Switchfoot Concert
My apologies for all of you who read my blog like if it was their daily bread. I sort of forgot to update it for a while.
Anyway, at least now I have something to talk about. Last night I went to the Switchfoot concert here in Boston. It was at Axis, a nightclub where I have been clubbing a couple of times, and where five Iron Frenzy played in september. Weird, the 3 bands that I have always wanted to see perfom the most are all playing in boston in a 3 month period (FIF, Switchfoot and Simon and Garfunkel).If it is possible, I think that this show was even more packed with people than the FIF show. Musically, this show was very good. The opening bands were tight.
The first band, named "sleeping at last," was almost original, buuuuut, no. The bass player was basically doing everything that U2's bass player did. Drummer... brit space rock, with a more american feel (D&B complexity replaced with slightly more raw power). The singer tried for a coldplay, muse, radiohead singer thing. He pulled it off quite well, the rises and falls of this voice were right where they should have been. His guitar/piano playing was very coldplayish. They chose good bands to emulate, and they did it well, but... dont bother, they are jumping on the brit rock bandwagon.
The second band, "Bleu", in my opinion was very very good. Bleu, the lead singer, offered me what I consider to be one of the few original bands I have heard in a long time. I bought the CD, THATs how impressed I was. I wondered if I was alone in thinking he was any good, so I did some checks on what the music critics (dont hate critics, some are sell outs, but most just want to analyze and contemplate music) think of Bleu. Amplifier Magazine called his CD "the first truly GREAT record of 2003" and the All Music Guide gave his CD 4-5 stars (a rare feat for All Music). Anyway, it is sort of an underground pop CD with Brian May-like guitars, some weezer influence, but mostly in it's all american feel.
NOW, on to switchfoot. I have to admit, that after following two bands who were really tight, I was initially dissapointed with Switchfoot. Jon Foreman was really singing off key. It was really appalling. The other bands didnt have that problem, neither did the 4 bands that played at FIF's show. It was distracting and unprofessional. After 2 or three songs, he did an acoustic song where I think he was able to hear himself better and then after that he sang a lot better. Frankly, that is the ONLY complaint about their performance. They were both energetic and quite together rhythmically. They also offered quite a bit of improvisation in their gig, which doesnt happen as nicely as they did last night very often. Dynamic use of synthysizers and pedals.
So the concert was good then? Well, no. I finally understand why Boston (and all of new england really) has a stigma of being a musical graveyard. Bands hate coming to boston. Or did you think that it is a coincidance that many bands go to New York and CT, and just happen to skip Boston? The crowd was pathetic, and that was just about enough to ruin the show. No one jumped, swayed or moshed. No one skanked, danced or headbanged. While all of the aformentioned forms of self expression werent appropiate for a switchfoot concert, most were, at least at different times. But NO ONE did anything. I was happy that I was with a small group of Gordon students taht are pretty crazy, they were doing stuff, but it was mostly pretty silly (like acting like they were singing into microphones and stuff). The other dissapointment was the lack of older repertoire. NOT ONE LEGEND OF CHIN SONG. I was kind of ticked.
On the fun side, Jon was saying how everyone in the band was getting nicknames (They had great stage prescence and rapport with the crowd) and asked for the crowds opinion, no one said anything and so I screamed "It's AWSOME". He liked taht and he called out to me in the crowd, shone the lights on me, and asked me for my name. I yelled it out to him and he proceed to name me "Ryan THE POWERHOUSE Jacob". It was fun, cause I felt like I was getting recognition for being one of the only ones in the crowd that was giving something back to the band. That was fun.
wow this got long....
Anyway, at least now I have something to talk about. Last night I went to the Switchfoot concert here in Boston. It was at Axis, a nightclub where I have been clubbing a couple of times, and where five Iron Frenzy played in september. Weird, the 3 bands that I have always wanted to see perfom the most are all playing in boston in a 3 month period (FIF, Switchfoot and Simon and Garfunkel).If it is possible, I think that this show was even more packed with people than the FIF show. Musically, this show was very good. The opening bands were tight.
The first band, named "sleeping at last," was almost original, buuuuut, no. The bass player was basically doing everything that U2's bass player did. Drummer... brit space rock, with a more american feel (D&B complexity replaced with slightly more raw power). The singer tried for a coldplay, muse, radiohead singer thing. He pulled it off quite well, the rises and falls of this voice were right where they should have been. His guitar/piano playing was very coldplayish. They chose good bands to emulate, and they did it well, but... dont bother, they are jumping on the brit rock bandwagon.
The second band, "Bleu", in my opinion was very very good. Bleu, the lead singer, offered me what I consider to be one of the few original bands I have heard in a long time. I bought the CD, THATs how impressed I was. I wondered if I was alone in thinking he was any good, so I did some checks on what the music critics (dont hate critics, some are sell outs, but most just want to analyze and contemplate music) think of Bleu. Amplifier Magazine called his CD "the first truly GREAT record of 2003" and the All Music Guide gave his CD 4-5 stars (a rare feat for All Music). Anyway, it is sort of an underground pop CD with Brian May-like guitars, some weezer influence, but mostly in it's all american feel.
NOW, on to switchfoot. I have to admit, that after following two bands who were really tight, I was initially dissapointed with Switchfoot. Jon Foreman was really singing off key. It was really appalling. The other bands didnt have that problem, neither did the 4 bands that played at FIF's show. It was distracting and unprofessional. After 2 or three songs, he did an acoustic song where I think he was able to hear himself better and then after that he sang a lot better. Frankly, that is the ONLY complaint about their performance. They were both energetic and quite together rhythmically. They also offered quite a bit of improvisation in their gig, which doesnt happen as nicely as they did last night very often. Dynamic use of synthysizers and pedals.
So the concert was good then? Well, no. I finally understand why Boston (and all of new england really) has a stigma of being a musical graveyard. Bands hate coming to boston. Or did you think that it is a coincidance that many bands go to New York and CT, and just happen to skip Boston? The crowd was pathetic, and that was just about enough to ruin the show. No one jumped, swayed or moshed. No one skanked, danced or headbanged. While all of the aformentioned forms of self expression werent appropiate for a switchfoot concert, most were, at least at different times. But NO ONE did anything. I was happy that I was with a small group of Gordon students taht are pretty crazy, they were doing stuff, but it was mostly pretty silly (like acting like they were singing into microphones and stuff). The other dissapointment was the lack of older repertoire. NOT ONE LEGEND OF CHIN SONG. I was kind of ticked.
On the fun side, Jon was saying how everyone in the band was getting nicknames (They had great stage prescence and rapport with the crowd) and asked for the crowds opinion, no one said anything and so I screamed "It's AWSOME". He liked taht and he called out to me in the crowd, shone the lights on me, and asked me for my name. I yelled it out to him and he proceed to name me "Ryan THE POWERHOUSE Jacob". It was fun, cause I felt like I was getting recognition for being one of the only ones in the crowd that was giving something back to the band. That was fun.
wow this got long....
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