Concertgoers, Inc.

[maru]

What was the best show you've seen? What was the last show you've seen?

It's been on my mind because I started cataloguing them and noticed I hadn't seen a show in like, a decade. So now I booked a few.

Belle and Sebastian was my latest one -- which was honestly a ton of fun. They have a really nice and confident presence, a cool and casual feel to how they just play these amazing poppy songs. I was front row and was just dancing the whole night. That's new for me -- when I saw shows earlier in life I never danced. I just sang along. Now I want to feel it through me.

I got Oneohtrix tickets but didn't end up going because of some life circumstances. Now tonight I'm seeing Panchiko :3 my friend said there will be incel boys moshing in front. I will try to get in on that...

[meri]

seeing boris live was incredible. they had the shape in my mind as an mp3 on my hard drive. i dont even who the individual members were at all. but i liked listening to them. in some way, they felt locked in time, in the 90s. that's where a band like that belongs. learning that they still played live shows a lot blew my mind a little. m insisted that we had to go.

we drove up 10 hours to literal nowhere bozeman montana, the closest show to where we live. bozeman is supposedly its a college town, but i dont believe it. we hiked around a collage letter on a mountain. we walked around some very average stroads. we camped a hotel room. totally surreal situation. i felt out of place we walked two blocks over to where the concert was. i can't believe my beloved japanese band is in the next building over.

i learned that like the fronting band melvins quite a lot, though i havent listened to them since. i took out my earplugs for a while because i insisted on 'feeling it' without any sort of filter. it felt like it was something i had to do. boris was calling me. hearing damage be damned, this is why im alive.

they were incredibly sharp. i got to hear all of my favorite mp3 performed by the actual fucking band. god damn, wata is so cute. cute girl with guitar. behind them, towers of amplifiers. it was so loud. the bass resonates in your entire body. i shot my ears out pretty quickly, and i lost the ability to hear. i guess i know now why people wear earplugs at these things. its not just to protect their ears.

[maru]

Just got home from Panchiko. It was really fun though kind of like trying to enjoy a concert in spite of the crowd. It was very young; a few kids came with their parents? Like 14 year olds? Most of the crowd was queer or trans, many lesbians / transbians just making out or whatever; lots of edgy anime T-shirts that I am envious of. It was just annoying being blocked from seeing anything by a couple making out the entire time.

The performances were a lot heavier than I'm used to from the record; like more harsh midwest emo flavour than cool melancholic trip-hop. They were super casual and nice, like really pleased so many people came out. My ears are ringing now...

[thursday]

i need to wear earplugs more but i usually dont unless its like past a certain threshold. my favorite show so far... i dont like biasing 'most recent' things but the last show i saw was my favorite band tsushimamire... and it barely squeaks out my previous best show, which was also by them. it's more about my personal experience than it is the inherent quality of the show. moments where i feel most like *in* the music or whatever.

my second favorite show was when i got to see tsushimamire in tokyo when i was visiting japan in 2018. it was after an insanely exhausting day, where the thrill of exploring tokyo was being outweighed by a few disasters and fatigue. i spent a little time lost in shinjuku on my way to the venue, and basically just thought i'd missed it - turns out they were playing second this night and as i showed up they were right in the middle of my favorite song. maybe that's why it's my favorite of theirs.



<a href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqM8MEdfKEA' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqM8MEdfKEA</a> (random live vid of them playing this song)

my most favorite (maybe tied with that one) is when i saw them last year, same week as when mass of the fermenting dregs was playing (also amazing.) the lead singer grabbed my head to pull me in closer for a crowd surf and i got to hold her mike for her (this is a thing japanese bands are doing now i think - motfd did it too). ive been a fan of this band since my early 20s and ive seen them five times so far. i'm seeing them again next week lol.

other really fun shows: anamanaguchi, antiflag + reel big fish, basically any metal show. i saw PUP a couple times and i love them. last time i saw PUP the opener was one of like the corniest hype dudes ever but everybody was into it, he was making people run back and forth across the floor.

i'm really big on feeling music, both like, in my bones and in a rhythmic way. ive been to shows for bands where you dont really move your body and its kind of a letdown. i wanna move and my ideal venue is a bar w/ like under 100 people.

[sarah]

I'd like to get to more concerts.

In 2007 I saw Porcupine Tree on their Fear of a Blank Planet tour. Ran into someone on campus with a PT shirt and struck up a conversation, found out they were playing in town that week, and I couldn't not go. They were great, I died irl when they played Trains. After the show, a few of us met the band on their way out of the venue and Steven Wilson replied to my gushing about the show with an extremely sardonic british-accented "I'm happy you wuh so mooouved", which has entered my vocabulary forever.

Saw Junior Boys in 2009 while they were touring Begone Dull Care. This was another case where I was living on campus and found out about the show at basically the last minute. I don't remember a lot about the show itself, but I enjoyed it. They had a live drummer, which was a good choice to punch things up from their somewhat minimalistic electronic sound on record (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Around 2010 I saw The Decemberists when they were touring The Hazards of Love, which as an album feels a bit padded IMO but as a live show was nonetheless pretty great (even though it's still padded). They played the whole thing in order and then did a second set of songs from the rest of their catalog. The corniest moment was when Colin Meloy introduced "the worst song I ever wrote, Dracula's Daughter", a live-only joke track, as if playing it were an improvised moment, when it was just part of the setlist for that entire tour. You can't just keep doing the same joke at every show!

Saw Nine Inch Nails in 2022, went with Heather and two of our friends. It was a good show with lots of energy, but I was surprised they were only playing material up through 2007's With Teeth despite having plenty of newer music to pick from. Didn't expect Trent to go for the nostalgia-tour thing. The definitive moment was when he ended some stage banter with "Okay, now for more depressing music." Man is completely over it.

I've seen Guided by Voices twice, once in 2017 while they were touring Space Gun and once in 2022 while they were touring Crystal Nuns Cathedral, both of which are among my favorite albums of theirs. This was a day after the NIN show and with the same friends brought along. Both shows were fantastic, like 3+ hours of nonstop energy, and with setlists mostly comprised of music from their newer albums. At the 2022 show we got to be the first audience to hear Alex Bell, from their then-upcoming album Tremblers and Goggles by Rank. We arrived a bit early to get dinner from a burrito place nearby and from the parking lot I heard them playing Alex Bell at the sound check, which was exciting.

In 2006 I nearly got to see the pillows at one of their rare US appearances, but I got terribly sick and had to stay home. Still kinda mad about that. A friend who went was kind enough to buy me a t-shirt from it, which I wore until it completely disintegrated.

[JennyDog]

Last show I went to was a Jazz show, and next show on the docket is a Mitski show in august. There's also a Decemberists show this month no one else I know can go to but I'm thinking of doing it.

Favorite show has probably been either The Chats (it had 3 or 4 openers and they were all very high energy), Deathgrips (first time I moshed!), and Mass of the Fermenting Drugs (absolutely incredible stage presence and the show was in the smelly back storage area of a pub with loose floor boards, which is a great mix of type 1 and 2 fun haha).

I think I'm gonna go the Decemberists show anyone and see if I can't drag a friend with me.

[maru]

I've also seen the Decemberists and they're always a great show. Just amazing presence, they make sure you have a good time, etc. etc.

I'm surprised you were huge into Porcupine Tree Sarah! I've only heard of them like, as of the past few months. I've only heard Lightbulb Sun. I heard they only do metal now.

[sarah]

I've also seen the Decemberists and they're always a great show. Just amazing presence, they make sure you have a good time, etc. etc.

Yeah! I'd definitely see them again, though I was very disappointed with their last album, I'll Be Your Girl. Hoping for something different/better when their next one comes out next month.

I'm surprised you were huge into Porcupine Tree Sarah! I've only heard of them like, as of the past few months. I've only heard Lightbulb Sun. I heard they only do metal now.

Hmm, I wouldn't say they only do metal...

Lightbulb Sun is a really nice album, I also love Stupid Dream from around that same era.
In Absentia -> Deadwing -> Fear of a Blank Planet are all really strong as well, though definitely a bit of a change in style.
The Incident is where things kind of drop off for me, though that's more of a case of "parts of this are great but it really didn't need to be a double album".

For recent Porcupine Tree I'd actually just check out some of Steven Wilson's solo albums. My favorites of those are Insurgentes and The Raven That Refused To Sing. The Raven is very classic prog, definitely not a metal album at all. Insurgentes is a pretty eclectic blend that even delves into drone music at points. (I think? IDK genres)

[JennyDog]

Going to see Mountain Goats and New Pornographers this weekend! Excited about it, it's going to be my first outdoor show too

[JennyDog]

Went to a King Gizard and the Lizard Wizard show! It was awesome, easily one of the best show's I've been to in a long time. I'll upload photos later but the performance used a live screen behind it to do very like, 1970s acid-psych demoscene stuff and the mosh pit went feral. I adored it although man it was long and I skipped one of the openers.

[JennyDog]

King Gizard pics!!

I didn't grab any pics of the mosh because it was hard to take photos and a bit unsafe to be on the edge and take photos, but there was some wild dancing, and a lot of folks got on the ground and started pretending they were rowing too, I think it was a reference to the song playing?

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[JennyDog]

Saw Mitski on Friday! can put up pics in a bit

[maru]

I saw Slowdive in Brooklyn last night. It's interesting — I always think I am "unsure what happiness is," but when I'm jumping up and down excited that I get to live in a world where I see Slowdive play live, it's clear I definitely know what happiness is.

The show opener was quannnic who I honestly still don't know anything about; I just remember bemoaning how the show was mixed to only hear the bassline and the drums and the guitars and vocals were just completely silent. Even when the singer was speaking between songs I just had no idea what was said.

But Slowdive itself ... I don't know ... it was a really ... spiritual ... experience? I just remember closing my eyes at several times just astounded at what I felt, at what hearing these songs brought out of me. They don't talk much — Neil Halstead stood off-stage left and Rachel Goswell was the only one speaking between songs to just say "thank you" — but their set, mostly post-2017 material with a few Souvlaki tracks and opening with Avalyn I of all things, was slow, mournful stuff. "Pure vibes," as the kids said (a lot of the audience was like late teens and early 20s? And only knew their newer stuff??)...

I was struck by how in charge of the situation Rachel Goswell was. Several times during the set she just would walk away from her instrument (keys, guitar) and just walk through the stage set, watching everyone else play, or several times she just came up to the front of the stage to look at us. She had this benevolent gaze, seemingly looking past you, or to the Mass, to the group, and to take in the love. She seemed very intent to ensure that everyone had a good time — she stopped one of the songs at the start to be like, "you guys ok there?" and then they restarted, for example. Likewise I was struck by how much Neil did not want to talk or show himself a lot. But I couldn't help but get transfixed by him. He has this really strong aura to him. These people have been in a band together since they were, like, 19. How strange it must be to see the lineup get different fans of different eras, to always be able to play new stuff, to not become a catalogue act, to be in control.

They're playing again in Montreal apparently, they announced just today — but the set will be the same, so it feels like I got what I wanted. I feel really happy — honoured — that I got to hear this particular band, I suppose...

[maru]

Godspeed You! Black Emperor played two shows in Montreal and I ended up catching the second one yesterday. Might've been the finale of their current tour before starting back up in the spring? Not quite sure.

Either way, I had expectations for this one:

• Probably stuff playing on a projector.
• They probably don't say a word.
• They probably get up and leave without a word.
• For all I know it's one big medley.

They indeed did all of those things. The opener was a "drone metal / doomgaze" (thanks rym) band called BIG|BRAVE though it took a while to discover that! They played literally when doors opened — I feel like I got in around 10 minutes past and they had started already. Who were they? No one in the audience knew. Like Slowdive before, they were mixed just terribly — or is that what doomgaze is? Everything slammed at max volume, no sense of dynamics, no ability to make out vocals, nothing. Even at the end, we cheer a little, but the singer doesn't say the name (or it's elided over by talking over the cheering she can't hear), just says how overwhelmed she is by gratefulness to be here, to do this now for Godspeed, and then she just is like, "well, haa, yea" and they're done.

Which is weird because Godspeed does the opposite! They have a drone going for 5 minutes before one of them comes up and picks up an instrument, and slowly they begin to play their stuff, as more and more of them come to sit down. They sit in a half circle toward you, but they always look at their feet.

The setlist was basically unknown to me, nearly entirely the newest record that just dropped. So it had an "orchestra" quality to it, to me — I was near the front. I didn't know anything they were playing. But it felt moving, anyway, though it was a challenge to hold attention given I recognised so little. I notice some people in the audience are like that too, a bit restless maybe, like, trying to give reverence but knowing that giving 2 hours to something you haven't heard before is a bit hard. They don't talk between songs; some of them might acknowledge that you cheered with a wave but that's it.

The dynamics were the opposite of the opener. There are seven people on stage (two percussionists, even), but it can go quiet, it can get apocalyptically loud, guitars can strike like thunder and it can fall to the strings like rain.

The projected videos were sort of — how can I say this ... I wasn't quite able to put a message to them. The opening just said "Hope" and then the rest was juxtaposed images of, say, stocks scrolling and a drone looking at a building scaffold. Papers for workers hired in Montreal, documentations from some court case somewhere, sitting on a train looking backward at tunnels, rain on the dashboard, driving through an abandoned place. It was scenery. I've seen reviews on rym ask if Godspeed take themselves as seriously as their fans do; there are times where they go to System of a Down levels of music activism, but by and large it seems to be about painting the scenes of apocalypse. Depicting an unveiling. Dedicating the picture to the signs in the world that seem to herald its coming into the world here and now; and then basically demanding to love and hope in return.

I can see how it's downright evangelical, if you frame it like that. Haha. But it doesn't feel that way in the moment! It just feels like a fantastic show, like really competent performers playing with dynamics as they paint a world coming apart. That's all you really need.

They at least ended with one thing I knew: the Sad Mafioso sequence from F#, and when they started, the audience perked up immediately. Like, fuck yes, something I know inside and out! And from this I could infer their amount of liberties with their work: they extended some parts, or let them build up for longer, let them build up much more dramatically, let them explode before calling them off. And then ... they started to leave. But the music kept going. They waved to us as they would leave but the feedback between the instruments — looped parts in an endless cacophany — continued without them on stage, as the projector showed static. After 5 or so minutes, some came back to slowly turn the machines down and let the locked groove leave. But the lights didn't go on. So we just let that experience, of the sound continuing beyond them, enthrall us on its own...

Anyway, I had gone with some friends, and at the end everyone nodded happy we got to see that. Efrim came with his family to the merch booth to pick up something his child seemed to leave behind and then they went home right after. I didn't say anything; no one really said anything. We like nodded at his wife and she seemed like "hey cool thanks for coming" and they left without a word. Don't be a weirdo, you know?

[sinku]

I saw Slowdive in Montreal with maru last week. First concertgoing experience so I'm in the club now!! I wrote a little bit about it in my trip report, but here's some more detail and some pictures.

So, the setlist was the same save for the encore. They didn't do a cover of Golden Hair like they did in Brooklyn, and the setlist for that mentions a brian eno track before the set too, but I dont remember that (and I'm not exactly familiar with his whole catalogue). quannic opened again. I looked them up today and found they had a tiktok hit and their first singles are from back in 2021, so they're pretty fresh and popular and presumably known by the crowd. I remember maru saying it was a really young crowd, same sort of age as the last time she went to see slowdive. I guess there's a shoegaze resurgence, and people really love this sound or vibe or something. But the whole quannic part of the night was all rock, that felt like a lot of different influences in a blender and not directly shoegaze. and a lot of Slowdive's material isn't really like that anymore but more firmly dreampop, which we ended up talking about a bit during the walk back from the venue after the show.

With quannic I was picking out emo and sort of post-hardcore and I guess grunge-y sorts of tone, played real loud, and mixed sorta weird, but something seemed conspicuously missing to classify it as shoegaze which everybody seems to throw around. Maybe just vibes? I'd love to ask what their favorite bands are, just to figure out the shape of what they wanna be doing. The drums were hot the whole night and I have no clue why. One thing I recall really vividly from quannic's set is their guitarist raking the head of his instrument across the floor on this one part I think toward the end of their set. I forget if he had this blue flying V out, or one of the other two guitars he used, because he switched back and forth.

I think I should've worn earplugs, but it was worthwhile not to. Both quannic and slowdive were loud, and I thought the former were really loud, but the differential between quannic's set, new and old slowdive material is nuts. The tracks played off souvlaki were insanely loud compared to their newer material and put into perspective how it must've felt to see a lot of old shoegaze stuff live back when it was brand new. Overwhelmingly loud waves and washes coming over you, light and sound and emotional potency. Its pretty and moving but its also scraping your brain and making your ears clip. I was really into it, and how hard I was feeling it in my chest, in my diaphrgam. I'd breathe in and out and sometimes it would rattle from the bass. I didn't really take many pictures, since I'm not great at it, but also because I was just really enjoying my time.

I don't know what to say about stage presence. Rachel, Christian and Nick felt clumped together almost right in front of where we were standing, a little left of the center of the room and the stage, while Neil was off to the right on his own. When Nick would wander around a bit while playing there was just this huge gulf between Neil and Rachel. Maybe it was just perspective that made it seem like he was just on his own, but I dunno.

Hearing the new material live was also really awesome, since I hadn't actually heard their very latest (everything is alive) before going. shanty and chained to a cloud are still on my mind. the stuff from slowdive (2017) was really great too, especially slowmo during the encore. Totally different feeling hearing it live. The crowd was hyped up and really screaming their heads off and it was really wonderful when they came back out for an encore. Very happy they played 40 Days. They ended on it. I like that one a lot.

I'm happy I got to see them with such a good friend, and it was an excellent way to end the trip even though that wasn't even on purpose.