September: The month of choices! (I Am Festival with We Are Scientists and Mates of State and Wolf Den Shows with They Might Be Giants)

Now that I'm officially a law student, I really have to budget my concerts - because of both time and money constraints. As luck would have it, there are some great (even free) deals going down in September (not including Lady Gaga in Hartford on Sept. 16, which I'm really excited about). Also as luck would have it, some would be on the same days.

I will start with Saturday, Sept. 11, the date of I Am Festival in New London and The Zombies at Mohegan Sun. Both are free.


(Photo of We Are Scientists from their Myspace page.)

I Am Festival just announced on Facebook this afternoon that We Are Scientists are headlining. This is after the already pretty sweet lineup of Mates of State, O'Death, Darlings and Fake Babies. The flier says that there will be "many more" bands playing, and if past I Am Fests were any indication, I kind of figured this one would be pretty good. I'll admit that I was a little on the fence before, though, because choosing between The Zombies, with some of my favorite songs, and Mates of State, one of my favorite bands, was a tough choice. But add in more bands and the awesome setting that I Am Fest is, I'm going with I Am Fest. Last year we saw Deerhoof, Free Energy and The Drums - for free! I can't believe how much Free Energy has blown up over the past year, so that show was a steal. I'm still kicking myself for missing Girl Talk and Matt & Kim performances at an earlier I Am Fest. I'm not sure where I was then.

Anyway, I Am Festival happens Saturday, Sept. 11 at the Waterfront Park in New London. There's municipal parking in the area, and the stage is right on the waterfront, which makes it really cool. It looks like they're still updating the lineup and adding more info, so check out their Facebook page for more info. I'll update my blog as soon as I can when I find out more.

And still, if you're closer to Mohegan Sun and a bigger Zombies fan, I say go check out the show. It's free. There are actually a number of not-too-shabby free shows in the Wolf Den coming up, including Fuel on Friday, Sept. 3 and Augustana on Sept. 5. Check out the schedule here: http://mohegansun.com/entertainment/wolfden.html?page=1&. And that brings me to the next conundrum that I've worked out recently.


(Photo of They Might Be Giants from their Myspace Page.)

They Might Be Giants are playing a free fan appreciation show at the Wolf Den on Sept. 25. The show starts at 8, but the Wolf Den website suggests arriving early because seating is limited. Also, the show is 21+.

I've decided I'm definitely going to be there, but I have to note that I wasn't exactly sure about going because it's the same night as REO Speedwagon playing at the Durham Fair. REO Speedwagon's not free because fair admission is $15, but it's a pretty good deal when you figure that's the cost of local agricultural fair admission in general, sometimes not even including big headliners. Plus, I love the Durham fair for all its deep-fried treats and lime rickeys and wanted to go to the fair anyway. I might still go during the weekend, but listening to more They Might Be Giants, I decided that show would be a lot of fun. Also, my boyfriend pointed out that there will be fewer occasions to see They Might Be Giants for free than REO Speedwagon for $15. But if you're an REO Speedwagon fan and able to make the fair, definitely go. Here's the info for that show and the fair: http://www.durhamfair.com/ShowsHeadliners.html

Review: Tom Petty and Crosby Stills and Nash at the Meadows 8/17

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Crosby, Stills & Nash gave great performances Tuesday night. Both played lots of hits, got the crowd going and showed why they've had staying power, churning out several classics over the years.

CSN got the concert started, and they really felt like a double headliner, not an opening act. The concert was a little later than usual - started at 8 - so there were a lot of people already inside, and it was dark, so CSN could feel like a headliner. They played "Bluebird" and went into "Deja Vu" and got more crowd approval deeper into the set with "Southern Cross" going into "Almost Cut My Hair."

Here's the CSN setlist:
Woodstock (Joni Mitchell cover)
Military Madness (Graham Nash cover)
Long Time Gone
Bluebird (Buffalo Springfield cover)
Deja Vu
Ruby Tuesday (The Rolling Stones cover)
Our House
Southern Cross
Almost Cut My Hair
Wooden Ships
Encore: For What It's Worth (Buffalo Springfield cover)

It took Tom Petty just about an hour to go on after CSN ended, which felt like a really long time. As the crowd grew restless, though, the crew kept sound checking, and I think they may have changed the camera for the big screens because the stage - Tom Petty, mainly - had a soft glow and looked almost holy in the screen picture. It was a pretty cool effect. If it wasn't on purpose, it worked. The set list worked in that it included the more popular, crowd-pleasing hits - I think I felt the cloud form on the lawn during "Last Dance with Mary Jane" - but saved room for some stuff off their new album, Mojo, which sounds like classic Tom Petty except maybe a little jammier, with more guitar riffs and fewer catchy choruses. After the Mojo interlude, the band went right back to playing their hits with a light version of "Learning to Fly," complete with a singalong toward the end. Then they brought the pace back up with "Don't Come Around Here No More" and ended with "Refugee before coming back to an encore of "Running Down A Dream and "American Girl."

Here is close to a complete Tom Petty set list:
Listen to Her Heart
You Don't Know How It Feels
I Won't Back Down
Free Fallin'
(Not sure what song was after this. I was getting really into the concert and didn't know the song off the top of my head and didn't catch lyrics to look it up.)
Mary Jane's Last Dance
(Also not sure on this next song.)
Breakdown
Jefferson Jericho Blues
Good Enough
Running Man's Bible
I Should Have Known It
Learning to Fly
Don't Come Around Here No More
Refugee
Encore: Runnin' Down a Dream
American Girl

On a side note from the concert, I have to say that the worst thing to happen after a concert - with tons of heavy traffic - did. There was a fire right behind the parking lot at the Meadows, now the Comcast Theater in Hartford. Luckily, I got out of the concert pretty quickly and pretty much ran to my car. Strangely enough, there was another fire in Hartford at a three-family house, and that was in the news, but not this fire. So I don't have any other information on this fire. If anyone who reads this finds more info, I'd be curious to know what exactly happened.


(Picture of the fire)

After running to my car, I drove from my parking spot to the line of cars trying to get out and noticed a pretty big fire toward the back of the lot. Nervously, everyone was pushing to get out. Still no sign of fire trucks or sirens, I got to the traffic light and main road by the time the first fire truck came. We opened our windows to ask the other cars in traffic if they were near the fire and could see what happened. One guy said he was two rows away from it and it was on the tracks. Imagine how scary it must have been for people parked in that area. I'd be terrified the fire would spread to my car. Also, it formed a pretty big cloud of smoke, so it was probably hard to breathe right next to the fire. I was glad I got out of there, too, because with the fire trucks coming in, cars would definitely be blocked. I hope everyone who attended the concert had a good time and got out safely without too much delay.

Review: Film Night at Tanglewood with John Williams and the Boston Pops 8/14

Movie music is epic. It brings emotion and momentum to countless scenes, and it's fun to hear live while listening to narratives about how the music added to great movies. That's what Film Night at Tanglewood is. This was my second time going to one (I went two years ago), and it was fantastic. We had John Williams conducting the Boston Pops and Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies hosting. Two years ago we got surprise Steven Spielberg, but no such luck this time. Still, Osborne was very informative and extremely engaging. As the Pops performed, movie clips played on the screen, and in-between songs, Osborne would give us some tidbits on the movie music was from or about movie music in general. For example, there was a time when movie music wasn't really respected among composers, and people who wrote music for movies were looked down upon. Also, music in movies used to come from a source within the movie, like a player piano or a band in the background, not from no where like it is today. Today, you wouldn't imagine a movie without music.

The Pops played a set of "Hollywood's Golden Age" with music by different composers from and about movies and after an intermission played "Celebrating Steven Spielberg" with music by Williams. They sounded great and as they flowed through each movement, I felt like I was experiencing the movies themselves.

List of what each set included:

"Hollywood's Golden Age"
Hooray for Hollywood - Whiting (arr. Williams)
Suite from "Sunset Boulevard" - Waxman
Scene d'Amour from "Vertigo" - Herrmann
Forest Meeting and March from "Spartacus" - North
Chinatown - Goldsmith
Lawrence of Arabia - Jarre

"Celebrating Steven Spielberg"
Two Selections from "Jaws" (Theme and Barrel Chase Sequence)
Excerpts from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"
Two selections with the Buti Young Artists Chorus (Exultate Justi from "Empire of the Sun" and Dry Your Tears, Afrika from "Amistad")
March from "1941"
Theme from "Schindler's List"
A Tribute to Steven Spielberg (Medley with music from "Close Encounters," "Jaws, "Jurassic Park," "Munich," and "ET."

That was all that was listed in the program, but Williams and the Pops gave us one more, which I was very excited about: "Indiana Jones."

Review: MGMT at Mountain Park 8/11

Compared to the Flaming Lips show last month at Mountain Park, which left behind globs of confetti, MGMT was a much smaller, less festive occasion. It might have felt smaller because of the smaller and younger crowd, and because we could still see those globs of confetti, but it was very fitting. Not counting the 15-year-olds trying to mosh next to me during MGMT's more popular dance hits "Electric Feel" and "Time To Pretend," this concert atmosphere was a bit more relaxed, perfect for MGMT's newer, dreamier, songs, where we could just stand back and enjoy the sound. They started with "The Youth," which was a very good choice, and went into a more upbeat, surfier "Flash Delirium." They alternated between the slower, more ambient songs we could sway to and the fast-paced songs we could dance to, playing pretty much everything off Oracular Spectacular and Congratulations. We even got "Kids" at the end of their set.

Seeing a band when they only have two full albums out is the perfect time to see them. Think about it. You know a lot of their songs, and you know they'll play your favorites. And you know they'll have a longer set than when there was only one album out (cough, Ting Tings with their 40-minute album when I saw them last year, cough). MGMT gave us two fake endings, saying that "Kids" was the last song then leaving us with "Congratulations" and coming back with "The Handshake" and ending finally with "I Found a Whistle."

I tried to keep track of the set list so I could make set lists a regular part of my blog, but there were some lyrics that were difficult to hear or understand, and it's pretty much imperative that bands jam during live performances, so some songs kind of blended together. The blending together was very MGMT, though, so the crowd kept swaying and dancing. I included what I think is a complete set list at the bottom of this post, so if you see any mistakes, please let me know. I think it's mostly complete because we got most of Oracular Spectacular and Congratulations on this list.


The Violens opened and met everyone at the merch table after their set with handouts for a download of "Summer Mixtape," which is literally a mixtape, on their website: http://violens.net/. I actually just downloaded it and am listening to it as we speak. Definitely give it a listen. The Violens were really fun to watch, and I was able to recognize some songs from their Myspace page including "Acid Reign and "Already Over." They're an excellent band to pair with MGMT on a tour because you kind of get that MGMT psychedelic dance feel with their stuff. There's lots of cool sound effects, dreamy backup and leading vocals and interesting piano overtures. And they're really nice guys. Violens: A group of pretty nice guys.

Here's what I think is a complete set list for MGMT since I'm trying to post set lists now. If I missed something, please let me know. (I'm trying to keep track of songs, but bands jam out when they perform live, and songs blend together, so it's kind of hard. If you can help, please do!)

"The Youth"
"Flash Delirium"
"Of Moons, Birds & Monsters"
"Weekend Wars"
"Song for Dan Treacy"
"Time to Pretend"
"It's Working"
"Future Reflections" (I think)
"Something's Missing"
"Electric Feel"
"Brian Eno"
"Pieces of What"
"Siberian Breaks"
"Destrokk"
"Kids"
"Congratulations"
Encore:
"The Handshake"
"I Found a Whistle"

Cool things in our area this week - MGMT tonight, John Williams and the Boston Pops do Film Night Saturday and Tom Petty next Tuesday

Figured I'd do a refresher post for some cool things coming up. (Also, some reviews we have to look forward to this week.)

First, there's MGMT tonight. This post is probably dated 8/10 because that's when I hit "New Post", but because I'm finally writing it after midnight, it's already 8/11, and that's when MGMT is playing at Mountain Park in Holyoke, Mass. Tickets are $30 plus fees still available, and I've heard lots of radio ads for it as of late. Show starts at 7. Here is the Mountain Park link: http://www.iheg.com/mountain_park_main.asp.

Next, we've got John Williams and the Boston Pops performing a Film Night on Saturday at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass. I went to a Film Night two years ago and Spielberg showed up and gave commentary on the music and how it related to his movies. It was super cool. This will be John Williams' 30th summer at Tanglewood, so it's bound to be good. I'm willing to bet that we'll get some surprise guest appearances too. Tickets range from $21 to $121 (we got the $21 lawn seats), and the show starts at 8:30 p.m. The info and ticket link are on this page: http://www.bso.org/bso/mods/content1.jsp?id=42700020.

Then on Tuesday, Aug. 17, I'm going to see Tom Petty with Crosby, Stills and Nash at the Meadows, or Comcast Theater in Hartford. Ticket prices range from $29 to $119 (we got lawn). I saw Tom Petty with Steve Winwood a few summers ago, and it was a lot of Fun. Petty played all his hits, and there's a lot of them - more than you'd think, actually. Also, getting Crosby, Stills and Nash on the ticket is quite the deal. The show starts at 7 p.m., and I'd recommend getting there on time to see Crosby, Stills and Nash since Train started right at 7:30, if not before then, this past Sunday when I saw them with John Mayer. A lot of people were still walking in during Train's set.

Review: John Mayer and Train at the Meadows - 8/7

(Blurry cell phone picture of when Pat Monahan joined John Mayer to sing "The Boys of Summer")

Toward the end of his set, John Mayer admitted that "money sucks" and "there's not a lot of it floating around," so he gave a heartfelt thank-you to the audience for buying tickets. "I hope it's worth every penny," he said.

It was.

I know some people spent $80+, but I got lawn seats, so including fees, it came to $40 a ticket. John Mayer and Train were a perfect combo, and really, both are pretty big acts, so it was worth it.

Both pulled out most of their hits, and Mayer and his band jammed for some longer interludes, showing off the musicianship of the band members, including a pretty incredible saxophone player. Mayer even said that it makes a big difference when you have a good band, which is very true. He started with "Bigger Than My Body" and went into "No Such Thing." On top of playing a lot of his more popular songs like "Gravity," "Waiting on the World to Change" and his newer singles, "Heartbreak Warfare" and "Half of My Heart," he also had a lot of audience interaction, talking directly to a couple with a sign that they were just engaged and showing the girls and guys exactly how they dance to jam music. Being from Fairfield, he gave shout-outs to girls from Westport, Easton, Milford, Avon, Cheshire, Groton and Fairfield, places where a good chunk of the audience probably came from. Mayer noted that it's August and the summer's winding down, so he said it's up to you to make a good time. He played on the theme of keeping summer alive as he brought back Pat Monahan from Train to sing " The Boys of Summer." Mayer played for about 2 hours, and Train played for maybe an hour.

Unfortunately, Train felt like an opening band because there wasn't anyone on before them. We got into the venue just after 7:30, which was when the ticket said the show would start. There wasn't another opener listed, but I figured they might throw someone else in. They didn't, so unfortunately, a lot of people were still coming in while Train was playing. Train wasn't even listed on the ticket, and the only way to find out they were playing was by reading articles or looking at Train's website, which listed Hartford on its tour. Train's been around for a long time, and they have a lot of big songs (How 'bout "Hey, Soul Sister" playing non-stop on the radio for the past year?), so it was weird that the promoters didn't include them on the ticket or highlight them more. Even still, they played a great set, with "Marry Me" going into "Hey, Soul Sister" and ending with a big "Drops of Jupiter."

I'm always looking for ways to improve my blog, and a friend said that people want set lists. So, this show I kept note of songs, and I present to you, the set lists. (Note: We missed the beginning of Train, so the first songs aren't there.)

Train (Note, again: We missed some songs in the beginning):
"I Got You"
"If It's Love"
"When I Look to the Sky"
"Calling All Angels"
"Save Me, San Francisco"
"Marry Me"
"Hey, Soul Sister"
"Drops of Jupiter"

John Mayer:
"Bigger Than My Body"
"No Such Thing"
"Clarity"
"Slow Dancing in a Burning Room"
"Perfectly Lonely"
(Jam session with "Ain't No Sunshine")
"Gravity"
"Who Says"
"Waiting on the World to Change"
"Heartbreak Warfare"
"Do You Know Me"
"The Boys of Summer" (with Pat Monahan)
Encore: "Edge of Desire"