Tomorrow is Veterans’ Day so you should be all patriotic and buy a mattress or something.  You should also come see my band, Birds Without, at New Song Underground (859 S 800 E) in Salt Lake.  It’s gonna be awesome.
In the mean time, here is pro-America music that entertains me.

“America the Beautiful” by Ray Charles

So, last night’s Weezer show was my fourth, and it was definitely the most unique.  The other three shows, two in support of Maladroit, one for the Green Album, were pretty straightforward.  Everybody stood in front of their mic, Rivers occasional muttered something funny between songs, they left the stage then came back for one or two more.  Simple.  The last show had flame spurts on a couple of songs, that was different, but otherwise it was a pretty basic show by a band that rocks really hard.
I’d always known Rivers was kind of goofy (consider that the first words you likely heard him sing were “What’s with these homies dissin’ my Girl?”), but he seemed pretty reserved on stage.  This made sense on the Extended Midget Tour (supporting Green), because everything about the Green Album seemed like a back-to-basics exercise, Rivers testing himself to see if he could still write pop songs.  On the Enlightenment Tour (I think I caught the European leg of it in Birmingham, it was in support of Maladroit, at least) things were beginning to loosen up a bit.  More songs from Pinkerton (at the Salt Lake show there were more from Pinkerton than from Maladroit), full renditions of “Only in Dreams,” covers, and pyrotechnics, but, like I said, pretty basic stuff.
Then there was last night’s show.  I missed out on most of the promotion for Make Believe, but I caught some AOL Sessions and I knew that if I ever saw the Weez again, it would be a distinct thing from previous shows.  I expected keyboards, and I’d heard that Rivers had a little drum kit that he occasionally played.  I didn’t expect a mini trampoline, or that both Scott (bass) and Brian (guitar) would have keyboard rigs.  To keep me from rambling too much, we’ll do a list.  You kids like bulleted lists, right?

• Rivers didn’t sing lead on every song.  Much like the new album, vocals were shared by various band members.
• This allowed Rivers to become untethered from his microphone and wander the stage as he pleased.  This is why there was a trampoline.  It also meant thatRivers got to play harmonica on “My Name is Jonas,” every other time I’ve seen them it’s just been done on guitar.
• Rivers has often been compared to Brian Wilson because he’s a little eccentric and obsessed with writing the perfect pop song (I guess if he stops singing altogether the comparison can be pushed further), but last night he reminded me more of Andy Kaufman, or, more specifically, Tony Clifton, with the way he shuffled around the stage and made bizarre shaking motions with is hands.
• Tom DeLonge and Atom Willard performed on “Undone - the Sweater Song”, Tom singing and Atom on drums so Pat could play guitar.  Rivers also utilized his drum kit for the build up of this one.
• I’m a sucker for cover songs, and we got two last night. Pat surprised us all by singing and playing guitar on a cover of Oasis’s “Morning Glory.”  Well, he surprised me, at least.  I don’t know how many other people even knew the song.  The other song will be discussed in conjunction with the encore.
• Lots of audience participation.  We were instructed to start of “Dope Nose.”  I felt so important.
• The Hootenanny: you’ve probably heard all about it.  A group of lucky fans get to take the stage with whatever instrument they play and join the band and the audience in a couple of songs.  Lemme tell you, “Beverly Hills” sounds like it was meant to have a saxophone solo.
• After the Hootenanny, which served as the first encore, Weezer’s fifth man Karl Koch (who, earlier, had played Moog on the song “King”) set up a Weezer-styled phonograph, took out a red vinyl copy of the new album and played “Heartsongs.”  During the verse about Nevermind the band came back out (Scott dressed like the Italian Stallion) and played a cover of Nirvana’s “Sliver” before ending the set with “Buddy Holly.”
• As usual, full setlist available at my personal blog.

If you’ve never seen Weezer before, there’s never been a better time (except maybe early ‘97).  Do it do it do it.  I’m tired of writing, any questions you have, though, will be answered.  Ask away!!  Pictures later.
Regarding the opening acts, Tolchok Trio were pretty good and Angels and Airwaves sound like your copies of The Joshua Tree and Disintegration had sex and cried themselves to sleep afterward.

An interesting thing has come to my attention regarding my band, Birds Without, playing at the Avalon on Saturday.  It was an exciting prospect from the beginning, playing at a venue where I’d actually been to see a band I’d actually heard of before (I saw Love You Long Time, Dave also saw Eisley there, but I missed that one) and having people in the crowd who didn’t ride there with somebody playing that night, but it just got more exciting.  Turns out the show will be taped and available on ComCast’s On Demand Presents Band Wagon LIVE.  This is copy/pasted from the Avalon website:

ComCasts On Demand Presents Band Wagon LIVE. They will be filming live tonight at this show! Come show your local music support tonight on ComCast!

Tickets are ten bucks, doors at 6:30, show at 7:00.  The lineup will be Going Second, Uncomfortable Silence, Birds Without, The Desert, and our friends in Arienette, with whom we’ve played a few times.
I’m really excited to play this show, guys.  We’ve got a few new songs* that we’ve worked out, Dave got a drum kit, so this will be his first show on that instead of the bongos, and we haven’t played in a few weeks, I’m getting the itch (or maybe it’s just this Mountain Dew I had for breakfast).

Anyhow, come out and support us and Arienette and these other fine bands.  You can even do it without going to the Avalon (3605 South State Street)!  You can watch us at home (at least that’s my understanding of how On Demand works, I’m simple in the ways of cable and satellite teevee).

*”New” here meaning new to me.  Ned put a band together so he could play some of his newer, more experimental songs live, and then Dave (Ned’s brother) and Mick (who went to high school with Ned and played bass for him occasionally back then) got Ned interested in all these old songs he wrote in high school.  We’re working on rounding out the set, and even with all this old material, we’ve written one song since the band formed as such.

My two favourite piano-based pop singers, Ben Folds and Regina Spektor, will be performing together on tonight’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien.  The song, “You Don’t Know Me”, is the first single from Ben’s album Way To Normal, which came out on Tuesday.  When I saw Ben back in June, he played a fair number of songs from the new record and I’m really excited for it (yeah, I haven’t heard it yet, even though it’s up in its entirety on his MySpace page, once I get Internets at home I’ll be a much better informed blogger).  Somebody make sure to upload that one to YouTube so I can watch it later (I don’t have TV at home, either).

You Don’t Know Me by Ben Folds & Regina Spektor (MP3)

Last night, in the space of maybe 30 minutes, I had four people (including a man on the radio) tell me about the new Weezer video, “Pork and Beans”.  Dave picked up his laptop & watched it, asked if I had.  Deven says he saw it on Boing Boing.  Taryn texts me and tells me it’s got the “Shoes” guy.  Then Corey O’Brien plays the song and invites us to go to YouTube right now and check out the video.  After that, I got the idea and watched it as soon as I was at a computer with speakers.  Then, this morning, my dad called to tell me there’s a new Weezer video.  And now I bring it to you, though it’s fairly obvious that I don’t have to.  I’m sure you already know.  Or know somebody who knows and is all, “OMG it’s got the Numa Numa Guys/Diet Coke & Mentos thing/that “Chocolate Rain” weirdo/K-Fed/that dreamboat Scott Shriner!”  And now you’ve heard it from your friendly neighbourhood spider-blog.

P.S. I’m a little embarrassed at how many of these I knew.  And also how many I now know because I looked things up on Wikipedia afterwards.

Last night, when I got home from work, MySpasm informed me that Kilby Court would be hosting Seattle’s Say Hi and local alt.country kids Atherton. Since our last Say Hi show, Dave has fallen deeply in love with the group, so we made an unscheduled trip down to Kilby.

I enjoyed it more than I did last time, knowing some of the songs helps. Also, where the last show featured a full band, this time it was just Eric Elbogen (who is essentially Say Hi) and drummer Westin Glass, with prerecorded bass & keys. The two had great chemistry on stage, discussing various things between songs (including how much more Eric tends to talk when they’re in Salt Lake), mocking Westin when he hurt his teeth trying to drum with a stick in his mouth, answering questions from the crowd (”My band are in this box. They’re…embodied. In this box. With the funny robot joke on it.”), and, of course, explaining that they don’t like leaving the stage and acting surprised when they’re called out for another song, preferring to simply say this and then play the last two songs. Last night we were lucky enough to get three more songs, including a solo (no pre-recorded accompaniment) “Let’s Talk About Spaceships” and “Yeah, I’m In Love with an Android.” The latter being a song that Eric doesn’t generally play, but makes a special case for Corey, who’s a regular at Say Hi’s Kilby shows. I”m really glad of it, too, as it’s my favourite Say Hi song.

In fact, it’s one of the songs I’ve included for your Mp3 enjoyment. The other Say Hi song, “As Smart As Geek Is Chic Right Now” is the closer on 2005’s Ferocious Mopes. It’s an odd little story to end an album, my favourite part is how disturbed Dave gets by it.

The other Mp3, “Various Kitchen Utensils” by Skybox, we heard on the way out. The beginning was so enchanting that I determined to share the song with alla ya’ll. Mission accomplished!

Say Hi on MySpazz |  Say Hi Official

Go on & buy an album

 Say Hi to Your Mom - Yeah, I'm In Love with an Android: Play in Popup | Download
 Say Hi To Your Mom - As Smart as Geek is Chic Right Now [1:04m]: Play in Popup | Download
 Skybox - Various Kitchen Utensils [2:47m]: Play in Popup | Download (382)