Lem, Wendell, L and I just saw They Might Be Giants in concert, at the Ventura Theater. Wow, what a great show. I had been worried that maybe I wouldn't like the concert, but it was great!
Opening Act: Oppenheimer. A weird duo, one on synth and guitar, the other vocals and drums. I liked their sound though I couldn't really hear the words well (a common problem for me if I don't know the song well), so I may go look for their CD.
Highlights: There's a ton of these. New York City was the second song they played, and is probably my favorite TMBG song. Loved hearing it in concert, as the sound is different and good. Ana Ng was the third song and is one of my favorites, and the concert version is absolutely terrific compared to the album one. They hit a ton of my favorite songs and a bunch I didn't know which were also good. Birdhouse in your Soul was played somewhere in the middle, and Lem immediately thought we should call up Mylanda and let him hear it, which I agreed was a great idea. Sadly, it was probably a bit late to be calling him up, ah well.
Dancing: Another song in the middle of the concert started, and I immediately had to dance. L gave me a look and asked what song it was. It took me a few seconds of thinking to actually place it: The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight). Totally great and it had most of the crowd moving to it. They brought in three brass players (sax, sliding trombone, horn?) and did a bunch of the songs with those - Mr. Me was the first. Later there was a great section of solos by each of the players, and it led into Istanbul, with the brass players taking the violin part that's in the album version. Really really good.
Interlude: Speaking with the Dead. Yep, in the middle of the concert, they took a phone call from a dead person, Vincent Price. There was a great song-ish lead-up to it, and the entire bit was hilarious and there's pretty much nothing else I can think to say about it that could convey it. The rest of the concert, they played off the Vincent Price phone call - and now, a song about Vincent Price, in his previous incarnation as James K. Polk! They played both Meet James Ensor and James K. Polk, which was pretty cool.
Favorite song of the evening: She's An Angel. Already either my favorite or 2nd favorite (with NYC being the other), hearing it in concert was another thing entirely. Wow.
Humor: In between songs there was a lot of great humor, just funny mannerisms, making fun of each other or other things, etc. I can't really describe it well, but half the time between the songs we were laughing.
Encores: They came out for an encore, and announced that there would be twenty-four more songs. They then played Fingertips, which is a sequence of twenty-one different really short songs (originally on the album Apollo 18) and which worked REALLY well. Then there was a song of their new album, and then they left the stage again. I hadn't been counting at that point, but I should have - I knew Fingertips was at least 18 or so songs, but it wasn't til I got back that I actually checked. So it was not a surprise when they came back on the stage for a second encore: Mr Tambourine Man, originally by Bob Dylan and the more well known version by the Byrds. Really crazy to hear their take on it, but I liked it (as I also really like the originals). Then they finished with Doctor Worm, which they said was their favorite song, and it had a confetti launch near the end. Very cool. :)
Great concert.
Showing posts with label concert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label concert. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Daft Punk is playing ...
And they were excellent. It's interesting, usually when I go to concerts, one of my favorite things to do is watch the artists/performers playing the particular instruments. Usually I watch the drummer and sometimes the bassist or others. For Daft Punk, that does not really work. There's not much visually going on with the artists, and the instrument they play is not visible. This is made up for by the overwhelmingly elaborate visual displays. I don't have good words to describe them as a whole, so let me just give a short glimpse:
The stage opened with a gigantic pyramid in the center (or maybe it'd be better to call it a triangle, or a pyramid cut in half down the diagonal), with Daft Punk inside the pyramid about two thirds of the way up (that section was cut out of the pyramid, but there was still the cap above). They were dressed in what looked like shiny vinyl or leather suits, with reflective robot-style helmets. The visual display started simply, with lights outlining the pyramid in the shape of a triangle, and two large screens to the far sides of the stage showing close ups of the performers and other parts of the stage. Then the large LED display behind the whole stage was added in, previously unnoticed behind them. At some point around here, a secondary display in front of the LED display (and to the sides of the pyramid), which was essentially a triangle honeycomb with lighting along the edges, lit up and was added in to the different visuals. Not content with this, huge lighting strips actually on the pyramid edges were used, and then (for "Around the World") it turned out that the entire arena had similar lighting strips around the edge, which illuminated the whole floor! Next up, it turned out that the surface of the pyramid, not just the edges, were video screens, and they got added into the display! Many variations ensued, such that when they finished the set and the crowd was shouting for an encore, we exchanged remarks as to how they'd be able to top themselves for an encore.
Glowing Costumes. The same ones they were originally wearing were lit up, with light displays along the major lines of the helmets and jackets. Totally awesome and unexpected.
Anyways, it was an excellent show and I even moved around a little somewhat synchronized with the music, which is fairly unusual for me (I'm not sure why, it probably deserves a different blog post about it. I just tend to be a receptive person when listening to music, rather than active or interactive.). Of note were one of the openers for them: Ratatat, which we previously heard on the Gazebo's CD _Some Disassembly Required_. I don't think they played the song which AG put on the mix CD, but they were very good and I'm going to have to hunt down an album soon.
The stage opened with a gigantic pyramid in the center (or maybe it'd be better to call it a triangle, or a pyramid cut in half down the diagonal), with Daft Punk inside the pyramid about two thirds of the way up (that section was cut out of the pyramid, but there was still the cap above). They were dressed in what looked like shiny vinyl or leather suits, with reflective robot-style helmets. The visual display started simply, with lights outlining the pyramid in the shape of a triangle, and two large screens to the far sides of the stage showing close ups of the performers and other parts of the stage. Then the large LED display behind the whole stage was added in, previously unnoticed behind them. At some point around here, a secondary display in front of the LED display (and to the sides of the pyramid), which was essentially a triangle honeycomb with lighting along the edges, lit up and was added in to the different visuals. Not content with this, huge lighting strips actually on the pyramid edges were used, and then (for "Around the World") it turned out that the entire arena had similar lighting strips around the edge, which illuminated the whole floor! Next up, it turned out that the surface of the pyramid, not just the edges, were video screens, and they got added into the display! Many variations ensued, such that when they finished the set and the crowd was shouting for an encore, we exchanged remarks as to how they'd be able to top themselves for an encore.
Glowing Costumes. The same ones they were originally wearing were lit up, with light displays along the major lines of the helmets and jackets. Totally awesome and unexpected.
Anyways, it was an excellent show and I even moved around a little somewhat synchronized with the music, which is fairly unusual for me (I'm not sure why, it probably deserves a different blog post about it. I just tend to be a receptive person when listening to music, rather than active or interactive.). Of note were one of the openers for them: Ratatat, which we previously heard on the Gazebo's CD _Some Disassembly Required_. I don't think they played the song which AG put on the mix CD, but they were very good and I'm going to have to hunt down an album soon.
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