Hidden in the Arches: Princeton Harmonies

June 21, 2010Sara 2 Comments

Memorial Day weekend, I stepped out of my realm of West Coast weather and familiarity to venture into the history of our so-called “great nation.” Dreams of awe fulled my head and transferred into reality as we made our way back east to Roger’s 25th college reunion, at Princeton. Orange and black adorned every individual and stationary object in the vicinity of this small town. As we were making our approach, I realized I had no idea what I was in for.

Nightly parties with bands filled the campus courtyards as well as day time activities that could include drinking if you were so inclined, and the highlight of the entire event was a parade of all the classes including the recent graduating class (talk about long term connections… equating to fund raising). The P-rade although incredibly inspiring was also incredibly long, therefore not the highlight of my trip.

Hidden in the arches, scattered throughout the campus you will find one of the jewels of Princeton in the form of rich, and sometimes, vibrant tones. A variety of a cappella groups serve as the campus’ most pure form of music and really the only performance that Roger and I cared to watch the entire weekend.

The groups sucked crowds into the arches with their melodies and harmonies and beat-boxing?? Yes, one of the groups, Old Nassoul changed up the traditional white boy collegiate sound by adding a bit of contemporary R&B with a smooth back beat that was out of this world. Several groups perform competitively against other Ivy league schools while other just want to share their voices with the world. Here is a pretty comprehensive list of groups that perform at Princeton:

Dream Team

Firehazards

Jock Jams

The arches capture the sounds of their voices and ring perfectly through the air, like a small, vaulted church ceiling would do for a choir. Blair Arch, the most famous and largest of the arches on the Princeton campus is where we spent our evenings, in awe of their voices and communication for executing the highs and lows and solos. Sadly, I did not even attempt to capture the music on film as the thump-thump-thumping from the reunion dance parties would drown out the most incredible vocals on tape. But I guess you will have to trust me or make the track yourself.

Nada Surf and Telekinesis, Belly Up Tavern: 5/24/2010

May 26, 2010Sara Leave a comment

Just a fore-warning, this post really won’t do this show justice. Between stress from work and preparations for travelling, as well as the sheer awesomeness of the set, my brain is mush. Perhaps the short and sweet post will have to suffice.

Nada Surf, the band that Roger finally committed to as his favorite band of all time, returned to San Diego Monday this time on the Belly Up Tavern stage. Matthew commented that they are doing a slow tour of San Diego including venues such as HOB, The Casbah, SDSU’s Open Air Theater, and even the Brick By Brick. The show was not sold out, but based on the crunch indoors, it felt like it was close. I was hoping for them not to sell out so they could move back to The Casbah. Selfish, I know.

Seattle band, Telekinesis opened the show. Quirky front man drummer dedicated a song to a girl he over heard say “tampon.” Turns out the girl was Gregory Page’s sister comparing the drummer to another musician. Since my brain is fried, I can neither remember what word she actually used (it wasn’t tampon), nor remember what band or musician she was comparing him with. Yes, totally useless information. The band did have a good vibe; giddy to be sharing the stage with one of their influences.

They managed to weave in a few songs from their latest cover album, if i had a hi-fi into the set list. The entire list is posted on Rosey’s site. The emotional highs tapping my tear ducts included “Your Legs Grow” and “Always Love”. I think I would have really lost it if I heard “I Like What You Say” and “Beautiful Beat” with special family ties to those songs. I giggled during (and after) the guitar riff slip in the Killian’s Red when Matthew Caw, guitars/lead vocals, realized he had left one of his pedals at home… so ended up stomping on nothing then scrambling to find the right sound using other pedals and knobs. No worries Matthew, most guitarist have been there and with the additional guitarist, Doug Hillard of Guided By Voices (what’d you say!?!) the riff was barely missed.

The special treat of the night was basking in the glory of “Neither Heaven Nor Space,” a song which is rarely heard live. Butterflies in my stomach, it was that good.

Of course… the shiny object, destracting the most avid Nada Surf listeners that the show was over, “Blankest Year” made it’s appearance as the final song of the encore. Really, who can resist screaming Fuck it! at the top of their lungs? Oh and who can argue with a triple-ending cause Ira Elliot, the drummer felt the need to keep it going? Not me… or the rest of the crowd who were not ready to leave the Belly Up even after the show was well over.

Twitter Concert Experience: Broken Bells

May 20, 2010Sara Leave a comment

Some shows you don’t even need to leave the house for, especially if you follow the right people on Twitter. Last night the Broken Bells started off their first national tour, with The Morning Benders by kicking off the Humphrey’s Concerts By the Bay 2010 concert season and even though I wasn’t there, is was easy enough to follow along with the action online.

Dave Maass and Seth Combs from San Diego City Beat and Rosey Bystrak from SD Dialed In were among the not quite sold out crowd tormenting the Elite security assigned to keep the calm. Not that anyone was causing chaos, but venues such as Humphrey’s, Spreckel’s and Copley’s are known to have frequent anxiety attacks when bands that normally play bars and rock shows, entice the crowd to, of all things, dance.

The following tweets caught my eye and made made giggle just a little imagining the security trying to stop the crowds and Seth sitting there bitter:

@sddialedin 4th row. Awesome. @TheMorningBenders just called everyone to the front. Elite security heads are exploding.
@CombsSeth Humphrey’s is the worst place to see a show in the city. I’m two songs in and I already want to leave. Fascist security. Crappy sound. Suck.

From what I was able to gather from the fragmented tweets from the crowd, the Broken Bells managed to cover their entire album, as expected with one unexpected cover:

@DaveMaass Now Broken Bells are covering Crimson and Clover (very faithfully I might add)

In the end of the show, as always, the crowd came away with mixed reviews:

@CombsSeth God, Broken Bells are even more boring than The Shins
@sddialedin That was the first time I saw the whole crowd standing at a Humphrey’s show, even if only for the encore. Great show, Broken Bells!

Thank you all for making my night in that much more entertaining!

Ben Folds, House of Blues San Diego: 5/12/2010

May 19, 2010Sara Leave a comment

There are a few shows I do not miss when they come through town (if I can help it). And two of them are in May this year: Nada Surf on May 24 at the Belly Up Tavern (yay!) and Ben Folds which happen on May 12 at the House of Blues.

My first thought about opening act Kate Miller-Heidke from Australia was, “Why her?” Once I got over the shock of her 80’s inspired red, sequined prom dress and her husband/guitarist, Keir Nuttall looking exactly like Ben Folds (well, at least from a distance), I realized she was an awesome match. Her vocals rivaled Ben folds skills on the piano. Classically trained but wildly creative, Kate throws her voice and captures you for the duration of her performance. Favorites of mine included “Caught in The Crowd” (which reached the top of the charts in her native land) and this awesome song:

Note: This version was filmed by VEVO @ SXSW 2010.

Ben Folds strolled on stage to his solo piano waiting for him to storm the hall. Starting out with “Annie Waits” and left us wanting and not waiting for more. Mixed into his set, he weaved stories of his life including the recent loss of one piano, some keyboards, amps and tapes due to the flooding in Nashville. And then took at least half of the set to satisfy requests. I managed to recall most of the set list from the evening (not necessarily in exact order… at all):

“Annie Waits”
“All You Can Eat”
“Landed”
“Bitch Went Nutz”
“Army”
“Not the Same”
“Jesus Land”
“Rockin’ the Suburbs”
“Brick”
“Still Fighting It”
“Kate”
“You Don’t Know Me” (w/ Kate Miller-Heidke)
“Levi Johnston’s Blues”
“Zak and Sara”
“Morgan Davis”
“The Ascent of Stan”
“Carrying Cathy”
“Steven’s Last Night in Town”
“Fair”
One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces”

Some “of the best moments in his show included:

His drum solos in “Steven’s Last Night Town” and “One Angry Dwarf”, where the techs built the drum kit around him.
“You Don’t Know Me” duet with Kate Miller-Heidke. Really, this was just too cool to describe. Well… Here it is from Indiana University last September.
The incredible fan base. I never actually wrote about any of the previous Ben Folds shows I have been to, but I have to say, they completely amaze me. He tours through San Diego once a year (maybe) and yet the fans know ALL of his albums PLUS all of the rarities. You know, the ones that aren’t officially released and tucked away under someone’s mattress (or perhaps drowning in a Nashville basement, ouch… to soon).

Another awesome show that I’m pretty sure many of you missed… or else you really should have come over to say “hi.” Next time I guess.

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros and He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister, Belly Up: 4/15/2010

April 20, 2010April 20, 2010Sara 1 Comment

I got all pumped up when I heard that Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros were coming to San Diego. One more band that I wasn’t worried about missing at Coachella. Check! Pre-sale tickets are the way to go. If you want to get tickets to potentially sold out shows, you need to sign up for a few mailing lists. The following are my recommendations:

Belly Up Tavern VIP: frequent ticket giveaways and pre-sales
FM 94.9 Insiders: lots of contests and pre-sales
KPRI Freeqs: free shows all the time (but only for those signed up)
Any of your favorite bands: some have pre-sales, but really, who wants to miss out on their favorite band coming to town.

On with the show… I made sure to get there early to catch He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister. By the way this show wins for the longest band name pairing that I have been to. The gypsy, co-op vibe perfectly paired with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. It wouldn’t surprise me if they weren’t really related – ala The White Stripes, Jack and Meg. The uniqueness of this band was actually the performance of tap dancer, Lauren Brown, who served as additional percussionist tapping along to the beat. Here is their cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Baby Be Good, Do What You Should”:

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros took the stage, opening with a children’s song they wrote called “Janglin.” The sound quality became worse as the headliner’s volume increased. I apologize for the distortion.

Overall, I was disappointed with the performance, and the hippie, glow stick twirling crowd was just a part of the issue. To boos of the crowd, Alexander stated that they were “saving themselves for Coachella.” It was also very evident that he did not want to play the hit single, “Home” from their debut album, Up From Below. Even as Jade chanted, “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home,” Alexander gave her a look as if to say, “Noooo, why?” Sadly, they, well at least he (Alexander), has reached that point of disdain for the band’s most popular song. Like Radiohead’s “Creep” or Nada Surf’s “Popular,” I am disappointed when bands take the low road in hating the song that brought them to the next level instead of embracing it and hoping that the the masses latch onto something more. Not playing the song makes for dissatisfied listeners. Jade and Alexander managed to push through “Home” including the spoken word part, where Jade said “I don’t even know what to say here.” That’s alright Jade.

At the end, Alexander after inviting the audience to sit on stage, convinced the rest of the crowd to sit on the floor. Yes, the same floor where drinks were spilled and most likely a few glasses were broken. I must admit the stunning effect this had. It was on the same level as when Tegan and Sara convinced the entire audience at Spreckels Theatre to stay completely silent for a un-amplified version of “Ghost.” I sort of felt giddy inside to be a part of something so cool. For that I do have to say, “Thanks.”