I've seen alot of shows and only recently unlocked the photo upload power of my digital camera and even more recently restarted blogging in ernest. As such I've missed discussing alot of concerts. As a way to introduce my new percentage grading of rock performances and as a way of quantifying my whole summer concert going experience here is a list of individual performances graded for your amusement.
7/4 - New Pornographers (Battery Park) - 53% Sure they were fine, but fine shouldn't cut it when you've reached the level of these Canadian power poppers. The other problem was the missing Dan Bejar which would have been enough on it's own but then his voice arrived dissembodied from out of the speakers.
7/6 - Black Moth Super Rainbow (Seaport) - 63% A drummerless Black Moth composes a whirl of pleasant synthed out psych bliss but in the context of the Seaport with a complete lack of actual performing it falls on a deaf and uninterested crowd.
7/6 - Fujia and Miyagi (Seaport) - 72% A good performance, nice rythms the crowd was into it, might be nice to raise your vocals above a whisper once in a while.
7/7 - Cat Power (McCarren Pool) - 36% Chan Marshal and band were functionally very good, refined subtle, almost exuberent. But where was the angst? Where were the songs we all came out for? Not to be found.
7/7 - Built to Spill (McCarren Pool) - 75% I've seen at least 3 better Built to Spill shows but they're a work horse and they get the job done.
7/8 - Puttin' On The Ritz (Knitting Factory) - 82% A little bit of spunk takes this sort of rock sort of comedy act to a wonderful place. Not for everyone.
7/8 - Marnie Stern (Knitting Factory) - 92% Marnie and a two piece band (featuring Hella's Zach Hill) plow through precise prog-noise in an amazing way. Exhaustingly brilliant.
7/13 - Menomena (Seaport) - 65% I'm not terribly interested in this band, but they actually sounded quite good.
7/21 - The Twilight Sad - 84% Great sound and just the right amount of stoic emoting.
7/21 - Dr. Dog (Siren) - ZZZZ% Seriously.
7/21 - Black Lips (Siren) - 77% Pretty great but the hype is not kind in the context of Siren.
7/21 - We Are Scientists (Siren) - 79% Better than expected, the crowd really seemed wrapped up in it.
7/21 - M.I.A. (Siren) - 89% Great recovery from technical difficulties and a psyched crwod made this the high light of the day.
7/22 - Oxford Collapse (McCarren Pool) - 86% Excellent band expands to include horns and extra drummers, survives.
7/22 - Annuals (McCarren Pool) - 43% Better than the last time I saw them still remarkably unremarkable.
7/22 - Jay Reatard (Asbury Lanes) - 94% Best performance of the month so far. Reatard and his band attack with extreme precision. Less than a half hour of performance and yet I was totally satisfied.
7/22 - The Ponys (Asbury Lanes) - 69% Playing to less than 2 dozen people the Ponys still did their darndest.
Labels: black moth, built to spill, cat power, fujia and miyagi, jay reatard, live music, marnie stern, new pornographers, oxford collapse, puttin' on the ritz, siren festival, summer, the ponys
