2009 - The Music Was Fine

Thanks to this transition into a new decade, I've been thinking a lot about the shows I attended in 2009. I've read a lot of Best of the Decade and Best of 2009 lists online and in magazines, and all of them seem pretty well compiled. Apparently you are not a person if you don't love Kid A. That was the thing I've noticed most consistently in every list. BUT ANYWAY, I'm not writing a Best Albums of the Year/Decade. I think it's been covered and yes, I would have a few more to add, but most of them would be local music and the best way, I feel, to address this is by making a BEST SHOWS I ATTENDED IN 2009. So that's what I'm doing.
Let me start by saying that when we get to the top ten or so shows, it really becomes impossible for me to say which beat which for the best. So I'm ordering this from life altering to least exciting, and I want to be clear that even the least exciting shows were still wonderful in their ways. I just never regret live music. HOWEVER, sometimes shit got weird.
And then the other thing is that when it gets to the top ten, I'm not going to order them. I really can't choose the best among certain shows. My love is as deep for Jenny as it is for Jack.
The other thing is that this is a long list. I wrote out all the shows I attended in 2009 and it came out to about 30, which is basically to say that I spent the equivalent of a month out of the year going to live music. It's a tough life, but what can you do? Also, there are a lot of different shows for the same band, and I might condense a few of them, but for the most part I'm gonna address each show separately.
Okay, ready? Here goes.

TOP TEN SHOWS OF 2009
- in no particular order (allegedly) -

1. Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band (surprise cameo by Jenny Lewis) – Outside Lands
-This one because it was so electrifying to see Conor, from the second row, and to spot Jenny Lewis backstage before she came on, and to anticipate her arrival on stage because I had seen her sitting in the back. And it was the most gorgeous day and the sun was going down behind the trees and I kept glancing at the clock that was posted on the side of the stage, trying to stop the minute hand from moving so that he could just play forever. Didn't work. But oh, this show.






2. Cold War Kids – The Fillmore
- You have not seen a band perform until you've seen Cold War Kids live. I can't explain it, but their songs just hit you right behind the heart. They're really powerful and synchronized and the music just pulls you in. Seriously. Buy your ticket for their next show NOW.

3. The Dead Weather – Outside Lands
- Um. Jack White. Alison Mosshart. And then Dean Fertita (total babe) and Little (creepy) Jack Lawrence. I think this was a little less than a month after they released Horehound, but Britt and I knew every song (except the new ones) and we were in the second row and Jack White Jack White Jack White. When he and Alison got really close to sing together at the mic for "Will There Be Enough Water" the wind started blowing, and it was this really gray day, and their raven hair was whipping around their faces, and it looked like they were about to make out, and it was all voodoo magic.





4. Jenny Lewis (with Jonathon Rice), The Sadies – The Rio Theater
- Oh Jenny. This woman has the most amazing voice and lyrics. I am also not so secretly envious of her hair. But anyway, oh this show. I had already seen her in October of 2008, so I knew the value of my ticket before I got to the show. I knew that she would sing for two hours, drinking Red Stripe and her voice never once showing signs of any strain. She sang the fun songs ("See Fernando") and the sweet ballads ("Sing A Song For Them" - although halfway through she forgot the lyrics and we had to shout them at her - "Shitballs," she said. "You guys don't know how weird this feels."). She did an acoustic version of "Silver Lining" without her band, and everyone in the crowd sang along, making it sound so achey and haunting. The band played "Handle With Care" (I love that cover!) and for the encore they all gathered around one mic, arms around each others' shoulders, and sang "Acid Tongue." And it was perfect.




5. Blind Pilot – Great American Music Hall/The Rio Theater
- I already wrote a review here for these shows, so I won't repeat myself. I'll just say that this band was better live than on the album, and the album is beautiful enough that that statement really has some meaning. They just released an EP with five of their songs performed live, and if you value good things, you should go download it.



6. Scissors for Lefty – The Crepe Place / The Uptown
- So I couldn't pick which of these two shows was better. The Crepe Place was a wonderfully small show, we were right in front of the Garza and Krimmel boys' faces, and we couldn't stop dancing and EVERYONE from work showed up for the show. By the second half of their set, Bittersweet employees outnumbered all the casual Crepe Place attendees. And of course it was the first time I had seen them live, so when Bryan came out into the crowd and stroked my hair and sang right into my eyes, it was a magical experience (it still is, mostly, but it's also expected, which kills the amazement just a little).
But then at The Uptown Bryan took his pants off. So it's really a toss up.




7. Monsters of Folk – The Fox Theater
- Conor Oberst. Jim James. Mike Mogis. M. Ward. Playing their songs for two and a half hours. In a beautiful venue that even had little floor vents to keep the audience cool. Did I mention it was Conor, Jim, Mike, AND Matt? Is that not enough to convince you?



8. Audrye Sessions, Hottub, The Soft White Sixties, Manatee – The Uptown
- I only saw Audrye Sessions a few times this year, mostly because they just didn't play as many shows as they have in years past. I'm kind of cheating by counting this one as 2009, because they actually came on right after the year changed to 2010. But I'm going to count it. The best thing about this show was that they played for so long, and The Soft White Sixties were openers, and I was DD so I didn't have a drop of alcohol but I still danced and loved every instant of it. Hottub was weird. But everything else was pretty much perfect.







9. Dave Smallen, The Soft White Sixties – The Rickshaw Stop
- SUCH a good night. I wasn't driving, but I was drinking, and when The Soft White Sixties came on I didn't know them at all but I was drunk and dancing and even through the alcohol I could tell that I was enjoying them because they were talented, not just because of the buzz. And then Dave played, and I think it was his first show since he'd started releasing the song a month deals. I remember singing along to "Waiting for the Pills," and him smiling at the end of the song, saying "That was the first time I've ever heard people singing along to that song. It feels really great," with his Dave smile. It felt great from the audience, too.


10.
Band of Skulls, White Rabbits – Bimbo’s
- This show was too short but Band of Skulls killed it live. White Rabbits did a tight, long set. We were right up front. I had new boots on. Things were good.


THE REST OF THE SHOWS I ATTENDED IN 2009
- which were also pretty awesome -

* Dizzy Balloon, The Jakes – The Crepe Place
* Audrye Sessions – Bottom of the Hill
* Scissors for Lefty – Bottom of the Hill
* Scissors for Lefty, The Lovemakers – The Catalyst Atrium
* The Expendables – The Catalyst
* Dizzy Balloon, The Cataracs – The Catalyst Atrium
* Donovon Frankenreiter – The Catalyst
* Dizzy Balloon, The Jakes – The Parish Publick House
* BFD – Audrye Sessions (~), The Limousines, Glasvegas, Mute Math, Metric, DJ Steve Aoki, Dizzy Balloon, Dead Confederate, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Shorline Amphitheater
* The Morning Benders, John Vanderslice – The Rickshaw Stop
* Dave Smallen, Dizzy Balloon – The Nickel Arcade
* MIA, The Black Eyed Peas, Modest Mouse – Outside Lands
* Zion I – Outside Lands
* Portugal. The Man, The Morning Benders, Atmosphere – Outside Lands
* Band of Horses – Outside Lands
* The Cave Singers – The Crepe Place
* The Matches, Judgement Day, Dizzy Balloon, Dave Smallen – The Fillmore
* Dizzy Balloon – The Catalyst Atrium
* White Rabbits – Slim’s
* Dave Smallen, The Soft White Sixties, Lite Brite – Bottom of the Hill

... and that covers it. I probably forgot a couple, actually. But still.

GOOD YEAR for live music. And you know what? I think it's getting better.

Two Towns From Me

BLIND PILOT.

Oh man can I tell you. This show was like three weeks ago and I'm still in awe of it. So a couple Wednesdays ago I drove up to the city with Kirsten and we saw Blind Pilot at the Great American Music Hall. I was pretty familiar with their album, but it hadn't gotten a lot of rotations until the week before, when we had that record rain storm and I realized that they were the perfect music for such weather.

I don't remember the opening band very well, they were called Mimicking Birds and I wasn't very impressed by the clarinet or the female vocalist. Yes, I'm really harsh on lady singers. I'm sorry, I am. But just wait...

So then Blind Pilot came on and it was pure awesomeness. Israel, the lead singer and guitarist, had such a clean, pure voice. The band was super tight, even with six people on stage: the upright bassist (I think his name was Luke), the trumpet/weird acordian thingy guy, the drummer (Ryan, who founded the band along with Israel), the guy on the glockenspiel (or vibraphone?), Israel, and the girl, who played banjo, ukulele, and sang backup. Now this chick could SING. Her voice was the perfect complement to Israel's, and the whole band just melded so perfectly, and cleanly, and the result was this awesome crispness that you don't always get at live shows.

The songs themselves glimmer so prettily, too. They always seem to transition in the right way at exactly the right moment, and there's this poetry behind them that hits you really quickly, right behind the eyes. It's kind of the same aching beauty as Iron and Wine, but more upbeat.

The crowd was totally digging it, too. There was a section on the right side of the floor that the banjo girl referred to as "the Portland yellow pages," which I guess meant they were a bunch of friends from Portland, since that's where the band is from ("well, we don't own a house there but our mail goes there and a lot of our friends live there," said Luke the Bassist).

There was also a guy behind us who kept whooping at the band. We talked to him before the show, actually, because we were trying to figure out how to get closer to the front, and he was encouraging us to go forward, like "I've seen these guys twice before and they're AWESOME, you're going to love them." He was right, and also definitely a leader in getting the encore going.

The band played all the songs from their album, and they tuned a lot in between. You could tell they felt kind of awkward about it because there was a lot of silence and giggles from them as they tuned. But it was cute and you could definitely hear the reason for the tuning when they started playing again. Before he started "3 Rounds and a Sound," Israel went up to the mic and was like, "I wrote this song when I had just broken up with a girl and was really torn up and broken hearted about it. And now people play it - pretty frequently - at their weddings." Everyone laughed and as he said it I knew what song he was talking about. Hearing them play that song live earned the price of the ticket right there. It's so beautiful and sad and - to use a Salinger word - heartrending.

Then as their encore they played a song called "We Are The Tide" which featured the girl banging on steel drums and this awesome build up. Oh! Also, earlier in the night they did a cover of Gillian Welch's "Look At Miss Ohio" that was absolutely marvelous. Check it.

The night was amazing and it was worth driving a little more than two towns from me and working the next morning on only three hours of sleep to hear them.

But then, of course, I realized they were playing in Santa Cruz the next night, so I dragged Brittany along with me to the Rio Theater and we caught the last half of their set the next night. It was just as beautiful but the crowd was radically smaller and less energetic. It was cool though because they actually came out afterwards to the merch table and I got to talk to the girl and the bassist for a second. Such sweet folks!

See this band if you get the chance. And look up their album. And that should sell you on the whole thing.