BrockLi Soup

If you’re not a member of tourfilter, you probably should be: list all the bands you want to see live, and they’ll e-mail you when they’re coming to town. Just make sure you sign up in the right city, because I got e-mails about shows in Boston for weeks before I figured out what was going on.

I mention this because several weeks ago - well, closer to two months ago, now that I think about it - I got an e-mail notifying me that two of my favorite bands would be in town soon. And lo and behold, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists are opening for Against Me at Black Cat on October 8!

Tickets for that have sold out (sorry, I meant to post about this weeks ago), but you should still sign up with tourfilter. It’s a hell of a lot easier than checking every band’s website every couple months.

Tips For Punk Show First-Timers

1. Don’t wear flip-flops. You will lose them. Boots are your best bet, because sneakers will come off easily too.
2. Don’t be surprised when people push you. I don’t know what things were like at the last N’Sync concert, but that’s not how it works around here. Standing there giving everyone a pissy look won’t earn you immunity
3. If mom or dad insists on escorting you to the show, they’re either really cool, or (more likely), you’re too young to be there. Don’t bump into my beer hand.

Of the three times I’ve seen Against Me, this was probably the weakest. Much like the last Flogging Molly show, this is due in a large part to the fact that I wasn’t there with the crew from school. Unfortunately, they were opening for Alkaline Trio this time around, so the place was pretty sparse when they went on and the crowd wasn’t as charged as usual. On top of that, it was an all-ages show, so most the crowd was under 18. It was kind of fun to just stand there and be buffeted by wave after wave of tiny little punk kids, and I laughed when they all sang along to “I’m drinking Irish tonight,” because I knew that most of them wouldn’t taste Guinness for another six years. The pit never really opened up, so it was 45 minutes of pushing back and forth.

Despite my gripes with the audience, the band put on a great show, as always. They played about half of Searching For A Former Clarity (opened with The Energizer, one of my favorites), and maybe a half-dozen older songs, finishing with Sink, Florida, Sink and Pints of Guinness. I only stuck around for Alkaline Trio’s first two songs - the first one featured a police siren, and the second sounded like generic pop-punk, so I didn’t have high expectations for the rest of the show.

It was definitely worth the ticket price, and the trip up there, and the $5.50 beer, but it didn’t hold a candle to their show in Buffalo (and the trip to Mighty Taco after the show is only part of the reason). Hopefully they’ll come through town again soon.

On a related note, Gogol Bordello is playing at Nightclub 9:30 tomorrow night. As much as I’d love to see them again, I already know that tomorrow is going to be a long day at work, and apparently I’m going to NYC for the weekend, so I should take a night off and maybe do some more laundry. Such is the life of a moderately responsible twenty-something.

It’s only Wednesday, and this week has already run me down. As such, I’m taking tonight and tomorrow off, because I need to be in prime condition for Friday night.

Apparently there’s some kind of RIT Alumni organization in town, because they organized a tour of the Library of Congress. They planned it around some kind of Student Affairs conference in the area, so Bove and ShaunJ were here for a few days. The tour wasn’t as interesting as I expected - the entrance to the building is incredible, and the reading room looked pretty impressive, but we couldn’t take pictures of it or go in there. They had a little reception afterward and did a little too much talking, but they gave us food and wine so it was OK.

The reception was held on the sixth floor, and had a doorway to a wrap-around balcony. The city looked incredible from up there, and since Matt and I had been talking about going to the National Mall to wander around at night (no tourists!), we decided to take a walk over to the Capitol Building (along with Patrick, Sarah, and this fella Blake [who I hadn't met]). We did a big lap around the Capitol, attracted the attention of every soldier guarding the place (we’re not quite people), and took some crappy pictures of stuff, then headed off to my favorite pub, Fado, for drinks and burgers. I didn’t get home till around 12:30, so I was pretty beat at work yesterday.

That didn’t change the fact that I had plans to see Ron White last night. I didn’t realize at the time that we bought tickets for the 10:30 show, so it was another late night. He had done another show earlier in the evening, so he was pretty drunk by the time he started his set, which really just made it better. It was better than any of his specials I’ve seen on Comedy Central - most of it wouldn’t have even made it on there. It was hilarious, and filthy, and hilariously filthy, and drunk. The venue was great, too - it’s a little, low-ceiling-ed, underground comedy club, and we were only a few rows back, but a double Jack and Coke will set you back SIXTEEN DOLLARS (sometimes I actually miss Rochester). It was a great show, and it’s always nice to hang out with the guys from work without, you know, working.

So yes. Thanks to the last two nights, I’m beat today, and I can’t possibly go into St. Paddy’s Day like this. I’m going to bed early tonight.

Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing Flogging Molly in concert for the third time in a year. The show was over at 9:30, and I went with Bryan and Jeff from work, and Bryan’s fiancé Katie.

I can’t lie - it wasn’t as good as the first two times I saw them. I wasn’t really expecting it to be, though; I knew that seeing them without BP and Sharon just wouldn’t be the same. It was a 21+ show, so the folks in the pit were bigger and capable of doing a lot more damage.

The Rolling Blackouts opened the show with a lackluster set. They were fun to watch, but not very good. Scotch Greens were a lot better - sort of a blue-grassy punk sound - but they played a full-length set, and must have been up there for an hour, so Flogging didn’t even go on until like 10:30. I wound up leaving before the show was even over: I went to take a leak, and decided I had been hit in the chest enough times for one evening. And, the last train was only 15 minutes away, so it was that or $20 for a cab ride home.

Flogging’s set was as good as always, but it took the sound guy three or four songs to figure out what he was doing - the backup mics weren’t even on for the first song. They didn’t play Within A Mile of Home before I left, which was disappointing. The Guinness was $6 a can, which almost makes Rochester look good (which reminds me, I met three different people from Rochester before the show).

So yeah, it could have been better. I blame Scotch Greens for the fact that I couldn’t see the whole show, but what can ya do? Against Me! will be here in April, and my hopes are higher for that one.

I spent the evening at another classical concert than was almost exciting as the first, but this time, it was chamber music. The first piece was by Beethoven, which was alright. The last was a Dvorak, which was OK.

But the second piece, Berg’s Lyrische Suite, made me want to cry a little bit. It was six movements of dissonant, pretentious, classical fan-boy snobbery. Really, I think the only people that like this guy are looking for classical indie cred. It was a creepy, dark piece, and while some parts sounded kind of cool, there was no musical theme or any kind of consistent idea or anything; normally, that would be fine, but not so much when you’re supposed to write a paper about the music. I thought it would be more fun if I imagined the musicians as clowns, but that just made it scary.

The show was at the Eastman School of Music, and since Darrin was on-campus at the time, we drove out there together. I wound up sitting next to a girl who’s a freshman here at RIT. She asked for a ride home, which seemed a little odd, but I’m the adventurous type! So we had merry adventures finding our way home, because I’ve never taken the same way home from downtown twice (mostly because I don’t actually know the way home and wing it every time).

In conclusion: I need to spend more time downtown, and I think I might like a sandwhich.

I’ve been meaning to comment on the shows I’ve been to lately, but I always seem to have something more pressing to do. Here’s a quick re-cap.

Against Me! with The Epoxies September 25 at The Icon in Buffalo

As it turns out, it was Against Me! with The Epoxies, and Smoke or Fire, and The Soviettes. First off, The Icon is a shitty little building, I won’t argue that, but it wasn’t bad for a show like this. They have a big garage door at the back, so it didn’t get too hot in there. BP really didn’t like it, though, so I’m assuming he fell off the step that’s inexplicably located in the middle of the place.

The Soviettes were fun to watch, but I didn’t like the music much. Smoke or Fire was pretty good, but I wasn’t paying much attention. The Epoxies were absolutely ridiculous. The best way I can describe them is “synth punk” - they sort of had this rivethead look going on, and the music prominently featured a synthesizer. They filled the place with fog, and the guitarist and bassist both had laser pointers attached to their guitars. They reminded me of Gogol Bordello - music isn’t great, but their show was fun to watch.

Against Me! was great, as expected. They played a few from the new album, which has been growing on me - it’s definitely better live. I would say that this one was on par with the show in Toronto, back in May. This time around, I knew all the songs, but it felt like only the people up in the pit were really into the show. In Toronto, the entire room was like the pit, but with less pushing. Either way, it was a fun show and I’m glad we went. And we got Mighty Taco before coming home.

Jon Stewart October 8 in the Gordon Field House here at RIT

Jon was a disappointment. It took him like 15 minutes to get going - he kept dicking around with the captionist and interpreter – which was only moderately funny the first 20 times I’ve seen comedians do it - and asking all the photographers where they were from. It almost felt like he was stalling because he knew he didn’t have enough material. Most of his set was pretty good, but he finished with a story about his dog getting sick. Did he really have to appeal to the lowest common denominator? No one goes to see Jon Stewart because they know he tells great poop jokes. As good as his political commentary and other jokes were, ending on that one sort of left me with a bad impression of the show overall.

The Rochester Philharmonic October 14 in Ingle Auditorium here at RIT

I really only went to this because I had to for my Haydn & Mozart class. When they finished the first piece, I started to think that it would be a much better show than expected. The first three pieces were outstanding - three of Braham’s Hungarian dances. But then they did one of Mozart’s concertos. It was like 30-second intervals of exciting and emotional music padded with five-minute stretches of boring. They finished with Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, which was better than the Mozart, but still pretty boring. After the conductor took a few bows, they did another Hungarian Dance, so at least the end didn’t suck. The musicians were fantastic, but the 18th and 19th centuries produced some real crap.

Against Me! will be in Buffalo on September 25. Who’s going with us? Tracy, I’m looking at you.

BP and I drove down to Binghamton on Thursday to see Flogging Molly with Sharon. Taber and his cousins met us there too, and we ran into Wanker when we got there. The venue, Magic City Music Hall, was perfect for this kind of show. It was about the same size as Water Street here in Rochester, but instead of being narrow and long, it’s really wide and short. Even back at the bar, you weren’t too far from the stage. It was easy to get up front because you could fit twice as many people right up at the barrier. They had ceiling fans all over the place, which was really nice toward the end of the show when everyone had been dancing and knocking each other around for a couple hours.

Gogol Bordello opened the show, and they were absolutely ridiculous. We were outside smoking when they went on, and I honestly expected to see clowns on stage when we went back in. It was like Hungarian gypsy circus punk. The band was all over the place, and these two girls were there to just dance around like nobody’s business. At one point they came out with cymbals and a giant bass drum and just went nuts. They were a lot of fun and I think I’m actually going to buy their album when it comes out Tuesday.

Throw Rag was the second opener. They weren’t as good as Gogol - more straight punk, which isn’t really my taste - but one of the guys just did backup vocals and the washboard. They had guitar pickups on it or something, and he spent their set just wailing on the thing with spoons. I didn’t really like the music, but that guy was fun to watch.

Flogging Molly put on a pretty good show, but not as good as the one in Rochester. Dave King (the singer) said he had been sick that week, so they did a shorter set. On the other hand, Bridget Regan was there - she was really sick when they were in Rochester, and Molly without the fiddle just isn’t the same. It was the sweatiest pit I’ve ever been in, even with the fans making a nice breeze.

We left here around 4:30 in the afternoon and didn’t get home until 12 hours later. The show was definitely worth the trip, even if I was barely functional at work Friday.

I know it’s a little late, but Lynyrd Skynyrd played here at RIT on Tuesday. I found out right before the show that Jeff Cosco Band was the opener. Boss told me, “If you like 80’s rock, you’ll like these guys.” I couldn’t have put it better - they had this mid-80’s southern rock sound to them, and they weren’t bad.

Skynyrd was pretty awesome. I’ve never been a big fan and I was absolutely exhausted Tuesday night, but I figured I had to go, just on principle. They played a bunch of songs I didn’t recognize, and a few that I did but mistook for others (I swear, three of their songs are the exact same until the chorus).

Watching them play was better than listening to the music. I can’t believe these guys are still doing what they’re doing at their age. I think they saved Freebird for the encore because they knew they would need to take a breather before it. The guitarist Bill Nighy with gray hair halfway down his back, but he was going ape shit. Freebird lasted about fifteen minutes. Those guys are way too old to be doing this stuff still.

Also: men reach an age where skin-tight jeans with skin-tight leather chaps are no longer a viable clothing option. Skynyrd has long since passed that age.

Jym did a pretty good job of recapping our evening up in Toronto, so I won’t bother doing it again. Long and short of it is, it was fun to take a trip with the guys, and Toronto is a great city.

The only thing I’ll add is that Fonny WAS right. We were giving him shit a month or two ago, because he was going to a show at a skate park. He tried to explain how incredible it was to be in the middle of a big group of people that were totally into the band, singing along to every verse and just being completely into it. I finally got what he was talking about last night when Against Me! was on. I enjoyed watching the crowd more than the band (at least partly because my eyes are broke, so I can’t wear contacts, and I look absurd in glasses, so I wasn’t wearing them, so I couldn’t see the band anyway). Everyone there was shouting along with the singer. It made me wish I knew the songs better, because I felt like I was just standing on the outside of something really awesome. During the last song, a dozen people hopped on stage with them and sang along (pic sucks, we were far back). Before the show, some people up front started a sing-along. On the way back to the hotel, the people behind us did the same. It felt like no one there wanted to be anywhere else (except for Jym, once he found the pizza place across the street). It was pretty incredible.

Anyway, it was a great start to what will surely be a great summer. I’m looking forward to spending a quarter with these guys.

PS - pictures here.

Flogging Molly Tickets came today!

I haven’t done that much damage to my hearing since I decided that shooting a .44 Magnum without ear muffs would be fine.

The Dropkick Murphys show was incredible. A few weeks ago, Sharon told me they were doing a 21-gun salute before the show (seven people, three Irish Car Bombs each). We wound up pre-gaming at my place. I was figuring on eight or nine people, but there were around 25 people here, including my younger brother Eric. We drank for about an hour before heading for the gym.

Three Days Grace wasn’t that bad, but I wasn’t paying much attention to them. We spent most of their set flipping them off, but it didn’t work.

After the changeover between sets, the Rochester Scottish Pipes & Drums came on and played for five or ten minutes, which was pretty cool. I didn’t even know Rochester HAD a pipes & drums crew, but they were fun to watch.

When Dropkick came on, I was about three rows back from the barricade with Eric. The entire crowd started swaying around us - if people weren’t packed in so tight, everyone would have gone down. That kind of sucked, so I turned around and hopped into the pit behind us that was doing all the pushing. This was the first show I’ve actually been in the pit for, and I tell ya, you get thirsty in there. And sweaty. It was a sweaty, stinky show, but it was incredible.

At some point I got punched in the neck, and something happened to my right thigh and left wrist, but I’m not sure what - I just know they hurt. I must have caught an elbow in the chest at some point too, because my solar plexus hurts when I touch it. I boosted Heise at one point, and he managed to work his way to the front and high-five the singer. For the last song of the encore (Skinhead on the MBTA), he jumped off stage and sang from the bleachers. I didn’t see him do it, so when everyone rushed to the right at the beginning of the song, I just figured it was some kind of punk concert thing I didn’t understand, like circle pits.

After limping my way back here with Eric, BP, and Lisa, we went to Mark’s for plates. This morning I woke up with no voice, a sore body, and a huge mess of a kitchen. I cleaned up 24 bottles and 14 cans of Guinness, around three 6-packs of other beer, about 8 bottles of Fonny’s Ukrainian beer, and two bottles each of Jameson and Bailey’s (but I don’t know how much was in those when we started). I just found another four pack of Guinness cans in the fridge that wouldn’t have survived the storm if they hadn’t been tucked behind some juice and stuff, so I’ve got lunch for the week.

It was an incredible night. I just found out that there are still tickets for the Wednesday night show before St. Patty’s Day in Boston. I’d like to go, but we’ll have to see what happens.