Radiohead @Theatre at MSG, June 14th

(Better photos tonight, baby!)

Tonight, met up with Wawa, my new best friend Rad, and some of his buddies to catch my favorite band again, the wondrous Radiohead. Now, I don't usually bother seeing a band twice in a row (the only recent exception I made to that rule was the Robinson Brothers acoustic tour, but I knew the setlists would be very different). But this is Radiohead. They could play the same 10 songs all the time, and I would still be in love.

We arrived at the Pit slightly earlier than the previous night and caught half of the opener, the Black Keys, who are a drum and guitar band which has been compared to the White Stripes, except bluesier. They were nice and loud. After they were done, I made the executive decision to part from my group and get as close as I could without being too pushy. I stayed on Jonny's side of the stage, but managed to get within 6 or 7 people deep from the stage, and strategically placed myself behind a very petite girl.

I thought the night before was astonishing; tonight they managed to top it even more. Not only did I have better familiarity with the new tunes (which I imagine will sound great in the context of an album), and I was closer to the stage, but they pulled out all the big guns. In the two hours they played, we heard gems such as "Myxomatosis," "A Wolf at the Door," "Just," "The Tourist," "No Surprises," and what many consider their opus, "Paranoid Android."

I feel as though I died and went to heaven...

I cannot wait to see them in 10 days in Berkeley with Amanda, Teddy and Di!

Thanks again to Rad, who Wawa called our guardian angel. May good ticket karma floweth over for him forever.

Radiohead @Theatre at MSG, June 13th

(Sorry for the shitty pictures. I really need a new camera.)

So, tonight, thanks to my new best friend Rad, Wawa and I were able to go to see Radiohead from the GA Pit for face value. Ticket karma abounds!

I had been dying to see Radiohead properly for....forever. I had only seen them twice before, once on each of the last two tours, each time grabbing a crappy last minute nosebleed seat just to experience any part of my favoritest band. (I love them so much, I even missed kung fu tonight to see them!) When tickets sold out like hotcakes for these two shows at the Theatre at MSG, I was crushed. But justice prevailed and goodness sprang forth in the shape of Rad.

Now, Radiohead could have played just two songs, and I would have been ecstatic. We were treated to a decent hour and forty five minutes or so of amazingness. I'm not going to go into too much detail since it will all be gushing and useless anyway. They mixed up songs from their old albums and debuted a good number of new songs too. Ended with a gorgeous "How to Disappear Completely." It was all awesome. Truly. I'm not lying.

And thanks to the powers of craigslist (which is how we met Rad), and Wawa's extra pair of Pearl Jam tix (I never thought I'd be thankful for that), for which Rad traded a pair for tomorrow night in the Pit, we'll be there to do it all over again, baby!

Yay!!!!! So happy!!!! I'm as giddy as the time I saw Depeche Mode!

Cat Power @Town Hall, June 10th

NOTE: I've decided to open a flickr.com account so I can spruce up these blog entries with random pictures I take.

Tonight, caught the amazing Cat Power (Chan Marshall) at Town Hall. The ticket karma continues to flow -- grabbed 4th row center when they went on sale (hence the pretty decent photos on my shitty camera) and took dear Shana to sit with me.

Now, Chan's live reputation preceded her. Cat Power was supposed to play earlier this year at Town Hall but cancelled her tour mysteriously. In fact, I had a sweet pair for that show as well, and was gonna take the Britta for Valentine's Day, but we won't dwell on that...

So who knew what was gonna happen this go-around. Her latest album, The Greatest, is gorgeous and was recorded with the Memphis Rhythm Band -- a few members of which played with Al Green in the '70s. The stage was filled with musicians -- several guitars, horns, strings, drums, bass, piano, organ, and even backup singers. When they started playing without the lady of the moment through one instrumental and then another, I got a little nervous. Was Chan gonna pull a no-show?

But she did not disappoint -- she bounded out for the title track and the crowd went mad. The focus of the evening was on the latest cd. Her voice was lush, haunting, aching, delicate. She seemed fidgety or maybe suffering from a slight case of a.d.d. at times, fussing with her hair constantly or her rings. Her dancing bordered on goofy -- she flapped her arms like a chicken and flopped around her thin limbs. But it was all too charming. She seemed genuinely happy to be performing this second sold out night in front of the New York crowd.

And as she progressed through the songs, she gradually warmed up and became slightly chatty, at one point commenting how this was her sober. There was even a costume change. She started off the evening with a simple black tank, black pants, a gold medallion on a chain around her neck. After the last song of the main set -- "Where is My Love" and god, it was so beautiful, I almost cried -- she returned to the stage in a white cocktail dress and big silver hoop earrings, which she almost immediately removed from her ears. She was barefoot the whole time, too. The best was when she unabashedly kept adjusting her little white dress pausing at times to pull a wedgie. Utterly kooky and charming!

While the main set was absolutely beautiful, the encore songs made it completely worth it. She played a few songs solo either on piano or guitar, including a gorgeous cover of "House of the Rising Sun." Then, the full band returned and accompanied her once again.

I didn't know what to expect from a live performance by Cat Power, having heard that she could be crap live. After tonight, I'm totally hooked -- I loved her so much, I even begged for a setlist, ended up with two, and also copies of one of the musician's notes featuring the chord progressions of some of the songs. Awesome.

PS -- spotted her Matador labelmates, Yo La Tengo, as well as David Byrne there in the audience. Sweet!

Tapes 'N Tapes @Bowery Ballroom, June 4th

Met up with Shana and Eddie early for yet another smashing pre-concert meal at La Esquina, followed by ice cream at the Nolita Ice Cream Factory -- yay, almond cookie! We met Julie1 at the doors and headed in.

Tonight featured a 3 band lineup. The opener was Cold War Kids, and boy, did they have loads of chi. The drummer remained stationary as the lead singer, lead guitarist and bassist ambled all over the stage. You could only wonder how they would fare at a tighter place like Rothko or the Knitting Factory. I really enjoyed the first 5 or so songs. The lead singer yelped it like he meant it. Meanwhile the mostly lead guitarist would alternate between guitar and smashing a lone cymbal atop a wooden crate with a maracca or drum stick with a splintering drum stick. And the bassist kinda creeped me out -- I think he kept locking eyes with me -- but it was in an axe-murderer kind of way. They were interesting both vocally and visually. I don't think they'll achieve any great success, but I was not upset I saw them.

The second act of the night was this band from Denmark named The Figurines. Now, if you had given me their cd, I probably would have appreciated it. There are definitely some solid rock/punk elements to their music, with good bass riffs, energy, etc. But seeing them live? It was during their first song that I immediately wished I hadn't been out till 3am partying with the kung fu crowd and Shifu -- how often do you get to do special water training with the man himself? I really hit the wall with the Figurines. The speakers were too loud for me, yet I wasn't sure I wanted to relinquish our prime spot 5 people deep from the stage. As for the band visually -- never have I seen a group so disparate in appearance. The lead guitarist looked normal and cute. The bassist -- a member of Bon Jovi circa 1998 with his tight black polyester shirt, leather pants and perfectly coiffed hair with blonde highlights. The lead singer -- if you asked Ryan Adams to wear a horrible poofy bleached blonde wig and sing like Neil Young meets Jello Biafra. His hair was the worst -- it really reflected the various light effects very well. Perhaps this mashup of styles accounted for their music -- it was a little all over the place. The Figurines were solid musicans. They just managed to be very loud without being interesting, which is how I think Eddie put it.

Last, but not least, the reason why we came -- Tapes 'N Tapes. I had bought these tickets a month and a half ago based solely on buzz, both in blogs and in print. Rolling Stone named them as someone to watch in 2006. Their sound has been compared to the bastard stepchild of Frank Black and Stephen Malkmus, and that assessment might be right for some of their songs. I heard all kinds of similiarities with them and many bands. Particularly, their cut "Manitoba" reminds me of Arcade Fire. Then again, it could only be because Manitoba is in Canada, right? I'm so geographically retarded...

They were a solid live band. I enjoyed them but unfortunately, I was really, really tired at that point, so I was impatient to leave. I have enjoyed their debut cd very much, and probably would see them live again at some point. But they didn't knock me out, like Arcade Fire or Clap Your Hands have during their fledgling careers. Once they finished their main set, Eddie and Shana made a beeline for the doors to head back to Jersey and Julie1 and I met up with Heather and Julie2 at the back. We were all ready for bed.

Alice in Chains @Bowery Ballroom, May 23rd

(I took this picture on my shitty cellphone.)
I can't believe I just went to an Alice in Chains concert. BY MYSELF.

I bought these tickets a few weeks ago, cos I got caught up in the hooplah. I was one of the lucky ones who got through on Ticketweb. Then, through some crafty craigslisting, I was all set to trade my pair of AIC tickets for a pair to one of the sold out Radiohead shows at the Theater at MSG. But sure enough, the trader/traitor bailed on me last minute today, and Wawa was anxious and tired -- he's going to Boston tomorrow for, gee, guess what, more Pearl Jam -- so I guess he didn't want to be all grunged out.

I can't even call myself a fan. When Layne died, I did not shed a tear. Well, I do actually have one cd by them -- Dirt -- which, if you're gonna have over a thousand cds in your collection, Dirt might as well be one of them. I think I bought it during my freshman year of college to go with my two Pearl Jam cds and two Nirvana ones and Singles soundtrack.

So I did a last minute post on craigslist and got someone to commit to my plus 1 for a nice price and opted to go myself after kung fu tonight.

The place was packed with K-Rock types -- a sausagefest, I think they term it? I really wanted to kill myself but I figured since my ticket was more than paid for by the other guy, I could have a beer, check the show out and leave if it was so terrible.

Because my plus 1 was not the tallest -- I think I was a bit taller with my New Balances on -- he and I went to my new spot at the Bowery introduced to me by Heather at the Scissor Sisters, the right corner of the stage right by the bouncer and the door.

It proved to be perfect positioning cos I ended up right against the stage, and to the left of me was a girl in a wheelchair. I thought, oh, how wonderful, I'm glad she gets to come to a show and have a great spot. But not until the crowd got going did I realize how awesome it was to have her near me. She served as a great buffer between me and the raucous mosh pit and crowd surfers and stage divers. So, thank you, whoever you are.

The positioning was also perfect since we were on Jerry Cantrell's side of the stage, and he really is the only reason to go see AIC now. Don't get me wrong -- the guy who did the lead vocals was great, sounded a lot like Layne, got the crowd hyped up, and even played guitar, which is something Layne never did. But, really, who are we kidding here -- Jerry with his long, blond hair and crazy guitar -- is the man! He played to the crowd as they yelled, "Jerry! Jerry!" By the end of the night, tho, the crowd did yell, "New guy! New guy!" more than once. Jerry played right above my portion of the stage numerous times so that he hovered a mere few feet above me. I even touched his ass for a sec -- don't ask me why I did that!

They played for about 70 minutes total, including a short break after which for the encore they played 3 songs. They hit all the ones I knew off of Dirt, including my favorites Them Bones, Rooster, Would? and lastly, Man in the Box.

Would? (huh huh) I do this again? Probably not, but I had fun tonight, I suppose.

The Raconteurs @Tower Records, May 18th

This past Tuesday, the Raconteurs CD came out. Tower Records announced that with the purchase of the CD, they would give away a bracelet that would allow free entry to the instore performance the following Thursday (tonight). Apparently people lined up at the crack of dawn in the rain for these bracelets. I went down during my late lunch break (2:30ish?) and managed to grab one hassle free, in the Yellow Sun. And the clerk who assisted me with my purchase insisted on putting on the bracelet at the store to deter scalpers, I suppose, but happily, I could slide it off quite easily once on Broadway so I didn't have to look like a total loser.

So, tonight after a brilliant kung fu class, I walked the block and a half up from Temple to Tower and got in line with the rest of the herd. Julie1 was able to grab a bracelet too after I told her I got one so late in the day, so she came and joined me in line.

I had never been to an instore at Tower before. They pushed all the CD racks somewhere else and had a raised platform for the band. The place was crammed with mostly hipster types, including this one who Julie had the misfortune of standing behind. He wore this dirty wool cap that reaked. I mean, c'mon, man, it's fucking mid-May already! So many people played the photographer tonight. So many friggin' digital cameras!

The Racs started promptly at 10pm. Jack White, Brendan Benson, and those two other guys. Yeah, them. They had some sound issues -- the amps weren't really kicking it -- so the first 3 songs were almost a capella, with a distant acoustic guitar strumming. They took a short break to resolve the issues, and returned to the stage in full gear. And it was awesome. You never have to expect anything less than ROCK!!! when Jack White is involved.

They ended up playing about 9 songs, and considering the CD itself is like 11 songs, that was pretty nice. I had hoped to catch them at the impossible Irving Plaza show last month, but this was a nice alternative.

Side note -- I asked Bharat if he wanted to pop down to Tower with me on Tuesday, and I had told him that the Racs were Jack White's new project. He adamantly said, Oh I don't like him. So I said suit yourself and left. When I returned and said I thought you loved the White Stripes, he finally realized he had thought I had meant Jack Black....whoops! Yeah, verrrrry different...

The John Sid Band @Bar 169, May 12th

Great way to close out the week -- caught kung fu classmate John Sid and his band play a small bar in the very lower Lower East Side called Bar 169. A ton of us came out to cheer on John, who sounded sharp as usual.

And now that this was my third time seeing John play, the songs sounded more and more familiar. Some of the other girls and I had a blast dancing our asses off in front of the band and screaming at the top of our lungs

At one point there was a tall drunkish asshole who loudly complained that John was "no Eddie Vedder" and that he "sucked" but then all of a sudden he had a ton of us kung fu people turn around and stare at him. If he only knew that we could have all caijiaoed his butt into oblivion. He's lucky that he caught us all in a good mood.

I think John's Band got the crowd going -- even the non-kung fu folks. A cute guy who I talked to for a bit compared John's singing to that of Jeff Buckley. Whoa!

All in all, it was a fun night, tho it got a little sticky towards the end, but I'll spare you the gory details...I'm just thankful that Ji was there to help pick up the pieces.

I'm glad I went. It is a night like this one that reinforces why I love USA Shaolin Temple. What handsome beautiful people we are!

And I trained the morning after too -- MORE CHI! TRAIN HARDER!