By Christian Lipski
Backspace, Portland OR
February 16, 2010
Although they are from my home base of Portland Oregon, I first heard about Throwback Suburbia from Indiana resident Gidget Bates, a DJ for Woody Radio. They’re her favorite modern band, and they’re neighbors of mine, so I went to see them at local venue Backspace.
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By Matt Keeley
The Gramercy Theatre, New York NY
February 13, 2010
After seeing POLYSICS for the first time in 2003, I said this:
POLYSICS are pretty much the best band in the universe. POLYSICS are way better than your favorite band. This holds true even if POLYSICS are your favorite band. They’re JUST THAT GOOD.
—Wikia Music, “POLYSICS OR DIE!!! POLYSICS”
By Less Lee Moore
Sound Academy, Toronto ON
February 4, 2010
I don’t care what Lester Bangs said: Cheap Trick was, is, and will always be the best rock and roll band of all time.
They more than proved this (again) at Thursday’s Sound Academy show in Toronto.
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By Ben Sullivan
When my mother approached me with two tickets to Leonard Cohen’s first-ever performance in Columbus, Ohio as a present for my thirtieth birthday, the extent of my familiarity with the man was a much-loved copy of Songs of Leonard Cohen I happily stumbled across a few years back, as an initiate to the pleasures of record shopping.
Outside of the debut, I’d heard a handful of the seemingly countless Cohen covers. And then there was the copy of Songs of. . . I gifted to an ex-girlfriend (which, for shame, subsequently melted in the backseat of her Accord). My enthusiasm for the concert wasn’t predicated on long hours spent under his spell, but rather for the opportunity to sink into his work and discover the tics, irregularities, and strengths of an enduring voice.
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Dick Valentine
By Christian Lipski
Photos by Deborah Lipski
Dante’s, Portland OR
November 13, 2009
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By Emily C.
The Ritz, Ybor City (Tampa) FL
September 29, 2009
When I discovered that the Happy Mondays were coming to town (shortly after the Gogol Bordello War of 2009), I was beyond psyched. I was a massive fan of this band in the early 1990s. While my fellow middle-school-aged peers in Florida were jamming along to the sounds of Stevie B. and Taylor Dayne, my musical world was fully entrenched in “Madchester”—with bands like the Stone Roses, the Inspiral Carpets, and of course, the Mondays. So one can imagine my excitement as I commuted an hour away from my apartment in St. Petersburg, Florida, to see the band; I even momentarily forgot that the Psychedelic Furs were also on the bill that evening.
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By Danny R. Phillips
Prior to August 4th, it had been eleven years since I had last joined the tattooed masses as an attendee of The Vans’ Warped Tour. I was younger then in both body and mind. Standing on the boiling pavement this year watching the crowd pass me like a pierced, dyed, rainbow bedazzled tsunami, I saw two distinct classes, scratch that, generations, go by.
One was an older, punk-appreciating culture with fading tattoos and greying hair that grew up on Bad Religion, The Descendents, Fugazi, Bad Brains, The Zero Boys, and the Circle Jerks (I, obviously fall into group A) and the other was the day glo “skittle core kids” who worship The Devil Wears Prada and Attack! Attack! like they were the Dead Milkmen or The Ramones.
Dragging myself between five stages and countless bands, it dawned on me (and my trusty photographer) that at 15, the Vans’ Warped Tour was experiencing a midlife crisis of sorts and was, in fact, no longer the festival of years gone by. It is clear that I am a dinosaur stuck in a tar pit named Hot Topic. Like Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon flicks, “I am too old for this shit!”
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By J Howell
The Riot Room, Kansas City MO
July 27, 2009
Sometimes the universe works in peculiar ways. Barely a week before Black Francis’ solo show at the Riot Room was announced, my girlfriend and I were having a discussion about the best shows we’d seen, during which I raved about the Pixies live and she related a story to me about sneaking into an amazing sold-out Frank Black gig in San Francisco years ago. We both lamented that the Pixies were playing shows in the UK at the time, but none Stateside. A few days later, I was in joyous disbelief that Black Francis was not only coming to town, but also playing in a tiny venue where we could be literally two feet away. Thanks, universe!
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By J Howell
Uptown Theater, Kansas City MO
July 18, 2009
On some level, it must be hard being one of the most influential bands of the last thirty years. It goes without saying that at this point Sonic Youth is definitely that. Having (almost unbelievably) never seen them prior to their stop at the Uptown for the Eternal tour, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Sure, I’d heard stories about how raucous their sets were, about mind-numbing feedback, and about how in recent years their shows had become more beautiful than pummeling. Somehow, their performance turned out to be simultaneously everything and nothing I’d expected it to be.
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By Emily C.
The Ritz, Ybor City (Tampa) FL
July 27, 2009
I trekked out to Ybor City on July 27th to see the Ukrainian “gypsy punk” band Gogol Bordello. Ybor City has a certain reputation among people who live in central Florida. It has always been a hotbed for young hipsters, and it has a fairly high crime rate (seriously, people have been shot at clubs there). As a comparatively elderly person to most of the crowd there, I was quite curious as to how the show would turn out. I hadn’t been down to Ybor City in years, and my interest was piqued.
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