Upcoming/Recent Shows

Great show all around last night with The National, The War on Drugs, and Lucius! Walked in the venue right at Lucius was playing "Dusty Trails". I've seen them two or three times before and their voices are always so captivating. I was disappointed to have arrived late for their set.

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The War on Drugs were next. Adam was LOOSE. Like, "did he have too much to drink tonight?" levels of loose. But man, does the band sound sooooo good. My 5th time seeing them. Obligatory feature with Lucius for "I Don't Live Here Anymore".

Edit: Holy shit I just listened to their new live album and it was almost an exact replica of the energy. I take it all back. He's just that much more energized and jazzed to perform these days. You love to see it!
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The National was actually more subdued than I remember them. It's been 5 years since they last crossed my path. Matt's voice sounded better than the last time too. Not 1 song from Laugh Track, but 4 from First Two Pages. Played Rylan with Lucius and a cover of "Bring On The Dancing Horses" with Adam from The War On Drugs. Still trying to get my high school alma mater to induct Matt into their Fine Arts Hall of Fame. My 7th time seeing them.
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After a bit of a dry spell of buying tixs, I bought three tonight! Upcoming in the next month are a local band called DOOM GONG (seriously check them out, it's their vinyl release party this Friday), Lightning Bolt, and Mannequin Pussy. These are all at small venues, so it should be a blast.
Going to try and be at that Lightning Bolt show too! Bring earplugs!
 
Busy weekend.

Vampire Weekend #2 on Friday. They played 9/10 songs from the new album and a bunch of covers on request as their encore.

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Bourbon and Beyond yesterday. Only attended one of the 4 days of the festival this year, but caught Sunny Day Real Estate, Beach Boys (or at least the Mike Love cover band), War on Drugs #5, The National #4, and hometown homies My Morning Jacket #2, almost exactly 10 years after the last time. Those last 3 felt especially fantastic this time around.Tyler Childers was the headliner, who I like but don't love. Had been standing for 8hrs so we hoofed ot outta there. V sleepy today.

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Cornelius ~ Music Box San Diego 9/20/24

I've seen a lot of shows, and this one was easily in the top 20.

Money Mark kicked things off with a fun set, including Biz Markie's full version of Bennie and the Jets. He had a homebrew drum machine that was pretty cool.

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While I was familiar with Cornelius' music, I wasn't familiar with his live show. He and the band were incredibly tight with a immersive audio/video performance, replicating the complex time changes / mashups and syncing up perfectly with unique visualizations per song. Venue was probably 1/2 full, which was a shame given it was the first time (that I'm aware of) that he played San Diego, and his generally infrequent US Tour schedule. He has a few more shows on this West Coast (LA / Berkeley / Portland / Seattle) run this week, would definitely recommend going if you are on the fence.

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Got to see Xiu Xiu for a second time last night. About as enjoyable as last time; very. Xiu Xiu multi-instrumentalist Angela Seo was at the venue early and took care of a few preshow merch sales; she signed my Girl With Basket of Fruit I brought from home. Initially didn't want any merch. I also helped to take a group photo of four people right before I was up in line.


Jenny Haniver

PDX opener duo. Experimental gothic rock with post-rock leanings. Enjoyable, but the music really could be elevated with a live drummer.

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Xiu Xiu

They played tunes from across the wide run of their discography, with a handful of tunes from their upcoming record 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto With Bison Horn Grips. Very noisy, avantgarde, singular, yet controlled. Enjoyed everything they played.

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Last song of the night "Get Up" from Forget:




Post show

Got to briefly meet Jamie after and have Girl With Basket of Fruit signed, my lone Xiu Xiu record that I've owned for over five years. Merch line was intense; was waiting for close to an hour. Didn't get any other merch as they ran out of the shirt design I wanted in my size, and their Twin Peaks record sold out sometime during the merch sales. Said my thanks to both Jamie and Angela and took off.

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Saw billy woods and Kenny Segal in Portland last night. Fourth time seeing woods overall.

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Second time seeing him; he opened for Armand Hammer the first time I saw him perform. He's now a member of the Backwoodz Studioz roster and dropped an album titled Different Type Time earlier this year.
Fun performance. Got us involved in a few call-and-response bits.

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billy woods and Kenny Segal

Kenny Segal stepped onstage alone and played beats for ~5min on his mixers. A mixture of abstract instrumentals, and spiritual jazz in the mix. Shortly after, woods joined onstage and thanking us for coming out to the fifth anniversary tour of Hiding Places. They performed most of Hiding Places (beginning with "Spongebob"), a handful of selections from Maps (closing with "Soft Landing"), and a pair of Aethiopes tracks.
Stellar all around. I learned that woods wrote "Hangman" from Maps during a random visit to Portland last year.

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Opener to Hiding Places "Spongebob" set the mood right:



Post show

Like before with any show that he is involved in, merch line was cluttered. It took ~45min to get to the table from where I started. Eventually got to the front where there was enough of the Hiding Places reissue to go around. To my surprise, woods remembered my face from the last few times I've seen him, all at the same venue. I could've cried right then and there 🥺 Merch table was the Hiding Places repress and a new t-shirt design. Opted for just the LP, after seeing tees were the same price. Segal and woods would sign records after all of the purchases were completed, and there was a convenient area in the bar/lounge to chill while waiting for the remaining ~20 people to complete merch purchases. After, got my Maps, Aethiopes, his part of We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, and newly acquired Hiding Places records inked. Chatted for about a minute, and I also learned from Kenny Segal that when he was a teen, he used to make beats in Mario Paint during sleepovers when no one was awake 😂
Elated to have these be a part of my small signed library.

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Not recent at all, but I was backing up my photos from concerts and dug up a show I caught back in 2018.

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I'll be catching Chappell Roan at a festival at the end of the month.
Nevermind, she just pulled out of the festival for mental health reasons. For the record, the festival is tomorrow.
 
Got back from Maryland yesterday after spending the weekend attending All Things Go. I'm still recovering from spending way too much time on my feet.

Julien Baker
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Bleachers
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Laufey with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra
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MUNA (last-minute replacement for Chappell Roan)
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Reneé Rapp
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Hozier
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Last Blossom show of the season tonight. Finished it off with Post Malone, who's gone country with his latest album. Played a bunch from the new record and also reimagined the hits to be twanged up a notch with the live country backing band. You hear what a nice guy Postie is, and after heading how gracious and thankful he was tonight, I believe it. After last Blossom season was extraordinarily wet weather-wise, this was the first show all summer to have prolonged downpours.

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The first opener was Dan Spencer, a kind of folk-country punk.
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Next was Muscadine Bloodline. Really enjoyed their brand of country. Think I would see them again.
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Got back from Maryland yesterday after spending the weekend attending All Things Go. I'm still recovering from spending way too much time on my feet.

Julien Baker
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Bleachers
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Laufey with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra
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MUNA (last-minute replacement for Chappell Roan)
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Reneé Rapp
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Hozier
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Went to this fest in 2021, and it was really fun. Adored the venue and really wish it wasn't such a pain to get to from where I am.
 
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