stay in the shallow end

Mates of State is coming to Satellite Ballroom on September 25! Words cannot describe how overjoyed I am at this news.

I haven’t been able to get enough of the indie pop lately. I don’t know what’s triggered this shift to a sunnier disposition, but my Recently Played playlist for the last few weeks has been populated by Dressy Bessy, Sprites, Tullycraft, Belle and Sebastian, Park Avenue, and Tilly and the Wall.

Ahhhhh, Tilly and the Wall… lpk and Michael have already covered the awesomeness of the Tilly and the Wall shows we went to, so I’ll spare you that. For me, the big story is that after seeing Tilly in D.C. Saturday night, we sold our Ani tickets on Craigslist and came back to Charlottesville to see Tilly again.

I can’t really explain why this is a big deal to me, but it seems really significant. We’ve seen Ani a bunch of times, and I was really looking forward to the chance to get up close at the 9:30 Club. I’m guessing it really has nothing to do with Ani, but more the awesomeness of Tilly. I haven’t seen a band put that much of themselves into a show in a very long time. Seeing them so happy made me so damn happy.

If you were to graph the rise of a band’s popularity, I’d say there’s three general regions. When bands aren’t popular enough, they play some crappy venue and only a couple dozen show up. I imagine it’s hard to put on an energetic show with so few people mirroring it back at you. On the other side, when a band gets too popular, people show up just cause they’ve heard of them, and while you have a crowd, there’s still no energy. Tilly is in the sweet spot. They’re big enough where they draw a healthy number of people that truly love their music, but they’re just under the radar, so they don’t get people wandering in off the street. They play nicer venues that are still small enough to be intimate, and they’re able to nearly fill them up with people that love them. I get the impression this is the first tour in the sweet spot, because at both shows, D.C. especially, they seemed genuinely surprised that so many people came out and were so into them. Both nights were so awesome, and I didn’t think I had it in me anymore to lose myself in a show like I did with Tilly. I still can’t think about it without smiling, and I am so crushing on the girls of Tilly, who Michael and I have decided to just refer to as Blond Tilly, Brunette Tilly, and Dancing Tilly.

So yeah, I can’t get enough of the indie pop. We saw Dressy Bessy last week at Starr Hill, and next weekend we’re going to Lollapalooza. And I hope to see all of you at the Satellite Ballroom on September 25, so Mates of State can rock your socks off.

Blog Note: The use of “fuck” in the title of this post is a first for stay in the shallow end. Expect more if it.

I created a Never Played Smart Playlist consisting of all songs with a Play Count of less than 1:

Holy crap!! I sorted them in chronological order of when I added them to iTunes, and I plan to listen to nothing else until I can say that I’ve listened to my entire library.

Before the show started:

After the sun went down:

I picked up a Gatorade beforehand, leaned against the rail, and enjoyed the first half of the show. I’ll gladly pay the Pavilion’s ridiculous prices for a show I really want to see, but for a band like Wilco, who I’m not at all familiar with, this was a great way to spend the evening.

Ween rocked the pavilion pretty hard last night. I think they played for about three hours. Going into the show, I thought I only knew three Ween songs, but it turns out I recognized about a dozen.

I do have to agree with Zoe, that it’s hard to justify the really high expense of pavilion tickets when you can see the show from the street. I’m sure once enough people congregate up there, they’ll put up a barricade, but even then, they can’t wall the sound in.

We also went to Peen afterwards at Starr Hill. Since I’d never seen Ween before, if you’d told me Peen were Ween, I wouldn’t have known any better. I ducked out early cause I was exhausted.

I also snapped a picture of a guy wearing the most awesome shirt ever. It had the amateur sketch of the leprechaun on the front, and underneath that it said “I wanna know where the gold at”. As soon as I get my phone back, I’ll post the picture.

Last night we went to NoVa to see Mates of State. They were playing at the State Theatre in Falls Church, which turned out to be an awesome venue. It reminded me a lot of the Georgia Theatre in Athena, GA where I’ve seen many a band. The venue is awesome… pretty big while still maintaining intimacy and great sound.

We got there way earlier than we needed to and ended up picking a spot pretty much front and center. It’s been a very, very long time since I’d been up front at a show, and I’d forgotten how it’s a completely different experience. We were surrounded by people that were really excited about the show, and it was very contagious.

The first opener, Hail Social, was pretty good for a first opener. The second opener was Maria Taylor, better known as half of Azure Ray, who I love. From the beginning of the show to when she started, we drifted back to about three people from the stage. In front of us was a few high school girls and one of their moms. Anyway, during Mario Taylor, this girl appeared behind us, very into the music. She asked to get in front of us just for this set, and she’d leave for Mates of State. We let her through, and she was right ahead of us. She said she loved Maria Taylor, and it was kind of cute… she knew all the words and was screaming her head off between songs. Then it went creepy… a song later, she goes through her purse, and counts out some cash. Then she taps one of the high school girls in the front on the shoulder, and offers to pay to swap spots. The girl quickly agrees, comes back next to us and looks at the $20 in her hand smiling. Then she flips it open, and there’s another $20. She flips past that and there’s another and another and another. Psycho fan girl paid $100 so she could move three feet closer to the stage. After another song I watched her reach into her purse and grab more cash to try to swap with a guy leaning against the stage front and center. He let her have the spot for free. And, true to her word, as soon as Maria Taylor finished her set, she went to the back.

Then the awesomeness began. I’ve enjoyed all the MoS shows I’ve been to, but they’ve all been in very very small venues. Well despite there being only two of them, they fill up a stage really well. The biggest plus for me was the crowd. I think on the timeline of a rise and fall of a band’s popularity, MoS is now in what I consider the sweet spot. They’re big enough to where they pack a few hundred people into a decent size venue, but small enough where people aren’t just showing up because they’ve heard of them. Everybody around us knew all the songs, and they were jumping around having a good time. When they came out for the encore, they asked us if we wanted to hear Bowie or Nico. Obviously, the correct answer is Nico, but the crowd didn’t know that, so they started with their cover of Bowie’s Starman. Then they played Nico’s These Days anyway, so it all worked out.

The show and the crowd are both the best in recent memory. It made me wonder how different it would’ve been from the back. It’s entirely possible that this show had the same energy as all the other shows I’ve been to recently, but in the back, I’m just an observer, while up front I’m a participant. In any case, I think I’ll be making a greater effort to make it out early and claim a spot near the stage. I can always brina along the DS to pass the time.

Disregarding my geek post, it’s been 30 days since I’ve posted here. So here’s a few highlights of the last few weeks:

• Belle & Sebastian in DC and Nashville. Oh how I love this band. I wish I could make a blanket out of them. I would carry that blanket with me everywhere I went. In fact, I’d just wrap myself up in it and be naked underneath. It would be wonderful. Both of their sets were pretty much perfect.

• How awesome was it when Jack Bauer shot Robocop’s wife!

• Ate at Calypso, La Hacienda, and SATCO in Nashville. Mmmmmm. Then had ribs at Dreamland in Huntsville. Double-Mmmmm.

• Also regarding food, I’m convinced my mom tried to kill me over spring break. Her sinister plot was to keep feeding me until some portion of my gastrointestinal tract ruptured, and I succumbed to internal bleeding.

• My brother owns a straightening iron… and yes, the kind of straightening iron you use on your hair.

• American Idol has it’s top 12. I don’t have a favorite yet, but McPhee is up there right now, as are Daughtry and Hicks.

Lunch time, maybe more later.

So we bought two tickets for Bonnaroo Sunday morning. This is the first year they’ve had a line up that I’m excited about. I am not excited about camping though, seeing as how I hate nature.

So the acts I plan to attend are:

• Radiohead
• Tom Petty
• Beck
• Elvis Costello
• Death Cab For Cutie
• Bright Eyes
• Ben Folds
• Cat Power
• Disco Biscuits
• Stephen Malkmus
• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
• The Magic Numbers

There’s a few other artists I’ve heard of that I’ll try to familiarize myself with beforehand. Notice anybody else that I should definitely check out?

Just got back from the Feist show at Satellite Ballroom, and I’m very very unexpectedly impressed. I anticipated that I’d enjoy the show, but figured it’d be a very subdued performance.

I was wrong. The crowd was into it, she was into it, all was good. I had a great time, and my only regret was not being there earlier so I could’ve had a closer spot.

I was upgrading Typo to the latest version, and noticed that it had a new Upcoming sidebar. I decided to check it out, and it’s actually pretty cool. It’s like del.icio.us for your calendar.

Not that any of you really care, but I’ll try to keep it up to date with the shows I’m planning on going to, which is a lot in the near future. Here’s the list for you LJ viewers:

• Jan 22 Nellie McKay with Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players at Birchmere
• Jan 28 Colin Meloy (of The Decemberists) with Laura Viers at Birchmere
• Feb 07 Feist, Jason Collett at Satellite Ballroom
• Feb 11 The Fiery Furnaces at Satellite Ballroom
• Feb 17 Asylum Street Spankers at gravity lounge
• Mar 01 Of Montreal, The Ms at Satellite Ballroom
• Mar 04 Mogwai, Growing at Satellite Ballroom
• Mar 05 Belle & Sebastian, The New Pornographers at 9:30 Club
• Mar 06 Belle & Sebastian, The New Pornographers at 9:30 Club
• Mar 16 Silver Jews at Satellite Ballroom
• Mar 29 The Books at Satellite Ballroom

Nellie McKay and Colin Meloy are definitely topping the list as far as excitement level goes… Feist isn’t far behind.

I realized we missed the Rainer Maria show here in Charlottesville, so I thought I’d put together this list of upcoming shows that we have planned on going to. The Satellite Ballroom is getting some great acts!

• 9/13 Jump, Little Children at Starr Hill (SH)
• 9/16 Of Montreal at the Satellite Ballroom (SB)
• 9/18 Tilly and the Wall at SB
• 9/19 The Pixies at the Charlottesville Pavillion
• 10/14 Cat Power at SB

And here’s a couple in DC at the 9:30 Club:

• 10/2 The Decememberists
• 10/15 The New Pornographers and Destroyer

Looking at the 9:30 Club schedule, Death Cab and Social Distortion are two other shows I’d love to see. Of all these shows, I think I’m most excited about Cat Power. After reading about how insane she is, especially when it comes to live performances, I can’t wait to actually witness it first hand.

Interested to going to any of these shows? Let me know!