Well boys and girls, it's that magical time of year again. That time in the dead of winter when people start opening their hearts and their wallets, when kids get down on their knees and beg their parents to give them what they want, when parents start freaking out about what exactly it is their kids want... Yes, it's the time when bands announce their spring tours.
This weekend is a great time to buy tickets (Quick! Fall Out Boy tickets have been on sale for over 5 hours!!!!), so I've decided to try to give you the best possible list of acts coming to the DC area over the next 4 months (sorry, rest of the world, I can't do everything...)
Now, coaches always say it's important to stay in shape during the off-season, so I think everyone should take their advice and practice their best moves at the Millionaires concert at Rock n Roll Hotel on Thursday, February 5th. My newest favorite pop act Cash Cash will be opening for the girls, along with I Set My Friends on Fire and Watchout! There's Ghosts. I think this show might actually be considered a comedy performance rather than music; those Millionaires girls are always laughable. And with a name like the Just Got Paid, Let's Get's Laid Tour, you KNOW it's gonna be a party.
[I will spend the night listening to my Cash Cash CD and crying my eyes out because my parents won't let me out on school nights (plus it's called the Just Got Paid, Let's Get's Laid Tour), so if you attend, please try your hardest to meet the guys from Cash Cash and tell them Meredith thinks they're the coolest kids ever and would like to ask for all of their hands in marriage; they can play rock-paper-scissors or whatever to decide who gets her.]
And for those of us who need a winter pick-me-up that's not on a weeknight, Ludo will be at Rock n Roll Hotel on Friday, February 20th. I've never actually bothered to listen to any of their music, but I've heard good things about their set when they toured with Relient K last year.
Another Friday night option is Ben Folds, performing at George Washington University on Friday the 13th of February (a good alternative for those of us who don't think we can stomach Valentine's Day weekend's gooey rom-coms/crazy gory Friday-the-13th slasher flicks). I'm having trouble finding specific ticket info - the show isn't listed on his official site - but I saw it on Eventful...
Ben will also be playing at Ram's Head Live! in Baltimore on the 12th, if there are any hardcore piano rock fans who want to see him twice.
All you hipsters had better mark your calendars for The Ting Tings' show at the 9:30 Club on Friday, March 20th. Or maybe you hipsters will sneer about how you already caught them there in July when they were, like, still cool in an unknown kinda way.
But my friend and I will still be in attendance, hoping to squash the stereotype that no one dances at cool DC indie shows. Because kids who are too cool to dance aren't cool at all.
The real hipsters might be holding out for Cut Copy, coming to the 9:30 Club just 3 days after the Ting Tings (that's Monday, March 23rd, for you non-math whizzes). Matt and Kim will be performing that night as well. Never heard of them before, but their name brings to mind a certain NBC Thursday night sitcom...
After all these indie shows, I'd advise you to take a dip in the mainstream, just to make sure you can remember what Top 40 sounds like. And where better to find mainstream Top 40 pop than at a Britney Spears or Pussycat Dolls concert? You Britney fans are in luck because The Circus Starring Britney Spears 2009 North American Tour is hitting the Verizon Center on Tuesday, March 24th. [I guess the Pussycat Dolls are just a sideshow act?] iLike sent me an email saying tix are still available! (I was tempted to reply with a little WTF??!)
If Britney tix are a bit out of your price range, you could always see new Top 40 dance darling Lady Gaga at 9:30 Club on Thursday, April 2nd. No, wait, actually, you couldn't. Her show's already sold out.
Similarly, if you're going to see Katy Perry at the 9:30 Club on Friday, April 10th, you probably already knew she was coming. Hopefully you did, since all the tickets for that show sold out about 5 seconds after they went on sale. Or at least in the same weekend. 5 seconds, 48 hours, same diff for us soft-core Katy fans.
For those of you hoping for a bit more of a rock show (just a bit), I've said it before and I'll say it again: Craig Owens of Chiodos, Ace Enders, The Color Fred, and VersaEmerge will be at Ottobar in Baltimore on Thursday, April 9th. It's not quite as hot as the Katy tickets, but it's been pretty buzzed-about.
I've also already mentioned NeverShoutNever!'s two upcoming shows, one in West Springfield, VA, the other in Towson. I'd check it out in my previous posts if I were you. [Then I'd wonder if I just used "my" correctly since I said I'd do it if I were you, and they're not your posts...]
I think this Dream Concert Schedule is getting nightmare-ishly long, so I'll close it (for now) with what may be the hottest concert here: the Believers Never Die Part Deux tour, featuring Fall Out Boy, Cobra Starship, Metro Station, and Hey Monday! It'll be taking the Merriweather Post Pavilion by storm on Saturday, April 25th. Since I'm not too fond of FOB, I'm cringing at the $36 ticket price (no cheap-o lawn seats? really?) but it may be worth it to see my fave Gossip Girl fan, Gabe Saporta... or I could just sit in the parking lot hoping he makes good on his kick-it-in-the-parking lot promises in his blog.
Oh, and if you're one of those kids who isn't allowed to go to concerts, don't despair too much... The Jonas Brothers 3D movie (coming at ya February 27th) will give you way better seats than I had when I was on the lawn for their show at the Nissan Pavilion last year :)
Showing posts with label chiodos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chiodos. Show all posts
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
DsCene & Heard: Hellogoodbye, Ace Enders, NeverShoutNever!, & PlayRadioPlay! at Sonar
Okay, be honest: is the DsCene & Heard title the lamest thing ever? It sounded so much cooler in my head...
Anyways, a few months ago, I saw Hellogoodbye, Ace Enders, NeverShoutNever!, and PlayRadioPlay! at Sonar, this little club in Baltimore, and wrote a review of it for my guitar class. Reviewing it was really fun, so rather than just writing a crappy little list of who performed & how they sounded, I tried to make the review good. And I wanted my review to be read by more people than just my guitar teacher, so I thought I'd post it here [more people than just my guitar teacher will read this, right?]
On November 7, 2008, I saw Hellogoodbye, Ace Enders, NeverShoutNever, and PlayRadioPlay perform live at Sonar in Baltimore. The show had a diverse group of performers and was overall the most enjoyable live performance I have ever seen.
NeverShoutNever, alias Christopher Ingle, performed first. Ingle’s acoustic pop songs were very pleasant to listen to and told heartwarming stories of love, insecurity, and growing up in a small town. Ingle sang and played tambourine accompanied by a man on acoustic guitar. NeverShoutNever was a huge crowd pleaser. Ingle said we were “the best crowd ever” which may have been true, considering that he is a newcomer to the music scene and already caused hoards of girls in the crowd to scream “I love you!” at the end of each song. The audio quality was not world-class, but Ingle demonstrated an impressive vocal range and the set overall was, like its lovable performer, absolutely adorable.
The next act, PlayRadioPlay, bore a freakishly similar name to NeverShoutNever but had virtually nothing else in common. PlayRadioPlay, alias Dan Hunter, performed electropop music that was as different from NeverShoutNever’s sunny acoustic pop as day and night. Like Ingle before him and Hellogoodbye after him, Hunter seemed like a bit of a geek; unlike the other acts, he seemed cold and emotionally distant from the crowd. He thrashed around with a variety of good-looking guitars, apparently oblivious to how silly he looked. His singing was virtually inaudible, even though he bent over the microphone like some sort of monster poised to devour the mic and the audience after it. Hunter was accompanied by a drummer and keyboardist, neither of whom ever addressed the crowd; Hunter barely said a word to the audience either. His audio quality was extremely poor, and all of his songs suffered from a lack of a discernible melody. Most of the crowd clearly disliked the set; my favorite part of it was watching people move away to the bar and merchandise tables so I could take their spots closer to the stage. It was evident that even among this group of geeky pop bands, Hunter was an outcast. The show would have flowed better without him.
The concert regained its momentum with the next act, Ace Enders and a Million Different People. Enders’ rock music was the most mainstream music of the night, but it just as well-received as Ingle’s and Hellogoodbye’s more eclectic tunes. Enders sang and played guitar on some songs, accompanied by a bassist, guitarist, and drummer. The four were very popular with the crowd, many of whom appeared to be personal friends of Enders and his bassist. Enders played faster, louder versions of the songs on his EP “The Secret Wars”. Their songs were fun and catchy, prompting jumping, moshing, and even some uncoordinated attempts at break dancing and crowd surfing in the audience. Bassist Sergio Anello got into it as well, jumping around, making funny faces for the crowd, and trying to climb up the wall. Enders’ set was probably the most fun live performance I have ever seen.
It seems necessary to mention that Sonar is a very small club, and the crowd was very tightly packed. The heat by this point in the show verged on unbearable, causing Enders and Anello to sweat visibly. One girl in the audience even fainted from the heat. The bar offered free glasses of ice water, but few audience members dared venture away from their spots near the stage. Although it was easy to forget the heat and smell during the sets, the waiting periods between sets were awful.
Nearly three hours after the show began, Hellogoodbye performed. Lead singer Forrest Kline was sick, so his vocals were fairly awful, but that only added to the fun, unique feeling of the show. Kline had to sing one song entirely in falsetto, which was absolutely hilarious. He talked to the crowd, commiserating with another girl who was sick and inviting another girl to freestyle rap on stage. The other band members mostly stayed silent, except for guitarist Ryan Daly, who inexplicably and repeatedly told the crowd that his father pronounces Baltimore like “Baltee-more.” The crowd’s love was mostly aimed at Kline, the only member who has stayed with the band since its creation in 2001. Hellogoodbye’s audio quality was not great, and they only played two songs from their upcoming album, but Kline’s magnetic personality more than made up for their less than perfect musical performance.
The night ended with a truly grand finale in which Kline invited Ingle and Enders to help him sing Hellogoodbye’s most popular song, “Here (In Your Arms).” Hunter did not join them; he has been known to perform additional acoustic shows after his sets. Enders was at the merchandise table when the song began, and he crowd surfed the length of the club to reach the stage. The song was fairly chaotic; Enders repeatedly forgot the words and had to be reminded by Kline, and fans jumped on stage to join the performers. Still, the song exemplified the show: three eccentric pop bands performing sets that were not airtight but were tons of fun, pleasing fans and offering a truly unique musical experience, while PlayRadioPlay played alone out in the cold November night.
Why is this review still relevant? Well, although Hellogoodbye seems to be skipping the spring tours to record their next album, Ace Enders and NeverShoutNever! both have upcoming tours.
NeverShoutNever! is heading out on tour again with The Scene Aesthetic, The Honorary Title, and The Bigger Lights + Carter Hulsey. He'll be playing in the DC area at Jaxx in Springfield, Virginia on Sunday, March 8. Jaxx is a little club in a strip mall with a trashy-looking website. Their newest bartender is named Emily, and you can see pictures of her in a bikini here.
I'll probably spend that night dying inside because my parents won't let me go to concerts on school nights, but you should try to go and join the hoardes announcing their love at the top of their lungs.
After that tour, NSN heads out on the Bamboozle Roadshow, which will be stopping at the Recher Theatre in Towson, Maryland on Tuesday, April 28. He will be joined by We The Kings, Forever The Sickest Kids, The Cab, and Mercy Mercedes. In case I get reincarnated inside between this show and his show at Jaxx, I will be dying inside again that night because I cannot go.
More info about both these shows can be found on NSN's MySpace.
In other NSN news, his ukelele EP is now available on iTunes for those of you suckers who missed the free download week, and his song "Your Biggest Fan" will never get out of my head. Ever.
PlayRadioPlay! has not announced any future tour plans on his MySpace. Not that I would see him again anyways.
Ace Enders is also headin gout on tour again soon. This time, he will be supporting Craig Owens of Chiodos. The Color Fred, and VersaEmerge. His closest stop to the DC area is at Ottobar in Baltimore on Thursday, April 9, which is right in the middle of spring break for some of us. This much-anticipated show is rumored to be a hot ticket, so it's recommended that you make plans to go soon. My parents aren't too keen on the B-more club scene, but I'm trying to go.
More tour info on Ace's MySpace.
Also, if my smugness about downloading NSN's EP for free makes you want to punch me in the face, i'd like to offer you the link to downloa Ace Enders' album for free as an appeasement. It's right here, and it's totally jsut as good as NSN's...
I could burn you a copy of NSN's EP if you still want to punch me in the face.
[P.S. Sorry for the weird font changes; I'm having some HTML trouble with this post...]
Anyways, a few months ago, I saw Hellogoodbye, Ace Enders, NeverShoutNever!, and PlayRadioPlay! at Sonar, this little club in Baltimore, and wrote a review of it for my guitar class. Reviewing it was really fun, so rather than just writing a crappy little list of who performed & how they sounded, I tried to make the review good. And I wanted my review to be read by more people than just my guitar teacher, so I thought I'd post it here [more people than just my guitar teacher will read this, right?]
On November 7, 2008, I saw Hellogoodbye, Ace Enders, NeverShoutNever, and PlayRadioPlay perform live at Sonar in Baltimore. The show had a diverse group of performers and was overall the most enjoyable live performance I have ever seen.
NeverShoutNever, alias Christopher Ingle, performed first. Ingle’s acoustic pop songs were very pleasant to listen to and told heartwarming stories of love, insecurity, and growing up in a small town. Ingle sang and played tambourine accompanied by a man on acoustic guitar. NeverShoutNever was a huge crowd pleaser. Ingle said we were “the best crowd ever” which may have been true, considering that he is a newcomer to the music scene and already caused hoards of girls in the crowd to scream “I love you!” at the end of each song. The audio quality was not world-class, but Ingle demonstrated an impressive vocal range and the set overall was, like its lovable performer, absolutely adorable.
The next act, PlayRadioPlay, bore a freakishly similar name to NeverShoutNever but had virtually nothing else in common. PlayRadioPlay, alias Dan Hunter, performed electropop music that was as different from NeverShoutNever’s sunny acoustic pop as day and night. Like Ingle before him and Hellogoodbye after him, Hunter seemed like a bit of a geek; unlike the other acts, he seemed cold and emotionally distant from the crowd. He thrashed around with a variety of good-looking guitars, apparently oblivious to how silly he looked. His singing was virtually inaudible, even though he bent over the microphone like some sort of monster poised to devour the mic and the audience after it. Hunter was accompanied by a drummer and keyboardist, neither of whom ever addressed the crowd; Hunter barely said a word to the audience either. His audio quality was extremely poor, and all of his songs suffered from a lack of a discernible melody. Most of the crowd clearly disliked the set; my favorite part of it was watching people move away to the bar and merchandise tables so I could take their spots closer to the stage. It was evident that even among this group of geeky pop bands, Hunter was an outcast. The show would have flowed better without him.
The concert regained its momentum with the next act, Ace Enders and a Million Different People. Enders’ rock music was the most mainstream music of the night, but it just as well-received as Ingle’s and Hellogoodbye’s more eclectic tunes. Enders sang and played guitar on some songs, accompanied by a bassist, guitarist, and drummer. The four were very popular with the crowd, many of whom appeared to be personal friends of Enders and his bassist. Enders played faster, louder versions of the songs on his EP “The Secret Wars”. Their songs were fun and catchy, prompting jumping, moshing, and even some uncoordinated attempts at break dancing and crowd surfing in the audience. Bassist Sergio Anello got into it as well, jumping around, making funny faces for the crowd, and trying to climb up the wall. Enders’ set was probably the most fun live performance I have ever seen.
It seems necessary to mention that Sonar is a very small club, and the crowd was very tightly packed. The heat by this point in the show verged on unbearable, causing Enders and Anello to sweat visibly. One girl in the audience even fainted from the heat. The bar offered free glasses of ice water, but few audience members dared venture away from their spots near the stage. Although it was easy to forget the heat and smell during the sets, the waiting periods between sets were awful.
Nearly three hours after the show began, Hellogoodbye performed. Lead singer Forrest Kline was sick, so his vocals were fairly awful, but that only added to the fun, unique feeling of the show. Kline had to sing one song entirely in falsetto, which was absolutely hilarious. He talked to the crowd, commiserating with another girl who was sick and inviting another girl to freestyle rap on stage. The other band members mostly stayed silent, except for guitarist Ryan Daly, who inexplicably and repeatedly told the crowd that his father pronounces Baltimore like “Baltee-more.” The crowd’s love was mostly aimed at Kline, the only member who has stayed with the band since its creation in 2001. Hellogoodbye’s audio quality was not great, and they only played two songs from their upcoming album, but Kline’s magnetic personality more than made up for their less than perfect musical performance.
The night ended with a truly grand finale in which Kline invited Ingle and Enders to help him sing Hellogoodbye’s most popular song, “Here (In Your Arms).” Hunter did not join them; he has been known to perform additional acoustic shows after his sets. Enders was at the merchandise table when the song began, and he crowd surfed the length of the club to reach the stage. The song was fairly chaotic; Enders repeatedly forgot the words and had to be reminded by Kline, and fans jumped on stage to join the performers. Still, the song exemplified the show: three eccentric pop bands performing sets that were not airtight but were tons of fun, pleasing fans and offering a truly unique musical experience, while PlayRadioPlay played alone out in the cold November night.
Why is this review still relevant? Well, although Hellogoodbye seems to be skipping the spring tours to record their next album, Ace Enders and NeverShoutNever! both have upcoming tours.
NeverShoutNever! is heading out on tour again with The Scene Aesthetic, The Honorary Title, and The Bigger Lights + Carter Hulsey. He'll be playing in the DC area at Jaxx in Springfield, Virginia on Sunday, March 8. Jaxx is a little club in a strip mall with a trashy-looking website. Their newest bartender is named Emily, and you can see pictures of her in a bikini here.
I'll probably spend that night dying inside because my parents won't let me go to concerts on school nights, but you should try to go and join the hoardes announcing their love at the top of their lungs.
After that tour, NSN heads out on the Bamboozle Roadshow, which will be stopping at the Recher Theatre in Towson, Maryland on Tuesday, April 28. He will be joined by We The Kings, Forever The Sickest Kids, The Cab, and Mercy Mercedes. In case I get reincarnated inside between this show and his show at Jaxx, I will be dying inside again that night because I cannot go.
More info about both these shows can be found on NSN's MySpace.
In other NSN news, his ukelele EP is now available on iTunes for those of you suckers who missed the free download week, and his song "Your Biggest Fan" will never get out of my head. Ever.
PlayRadioPlay! has not announced any future tour plans on his MySpace. Not that I would see him again anyways.
Ace Enders is also headin gout on tour again soon. This time, he will be supporting Craig Owens of Chiodos. The Color Fred, and VersaEmerge. His closest stop to the DC area is at Ottobar in Baltimore on Thursday, April 9, which is right in the middle of spring break for some of us. This much-anticipated show is rumored to be a hot ticket, so it's recommended that you make plans to go soon. My parents aren't too keen on the B-more club scene, but I'm trying to go.
More tour info on Ace's MySpace.
Also, if my smugness about downloading NSN's EP for free makes you want to punch me in the face, i'd like to offer you the link to downloa Ace Enders' album for free as an appeasement. It's right here, and it's totally jsut as good as NSN's...
I could burn you a copy of NSN's EP if you still want to punch me in the face.
[P.S. Sorry for the weird font changes; I'm having some HTML trouble with this post...]
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