Of Montreal (Live)

I saw Of Montreal sometime this past spring at The Metro.  I had seen them at Pitchfork earlier that year.  They were great then and just as good the second time around.  They had even more costumes and some pretty cool lights in the background.  Very funny and dancy.  Extra awesome because it was free.

Vampire Weekend

I saw Vampire Weekend some time this past winter at The Metro.  I love their music and their live show was quite good.  It wasn't one of the most incredible live shows I've ever been to, but I enjoyed it (especially since it was free for me).  Good musicians with a preppy quirk.

The National (Live)

I saw The National at The Vic last winter (I think it was late November).  At the time I had no idea who the opener, St. Vincent, was, but since then she has become a solid member of my music library.  She played an excellent set and that certainly drove me to go home and find out more about her.  The National of course were spectacular.  They got so into their music and it came out in their high level of musicality.  It felt as though a wall of sound was coming at me.  They played one of my favorite songs by any band, Mr. November.  Truly an incredible show.

Feist (Live)

I saw Feist at IU's auditorium theatre this year when I went to visit the school for the second time (I think it was April) during the Little 500 weekend.  Before Feist, this Canadian singer opened.  His name was Hayden (thanks for the correction/reminder h.).  He was quite good; a pleasant surprise.  He sounded a bit like a Canadian Bob Dylan.  He also sounded like he was stoned, but that just made it funny. I knew some of Feist's songs before I saw her, but she blew me away live.  I became a huge fan and now I'm in love with both her albums.  She was funny and kept the crowd involved.  During each song, there was always something going on in the background.  Most of the time it was shadow puppets that went along with the song being played and were produced live.  Other times it was just cool uses of lights or a camera being projected on the back wall.  I believe I said this when I talked about her in another post, but she was once a member of the stellar music collective Broken Social Scene.  She certainly lived up to the musicality the is present in Broken Social Scene.

Flogging Molly (Live)

So yeah, haven't posted in a really long time.  I'm now just going to give brief summaries of shows I've attended in the recent pass.  It's mostly just so I remember them, but anyone who wants to can read my thoughts.  Each retroactive post will be quite short and only provide a small summary.  Hopefully I'll get back to regular posts one day.

I saw Flogging Molly at the House of Blues in February this year.  They were incredible.  It was like a giant early St. Patrick's Day party.  I'm very Irish and St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays especially here in Chicago.  It's really more like a week long for me.  Going from pub to pub sampling each pubs fish and chips and making the rounds to all the different parties.  Anyways, yeah, Flogging Molly are incredibly energetic and fun live.  They played all their best songs and several songs off their soon to be released album (now it has been released and is excellent) Float.  I don't remember all the bands that opened for them but one was something like Reverend Dan and His Big Damn Band which ironically only had three members.  They were fun and energetic as well.  I wouldn't but their album, but if someone gave it to me for free, I'd sure listen to it.  Flogging Molly spoke of their hopes for peace in Ireland several times between sips of Guinness.  I've never seen so much Guinness in my life.  People were drinking it like water and cans were being passed around.  The entire balcony was lined with Guinness's.  If you know the House of Blues, that's quite impressive.  The crowd was a mix between a mosh pit, an Irish Dancing Feish and people linking arms and dancing like Celtic warriors.  A stellar experience that I would recommend to anyone who likes Irish music, punk music, or just likes to have a good time.