The List (of bands seen live)

Let's keep this simple...I maintain a running list of bands I have seen live, although I don't count bands I didn't pay any attention to while they performed, nor do I count having seen a band if I cannot remember the experience at all. Thus, I have left out a good number of opening bands I ignored or just plain didn't like...that's the other thing; in the case of festival-type shows, I don't bother counting bands I didn't care for in the least. I won't include a band I didn't specifically intend to see unless I enjoyed them.

Also, it doesn't matter to me whether I saw the band play in the backroom of a bar or on stage at MSG so long as it was a formal show, typically with tickets available for purchase (in other words, not just a practice session). And I do include smaller, lesser-known bands along with the bigger, well-known ones. So here's my running list, from age 13 until age 27 or from 1997 until 2011, of the bands I saw, remembered, and liked enough to include. I'm sure some have been forgotten.  

This is what people mean by "the list," right? :)

* -- more than once

** -- five times or more
+ -- interviewed them, in addition to seeing them live

100 monkeys **+
active child
adam green
aerosmith *
albertans
alice cooper
alice in chains (with a layne staley replacement)
amanda palmer/ evelyn evelyn
american memory project
amina
and you will know us by the trail of dead

anthrax
a perfect circle
a place to bury strangers *+
arcade fire *
arctic monkeys
a.r.e. weapons
atari teenage riot
audioslave
avett brothers
bauhaus *
beach fossils *+
best coast
be your own pet
billy corgan (solo band)
billy idol
bjork *
black keys
black mountain
blonde redhead

the blow
blue man group *
blue velvet *
bob dylan
bodega girls

bon iver
braids
bright eyes *
busta rhymes
broken social scene/ brendan canning +
candlebox
cat power
chevelle
christopher paul stelling *+
clap your hands say yeah
coathangers
cold war kids

coldplay *
computer magic
counting crows
daft punk
daniel johnston
dark star orchestra
david bowie
dd/mm/yyyy
dead elvi, with ray manzarek
death from above 1979
death vessel

deftones *
depeche mode
dinosaur feathers
dinosaur jr
dinowalrus
does it offend you, yeah?
dr. dog
dresden dolls
drew and the medicinal pen *+
dub trio
duke spirit
eels
eskalators
faint *
faster dear pilot, we're going down
fiasco
film school *
filter
fiona apple

foals
fool's gold

foreign islands
freelance whales *
garbage
general miggs *
genuine imitations *

giraffes *
godspeed you! black emperor
goes cube **+
gogol bordello
gold panda
grandchildren **+
green day
guns n roses, with buckethead
gutter twins
hank and cupcakes

health +
ho-ag
honey brothers
horrors
incubus
indian jewelry
interpol **

isis *+

jane's addiction
japanther
javelin *+
jay brannan
jeff the brotherhood
jens lekman
jesu
jesus and mary chain
j mascis
joan jett
joe semz
julianna barwick
justice
kissing club **+
klaxons
korn
la laque
lcd soundsystem
legendary pink dots
le loup
live *
local natives
lovvers
m. ward
man man
marco benevento *
marilyn manson
mars volta
mason jennings
massive attack

max bemis (hehe) *
meat puppets
mechanical people

melissa auf de maur +
melvins
mercury landing
mgmt +
mighty mighty bosstones
miike snow
mindless self indulgence *
mission of burma
moby +
modest mouse *
mogwai *
monotonix
moonrats
mudhoney
my bloody valentine
my brightest diamond
my way my love
naam
national rifle

newvillager
nine inch nails **
nofx
no joy
no one and the somebodies **

o'death *
ohgr +
old time relijun
outernational
ozzy osbourne
pains of being pure at heart
paper cranes
patti smith
pax cecilia
peaches
peelander-z *
pelican
peter murphy (solo)
phantogram
pissed jeans
pixies
poison
pomegranates

proclaimers
queens of the stone age
rage against the machine
raveonettes
regina spektor *
religious to damn
richard ashcroft
rilo kiley
ringo starr
rob zombie *
roger waters
rolling stones

roots tonic +
rufus wainwright *
santogold
saul williams
save ferris
school of seven bells +
scissor sisters
sebastien grainger
she wants revenge
sigur ros *
skeletonbreath **
soft moon
so many dynamos
sonic youth
so so glos

sponge

stationary set
steel train
stevedores **
strange walls
suuns
system of a down
tamaryn
thurston moore
tin tin can **
tire fires **
toadies
tom morello (solo)
tool
twisted sister
valiant to vile
vast
vhs or beta
vibration *

wailing wall *
wallflowers
wavves *
weekend
what cheer? brigade
when dinosaurs ruled the earth
whigs

the xx
yet cut breath **
zwan

Of course, this leaves me with a lot of bands I still need to see, like Radiohead (!!), TV on the Radio, The Kills, Animal Collective, Explosions in the Sky, and whatever Jack White ensemble. It's safe to say that more live music is in my future....

[photo of tool by me]

Highlights from 2010 SXSW

So I'm still not in Austin, but here's a replay of some writing I did for last year's festival!

Grandchildren, Bill Murray, and the Green Owl Ranch

At their official Green Owl showcase in the Beauty Bar backyard, Grandchildren debuted a new aspect to performances. Setting up a screen between them and the crowd, they projected a series of moving images to correspond to each interlinked song. Created mainly by primary songwriter Aleks Martray, the projection turned their set into something purely magical and artistic, which aptly represents the band’s aesthetic and visual art origins.

Later in the night, after I saw Moonrats, ate some tofu (finally!) and also had a Bill Murray spotting (!!!), I ventured with Grandchildren in their trusty van to the ranch that Green Owl provided not only for the bands on the label, but also as a place where SxSW-goers could come late at night to hear music, away from the claustrophobic downtown streets. With the idea that “great music can be sustainable,” a brightly painted and converted school bus that runs on veggie oil was making trips, until 5 am, from downtown Austin to the 35-acre “Rockin Y Ranch” at 7600 Still Ridge, equipped with a pool, tire swings, goats, a barn for shows, and a slew of awesome people. 

BRM Rooftop Party

Outernational, from NYC, offered both a ska and Spanish feel to fighting songs and were purported to be, by Tom Morello himself, “a world-music Rage Against the Machine.” Pomegranates, from Ohio, were carefree and fresh-faced, churning out surfy, mildly psychedelic tunes that were harmless and easily digestible, but also very well constructed. Something about those boys and their songs just felt right, in all their youthful flurry.

Phantogram, consisting of guitarist Josh Carter and keyboardist Sarah Barthel, with their electronic music and evenly paced, mechanic beats, was quite a departure from most of the music I had been hearing at South by. Barthel’s voice glimmers and slides easily along synths and front-and-center guitar (“You Are the Ocean” is especially poignant, and their album, Eyelid Movies, is  emotive, electronic bliss). All the way from the UK, Lovvers, while somewhat awkward in appearance, performed punky, poppy songs that settled into your bones.

Fader Fort: Local Natives & Freelance Whales

On two separate days, I caught Freelance Whales and Local Natives, both on NYC’s French Kiss label. The former is a cheery indie band from none other than Queens, although their music seems much sunnier (and less cynical). Poppy and sugary-sweet, female member Doris Cellar (who also makes solo music) played a traditional wooden harmonium sitting on a drum seat, which she pumped and played while also manning a bass guitar. Freelance Whales makes use of a wide array of other odd instruments, such as a waterphone, bing carbon telephones, and glockenspiel, to create their humbly and charming pop songs, which they take turns singing, or sometimes emit together.

Local Natives are a very cool Los Angeles based five-piece with Afro-beat elements, soulful vocals, and a slight Paul Simon undercurrent, but they’re also very tuned into sounds emerging throughout the country’s indie underground…this idea of turning back time and becoming more organic, more inspired, almost tribal. Songs such as “Sun Hands” and “Airplanes” definitely stand out.

Primo's Showcase, on a windy day

Primo’s provided a steady stream of music, with bands performing both inside the bar and outside under the tent that threatened to fall down due to winds.

I caught The Name, a fun and engaging three-piece who sounded like Nirvana gone Brazilian; Beach Fossils, a Cali-tastic (but actually from Brooklyn) band of neo-hippies, the longest-haired member of which ecstatically banged drums to up the ante of their ’60s garage dreaminess; When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, a seven-member band of mostly bearded dudes in winter hats who are so grunge it hurts in the best way possible, and with almost everyone in the band on guitar; and DD/MM/YYYY from Canada, who were so hardcore about playing their punky-synthy-delightfully cacophonous music that one of the keyboardists literally smashed his face into the keys. And a saxophone was also a welcome accessory to the riot!

words&photos by a.dupcak.

If I were going to SXSW....

I wish I were going to SXSW again...so this post and the next few will likely be dedicated to some SXSW-related things for all of you guys who are hanging or trekking there as we speak! Now, I'm fortunate to live in a city where the majority of bands come through on a fairly regular basis, but there's something special about seeing a band play in a fort, or a backyard, or a rooftop, or a barn, or a killer venue in downtown Austin. So, if you are indeed going, do me a favor and check out some of these bands....

If I were going to SXSW, I would see:

[in no particular order, * indicates that I've seen them before, at SXSW or otherwise, and can therefore vouch for their abilities...and please report back if you do go see these bands!]

Grandchildren *

Judgment Day

The Kills

No Joy *

Gold Panda *

Suuns *

We Are Hex

A Place to Bury Strangers *

Weekend *

Yuck

The Black Lips
Bodega Girls *

Indian Jewelry *

This Will Destroy You

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth *

The Soft Moon *

Kurt Vile

Julianna Barwick *

Goes Cube *
Zola Jesus

Japanther *

O'Death

MNDR

JEFF the Brotherhood *

Phantogram *

OMD

The Joy Formidable

Screaming Females *

Esben and the Witch

Grouplove

Naam *

Dom

Fences

[picture of A Place to Bury Strangers playing SxSW in 2008 by a.dupcak]