The Mandatory Rate the last gig you Witnessed.

BDO 9/10
I shall edit this post with an actual review, but for now have some pictures

So it was a pretty damn good day.

Started off with Bionic Pixie - mediocre/good electro/rap indie kids. Mainly meh.

Onto An Emerald City - Pretty damn good psychedelic rock. They recorded their last album in a cave.

Staying in the boiler room, caught Antiform, who played a good, if slightly safe, set.

Saw some of The Black Kids. Might like them if I heard an album.

P-Money. Such a great DJ. Mixed up a whole bunch of stuff, got the crowd incredibly hyped, even premiered a new track. Great set.

Bullet For My Valentine. Hahaha! They sucked.

Pendulum - See my rant in Strife Lately.

TV On The Radio were fantastic, but the sound was... Less than ideal. Played an amazing version of Staring At The Sun.

Had a much needed break after hours of dancing.

Caught the end of Simian Mobile Disco - ****ing incredible, I wish I'd seen the whole set. Searing live electronic madness.

Drank for a while. :thumbs:

Caught the first quarter of an hour of Arctic Monkeys - they seemed very tight, but a tad samey.

Hot Chip were god damn awesome. So heavy, so catchy, had the entire boiler room jumping and singing. A damn good show.

Came out, thoroughly trashed, saw the last of Neil Young's set, which was amazing.

Considered The Prodigy, but were put off by the massive cluster**** of people. Mainly the cluster**** of Prodigy fans.

Went home.

GOOD TIMES
 
I haven't been yet, but I just got tickets for The Bronx with the almighty ****ED UP in support. That's going to be one rough gig.
 
Big Day Out was pretty swish.

Saw Youth Group. They were boring, the crowd was bored and jeered for Forever Young and when this wish was fulfilled half the room promptly exited.

Then came the Tings Tings, which despite being horrible got the crowd going and it was rather fun to go along with.

Then came TV on the Radio. Oh my jesus, the equipment was horrible: the distortion made half the songs barely audible. Yet somehow, it was ****ing awesome. The mosh exploded with Wolf Like Me. The "Heeeeey" before "**** YOUR WAR" was extended to just the right length, making the latter call-out a ****ing epic explosion of sound. Despite the inaudibility you could just feel the music, the way Tunde freaking moved across the stage was hypnotic. Staring at the Sun was an incredible closer and A Method was a beautiful interlude. **** yeah, TV on the Radio.

Went back to the Orange/Blue Stage (got in the D barrier to be close to the Monkeys). Pendulum was on and was ABSOLUTELY ****ING HORRIBLE. If I ever have to hear such repetitive, horrible garbage (not helped by Sir Dipshit MC going "FOOKING A" and "GOLD COAST ROOOOCK" every five seconds) again I will scream. Serj Tankian was heaven compared to it. Serj Tankian.

Got up real close to the stage for the Arctic Monkeys as everyone rushed to The Living End. Living End served their purpose as an intolerable wait and as Alex Turner and the rest emerged on stage the whole grounds erupted like no other on the day. Set was tight, new music was pretty great, Alex Turner looked slightly disinterested. But the mosh was intense, we were like five metres away and the whole crowd was singing along. Seems like they were the stars of the day.

Overall, worth it for TVOTR and The Arctic Monkeys.
 
00gun, Tikiman, The Bug & Warrior Queen at The Montechristo Room.

Sheeeeit.

We got there and 00gun was playing ridiculous slow-motion dubstep. Dubstep is slow, this was just silly. He slowly brought the tempo up and up, and the crowd got ridiculously amped, then dropped immediately into one of his tracks (?) - basically a wall of searing square bass with kicks cutting through it.

We left.

[BREAK FOR DRUGS AND ALCOHOL]

Came back in a very good mood, to see Tikiman. Freestyling over amazingly smooth beats. The reverb in the place was ridiculous - it's basically a concrete bunker. He played an amazing set, but it did drag a little. Maybe it was the drugs.

The Bug came on and played for about half an hour. He kept teasing Skeng (HOSE SOME PRICKS WITH AN EMM ONE SIX) but never got very far into it, which was a bit of a dick move. The place was going off quite solidly. Then Warrior Queen came on.

I saw something I have never seen before.

A fat, unattractive Jamaican woman on stage shouting 'I JUST CAME! YOU BETTER BELIEVE I JUST MUTHA****IN CAME!' The crowd loved her. She was an amazing MC and a damn good rapper. Insane was a highlight.

A good night.
 
Man, The Bug? I'd love to see him holding down London sometime. His work with JKB and Dalek is pretty awesome.
 
I've actually only heard London Zoo, but most of what I've heard I really like. The people I was there with were talking to me about him - turns out they'd seen him a month earlier at Phat09, a big music festival out in the middle of nowhere. Apparently he was rather lackluster out there - missing drops, screwing up mixes - but it seems that he's getting better and better at DJing. He only made a few mistakes when I saw him.
 
Weezer - Live at the Tsongas Arena; Lowell, MA

****ing amazing. 100/10
 
Nine Inch Nails

Let's just preface this by saying I'm not a Nine Inch Nails fan. I like Ghosts, half of The Slip, and a handful of tracks from Year Zero and With Teeth, and I haven't heard anything else. Of the 200 plays on last.fm a majority are from Ghosts. I can also honestly say that until tonight I had never heard Hurt in any form.

But by golly they were impressive. They'd bought a drummer (who was amazing) a bassist, a guitarist and Trent Reznor. No giant audio-visual show like I'd seen in videos, no interesting supporting act (some generic New Zealand rock band who started what could have been a good cover of Staring At The Sun but apparently gave up after a verse) and no Echoplex. I was even seated so no funtimes dancing around.

However they were so tight, so focussed, so energetic and sounded amazing. Trent sounds excellent live - his studio voice is his live voice. The crowd was amazingly amped the entire time, and they played an incredibly cohesive and captivating set. The light show was minimalistic but well timed and well suited to the tracks.

Only negative aspect of the show was the lack of crowd interaction. I'm sure not saying much besides 'thanks' suits the slightly 'cooler-than-thou' attitude, but it's obvious that a little bit of attention on the crowd would have made everyone very happy.

However it was a damn impressive show.

Plus my ticket was free.
 
Of course they will be tight, they use click tracks like no tommorow lol.
 
Defenders of the Faith II - O2 Academy, Bristol

10/10

Lamb of God = absolutely brutal. So god damn good.
 
Opeth - Watershed Tour - Ram's Head Live, Baltimore, MD.

10/10.

Great show.
 
Sam Roberts - Buffalo, NY. - 10/10

Honestly, this was better than when I seen AC/DC. I got all the band members autographs on a shirt, I got Sam Roberts' autograph on a guitar pick, me and my friend chilled with the band after the show and talked about music (seriously). After Rush (nothing beats that show), this was the best show I've ever been to.

I was also front row, right at the stage during the show.
 
I attended some free SXSW shows yesterday. First time attending SXSW... it was pretty awesome.

Explosions in the Sky -- Auditorium Shores, Austin, TX -- 11/10

3rd Explosions show I've been to so far (previous two were a couple of years ago).

They were preceded by Fastball, Beach House, and the Cannabinoids ft. Erykah Badu (listed below).

I got there and stood in front of the stage FOUR HOURS early and managed to get front row for Explosions, which was completely worth it. It was a free show in a big outdoor venue (great view/weather), so the crowd was huge.... and it was the most wonderful/epic show. I thought the songs they played were really good for the setting.

Setlist for anyone who cares:
The Only Moment We Were Alone
Catastrophe and the Cure
Greet Death
Your Hand In Mine
Birth and Death of the Day
Memorial

To top it all off, there were actually EXPLOSIONS in the SKY (fireworks!) at the end as they finished playing Memorial. I bought a nice shirt too. Ahhhh, good times..... :D

-----------------------
Other free sxsw shows I attended (I'm not good with genres so I may be a little off on the descriptions):

Casiokids -- 8/10
Norwegian electronic-pop. Pretty good tunes and entertaining to watch. Too many exercise-y Japanese girls over-enthusiastically bobbing though (...actually there was just one girl like that but even one is too many). I don't think I could really listen to their recordings much, but it's good live.

Slow Club -- 10/10
British indie-pop. Also entertaining and they sing really nicely. They did a great acoustic, no-microphone performance of When I Go.

The Theater Fire -- 7/10
Folksy indie music. I just stopped by as this was the most convenient show I could find to fill time in between Slow Club and the Auditorium Shores shows. They were pretty good... they played a bunch of cool instruments. There were a couple of songs I liked and the rest were decent too.

Fastball - 6/10
Not bad, just typical mainstream music.

Beach House - 8/10
I like their music a lot, but the organ sounded too loud compared to the guitar/vocals which detracted somewhat, as the guitar has all the really cool mellow tunes.

Cannabinoids ft. Erykah Badu - 2/10
They were ok once they actually started playing. Erykah got stuck in traffic so we had to wait for her to show up which was really frustrating for both the Erykah fans and especially the non-Erykah fans (like me...). It was a really huge mess.
 
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - 7/10

Free outdoor show at my university. I've heard of them and maybe listened to stuff on their myspace a few years ago, but really don't know any of their music. It was alright, and they had some good songs, but nothing too special.

Also I ended up standing near the obnoxious dancercise girls again (as in, dancing in an irritating way that could probably be put on a horrible 80's exercise video). I hate getting stuck next to dancercise girls, drunk people acting retarded, and/or douchebags at concerts :frown:.
 
Propagandhi - The Trocadero, Philadelphia, PA, USA. 10/10

One of the best shows I have ever seen. The crowd was extremely positive and everyone knew all the words so during most of the songs you were adrift is a turbulent sea of like-minded people so much so that you felt the show as opposed to just seeing it or hearing it. An amazing experience.
 
Demetri Martin: 8/10

It's a gig, stfu.

Pretty funny, mostly new material even though he's fresh out from his show. Most of his improv was better than the actual jokes, which was kinda weird. The opener was really good too. So yeah, good times.
 
Fleetwood Mac @ the BankAtlantic in Sunrise, FL

not bad, i didnt think theyd be that good, but fleetwood put on a good show, especially in the drumming and guitar categories.
 
Rolo Tomassi, Bristol - 10/10

Pure god damn energy these guys were the spazziest band I've ever seen.
 
CAKE- Richmond VA 0/10

Of ****ing course it's going to be the same day as my sister's wedding. Next time I guess...
 
Emporius's band!!!!
they were ok i guess.... Actually they were great!
the sound guy sicked large amounts of male and/or female genitalia.

Dog-- said:
Sam Roberts - Buffalo, NY. - 10/10

Honestly, this was better than when I seen AC/DC. I got all the band members autographs on a shirt, I got Sam Roberts' autograph on a guitar pick, me and my friend chilled with the band after the show and talked about music (seriously). After Rush (nothing beats that show), this was the best show I've ever been to.

I was also front row, right at the stage during the show.
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I just saw that: Sam Roberts is the Coolest musician I have ever met. he is so sincere and he is a really nice person.
I see him every year at bluesfest, in Ottawa... INCREDIBLE, always 11/10
 
Dan Deacon: 9.5/10

Hoooooooooly shit, this was awesome; dare I say better than the last NIN concert I went to? And I hadn't even listened to this guy beforehand. If any of you get a chance to go see him, do it. The concert he puts on is so much ****ing fun. Audience participation, humor, awesome music, crazy dancing...shit, I loved it.
 
De La Soul('s 20th anniversary tour) at The Powerstation.

10/10

God damn. I don't even listen to De La much (I should), but I know they're great from what I've heard and GOD DAMN THAT WAS SUCH A GOOD SHOW I DON'T EVEN KNOW I WASN'T EVEN ON ANY DRUGS

That was some real old-school hip hop shit man. Slamming.

Plus my ticket was free I LOVE YOU BFM
 
Calm Blue Sea at Hole in the Wall (in Austin) - 9/10

Pretty good. Played pretty loud. Liked them better live than just listening to the cd which is good. Can't hear right now. I enjoyed it.
 
Les Claypool and O Death at The Orange Peel in Asheville, NC - 9/10
The Orange Peel is one of the most kickass venues on the east coast and Les Claypool is a dirty dirty man. My friends and I all busted out of Durham yesterday afternoon and drove 4 hours to get there, rolled up about 2 hours late and enjoyed the shit out of the show.


Tomorrow morning I'm buying Tool tickets for July 29th in Charlotte, about 2 hours from here. Can't wait for that either. This summer is looking absolutely NASTY for NC in terms of live acts - by the time the summer is over I'll have seen Les Claypool, Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Phish, TV on the Radio, and Akron/Family. Also possibly Easy Star All-Stars.
 
Opeth at the 9:30 club in Washington DC with Enslaved.

9/10

Only because I don't like Black Metal (Enslaved). Opeth and Akerfeldt were amazing as always.
 
Shit, last gig I was at was a Nirvana gig back in the day.

Which was definitely a 10/10

Simply cause Krist Novaselic knows how to rip a bassline
 
saw phish last night, and its easily now the best concert ive ever been to, far surpassing roger waters two years ago.
 
swan_song1973 said:
saw phish last night, and its easily now the best concert ive ever been to, far surpassing roger waters two years ago.
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I saw Phish in Knoxville on the 10th (two days ago) and was blown the **** away, best live show I've ever been to hands down.

Phish (Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, TN 06/10/09) - 10/10
Absolutely goddamned epic, monstrous performance. People leaving the show were saying it was the best of the tour so far and I believe it. Setlist was dirty, second set in particular got the entire place moving. First time seeing Phish and hopefully far from the last. Knoxville is a terrible city though, we got viciously lost in downtown trying to find the venue but got there in time anyway.

TV on the Radio (Amos' South End, Charlotte, NC 06/11/09) - 10/10
Also goddamn epic, they were a lot improved over when I saw them in 2006 and I have to say that this was easily one of the best shows I've ever been to (particularly at a small venue). The way they played Staring at the Sun (with an extremely heavy beat) was great, danced my tits off the entire show and shit a whole chimney of bricks when they played Young Liars as the second encore. Tunde Adebimpe is one of the most dynamic, excellent frontmen I've ever had the pleasure of seeing.

The opening act was a band called Drunken something (can't remember) and was pretty good as well, if a bit too deep into the indie experimental side. I give them a 7/10 but I think they have a lot of potential, I wish I could find out what they were called though.

Tonight I'm heading to Charlotte again to see NIN, Jane's Addiction and Street Sweeper... will report back tomorrow although if last time is any indication NIN will tear that place down.
 
damn, i was supposed to see tv on the radio, but i ended up having graduation dinner plans. do tell how street sweeper is, im really looking forward to their album.
 
Ennui said:
Tunde Adebimpe is one of the most dynamic, excellent frontmen I've ever had the pleasure of seeing.
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I was absolutely hypnotised by his dancing when I saw him, there was so much energy to his performance.

Deerhunter - 9/10 - Absolutely incredible setlist. Nothing Ever Happened, Never Stops, Like New, SPRING HALL CONVERT. All it needed to top it off was Disappearing Ink, but I can't complain. The noise was absolutely deafening, my ears are still ringing. Point deducted for shitty audience, there was like a quarter of them moshing, if you could call it that.
 
swan_song1973 said:
damn, i was supposed to see tv on the radio, but i ended up having graduation dinner plans. do tell how street sweeper is, im really looking forward to their album.
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Unfortunately I got there too late and missed Street Sweeper (arrived right at the end of their set) but my friend saw it and seemed to enjoy it a lot. Also, apparently Boots Riley (whom I've seen in concert before with the band Galactic) spends his summers in my hometown of Durham, which is pretty cool.

As for the show...

NIN - 9/10. Great performance but not as awesome as last time I saw them in 06, so it can't be a 10/10. Setlist was pretty good, all the staples were there and the crowd was enthusiastic. I was thrilled to see him perform I'm Afraid of Americans, which has always been a huge favorite of mine and not one I expected to see. My only regret is that I probably won't see NIN ever again which means I'll never see Deal Souls performed live... oh well.

Jane's Addiction - 7/10, great light show, Dave Navarro is one hell of a flashy guitarist and the frontman is very talkative and amusing, but I'm not into JA enough to give it any higher than a 7.

Zephos said:
I was absolutely hypnotised by his dancing when I saw him, there was so much energy to his performance.
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Yeah, I wish I could dance like that. He really is just pure energy up there, everything is fluid and contained but still very raw. I love it when he jumps all over the place and does his little hand waving things along with the lyrics. Definitely hope to see TVOTR again (for the 3rd time). Easily tied for my favorite band ever. I saw them in 06 and now in 09, but missed a show very close to me in 07, which is a mistake I am definitely never making again.
 
Download Festival 2009 - Infinity/10

Absolutely awesome 5 days at Donnington, camping was amazing, the weather was amazing, the people were amazing and the bands... were amazing.

Best bands I saw:

Meshuggah
Killswitch Engage
Limp Bizkit (laugh if you must, they were quality live!)
Architects
Clutch
Fei Comodo
Opeth
Sylosis
Devildriver
Down
Slipknot
Dream Theater

Definitely heading back next year as I've have been going since '07 but missed last year in favour of the Reading lineup.
 
Sounds awesome. Limp Bizkit being good live I find hard to believe but I trust your word. How were Opeth and Dream Theater in particular?

My next shows are Tool in late July, then Akron/Family in August, and Venetian Snares and KMFDM in October... and a 3 day psytrance festival in the mountains in September.
 
Pulse said:
Down
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Was Phil completely and utterly out of his face this time? He was so ****ed when they last played, but then so was I and it was like 11 in the morning, haha! Top band, top show.
 
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