NIN / JA (part one)

I’m starting at the end, with the Jane’s Addiction portion of the show.  The really cool part about this particular concert was that due to the control the organizers had over the rules, camera’s were allowed into the venue.

There’s no tip-toeing around the issue, the Jane’s Addiciton portion of the show was quite disappointing to me.  Disappointing enough that I made the executive decision to leave early, and my wife didn’t object.

Two reasons why it was a let down: Perry Ferrel and Dave Navarro.  Sure, without these people, there is no Jane’s Addition concert…  Ferrel simply can’t do it anymore.  He was missing lyrics all the time.  It seemed as if he couldn’t keep up at all.  If I had to judge by his performance and his conversation with the audience, he’s too fried from past excesses.  Navarro? He just seemed to be phoning it in with little to no enthusiasm.

The rest of the band, Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins, played with more fire and were quite sharp with their skills.  They were the best part of the Jane’s Addiction performance.

I did get to hear most of my favorite songs: Mountain Song, Three Days, Then She Did.  Too bad the lyrics were all messed up.  This was not nearly as good as the 1991 Jane’s Addiction show at the same venue.

The Ting Tings – 3 April, 2009

We’ve all heard the iTunes commercial [link] with The Ting Tings.  I remember checking the song out then, and not being compelled to purchase anything or check further into the group.  But once there was an NPR story about them, my wife started getting more into them, and then their music got into my head…  In a good way.

So she checked into whether they were touring, and sure enough they had some US dates coming up.  Not Indy, because we don’t get much in the way of concerts compared to many other municipalities.  The Chicago show sold out quickly, but there was a show in St. Louis that was pretty affordable for a concert.  So we decided to try and catch the show.  Things fell in line, and we were able to go.

The venue was The Pageant, which is a very cool venue that seems somewhere in-between the sizes of The Riveria (Chicago) and Newport (Columbus, OH).  The sound quality seemed to be very good…

The opening act was HotTub, which pretty much was not my favorite thing.  Some good beats and use of rhythm, but it was a wannabe MIA rap act that’s more annoying then they are talented.  But they have a MySpace page with 4800 friends…

The Ting Tings came on, and delivered.  They only have the one album with 10 songs, and I think they played all their songs – so everyone was pretty happy to get their favorites played.  There were little changes to the songs that the crowd loved that also played to the musical ability of the group.  I was particularly impressed by the talent of Jules De Martino.

The disapointing part of the show was that there was either a backstage musician, or a sequencer working overtime during most of the show.  I think the addition of a single, multi-talented, stage musician would have added a better sound quality.  Don’t get me wrong, the performance quality was great, but it could have been a little better.

The Ting Tings are a young act, so we’ll see what they can follow this up with.  If their next album is good, then I’d expect their live show to continue to be a good time.

Jane’s Addiction 1991

In honor of the upcoming NIN / Jane’s Addiction show here this summer, I decided to recall my first outdoor concert experience.

So let me set the stage…  I began to veer towards alternative / rock music when I was about 14ish.  It was about the time I put down the violin and picked up the electric bass.  Music became one of the more important things in my life…

When I found out Jane’s Addiction was coming to town, I was dying to go as I couldn’t stop listening to Ritual De Lo Habitual.  I also collected anything about the bands I loved from many guitar rags as well as the typical Rolling Stone…  But no one else in my friends or family was really into them, so I resigned myself to letting it slip away.

Then I got a surprise.  My brother’s wife’s company had a season pass at Deer Creek, and no one from the company wanted to go see Jane’s Addiction.  So he offered to take me.  As an FYI, he’s the more “hip” brother who taught me how to play bass.

Bonus, the tix were in the VIP box seats.  Quite a way to have your first concert experience at the local outdoor venue…

We got there, and it’s a good size outdoor arena with a large lawn section that was closed for this concert (I’ve seen or heard of another concert with the lawn closed since).  We took the seats and unenthusiastically watched the opening act, The Rollins Band.  I was completely unmoved. by their performance which seemed like more noise than music.

Jane’s Addiction came on to a very enthusiastic crowd that rushed the stage very shortly into the opening song to pack the pit area up against the stage more than I’ve ever seen since.  It was quite a surreal experience for me at that age.  My concert experience up to then had been quite limited, and this was completely different than I imagined.

But I took it all in and relished in seeing all the songs I’d built up to epic status in my head.  Three Days…  Mountain Song…  Stop…  Been Caught Stealing…  Pigs in Zen…  It was an awesome show that showcased the musical talent at work with Perkins and Navarro standing out the most.

I’d end up going back to Deer Creek (which is now Verizon Wireless Music Center) later the next summer for Van Halen / Alice in Chains…  Quite a different show, and not as good…  But that’s for another time.

A Week of Concerts in 1994

If someone were to ask me what my favorite concert experience was, I’d not hesitate to answer a week in 1994.  It’s all about semantics when asking questions.  I was amidst my big explosion of my musical appreciation from a musician standpoint, and this week had me going to 3 concerts that I anticipated each and every one for different reasons.

The first Concert: Nine Inch Nails / The Jim Rose Circus / Marilyn Manson

This was my second time seeing them on this tour, but the last show was not all general admission, so I was looking forward to not sitting up high to keep tabs on everyone’s t-shirts.  The arena itself was an ok size (a little smaller than the venue we had seen them at before). The acoustics seemed a little harsh – but who really cares when you’re as close to the stage as we were?

Marilyn Manson was the first opening act, and they had begun to take off in-between the last time we saw them and this time.  Most of the people on the floor knew many of their songs, so the crowd was definitely much more into it.  The pit was pretty rough.  There was some weird stuff happening on stage, but we were having fun.

The Jim Rose Circus was as entertaining as always.  Pretty much the same show as in Muncie, but much closer this time.

The NIN show was very similar to the last show.  But the experience of being up close completely changed it for me.  I came and went from the pit depending on the intensity of the song played.  It was a surreal experience being in the pit during the movie-screen portion of the set.  I had to step out of the pit for a few after I got a minor case of vertigo from looking up at the large screen and moving with the pit.

The show was better than Muncie, and I left quite drained from the pit.  I bought two gallons of water at a gas station on the way home that evening – one to dump on me and one to drink.  It was a fitting way to end the week.

The second concert: Helmet / Quicksand / Orange 9mm

As soon as I hear that Helmet was on tour, I wanted to go.  When I heard Quicksand was with them, I HAD to go.  I was (am) a big fan of their (then) current albums.  I went to the show with two great friends who were at the NIN concert as well.

None of us were aware of any other attached acts, but we thought there’d be one.  None of us had ever heard of Orange 9mm but their tone and ferocity took us, and the crowd by storm.  Minor pits started up from time to time, but nothing that didn’t fizzle out due to the crowd not being completely developed.  It was still more than good enough for two of us to pick up their CD immediately after their set.

Quicksand came on, and you could tell that there was a decent amount of crowd anticipation.  I was so looking forward to seeing them, but their set was only so-so.  Partially because they didn’t quite pull off the meticulous nature of their recorded music, and partially because there was a decent portion of the crown not really into them.

By the end of their set, we had worked our way up to about 2-3 people behind the barrier just barely left of center. We set up camp there until Helmet came on.

The crowd was very much anticipating their arrival, and when the first song hit its stride, the crowd up front just exploded.  Jumping and moving with their trademark stop-start style that gave a rhythm to the crowd.  The pit intensity picked up with the harder, more driven parts of the songs.

It was one of the better performances I’ve been up close at a general admission venue to experience.  I would have waited around after the show to try and meet any of the guys, but the next day I had that pesky thing called school and another concert to go to at the very same venue.

The third concert: Fishbone / Weapon of Choice

The previous summer was my first Lollapaloza experience.  Right in the midst of the lineup was Fishbone, which I was already a fan of because of the wonderful album The Reality of My Surroundings.  It was a great experience, and I jumped at the chance to go see them in a smaller, more intimate venue.

My two friends from the Helmet/Quicksand concert were going as well.  What can I say, We had a lot of overlap in our musical preferences.  My then girlfriend came along too…  She was on the brink of being very ill with the flu, but she really wanted to goregardless.  We got there early enough to be up against the stage.

We were all very impressed with the showmanship of the opening act, Weapon of Choice.  They were a perfect fit to open for a band like Fishbone, but their studio albums weren’t good enough for me to follow up on it.  It still ramped up the audience pretty well.  It was getting crowded up front, and my girlfriend was beginning to run a higher fever.

Fishbone coming out was a lot of fun.  For those of you who don’t know, it’s a larger band with a horn section and all.  They have quite the selection of stage attire, and stage persona that make the concert experience very fun.

I specifically remember hearing many of the more popular songs from The Reality of My Surroundings.  Notably “Fight the Youth”, “Everyday Sunshine”, and I think I remember hearing my personal favorite “So Many Millions”.

The concert was going well, but my girlfriend was feeling more and more dazed.  Not only was she sick, but she’d never been to a concert with a mosh pit in a small venue.  I ended up standing behind her with my arms locked on each side to keep her from getting swept away or pressed against the barrier.

The concert was probably between 1/2 and 2/3 of the way done when everything ground to a halt.  The drummer (Philip “Fish” Fisher) stopped and made everyone else on stage stop the song.  He began talking into his mike with the intention of getting the crowd riled up.  He basically called out my girlfriend (even pointing directly at her with a drumstick) for looking dazed and not as into the concert as he’d like her to be.  We were shocked, horrified, and appalled (myself more so because she was a bit out of it from the fever).  We immediately extracted ourselves from the crowd and left.

I’ve listened to their music some since, but I’ll never support the band again after such a display of calling out a fan in the middle of a set for the complete wrong reasons.

It was a downer to end the week on, but not enough to diminish was was what I look back on as “the week of concerts”.

Foo Fighters (2008)

Who: Foo Fighters
Where: Conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis
When: July 23, 2008

I’m not one to make any deal out of my birthday, but it’s always a treat when a concert I want to see happens to fall on my birthday as it did in ‘08.  My wonderful wife got some pretty good tix that included access to the VIP area and a parking pass (thanks honey).

This was the second time I’ve seen the Foo Fighters.  The first time was in the summer of 2000 in Portland Maine at the Cumberland Arena while they were touring with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. That was a great show.

Since then, the Foo Fighters have released a number of albums.  I only own one of them, but I’ve not bought many albums in the past many years compared to my previous music purchasing.  Regardless, I jumped at the chance to see them again because Dave Grohl a legend and they’re good in concert.

This concert was good, but it was a little different from my expectations.

Cool parts of the concert. The long walkway from the main stage to a smaller stage at the other end of the arena floor… It was a good way to spread the love for better seats at any one time during the concert. They played most of the songs I wanted to hear. Dave is a very funny man, and it comes through in his interaction with the audience.

Not so cool parts of the concert. I’ve never been a huge fan of the Acoustic version of “My Hero” and he played a different version of “Everlong” that didn’t really do much for me. There were 4 screens behind the stage that moved on a vertical mechanism – but the live video that it played from cameramen was always about 1/4 a second behind live (pretty annoying). The worst parts of the show was that there was more of the stereotypical older rock show things like a drum solo and a few instances of dueling guitar.  This very may have been part of Dave’s sense of humor, but I felt that these things detracted from the experience. They are all great musicians, far beyond the skill of most – but none of them are as good as you’d expect to see in the soloist type concerts (i.e. Van Halen).  Their strong suit has always been the combination of phenomenal songwriting, showmanship, and sense of humor.

As a whole, the concert was very good. Harder than I remember during most parts, but that was brought down with the acoustic elements of the show. Sometimes the band was 4 members, but on certain songs that swelled to 7 (even including founding member Pat Smear from time to time).  I’m not sure that many other musicians was necessary – especially the violin / cello.

But if you’re a fan of the Foo, I recommending seeing them.  I’m not sure how you’d be disapointed. It was a standard fare, good ‘ol rock ‘n roll show that was a good one to see given the lack of concerts over the past few years.

music of the live performance variety

Music is a big part of my life. I was raised with a healthy mix of classical, classic rock, and what was then contemporary. I picked up electric bass in 7th grade, and transitioned into a basic knowledge of guitar and percussion over the next few years.  This continued until about 4 to 5 years ago where I turned my creative output to digital media of a visual nature instead. But music is still a big part of my life.

My concert attendance started around the age of 8, and really took off around the time that I got my drivers license.  My concert attendance dropped off sometime around when the playing of instruments started to fade into the past. But I have a lot of fond memories of concerts and music that I rehash like everything else in my past.

I’m going to try and do a little bit of a series on my past music / concert experiences and also write about new concerts that I attend. But the best intentions quite often end up going nowhere. But it’s something I remember constantly and think I’d like to write about in this forum.