Lowden's Concert Blog

R.E.M./Modest Mouse/The National @ Jones Beach Theater (6.14.08)

2008-07-06T11:56:00.000-07:00

In March, when R.E.M. announced their tour schedule, I had a decision to make. I had two options on where I could see their tour. Madison Square Garden or Jones Beach. Either one I was around to go to, it just was a matter of which. I chose Jones Beach for its outdoor location, its "road trip" status, and it would just be an all around adventure. Little did I know how much of an adventure it would be. So off we all went on the highway. Our musical diet consisted of listening to REM's newest album, "Accelerate",

Kate's The National mix that she made, more REM albums, and some Modest Mouse to round it out. Not only was I excited to see one of my favorite bands of all time, but Modest Mouse is one of my favorite bands as well, and the National I had heard nothing but good things about. So since we got there a little early, we spent a good amount of time at the beach. It was a lot of fun with clouds far off in the distance.

We got to the theater just as the National was starting. We were in the 3rd row of the top mezzanine level, so we were very far from the action, and the fact that it was too bright out for any video screens, didn't help any. The highlight of their set was Mr. November with the lead singer (don't know his name!) freaking out on his microphone across the large stage. It was unfortunate that there weren't a lot of people there to see their set. But those who were there were there for a great set.

Next was Modest Mouse, playing the song that I said in the car I really wanted to hear, "Bury Me With It". Their sound wasn't right for Jones Beach. Too much open air for their complicated, intricate sound. If you can tell from the picture, they have 2 drummers. Here's some videos from their set:

WE'VE GOT EVERYTHING

DASHBOARD

So as their set was going on, you could see off in the distance clouds getting darker and darker. Here's my video during Doin' The Cockroach

Lightening kept flashing in the air, striking places around the theater, but mostly staying in the sky.

Here's where the story gets fun. Rain started to really come down during their set. People around us started to leave for shelter. It was pitch black out. We were staying in our seats because we wanted to see Modest Mouse. On stage the stage hands were moving monitors back, and putting plastic over gear. They started playing "Satin in a Coffin".

Right where the video ends here, the lyric "Are you dead or are you sleeping" comes up, and the lightening strikes the upper mezzanine, right next to us. The sound is deafening, and is louder then Modest Mouse themselves, which says a lot. It sounded like firecrackers going off. My hands covered my face, and still all i could see was a blinding white light, and red flashes. People had hit the deck from the explosion, and Modest Mouse gave a quick "thank you" (the extent of their banter to us), and ran off the stage. We bolted out of the theater and into the concourse area. Here's the scene from right after the lightening, and Modest Mouse stopping:

Here's the video I took as soon as we got into the concourse:

Taylor was terrified. We were told to either evacuate to our cars, or move to lower ground. We chose the latter.
This is Modest Mouse's bassist standing side stage, looking at the empty theater. No one knew what was going on. Word got around that someone got hit by lightening, and was hospitalized. The rain kept coming down, and the thunder claps were still very loud. We sat around watching the scene wondering whether the show would even resume. MSG was looking like a possibility for Thursday. So we wait for over an hour until finally they make an announcement that the show will continue in an hour, and we could go back to our seats in 30 minutes. Cheers erupted.
Here is the picture from the top mezz after we were allowed back in.

From the stage:

It was still raining, and a lot of people had left, so we decided to move lower seats. They weren't checking tickets and moved down to above the orchestra, under an awning which would've cost us about $70 if we had bought them awhile ago. No more $25 seats, we're moving up in the world. So the show starts, and here's what happened:
HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN (CCR COVER)/SOUTH CENTRAL RAIN

Great opener! With the rain still coming down hard, the Michael still spent most of his time getting wet with the rest of the crowd still assembled. He said we all looked like garbage bags, with everyone wearing their $5 jones beach plastic ponchos. But they kept trucking on in the pouring rain in their shortened set. They spent no time going from one song to the other, trying to fit in as many as possible. They didn't even leave the stage for an encore, and just kept going. During "Supernatural Superserious" into the brunt of the rain, getting poured on, but we were lower at least.

So during the encore they all have a band meeting and Michael says that he swore he would never play this song again, but due to tonight's circumstances they feel its necessary. They play "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", a song they haven't played since 2004, and not regularly since the 90's. I'd give you my video but all you hear is me freaking out and singing to every word, and that's not necessary. But here's a closer, better video.

I was freaking out. Later in the "encore", they played one of my all time favorite REM songs, "Fall on Me", but with Johnny Marr of Modest Mouse, um, I mean The Smiths. They closed out with Man on the Moon, successfully salvaging a rain-soaked night in Long Island. And to make it even funnier, as they were playing their last song, the rain started to stop, and eventually did when the concert ended. Here is the money shot at the end of the show:

Here's some more videos from the concert:
WHAT'S THE FREQUENCY, KENNETH?

THE ONE I LOVE

SUPERNATURAL SUPERSERIOUS

LOSING MY RELIGION

MAN ON THE MOON

SETLIST:
Have You Ever Seen The Rain...

1. So. Central Rain
2. These Days
3. Living Well Is the Best Revenge
4. What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
5. Man-Sized Wreath
6. 1,000,000
7. Ignoreland
8. Hollow Man
9. Welcome To The Occupation
10. Houston
11. Electrolite
12. Horse to Water
13. The One I Love
14. Let Me In
15. Bad Day
16. Orange Crush
17. I'm Gonna DJ

18. Supernatural Superserious
19. Losing My Religion
20. It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
21. Fall On Me
22. Man On The Moon

Looking back on that experience, it was easily one of the greatest nights of my entire life, and the greatest night of my whole life. I don't know if any other concert can ever top the epic proportions of that night. For serious, R.E.M. made me lose my religion. Now after the fact, a few weeks later, searching stuff online, I came across a news article on the whole show, and the lightening storm. Turns out that Fox 5 used my youtube video in a new piece on TV! How wild! Check out the story and video here! http://www.myfoxny.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=6789486&version=3&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1 Click on the right side bar. Under videos, there's a tiny picture of the theater, click that and watch the piece. It features my footage a lot!

Josh Rouse @ Zankel Hall/Josh Ritter @ Paramount Center for the Arts

2008-04-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

I saw my two favorite Josh's in concert in a week so here we go...

JOSH ROUSE @ ZANKEL HALL (4.18.08)
For those of you who don't know, Zankel is the medium sized hall in Carnegie Hall. WFUV sponsors their series City Folk @ Zankel, and Josh was their 4th, and final performance this season. The event was curated by Rita Houston, the musical director of WFUV. So Josh comes on and plays a beautiful set in a beautiful hall. It was him, his acousitc guitar, his iPod helping him out on a few tunes, and a piano player. The crowd was very very subdued, politely applauding, and not freaking out at all, or singing along. Then again, what do you expect, you are at Carnegie Hall! I guess I was the exception, singing along, and singing the background parts to Love Vibration and Winter in the Hamptons. It was a quick show unfortunately, with Josh only playing for 75 minutes. Short but sweet I guess. I took some video, very stealth-like, and only shutting it off when the usher saw me and gave me the throat-slashing gesture. And then when I put it up on YouTube, Carnegie Hall (those bastards) took it down! Anyway, there are still a few up...

Sweetie

My Love Has Gone

Here are some mp3's as well!!
1972 - http://s3.amazonaws.com/jr-nyc/01%201972.mp3
Sweetie - http://s3.amazonaws.com/jr-nyc/09%20Sweetie.mp3
Middle School Frown - http://s3.amazonaws.com/jr-nyc/08%20Middle%20School%20Frown.mp3
My Love Has Gone http://s3.amazonaws.com/jr-nyc/13%20My%20Love%20Has%20Gone.mp3

After the show, we ran into Rita Houston and talked to her about the show and the series. She says M. Ward will be doing the series next season, so we have that to look forward to!

Lastly, here is his setlist.

JOSH RITTER @ PARAMOUNT CENTER FOR THE ARTS (4.25.08)

The day after I got back from vacation with the marching band I find myself in Peekskill, NY for Josh Ritter. He was doing this tour call the "small town" tour, and Peekskill is that in every sense of the word. I think its a cool concept, it makes people in the closest "big" cities come to these smaller, out of the way venues to see their favorite musicians. I'm thankful, because it brought Kate & I on a very scenic journey through the Hudson Valley, across the Hudson & Bear Mtn bridge at the very beginnings of spring. Anyway...to the concert.

The opener was Langhorne Slim & The War Eagles. The instrumentation reminded me alot of the Violent Femmes, with drums played by brushes (with intensity!), and acoustic bass. Their sound wasn't for the theater we were at, they belong in clubs, where we all can dance! I recently picked up his newest record, and I highly suggest it! But Langhorne was not why we were there....

We were there for Josh, and in no way did he disappoint. I've always heard he is such an energetic performer, and is so happy on stage, but I felt he was especially on that night. He also did research on the town he was playing in, throwing out tidbits of information that I'm sure some Peekskill residents didn't even know. The highlight of his set was the all acoustic version of "Still Beating" (see video later..), and the singalong "Kathleen". It felt especially romantic with Kate next to me, a moment I will never forget. Then came the encore, where Josh & his band had the orchestra & balcony sing to each other like Romeo & Juliet during "Lillian, Egypt". And then they ended it by breaking down into a disco version at the end. A great ending. We sprinted to the stage and got the show's setlist.

After the show we stuck around to meet Josh, and meet him we did! He came up to us, gave us both big hugs, thanked us for coming to the show, and asked us about ourselves! He literally stood there for 5 minutes and talked to us about where we live, how we met, what we thought of the show, my more cowbell shirt, etc. Here's the money shot:

Here's some videos I took:
TO THE DOGS OR WHOEVER

STILL BEATING

First Post!

2008-03-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

Hey all, here I will post reviews, photos, and videos of concerts that I attend. This blog will be heavily used during this summer, during which I will be attending 2 festival shows, and other concerts, but I want to start this now so I can get my format down. I hope you will enjoy this blog!

See you at the shows!