May 17, 2013: Alkaline Trio

Concert Details:

Bands: Alkaline Trio
Location: Ram's Head Live, Baltimore, MD

I have virtually nothing to say about this show other than it was possibly the biggest disappointment I have ever experienced at a concert.  The only highlight of the entire show for me was when they played Hell Yes.  Overall it was not a good show and I have nothing in my mind about it that is even memorable to say, good or bad.

May 11, 2013: Sweetlife Festival

Concert Details:

Bands: Phoenix, Passion Pit, Kendrick Lamar, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gary Clark Jr., Twenty One Pilots

Location: Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD

Sweetlife Festival is the first truly all day festival I have been to in nearly 8 years, and I chose a good one to start with.  Reading the festival bill, the only bands I had any interest in seeing where Phoenix, Passion Pit and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.  By the end of the day I would have two new artists to see again.


The day started at the Treehouse stage with Twenty One Pilots.  The only reason I chose to watch them was proximity to where I was at the time and because they were on the bill for a festival I was originally going to the following day.

The band consists of two members, one on piano and the other on drums.  They came out wearing skeleton masks and immediately dropped into playing what I think can be best described as electro rap.

The guy on piano would go from playing to dancing around the stage with great energy and the crowd, who seemed to all be very familiar with the band got really into the show early, as did I.

The drummer was great playing with more energy than I have seen in almost any drummer I've ever seen play.

As the show went on eventually the masks came off, but the energy never dropped.

Standing on crowd.  At various points during the show, as seen below he even stood on the crowd, which I would imagine is not the easiest of feats.

For me the best bit of the show was the final two songs, Car Radio and Guns for Hands.  Car Radio is a song that starts out from a depressed guy singing about the fact that he is alone and without his car radio he sits alone in silence.  As the song moves along the energy builds.  The lead singer told the crowd to split down the middle and then when he told them to, to collapse and just go crazy.  At the time I felt it was a crazy notion, but If I ever see them again I'll make sure to be as close to the center as possible.

At the end of the final song the two musicians met in the middle of the stage to play dualing drums which was a thoroughly wonderful thing to watch.  I will be driving to Richmond in December to see them again because I will be gone during the DC show.

Lawn from Inside the Stage

After Twenty One Pilots we found seats in the pavilion to find a spot for the rest of the day.  Because we got there early we were able to witness a true show, Gary Clark Jr.  Before that day I had never heard of Gary Clark Jr, and I was better off after watching his set.

Gary Clark Jr. is a blues and hard rock guitarist with considerable skill who feels as if he could have been pulled out of the era of Stevie Ray Vaughan and his friends, except he's only 29.

His guitar is only matched by the songs, deep rooted in blues but fun and exciting, good enough to drag people in who have never heard them before, which I have found to be more and more difficult the more shows I attend, and especially with an earlier slot at a festival, when it would be just as easy to not pay attention and talk to your friends.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were the first band of the day that I was really familiar with, who I believe I saw perform in 2004 at Hfstival '04.

1. Sacrilege
2. Gold Lion
3. Mosquito
4. Phenomena
5. Under the Earth
6. Zero
7. Soft Shock
8. Maps
9. Cheated Hearts
10. Pin
11. Miles Away
12. Heads Will Roll

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs put on a relatively good show, but to me this show just seemed to big for them to deal with.  The crowd was into them, but only because Karen O is a quite excitable person.  The show was fun, and at times it felt like a complete show, but overall it just felt like it was falling short because they couldn't grab enough crowd attention.

1. I'll Be Alright
2. The Reeling
3. Carried Away
4. Love is Greed
5. It's Not My Fault, I'm Happy
6. American Blood
7. To Kindgom Come
8. Constant Conversations
9. Take a Walk
10. Where I Come From
11. Cry Like a Ghost
12. Eyes as Candles
13. Sleepyhead
14. Little Secrets

Passion Pit stormed into the arena and the crowd exploded.  The lead singer ensnared the crowd very quickly and took control of the whole place, moving around the stage with an energetic fervor that made it look like someone as energetic as Karen O hadn't even been moving.

He moved from instrument to instrument running around the stage, it seemed like he had to have at least trained for a marathon to keep up that kind of energy through the whole show.

The only real problem came from this over confidence.  While the energy of the show was kept up, the more the crowd got into the show, the less exciting the show seemed to be, as if the band knew they didn't have to try as hard, just make it seem like they were.

Overall Passion Pit put on a fantastic show, and I'll be seeing them again on Halloween.

1. Entertainment
2. Lasso
3. Lisztomania
4. Long Distance Call
5. The Real Thing
6. S.O.S. in Bel Air
7. Fences
8. Love Like a Sunset/Bankrupt!
9. Too Young/Girlfriend
10. Trying to Be Cool/Drakka Noir/Chloroform
11. Armistice
12. 1901

Encore.

   13. Countdown

   14. Don't

   15. Rome

   16. Entertainment

Phoenix was by far the best performance of the day. Where Passion Pit had energy Phoenix took complete control of everything, the crowd, the feeling in the air, possibly even the weather.  They took everything, and gave us a beautiful sound and an experience that was beyond what I had even hoped we'd get from them.  

Had every other performance of the day been awful, Phoenix would have made it one of the best festivals I have ever attended.  The lead singer moved with such amazing grace that every step he took seemed to serve some purpose.

The best part of the show was when he went into the crowd, trying to connect as directly with the fans as possible.  Phoenix is a band that I will go see live over and over again.

Overall, Sweetlife was a much better festival than Chili Cook-Off.  A better set up, a better lineup and a better crowd.  I will be on the lookout for Sweetlife for years to come, going to it whenever there is at least a decent line-up.