Dumbek's Random Stuff

Phase two of the R.E.M. ticket buying experience was a complete bust-a-rooni. Tickets made available for the "online community presale" appeared to be the leftovers from the fanclub presale. Jones Beach tickets were further back than the worst I saw on Tuesday. I found zero tickets available for Philly. None. Zippy. I have my doubts there were even any available for Philly, part 2. Anyhoo - I'll try again Saturday, when they go on sale at TicketBastard.

This, however, is quite entertaining:






In other news...The A Place To Bury Strangers/Holy Fuck show was outstanding. APTBS lived up to their loud reputation and then some. They almost sounded as if The Jesus and Mary Chain, Joy Division, Velvet Underground and every band that ever ripped any of them off were all on stage playing simultaneously and turned up to 11. They played in total darkness, except for the videos that were projected directly onto them, and the light that was reflected by the smoke that filled the room (from their smoke-machine, of course). They friggin' slayed. Add them to my "must see again" list. And they were just the opening act.

Holy Fuck had a tough act to follow, but held their own in a big way. I had my doubts about them. I had the impression they were one of those laptop-bands that just stand around and press "play" a lot. Nope. They had lots of gadgets, cheap keyboards, some wacky thing that appeared to take strips of film and create noises - all kinds of noisy crap - and drums and a bass player. They brought the rock. They're very much a real band - albeit not the typical guitar/drum/bass setup. They rocked. We danced. They kicked ass. I didn't envy them coming on after APTBS, but they were terrific in a completely different way.

Sons and Daughters were up next. Or so I hear. I got more than my money's worth by this time and opted to go home and sleep.

Jens Lekman was last night. I fully admit I went to this show solely because everyone else said how great he was last time. I downloaded his latest and while it was cute, I wasn't terribly excited about it. But you know what? His show was terrific. Incredibly endearing, fun to watch, great stories and nice, toe-tapping, sing-along (and whistle-along) goodness. He's like the Swedish Jonathan Richman with a string section. The hipsters may be onto something here.