It was a long weekend, and it has taken me even longer to manage to focus enough in order to write about it. The weekend involved a large combination of things, both good and bad... it marked the four year anniversary of the loss of one of the most important people in my life, which I think will forever be one of the hardest of the 365 days of the year for me. Music, caring friends, and a lot of time to think and reflect are what carried me through. So let's begin...
Friday night was a familiar scene at the Mercury Lounge, where we gathered to watch the Upwelling deliver what, in my opinion, is the best show they have ever graced us with. The last time I saw the band play was on the night of the huge snowstorm in January, and while I enjoyed their performance there, there just wasn't the same energy and spark that typically make Blizzards tend to have that effect I suppose. But regardless, Fridays show wiped away all of those feelings entirely and and the bands put on a positively stellar show.
And the most significant thing about it all is that they chose to not play several tride and true Upwelling fan favorites, including "In Her Arms/Sam" and "American Night." Ok, obviously this isn't like when you go see a band like... Pearl Jam or Radiohead, who have a huge catalog and you don't expect them to play all of their 'hits' because they are a pretty established band (although when they bust out 'Creep' or 'Fake Plastic Trees' or... insert name of any hit Pearl Jam song here, you're obviously kind of psyched). Anyways, you get my point that basically at this stage in the band's exhistence I think fans come to these shows expecting to hear the songs that they love so much, not only because they are fantastic songs but because they have an emotional attachment/expectation to hear them. But the great part was that it didn't really matter at all what songs the band played, because every song is great. And when the band's energy is in top form, they could jam out to "my country tis of thee" or "hit me baby one more time" or whatever and you would say "holy shit that was awesome."
Ok maybe that's a stretch. Maybe.
So the show was great, and now the band is leaving us to take over the world (or at least part of the US and Ireland). Should be pretty sweet.
After the show we went to Lit, where I heard James Iha spin Justin Timberlake almost immediately followed by the Backstreet Boys. Honestly, if any other DJ in the basement of Lit attempted to get away with spinning "Everybody" (rock your boooody, yeaaaah), they would probably have drinks thrown at them. This only proves that James Iha can apparently get away with anything. He even looks good in a dress. Still, I'm not sure what prompted the boy band homage... the rest of the Aktion party was fun, Audrey spun some great tunes upstairs and I stayed there two hours longer than originally intended. Oh well, that's what happens at Lit.
Saturday Jed and I trooped to the Virgin Megastore in Union Square (not for the Jamba Juice, surprisingly) to pick up our copies (in my case one, in his case at least 7 or 8) of the Upwelling's ep, because they are featured on the new Virgin Recommends compilation. This is a pretty big deal because they are the only unsigned band to ever be on this album, and they're now sharing some spotlight with acts like The Arcade Fire, Tegan and Sara, The Dears, and... Queen Latifah! Awesomeness. While we were in the store, the played an Upwelling song over the store PA system, which was such a total rush for me it actually made me a little teary, like when I first heard Dutch Kills on the radio, etc. It's just so exciting for me to see this band progress, and I still can't even really begin to really appreciate what it means to their friends and the band themselves!
So that was pretty happy stuff, and that's a good place to stop this entry now I think (although I did go to see Morning Theft at Luna Lounge also and that was great as always and Pat rocked out and I know you must be tired of me lavishing praise on Morning Theft so I'll shut up now).
Friday night was a familiar scene at the Mercury Lounge, where we gathered to watch the Upwelling deliver what, in my opinion, is the best show they have ever graced us with. The last time I saw the band play was on the night of the huge snowstorm in January, and while I enjoyed their performance there, there just wasn't the same energy and spark that typically make Blizzards tend to have that effect I suppose. But regardless, Fridays show wiped away all of those feelings entirely and and the bands put on a positively stellar show.And the most significant thing about it all is that they chose to not play several tride and true Upwelling fan favorites, including "In Her Arms/Sam" and "American Night." Ok, obviously this isn't like when you go see a band like... Pearl Jam or Radiohead, who have a huge catalog and you don't expect them to play all of their 'hits' because they are a pretty established band (although when they bust out 'Creep' or 'Fake Plastic Trees' or... insert name of any hit Pearl Jam song here, you're obviously kind of psyched). Anyways, you get my point that basically at this stage in the band's exhistence I think fans come to these shows expecting to hear the songs that they love so much, not only because they are fantastic songs but because they have an emotional attachment/expectation to hear them. But the great part was that it didn't really matter at all what songs the band played, because every song is great. And when the band's energy is in top form, they could jam out to "my country tis of thee" or "hit me baby one more time" or whatever and you would say "holy shit that was awesome."
Ok maybe that's a stretch. Maybe.
So the show was great, and now the band is leaving us to take over the world (or at least part of the US and Ireland). Should be pretty sweet.
After the show we went to Lit, where I heard James Iha spin Justin Timberlake almost immediately followed by the Backstreet Boys. Honestly, if any other DJ in the basement of Lit attempted to get away with spinning "Everybody" (rock your boooody, yeaaaah), they would probably have drinks thrown at them. This only proves that James Iha can apparently get away with anything. He even looks good in a dress. Still, I'm not sure what prompted the boy band homage... the rest of the Aktion party was fun, Audrey spun some great tunes upstairs and I stayed there two hours longer than originally intended. Oh well, that's what happens at Lit.
Saturday Jed and I trooped to the Virgin Megastore in Union Square (not for the Jamba Juice, surprisingly) to pick up our copies (in my case one, in his case at least 7 or 8) of the Upwelling's ep, because they are featured on the new Virgin Recommends compilation. This is a pretty big deal because they are the only unsigned band to ever be on this album, and they're now sharing some spotlight with acts like The Arcade Fire, Tegan and Sara, The Dears, and... Queen Latifah! Awesomeness. While we were in the store, the played an Upwelling song over the store PA system, which was such a total rush for me it actually made me a little teary, like when I first heard Dutch Kills on the radio, etc. It's just so exciting for me to see this band progress, and I still can't even really begin to really appreciate what it means to their friends and the band themselves!
So that was pretty happy stuff, and that's a good place to stop this entry now I think (although I did go to see Morning Theft at Luna Lounge also and that was great as always and Pat rocked out and I know you must be tired of me lavishing praise on Morning Theft so I'll shut up now).