Thighs Wide Shut

R.E.M.
Madison Square Garden
June 19th

[fotos via workinpana]

Originally we weren’t so hot on R.E.M.’s latest release Accelerate, but a lot can happen in two months with repeated listeningings. The album grew on us at a pace that was as fast and furious as the songs found within. The new tunes are so darn good that they don’t even feel like new tunes. When played live they complement the old ones in a very natural way (good eggzamples: ‘Until The Day is Done’ following ‘One I Love’ and ‘I’m Gonna DJ’ following ‘Orange Crush’). One ditty in particular, ‘Supernatural Superserious’ [d], is such an insta-classic that it was rightly used to kick off an encore than included the (mavis) staples ‘Losing My Religion’, ‘Begin The Begin’, ‘Fall On Me’ and their usual closer ‘Man on the Moon’. There aren’t many bands around today who can continue to be fresh and relevant almost 30 years after they were formed, like R.E.M. (and U2) are. Hopefully they will still be going for another 30 years. Juss imagine how angry a 78 year-old Michael Stipe will be in 2038? Hopefully by then they’ll put another man on the moon

[Musical Minifigs]

full set list, pics and other shaz can be found on The Vegan

Stevie Wonder
Jones Beach
June 18th

Stevie Wonder was high up on our ‘see him before he or we die‘ list (Neil Diamond will get crossed off in 2 months time), and he should be added to yours too, if you haven’t already done so, or created a list for that splatter. Stevie may look and dress like Homer Simpson in a muÊ»umuÊ»u, but who friggin cares when his beyond hamazing voice hasn’t changed a bit since he hit puberty during his early Motown days. The show started off with the ebony ivory tickler talking about two new albums he’s working on, and we thought that would translate into hearing a bunch of crap we didn’t wanna hear, but alasses, that’s not how the night unfolded. Instead, SW1 dug deep into his hefty stomach back catalog and for two straight hours, he tore the roof off the venue that doesn’t have a roof (which only sucks when it rains, like it did last night and delayed the show by an hour). While he rocked such classics like ‘Superstition’, ‘Higher Ground’, ‘Living For The City’ and ‘Master Blaster (Jammin’)’ [d], there juss wasn’t enough time for him to play all the other gem de le menthes. Guess we’ll juss have to put him back on our list, right below Led Zep and above Weird Al Yankovic

The US Air Guitar Championships – NY Regionals
Bowery Ballroom
June 3rd

[mo pics from trixiebedlam]

The Bowery Ballroom is hands and thighs down one of the bestest music venues in the world. We’ve seen many a top notch shows there, big and small (including, but not limited to Blur, The Hives, Amy Winehouse, Keane and even Huey Lewis and The News) , but we haven’t seen anything quite like what went on there last night. The US Air Guitar Championships is criss-crossing the country, searching for that one American with a certain airness that will best represent us at the World Championships in Finland. The the tour kicked off at the B-Ballroom, which happened to be celebrating its 10th anniversary on the very same evening. Hosted by Björn Türoque (that’s ‘byorn to rock’ for those who can’t finger it out) and judged by Daily Show fella Jason Jones, Willie Giest, and two record label dudes, 21 courageous performers, ranging from beyond rawking to beyond awful, took to the stage with nothing but air. The field was then narrowed to five finalists, and the top three finishers were by far the creme de le menthe. Some fatty mcgee calling himself Air To The Throne took the top prize by exposing a thong in his final performance, but he didn’t have the spunk of former US champ Hot Lixx Hulahan, who swung from a curtain, our our personal flav, Shreddy Mercury, whose wife earlier ‘wooed’ the judges in a salacious way to get her man a higher score, which got the crowd to chant ‘Shreddy’s Wife’ over and over. If that’s not love, then let Mola Ram take our heart out

Paul Simon & Friends
Under African Skies
BAM: Brooklyn Academy of Music
April 11th

Paul Simon’s Graceland is without question one of the greatesteiststest albums of balls thyme. We’ve been jamming out to it ever since we gots the cassette tape for our 9th birthday, while we were having a sugar overload fest at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour in Wheaton Plaza. We were beyond obsessed with ‘You Can Call Me Al’ that we made a homemade recording of it, with help from the the 45 record single (if we every find that recording, we’ll mp3 it like the wind). The video for ‘Al’ was tres best, although at that early age, the role reversal in the video led us to believe that Chevy Chase was also Paul Simon. Anywho, his follow-up, Rhythm of the Saints aint nearly as thumcredible, but it’s mos certainly toecredible to say the least. And with that in mind, it was the biggest no-brainer to snag tickets to a show where Paul would be rockin both of these albums with a little help from his friends, including Ladysmith Black Mambazo (duh), David Byrne, Kaïssa, Vusi Mahlasela, Luciana Souza and Cyro Baptista. Sounds like a dream come true, right? Edward james ALMOST!

Apparently it was his friends who were doing the rocking with a little help from Simon. Paul only sang about 5 of the songs, and decided to let the others do the rest of the work. While the stand-ins played the part of Paul Simon quite well (David Byrne nailed ‘I Know What I Know’, although we didn’t go ga-ga for his rendition of ‘You Can Call Me Al’), it was still a huge disappointment that Edie Brickell‘s husband took a backseat pretty much the entire night. It felt like a wasted opportunity, especially since we were too young to see the Graceland tour in ’87 and thus have waited an eternity to hear PS play the entire album. For the love of dog, he spankfully joined Ladysmith BM on ‘Diamonds On The Soles of Her Shoes’. If he didn’t they may have been a riot. Who knows if Paul will ever play the album live again, so we’ll take this over nothing, even if in our hearts we knew the show coulda better than it turned out to be

Bye the gay, we’ve never seen a more white crowd in all our lives. Why do Asians, blacks, Hispanics and Eskimos hate Paul Simon so much? Is it cause he’s so short and created some of the bestestestest tunes mt EVERest? We don’t know, but what we do know, we know, and we’ll sing what we said, and who are we to blow against the wind?

further bleeding:

mo pics from judester1213
paulfournier’s pics
NY Times review
Variety review
PradaShoppeNYC’s review

bestest show we did ever see: Simon & Garfunkel, MSG, 12/4/03 (pre-TWS daze)

The Swell Season
Beacon Theatre
November 19th

The Swell Season are Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. If you don’t recognize those two names then you probably haven’t seen the movie the duo star in, which has quietly entranced audiences worldwide this past year. The movie in question is called Once [TWS.org review], and while I wouldn’t dub it a muss see, I will say that the sweet music the two create in and outside of it is a muss hear. In promotion of the film, they hit the road, but we missed them last time around (dearest Uncle Grambo didn’t). Luckily, the response was more massive than two shitz from Massachusetts and they embarked on a much larger tour of these United States. Last nite they took owned the stage at the Beacon w/their swell music and sweet melodies, all with the backing help from three of Glen’s Frames’ bandmates. Sirprizngly, they had enuff material to put on a full show. If you swooned to the flick and/or the soundtrack, then their show is your natural next destination. And if you already did that, then I guess we’ll juss have to wait for the movie sequel, Twice!!