I Suck at Life

 Social Butterfly   

I suck at life today. But last night, I didn’t. Read more at the lamp blog.

Rilo Kiley at Viejas Concerts in the Park

 Rawk Shows   

It was a perfect night to see a show under the stars. I was actually pretty stoked on the venue (maybe that awesome Alpine Brewing Co. beer before at Liar’s Club helped). A good comparison would be the vibe at Embarcadero Bayside. Set list first....

Rilo Kiley
Viejas Concerts in the Park
5/15/08

Encore:
Pictures of Success
Portion For Foxes

So they started off on their poppy side with three strong songs from their current release Under the Blacklight. They sounded great - the best I have heard them yet. I am thinking that it is because of the awesome acoustics. Then it was off to an oldie “Capturing Moods” which started a more mellow set of songs. It was just Jenny and Blake for “With Arms Outstreched”. Jenny was sitting on an amp for most of the song and Blake sat on the stage with his legs hanging into the crowd. It was a nice moment - even Blake said so afterwards when he thanked the crowd. “It’s A Hit” was a crowd fave and got everyone ready for easily the best song on UTB = “Silver Lining”. They floated three huge balloons with silver glitter in them during the song (which they also did at SOMA the last time I saw them.) It makes for a great affect when they pop and the glitter floats onto the crowd. The encore was short and we knew we were still going to get “Portions for Foxes” which is a great ending to the show. (Okay, okay, they played one more but that was the end to my show and we were outta there before most people even hit the parking lot. ) Definitely worth the trek to see them. 

A Peep at the Radio Charts

 Rawk Radio   

I stopped writing my weekly post about the alt rock radio charts somewhere around the time Puddle of Mudd’s latest song topped the charts. I still look every week but it’s depressing to write about, so I don’t. In any case, I’ve been paying a lot more attention to the Triple A Charts and thought you’d be surprised at some of what is in their Top 30.

1. Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Possess Your Heart (currently #9 on the alt rock charts)
2. Coldplay - Violet Hill (#14 on the alt rock charts)
4. R.E.M. - Supernatural Superserious
9. Augustana - Sweet and Low
27. My Morning Jacket - I’m Amazed
30. Old 97’s - Dance With Me

I think the MMJ really shocked me more than anything. But I am glad that it’s being embraced somewhere. Now who wants to do the back to back MMJ shows with me in September? (First night at the Joint in Vegas, second night here in SD).
For reference:
Triple A Charts
Alt Rock Charts

Next in Show - Helio Sequence at BUT

 Rawk Radio    Rawk Shows   

KBZT has announced their next About the Music show - Helio Sequence at the Belly Up on 6/15. The Tall One introduced me to this band - I have to say that they’re pretty good. (They’re on SubPop - is there any band on SP that is not worth at least a listen? )

Tix are $8 and on sale here or at the BUT starting on Friday.

(Damn it. I knew I had a conflict. I’m going to the OC to see Augustana with Wild Sweet Orange. Sigh.)

Langhorne Slim at the Casbah

 Rawk Shows   

So I was really at the Casbah to cover the Langhorne Slim set. Unfortch, I was kinda lame and didn’t get nearly as close as I needed to take photos. Plus the batteries in my camera died. But everyone was still there for his set (I’ve been seeing way too many people skip out before the headliner these days.) The crowd stayed enthusiastic and LS kept the energy up even though his material can be super mellow. Who knew that the second coming of alt country could be so compelling?

View the photos that I managed to take here.

The Smart Brothers at the Casbah

 Rawk Shows   

There was a great crowd that came out early last night to check out The Smart Brothers. And why wouldn’t you come out early? These guys are easy to like and are even easier on the eyes. I had two girls behind me that waited about half a song before screaming out “You’re cute!” But out of the three, Micky is the one that loves the camera so I had fun taking photos of him.

Micky up close

Micky on bass

Micky on guitar

I don’t think anyone there wasn’t won over by the end of the set. I did have a chance to listen to the (lo-fi) cd that I had bought when I saw them at ArtWalk so I was pretty familiar with about half of the songs that they did. My favorite was the set ending “Heaven’s Gate”. Oh and in a genius moment, they burned a ton of cds for the show with more songs than the original one I bought. So yeah, I bought another cd because I am a sucker like that.

Check out all the photos here.

FHT Venue Change

 Rawk Shows   

Still waiting for official info - but word on the street is that the venue has been changed for the SD Foxboro Hot Tubs show. It will be at the Belly Up instead. Kinda weird I though since that means the show won’t be all ages. But whatevs.

P.S. I took a ton of pictures at the Casbah last night. (Mostly of the Smart Brothers because my battery died during Langhorne Slim. ) I’ll post them later tonight - I didn’t do my usual marathon interweb session when I got home since I’ve been going non-stop since Sat and this old lady is tired.