Curve Away

I should begin by saying twitter rocks. In the past 2 weeks I’ve gotten access to the Snow Patrol music lounge and free tickets to the Joshua Radin concert just because I have a twitter account and I follow the right people. So, thank you, Twitter.

This is not a show I would have attended without those free tickets, mainly because, while I’ve heard a few things from both of these artists, I’m really not very familiar with either of them at all. The show was at the beautiful, fairly intimate Paramount Theater, and I went with my concert buddy, Em, who *is* pretty familiar with Joshua Radin, as was excited to see him. A great singer/songwriter named Madi Diaz started the night; just her, her electric guitar, and one guy playing about 5 different instruments. I really liked her sound and her songs.

A Fine Frenzy was up next, and I was excited to see what they’d be like. I spent the day of the concert listening to them off and on on Spotify, to try to acquaint myself with them a little better. From what I listened to, I thought I’d enjoy them quite a bit. Unfortunately, that wasn’t quite the case. The lead singer, Alison Sudol, was just a bit too much for me. Halfway through their third song I was suddenly reminded of Kristen Wiig’s impression of Drew Barrymore on SNL, and that was all I saw the rest of their set. At one point, Alison actually asked the audience, in her most meditative voice, to close their eyes so she could take them on a journey to the mountains. :/ The music was pleasant, and her voice is nice, but it really wasn’t anything I’d seek out again. 

I did, however, really enjoy Joshua Radin’s set. His band was really good and he sounded fantastic. At a couple of points in the show, he stepped away from the microphone and sang to the rafters. He played with a lot of heart, and seemed genuinely thrilled to be doing his thing. Poor guy, though, from his descriptions of his songs, it sounds like he hasn’t had the best luck in love. Anyway, I walked away a Joshua Radin fan.

So yesterday was a crazy but awesome day. Started off with a pre-school field trip to the fire station with my son’s class, and ended with me taking a picture with Pablo from Snow Patrol.

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The TDCC show at Stubb’s Friday night was fantastic. Last time I saw the band (last March) was in a smallish, intimate club. The show was at an outdoor venue that’s considerably bigger, so it was missing that fun house party vibe the first show had. In spite of that, the band still sounded perfect, and we had a blast.

One of the things that continues to strike me about TDCC is how good they sound live. Their songs even take on a new urgency live, serving to whip the crowd in to a frenzy. I seriously didn’t see many people just standing there listening to the music…. the compulsion to dance is just too strong.

They played most of Tourist History (maybe all of it? Don’t remember exactly), and quite a few new songs from their forthcoming album. I don’t remember the names of any of those songs, but I can say that based on the songs they played, the new album should be excellent.

Having seen Two Door three times now, I know one thing for sure about their shows. They are just fun. So much fun. We all left the venue energized and with smiles on our faces. I can’t wait to hear the new album, and hope to catch them again in the not too distant future.

Thursday night I dragged my husband with me to see Snow Patrol (second time for me, first time for him) at a smallish but great venue here in town called Stubb’s. Stubb’s holds around 2,000 people, and is an outdoor venue, which in Texas in May isn’t always a great thing. The last time I saw Snow Patrol (in 2009) at Stubb’s, it was early October, and it was UNBELIEVABLY HOT. This time, if you can believe it, it was actually not too bad outside. When I saw the band in 2009, I was lucky enough to hook up with a couple of hardcore fans who got in line around 1 pm and who let me line up with them when I arrived around 6pm. We were the first people in and were dead center on the barrier.

This time around, I didn’t feel the need to be in the very front row, but I’m child-sized, so I did want to get there relatively early to get a spot from which I’d actually be able to see. When we managed to make it into line right about 5pm, there were only around 40 people in front of us, so I felt pretty good about us getting a good spot. When gates opened at 7 we found that we were able to get to the front, about 3 people back and just to the right of center.

I was slightly disappointed that we didn’t get Ed Sheeran as our opener, but I was pleasantly surprised by Gary Go’s set. It’s just him and a keyboard(s), and though some of the songs sounded kind of same-y, he had a great voice and a really great stage presence. My husband and I both enjoyed his set. In between his set and SP coming on, I struck up a conversation with three girls in front of me who were decked out in homemade SP/Fallen Empires t-shirts. They were obviously big fans, so I was glad they had gotten such great spots.In fact, I was fairly well surrounded by people (mostly women) who appeared to be really big, and long time fans, so that was cool.

When the band finally came on to the remix of Berlin, which I really liked, they jumped right into Hands Open, and from there, the show just flew. Gary was chatty here and there, though it seemed to me that he didn’t talk quite as much as he had the last time I saw them. He did mention them having had a great time wake surfing that day on Lake Travis, and that some of them, he said, indicating Pablo, had gotten more “tan” than others. :) When I read that tweet about them being on the lake that day, my first thought was definitely about how that could affect the show that night. But really, they all seemed to be in good spirits and sounded great. Gary sounded great, too, which I really noticed during Set the Fireand Make This Go On Forever. When In the Endstarted, I pulled out my camera and started filming, as that’s one of my favorites from the new album. I had also decided I wouldn’t film any more than 30-45 seconds, because I really wanted to be able to enjoy the show, not just watch it through the camera. But I was so glad I had it out for that song, because that’s when Gary decided to jump down off the stage and sing to the front row. Well, really he was singing to a guy up front he’d been teasing the whole show. He stood on the barrier for a second at the center, and then came over and did the same RIGHT IN FRONT OF US. I decided to keep filming rather than lunge for him, like everyone around me did, because I was just out of reach and I didn’t want to squish the people in front of me more than they were already being squished. But, it did make for some really crazy video!

The rest of the show was much more tame compared to that moment, but I was so glad to finally hear him singSet the Firelive, and I thoughtLife-ningwas really beautiful. All in all, the show was fantastic and we had a great time.

After the show, I hooked up the t-shirted fans in front of me, and we devised a divide and conquer strategy to get to meet the guys after the show. There were a couple of different “stage doors” they could have come out of, so we positioned ourselves at different ones and waited. The girls did get to see Johnny McDaid emerge from their door, but we heard after waiting about 20 minutes that Gary, Nate and some friends had quickly come out at a different door, met with just a small handful of fans very briefly, and were whisked away. :( So, we were disappointed we didn’t get an opportunity to say hi, but aside from that it was a really great night.

Setlist (though this is from Dallas, technically- couldn’t remember song order and there’s not one up for Austin, yet)

1. Berlin (Remix)
2. Hands Open
3. Take Back The City
4. Crack the Shutters
5. This Isn’t Everything You Are
6. Run
7. In the End
8. New York
9. Set the Fire to the Third Bar
10. Make This Go On Forever
11. Shut Your Eyes
12. Chasing Cars
13. Chocolate
14. Called Out in the Dark
15. Fallen Empires
16. Open Your Eyes
17. Encore:
18. Lifening
19. Just Say Yes