The Top Ten Unseeen Goal for 2014

First, here is my list of top unseen bands to see in 2013 from last year.

1. M83
2. 30 Seconds to Mars
3. Cary Brothers
4. Imagine Dragons
5. Queen of the Stone Age
6. The 69 Eyes
7. Florence and the Machine
8. The Naked & Famous
9. Jimmy Eat World
10. Muse

Of those ten I saw 30 Seconds to Mars (twice), Queens of the Stone Age, The Naked & Famous, Jimmy Eat World and Muse.  Why Nine Inch Nails did not make it on to that list I do not know.  Of the remaining bands, except Imagine Dragons all of the remaining bands have made the next list, this time I have also left off any band I already have tickets to see, otherwise Band of Horses would be on this list.

1. M83
2. Cary Brothers
3. The 69 Eyes
4. Florence and the Machine
5. Neil Young
6. The Cure
7. Bruce Springsteen
8. The Who
9. Ingrid Michaelson
10. Slipknot

June 18, 2013: The Postal Service

Concert Details:

Bands: The Postal Service, Ra Ra Riot
Location: Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD

1. The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
2. We Will Become Silhouettes
3. Sleeping In
4. Turn Around
5. Nothing Better
6. Recycled Air
7. Be Still My Heart
8. Clark Gable
9. Our Secret (Beat Happening Cover)
10. This Place is a Prison
11. There's Never Enough Time
12. A Tattered Line of String
13. Such Great Heights
14. Natural Anthem

Encore:

   15. (This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan (Dntel cover)

   16. Brand New Colony 

This was the type of show that someone might wait a long time for, and for more than one reason.  The Postal Service is best described as an indie rock supergroup featuring the melding of the voices of Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie.  Having release only one new song since their reunion after eight years, it was pretty clear the songs that we were to expect from the show, but that did not make it any less wonderful.

For a band with only one album, The Postal Service has a large amount of amazing songs.  They started the show very strong with The District Sleeps Alone Tonight a song which is about DC and was a perfect song to open with in a crowd mostly full of people from DC suburbs.  One of the things that make The Postal Service album so strong is the dueling voices of Lewis and Gibbard.

The dueling voices is best utilized during Nothing Better, which was played 5th in the show where the story a couple fights.  It starts out with the guy pining for their relationship and complaining that the woman has abandoned him for someone else using some rather unique analogy to describe his loss and stating that the best thing he can imagine is being together forever.

It is at this point that Lewis joins in and goes on to explain why their relationship has to end, although he is reluctant.  The two play the part well and at various points stand across from each other swaying back and forth while each playing guitar in their own version of a tango, battling lyrically with each other to make their point heard.  It is this type of singing that makes their show wonderful and the songs ends with but ultimately he loses out and she says goodbye.

 The show continued strongly with each member taking the lead at various points.  At various points, each of them moved over the drum kit to play a small part while the other was singing.  Throughout the show both Lewis and Gibbard were very energetic almost as if they had taken a lot of caffeine prior and needed to excise it, for most of the show it appeared as if Gibbard was running in place on stage.

As the show continued the crowd ate up every single song thrown at them and peaked during the most popular of the remaining songs Such Great Heights where the energy of Gibbard and Lewis was perhaps even exceeded by that of the crowd.

For a year filled with wonderful shows at Merriweather this show was leagues above the rest and at that point in the year was the best big venue show I had attended.

A show like this makes one want to see either performer in any fashion, whether it be in their other bands, solo or hopefully, one day again as The Postal Service.

June 17, 2013: Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, and Gwar

Concert Details:

Bands: Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, Gwar
Location: Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD

Alice Cooper

1. Hello Hooray (Judy Collins cover)
2. House of Fire
3. No More Mr. Nice Guy
4. Billion Dollar Babies
5. I'll Bite Your Face Off
6. Is it My Body
7. Under My Wheels
8. Hey Stoopid
9. Poison
10. Dirty Diamonds
11. Welcome to My Nightmare
12. Go to Hell
13. Feed My Frankenstein
14. Ballad of Dwight Fry
15. Killer
16. I Love the Dead
17. School's Out (with Pink Floyd Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2 Excerpt)

Encore:

   18. I'm Eighteen (with Marilyn Manson)

Marilyn Manson:

  1. Angel With the Scabbed Wings
  2. Disposable Teens
  3. No Reflection
  4. The Dope Show (Happiness is a Warm Gun intro)
  5. Rock is Dead
  6. Coma White
  7. Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode)
  8. Prelude (The Family Trip)
  9. mOBSCENE
  10. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (Eurythmics Cover)
  11. This is the New Shit
  12. Antichrist Superstar
  13. The Beautiful People

This was quite the interesting lineup and on the outlook looked like the perfect marrying of three bands who use theatrics to enhance their show.  What we ended up with was a band that uses theatrics as their show, and wonderfully, an artist who used theatrics to carry his show, and an artist who perfectly married theatrics with his music to appear still at the top of his game over 40 years into his career.

Gwar is the band from outer space who appear as aliens who have come to rock us and fight their enemies.  They wear extensive prosthetics, stay in character throughout the entire show, and spew blood and other bodily fluids in the form of what I would imagine is corn syrup all over the audience.  They are not a musically driven band, and that's fine because they aren't trying to be.  Throughout the show they fought with various things on stage and used a sword and buzz saw in decapitation.  Overall they put on a supremely fun show although I'm not entirely sure if I'd see them again, but with a big group I might go see them dressed in a full white outfit and stand in the very front of the audience.

I was expecting a lot out of Marilyn Manson and was sorely disappointed.  I know that he is known for his theatrics but he is also known for his music, the two should go hand in hand.  The theatrics for his show were rather entertaining, but unfortunately, the music itself was not good and to me at least, it felt like he had been phoning it in.  One of my companions described it best as Marilyn Manson being in his "Fat Elvis" stage.  Upon immediate completion of the show it didn't seems as bad as I thought, but in the light of what his show could have been when comparing it to that of Alice Cooper's, it really did feel off.  There were good parts to his show, but overall I was disappointed.

Alice Cooper's performance was a polar opposite of Marilyn Manson.  I went into his show expecting and knowing virtually nothing about him and not knowing a large amount of his music, but I found myself rather blown away by the performance.  The shows was full of theatrics: he was put into a straight jacket and escaped in an attempt to murder a nurse, was guillotined and then came back, randomly carried around a snake and many other antics I cannot even remember at this point.  But the stark contrast between his show and the one before his was that the theatrics of the show enhanced the overall show instead of carrying it. One of my personal favorite moments of the show was towards the end when band introduction were performed, as he got to the end he stood towards the front of the stage and as he finished off the crowd and with a fervor on his face stated almost devilishly "And tonight, playing the part of Alice Cooper, me!".  It was quite a beautiful moment.  The encore was quite wonderful as well, and perhaps the best moment from either Marilyn Manson or Alice Cooper when they joined together on stage to close out the show with Cooper's  I'm Eighteen.  

Overall I would say it was quite a successful show but I do wish Marilyn Manson had been more enjoyable for me, but I'd definitely consider seeing Alice Cooper again. 

June 16, 2013: Glen Hansard

Concert Details:

Bands: Glen Hansard, Doug Paisley
Location: 9:30 Club, Washington, DC

1. Falling Slowly (The Swell Season)
2. You Will Become
3. Maybe Not Tonight
4. Talking with the Wolves
5. Love Don't Leave Me Waiting (with covers of Respect and Please Please Please)
6. Low Rising (The Swell Season)
7. Banana Man
8. When Your Mind's Made Up (The Swell Season)
9. Bird of Sorrow
10. Leave (The Swell Season)
11. Broken Hearted Hoover Fixed Sucker Guy (The Swell Season)
12. In These Arms (The Swell Season)
13. High Hope
14. Your Heart's Not in It Babe (The Frames)
15. Way Back When
16. Smile (Pearl Jam Cover with tease of Hey Hey My My cover of Neil Young)
17. Fitzcarraldo (The Frames)
18. Song of Good Hope
19. This Gift

Encore:

   20. Say It to Me Now

   21. Gold (Interference Cover)

   22. Enter Sandman (Metallica cover intro)

   23. Her Mercy

   24. Don't Do It (Marvin Gaye cover)

   25. Drive All Night (Bruce Springsteen Cover)

Glen Hansard.  I'm not even 100% sure how to describe Glen Hansard as a singer and as a performer in general.  A little background on Hansard, he along with his partner Markéta Irglová acted in and sang in the movie Once, for which they won an Oscar for best original song for Falling Slowly.

It was a two hour forty-five minute set that started with Falling Slowly under the premise that his voice had been iffy as of late and he would need to do a harder to sing song first.  It didn't sound like there was any problem with his voice and the crowd helped him along.  Something about how the crowd was there for him seemed to carry him through the whole set.  For a man who started the shows with an questionable voice and said that he might only be able play four songs, Glen Hansard put on one of the best single man performances I've ever seen and in any other concert year he might easily be placed in a top ten list of shows.

He moved through the set with an easy grace from song to song and appeared to be almost making it up as he went along, throwing in songs from his own reasonably large catalogue as well as covers of Pearl Jam, Marvin Gaye, Bruce Springsteen and even a tease of the opening of Enter Sandman by Metallica. Towards the end of the show it seemed as he if he didn't want the show to end and might have kept playing for hours but eventually he ended, after a long encore where he seemed to struggle to find new things to excite a crowd to an even higher level than he had, which would be a difficult task for even the best of performers.  To say the least, Glen Hansard was born to sing, and can run between genres with such ease that you would think they were his specialty.

Next time he is around, you can be sure that I will be at his show, standing in the very front row hanging on to his every word, he is just that good.

June 11, 2013: Of Monsters and Men

Concert Details:

Bands: Of Monsters and Men, Haim
Location: Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD

1. Dirty Paws
2. From Finner
3. Slow and Steady
4. Mountain Sound
5. Your Bones
6. Love Love Love
7. King and Lionheart
8. Beneath My Bed
9. Lakehouse
10. Little Talks
11. Six Weeks

Encore:

   12. Numb Bears

   13. Skeletons (Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover)

   14. Yellow Light

Of Monsters and Men is an Icelandic based folk band based who sings in English and whose popularity has grown in the same vain with The Lumineers and Mumford and Sons, although Of Monsters and Men is not as popular, but they are supremely more talented and at least compared with The Lumineers are much better live band.  I think a large part of what makes them the better band is Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, the female singer.  My love for them might be partly biased by her, as I am a huge fan of the dynamic of dueling male and female singers, but the harmony of the voices of the her and the other lead singer, Ragnar Þórhallsson, is nothing short of perfect.

The band opened quietly with the opening of Dirty Paws behind a screen (although I was to the side so I could see behind it) and as the song peaked about a minute in, the screen dropped and the crowd roared.

They put on a dynamic set, running through their only album so far and throwing in a Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover, possibly to extend their set.  There are two problems with a band this new playing a venue this big as the headliner: first, they may not have enough songs to really be able to run through a long enough show to sustain, and second they may not be ready to be able to handle a crowd this big.  Of Monsters and Men were able to deal with both of their problems by putting on a thoroughly dynamic and excitable show.

 Never once did the show let up and their dynamically energetic playing was able to carry them through the whole show and leave us wishing they had more songs to play.

At the end of the show the band released confetti and then a rain of foam (seen below) ending the show in a hail of joy and sending us on the way in a wonderful haze.  They are a band that I intend to see again if I get the chance, and I think they are the type of band that will hopefully grow and as they add more and more music to their arsenal hopefully they will add more and more to their show.

May 25, 2013: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Concert Details:

Bands: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Location: Beacon Theater, New York, NY

1. So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star (The Byrds cover)
2. Love is a Long Road
3. Listen to Her Heart
4. Baby, Please Don't Go (Big Joe Williams)
5. The Damage You've Done
6. Takin' My Time
7. (I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone (Paul Revere and the the Raiders cover)
8.  A Woman in Love (It's Not Me)
9. Saving Grace
10. I'd Like to Love YOu Baby (J.J. Cale cover)
11. Tweeter and the Monkey Man (Traveling Wilburys cover)
12. Rebels
13. Two Gunslingers
14. Wildflowers
15. Image of Me (Wayne Kemp cover)
16. Friend of the Devil (Grateful Dead cover)
17. Melinda
18. I Should Have Known It
19. Refugee
20. Runnin' Down a Dream

Encore:

   21. You Wreck Me

   22. American Girl

How does one exactly describe Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.  Maybe only one word is needed, magnificent.  But the words splendid, enticing, charismatic and energetic could be attached to Tom Petty or any member of his legendary band, especially Mike Campbell, the lead guitarist.

This show was unlike most Tom Petty shows that anyone has seen, perhaps unlike any other Tom Petty show anyone has seen, well outside of the few performed just before and just after.  This show was part of a 5 night stand at the Beacon Theater on Upper Eastside of Manhattan billed as a group of rarities shows, promising that the band would play deep cuts instead of just the singles that one might expect form Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at a festival or on a standard tour such as Free 'Fallin, I Won't Back Down, Last Dance with Marry Jane, and on and on with what can be expected of such an illustrious and long career spanning five decades.  That isn't to say they didn't play some of the hits including Listen to Her Heart, Refugee, Runnin' Down a Dream,  and American Girl.

The focus of the show was clearly the deep cuts, with my personal favorite of the night being Two Gunslingers.  Each song played was wonderful and every moment of the show was fantastic.  As someone who has seen Tom Petty live before, this was such a fantastic show, one of the best performances I have ever seen anywhere, and I wish I could have gone to every show at the Beacon Theater, all of which unsurprisingly sold out almost instantly.

The true highlight of the show although, was not the deep cuts or the singles, but the covers.  The band covered The Byrds, Wayne Kemp, J.J. Kale and even Tom Petty's own supergroup, the Traveling Wilbury's, all to the delight of the crowd.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are just one artist who have not lost a single step over a long career, and continue to perform at an elite level way above everyone else, and someone I will go see over and over again given the chance.

May 18, 2013: Joshua Radin

Concert Details:

Bands: Joshua Radin, My Name is You
Location: The Hamilton, Washington, DC

Every single time i got o The Hamilton I end up loving the opening act and buying their CD and talking to them after their performance.  My Name is You was no exception.  Not only were they the opener, they were also at least part of the back up band for Joshua Radin.

Since that show I have listened to My Name is You probably on average of at least one song a day and I definitely look forward to seeing them again.

As with all singer songwriters I've seen, especially those I've seen at The Hamilton, Joshua Radin put on a phenomenal show.  I took way to long to write this so the specific memories are failing me, but I'll hit on some of the highlights.  Similar to many of the artists I've seen this year Joshua Radin got much of his fame by getting his music out through a TV show, in this case Scrubs.  I personally only know of Joshua Radin because of Scrubs, but have since purchased his albums and like each of them very much.

Unlike most of the singer-songwriters I've seen this year, instead of just playing by himself on stage, he had a decent size backup band, which in this case was comprised of the opening band.

The smallness of the venue also lent itself to one of the most fun parts of the show.   Radin and the guy from My Name Is You stood back from the microphones to sing one song unplugged and un-miced.

Overall, it was a fun show, and I don't regret choosing this one over the other two I could have gone to, well mostly don't regret it.  Either of those could have been equally fun, but that's a chance I take.  Either way, I'll be seeing both of those artists as well as Joshua Radin again within the next month, this time though, he is the opener.