Thursday, September 20, 2007

Ketchup

Welcome to my blog...a little late to jump on the bandwagon, yes, but better late than never, right? This is basically a rumination of the cultural side of my life in NYC, which is one of the main reasons I moved here in the first place.





Ok, let's get things started...





Kicking off with my weekend of music September 7-10. Accompanying me to all concerts this weekend was my good friend Gregg. First off, Friday night: Damien Rice at the WaMu Theater at MSG. Let's discuss this venue: first impression was very nice--they lobby was spacious, the bathrooms were numerous, and we didn't have to wait in long, tedious lines to enter either MSG or the theater. Then, then theater itself: did this place use to be a roller skate rink? The lights illuminating the ceiling were 70's-tastic, and coupled with the glowing ornaments put in everyone's liquor-based drinks made me wonder when, exactly, couples skate started. Once Damien entered (no opener), the ceiling lights were turned off and thankfully the drink lights weren't too strong. I'm just going to preface this reaction to Damien's show with the note that I saw him live in a smaller theater in Madison, WI a few years ago (the Barrymore, for those who are interested). At this show, Damien blew away all expectations any couples attending had for a cozy acoustic performance and make-out session. He literally assaulted the audience with an electric jam-band mentality, essentially challenging everyone who came to hear "Cannonball" to stay in their seats. Personally, I was pleasantly surprised--a much more challenging, interesting show than I expected; however, I was pretty exhausted by the time it was done. Going to the show at MSG, I was already tired before he even came on stage (long week); add to that not only a harder sound (expected) but a light show that challenged the audience to look at him directly, and Gregg and I were ready to leave when he left the stage, pre-encore.



The following evening took us to Webster Hall--not my favorite venue, but one that I'm apparently going to be spending a lot of time at this fall season judging by their line-up. We went to see Midlake, a recommendation of our friends Jess and Dave. Due to a Modest Mouse show, the venue was pretty empty, which was actually nice--easy to meander up to the stage and no fear that if you go to the bar your place will be lost forever. The band was good--count me in amongst the new fans (and they're cute to boot!). Looking forward to their upcoming album; everything they played that was new was great.



Sunday we took the night off but come Monday night we were back at Webster for a sold-out Frames show. This is one of my favorite live bands--and word has steadily been growing (helped, no doubt, by Glen's terrific performance in the movie "Once"). I've been seeing them live since 2002, and they were as good as ever. Gregg was new to the band and their performances, and he's a convert now! For the encore, Glen brought his "Once" co-star Marketa Irglova on stage and they sang some of the songs from the movie soundtrack, which was great. I like Marketa's voice, but sometimes I wish she had a bit more strength behind it--it works for the movie, but I think it only works sometimes live . Anyway, apparently they are touring this fall--they will be in NYC November 19th, according to a flyer Gregg found at Webster.



So that brings us to the end of post #1. I'll be posting about movies, theatre, etc...really, anything about my life in NYC that I want because, hey, it's my blog.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heyyyy! Look at you with a blog! Maybe I should start one for cooking, because there definitely aren't enough out there on the internets already ;)

Sounds like you're having some good times. Oh and I love the name of the blog, definitely very inspired by my love of all things at cuteoverload.

XOXO

Katie Astoria said...

Hey! Fun blog! I have not yet jumped on the blog bandwagon, although I tried once and it went badly. You should come to Austin for SXSW or ACL Fest. See you next month!