Girl Talk walks the talk

Girl Talk’s Greg Gillis is an omnipresent musical being. He exists in no set decade and no good musician is safe from his all knowing eye.

This mash up master not only had a great 2008, with his album, Feed the Animals, aka, 24th best album of the year, according to Rolling Stone, he also began 2009 in party guru fashion, with a sold out show at the Pageant in St. Louis, MO on January 8th.

It should be said that it was no small feat to sell out a show at the 2,300 max capacity Pageant in a fairly weak concert selling city like St. Louis on this night. Under 10 miles away, Lil Wayne, T-Pain, and the Gym Class Heroes were hogging all media attention and advertising in town at the St. Louis University campus.

With all that being said, Gillis brought the party, and for one-fourth of the price, the crowd jumped up and down and danced to samples of Wayne’s songs, as he played right down the street.

All great acts need a great lead in, and maybe sometimes, someone to make them look better. On this night, Gillis would have both. Opening act, Chicago rapper, Hollywood Holt, took to the stage with absolute tornado of noise and furious physicality.

The rapper, backed up by former M.I.A. DJ, Million $ Mano, came out and got the crowd jumping, swaying, and at the end, physically keeping him from hitting the ground as he jumped into the mass of bodies. Having recently been anointed next big thing by Kanye West, Holt stood up and delivered on the promise.

Next up was fellow Pittsburgh rap duo, Grand Buffet. Though the group tried their best to please the crowd, few in the horde were going for it. It got ugly quick. As soon as the duo walked on stage, an icy chill wafted over the crowd that had been red hot minutes earlier. Vulgarities, along with middle fingers were thrown casually.

The duo quickly let it get to them, often addressing us. As if the awkward chit chat about politicians eating babies, and how they felt about microwaves wasn’t enough, the group couldn’t get past the boo-birds in the crowd, and try to please those having a good time.

I’m sorry guys, just because Gillis thought you were good enough to be on the tour doesn’t mean you walk in with our respect, you have to earn it. The fairly short and awkward set left the crowd more excited than ever to see the main attraction.

It’s amazing that in such an extremely short amount of time Girl Talk has gained the popularity to go from playing several hundred capacity clubs, to the large 2,300 capacity Pageant. With major planning and assistance from the security crew the crowd quickly made its way on stage and a usual show was forming.

There is truly no way to describe a Girl Talk crowd. It is as eclectic and seemingly random as Gillis’s music. However just a little taste would on this night include, LOTS of spandex on teenagers, animal masks, guys wearing dresses and entirely green attire, and last but not least, Gillis himself wearing sweatpants.

The dance party went on for an hour and a half, and just like the music, not one person quit moving, jumping, or partying. No matter your taste in music, believe me you will hear something you can tap a toe to, a Girl Talk show is an entirely unique experience that is not to be missed whether in a small club, or festival

More pictures coming later today!

Update 2009

Just wanted to stop in and let you all know how quickly things are moving for me right now. As you can see on the side I have several shows coming up, as well as an interview with a member of Seether sometime before the end of the month. I will also be writing concert reviews for consequenceofsound.net which is an absolutely amazing music site that kepps track of every major music festival as well as occasionally doing concert reviews, music reviews and news. I am very excited about this, and hope things only continue to grow from there! SO check back for upcoming show reviews and pictures!

edit: thought I would add that I have also recently added Tyler Rendleman’s interview with Rise Against guitarist Zach Blair, up on the reviews tab at the top!

Top 25 Songs of the Year

So out of pure boredom, and not that anyone cares, but here’s my skewed and offbase opinion on what was not good, but great in the last 12 months.

25.  To Build A Mountain – The Matches – If you don’t listen to this band you should check them out, not only are they great musicians/artists, but they actual are this good live, if not better.

24. Spaceman – The Killers – Wasn’t a fan of this album in general, but this song brings possibly the nuttiest musician to date cough cough, Brandon Flowers, cough cough, to the the forefront of what he should keep doing!

23. Echoplex – Nine Inch Nails – Not only was this song released absolutely free of charge as a thank you from Trent, it’s also better than almost all the music that came out this year. So let’s go over that again, 1. FREE! 2. Amazing!

22. Great Expectations – The Gaslight Anthem – Springsteen meets Rise Against. I look forward to watching this band taking off.

21. The Kelly Affair- Be Your Own Pet – It’s truely saddening to see a band with legitimate skills and talent disband, while so many awful bands manage to stick around. However, I am pleased that they managed to push out a great record with this powerful, party song.

20. Beautiful – 10 Years – This is one alternative band that may forever get stuck around bands like Seether, Breaking Benjamin, and the like, and there’s noting wrong with that, but they deserve to break out of that mold, and this song is a great example.

19. Come All You Weary – Thrice – Oddly enough in going through so many genre’s Thrice seem their most at home without one. I personally love lead singer Dustin Kensrue’s acoustic material, so that combined with the rest of the band made this song great.

18. Why Do You Let Me Stay Here – She & Him – I would gladly take Zooey off her shelf any day, and M. Ward adds his own touch to make for a great combination of her candy cane sweet vocals and his musical genius.

17. Love is Noise – The Verve – It’s awkward sounding, and don’t give up too soon. Richard Ashcroft kicks in to show that he is still one of the best vocalists out of the British Invasion of the 90s’.

16. Carolina Drama – The Raconteurs – Drama is the key word here, Jack White could sing about anything and make it interesting, but this southern murder tale is sweet listening.

15. Gamma Ray – Beck – This song sounds like it jumped off a melting Antarctic beach party.

14. The Day That Never Come – Metallica – This song is epic Metallica, that’s never a bad thing.

13. Better – Guns N’ Roses – This album was not worth the wait, but this song highlights that Axl still has the vocal ability to make a song cuts to the core of something that I can’t quite figure out.

12. I’ve Seen Enough – Cold War Kids – The new album from this SoCo band is a much denser listen, but absolutely worth it, and this one starts off slow but quickly kicks in with the bands quirky take on blues and indie music.

11. Northern Downpour – Panic at the Disco – Beatles meet Fall Out Boy, makes for an intriguing sound, and one that I can’t stop listening to.

10.  Mykonos – Fleet Foxes- Gorgeous synchronized vocal’s make this band unique, and really act as a musical instrument over the guitar part.

9. Love Lockdown – Kanye West – Best drum part of the year by anyone, though i’m not all that into rap, this song is irresistably depressing.

8. Lost! – Coldplay – I couldn’t help it, I wanted to, but I just can’t this song has one of the best beats of the year by an alternative band.

7. Sex on Fire – Kings of Leon – Not the most deep song lyrically, but sometimes things need to be said simply, and with a great simple guitar part, this song is all about straightforward rocking, in and out of bed.

6. Kids – MGMT – Best new band, easily. This song, like all of their other songs are completely different than anything anyone else is trying to do right now.

5.Pork and Beans – Weezer – Classic Weezer, with nonsensical lyrics about standing against the norm and kicking ass while doing it.

4.Goliath – The Mars Volta – Thomas Pridgen, the Mars Volta’s new drummer, impressed me, possibly, more than any other musician this year.

3. G.L.O.W. – Smashing Pumpkins – Billy Corgan is back and taking no prisoners. New bassist Ginger Reyes kicks in with a bass solo that shakes the floors of what you thought the Pumpkins were becoming, and simply destroys it.

2. Strange Times – Black Keys – Foot pounding catchy, this song, and album made my year. It is one of the most powerful songs of the year musically.

1. Grapefire Vines – Death Cab For Cutie – This track is absolutely beautiful, melodic, and you can’t help but get sucked in to the lyrics. The fact that the song end’s with a incomplete thought makes it all the better and more appropriate for a song about California fires.

Update 12.08.08

I just added The Smashing Pumpkins review as well as the Mudvayne review to the concert review page, that is the officail version that was printed in the paper, as well as Tyler Rendleman’s review of the Rise Against show which is a great read as well.

No shows really coming up in the near future, but I wil be sure to update as soon as their are, as well as some cd review over the school break.

8 years later, back in St. Louis

For the past two years, I couldn’t help but wonder aloud why Billy Corgan had brought the Smashing Pumpkins back to be ridiculed, and insulted.
The band released Zeitgeist in 2007 and left fans feeling the same way. It’s not that the CD was awful, just that it wasn’t that good, and it certainly wasn’t a reunion featuring fan favorites James Iha and D’Arcy Wretzky.
Billy Corgan has often been accused of just bringing the band back for a quick cash grab before leaving again. I, however am back on the Pumpkins ship.
After their return to St. Louis on November 26th, all my faith in Billy, and whoever he chooses to put around him, has been restored.
The band was of course fashionably late, coming on stage around fifteen minutes after scheduled start time,  to the roaring guitar strums of one of the better songs off of Zeitgeist, “Tarantula”.
Jimmy Chamberlin’s drumming immediately showed it’s as strong as ever, and he continues to be the only stabilizing feature of the Pumpkins, and Billy Corgan’s other musical half.
New bass player Ginger Reyes then dove into one of the heaviest Pumpkins bass lines in a very long time on new single, “G.L.O.W.” The song is a driving force that distinctively proves that Corgan is as capable as ever as a hit producing front man.
“Siva” came next featuring the first of many “jam” moments of the night, almost as a reminder in case anyone had forgotten that Corgan still knows how to play a blistering guitar solo.
The hits seemingly were on a never ending  streak, continuing with “Eye” and “Tonight, Tonight”, but this was the groups first return to St. Louis since the reunion two years ago, and eight years since their last visit overall, so maybe he was trying to make up for the absence.

Many dates on the “20th Anniversary Tour” have received less than glowing reviews, as Corgan often seems perturbed with the crowd as he goes off on a twenty minute cover of Pink Floyds “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”, which goes over less than swimmingly with fans hoping for actual Pumpkins songs.
As it turned out, that song would end this show as well to the usual reaction, but not before a set list full of classics, which even featured Corgan pulling out an acoustic guitar for his cover of “Landslide” originally performed by Fleetwood Mac.
The band covered over two and a half hours, which was actually cut a little bit shorter than other dates on the tour due to Corgan having a persisting cold.
Corgan seemed in great spirits, maybe it was the cold medicine, even at one point  telling the crowd a story about how he wrote “Disarm” underneath the arch at 6 a.m. one morning, though of course that wasn’t true.
At the end of though show, though some were disillusioned by the Floyd cover song, it was clear that the Smashing Pumpkins seem to back on the right track.
With thundering new songs like “As Rome Burns”, mostly instrumental “Superchrist” and “G.L.O.W.”, as well as a astounding lineup that seems to be growing well together, here’s hoping the next CD will hopefully continue the good feelings everyone left with after the show.

The New Game has begun

More Photos!

Some bands thrive on being mysterious; they prefer you to constantly be wondering what they are thinking, or what they are going to do next. Mudvayne, and lead singer Chad Grey however, don’t fall anywhere near that group.
As the band returned to St. Louis from their three year absence from the touring music scene, Grey and the band let the crowd now from moment one what they were going to get, an trip deep into the dark minds of the bands past, and a look at where the metal band stands today.
Grey emerged in an outfit straight out of Stephen King’s classic It.
With a clown suit split down the middle, one side blood red, to go with the blood like substance creeping down the side of his face, and the other side so black that if it wasn’t for the incredible spotlights you would have thought only half of him made it to the stage.
Roaring through classics such as “Death Blooms”, “Nothing to Gein”, “-1” and “Dig”, off of their breakthrough record L.D. 50, let older fans know they were still very much so appreciated. As Grey said it  mid way through the set, “We have some old time fan’s in the building tonight,” and they all loved every second of it.
Newer material from the short, but ear blasting set included, “Happy” and “Forget to Remember” off of 2005s’ Lost and Found, and “Do what you do” off of the bands latest release The New Game.
Though the band played just over an hour, much to the displeasure of many in the crowd, they made sure to stay after for over an hour to meet with fans purchasing their new CD.
Openers at the show, and recently reunited Snot, put on an incredible showing of brute strength as they pounded through old and new material featuring new lead singer Tommy “Vext” Cummings.
10 Years showed up with a rather dark, and odd set. The band just didn’t quite seem to fit sandwiched between the two much heavier acts, and fans showed it, causing singer Jesse Hasek to dive into the crowd on multiple occasions to try and rile the crowd up.
Musically the band played a great set of mostly new material off of 2008s’ Division, but it just couldn’t live up to the aggressive crowds temperament.
By the end of the show many a mosh had come and gone, but all were left standing, screaming, for their returned heroes, lead by Chad Grey’s urgent call to, “make all the noise you can, it’s not like you can do this everyday.”

matlockbruce27@yahoo.com

Update 11.20.08

The final version of the paper from the Death Cab show is officially up on the concert page. Also have everything finalized for the Mudvayne show Tuesday, though I’m starting to worry about getting the photo pass for the SP show. Time will tell…. should have some videos up from Rise Against and DCFC on the youtube page soon though

update: of course as soon as I typed this, I got verified for the SP show, so I am good to go! I anxiously look forward to reporting back to you on my biggest week in photography yet!

Rise Against!

PHOTOS FROM SHOW

The day has come and passed and despite the fact that I have been unbearably sick for the last week I was undeterred in getting to St. Louis for one of the best touring lineups of the fall. Rise against came to town with Alkaline Trio, Thrice and the Gaslight Anthem.

The Gaslight Anthem opened with a booming set for an opener. From a band that I have only heard one song from previously, the put on a great set. They kind of sound like a mixture between maybe Bruce Springsteen, and a little Alkaline Trio. The songs all had great lyrical quality and didn’t get old quickly. I would like to note also that the guys were nice enough to hang around afterward despite the fact it was freezing outside.

Thrice came on next and put on a great set heavy on new material, but awesome nonetheless. They played several songs off of the Fire disc, of their Alchemy Index series, that all went over great with the crowd. In particular “Firebreather” went over great, with lead singer Dustin Kensrue wailing, “tell me are you free?” I was slightly dissapointed they didn’t get into some of their lighter acoustic stuff, however a cover of the Beatles “Helter Skelter”, more than made up for it.

Alkaline Trio failed to thrill me with their style of Chicago pop-punk. Though a good half of the crowd seemed to really love the band, I just didn’t get the appeal.

Rise Against came to the stage absolutely on fire. New guitarist Zach Blair is an absolute thrill to watch work the stage and play the guitar. Tim McIlrath is a great stage man as well when not tied down by a guitar. The heavily political band was in great spirits and self proclaimed “we all have a lot to be grateful for,” McIlrath said, before explaining, “the George Bush era of America is OVER.” The band ran through a great mix of new and old, as well as remembering their first days in St. Louis at the Creepy Crawl, and noting that it was their, “literally biggest show” in the city.

Right after the band briefly left the stage for a breather, McIlrath and Blair emerged quickly for a brief acoustic set featuring new song, “Hero of War” as well as “Swing Life Away”. The band ended the set with an explosive version of “Prayer of the Refugee” which unleashed the entire floor of the Pageant into a large mosh.

As McIlrath said early in the night, “this is what its all about, everyone right here, together, enjoying themselves and getting a break from daily life.” There was certainly no better way to accomplish that goal/.

Death Cab For Cutie leap up narrow stairs

Death Cab For Cutie Photos

“I just realized we didn’t introduce ourselves. How rude – we just barged into your house and don’t introduce ourselves,” observed Ben Gibbard from Seattle Washington’s Death Cab for Cutie four songs into the bands set.
The band played their first show at the “fabulous” Fox Theater outside of St . Louis University on October 13sth, 2008.
Starting up the night were fellow Washtonians, Fleet Foxes, who brought a greatly folksy quartet feel to the show, often with all four band members lending vocals.
During their set the theater itself seemed to draw more of their attention than the music with lead singer Robin Pecknold noting that it “looked like Citizen Kane’s house”, a “Tomb Raider set” as well as noting that he would love to live there.
While Pecknold, along with the most of the band, resembled as a fellow crowd member so elegantly put it, “someone I’d pick up on the side of the road,” the band sounded like an staggeringly good harmonized choir.
The short break in between bands ended quickly as the lights went down and the main attraction strolled onto the stage.
Death Cab for Cutie opened up with “Bixby Canyon Bridge” from 2008s’ “Narrow Stairs“. The song is the closest to being a wall of sound as it gets from a band known for quiet melodies, and modest, dark lyrics.
Though the entire band seemingly was having a good time and immediately kicked into what would be a great set, lead singer Gibbard opened with some technical problems which took the entirety of “Why’d You Want To Live Here” to fix.
Gibbard joked afterwards, “Is it okay at a rock concert to ask for a do over?” Though he later followed up that he thought we (the crowd) got the just of the song.
The crowd however didn’t exactly jump to their feet, perhaps due to the luxurious Fox Theater seating they were enjoying.
However, by the time the band kicked into “Soul Meets Body” off of 2005s’ “Plans” the crowd was fully enthused and ready to dance.
The band obliged with feet movers off the new cd. “I Will Possess Your Heart”, “Cath…”, and “No Sunlight” all got the crowd moving with bassist Nick Harmer and drummer Jason McGerr becoming well seasoned beat bringing professionals, who know there role in the band well.
The band seemed especially in good spirits with Harmer leaning down to the front row before “Possess” and saying “watch this, it’s going to be awesome” before launching into the opening bassline. At one point Gibbard also greeted a group of fellow flanners wearers with high fives all around.
Everything man Chris Walla switched between keyboards, guitar, backup singing duties and was a sort of spokesman for the band along with Gibbard.
Gibbard reached deep to find his most humble self possible for previous single “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”, as well as set closer “Transatlanticism”, with his voice ringing clear “I need you so much closer”, seemingly pouring out every ounce of heart he had left on the stage.
As the band left the stage, setting off for opening gigs with Neil Young in the following days, the crowd little by little walked up the stairs of the Fox and into the chilly fall air, seemingly hitting harder and fresher than ever before.

Death Cab Coming!

Ah the horrible part of shooting film is the awful gut wrenching wait to see how your pictures actually turned out! I will have the review of the show up by the end of the night, maybe a few pictures! Come back, I promise you won’t be disappointed. Here’s a set list in the meantime.

Death Cab For Cutie – Fox Theater 10/13/08
“Bixby Canyon Bridge”
“The New Year”
“Why’d You Want to Live Here”
“Crooked Teeth”
“Long Division”
“Grapevine Fires”
“A Movie Script Ending”
“Company Calls”
“Title Track”
“Soul Meets Body”
“I Will Follow You Into the Dark”
“I Will Possess Your Heart”
“Cath…”
“No Sunlight”
“The Sound of Settling”
“Marching Bands of Manhattan”

Encore:
“Your Bruise”
“Title and Registration”
“Tiny Vessels”
“Transatlanticism”