25.06.07 -- Owen and The City on Film @ Arena Wien

After spending time in multiple bands that helped shape the American indie rock scene, Mike Kinsella (Owen - above top) and Bob Nanna (The City on Film) find themselves now touring with nothing save an acoustic guitar (and a loop pedal in the case of Nanna). This summer the two set out on a tour of Europe, and this past Monday I caught their performance at the Arena here in Vienna.

The night began a bit early as the venue's website claimed that doors were at 7pm with an 8pm start time, so I got there around 7:15ish. Instead the show actually began around 9:30. So for a while I sat outside and watched as Mike and Bob attempted to knock a can off a fence with a ball. It took upwards of 50 throws (probably closer to 75) but finally a toss by Bob hit the can. After the show he told me it was one of his most rewarding moments then quickly relived it in his mind.

After being forced inside by a thunderstorm, the show began. The City on Film started things off and offered a set of new songs as well as songs from Nanna's previous bands (Braid and Hey Mercedes) which sounded surprisingly good acoustic. In between songs there were some entertaining sound clip loops and Bob frequently shouted "oww/whoo" (or some variation thereof). On the whole it was an enjoyable set. The set list looked something like this:

Never Will Come For Us
Fahren
Stay Six
Secret
Come on Eileen
For Holly
Short Song**
How a Helicopter Sounds
A Dozen Roses
I'd Rather be Wine Drunk

**This short song is one of many that Nanna has recorded for threadless.com, which will be releasing a collection of about 100 songs by Nanna sometime soon.

After a short pause Owen took the stage and got things going. I saw Owen last April in Chicago (his hometown) and this show was very much different from that experience. Mike still tried to talk to the crowd between songs, but the crowd wasn't very cooperative. I brought up a few things such as Fall Out Boy's "Infinity on High" (he informed us that "those guys are super rich") and covering Metallica (unlike in Chicago, he passed this time). Finally, Mike said that when he gets home he'd have nothing to remember Vienna by, so one concertgoer asked if he'd like a beer thrown at him. He told her to go for it, but nothing happened. Oh well.

A highlight of the set was a bit of tuning during "Bad News." After stopping mid-song a couple times to adjust the tuning (something which happens frequently at Owen songs -- it never ceases to amaze me how he just picks back up), a crafty lyric change was made to make light of the situation. "Whoever you think is watching you tune (normally 'dance') from across the room, they aren't / If anything they feel sorry for you cause you try so hard." I guess the word "tune" was lost on the Austrians though, as Siegel and I were the only ones who laughed.

Despite the lack of the usual banter of an Owen show, the performance itself was still really good. He played a pretty wide variety of songs (although not "A Fever Analog" -- my request received the answer of "I'd have to figure that one out again... and I don't think you all want to see that.") The set list was as follows:

Breaking Away
Playing Possum for a Peek
Sad Waltzes of Pietro Crespi
Good Deeds
New Song
Bag of Bones
New Song (possibly just a new intro to Bad News)
Bad News
She's a Thief
A Bird in Hand

Afterward Siegel and I were invited to hang around, so we chatted with Mike, Bob and their better halves (if you will) for a while. A great show and definitely a highly memorable night for yours truly.

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15 June 2007 -- The Horrors @ Triple Rock Social Club (Minneapolis)

(all photos by yours truly, KD)

After punch-ups in NYC and sizable fame in the UK, the Horrors scrapped their May plans of opening for a BRMC tour and are finally doing a proper headlining tour of the U.S. The tail end, luckily, included a stop in humble Minneapolis, at the Triple Rock Club.

School Yard Heroes (above and right), the touring opener, began the night off right and pleasantly surprised all those in the audience who had never heard of them (and equally satisfied a surprising number of their own fans who had come just to see them). After talking to the guy at the merch booth and hearing a little about them (they're from Seattle, have been together about 5 years, have a really unique sound and live show), I was pumped to check them out. And they definitely did not disappoint! Reminded me a lot of Dandi Wind with the kick-ass front woman and electro-ish sound, but were far more rock-oriented than the Canadian trio. The bassist and guitarist both had HUGE hair which was sweet, and the singer was energetic, intense, pretty, and rather dark-sounding. She had the cutest dress on as well as high top converse!

And of course -- the Horrors!! What can I say, these guys are a vision. Arriving at the club, I walked in right as Faris (lead vox) was walking in carrying something that looked kinda like a toolbox / caboodle, so I held the door for him, said hi, and then he tries to just walk in past the bouncer. But the bouncer stops him -- only after pointing to the top of the guestlist (where "THE HORRORS" was written in permanent marker) was he admitted to the club.

Before the band took the stage, the first thing I noticed were the two rather gorgeous Fender Jaguars which were situated right in front of me. I'm not sure I even saw the band come out, but all of a sudden, there they were ... Faris Badwan, Tomethy Furse, Joshua Third, Coffin Joe, and Spider Webb combined to form a well-groomed mess of vests, belts, dress shirts and shoes, skinny jeans, eyeliner, and - oh - the hair! All items of course being in black with a white accent here and there for drama: Faris' shirt, Joshua's blonde shock, a belt, shoes, etc. The band chose to open with a cover of Joy Division's "No Love Lost." I'm not sure why you would open with a song other than your own, but hey, they call the shots. And that's fine with me because after that, they launched into one of their strongest songs, "Count in Fives." What's funny is that the only two band members with a significant stage presence were Faris and Spider Webb (keyboard and vocals). I had expected lead guitarist, Joshua (above right), to command an bit more attention that he did, what with that hair and all. But mostly, he looked at his feet the entire show. Can you blame him? If I were wearing these shoes, I would probably be admiring them the whole time as well.

The show got more and more intense as the set continued, Faris pacing in circles like a dog on the stage, yowling into the mic, hair perpetually in his face, invading the crowd, perching on a speaker and yelling right into people's faced, then coming down only to sing half the song while stalking about the audience, pushing and shoving amongst the fans, the fans shoving back just as hard. With the vocalist wandering off many times, Spider Webb managed the stage in his absence, providing haunting backing vocals, and eerie organ-sounding musical accompaniment, and dramatic effect via eyeliner! Overall, it was a beyond-entertaining gig with very excellent music; and the set actually seemed longer than would be required by a mere 10 songs! (However, I'm convinced they played an unreleased song in between "Sheena Is a Parasite" and "Gloves.") Here is what the setlist looked like:

















Closing with "Gloves" was absolute genius because not only is it my favourite song of theirs, but also provides a good climax to the set and allows the band to leave the stage with a powerful finish. During this song, Faris spent the whole time singing from different places in the audience before disappearing to grab a clock off a wall (from somewhere in the bar) and fitting it down the front of his shirt which allowed him to strike himself in the chest with the mic. Finally, at the end of the song, he is at the back of the bar (and yes, his mic still has a cord swinging from it) and approaches the glowing, brightly-colored pinball machine and, instead of singing the words to the song, yells for someone to get him a quarter! Anybody get me a quarter for the pinball game! He then gets up on one of the counters at which patrons are sitting, stomps about for a while before leaping onto the top of one of the other games in the bar (I am directly under the mic cord at this time and its swinging rather invades my head-space!). The band finish the song with Faris singing the lines, "I've gotta go / I've gotta get out of here /I've gotta go." And then, all of a sudden, the band are gone as quickly and mysteriously as they had arrived.

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Ted Leo @ Chelsea (06.10.07) -- The Hoodie Saga Comes to its End

The beginning of this tale can be found in Joe's post from May 24th in which he gives a full summary of the events leading up to what took place in Vienna on June 10. However, there are a few other details that must be provided before describing that evening.

Mid-April 2007
MINDsetters Siegel and myself find out that we will be studying in Vienna for six weeks of the summer. Immediately we begin researching the music scene in Vienna. While doing so we discover that Ted Leo will be playing somewhere in Vienna while we are there.

April 30, 2007
While working in the Riley lab to put together the next print issue of MINDset (due out next fall -- no thanks to Kinkos), I get the full story about the Ted Leo show and the hoodie saga from kd. Knowing that I will be seeing Ted in Vienna in a few short weeks I make a mental note to bring my hoodie -- just in case.

June 10, 2007 -- 8:00pm
The day of the show. Despite the fact that it is a balmy 80+ degrees outside, I head out the door in my hoodie. I get a puzzled remark from our mate Dillon who is going with us, and I cast a knowing smirk in reply.

10:00pm
The evening begins with The Flesh from New York city. Here's a photo:


I had not heard of this band before, and neither had anybody else at the club as far as I could tell, but I was impressed by them. The rhythm section was really solid, particularly the bass parts. The thing that struck me the most about the band was the bassist's shoes though:

Yeah, i want me some of those. So after a solid 30 minute set the Flesh wraps up and I begin making my move to try and get Ted a hoodie.

10:45pm
John, Dillon and I make our way to the front of the stage where I position myself right in front of Ted's mic. I take off the hoodie, fold it just right so that WVFI is in plain view, and then put it right on top of the monitor that Ted will be using. Next Ted comes up to the stage and starts setting up pedals and whatnot and after a double take he says, "Alright, whose VFI hoodie?" I guiltily raise my hand and immediately receive a hi-five. He tells us that he's wanted one of the hoodies for a long time, so I tell him it's his provided he can fit into a small. "Seriously?!" he says. I toss it to him, and he immediately goes to show Dave (bass) and Chris (drums). He then comes back and we chat a bit. I offer him a few German tips for the evening and he tells us to find him after the show to chat.

11:00pm
The band is ready and the crowd is anxious for them to start. However, their sound guy is mysteriously missing and none of the vocal mics are on. So the band launches into the beginning of "Spirit of Radio" by Rush. Needless to say, I'm impressed. Then the sound guy appears and the set begins. Not having anything to take notes on I don't really remember what the full setlist was but some highlights include:
Little Dawn -- I counted 187 "it's alright" at the end of the song, although for a little while they launch into a cover of Daft Punk's "One More Time" so my counting may have been a bit off.
Timorous Me -- just a great song
Walking to Do -- personally one of my three favorite Ted Leo songs... it also appeared to be Vienna's favorite Ted Leo song.

After the set ends, the crowd refuses to let the night end. Ted obliges and plays "Bleeding Powers" by himself. And then after that he leaves stage again only to return once more and sing a song a cappella (not sure what it was though).

12:00am
After the show, we head outside and find Ted. We chat for a while about VFI, Notre Dame, and an infamous incident involving a straight razor, Ted's scalp, and an ill-fated haircut during a Men of Stanford pageant. Then before Ted has to depart to pack up we get some quick photos with him in the VFI hoodie. So without further delay here is the man himself in the hoodie (finally!):

"Run DMC style!"

And here a few other photos from the show:

and last but not the least... the WVFI gang "hanging" out in Vienna:


And... that's all folks.

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Even more last.fm fodder for KD on the way?

If NME's website is to be believed (which it isn't!), the next Gallagher Brothers album is set to start recording this summer! But believe me, NME has been all too wrong about this kind of thing in the past...

check it out here, anyway.
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Another Album Stream: Spoon

You can now stream the new Spoon album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, here. The album is the follow-up to 2005's Gimme Fiction.

In other news, Sasha Frere-Jones says it's the best Spoon album yet. At least, I think he did. Where's my copy of the New Yorker?
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New White Stripes Album

Everyone's favorite Detroit-based fake-brother-and-sister rock duo is back with Icky Thump, their sixth studio album. Unfortunately for candy cane children everywhere, it doesn't come out until next week. Until then, you can stream the album from MTV here. The US portion of their current tour begins next month.
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On Sunday, Twin Cities' own Tapes N Tapes played Grand Old Day block party in St. Paul. There were 5 stages or so and about 5-6 bands per stage throughout the afternoon. I have to say that Tapes were the main event and they played a good 75 minute set. Mainly I just enjoyed myself and the people watching without worrying too much about setlists, analysis, etc. Good tunes, good hipsters, decent weather... But I did take some good photos, so please enjoy those!








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