May 12 - The Dad in Common and Fog

The Dad in Common

I would describe The Dad in Common as the perfect band to open for Akron/Family. Oh wait…they did open for Akron/Family – I just got to the venue too late. I still managed to buy their EP at the show, though. After I took it home and listened to it, I was kicking myself. Show up for the opening bands, dammit!

Well, I still missed the opening band (The Deaf) at yesterday’s Turf Club show, but at least The Dad in Common were headlining this time around (it was their CD release show). To make matters even better, Fog also played!

Fog is amazing live. Seriously. Fog is amazing live. Seriously.

If anyone can follow Fog, it’s The Dad in Common. They put on a spectacular show. I know I wasn’t the only one who thought so – I hadn’t seen such a lively audience at a local show in a long time. Yeah!


Fog

Archives:
Fog @ The Cedar Cultural Center: October 15, 2005

May 6 - Elf Power

Elf Power

Not only did I make it from The Haves Have It show to the Entry in time to see Elf Power, I also managed to catch fellow Elephant 6ers, The Instruments. Even though, at least on tour, The Instruments feature most of the same musicians as Elf Power, they are nowhere near as poppy as Elf Power. In fact, they’re kinda depressing. Oh well, good enough for me.

Elf Power was great. It didn’t matter that there were far less people at the Entry than there were at The Haves Have It show; Elf Power played as if it were a sold-out venue. I’ve been lucking out with these Elephant 6 bands recently (The Essex Green was the previous weekend). What am I going to do next weekend without my psych-drenched indie pop?


Andrew Rieger of Elf Power


The Instruments

May 6 - The Haves Have It

The Haves Have It

The Haves Have It are so awesome that I’d risk missing Elf Power to see them. Their show at the Triple Rock was the first for new drummer, Kelly. He definitely seemed to be a nice fit.

So nice to see them back in action. Check out their brand-new website. Ooh, looks like they just listed some new shows on their myspace too. I’ll be there for sure.


The Haves Have It

(By the way, I made it over to the Elf Power show with plenty of time to spare).

Archives:
The Haves Have It @ The 7th Street Entry: February 10, 2006
The Haves Have It @ The Triple Rock: January 22, 2006
The Haves Have It @ Dino Porno #3
The Haves Have It @ Club Underground: December 14, 2005
The Haves Have It @ The Triple Rock: September 15, 2005
The Haves Have It @ The Triple Rock: August 12, 2005
The Haves Have It @ The 7th Street Entry: July 9, 2005
The Haves Have It @ house party: May 21, 2005

April 29 - The Essex Green

The Essex Green

The NYC wing of the Elephant 6 collective, in the form of The Essex Green, paid us a long-overdue visit last month. And just as I expected, they were awesome.

The Turf Club, however, continued its questionable tradition of pairing touring bands with inappropriate local acts. Don’t get me wrong, Luke’s Angels and The Deaths are just fine on their own. But the audience was really looking forward to some good ol' indie pop. And placing The Essex Green in the middle of the lineup probably wasn’t the wisest decision either.

It was interesting, I will say, to see Nicole Kalodrich and Cody Horton playing with Luke’s Angels (they were Jean Angel and Faux Wayne, respectively, of Faux Jean’s old linuep). I was kind of wondering where they had gotten off to. Oh, and The Deaths are cool because they gave me a shirt. Thanks.


Luke's Angels


The Deaths

April 22 - Ladytron

Ladytron

Yep, I saw Ladytron at First Avenue. I don’t know if I spent more time dancing or more time yawning. Actually, I’ve finally perfected what I call the yawn-dance. Check it out; all the kids are doing it these days.

My favorite part was when Ladytron had some show-stopping technical difficulties, and they had to leave the stage for a while because they ran out of small talk. At least the opening band, The Presets, didn’t notice or didn’t care about their own technical difficulties – that seemed to work out for them.


The Presets

April 20 - Death Cab for Ferdinand

Rainbow outside of Northrop Auditorium on the U of M campus

Wow, up in the balcony of Northrop Auditorium, I feel very…disconnected. Very different experience compared to the last time I saw Death Cab for Cutie. And I had never seen Franz Ferdinand before, so I feel I might have missed out a little. I guarantee, however, that opening act, The Cribs, would have been 100 times better at the Entry. Well, I suppose Franz Ferdinand and Death Cab fared pretty well given the conditions.


Death Cab for Cutie


Franz Ferdinand


The Cribs

March 28 - Art Brut

Art Brut

It was nice of Art Brut to come all the way from England to play the Entry, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to spend $20.00 for their album. I know the pound is stronger than the dollar these days, but c’mon, this is ridiculous! Their album has been domestically distributed for a while now; I can find a new copy in stores for much less than $20.00. I didn’t think I’d ever live to see the day when bands started charging $20.00 for CDs at shows. Disgusting!

Art Brut is just lucky they put on a good show. Their performance was just about as silly as their album prices. But as silly as they were, they were completely upstaged (in terms of silliness) by the opening act – a couple of brothers from Ohio known as Gil Mantera’s Party Dream. Cheesy music and nuuudity! They were freakin’ hilarious.


Gil Mantera's Party Dream


Gil Mantera's Party Dream

March 25 - The Cloud Room

The Cloud Room

On to the 400 Bar for another so-so performance by Matt Jennings, and then a so-so performance by The Cloud Room. I think I like The Cloud Room, but their set didn’t really convince me one way or the other.

Archives:
Matt Jennings @ The 400 Bar: August 23, 2005

March 12 - Belle & Sebastian

Belle & Sebastian

Instead of writing pages and pages on Belle & Sebastian (perhaps the greatest band to ever exist), I’ll just post some pictures of their show with The New Pornographers at the Orpheum. I will say this, though – if you don’t appreciate their new stuff, you just need to see them perform it live for it to make sense. That’s how I was able to get into Dear Catastrophe Waitress in 2003, and that’s how I recently learned to value The Life Pursuit. If you don’t appreciate their old stuff…well, you’re just ignorant.

Speaking of old stuff, it’s hard to believe that Belle & Sebastian have been around for a decade. Throughout those ten years, they have built up the strongest catalogue of any functioning band in indie rock (save The Magnetic Fields), and they do an excellent job of spanning that catalogue when they play live. I was really impressed with their ability to mix their old songs with their new songs and make it sound so natural. They even threw in some left-field surprises, like “Electronic Renaissance” (when I saw them at Coachella 2002, someone requested “Electronic Renaissance” and Stuart Murdoch laughed it off as if it were the most ridiculous plea he had ever heard).


Belle & Sebastian

The New Pornographers were great too, but they seemed so insignificant in the opening slot. Hopefully I’ll be able to see them headline someday. Even a Canadian super group pales in comparison to Belle & Sebastian.


The New Pornographers

March 11 - Akron/Family

Akron/Family

Akron/Family never ceases to amaze me. It was good to see that their fan base had tripled since the last time they played the Entry. I arrived in time to see local band, The Field, open. Awesome.


The Field

Archives:
Akron/Family @ The 7th Street Entry: September 24, 2005