Juno: "Cause you're, like, the coolest person I've ever met, and you don't even have
to try, you know...
Paulie Bleeker: "I try really hard, actually.”
It would be a shame to hold off on another blog post until
the end of the year regarding the melodic escapades of late. So many memories that I would dare say
that August 2014 is indeed the pinnacle of my young musical existence for
reasons that will become self-evident my dear reader. And yes… “I try really hard, actually”
So the weekend after Real Estate’s ringing in August in
style (see previous post for Jan 1-Aug 1) I had the privilege of attending my
first Outside Lands. Twill be in
the yearly budget for all the years I live in this wonderful part of the world.
Outside Lands Day 1:
After arriving at our great parking spot kindly offered by
Whitney, Alysa and I caught the last song by Bleachers “I Want to Get
Better”. Next we went down to the
main stage and enjoyed us some Holy Ghost! followed by the first 2 songs from Chromeo “Hot Mess” and
“Night By Night” (love those guys!)
After a brisk walk we listened to a great summer band Grouplove:
I'm With You
Itchin' on a Photograph
Lovely Cup
Raspberry
Shark Attack
Hippy Hill
Tongue Tied (Can’t help but love this one!)
Drunk in Love (Beyoncé cover)
Borderlines and Aliens
Ways To Go
Colours
Got some food and ate some snacks as we waited for Tegan and
Sara.
Goodbye, Goodbye
I Couldn't Be Your Friend
Back In Your Head
The Con
Sentimental Tune
I'm Not Your Hero
I Was A Fool (Favorite of the Set!)
Living Room
Shock To Your System
How Come You Don't Want Me
Now I'm All Messed Up
Drove Me Wild
Closer
So in a fit of inspiration, Alyse and I abandoned a
foolhardy plan to go catch a song or two from Kanye (Admittedly this was my
terrible idea). We doubled down and got an amazing spot for the highlight of
the whole festival… Arctic Monkeys!
I’ve always liked them but they blew us away. We both had a grin on our face the whole time and had
frequent exchanges of phrases like “He’s too cool” “Unbelievable!” and “Best Concert Ever” coming from our
lips. It was an unrivaled
combination of clever songwriting, infectious energy and a healthy dose of
swagger. The newest album was well
represented and catapulted its reputation in my catalog.
Do I Wanna Know?
Snap Out of It
Arabella
Brianstorm
Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair
Crying Lightning
Knee Socks
My Propeller
I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
Library Pictures
Old Yellow Bricks
No. 1 Party Anthem
Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?
Fluorescent Adolescent
One for the Road
I Wanna Be Yours
R U Mine?
Outside Lands Day 2:
Tamera and I arrived in time for the last song from
Christopher Owens of Girls fame (the band, not the gender or TV show). We then had some time to relax and get
a good spot for Haim and Charlotte met up with us.
Falling
If I Could Change Your Mind
Oh Well (Fleetwood Mac cover)
Honey & I
My Song 5
Don't Save Me
Forever
The Wire
Let Me Go
Then it was Ben Gibbard’s turn to dazzle us with Death Cab
For Cutie. They started with one
of my favorites!
I Will Possess Your Heart
Crooked Teeth
We Laugh Indoors
Title and Registration
Doors Unlocked and Open
Long Division
Grapevine Fires
Codes and Keys
I Will Follow You into the Dark
You Are a Tourist
The New Year
Soul Meets Body
Lastly we got to enjoy Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers who
played a huge set!
So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star (The Byrds cover)
Mary Jane's Last Dance
American Dream Plan B
Into the Great Wide Open
Forgotten Man
I Won't Back Down
Free Fallin'
Spike
Tweeter and the Monkey Man (Traveling Wilburys cover)
U Get Me High
Rebels
Friend of the Devil (Grateful Dead cover)
Learning to Fly
Shadow People
I Should Have Known It
Refugee
Runnin' Down a Dream
-Encore:
You Wreck Me
American Girl
Outside Lands Day 3
So I was admittedly pretty tired by day 3 but some of the
best moments came from the last day so I’m glad I didn’t call it quits. It started with some sad news however,
with Chvrches cancelling sue to flight problems. Jenny Lewis picked up our spirits. (couldn’t help but think
of her partner in Postal Service crime Ben playing the day before… great times
at Berkeley last year but I digress)
Spoon was next.
Loved them since high school, they have been consistently making inventive
records and never produced anything stale and their newest is no exception when
it came out a week before Outside Lands.
Knock Knock Knock
Don't You Evah
Small Stakes
Who Makes Your Money
The Beast and Dragon, Adored
Inside Out
You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
Rent I Pay
Outlier
I Turn My Camera On
Don't Make Me a Target
I Summon You
The Underdog
Got Nuffin
So in close battle for #1 at Outside Lands, just barely
behind Arctic Monkeys based on a technicality* comes the Flaming Lips.
*Due to High Expectations The Flaming Lips came in second
(huge points for those who get that reference)
Anyways, they fully delivered, including rolling in his
space ball through the crowd amongst mushrooms, aliens, rainbows and
butterflies. The big surprise was
that a b-side I had never heard previously was my favorite performance (The
Golden Path). The Flaming Lips
know how to party… (period) (actually 3 periods)
The Abandoned Hospital Ship
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1
The Golden Path
Feeling Yourself Disintegrate
Race for the Prize
Vein of Stars
Look...The Sun Is Rising
Do You Realize??
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
Last but not least we caught the first part of Brother
Flowers and his band The Killers to close out the festival. Adrianna and Jonah joined us for the
end. She even gave us VIP bands so
we got access to a nice place to watch the show!
Mr. Brightside
Spaceman
The Way It Was
Smile Like You Mean It
Bling (Confession of a King)
Human
Somebody Told Me
Bad Moon Rising
We left though they ended up playing 10 more songs but it
was time for us to go back to work the next day so we were responsible n such.
Four Days Later…
Sir Paul McCartney!
Again, this month was unbelievable J I had the pleasure of bringing my folks
to see him. It was the last event
at Candlestick Park (where many moons before, the Beatles played their last
concert). Although traffic and
parking were a disaster we made it in during the first song. I’ll always remember dancing with mom
during All My Loving as we searched for our seats, she was 14 again and
screaming like all the girls in the black and white videos of the Beatles
:D. In a concert full of
highlights, the huge fireworks during Live and Let Die really surprised us and
we loved the variety in the huge setlist below:
Eight Days a Week
Save Us
All My Loving
Listen to What the Man Said
Let Me Roll It (with "Foxy Lady" by Jimi Hendrix
snippet)
Paperback Writer
My Valentine
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
The Long and Winding Road
Maybe I'm Amazed
I've Just Seen a Face
San Francisco Bay Blues (Jesse Fuller cover)
We Can Work It Out
Another Day
And I Love Her
Blackbird
Here Today
New
Queenie Eye
Lady Madonna
All Together Now
Lovely Rita
Everybody Out There
Eleanor Rigby
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Something
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Band on the Run
Back in the U.S.S.R.
Let It Be
Live and Let Die
Hey Jude
Encore:
Day Tripper
Hi, Hi, Hi
I Saw Her Standing There
Encore 2:
Long Tall Sally
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The End
Note: Final concert and the last official event of any kind
at Candlestick Park, nearly half a century after The Beatles played their last
ever concert at the venue on August 29, 1966.
Jack White killed it.
As in, the first 3 songs exploded into each other with more energy than
I’ve ever heard before. This guy
is never content and reimagined all his older White Stripes stuff with a vigor
and earnestness that can’t be expressed on paper, only in being there to have
your ears destroyed. Dead Leaves
and the Dirty Ground left me in awe.
Fell in Love With a Girl
Just One Drink
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
Temporary Ground
Love Interruption
Hotel Yorba
Cannon / Little Room
Missing Pieces
Top Yourself
We're Going to Be Friends
You Know That I Know That You Know That I Know (Hank
Williams cover)
Three Women
Apple Blossom
Hypocritical Kiss
I'm Slowly Turning Into You
Screwdriver
Born Under a Bad Sign (Albert King cover) (Live Debut)
Ball and Biscuit
Encore:
High Ball Stepper
Lazaretto
Steady, As She Goes
Sixteen Saltines / Devil's Haircut (Beck cover, yes Beck as
in the guy I saw the next day!)
Death Letter (Son House cover)
Seven Nation Army
The next day I had the pleasure of going down to Monterey
with Alysa for the First City Festival.
It was on a much smaller scale from Outside Lands but had some great
acts:
We listened to Best Coast when we arrived. They were fun but the first surprise of
the night was when we happened upon Mr. Little Jeans whom played a great little
set. I had forgotten their amazing
cover of Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs which I promptly remembered as they started
it. They had a nice clean sound.
After Mr Little Jeans we set up shop at the mainstage to get
a good spot for Phantogram and Beck.
Phantogram delivered.
She had a killer voice and attitude that got everyone dancing. Ultracool and one of the best live acts
today. They have an elecronic
sound all their own that doesn’t try to sound like the 80’s or 90’s but are a
product of now.
Unfortunately the setlist isn’t online but they killed it
with all these I remember:
Nothing But Trouble
Fall in Love
When I’m Small
Black Out Days
Mouthful of Diamonds,
Howling At the Moon
Bad Dreams
Running From The Cops
We got to be in about the 5th row dead center by
the time Beck took the stage! Beck and his band put on a great show. His career captures so many sounds,
from hip hop, to funk, to 8-bit, to tragic folk orchestra and then to
soul? I totally expected to hear
his new beautiful album with Sea Change and maybe “Where its at” at the end. What we got however was a tour de force
of the bread of danceable electro-funk with meat of Morning Phase. It was a most delicious sandwich. They also were total performers and had
a great time on stage. Toward the
end they were literally tackling eachother, stealing guitars and throwing them
backstage and all sorts of shenanigans.
It was one of the most fun I’ve had at a show ever and I was laughing as
he grooved. “Debra” in particular
made me happy as he crooned about a girl he met at JC Penny.
Devil's Haircut
Black Tambourine
Loser
Novacane / One Foot In The Grave
Hell Yes
The New Pollution
Think I'm in Love / I Feel Love
(Donna Summer cover)
Blue Moon
Lost Cause
Wave
Waking Light
Girl
Beercan
E-Pro
Get Real Paid
Sexx Laws
Debra
Where It's At (This had the coolest intro where everybody
jammed in a different song such as Billie Jean and Seven Nation Army of Jack
White Fame… whom I saw the day before!)
So that was August.
Things slow a bit on the concert front for the rest of the year though
there are a few gems coming up with Tennis and The War on Drugs. Expect a full report of the rest of the
year in December. I’m so happy to
have the time to go to these shows, I’ve been truly blessed and that is not
lost on me.
