May 10, 2013: Ryan Bingham

Concert Details:

Bands: Ryan Bingham, The Wild Feathers

Location: Birchmere, Alexandria, VA

Ryan Bingham

1. Beg for Broken Legs
2. Hard Times
3. Country Roads
4. Tell My Mother I Miss Her So
5. Western Shore
6. Sunrise
7. Day is Done
8. Hallelujah (Solo Acoustic)
9. Boracho Station (Solo Acoustic)
10. The Weary Kind (Solo Acoustic)
11. Guess Who's Knocking
12. Heart of Rhythm
13. Southside of Heaven
14. Bluebird
15. Sunshine 
16. Bread And Water

Encore:

   16. Too Deep to Fill

   17. Ever Wonder Why

This was a show I was mildly interested in that I don't believe I would have gone to in a year where I wasn't going out of my way to go to shows, and I would have missed something big.  Ryan Bingham is perhaps best known for being the Oscar winning writer of The Weary King for the movie Crazy Heart. From the outside I couldn't really tell what type of place The Birchmere is, but the artwork is awesome and it definitely made me think that this would be an interesting venue to check out.

The opening band, The Wild Feathers was a lot of fun and while I enjoyed them, I'm not sure I would go out of my way to see them again, but I still think it would be fun.

The Wild Feathers

As he steps out on stage, Ryan Bingham has a great look, hat pulled down to shadow his eyes, feather tattoos on his lower arms.  He has the look and feel of a cowboy and is exactly what you expect when you listen to his music.  Let me start by saying,  in almost all cases I detest country music, or at least what's called country music today, the likes of Toby Keith, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, and many others.  People who sing and celebrate red solo cups and tractors, it drives me absolutely crazy, and I find it to border on musical vomit and every time I hear it I find it almost as offensive to my ears as pop artists whose voices are so clearly modified by editing that I think it would be a more pleasant sensation to be listening to 90's boy bands instead.  Now don't get me wrong, there are a slew of artists that I love (some of which I've seen this year) that could be classified as country such as: Johnny Cash, Old 97's, Ryan Adams, Rhett Miller and Matthew Ryan.  If they, and Ryan Bingham are what you found in most country music, there is a good chance that I would listen to nothing but country.

So back to Ryan Bingham.  He possesses a gravely voice that works so well with his style and an energy that is needed to front a band as large as his.  His guitar playing sounds masterful (I've not the skill or knowledge to judge, yet) and he switches between a slew of guitars including a 12 string guitar which he plays with such fervor that it is mesmerizing.  It's hard to describe his show with anything but hyperbole and great reverence as it was eye opening to see such as a wonderful performance that was so simple.  There were no stage gimmicks or movements around stage, just a man, his guitar and his band.  The best member of his band being Richard, the fiddle player.

Maybe it's because I am, very slowly, trying to learn to play guitar but I found myself most enticed into watching his hands while he played.  It was the first time I have ever seen anyone use a slide while playing, and he was not the only member of the band playing one.  As I said before if all country music sounded like his, it might be all I ever listen to, and I can definitely understand why the producers of Crazy Heart chose him to write songs for their movie.

He plays the type of music that comes to mind when I think of visiting Texas or Oklahoma.  Music that is so clearly blues influenced and that has a real country feel without it being whiny or twangy.  Below you can see his fiddle player, other guitarist and bassist.

About half way through the show the whole band left the stage and Ryan Bingham came back alone for a 3-song acoustic bit, including his Oscar winning song The Weary Kind and Boracho Station, the latter of which has an opening that reminds me of Ghosts Riders in the Sky, before dropping into a Malagueña type bit before slowing down.  It is a song that is song half in Spanish and half in English and a great addition to the set, but for me the highlight is The Weary Kind.  It is a beautiful song that deserved it's Oscar praise and much more.  In the movie Crazy Heart it is sung well by Colin Farrell, but regardless of what random online commenters think, it is Bingham's song and he performs it masterfully, milking emotion out of every movement of his fingers and with every word he sends out into the audience.  The rest of the set and encore were wonderful and he is without a doubt an artist that I will go to see over and over every time he tours, I already have again this year.

July in Review

Top 10 Bands Listened This Month:

1. Jack's Mannequin
2. Paramore
3. City and Colour
4. Sara Bareilles
5. Taking Back Sunday
6. Jimmy Eat World
7. Joseph Arthur
8. Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
9. HIM
10. Bloc Party

New CD's Bought:
Matthew Ryan - The Dusk of Everything
Matthew Ryan - Dear Lover
Sara Bareilles - The Blessed Unrest
City and Colour - Little Hell


Concerts Attended:

The Polyphonic Spree at Sixth and I on July 6
She+Him at Wolf Trap on July 11
Paul McCartney at Nationals Stadium on July 12
Fun. at Merriweather Post Pavilion on July 20
Eagles at Verizon Center on July 22
Bob Dylan at Merriweather post Pavilion on July 23
The Lumineers at Merriweather Post Pavilion on July 26
Plain White T's at 930 Club on July 29
Matthew Ryan at 930 Club on July 30


This is a really hard month to say which was the best show.  I'd say the best overall show was Paul McCartney but the most fun show was Fun., but on average all of the shows were fantastic.  The only real issue with concerts this month was She+Him, who was really disappointing.



Concerts of August
OAR, Andrew McMahon
Black Sabbath
Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake
Jimmy Eat World
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Josh Groban
Hot August Blues
Pat Benatar, Cheap Trick
Papa Roach, Shinedown
Carly Rae Jepsen
John Mayer, Phillip Phillips

May 9, 2013: Rick Springfield

Concert Details:

Bands: Rick Springfield

Location: Ram's Head Center Stage

1. Wide Awake
2. I've Done Anything for You
3. I Get Excited
4. Our Ship's Sinking
5. Heart of a Woman
6. I Hate Myself
7. Love Is Alright Tonight
8. My Last Heartbeat
9. Don't Talk to Strangers
10. You Better Love Somebody
11. Jessie's Girl

Encore

   12. All my Lovin' (Beatles Cover)

   13. Kristina

I went to this show more as a lark, but found myself having a decent amount of fun.  I only know two Rick Springfield songs, but this still turned out to be an entertaining and equally terrifying show.

I'll start with the terrifying part.  Take the fervor of Justin Bieber fans and then put it into women that were between 50 and 65 and then pack them in a room of maybe 500 people.  It was both amusing and absolutely terrifying, and may have in fact been the most terrifying experience of my life.

So about the show itself.  Impressively, Rick Springfield has still go serious skill and energy.  His guitar work was phenomenal and his voice sounded almost as good as it did on the album.  My favorite song of his, Love is Alright Tonight, came in the middle of the show and was well received by the crowd.  Predictably the big moment of the show was during Jessie's Girl.

Overall it was a fun show, although unmemorable.  The most amusing part was when he walked through the crowd and the women and my friend David with me reached out to touch him, so i will leave you with what he said about the experience  "I touched Rick Springfield... I had to".

May 8, 2013: 30 Seconds to Mars

Concert Details:

Bands: 30 Seconds to Mars

Location: Sixth and I, Washington, DC

Jared Leto

Elliot of Elliot in the Morning

1. Birth
2. Conquistador
3. Kings and Queens
4. This is War
5. Night of the Hunter
6. Search and Destroy
7. Do or Die
8. From Yesterday (Acoustic)
9. Northern Lights (Acoustic)
10. Alibi (Acoustic)
11. The Kill (Bury Me) (Acoustic)

Encore:

   12. Closer to the Edge

   13. Up in the Air

This was a special show.  The only way to be able to go to the show was to win tickets on the radio or by preordering the album during certain times and having them choose your name.  If you had asked me at the beginning of the year what the number one band that I wanted to see live was is 30 Seconds to Mars.  This was a great show, although not the type of show I would have preferred, but it was free and I still had a great time.

I'll start what I consider to be the deficiencies out of the way initially.  30 Seconds to Mars, to their credit is a loud and energetic band who throws a wall of sound at you.  Sixth and I, which is an old synagogue, is a good venue, and I've been there for great shows that sounded amazing, but in some ways, 30 Seconds to Mars is a band whose sound was to big for the set up.  The other problem was for me, what is one of the two rudest things I have encountered at a concert this year.  A woman thought it was appropriate to stand up on the pews thus blocking the view completely of everyone behind her and was offended when we asked her to step down so that us, and the people behind us could see.

There were three parts to this show.  The first was a preview of the 30 Seconds to Mars documentary Archive, the second a playing of their music video for Up in the Air and the third was the show itself.  The documentary preview was interesting as was the music video, but it made the crowd very antsy for the show itself.

The show started slow with the intro song from the new album, a strong intro choice although not the best because it was not known by the crowd.  From their they dropped into another song of the newest album, although this one had been released and was a good song because it has a part that is designed for crowd interaction.

Then it was on to, Kings and Queens my favorite 30 Seconds to Mars song, whose line "In defense of our dreams" will be my next tattoo.  This song highlights the strength of their shows, the fans.  The fans know every line of every (released) song more than any other show I've been to, although this show may have been an exception as you had to really be a fan to get tickets.  A song like Kings and Queens needs fans to be singing for it to work, and they really sang along, although a bit drowned out by the sound quality.

From there, they move to another song that requires the crowd to really be into the show, This is War, a song that is as described by its title a declaration of war, although not every clearly explained who the war is against, but I don't think it's a physical war as much as a musical or emotional one.  Like Kings and Queens, the success of this song live was that the crowd was into the song as much if not more than the band. 

This is War was followed by another two old songs before the third song from the new album, Do or Die.  By this point in the show a new unknown song was welcome and the crowd roared its appreciation.  It worked better as a unknown song later in the show than the previous ones because it was able to ride the energy of the crowd instead of having to develop it.

From there they moved on to a few acoustic songs including songs of their second album From Yesterday and The Kill although with as well as a new song and a song off of the previous album although he didn't play all of From Yesterday.  I felt it was the weakest part of the show, not because of the band, because it seemed to me like a lot of fans didn't know songs from the early album and had only become fans through This is War.  Overall, it was an effective cool down for the first part of the show and a good set up for the encore.

They started the encore with their most uplifting and crowd interaction based song Closer to the Edge, the music video for which is actually compiled from various live shows.  The climax of the song has a part where the crowd shouts with Jared Leto "no no no no" while raising their fists in the air in defiance of whatever you are fighting against.  It's a powerful song that would work well anywhere in the show but worked well as the encore song so that the crowd is immediately picked up.  From their, they dropped into their most recent single Up in the Air which unfortunately for me, felt like a weak closing song as we had just watched the music video for the song beforehand.  Either way, it did not fall flat.

Overall the show was good, but because of the size of the venue and the sound quality, it is not what i was hoping for out of my first 30 Seconds to Mars show, but still it was a good show and it is a band I will be seeing again, hopefully in September if the logistics work out.