Garbage at the Warfield 10/1/12

Another show at the Warfield, another amazing experience. Screaming Female opened for Garbage.

As their name suggests, there was a screaming female. She sounded so sweet and cute when speaking, strong voice when singing and then blam! A scream. Not entirely my type of pie, but Shirley Manson says Garbage adores them, and I can only imagine what it means to a band from New Brunswick, New Jersey to be brought on tour with Garbage. 

They rocked out, and had a lot of energy. I was impressed with her head banging, but I'm no expert on that sort of thing. They were cute to watch. I don't know if I was supposed to get that impression, but I did. They were all in black. So was Garbage, with the exception of one white dress shirt in a black suit, and Shirley's scarf in the beginning. It was a pretty good look for everyone.

It was a touching show too, they paid tribute to Shirley's mom, who saw her last Garbage tour at the Warfield, and to Christopher, whose wife and daughters were there. Butch and Shirley both gave small speeches about Christopher who was instrumental in helping them create the sound and stage for Garbage.

The stage, by the way, was super clean. I only saw two cords. TWO. With five people on stage, I'd consider that pretty impressive. I spoke to a co-worker who does some radio work and DJs as opening act (fun fact, he was the DJ for Blondie and DEVO the last two times they were in town) and he said that Garbage uses no amps, they route everything through a soundboard and mix it while on stage. (I hope I remembered that right.) I know they mix during the performance. And they played so many songs I don't even care that not everything was played. As I was leaving the venue, I thought about how satisfied I was with the setlist, and then overheard two gentleman talking about how they almost never skip any songs on any of Garbage's albums. I usually don't either. And that definitely means that I can't be sad they didn't play certain things. 

They played Queer and Only Happy When it Rains, and Milk and opened with Supervixen. I always forget the name of that song. I don't know why. I love the lyrics, I adore the song, but can never remember the name of it. Oh well. (Full setlist - http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/garbage/2012/the-warfield-san-francisco-ca-3ddc9cf.html)

The crowd took awhile to show up, but I was in the theatre about 10 minutes after the doors opened. I don't know why I insist on being so early to concerts with assigned seating, but I do. It was nice, cause I got to wave to my friend down in the GA section. Luckily he was wearing his spiffy top hat and was easy to spot. I love having such a dapper friend.

They didn't do a lot of clips/visuals, but light show was pretty ok. They had some high beams that flashed at the audience, and I wasn't really a fan of that, bothered my eyes, but I remembered my glasses, so I could see who was who. This might have been the loudest cheering crowd I've ever been in. There was a girl that danced for awhile in the balcony and then this guy who must have been having the time of his life. I envy them, the freedom of expression they have. I have too many rules, regulations, restrictions, fallbacks, backups, and backups to the backups to ever let myself do anything half as free as let myself feel the music like that. Even alone.

Some nice asides from Shirley, some crowd sing-a-long though it was a bit hard to hear them, I don't know if it was the mic she was using or my position in the balcony (which was pert near dead center) or what, but I kind of remembered all of the words. I just can't remember lyrics. It's awful. I can't even remember the poetry I write, which is another shade of bad. I can generally only feel this stuff in the moment, and it was a pretty glorious bunch of moments.

I have waited for a long, long time to see Garbage. I first started listening to them when I was in the Netherlands, back in 2003. It was the first time I had easy access to a music store that I could explore on my own. I feel like this is where I first started buying My music. I bought Tori Amos' Little Earthquakes, Garbage's Garbage and Version 2.0, I bought a CD by Anouk, a Dutch artist, and a CD by Stabbing Westward. I still play the Garbage CDs every week. 

I'm still processing all of the bands I've seen this last month, Blondie, Fiona Apple and Garbage. I have a very small list of bands I've yet to see now. I've already been to Tori Amos, Tegan and Sara, Tom Petty, Placebo, An Horse, Rachael Yamagata, Jenny Owen Youngs, and Florence and the Machine. I basically have Bat for Lashes, the Eurythmics and Fleetwood Mac left on my absolutely must see list. I don't include Kate Bush because I'm pretty sure she'll never tour again. And I'm going to have tons of shows that I want to go to and need to go, but I've seen just about all of my favorite artists now, and that's a great feeling. 

Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra at the Fillmore 9/26/12

Of my four concerts this month, this was the one I was least looking forward to. Not that I wasn't looking forward to it, but Amanda Palmer doesn't have the same history with me as Blondie, Fiona Apple or Garbage do. That being said, I still couldn't resist going, especially since $25 isn't that much for a show. And what a show.

Craziest show I think I have ever been to. So many acts. So many artists playing the whole night through.

Jherek Bischoff opened and I am in love with his solo bass song with loops that he played. I need to find that somewhere. I got his CD, as well as the CDs of the other two openers. 

Strong opener, great songs with a great performance. Amanda MC'd the whole event, popping up on stage a lot, and during this set, she wandered the crowd. I've only been to the Fillmore once before, but I knew where to stand. The left of the stage, because that's the stage entrance. This means that everyone in the band passes by me. If I were braver, I totally would have said something, especially to Neil Gaiman, but I'm not brave, and I kind of like to let people do their own thing, cause I know a ton of other people will be all over them. (My exception to this so far has been Jenny Owen Youngs, with whom I had the most awkward handshake ever.)

So yeah, I could have taken a deep breath and bumped into Neil Gaiman and I didn't say a word. My roommate wants to murder me just a little bit. Back to the show though, Amanda left the crowd mingling early to jump on stage to play drums for Jherek because no one could find the drummer. That was pretty cool. 

After his set, there was a brief set up time, and then we had Simple Pleasure. I also bought their CDs but enjoyed them much more live. They had a lot of energy and some crazy stage antics. 

Then a brief bit of history with MC Amanda, and she brought out the Daredevil Chicken Club, a husband and wife duo that used to MC the Dresden Doll shows, if I remember correctly. They did a banana spitting trick that involved shooting bananas into each other's mouths and then at the audience and then did some costume changes and they both had fake genitals on their skin colored underwear. There were some suggestive dances and poses and then he lost all of his clothes and bolted off stage. 

I'm not sure if they were a pre-planned part of the festivities, there was something about the way they were introduced that made me wonder, cause earlier in the show, Amanda had Neil Gaiman up on stage for a bit. Apparently, earlier in the day, they had done a free show and signing at Amoeba Music on Haight St and had been asked to participate in the "What's in Your Bag?" segment and had won a $75 gift card. 

As Amanda put it, she doesn't really have room for stuff on tour. Her first thought had been to get some shirts so she could put off laundry for a few more days, but alas, nothing in her size. This actually worked out better for the audience. She and Neil went around and picked a couple of things up, a rare vinyl, some Thompson Twins vinyls (Neil had nothing to do with this pick,) and a few CDs. While the other opening acts were playing, Neil was going to go to the bathrooms in the venue and hide the goodies. Amanda would tweet the locations of everything and there was supposed to be a grand old scavenger hunt. I think it went pretty well for a last minute, yet well announced plan, but I think I overheard that it was hard to hide stuff because fans were waiting. Either way, pretty neat.

After this, we had the pleasure of being introduced to Ronald Reagan. Amanda said that as crazy as the evening had been, nothing had prepared us for these guys, and in a sense she was right. Ronald Reagan bills itself as Boston's Premiere 80's Pop Saxophone Duo. They covered Total Eclipse of the Heart and I was sold. I also bought their CD. I love 80's music, and I don't apologize for it. I've never liked saxophones before, but I wouldn't turn down another show from these guys, cause it was awesome. Especially when the audience started singing. They also did this to a song or two in the set up times between bands.

Sorry for the quality of the picture

Then we had Amanda and she puts on a hell of a show. She crowd surfed in a huge flowing shawl thing, and it looked pretty sweet. Sometime during her show, she brought up Neil, and they had a sort of depressing moment. Actually, scratch that, it was totally depressing. 

At the merch table that night, they had a box, and they asked that everyone write down the worst thing that had ever happened to them in their room. It was rough. And it was hard for them to calm down the crowd and convince them to be serious for this part, but it was intense, especially once the crowd figured it out. 

After this, Neil sang a song. It was a deliciously morbid tale of murder, and Amanda accompanied him on ukelele. At this point, the crowd had moved forward, so I didn't quite have the view I had before, but the crowd didn't grow as much as it usually does for the main act. Something that the opening act mentioned. People showed up early to see Everything. And it was well worth it. 

I found out that I don't really know a lot of her stuff. I knew the stuff she played from the Dresden Dolls, and what she played from "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" but that was about it. I was totally stoked to hear all those songs though. The crowd was awesome, and the most eclectic crowd I have ever seen. There were harajuku clothes, there were dapper men, there were corsets, there were pop culture shirts, metal shirts, dresses, skirts, and some people that were barely clothed. It's really a crowd you'd have to see to believe, but it was great.

During the encore, Amanda brought out her merch girl. She had everyone sing happy birthday (again, it had been someone else's birthday as well) and then said that it had come to her attention about two weeks ago that the merch girl had always dreamed of crowd surfing. So guess what? She got to crowd surf for her birthday after blowing the candles out on her cake. It was pretty sweet. 

Being that this was the Fillmore, I got a free poster when I left. It's an interesting mix of eyes, hands and elephants. For the four CDs I bought, it was only $25, so even though I prefer most of them live, it was still a good bargain for me, and well worth the cost.

Also, as a bonus, when I told my mom about the concert the first time, she thought the name sounded familiar. After the concert, I mentioned Neil Gaiman and that struck all sorts of bells. My mom said Amanda's full name, which includes a curse, and that was also pretty awesome, but also kind of weird cause I'm not used to hearing my mom curse. 

Fiona Apple at the Warfield 9/11/12

Day two of the best week ever -

Fresh off a day off to recover from my Blondie concert, I headed back down to the Warfield to see Fiona Apple. This was a much more bittersweet concert. Mostly due to the emotions this show dredged up. Ah, old flames.

So, Blake Mills and a number of other musicians from the touring band opened up. More country-ish than I usually listen to, but pleasant. I like Blake Mills. Not as much as my roommates would have, but he was nice, he was funny, he has a strong voice and some pretty wicked skills. I was pleased with the way things were kicking off.

He talked a lot more than Fiona did during her set. I'm ok with that, because the only song that she didn't perform that I would have wanted to hear was "Criminal." She covered all of my other wants. All of them. A good mix of old and new. (http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/fiona-apple/2012/the-warfield-san-francisco-ca-73ddae51.html)

This is also the concert that convinced me that I have to wear either my glasses or contacts when I go to the Warfield because I can't see much on stage. This was the one show where I was more on the side, and that actually worked in my favor. I was on the left side and so was Fiona, especially when she played the piano. I loved watching her play the piano. She had an interesting stage presence, but the music overpowered everything. Oh man. I heard Shadowboxer and On the Bound, and I saw Fiona Apple live. 

The sound was great, the performance was great, the venue was great, my seating was awesome. It also stirred up a lot of unpleasant emotions for me, a lot of regrets about my past, and more than a few worries for my future. It left me with an entirely different sort of high than Blondie did. I was almost exuberant and bursting with Blondie, it was a dream come true. Fiona was too, but she was an entirely different type of dream.

I would absolutely go see her again, without a doubt. I'd even go alone again, which actually was probably a good decision because of the melancholy. Oh, and the rest of what made this the best week ever (that I can remember) is that I finally figured out how to play my one video game and I got a ghostbusters tshirt. It's the little things in life. 

Blondie & DEVO at the Warfield 9/10/12

I love living in a city. I love living in a major US city that generally appears on every major tour roster. It's pretty sweet. 

This last month alone, I've seen three artists I've been in love with for at least a decade, one why-not-I'm-sure-it-be-awesome (and it was) show, and missed one that I'm sure would have been amazing. This never would have happened if I had stayed in my area of Pennsylvania. There's a reason it's nicknamed Pennsyltucky. 

The first big show I saw this month I grew up thinking I'd never get to see. I'm a pretty big fan of the 80's. I always half joke that if I was only allowed to listen to the top hits of one decade, it'd be the 80's. For me, it was an absolute no brainer that I'd be going to see Blondie as soon as I heard they'd be in town.

Well worth it. I went with two good friends of mine, and wow. It was my second time at the Warfield, which is a former theatre converted into a music hall, and it has general admission/standing room only on the bottom, and three tiers of balcony. I tend to go for the balcony seating because I'm not the tallest person around and I have a bum knee. I've lucked out and generally get mid balcony seating, and 3 out of 4 times I was right in the center of the stage as well. 

The line seemed really long the first time I got into it, but it moved pretty briskly. One of my friends ran late, and since I was the one with the tickets and there was no re-admittance, I left the line and hung around a sketchy part of Market Street for about 30 minutes. It's not too bad of an area, but it smells, there's some sort of dice game going every couple of feet, a lot of scalpers and a stench that's fairly unpleasant. Still, far better than the Tenderloin. 

I never really got into DEVO beyond occasionally listens to "Whip It" but, boy oh boy did they put on a show. They all seem to have more energy than I do at any given time. They ran around stage, jumped around stage, ripped off at least two costumes and had a mid-show intermission for a costume change. They still sound awesome. I'm not a converted fan, but I wouldn't turn down another opportunity to see them. 

Bonus of seeing them - finally figured out where the song my dad used to sing to my brother came from. 

Blondie. Oh my god. I saw Blondie in concert. I don't know how to properly convey how blown my mind is by this fact. I think there only two or three 80's acts that could possibly blow my mind more. Fleetwood Mac, the Eurythmics and Kate Bush. Kate Bush has only ever done one tour, so I'm pretty sure that's guaranteed, however, there's still a small chance I could see the other two at some point. 

I saw Blondie. Deborah Harry still rocks. She can still sing. She didn't move around as much as the guys from DEVO, but she was also wearing huge wedge shoes so, y'know.

The only song they didn't play that I love was Denis. BUT THEY PLAYED "HANGING ON THE TELEPHONE" AND "RAPTURE" and I really don't care about anything else right now. I have seen nearly all of my favorite artists and songs live now. I'm still processing this. I don't have a lot left on my must see list of concerts. I'm starting to repeat, and don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but I never thought I'd get to this point. 

 The light show and multimedia part of both shows were great, there were a lot of clips (I love that DEVO played the video for "Whip It" while playing it live) that were off the wall, but they totally worked for the bands. DEVO's were a bit more out there, but I liked the Blondie's clips better. May have been the dancers. 

They both still have it though. I tend to get to shows when the doors open, even if I have assigned seating. I'm not really sure why, I think it has something to do with my dad freaking out if we weren't fifteen minutes early to Everything, Ever. The place was packed. I'm going to chalk it up to the fact that both bands were pretty big in their day, cause usually when I go to a show, people show up pretty late. (Although this was also not the case for the Amanda Palmer show I went to.)

The sound was pretty spot on, I could have done with a bit more emphasis for the vocals, but I almost always say that. OH, and when Debbie Harry struck her poses during "Rapture," OH. Oh my. And their cover of "Lights" by Ellie Goulding? Totally awesome. I actually prefer it. I hope no one murders me for that. 

I would absolutely, without a doubt go see these guys again. I don't know if the chance to see Blondie will ever come around again, and I am so cuss-wording glad I went. I saw Blondie. 

What else could be better? 

Maybe seeing Fiona Apple in the same theatre the next night? Maybe. Maybe.