litigious hipster

M.I.Ehhhhhh? WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU! STUDIO B BLEW OUT MY EARDRUMS!

Yea, sorry for the shouting.  I lost a little bit of my cochlear function last night due to studio b's harsh and over-juiced sound system while waiting 3 hours for MIA.   The DJ was good - at around 9:45ish when I arrived.   Some modern tunes (interpol, strokes, etc...).  All very hipsterish but of course appropriate and fun. 

Then at about 10:30 PM the jock jams started.  Not that I have anything against jock jams per se, but for 2 hours in an un-air conditioned room getting more and more restless by the minute it sucks.

I though M.I.A. would be out at 11.... nope.  12?  Nope.  12:20.   Yes, I should have called ahead, I should have known studio b is always late, blah blah blah.  Chill.  Its really not that hard to set up a turntable and some mics, I'm sure.  Get your ass on stage.

OK, so once M.I.A. was on stage she was OK.  One backup dancer / singer / rapper and DJ / MC of hollertronix Low-B.  Who came all the way from Philly.  What what?  No, wait, I'm from the other half of the state.  Sorry, the sound system damaged my brain cells too.

So M.I.A. was OK to pretty good.  She had a good amount of energy, and of course her whole performance is in her crazy, unique inflection of everything.  There were some cool projected videos from a DVD.  Her encore (Boys, Galang) was really fun (I really like the song 'Boys'... good beat). 

But really, she played for an hour.  No openers.  For $25.  Really late.  On a Wednesday.  Would have been more fun if it was 2 hours earlier.  Or on a Saturday. Or both.  OK I'll stop complaining.  I love being able to do these type of late night things in NYC.  But I'm about to pass out from exhaustion.  I certainly can't do this when I start law school in 2 weeks.

So, with that:

GALANGALANGALANGA

(CRED) 

Belated live: painting your apartment is fun, painting your apartment and then going to a good concert is funner.

2 weekends ago I painted my (new) apartment yellow and orange, and then went to see Cat Power and Built to Spill at McCarren Park Pool.   Unfortunately, I had to go to the show by myself as I don't have friends that like Cat Power or Built to Spill.  While that saddened me, I sold my ticket easily at the show and had a great time.

Cat Power has the blues/light rock/singer thing going on now with her new backing band, which was pretty cool.  I must admit I'm not terribly familiar with her back catalog, but her performance suited the sunset over the pool just fine.    Nice music to relax and sip some beer to.

Built to Spill was second.  I have been looking forward to seeing them ever since I because familiar with "You In Reverse" (OK, I am a young 'un and I admit it).  They didn't play a whole lot off of that record - most of their material seemed to be from "Keep it Like a Secret".  It was tight, jammy, crunchy, and just plain rocking.  Frontman Doug Martsch looks like a less bearded and lean Sam Beam.  He likes to tap his foot a lot.  More like do a little jig with his left foot while keeping his right stationary.  Sort of like {Gasp}  Dave Matthews.  Yes, I have seen Dave Matthews.  If you have a problem with that, fuck you.  "Before These Crowded Streets" won some Grammy for a reason.  Moving on...

Seeing Built to Spill has allowed me to complete an indie rock triad of sorts - I have now seen Built to Spill, Dinosaur Jr., and the Pixies - all bands I would have been into majorly if I was born 5-10 years earlier.  Good thing they are still around now for me to listen to and see live.  All in all, seeing Built to Spill was a really fun experience - the sound at the pool is great, they were groovin', and the weather was beautiful.  Can't ask for much more than that.

Live: Singer rapes my ears, John Stanier is a golden god.

<-- This man, however, can rape my ears whenever he wants

Despite the somewhat negative tone of this blog so far, you would think I hate a lot of bands.  This isn't really true - I like to listen to a range  of music.  Rock, jazz, pop, electronic, etc.  However, there is one prereq to any music I listen to:  there must be musicality.  Not necessarily talent, but musicality.   Last night I heard the worst band in the history of opening bands:  Singer.  They had neither talent nor musicality.

Fuck you Singer, for wanking directly into my ears with your pretentious, steaming, pile of shit.  There was no form or function to any of the music you performed last night.  Your drumming, guitar playing, and singing had no worth whatsoever.  Disband.  Now.

On the other hand, Battles was amazing!  John Stanier is one of the best drummers I have ever seen live, bar none.  The wiki page for John says that he played in Drum Corp, and that jackhammer sensibility shined brightly last night at Studio B.  He must have sweat about a gallon during the whole show - all of which shot up from his drumset as he attacked it.  The other parts of Battles were great too - keyboard parts, guitar, crazy processed vocals.  These guys were absolute pros at their self-made craft.

Bad things about the show - Battles went on at 1:30 AM.  Studio B is entirely way too loud and the sound isn't balanced.  Some annoying DJ played in between the bands' sets.  Drinks cost way too much for being in the middle of nowhere in Greenpoint.

Props to the British kids sitting next to me on the side of the stage who shouted "RUBBISH" during Singer's set.  They win my 'LitigiousHipster heckling award of the year'.

More battles!

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Battles!

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