ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES

this last weekend jake and i flew out to new york and met up with motoki to attend all tomorrow's parties. it was a weekend filled with lots of loud music. we attended about 15 full sets and about six other partial sets. it was really great to see all of the bands (lots of them aren't likely to tour through utah anytime soon) and even better to talk geek stuff with the boys.














i took photos, drank beer, ate way too many chicken tenders due to lack of available food variety, attended impromptu dance parties, and marveled at sweet vintage gear. it may sound like a perfect vacation but i was actually completely exhausted by the time i got back to logan at 3am on tuesday.

built to spill - playing "perfect from now on"
this was nothing short of amazing. i have been a little let down the past few times that i've seen them play but this was a real treat. they had john on cello with them and it really filled in their live sound to approximate the spacey/epic sounds of the album. they played the tracklist in order and then went directly into "going against your mind". then they did an encore of a few songs and finished with a knob twisting freak out at the end of "car". it was very good and i was glad not to be let down.



tortoise - playing "millions now living will never die"
all in all i think that this set got my personal stamp of most well composed and intricate music. they sounded great and it was great to finally see them live. they did a lot of switching instruments and whatnot.

meat puppets - playing "meat puppets II"
this was the first time i've seen them live. they played pretty well but i kept noticing the singer giving his brother on bass sneers for making mistakes. i hate when i see this happen in a live show and it kind of makes me assume that there are some serious egos on stage. either way, they rocked hard and the possibly inebriated bobble headed bass player was fun to watch for sure. near the end he threw his bass in the air and even though that trick may be regarded as a little cliche in some circles i still found it cool.

bardo pond - playing "lapsed"
i wasn't familiar with this band nor the album they were reproducing in a live setting but i found them to be rather entertaining. i didn't care much for the flute playing. however, the guitars had some serious tone. in fact one of the guitarist had a moogerfooger murf which influenced my decision to pay way too much for one when we returned to manhattan after the festival. give it up for analog geek gear and impulse buys!

silver mount zion
this was one of the main bands i came to see and they were nothing short of amazing. we camped out by the door and ended up getting to watch from the front row. i can't even believe the raw talent that they exhibit. haunting and droning with an abrasive message. very good performance. i was hating the fact that my bladder was about to explode halfway through their set.




low
low was amazing! i had never really fallen in love with the albums i've listened to of theirs but to see them live was so good! they are quiet, minimalist and stripped down which is really nice because i could listen to his guitar tone for days on end. it is amazing. they got my favorite band of the weekend vote. did i mention that they're midwest married mormons. in other words, they're not your typical rock stars.




harmonia
these were old dudes that were pioneers in electronic music decades ago. i watched from close to the stage at first but after hearing their ambient electro-synth harmonies i ended up going to the back of the room, laying down on the floor and letting them lull me into a dreamy state. good but not my favorite. it was nice to have that variety though.

growing
this is two dudes that make weird sounds. it's mostly archaic noise with little to no melodies to be found. a lot of people were raving about them. i liked watching them work their equipment but i couldn't help but think that what they were producing live was mostly happenstance of which they only had a vague amount of control over. it's funny that i probably under-appreciated this band while the music i make on my own is so very similar. does that make me a hypocrite? possibly.

fuck buttons
not dissimilar to growingw, this band is two dudes with a table and laptops and a few other things. i have said this before and i'll say it again. i can't get on-board for bands that i can't see producing the music. i need to be able to follow the process from eyes to ears in order to appreciate a live performance. i can't really do that with fuck buttons. it amounts for me to being slightly more entertaining than watching someone play solitaire on their computer. still fun...kinda.

mercury rev
their music had a big overly-produced sound which i actually really liked but the lead singer was so over dramatic that i give the entire set (which otherwise would have been quite impressive) a so-so at best feel. you'd think this guy was performing the most secret of cult-like rituals from the way he was waving his arms and prancing around the stage. it was obviously synthetic. he'd hold out his arms and a roadie would come from off stage to put his guitar on him. it was pretty lame. and that's coming from someone who really enjoys their albums.

yo la tengo
i saw them once before and ended up being only slightly impressed. they didn't seem stoked to be playing in utah and i sensed that. however, this time was like a re-awakening. they rocked so hard and were so good. their last song was a looping noise fest that turned into spazzed out guitar playing. if he didn't actually have a epileptic seizure on stage he sure faked it well. i was feeling it big time. this band knows how to work the feedback of their amplifiers. i can't appreciate that fact enough.

mogwai
another of the main bands i came to see. they took forever to set up. i was on the front row for this one. they came out and played 9 amazing songs (four from their new album to be released 2 days later). the songs were so very similar to the albums and so powerful. they joked a bit which was the only tip off to the fact that they are actually human. i was blown away by everything about their set. very very good.



dinosaur jr.
i'd heard a lot about this band but had only listened a few times to their albums. i'd guess they're a throwback to the pre or post grunge era. j mascis was old and kinda creepy looking. he showed off a lot of his amazing guitar work. i've never seen a bass player play so fast and strum so much like a guitar. they played well but it felt like between every song they'd lose focus and all have to play little boredom induced riffs. it was this fact that really kind of made me wonder how they had become legends when they're still like 4th graders with ADD. it seemed more like practice and less like a performance. good but not great.

my bloody valentine
this was the headlining act of the weekend. they were reuniting for this after about a decade and a half apart. known for being ridiculously loud live, they didn't disappoint in this aspect. defined as one of the seminal bands of the shoegaze genre, i was a bit disappointed that the cool synth sounds of their songs weren't produced live. they were playing along with a backing track of said sonic samplings. they had about 14 or 15 marshall half stacks on stage (and only 2 guitarists; do the math). kevin shields probably went through about 20 different guitars during the entire set (almost one for every song; no joking). they were mostly all fender jazzmasters or jaguars in a spackling of assorted colors. i got tired and left about halfway through the set to wander around. when i met back up with jake and motoki they said that it was without a doubt the loudest thing they had ever witnessed. there was one song where they stood like statues on stage for 17 minutes straight and let their guitars feedback. the idea seems kind of cool but i think i'd get the point after about 2 minutes and the remaining 15 would just be mundane fluff. they made sure that everyone had a chance to get free ear plugs before they played. i'm glad i got mine.