Friday

Neil Diamond @ Jones Beach = SO GOOD! SO GOOD! SO GOOD!

just as so good as 2008 was so good!!!

SEE NEIL BEFORE HE OR YOUS DIES, NOW!!!!

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Saturday & Sunday

Nats @ Fenway – guess what that equaled…

and cameoing on TV replay wasn’t so bad neither

what do you think of all this James Franco?

The Polyphonic Spree
Webster Hall
May 24th

Has it really been 10 years since The Polyphonic Spree released their blessed debut The Beginning Stages of…????  And has it really been 10 wasted years for us, since we’ve never seen the 90 piece band (not literally that #, but not so far off, sorta) in concert?  Well, after finally submitting ourselves (in concert) to the cult that is the Spree, it won’t be 10 mo years before we make it time #2!!  We’re considering quitting our jobs and following Tim DeLaughter & co to the ends of the earth (them or the Nationals).  Pass the Kool-Aid, cause we’re drinking it.  (GO NATS!)

Btw, if you don’t know who the Spree are, you’ve definitely heard their music before, if you’ve ever seen an ad on TV.  And if you’ve heard that song, you can imagine how heavenly it might sound live, and guess what, it’s almost more than heaven! IT MADE US WEAR OUR LOVE LIKE HEAVEN!!!   And every song they played was heaven sent!!  They also threw some Who love, with brilliant renditions of ‘See Me, Feel Me/Listening To You’ + ‘Pinball Wizard’.  Never thought of them as a band that would cover someone else’s music (why support other cults than their own??), but after going bat shit crazy hearing those two Who-ers, we’re now wet dreaming of one day hearing them play Pink Floyd’s The Wall or really anything!  Even Nazi anthems written by George Clooney!

You’ve probably heard us complain endlessly about American concert audiences before.  They never get that super into shows, well, at least not as much as we do.  WE TOTALLY DO!!!  Clapping during a show (not just after the song, but during!) should be the standard, but apparently we’re in the minority on that one.  Well, The Spree didn’t even have to provoke the audience to do so, cause there was nuttin but euphoric applause from everyone in the audience during the encore set.  This gave us renewed faith in music, concerts, audiences, Jim Jones, David Koresh and even Nazi anthems written by George Clooney!

Jack White
Roseland Ballroom
May 21st

Gone is Meg and her boobs, so are the good, but not that crazy good side project band pals (Raconteurs, Dead Weather, whatever that Rome thing was).  What remains is rock n roll’s savior, Jack White, who’s looking more and more like Robert Smith these days, but still sounding a lot like a junior Robert Plant.  Jack never really needed anybody.  He’s a enuff of a musician to equal the talent of 1,00000,9022002,29 musicians.  It’s true.  Now he’s fully at the center of attention, and anyone who pays attention to whatever Jack White does (which should be everyone), is paying attention to how super duper his first official solo album Blunderbuss is be.  It’s basically a White Stripes album, with less of an edge, but with a fuller sound, and that also describes what one of his current concerts is like.  Somehow we didn’t get the pleasure of his bouncy babes backing band, but his male band did a solid enuff of a supporting job to keep the focus on Jack and his shipmanshow.  The new songs sounded newlicious, and the old ones, like we said, had less of an edge, but had a fuller sound with the help of that backing band.  But the thing about the new ones is be that they already feel like the old ones, which means they epic classic awesomesss!!!  Which means the show was epic classic awesomessss!!!!

Set List - Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground / Missing Pieces / Sixteen Saltines / Hypocritical Kiss / I Cut Like A Buffalo / Trash Tongue Talker / Top Yourself / Two Against One / Black Math / Hello Operator / Weep Themselves to Sleep / You Know That I Know / Blunderbuss / Ball and Biscuit // Freedom at 21 / Steady, As She Goes / Take Me With You When You Go / Catch Hell Blues / Seven Nation Army (!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

The Beach Boys
Beacon Theatre
May 9th

They do it-ed!  Again!  Just like the song says!  They old, but they no moldy.  They the Beach Boys, the ultimate American band, and if you think otherwise, we’re gonna get the House Un-American Activities Committee to come ittee to your house and make your activities nothing but American!!  Carl & Dennis Wilson are gone and surely missed, but the Boys of Beach didn’t miss a beat.  Sure, they aint those golden haired boys catching waves no more (although Dennis was the only surfer in the band), but these gray haired gentlemen were true to their school and their roots and to their fans and even to John Stamos who made like 2188282 cameos

We had seen Brian twice and the Mike Lovely version of the BBs at Coney two years ago, but not together, WITH AL JARDINE’S FACE, since the 80s, when wees was a child and they seemed to play DC’s 4th of July thing year after year. Now we old(er) and appreciate them more, and happy they put their greedy differences behind them and reunited to tour and roar, and roar they did.  Sure, a lot of the hactual music work is supplied by Brian’s usual and brilliant touring band, with them falsetto spots hit up by long time associate Jeff Foskett, but who cares, as long as a Beach Boys concert sounds like a Beach Boy concert, no?  Well, it did, and it sounded flawless!  Honestly, when all the Boys pass on (which we hope is never), we’d pay to see Brian’s backing band in concert.  They’re already pretty much the greatest Beach Boys cover band going!

They played 44 songs(!!!!!) and outside of ‘Disney Girls’ (it’s fine and all, but the one song you can use to take a pee break during) and ‘Kokomo’ (sure, it blows-a-mo, but we understand why it needs to be included), the tracks they choose were solid choices from a catalog that offers too munch goodness to choose from, and choosy moms choose JIF AND THE BEACH BOYS!!!!

First Set - Do It Again / Catch a Wave / Hawaii / Don’t Back Down / Surfin’ Safari / Surfer Girl / Please Let Me Wonder / You’re So Good to Me / Wendy / Then I Kissed Her / The Little Girl I Once Knew / Why Do Fools Fall in Love (Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers cover) / When I Grow Up (to Be a Man) / Cotton Fields (Lead Belly cover) / Disney Girls / Don’t Worry Baby / Little Honda / Be True to Your School / Little Deuce Coupe / 409 / Shut Down / I Get Around

Second Set - California Dreamin’ (Mamas & the Papas cover) / Sloop John B / Wouldn’t It Be Nice / Forever / Sail On, Sailor / Heroes and Villains / In My Room / All This Is That / This Whole World / I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times / God Only Knows / That’s Why God Made the Radio / California Girls / All Summer Long / Help Me, Rhonda / Rock and Roll Music (Chuck Berry cover) / Do You Wanna Dance? (Bobby Freeman cover) / Barbara Ann (The Regents cover) / Surfin’ USA

Encore  –  Kokomo / Good Vibrations / Fun, Fun, Fun

if you have ears and eyes, it is your American civic/cervix duty to see these Boys on tour this summer

Pulp
Radio City Music Hall
April 10th

more pics at Veegs

We met up in the year 2000 & 12.  We were fully grown, but it was strange, since we didn’t remember the first time that we had met.  There was a first time?  Well, apparently Pulp played the 1998 Tibetan Freedom Concert in DC, all of 3 songs, and apparently it juss wasn’t memorable enuff to remember it as our first time.  We did see Jarvis f$%king rock it solo hardcore back in the 2007 & the 2008, but his backing band wasn’t Pulp and he didn’t play any Pulp songs, so lets consider this RCMH show (their first ever there, and first show in NY/USA since 1998!!!!) our first Pulp time.  And now that that’s settled, we will always remember this first time, cause IT WAS THE F$%KING BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEST TIME!!!!!!!!!! 9779reals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The setlist (below) truly speaks for itself, but we’ll speak a little on its behalf.  There wasn’t a single dud song amongst the 18 played, which meant no time for refreshment getting, no time to tinkle, no time to tweet, only time to kick the f$&king ballistics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Unfortunately, the audience didn’t seem to fully agree on the ballistic f$%king kick part.  Don’t think these kids did their homework cause they only got super jizzy jazzed when ‘Common People’ was played, but if they knew the other 17 Pulp songs, which everyone should or make it their duty to know, they woulda been super jizzy jazzed from song one to song done, and thensome.  No wonder Pulp never made it big in America, cause apparently we’re adverse to amazing music.  If we were Pulp, we’d never bother to return to these United States, but we hope that’s never the case, cause we want to remember the second time.  Oh yeah, the second time is tonight, again at RCMH.  Meant a third time

We love life. In Jarvis we thrust

via PradaShopNYC