Wednesday, August 01, 2007

I've always thought of music as more than words and sounds, something more like inspiration, it always comes and gets me off the ground


I mentioned in March that I went and saw Say Hi To your Mom (who are now calling themselves Say Hi), but that has hardly been my only live musical venture of the ohseven. Nay, not at all. In fact, I dare say that ohsev will go down as one of my most active live musical years to date. See, I don't absolutely love with hearts live music. I'm fine with it, but I will never marry it.

This year, though (2007, for those keeping score), there have been some good show options. There was Mos Def at the University of Utah in April - see above for proof - which happened a day later than it was supposed to and then an hour later after that, but it was pretty good. You know Mos Def, he's the fellow who is scared of dogs in the Italian Job starring Mark Wahlberg. He's the fellow who messed (unneccessarily, I might add) with his voice and starred with Bruce Willis in 16 Blocks. He's the rapper who the hip hop world as been ready to give the hip-hop crown to a few times, but each time he has shied away from it, leaving Jay-Z to claim the crown through no other means that by verbally claiming it. Don't get me wrong, Jay-Z is really good. Just listen to the Black Album ("Dirt Off Your Shoulders" is on of my favorite tracks of all time). But don't listen to that one set of albums that had three volumes - not that great.



In June, there was Sage Francis. Lisa writes more about it somewhere else and I won't add much, except to say that he completely owned the crowd. I don't know if i have seen it to that extent since I listened to hardcore in the late 1990s.

July the 19 brought a free Yo La Tengo show at the Gallivan Center. What a great thing that figured to be: one of my absolute favorites for free. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to the greatness I had expected, and not because of Yo La Tengo. They did a good job of picking my favorite songs to play (Sugarcube, Stockhold Syndrome to name two). It was because of the type of crowd that shows up for a free show at an outdoor venue in the middle of downtown. I wrote this on spockwithabeard:

There is way too many people and only a small percentage seem to even care about the music. Most people are just there to drink and show cleavage.

It's such an astute observation by me. You could hear the wave of casual conversation as much as you could hear the band, even when I was towards the front and in the center.

But there is so much more in store. Labor Day weekend, I will be attending Bumbershoot. Seriously, I have my ticket to the festival and the plane. Three full days of tunes and stuff. Plus, there will some filthy times with Nathaniel.

Anyways, I hope Cindy doesn't can me. Let the record show that if she does, things will be awkward when she moves to Utah.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lee, hey its Brad I lived with Bateman for a while in Logan and I played Dr. Mario with you at Krista's house. Do you remember me?

Anyway, I found you through A.C.'s blog (Andrew Cazier) and wanted to say hey and thank you for making me not feel guilty for missing the good bands that played at Galivan this summer.

Cindy Bean said...

Phew, dodged that bullet!

I'm sad I won't get to spend time with you guys up here and that I won't get to go to Bumbershoot with you. I love the Bumbershoot. I've been to the last three years and each time I've gotten in free. Life is so beautiful.

Lee said...

Brad Knickerbocker? You are remembered. Last time I saw you, we were playing flies up at Jason's house.
I'm glad I can ease your guilt about the Galivan fiascos. Only go if one of your favorites is playing.

Lee said...

Cindy- It's okay, because pretty soon you will live in the SLC. You'll probably be pretty bored with me.
It kind of gives me one less reason to visit Seattle, though.

B. said...

Gogol Bordello should be fun to see. Just listening to their music is a little like being stabbed in the face, but I bet they put on a great live show.

nathaniel said...

lee why the hell would you EVER have less reason to visit seattle?

Lee said...

Nathaniel- You live with Cindy, you know the answer to that question.

B.- So long as I get stabbed, I'm in.

lisa said...

can i tag along for your "filthy times with nathaniel"?, since we bought our tickets together, and we're flying together, and we're all staying together? and can you guys promise to stop saying "that's what lisa said" all the time?

the mama monster said...

no you are the nerd. really though we need to have a dinner date on day, we would love to meet your lady.

nathaniel said...

lisa, why don't you just make us promise to not to have any fun whatsover the whole weekend while you're at it?

Lee said...

JackieZ- We definitely should. "As long as we don't talk about Harry Potter or any other boy wizard."
That's what Lisa said.

Nathaniel- That's what Lisa said.

Lee said...

Nathaniel- "I can't wait to see you two weeks from today."
That's what Lee said.

becky said...

i am going to ACL in September. We'll have to compare music festivals

Lee said...

What the hell is ACL?