Weekly wrapup and looking ahead - week of Feb 15, 2013

Closing in on the last couple weeks of my day job and my show calendar is filling up nicely. I'm still not 100% what the future holds for me professionally, but I am working behind the scenes to try and step up the blogging and show review content... to be continued!

Local Beer, Local Band: Katharine Whelan and A Mad Affair - Tir Na Nog - 02/07/13

Not a densely attended show, once again, I will blame the weather... It was raining and cold and overall shitty out... but I finally got to see Ms. Whelan do her solo thing:

 

Seeing live music with musicians is always a completely different experience than seeing a band with buddies who just like music... I spent the majority of her set absorbing comments from Jay and Brian re: "What kind of guitar is that, that she's playing?" (a tenor guitar) and the pointing out of the U2-esque VOX amp, as you can kinda see to her left. the boys practically tripped over themselves to get up front first after her set to get the scoop.

I enjoyed the set, it was a lot more down-tempo than most, right up until the last song that kicked a little swing. I knew to expect subdued, as the only thing I've really heard from her post-SNZ's is the work she did with Stephin Merritt for the 6ths albums (ps, if you've not investigated these albums, I highly recommend "Hyacinths and Thistles"...) I'd be interested to hear recorded work, but google seaches leave me empty handed... anyone?

My Friend Valerie's band was next - A Mad Affair

A Mad Affair is basically everything that is still a little bit pure and chaste in local indie-folk music; the perfect formula of acoustic guitar, upright bass and ukelele... Valerie has always had one of the most stunning voices I have ever heard and it seems to have been created specifically for the bright, cheery, quirky Americana folk sound that these three have found together. I wish I had seen this show on a warm April Sunday afternoon outside on a porch with a Sangria and paper fan, rather than stuck in the dark dreary rainy almost midnight Irish pub... But hey, maybe that's the point, the sweetness of it all makes you a little bit warmer on the inside. Favorite moment: the cover of "Tonight You Belong to Me" from the Jerk. I was soooo waiting for that trumpet solo!!! (it didn't happen). A Mad Affair is one of those bands where, if I ever can find myself in a situation where I want to marry someone and I get that dream wedding by the lake with paper lanterns and a pig pickin', I'd love them to play.


Saturday: Gray Young in-store performance at Schoolkid's - 02/09/13

I forgot to take this after the show, I will never forgive myself.

Are you tired of hearing about Gray Young in my blog? HAHA TOO BAD. Okay seriously, if I had consistent access to U2 or Morrissey shows, the way I do to Gray Young, then you would only be seeing U2 posts. But I do not, so you see Gray Young posts...

the boys played for about 30-40 minutes worth of material from the new Album, Bonfire, which was released like... sometime... recently... I don't know... I should know. February... sometime. (I did the kickstarter thing and the guys know I am the superfan, so I've been hearing a lot of these songs for a while. and I got my vinyl copy in the mail a while back... but I did buy myself a CD version after the performance, just to cover all bases.) We also got a random Staysail song, which, I think we can all agree, is perfectly acceptable aka WONDERFUL.

Chas takes a random stroll around to browse the diverse selection of vinyl, mid-song... I AM KIDDING. he is just being awesome, as per yooshe.

I took 8,000 pictures, as is par for the course, but I feel this is the moral imperative as the self-appointed fanclub president. that being said, I REALLY LIKE THIS ONE, but it is quasi-Dopko deficient :/

I  haven't really gotten the chance to review Bonfire on the blog, but I am worried that I will come across as too gushy and biased (I am). I have thought about it since I first heard it a few weeks back, as to what I would say about it, but I keep coming to the conclusion that any attempt would be akin to a mother writing an essay about why her kid is the smartest and cutest kid in the world. 

DON'T FORGET: (Like I would let you): The CD Release Party with Wesley Wolfe and Bronzed Chorus has been rescheduled for March 29 at King's!!!

Here is how happy I am after a Gray Young show:

note: U2 shirt peeking out - unplanned but excellent!

Brian wanted me to close out my weekly review by giving the random guy playing acoustic Paul Simon cover songs, etc., in the front room at O'Malley's Pub last night. We had a brief discussion about being "that guy playing music at the front of the bar no one is looking at"... I've never been "that guy" - I am too ragingly ego-maniacal. I would break down and cause a scene, probably.

Other local music news 

(btw, anyone have any opinion or interest in the arbitrary "Just Announced shows" posts? They are fun for me to write and scoop other blogs, but I'm not sure if sticking with just the bi-weekly wrapups is the key or not. I'd be interested in your thoughts!)

• Just announced: The Black Keys and Flaming Lips at Walnut Creek, July 11. tickets on sale 02/15, or Black Keys fanclub presales go up Thursday, 02/14/13. That'd be a nice Valentines' gift, eh? I'd like to go to this and the prices seem reasonable ($30-$60) but I don't know, I was so spoiled by Hopscotch...
• WKNC has a thorough article up on their blog re: Art Lord and the Self-Portraits, who are playing their 10th anniversary show at King's Thursday night.They are playing with Lonnie Walker.  (Lonnie Walker opening for Future Islands??? WHOEVER HEARD OF SUCH A THING! - said no one ever.) Also Sam Herring (Future Islands) is playing a FREE show tonight in the front room of 506 tonight with Rapdragons and 83 Cutlass at 9pm - RANDOM!
• Brian John Mitchell aka Remora aka my boyfriend has launched a new Kickstarter campaign called "Droneuary" - "A month recording thirty hours of songs & drones of source material for Remora's new album." I couldn't be more proud. Also, it would appear that several local and not so local artists may appear on the recordings (including yours truly!)
•  This week: 
• Art Lord (aka Future Islands) at King's, Thursday (Valentine's Day) 02/14/13
• The Love Hangover at King's, Friday 02/15/13
• Caspian at Local 506, Saturday, 02/16/13

• Just Announced:
• WAVVES at King's, April 14th
• DUCKTAILS at King's, March 7th 
• FOALS in Charlotte at the Neighborhood Theater, May 1. With Surfer Blood. I gotta make this happen. I've tried to see Foals twice now. love them.They are also playing the Orange Peel in Asheville on June 12. Maybe I do both, eh???

Politeness is the flower of humanity.

I’ve only had a handful of “not cool, dude…” moments at shows. I can easily think of a few because they have stuck with me. When people are just selfish jerks at shows, I try to chalk it up to inexperience, youth, inebriation, or just ignorance… I don’t like to think that people who are just rude and lame like the same kinds of music and shows as me. I don’t want to be associated with assholes.

One of the more prominent memories of a “not cool, dude” show-moment was at Hopscotch 2011 right before Flaming Lips came out on stage. I was with a friend, had been greatly anticipating the possibility of Wayne Coyne going over my head in the big space bubble. My friend at the time had seen them previously and knew when and where to be to make this happen. The plan was to get in the right spot, let it happen and then back away. Yes, there were a lot of people, yes it was very crowded, but I think any seasoned show-goer knows, regardless of how bad you want to see a band, there is a) probably someone who wants to see them more and b) in standing room only shows, the crowd will shift. You will most likely not end a show in the same place you started. 

My friend and I, in an attempt to position ourselves in a generally decent path of the bubble trajectory, moved across the crowd. So traditionally, one would think, Flaming Lips fans would be pretty cool and chill. The crowd was dense, yes, but many people were shuffling. My friend and I were moving stage left and were met by an immobile steel wall of a 5’6” 20-something year old kid and his girlfriend (I am closer to 6’ than not, my friend was well over 6’2” – we were not intimidated). When we tried to squeeze past he literally leaned back and put his legs in front of me and spat something vile like “don’t be a fucking asshole, asshole!” and I was like …”bro. dude. Chill.”…and tried to move a little more behind him. he pushed back further and said something like “people like you ruin shows by rushing the stage!!!” and I sighed and said something like, “do you not see me moving across stage not pushing forward? My sister is over there, I need to get to her, please.” I, obviously, do not have a sister, but who cares. Kid spits back something like “fuck you!” and my taller than thou hippie friend, bound and determined to get me in position didn’t even respond at that point and simply leaned in full force and pushed dude a foot to the right and let us squeeze past. We moved away, a good 20 feet away from where this guy was, because that’s where we were headed … Just… not cool. I knew that guy wanted to see the show, too. good for him, but we were, at that point, not anywhere close to the stage, not anywhere close to the bubble-trajectory and still several moments from the show even starting. Fuck that kid, I got my video anyway. 

officially crossed this one off my Bucket List

Another similar situation happened at the Cat’s Cradle when I took Jess to see Drive By Truckers earlier this year. The show was not, by my standards, too overly crowded, so I thought it would be good for Jess to be front-ish and see his heroes live for the first time. There was really trashy, middle-aged, redneck chick down front that had claimed several foot of space not only for her person but for dancin’ room. When I tried to guide Jess towards the front she raised holy hell and practically attacked us for ruining her show experience. I grabbed her by the upper arm and spoke right in her ear and told her to chill out, let my boyfriend be up close for one song because he’d never seen them before and not to be so rude. This was, apparently, redneck-ian for “I want to fight you” because she kinda came at me. I held my hands up at her and said as best as I could “not cool, dude.” We stepped around her and moved away. You can’t reason with crazy. Especially drunk redneck crazy.

One time when I saw Future Islands at King’s, I had a girl scream at me and about 5 other people that we were being “disrespectful” to the band for dancing up front. Really? Had she ever even see Future Islands before?

Add to the list of total unabashed douchery pretty much any “hardcore” or “punk” show I have ever seen in Chapel Hill. Because traditionally dudes at like, say the 506, for hardcore shows are totally disrespectful towards women.

The inspiration for this post comes from a show I saw at King’s Saturday night, which I plan on making a separate post for entirely, because I don’t want any negativity to pop up in a review of a show that was 99.999% amazing and was only tainted momentarily by rudeness. At the very end of El Ten Eleven’s set I was practically shoved to the ground by a kid attempting to grab the set list out of my reaching hands. When I pleaded with him to let me have it, as I had been hoping for months and weeks to add it to my collection (I collect set lists, as many of you know) I was met with utter rudeness and it pissed me off. But the anger didn’t linger, as I later got to meet and speak with both Kristian and Tim and that is probably better anyway. I’ll post pics when I post about that show.

TL;DR:

If someone is very much, obviously, a superfan let them be. Give them their few minutes down front or let them act a fool. Unless, for some reason, you feel that your superfandom trumps theirs, in which case you should make friends with this person anyway and make plans for a “front and center” timeshare plan for the next time you see this band, because obviously you have something in common.

There is never any reason to get angry at someone because they want to see a band really bad. Especially at a smaller venue like King’s or Cat’s Cradle. I paid my $12 just like you, let’s be reasonable here. It’s not like these incidents I have experienced were all at mosh-tastic skinheads shows, for god’s sake.

Getting pissy at a show? Not cool, dude. Take a breather, let the drunk girl “woo!” and dance in front of you for a song or two and then wait for her to wander off. It’s gonna be okay.