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I've seen only small bands recently. Crappy garage bands of which I know members, old school punk, and good drunken bluegrass mostly.

I've been seriously lucky this summer with concerts after several months of DC area drought.  It began this May with the Arcade Fire and the National at the DAR Constitutional Hall, and that was a fantastic show.  I was shocked by how much I enjoyed the National, since I had heard Alligator previously and it didn't quite click with me.  While the concert experience wasn't quite as monumental, it was the "oh, now I get it" equivalent of seeing Stop Making Sense.

Then later that month I saw Frog Eyes in Philadelphia while down to scout out living spaces, and that also blew me away.  It was such a small venue, and there were probably only about 30 people in the whole place.  The lead guy, Carey Mercer, goes smurfing crazy on stage, and the music is incredibly layered.

A few weeks later I saw Man Man on an incredibly hot night in a crappy venue, but it was still pretty great.  I'm not too crazy about their recordings, but they are a severely entertaining live band.  You'd have to be dead to not have a good time.

About two weeks ago, I saw Raise Up Roof Beams, a regional group, play in the city, and I was really impressed with how far they've come since I first saw them about two years prior at a friend's house.  They really need to get a chance to work with a talented producer to really capture their live sound on disc, because it has become pretty unique and commanding.  The after party at our house was a whole lot of drunken fun too.

Now on this coming Monday night I'm seeing Wolf Parade, and I'm pretty stoked about that.  I loved their first label release, with Brock's tinkering and all, and I look forward to their sophomore effort.  Speaking of which, Modest Mouse is playing here soon too, but tickets are pretty expensive and I didn't like their new album much, so I think I'll only go if I can get a couple tickets at the event on the cheap right before or after it starts.  Maybe they're play Doin' the Cockroach at least?  At  the end of the month my landlord is making his solo debut at the local hipster bar where I saw Frog Eyes, and my housemate and I have been invited (invited to buy tickets, that is).  I've heard really good things about his previous band, apparently they were pretty big in Philly, called The Situation.  I have yet to listen to anything he's done though so that should be interesting.

Then in September, we're starting off with Dinosaur Jr. on September 4th, which is guaranteed to impress.  I saw them a little over a year ago on the last leg of the first reunion tour and it was everything one could possibly imagine, including a pudgy and grey J.  Weirdly enough, he went to school with the executive director of NORML, who I had the pleasure of interning for during the second half of my college career.  They played little league baseball together, heeeee.

Finally, I've been told that Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth fame is strolling into town at the end of September to promote some sure-to-be disappointing solo album at the same hipster bar my landlord is playing a month earlier, but I'll probably go if tickets are cheap just to see him in such an intimate venue.

I really like music.

Deadmanwalking wrote:

Faxanadu wrote:

Dream Theater on Aug 6 at the Uptown Theater in Kansas City.
\m/ \0/ \m/. It was incredible.

Are you going to see Alice Cooper at the Uptown also?

No.