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Pink Martini shakes and stirs
I was a bit grumpy at first, but the hr. long drive from Seattle to Tacoma was worth every mile.
I will admit I'm a fairly new fan of Portland OR. based Pink Martini. I discovered them when they played a live studio set on NPR about a yr. ago and was impressed and in love with their world music sound from the start! So when my sister got me a ticket to see them in Tacoma with her and her hubby I was quite excited to say the least.
The Pantages Theater in Tacoma was a perfect venue to see this band for a couple of reasons. It's a fairly small theater that seats about 600 so it made it a much more personal, and intimate atmosphere (even lead singer China Forbes said "playing a smaller place is a nice change") and the smaller size made the acoustics wonderfully rich and vibrant! This was a big plus since it was about a 10 piece band including a cello, violin, percussion, Upright Bass, trumpet and of course band leader/director Thomas Lauderdale on piano.
They opened up with a classic from their 2nd record called 'Let's never stop falling in love' with China Forbes dressed in a flowing all black full length dress. Her voice is simply breath taking. Ranging from full and almost operatic in some parts, to a calming whisper in others. All beautifully blended and controlled. One of the most enjoyable things about her singing is her fluency in 7 languages. She sang songs in Japanese, Croatian, Italian, French and even Arabic. The songs ranging from golden oldie classics like 'Tea for two' and 'Never on a Sunday' to contemporary blends of Flaminco and Bossa Nova tunes like 'No Hay Problema' and 'La Solidad'. There seemed to be a genuine warm and often humorous exchange between China and Thomas as they introduced songs and band members. Each member of Pink Martini by the way are so talented in they're own right. The solos were all given much deserved applause. Thomas at one point went over and sat on Cello player Pansy Changs lap while China was singing, and China told a quick funny story about Thomas prank calling a hotel.
The band played a lot of new material to promote their new CD 'Splendor in the grass' which has even more world music than their previous 4 albums. This album has songs from chamber music to Cuban to foreign films. One of the most light hearted and fun songs is called 'Tuca Tuca' which translates into 'Touch Touch' and China got Thomas to get up from his piano and do a quick silly 'dance' where they patted each other from head to toe, much to the audiences delight and laughter.
But the highlight of this superb concert came at the end of the 2 standing ovation songs. The management actually arranged a autograph signing from the entire band after the show! I got my 'Hang On Little Tomato' CD signed and got to speak a little to all of them. Ya can't ask for a better night!
I will admit I'm a fairly new fan of Portland OR. based Pink Martini. I discovered them when they played a live studio set on NPR about a yr. ago and was impressed and in love with their world music sound from the start! So when my sister got me a ticket to see them in Tacoma with her and her hubby I was quite excited to say the least.
The Pantages Theater in Tacoma was a perfect venue to see this band for a couple of reasons. It's a fairly small theater that seats about 600 so it made it a much more personal, and intimate atmosphere (even lead singer China Forbes said "playing a smaller place is a nice change") and the smaller size made the acoustics wonderfully rich and vibrant! This was a big plus since it was about a 10 piece band including a cello, violin, percussion, Upright Bass, trumpet and of course band leader/director Thomas Lauderdale on piano.
They opened up with a classic from their 2nd record called 'Let's never stop falling in love' with China Forbes dressed in a flowing all black full length dress. Her voice is simply breath taking. Ranging from full and almost operatic in some parts, to a calming whisper in others. All beautifully blended and controlled. One of the most enjoyable things about her singing is her fluency in 7 languages. She sang songs in Japanese, Croatian, Italian, French and even Arabic. The songs ranging from golden oldie classics like 'Tea for two' and 'Never on a Sunday' to contemporary blends of Flaminco and Bossa Nova tunes like 'No Hay Problema' and 'La Solidad'. There seemed to be a genuine warm and often humorous exchange between China and Thomas as they introduced songs and band members. Each member of Pink Martini by the way are so talented in they're own right. The solos were all given much deserved applause. Thomas at one point went over and sat on Cello player Pansy Changs lap while China was singing, and China told a quick funny story about Thomas prank calling a hotel.
The band played a lot of new material to promote their new CD 'Splendor in the grass' which has even more world music than their previous 4 albums. This album has songs from chamber music to Cuban to foreign films. One of the most light hearted and fun songs is called 'Tuca Tuca' which translates into 'Touch Touch' and China got Thomas to get up from his piano and do a quick silly 'dance' where they patted each other from head to toe, much to the audiences delight and laughter.
But the highlight of this superb concert came at the end of the 2 standing ovation songs. The management actually arranged a autograph signing from the entire band after the show! I got my 'Hang On Little Tomato' CD signed and got to speak a little to all of them. Ya can't ask for a better night!
Alice in change
It's been a very long time since the musical term 'grunge' was used...thankfully. But major Seattle based 'grunge' band Alice In Chains just released a new album in over a decade.
'Black Gives Way To Blue' brings the group back together with William Duvall taking the lead vocals after Layne Sanley's sad OD death in 2002. The title track features Elton John on piano for a touching song about Laynes passing. The released single 'Check my brain' shows that singer/songwriter Jerry Cantrell still has his sarcastic ways in his lyrics that talk about him living in California (L.A.) after moving from Seattle.
But of the 11 tracks, my favorite song on this albumn is the first one'All secrets known'. It is a mantra of sorts to let by gones be by gones. The chorus saying: "There's no going back to where we started from". In an eerie way William Duvall sounds a bit like Layne, and that's just sort of weird to me. But it works!
I'm really glad the band didn't try and stick to the 'We gotta sound just like we always have' theme. The songs are fresh, original, but with just the right amount of classic Alice In Chain harmonies and heavy guitars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKX_cEMdd4E
'Black Gives Way To Blue' brings the group back together with William Duvall taking the lead vocals after Layne Sanley's sad OD death in 2002. The title track features Elton John on piano for a touching song about Laynes passing. The released single 'Check my brain' shows that singer/songwriter Jerry Cantrell still has his sarcastic ways in his lyrics that talk about him living in California (L.A.) after moving from Seattle.
But of the 11 tracks, my favorite song on this albumn is the first one'All secrets known'. It is a mantra of sorts to let by gones be by gones. The chorus saying: "There's no going back to where we started from". In an eerie way William Duvall sounds a bit like Layne, and that's just sort of weird to me. But it works!
I'm really glad the band didn't try and stick to the 'We gotta sound just like we always have' theme. The songs are fresh, original, but with just the right amount of classic Alice In Chain harmonies and heavy guitars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKX_cEMdd4E
Annoyed
Dear New Found Glory,
Why are you so against me getting to actually see you in concert? I am a very nice girl, and I shower pretty regularly (that's once a day in girl world). I even do silly things like donate blood, give money to charity, and teach kids with severe special needs; a lot of people think things like I just listed are examples of good karma.
And yet... and yet, I still have not seen you in concert since I was about a freshman or sophomore in high school (age 15 max...I'm now 24). I wasn't even a fan of yours back then; I knew a few songs, but I saw you guys play because you were opening for other bands (hell, I spent most of one of the shows just wishing Ian would put a friggin' shirt on!) I actually wanted to see. I've only really been listening to your music since about October of 2007. I think I've made up for lost time in the fan department, because I've let you guys creep up into my top 5 these last 2 years, but I still haven't gotten to see you play your music.
There was that botched show last September, where I had to leave at 10 to make the last train home at 12:30 (I FUCKING HATE NEW JERSEY STILL, BTW), and when I was still standing there at 10:15, my friend pissed at me because she swore we'd miss the train (we didn't), you still hadn't taken the stage. Not even one damn note. I got to see ISHC, and you picked great opening acts, but...too numerous.
And you KICKED ASS at the Bamboozle, where you played Green Day proud, but of course, I couldn't go on Saturday when you were playing yourselves.
And now, you're going on tour with Dashboard, DASHBOARD, another act I've been waiting to see since I was 14...and every damn show that in theory I could get to... I can't get to. Why aren't any of the shows that I could conceivably drive to (or hell, I'd fly to Chicago or someplace else I wanna go anyway) on Saturday nights? Or even shows more local to me on Friday nights? I realize I'm probably gonna have to go alone because I don't know anyone here. Fine. I'll be that girl.
....but give me a chance to fucking GO.
Incredibly Frustrated,
Emily
Why are you so against me getting to actually see you in concert? I am a very nice girl, and I shower pretty regularly (that's once a day in girl world). I even do silly things like donate blood, give money to charity, and teach kids with severe special needs; a lot of people think things like I just listed are examples of good karma.
And yet... and yet, I still have not seen you in concert since I was about a freshman or sophomore in high school (age 15 max...I'm now 24). I wasn't even a fan of yours back then; I knew a few songs, but I saw you guys play because you were opening for other bands (hell, I spent most of one of the shows just wishing Ian would put a friggin' shirt on!) I actually wanted to see. I've only really been listening to your music since about October of 2007. I think I've made up for lost time in the fan department, because I've let you guys creep up into my top 5 these last 2 years, but I still haven't gotten to see you play your music.
There was that botched show last September, where I had to leave at 10 to make the last train home at 12:30 (I FUCKING HATE NEW JERSEY STILL, BTW), and when I was still standing there at 10:15, my friend pissed at me because she swore we'd miss the train (we didn't), you still hadn't taken the stage. Not even one damn note. I got to see ISHC, and you picked great opening acts, but...too numerous.
And you KICKED ASS at the Bamboozle, where you played Green Day proud, but of course, I couldn't go on Saturday when you were playing yourselves.
And now, you're going on tour with Dashboard, DASHBOARD, another act I've been waiting to see since I was 14...and every damn show that in theory I could get to... I can't get to. Why aren't any of the shows that I could conceivably drive to (or hell, I'd fly to Chicago or someplace else I wanna go anyway) on Saturday nights? Or even shows more local to me on Friday nights? I realize I'm probably gonna have to go alone because I don't know anyone here. Fine. I'll be that girl.
....but give me a chance to fucking GO.
Incredibly Frustrated,
Emily
Artists/Bands I've seen live.
UPDATED: AUGUST 4TH, 2009
This isn't an impressive list, really, and I've taken off many of the local bands unless they were super good and worthy of recognition. Some of these bands weren't by choice, necessarily. A x # obviously means I've seen them more than once :P
An even less impressive list,
Artists/Bands I've met:
This isn't an impressive list, really, and I've taken off many of the local bands unless they were super good and worthy of recognition. Some of these bands weren't by choice, necessarily. A x # obviously means I've seen them more than once :P
- 3OH!3 x 2
- 10 Years
- 30 Seconds To Mars
- Against Me!
- Alkaline Trio x 2
- All Time Low
- Anberlin x 2
- Angels and Airwaves
- Armor for Sleep
- Asher Roth
- Ashes Divide
- Atreyu x 3
- Autumn Threshold
- Avenged Sevenfold x 2
- blessthefall
- Bloodhound Gang
- Bullet for my Valentine
- Chester French
- Chevelle
- Chris Cornell
- Cinema Bizarre
- Claudio from Coheed & Cambria
- Coheed & Cambria
- Collective Soul
- Crooked Edge
- D'espairsray
- Devil's Gift
- Dirty Black Halo
- Dive Bar Stalkers x 2
- Empyrean
- Escape the Fate
- Evanescence
- Eyes of the Beloved
- Fall Out Boy
- Flobots
- Flogging Molly
- Flyleaf
- Forever the Sickest Kids
- Framing Hanley
- Gavin Rossdale
- Green Day
- Hawthorne Heights
- HIM
- Hit the Lights x 2
- Hollywood Undead x 2
- Horror Pops
- Idiot Pilot
- If Betrayed
- Ill Nino
- Inyo
- Jack's Mannequin
- Jimmy Eat World
- Journey
- Julien K
- Kaiser Chiefs
- Kid Cudi
- Klik x 3
- Lady GaGa
- Lennon
- Linkin Park x 2
- Lit
- Lost Prophets
- Ludo
- Medic
- Mindless Self Indulgence
- Motion City Soundtrack
- MUCC
- Mute Math
- My Chemical Romance x 2
- Nickelback
- No Doubt x 2
- Noon Blue
- One Night Crush
- OTEP
- Our Lady Peace
- P.O.S
- Paramore
- Placebo
- Radio Reset
- Rise Against x 4
- Rude Squad
- Saosin x 2
- Saving Abel x 2
- Seether
- Senses Fail
- Settings
- Shinedown
- Shiny Toy Guns
- Shwayze
- Silversun Pickups
- Skindred
- Staind
- Stalling Dawn
- Story of the Year x 2
- Street Drum Corps
- Suburban Tragedy
- Sum 41 x 2
- Taking Back x 3
- The Ataris
- The Bravery
- The Gaslight Anthem
- The Music
- The Non Existent Year
- The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
- The Sounds
- The Starting Line
- The Underneath
- The Used x 3
- The White Tie Affair x 2
- Third Eye Blind x 2
- Thrice
- Tiffany Giardina
- Trapt
- Wicker Hollow
An even less impressive list,
Artists/Bands I've met:
- 30 Seconds to Mars
- Lennon (well, she talked to me the entire time she performed)
- Hollywood Undead :] :] :] :] :] :] :] :] :] :]
- One Night Crush
- Wicker Hollow
- Millionaires
Black wax
My brother gave me a USB turntable for my birthday last month, and at first I was a bit apprehensive about keeping it. I have the 'bedroom DJ' set up of 2 turntables and mixer and it's fun to mess around with it, but I rarely bought new vinyl because it was hard to find what I wanted. I'd mainly buy the "12 singles with a few re-mixes on them.
Well since getting the USB style turntable and now having the ability to forever store any record I want onto my laptop, I have been on a vinyl shopping spree! What I have noticed is records are making a slow but sure comeback too. Not only are more singers and bands putting there music on wax, but more stores are also starting to carry new LPs. Best Buy and Fred Meyer here in Seattle actually have a pretty good size area even!
Maybe I'm just a biased old school type, but there really is something nice about putting on a record and movng the tonearm to wherever you want. To be able to hear the needle hitting the record and even hearing the occational 'pop' and 'crack' as the needle plays the song.
The only drawback to being a vinyl lover is the storing and moving aspect. I now must have about 100 records and my room is shrinking because of it. Plus, if/when I move, yeah not going to be fun hauling crate after crate of heavy bulky records. That's why I think I may need to take a break and just buy LPs when I really know I'm going to use and like them. At about $8 a record, they ain't cheap either!
But for now, put the needle on the record.
Well since getting the USB style turntable and now having the ability to forever store any record I want onto my laptop, I have been on a vinyl shopping spree! What I have noticed is records are making a slow but sure comeback too. Not only are more singers and bands putting there music on wax, but more stores are also starting to carry new LPs. Best Buy and Fred Meyer here in Seattle actually have a pretty good size area even!
Maybe I'm just a biased old school type, but there really is something nice about putting on a record and movng the tonearm to wherever you want. To be able to hear the needle hitting the record and even hearing the occational 'pop' and 'crack' as the needle plays the song.
The only drawback to being a vinyl lover is the storing and moving aspect. I now must have about 100 records and my room is shrinking because of it. Plus, if/when I move, yeah not going to be fun hauling crate after crate of heavy bulky records. That's why I think I may need to take a break and just buy LPs when I really know I'm going to use and like them. At about $8 a record, they ain't cheap either!
But for now, put the needle on the record.
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Re: I just found an eyelash in my belly button. I wished on it. - woulda been rainy anyway, andy.
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