Jonsi's Live Performance - 17 October 2010, The Wiltern, Los Angeles, CA

I can't even call this a concert. It wasn't. I've seen some really great concerts, some of them quite recently, but this doesn't even compare. Not because it was so much better, but it was just different. It was an experience. An emotionally intense experience that has lasted for at least an hour since I left the theatre.

I kept meaning to write reviews of shows here, but I'd get home, feel tired, go to bed, and then the recollections would fade, making it tough to write. But tonight. I'm writing. Mostly because I can't get this show out of my head.

My view during the show was honestly not that great. I had floor tickets and ended up behind tall people. Mix that with the fact that Jonsi often leans over (bends over, really) when he sings, and I basically had little to no view of the actual musicians. I had occasional flashes of them - mostly Jonsi's head when standing and the drummer. But that didn't really matter. Jonsi worked with a team of visual artists to create an accompanying visual show to go with the music. My first thought when I heard of this was, "yeah, I see A/V stuff at shows all the time. What's the big deal?" Last week at Arcade Fire, they had visuals that went with their songs. It's cool, but it doesn't really set Jonsi apart from others. Wow, was I wrong.

The visuals for the Jonsi show are so stunningly beautiful. Animals and flowers and birds and rain and storms - manipulated nature scenes, but like I've never seen them before. Further, the imagery is so incredibly well matched to the songs. The visuals seemed to intensify every emotion evoked by the music and vice versa. The use of color and light was perfect. A friend of mine at the show cried, and I was on the verge of tears. My head and my heart just felt so full of.....something I can't explain in words.

I had never noticed the drums in Jonsi's songs quite like I did tonight. They are phenomenal, and I was happy to have a good view of the drums throughout the show. Jonsi's voice is so intense, and the richness of the music as a whole was so beautiful.

The show was streamed live by NPR tonight, and they are replaying it tomorrow (Monday), as well. I will be watching it again just so that I have the chance to experience it all over again. I highly recommend it to others, as well. And of course, if he is playing a show in or around where you live, please go. You will not regret it.

The Morning Benders @ The Troubadour 3/25/10

I saw The Morning Benders last week and thought about writing a long concert review about it. You see, I have this goal of reviewing music and concerts on the blog since I no longer have a radio show to talk about my music loves. Plus I figured that maybe I could get really good at it and get into shows that I may not otherwise be able to get into - like I used to with the radio show...

But then I remembered - I can ramble about music easily on radio, but typing/writing is different. Somehow the same things I would say out loud on air read as overly simplified and somewhat boring. Anyway, I'll attempt. I'll just ramble and see what happens.

So back to the concert review. Here's the deal. It was good. Lead singer, Chris Chu, is adorable - looks like a baby - and has a great voice. He started the evening talking about how they had opened for other bands at The Troubadour in the past, but this was their first headlining show there. "You're really here to see us?! " Of course, I won't tell him about the guy in front of me who had just asked "Who are these guys?" He was there to see Miniature Tigers, one of the openers. [Speaking of the openers, they were ok, but noteworthy was how much We Barbarians sound like The Walkmen. So if you like the latter, perhaps you should check out the former.]

Their entire set sounded flawless. They had someone playing extra percussion and keyboards with them, but I didn't catch who it was. The clear stand-out of the show to me was their closing song and most recent single, "Excuses." The album version of this song is great, but the performance was amazing. Chris Chu's voice was vibrant and crisp (and more focal since he ditched the guitar for the beginning) and the use of live-looping can be really entertaining when done right. The a capella portion of the song (where the vocal loops start) lasted the perfect amount of time to build anticipation without leaving you too bored. And the culmination of instruments and voices and loops truly filled the crowd and left everyone energized. So energized that people stuck around after the show, despite the lights and house music suggesting that the concert was really over.

Approximately 5 minutes or so after leaving the stage, the band came back. "We aren't really into encores, but you guys are just sticking around..." So they played their first encore - a cover of Neil Young's "Bad Fog of Loneliness." A totally appropriate encore given the fact that they had "already played all [their] songs" during the show.

Note: I found video of another performance of "Excuses" that is great. There is video of their Troubadour performance online, but the sound quality is so poor, it doesn't do it justice - so poor that I won't even give you the link. :)