4/19 - Of Montreal and Janelle Monae!

This show was so fun. As soon as Janelle Monae took the stage to open for Of Montreal, Toad's Place was just loaded with energy. In a recent Spin feature on her, she said that she's been blessed to have people be too afraid of asking her how she'll fit into the mainstream. We're blessed too. I like that she's different with her front-pushed hair and jockey outfits. Her music was dancey with a touch of Outkast and a whole lot of herself shining through. At one point in the show, she painted a picture on stage and handed it to the crowd.

As Of Montreal started their first song, I almost thought that Janelle outdid them. However, as they moved on with their set, they were incredible. Totally freaking out the bouncers. With their guys in stretchy pink costumes to hobbits to a tiger doing unspeakable things to someone else in a stretchy black costume, it was a crazy party on stage, and that party feel really spread to the crowd. Especially when they performed some of their more popular numbers like "A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger" or "Gronlandic Edit," which are both very danceable with recognizable and repeating background beats, they got the crowd going. I was surprised they didn't play "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse" for obvious reasons of what might have been going on in the audience, but I was very happy with how much they played off Hissing Fauna as well as Skeletal Lamping. This was probably one of my top 5 concerts, and my boyfriend and I danced more than we ever danced before.

The Ting Tings - 3/16

I know, I know. Very late update on this concert. It was a busy month. I can't wait to graduate. Anyway, The Ting Tings put on a great show and reminded me exactly why they're one of my new favorite bands. From their fun dance tunes to their extra brass instrumentals done by girls in funky wigs, it was an all-around good time. Also, the fact that they picked Hot Tub as an opener to tour with them was a fantastic idea. I love girl-fronted bands, which is partially why I love the Ting Tings. I also love energy - another quality of the Ting Tings. And here's Hot Tub from Oakland, Calif., embodying all of that. I loved that they were three multicultural girls just rapping and rocking out.

2/20 P-Funk

I got down just for the funk of it. George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic had a show at Toad's place, and it was one of the most interesting Toad's experiences I've ever had. The show was good. At times, some songs dragged on repetitively, but really, that's what a lot of the crowd wanted. They just kept on dancing. And the crowd was so diverse in both age and backgrounds, which also made this interesting. George Clinton is the man. They played their hits. They played some covers. They added some soulful singers. Clinton's granddaughter came out to MC and rap about marijuana. P-Funk turned a concert into an all-out event, and they gave us the whole funk and nothing but the funk.

2/12 Darwin's Meditation for the People of Lincoln

I don't think I've ever thought of a concert as a work of art, but "Darwin's Meditation for the People of Lincoln" was exactly that.

The piece featured Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR), who can really shred a violin. If you didn't think rocking out on a violin was possible, listen to DBR, man. I don't want to call it just a show because it was an entire composition with several elements coming together to celebrate the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln, who were born just hours apart. It included narratives that juxtaposed Darwin and Lincoln's lives together, and the music varied from passionate salsa to soulful funk to emotional classical music. It all came together perfectly, and UConn was really lucky to have gotten this show on the day of Darwin and Lincoln's actual birthday.

2/7 - Eve 6

I wish I brought a camera to have a photo for this post, but the show was right after a men's basketball game, so I was kind of on-the-go and forgot to bring one.

Anyway, Eve 6 brought back memories of being in seventh grade and mad at the world singing along to "Inside Out." It brought back memories of loving "Here's to the Night" because it's how we feel when we're "embarrassingly sentimental" as lead singer Max Collins described it. It was good. I haven't really listened to them in a while, so I was really surprised to see how many songs I actually knew and could sing along to. I have a feeling everyone else in the audience was feeling the same thing because it seemed that everyone could sing along to their radio singles and TRL hits. It took the band at least a song or two to get going, I think, because after a while, they really got into the songs, singing and playing a little harder. That just wasn't the case with the first two songs. The band did everything right, though. If they needed time to warm up and get into the show, they were right to play a few songs before the singles that everyone wants to rock out to. Actually, come to think of it, maybe it was the singles that everyone sang along to that pumped the band up. Either way, the show got better through the set. Also, I love when bands rotate new songs with old popular ones because it really keeps the crowd going, and Eve 6 did that.

Lights Resolve opened for them with a long set, and they just didn't do it for me. I mostly wanted it to end. One of the drums was mic'd too closely, and despite the singer describing one song as a dance tune that you'd "shake your ass" to, it still sounded pretty "I'm trying to be rock, and really, I can only head bang to this even though it's not really that hardcore and what you'd think to head bang to," which was pretty much what all their songs were. Also, there was a lot of "Oh Oh Oh"-ing to the songs, and lyrics that were trying too hard to be emotional and spiritual like "the angel cries oh oh oh oh [etc]."

2/5 - Marissa Nadler

I'd never heard of Marissa Nadler before, but WHUS was putting on a free show, and I had originally planned on going to see Nick Swardson who canceled his performance that night, so it was something to do.

And Nadler was pretty good. Her music was very light indie folk, and she has a gentle, steady and haunting way of singing. Her songs were beautiful in ways that would touch someone who's really having a tough time. It was funny though, because in between songs, she would giggle with the band members and joke in a girly way about how she was hurt by the people leaving. Also, she would described some of her songs as "rock" or "crazy synth pop" even though as soon as she started singing, it sounded just like her other songs with repeated broken chords, lyrics reaching out to someone whose dad died last month or about a man who tries to give his wife some food, none of which sounded very "rock" or "crazy."

WHUS described Nadler as "up and coming," and from her between-song stories of people normally talking during her sets and her long struggling career, I hope so.

Superbowl Sunday

What a game. But what's more important to me - sorry Cardinals or Steelers fans - was that there was an hour-long episode of The Office afterward.

It was the funniest episode I've ever seen. Dwight's crazy safety drills. Stanley's heart attack (You have to live! Barack Obama is president!). Meetings at corporate. Michael's roast. And Jim's love for Pam. It was everything I'd been waiting for in these past weeks with the sporadic lack of new episodes. I'm so glad The Office brought out the big guns for the big post-game TV show.