adrian is rad

The 2nd of 3 concerts I saw last week was the Polyphonic Spree at Bimbo’s 365. I went with Judit and Shad, but ran into (Kenny and Michelle) and (Julee and Droid) there.

From Bubble to Sky was one of the openers. They were a solid indie rock band, more or less playing their own songs that could have been Beatles songs. Very much in that style. I’m not going to go out of my way to hear them, but they were enjoyable to watch.

The Polyphonic Spree took a while to come on and it took even longer for the crowd to warm up to them, but once they were going, boy, were they going. A really good show. I’m always amazed at how much energy they can put into a show. If you have the chance to see them, do.

A few more things to note about the evening:

• Droid and Julee left because Droid didn’t like the religious overtones of the show. That’s just dumb. Hello! They wear robes and sings like 10 songs about the Sun. Of course there are overtones.
• Jon Brion played guitar for that night.
• it was the last night for the trumpet player Logan Keese, who, up to this point, I believe, has been the only trumpet player to play with the Spree. He was really good. They had a second trumpeter there, I guess learning the ropes from Logan.
• It was the last PS show for a while. The implication is that they’re taking a break and revamping the show/ the band. We’ll see what comes next.

Last night I had a detailed and vivid dream that I pretty much put my job on hold and moved to germany without even knowing where I was going to live. There were other people with me (my mom, I think, was one of them). We went to Stuttgart and went around and it was all very familiar (because I have lived there before) but I decided that if I was going to live in germany it had to be Berlin so we went there. I forget where the dream ended but we definitely got to Berlin, but I don’t think I’d rented an apartment yet or anything like that.

now I’m off to sleep again. We’ll see what tonight brings.

Alright, I’m catching up here on the past few days. It’s been crazy. The NoisePop Festival is going on, so I’ve been to 3 concerts in the last 4 days.

I went with Margot from the station. She’s on right now (Saturday midnight-3am) if you want to listen. We caught the last couple minutes of the first opening band, who were nice enough to listen to but not good enough for me to look up the name of or link to.

Smoosh was up next. They are a 10 and a 12 year old girl playing drums and keyboard, respectively. You think, awww, that’s cute. It’ll be fun. Then you’re like, wait, these guys are actually sort of good. In the end it’s something between a total novelty and total rockin’ music. If you’re interested, give this KEXP live in-studio recording a listen. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I’m going to totally make my kids be in an indie rock band.

Aqueduct was just fun. It’s mainly one guy and his keyboards, writing songs about “Growing up on GnR” (Guns N Roses), which is available at the barsuk website I linked, and the like. His touring band has drums, guitar and bass as well. He had just found out (that day, I think) that they were going to be on Conan O’Brien two days later so he was really excited. I think in general he gets really into the show and is generally exuding happiness.

the Mates of State were great. Kori and Jason were in top form, returning to their former hometown. For the first time in all the times I’ve seen them, they brought along another keyboard in addition to the still-gorgeous Yamaha YC-45D. The second keyboard was a Yamaha electric piano, maybe a P80. I was scared at first that it was some cheesy synth that didn’t have the depth of the 45D, but it was just a piano and it allowed them to do “I Have Space,” a favorite of mine that I’ve never heard live. I was really happy with the selection of songs they did, including “A Duel Will Settle This,” the awesome one off their new EP “Along for the Ride,” their version of “These Days” and a bunch off of Team Boo. I like hearing “Hoarding for Home” and “Throw Down” live but you can’t get everything.

Overall, a really solid and enjoyable show throughout.

I like to make lists of all the shows I went to by bands that I’ve seen a ton, so here’s the one for the Mates of State:

• Oct. 7, 2001 at the Middle East with Beulah
• Feb. 23, 2002 at MassArt
• Oct. 5, 2002 at TT the Bear’s
• Feb. 1, 2002 at the Middle East with Rainer Maria
• Oct. 10, 2003 at the Bottom of the Hill
• Feb. 6, 2004 at the Los Gatos Outhouse (the teen center out back of the Los Gatos High School Football Field)
• Feb. 23, 2005 at Slim’s with Aqueduct and Smoosh