Not sleeping regularly is really starting to catch up with me. I haven’t been blogging because of it – which may seem counter intuitive. Up late at night with nothing else to do? Why not write a blog entry? I haven’t been able to concentrate enough to string sentences together. Even with so much to write about.
I’ve been to a lot of great shows lately: Voxtrot, Wilco and Maximo Park are the first that come to mind. I think there have been a couple others too. I can’t remember.
This was my fourth time seeing Wilco and it was, by far, the best performance I’ve seen them put on. I was in some VIP box seats at the Bank of America Pavillion here in Boston — they were amazing. The band played a lot of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot some Summerteeth, A Ghost is Born and Sky Blue Sky. Then they surprised me by digging back into A.M. and playing some old favorites. What a show.
Maximo Park at the Paradise was pretty good too. After the Oohlah’s (I think) played, Monsters are Waitng came out and played. The lead singer was obviously trying to steal Bjork’s look and sound but was blatantly trying to rip off Karen O’s moves. The whole time she was on stage convulsing around and playing her synthesizer, I wanted to ask whoever the primary song writer for the band is if they had ever heard of this crazy thing called a chorus.
Yeah, they are one of those bands. Good concept, I suppose, but they didn’t really pull it off. Whenever I see a band like that I wonder if a talented producer would overhaul the sound completely and make them easier to listen to and enjoy. Or, would the changes the producer tried to impose make the band loose its identity and fall apart. Maybe, assuming they were given the opportunity, they resisted those types of changes and chose to fight on with warbling guitars, electric fuzz and nonsensical lyrics — not to mention a healthy dose of vitamin Bjork.
Or maybe they just aren’t that good.
But it is still interesting to think about.
Maximo Park, on the other hand, impressed me. I’d heard one or two songs before I went to the show and wasn’t expecting too much, but I was surprised. The four guys from Newcastle, England came out and poured energy into the crowd all night. There wasn’t a ballad or slow song played – and the whole time the lead singer, Paul Smith, jumped off the stage, danced and generally had a good time. Duncan Lloyd’s guitar work was good. He carried the sound, played melodies and provided a lot of the spark the band fed off of.
My one compliant is the keyboard player, Archie Tiku. What was this guy’s deal? He looked like he was going to cry all night. He tried to make his presence known by walking around the stage like he was having a gran mal seizure then tried to steal Smith’s moves. What a douche bag.
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Other than those shows I’ve seen over the month – has it already been a month? – I’ve been laying pretty low and working on the whole getting to sleep thing. It comes and goes but has just been hanging around a little longer than usual lately. Tonight I might try grinding up a bottle of Ambien and snorting it off a hooker’s ass.
You never know what’ll work.
Posted by Brian 
