Last Thursday I had the pleasure of seeing the Pet Shop Boys at the Greek Amphitheater. It was a warm night, but not unbearable and perfect to see a concert under the stars. I believe this is my third time seeing them and probably the most memorable (hopefully this is not due to my old age and I just can’t remember the previous ones). They came out like always with wonderful stage theatrics to get the crowd going. The stage design was pretty cool as well. It had a cube, boxy, pixel, theme going on that they used through out the performance. They had three huge projectors shooting video and pixel like graphics upon a wall of white boxes, which purposely came tumbling down after they played a few of their songs. After that, the dancers use the boxes as part of their set and show. It was very entertaining and it was like watching two shows at once. The Pet Shop Boys played some of their new songs from their Yes album, and also played many of their popular hits from the past, reaching as far back as Actually. Their set lasted close to an hour and a half and one of the most memorable parts of the night is when they mixed Cold Play’s (Joe Satriani’s “If I Could Fly”) “Viva La Vida” and “Domino Dancing” together. As part of the encore they played “Being Boring”. That’s such a damn good song live. Here are some videos from their tour shot by some hardcore fans in HD from You Tube.
Oh, and yes they are wearing boxes on their heads.
As we all know by now Itunes 9 was released last week. If you’ve downloaded the new version and are having some problems figuring where things are, or want to know how to do some of the new features like the wish list and Itunes LP, MacLife has a “How-to” guide for you.
I’ll be honest with you and say that I haven’t downloaded the new version yet. I usually end up waiting a week or two before downloading any new updates just to see if there’s some major bugs.
One feature that I will definitely like is the Home Sharing feature. From the Apple site:
iTunes makes it easier to share music, movies, TV shows, and more. With Home Sharing, you can browse the iTunes libraries of up to five authorized computers in your house, import what you like, and automatically add new purchases made on any of the computers to your own library.
I’m glad they finally released a feature like this. My wife is thrilled to know that she can grab all of her music that she likes off of my computer and put it on her laptop and I’m glad I can get rid of them. HAHAHA! Just kidding. I’m so going to pay for that.
Sorry for the wait in between post, my only excuse is that I’m just lazy. I have a few things to discuss, so lets get to it.
Concerts
First, I’m sad to say that I missed the Band of Horses concert last week in Pomona. I heard from a friend that the show was great and they played a lot of new music from their next album. I guess I’m going to have to wait and hear it. I also heard from the same source Grand Archives will be releasing a new album as well and I believe the release date is September 15th.
I am going to the Pet Shop Boys concert on September 24th at the Greek, They’re promoting their latest album Yes. What I’ve heard sounded pretty good, at least better than their last album. Oh, and Johnny Marr plays guitar on the album as well (I don’t know any other musician that plays in so many bands, it’s like he’s talented or something).
Other upcoming concerts that I’ll probably be missing are:
The Pains of Being Pure in Heart – Shows are September 19 at The Troubadour and the 21st at the Casbah in San Diego. Their new EP Higher than the Stars is being release September 22nd and I should being looking forward to that.
Nocturnal Festival – It’s that time of year again and I’ll be skipping out on it this year. The concert is September 26th and it’s going to be at the NOS Events Center again this year. A big Booo! to that one. Last year was just so so and you can read the review here if you wish. I wouldn’t mind seeing Roni Size and Rabbit in the Moon perform live, but I don’t think it’s worth the price. I say move it back to LA and have some more big headliners and make it 18 and over please. Hopefully next year.
Camera Obscura – The band is coming back to the States around November, but mostly on the east coast. They’re coming back to play the shows that they had to cancel from their previous trip and to make it up to their fans, what a band. I wish I can see them again.
Other Hodgepodge
Sambassadeur – is going to be releasing a new single in November and will be releasing a new album in January. I can’t wait for that one and I will see them in concert this time. Oh yes, by the power of gray skull I will.
Pitchfork Media - has a few Camera Obscura videos of them performing live on their Cemetery Gates series. Too lazy to find the videos? Don’t worry I got you covered. I believe you don’t have to watch the annoying advertisement in the beginning of the videos, because I embed them in the post. You see, I take care of my peeps. Enjoy.
It was suppose to be a great Friday for my wife and I since we both took the day off to head to San Diego for the Depeche Mode concert, but things didn’t turn out so well. We found out that DM cancelled the show in San Diego due to doctor’s orders for David Gahan to rest his vocal chords. Let’s just say we were pretty bummed at that point. It would of been really cool because we had closer seats this time around, since it was at the Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre. We still headed down to San Diego because we booked a room down there and were to make the most of the trip. I had to watch over my wife because she was on suicide watch. She told me on the ride down there she had never missed a Depeche Mode concert since high school. Yeah she was feeling low. So, the only way to get our minds off of this? Have drinks at Old Town San Diego. There you have it.
Oh, and we did try to find seats at the Honda Center, but they were obstructed. Just our luck.
The news of John Hughes passing away came as a shock to many of us. This is the man who made so many memorable movies when I was growing up. He seemed to capture the whole lifestyle of what it was to be a teenager in the 80’s wrapped up most likely in a blanket of a cool soundtrack. From the poor girl trying to get the attention of the rich popular guy, or the boy from the wrong side of the tracks wishing to get a date with the most beautiful girl in school (Miss Amanda Jones), John Hughes understood the teenager genre. I still remember watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in the movie theater and thinking what an awesome movie that was ( I know I said awesome). His choice in music was very up to date with what was cool at the time. New Order, OMD, Psychedelic Furs, General Public, Echo and the Bunnymen and the list goes on and on. A lot of people who grew up at the time said his movies were the soundtrack to their lives and I couldn’t agree with them more. Who wouldn’t have a tape of Pretty in Pink in their cassette deck? I would have to say it was cool growing up in the 80’s and John Hughes will be a big part of that. There are so many songs to list and show, but I think this one will capture it all.
