My Gen 2008: Day After

I’m sure the videos will get posted by the usual suspects soon, but for now let me just say that last night’s show was probably the most entertaining student event I’ve been to here.

Setlist and comments…

Intro – Nice enough medley.  Actually, much of it was pretty impressive.  I’m not sure why the “Umbrella” section was so long, so low, and so much different from the actual song.  Enh.  The intro slideshow was rather…tedious.

“Clocks” by Coldplay -  It’s pretty easy to forget how great this song is, because you’ve probably heard it to many times in contexts where it doesn’t fit.  Bopper sold the Chris Martin bit perfectly – Make Trade Fair equals sign on the hand, enthusiasm, hand gestures, cascading piano triplets, hollering encouragement to the audience and bandmates.  It sounded good, too, down to the vocal harmonies and the abrupt ending.  This set the bar high for the whole show.  One of my favs.

“All You Wanted” by Michelle Branch – A pleasant enough rendition of a pleasant enough pop song.

“Hysteria” by Muse – YES.  Okay, the bass here was tremendous, the energy was high…this was probably the finest song of the night in my opinion (the paper gave it silver, after “Apres Moi”).  This was, technically, very difficult, and they very much KILLED it.  Also – they did it as a trio (as does Muse), which was the most impressive to me (I half-expected they’d use 4, until I was told otherwise).

“Jumper” by Third Eye Blind – To some extent, recognizable songs work better in this format, as more people are interested in the performance, recognize the chorus, and so on.  The vocal part here is difficult, and Jordan did a fine job of it.

“Apres Moi” by Regina Spektor – Easily the most unique, weird, unusual performance (I mean that in the best way).  It’s always great when acts take a bit of a chance with costumes, song choices, the theatricality of their act, etc., and it pays off for them.  It did here.

“Shipping Up to Boston” by the Dropkick Murphys – Tons of energy, tons of Sammy II guys, and it was going to feature my guitar until Scott broke a string and had to go to a backup.  Rob dropped his pick, which was too bad.  Same with the tempo problems.  Still a lot of fun.

[Intermission] – Now is as good a time as any to talk about the skit narrative.  They covered the usual topics, but I appreciated the angles, especially the “Pastor Mark” skit and the Beat Poet.  The singing bee kept the audience entertained.  The fashion show was goofy (not bad goofy, just goofy).

“Idioteque” by Radiohead – Okay, I suppose for uniqueness, this is right up there with “Apres Moi”.  Very adventurous, and the performers were obviously enjoying themselves.  Luke’s vocals got buried in the mix during the second or third verse, but this was still lots of noisy fun.  Loved the dancing

“We Both Go Down Together” by The Decemberists – pretty much nailed it.  A fun song.  A band from my high school used to cover this song all the time.  Nice minor touches, too.

“Ready to Run” by Dixie Chicks – sounded nice.  I could take or leave the Dixie Chicks, though – mainly leave.

“9 Crimes” by Damien Rice – Everyone was SO QUIET for this one.  This is a song with a lot of gravity, and they nailed its subleties.  Nice job, Kayla and Bitsy!

“Slide” by the Goo Goo Dolls – Bopper does it again.  Good to see Looper up there with his mandolin.  At this point, everyone is charmed by Bopper.  Seriously.

“It’s Gonna Be Me” by *Nsync – Another favorite.  This is another of those “perfect for My Gen” sorts of songs, and the guys did a great job and had fun with it.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Bopper, Chris Martin, Coldplay, college, Damien Rice, Dixie Chicks, Dropkick Murphys, friends, Goo Goo Dolls, Michelle Granch, Muse, Music, My Gen, My Gen 2008, Nsync, Radiohead, Regina Spektor, Sammy II, The Decemberists, Third Eye Blind

VIP MGN Tickets

Remember my VIP seats for Airband 2007?  And my recap of My Gen 2007 (in which I didn’t have VIP seats, because no one did)?  Well, this year, there are VIP My Gen (they’re calling it MGN this year, so I’m indulging them, because that’s ridiculous), and guess who has two thumbs and a VIP seat?

This guy.

It should be pretty good.  At least, it better, because some guys and I tried out with this song, and didn’t get in (there were some sound problems that were sort of out of our hands – i.e. my guitar was too loud on the solo – but we still nailed it), and I know of at least a handful of other good acts that got cut, so I have high hopes.

I was going to give the setlist with links to videos by the original artists, but realized that might not be a good idea for a number of reasons.

Also, No Shave November!!  I meant to put something about it in my last post.  I’m participating, and I’ve never had more facial hair.  I wish, however, that my facial hair was more brown and less strawberry blonde (the sideburns are brown).  I tend to think that having an unshaven neck adds to the holistic experience, by the way.  However, I do plan to shave between now and next Wednesday, as I’m accompanying my girlfriend to her family’s Thanksgiving, and don’t want to look like a bum the first time I meet her family, so I’m not the most adherent follower, I suppose.

At lunch today, Amanda pointed out that NSN (like MGN, but less confusing) is a good time for romantic relationship development, because, if you have a bad beard, there is some absence of shallowness required from the female side to really appreciate that you’re not shaving anyway.  We sort of had that – last November is when we first had that, “so I like you…” conversation.  I’m getting to observe that from outside the situation this year, as a friend and an acquaintance are getting to that point as we speak, and the male party has a pretty goofy set of facial hair.

I’m going to make coffee.

Filed under: Uncategorized , "MGN", Airband, Airband 2007, Amanda, coffee, fall 2008, My Gen, My Gen 2008, No Shave November, romance, two thumbs, VIP

A Belated My Gen Night Post

I had VIP Airband tickets last fall and told you about it, then posted some vid links the next time around (scroll down in this post if you missed it).  However, I failed to even mention one of my school’s other music-related, fun fall traditions, My Generation Night.  Basically, people cover pop songs from our lifetime, and it’s lots of fun, with “commercials” and gimmicky, fun videos in between.  This year’s was very, very good, and I should’ve posted about it sooner, but I’ve had a lot on my mind.  Also, I didn’t have VIP tickets to that show, so the experience wasn’t quite as surreal as the Airband one I described.  It’s been awhile since My Gen happened, of course, so rather than try to recap, I’ll just post some youtube links and comment…

Show Opener: “Boston” by Augustana
Pretty good rendition.  It’s a rangy song, and the guitars, which were a little sharp and loud live, actually sound pretty nice in this video.  Also, I need more Eric Riggs with his guitar in my life.  If he’s not in a chapel band this fall, I’ll be quite disappointed.

“Drumbone” by Blue Man Group
Yep, that’s my roommate on the left of your screen (he only rehearsed this once, as he was formerly the bass player but stepped up when a sub was needed.  Kudos again, Bryant, and we’re praying you make it back safely from Europe this week).  Anyway, I think it’s great that they even tried this one, let alone did it so well.

 ”Comfort Eagle” by Cake
This one is, in a lot of ways, a huge, TU in-joke-that’s-not-really-an-in-thing anymore (and this performance is when the cat really got out of the bag in a big way).  Anyway, they did a nice job with this, I must say.

“Karma Police” by Radiohead
Okay, I’m going to be a little bit of a nitpicker here, because they did a really, really nice job – the piano, voice, and electric guitar parts are all spot on, which is impressive (vocals especially).  However, the acoustic guitar part is just a little off in a couple places, which is alright, but it’s really not very hard to play this song right on guitar, and the mistakes are subtle but noticeable.  But like I said, that’s nitpicking, they pretty much nailed it, and I enjoyed it.

 ”Hey Ya” by OutKast
Well, this is really a lot different than the OutKast version, but it is a cover of that song.  Actually, it’s kind of a cover of this cover.  That’s all beside the point, this was probably the most fun performance of the night (although the performance of Sufjan Steven’s “Chicago” was also great, there were some mic problems with the choir), lots of that probably due to the call and response “What’s cooler than being cool?”, etc. parts.  It doesn’t hurt that this is one of my generation’s most recognizable and best pop songs.

Well, hopefully you enjoyed this linktastic post.  I had fun reliving My Gen Night ‘07 a little, and my recent unintentional pop music theme might carry over into next post.  Stay tuned.

Filed under: Fall 2007, college, friends , My Gen