The Show You Saw Last Night: An Investigative Report

[ellaguru]

because they're a jam band

AK-AK are absolutely NOT a jam band. They are, however, a band that jams.

I freely concede whatever this means.

But more importantly,

There's no show I'm looking foward to more than seeing them for the third (and fourth?) time

I am way with you here. I've seen them four times now, each show has been totally different, and each has been fantastic. Only one and a half of these shows involved any rocking that could be described as hard - I think their shows are determined a lot by the venue, the church shows they've done in Toronto were really quiet (two times ago, the whole audience sat on the floor of the church for two hours, the house lights were all on because Ak-Ak wanted to see us while they were playing, and at the end pretty much nobody clapped for fear of breaking the mood), while the last time they were here was in a bar so they rocked the fuck out, big time. I'll be seeing them every chance I get.

[jebreject]

I think their shows are determined a lot by the venue, the church shows they've done in Toronto were really quiet (two times ago, the whole audience sat on the floor of the church for two hours, the house lights were all on because Ak-Ak wanted to see us while they were playing, and at the end pretty much nobody clapped for fear of breaking the mood),

Yeah, the first time I saw them, I was one of maybe ten or twelve people there, and it was a really mellow, floating-down-the-river sort of set, very pleasant.  The second time was just after they'd finished recording Meek Warrior in Chicago and they were exhausted and cranky and still managed to rock harder than just about any band I've ever seen.

[Anne the Man]

So last night I went along to Joanna Newsom, and I got IDed and thought that was gonna be it, but my dad did some fast-talking and they let me pass. And I didn't get dizzy when I went up into the bar either, so it was a good start.

Anyway, Bill Callahan played, and I know I'm gonna get a lot of hate for saying this, but I found him pretty boring. I could only see his head, and he wasn't a very engaging performer (my friend told me he'd toned it way down from when she last saw him). I might've liked it better if I knew some of the songs.
But then Joanna came on...
She started off with Bridges and Balloons, which was great, and then Emily, which I'd never really listened to, and it's is so much better without the soaring strings in the background. Sawdust and Diamonds almost reduced me to tears, and believe me, I'm really not the type to cry at anything like that. And she did some Scottish folk song, which was really pretty, and this new song, where she does this really fast 4-note trill and cries 'ah!' which left me going "oh my GOD!" It was awesome.
She talked to the audience a lot more than Bill Callahan, and told us about these reviews her dad sent her of her concerts saying these random untrue things like she'd retitled 'Sadie' as 'Sharon' for the night, and that she'd taken off her shoes and recited a poem to the moon. Which was amusing. And when she played she had this really haunted look on her face, which was probably just concentration, but a couple of times I thought she was gonna start crying.

Anyway, sorry that was so long. Best concert I've ever been to (admittedly, there hasn't been much competition, but still.)

[DanielBurns11]

Here's a little review of the show I went to last night.

Resolve: Pretty much your Run-of-the-Mill Punk band. The crowed wasn't moving for them, they mentioned it between every song. It didn't help.

Ignite: I hated this band. They have the whole Melodic Hardcore with a clean sounding vocalist going on, not my thing. But by the third song there were a few people in the pit. The singer talked a lot of politics between songs. Communism sucks, everyone in the Punk scene should be more active, blah blah blah. They dedicated a song to Johnny Cash, that was cool.

Circle Jerks: This was my first time seeing/hearing the Jerks, and they did not disappoint. For a bunch of old guys they were active and got the pit going in full effect. They warned everyone 'No fighting. If you fight we will stop playing'. So, what happens? About halfway through the first song a fight breaks out. Everything is worked out and the show continues. Some girl gets on stage and starts dancing, which is quite funny because she appears to be about 6-7 months pregnant. Then, out of the blue she does a friggin' belly flop stage dive, belly first. It was the most insane spectacle ever I've seen. I hope her kid comes out (no pun intended) alright! Overall the Jerks were great and started making the show worth my $20

Pennywise: Finally, Pennywise takes the stage. I've never been the biggest Pennywise fan, but they put on a great show. The played the first couple songs on the setlist, then just started taking requests. They even played a song from their first 7" that they self-released, which was cool. The highlight of the night was when Pennywise brought up the lead singer of  Ignite to cover the Misfits' 'Astro Zombies' (my favorite Misfits song!). They closed the show with the famed 'Bro Hymn', which by that time I was even in the pit.

Overall it was a fun show and well worth $20. Plus, I even got a free CD from the Circle Jerks merch guy, cuz I "Looked like a nice guy".

[davy]

Some girl gets on stage and starts dancing, which is quite funny because she appears to be about 6-7 months pregnant. Then, out of the blue she does a friggin' belly flop stage dive, belly first. It was the most insane spectacle ever I've seen.

that's fucking horrifying.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Some girl gets on stage and starts dancing, which is quite funny because she appears to be about 6-7 months pregnant. Then, out of the blue she does a friggin' belly flop stage dive, belly first. It was the most insane spectacle ever I've seen.

that's fucking horrifying.

yeah davy, it upset me too.

i once was at a chimaira/god forbid show, and some dude was there with his kid, who couldn't have been more than two. he brought the kid up to the front sitting on his shoulders, and the chimaira guitarist did a double take and high fived the kid. which was cute, BUT the problem is that little kids can't take that kind of noise, and it can really damage their hearing on a permanent basis. my friends and i were freaking out about the fact that the dude had brought the kid to the show at all.

[justinh]

I remember being at this crusty show in a basement once, I think React was playing, and there was a crusty family there complete with a kid who was about 5 years old...

[ellaguru]

Yeah, there's a time and a place for that. I remember in my youth going to a lot of reggae shows where all the hippies brought their kids and there were five year olds running around at midnight and it was pretty awesome, because reggae makes for a pretty wholesome environment (in a stoned kinda way). But I was at a punk gig at couple years back, and the kids just shouldn'ta been there. I could see the singer wanting to tone down his language and antics because of the kids, but not really being able to, because he's a punk rocker on stage and he's gotta rock the show. But yeah, reggae shows are much better with kids playing hide and seek amongst the dancers. Most other shows, not so much.

[martin_van_buren]

i once was at a chimaira/god forbid show

The lead guitarist of God Forbid comes from my town! That's really all I have to say. We don't got a lot of folks.

[Andrew_TSKS]

we need another thread for this subject, by the way. i'm gonna make one.

[Lalitree]

Go ahead and link the new thread you make, if you want!

new shows thread:
http://lastplanetojakarta.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7899