The Tape

Words and pictures by Tristan and Willie.

Yesterday we headed down to the middle of nowhere to catch Rock The Bells in Los Angeles. We would first like to say that it was a monumental day for The Tape, as it was the first time we had enough press credentials to receive press passes. We would also like to take a moment to thank LeToya Jackson and TC for being awesome. Huge post with pictures and videos after the jump.

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Lollapalooza day 3 was by far the best day for me. If only I had met Lupe on Sunday, it might have been one of the better days of my young life. It started off with a fantastic set from Chicago’s own Kid Sister, who straight killed it. She brought Autobot to DJ and J2K (her brother) to be the hype man. She played a bunch of new shit and ran through most of her EP. She even attracted Dave and P Thugg from Chromeo to her set.

Kid Sister- Control (JFK Remix)

I then headed over to What Made Milwaukee Famous, and they happened to put on one of my favorite sets of the festival. There was just something about the music they played that was so perfect for a festival setting. In fact their set was so good, it prompted me to buy a “I Made Milwaukee Famous” shirt. Anyways, one thing that confused me was a song of theirs called “Sultan.” I don’t know much about the band, so when they played it I thought they were playing Spoon’s “The Underdog.” In retrospect, they aren’t very similar but I had convinced myself they were similar so that was the verdict.

What Made Milwaukee Famous- Sultan

I then ate lunch and headed over to the Myspace stage where Chromeo would later be playing. I stationed myself in the middle of the stage, and danced along to many Chromeo songs. Dave and P didn’t do a whole lot instrument wise, but it was still a lot of fun. I ducked out a little early to catch the back end of The Black Kids. I found a shady spot in the garden area and fell asleep. They weren’t boring, I was just not interested enough to stay awake.

Chromeo- Fancy Footwork (Crookers Remix)

Black Kids- I’m Making Eyes At You

I then waited around for a while waiting for the brilliant Saul Williams to begin. His set was much more crowded then I had expected, so I was pushed towards the middle, further away from where I wanted to be. But the crowd was well deserved, as Saul straight killed it. He put on one of my favorite shows I’ve ever seen, not just at Lollapalooza 2008. He played every song of his I love, and ended with Sunday Bloody Sunday, which gave me chills. He gave a really powerful speech that I managed to capture on film, and is located below. If you’ve never checked out Saul, I highly recommend him not only as a musician but also as a fantastic poet.

Saul Williams- Act III Scene 2 (Shakespeare)

I then made my way over to Gnarls Barkley to enjoy a little bit of their set, before heading across the park to catch the back end of Flosstradamus’ set. Gnarls Barkley was a lot of fun. They make great 3 minute pop songs that are really catchy. Below is a short clip from a very far distance of their hit single entitled Run. I didn’t see all of their set, but from what I heard they’re a great live band. Dangermouse is a star, to put it simply. Cee-Lo is awesome as well, but Dangermouse is just a flat out star.

Gnarls Barkley- Gone Daddy Gone

I then headed over to Perry’s DJ Tent to catch a little bit of Flosstradamus. I love Flosstradamus. They don’t do anything very different from anyone else, besides the four turntables… But there is just something there that not many other DJ’s or DJ groups accomplish. They had a combination of club bangers and old school guilty pleasures, while mixing up some pretty hard to dance to songs. For example, they went from “Where’s Your Head At” by The Basement Jaxx, to “Otherside” by The Red Hot Chili Peppers. That is what impressed me most about them.

The Cool Kids- Pump Up The Volume (Flosstradamus Remix)

I left Flosstradamus about 20 minutes before they ended to get a spot for the main event, Mr. Kanye West. Before I say anything about his show, I sincerely apologize to Kanye. I have done quite a fair share of Kanye bashing on this blog, and I for one am very sorry. Kanye put on an absolutely stellar show. This wasn’t a hip-hop show, it was a rock show with a full band. No A-Trak just drums, guitar, bass, synths, backup vocals, and some orchestral percussion. And that is all he really needed. He was absolutely fantastic. He gave me the chills on a few occasions. The first on Homecoming when the whole crowd screamed “Do you remember when, fireworks at Lake Michigan” with the backdrop to this festival being none other than Lake Michigan itself. He played almost all of his hits, the only one he left out was All Falls Down, but that wasn’t a big deal. Now, there were a few things that disappointed me. For one, he made it very clear that this was HIS show, not anyone elses… just HIS. Lupe showed up on stage for Touch The Sky during every single Glow In The Dark date, but not here. It was all him. That was very disappointing. He also compared himself to James Brown, John Lennon, and Jimi Hendrix in the same sentence. He is achieving the status of celebrity that those men obtained, but he is in no way the talent of any of those men. No offense, Kanye is a fantastic, creative musician, but those man are on a plateau of their own. Kanye also sang his verse from Young Jeezy’s Put On which was fun. One last thing I have to mention is how much time Kanye puts into these shows. He is absolutely one of the hardest, if not the hardest working men in music. He re-arranges most of his songs for this live setting, and the work pays off with brilliant versions of his hits.

Kanye West- Throw Some D\’s (Remix)

After a successful first day, I headed over to the park at around 1:15 to catch the end of The Ting Tings and get a good spot for Dr. Dog. The Ting Tings were ok, nothing special just an average festival band. You know, the one you go see just because. I guess I would have enjoyed it a little bit more if I wasn’t on the other side of the field, waiting for Dr. Dog. So around 1:30 Dr. Dog came on, and me along with all the college bros watched. Dr. Dog was ok, once again nothing special just decent. They kind of seemed like ass holes, which really turned me away. At one point the crowd got loud and started cheering, and they told us to be quiet. If you’re a small band, you don’t tell a cheering crowd to be quiet. You just don’t.

The Ting Tings- Great DJ

Dr. Dog- The Old Days

After a little bit of Dr. Dog, I headed across the whole park to check out the FYE music store and autograph tent. I passed by Does It Offend You, Yeah… And they are the worst band I’ve ever heard in my life. They were absolutely terrible. Anyways, I found out that in order to meet my hero, Mr. Fiasco I would have to buy his album and get to the tent before 8 PM, when he started. The lines were projected to be crazy, because Lupe’s from Chicago so I figured I had to leave his set early, which ended at 7:30.

So around 3:30 I headed back to the other side of the park to go check out MGMT. There were so many people at MGMT I decided to just sort of hang back. During their set I realized how much I hated them and how funny it was that Booka Shade was playing so loud, you could barely hear MGMT. MGMT started pissing me off so much, I headed back to the other side of the park to catch the end of Devotchka, who I really enjoyed. I was really far back but that didn’t really matter. They were really, really good. We also spotted a man with a Transformers tattoo, which was legendary.

Devotchka- The Clockwise Witness

MGMT- Of Moons, Birds And Monsters (Amplive Remix)

I then headed back to the other side of the park to catch Spank Rock. Spank Rock looks like he’s 12 years old, but none of that matters once he starts rapping. He put on one of the best shows of the weekend. Good enough to prompt me to buy one of his shirts, of course me not seeing the boob on it before I bought it. Anyways, my favorite part of his set was when Amanda Blank came out and he started saying “Ain’t no one got a bitch like this.” I consider Amanda Blank to be one of the worlds only female misogynists.

Spank Rock- Bump

After Spank Rock ended I anxiously headed over to Lupe, just waiting for his autograph session. Lupe was packed with Rage fans which really pissed me off, especially when shit was being thrown all over the place in the middle of Lupe’s set. Lupe had a fantastic introduction which I caught on the video below. He plays a similar set every time so I figured it would be safe to duck out early. Sorry for the horrible camera work, I was excited. If you look closely you can see Lupe doing some push-ups and then a back flip.

I ran across the whole park to get in line to meet Lupe. I was the third in line and when he finally showed up I started freaking out. I got a couple of pictures of him, but I’m not going to put the one up of me and him to save embarrassment. He couldn’t have been a nicer guy and he engaged me in a conversation which was more than I had ever expected of him.

After that I headed over to Rage. It was insane, so after about 4 or 5 songs I headed over to Wilco. Wilco was good, really relaxed, but good. I made my way back over to Rage for the encore and watched everybody go ape shit for Killing In The Name Of.

The excursion began with a 4:30 AM alarm of some church bells. We hopped into the car made our way to LAX and took what seemed to be a terribly long flight to Chicago. Once we arrived we headed straight for the park. We got in the long line we really didn’t need to be in, and heard a little bit of The Go! Team.

The Go! Team- Huddle Formation

We then made our way inside to catch Gogol Bordello. They are hilarious, especially the violinist but I ducked out a little early to head over to Mano’s DJ Set.

Gogol Bordello- American Wedding

Kanye West- Flashing Lights (Million $ Mano Remix)

Mano had a good set, but it wasn’t creative and awesome enough to keep me away from Cadence Weapon and The Cool Kids. I got to the stage a little before a band called Your Vegas ended, who happened to be alright, or at least better than I had expected. Next came the highlight of Friday. Cadence Weapon came on and straight killed it, playing everything I wanted him to play. Plus, he had an absolutely insane DJ. My favorite of his, was probably Real Estate, in which he absolutely screamed out the chorus “I made a deal today, we’re selling real estate!”

Next on came The Cool Kids, who were everything I had expected and more. They played absolutely everything, and I ran into their DJ as I was walking home that evening which was cool too. The highlight of their set was their ode to old school hip-hop which I didn’t get on video, but I did get a sick transition from Mikey Rocks into A Little Bit Cooler.

Cadence Weapon- Real Estate

The Cool Kids- Mikey Rocks

I then headed my way over to the AT&T stage for what was supposed to be the event of the weekend, Radiohead. It certainly was not the event of the weekend. I mean, they were still Radiohead but it wasn’t a life changing experience like Daft Punk had been the year before. After a few songs, I made my way towards the back to get some food and just sit on top of the hill and relax. This was a really good decision. Radiohead was so laid back in their performance, I enjoyed it most when I was relaxed instead of inching my way towards the stage trying to take pictures. I took a short video of Reckoner, which is one of my favorite songs of theirs.

Radiohead- Bodysnatchers

Above: Dramatic Dave needs your camera luvs

So due to some bad planning I can’t get the audio file from my phone up onto the blog which normally wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that it contains Tokyo Police Club singing Fergalicious. So that will hopefully come later. For now I present a partially abbreviated interview with Tokyo Police Club. All instances of the band refering to “I” are probably Graham.

Tape: How Many Handclaps Are On Your Album?

TPC: One. It’s you invoulantarily clapping along. Actually it’s Metallica’s clap. Actually we took the entire chrous from “Do They Know It’s Christmas Time At All”. It was an expensive album to produce.

Tape: How’d You Get Your Name?

TPC: Our song Cheer It On.

Tape: Do You Have Any Authority in Tokyo?

TPC: I’m  pretty sure we have diplomatic immunity because I was there last time and I hit a few people drunk driving. In a bulldozer.

Tape: What Albums/Song Have You Been Liking?

TPC: What’s the Sigur Ros song?

Tape: Gobledigook?

TPC: No the second one, I think it’s the title track…(we assume it’s Inni Mer Syngur Vitleysingur)

Tape: What is Your Favorite Pump Up Music?

TPC: The Hockey Song by Stompin Tom Connors. [Graham to band members] You know that song? [Graham sings] The good old hockey gaaaame. He has a board that he stomps on.

Tape: Is the board an instrument?

TPC: No I think it’s just instrumental. [Manager to Graham] Sounds like our version is Cotton Eye Joe. [Graham] Nahhhh…

Tape: What is the Best/Craziest Thing That’s Happened To You Guys On Tour?

TPC: [Interband Banter] Nah we gotta tell a new story. We recently got 13 [referring to the hackey sack they were playing with the whole time]

Tape: Have you guys been playing before every show?

TPC: Just when we want to.

Tape: What Happened to [Graham's] Bathroom Blog?

TPC: I ran out of things to say about bathrooms. Once you talk about a clean bathroom and a dirty bathroom there’s not much more you can say.

Tape: Good that you got to try out a different profession though.

TPC: Exactly.

Tape: What is Your Favorite Punctuation? (We like the Interrobanger)

TPC: [Internal Banter] Haha no. He said Oxford Comma. The semicolon is good because it if you use it and it makes sense you look really smart.

Tape: I heard there’s debate about the semicolon. Whether it should be discontinued or not.

TPC: Damnit, first Pluto now the semicolon. Kurt Vonnegut hated the semicolon. He called it a bastard hermaphrodite.

Tape: Flying Or Invisibility?

TPC: Uhhh flying. Because then I can spy on the girls washroom from above.

Tape: Nice.

Tape: Do You Guys Have A Guilty Pleasure Song?

TPC: You know that one thing…it goes like…Fergalicious. Oh right. But no one feels guilty about that. I’m loud and proud of my love for Fergalicious. You can do another one if you want I didn’t mean to- nahhh we don’t have any others. Remember we were playing and I tried to rap it and I forgot most of the rap. (Suddenly Graham, and shortly the others, launches into song) I’m the F to the E to the R G I the E/ain’t no other lady get down like me. Fergalicious. Baawnananananananana Baawnanananananana. I be up in the gym just workin on my fitness/he’s my witness Oooh Wee!/They be lining down the block just to watch what I got. Fergalicious.

We talk more about my new shoes and how my old shoes are Graham’s current shoes, whether wearing Keds has a stigma attached, Tristan’s crossword puzzle shoes, and Graham’s experiences using a carrier pidgeon  instead of a cellphone growing up. It kept dropping his calls everytime it saw a worm.

Thanks so much Tokyo’s Policial Clubbers for the interview!

Tokyo Police Club - Centennial (Dntel Remix)

Tokyo Police Club - Nature of The Experiment (RAC Remix)

We’ve reviewed a TPC show before. But this one was different. Oh so different. It was actually my fourth time seeing them, and this was clearly their best show. Musically, the guys were on top of it. The barreled through almost all their tracks. The only song they didn’t play off the top of my head was “Nursery, Academy.” That disappointed me slightly, as its one of my favorite tracks of Elephant Shell. But that didn’t matter in the slightest. Because unlike any show of theirs I’ve seen, this one was a dance party. The crowd got mad crazy. At one point Dave Monks (bass/vocals) honestly asked the crowd to “uhh… can you guys crowd surf a little less? thanks.” The crowd surfing didn’t stop. It looked like the guys were even a bit surprised at the crowd’s involvement. By the time they came out for an encore of “Cheer It On,” the place was an absolute madhouse. We actually had a chance to sit down with the guys before the show and get an interview, which Gabo will be posting soon. Enjoy that when it comes your way. Here are some photos of the crazy night.

Opening band Afternoons. Their song “Say Yes” had the audience dancing.

Dave looking into the crowd.

Josh Hook (guitar) wandering over to the synths. We can’t help but notice that Graham Wright (keyboards) took the “Don’t Mess With Texas” sticker off his Alesis Micron. See the sticker in action here.

So over the weekend I go to see The Wombats at The Roxy. Unknown to me there were headliners that had not been announced on the ticket/myspace. Upon arriving to the venue I was treated to the sounds of The Yelling, a North Hollywood band whose name fits the music perfectly. Not my cup of tea so I’ll skip to 30 minutes later. I decided the google the other name on the billing: Pop Noir. On arriving at their myspace I was sucked into a world of synth laden choruses, swaggering bass lines, and shimmering guitar riffs. Pop Noir is two brothers, Joe and Luke McGarry, as well as a drummer, Nico Saveedra. They (Joe and Luke) are born in Manchester and make music you’ll enjoy dancing to. Joe was kind enough to give us an interview.

If you each could pick only one, what band/album/song was the most influential in forming your sound?

That’s a really tough question, I don’t think we can do it.. We can narrow it down to a city, though: Our hometown of Manchester! So much great music came out of there, Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays, The Smiths, A Certain Ratio, Durutti Column, Oasis.. You could even count The Verve, they’re from just down the road..

We’d love to get George Michael to produce our album!!

Batman or Spiderman?

I don’t think we’d be Pop Noir if we didn’t pick Batman..

Head over to their website, buy their EP, and support Joe and Luke in their quest of becoming everyone’s favorite band!

Pop Noir - Girls Of Prey

Pop Noir - Bang The Drum

A few nights ago I attended Kanye West’s Glow In The Dark Tour at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. The night started off amazing and fluctuated down and up after Lupe. Lupe probably had the best introduction to a show I’ve ever seen in my life. The video was just posted under “Glow In The Dark Video,” I urge you to check it out. Anyways, I’m going to do a quick review of each performer, then give you guys my two favorite songs that they each performed.

First we have my hero, Lupe Fiasco. Lupe lived up to my extremely high expectations and then some. Enough so, for me to pursue tickets for the June show… Anyways, I would have much preferred for Lupe to play longer than 30 minutes, but what are you going to do? He came out to thematic opera music, and proceeded to explode all over Justice’s “Let There Be Light.” He only played three songs from Food and Liquor, which were “Kick, Push”, “I Gotcha”, and my personal favorite “Daydreamin’.” “Daydreamin’” is always one of my favorites because he puts a ridiculous amount of energy into it. All of his songs are exploding with his energy, but he takes “Daydreamin’” to a whole new level.* From the new album, I especially loved his shortened version of “Fighters.” About everyone of his songs was shortened, but I assume that was at Kanye’s request. Anyways, there is something about “Fighters” that gets me every time I listen.
I also gave you guys “Go Go Gadget Flow” because there was a fun little call and response during the show. Or using my favorite saying ever, just for shits and giggles.
******

Lupe Fiasco Feat. Matthew Santos- Fighters

Lupe Fiasco- Go Go Gadget Flow

Next we have N.E.R.D. While they may not have been great, they were really entertaining. Pharrell doesn’t have a fantastic voice, but it’s good enough to not be criticized. The most disappointing part of their set was the lack of “Maybe.” That is by far my favorite N.E.R.D. song. Anyways, they played quite a few numbers from their new disc “Seeing Sounds” out soon.

I give you “Everyone Nose” and “She Wants To Move”, my two favorites from that evening.

N.E.R.D.- Everyone Nose

N.E.R.D.- She Wants To Move

Let’s keep it nice… I don’t like Rihanna. I only caught a few songs, and wandered around trying to find a hot dog for the rest. Don’t worry it was successful! That was probably my favorite part of her set, oh yeah and “Umbrella” was alright. Fun to phrase it in one word. Anyways, no mp3’s for you Rihanna fans, sorry.

Last but not least (because of Rihanna) we have Sir. Ego West. Kanye’s Ego (yes it deserves a capital ‘E’) was on full display. Not only was his spaceship robot friend Jane telling him he was the brightest star on the universe, during the entire show he was complaining to his light man “Mark” about who knows what. He shoved his band behind the backdrop, so the stage was all for himself; and he had the houselights go down as soon as a celebrity was spotted in the crowd. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved his set… But his ego and arrogance made me enjoy it a little bit less. He seems like a perfectly pleasant man, but if he had just not played Journey during his set, I would have enjoyed him a tad more. Anyways my two favorites were “Homecoming” and “Can’t Tell Me Nothing.” Well actually, my favorite was “Touch The Sky” because Lupe came out, but that’s not even fair. If Lupe was on the side drinking a cup of water while Kanye listened to Journey (he actually did), it would have been my favorite.

Kanye West- Can’t Tell Me Nothing

Kanye West- Homecoming

HONORABLE MENTION: Kanye West- Jesus Walks

HILARIOUS MENTION: Kanye decided it would be awesome to accidentally do the same verse twice in “All Falls Down.”

KANYE RECOGNITION MENTION: Kanye really doesn’t deserve all the shit I gave him in this review. He is a great entertainer and performer, but his arrogance makes me angry. Especially when he puts the most talented artist on the bill, performing first for a mere 30 minutes.

NEW IDEA MENTION: Lupe Fiasco’s Glow In The Dark Tour

That was probably the longest post title in The Tape history. But I am here today for a very special occasion. I finally got Asher’s picture of the Tokyo Police Club concert at the Troubador and decided it would be a good time to review the album as well. Let’s start with the concert - as Dave (bass/vocals), Graham (synths/backup vocals), Josh (guitar) and Greg (drums) all fucking killed it. They blasted through most of the Smith and A Lesson In Crime EPs, as well as playing many cuts of their forthcoming album, /em>Elephant Shell. We’ve briefly mentioned Elephant Shell before, when I put the album as the #1 thing I loved in March. So here are some pictures.

Graham busting a move on the “Don’t Mess With Texas” synth. It is actually an Alesis Micron.

Dave cringing. I think its a stylistic choice.

Graham in mad scientist mode.

Now for the album, which I bought a download of at the show. It starts with a bang. “Centenial” brings a similar sound to the single, “In A Cave” and its a somewhat new sound for the band. Less noisy, cleaner and more centered on Dave’s vocals. “In A Cave” is the next track, and I’m sure you’ve all heard it, and know how good it is. “Graves” and “Juno” continue the feel and trend of the album, both are very good, very solid tracks. The drum part on “Juno” appears to have been taken from the song “Untitled” on their iTunes Live At SoHo EP. The next song is “Tessellate”. It is one of the best on the album without a doubt, and it’ll be the next single. Check a few posts back for the video. Unfortunately, the next two songs, “Sixties Remake” and “The Harrowing Adventures Of” drop off considerably. It picks right back up though, with my second favorite “Nursery, Academy”. I love this song so much, and I think its a high point for the band. Dave’s vocals have a really good sound and the lyrics are great. “Your English Is Good” was originally a non-album single, but the response was so positive, it ended up on there anyway. Good choice. The next track is another really strong one, “Listen To The Math”. It is much slower than their previous tracks other than “A Lesson In Crime” but I like it a lot. It has a haunting yet somehow uplifting feel. The album ends with “The Baskervilles”, a track which I am indifferent to, but it ends the album nicely. Unfortunately, we have no mp3s off the album for you as we were asked to take them down when I posted “Tessellate”, but I do have an acoustic performance of the song via a YouTube video. Enjoy!

LIARS with NO AGE and IMA GYMNIST
El Rey Theater - 2/22/08

After waiting within the fire lines among the beer chugging punkers and Pitchfork hipsters awhile, the curtains of the El Rey opened to three teenagers. One wielded a bass guitar and a mullet. One mounted the drums and the emo hair fang. A girl stood in the corner, who bore a shocking resemblance to M.I.A, making this was obviously her secret side project. (jk) The three kids were definitely not over 18. As the first bass lines picked up, the drums kicked in loudly, and the show had potential. For a sec. The quiet looking girl in the corner, who i had seen walking around in the crowd before, flung the mic cord over her shoulder and began yelling into the mic, whilst jumping up and down. Unfortunately, the drums subsisted mostly on adolescent energy and not any kind of interesting drumming. The bass subsisted mostly on the bassist’s hair. He did play bass too, but he wasn’t very good at it. I imagined myself up there playing those instruments, which i have no training in, and doing it better. But the most important part was the vocals. To describe her voice pattern is to wrestle with destiny. Half shrieked, half yelled, half whispered (1 1/2 voice) lyrics repeated themselves loosely over the drum n bass… noise. Songwriting was lost, as the words coming out were barely, no, completely inaudible. I don’t want to spend any more time for this. I don’t like to give numbers to music, but i’m going to officially declare Ima Gymnist 0/10.

To really understand what I’m talking about, please, please, please spend 10 seconds on their myspace. It will make you feel so much better about the music you have. Ima Gymnist

After another wait, the curtains drew on No Age. To the left was a drumset, and on the front of the bass drum were stickers and posters of MIA, as seen in the pic below

On the other side of the stage Randy Randall stood in the stock-guitar-hero position, legs spread, face down, staring at his guitar.

He picked out the noisy first lines of Weirdo Rippers opener “Every Artist Needs A Tragedy” and as Dean Spunt smacked the drums and began singing into a special mic setup that made his voice sound as if it were floating over an old school radio. To describe No Age better I have to be less specific, and as it was said in the Pitchfork review of their album, “…the album builds into something much bigger than its constituent parts.” as is with their live show. Song highlights were the previously mentioned track, “My Life’s Alright Without You” “Neck Escaper” and “Everybody’s Down.” But the real highlight of the performance was the performance itself. The drums was raw, the guitar was reverbed and effected to the infinity and beyond, and the band was real. At one point Randy Randell tried to climb up onto the amps, but only managed to knock one half over and pull a plug out of the board he was using to loop a riff he had done seconds ago, until Spunt came over and hoisted him up, scampered back over to the drums, and as the soft guitar loop and ambient noise came to a head, Randell leaped off the amp, whacking at his guitar with a fury. Insta-Mosh. People were flying around, heads were banging, and shoes were lost, only to find their owners in between songs. No Age was loud, confident, interesting, different, and amazing. After a long built up intro to the last song, Randell tossed his guitar in the the crowd. Hands grasped and reached, and as people played the strings for seconds at a time before being ripped away, strings snapped and pieces of the guitar fell off. The noise was amazing and beautiful. He reached for the guitar back and the crowd sent it back to him, and even after the curtains closed he stayed there waiting for eveyrone to look around their feet and hand him back the bridge and various knobs that had fallen off. If I haven’t said this yet, No Age was fucking amazing.

No Age- Every Artist Needs A Tragedy

No Age - Neck Escaper

Now for the headliner. Liars are a highly respected band, and when I saw highly respected you know I mean I don’t like them. Now, there are a few tracks I really like, but as a whole I don’t really enjoy their music. The show was interesting, with the lead singer enduring a recent back injury which forced him to sit on the edge of a high stool for part of the performance, but he still was able to get his act on. Angus Andrew flailed around, waving his arms, making movements sometimes related to his lyrics, (”you” had him pointing to the audience, “no no no” was a shaking finger.) All in all, it looked like the time the band spent studying and researching witchcraft for their 2003 cleverly titled concept album They Were Wrong, So We Drowned had caused a spirit to possess Andrew, and it looks like it has not been excised as of yet. Jerky, inhuman movements were involved in most of his dancing.

I can understand why people love this band, but it’s just not for me. As with Vampire Weekend at Amoeba Hollywood where an underwhelming performance was brought up by my love of the band’s music, Liars at the El Rey was a phenomenal performance bogged down by my indifference to the music. I like this song a lot though.

Liars - It Fit When I Was A Kid