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.

A bunch of things happened in the past few months that I never really got a chance to mention here. Let’s have us a quick recap, eh? (More or less in chronological order)

Atheist Alliance International Conference, in Crystal City So, a lot of atheists - the kind that would go to the conference, anyway - are WAY more involved than I am. I met a few group organizers and a number of people that are involved politically, and the crowd was generally older than I would have expected - I’d say that less than 10% were under 30 (granted, not a lot of 20-somethings have money to travel to DC for a conference). I’m really glad I went - it was enlightening, I learned a lot, heard some interesting opinions, and got some good argument points in a couple sessions. Well worth the money.

Matt Pond PA, at 930 Club I didn’t know any of their songs when we went, but Erin wanted to see them. It was a cool show, but really not the kind of band I would see by myself.

Street Dogs, opening for Tiger Army at Black Cat One of the best punk shows I’ve been to. Honestly, even better than expected. I think my favorite part was when they started playing Fatty and all the big fellas pushed their way up front. We didn’t stick around for Tiger Army.

Gogol Bordello, at Sonar in Baltimore Gogol never disappoints. Fun as always.

Against Me!, at 930 Club The songs from their new album, New Wave, went over better than I figured they would. I really like most of them, but they’re not really the kind you would dance and sing to at a concert, I thought. We hung out near the back and I just sang my little heart out - I’m gettin too old to keep getting punched in the chest in the pit, so I didn’t even both jumping in for this one. Sometimes, it’s nice to just stand back and enjoy the band.

It’s been a banner week here at the BrockLi headquarters. Got in a couple movies screenings, two concerts, and went out with friends almost every night.

On Monday, Schmitty, Fotios, Mace and I saw the screening of Hot Rod. I can’t even describe how hilarious and random it was - I loved it, but you definitely need to go in expecting Super Trooper-style humor.

Tuesday night was a screening of Superbad. Mace and I loved it, Kidder and his friend hated it. Again, you need to appreciate that kind of humor - it’s definitely a Judd Apatow flick. Michael Cera is hilarious and I’ve always loved Seth Rogen

Wednesday night was the Gogol Bordello show at 9:30, which was just as awesome as you would expect it to be. They did all the best songs from the new album and a bunch of my favorites from Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike. As always, their performance was entirely over the top. I left during a drawn-out marathon version of Baro Faro - I was too beat and dehydrated to handle any more - but apparently they did Mala Vida after that. NPR broadcast the show live, and you can listen to it on their site.

Thursday night, I finally got to use my iSight to chat with Ryan and Sarah for a bit. Fonny and Molly were in Columbia for a wedding this weekend, so we did dinner and drinks Friday night with a bunch of other folks. And last night, my roommate’s friend’s band was playing at the RnR Bar & Lounge. I hate to say it, but they weren’t very good. But, I had a good time hanging out with new people. Today, the Film Club went to see Manufactured Landscapes, which was incredibly disappointing. It was an interesting topic, but terribly presented and pretty boring.

This week should be a little quieter. Thursday night is the Swell Season show, also at 9:30, and that’s about it. Fine by me - I could use a week off.

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.