Quarterlifeparty

Sometimes seeing a band live makes all the difference in the world.  In some instances those shows become better than listening to the album ever can be, it just adds something that can never quite be replicated like when you heard it played live.  A lot of these shows were just like that:

Tags: Uncategorized, live , top ten

We caught Ratatat last night on the last leg of their tour along with Panther and E*Rock for a night of nintendrone, gametronic, medieval video game rock, and whatever other words you can think of to describe the genre inspired by video game music (some more than others). The night began with E-rock dishing out his ADD (justice-inspired) blips and bleeps. I was standing right next to the speakers for part of his set and, although it wasn’t nearly as loud as MBV, it made the hair on my scalp tingle at times.

Tags: Uncategorized, erock , live , panther , ratatat

Oooo, Wye Oak and Shearwater in one night.. would have been a good night to be at the Hi-Dive in Denver. Head over to Flat Response to listen to and download both sets. Also check out a review of the show here.

For two people, Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack had a huge sound. Although Wasner’s girlish but resonantly powerful voice would have been impressive enough on its own, her guitar work was phenomenal, and for his part, Stack played great bass lines while also playing powerful, tribal drums. I don’t know if Wasner uses loops to accomplish her gigantic, sweeping riffs, but I did see her play some of the most interesting indie rock guitar lines of the last decade. Visions of having seen Helium and Yo La Tengo washed through my head as the band’s all-too-short set progressed.

Wye Oak “Magic Johnson” (Live @ The Hi-Dive, Denver)

This must be a new song and MAN does it have an awesome guitar riff in the end.

Tags: Uncategorized, live , shearwater , wye oak

Megan Lavelle is a friend of quarterlifeparty and had the chance to check out David Byrne at the lyric last night.  She was also awesome enough to capture some video.

I just had the privilege of celebrating my birthday (although a day late) with a couple of friends and a live performance from David Byrne. The second day of the tour offered a bit of a homecoming to the Baltimore native and you could feel it in the room. There was the classic Baltimore crowd: energetic (rowdy even), a standard kinetic rhythm, with the slight twinge of ganja in the air. Famously awkward, Byrne showed no signs of his wide shoulder-padded past. He joked with the crowd and transitioned between songs with ease displaying the most professional musicianship I have seen in quite awhile

Tags: Uncategorized, david byrne , live , review , video

A quick heads up, NPR Music will have a live recording of a great Radiohead show posted at noon today EST.

NPR.org, September 5, 2008 – When I think of the best concerts I’ve seen, I always flash back to Pink Floyd in early 1972. Almost two years before the band released what would become Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd performed the entire suite of songs to the amazement of us all. We’d never heard any of the songs (then titled Eclipse: A Piece for Assorted Lunatics), and with its quadrophonic sound, it remains the most massive musical surprise I’ve experienced.

Radiohead’s show at the Santa Barbara Bowl came as close for musicianship and creativity as any show I’ve seen in 37 years. I’ve seen a lot of shows.

Tags: Uncategorized, live , nprmusic , radiohead

After watching First Aid Kits cover of Fleet Foxes last night about 50 times I searched, not hard, for some other live footage of the girls. Good shite. Somtimes the voices remind me of Rilo Key (More Adventurous), sometimes the Swedish accent gets a little Bjorkish on some words, and sometimes they go a little Neko Case. But overall seeing these young girls sing about such depressing material gives me the shivers.

Playing Live on Belinda on TV8 (I love that show!)

First Aid Kit – “You’re Not Coming Home Tonight”

Tags: Uncategorized, first aid kit , live , video

Ok, I was really trying to find some Cardinals videos but ended up finding this. Not too bad for a youtube video, catches the very beginning of the show, 7 minutes long as they open with “Rock N Roll Star”

Tags: Uncategorized, live , oasis

Shearwater @ The Black Cat this year has held up for me as being one of the best live shows we had seen all year. Here is a live video of them playing recently at Florence Gould, NYC on 5.5.2008.  If anything, it gives you another chance to see thor.

Tags: Uncategorized, live , shearwater , video

Sifting through the Multitude of Ryan Adams blog posts every day is a little tough…So, thanks to Swear I’m Not Paul for posting these live tracks of new Ryan Adams tunes from last nights show at the filmore.

Tags: Uncategorized, live , ryan adams , video