The Benefaction of Bridges and Schools

Monday, October 23, 2006

The Benefaction of Bridges and Schools Current mood: ecstatic Alright people. For those of you that didn't make it to Bridge School Benefit this weekend, I feel very sad for you. Not only do I feel very sad for you, but I view you as largely unintelligent when it comes to music and attending concerts. For 50 dollars (that's right, the price of an eighth), we saw the following concert....... It started at 4. We weren't there...Kevin, Charles, Derek, Jordan, Keenan and myself. We were busy drinking Mickey's 40s in traffic. But we parked and made it in for the last half of Devandra Banhardt's (or however you spell that) set. It was decent. The crowd was thick...we managed to poach a spot dead center stage about halfway up the lawn. After Devandra, someone else came on. This too was mediocre. And then came the bands....I'm missing songs in almost every set list, but that's because they were ones I didn't know the names of...the rest I got... Death Cab for Cutie. Y'all know them. Hadn't seen these guys live before, but it was an excellent venue. The melancholy hopefulness of their songs fit perfectly in my mind with the Bridge School theme. They came out and played one song I didn't know, Title and Registration, Brothers on a Hotel Bed, Summer Skin and Soul Meets Body...so, mainly new stuff, but Title and Registration was by far my favorite. Then came the highlight of the show. Everyone in the group was excited for Trent Reznor, but no one was prepared for him. Our thoughts were a band, some acoustic, probably a lot of him on piano. Well, we got a lot of him on piano, but no one would have predicted that he would come out with a full string quartet playing arrangements of his songs as he sang and played the keys. These string players were amazing...the drums, the pounding pulse of a lot of his songs, were all brought out on these instruments. He started with an intro off the Fragile, Something I Can Never Have, Pig, La Mer, The Fragile, Right Where I Belong, a song I didn't know and then closed with, of course, Hurt. We were hurt when he left...by far the most amazing and spectacular performance of the evening. Following Trent came the Foo Fighters. They played two or three songs that I missed because of the outrageously long bathroom lines (this was a problem ALL evening. The songs I caught were Hero, Big Me, Skin and Bones and Times Like These. A decent, spirited performance that the crowd seemed to like. Next came Mr. Wilson from the Beach Boys. He asked if people had heard of this album called Pet Sounds and then proceeded to rip off a set of old favorites that kept the baby boomers happy (after Trent and Foo Fighters, they were probably wondering why they had bought tickets to the show)...Wouldn't It Be Nice, Sloop John B, God Only Knows (most of us remember this as the Big Love theme song now), Do You Wanna Dance, I Get Around, Help Me Rhonda, Good Vibrations, Johnny B. Goode, Surfin' USA and Daddy Took the Tbird Away (not really sure what the name of that one is, but I think you're picking up what I'm putting down)...He had by far the most complete band of the evening, over 7 people on stage singing and playing various instruments. Pearl Jam came on next. Vedder looked less drunk than I expected of him, but I guess Bridge School brings out the moderate in all of us. They played several songs I didn't know, as well as Daughter, Better Man and Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in a Small Town, the last of which is my favorite due to memories of Jaclyn Zimmerman's house and the overall feeling of it. They played a great set, as well as playing Throw Your Hatred Down with Neil off the Mirror Ball album. Then came that band that some of us know, some of us like, and a few of us used to think had incredible promise to be the best band ever......Dave Matthews Band. Dave's set was decent, but really, for the setting and the feeling of the show, I thought they didn't play as many rares and acoustic type songs as they should have. They played Loving Wings, easily one of my new favorites (reminds me of a more up tempo Seek Up in the texture), followed by a stream of radio hits that kept me vomiting in my mouth....Grace is Gone, Warehouse, Ants Marching and Cortez the Killer with Neil Young. We stayed for the beginning of Neil's set, but he didn't even come on until like 12:30 or so. It was 12:45 when we walked to the parking lot and he was still playing, and trust me, after seeing all those bands play all that incredible music, when Neil came out, it was, to be honest, a bit of a buzz kill. But, for anyone who's ever spent 50-60 dollars on a ticket to see one band, you gotta know that the concert I just described was worth it. 8 + hours of incredible music, acoustic style, with fantastic bands and a great crowd (we smoked a lot of pots)...If you've never been to Bridge School, remember this blog when it comes time to buy tickets next October.

When Chemistry Cuts

Saturday, October 21, 2006

When Chemistry Cuts Current mood: shocked Category: Music Boy, let me tell you something....you do NOT want to mess with Cut Chemist. He will chew you up and spit you out. He'll burn the vinyl on the turn tables and then leave you dripping with the wax. Saw Lyrics Born and Cut at the Independent last night...Lyrics Born is alright...lots of energy, but just a little too much poppy sounding, up beat stuff. He had a live band, which was cool and all, but really, in the range of hip hop shows I've seen, save your money and go see Del on Nov. 16th. Then up comes Cut. Cut, for those that don't know, is a slightly overweight scruffy white guy with crazy hair that sweats profusely. His set up includes two CD turntables with a mixer and two regular turn tables with a mixer. His friend sits on the side of the stage with a lap top and controls the visuals which range from old stock tv/movie footage, post apocalyptic images, music video clips to a close up camera angle looking down on his turn tables as he works. I've seen quite a few DJs spin in my life. Technique, speed, as well as an ability to put a set together are all important. I have never been more impressed with a mixer than I was with this guy. His set was impeccable, and for as much scratching and mixing as he did, he was still able to keep the audience dancing throughout. His technique was unrivaled...the scratches all fit, the drum machine he worked kept punching in and his ability to incorporate the cds and the wax at once was, to be honest, a bit frightening. You have to wonder if the guy's mind is as fragmented as his musical ADD would suggest. And then comes the speed. I thought I had seen fast fingers watching the Baraka scene where the sweatshop workers roll cigarettes. I thought I had seen fast fingers using Mavis Beacon. I wasn't prepared for this guy. He uses all ten of his fingers on the mix levers and volume controls, and the speed in which he uses them makes you wish the camera on him had slow mo so you could figure out what the hell he's actually doing. There were times during the show when I was a bit breathless from trying to keep up with his hands. Finally, as the show's winding down, he stops the music and tells the audience that he's gonna try something, and it might not work out, but if it does, he warns, it'll be sick. He pulls out a video camera, plugs the mic into the stereo and starts recording. He records himself saying hello to San Francisco, hyping the show, and then records three people from the audience saying their names and where they're from. He then puts the camera down and starts mixing another song...kinda slow, but you can tell his visual tech is working on something. Finally, the visual gives Cut the thumbs up, and the video monitors behind the tables start showing the video he just made. At the same time, he drops the Chemical Calisthenics beat off Blackalicious' Blazing Arrow album. As the instrumental of that plays, his set up has allowed him, through his turn tables, to control the video on the screen and the sound accompanying it. At this point, he literally starts mixing and scratching the video on the screen, doing so in a way that the sounds and people talking on the video go with the beat of the song (and if you've heard the song, you know that's not the easiest of tasks)...but he scratches the video through the entire song, and the last clip he recorded has him saying, "Good night San Francisco, much love," which he throws on scratchless after the last beat of Calisthenics fades out, walking off the stage. Good night San Francisco indeed.

P-Fest to Remember

Sunday, October 15, 2006

P-Fest to Remember Current mood: bouncy I woke up around 10 am, still hungover, and wondering what it might take to have a somewhat normal day. Bloody Marys seemed like an excellent way to accomplish this. Mix that with a joint, and before I can get the taste of tomato juice out of my mouth, I've got a funnel coming at me. By 12, as we're leaving the house, the sky is starting to look slightly drunk, and I'm starting to feel slightly cloudy. We walk to Cameron's Pub for a few pints and a joint on the Smoking Bus (complete with tvs, how cool is that?) and eventually, we spill out onto Main Street among the throngs. Cameron, Charles, myself, 2 Kelseys, Kevin, Kelly, Jessie, Derek, Alan. It's food, it's smoke, it's masses, pumpkins, calamari, chowder, more pumpkins. We get beers, but they're five bucks. For the rest of the afternoon, it's 22s of Corona poured into empty cups costing a fraction of the price. Jessie decides to make it a practice of the day to run into people she doesn't want to see, while we stagger around from party to party, failing to make it to the free keg somewhere down Miramontes. Or was it Spruce? By the time we've rolled through the festival, making friends with cops on the way, not many of us are standing straight. We stagger back to house where the adults have brought in themselves and food to feed everyone. Mashed taters, Cesar, tri tip, beer, wine, etc. By about 10 o'clock, my memory starts to fade a little bit. I think it was that shot of tequila someone told me would be a good idea. Or maybe the rest of the dope we burned through. After all that, I pass out on the couch, and wake up this morning to start all over again with Mickey's and the 49ers game.

The Move

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

The Move Current mood: blank Been looking all over the place, and gotta say I love the places I've seen in the city. Some of them are too small, yes, or in bad parts of town, and all of them are overpriced, but just the act of looking, of feeling the streets breathe around you, is exhilarating. I've been driving around so much, I think I could be a pretty decent cab driver in the near future. After searching everywhere, Jessie and I are pretty sure we found a place, although I'm not gonna say where so it doesn't get jinxed. In other news, the Giants let us all down again, the Niners are on their way to the playoffs (with a little help from other divisional teams), and somehow, in early October, there's already not many sports of interest for the fairweather bay area fans. Here's to bringing Bonds back next year and having him pay us! This weekend is the Pumpkin Festival. While city dwellers believe that nothing outside the outer Mission boundaries is worth driving to, I can tell y'all that you should get on over. Keg and bbq at my mom's place. On a final note.......I've been reliving my college days recently, so if you're out and about or want to be out and about, hit me up.