the fyrehaus

This is just a brief concert recap, go check out the pics!

As I twittered at the concert, New Tomorrow was surprisingly hardcore and awesome. I really enjoyed their show and look forward to great things from them. Since they’re from San Luis Obispo, they had extra energy and a really enthusiastic crowd, but I still sense they’re a band to keep an eye on.

Warship, hmm. Warship just lacks direction, maybe? They certainly have heart, but their songs weren’t very cohesive.

Leathermouth was definitely the band with the most cathartic performance. The lack of barrier let Frank really interact with the audience. At more than one point he was completely over the edge of the stage, supported only by the audience. Danny from New Tomorrow ended up on stage with him, it was kinda epic. If I hadn’t seen Frank in concert at Maxwell’s, with MCR, I’d think he was born to do this, to sing and scream and be the perfect punk scene queen. This could easily have been his life and he would have loved every second of it, the precocious fucker.

MC Chris is hysterical, but if you’ve seen his schtick once you don’t really need to see it again. It’s great schtick, though! I need a copy of “OnStar (To Find the Clit)” STAT. He has great banter, great rapport with the crowd. An aging white dude rapper has to be either terrible or amazing, so I think that makes Chris amazing.

When Reggie and the Full Effect take the stage it becomes obvious why MC Chris, as a solo act, is the last opener. I hadn’t fully realized that the Full Effect would be synonymous with Random Artists From The Opening Bands. My bad? The first thing Rich does is almost fall off the stage, and I’m still impressed at the way he played, bleeding and hurt and probably with a concussion.

James Dewees is just - I love him and his self-aware punk aesthetic SO MUCH. He hearts Miley in the way I heart Miley - ironically and with a bit of envy. I’m not sure if he also loves her in the non-ironically way I do, at times, but I suspect he does.

James played himself out, literally. He performed as Reggie, as James, as Common Denominator, as Fluxuation; he named dropped The Get Up Kids and their potential new album. The moment poignant moment of split personality came, though, when he was talking about this potentially being Reggie and the Full Effect’s last tour since, “[he's] a busy dude!” - and in response Rich started playing the opening notes of “Dead!” I don’t think there’s much doubt, at this point, the direction James is heading in, but as a potential farewell tour to his various solo-ish efforts, this was brilliant and visceral and as punk as it gets.

I love the Ting Tings. I don’t have anything critical about them to say. I just had a really excellent time listening to “That’s Not My Name” on the way to work today.

Sarah and I have been punting around ideas for improvements on the Haus, and the improvement I’m going with today is to create a Fyrehaus twitter and embed it on the site. I kinda love twitter for those slice-of-life, on-the-go moments when I’m deeply in love with some piece of music and just want to share that love.

Head on over and follow us there or look for the updates in the sidebar.

In which I vow to never set foot in Webster Hall again. And this time I mean it.

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1. There is a new, full-length Franz Ferdinand track. Bitch. Yeah.  You can listen here and it’s just as awesome as you think it would be, the kind of poppy, old-school Franz song that is going to be ridiculous fun to dance to at concerts. (Thanks to Jess for the tip.)

2. New Lily Allen! Someone ripped her new track, “Fuck You Very Much”, which is sweet and poppy and angry, like we love her, and slapped it up on the yubes. (via ONTD)

2a. Apparently Lily has a feud amping up with Katy Perry. This is MAGNIFICENT. It should end with Lily kicking the everloving hell out of Katy Perry.

3. October is going to suck. How is it possible that there are four shows I want to see on October 11th? (Panic in San Jose, Cobra Starship in New York, Tragedy in New York, and something else.) Plus Beck + MGMT the day before, which I couldn’t get tickets for anyway. (Look at me being a big girl and not complaining that my favorite artist since pubescence is playing 7 blocks from my house and I can’t go.) And how is it possible that Panic at the Disco is playing Bridgeport the same night that Gym Class is playing NYC. Aren’t they on the same label? Did it not occur to them that they might have overlapping fanbases? Bridgeport’s easy to get to from the city, and tickets for it went on sale a week before Gym Class dates were announced. Feh.

4. Much coming. I need to pimp Tragedy to you (heavy metal Bee Gees cover band!!) and post my recap of last week’s Bloc Party show (summary: Webster Hall sux).

And by Best I mean Best Video That Re-Credits ABBA for Madonna’s Stolen Riffs While Showcasing One-Name Female Vocalists.

Last night The Hush Sound rocked the house down at the El Rey. All the photos are up over on my flickr. Greta is peachy keen and made of fabulous, as she proves in the above photo.

Everyone’s favorite baby band from Vegas, The Cab, opened last. Their smaller - but no less important! - set is over here. Here’s a taste tests:

This band’s name, Say When, is built for puns, so I’ll stop before I start.

Did I mention that at Warped in Pomona it was 107 degrees in the shade? And that there was no shade? I ran through $20 of water before I’d could even blink.

The dudes from Say When politely asked me to listen to one of their songs. I indulged them, thinking I’d just be polite, listen for a minute, then wander off, but I was surprisingly impressed and drawn in by their music. I swapped them five bucks - my last five bucks - for a computer burned cd and a can of water and the trade was more than worth it. Sadly, the cd was lost in the detritus of stuff dumped out of my camera bag. Happily, I uncovered it yesterday.

My favorite tracks from the EP are “Deception” and “Under the Gun.” If you head over to their Myspace page you can listen to “Deception.” Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find “Under the Gun” anywhere online.

The boys in the band are taking the month of August off - and look at their touring schedule! They deserve it! - but if you’re in the Boston area they’re playing a show on the 9th of August, opening for Jimmy’s Chicken Shack.

I finally saw Mamma Mia! last Friday with my friend Annie. I’m, what, five queer years late to the Grecian isle?

I remember back in, um, 1999, 2000? when the musical first came together - Elisabeth ushered for it out in Chicago one summer. It’s not that I was too good to see an ABBA musical, especially after it took up residency at the Winter Garden - I am SO not too good to see an ABBA musical, people, remember how the theme of this blog is LOVING MUSIC in all its varied forms? - it’s that I never got around to it. This is where we remember that I gravitate towards things with more pathos than I thought a cheery pop musical would have.

Well, my pathos craving was certainly quenched by Meryl’s rendition of “The Winner Takes It All,” and the movie itself was pure campy fun - stick around for the credits! - but I’m not here to talk about that. (But dear god, go and listen. Stunning. Even better, watch a movie clip inserted into the full song. )

No, what I’m here to talk about is “Super Trouper.” I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since Friday! I’ve been mainlining ABBA videos on youtube like a fiend yet somehow I keep going back to Souper Trouper. It’s something about how each member of ABBA is so perfectly him or herself in this video. Benny is genial and looks just a bit like he’s high. Bjorn is smiley but hidden (or absent) behind his eyes. Agnetha really rocks he blue eye shadow as she tries to emote and Frida, oh Frida. She could cut glass with her smile and I can’t take my eyes off of her.

As a note, this video got me thinking again about starting a weekly music video analysis post. Oh, music videos. I am addicted to the evolution of your artistry and narrative function.

Pop quiz! What’s the most notable line change between the song and the adaptation?

Have convinced my friend Dee to help sort out the nonsense with the content from before the move. My admin knowledge does not extend to sql, sorry!

Look for the aging blog posts soon! I’ve hand moved some stuff over but, c’mon. That’s just inelegant.