We the Kings plays Mr. Brightside
We the Kings covered Mr. Brightside by the killers when they played at Webster Theatre this past Saturday (3/7/2009). What follows are two clips from that performance. The second of the two features the drummer from the Cab when he came back onstage to drum to this song. Check out the show review
We the Kings, the Cab at Webster Theatre 3/7/2009
Unlike Friday night’s concert, Brand New, Saturday’s was a concert I had some tangible excitement for. It was officially the last stop of the Secret Valentine Tour (though not technically), headlined by We the Kings and supported by the Cab and two other smaller bands.
The Openers
I’m going to keep this short and just say that they were decent. The second band, There for Tommorow, did a good cover of Icebox by Omarion.
The Cab
The Cab was a band who, although I had heard their hit single before, Bounce, I had only gotten their Album that week. Regardless of this fact, I was still enthused to see them perform live. And I was not disappointed. Live, they put on a good show. The audiences really seemed to enjoy their performance and they went particularly crazy when they played their sole hit single. The band from Las Vegas—I know this because they said it about twelve times—didn’t disappoint from any angle, and very overall very satisfying. If you want to read an interview with Cash from the Cab, my friend did one last week. (continues below)
We the Kings
Without much further ado, the lead singer with the red hair was on stage and We the Kings was kicking off their part of the concert. They sounded great, very tight very solid. With a set of super bright lights surrounding the elevated drum in the shape of a W, the feel of the show was full of energy. Despite two things, a) the guitarist not actually being the recorded We the Kings guitarist (real one somewhere in New Mexico?) and b) some technical problems with the guitars near the end, We the Kings kept the show moving. Engaging in Banter, and even singing happy birthday to everyone in the crowd, it was obvious that they had formed a relationship with the Webster (having played it 5 times in 12 months or something ridiculous like that).They also pulled off a good cover of Mr. Brightside in which the drummer from the cab jumped back on stage with drum set to drum along. Finally they came back on to the encore shirtless (at concert goers request), before spitting out their three most famous songs in quick succession Check Yes Juliet, Secret Valentine and their closer Skyway Avenue.
The Openers
I’m going to keep this short and just say that they were decent. The second band, There for Tommorow, did a good cover of Icebox by Omarion.
The Cab
The Cab was a band who, although I had heard their hit single before, Bounce, I had only gotten their Album that week. Regardless of this fact, I was still enthused to see them perform live. And I was not disappointed. Live, they put on a good show. The audiences really seemed to enjoy their performance and they went particularly crazy when they played their sole hit single. The band from Las Vegas—I know this because they said it about twelve times—didn’t disappoint from any angle, and very overall very satisfying. If you want to read an interview with Cash from the Cab, my friend did one last week. (continues below)
We the Kings
Without much further ado, the lead singer with the red hair was on stage and We the Kings was kicking off their part of the concert. They sounded great, very tight very solid. With a set of super bright lights surrounding the elevated drum in the shape of a W, the feel of the show was full of energy. Despite two things, a) the guitarist not actually being the recorded We the Kings guitarist (real one somewhere in New Mexico?) and b) some technical problems with the guitars near the end, We the Kings kept the show moving. Engaging in Banter, and even singing happy birthday to everyone in the crowd, it was obvious that they had formed a relationship with the Webster (having played it 5 times in 12 months or something ridiculous like that).They also pulled off a good cover of Mr. Brightside in which the drummer from the cab jumped back on stage with drum set to drum along. Finally they came back on to the encore shirtless (at concert goers request), before spitting out their three most famous songs in quick succession Check Yes Juliet, Secret Valentine and their closer Skyway Avenue.
Brand New at Webster Theatre 3/6/2009
With just a weeks notice Brand New, a band that has been fairly obscure (at least to me) since their big radio hits from 03/04, managed to pack the Webster Theatre in a sold out, limited tour schedule show. I have to admit, that prior to this concert the only two songs were those radio hits. Songs "Sic Transit Gloria" and "The Quiet Things that No One Ever Knows."The Openers
Not the best of bands, but their certainly made their fill as openers. The first band managed to break the record for number of guitars being played on stage that I’ve seen. Including 4 guitarists and 1 bassist (although 3 of the guitarists were sometimes keyboard player’s as well). The dear hunter, under which this feat happened, was probably the better of the two.
The other, mewithoutyou, failed to sustain any kind of music I would listen to in any substantial form. In fact they all looked mentally handicapped up on stage—no wonder they ran all their names letters together!Wait…NeverShoutNever! Is in the other theatre?
Fun story: NeverShoutNever! sold out the underground at the Webster Theatre before Brand New was even announced as an event. The show was packed and screams arose anytime the lead singer, Christopher Drew, said anything in his unusually squeaky voice. For a time I traded one band who scrunched the words in their name together for another. Except the second was actually good. It wasn’t long before we went back to the main stage for the event that packed the larger of the two venues.
Brand New
The stage filled with fog, two drum sets sat alone on stage and the crowd roared. What followed was only slightly short of impressive. I said before that I had only heard two songs before, but the energy of the crowd combined with the solidity of a show that this band put on really raised my opinion of them. The lighting, a mix of white and yellow mainly from the back gave the theatre an epic feel. This was then combined with the songs in which two drummers kept the beat for the song (Jesus Christ and Millstone?)—breaking the record for number of drums I’ve seen played on stage simultaneously. Overall they sounded good, the crowd was responsive and they were a pleaser. Perhaps I’ll think about finding their albums…
Skittles.com–Social Interactive Marketing
@Skittles
Everyone knows what a bore some corporate websites can be. Even when the try to make them somewhat interesting, they generally fail at the concept and revert to a basic run of the mill layout. Well skittles has gone a new route—throwing convention out the door on its ass, if you will. With the web evolving into a catalyst for social media, skittles.com has taken full advantage of this and hence their website is social media.
Their homepage is the feed from a search of skittles on twitter. Their videos section is the skittles page on YouTube. Their pictures section is the skittles page on Flickr. Their product descriptions are pages from Wikipedia. And their friend’s page is a skittles’ fan page from Facebook.
A New Marketing
I know for a fact that skittles isn’t the first website to do this (I heard about another company, I think a digital ad company, who did the same last summer [edit: found it Modernista!]), but they’ve done a pretty impressive job. The idea, it would seem, is the centre for a new type of marketing (social interactive marketing?). What it definitively is, though, is a bizarrely low effort approach to creating buzz.
What This Means
I think the uniqueness of the idea speaks for itself. But perhaps the content of the idea isn’t quite there. Just looking at some of the twitter posts appearing in the twitter search stream aggregate it’s easy to see why this site requires an 18+ age in order to even view the homepage (not to mention the zero responsibility statement). Also the overlay box which they are using as a navigation, even when minimized, occupies too much page space.
Regardless of any of the above, the twitter search feed is, at the time of writing, getting at least 20 new tweets about Skittles (Twittles?) every 30 or less seconds. So something is functioning with this website, good or bad.
Everyone knows what a bore some corporate websites can be. Even when the try to make them somewhat interesting, they generally fail at the concept and revert to a basic run of the mill layout. Well skittles has gone a new route—throwing convention out the door on its ass, if you will. With the web evolving into a catalyst for social media, skittles.com has taken full advantage of this and hence their website is social media.
Their homepage is the feed from a search of skittles on twitter. Their videos section is the skittles page on YouTube. Their pictures section is the skittles page on Flickr. Their product descriptions are pages from Wikipedia. And their friend’s page is a skittles’ fan page from Facebook.
A New Marketing
I know for a fact that skittles isn’t the first website to do this (I heard about another company, I think a digital ad company, who did the same last summer [edit: found it Modernista!]), but they’ve done a pretty impressive job. The idea, it would seem, is the centre for a new type of marketing (social interactive marketing?). What it definitively is, though, is a bizarrely low effort approach to creating buzz.
What This Means
I think the uniqueness of the idea speaks for itself. But perhaps the content of the idea isn’t quite there. Just looking at some of the twitter posts appearing in the twitter search stream aggregate it’s easy to see why this site requires an 18+ age in order to even view the homepage (not to mention the zero responsibility statement). Also the overlay box which they are using as a navigation, even when minimized, occupies too much page space.
Regardless of any of the above, the twitter search feed is, at the time of writing, getting at least 20 new tweets about Skittles (Twittles?) every 30 or less seconds. So something is functioning with this website, good or bad.
Song of the Moment: 20 Dollar Nose Job
Despite my affinity for totally over produced songs and brass sections in songs, this is my song of the moment.
Like I just said I love songs that a produced way over their need to be, and Fall Out Boy never fails to succeed in doing this flawlessly. This song, the penultimate song on their new album is a prime example of definitive over production gold. Not to mention brass—the superb horns in between chorus and verse and in the breakdown.Getting away from the actual sound of the music, the lyrics are really good to. The second verse, par example:
It feels like 14 carats but no clarity When I look at the man who would be king The man who would be king goes to the desert to sing war his dad rehearsed came back with flags on coffins and said we won, oh, we won.
I’m fairly sure this is a complete dig at bush as he was on his way out, and it’s written so well. Which is another thing Fall Out Boy never fails at (for the most part)—writing good song lyrics.
Stepping back from the overload of Fall Out Boy Fandom there, its great to here Brendon Urie’s (Panic at the Disco) voice paired up with Patrick Stumps. They make an excellent combo which really adds to this awesome song.
Melodies and lyrics, this song has everything I like in a song. Best song on the album?
Why I don’t Like State of the Unions
…Or whatever that was that Obama did on Tuesday.
I should have posted this yesterday, or even Tuesday night when it had more relevance, but I felt like I still wanted to say this. I don’t like State of the Unions. And here are a few reasons why:
This is not to mention all the leaders of America are in the same place at the same time? National Security, what?
I should have posted this yesterday, or even Tuesday night when it had more relevance, but I felt like I still wanted to say this. I don’t like State of the Unions. And here are a few reasons why:
- It all seems like a self-congratulatory mess. “Here’s what we did, nation, aren’t you proud of us?”
- The self-congratulatory mess leads to series of applauses, which for the most part the republicans didn’t partake in. Bipartisan, what?
- The applause interrupts the speech. “Wait, what was he just talking about—I mean before the 5 minute applause; while we waited for everyone to stand up and sit down”.
- It looks like a demented Mexican wave. I mean if politicians can’t master the Mexican wave then we have no hope for politics.
- Nancy Polosi has no idea what’s going on. The vacant look on her face and her mistimed applause supports this.
- Joe Biden (and other politicians) is disinterested in what Obama is saying; his (their) booklet is much more interesting.
- I don’t know a lot of the politicians there. Personally I believe if I don’t know your face, you’re probably not trying hard enough.
- It sounds like president Obama still thinks he’s on the campaign trail. All this rhetoric is just campaign speak rehashed. You’ve won us; you don’t need to convince us anymore!
- Obama claps like a retarded toy monkey.
This is not to mention all the leaders of America are in the same place at the same time? National Security, what?
This is why I love Lost.
(Spoiler alerts for those not up to the exact current episode [us])
So this past week the oceanic six returned to the island. In doing so lost answered the main question it had going for it this season. That is, how do the oceanic six get back to the island? But in typical (frustrating, yet entertaining) lost fashion, they start all new questions. Questions like WHY did they go back to the island. Why in 36 hours did 3 of 6 go from definitively not going back, to turning up on a plane at the airport? Also what happened to Aaron???
But the main reason I like lost is its references. The title of this latest episode is 316. Well, ok 316 is the flight number of Ajira airways on its way to guam—the flight that the oceanic six (five), plus Ben and Locke are on. But look a little closer, draw some connections. John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John Locke. And then Locke’s ‘suicide’ note (yea I don’t believe it was suicide…), “I wish you had believed me." This is GREAT writing!
Oh and everyone’s gotta love the guest appearance of Frank Lepidus. "We're not going to Guam, are we?"
So this past week the oceanic six returned to the island. In doing so lost answered the main question it had going for it this season. That is, how do the oceanic six get back to the island? But in typical (frustrating, yet entertaining) lost fashion, they start all new questions. Questions like WHY did they go back to the island. Why in 36 hours did 3 of 6 go from definitively not going back, to turning up on a plane at the airport? Also what happened to Aaron???But the main reason I like lost is its references. The title of this latest episode is 316. Well, ok 316 is the flight number of Ajira airways on its way to guam—the flight that the oceanic six (five), plus Ben and Locke are on. But look a little closer, draw some connections. John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John Locke. And then Locke’s ‘suicide’ note (yea I don’t believe it was suicide…), “I wish you had believed me." This is GREAT writing!
Oh and everyone’s gotta love the guest appearance of Frank Lepidus. "We're not going to Guam, are we?"
the Take Action Tour at Webster (2/15/2009)
The Take Action Tour was last night (2/15/2009) at Hartford’s Webster Theatre. So Here’s a review of the music (because the only other thing I could review would be pant so tight procreation might be a problem further on in life):
Every Avenue:
We walked in right at the end of their set. From what I heard they sounded pretty good, though I haven’t had a chance to go back and check on them again.
Meg & Dia:
While the music of this band was decent, there were several key components that made them just an average band. The first was the twitchy fingered audio-board-ist whose constant medaling through out the majority of the show disrupted the bands cohesiveness. The second was the self-obsessed lead guitarist with his guitar so far up his ass he couldn’t hear that it was deafening anything anyone else in the band was trying to do. This also might have been the fault of Mr. twitchy fingers himself. Lastly dia, the lead singer’s voice was unbelievably soft, combined with ripping asshole guitarist and twitch was a recipe for disaster. (I’ll come back and edit this with a link to interview my friend did before the show because he’s almost as self obsessed as the guitarist)
Breathe Carolina:
All I’m going to say is that I can’t really comment on the music because I didn’t hear any. All I did hear was screaming and so much bass I think I acquired a heart arrhythmia. The lights were cool though.
Cute Is What We Aim For:
Like all the bands this night I’d never really heard any of them before. I was surprised when CIWWAF took the stage, admittedly they looked a lot older than I had imagined. As they began it was really like listening to a CD for the first time for a new artist (except with volume at 11). They did take a while to get into, but by the 5th or 6th song, I would have claimed to like the music that CIWWAF was playing. They’re overall stage presence is good—they have boxes up front which the bassist and lead guitarist pose and jump around on. The whole stage itself is very clean—all their speakers/amps are hidden behind cloth banners on stage.
Every Avenue:
We walked in right at the end of their set. From what I heard they sounded pretty good, though I haven’t had a chance to go back and check on them again.
Meg & Dia:While the music of this band was decent, there were several key components that made them just an average band. The first was the twitchy fingered audio-board-ist whose constant medaling through out the majority of the show disrupted the bands cohesiveness. The second was the self-obsessed lead guitarist with his guitar so far up his ass he couldn’t hear that it was deafening anything anyone else in the band was trying to do. This also might have been the fault of Mr. twitchy fingers himself. Lastly dia, the lead singer’s voice was unbelievably soft, combined with ripping asshole guitarist and twitch was a recipe for disaster. (I’ll come back and edit this with a link to interview my friend did before the show because he’s almost as self obsessed as the guitarist)
Breathe Carolina:
All I’m going to say is that I can’t really comment on the music because I didn’t hear any. All I did hear was screaming and so much bass I think I acquired a heart arrhythmia. The lights were cool though.
Cute Is What We Aim For:
Like all the bands this night I’d never really heard any of them before. I was surprised when CIWWAF took the stage, admittedly they looked a lot older than I had imagined. As they began it was really like listening to a CD for the first time for a new artist (except with volume at 11). They did take a while to get into, but by the 5th or 6th song, I would have claimed to like the music that CIWWAF was playing. They’re overall stage presence is good—they have boxes up front which the bassist and lead guitarist pose and jump around on. The whole stage itself is very clean—all their speakers/amps are hidden behind cloth banners on stage.
The International
The film I’m going to rip apart this week is the international—Clive Owen’s new flick. Actually, in truth I’m not going to rip it because it wasn’t worse than Taken (but I doubt anything could beat that movie). Seriously now, it was not a bad movie, but it wasn’t any measure of great either.First and foremost the plot left A LOT to be desired. Think of it like a stretched out Law & Order episode to two hours, except cut the last 10 minutes cut off and just end it there. Spanning across multiple nations, the investigation which the movie is centered about is somewhat intriguing but nothing exemplary enough to base a story around. Fact: we know that banks are corrupt entities and they get away with it, and there’s nothing Clive Owen can do against it—or any other investigatory team for that matter.
The tension in the movie rivals that of genre-sharer Michael Clayton. If one was to compare, it was a slightly better movie that Michael Clayton, but Michael Clayton had a better ending. There is one pretty awesome scene in the Guggenheim in New York City (Seen in the movie poster), which the Guggenheim lends itself very well too (even if it was a life size replica).
In the end though, the lack of a substantial plot ending really deducts from the overall feel to the movie. If you have the choice between Taken and the International go see the International because the majority of the movie is generous enough to merit your ticket price.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
