Jamie’s Brain

You can tell a little tale of your life by figuring out what the most influential band was to you each year of your life.

first song I remember hearing : I Love Rock ‘n Roll, Joan Jett

1985 : Cyndi Lauper
1986 : Madonna
1987 : Michael Jackson
1988 : Paula Abdul
1989 : MC Hammer
1990 : Guns ‘n Roses
1991 : Metallica
1992 : Pearl Jam
1993 : Nirvana
1994 : Nine Inch Nails
1995 : Alice in Chains
1996 : Korn
1997 : Rage Against the Machine
1998 : Limp Bizkit (hey, I’m being honest here…)
1999 : Nine Inch Nails
2000 : A Perfect Circle
2001 : Radiohead
2002 : Eminem
2003 : Outkast
2004 : Audioslave
2005 : Gorillaz/Nine Inch Nails
2006 : She Wants Revenge (so far)

It was much easier to pick the older ones than the newer ones - could be that I branched out into more music, or perhaps time has given me more perspective. Or, I just forgot…

A lot of the bands were picked because that was what I remember dancing to most. And by that I mean dance classes and, later on, dance clubs, too. Looking at it you can see I was heavily swept into the grunge movement, but after that, it was all piece by piece. And, realistically, while I have been into many ‘under the radar’ bands, the ones that have been the most influential to me have also been pretty popular. I love new music, but I hate it when people get wrapped up in this ‘I know the most obscure band’ thing. Please, get real.

shoreline amphitheater, july 8th 2006

yeah, i’m in the fan club, so i get 7th row tix. *gloat*

it’s still light when peaches comes on, and there is something not right about that. she plays mostly new stuff, and considering her album wasn’t coming out for a few more days, it was hard to jam along. but i dug it. she is such a fun performer to watch, and i really get a kick watching my manfriend be the only straight guy pumping his fist at her. it was a much tamer show than the first time i saw her. but, again, it was light outside.

then came bauhaus. while i am wallowing in a cloud of awe, donnie elbows me to point out that Peter Murphy had a tag hanging from the armpit of his shirt. This being their last show…not only of the tour but maybe their like last last show ever….I thought it might be some kind of practical joke that bands do sometimes. But they’re not that kind of band. Then I start thinking about this stage manager getting fired after the show and why isn’t somebody coming and yanking the damn tag off. I am distracted by this for a good 20 minutes. Peter Murphy….strut….strut….tag blowing in the wind. I get over it when I hear She’s In Parties. They were really fun to watch.

Then NIN. What can I say that I haven’t already? It was awesome, even in seats. I was a bit buzzy, so my memory is fuzzy. They played Dead Souls, which was hella cool. That damn metal curtain came down for too long again. I couldn’t see Jeordie well enough. And as usual, no encore. But you could tell they were all so amped up for this last show. It was a really great experience knowing that everyone up close deserved to be there - it was all fanclub. And that rocks more than anything.

link to flickr photos

every move a picture was the band that I missed at this year’s BFD, due to long food lines and a hungry belly. So when I saw that they were playing at The Great American Music Hall, a venue I hadn’t checked out yet, and it only cost $13, I was floored. Even better, I checked out The Rakes and they seemed like a fun live band. And it was easy convincing my ‘partner in music’ Eryn to come along.

every move a picture is a San Francisco band that has a Cinderella story of a background. Still pretty much working normal jobs and living normal lives, they are right at tipping point. Catchy dance tunes, well written lyrics, and a lead singer that is very easy on the eyes makes me feel like they will be seeing a lot of success.

The Great American Music Hall is a fun venue (thoughm in the middle of the ghetto); it has great sound, and this fun side bar - the fast bar - where you can get a shot and a beer. Jameson and Pabst, couldn’t get better than that!

This was one of those magical timing shows where we found a parking spot right out front, got in the door, got our beer and shot, and EMAP goes on. Just like clockwork. So you can see very well from just about anywhere in this venue. That is until, attack of the psycho hipsters, who seem to travel in boyfriend, girlfriend, + third wheel packs, who stand right in front of you and dance so that they try to knock you out with their elbows. When did hipster become synonymous with asshole?

So EMAP was great, I will definitely see them again…The Rakes, sure, they were fun but I found the music to be a bit less ‘moving’.

yay for music festivals!

and this one was quite good, though most people would probably punch my friend eryn and i if they knew that we left before the 2 main acts - the ho-hum Strokes and the mildly annoying AFI.

Honestly, I paid $65 to see She Wants Revenge, and they sure did deliver. Give me more material, a solo show, and more Justin and Adam and I will be one happy little girl. Justin and his poses are priceless.

I was happily suprised by The Sounds - that swedish chick can croon and she does some interesting things on the stage. Of course, not as interesting as Karen of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs…though the sound left a lot to be desired as did the small amount of space I was forced to survive in during the set due to twig like high school girls and their much too old and dirty boyfriends. Echo and the Bunnymen were cool to see, but not super impressive. Excessively long sausage lines caused us to miss Every Move a Picture. But Franz Ferdinand walked past us while we were waiting for our brats, complete with their little screaming fans waiting for them at the backstage gate.

BFD, while delivering on its name, is also a great f’ing deal. We left happy, tired, and ready for next year’s.

so let me start out by saying that my man and i used to hate lady sovereign. after stumbling in to club six one night and finding her waddling around on the stage, with her side pony tail and wretched sound, we couldn’t stop making fun of her. this was back in december.

a few months go by, and i’m looking at the coachella lineup, and there i see, lady sovereign again. and i’m like, what is this chick doing? how is she coachella worthy. so i go to itunes, download her top song, and decide i’ll actually give her a second chance. i planned on joking about it with donnie, but the i found ‘random’ to be quite catchy and bootyshakeable.

we ended up not going to coachella, but then end of may rolls around, and we see that the streets is coming to town, which donnie loves and i like a lot. so, we decide to go, and check into it and see that, you guessed it, lady sovereign is the opening act. donnie is amused and i am a little excited, because, what the hell, that one song is kinda fun.

so we go to the fillmore, which i may suggest it should be renamed the fillymore for the sheer amount of underage people up in there. the crowd i always find to be an odd mix of young abercrombians and pseudohipsters + some real hipsters + some surviving hippie relics + grandma/grandpas that are searching for the fountain of youth.

so lady sov comes out and the show rocks. she is really funny and makes these contorted faces so that you realize she is this strange hybrid of talented young rapper + white chick that doesn’t take herself too seriously + proper bird with a darling accent. and her dj is off that hook.

the comes the streets. he dons just the right amount of bling, a kick ass pair of sunglasses, and a bottle of bourbon and grey goose. unfortunately his sidekick has become increasingly annoying, i can’t find his name, but he really gets in the way. so mike skinner gets really attached to this one fan in the front, who i can’t see but must be wearing something really interesting because i heard skinner say the word lycra. on several instances he pours him large amounts of bourbon, and also pours some grey goose down a few girls throats. donnie knows every word to every song and and i still can’t understand why they also call that english. so, skinner keeps looking up at the balcony and saying that he’s going to jump off of it. and, after the encore, he indeed does - into the crowd of malnutritioned high school students. ah, the power of bourbon. but they miraculously catch him.

as we exit we get our first official fillmore free poster, though we’ve been here before. donnie gets a pink streets shirt with palm trees on it. we walk away happy.

but not quite as happy as i am when i go to write this and find this little gem - i remember her making a comment about this at the show, but i had no idea what she was talking about. what a guy.

While I was in Texas for my back to back weddings of high school friends, I popped over to San Antonio to catch a Nine Inch Nails show. I even got to take my friend that was getting married the following weekend, as a little pre party. Since I’m a nerdy fan club member, I got a special entrance and cool looking tickets.

We got up really close, though the venue was pretty huge. We were second row, stage left in front of the guitar player, Aaron North, which rocked. I heart guitarists!

Trent shaved his head, which was a bit shocking to me. I think it was a result of his feelings about Katrina destroying his adopted hometown, but what do I know. It was, of course, a kick ass show. My only complaint was that about halfway through they dropped this sheerish curtain in front and projected images onto it for a few songs. Now, It might have been a cool effect for people in seats in the back, it was mildly annoying for us up close. It just got in the way. I don’t want my NIN shrouded by anything.

I lose my voice and my ears at NIN shows. This happens when you know the words to every song. But it is like a therapy session to me. I plan on trying to go to the Oakland show that was rescheduled, but now that I have a job…who knows. I was going to try to go early to do a possible soundcheck/meet & greet thing that is a fan club member priviledge at some shows. Though I think if I met Trent I might pass out. And that would not be cool.

From the NIN fanclub website

The entire experience from start to finish of going to see Weezer and the Foo Fighters was entirely unique. And that says a lot considering how many shows I’ve been to.

First of all, it was the first concert that I refused to buy tickets in advance for due to the crazy ticketmaster fees and thinking that with the size of the venue and amount of tickets being scalped on craigslist it wouldn’t be too hard to get our hands on tickets the night of. Well, we wanted GA tickets and ended up getting seats because a scalper told us that the numbers on the tickets were floor seats and he lied. Like scalpers have a conscience, but what an ass.

So the seats weren’t terrible, but we were a little bummed. But when Weezer came on playing My Name is Jonas it was all forgiven. I listened to the Blue Album so much in my ‘formative’ years and it had so much of an affect on my life, it was just too cool to see them live. Plus, they are the only band I know of that wrote a love song for a ‘Jamie’, so that holds a special place in my heart. Rivers Cuomo informed us that this was the last show of the tour, so that was why it was a little different. He commented that he doesn’t know when or if they’ll ever tour together again, which gave the set so much more meaning.

So, knowing a little about Dave Grohl, I know that he is a big prankster. Well, during the Weezer encore, Rivers came to a mini stage at the back of the GA area and played an acoustic version of Island in the Sun…che bella. And as he started to play, this partially dressed chick gets up on the platform with him and starts gogo dancing behind him as he plays. It was too funny. But it proceeded to get funnier as Weezer pulled a guy out of the audience who said he could play Undone..The Sweater Song on stage with them. I was all agasp at first thinking this must be the most awesome moment ever for that kid, but then realized that he was wearing a hoodie all mysterious-like, and then at the end when he smashed his guitar it was apparent as he revealed that it was Dave Grohl. But the biggest laugh I’ve had at a concert up to this point ever happened during the last song they played, Buddy Holly. As they played six beefcake guys came out on the platform on the stage and proceeded to strip during the song. They had W-E-E-Z-E-R painted on their chests. And they stripped down to fringed g-strings. That was two strippers in slightly over one week for Jamie (the other was my friend Jen’s bachelorette party - but you’ll have to email me for those pictures). Dave Grohl - A++ for pranks on Weezer.

The Foo set was great, though it didn’t have as much of an effect on me as the Weezer set. I like Dave Grohl due to his previous membership in Nirvana, and was thrilled that he played the drums for one song. But his voice is a true wailer. I was astounded to get rock ear from seats towards the back. The songs sound much more hard core live than recorded, which isn’t bad, but it was giving me a headache. I think I’m officially getting old.

After the show, we had an interesting train experience as thousands of people getting out of the stadium to catch the train at one time is a little scary. The train back to the city had people passed out on the floor and all. Now that’s tired if you’re willing to sleep on the floor of the train.

My first visit to The Fillmore was to see LCD Soundsystem rock the house. A word about my first impression of The Fillmore, what popped into my head was ‘channeled energy’. To think of all of the amazing people who have played there, to see their beautiful pictures on the wall, just made the place feel different. The barrell of famous apples up front and the relatively inexpensive drink prices compared to other venues here also made me fall in love.

LCD was great, too. The screen behind them was a live video feed with special effects added, which I thought was kinda new and different. I was also suprised that they sounded as good there as they do recorded, which is sometimes a problem with electronic bands. The singer is also very non-typical, as in he doesn’t look like you’d expect him to look for some reason. It was fun.

I used to claim that I threw good parties. But now I must retract that statement, because this guy, Warren Hellman, takes the cake. Apparently he like to throw this yearly festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. To see the performers normally would set you back $100 or so for this three day fest, but he likes to do it for free, since he’s a philanthopist and all.

I only went on Sunday, and I went alone, because I’m new here and all and don’t yet have an established social circle. But it made for an interesting experience, as I got to do a lot of people watching and eavesdropping.

I caught the end of The Austin Lounge Lizards set, since they’re from my former home. Then I went and watched Ricky Skaggs, who played a really awesome set. Then I caught some of Ralph Stanley before I ran to see the real reason that I was there - the one, the only, Dolly Parton.

Unfortunately, I was not alone in this effort. This stage was particularly full - not only in the long narrow field in front of it, but across the street and perched up on an adjacent hill - basically anywhere where one could catch a glimpse of Dolly, there were lots of people. This meant that I could barely see or hear her, just a little sparkle of her blue and white sequins and that bleached blonde hair. She started with ‘9 to 5′ and then ‘Joleen’, and then ‘Crimson and Clover’. Then the sound got worse and the crowd around me started yelling ‘turn it up’, but it never was. Someone behind me started yelling “Dolly, I can’t see you!!!! Dolly, I can’t hear you!!!”. Yet another person had a cardboard full size cutout of her that he was holding above his head. It was really something else.

Besides the sound issue, the event was pretty well produced. There were lots of food options, from the usual fair fare to organic meals. There were some hippies offering ‘vegan energy balls, ganja free’ to walkersby. People generally seemed to be having a great time and there was lots of dancing and hand clapping. I will definitely return next year.

The Audioslave show that I went to Sunday night will rank up there with one of the top shows I’ve ever seen. It was like a good, old-fashioned rock show: it wasn’t overproduced, there were excited fans who knew all the words, there were several instances of tit-bearing, and the set was long and satisfying.

Seether was playing when I arrived. It was a great set even though I was only familiar with their bigger hits.

After a pretty long wait between sets, Audioslave began their set with a curtain drop (another thing you don’t see anymore). It was great and dramatic, and I felt that rush of starstruck-ness that I only get with some musicians.

They started with some new material, then went on to some of their last album’s work. Then the cover artwork for Badmotorfinger dropped in the background and they played Rusty Cage, which I’ll call Highlight Number 1. Next was Spoonman. Then I was pleasantly suprised when they pulled out Hunger Strike, which Cornell sang with Brad Wilk (the drummer). It felt really raw, slightly rehearsed, like Wilk didn’t exactly know how to sing it….but I didn’t mind. This brings up Highlight Number 2: part of the performance seemed like it was in response to the crowd’s boiling over with excitment - Morello would sometimes approach Cornell as if saying, “they’re really into this - let’s give them a suprise”.

When it was time to lay down some Rage material, Cornell left the stage momentarily, which I thought was a little odd. If the former Rage members can play Soundgarden, then how come he can’t sing Zach De La Rocha’s part? He did come back, and did a good job - though you could tell Cornell had to hold back a little with the vocals. The crowd was going nuts and security was pulling out potential moshers right and left.

Then they went back to more Audioslave material. During some of the slower songs, girls got on shoulders and bared their souls to Chris, who would promptly come over for a closer look. Highlight Number Three.

At the end of the set, which was one hour, the crowd was so into getting them out for an encore that it was deafening. After a couple of minutes, Cornell came out with his acoustic and played an amazing acoustic set including Black Hole Sun and some of his songs from his solo release. The other members came out to finish off Change: Highlight Number Four.

They played some more Rage, and some more of their own content. The encore lasted a full hour, making it definitlet Highlight Number five It was absolutely amazing.

Chris Cornell sang his heart out to us. His voice is so amazing it made me have chills in the hot Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Tom Morello’s amazing guitar skills and energetic performance was so exciting to witness (last time I saw him with Rage, I couldn’t really see much). Tim Commerford makes me want to play bass, and Brad Wilk’s beats left my bones vibrating well after the show had ended.

They are a phenomenal performing band. Cornell looks around the audience like he actually sees the faces and sings to them. They seem like they are truly excited to be there. I know I was. Highlight Number Six.