Thursday, August 21, 2003

Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Radiohead (08.20.03)

the Band: Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Radiohead
the Date: Wednesday August 20, 2003
the Venue: Merriweather Post Pavilion (Columbia, MD)


(Photo credit to ComandZed and her Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/people/zara/)

Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks was the opening act. They were cool. I missed part of their set.

This was the first time I’d ever seen Radiohead in concert and it was AMAZING! The band consists of Thom Yorke (lvocals/guitar/piano), Jonny Greenwood (guitar/keyboard), Ed O'Brien (guitar), Colin Greenwood (bass), and Phil Selway (drums). I really got into them in college and must have played The Bends a million times.

Everything they played was fantastic and they chose a great setlist. Naturally, they played lots of tracks from Hail to the Thief such as 2+2=5, Sit Down Stand Up, Sail to the Moon, Go To Sleep, Where I End and You Begin, We Suck Young Blood, There There, I Will, Myxomatosis, and Wolf at the Door. Yikes, that was almost the whole album! They played a few classics from Amnesiac (Pyramid Song, You and Whose Army, and Dollars and Cents) and Kid A (Everything in Its Right Place, The National Anthem, How to Disappear Completely, and Idioteque). They also played some great O.K. Computer tunes(Airbag, Paranoid Android, and No Surprises). Man, they did all of these so well! And from The Bends they only played only Just, but that is one amazing tune. Surprisingly, they even played Creep from Pablo Honey. Nice!

All in all, the music was the closest to perfect any human could ever make. Each band member is really, really good at what he does. I still can’t believe that they were making such beautiful sound right in front of my eyes totally live! When they finished the second encore with Everything in Its Right Place, and as everyone slowly made their way off stage, Johnny remained, jamming out on his odd collection of self-designed musical devices, until he too made his way off, letting the magic of the beat carry the audience home. Awesome!

The complete setlist: The Gloaming / 2+2=5 / Sit Down, Stand Up / Where I End and You Begin / Airbag / Pyramid Song / Paranoid Android / A Wolf at the Door / Sail to the Moon / You and Whose Army? / There There / Go to Sleep / Dollars & Cents / We Suck Young Blood / Idioteque / Creep / The National Anthem / ENCORE 1 / I Will / Myxomatosis / Just / How to Disappear Completely / ENCORE 2 / No Surprises / Everything In Its Right Place

Delicious, delicious, delicious (Thom’s opening words to the crowd) . . .

Saturday, August 9, 2003

Rockmaster General, French Kicks, the Walkmen (08.08.03)

the Band: Rockmaster General, French Kicks, the Walkmen
the Date: Friday August 8, 2003
the Venue: Black Cat (DC)


(Photo credit to David Loomer and his Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/people/kidneybingos/)

Rockmaster General was the opening act. They are a local DC band. I completely missed their set.

French Kicks were next. They were great. The French Kicks are Nick Stumpf (vocal/drums), Lawrence Stumpf (bass), Matthew Stinchcomb (vocal/guitar), and Josh Wise (vocal/ guitar). All but Josh grew up in DC … so even though the band got together in New York, they are kind of a DC band.  I really liked their tune Wrong Side and picked up a couple of their CDs at the merch table.

The Walkmen were the main attraction. The band, made up of Hamilton Leithauser (vocals/guitar),Walter Martin (organ/bass), Paul Maroon (guitar), Matt Barrick (drums), and Peter Bauer (orga/ bass), are all natives of the DC area and have known one another and made music together since childhood (Walter and Hamilton are cousins). Walter, Paul and Matt were in a New York band called Jonathan Fire*Eater while Hamilton and Peter were in a DC band called the Recoys. Each band had a relatively short existence before the boys formed the Walkmen. So long story short, these guys are hometown boys too!

I was really looking forward to seeing these guys. I love their album Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone. This was a great show. My favorite tunes of the evening were Blizzard of ‘96, Wake Up, and We’ve Been Had (used extensively in a Saturn commercial - still love the song though).


Sometimes I’m just happy I’m older …