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[The extra letter]

Last night, my ladylove and I went along to a Nine Inch Nails concert. Now, I wasn't expecting the best performance from the band, considering a few people I've talked to that have seen them previously were of the opinion that NIN weren't too great live. Well, that and the fact that while I liked Nine Inch Nails, I wasn't the psycho obsessive fan I used to be.

Well, last night absolutely blew me away. The concert was absolutely incredible. Trent Reznor was unusually happy, and this seemed to flow into his enthusiasm for playing/singing. So yeah, what I thought was going to be an alright albeit slightly lacklustre performance turned out to be one of the best (if not the best) concert that I've been to.


So yeah, what performances have left *you* feeling pleasantly surprised and elated?

[KvP]

You know, somehow I knew this was going to be about NIN before I clicked on the link. Rumor is Aaron's leaving the band once it hits the States so that Trent can shift the performances in a more electronica-oriented direction. Year Zero ain't exactly an album that serves Aaron well. I've been meaning to go and watch Cruising so I can figure out what that red hanky of his means (fisting, I think?) Buddyhead's a pretty funny site, incidentally. I've seen a few vids of the electronica setup, with the 3 synths in front of the screen, and it didn't look terribly compelling, but I've been to a few NIN shows and they haven't disappointed me yet.

I'll probably go to hell for it, but I went to see the Stooges a few months ago and was expecting something more subdued than the stories indicated, considering Iggy had just turned 60. I was wrong, so wrong. Sure, the new stuff was miserable, but Iggy was there, and he was nuts. I managed to stay in the pit long enough to get through the beginning of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and have Iggy jump on me. Incredible. After the music stopped he kept on dancing onstage for a few minutes. Worth any price, in my humble opinion.

I also went to see Sage Francis and Buck 65 awhile back, I had never been to a hip-hop show and didn't know what to expect. It turned out to be one of the better shows I've been to, since the crowd was so into it and the performers kept a nice rapport with them.

[The extra letter]

For a good half of the performance, the big screen was kept above the stage for most of the more rockish tracks. The three keyboards only came out for a few songs, then it was back to the normal instruments, with the screen coming down occasionally. If the screen had been down the whole time, it may have been a case of serious overkill.

[Kai]

The best live show I ever saw was a one man noise project that lasted fifteen minutes.


Take that as you will.

[Thrillho]

Bloodhound Gang. A band that you either love or hate, and I thought I hated them. One of the best gigs I've ever been to. Just idiotic fun.

[ScrambledGregs]

Of Montreal. At Pitchfork this year. I didn't know they would be like that live, despite the albums. Sorta like the Flaming Lips stage show meets sex.

[Runs_With_Scissors]

Silversun Pickups. Hey, $10 ticket, thought it would be a waste. Turned out half ok.

[Johnny C]

My old buddy Aaron is in that band now.

One day, Aaron stories.

I await this thread with such eagerness.

[Emaline]

The best live show I ever saw was a one man noise project that lasted fifteen minutes.


Take that as you will.

Noise shows are always my favorites.

[Hobbs]

Why has nobody mentioned the epic stage presence that is Opeth yet? Seriously the most awesome band ever to see live.

[Joseph]

I imagine most people wanting to see Opeth would expect them to be wonderful live.  This is for unexpected performances.

[Hobbs]

Yeah well, speaking for me personally, I expect most bands I see to be able to preform live, and preform well, but I never expect them to be able to entertain me well both during and between songs, and Opeth does that. Which is why I mentioned them.

[McTaggart]

From the sort of music they play you might not expect the Mountain Goats to be really good live. Turns out that they are and you would likely not mind if they didn't actually play any songs but John just sat on stage telling stories.

[edit]live, but off topic. Goddammit this was last night.

[michaelicious]

Jens Lekman. I had never heard of him before I saw him open for The Hidden Cameras. He got on stage with a nothing but a harmonica and a ukulele. At first I was skeptical, but it was such an awesome half hour.

[Phaedra]

[edit]live, but off topic. Goddammit this was last night.

That was pretty sweet, wasn't it?

[McTaggart]

The 'goddammit' was because I only realised that today.

[Phaedra]

The 'goddammit' was because I only realised that today.

Ohhh. Fail.
If it's any consolation they only played for like half an hour?

[valley_parade]

Mission of Burma surprised me. They're still playing fucking great after 25 some-odd years.

I still don't know if it was worth $26, but it was a fantastic show.

[pilsner]

What is it about Mission of Burma shows that compels them to crank it to 11?  I keep forgetting to bring earplugs to their shows, and frankly the tinnitus isn't worth it.  That being said, the Obliterati tour was pretty awesome.

Not sure why anyone would be suprised that Of Montreal gives awesome show.  Ah the thing I've seen on the latest tour.  Fruit salad in a gimp's silver tights.  Barnes in an 11 foot tall Carmen Miranda/Geisha outfit.  The gimp hanging upside down from Darth Vader's neck by his legs while a pink clad Darth Vader looked on.  Barnes with one claw arm and one tentacle arm.  Awesome.

I've posted about it before, but Air gave an unexpectedly awesome show this year in NYC at the Theatre at MSG.  They interpret their own music with guitar, bass, drums, and some kind of funky drum machine/synth/laptop deal that makes them extra dancy.  Their interpretation of La Femme D'Argent was almost 20 minutes long and even better than the original.  I find that electronica bands tend to be either really good or really mediocre live depending on how they choose to interpret their music, and Air blew me away.

Aside from that . . . Sufjan's shows are obviously pretty outstanding if you are into kitsch.  Feist's shows are unexpectedly outstanding if you have been seeing her develop over the past five years.  She's gone from a pretty shy vocalist with BSS to stagemastery rock star with the kicks of Karen O, Eleanor Friedberger, or Corin Tucker.  She had the crowd in the palm of her hand at the McCarren Park Pool show where Kevin Drew opened for her, and the only knock against her was that she was so good she made her backing band look bad.  She even looks good in those iPod Nano commercials

[valley_parade]

I saw Sufjan on Austin City Limits and he looked surprisingly boring. I'm hoping he's not like that all the time, I want to see him next him he's on tour.

[pilsner]

I've seen him maybe 5 times and 4 of those 5 shows were awesome.  Most memorable were the two Illinois tour shows (the band was in school cheerleader outfits and did cheers between songs, he came on wearing a stuntman's outfit complete with american flag and motorcycle helmet) and the Avalanche tour (the band was wearing butterfly wings, he wore giant bird wings).  I'm seeing him soon for a piece commissioned by BAM and about the Bronx-Queens Expressway and I'm expecting a lot less glam and lot more seriousness for the 14 or so regular BAM goers that managed to beat us hordes of Sufjanofiles for tickets.  He may wear a suit.  This will not be as awesome as wings.

[rhinohelicopter]

I just saw Black Lips live and I really expected them to be mixed really poorly and just in general be really fucked up and as such sound like shit.  But, they were mixed better than the album and played really well.  It's definetly a band to see live.

[jimbunny]

^^(Sufjan) He had inflatable Superman and Santa dolls thrown down at the audience from the rafters. Honestly, I wasn't thrilled with the show (butterfly costumes and such). He took a lot of songs from Illinois and threw huge crescendos and a brass section at all of them, which too often degenerated into random banging the hell out of things. It'd have been awesome if he'd just done it for a few, but there were perhaps two quiet songs in the whole set. Got tiring after a while, and I like Sufjan.

Possibly my favorite live experience ever, though, is seeing Mark Eitzel perform with a kind of all-star group act called the Undertow Orchestra (Mark Eitzel, David Bazan, Vic Chesnutt, Will Johnson). Kind of a bitter, depressing evening. The only part I really remember is Eitzel singing "Patriot's Love Song," (from the 2004 American Music Club album). The lights went down low, and he just let this one loose. Wow. A really intense song, a really intense performance ... Not really a band, and it was just one song (the rest of the concert was decent, except for Chesnutt who just sounded pathetic).