Upcoming/Recent Shows

I saw Kishi Bashi last night at Omeara in London. What an eventful night! Firstly I was one of the first in the queue and managed to get to the very front. Tall Tall Trees was the warm up (and later part of Kishi's trio) and just superb, I had never heard of him before but was blown away but the sounds he was able to make with just 1 instrument! The main gig started and it was one just a perfect example of live shows done right. Got a high five from Kishi as he ran around the tiny stage and as he left to get ready for the acoustic encore (in the middle of the crowd) he told me to jump up on the stage to get a better view. So there I was standing on the stage overlooking all the crowd watching Kishi Bashi...unreal. Then at the end rather than push to get out I let the bulk of the crowd leave, and next thing Kishi pops out and gives me the set list, which he signs and calls the other 2 performers (Tall Tall Trees and Emily Hope Price) to get them to sign it. Brilliant night, im definitely going to see him again if he comes back to London next year!

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I knew his Euro leg of the tour started and I checked this post hoping to see if you enjoyed the show! Check!!!

Kishi and TTT (not familiar w third musician) are so talented it's just absurd. I generally feel a mixture of awe, inspiration and joy watching them perform. Sounds like you had an incredible experience from start to finish, and the interaction with Kishi make the experience even better. Listening to "I Am The Antichrist to You" live is an experience more people need to have.
 
I knew his Euro leg of the tour started and I checked this post hoping to see if you enjoyed the show! Check!!!

Kishi and TTT (not familiar w third musician) are so talented it's just absurd. I generally feel a mixture of awe, inspiration and joy watching them perform. Sounds like you had an incredible experience from start to finish, and the interaction with Kishi make the experience even better. Listening to "I Am The Antichrist to You" live is an experience more people need to have.
Completely agree with you! I had goosebumps when he played that song, I actually first heard him on NPR live (youtube) and when he played that song I was hooked.

The third musician, Emily Hope Price, was superb. She has recorded with Kishi Bashi on a few song I believe.

What I found really interesting is that he took a few minutes between some of the songs to explain the story behind them. It made it so much more interesting when listening to the songs. He also has a film coming out which covers the research and lead up to writing the tracks for his latest album.
 
Long post incoming.

Went to see Daughters + Lingua Ignota + Haunted Horses on Monday. I'm absolutely grateful and thankful for the opportunity, because this 3 part show became my favorite concert of the year as of now.

Haunted Horses

The show was considered a two-headliner show, with these guys being the opener. I can't say I was too enthralled with them, but the music had some catchy noise elements. Although, I could not make out a single word the vocalist shouted (his primary method of lyric delivery). I don't have too much to say about them as their set was a little under 30 minutes.

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Lingua Ignota


This was the set that I was most anticipated and excited to witness. It ended up being wholly fulfilling and then some.

It took ~12 minutes to get Kristin's stage props/equipment ready. An opaque tarp covering a table and piano as well as another tarp (with several holes punctured in it, probably from extensive touring) supported by two poles as a background comprised her set, with her occasionally going behind the tarp. Very minimalist. The setlist spanned 8 songs from Caligula.

She began the set with the final stanza of "Do You Doubt Me Traitor" which sounded absolutely wretched and borderline evil. Totally silent crowd...I could hear peoples' breath trembling. She then went behind the the tarp, took off her pink (bath?)robe and performed "Faithful Servant Friend of Christ" and then returned to the stage in transition to perform all of DYDMT. During the second stanza of the song (How do I break you, before you break me? refrain), she was thrashing her microphone against her body and the piano amidst her screams and it evoked the idea of pain and suffering. It all became so clear...a harrowing personal allegory. I almost broke into tears upon this realization.

She then transitioned to "Butcher of the World," which she commenced by planting her arm on a dude's shoulder in the front and screaming into the crowd. She then went to the other side of the stage and screamed in other concert goer's face (without utilizing someone else's body as a support). She then grabbed a corded lamp underneath the piano, turned it on, put it around her neck, and hopped down into the crowd. She made her way to roughly five rows back from the stage, and the crowd made some room for her to lash and clobber the lamp against the ground. She then went back to the stage to finish the quieter, classical section of the song while playing the piano, and remained there for the two songs after ("May Failure Be Your Noose," and "If the Poison Won't Take You My Dogs Will"). Her voice for these two selections was mostly clean and extravagant, but flipped to woeful and chillingly torturous when appropriate.

She closed with "I Am the Beast." The progression of this track came to head coupled with the relentlessly noisy electronically programmed backing and her bone-chilling screams. When she emitted her final series of vocal cacophony, she banged her mic into table repeatedly which may caused more distortion in the audio mix. It became almost...ambient. She threw part of the tarp off the table and beat her mic against her body briefly before launching her mic against the tarp set up in the background, causing the poles to tumble which revealed another dim lamp. She ambled over to the lamp, covered the lamp with her body, and (seemingly) caressed it for ~30 seconds before simultaneously turning it off as the harsh noise abruptly ended. The applause was deafening. Unforgettable moment.

Kristin Hayter is a force of fucking nature.

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Daughters

Prior to Daughters taking the stage, I was able to get a front row spot after a generous man offered his spot for me to swap. That spot did not last too long, though.

They held no bars back by commencing with "The Reason They Hate Me," and that's where the violent crowd pushing started. I couldn't get a picture, but Lex briefly screamed at me while violently headbanging...kind of a surreal moment. Seemingly everyone adjacent to me knew the lyrics to their songs, it was loud as FUCK (and I did not have earplugs).

Lex began using his mic in fashions I have never seen be used before. From what I remember: used it as a lasso that spanned three-quarter's the length of the stage, beat it against the rhythm guitar amplifier, shoved it in his mouth while muttering something unintelligible, had it wrap around his neck and back in a hula-hoop fashion, gagged his lead guitarist with the cord, and beat the element of the microphone against his forehead to the point where he was bleeding. I really hope that mic was 18.

Throughout the set, Alexis Marshall doused himself with bottles of water and unbuttoned his shirt more and more as the show progressed. Eventually, when the show progressed to "Satan in the Wait," Lex fell into the crowd during the instrumental break and the crowd-surfing began. At least three other people, from what I saw, were also crowd-surfing during the same song. I was also pushed into back by from the weight of all the pushing that was happening, causing me to land roughly in the 4th row from the front. Being 125 lbs is not fun sometimes.

The final song "Ocean Song" was performed and the pushing mostly settled down. Although at this point, my body temperature had risen at least 25 degrees or so and I was incredibly sweaty. I was almost out of energy from being thrown around. The song prolonged for what seemed like 15 minutes. Lex was shirtless, was so wet that it looked like he came out of the shower, and was thrashing his mic against his own band members. It just seemed so visceral and certainly horrific. The other band members left the stage with guitar and bass players leaving their last note prolonged. Lex threw his mic into the nearby guitar amp, picked it up, threw it into the drumset, then trudged to the amp knobs and experimented with knobs and made the existing noise more abrasive and vociferous.

What a fantastic show. What everyone is saying about these guys live performance holds up. Mental, deafeningly loud, and fucking incredible. A must-see if you are even mildly interested in their musical alchemy.

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Post-show
I took some time to catch my breath and went to chat with some other folks. It was a pretty unorganized line to the merch table, so that helped while waiting. I overheard many who were enamored by Kristin's set and how they hadn't heard her music prior to the show. Some really nice people including one person who was behind me halfway through the Daughters set making sure that I didn't fall down from the pushing. The reception from everyone seemed to overwhelmingly positive, and it's absolutely clear as to why. Lingua Ignota was my favorite performance of the year, usurping the Julia Holter concert from March this year.

Soon after the line to merch mostly died down and 99% of the crowd had vacated the venue, to my surprise, Kristin came to the table!!! ❤❤ ❤ When it came to my turn to get merch, I got a Daughters shirt, and asked Kristin to sign my copies of her records. She even asked me for my name to personalize them. After receiving the signatures, I asked her a couple of questions about the tour and another gentleman joined in (who happened to be someone I spoke with before the doors opened) on the conversation. I was only able to sustain the conversation for about three minutes before security needed us to leave. I was able to get a handshake and a thank you from her before departing. She was genuine and nice about it. I am grateful. I will not miss her if/when she comes to Portland in the future. :)

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short report (with bad photos) about last night A Not So Silent Christmas with Rufus and Martha Wainwright at Dublin's National Concert Hall.

this gig is a Wainwright/McGarrigle tradition from a while back and Rufus and Martha are keeping it alive despite the passing of their mum (Kate), 10 years ago.
Each year the gig takes place in a different city and this year it was the turn of Dublin first, last night and tonight and then London.
Martha and Rufus bring with them a number of cousins, nephews and nieces and attract local talent, a fantastic baking band of multi-instrumentalist and Rufus husband Jorn (German music director and also show producer).
Last night the Irish guests were: Lisa O'Neill, young traditional Irish music singer (recent winner of Folk singer of the year award at the Irish Trad awards night), Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy), Conor O'Brian (Villagers), Paul Brady (local Irish folk singer, and family friend) and Loah, a Sierra Leone singer based in Ireland.

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Rufus was in fine form, witty and happy.
Martha was her usual, snappy and powerful.
Their voices so different and so magical, balancing each other at different levels.
The stage was a continuous revolution of voices and themes, with guest singers alternating and songs going from pop to traditional, from ballads to religious.
it was approximately 2 and half hours of Christmas music but it did not feel tiring, quite the opposite.
Best moment of the night was Neil Hannon and Conor O'Brian singing Last Christmas by the Wham. It was almost sacrilegious to hear such a strong voice delivering a song so cheesy, but it worked well.
Conor O'Brian was the start of the night in my eyes, with his humor and great singing abilities... he even played the trumpet (with a couple of errors that he highlighted by shouting "fuck" and restarting the song)!
Martha's voice remain one of the strongest and better performers I have witnessed (reminds me of the power of Sinead O'Connor's voice).
And Rufus is Rufus.... sarcastic, melodic and incredible performer. He sang an a cappella french traditional song without microphone, and it delivered it beautifully and gently.

If either of them comes to town again, with whatever catalog they decide to perform, I'll be there.
 
Long post incoming.

Went to see Daughters + Lingua Ignota + Haunted Horses on Monday. I'm absolutely grateful and thankful for the opportunity, because this 3 part show became my favorite concert of the year as of now.

Haunted Horses

The show was considered a two-headliner show, with these guys being the opener. I can't say I was too enthralled with them, but the music had some catchy noise elements. Although, I could not make out a single word the vocalist shouted (his primary method of lyric delivery). I don't have too much to say about them as their set was a little under 30 minutes.

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Lingua Ignota


This was the set that I was most anticipated and excited to witness. It ended up being wholly fulfilling and then some.

It took ~12 minutes to get Kristin's stage props/equipment ready. An opaque tarp covering a table and piano as well as another tarp (with several holes punctured in it, probably from extensive touring) supported by two poles as a background comprised her set, with her occasionally going behind the tarp. Very minimalist. The setlist spanned 8 songs from Caligula.

She began the set with the final stanza of "Do You Doubt Me Traitor" which sounded absolutely wretched and borderline evil. Totally silent crowd...I could hear peoples' breath trembling. She then went behind the the tarp, took off her pink (bath?)robe and performed "Faithful Servant Friend of Christ" and then returned to the stage in transition to perform all of DYDMT. During the second stanza of the song (How do I break you, before you break me? refrain), she was thrashing her microphone against her body and the piano amidst her screams and it evoked the idea of pain and suffering. It all became so clear...a harrowing personal allegory. I almost broke into tears upon this realization.

She then transitioned to "Butcher of the World," which she commenced by planting her arm on a dude's shoulder in the front and screaming into the crowd. She then went to the other side of the stage and screamed in other concert goer's face (without utilizing someone else's body as a support). She then grabbed a corded lamp underneath the piano, turned it on, put it around her neck, and hopped down into the crowd. She made her way to roughly five rows back from the stage, and the crowd made some room for her to lash and clobber the lamp against the ground. She then went back to the stage to finish the quieter, classical section of the song while playing the piano, and remained there for the two songs after ("May Failure Be Your Noose," and "If the Poison Won't Take You My Dogs Will"). Her voice for these two selections was mostly clean and extravagant, but flipped to woeful and chillingly torturous when appropriate.

She closed with "I Am the Beast." The progression of this track came to head coupled with the relentlessly noisy electronically programmed backing and her bone-chilling screams. When she emitted her final series of vocal cacophony, she banged her mic into table repeatedly which may caused more distortion in the audio mix. It became almost...ambient. She threw part of the tarp off the table and beat her mic against her body briefly before launching her mic against the tarp set up in the background, causing the poles to tumble which revealed another dim lamp. She ambled over to the lamp, covered the lamp with her body, and (seemingly) caressed it for ~30 seconds before simultaneously turning it off as the harsh noise abruptly ended. The applause was deafening. Unforgettable moment.

Kristin Hayter is a force of fucking nature.

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Daughters

Prior to Daughters taking the stage, I was able to get a front row spot after a generous man offered his spot for me to swap. That spot did not last too long, though.

They held no bars back by commencing with "The Reason They Hate Me," and that's where the violent crowd pushing started. I couldn't get a picture, but Lex briefly screamed at me while violently headbanging...kind of a surreal moment. Seemingly everyone adjacent to me knew the lyrics to their songs, it was loud as FUCK (and I did not have earplugs).

Lex began using his mic in fashions I have never seen be used before. From what I remember: used it as a lasso that spanned three-quarter's the length of the stage, beat it against the rhythm guitar amplifier, shoved it in his mouth while muttering something unintelligible, had it wrap around his neck and back in a hula-hoop fashion, gagged his lead guitarist with the cord, and beat the element of the microphone against his forehead to the point where he was bleeding. I really hope that mic was 18.

Throughout the set, Alexis Marshall doused himself with bottles of water and unbuttoned his shirt more and more as the show progressed. Eventually, when the show progressed to "Satan in the Wait," Lex fell into the crowd during the instrumental break and the crowd-surfing began. At least three other people, from what I saw, were also crowd-surfing during the same song. I was also pushed into back by from the weight of all the pushing that was happening, causing me to land roughly in the 4th row from the front. Being 125 lbs is not fun sometimes.

The final song "Ocean Song" was performed and the pushing mostly settled down. Although at this point, my body temperature had risen at least 25 degrees or so and I was incredibly sweaty. I was almost out of energy from being thrown around. The song prolonged for what seemed like 15 minutes. Lex was shirtless, was so wet that it looked like he came out of the shower, and was thrashing his mic against his own band members. It just seemed so visceral and certainly horrific. The other band members left the stage with guitar and bass players leaving their last note prolonged. Lex threw his mic into the nearby guitar amp, picked it up, threw it into the drumset, then trudged to the amp knobs and experimented with knobs and made the existing noise more abrasive and vociferous.

What a fantastic show. What everyone is saying about these guys live performance holds up. Mental, deafeningly loud, and fucking incredible. A must-see if you are even mildly interested in their musical alchemy.

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Post-show
I took some time to catch my breath and went to chat with some other folks. It was a pretty unorganized line to the merch table, so that helped while waiting. I overheard many who were enamored by Kristin's set and how they hadn't heard her music prior to the show. Some really nice people including one person who was behind me halfway through the Daughters set making sure that I didn't fall down from the pushing. The reception from everyone seemed to overwhelmingly positive, and it's absolutely clear as to why. Lingua Ignota was my favorite performance of the year, usurping the Julia Holter concert from March this year.

Soon after the line to merch mostly died down and 99% of the crowd had vacated the venue, to my surprise, Kristin came to the table!!! ❤❤ ❤ When it came to my turn to get merch, I got a Daughters shirt, and asked Kristin to sign my copies of her records. She even asked me for my name to personalize them. After receiving the signatures, I asked her a couple of questions about the tour and another gentleman joined in (who happened to be someone I spoke with before the doors opened) on the conversation. I was only able to sustain the conversation for about three minutes before security needed us to leave. I was able to get a handshake and a thank you from her before departing. She was genuine and nice about it. I am grateful. I will not miss her if/when she comes to Portland in the future. :)

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I'm totally going to listen to all of these bands today. Great write up! Glad you had so much fun!!!
 
Got to see Angel Olsen on Monday, my second time seeing her in concert. This time with a full band and much longer stage time (~90 min as opposed to just under an hour last year at her solo show).
Her tunes are lovely as always. I was totally shocked and ecstatic to hear "Lark," "Special," and "Sister" in the setlist, as I was unsure how these 7-minute tracks would be performed live. It was also really funny to hear some intermittent 90s throwback teasers sprinkled in between songs...I heard among them:
  • 311 - "Amber"
  • Blind Melon - "No Rain"
  • Collective Soul - "Shine"
  • Metallica - "Enter Sandman"
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Great show to end the year! Sounds exactly as she does on record. Love how she interacts with the audience and her sense of humor, too. ❤
 
Caught Ezra Collective last night at the Jack London Revue, a little jazz club in Portland. Super fun and full house, guessing it's one of the smaller venues they'll play. That drummer was on fire. Didn't take many pictures, was mostly listening and enjoying the music.

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Now that I FINALLY HAVE TIME TO POST THIS! Let's talk about the Wonderful show I had on December 3rd and it was the Monday after Thanksgiving and I had the pleasure of seeing Diamante Now I had seen her earlier in the year open for the very long Breaking Benjamin concert which included Chevelle, Three Days Grace, and Dorothy. I ended up missing Dorothy's set because I was getting food and meeting Diamate herself after her set. I would call Diamante a mix of Joan Jett meet Heart meats Halestorm mixed with tacos. Her real name is Diamante and she is half Italian and half Mexican.



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With that out of the way let's talk about the venue. Elevation 27 was just recently renamed. It had been a country bar previously and before that, it was called the Jewish Mother. Back when it was called strictly The Jewish Mother, I saw Panic! At The Disco to a crowd of about 400 people. This show was called out on Brendan Urie's Vine page. The vine said something along these lines. "We're at the Jewish Mother here in VB. First-person to throw a hackeysack on stage... Ima suck yo" and the vine ended. What's funny is that someone did throw a hacky sack up and he did mention meeting backstage at the end of the night to that person. All Rock joking aside, it'd had been over a decade since I had been there and not much had changed.

The show was very intimate I would say about less than 20 showed up. I could easily scan the room and count who was there. It was relaxing and really fun to jam out to one of my favorite artists. Diamante is a class act who truly cares about fans of her music. I paid for a meet and greet and unfortunately, couldn't make it, but it was made up for in leaps and bounds. There was an opening band from NC who drove about an hour to be there. They were a trio called Gravitation and I didn't catch much of their set for reasons which I can't get into, but I did snag a free CD. PLEASE CHECK THEM OUT they are amazing. Here's a link to one of their songs:

Gravitation:

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Movin' right ahead let's talk about the set.

Diamante played the following songs (I got my own signed setlist!)

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What's funny about this is that Bad Wolves was in town with Three Days Grace so in order for Diamante to go sing with both bands the meet and greet was about 5 hours before showtime. So that's why I missed it as I was at work. Like I said earlier though Diamante made up for it. I will explain in a minute. Now as for the setlist well Had enough was not played because Diamate premiered a brand new song called Obvious. Not only that, but it was co-written by Niel Sanderson the drummer from Three Days Grace. He happened to show up and play drums for the song. It was insane! The song will be out in January 2020 but think of it as Dia's take on a Three Day's Grace song.

Now the moment you've all been waiting for!!!! The pictures!!!

Diamante:

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NOW As a followup. I got to chatting with Dia about music and life. I found out we both love the band Tonight Alive. At the end of every show, she stays back to make sure she meets everyone. She was signing things left and right. While I waited for the crowd to get their photos and such taken I got to talking with her touring band. Nicest guys ever! When I was up to go chat again to Dia Lonely Girl was playing and we both sang it to each other as we walked toward one another. That moment I will remember FOREVER!

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The JD McPherson Socks: Rock N Roll Christmas tour was a blast. He threw in a few of his non Christmas songs in addition to playing the whole Socks album. Joel Paterson was a great opening act as well and joined JD’s band for the encore.
 
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I caught American Aquarium for the umpteenth time last night. It was nice to hear a few songs from their upcoming album but it was a heavy show because BJ (the man behind the band) lost his mom on New Years Eve. He said he wanted to keep playing shows to distract himself. I hope it was cathartic for him.
 
Tool @ Viejas Arena, San Diego. Amazing show. Last time I saw them I was pretty distracted by Maynard hiding out in the back, but I really appreciated it this time as it gave me a chance to watch the other guys do their thing, especially Danny on the drums.

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