As it turns to Fall here, it also seems to be gig season for us. Got a few more coming up that I'm looking forward to but we started last Friday with a trip to the local Barclays arena to see Vampire Weekend.
They sounded great, the set was really clever with a mirror behind the band that reflected the crowd near the front. We also noticed the crowd seemed a little bit collegiate and some were very young indeed. Let's just say there were a lot of guys with baseball caps on backwards.
The very next night we went into Manhattan to see the Stereophonics. Tickets were only $25 for this one. We weren't that enthused about going but again, a smaller venue and they sounded really good. They've gotta be pretty unknown in America so this time the place was full of Brits I guess, with probably New York's Welsh contingent. A couple of Welsh flags and some rowdy folk, at one point there were guys on each others shoulders, three tall!
So that was two late nights where I didn't get to sleep until after 2am and then I ran the Fifth Avenue Mile on the Sunday morning. In some ways I was lucky it was just a mile!
Tuesday night we went to a new venue. The Skirball Centre at NYU (New York University) to see KT Tunstall. It was a really plush small theatre with American width seats, ha ha, I've never sat in theatre seats that wide. All the tickets were the same price but I must have got in there early because, and I'd forgotten this, that we were at the very front, in the centre.
The set was much better than I thought considering the new album is more mellow. But she has good banter with the crowd before every song and does that whole one-woman band thing where she plays sounds like her hand drumming on the guitar or the crowd clapping, recording it, then looping it in the background while she plays the song.
On the second last song, as the lights dimmed, she threw her guitar pick in to the crowd and it kind of fluttered into our row but we couldn't see it. Then as the gig finished she bowed and walked along the front and high-fived our half of the crowd, starting with me!
Then when the house lights came back on and we picked up our bags, we only only went and found her guitar pick (Heather has never heard the word plectrum) under our bags!
The very next night a friend had managed to get tickets to a special album launch gig by Tired Pony in a Housing Works Bookstore, luckily round the corner from work. I left work around 9.50pm and they opened the doors just after 10pm.
I was expecting at least a kind of small hall or a cleared space but it was indeed just a bookshop!
A different type of gig for me and it was amazing. Gary Lightbody mentioned how he loved R.E.M. growing up and how it was amazing enough to play with Peter Buck in the group but even better as he brought up Mike Mills from the crowd to do vocals on one song.
As he left the stage he brushed right past us and then we glanced over and he was only standing at the back beside Michael Stipe!
At the end of the gig Heather asked the nearby guitar tech if she could have his set list. He said he normally keeps them but he gave it to her. Complete with guitar tunings for each song.
They sounded great, the set was really clever with a mirror behind the band that reflected the crowd near the front. We also noticed the crowd seemed a little bit collegiate and some were very young indeed. Let's just say there were a lot of guys with baseball caps on backwards.
The very next night we went into Manhattan to see the Stereophonics. Tickets were only $25 for this one. We weren't that enthused about going but again, a smaller venue and they sounded really good. They've gotta be pretty unknown in America so this time the place was full of Brits I guess, with probably New York's Welsh contingent. A couple of Welsh flags and some rowdy folk, at one point there were guys on each others shoulders, three tall!
So that was two late nights where I didn't get to sleep until after 2am and then I ran the Fifth Avenue Mile on the Sunday morning. In some ways I was lucky it was just a mile!
Tuesday night we went to a new venue. The Skirball Centre at NYU (New York University) to see KT Tunstall. It was a really plush small theatre with American width seats, ha ha, I've never sat in theatre seats that wide. All the tickets were the same price but I must have got in there early because, and I'd forgotten this, that we were at the very front, in the centre.
The set was much better than I thought considering the new album is more mellow. But she has good banter with the crowd before every song and does that whole one-woman band thing where she plays sounds like her hand drumming on the guitar or the crowd clapping, recording it, then looping it in the background while she plays the song.
On the second last song, as the lights dimmed, she threw her guitar pick in to the crowd and it kind of fluttered into our row but we couldn't see it. Then as the gig finished she bowed and walked along the front and high-fived our half of the crowd, starting with me!
Then when the house lights came back on and we picked up our bags, we only only went and found her guitar pick (Heather has never heard the word plectrum) under our bags!
The very next night a friend had managed to get tickets to a special album launch gig by Tired Pony in a Housing Works Bookstore, luckily round the corner from work. I left work around 9.50pm and they opened the doors just after 10pm.
I was expecting at least a kind of small hall or a cleared space but it was indeed just a bookshop!
A different type of gig for me and it was amazing. Gary Lightbody mentioned how he loved R.E.M. growing up and how it was amazing enough to play with Peter Buck in the group but even better as he brought up Mike Mills from the crowd to do vocals on one song.
As he left the stage he brushed right past us and then we glanced over and he was only standing at the back beside Michael Stipe!
At the end of the gig Heather asked the nearby guitar tech if she could have his set list. He said he normally keeps them but he gave it to her. Complete with guitar tunings for each song.
No comments:
Post a Comment