the joy electric show

wow! thursday was quite a night! it has been a while since ive been to a joy electric concert. ive been to three of them before (this one makes 4) and they are usually quite far away. my first one was about an hour and a half drive, the next two were over two hours each. so this time it was nice, it was only about 40 minutes away!

it was truly a fantastic time. the flier said that the show would start around 9:00. i got there around 8:45. as usual, i went alone to their concert because there is no way i could find any friends who would be willing to go with me. but this worked to my advantage, actually. when i got there i found a couple guys sitting at a table in the front of the room. i decided to throw caution to the wind, and i approached them and started chatting with them. as the wait for the concert to start continued, i invited a couple other guys who arrived alone to come and sit with us. im very glad i did! i recently wrote about how i seem to be the only one who likes joy electric, but i was proven very wrong that night! it was a blast to just chill with those guys and talk a little je business. ive never been able to have a conversation about joy electric with someone who actually knows what im talking about! it was absolutely glorious!!! we discussed the new album, which cd is our favorite, what we think of the bands shepherd and brothers martin, etc. it was so awesome to finally be able to geek out with other people who share my passion!

sheesh, i havent even started talking about the concert itself! the opening acts were quite interesting- the first group, called anaphylaxis, played one song, it was about 15 minutes long though. it was almost like watching two guys just kind of tinker around with their synth equipment. one of the guys had this strange intrument that he played by waving his hands around next to it. weird. the second group were mostly the same people, except this time they had more traditional songs, and the vocals sounded very morrissey-like. not bad at all.

but finally, around 11:20, ronnie got on stage and started his set. it was glorious! its always a treat to watch him play- he has some great moves while playing, and almost the whole time hes tinkering and fussing with nobs and dials on his equipment. i have no idea what any of them do, but it sure does sound great! the concerts always sound a bit different than the albums, on the albums he doesnt often use a lot of bass, but in concert the bass is thumping! he even put on an extra long show. like his cd lengths, ronnie usually likes to keep it short in concert. at one of the concerts ive been to he only played for about 30 minutes, and then wrapped up the show. this time though, he just kept them comming! he ended up playing 15 songs and playing for about an hour and fifteen minutes! that definitely made it worth the trip!

after the show i got to talk with ronnie for a couple minutes, which is always a treat. i picked up a bunch of music too. i got the workmanship cd, i already have it in vinyl, but i dont have a vinyl record player, so that doesnt really help much... i also got the foxglove hunt demo, and the brothers martin vinyl.

definitely the highlight of the month! or maybe year...

verve pipe concert

this past saturday night i once again had the opportunity to see 'the verve pipe'. they are one of my favorite bands and have been able to see them quite a bit (they are originally from grand rapids). they broke up about five years ago, but i guess they are now making a tradition of a christmas weekend concert at the Intersection.
the concert was a blast. another local band that kind of made it big opened up for them, papa vegas. i had been preparing myself by listening to papa vegas a bit lately, so as to reacquaint myself with their stuff (i dont ever have to reacquaint myself with verve pipes stuff, because i know them all by heart...) and really enjoyed their performance. before they started playing i got a chance to chat with brian vander ark (verve pipes lead singer) for a bit. he actually remembered me from the last show i saw him at (where i was one of 11 audience members. great story, ill share it another time). also, i talked with a guy named brandon- he was one of the people who was on rockstar:inxs last year! kind of strange to see him there. actually, its stranger that i was able to recognize him...
around 11:15 verve pipe came on and it was awesome! they played so many hits. just about everything from their villians album, and two or three from each other album too! they even through in a song they recorded for the soundtrack for 'great expectations' called 'her ornament'. they played a couple of songs from brians solo stuff, but the focus was certainly on the old stuff. one of the biggest highlights was the appearance of griff. if you have ever seen this man in action with a harmonica, then you know who much fun he brings to the stage. at one point there were actually 9 musicians on stage singing/playing/being crazy just loving the fact that they were back together again! it was very obvious that they were enjoying themselves just as much as the audience was. they ended up playing a two hour show- the longest ive ever seen them on stage.
definitely a great time, and i look forward to seeing them again next year.

mxpx at the metro

last night i threw caution to the wind and went downtown chicago and saw a rock concert! it was a bit crazy because it was a tuesday night, and i have an actual job to return to at a resonable hour the next day. but here i am, almost done with the day, and im still chugging along! ive wanted to take a nap many times today, but i have sucessfully resisted... so far.
the concert was a blast! it was at the metro downtown chicago, which is the place that the smashing pumpkins started off and also where they performed their last show. so, the place has some cool history to it. once we got there (after getting a little lost) we hung out until the bands started playing. the first band, i think it was called 'transition' or something like that, was not very good at all. actually, it was kind of embarassing. the only time they could get any somewhat possitive reaction from the crowd was when they covered 'walk like an egyptian' poorly. i almost felt sorry for them.
the second band was called 'treaty of paris'. they were kind of cool. they had three singers and often harmonized during the choruses, which was really cool and gave them a very unique sound. their cds were only five bucks, so i picked one up. ill listen to it a bit and figure out if they are actually any good.
finally, mxpx came out on stage! ive seen these guys three times before and each time they totally rock it!!! they certainly have a strong command of the stage and a huge amount of awesome songs. about a half our in, mike (the lead singer) said 'look guys, it gets boring for us to just follow a set list, so instead we would like to take some requests" and they proceeded to play four requested songs! how awesome is that? ive never seen a band do that before- and then after a handfull more songs mike took three more requests! mike himself actually said that they have never taken so many requests before. one of them they played he had to take a minute or two to remember the words before they could start playing, which made it that much funnier. there were many awesome moments during the show, from inviting an audience member up on stage to play base on 'punk rawk show', to having another audience member tell everyone a joke. it was totally obvious that those three guys up there were having a blast- and that made it even more fun for the rest of us!

the verve pipe concert

my favorite band is joy electric. i have been obsessed with them for a while now. but there once was a time before i had ever heard of joy electric. shocking, i know. at that time my favorite band was a little local west michigan band that soon hit it big.
it was the verve pipe. that name might sound vaguely familiar to you because about 9 years ago they had one hit. and that was all. it was the song 'freshman'. when it came out in '97 many people got sick of it quickly because they overplayed it on the radio. well, imagine my situation: they band was really big in grand rapids when i was growing up because to us they were 'the hometown boys' and were local favorites even before they had the record label deal. so the local radio stations would play their songs all the time. and of couse they would typically play 'freshman'. lucky me, i got to hear it over played twice! the thing is though, i never got sick of it. im still not sick of it. i totally love it. unfortuantely the band broke up a few years ago and the the lead singer (brian vander ark) has since been making a go of his solo career. ive seen verve pipe many times over the years, once when i had no idea who they were but was told 'check em out, youll like em...', and a few times since. i also was able to see brian solo a few times in chicago at the house of blues. i had figured there wasnt a chance to ever see verve pipe live again.
imagine my excitement when i had come to learn that the verve pipe was going to be playing a one-time-only reunion show in grand rapids- and i was actually going to be around for it!!! so i called up my buddies, some were fans as well, some wernt, and we made plans.
the show was on december 23 and it was amazing!!! the boys played their hearts out and proved that they still got it. it was great fun, they played quite a varied assortment of music. they pulled out some of their hits, some of their new stuff, and some of the classics that needed a bit of dusting off, they even threw in some great cover songs. certainly a solid show, one of the best ive seen in a long time. i was easily reminded of what i loved about them so much.

collective soul

dang. i forgot how much these guys rock! over the weekend directv was showing a free concert of collective soul. i guess it was just highlights from an upcoming live dvd. it was totally rocking good though. the coolest part was that they were being backed by the atlanta youth orchestra. which meant the four guys ripping it up with their guitars, and about 150 teenagers playing orchestral instruments behind them. it was totally awesome! some of the different renditions of their songs were mindblowing!
ive really enjoyed collective soul for many years now. i first gained an interest around the time of 'precious declaration', but i wasnt totally sold until the first time 'dosage' hit my ears. every thing since i have loved. they are actually one of the rare examples of a band that i actually enjoy their back catalog.
one of my favorite songs of theirs has always been 'crown' from dosage. and it just so happens that they best part of the concert is during this song (go figure...) during this song ed (the lead singer) dedicates it to his father who just died last year. he proceeds to sing the entire song without any guitars (which is shocking for collective soul) and only the music of the strings in the orchestra. wow. a truly moving moment. and they end with a rock your socks off finale with 'feels like' from 'youth.'