Concert Central

Hans is a Belgian old-school blues singer MandolinWoman 2004has long been familiar with, he’s got the smoky deep deep voice that trills you, Cindy is an accomplished Austin musician—she played lap steel guitar like a pro, they had great connection and interplay on the stage despite a near nonexistent history together, I really liked this [...]

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very excited to see them (unable to at SXSW due to lines) because compared to The Stone Roses, more similar to last two bands than Stone Roses but no complaints because all three were high quality and satisfying—complex and depthy, decided the band was distinct in their sense of pacing—just wonderful pauses and draws and [...]

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more rocking than Midlake, three guys, honestly can’t remember them but I know they were satisfyingly complex, energetic, oh! They totally reminded me of some band at certain times—Dead Kennedys, The Cure—I couldn’t place the voice and then they’d change up and maybe this all says something for them

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saw them with IndieBoy at The Parish and we spent so much time mocking their art student film that we disliked them, I quite liked them, fully recognized the first song and then somewhat others, dreamy floating and complex, really disliked the organ keyboard—think that was the childish element that annoyed before

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Blue October is a band that thinks very highly of themselves. They list all of their shows on their website as headlining dates, with a notation on the page that another act is playing on the same night at that venue. But for all that, it was an impressive opening act. The lead singer, Justin [...]

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07.24.2004 Concrete Blonde Trocadero, Philadelphia, PA
Opener: Blue October
The members of Concrete Blonde in their old age are unpretentious as I have seen in a band. Jim Mankey showed up onstage before the set to help the road crew work out a few technical problems. Their stage is minimalist, just a elevated deck for the drum [...]

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had zero fond memories of them but a fun little band, so Cracker, can’t deny their variety, can’t deny the corruptible cuteness of the lead singer, those who like them love them, hated the crowd though, “whatever” I say—quality pop alt country band in basic

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pill bottles on tables to be used as shakers, self-diagnosing name tag stickers to pick from, sweet and clear sound, unabashedly corny, obvious politics, blah old-school political lesbian act, saccarhine sweet to top it off

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Susan wrote Wide Open Spaces for the Dixie Chicks, young-looking middle-aged long-haired gruff blonde, liked Shelly King who left early the best, obnoxious boy accompanying and dominating—standard sensistive singer/songwriter fluff, discovered that MandolinWoman calls s/s “folk,” discovered that I love Americana/country/whatever to the extent that it is driving music, I like the peoples’ chords too, [...]

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On Sunday night, Ben Folds took the stage as the headlining act. He seemed equally comfortable playing to the house as the headliner as he had been Thursday night as the opener. He was a no-show for a duet with Rufus Wainwright earlier in the evening, and played piano accompaniment on two songs with Guster [...]

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