A Better Place to Play

Love for Love

About a month ago Joe and Graham treated the entire Jot team to a day trip to Las Vegas.  (thanks again!)  We were celebrating the Unicorn deal, and since Joe went to Denny's instead of Vegas back when Excite got funded, Vegas was the natural destination to celebrate JotSpot's success.

For some of us, what was supposed to be a day trip turned into an all nighter, and I decided to stay overnight in Vegas to see the new Cirque Du Soleil / Beatles show, Love.  At about 8:30 PM I went over to the Mirage and managed to buy the final ticket for that night's showing.  I was excited but apprehensive at the same time, mostly because I still had some lingering concerns about the show's soundtrack.  The music for the show is a remix of original Beatles recordings, and the idea of remixing the Beatles still seems sacrilegious.  Fortunately, George Martin (The Beatles' producer) and his son produced the soundtrack, so I knew the music was in good hands.  And, of course, Paul and Ringo had given their thumbs up to the project.

The show began at 10:30 and it wasn't long before I was awestruck by the synergy of the music and the performance.  The show begins with a slow motion crawl across stage to the tune of an a capella version of "Because", and then breaks into cacophony with the opening chord to "A Hard Day's Night" that segues into "Get Back".  And from that moment on it's pure bliss.  I'm not going to review the show in detail, but for any Beatles' fan it's a must-see.

So why blog about the show now?  Well, I'm still experiencing a high from it.  I was extremely disappointed when I left the show because they didn't have a CD of the soundtrack.  But the "Love" album was just released this past Tuesday, and for the past several days I've been watching a circus in my head every time I listen to it.

Major Lodge Victory (Welcome Back, Gin Blossoms!)

I just got the best Yahoo Music alert ever…a new release by the Gin Blossoms!

 

The Gin Blossoms were one of the great melodic rock bands of the 90's, and they quietly disbanded after the release of "Congratulations, I'm Sorry" in 1996. It's a bit embarrassing to admit, but the Gin Blossoms played a formative part in the development of my musical taste. They were a modern rock band that my parents could actually tolerate, and their guitar riffs were inescapable and infectious. Wussy or not, the Gin Blossoms were a great band, and I was sad to see them go.

 

Left without new Gin Blossoms music, I moved onto the "hard stuff" like Oasis and Counting Crows, and my Gin Blossoms CDs gathered dust. I paid some attention to projects that Gin Blossoms members worked on after they split, but nothing I heard sounded quite as good. A few years ago I learned that the Gin Blossoms were playing together again, and I actually saw them light up the San Mateo County Fair one summer.

 

But that was the last I heard of them, until now. I'm a few tracks into "Major Lodge Victory", their new album, and it sounds great! Welcome back, Gin Blossoms!

Some Kwality Wuss Rock

Thought I'd share some of the kwality wuss rock I've been listening to lately.

• James Blunt - I guess I've been in something of a coma for not listening to this guy sooner.  Sounds kind of like Damien Rice + Elton John.  He broke out in the UK a while ago and has now crossed the pond.  You might have heard "You're Beautiful", which is an amazing song.  Pretty easy to play on the eighth fret, so I'll be adding this one to my bag of tricks. 
• Teddy Geiger - AKA Wayne from Love Monkey.  This kid is just 17 but is incredibly talented in the John Mayer way.  I can't get "Confidence" out of my head and am looking forward to his debut album.
• Train - They just released a new album called "For Me, It's You."  I think it's their second best album behind "Drops of Jupiter".  I don't know that they released the most radio friendly song -- "Cab"  -- as their first single, but I really love that song and a few others on the album.
• Daniel Powter - Again, I was definitely late to this listening party, but DP's debut album is good stuff.  Catchy melodies make good songs.

Keep the Dream Alive

I waited about six months for yesterday (Sunday) to arrive.  Yes, we all know that yesterday was the four year anniversary of 9/11, but on a lighter note, yesterday marked two great events:

• the start of the NFL season in full force
• the return of Oasis to the West Coast in the US

I'm not sure which of the two events cause greater excitement in my (pathetic) life, but yesterday couldn't have gone much better.

The Niners shocked the world by defeating the Rams 28-25.  San Francisco held things together just long enough to squeak by with a win.  The Rams statistically had a better game, but the Niners seemed to want it a bit more.  The 'D' showed up in full force, and Rattay and company made enough plays to put up 28 points.  Hopefully the Niners can keep it up for at least a little while longer.  Next week in Philly will be rough, though.

And as for Oasis, I was pleased to find out that I'm not the only person who likes Oasis anymore.  I became an Oasis junkie during my freshman year of high school, and since I'm a pretty loyal person, I've stuck with them through the lesser albums...Oasis put out Don't Believe the Truth a few months ago, and it's actually a really good album.

The concert last night was a stellar performance.  The show was at Shoreline in Mountain View, and the crowd was much thinner than it was for Coldplay at the start of the show, but the venue filled up pretty well later in the evening.  Kasabian opened and played a few decent songs, and then Jet came on and really got the crowd going.  I like Jet and recommend their Get Born album for anyone who believes in rock'n'roll.  Of course, Oasis are to be thanked for resurrecting interest in rock music that sounds anything like Jet.  Before Oasis arrived on the US scene in the 90s, rock was alive, but it was all grunge, which had a message pretty much opposite to Oasis'.  Anyway, I'm rambling.

I was quite surprised how into the set the crowd was.  Oasis mainly mixed up material from Truth, Morning Glory, and Definitely Maybe.  They more or less omitted the albums that didn't sell well in the US.  Liam rambled on and only sang half of "Champagne Supernova" but other than that the concert was great.  Here's the set list in case you care:

• Turn Up the Sun
• Lyla
• Bring It On Down
• Morning Glory
• Cigarettes and Alcohol
• The Importance of Being Idle
• A Bell Will Ring
• Acquiesce
• Live Forever (dedicated to the people of New Orleans)
• Mucky Fingers
• Wonderwall
• Champagne Supernova
• Rock'n'Roll Star
• (Encore) Guess God Thinks I'm Abel
• (Encore) The Meaning of Soul
• (Encore) DLBIA
• (Encore) My Generation

Twisted Logic

I am a lucky guy.  Several months ago I scored a few tickets in the lower reserve for the Coldplay concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View.

The concert got off to a bit of a slow start with Rilo Kiley as the opening act.  The best part of their set was the silence between songs.

Coldplay finally came on at around 9:30 and kicked off their set with "Square One," the first track from X&Y.  In Coldplay's music videos, the music speaks for itself, and last night's show was much the same.  The band wore black, and there was some cool lighting, but the concert was about the music.  "Square One" was solid, but I wasn't quite feeling into the show for the first few songs.  Rockin renditions of "Politik" and "Yellow" followed, and though both were good, I wasn't quite sucked in...at least the band did its best to invoke all things "Golden Gate", and it was obvious they were thrilled to be playing here.

Then the band broke into "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face", but Chris abruptly stopped.  He invited those of us in the lower reserve to come in a bit closer, and so I moved up to the second row.  Just 5 feet from some massive speakers, but 10 feet from the band!

From that point forward, the show flat out rocked.  Coldplay slipped into "Speed of Sound", "Everything's Not Lost", and "The Scientist".  The band then bunched together for an acoustic set, and Chris explained they had written "Til Kingdom" with the hopes that they would perform it with Johnny Cash.  The band covered Cash's "Ring of Fire" and then returned to their usual positions for "Clocks."  "Clocks" was perhaps the best performance of the evening.  I loved the ending -- the studio recording of "Clocks" slows down towards the end, but last night the band played it faster and faster until the song was absolutely frenzied.  The band next played "Talk" and then waited to come back out for the encore, which began with "Swallowed in the Sea".  The band next banged into "In My Place" and Chris somehow made his way into the middle of the crowd during the song.  The finale was "Fix You", which is certainly the band's favorite song from X&Y.  "Fix You" starts slow but erupts mid-song into a wall of guitar and four-part harmonies...Chris swung a lantern around the stage and through it high and far when the song exploded, which was quite cool.

All in all, a great concert, and Coldplay has officially cemented top 3 status for my favorite bands alongside Oasis and Counting Crows.  I actually think Coldplay is kind of what you get when you combine Noel Gallagher's music with Adam Duritz's thoughtfulness.  Anyway, I can't wait to see Coldplay again.

Here's the complete set list.  I've got exceptionally poor quality MP3s of the concert, and I'd love to get a hold of a good bootleg if there is one out there.

• Square One
• Politik
• Yellow
• God Put a Smile Upon Your Face
• Speed of Sound
• Low
• A Rush of Blood to the Head
• Everything's Not Lost
• White Shadows
• The Scientist
• Til Kingdom Come
• Ring of Fire
• Don't Panic
• Clocks
• Talk
• Swallowed in the Sea
• In My Place
• Fix You