigger fan than I was, but I had a decent grasp on their catalog. They were touring their album '4:13 Dream', which they had released in 2-3 song EPs. I had purchased all of the EPs that made up the songs on the album in an effort to get ready for the show.
They played for over three hours and played songs well beyond the scope of what the two of us knew. It was an extremely well executed show and one where we had great seats, right up on the side up from the stage.
They played my favorite Cure song, 'A Forest' as part of the first encore and then closed out with the excellent pairing of '10:15 Saturday Night' and 'Killing an Arab' at the very end.
All together a fantastic show and one that I still tell people about.
The Live Checklist has been updated to reflect both Wrigley Field concerts.
Venue: Promowest Pavilion (Indoor)
I have enjoyed just about everything that James Mercer has done since the mid 2000s when I first got into The Shins with 'Chutes Too Marrow' and then 'Wincing the Night Away'. Broken Bells is an awesome collaboration between himself and producer Danger Mouse, and I have been a huge fan of their since the first single dropped in 2010.
I planned this concert and brought Joe and Chuck. It was one of the first shows with this particular ongoing concert and show watching group.
I don't have an amazing amount to write about the concert, despite my excitement at finally getting a chance to see them. Like The Shins show I saw, James Mercer and crew do a fantastic job at playing their songs and the connection that he builds with the audience through his emoting and singing is worth the ticket and the trip to a city a couple hours away.
I have an interesting relationship with their first album. My ex-fiance used to cover the song 'Vaporize' quite often live and I can't help but think of her when it is played. On top of that, I got into a rut in 2013 and listened to nothing but their first album from front to back while running for about two months. I know their music and their first self-titled album exceedingly well and it was surreal and special to see them live.
Two stupid things happened during the concert:
A group of three Bonnaroo tie-dye shirt wearing stoners got right in front of us towards the end of the show and were really annoying. The one big one didn't have any reaction to the band until they played the song 'Medicine'.
The other stupid thing was that Broken Bells projector overheated, leaving them playing with a windows error message projected largely on the round screen behind them for a song or two before someone rebooted it. I was enjoying myself so much, that for a brief moment I told myself that it was an intended part of the show, and maybe it went along with one of the songs.
There is little wrong with harmless postive thinking.
106. August 22, 2016 – Chicago, IL – Pearl Jam
105. August 21, 2016 – Chicago, IL – Wilco, Twin Peaks
104. August 20, 2016 – Chicago, IL – Pearl Jam
103. August 19, 2016 – Cleveland, OH -- Pallbearer
102. August 18, 2016 – Canton, OH -- Pallbearer
Also, there will be more blog posts coming very soon.
These are the Lollapalooza artists I saw:
101. July 31, 2016 – Chicago, IL – Lollapalooza (Day 4) – LCD Soundsystem, Bloc Party, Haim, Silversun Pickups, Aurora, Fidlar, Classixx
100. July 30, 2016 – Chicago, IL – Lollapalooza (Day 3) – Red Hot Chili Peppers, Grimes, Jane’s Addiction, Big Grams, The Joy Formidable, Potty Mouth, Chairlift
99. July 29, 2016 – Chicago, IL – Lollapalooza (Day 2) – Radiohead, Miike Snow, Sunflower Bean, Wolf Alice, Cherub, Foals, MØ, Modern Baseball
98. July 28, 2016 – Chicago, IL – Lollapalooza (Day 1) – Lana Del Rey, The Arcs, G-Eazy, Kurt Vile & The Violators, City and Colour, Bastille, Wavves, Mr. Carmack
Venue: Mellon Arena
This was a great show and the only concert I ever caught at the Mellon Arena before they tore it down. My brother Joe joined me for this one, but he wasn't very excited about it. He has always enjoyed Pearl Jam shows, but I remember that I didn't remind him of this one and called him a day or two before we were to go and he sounded unattached to the whole idea.
He ended up loving the show and he still brings it up on Spotify and listens to it while he bar tends.
Robert Pollard, the lead singer and songwriter for Guided By Voices, opened this show and the show the very next night in Cincinnati and he did a capable job at both. He didn't play any Guided By Voices, and instead played a short set of songs mostly off his new solo record. His song 'Love is Stronger Than Witchcraft' was a highlight.
Opening this leg of their 2006 tour, Pearl Jam was tight and prepared. They played a set consisting mostly of hits, but with the notable exceptions of the Rolling Stones cover 'Waiting on A Friend', and B-Side 'Smile'. This was the first time I heard 'Man of the Hour', which is an awesome song that they recorded for the Tim Burton film 'Big Fish'.
The fairly standard set list was delivered with energy and immediacy and I loved it.
I have never liked the white knuckle back roads drive from Ohio to Pennsylvania and back using old route 30, but this wouldn't be the last time I would make the mistake of taking this way. It is technically quicker than taking the highway, but it is far more complex, requiring many turns, stops, and winding forest zig zags.
It's the kind of drive that makes you thankful to be alive and in one piece afterwards, and it's one of the reasons I haven't gone to a lot of shows in Pittsburgh. Although it's only an hour and a half away, I just don't like many of my options to get there.
Venue: Quicken Loans Arena
This was my fourth Pearl Jam show, and my second and final show with my friend James.
James had gone to the first Cleveland show, and at this point he still wasn't a big fan of the band. We sat on the floor, but at the back of the first floor section, probably about 25-30 rows from the stage.
Main set highlights included an "It's OK" tag on Daughter, and great versions of Immortality, Unemployable, and Severed Hand. This was the first show I saw after they released their self-titled album, so I got a lot of new music, but not a lot of rarities until the encore. I was extremely happy to hear one of my favorite stupid little B-sides "U", followed by the ultra rare Stone Gossard sung, "Don't Gimme No Lip". This was also the first time I saw "Smile", which is always a treat.
It wasn't all great. This was the first of three times in-a-row that I heard the song "Inside Job", which I have since come to dislike live. It's just slow and the structure of the song doesn't allow you to do anything but just stand there. Songs should have a rhythm, a beat, or a hook, and "Inside Job" struggles to barely have any of the three. I have to be able to move along with a song.
James wanted to hear "Black", and they did play it. He also felt sick half way through the show and sat down for most of it. I remember being annoyed. It wouldn't be the last time that a perceived lack of engagement and interest from a concert going friend bummed me out.
At least he wasn't on his phone.
Venue: Grant Park
Lineup: Daft Punk, LCD Soundsystem, The Black Keys, G.Love & Special Sauce, moe., Jack's Mannequin
This was my first multi-day music festival. It was amazing.
I won't go into too much detail about my thoughts on festivals here, because I will have dozens of chances to write about them in future posts, but I will share some basic thoughts about what they mean to me and what they do for me.
Music festivals are an all encompassing experience. You're surrounded. Not just by a big fence, but by thousands of fans, food, sound, trees, a city. They take up your life and your day. They exist as a pure, beautiful mess of stimulation.
Personally, they allow me to escape into a world of music, fandom, and emotional expression. They leave me physically exhausted and they clear my mind and center me more than a whole day of anything else I have experienced.
I attended this Lollapalooza with just my girlfriend-at-the-time Megan. We decided to go because Pearl Jam, Daft Punk, and Interpol were playing and we had talked about going for awhile. The lineup might have been the best of the five Lolla's that I have attended. Day one was a great warm-up and was mostly spent exploring the grounds and seeing some amazing sets.
The first three acts that I saw were just alright, though. Jack's Mannequin had a particular song on piano that I really liked, and G. Love was fun. 'Moe.', a jam band with a small but rabid fan base, is an example of a kind of music and/or band that Lolla doesn't host much anymore. You'd be hard pressed to find any jam band stuff on a lineup in the years that followed, which is perfectly fine with me.
The Black Keys were my personal favorite act of the day. They still toured as a two piece at the time and tore down the place. It was so heavy and bluesy and was a delight to watch, even on a hot 80+ degree Chicago afternoon. They even blew out an amp and had to replace it mid-set. They were playing that loudly and that hard. It was really cool.
Seeing the final combo of LCD Soundsystem and Daft Punk still gets me some grief from fans of either band when I mention it to them. I simply didn't appreciate what I was seeing and how rare and special it was. I've always thought it was especially cool that LCD Soundsystem played 'Daft Punk is Playing At My House', and then Daft Punk played at their house, literally across the field from them.
Daft Punk brought their light-up pyramid and "played" the same amazing set from their live album that came out that year. The field was at least half empty, which looking back, is kind of sad. Pearl Jam fans dominated Lollapalooza 2007 and were across the festival seeing Ben Harper play that night. Harper would get an appearance from Eddie and they would do a song together that I obviously missed, but I didn't care. I am not, nor have I ever been a fan of Ben Harper. He seems like a great guy, but his music has never grabbed me. It's that soft folk rock kind of stuff that I find repelling and un-engaging. The kind of music that boring people get high to...
Anyways, Daft Punk was great and I wasted it. I don't really dance, especially around other people, because I don't want to look like an idiot or something. I realize that I am idiot for not letting go and dancing, or moving more or doing something more than tapping my foot and occasionally bobbing my head. Daft Punk never tours and I actually saw them live and I stood there!
I use the memory of my shame as motivation to not be afraid to really get into stuff. You only live each day once. There will only be one Day 1 of Lollapalooa 2007. You don't get a second one. Let go! Move! Live!
Venue: Jacobs Pavilion At Nautica
I've already started writing these concert list blogs entirely out of order at this point, so I figured I might as well write about one show that was fresh in my memory.
This was the fourth concert I attended in 10 days, and a really great time outside at a venue that I have come to really enjoy. Nautica Pavilion is an outdoor pavilion that's completely covered, but has a cement GA pit and bleachers in the back. If you are in the crowd, you are facing the Cleveland skyline across the Cuyahoga River. It is really a cool venue, and has grown to be my favorite in Cleveland. I only wish they had more decent shows there.
I drove Joe, Chuck, and Alan up and had not been feeling well for most of the day. I was still incredibly sore from playing kickball two days prior and I ate something that did not agree with me, so I was questioning whether I wanted to go at all earlier in the day. I have only ever not gone to two concerts that I had bought tickets for, and both of those were because rither myself or someone in my family was in the hospital. I was incredibly glad that I went.
We arrived just as Chvrches started and they put on a great show. I may be judged for this thought and opinion, but lead singer Lauren Mayberry is incredibly powerful and incredibly cute, and I mean that in the most respectful way possible.
This was the fourth time that I had seen Death Cab. I saw them the first time almost twelve years earlier at the legendary 'Vote For Change' Pearl Jam show in Toledo. They have put on a great show every time I've seen them, but at this point I wish their sets were more varied dynamic. I would gladly see them multiple times on the same tour, but for most casual fans, there isn't much of a reason to see them more than once every couple of years, because their sets are going to be almost identical. I'm also just a little bummed that I haven't heard a single song off of my favorite album, 'We Have the Facts, and We're Voting Yes', since the second time I saw them in 2011.
These are criticisms that I feel bad even bringing up, especially considering how good they can be live. They are full of energy, have near perfect musicianship, and play each song with feeling and an attachment and connection to the crowd. Death Cab are always really enjoyable.
Venue: House of Blues
This was the first concert that I attended alone.
No one else that I knew was a fan of Travis, and I don't blame them. Travis are like if The Bend's-era Radiohead and early Coldplay had a baby and then that baby mellowed out and lost it's edge almost immediately upon being born. Travis are harmless and inoffensively catchy, and they are not for everyone. They aren't even for me anymore, since I haven't found myself listening to them in years, but at the time, I liked them and I really liked their album The Invisible Band.
I had a significant, but she didn't like Travis and had something to do, so I decided to not let that spoil my chance to see them live, so I went. I liked it.
When you are by yourself at a concert, you are surrounded by hundreds or thousands of strangers, but you're still alone, and it is freeing. Maybe it says more about me and the people that I spend time with, but I have always felt at least a little self conscious at concerts. I might not sing as loudly as I would want or even move around very much, if there is someone I know there.
At this show though, I didn't care. I sang along loudly to every song I knew, and jumped up and down as hard as anyone else on the floor when instructed to during Flowers in the Windows during the encore. They put on a solid show and I even dug some of their newer songs, even though those albums are even more mellow and uninteresting than their older stuff.
They are so inoffensive, harmless, and positive that I feel bad criticizing them. They don't deserve it. I really did like them and still have a soft spot for them.
Anyways, don't get me wrong, I prefer going to shows with someone else, but I won't let my desire to share something with someone stop me entirely from experiencing something that I want to see or do.
It's sad really. Not the going alone. Not that in the least.
What's sad is that I feel more free to act and show how I feel when I'm alone.
I have a feeling I'm not alone in feeling this way.