I'm thinking I'm going to try bringing this back

So we'll see how this goes, I guess.

Wherein I gush to Vicky about seeing John Darnielle last night

Setting matters so much in concerts. I think the thing is that, up until this point, the "transcendental" moments for me have been with HUGE amounts of people, or big settings, stuff like that. Daft Punk 07 and Kanye West 09 were both at Lollapalooza, which was, of course, gigantic. Wilco at the Pavilion in 09 and at the Riviera in 08 were both rather large settings. The Riviera is much cozier than the UIC Pavilion, but we're still talking 2500 people. Every time I've seen the Flaming Lips it was in a huge crowd. The Hold Steady/Drive-By Truckers show at the Riv in 08 was pretty big. Springsteen was at the United Center. So I mean, these things...they're big. Sometimes they're outright big, other times they're relative big, but still, big.

Last night with John Darnielle was small. Like, almost tiny. It was at the American Theater Company, which doesn't really have a big space to begin with. I would say there were, tops, 130 people in the room. Before the first song he passes this little notebook around the audience, and everyone who wants to can write down a request. He didn't really prepare a set-list except for maybe six or seven songs. After he finishes those six or seven he starts going through the requests.

I requested Golden Boy. Apparently there was a note at the top of the first page where John wrote that he was not going to play Golden Boy. I didn't read that part, but I wrote it down anyway. After I passed the notebook away he started talking about how no matter how many people want to hear Golden Boy, and no matter how badly they want to hear it, he wasn't going to play Golden Boy. Dammit. Juan requested Cubs in Five. Also a great song, but it's depressing as hell.

So after Going to Georgia (amazing song) he gets the notebook back and starts going through the requests. Some of the songs are super old and he didn't remember the words/chords, but someone in the audience knew how each song went, and he gave some of those a try. There were songs that only one person in the room remembered, and then there were singalong songs that were absolutely amazing. After he started doing requests he moved off the microphone and unplugged his amplifier. He asked the audience to move down, and everyone in the first three rows went and sat on the floor, while everyone behind them moved up into vacant seats. It was like a campfire thing where John Darnielle was our slightly drunken scout leader singing his songs about love, hate, rock and roll, and people from Texas. He also did a cover of The Sign by Ace of Base, which up to this point I've only seen on YouTube.

It was an amazing set, and then came the encore. He comes out, and he does a couple of songs on the piano, one of them new and one of them a cover. Then he does a cover of a Dio song because Ronnie James Dio died yesterday, and John Darnielle loves Black Sabbath. He also played Cubs In Five, which in and of itself was amazing, and made my night. It's a song that contains, in the chorus, "and the Chicago Cubs will beat every team in the league," but it's basically mentioning things that the singer knows will never happen. It's like "well, if these things happen then I'll love you again, but I won't love you again because there's no way in hell these things will ever happen." However, the hook is still "and the Chicago Cubs will beat every team in the league," which means every time he's in Chicago people yell for it.

But then, Vicky. But then. Then he played Golden Boy. HE FUCKING PLAYED GOLDEN BOY OH MY GOD. EVEN THOUGH HE EXPLICITLY SAID THAT HE WOULD NOT. AND I REQUESTED GOLDEN BOY IN THE BOOK AND OH MY GOD. IT WAS LIKE ONE OF THE BEST MOMENTS AND TIMES AND THIS AND THAT AND OK I'M TAKING OFF CAPS LOCK now. He said he played it because we didn't yell for it, and that at every one of his other shows there's always someone in the audience who shouts "Golden Boy!" after every song, which makes him not want to play it. He has a theory that some people only want him to play Golden Boy because they know he'll yell at them if they shout for it. I just wanted him to play it because 1. I know that he never plays it, and 2. I really like the song.

It seemed like it went on forever but at the same time there's no way I wanted it to stop. It ended with a singalong to The Best Ever Death Metal Band From Denton, complete with a chorus of HAIL SATAN at the end, sung by everyone in the crowd.

Because it was a fundraiser there were raffle prizes and stuff. After the encore they were drawing more raffle prizes and John came back out to pull some. (I won tickets to a theater production earlier in the night, which was cool. Who knows when that'll get used) He then said "if we raise $100 I'll sing Houseguest a-capella." So then we raised $100, and he sang Houseguest a-capella, walking around the audience, singing into their faces, exaggeratedly pushing people. It was an absolutely incredible way to end the night, and oh my god.

Intimate vs. Gigantic. It's so rare that something like this comes up. The last time Mountain Goats were in Chicago they played the Metro. There's also the difference between a full band and a solo performance. The full band has to be tighter and the singer can't ramble on about whatever he wants for five minutes.

But anyway, I'm still on a high from this. Absolutely amazing. Thanks for reading, Vicky, if you managed to make it all the way through.

Belated New Years resolution

Listen to 5 albums a week, at least one that I haven't heard before.

Will that happen?

Honestly I doubt it.

But it's going to start tonight.

Maybe.

This blog is probably not dead

I just need to think about what I want from it and what I want it to be. I certainly want to keep doing it in some form, but maybe not the form that it is now. We'll see.

Other stuff might start taking place here.

For now I'll just listen to the Exploding Hearts.

Brandon's favorite albums that happened to be released between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2009

Again, this is not definitive, and it's not meant to be definitive. These are, as the title of this post reflects, just some of my favorite albums that happened to be released between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2009. This is not everything I liked from the decade. I limited it to one pick per artist, although if there are other albums I really like by them that were released this decade I do make a note of that. Other than number one it's not really in any order. The decision to list 15 was pretty arbitrary. No 2009 releases were listed.

So...bring on the indie rock! [featuring Kanye West]


Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot


Alejandro Escovedo: A Man Under the Influence


Jennifer O'Connor: Over the Mountain, Across the Valley, and Back to the Stars


Sufjan Stevens: Illinois [but sometimes Seven Swans]


Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes


The Mountain Goats: All Hail West Texas [but sometimes The Sunset Tree, and occasionally Get Lonely]


Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah


Beulah: The Coast is Never Clear


The Hold Steady: Separation Sunday [but depending on the situation, Boys and Girls in America]


The National: Boxer [but now and then, Alligator]


The New Pornographers: Mass Romantic [and rarely Electric Version, and sometimes to be contrarian, Challengers]


Spiritualized: Songs in A&E


Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand


Stars: Set Yourself on Fire [sometimes In Our Bedroom After the War]


Spoon: Girls Can Tell [this one was close: sometimes Kill the Moonlight and other times Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, but I think Girls Can Tell is just a personal favorite]


Anrew Bird: Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs


The Decemberists: Picaresque


Kanye West: Graduation [sometimes 808s & Heartbreak, and other times Late Registration]


Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood [but Blacklisted has her best song]


Silver Jews: Bright Flight

Way to go, City of Chicago

"New" Music Mondays, and Edible Audible Picnic series
Pritzker Pavilion
June 8 - August 31, 2009

Maybe this is cheating. Who cares. Collectively, having these every Monday (for free, too!), and the people with whom I saw them made my summer.

June 8 - St. Vincent
June 15 - Pit Er Pat
June 22 - Sea and Cake, Dirty Projectors
June 29 - Black Moth Super Rainbow
June 29 - Feelies, Icy Demons
August 10 - Shellac, Shearwater
August 17 - Emily Wells
August 24 - Red Red Meat, Rural Alberta Advantage
August 31 - Robert Bobbert and the Bubble Machine, Bunny Clogs


Dirty Projectors - Stillness is the Move (June 22)


The Feelies - Raised Eyebrows (June 29)


Shellac - My Black Ass (August 10)

Reflecting off of your CD

[Part of the Concerts of the Year recap on RooYCD]

Jeff Tweedy
The Vic
February 14, 2009

Wilco
UIC Pavilion
October 18-19, 2009

This basically comes down to these things:

- The entire setlist on February 14 (but especially Someday Soon)
- Misunderstood on October 18 [gets me every time]
- Via Chicago [gets me every time] to open, and then Poor Places into Spiders (Kidsmoke) on October 19

I mean, everything second of these shows rocked, but these made it all worth the price of admission. Also, generally speaking, seeing your favorite band in concert seldom disappoints.



[the alternate line of Heavy Metal Drummer that they do live is awesome]

I put these shows together and maybe I shouldn't have. Sure, they pull from the same pool of songs and in each case they/he did about 30 of them. Also, in each case, Tweedy talked a lot when he wasn't singing.

However, in presentation they're very different. By nature, the solo show is very sparse and the set-list is a combination of fan favorites and rarities (and requests). The full band show is huge, meant to fill a larger space, and the set-list is more driven by songs that people know, and songs to which people can dance or rock out.

But either way, here they are. Different, but in some ways the same. I loved every minute of all of it.

I'm glad I have a Wilco.