Live Musical Performance Reviews

[stc 1461]

Saturday night at Beerland:

The Boleys- 3 sibling power trio from Florence, TX. Had kind of a Ty Segall psych punk thing going on. Not bad, definitely have potential. 

Teevee- 4 piece from Austin. Droning psych with some good hooks and lots of noise. Will definitely be checking them out again.

Peyote Coyote- Aside from having a great name, they also sound pretty good.  Fuzzed out garage rock with some psych surf sounds mixed in there and good bluesy lead guitar.  

 

 

[4th&Five 41526]

J Roddy at Mohawk tonight. Killed it as usual. The Glorious Sons from Canada opened and were really good as well

[stc 1461]

qotsa at austin360/cota last night. the opening band, wolf alice, was awful. the qotsa set was over 2hrs long and more than half of the songs were drawn from the last 2 albums...so not really an ideal setlist but that's really my only complaint. they sounded great and the light show was simple but effective. their live show has been on another level since drummer, jon theodore, joined the band a few years ago. he definitely adds a new dimension to their sound...and his solo during no one knows was pretty great as far as drum solos go. you can't quit me was the highlight for me, they jammed the shit out that extended outro and i fucking love it when they incorporate the lap steel. wish they would have included at least one song from rated R. 

[4th&Five 41526]

How was the turnout? I got like 5 emails trying to get me to buy tickets. 

[stc 1461]

the pit and the reserved seats were full, but it looked like there was some space on the lawn. 

[stc 1461]

a giant dog- i can see the appeal, but very much not my thing. 

parquet courts- they were good but their set was too long. could have condensed it down to 30 minutes and enjoyed it a lot more. 

ty segall- mostly songs from the new album. i know that's kind of his thing but i wish he would play a few more songs off earlier albums. despite that, it was an excellent show. they are very good at rocking out. definitely enjoyed the lucifer sam cover that they threw into the middle of one of their jams. capacity crowd at stubbs usually means a complete shitshow, but where i was at least everyone was cool. 

[michaelpshayes 417]

Richard Thompson/Jason Isbell in Amarillo last Tuesday ... 

THAT. WAS. AWESOME. 

 

[CooterBrown 18007]

Electric Wizard kick ass. As did Russian Circles. I’d never heard local band The Well andliked them a lot. They’re in the vein of the Black Angels if they were into doom metal. 

[4th&Five 41526]

11 hours ago, michaelpshayes said:

Richard Thompson/Jason Isbell in Amarillo last Tuesday ... 

THAT. WAS. AWESOME. 

 

Picked up a ticket for San Antonio. Too close to miss. 

[stc 1461]

Moondoggies at Radio coffee. Their new album is good. It was a free show and there were only about 10 people in attendance. They're playing there again tonight, y'all check em out. They sounded great, pedal steel was perfect. 

[bluto 4922]

best word that comes to mind with isbell show is professional. Seen him a half dozen times and every time is flawless, just doesn't disappoint 

[4th&Five 41526]

True. Hard to believe that would be the case when I was seeing him in 2007. Or with DBT. 

[CooterBrown 18007]

Ministry and Chelsea Wolfe at Emo’s. My wife asked me to describe CW and I said imagine if Jewell was raised in a coven and feed a steady diet of black metal and satanism to go with her folk music. Anyway, she was awesome. I think her voice gets lost behind all the atmospherics on her albums but it was front and center here. Great stuff. 

Ministry fucking brought it. Best show from them in a few years even if Al needed to glance at a lyric sheet for damn near every song. Burton Bell from Fear Factory co-sang a few of the new songs like Chris Connelly used to do back in the day. Loudest show I’ve been to in years. Even with ear plugs, my ears are ringing today and I can’t hear shit. 

Edited April 29, 2018 by CooterBrown

[CooterBrown 18007]

Last night of Levitation.

Black Angels were great tonight. Ive seen them a dozen times and they were tight as fuck.

Brian Jonestown Massacre was meh. They were better a year ago at Mohawk. Per usual, Anton bitched at the rest of the band for fucking up every other song. 

Annabelle Chairlegs are one of my favorite local bands and it was my first time seeing them live. Check them out, they’re very good. 

[stc 1461]

saturday: 

tweak bird- sibling guitar/drum garage psych duo. very loose and rough around the edges. not bad. 

dead meadow- oozed out their distinctive, slow style of stoner rock. they have a different drummer than the last time i saw them, he has a strange over exaggerated style but i liked his playing better than the last guy. i like their latest album and was hoping to hear a few more songs off that record. good set though. 

vuelveteloca- chilean psych band. they were good but not all that memorable. 

oh sees- one of the best sets of the weekend. tons of energy both from the band and crowd. the two drummers thing is so good. 

sunday: 

wooden shjips- they sounded great. such a chill, smooth droning sound with bursts of guitar. very hypnotic. 

rattlesnake milk- twangy west texas cow punk. they've got a good sound going, looking forward to their album. 

billy king and the bad bad bad- they didn't have a bass player and didn't sound nearly as good without the low end. sounds like they're currently looking for someone to fill that role. 

acid mother's temple- my favorite set of the weekend. crazy japanese men playing self described "extreme trip music". the set ran the gamut from slow spacey drones to complete shredding anarchy. they played their dicks off and it was awesome. also, extremely fucking loud.  

[stc 1461]

16 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

Brian Jonestown Massacre was meh. They were better a year ago at Mohawk. Per usual, Anton bitched at the rest of the band for fucking up every other song. 

that dude is unbearable to listen to, and the main reason i skipped that set.  i don't understand the fascination the black angels have with bjm.  

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13584]

Tia Carrera was great as usual at the Black Heart last night. 

[CooterBrown 18007]

Jack White. It was fine. His last show at Austin Music Hall was much, much better. 

A Giant Dog opened. They’re in the running for the most hyped Austin band that fails to deliver and that’s a long ass list. 

Edited May 3, 2018 by CooterBrown

[stc 1461]

saw jack white last night at austin360/cota. it was a phone free show, they locked up phones in little neoprene pouches that you kept with you and then unlocked at the end of the show. i didn't want to deal with that shit so i left my phone in the car. played about 1/3 white stripes songs and the rest was his solo stuff, i think maybe there was 1 raconteurs song in there. his band consisted of a drummer, bass player, and 2 keyboard players. i thought the 2 keyboards, combined with his guitar tone, made the overall sound a little too heavy on the high end. he played about 20 different guitars over the course of the night. i'm not a big white stripes fan...i thought the full band treatment might change my mind on those songs but it didn't. thought the songs off the new album were a lot better live. he's clearly a talented guy and it was interesting watching them play so many different styles of music, there were moments of greatness but ultimately it left something to be desired. 

[AnotherUTFan 9739]

Neil Young announced a surprise show with Crazy Horse last week that was originally 2 nights in Fresno, but added a 3rd night in Fresno and 2 more in Bakersfield. Unrehearsed, 1st time with Crazy Horse since 2014. Original though brief Crazy Horse member Nils Lofgren on guitar. I got great, 6th row center, seats for the 2nd night.

Never had been to Fresno. What a shit hole. Warner Theater was a fantastic venue though. Really cool.

We drove 3 1/3 hours. The show was great, though a little under-welming. The volume was lower than I'm used to at a rock show, then I realized that at 49, I'm at the younger end of Neil's fan base

They opened with extended versions of a couple songs from the 90s. Neil took about 6 guitar solos per song and I was prepared for long, jam set; but he settled down after that.

Highlights were World on a String, Cortez the Killer, Winterlong, and Cinnamon Girl.

Lowlights were zero lead guitar for Nils - it was a waste to see such a great musician do nothing but try to stay out of Neil's way all night. Then at the end they had some big bird prop come from the rafters, turned out to be an organ for Nils to play while suspended. WTF

Bitching aside, it was a great show and will soon be a great tour as these guys shake off the rust. 4 out of 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 4, 2018 by AnotherUTFan

[stc 1461]

all them witches, mastodon, primus at cota friday night. emptiest i've ever seen that place. lawn was closed off, upper seats were maybe 1/4 full and the lower seats and pit were mostly full.

it's impossible to get to this shit venue by 7:00pm so we missed all but one song of all them witches. they sounded good. 

the sound for mastodon was very muddy. they played lots of stuff off the new album. i've come around on some of those songs, thought steambreather was really good. wish they could've played longer. 

the sound was great for primus. played 4 or 5 old songs then played the entire new album, which clearly nobody gave a shit about. it was basically a 7 song piss break, a fair number of people actually left at that point. then they played some more old tunes. they sounded great, even the new stuff had interesting moments, particularly with claypool on upright bass. 

 

[nolongerU2horn 763]

Courtney Barnett at The Mohawk was good but she started late so 2 songs got cut. She played the full new album start to finish, then 6 old songs. Also bummed it got moved from Saengerrunde Hall.

She sure can shred though. Looking forward to seeing her again in October

 

[stc 1461]

pond at mohawk. australian psych band that shares some of the same members with tame impala. their earlier stuff is a little heavier with some good hooks, their more recent albums have been more pop/synth focused. i wish they would've played more old stuff, they really focused on the newer synth heavy songs. they looked, and to some degree sounded, like they were straight from the 80's. lead singer was very lively and had kind of a david bowie stage presence. had been wanting to see these guys for a while, missed them at sxsw back in 2012 and they haven't been back since. would see again. 

[stc 1461]

the texas gentlemen at white horse. god damn, they tore it up and laid it down. dude on keys is a monster. played a lot of country-blues-funk-jams, they showed some serious range. tx jelly is a damn good album. 

[Slikwille 6]

Braved the unkempt masses and went to Rocklahoma yesterday... Ended up seen Pop Evil, Clutch, Vince Neil, and Ghost (did not care to stick around for Godsmack at all).

 

Pop Evil - Terrible. Not a fan of their music when I hear it on the radio, but live it's obvious the singer cannot sing at all.

 

Clutch - Fan-fucking-tastic! I'm familiar with a few Clutch songs, but everything they played sounded great and was just fun to listen to. I will definitely catch them the next time they come around.

 

Vince Neil - I would say he probably sounds like he did back in the 80s. That is, I don't think he could ever sing perfectly live. His voice was strong and not strained, he just couldn't hit keep pitch well. Having said that, his new backing band is fantastic. Vince left the stage (probably to do blow off some chick's tits) and the rest of his band did a cover of Heaven and Hell. The guitarist who sang absolutely killed it. I will definitely look up who that is and check out some of his other work.

 

Ghost - They are the reason I went, and they didn't disappoint. Just a fun band that puts on an amazing live show, even at an outdoor venue.

[stc 1461]

doobie brothers and steely dan on sunday night. doobies were surprisingly good, vocals still sounded perfect. despite not having walter becker steely dan still sounded pretty much the same as the last couple times i've seen them. donald fagen's voice is fairly weak but he's got the back up singers carrying most of the load. all the musicians are still top notch.  

[Steamboat1874 4058]

Joe Bonamassa Friday night at Moody/ACL was fucking incredible.

[Focht Up 631]

I noticed Joe King Carrasco was playing at the Continental Club recently.  Is it still worthwhile to go see him?  Thanks in advance.

[CooterBrown 18007]

Nightmares On Wax at Mohawk. I was never a huge fan but man they were fun live. Really good mix of turntables, sampling, with live drums and vocals.

[CooterBrown 18007]

Attempted to see Royal Blood last night at Stubb's. They had to cancel due the singer being sick but the opener, Turbowolf, played a free show indoors.

They were great. Sound was shitty indoors. I couldn't hear the vocalist at all but they were high energy and had some good hooks.

 

[stc 1461]

king gizzard and the lizard wizard friday night at stubbs. hot as balls in there, everyone drenched in sweat. the openers, amyl and the sniffers, were an australian punk band and were pretty good. they sounded australian as fuck. king gizzard played for almost 2 hours and barely took any breaks between songs. as usual, they were very uptempo and extremely tight. this was the last show of their 22 date US tour and you could definitely tell they had it dialed in. it was also an extremely respectful and refreshing crowd in terms of cell phones, talking, etc. good times. 

[hullabelew 3724]

Saw Kelly Willis on Sunday in Atlanta.  

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/kelly-willis/2018/smiths-olde-bar-atlanta-ga-3ea21bf.html

Didn't know how the new band would be without a female harmony singer and not fiddle/mandolin, but the guys really pulled it off.  Geoff Queen a really solid guitar player and an incredible steel player.  The new keyboardist is also fantastic on a Tele.  Kelly has really gotten more and more talkative over the years on stage.  Very funny.  Great so....but what else would you expect from her.  

 

 

[AnotherUTFan 9739]

The Go-Go's last night were incredible. Probably the best show I've seen this year. So much fun.

[Chad Fuck 17673]

Saw Pixies/Weezer on Wednesday.   

Off to see John Prine tonight.  

Willie et al. roll into town tomorrow with the Outlaw Festival.  Gonna be 102 so I'm probably not going out there for the whole thing.  

 

[wutang75 446]

Avett Brothers at Red Rocks ranks near the top all time for me. Simply incredible, words don’t do it justice.





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Updawg 2266]

Saw Pixies/Weezer on Wednesday.   
Off to see John Prine tonight.  
Willie et al. roll into town tomorrow with the Outlaw Festival.  Gonna be 102 so I'm probably not going out there for the whole thing.  
 

Saw them last night at cota. But we missed the beginning of the pixies,. They started earlier than we thought.

[Continental Op 3934]

Saw Pixies/Weezer at Cota last night as well.  I enjoyed The Pixies but the bass player can't sing worth a shit.  Weezer was very strong.  

[AnotherUTFan 9739]

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around how incredible Devo was last night. Unbelievably huge sound, by far the biggest sound I've ever heard at an outdoor show; maybe AC/DC at AT&T. Those 80's synthesizer sounds were big and they floated effortlessly from synthetic techno-y Née Wave to all guitar Rock and Roll band and all kinds of hybrids in between. Everybody in the crowd was looking at each other like "wtf?" Beyond "Whip It", which they got out of the way early, I was shocked at how many of their songs remembered; even then some of their best material was shit I'd never heard. Fred Armisen sat on drums and absolutely crushed it. Talk about a show blowing away expectations. Went from being a kitsch show we went to since we were gonna be in the area anyway, to probably a top 5 show for me.

 

I went to this show and the GoGo's Thursday with the same Millennial friend and I have to say, the Gen X bands are holding up fine. She was blown away by both shows.

 

 

 

[CooterBrown 18007]

Supersuckers and (REO) Speedealer at 3Ten Live last night.

Supersuckers were the Supersuckers. Trailer trash rock n roll. Competent enough as usual.

I had never seen Speedealer, formally REO Speedealer until they got a cease and desist letter. I've been a fan since their first album that included such classics as Double Clutchin' Finger Fuckin', Cocaine Dave, and Shitterbahn. They can best be described as what would Motorhead sound like if they grew up in Dallas.  They did not disappoint.  Their drummer is the drummer from Rigor Mortis.  

Edited July 2, 2018 by CooterBrown

[Continental Op 3934]

Wait... Did Speeddealer not play their classic "Viva La Vulva"?  

[Chad Fuck 17673]

21 hours ago, Continental Op said:

Saw Pixies/Weezer at Cota last night as well.  I enjoyed The Pixies but the bass player can't sing worth a shit.  Weezer was very strong.  

Well, Kim never was the greatest singer ever.  I thought Paz handled Gigantic just fine.

If John Prine is coming to your town (with Amanda Shires opening) you need to go see that.  Post haste. He has a killer band and despite the fact that cancer has changed his voice, it brings him more gravitas if anything.  Saw him at the Winspear on Friday and I was really going just to see the legend in the flesh.  I'd previously seen him at the Paramount probably 20 years ago.  I didn't think he could top that.  But dang, he knows how to play the elder statesman and work the crowd with his stories.  

Saw Ryan Bingham (put on a good show), Sturgill Simpson (put on a GREAT show)  and Willie on Saturday.

I had read some review of Sturgill's current show as "jam band-ish" and was therefore very skeptical.  Man, was I ever wrong.  His band is downright killing it.  They played about an hour and a half varying from country to hard, improvised riff-rock (think shades of Zep, less those high Plant notes).  I honestly can't wait to see him again when he has his entirely his own set.  I thought I was seeing him at peak during Metamodern, then during Sailor's Guide, but evidently, he's just headed up. 

Willie was still great at being Willie.  As referenced previously, his voice has aged, but damn he still has the guitar chops.  I'll never get tired of him playing "Nuages." 

 

[CooterBrown 18007]

2 hours ago, Continental Op said:

Wait... Did Speeddealer not play their classic "Viva La Vulva"?  

I don't think they did. They did play Turkeyneck redone as Turkeydick instead. That's something.

 

[kevwun 15777]

On 7/1/2018 at 3:03 PM, Continental Op said:

Saw Pixies/Weezer at Cota last night as well.  I enjoyed The Pixies but the bass player can't sing worth a shit.  Weezer was very strong.  

Was there too.  I was not expecting much from Weezer, but they put on a really good show.  They sounded good and you can tell they still enjoy playing.  They rocked the shit out of Africa also which was a nice surprise.  Would recommend seeing them.

[stc 1461]

Donkeys last night at barracuda. Damn good show. New guitarist gave them a little bit of a different sound, lots of space in his playing. Buxton opened. They've got a new album coming out in October.

[huge 3793]

Going to see Echo and the Bunnymen tonight.

Hope they can still actually do anything.

[huge 3793]

And the good news is they can.

Opened with Lips like Sugar then played Bring on the Dancing Horses.

Blew their wad early but what a wad it was.

[NameAlreadyInUse 5112]

Smashing Pumpkins was a great show last night.  Was going in expecting to hear competent musicians who are in the process of cashing in, and the first coupe songs felt kind of that way, but then they just turned it on and it was fantastic.  They played for over 3 hours and I could've stayed for more.  All in all I'd recommend you catch this tour.  Here was their setlist:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-smashing-pumpkins/2018/frank-erwin-center-austin-tx-2beb94ea.html

 

[CooterBrown 18007]

11 minutes ago, NameAlreadyInUse said:

Smashing Pumpkins was a great show last night.  Was going in expecting to hear competent musicians who are in the process of cashing in, and the first coupe songs felt kind of that way, but then they just turned it on and it was fantastic.  They played for over 3 hours and I could've stayed for more.  All in all I'd recommend you catch this tour.  Here was their setlist:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-smashing-pumpkins/2018/frank-erwin-center-austin-tx-2beb94ea.html

 

How large was the crowd? There were articles a while back about the tour not selling very well.

[dcar00 14181]

they had to tarp some of the upper deck sections. lower bowl had some empty seats.  Tickets were just a bit too pricey, IMO, but If you like the Gish/Siamese Dream/Mellon Collie Pumpkins, it was damn good, you got 17 songs out of the 31 and got your money's worth. the covers were pretty good as well.  

Id rather they bag a couple off the later albums, remove one cover, and play essentially the same set but add Geek USA, Silverfuck, and Spaceboy.  those were the only missing songs for me.

Corgan can still play and sing pretty well.  the screwed up the start of Cherub Rock and one other song but all in all it was real nod to the fans that made them what they are and that is somewhat rare these days.  They are an acquired taste live because they have so many great slow songs. Took my 18 year old son and when they started Porcelina he was like "no way!".  

Oh, and I can see why he kept dealing with(for the most part) Chamberlain's drug problems.  the dude really keeps all that shit together. he's very very underated.

[SlingeroGuitaro 189]

Chamberlin is my favorite drummer of all time. I was there as well in the front row and I highly recommend anyone see this tour if you can. BC was in an incredible mood and I think truly appreciated playing for everyone in attendance. If you're a fan of the band at all I think this show is a continuation of the Machina story he attempted to tell in 2000 but was cut off by the record label. 

 

I would say FEC was about 70% full not counting the 6 sections they had tarped off upstairs. There was a LOT more singing from the audience than I expected.

Edited July 17, 2018 by SlingeroGuitaro