Monday, January 28, 2008

 

R.E.M. Tourdates



Looks I need to start getting my vacation days in order...



R.E.M. TO TOUR NORTH AMERICA IN SUPPORT OF ACCELERATE


R.E.M. will tour North America this May and June in support of Accelerate, their new record which is set to be released on April 1. The band will be joined on the North American tour by Modest Mouse and The National. Please stay tuned to remhq.com for more details.





May

23--Vancouver--Deer Lake Park
29--Los Angeles--Hollywood Bowl
31--Berkeley--The Greek Theatre

June

03--Denver--Red Rocks Amphitheatre
06--Chicago--United Center
08--Toronto--Molson Amphitheatre
10--Raleigh--Walnut Creek Amphitheatre
11--Washington, DC--Merriweather Post Pavilion

13--Boston--Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts
14--Long Island--Jones Beach Theater
18--Philadelphia--Mann Center for the Performing Arts
19--New York City--TBA
21--Atlanta--Lakewood Amphitheatre

Thursday, January 24, 2008

 

Geezer Rock In Silver Spring


Tru Fax and the Insaniacs - one of the original DC punk/new wave bands from back-in-the-day - is playing a rare gig Friday night. In Silver Spring, no less!

Tru Fax is one of those bands that was seemingly always around - back before the earliest days of the old 9:30 Club. They're kind of punk - kind of new wave - all kinds of fun. They don't play out a lot, so see 'em while you can.








They're playing as part of a "Geezer Punk Weekend" at The Quarry House Tavern.

Coming up on Saturday at QHT is 7 Door Sedan, Ottley and Rambling Shadows. 7 Door Sedan features Glenn (aka "Jake Whipp" of White Boy fame). Ottley features a couple of Slickees (one current/one ex-) and Rambling Shadows features former members of Trenchmouth/Crippled Pilgrims. That's some prime old-school DC name dropping right there.

But seriously - It's gonna be a fun time no matter which night you show up. It's not often we get this kind of goodness out here in the burbs. Get it while you can.

"How's the Quarry House?" you ask? Awesome. It's a killer pub in downtown Silver Spring. The real downtown Silver Spring - not the "new and improved" Silver Spring. All you need to know is that they have tons of great beers and Old Bay tater tots. And a great jukebox. And great live bands!

DC Rocks has a nice write-up about these shows (and lots of other cool stuff, too). Check that out.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

 

Thursday at The Black Cat Backstage:

Olivia Mancini & the Housemates (cd release)
Donny Hue & the Colors
Order*


Olivia rules. Come to the Black Cat tonight and check out her band and pick up a spiffy new cd.

(* The Black Cat website has these guys listed as "Order of the Dying Orchid", but links to the myspace page of "Order (c) Forever" The poster for the show just says "Order". Who knows what they're called. Go early and find out.)

Thursday, January 17, 2008

 

Here It Comes...

The snow has begun. We're either going to get a city-stopping deluge or a craptastic mix of snow, sleet and rain. All I know is it better not f-ck up my chances of seeing The Rosebuds tonight. They were a blast last time. I've been looking forward to their return for a while. I'll be pissed if the weather keeps me away.

Editors were really good the other night. They have a great bombastic sound that's a bit overpowering at times. Amazing light show and more than a few rockstar poses. Very entertaining. The singer is quite the bundle of energy. About an hour, including the encore. Normally I'd say that was a bit short, but to be honest, I was starting to get bored by the end. The songs all started to sound the same to me after a while. Good show though.

Hot Hot Heat was pretty forgettable. Not bad. Not great. Eh. I think quite a few people were there to see them though. I got there just as they came on and the place was already packed all the way to the back. sheesh. It actually cleared out a tiny bit when Editors came on. That helped a bit.


I'm determined to get the remainder of my cds into iTunes this week. I'm down to the last 50 or so. So close...

MAL (probably nsfw) this weekend. Not sure what our plans are, if we even bother going. We usually get a room downtown for the weekend, but we didn't do that this year. We'll see what happens.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

 

Random New Year Stuff

Yeah - I'm still here. There's just nothing too exciting going on.

Xmas was nice. Our families are local, so we didn't have to travel anywhere. We just combine our families for one day and we're done. No choosing between families. No travel hassles. We're in our own bed at the end of the day. We even got to hang out with friends for late-night drinks on Xmas night. We get the best of both worlds - friends and family. Perfect.

New Year's was nice and quiet. We went to a small party with friends. I have no desire to fight the crowds of people who go out twice a year. Cover charges, expensive drinks and crowds of annoying people? No thanks. I'll take a quiet night with my friends over that and day.

Not much in the way of shows recently, but that's picking up. Patti Smith was fantastic - as usual. We caught The Slickee Boys in Baltimore. Not my favorite Slickee show. Too many opening bands in a town where the bars close too early. I doubt they played for an hour before the lights were up and they were throwing us out. Still - The Slickees are always fun. And as much as I like The Ottobar, it takes about 5 seconds inside to remember how much I hate smoke. Thank God for the smoking ban in DC.

A little family drama prevented me from seeing the big "30 Years Over DC" show with 9353, Rustbuckit and others. I was pretty annoyed by that, but family comes first. I hate eating tickets though. And I hear Dan from the Slickees even showed up to sing "Eighteen". Damn. He didn't even show up at the Slickee Boys show. Oh well...

I finally renewed my emusic subscription. Money was a bit tight for a while, so I dropped it for a bit. It's nice that they kept my account info. All my settings, download history and "Save For Later" items are still there. Any suggestions for downloads?

Editors tonight. The last time they were here I had a ticket, but the Hoodoo Gurus announced a show that same night. I chose the Gurus. Definitely the right choice, but another ticket went unused. I really liked the Editors when I saw them in 2006. I'm looking forward to this one.

Rosebuds Thursday with Carol Bui. Get there early.

R.E.M. is playing SXSW this year. If I could be guaranteed to get in, I'd be there in a heartbeat. I don't want to risk going all the way to Texas, then not get in. Yeah - SXSW would be fun anyway - but I'd be crushed knowing R.E.M. was playing in town and I couldn't go. Maybe they'll do Coachella. Hopefully, they'll announce a real tour soon. New record Accelerate comes out on 4/1. They have an interesting promo site that changes every day. Check it out.

Dinger is out of town way too much these days. That'll probably translate to more shows for me this year, but I wish he was home more.

hmmm....that's it. Maybe I'll do the required year-in-review thing later. Maybe not.

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?