I freakin love Swedish people

Saw The Sounds last night at House of Blues in Boston (across the street from Fenway; you are literally looking into Fenway when you step out of the club). Their music is mostly pretty good, a couple better, a couple worse. But definitely exciting and enthusiastic.

I freakin love Swedish people. I want to look like them and play music like them and be with them.

Saw Metric

I saw Metric at Electric Ballroom last Tuesday. I admit I’m not the biggest Metric fan (their music is a little bit…dark for my taste), which put me way out of place in the front rows with hundreds of devoted fans having the time of their lives. Felt kind of bad about that.

The opener was this weird experimental guy with a funny voice that was way higher when he sang than when he spoke. I don’t know why this is so hard to pick up, but if you’re an opener, don’t talk in between songs. People don’t really know you and don’t really want to hear you say “thank you” and that your EP is coming out next month. You’ll get plenty of time to talk when you’re famous.

People at this concert seemed much taller and harder to see through than usual. I think it’s because the members of the band are pretty tall in general.

The music was excellent; Emily Haines kept talking about becoming famous and performing in full stadiums or something, I don’t know. That’s everyone’s dream, isn’t it? Also, she seemed to curse a bunch. I didn’t like that.

Saw The Dø at KCLSU

Two days after seeing Lily Allen for free, and exactly a week after A Camp at King’s College Union, I went with some friends to see The Dø at the same venue. The opener was Moriarty, a sort of folk/bluegrass band. Superb. I agreed with Julie that this was probably one of the best opening bands I’ve ever seen. When a band comes on stage with antique instruments and equipment like this, you really don’t know what to expect; the drummer used an old suitcase as a bass drum. They really rocked, I highly recommend them.

The Dø sounded excellent of course, and their show was much like the one I saw a couple months before. I got my hand shook by Olivia during one of her songs, for some reason. I also got handed Dan’s bass guitar during a particularly violent ending to a song. That was fun. These are the benefits to standing front and center. The only problem I have with being right on the stage is that the sound may not be balanced correctly, e.g. it will be harder to hear the vocals because the amps are all directed out toward the center or back of the venue. I’m a vocal-centric listener.

At the end of the encore, the audience joined in for the final chorus of the final song. They repeated it as the band left the stage. It continued for a while, until the band actually came back on stage for a third time, just to say thanks and leave again. I’m not an experienced concert-goer, but I’ve never seen that before, so that was cool.

Saw Lily Allen in concert

Went to see Lily Allen for free (plus the cost of a tube ride) a couple weeks ago. Since it was supposed to be at a seeecret location, I had to wait around outside for a while until an old school London bus (the kind that loads from the rear) took us to the Tabernacle, a place near Notting Hill. Had to wait around once we arrived there, also. It was weird. Anyway, the concert was good, it was basically the same concert as the one I saw in January at Koko. Lily is still as immature and classless as ever, but her music is a lot of fun. There is some kind of correlation there, I guess. Also, understanding Britishisms makes it so much better. Also also, in the middle of not one, but two of her songs, the band broke into straight up drum and bass. They played “Day ‘n’ Nite” one time. It’s a London thing–people here particularly love drum and bass, I don’t know why.

It’s hard to get a photo of her with her eyes open when she’s singing for some reason, but here’s a couple of photos. Note that since this was a costume themed concert (the theme was London Underground stations), she was wearing a [Queen] Victoria outfit for the greater part of the night, and only changed out of the corset (in which it must have SUCKED to perform…literally…) for the encore.

Old school London Transport bus.

Lily "acoustic".

After changing out of a corset into some more loose-fitting clothing.

Nina live!

Nina sings! She has the voice of an angel:

It’s kind of shaky, ’cause I couldn’t figure out the least awkward place to hold my camera, being in the front row and all. It turns out that using a camera is awkward no matter what. Oh well.

I’ve been dying to see Nina Persson with The Cardigans for about five or six years. But they’re not really together anymore, so I had to settle for her solo project, A Camp, in which she is accompanied by Niclas Frisk on guitar and her husband, Nathan Larson (the dude with the black hair and goatee), on bass guitar. Nothing like a rocking band with a female vocalist to melt your face and your heart, respectively. I was really proud of myself for thinking of that.

This concert was excellent. The music was superb, and Nina possesses an intense vocal beauty. Plus I was in the front row. Plus I got a cool t-shirt. PLUS I got my ticket signed. Awesome.

Revelation about lasy singers in indie rock: they wear weird clothes.

You know that feeling

You know that feeling you get when you’re about to perform or speak in public or something?

That’s the feeling I get when I think of going to see Nina Persson with A Camp IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS!!!

Free Lily Allen concert

Lily Allen is having a free concert somewhere in London on May 11 to coincide with the release of her new single (plus she’s actually releasing her cover of “Mr. Blue Sky” on the iTunes music store). I’m really enjoying being geographically near to European artists.

Instead of study

Things I want to do right now instead of study:

• Lie on the beach.
• Be hot in the sun.
• See a lake or a mountain or a sunset.
• Read about cognitive science.
• Write a program in Python.
• Listen to Dark Side of the Moon on repeat at maximum volume while driving.
• Play piano.
• See people I haven’t seen in 9-12 months.
• Go to a concert.
• Create a beautiful proof in computer science.
• Get a melodica.

Saw Girl Talk last night

I got to see Gregg Gillis a.k.a. Girl Talk last night. I got to go on stage and sweat with him, too. He’s a huge nerd, its awesome. His concert attire: sweatpants, a white shirt (temporary), and medium length sweaty hair which is good for flinging. He was dancing more than anyone else.

There was approximately 7 non-American people there. He’s apparently not as big here as he is back at home. Maybe London isn’t ready for the magic that is classic rock plus contemporary rap mash-ups.

I wore my new sweatband, so that I wouldn’t get sweat in my eyes. And because I thought Gregg might be wearing one. And so that I could be a hipster with my pink Lacoste.

Oh my god

“Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god. Yes.”

That’s what I said to myself when I found those tickets for sale.

Screw finals. I’m going to spend my entire final term attending concerts by beautiful lady singers.