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Monday, November 19, 2007

reviewed: the walkmen at richards on richards...

I feel I've really slept on the Walkman over the past couple of years. Bows + Arrows was a brilliant disk, which I lived with for ages... but the following album and EP never really stuck. After Friday's show, for the life of me I can't figure out why.

The Walkmen delivered a solid performance for their entire set. The older stuff meshed well with the newer stuff. Things kinda jaggedly ping-ponged between their ultra gentle tunes and their post-whatever jangly rock tunes. The cool thing was that everything was held together by that atmospheric, wall of sound they so painless fire-off. It was dense and loud... and the whole time I was reminded how great some of their work really is and how I should dust off a few of their disks.

Openers, The Subjects, we're pretty good too. However, we only caught the last 2 - 3 songs of their set... actually, most people in attendance missed these guys, the place was empty when we arrived. Unfortunate.

Daytrotter has a live session with The Subjects... get up on it.

elsewhere

HCwDB, a primer

Labels: reviewed, richard's on richards, the walkmen

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Sunday, June 10, 2007

reviewed: Girl Talk at Richard's on Richards...

photo credit: jenerally speaking

So much to write about... where to begin?

The idea of Girl Talk performing live seems like something that could fall apart so easily. I mean, the guy is just playing a laptop... dragging and dropping samples on top of samples. This really could be a non-event.

But it wasn't... Girl Talk's live set was something amazing something, energetic, something very happily out of control. I can't recall a gig where both the artist and the crowd were so fired up. Within the first 2 minutes of the set Girl Talk was stage diving, a minute later the guy jumped from the stage and climbed UP to the balcony, by the 5 minute mark the crowd had taken over the stage and collectively freaked out with Greg. The best thing is that this frenzied state remained for the entire night... because of this, dude OWNED IT from start to finish. So impressive.

The set performed was equally as fantastic. I was worried that I might end up paying $15 admission only to hear the Night Ripper CD replayed live. This wasn't the case. While a lot of the beats from the album were used, most of the samples were new. It felt like the catalogue was deeper and wider... there was a lot of old 90's dance stuff and equal parts of contemporary pop. I'd love to get a recording of that set. Anyone see any tapers? I was too busy busting moves.

elsewhere

quinn was there too

Labels: girl talk, reviewed, richard's on richards

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