A Round Up of Two Very Different Live Music Experiences

I had a couple of good times in Brooklyn over the last few days. Thursday was one of my most anticipated shows of the year and for that matter so was Sunday. Of course there was a more profound difference in these shows than genre, venue, and production value. A $50 difference to be exact.

Sebastian/Kavinsky DJ Set (Keyspan Park) 82% - This was a great set mixing in honest to god excellent dance music with suprising crowd pleasing rockier fair like Rage Against the Machine and Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up".

The Rapture (Keyspan Park) 74% - The Rapture sounded super but sitting in the stands of a baseball stadium did not suit the dance punk elder statesmen.

Daft Punk (Keyspan Park) 96% - After thinking the whole summer that I had gotten field tickets I was dismayed to discover I'd be spending my Daft Punk experience in the stands. This however doesn't change the fact that this is one of the best experiences in stadium entertainment I've ever seen. An excellent set and the most impressive lighting design ever (and I saw Pink Floyd at an incredibly young age) makes this one of the best Stadium tours of the decade.

Birds of Avalon (McCarren Park Pool) 67% - This band might be very good but could not break through my usual McCarren opener indifference, sorry fellows.

The Thermals (McCarren Park Pool) 87% - Solid songs and a muscular performance from a three piece who could very easily come off as boring popish punk. They don't through shear force of will. Kudos on the Built to Spill cover.

Ted Leo/Pharmacists (McCarren Park Pool) 91% - Ted Leo may just be the most stubbornly solid live performer of his generation. This show, to a seemingly packed McCarren Pool, was amongst the better I've seen from the Pharmacists. The mid song Daft Punk wink was very satisfying, also the new songs which come off as retreads on album sit very comfortably with the classics. On a sad note it is the last performance from Rx Bassist Dave Lerner, the only Leo bass player I've ever known.