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Concert Review: The New Pornographers at The Warfield, 9/17

BuzzSugar — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:15:50 PDT

The New Pornographers are commonly referred to as a supergroup, but often, when they perform live, they don't quite live up to that billing. Featured member Neko Case doesn't typically tour with the group, and Destroyer's Dan Bejar is even less likely to show. But both of the frequently absent singers made it out to the band's show this week at The Warfield in San Francisco, and I now can't even imagine how the group functions without them. The band sounds so much deeper and stronger when they're on stage, and as a result, Monday's show eclipsed my greatest expectations.

The band was joined by openers Fancey (otherwise known as Pornographers guitarist Todd Fancey) and Lavender Diamond. The latter band's album has really grown on me, but something's still lacking in their live show, at least in a venue as large as the Warfield. I've seen them twice there, and both times, the audience hasn't really bought into lead singer Becky Stark's Earth mother "thank you for saving the planet" vibe - and if that doesn't work in San Francisco, where does it? But all of that was forgotten when the New Pornographers took the stage underneath a sign that literally flashed their name in lights. For more about that,

I read some reviews of the latest New Pornographers album, Challengers, that suggested Case was no longer giving this side project her all. Whoever wrote those reviews clearly hadn't seen Case take the stage with the group, banging the heck out of a tambourine. Bejar saved his appearance for a bit later in the show, coming on stage seemingly at random with a beer in one hand and, on occasion, a guitar in the other.

The group tore through most of the songs from Challengers and threw in a broad sampling of older material as well. Clearly following the "when Neko is there, do the Neko songs" philosophy, they performed captivating versions of the songs that feature her vocals, most notably "Mass Romantic," "The Laws Have Changed" and show closer "Letter from an Occupant." And they did likewise with the Bejar songs "Myriad Harbor," "Testament to Youth in Verse" and "Jackie, Dressed in Cobras" - all songs that just wouldn't work without two of the group's star members. (Case was also this close to getting the band to perform a Journey cover, but to no avail.)

Considering that Case and Bejar don't perform with the band that often, the group's cohesiveness was impressive. Nobody missed a beat or a cue, and when all the members sang together, it formed a wall of sound that the Warfield could barely contain. Their chemistry led to some interesting banter with the crowd, as well - though the crowd could hardly stop cheering and clapping long enough to let them speak.

I had seen the group once before, at Lollapalooza 2006, with both Bejar and Case gone - and they delivered one of my favorite performances of the festival. They're great under any circumstance, but with Case and Bejar on stage, they're nothing short of stellar.

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Concert Review: Rilo Kiley at The Warfield, 9/6/07

BuzzSugar — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 07:30:00 PDT

Watching Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley on stage is to see someone completely aware of the spells she can cast on a crowd. A little shrug of the shoulders here, a cock of the eyebrow there, and in no time, the audience for Rilo Kiley's show at The Warfield last week was thoroughly held in thrall by Lewis' charm and blockbuster voice.

But Lewis' sly sexiness wasn't the only thing keeping eyes glued to the stage. Touring in support of Under the Blacklight, the group's first album since 2004, Rilo Kiley trotted out an almost flawless set of old favorites, new standouts, and even a cover tune of sorts. For me, it was one of those strange, rare concert experiences where the band plays virtually every song you'd hope to hear from their catalog and none of the ones you'd pray they skip. To hear more about what made the show a standout,

Under the Blacklight has grown on me in the few weeks since its release, but it's gotten mixed reviews. So I thought it was wise that the group chose to open the show with some better-known, more-beloved songs, including "It's a Hit" and "Portions for Foxes" off 2004's More Adventurous. A high-energy rendition of "Breakin' Up" from Blacklight and Blake Sennett's solo-with-ukulele version of "Ripchord" were some of the other highlights of the early part of the set.

But things really kicked into gear when Lewis rejoined Sennett on stage for a duet of "With Arms Outstretched," which quickly became an emotional crowd sing-along. The band then launched into the upbeat "Wires and Waves," a favorite of mine from debut album Take Offs & Landings, and it was suddenly clear that this was going to be a special night, indeed. "Silver Lining," still my favorite Blacklight song to date, got some help from giant balloon orbs stuffed with glitter and launched into the crowd. (A stunt involving two girls from the audience dancing to "Smoke Detector" was less successful.)

The true standout of the evening, though, was "Spectacular Views," which closed the main set and had the crowd even more rapt than the songs that preceded it. In comparison, the encore was a bit of a disappointment - though it did feature Rilo Kiley covering Lewis' "Rise Up with Fists," from her 2006 solo album Rabbit Fur Coat. But that didn't really matter, though, on a night when I'd already heard everything I could have hoped for.

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Concert Review: Feist and Grizzly Bear at the Fillmore, 6/27/07

BuzzSugar — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:17:34 PDT

Never having seen Feist perform live before, I wasn't sure quite what to expect from her live show this week at The Fillmore in San Francisco. Though I loved the "I Feel It All" video she did for the DL show, she didn't really take command of that tiny room, so I really wasn't sure how she'd do in front of a sold-out crowd.

To my delight, however, Feist had stage presence to spare at the Fillmore, laughing at her own forgotten lyrics, enlisting the crowd in a sing-along, and even hopping on top of the piano to croon the Broken Social Scene song "Lover's Spit" with the band's Kevin Drew. And yet the vibe never veered too far toward rock star; it was more like an insanely talented, yet still down-to-earth friend of yours had decided to bring her guitar by your living room for an evening.

The night began with opening act Grizzly Bear, who wasted no time captivating the audience with a set of mellow but richly layered songs that quickly drew the crowd in from the hallways. They were a worthy appetizer for the main event, so

Though she was backed by a full band that was heavy on the percussion, Feist's sometimes husky, sometimes soaring voice was clearly the centerpiece of the show. Her performance of "One Evening," from her first album Let it Die, was sultry and sexy despite - or maybe because of - her reliance on a tattered piece of cardboard bearing the lyrics. On the other end of the spectrum, uptempo rockers "I Feel it All" and "1 2 3 4" from this year's The Reminder felt breezy and beachy, more reminiscent of a summer festival than a smoky cafe.

The show's one downfall was the flow between Feist's wildly different styles, which sometimes felt a little rocky. Granted, it was her second night at the Fillmore, and she could have been trying to mix things up for the fans who'd bought tickets to both shows (of whom, judging from the crowd reaction when she asked who'd been at the first show, there were many). Whatever the reason, Feist saved many of her best songs for later in the show, and at one point, instead of paying attention to what was happening on stage, I found myself trying to figure out what her encore would be.

Luckily, it was an encore worth waiting for, containing both her piano bar-style rendition of "Lover's Spit" and an especially rollicking take on "Sealion" with the members of Grizzly Bear providing the backing vocals and hand claps. She then eased the crowd down from that high with a stunning "Let it Die," a perfect closer to a very good evening of music.

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Concert Review: The Hold Steady and Illinois in SF, 5/31/07

BuzzSugar — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:14:18 PDT

With its canon of songs about drinking and drugs, music fests and chillout tents, and redemption and rebirth, The Hold Steady approach the act of partying with an almost religious fervor. Not surprisingly, the band's concert at Slim's last week was no exception. In fact, the show followed the pattern poetically laid out in "Hot Soft Light," from the band's newest album, Boys and Girls in America:

"It started recreational
ended kinda medical
it came on hot and soft
and then it tightened up its tentacles."

Opening act Illinois kicked things off with an almost overwhelming air of joviality, doing everything a good opening band should do. They played a blistering set of brilliantly perky pop songs that made everyone pay attention as opposed to chit-chatting before the main event. Even more endearing was that Illinois seemed just as psyched to see the Hold Steady as I was. To read what happened next,

Like Illinois, the Hold Steady managed to bring both raucous edge and irresistible charm to the performance. It helps that frontman Craig Finn and pianist Franz Nicolay - looking like a college professor and an old-timey pugilist, respectively - simply ooze charisma, like they're in a nearly constant state of fun-having.

The set, which featured a balance of songs off the new album and from the two previous records, was almost frantically, manically happy. The crowd bobbed up and down with a barrage of blistering guitars and careening piano keys.

But just when the listeners' bemused faces transformed into full-on beaming grins, Finn would reach out like a televangelist and remind us about the darker side to his songs. For instance, after getting the room chanting the "whoa-oh-oh-oh" refrain on "Massive Nights," Finn paused dramatically to deliver the last lines: "She had the gun in her mouth and she was shooting up in her dreams / when the chaperon said we'd been crowned the king and the queen."

Then, during a stunning encore featuring "Killer Parties" and "How a Resurrection Really Feels," the crowd rushed the stage and suddenly the Hold Steady were surrounded by about 40 fans. They swayed to the music and sang along; one guy even commandeered one of the guitars. The effect, like so many Hold Steady songs, was at once triumphant and just a little bit scary.

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Concert Review: Drive-By Truckers at the Great American Music Hall, 5/8/07

BuzzSugar — Sun, 13 May 2007 11:43:58 PDT

The Drive-By Truckers are a rarity in today's music climate: a band that hugs the road as if it were kin, touring any chance they get. They hit the pavement when they have a new album, or when they have a few festivals to play, or - in this case - when they have a batch of new songs to hone before heading into the studio.

The band played two nights in San Francisco on the mostly acoustic Dirt Underneath Tour, designed to debut new songs and tell stories behind the old ones. Despite the band's relative obscurity, the Drive-By Truckers - who hail from Alabama and South Carolina - have been touring for 10 years, building up a rabid following that comes out of the woodwork every time the band comes to town. I'm one of those fans, so

The DBT's are not casual concerts: The Truckers often play for three hours with two encores and cigarettes hanging from their lips, passing bottles of Jack Daniels back and forth. The Great American Music Hall show on Tuesday was no different, except that the music was acoustic and played sitting down.

While the Monday performance was merely ok, Tuesday night was totally transcendent. With the recent departure of Jason Isbell - one of the band's three guitarists and songwriters - the DBT have picked up two new members: John Neff on guitar and pedal steel, and recording legend Spooner Oldham on keyboards. Oldham was a bit off to say the least, but Neff was outstanding, rocking out with a sort of Zen-like calm.

The overall effect was like watching a band play from a big porch, complete with a beer cooler on stage. As usual, guitarist and vocalist Patterson Hood played the role of crowd charmer, telling laugh-out-loud yarns about DBT classics like "The Night G.G. Allin Came to Town." (He wrote it as a birthday gift for his right-hand man, Mike Cooley, DBT's other main guitarist/songwriter.)

Cooley's contribution, meanwhile, was a handful of excellent new songs, including the upbeat yet haunting "A Ghost to Most". Bassist Shonna Tucker and drummer Brad Morgan were tighter than ever, not to mention essential elements when the Truckers kicked into total rock assault. Particularly in the unhinged second half of the night, the band used its expertise to spike the energy of a roomful of strangers, prompting sing-alongs and giant grins. For the Drive-By Truckers, that's possible even with only acoustic instruments at their fingertips.

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Concert Review: Andrew Bird and Apostle of Hustle at the Fillmore, 5/1/07

BuzzSugar — Fri, 04 May 2007 07:15:47 PDT

Tuesday night's bill at The Fillmore in San Francisco was a rare treat: two musicians with new albums that I know and love - both of whom happen to be named Andrew. The evening started with the Spanish-flavored indie rock of Andrew Whiteman's Apostle of Hustle, which included two percussionists, one of whom was mostly devoted to playing bongos and maracas.

Whiteman - a skinny white boy with an uncanny ability to sing in Spanish and incorporate Cuban and mariachi influences into his music - was surprisingly charismatic on stage. Before launching into "Fast Pony for Victor Jara," he told the crowd to imagine a pony express rider on mescaline, carrying the head of George Bush. It turned out to be a remarkably apt description, just as Apostle of Hustle turned out to be a perfect palate wetter for the main dish, Andrew Bird (pictured here in 2005). To hear about Bird's set,

Bird is an otherworldly whistler and violin player, and because his albums (including the new Armchair Apocrypha) are so multi-layered, I expected him to bring with him a mini-orchestra. I was surprised, then, to see just Bird and two other players on stage - a bassist and Martin Dosh on keyboards - as well as a sock monkey dressed in smart suit like Bird's.

But even working with the somewhat limited potential of a drum machine, Bird managed to stretch his extraordinary songs - most of them from Armchair, plus crowd favorites like "Fake Palindromes" - into new shapes, with plenty of room to indulge his pizzicato plucking and xylophone playing. And despite my initial reservations about the lack of band, it was the Bird solo moments that I found most transfixing. Hearing Bird's bell-like voice and robust whistling in person and watching him switch from guitar to violin in an instant only enhanced my already high opinion of his musical talent.

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Concert Review: Cornelius at Bimbo's 365 Club, 4/26/07

BuzzSugar — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 12:30:48 PDT

The avant-garde electro-pop-rock of Cornelius is so lush, lovely, and utterly bizarre that it could easily fall flat on stage. But as I learned on Thursday night, the Japanese musician - born Keigo Oyamada - has perfected the formula for keeping audiences rapt. His secret: electronic effects combined with good old-fashioned electric guitars, and a transfixing music video to accompany every song.

The four-piece Cornelius Group played in San Francisco on April 26 at Bimbo's 365 Club, which is easily one of my favorite venues ever, with its swanky 1930s design and kick-ass acoustics. As in the photo above, the stage was loaded with gadgets, chimes, and rows of lights, which served to meld the music with the visuals. To hear what I thought about the show and to watch a video,

Lots of bands bring cool visual effects to their live shows, but Cornelius - whose new album, Sensuous, came out in October - takes it a step further. For every song the band played, there was a corresponding movie nearly as transfixing as the psychedelic tunes. As sounds oozed out from assorted gadgets - including some sort of touchless electric gizmo that sounded like a bowed saw - we were treated to silhouetted birds soaring across cityscapes, animated pebbles morphing into people, and sugar cubes dancing across a dining-room table. (Check out that video, for "Fit Song," below. It's highly artistic and endearingly clever.)

Clad in white dress shirts, the musicians - including a bassist and a sassy girl drummer - blended in with the enormous screen behind them, the films flickering across their torsos. Depending on the tempo of the song, the band alternated between languid and animated, occasionally tearing into their instruments with arena-rock furor. It was one of those great shows where the mood changed with nearly every song, and you could just feel the room full of listeners moving along with it.

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Peter Facinelli Joins Ashley Greene and Nikki Reed on the Twilight Concert Tour

Lauren Turner — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 10:39:58 PST

The Twilight concert tour continued at the House of Blues in Chicago last night. Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, and Charlie Bewley popped up in Illinois after an appearance in Georgia on Monday. Peter Facinelli joined his Breaking Dawn costars for the latest stop, which included a performance by Christina Perri. She's just one of many artists featured on the Breaking Dawn Part 1 soundtrack, which is already getting great reviews. The musical guest will be different, but Ashley, Nikki, Jackson, and Charlie will head to San Francisco for more promotions tomorrow. We'll be covering the event, so check back on Twitter and Facebook for updates!

Video: Britney Spears’s Sexy, Bikini-Filled Tour Kicks Off to Rave Reviews!

PopSugar — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 13:11:53 PDT

Britney Spears kicked off her highly anticipated Femme Fatale tour in Sacramento last night, and we have your look inside the concert. Check out her sexy stage bikinis, fun dance moves, and find out what critics are saying about the show - the reviews are glowing!

Q and A With Jane Fonda on Boyfriends, Sex, and Being a Teenager in Your 70s

Yahoo Shine — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 04:00:08 PDT

We're happy to present this article from one of our favorite sites, Yahoo! Shine:

Jane Fonda doesn’t lie about her age. She’s 73 and happier than she’s ever been. That’s saying a lot when you consider her 20s: sex symbol and rising star in Hollywood. And her 30s: Academy Award winner, blockbuster romantic heroine, and controversial activist. And her 40s: exercise guru, comedienne, and movie mogul. These days, she’s a mom, a grandma, a cancer-survivor, a best-selling author, an ex-wife times three, and a girlfriend. She’s also a sexpert. In her new book Prime Time, a memoir-style self-help guide to embracing your “third act," Fonda gets frank about life in your 70s. Her book offers financial advice, funeral-planning straight talk, mental health and exercise, and lots of sex. We only had a few minutes with the living legend, so we went straight for the last item on the list.

Shine: Is life really better in your 70s?
Jane Fonda: As I was going through my 60s and entering my 70s, I realized I was happier than I’d ever been. I didn’t expect to live this long, much less to be happier; I wanted to know if this was unique to me. For this book, I spent four years interviewing doctors and researching this very subject. I came to understand a majority of people in their 60s and over feel the same way.

S: So you're saying those of us in our 30s can look forward to a better time?
JF: My life is much better now. My "good old days" were really more so-so old days. The 30s and 40s are very hard. If you have kids, you have figure who you are in relation to them and to your husband. I was not a very good parent, I suffered eating disorders and I had a hard time in my marriage. The 40s, you have perimenopause and you don’t know who you are anymore. In my research, I discovered that in your 30s and 40s you’re still experiencing the effects of an unhappy childhood. But an unhappy childhood has very little effect on you at an older age.

Learn Fonda's frank advice when you read more.