Bright Eyes + Cursive @ Fillmore Theater, Miami, Florida (March 2, 2011)

ok so FINALLY i have time to post on the shows! im already in new york but i dont want to get too behind so here is the miami post...

Bright Eyes + Cursive @ Fillmore Theater, Miami, Florida

Road To Joy: Following Bright Eyes on the US East Coast 2011

i havent posted in ages. and this will explain why. ive been working ridiculous hours to pay for this here that im about to explain...

I'M FOLLOWING BRIGHT EYES ON THE EAST COAST LEG OF THE U.S. TOUR FOR 2011

that's right

14 shows

11 states and canada

17 days

AND THE STROKES IN LAS VEGAS on one of only two days off on the tour. just for good measure.

you see bright eyes is very important to me. like with many other fans bright eyes let me know i wasnt alone. i wasnt crazy. and (with saddle creek records) that there is life outside the mainstream. and it set me free. i was 15. 

but also i am a conor oberst lolfan. there will be no conor-swooning from me. i think he's great but i have no interest in his body fluids or his love life unless there is a LOL involved.

when they came to sydney i was 17. and i remember standing outside the metro with ngoc, forlorn. devastated. and now im a full grown adult i plan to make it up to my 17 year old self by just throwing myself into this tour.

i mean it's not just bright eyes. the thrill and chaos of the tour is also very appealing. just something crazy i guess to celebrate me graduating my bachelor (finally).

here is the calendar:

MARCH

WED 2 - Fillmore Theater, Miami, Florida.

THU 3 - House of Blues, Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

FRI 4 - The Tabernacle, Atlanta, Georgia.

SAT 5 - Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, Asheville, North Carolina.

SUN 6 - The National, Richmond, Virginia.

MON 7 - DAY OFF
TUE 8 - Radio City Music Hall, New York, New York.

WED 9 - Radio City Music Hall, New York, New York.

THU 10 - House of Blues, Boston, Massachusetts.

FRI 11 - State Theater, Portland, Maine.

SAT 12 - THE STROKES - The Chelsea, Las Vegas, Nevada.

SUN 13 - Sound Academy, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

MON 14 - Royal Oak Theater, Royal Oak, Michigan.

TUE 15 - Vic Theater, Chicago, Illinois.

WED 16 - Foellinger Auditorium, Champaign, Illinois.

THU 17 - Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee.

so i will keep you all updated! 

hard times in new york town: bob dylan @ terminal 5 X 3 (november, 2010)

okay straight up i am not a big bob dylan fan. but we seem to gravitate towards each other.

like for example in 2008 when i found this great basement record store in the village at the back of West 4th subway (that had been there for 30 years and was closing in 3 weeks) and along with the 7"'s i bought the guy accidently included a 12" which happened to be this bob dylan bootleg:

 

btw it says "robert zimmerman" on the back!

i didnt steal it though. i told him and i came back to buy it (i got 30% off too)

and now i happen to be in new york for 8 days and he happens to be playing 3 shows. so i went to all 3 shows to see what all the fuss was about. 

ok so they were military about cameras. so because i had to be kinda ninja with the snaps i dont have great photos. and i dont have many photos. but i think a couple are enough.

what was surprising was his voice was pretty bad. he literally sounded like scooby doo. like that raspy-breathless-exhale sound which unfortunately rendered all the songs monotonous. he tried. and he got better over the nights. and it was nice to see him. especially in a small room (3000 people) but i just saw leonard cohen and i was unfortunately expecting more. 

but after all of that... it was very endearing. he might have sounded pretty shit (some may argue he has always been a shit singer) but everyone was singing along (he played like a rolling stone and jolene!) and it redeemed him considerably. i mean, love tends to do that.

i was jealous. what made him play 3 small shows and not one big one when his voice wasnt 100%? could it be that he wanted to give his fans a chance to see him intimately (relatively)? wow. i mean i heard he could be quite a jerk but i mean that's pretty sweet right?

im 23 and i have seen bob dylan 3 times in a crowd of no more than 3000 people. he's coming to australia to play venues that hold 15,000.

alright as i said i am not a bob dylan fan but www.brooklynvegan.com know their shit and have setlists for all 3 nights if you're curious. 

few more photos below!

singing in the rain: the raincoats @ moma, new york (november 20, 2010)

 to be honest i didnt know much about the raincoats besides girl rock owes them a lot more than bed hair and pink docs. and that kurt cobain wrote them up as genuises.

so when i realised they'd be jamming at moma while i was in new york i was pretty excited. they have played only a few shows in the past few years. one of which was matt groening's all tomorrow's parties.

i got there a bit early. milled around with the EN-WHY folk. a good mixture of too cool sceneters with undercuts and laddered stockings and real geeks in cargos with crooked fringes. and of course a good dosage of women's lib.

to be honest i cant remember what kathleen hanna (of bikini kill and le tigre fame) all i remember is she had a little orange case full of 7" and everything that came out of it was cool.

there was free alchohol. i didnt even know.  
there was chocolate beer. 
it was horrid.

there was also an exhibition but i wanted to stake out a good spot so sorry gals, no dice on the art side.

i didnt know what to expect but i was just so thrilled. there were little audio fireworks going off all over the stage. the way they played was just so astute and it was real. most effects were there manipulated by hand in real time. well WOW. 

ana's music props

kathleen and tobi vail (bikini kill, the frumpies) joined the raincoats for a tribute to dearly departed ari up by playing her song "vindictive." i dont have many pics from this song because i took one long vid. i'll put it up when i can!

ana da silva + jean-marc butty + tobi vail

THE LECTURE

and a lot of the time the seed is not as magnificent as the tree but when gina was singing about being high and being angry and being a woman it expanded into the universe. there is something big now about being chic and wasted and it's all pretense. and we burn and we're pretty. half the time im just not convinced. the raincoats were refreshing.

here are the pretty pics. 

oh and setlist! straight from ana's hands!

Derelique: Williamsburg Vintage shopping

when i was 19  mum said now that i was an adult instead of buying me a ticket to see the family in the phillipines i can pick any place in the world and she'd buy me a ticket there. i had been obsessed with london for most of my life (closely tied with my obsession with harry potter) but somehow i decided to go to new york instead.

i was in new york for 2 months by myself. and a lot of things happened. but when you're used to having 2 jobs AND school and then suddenly have all this free time, you start twiddling your thumbs and checking your watch. i killed a lot of that time at williamsburg vintage stores.

BILLY-BURG IS HIPSTERVILLE. people are nice though. it's a picture postcard of the modern alternative lifestyle. but not as dirty-big-city as the village. one might call it the safe/boring alternative. people tend to joke rich hipster wannabes from good families move here and pretend to be starving artists. i think it's pleasant and has a lot of eye candy to take up your time.

this is a starter guide. my favourite places to go but by far not the only ones. i've ordered them geographically to avoid running around too much.

BEACON'S CLOSET

http://www.beaconscloset.com

88 n. 11th st. (between berry and wythe sts)
(718) 486 0816 

the most famous one i think. HUGE store. the biggest and has lots of everything. you'll pretty much go around and WISH you needed everything.

i read somewhere (probably something like i-D or  something) that they hire their  staff based on their ability to recognise brands and quality items so it's all sorted out and it's all good.

surprisingly the prices are mainly between $10 an $35 US. check out the website. they put some pieces up for online purchase but nothing compared to the goodness instore.

i've bought this lime green mondrian squares style hooded jacket there for $24. and a american revolution style reversable shoulder tote for $15 i think.
 

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monk

MONK

496 driggs ave (between North 9th and 10th Sts)
(718) 384 6665

this one i think is new. the staff were really nice and there were some choice things! 

i bought a best of hank williams and the smiths' strangeways, here we come on cassette for $3 each. 

there were also some nice purple leather lace up shoes but they were $60. it's a bit more pricey but they are a smaller store than beacon and probably dont sell as much.

i think their feature is they have a cool collection of graphic tees. and they have lots of knick-knacks.
   

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saint nicholas is in the house: nick cave et al, sydney, 2007

i thought i'd break up the posts with something vintage and allow myself an opportunity to a) share these memories and b) go on about one of my most favourite topics: nick cave.

when i was 15 i met this great guy who introduced me to 3 bands:

bright eyes

nick cave and the bad seeds

fugazi

fugazi never really stuck. bright eyes stuck straight away and nick cave grew on me. i think i needed to have a bit more of a life before i understood him. i mean bright eyes was all about being a tortured post adolescent being disillusioned by the world. nick cave is about things bigger than yourself. after all the birthday party was nick cave's bright eyes... only probably a bit more violent. it's a natural progression.

i know a lot of people who hate nick cave's music now because it's not as visceral. i know we hold instinct in a high regard in rock'n'roll. but i think you have to give credit to the ponderers and poets. one is a snapshot on fire. another is a wide panoramic installation. it's nice to appreciate both.

one of the things i best like about nick cave is he has a clean eye and a good sense of humour. how else could he have done a song with kylie minogue? he said he was inspired by her song "better the devil you know" and kylie said nick cave gave her the best advice about being brave enough to do what you want.

i also remember when he did an interview with jjj's jay and the doctor and he said he liked watching romantic comedies and he really admires hugh grant. they were stunned. 

note: the pictures in this post are in black and white because it was the first time i was using my new olympus so the white balance was really off and because it was a shitty olympus they needed to be in B&W to hide the shitty photo quality.

NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS + GRINDERMAN @ ENMORE THATRE, SYDNEY, 2007

 

we take sydney: leonard cohen 2010 tour

i was really bummed i missed him the first time around. and i knew i was missing out on something. 

ngoc and i had planned to go to melbourne to see him this time as we managed to get 2nd row seats there. the sydney ones were going for $1500 on ebay when they started at $230. we managed to only pay $650 for 2. 

but alas it became apparent ngoc couldnt make it. it was quite sad. but i managed to buy really cheap stall tickets for sydney so that at least ngoc and i can see him together even if we weren't close. 

the lovely cohen uber-fan adam lewis (who was already travelling to hobart to see leonard cohen there as well as sydney and who had seen him twice before) happened to be in melbourne that very night and bought the ticket from me. i mean, how could he say no? 2nd row tickets!

the sydney seats werent bad but werent close. but at least the sound was good. there were 3 breaks/encore and i think by the last bit a few people had left and we thought he was just gogint ot go on forever (which was absolutely fine). anyway ngoc and i just decided to sneak down into the floor area and we ended up in front of the stage! and the cherry? WE GOT SET LISTS!

before we moved

after we moved

because jetstar and i are both unreliable i was late but made it anyway because the flight was late and i was then late for the show and had to cart my stuff to the show because i couldnt make it to the hostel. i eventually found adam (without a phone. miracle!)

and leonard? HEAVEN. wow. i mean... i sat there thinking we have become complacent. this level of showmanship just made so many acts i've seen (acts i thought were fantastic) seem sterile. i mean the bells and whistles were great. the alchohol and the high kicks and the stage dives. but they suddenly relegated to the status of filler. this man was standing on stage with just a fedora tilted over his sly smile and a good band behind him. sure between sydney and melbourne the jokes were the same but always tastefully and charmingly delivered. 

and the voice! oh and that smile! 

i wanted him to be my man. 

i didnt want to dance him to the end of love. 

i wanted to take this waltz over and over again!

 more pictures within...

8th wonder of the world: gorillaz plastic beach tour sydney 2010

one of the most amazing, hard working, crowded, fun shows i have seen in my life. so astounding.

it was like a luscious merry-go-round of musical and graphic candy saturating your senses. you just never know what would come next and what would happen. at the end of it i had to rummage through the empty plastic cups on the theatre floor to find my jaw and my eyeballs. 

and so much fan service! (as articulated by ngoc) all they needed was for damon albarn to come out in nothing but a loin cloth, wearing a crown of thorns, wrapped around nautical lou reed as he proclaims himself the saviour of rock and roll.

they made us wait outside (from 4pm) then i found out we were at the wrong door (we we fudged over and all was well) and then we had to wait at a second set of doors, then as we all ran tot he barrier THEY MADE US SIT ON THE FLOOR. like... sit down. on the floor. it was cramped. we were all a bit confused. ngoc and i looked at each other and thought "well no matter how many shows you go to there is always new venue etiquette to learn."

the dj was really great! i mean i was so disappointed we couldnt properly dance to her. the every wonderful ashely mar was there of course.

so maceo from de la soul come out to hype us up. next thing you know he's like "now everyone stand up!" and it was CHAOS and i almost pulled every muscle of my body getting up from catapulting myself to the barrier. we were lucky and got a reasonably good spot. a good spot considering there were huge-gantic speakers all along the stage that turned every beat into an atomic bomb.

as i uploaded these pictures i realised i had taken about 3 every minute the whole night. i actually heard someone behind me saw "does she have to take a photo of everything??" and you know what? i had fun and now i have amazing photos so that bitch can shut her face. you can all benefit from my delinquent trigger finger. here are the highlights:

more pictorial goodness within...