So this year’s Twilight Concert Series is shaping up to be absolutely buck wild.  The Knux and the Roots played tonight, and all I have to say is that you need to see the Roots now.  Like, right now. Check out this picture on the right.  See that sousaphone?  That’s not a gimmick.  That’s genuine low end.  The show was incredibly entertaining, mad mic skills, a classic hip hop medley (featuring “Just a Friend”, “Nothin’ But a ‘G’ Thang”, “This is Why I’m Hot,” and a lot more), and an incredible jam on Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” that flowed into Hendrix’s “Machine Gun” into a roaring drum solo by ?uestlove, after which everybody left the stage, then came back for another verse of “Masters.”  The encore jam was likewise amazing, Captain Kirk Douglas laying down some vicious guitar, Owen Biddle putting down some rumbling bass, Black Thought spouting at the speed of sound.  Incredible.  I had to write this while I’m still riding it.  Seriously people.

p.s. New Orleans rappers The Knux were good, too.  But The Roots blew me away.

So I had admitted earlier that I felt a fair amount of trepidation regarding last night’s Stone Temple Pilots show.  I’d read bad things,  I kind of floundered to come up with an ideal setlist, and, in doing so, I came to terms with how I really feel about Stone Temple Pilots.  But in the end I think these things just served to keep my expectations in check, which turned out really well for me.
I already expected them to open with “Big Empty,” having read more than one account of things happening this way, and I was really okay with that.  I thought it was a good way to ease into the show, and Dean’s guitar on that one is well highlighted.  “Wicked Garden” was next, and the first of eight (8) songs from .  Eight.  Including two that I didn’t even recognize (I’ll post a complete setlist once I figure out what they were).  I find this notably odd, especially when compared with the Smashing Pumpkins only playing one song that was even from the Gish era (Of course the Pumpkins had something to promote, STP were just there to play and try to be famous again).
Scott didn’t seem to be under the influence of anything, but I’m a horrible judge.  I just figure he always minces about like that, palm out, twisting in his Beatle boots.  If he muddled the words to anything, it was to songs I don’t know the words to, either (and likely while I was trying to sing along to said songs).  His voice sounded okay, a little nasal on “Big Bang Baby” but that’s his choice.  It was pretty nice, actually, to hear some of those early songs sung with the more distinct voice Scott cultivated later on.  I’d also read complaints of Scott rambling on between songs, and he was fairly talkative early on, mentioning how they didn’t usually make it through SLC when they were touring before, but beyond that not much.  Nothing distracting.
Overall it was a good show.  Worth my $10 discount ticket.  Probably not worth full price, but that’s me.  The breakdown of albums represented was a little telling: 8 from Core (9 if you count playing “Wet My Bed” over the PA as they took a curtain call), 4 from Purple, 3 from Tiny Music…, 2 from No. 4, and 2 from Shangri-la Dee Da, and only one from last Friday’s list (”Too Cool Queenie,” it kind of made my night).  It appears we did it to ourselves, as the STP website has a feature that invites you to build a setlist.  It’s the right way to do a tour like this, and I really wish I’d taken some initiative with that, but alas.  Looks like Vegas on Saturday is going to have a much better set.  I approve.

Well, I saw Radiohead on Tuesday night. I’m not sure exactly how exciting this is, because I have no ticket left over (besides an e-ticket), no good pictures and not very good video. I’m waiting on some better quality stuff from a friend who got up to the seventh row. We actually sat in the lawn, which is all the way in the back. Where you can drink, smoke, and get to the loo easily, so it was worth it.

The show was awesome. Apparently the boys had requested that the two side video screens toRadiohead not be used, but they used their own that were on stage behind them. So you could see Thom’s crazy eye and everything. (I don’t know if this important to you, but his eye was very important to the friend I went with).

I feel like seating, obviously, is super important. Especially at a show like this. Radiohead had electric curtains of some kind, that lit up with all sorts of colors and strange patterns. Which was awesome, but I’m sure it would have been way more awesome and trippy if it was happening like 20 feet away from my face.

So the high energy was all up front, and the chill was all in my lap, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the show. What was also awesome about chilling in the lawn was that for certain songs, if I chose, I could just lay back on the blanket and stare at the stars while Thom Yorke and the boys played me their music. Pretty fucking sweet.

They opened with ‘All I Need’. Do I have a setlist? No. I can tell you they played Weird Fishes, Reckoner, Fake Plastic Trees, Bodysnatchers, House of Cards, and Videtape. I think they played Nude. They played Idioteque. I know they didn’t play much from OK Computer, because a different friend was a little disappointed by that. But what you gonna do? I have special requests, too. Like In Limbo. Love that song.

It was a good, chill show. I have seen Radiohead. CHECK.

Enjoy some short, bad-quality video.

 Radiohead - Reckoner [4:50m]: Play in Popup | Download

So, I’m a sorry entertainer and waited a few days to post about my Ben Folds show. Also, I completely failed to mention that I saw Shiny Toy Guns again a few weeks back, but that’s neither here nor there. The important thing is I’ve now seen Ben Folds, who, I’m delighted to say, “just finished up the new album. We just have to put our friend Regina Spektor on there and it’s set.” Is this exciting? Yes this is.

So, Ben Folds is good at what he do. He does it on his own terms, too, which I like. If he’s tired of playing a song, he won’t do it anymore. Didn’t play “Brick.” Didn’t play “Rock this Bitch.” Didn’t play “Philosophy.” And you know what? I’m okay with that. The audience was still involved. We still sang the horn section on “Army.” We were still the choir on “Not the Same.” There were still songs made up on the spot (about how Ben never gets to play in Salt Lake, which is true). There were maracas and synthesizers and a mysterious tambourine man. There was a beautiful vibe and there was singing along. So Ben was great, but you should have known that already. So what do you need to know?

Well, as usual, it’s about the opening acts. To be brief, you don’t need to know about the opening acts. Except for Australian popster Ben Lee. After sitting through three (thankfully short) opening acts already, I was a little bummed when yet another took the stage. However, when I heard him say, “Hi, my name is Ben Lee,” I perked right up. See, Ben Lee is one third of The Bens (the other two being Folds and Kweller), so I was excited to here what pop mastery made him worthy of the group. Well, Ben Lee is an excellent performer, which I think is something that was lacking in the other openers. Sure, his songs were catchier, but that’s not all that matters. Ben made us all a part of his show by having us sing along bits, and he made the best of technical guitar difficulties by (first) jumping to a song with the music on an iPod while they fixed things, then (when that still didn’t work) unplugging his guitar and lowering his microphone to so it would pick up the guitar. So open-mic of him, but it made the set seem much more intimate. There were improvised bits on a few songs, notably on a song I’ve included for you here, “Catch My Disease.” I also really enjoyed the song American Television, so I’ve got that for you, too. Ben Lee sang songs that I could sing the chorus of after one or two times through, but more importantly, I wanted to sing along.

So that was my Ben Folds show. The complete setlist is up on my personal blog. Enjoy some, eh?

 Ben Folds Five - Underground [4:11m]: Play in Popup | Download
 Ben Lee - Catch My Disease [4:15m]: Play in Popup | Download
 Ben Lee - American Television [3:41m]: Play in Popup | Download

I’ve seen a fair number of shows featuring a fair number of artists, but as far as legend status goes, people I feel honoured & privileged to have seen Daniel Johnston has to hold the top spot (followed by Toots & the Maytals, who opened for Dave Matthews Band back in ‘98, when I would’ve wanted to see DMB and didn’t know who Toots was). Actually, I had only just seen the film The Devil and Daniel Johnston a few days before I saw that the show was announced. What fortuitous circumstances!!

Really, if you aren’t familiar with Daniel Johnston yet, this article in Salt Lake’s City Weekly explains about as eloquently as you can just why you should love Daniel Johnston. I meant to write something here after I saw The Devil and Daniel Johnston, but now I’m glad I didn’t because I would have gotten it all wrong. I didn’t quite get it yet, but at the show I heard it. Truth. The ability to express things properly, to peg an emotion. It’s what initially drew me to Bob Dylan, it’s something I noticed at my first Rademacher show, and it’s something I feel in Daniel Johnston.

Regarding the show itself, a few quick notes.  It’s interesting to note that Daniel only played guitar on the first two songs, his friend playing guitar on a few more before Band of Annuals, who opened, came up as a backing band.  According to Dave, who knows his psychotic meds, Daniel was shaking like he was on lithium.  This might be why he only played guitar on two songs.  Also, “Devil Town” is the most excellent encore, and truly made the evening complete.

So now I’ve got music for you to hear.  “Rock ‘n’ Roll/EGA” you might recognize from Empire Records.  It’s the songs that plays when Mark ends up on stage with Gwar.  Bright Eyes’ cover of “Devil Town” is what Dave had on his computer at the time.  I chose to buy a CD instead of a “Hi, How Are You?” shirt, so more music will likely be forthcoming.  The CD seemed perfectly targeted to me, actually, since as you may know I’m something of a tribute album whore.  Discovered Covered has one disc of covers and one disc of the originals of those songs.  The group of artists covering songs is interesting because I remember thinking during the show about artists who’ve been notably influenced by Daniel Johnston, and a good number of those (I’m thinking specifically of Eels) are on that CD.  I’ll save more words for later, keep you on your toes.

Daniel Johnston on MySpace | Daniel Johnston Official | Pictures from the Show (courtesy Taryn Paye)

  Daniel Johnston - Rock 'n' Roll/EGA : Play in Popup | Download
 Bright Eyes - Devil Town [3:06m]: Play in Popup | Download

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 (179)