Sadly, the band Thursday has decided to call it quits. But fortunately, we happened to be in nearby NYC for the final US show (they’re playing a few additional shows in early 2012 aboard, I suspect under contractual obligation).

So anyway, we drove down from NY to Philly for the show and got to experience the lively South Street before Thursdays 10pm set. And a long set it was, almost two hours and complete with a nice mix of songs. I got to hear a bunch off my favorite Thursday album War All The Time, and Jennifer got a bunch of hers, Full Collapse. Due to a mix of tiredness, not being the most hardcore fans, and maybe even a bit of old age, we hung out at the rear of the floor audience for this one and left the pit area to the other fans. But still, the energy was high, the crowd into it, and Thursday (particularly the singer) puts on a great live show. This was actually my first real time seeing the band live, as I don’t count my Warped Tour experience a few years back as a real show. I’m glad we made it. It’s been fun, Thursday.

My first show in Las Vegas.  Jennifer and I were in town for Frozen Fury, and these guys just happened to be playing the night before.

Thrice’s new album  Major/Minor just came out last week, so I was looking forward to this show.  The opening band, Moving Mountains, played a nice set, but it was short — only about 20 minutes. Thankfully that was enough to hear their closer Cover the Roots, Lower the Stems.  After their set, we sat outside and skipped the next two openers.  While out there, we had a friendly chat with MM bassist Mitchell Lee and let him know we enjoyed the show.

We returned inside for Thrice.  They played a handful of new songs in their set along with a nice mix of older tunes. The unfortunate story here was that the venue’s security were dicks. Despite the club billing itself as the Hard Rock cafe, anything close to moshing was not tolerated and offenders were harshly escorted out by these meatheads. It’s Thrice…a band with some pretty hard songs and so accordingly people moshed during the likes of Cold Cash and Colder Hearts.  The crowd snuck in some appropriate enthusiasm while security was occupied with others, and I was happy to see that.  The experience leaves me questioning a return to this venue, but anyway….it was a good show and we were happy to open our Vegas trip with some live music.

FYF Fest was an all-day festival show held in downtown Los Angeles.  Well, it not only “was”, but looks like it “is” just that — this was the eight annual show.

I caught performances by Off!, Japandroids, the Weakerthans, Kid Dynamite, the Descendents, and the Dead Milkmen.   My highlights were the Descendents and catching the Dead Milkmen play the song Punk Rock Girl….with my punk rock girl.

I can gripe about the prohibition of ins/outs and absence of hand-washing facilities, but eh…that’s just something I should keep in mind for the next festival-type show. I don’t remember those issues affecting my many previous Warped Tour excursions, maybe I’m just getting old and fussy now.

I enjoyed the show and I’d have paid admission for the Descendents alone, the other bands were a bonus.  I dug a couple songs by Japandroids and had fun hanging with rock n’ roll friends.

My lovely girlfriend surprised me with a visit down to LA on my birthday weekend.  As this was quite unexpected, I sure didn’t have any plans for the following day.  So we looked around online (thanks LAWeekly.com) and saw that John Williams (the composer behind scores from famous films such as Superman, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars) was playing the Hollywood Bowl that Saturday night. The show was sold out, but undeterred we checked on StubHub and CraigsList for some seats.  We found a post on CL, and turns out we were the first ones to inquire about the reasonably-priced tickets for two pretty good seats right in the middle.  We drove down to El Segundo, made the transaction with a friendly lady who just couldn’t make the show that night, and were on our way.

After we arrived at the Bowl, we checked in on FourSquare (social media couple here) and saw my buddy Aaron was there. And that right there is the primary point of 4SQ…to see where your friends are maybe even make some connections.  We liked the show, and although I was bummed to not hear the full Superman theme song, I enjoyed hearing familiar tunes from E.T. and Star Wars.  My highlight of the show was when Mr. Williams first showed and took us through the opening minutes of Indian Jones and the Last Crusade — the twist was that we only heard the dialogue and sound effects, none of the music. He then replayed the scene and had the live orchestra play the accompanying music.

This was a great show. A sold-out crowd nixed initial plans of sitting upstairs for the performance, but that was for the best. I ran into some friends and enjoyed the pit with a good crowd and great setlist. Faith restored in fun Alk3 shows? Check.

Setlist: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/alkaline-trio/2011/troubadour-west-hollywood-ca-5bd0b368.html

Explosions in the Sky with Papercuts
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Los Angeles, California
April 30, 2011

The Appleseed Cast

TAC played in LA on the previous Thursday and unfortunately due to class running a bit late, I wasn’t able to make it over to the Echoplex to catch the show.  I was up around the Bay for a friend’s bachelor party and rolled into town Saturday night in time to catch this performance.

I went with Jennifer and her friend, Mark.  My LA friends gave me an idea of what expect as far as the setlist, and they called it for this show.  A nice mix of songs spanning several albums, and two new songs.  Unfortunately, Fight Song and Steps and Numbers didn’t make the cut.

The sound was great for this show, everything was so crisp.  The more I see of the Great American Music Hall, the more I like it.  There was a disco ball atop the stage and the light was hitting it just right so that it lookd like stars were flying around the ceiling and upper reaches of the walls in the venue.  I liked that effect and so did the band’s bassist — whenever the star show would stop, he’d wave his hand to bring it back.