What a year for concerts! I only had plans for one concert going into 2012 but things kept turning up and it ended up being the greatest concert year ever.
I wrote a post a while back in the beginning of 2011 that included ALL of the concerts I had been to previously. Yup, I didn't get a chance to go to any concerts until after my mission. 2012 was a good year of catching up. Going to a show is great on so many levels, the music and seeing your favorite artists is an obvious one. But bringing a friend, family member or a lovely lady brings it up several notches (hope to bring one that accomplishes all those in one shot some day :). This year was full of all those notches indeed! (though names will not be included here to protect the innocent)
Started with a bang in January with Wilco in San Jose. My favorite band in a smaller venue was nice. Hearing all the new songs from The Whole Love made that album skyrocket in my appreciation of it. Art Of Almost with all its bombastic glory, The Whole Love with its upbeat catchy hooks, and One Sunday Morning with its masterful and heartbreaking lyrics (the link is to a nice live version). Yup, the new stuff is gold!
I also experienced my first concert alone in 2012, mainly because I wasn't sure I had anyone that would want to go, and it was kind of expensive (though I later came to find out a few awesome souls that went). RADIOHEAD, oh man, that was an transcendent experience. So maybe i'm overhyping this, but I hadn't seen them before and they truly were the band that I went to see. Visually stunning, sonically complex and very true to their source material, a huge set list... it was hard to take everything in. The Kid A stuff floored me, but the In Rainbows and The King Of Limbs stuff was fascinating to see performed live. 2 drummers? yup. Thom Yorke crooning? yes again. Twas worth every penny.
Somewhere around April I had the chance to see Mr. Ben Kweller. I've been following this fella since Sha Sha (which i giggled when he played it) came out when I was in High School. His brand of slacker american folk rock is a lot of fun. His newer stuff isn't as amazing as the old, but he had a lot of energy and it was cool to see him in a small venue in San Francisco. On a side note, Sleeper Agent opened up for him and they had a ton of fun energy.
OK, so I was invited to see The Beach Boys during the summer... Twice! The first one was at Berkeley where they played an incredibly long set... seriously, i think they played ALL their hits, which is saying something considering its the Beach Boys! The second time was in Provo for the fourth of July Celebration "Stadium of Fire". Thy played all their major hits and it was fun to here that slice of Americana on the Fourth. These guys are old, but man, the voices were still there. Don't Worry Baby has been, is, and likely will remain one of my favorite songs of all time... of all time! I'm excited to play 4 songs from them with my family for new years... the only problem is i want to sing every part :)
Next up, Wilco again! love these guys, and they love the Bay Area enough to come a few times in 2012. -Insert many of the same accolades from the first show here- They played a lot of their older stuff this round since they played a two night show in Berkeley. While I love the newer stuff more, even that more traditional sound is fantastic. Love me some Alt-Country. (oh yeah, the opener was hilarious, and crazy... don't remember his name though)
Mark Knopfler and Bob Dylan... so my adventures at the Greek Theater continued with my dad. Mark (of Dire Straights fame) played his signature guitar style. Its so uniquely his that even if you never had heard the song, you know its him. My dad's a huge fan so it was that much more fun. Mr. Dylan's voice is pretty well gone now... but not his style. He went around stage and grabbed seemingly random instruments, played perfectly, sang with all the beauty of Tom Waits and reinvented all his classic songs with this new style. Great father-son bonding time :)
I had the opportunity to go to the Bridge School Benefit concert. This was my first concert "festival". Neil Young has been hosting this concert at Shoreline in Mountain View for a number of years and a ton of big acts come. It goes from about 4ish into the night. The whole event is acoustic, which proved fun for bands like Foster The People and The Flaming Lips who normally have a lot of sonic engineering in their recordings (both did fantastic, Flaming Lips [best in show award] did a few songs from Yoshimi and ended on A Day in The Life... yup they went there). Sarah McLachlan sounded as good as she ever has, Guns And Roses were fun, Niel Young Himself rocked out, Jack White had a lot of energy and even did Hotel Yorba :) Eddie Vedar made a surprise appearance and did a small set. I know i'm probably missing a few of the bands, but all in all it was a fantastic little festival!
Lady Antebellum, MC Hammer, Will.I.Am? yup, thats how I ended my 2012 concert experience. Let me tell you the tale. So my dad's boss John Thompson and the CEO of Salesforce donate to each others' charities. Salesforce has an annual benefit concert to help out a children's hospital. Since John donated a sizable amount, we had floor seats about 3 or 4 rows back (actually couches with tables and free food/wine with waiters... this was crazy!) The evening started out with a hilarious comedy routine with Dana Carvey (Garth, the church lady, etc.). Then Colin Powell came out (you can't make this stuff up) and gave an award to one of the brave kids from the hospital. Lady Antebellum then performed a set (i actually had never heard of them since they aren't really my genre, but they were talented indeed). After the concert we had tickets to an after party in San Francisco's City Hall. The whole place was rented out and there was fancy food, and fancy people all around. The pictures are in one of my facebook albums... as i said in one of the captions, I felt like that this gala event was going to be interrupted by the Joker and batman would have to save the day. In one of the rooms there were two DJ's mixing up a bunch of dance songs. Yes, this was MC Hammer and Will.I.AM. It was fascinating seeing how they did the mixing. Its an art form of some sort. Anyways, this was an evening to be remembered (unlike most Thursdays nights)
Well besides our family band performances that was it for this year. (we did REM's its the end of the world as we know it a few days ago and have 20+ songs ready to go for New Years Eve!)
Life's good,
All my Love,
-James
No comments:
Post a Comment