Category Archives: Live Shows

Missed Festival, Wedding, & 3OH3!

I’ve had a few days off now and it all comes to an end in less than 5 hours.  I took some time away from work to be with friends as one of us was getting married.  I normally do not like weddings as they are very formal and of course I am not a church goer.

I feel like I canceled some plans too in order to attend the wedding.  I thought I told Matt that I was going to hook up with him sometime this weekend as he and his friend were going to be in Kent for We The People Fest.  I told Matt that my wife and I were possibly going to see Hawthorne Heights and Ben Taylor play at the fest on Friday and also check out the rest of the event but in turn we decided to crash the wedding rehearsal party.  Saturday was an all day event for the wedding, and Sunday we were too pooped to go out there and see the final day, plus the Cleveland Browns were playing. (Finally, a win!)

Sorry Matt…  I hope it was a good time. I hope you can forgive me and tell me a little about it…if you went.

I am sorry too, Chuck Norris, as I know you were speaking on Sunday.  I know you wanted me to be there.

So let me tell you a little about the wedding…

My friends Sam and Ryan decided to tie the knot.  Sam is a few years younger than me and I have known him for a while.  He grew up in the same city as I did.  I met him through friends and thanks to beer and punk rock music we became friends.

Sam met Ryan, they fell in love, and got married.  They had a wedding locally and my wife and I were invited along with plenty of friends. The neat thing about the wedding is that it was sort of a punk rock wedding with a lot of guests being in local punk rock acts at one time or currently.  Sam wore Chuck Taylors as did the groomsmen and when the happy couple entered the reception hall “Hey Ho Let’s Go” was played.

I sat at a table with my friends who some were also members of The Facials.  They are a Cleveland punk rock band that has played tons of shows in Cleveland and Akron as well has opened for Rancid and UK Subs.  They are currently working on a new album and I will be sure to share it once it is pressed.

Also as the wedding were friends of mine who were once in the now defunct punk acts such as the Narcoleptics X5, the Beat Kids, and Novallos.  Its been a while since some of the bands played local shows.  It was awesome to see that even that some of the bands separated that they still remained friends.  The groom was actually a member of all three of the bands.

At one time during the day, the former drummer of Novallos, Ryan,  was sitting next to me at a bar in between the wedding and reception, and we were talking about how he moved to Colorado and recently moved back.  Before long we started talking about music.  He asked me if I was at the Warped Tour this summer and when I said I was he asked if I saw a band called 3OH3!.  I said hell yes.

I told Ryan that I loved 3OH3! and caught their entire set at the Warped Tour.  Knowing that they were from Colorado I already knew what he was going to tell me.  He knew them.  I was stoked to hear Ryan tell stories about them. He then told me that they would be playing in Cleveland in November and asked me and my wife if we wanted to hang out with them.  I thought that was pretty awesome.  We shall see what happens.

The band is relatively new but has been making a strong impact on many music lovers.  Their mix of emo, punk, and crunk really made me a fan.  I reviewed their debut Want and will post it in my archives on here.

If I do happen to kick it with 3OH3! I will be sure to let you all know how it was.

Face To Face Reunion?

I was just killing some time tonight when I came upon a post on Punknews.Org stating that Face To Face has started a reunion tour.  Excuse me???  Apparently I have been out of the loop because I thought the band called it quits for good in 2002.  I really hadn’t heard anything from them since.

Face To Face is a So.Cal punk rock band that was one of my favorites in the late nineties.  Their one song that got major attention was “Disconnected”…

I am not sure yet if the band is going to only tour a couple of cities at this time in the US and overseas or if they will take it one step further and create and album together.  I would love to see a new Face To Face album as they are one of those punk bands I wish never broke up.

I have been aware that front man Trevor Keith has been doing his own thing since the band split.  In fact he has been doing a few things…a few things I was not entirely aware of.

First there is his solo material he has been working on and his label Antagonist Records.  I had no idea Trevor Keith has been working on creating music on his own.  Earlier this year he released his solo album Melancholics Anonymous.  The album is available on his website via download for 5 bucks or you can send him some of your cold hard cash and he’ll send you a CD if he has any left.  I am going to be dishing out 5 bucks myself so I can check it out.  He has the album streaming on his site and from what I hear I like so far.

Then there is Legion Of Doom, a mash-up project like no other featuring Trevor Keith and producer Chad Blinman.  The duo remixes emo, punk, and hip hop songs as well as creates original material, some of which have been featured in films.  I have been a fan of this project for a couple of year now when I accidentally came across a remix of Senses Fail and Coheed & Cambira….

I love the sound of the two bands clashing together, it’s perfect (but you have to like the bands to appreciate it too of course).  I also got a kick out of Claudo’s shorter hair on the video….  This song and others were released on Legion Of Doom’s debut CD called Incorporated.  The CD is well out of print but you can find it out there in the digital world, I know I did.

Ben Folds Five Reunites – Kinda.

Today would be the day where I wished I lived in North Carolina.

My good pal Matt already talked about this event a few weeks back on Addicted To Vinyl.  I previously had heard about it before he reminded me it was not a dream but had not had time to write anything about it until now.

Ben Folds once had a hit this big.
Ben Folds once had a hit this big.

Thanks to MySpace, Ben Folds Five reunited tonight to play a special show in their native homeland at the University of North Carolina.  The band helped launch MySpace’s new music feature “Front To Back”.  “Front To Back” pretty much sums up the idea, a selected band will play an entire album of theirs front to back for a special benefit show that later will be available on the “Place For Friends” website for public viewing.

Ben Folds was asked to play the premier “Front To Back” show originally solo but chose to contact his past band mates to see if they would get together for a special situation.  Thanks to good timing, bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee agreed to perform. The band never really broke up but then again they never have stayed together.  In fact it has been just about 10 years since Ben Folds Five released their last album, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner – the very album they played front to back tonight.  All three members agreed to play their last recording live to many lucky fans who nabbed tickets to the sold out show.

Proceeds from the sales of the show will benefit Operation Smile, a nonprofit organization that helps children with facial deformities.

Ben Folds Five does not plan on continuing to tour after tonight as they all have their own projects going on.  I just hope that perhaps one day in the future they will come together and put out a Ben Folds Five album once again.

Ben Folds has his new album Way To Normal dropping at the end of this month and I can not tell you how excited I am to hear it.

Here is a video from the new release featuring Regina Spektor as well stars Tim and Eric from the Tim & Eric Show on Adult Swim.

You Dont Know Me (featuring Regina Spektor)

And for those of you that hadn’t heard, Ben Folds himself leaked Way To Normal to the internet himself.  The catch was that the leak was actually 6 fake songs the artist recorded in only 8 hours.  You can read more about it on RollingStone.Com.  The guy is a hilarious genius.

Here are a few more videos from Ben Folds & Ben Folds Five I enjoy:

This is a cover of The Postal Service I randomly came accross…
Such Great Heights

Bad Religion @ Cleveland Agora – 1996

Wow did I ever find a gem today on YouTube.

Bad Religion
Bad Religion

For almost 20 minutes this evening I flashed back to one of my favorite concerts ever 12 years ago.  I remember the line up vividly.  It was The Gray Race Tour featuring Bad Religion with special guests Unwritten Law and Dance Hall Crashers at the infamous Cleveland Agora.

I was fresh out of high school, reckless, and an avid punk rocker.  I went to the show with a big group of friends….we took our friend’s mom’s van that had the worst suspension ever.  In fact we had to turn around on route 422 and swap the van out with another friend’s mom’s van.

One thing I recall about that show was there there were cameras all over the place, professional cameras.  The cameras were on the balconies of the Agora as well as on the shoulders of cameramen.  My friends and I got excited because we were going to be filmed during the performance.  We hoped it would be released on VHS (that’s right kids, DVDs did not exist back then).

I owe that tour for introducing SoCal Surf/Skate punk rockers Unwritten Law to me.  I am still a fan of them today.  During their performance I noticed the cameras were not rolling so we all agreed that the camera were there only for Bad Religion.

When Bad Religion took stage we all went insane.  I remember moshing and dancing and just acting like a complete fool.  At times I was just falling on people and letting them push me around as I sang at the top of my lungs.  I was being a carefree 19 year old and was loving every moment of it.  For the record, I was sober too…I got carded when I tried to buy beers….haha.

As the years passed I slowly forgot about that show.  Since none of us could ever hunt down that footage of the show we all figured it was lost.  A few weeks ago one of my buddies who went to that show with me called me telling me he saw some footage of the show on YouTube.  I was in disbelief yet thrilled that it surfaced.  Well thanks to my busy like I completely forgot about that phone conversation until today when I logged onto YouTube and looked it up.

Sure enough, it’s Bad Religion at the Cleveland Agora 1996.  It was a sold out show.  My friends and I were front row slightly to the right of center stage.  I laughed when I saw the pit because I know I was a part of it.  I remember it so clearly and now you can see what I experienced…

Part I:

Part II:

Other footage:

Concert Review: Bjork @ KeySpan Park, Brooklyn, NY, 08/23/03

It’s always a good feeling when you see someone you think you know from your past, walk up to them, introduce yourself, and immediately start reminiscing about something you did five years ago.

This happened to me the other night while I was outside a little café restaurant in Little Italy with my wife, her sister, and her sister’s boyfriend. I was sitting there chatting when I noticed the name of the café and immediately thought about the time I saw Bjork live with a group of newly found friends mainly because the one guy I went with to the show worked at the very restaurant I was sitting at called La Dolce Vita.

I thought for a second about the insane spur of the moment trip that four of us went on in 2003 to see Bjork play in Coney Island at KeySpan Park. I kept trying to think of the one guy’s name that worked at La Dolce Vita and finally figured it out…Gordo. A short while later I randomly glanced around the area just gathering in the beautiful scenery of Little Italy and a gentleman walked from the restaurant entryway and sat at the table next to us.

This guy looked very familiar to me but I started thinking that there was no way that this guy I went to the show with would still be working at this café 5 years later. I continued in our conversation and could see him looking at me with the same puzzled thought in his head telling him that he knew me from somewhere.

Finally I had enough and walked up to him, tapped him on the shoulder, and asked “Is your name Gordo? I think once upon a time ago you and I went on a crazy trip to see Bjork.” His response was a giant smile and he stood up and gave me a hug. We started talking about the crazy trip we took and how much fun it was. After our brief conversation we finished by saying we would meet up again sometime soon now that I knew were he worked still.

Driving home I started thinking about that trip we took. I never really reviewed shows back then and the more I got thinking about it I wanted to write a little something about my experience. Past entries here already subjected my love for the Icelandic wonder Bjork and I am happy to say that I saw her once live.

Bjork Live in Coney Island 08/23/2003
Bjork Live in Coney Island 08/23/2003

It was summer of 2003 and I was working for the coffee shop in a Borders Books & Music. During that summer I had made a new friend who also dug Bjork. One day I found out that Bjork and Sigur Ros were playing for two nights at Coney Island and that was about the closest she was coming to Cleveland.

Jokingly one day I told my new friend we should travel to Brooklyn, NY to see Bjork live since she was not coming to us and my friend agreed. I knew my friend was serious, so we discussed plans to make this really happen.  Neither of just ever traveled afar to see a concert and the more we spoke about it, the more it became something we really wanted to do.

Bjork was playing two shows at KeySpan Park in Coney Island, one on Friday and one on Saturday. I was only able to make it to the Saturday show as I had tickets at the Radiohead show the Thursday before we were headed to Brooklyn. I also had to be back at Borders on Sunday night for inventory, no exceptions. This trip was going to be short lived and quick. We planned to leave Friday night and arriving to Coney Island sometime Saturday and opted to drive back home after the show. Based upon everything else that was going on, this was the only way it would work.

Within one week a car was rented, tickets were purchased, and myself, two girls, and the guy named Gordo packed into a Ford Taurus and drove though the night with just a printed out map to Coney Island. The drive was tedious through the late night, not to mention my first long road trip. We arrived luckily to Coney Island without getting lost but had a half of day to kill. Having never been to NYC we just stayed close to the venue, checked out the amusement park nearby, had lunch in the Brighton Beach area, and even took a nap in a nearby park.

With a couple more hours to kill we sat next to the rental car in the parking lot of the venue watching all of the people lining up to the sold out event. Some random guy asked us if he could pay to us to store his bag in our trunk as he had taken the subway to the venue and his hotel plans fell though. I told him as long as he met us immediately after the show I had no problem. My nice gesture paid off as he stated he was waiting in line right by the entrance way to the venue and took us there. We avoided the hour plus wait to get inside the baseball field turned concert venue.

Bjork Live in Coney Island 08/23/2003
Bjork Live in Coney Island 08/23/2003

Opening for Bjork and Sigur Ros was Bonnie Prince Billy. I had never heard of Bonnie Prince Billy and can not say after the performance I wanted to. It was a little too folksy for me and maybe it was I was just exhausted from the long day, but I just did not care for him.

Sigur Ros was amazing. Having heard some of their material before I was really psyched to see how they would pull off a live performance. Their music sounded on point and the band played on and the crowed listened in silence. Perhaps I was just to eager to see Bjork after waiting so long because s’ towards the end of Sigur Ros’ set I can remember me feeling like they would never leave the stage.

It was around 9:30pm when Bjork finally took stage. This long day finally paid off finally.  The cute unique artist took stage wearing an interesting outfit as expected.  

I was lucky enough to obtain floor tickets that were general admission so I was free to roam the grounds. I found a place that I could see the stage and hung out with Gordo as the girls squeezed their way up front. Gordo and I had the perfect view of the beautiful Bjork and had no reason to move.

Cheers erupted as Bjork and crew began their set with “Hunter”. Some people were singing along, some danced, and others like myself just stared with a happy smile on their face. Other tracks I enjoyed live was “Joga” and “All Is Full Of Love” and they seemed to sound even better live. I kept looking around telling myself that this was not a dream and that I actually drove all the way to NYC to see her.  It was one heck of a feeling I had at that moment.

In between songs a soft spoken Bjork would give a simple “thank you” to the crowd.  Many laughed at the cuteness of her voice.  There were hardly any pauses in the set and when Bjork was not singing she was hopping around the stage dancing and having her own fun.

Bjork Live in Coney Island 08/23/2003
Bjork Live in Coney Island 08/23/2003

I experienced one of the greatest shows I have ever seen in my life. Adding to the perfect weathered outdoor feel were mild pyrotechnics during a couple of the tracks. At one time fireworks were being set off on the beach behind the field. It was just perfect. I loved every minute of it especially the part where I experienced Bjork live. As much as I wanted to attend both shows I feel grateful I was able to witness one of them. It was an experience I knew I would never forget.

Before I knew it she was exiting the stage after her encore closer of “Human Behaviour” and we filed out of the venue to our car. The guy who helped us cut in line was waiting at the car. We all spoke of the show and the girls ran up to us with tears of joy in their eyes. It was a great feeling we all had at that moment. We said goodbye to the man with the bag and hopped in the car.

Everyone was exhausted including me who already had driven all the way to Brooklyn earlier that day. I felt awake enough to drive the first leg of the trip. At first we all joyfully spoke of Bjork and the girls stated they made it to the front row. The excitement simmered down quick though and before I knew it everyone was asleep. Still feeling the show, I popped in a Bjork CD and continued to drive home. The two of us drove though the long night and finally we returned back to Ohio. It might have been the longest day of my life but I enjoyed every second of it.

Bjork’s Set:

01. Hunter
02. Unravel
03. I’ve Seen It All
04. Jóga
05. Aurora
06. Cocoon
07. All is full of love
08. Desired constellation
09. Generous Palm-Stroke
10. An Echo, A Stain
11. 5 Years
12. Pagan poetry
13. Bachelorette
14. Hyper-ballad
15. It’s In Our Hands
16. Pluto

Encore:
17. Flirting
18. Isobel
19. Human Behaviour

Recently I discovered some of the concert footage I attended was included in a DVD called Screaming Masterpiece.  The following was found on YouTube and will give you just a little taste of that show I attended…

I researched the set for Sigur Ros just in case anyone was interested:

Sigur Ros’ Set:

01. New Intro/ Milano
02. Gong
03. Olsen Olsen
04. Viðrar Vel til Loftárása
05. Hafssól
06. Popplagið
07. Smáskífa

Pictures courtesy of Bjork.Com: gigOgraphy