the importance of the 3/4 time signature
[i'm reposting this b/c i originally wrote late last night and left a bunch of stuff out]
just got home to my bro's phat bachelor pad from the cake show. he shares a house with the guitarist in his band, and it houses their music studio. tons of music equipment, band posters, and maxim calendars. flippin' sweet.
cake rocked the hizouse. the celebrity theater is such an intimate setting--it's built in the round, with the stage in the middle, and seats about 2,500 people. we somehow snagged spots (it was general admission) near the sound board, 30 feet from the stage, almost dead center.
as we walk in, i notice a sign stating 'no cameras.' many arenas post this sign but really mean no videotaping and no professional grade cameras. point and click and cell phones are ok. but the bitch at the turnstile says i can give her my batteries or take it back to the car. fuck (yeah yeah, i know she's just doing her job). she claims that while they were not making people leave their cell phones behind, they would kick anyone out caught using them to take pics.
so no pics from what would have have been a sweet place to get some. some people just don't get it. take pictures and sharing them with friends is a *major* part of the concert going experience for many folks (like me). i was seriously bummed.
tegan and sara opened the show. two sisters from calgary with cool shag haircuts. big lesbian following, even though they are apparantly not. kind of like the indigo girls without the rug licking or the whiny G-C-D-Dsus4 chord progressions. pretty good songs, nice voices, but the songs started to sound the same after four cuts. all 14 canadians who live in the greater phoenix area were there to voice their support. btw, while we're the topic, man oh man, the liberals really must have fucked themselves to allow the people's republic of canadeeya to elect a conservative prime minister. he doesn't actually sound all that bad to me (but then again, i think canada could learn a few things from the states, while we could learn some things from them), but if gets gee-dub's support, that worries me.
ok, back to the show.
cake was perfect for the setting. they play really, really slowly and really, really quietly but somehow still rock.
john mccrea IS cake. he fired all of the members of the original band a few years ago and seemingly replaced them with four guys from a georgia perimeter college. but you would never know the difference, b/c 1) they're great musicians 2) mccrea owns the stage. the band is really just an extension of his personality. in fact, his on-stage banter sounds just like the song lyrics, in word choice and intonation. it's weird. mccrea is really detached, at one point telling the audience members who were yelling out song requests (my paraphrasing), "this isn't about you, it's about us. we're going to pick the songs." however, he does an amazing job of engaging the audience. the whole crowd was singing harmonies on three separate songs, and sang along with the words to the hits. the fine folks of phoenix have some nice voices. not many people can lament to the audience about the significance of the disappearance of the 3/4 time signature from pop music and still be likable.
cake is one of those bands, like weezer, that makes no pretense about what its best songs are--i think they appreciate that if their fans like a song, then it's worth playing. although the latest cake album is solid, they played only one song off it; they played a shit ton of songs from fashion nugget (the classic that put them on the map). i think they get away with it easier b/c they just got out of their major label contract with columbia. maccrea commented, "don't expect to hear our songs on the radio, tv or movies anytime soon, or ever" (my paraphrasing).
they played all the hits and then some. only missing song that i would have liked to hear was 'rick james.' opening the show with 'i will survive' and 'frank sinatra' showed where the band's heart is--fashion nugget. 'short skirt/long jacket' and 'the distance' showed up in encore.
just got home to my bro's phat bachelor pad from the cake show. he shares a house with the guitarist in his band, and it houses their music studio. tons of music equipment, band posters, and maxim calendars. flippin' sweet.
cake rocked the hizouse. the celebrity theater is such an intimate setting--it's built in the round, with the stage in the middle, and seats about 2,500 people. we somehow snagged spots (it was general admission) near the sound board, 30 feet from the stage, almost dead center.
as we walk in, i notice a sign stating 'no cameras.' many arenas post this sign but really mean no videotaping and no professional grade cameras. point and click and cell phones are ok. but the bitch at the turnstile says i can give her my batteries or take it back to the car. fuck (yeah yeah, i know she's just doing her job). she claims that while they were not making people leave their cell phones behind, they would kick anyone out caught using them to take pics.
so no pics from what would have have been a sweet place to get some. some people just don't get it. take pictures and sharing them with friends is a *major* part of the concert going experience for many folks (like me). i was seriously bummed.
tegan and sara opened the show. two sisters from calgary with cool shag haircuts. big lesbian following, even though they are apparantly not. kind of like the indigo girls without the rug licking or the whiny G-C-D-Dsus4 chord progressions. pretty good songs, nice voices, but the songs started to sound the same after four cuts. all 14 canadians who live in the greater phoenix area were there to voice their support. btw, while we're the topic, man oh man, the liberals really must have fucked themselves to allow the people's republic of canadeeya to elect a conservative prime minister. he doesn't actually sound all that bad to me (but then again, i think canada could learn a few things from the states, while we could learn some things from them), but if gets gee-dub's support, that worries me.
ok, back to the show.
cake was perfect for the setting. they play really, really slowly and really, really quietly but somehow still rock.
john mccrea IS cake. he fired all of the members of the original band a few years ago and seemingly replaced them with four guys from a georgia perimeter college. but you would never know the difference, b/c 1) they're great musicians 2) mccrea owns the stage. the band is really just an extension of his personality. in fact, his on-stage banter sounds just like the song lyrics, in word choice and intonation. it's weird. mccrea is really detached, at one point telling the audience members who were yelling out song requests (my paraphrasing), "this isn't about you, it's about us. we're going to pick the songs." however, he does an amazing job of engaging the audience. the whole crowd was singing harmonies on three separate songs, and sang along with the words to the hits. the fine folks of phoenix have some nice voices. not many people can lament to the audience about the significance of the disappearance of the 3/4 time signature from pop music and still be likable.
cake is one of those bands, like weezer, that makes no pretense about what its best songs are--i think they appreciate that if their fans like a song, then it's worth playing. although the latest cake album is solid, they played only one song off it; they played a shit ton of songs from fashion nugget (the classic that put them on the map). i think they get away with it easier b/c they just got out of their major label contract with columbia. maccrea commented, "don't expect to hear our songs on the radio, tv or movies anytime soon, or ever" (my paraphrasing).
they played all the hits and then some. only missing song that i would have liked to hear was 'rick james.' opening the show with 'i will survive' and 'frank sinatra' showed where the band's heart is--fashion nugget. 'short skirt/long jacket' and 'the distance' showed up in encore.
posted by Wintermute at 3:11 AM
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