Show this week

So this week I saw 7 shows. And mostly they were worth watching. The standout was Diplo, a DJ. I, to be honest, had never really gotten the DJ thing. I know get it. I was freaking blown away.

Also good: Thee Emergency, and The Editors, who were very very british.

Speaker Speaker was good, again (though I'd forgotten that I'd seen them, and liked them till they were on stage:)) And Slender Means was not what I'd expected - lots of 70s flair - but still glad I saw them.

The rest were good for being live - I just tend to like shows, but not so good that I care.

And hopefully - next time I'll remember when I've seen these bands...

Quotes on A/V

Found Daring Fireball:

Michael Gartenberg on NBC: "Sometimes I think God put video content guys on the planet to make the music guys look progressive and visionary."

Found on my iPod (Aesop Rock, "None Shall Pass", Citronella MP3)

And when the radio stars climbed up out of the floors to murder the medium that shot 'em 30 years before they said (kill the television)

An interesting chain of thought - of course I think they are both dead. But hey, it was too good a juxtaposition to pass up.

Bumbershoot

So this year I went to 2 days of Bumbershoot - for the first time in quite a while. I hit Sat and Monday, with Monday being the distinct highlight. I saw quite a number of bands - mostly local stuff in the EMP, which is a very nice venue indeed, a shame there aren't more shows held there.

So what was good? Well Posters: the Seattle-Havana Poster Show was quite something, and I rather enjoyed Flatstock which had a very large number of band poster designers selling their wares.

But as for music....

On saturday - Menomena was much more fun than I expected. Gogol Bordello - was freaking gypsy rock music - which quite unexpectedly to me - rocked. Way cool, way fun. And Tiny Vipers was well incredibly good for a what amounts to a one woman singer songwriter show.

But none of that held a candle to Monday - bands I won't even mention were amazing. But most amazing was Viva Voce, and Ted Leo. It is insane how hard Viva Voce rocked. It should be impossible for 2 people to rock that hard, to put on a show that good, to do anything like what they did. I love this band.

And then there was Ted Leo - which turned out to be the best show I've seen in years. The banter, the crowd interaction, Ted Leo himself - the whole thing was incredible from the social point of view. And then there was the music - all the songs I have completely memorized, played just incredibly. Perfect and Incredible. Just Perfect...