Music Midtown 9/20-21/13

Adding a third stage is a sign of expansion, but makes scheduling overlaps a little difficult to maneuver.  Friday night I opted for Cake, whom I'd never seen before, over the previously attended Jane's Addiction.  Cake's songs all sound fairly similar but are still fun and groovy, as was their performance.  The eccentric lead singer rambled a little much between songs but the sound quality was stellar.  They played all their radio hits and threw in a cover of "War Pigs".

pretty far back for Weezer

Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys

Saturday was in a word "soggy."  The rain didn't let up until late afternoon.  I missed almost all of Weezer waiting to get in the park with hundreds of others, but I could hear them.  I finally got in to see the last 3 or 4 tunes of their set.  Arctic Monkeys were next up and blew the doors off the joint, as usual.  The fast paced Brits burst on the stage and filled their hour long set with tracks from their new album as well as their hits like "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor".  Leader Alex Turner kept a comb in his pocket and slicked back his greaser hair due between songs which the ladies loved.  After their set, I waited at the back of the crowd of Imagine Dragons until they cleared out so I could get close for Queens of the Stone Age.  A huge mud hole prevented me from getting even closer, but I still had a good spot.  Hard-charging Queens came on stage loud and proud, aggressively jamming through older hits and a selection off the latest, ...Like Clockwork.  Josh Homme slayed his guitar with the confident swagger a rock star is born with.  They played a little over their short one hour set while Red Hot Chili Peppers started on the other side of the park.  By the time they finished, it was way too late to get a good spot and where we were the sound was awful and we couldn't really see them anyway, although I could see that Flea is still a total maniac.  So, we decided to beat the traffic and headed home early. 

Homme on "The Vampyre of Time and Memory"

Muse 9/4/13

Pretty sure I only suffered 2 or 3 epileptic seizures from all the strobe lights, so I'm good.  Phenomenal stage production started with an Aztecan pyramid of video screens dropping in layers over the drum set and then lifted to inversion to reveal the boys underneath.  Next came a solid 2 hours of dazzling lights, lasers, screen images, and smoke effects (guess you can't have an open flame in Gwinnett Arena).  Leader Matthew Bellamy even busted out a little "Star Spangled Banner" on guitar before tossing it in the air and briefly walking off stage.  He came back to play on a baby grand with an open transparent lid and lights that corresponded with notes being played from the guts of the piano.  They ended the main set with "Uprising" and opened the encore with "Starlight".  In between, during the anticipation filled darkness, the flashlight app was used in full capacity around the fan-filled bowl.  One guy about 10 feet in front of me held up a lighter, so at least I saw some pyrotechnics.  That's old school, baby.

The Black Crowes 7/20/13

Learned a lot about Susan Tedeschi:  total babe, talented guitarist, and has a hell of a set of pipes

20 times in the books!  But they played mostly big hits and nothing all that obscure, so kinda bittersweet.  I prefer to hear the deep tracks, but still good energy and great sound.  Although they did meld the end of "Descending" right into a funked up cover of the Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash", which was cool, but again, that song is played on the radio several times a day.  And they did Deep Purple's "Hush" in the middle of "Hard to Handle", again.  Variety is the spice of life, boys!

Most of Tedeschi Trucks Band joined the Crowes for a 2 song encore

The Black Keys Simpsonville, SC 7/12/13

Its a good thing I'm a pretty big fan, because it was the same set list as Atlanta!  At least from what I remember, it was very similar.  Take your cues from Pearl Jam, and others, and make up a different set list every night!  Lord knows you have certainly have enough albums.  But they weren't the only reason I had to make the trip.  Hanging out with friends I hadn't seen in too long (thanks again, Daniel & Kristen) was the actual reason.  Plus, we were witnessing great live music and having a great time, so, win-win.  Forgot camera again so I had to use phone, which was a bummer, because I was a lot closer.

Soundgarden 5/8/13

Didn't play it last night, but opened with "Spoonman" tonight.  Luckily, there wasn't much overlap in the set list.  They repeated all the songs off the new album from last night and just a few big hits like "Outshined", "Fell on Black Days", and "Blow up the Outside World".  We were even treated to a short drum solo from the transcendent Matt Cameron.  I could watch that guy play drums all by himself.  Bassist Ben Shepherd maintained his miserable composure but did speak to us some, although I couldn't decipher a word.  No "Big Dumb Sex" or "Rhinosaur" but I'm not complaining.  Sorry, but I left my friggin' camera in the car, so check last night's pics.  They were all wearing the same exact clothes so they might have looked pretty much identical, anyway.

Soundgarden 5/7/13

I know you're thinking it must have been nothing but tattered flannel and receding hairlines in the audience.  No, no, no.  Well...  maybe a little bit.  Chris Cornell's voice hasn't changed a decibel since the early nineties.  He still wails with the best of them.  Kim Thayil sliced through ear drums with the riffs on "Pretty Noose" and nonchalantly jammed through every solo as if it was second nature, whilst enjoying several beers throughout the night.  Guess they can still party, too.  Bassist Ben Shepherd from the neck down was rockin-it and having a good time, but from the neck up it was frozen misery.  But they were all held together by the impeccable timing of drummer Matt Cameron (who's also flannel-friendly Pearl Jam's drummer).  Sing-a-longs occurred best during "Outshined" and "Burden in My Hand" but they played all the hits except "Spoonman".  Which isn't to say older and deep tracks weren't performed.  The latest album, King Animal, had nearly every tune mixed in with the eclectic two-hour set list.  "Rusty Cage" highlighted the end of the main set, a song even Johnny Cash admired enough to cover before his demise.  I'm sure there will be some overlap, but if tomorrow night's show is a carbon copy, I will be upset.

The Black Keys 5/2/13

... with The Flaming Lips, who stole the show visually with a creative stage set-up.  Leader Wayne Coyne stood high on an elevated pedestal with snake-ish tubes that came down from his mic and weaved across the entire stage and went back up and hung behind him.  In these tubes were orbs of glittery light that traveled through them, corresponding with the music.  Very trippy, especially with the screens behind them adding all kinds of bizarre images.  He was also holding a plastic baby doll and treating it as if was real, playing nosies with it and all.  But they did cover David Bowie's "Heroes" so, I can deal with the strangeness.

 

The Keys, however, delivered that good ole rock show, as they do.  Opening with "Howlin' for You", they had a lot of ground to cover, what with 7 original albums.  Cover ground they did with deep cuts and the radio hits most of us know.  I haven't been to Lakewood in several years and forgot how the bass drum can vibrate the heart in your chest like being brought back to life by a defibrillator in the E.R.  After a few tunes, they cut themselves down to the original duo to jam on some older tracks which was pretty cool.  Muddling through some songs, they completely ripped it up on "Your Touch".  They also had huge screens behind them cut into many different squares for a variety of angles on the band.  For the encore, a moon-sized disco ball was raised and Dan busted out his best falsetto for "Everlasting Light".  "I Got Mine" brought the night to a close and the house music started back, appropriately, with Zeppelin's "Ramble On".