Favorite Live Performances

To continue Sheri and I's ongoing weekly venture in making lists of our favorite things, and then linking to each other for comparisons sake, this week we have favorite live performances. Per usual, we have specific rules: must be single live performance (not live band or live show, just live performance), must be actually seen live (no BS including DVD watching...bad form), and if the best performance happens to be by a band you don't like in particular. Well...that's tough. It's not favorite band, it's favorite performance.

With that said, below are links that take you to Sheri's blog and previous lists, and then after that it's on with the show!

Sheri's blog
Favorite foods
Favorite albums
Favorite movies

1. Andrew WK at Club Soda in Spokane, WA (some time in late 2002...)

This was the very first show I attended after getting to college, and it was the first road trip I took to attend a show as well. At this point Andrew WK is a bit of an afterthought, as after the Wolf I lost pretty much all interest. But at the time, when he was all about two things (partying and rocking for clarification) my friends and I absolutely loved the guyb. We had to go!.

Why was this show so great? It was all about fun and having a great time at a show, as WK was pretty much the emcee of one of the best parties I'd ever been to. The security at the show had absolutely no control, and it was just the way WK wanted it to be as he went from not caring if people were on stage at the beginning of the set to encouraging people to join him at the end.

Examples of awesome things that happened: my buddy Colver and I sat on stage for 3/4ths of the set right in front of WK and sang the chorus to "She is Beautiful," I hugged WK (in a life affirming "we are bros for life!" sort of way), and during the final song the stage was loaded with no less than 20 people, including a kid sitting on top of WK's shoulders as he belted out the chorus, and the whole thing culminated with WK running at the audience and the kid diving off him into their loving arms.

Incredible. The most fun I have, and likely ever will have, ever had at any concert. Pure, unadultered joy for an hour plus.

2. Radiohead at the White River Amphitheater in Auburn, Washington (August 31st, 2003)

I think any time you see a band like Radiohead, they get an extra oomph to their performance that you get from few other bands. You just find yourself watching and looking around at everyone else, and you catch yourself thinking about how incredible this experience is. I attended this with my friend Marc, his twin brother Jeff, and our friend Morgan, and their set unified the audience in a way few artists I've ever seen before or after have done.

The picture above isn't from my show, but it's very similar in design as there were monitors all over the stage for us to watch the band in close up. By far the most entertaining was Thom Yorke, as he had tons of fun with the cameras while playing the piano and singing. It was a spectacle and a half, but nothing could top the showstopper that was the second encore.

To the roar of the crowd, they came out and belted out two personal favorites ("No Surprises" and "Everything in it's Right Place") and a third song that was just Thom by himself. As great as the other two were, finisher "Right Place" was the best song I've ever seen performed live. The best part was Jonny Greenwood staying out for an extra 5 minutes after everyone else had left, just jamming on the guitar and using his pedals to create a wall of sound like only he can.

One of the most expensive concerts I've ever been to, but it was worth every penny.

3. Gatsby's American Dream at Neckbeard's in Tempe, Arizona (March 13th, 2005)

This is one of my favorite bands all-time, and it was the first of two times I had seen them. Why was it so special, besides the fact that it was a favorite band playing favorite songs? First off, there is the added plus of meeting Nic Newsham (lead singer) and him giving me a shirt, a DVD, and stickers after the set for free (because I'm such a big fan).

Second off, and most importantly, when talking to him before the set I asked if they were going to play my favorite track, "Apparition." He said he wasn't sure, but he'd see what he could do. During their set (which was stellar, full of tons of energy and near album quality sound) Nic walks around, talks to the rest of the band, turns to the audience and looks directly at me and says "this one is for this guy, this is Apparition."

Hell yes. If this isn't proof that I am susceptible to bribes, I don't know what it is. However, it was the best performance by a favorite band, and one of the best I've ever seen. Hard not to rank it this high, bribery or not.

4. Art Brut at the KEXP Stage at Bumbershoot in Seattle, Washington (September 2nd, 2007)

I go into great detail about this bad boy here, but I'll give you a brief synopsis as to why this is one of the best performances I've ever seen: Eddie Argos (lead singer), 20 songs in 50 minutes, mid-song medleys of pop hits like "99 Problems" and "Hollaback Girl," coordinated movements, and hilarious interactions with the audience.

I didn't like this band before seeing them live. Afterwards, they had earned themselves a fan for life. Plus Eddie Argos bought me a PBR later that night, which is another really good way to bribe me (pay attention bands). See this band if they come anywhere near you, even if you haven't heard them or don't like them. You won't regret it.

5. (tie) Girl Talk at the Roseland Theater, the Thermals at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon (September 8th, 2007)

This is kind of cheating, but I saw these shows consecutively (one at 11 pm, the other at 12 am) last year at Musicfest NW in Portland, and if that wasn't the most fun night of shows I'd had since Andrew WK, I don't know what was. Here is an extensive breakdown, but I'll go into a bit of detail as to why they were so great.

Girl Talk's set was just Gregg Gillis jumping down with the audience and throwing together the best dance party ever, impromptu right in the crowd. I happened to be right up front behind the security line, and I was up there dancing my feet off with everyone else. It was sweaty, it was memorable, and it was one of the best spur of the moment show experiences I've ever had.

The Thermals on the other hand was awesome for a different reason: it was just a band going up on stage and rocking very, very hard. Sheri and I went to this show together, and it was just 45 minutes straight of pure energy and fun, as we jumped along to the beat, danced in the crowd, and moshed with the cool people at the Crystal Ballroom. The Thermals brought a ton of energy to the audience, and we reciprocated. Sheri described it like so: "It felt like being in high school again." That sums it up well. Those two alone made Musicfest NW worth the trip.

6. Moneen at the Graceland (now El Corazon) in Seattle, Washington (February 14th, 2004)

The first of two openers for Finch who actually outperformed the headliner, this band was one I wasn't that into before seeing them but I became very into afterwards. I can say unequivocally that this band brings more energy than any band out there. They are bundles of fun and energy, and they just had fantastic rapport with the audience as well. They actually made the headliners feel like a letdown, and made me just want to see more Moneen.

I tried finding video example as to why they rocked so hard, but YouTube failed me. Either that, or this band is one of those "you had to be there" types. They thrive off energy and singing along, and seeing them live I know that. Check them out if they come by, as they are a blast to see.

7. The Movielife at B Complex in Portland, Oregon (February 26th, 2003)

Number two of two in "bands that opened for Finch but outperformed them." I had never liked the Movielife before seeing them live either (common theme, eh?), but their performance changed everything for me. From the beginning where they had someone from the crowd announce their arrival to the stage with the Pixies "Where is my mind?" playing, and then the lights turning on with the whole band starting the first song simultaneously, I knew this was an incredible live band.

Vinnie Caruana to this day is still one of the best lead singers I've ever seen, even though he isn't a "good singer," his presence and crowd interactions were top notch. He hit the notes he needed to and he made sure the show was fun. This is too bad of course, because shortly thereafter the Movielife broke up and I never had a chance to see them after I had discovered that I loved their music. I guess at least I get to keep that memory intact in my mind.

8. Neil Diamond at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage, Alaska (Some time in 1999...)

Look at that guy up there. That man is mantastic. How could you not love him?

Truth be told, I was forced to go to this show by my parents, and I can't even tell you how thankful I am to this day that they did. Neil Diamond was up on a rotating stage by himself (unless you include his chest hair/necklace as separate entities, which I may) and he was the consumate performer. He was genius, in the way only such a classic artist could be. I didn't need to love his music, I just needed to see him perform.

The man is the biggest rock star I've ever seen.

9. Taking Back Sunday at B Complex in Portland, Oregon (April 12th, 2003)

I've seen Taking Back Sunday more than any band besides one, but to this day the first time I saw them is still the best time. It was the only time I saw them with their Tell All Your Friends lineup, with John Nolan and Shaun Cooper still being in the band. The presentation of the show was very top notch for a small venue show, as they had set up chinese lanterns along the stage and above the audience that gave a great feel to the show.

Not to overuse this word, but it's really my favorite trait of performers: this band is pure energy. Adam Lazzara (the lead singer) is all over the place during sets, especially spinning his mic all over the place and climbing on any and every object he can get his arms and legs on. This was before they had released either of their two later, lesser albums, so it was all b-sides and Tell All Your Friends, and they played the album in its entirety.

They finished with "Ghost Man on Third," which at first glance seems a bit strange, but when you see Adam hanging from the pipes that dangled from the ceiling singing "this is what living like this does" as John screams along, you realize that the show could end in no other way. It's still really too bad that those two left the band, because they are a good band that could have been great.

10. AFI at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, Washington (October 19th, 2003)

This set was slightly devalued later on when I saw them in December of the same year and they performed pretty much the exact same set, but it not by a lot. I was hugely into this band at the time, as they had just released their album Sing the Sorrow earlier that summer. That was the first album that got me into this band, as I was never a fan of their straight forward punk material.

No less, this show was one of the more intense ones I'd ever seen, as metal stalwarts Poison the Well opened and were pretty insane, which led in perfectly to AFI's controlled chaos. There were pyrotechnics, insane circle pits, Colver and I holding up Davey Havok in the audience as he screamed along to "God Called in Sick Today," and four very effeminate looking men rocking about as hard as any band can.

Sure, it was very planned and slickly coordinated, but at the time I didn't realize it. I just knew I loved every second of it.

The Next 10
11. The Offspring at the Egan Center in Anchorage, Alaska
12. The Shins at the Key Arena in Seattle, Washington
13. Jet at the Key Arena in Seattle, Washington
14. Bedouin Soundclash at the Gorge in Quincy, Washington
15. Death Cab for Cutie at the SUB Ballroom in Moscow, Idaho
16. Ben Folds at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, Idaho
17. Flogging Moly at the SUB Ballroom in Moscow, Idaho
18. The Killers at the Big Easy in Spokane, Washington
19. The Frames at the KEXP Stage at Bumbershoot in Seattle, Washington
20. Suburban Legends at Neckbeard's in Tempe, Arizona

Bumbershoot: Day 2

This is going to be a long one.

Also, let me preface this by saying my day by day rundown of Bumbershoot will be impeded by other things I do on the day that are not Bumbershoot related. Thus, it will be scattershot and slow for those looking for tasty concert tidbits. Warning over!

Day 2 of Bumbershoot and Vacation started off early and stressfully. Erik, Sobo, Sarah, and myself woke up at 7 in the morning to walk to the nearby Tully's to do a Fantasy Football draft. After having Football be our primary topic of discussion for the entire previous day, Erik, Sobo, and I had to get in a league together, so we joined a $40 pay league on CBSsports.com. We get down to Tully's, snag our coffee, grab a treat or two, and set up for the draft.

But the internet will not connect! Oh noes! What do we do? Continue restarting hoping it will connect, or just bail and go back to Kelly's apartment and try and work it there, knowing that we had it work before. The draft has already started at this point, so we say screw it and pack up and leave, hastily of course in case we can make it back for our first pick. Along the way, we talk about with our luck we'll miss a few rounds and get stuck with Michael Vick or something, and about how hopefully we have the first pick and we get LT (which would be everyone in the world's pick at that spot so we wouldn't feel bad about missing the pick). We get there, set up, takes a bit to connect, and blammo, we're on.

Sobo, myself, and Erik looking on to our draft

And we did it! We had the first pick and we got LT, and then on the following turn we got Tom Brady and Terrell Owens...probably not who we would have taken, but picks we were fine with. This led to an ultimately very solid draft that we are pretty happy with...so long as LT starts running the ball better. Come on man. 25 points a week...that's all we ask.

No less, after we were done with the draft our crew gathered, and Erik, Sobo, Sarah, Kelly, Mike, and myself went to downtown Seattle for some shenanigans down in the Pike's Place market area. When we got down there we were all famished (even though we had our coffee/snack combo, plus some amazing French Toast as prepared by our incredibly gracious host Kelly), so Mike took us to an Irish Pub to have some lunch. Now two things about this Irish Pub (which I believe was called Kell's). 1) It was good. 2) They have the smallest portions on the planet. This is pretty much the direct inverse of the Brown Bag. It was $10.95 for what Erik and I got, which was a Seafood Pasty, which for all intents and purposes was a really good Hot Pocket full of Seafood, plus a dinky cup of Clam Chowder. Erik and I both agreed that our meal needed to be at least 2 times bigger (if not 3 times) and then it would be satisfactory.

Erik riding a pig and Sobot powering down

After that, we went into the market, bought some roasted nuts, checked out some book stores, and visited the legendary shop known as Golden Age Comics (actually Collectibles I believe, but I don't care, it is what I say it is). It was a good time, but time had been burned through and I needed to get to Bumbershoot to meet up with Amy to watch some comedians. I bid adieu to Sobo and Erik (who were headed back down to Portland after going to the Red Hook Brewery) and walked into the Festival with skepticism running rampant in my brain. Day one was meh, and that was with Sobo and Erik at my side. How could this be as good as that even, especially considering the other day had "better" bands.

Well, I started it out right, with Amy and I rejoining for the first time (make sense of that) to watch Fred Armisen, Brett Weinbach, and Eugene Mirman do some sweet, sweet stand up. First off, let me say that Armisen was probably the guy I was most excited to see (besides maybe Mirman) and he was not funny. Well, mostly not funny. He was just very disappointing and perhaps overly weird for my tastes. Mirman on the other hand was as funny as I expected, and Brett Weinbach blew me away. Weinbach's creepy demeanor and then even creepier impersonation of how creepy he could be was ridiculously entertaining, and he was so off the wall that it was very hard not to laugh hysterically throughout his set. As per usual, Doug Benson (6th place finisher on Last Comic Standing) warmed up the crowd very well, even though he rehashed one joke. Bad Benson! Comedy was a great lead off for the day though, and afterwards Amy and myself walked off with our faces hurting and ready for the day.

This led into possibly the band I was most excited about seeing, which was the Apples in Stereo (I struggled mightily with that sentence, was or were? Who knows.). They are the crafters of one of my favorite albums of the year, New Magnetic Wonder, and their set led me to my first foray into the Sound Transit Stage, as sponsored by KEXP (my Mom's favorite radio station ever). The crowd was moderately sized, but it was an entertaining one as there were beach balls to bounce about in the crowd while the band played. And played they did.

The Apples in Stereo

They were very good, playing a nice mix of new and old (new being what I recognized, old being what I didn't), and managing to play almost all of my favorites (besides Beautiful Machine parts 3-4) and finishing up with 7 Stars and Same Old Drag, which are my two absolute favorites. It was a very good set, although they were rather quiet and I did miss my sweet, sweet vocoder action. They were entertaining, and did not disappoint. Plus, they supplied me with the opportunity to take this excellent picture as seen below.

The Apples lead singer playing his guitar with a Rolling Rock!

After this set, I scurried off quickly in hopes of seeing Michael Ian Black perform his set at the nearby Comedy Stage South, yet it wasn't meant to be as 45 minutes before his set was to begin it was already full. A tear shed for me, missing my old favorite from Ed doing standup. However, with my phone pretty much dead, I decided I should just run back to my hotel and take it easy for 15 minutes or so and let my phone recharge, and then go back to catch part of Art Brut as a fall back.

As I said, it wasn't meant to be for me to see Michael Ian Black. Why was that? Because I was meant to see Art Brut. I came in 15 or 20 minutes into their set, but immediately I could feel currents in the air. This band was it. They were the superstars of the whole Festival, and only the people at the Sound Transit Stage knew it.

The whole band rocked hard, as they had their strangely magnetic female bassist, two guitarists who could shred and played around like little kids together, a drummer who literally did not sit ever and had about as much presence as any drummer I've ever seen..and Eddie Argos. Who is Eddie Argos you ask? Eddie Argos is the singer and frontman of Art Brut, and he was a genius.

Art Brut being the best thing ever

No less, in an hour and 15 minutes, the British rockers tore through 20 full songs, even integrating parts of other songs into them (you name it, Amy Winehouse, Gwen Stefani, Jay-Z...they are a balanced squad of musicians) and taking plenty of time to interact with the audience and have one of the best actual performances on stage, complete with freezes (you'd have to see it to understand), coordinated movements, and full out jam sessions. Argos was the man who controlled the action with his microphone, even leading off nearly every song with "GO ART BRUT!" to immediately be followed with the song beginning (besides once, when the bassist was getting a drink, and Argos instead asked "Ready Art Brut? Ready? GO ART BRUT!). Fantastic stuff. Loved them to pieces.

The man of the hour - Eddie Argos, with bandmates around as well!

After this set, I ran off to meet with Amy, Jason, and Hannah over at the Starbucks stage for Indie Rock genius/whistling God Andrew Bird's set. Of course, this was my first real foray into drinking at the Festival, and it made perfect sense because it was during the most relaxing of all performers. Let me also say, I did not pay attention as much as I should have. After being alone quite a bit during the day, it was very nice to have human interaction, so the four of us drank and joked together through most of the set, while Mr. Bird gave a beautiful performance. I would love to see him again (second time I had a shot at seeing him, first time I took it) and give it my all because he sounded really worth it. However, like I said, we drank, we joked, we had a great time and it was worth every penny and second.

Hannah, Amy, and Jason at Andrew Bird

Amy and I (as per usual, I suck at photogenic)

Next up, they went off to watch Fergie (oh god.) and I went off to watch Anberlin. They were decent, good at what they do, but could have ended the night with Andrew Bird. Afterwards, I ran back to my hotel to rest up a bit and charge my phone again, and then meet up with the crew to go off to Tiny Biggs and have a couple Martini's. Let me note this one thing. Manhattan's are the stiffest drink ever. They make straight alcohol taste like Water. I don't know what they do, but somebody spiked that Alcohol. Jason trudged through one, and those crazy kids went off to do their thing while I went off to meet up with college buddy Eric Maloney and his crew.

Three interesting things happened the rest of the night. 1) I broke my foot/toe/something. My foot is still not right and it is messed up. It may not be broken, but something is not OK with it. 2) I went to a bar that had a huge pinball arcade in it. 3) I had the lead singer of Art Brut buy me a PBR. Needless to say, Eddie Argos is the man. I met both him and the guitarist, and can't even manage to rememeber what I said because I was...well...I was a little drunk. No less, I'm sure I just told them they rocked very hard. So with that said...the wrap up!

Band of the Day!

Duh! It's Art Brut! They totally rocked the house and were the ultimate surprise for the whole trip.

Surprise of the Day!

That Art Brut, a band I found to be strangely meh recorded, could be one of the best bands I've ever seen live.

Disappointment of the Day....

Not having my camera with me when I met Art Brut. The most ridiculous thing to happen to me the whole trip, and I don't have a camera. Sad panda...

Bands seen: The Apples in Stereo, Art Brut, Andrew Bird, Anberlin (A-tastic!)

Comedy seen: Fred Armisen, Brett Weinbach, Eugene Mirman

Food: Delicious again. Gyro! Beer! Thai food! Oh my!

Day Two grade: A

This day was every thing the first day wasn't. Massively memorable. Exciting. Ridiculous. Rested. That last word could be a good excuse for the first day, I wasn't rested. But I don't think that was it. Art Brut would have rocked whenever they played, regardless of how tired I was.

Now with two days down, I'm going into Day Three with a high likelihood of a hangover, probably tiredness, and a sheer buzz from the huge fun of day two. How would it be? Could it match Day Two's awesomeness? Stay tuned to find out!