OHHHHHH SHIT! The next two days are "containers" of hours that hold minutes. There are going to be a couple string of THOSE minutes that are the best minutes...
My number one and two albums of the year so far are Sleigh Bells' Treats and The National's High Violet. Some people might think that is weird but those people can suck it. Sleigh Bells are playing tonight at the Clubhouse and The National are playing tomorrow night at Marquee Theatre. That is pretty great stuff right? You know that's right... WHAT?
Tonight at Clubhouse is one of the best shows of the fall season. It is going to be marvelous and you just have to be there. The Morning Benders, Twin Sister and Cults! All together for one show! How often does something like that happen? Not very often. It's just a shame it's at the goddamn Clubhouse though... am I right? But where else can we have it? Not your moms house, she keeps calling the cops on us. Tix $15 HERE
But... if three awesome bands on the same bill isn't enough to overcome your fear of Clubhouse then might I suggest The Rhythm Room? Land of Talk and SUUNS are going to be performing their live music there, very good alternative to Clubhouse. Tix $12 HERE
I have to be honest with you. Going into Monday nights Blitzen Trapper show at The Clubhouse I was a casual fan. I had listened to their new album Destroyer Of The Void maybe once, in the background not really paying attention. But after seeing them twice in one night (an acoustic set at Zia Records before the Clubhouse show) I am sold. They can now count me as a lifelong fan. They are just really fucking good, they are great live and I have now listened to Destroyer Of The Void about 8 times and count it as one of my favorite albums of the year. It's a pretty wonderful thing when you see a band you are not to familiar with in a live setting and they blow you away. It doesn't happen to often but it's what keeps me going to shows I guess.
The Moondoggies were pretty good too. They may have played a little to long for an opener but I would too if I were them.
Check out some pictures from both the Zia performance as well as The Clubhouse after the break and a few more on our Flickr page HERE
I totally forgot to post this on Tuesday, but I went to the Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros show at the Clubhouse on Monday. They were pretty great and so was Dawes, but fuck The Clubhouse! Everything about that place is wrong. Why is the bar right in the middle? Why is it so hot? Why is there no parking? Why is it so hot? Why is it so humid? What's up with that heat?
That being said, I would not even give two shits about any of those things (I totally still would) if they would just put up a little barrier between the crowd and the stage i.e. The Marquee, so us photogs could take some decent pictures. I either have to be the first one in line and run to the front of the place and stand there smashed to the stage for 5 hours (I refuse to do that on principle alone, even if I had time for that shit) or stand on the side of the stage and hope to god a couple of the 650 shots turn out OK.
So Clubhouse, I am going to fix your problems for you. Move the bar to the back, get better of at least SOME AC and throw up a little barrier for the photogs. If you are going to act like a big venue set yourself up like one. On the other hand I am no idiot, I realize that those things would cost money. I also realize that NON of the previous complaints prevented the show from selling out or any of the previous ones like Miike Snow or Beach House. So what is their motivation? Nothing I guess. So we (mostly me) should probably just be happy there are any shows to even go to in the first place.
To check out the rest of the shots that turned out usable check out my slide show via The New Times.
People love Beach House so much that the show could have easily been in a larger venue than The Clubhouse, and I wish it was. I still hate The Clubhouse. Teen Dream is still at the top of my list for album of the year and their performance didn't do anything to change my mind. But... I found it hard to enjoy myself there. Either you smash yourself up in the front in the hot mess of underage kids or you have to stand BEHIND the bar and not see shit. WTF? I know Ami Johnson feels the same as me, but she is pregnant, so I guess I have the same tolerance for shitty situations as pregnant women. What does that say about me? It says awesome things about me!
BTW I DO blame this all on Bjork and her volcano conjuring blood lust. But my old man sensibilities aside Beach House was amazing and I will definitely see them anytime anywhere I can, I just cross my fingers for the Orpheum or Mesa Arts Center, they deserve the best... around, nothing gonna keep them down.
Check out some pictures after the break and some more on our Flickr page HERE.
You gotta go to this damn show! You just HAVE to, they are so damn good live it might make your kids retarded. Show is at The Trunk Space at 9:30. It's after the 3rd Friday Art Walk so it will probably be pretty busty so you might want to get there before that. Tix HERE. Wizards of Time are opening dammit!
Last night I was supposed to have my head blown and heart melted by Devendra Banhart.
Unfortunately that didn't happen because apparently (I say apparently because I'm obviously still bitter) Mr. Banhart "broke some bone in his leg skateboarding" he wrote on his website. While Banhart "wanted to play the shows any way like in a bed or something" the doctors didn't think that was the best idea and thus the last few shows of his tour have been cancelled.
I had originally received the news through a vague text message. After confirming that the show was off because of an injury, which I was originally told was to one of Banhart's bandmates, my friends and I began theorizing as to why the show was really cancelled. Of course all of our theories were cynical.
Let me share a few:
1. The show did not sell out and Devendra did not want to waste his time playing a small show.
2. Devendra wanted to take some time off before his big gig at Coachella.
3. Devendra sucks.
We thought he should have played an acoustic set without his band because he's that good. None of this makes sense now that we've gotten some clarification on what really happened. All we can do now is try to get our refunds, which seems easy enough if you bought the tickets in person and not online.
In short, Devendra Banhart's show was cancelled, we don't know if/when he'll ever come back to Arizona and if you were planning on going to the show you're probably still bummed.
Pretty sweet news to report here... Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros are going on tour and see fit to make a stop in Tempe's The Clubhouse on June 22nd when it's going to be hot as balls... balls that have been heated to a very high temperature... Not MY balls! I keep MY balls at a balmy 72 at all times with my patented device "Sacs On Ice".
This is the post that I should be posting pictures of last Saturday's fun. concert at The Clubhouse in Tempe... but things went HORRIBLY HORRIBLY wrong, so instead just watch this new video from Brooklyn's A Place to Bury Strangers then sit back and read this riveting tale chaps!
When we got there it was more packed than a porn star attempting a DVDA and just as hot and humid. So we (my wife and our two friends we met up with) stepped out to have a smoke and get some fresh air (oxymoron I know) after being inside for less than 5 mins, when my friend Amber noticed a Jeep wrangler VERY similar to mine attached to the back of a tow truck making it's way across the parking lot. I immediately sprung into "fat man" action and sprinted across the parking lot and cut the tow truck off before he could make it out of the parking lot. He surprisingly stopped without running me over and we had a nice little negotiation (via my wife Jennifer's low cut shirt and ample bosoms) and we persuaded him to let us have my Jeep back for the paltry sum of $100 FUCKING DOLLARS as opposed to the normal $120, what a bargain! Unfortunately they had already towed my friends car to the impound lot.
This may sound just like an unfortunate story of a couple people who risked parking illegally and had to pay the price but I assure you this is NOT THE CASE! We both parked in the regular parking lot in two regular parking spaces. There did HAPPEN to be a sign in front of each spot saying "residents and customers only" but so did A LOT of other spots all over the parking lot. Figuring that since we were paying customers of The Clubhouse we fell under the "CUSTOMERS" umbrella. So how did they justify our towing? During our heated negotiation with the driver we went back to the spots and they were now covered with duct tape saying "ARCADE ONLY" the arcade being the CLOSED FOR THE DAY business we were parked in front of. In fact the tow truck driver that took my jeep was standing right in front of me when I parked. So that means that he waited for us to park THEN he stuck up some duct tape, wrote "ARCADE ONLY" and pretty much fucked me right in the face!
After pulling $100 out of the 7-11 ATM and handing it right over the fucking thief we then had to drive my friends to the impound yard to get THEIR car. We tried to talk to the guy there about what happened but that was an exercise in futility we just had to hear all about how there was nothing they could do and that it was a civil matter that would have to be taken up in court etc... etc... blah... blah... fucking blah...
When it's all said and done we no longer felt like going BACK to the Clubhouse, trying to find a place to park, watching the last 10 mins of fun. in a hot sweaty mess of tweens so we went to Yucca Tap Room instead and had a great rest of the night even if our bank account was $100 lighter.
The name of the tow truck company is SWAT Towing and they can go FUCK THEMSELVES TO DEATH! Just read those comments!
Tonight is a tough one...what should we do, what should we do? Well WE are going to do Kurt Vile and the Violators (7:30 at Modified Arts $10), but that is because it's closer and also a school night. But I wouldn't think less of you for going to see Peaches (8:30 @ The Clubhouse $20) or Sole & The Skyrider Band (8:30 at The Rhythm Room $12). But I WILL think less of you for going to the Chevelle show at the Marquee....I don't care that you don't have an iPod port or Sirius radio in your car, friends don't let friend's listen to FM 103 or go to Chevelle concerts!!!
Last night was crazy! My ears are still ringing and my mind is just becoming un-melted. I can now officially say that Dan Deacon and Ensemble put on the most sensory effing show I have ever been to. We walked out of there hot and bothered in a good way. Let me give you a little re-cap of the "activities" that we did. We closed our eyes and spun around in circles bumping into each other like excited atoms, there was much "fancy dancing" and I got to run the gauntlet an experience my shoulders are still sore from (I will be posting up some videos of the fancy dancing and beginning of the gauntlet later today)
The sound was awesome, the Ensemble are a great addition to the live show and I can't imagine Dan even NOT having them or some variation in the future. Once you have 3 drummers playing 3 separate parts all at the same time and doing it perfectly in sync with the "electronic" music is the balls and something everyone should see.
I was surprised at the low turnout but the people that did show up had tons of energy so even though there was a ton of empty space behind us once you were smashed up front with everybody you felt like you were at the front of a 100 thousand strong crowd. Check out some pictures (more pics HERE) of Dan and the opening bands Teeth Mountain and Future Islands who were also both pretty dang good, I didn't get a whole lot of Dan since he was down on the floor and I am short, but I did my best ;-) Oh and Dan was cool enough to do an interview with us before the show...we are going to have that up tomorrow. Check out all the pics after the break.
and The National's High Violet
. Some people might think that is weird but those people can suck it. Sleigh Bells are playing tonight at the Clubhouse and The National are playing tomorrow night at Marquee Theatre. That is pretty great stuff right? You know that's right... WHAT?
maybe once, in the background not really paying attention. But after seeing them twice in one night (an acoustic set at Zia Records before the Clubhouse show) I am sold. They can now count me as a lifelong fan. They are just really fucking good, they are great live and I have now listened to Destroyer Of The Void about 8 times and count it as one of my favorite albums of the year. It's a pretty wonderful thing when you see a band you are not to familiar with in a live setting and they blow you away. It doesn't happen to often but it's what keeps me going to shows I guess. 
