Welcome to another edition of Great Concerts on Media Decay.  This is the first one in the series that I did not actually attend personally, but like the others we’ll still provide you with enough detail to make you feel like you were there.  Two things to get out of the way first: The pictures in this article are from the show the night before this one at Roseland Ballroom in NYC (which I did attend) and the audio is taken from a live stream provided by NPR and their excellent All Songs Considered series (Carrie Brownstein now blogs for NPR).

The year was 2006.  Sleater-Kinney had been touring the world behind arguably the greatest album of 2005, let alone their career, The Woods().  Suddenly without warning one day a small message appeared on their website thanking fans for 11 amazing years and announcing they would be taking an indefinite break, choosing to go out on top and each pursue other things they had interest in.  This was horrible news for Sleater-Kinney fans.  They really were at the top of not only their game, but rock n’ roll in general.  Despite never really achieving mainstream popularity they had an enormous and very dedicated fan base that came from all over the world, from fans of their feminist lyrics to fans that had gotten turned onto them by Pearl Jam for their genuine ability to rock harder than most of the boys.  But they announced they’d be playing a few favorite places including a stop at Lollapalooza before ending the band with 2 nights in their hometown of Portland.  2 of these shows of this mini-tour were Washington D. C. and New York.

 

Unfortunately the east coast was hit with a crazy heat wave the week they were to play.  Originally they were scheduled to play at the 9:30 club on August 1st.  The show was shut down by fire marshalls because of some sort of issue with the heat and a fire hazard.  Obviously people were very upset, this being their last chance to see the band.  But luckily the issue wasn’t that big and the club fixed it and re-scheduled the show for August 3rd.  In between Sleater-Kinney rocked Roseland Ballroom in NYC and slayed the place.  I would be writing about that show here but the better audio for you guys comes from DC.  Anyway after a very sweat filled show they returned to make good on their promise to the crowd at the 9:30 Club.  In the blistering heat Carrie, Corin, and Janet played their final east coast show ever.  And the wonderful NPR sent the show out live all over the world.

 

For their part Sleater-Kinney showed why they were the best and settled any doubts anyone would ever have about this band.  They started off with the wonderful One Beat then after thanking everyone for returning and the club and their crew they went into Not What You Want.  They’d only just hit the stage but they were on fire.

Their 3rd song was Wilderness off The Woods, showing just how this very different sounding album actually fit in incredibly well with their back catalogue.  But this wasn’t about The Woods.  This show would span their entire career and the band and the crowd would give everything they had.  After all after this was the end of the world, or at least an argument can be made that it felt like it.  Between the heat, the band’s final performance on the east coast, a perfect set the night before, and these fans that had not had enough this was the end of the world.

Some highlights are #1 Must Have which had a false start and was dedicated to someone in the front with a “This one’s for you honey”.  In one of my favorite songs of their catalog they lament about a variety of feminist issues, focusing on the music world in particular.

 

I’ve been crawling up so long on your
stairway to heaven
And now i no longer believe that i wanna get in

 

Steep Air which came right after demonstrated some incredible vocals over a bluesy guitar that still managed to rock.  But that just built up to Rollercoaster with it’s refrain of

 

Rollercoaster wanna go back on the tilt-a-whirl

 

Another highlight, both of the band’s catalog and the show, was the blissful Night Light.  The song starts with a basic solo drum beat that’s all trademark Janet and then a heartbreakingly beautiful guitar comes into it.  Towards the end of the set the girls really show their stuff with the 1-2 punch of Let’s Call It Love into the brash Entertain.  It’s played in a jam band style so the 2 become one almost 17 minute masterpiece of drums and guitar.  You’re reminded of the band’s most famous t-shirt which reads “Show Me Your Riffs”, taking a pot shot at the mysogynists of the world and becoming a battle cry for female rockers the world over.  All that matters at the end of the day is how good you are, not what you’ve got below your waist.  This particular pairing and the jam style reminds you of Sleater-Kinney’s extensive touring with Pearl Jam and the incredible respect that band showed for them (Matt Cameron would often guest on One Beat and at the end of PJ show’s the two bands would often jam on covers, most memorably Corin did Chris Cornell’s part of Hunger Strike in Mexico).  Entertain manages to be a fuck you to all the hacks and hipsters not doing anything, especially in this formation.

 

After the very different Little Babies, the band leaves the stage and Bob Boylan from NPR comes back into our ears talking about how incredible the show was.  But of course we’re not done yet.  The band comes back out and heads into Ironclad, but not before Carrie jokes about taking the audience home with her.  After Janet breaks her snare Carrie and Corin do a rare version of Buy Her Candy that kills before Janet is ready to go and they head into the high energy Turn It On, Dance Song ’97, and Words & Guitar.  Then they’re gone.

 

But the crowd isn’t letting go that easily.  Bob is back and his Second Encore Narration to this day brings tears to my eyes.  This same thing happened the night before as well.  The crowd was so incredibly loud and just refused to leave.  This was the last time they’d ever get to see this great band and they weren’t going without a fight.  Bob tells us of the house lights going up and the crowd refusing to move.  You can hear the screaming and applause and just feel the love, even on a recording.  The house music goes on, the crowd keeps clapping.  Major credit goes to NPR for not only re-scheduling this program around the show but for keeping on the air the whole time where other stations would have not only edited the content but definitely not kept rolling.  Bob talks about “how not one person has left”.  The crowd keeps getting louder.  Finally Sleater-Kinney comes out once more.

 

What a great crowd, what a set, and what a band.  Eleven great years of music.

 

After a humble “thank you” and some tuning they head into a personal favorite song the incredibly beautiful and heart tearing Sympathy, a true story about Corin almost miscarrying.  This song contains one of my favorite lyrics of any song ever:

 

We’re all equal in the face of what we’re most afraid of.

 

They go right from the super sad yet incredibly groovable Sympathy into Dig Me Out a song filled with energy and angst and uncomfortableness.  And that’s it.  It’s over.  A 2 encore show that very simply summed up why this band deserves to be remembered amonst the ranks of rock’s best forever.

 

Thank You

 

Oh hey you wanna hear the whole concert?  In high quality soundboard audio as broadcast?  Oh OK, that’s right here.

 

Setlist

• Intro
• One Beat
• Not What You Want
• Wilderness
• The Fox
• Jumpers
• #1 Must Have
• Steep Air
• Rollercoaster
• Burn, Don’t Freeze
• Night Light
• The End Of You
• What’s Mine Is Yours
• Modern Girl
• Let’s Call It Love into Entertain
• Little Babies
• First Encore Narration
• Ironclad
• Get Up
• Buy Her Candy
• Turn It On
• Dance Song ’97
• Words and Guitar
• Second Encore Narration
• Sympathy into Dig Me Out
• End Narration and Credits

 

 

Wow, so tonight was the last show of Media Decay’s Pearl Jam week, and also the last show of this leg of Pearl Jam’s tour.  It was the second night at New York’s famous Madison Square Garden, and revered home of some legendary Pearl Jam performances.  This show in particular sold out incredibly fast and tickets were almost impossible to get.  Everyone wanted to be there.  Everyone was hoping for something spectacular.  And the band delivered.  They not only delivered a super energetic 2 hour 40 minute set, but they delivered a crazy setlist and even a “new” song (more on that a little later).  Perhaps the best part was that thanks to my fan club membership and a worked out trade with another fan club member, I found myself sitting in the 11th row center for this amazing show.

continue reading…

 

I’ve just returned home from the second show of Media Decay’s Pearl Jam week.  Tonight was the first of a 2 night run at Madison Square Garden.  Pearl Jam has played some legendary shows at the Garden and is best known for the show they eventually wound up releasing as a dvd(note please buy it through that link and get an awesome show and help support us bringing you features like these).  It’s like their second home and people fly in from around the world to see them play there.  As such not only are both shows sold out, but the fan club tickets were nearly impossible to get.  The server crashed before they even actually went onsale.  But I managed to get them and as such found myself sitting dead center on the floor of Madison Square Garden.

continue reading…

 

Well it’s the first show of Pearl Jam week here at Media Decay and we’re kicking it off in Newark, NJ.  This was a sort of last minute show.  It was announced after the rest of the tour and went on sale several weeks after the rest of the tour as well.  Eddie Vedder mentioned at one point that this show almost didn’t happen but they were glad it did.  Anyway there was some trepidation going into this show.  Last night in Boston the band put on an incredible show (and also had incredible one off t-shirts made to look like Red Sox shirts, Newark got the shirt above, hopefully they’ll pull out something awesome for NYC) so a lot of the hardcores were worried this show wouldn’t be as great.  We’ll I wasn’t at the Boston show so I can’t speak to anything but the setlist, but the band certainly didn’t let it show they’d just done an epic show the night before.

continue reading…

Courtney always knows where the cameras are

 

I have never had such mixed feelings over a concert in my life so this review might be a little all over the place. Please forgive it. I’m going to break it down into categories later. But let’s start with everything leading up to the show.

 

I am a crazy Courtney Love fan and have been a huge Hole fan since 1994 when I first heard them. I finally got to see them on their final tour in 1999 and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life (you can read my writeup of that show and get the entire show’s audio here). So clearly I was crazy excited about this show, even though I do not consider this current band to be Hole.

continue reading…

 

The latest installment of our Great Concerts series is all about Pearl Jam.  I’ve been to many great Pearl Jam concerts and they will definitely pop up again in this series but I thought I’d start with one of their more memorable shows.  As usual click on song links to stream them and the full concert is available to download at the end of the post.

 

This show took place at Downing Stadium at Randall’s Island on September 29th 1996, the second night of a 2 night run and part of the No Code tour.  For those of you non-New Yorkers (and maybe some who are), Randall’s Island is technically a part of Manhattan, although it is it’s own island situated in the East River between Manhattan, The Bronx, and Queens and is only accessible via the Triborough Bridge (now the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge).  Meaning you either need a car or one of the shuttle buses that run to the island.  Downing Stadium (replaced in 2005 by a more modern structure) was basically constructed for track & field events.  It was a big open outdoor structure with giant concrete seating areas surrounding it.  It was pretty massive and used for things like Lollapalooza.

continue reading…

 

Tegan & Sara returned to New York City after a triumphant start to their Sainthood tour last October with 2 sold out Town Hall shows.  This time was very different.  They’ve embarked on the North American leg of the tour and did not include a New York date.  Instead on January 27th the following appeared on their website:

 

we’ve decided, quite spontaneously, to offer an opportunity for some of you to spend an intimate night with us at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. perhaps it’s worth noting that my use of the word intimate only applies to the small-ish size of the venue and the stripped down nature of the material we will be performing. i wouldn’t call it an acoustic performance so much as a night of reinterpretations of the well worn and well loved album versions you’ve come to love.

 

With that small bit of info and the onsale date a couple of days later and the fact that the show would be February 15th we were left to fend for ourselves.  It wasn’t until the tickets went onsale that we learned they’d be $75.  That is a lot more than Tegan & Sara shows usually cost, and a lot more than Music Hall of Williamsburg shows usually cost.  In fact I know quite a few people who didn’t buy tickets because of this price.

 

For those of you non-New Yorkers reading this, The Music Hall of Williamsburg is a very popular venue located in Brooklyn.  It is also very small.  It’s capacity is about 550, and was formerly a great venue called Northsix (it’s on North 6th Street).  So shows there tend to be small and sell out very fast.

 

Anyway obviously I bought a ticket and let me now guide you through my evening with my favorite two Canadian twins.

continue reading…

 

This post is going to be a little different than our first installment in the Great Concerts series.  The last was about the legendary David Bowie and was literally a historic concert.  This one is more personally historic, although there’s a lot of history behind this one as well.  Let’s begin.

 

The year is 1999.  Hole has released their 3rd album Celebrity Skin() and commenced an ill-fated co-headlining tour with Marilyn Manson that fell apart.  Hole hadn’t toured in years and the album alone was a long time in the making, but the fans still wanted to see the band (even with new drummer Samantha Maloney replacing Patty Schmel).  So for once the band did the right thing and went back out on the road alone.  This would be the final Hole tour (except no one knew it yet).  They sold out 2 shows at NYC’s famed Roseland Ballroom, appearing on David Letterman right across the street in the process(the appearance would air on the 20th, but was taped earlier in the week).

continue reading…

 

This post is the beginning of a new series here at Media Decay that will be almost like a recommendation area for concerts.  Basically it’s writeups of some particularly special concerts I’ve either attended or heard.  One feature of these is that I’m going to do my best to include at least some audio from the shows in these posts, although if a show is available commercially this will be more complex.  I hope you enjoy the first installment of this series and come back for more.  It should be monthly. Click a song title to stream that song.

 

The first installment is all about David Bowie.  A consummate showman and the definition of rock star, I’ve managed to see him live twice before he retired from music (if you didn’t know Bowie is retired from music due to his heart being fucked).  The very first time I got to see him was this show, perhaps the best concert I have ever experienced (and I’ve been to a lot of concerts).

 

The date was January 9th 1997.  The place NYC’s legendary Madison Square Garden where many years before Bowie had already put on one of the greatest shows of all time that would be released as the movie Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars.  This show was to celebrate the legendary rocker turning 50 (his actual birthday was the 8th).  As a way to celebrate this milestone he decided that he wanted to share the stage with acts that he’d influenced and who had influenced him in return.  We’ll get to who exactly that was in a minute.

continue reading…

 

The Pixies started their 3 day, 4 show, 95% sold out NYC run tonight at the Hammerstein Ballroom.  If you didn’t know this is the Doolittle Tour.  For the anniversary of Doolittle the band is doing a tour and playing the entire album plus b-sides.  Very cool.  Anyway I’d seen The Pixies once in 2005 and was incredibly impressed.  They really brought it.  And tonight was no exception.

continue reading…