this is whiplash rock & roll
Wednesday's are a little tight for me because I have to hurry and finish everything up before 5pm, when I have to leave for Bamboozled. However, it blows me away that even when I'm in a bad mood or stressed - spending time with the teens out there for a couple hours always puts me in a better mood. Not that I was in a bad mood yesterday - I'm just sayin... it's a part of my week I always look forward to, even though it pinches Wednesday work time.After lastnight's meeting, like many weeks - I headed off to a show. Lastnight Rick & I went to see The Raveonettes w/ openers: Von Iva and The Hiss.
We had seen the Raveonettes way back in Sept03, right after Rick & I first meet and were still "just friends" :) We didn't have their CD yet, we'd only listened to some MP3's and thought we'd go check em out. They played a rather thin crowd at the Great American (actually people are calling this "the Music Hall" more lately, but it'll always be the Great American to me - or "GAMH". Full name: Great American Music Hall - aanyway...), and I remember not being that into them - and instead that was the first night we experienced StellaStarr*, who stole the show and I fell in love with them!
So, despite not being that impressed with them at the time, I've since had the Raveonette's CD and really have enjoyed it. So, I figured with this show being at a more intimate venue: Bottom of the Hill, and I'd heard a lot of things about The Hiss, so I thought we should hit it.
Von Iva opened, and we made sure we were there - as from the photos on their site, they looked like 4 hot chics in a band. sweet!
The lead singer has a great voice - and serious stage presence as she shakes her booty around in a amateur strip tease kinda way. Moves sometimes quirky and akward, yet somehow sexy and you can't take your eyes off her (wanting to make sure if she trips and falls - you see it first!) hahaa But she had some SERIOUS tatoos making her even more rockstar... one of them on the middle of her back that said IVA - now THATs commitment! :)
So ya, they got the crowd going, the drummer was GREAT! I was inspired to watch her, as I really liked how she got to play during each song... like, not just keepin the beat - but a little bit of everything changin it up. And she's a cute chic! awww yaaa, drumming world here I come! :)
So in summary: They were entertaining. And I think the lead singer has a good voice. If I were her, I'd be in a chic band shakin my shit too. :)
::::
The Hiss came on next and I was thinking they were gonna be really good! I had just heard a song of theirs played on KEXP earlier yesterday, and have heard their name getting tossed around here & there at SXSW & such.
Unfortunately - for as hard as they were rockin, hardly anyone was moving. Including us. The first song made Rick and I look at eachother and say "this song can end now". And somehow it kept going on and on. One of those songs where the lyrics are the same verse over and over and over. How can they think that is still interesting in the third minute of it? End the damn song already! Instead they sequed into a different song, but you'd hardly be able to tell if it weren't for the fact they finally stopped saying the same verse over and over again.
They didn't have a good stage presence... they weren't engaging the crowd at all, and here they are rockin their asses off up there, but if you looked at the people in the audience, nobody was that into it. Maybe their CD is better, but live - I'm not a fan.
:::
The Raveonettes were good to see again, after knowing all their songs really well now - and due to Rick's talking about her so often, this time I was much more entranced with the lead vox chic, Sharon Fu - who is hot and has a sexy sultry voice that people beg her to say their names - or say ANYTHING to them. :) She's cute and totally rockstar.
Their songs rock, but their vocals are kinda mellow - so it was good to see them again, but it'll probably be the last time. But we had fun and danced a little to them. They're opening for the Strokes at the Warfield tonite - that'll be a good show for them.
AND we saw Ken, their manager who we met over us all trying to get on the wireless network in our hotel in Austin/SXSW. It was fun to see him in a different state (and the man lives in Paris full time!) so we went & said hello and thanked him for the awesome insider list he had given us. He said he didn't get a chance to see much since he was working the whole time, so he was glad someone took advantage of it. And that we did... I looked at Rick just remembering what an awesome week of shows that was. *sigh*
Tonite: Kelley Stoltz, Rogue Wave & Bart Davenport at GAMH! woohoo! Jem (and maybe Tania?), me, Rick, Sarah and her friend are all going. I'm looking forward to *finally* seeing Bart D play live - and tonite is with the full band!
Which reminds me - I've got some SERIOUS updating to do on my music event calendar. I've added a few things to the yahoo calendar, but it's only so that I don't double book myself! :)
We've already got tickets to shows I don't even have listed yet: Britt Daniel (solo), The Wrens, Tracey & The Plastics, Metric/Mellodrone, and a few more I think... I'm debating hitting John Vanderslice next week, too - but that'd be 3 shows/row. Which I can handle of course, cuz I'm a professional!! But he's local, so I'm thinkin I could catch him another time if I wanted to. The good thing aboout it would be they're all 3 at different venues. Sometimes 3 nights in a row at Bottom of the Hill can get old... hence a part of why I didn't go to last Friday nights show there. I'd had enough.
Ok, I have to work now! BYE!
