I tried people, I really tried. After listening to TVotR’s first album I though, meh. But everyone else was so into them. I got Return to Cookie Mountain and still thought, what the hell?

But sometimes, a band is just so much better in person (see Editors) so I went to see them at Irving. And you know what? This just really ain’t my thing. It’s psychedelic jam rock. Their music is so layered with noise that it’s hard to distinguish the tune of the song. I felt that if they just pared down the layers of noise and add some hooks, they could actually have something good. Though I do think that ‘Wolves Like Me’ is pretty good.

The best part of the show? The two HUGE guys behind us who lit two joints and said only my friend and I could have. The smaller of the two got so excited at the encore that he bulldozed his way to the front, scattering hipsters as he ran, and started moshing with whomever he could bump into.

But mostly, this was my view of the night. I never noticed how pretty the chandelier at Irving is.

Though I did have some excitement. Before the show, I saw Randy Harrison from the American Queer as Folk. I am a huge fan, so that was pretty awesome. Rounds out me seeing his on screen boyfriend, Gale Harold, at the Dallas Museum of Art a couple of years ago.

It’s time for me to play catch up with all the shows I’ve seen these past two weeks. I have been busy running around the city with a friend visiting the city. We’ve been organising an art exhibition that is going to blow your socks off, so watch out.

Last Sunday night, I had the immense privilege of seeing Joan Jett and the Blackhearts perform at Irving Plaza. When I heard confirmation that I was on the Blackhearts list I jumped up from my chair with glee. Now this was something exciting. Joan Jett has been a favourite of mine since high school when I first saw her perform at the Vanderbilt in Plainview, Long Island. It was the first concert I had ever been to and I just couldn’t believe how awesome the experience was. I went with my younger sister and we both jumped into the crowd, pumped our fists in the air and screamed along to ‘Cherry Bomb’ amongst a sea of black leather and tattoos.

Now eight years later, there I was at Irving Plaza with a pass stuck on my jeans allowing me access to the after show party where I could meet the legendary woman who first drew me into the world of music.

Before I get ahead of myself though, first up were opening acts Valient Thorr and Eagles of Death Metal. We aren’t all indie rock here at The Music Slut. Every once in a while, we like to thrash our heads to a little punk metal. Valient Thorr’s music was good, fun and well done but the presentation was a bit off. What ran through my head was: this is exactly what Jack Black’s metal band would be like. I couldn’t tell whether the leader singer was taking the piss or was actually earnest in the way he was acting.

Next up was Eagles of Death Metal. I’ve been a fan of their brand of music since the summer of 2005 when they played T in the Park. After a confusing performance by Valient Thorr, EODM got the crowd back on track with a rousing set. The charismatic Jesse Hughes may just be the perfect front man with an impeccable combination of male bravado and humility. He made the girls swoon and the guys shout. Their latest single, ‘I want you so hard’ from the album Death by Sexy, was the highlight of their set.

And now the amazing Joan Jett. While waiting upstairs for the the Eagles to go on, the crowd suddenly parted as space was made for Ms. Jett, accompanied by Carmen Electra, as she made her way to the VIP section. Electra is very pretty in person and was wearing a lovely cream dress with black polka dots. She’s shorter than you would imagine as well. Earlier this year, Electra admitted that since the age of eight, she’s had a lesbian crush on Jett and is featured in the video for the first single, a cover of Sweet’s ‘A.C.D.C.’, from Jett’s new album, Sinner. The term ACDC is used in place of bisexual.

When I first saw Jett 8 years ago, she barely filled the small Vanderbilt. I was surprised to see the house completely packed for Sunday’s performance. The show was such a successful book, that Jett is set to perform again on December 2nd.

Jett is undeniably a great front woman, performer and is the all time queen of covers. When you buy a ticket to her show, you know you are in for an amazing night. She performed a lot of songs from her new album. ‘Fetish’ and ‘Riddles’ were the stand out tracks. Though not the typical all out rock songs, they have a bit of a quirky pop beat. Like many entertainment folks out there, Jett too has her opinion on the war and ‘Riddles’ is her anthem, it samples the infamous speech by President Bush in which he fumbles the age old adage, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

When the show ended and the venue emptied, I was left on my own in the balcony watching the Blackhearts come out. Jett was taking a long time to emerge and time was slowly creeping into the early morning hours. I’m not much of a star fucker anyway, so I didn’t stick around to take a picture with her. Too bad, it was going to my new MySpace photo.

Last night was The Secret Machines’ opening night of their US tour in support of this year’s thrilling, Ten Silver Drops. Josh, Ben and Brandon collectively decided to have this tour in-the-round.

While I was under the assumption that each band member would be in an opposite side of the room, the show actually featured a circular stage directly in the center of Irving Plaza (just like the Hiro Ballroom show earlier this year). The stage dymanic was intense, just like the music the band produces.

I was rather surprised to hear 2 pre-Now Here Is Nowhere tracks in the set, particularly one opening the show. That said, they sounded great and fresh in spite of their age. The band see-sawed for most of their set with songs from NHIN and TSD with a cover of ‘Money’ thrown in for good measure.

‘The Road Leads Where It’d Led’ was breathtaking and powerful. ‘All At Once’, which isn’t necessarily one of my favorites on TSD, sounded glorious and was one of the most well-received tracks of the night.

The band hopped off stage briefly after ‘Now Here Is Nowhere’, only to return with a 4-song blustering encore that closed with a glowing version of ‘First Wave Intact’. 120 minutes of sheer bliss!

I’m Just Sayin’ has live versions of ‘The Road Leads Where It’s Led’ and ‘Alone Jealous & Stoned’ for download!

And because I love you, here’s the setlist:

Once again, the band plays Irving Plaza again tonight and Warsaw in Brooklyn in a month. That show will end the US tour; the boys head to Europe immediately afterwards!

Do you remember that scene in Along Came Polly where Ben Stiller plays basketball with that big, fat, hairy, sweaty, guy and ends up with his face rubbing up against the guy’s stomach? That was me Friday night at Gogol Bordello.

If you have ever been to a club in a former Soviet bloc country, you might recognise the types of girls at this show. I don’t know whether they were dressing that way ironically or not, but I thought it was brilliant. I can describe the style as, um, makeshift, slightly depressing looking slut. The crowd consisted of the Eastern European club girls, slightly sketchy guys, the shirtless moshing gents up front and a smattering of hipsters. A combination which makes for total chaos and an all out riotous party.

I meant to see Gogol last month at Warsaw, but I dragged my heels buying a ticket and was shut out. This was my redemption show and it ended up being one of the top concerts I’ve ever seen. I’ve got to pause for a moment and give huge props to my mate Gretchen for telling me about this group. CHEERS!

Gogol is basically me in a nut shell: anti-globalization, anarchtic, punk with an ethnic flair. If you have ever seen the film Everything Is Illuminated, Liev Schreiber uses their music throughout. In fact, Schreiber first approached Gogol founder Eugene Hutz to do the music for the film but then liked him so much he just cast him as the lead.

For most of the show, my crew and I stood in the middle back, away from the chaos up front. We were dancing, sweating, getting beer spilt all over us and having an all out fantastic time so it was decided that for the encore we would get right in the thick of things and mosh. I can’t recall ever moshing before at a show, so it was an experience- this is where the sweaty guys with no shirts come in.

Before the encore began, my two friends and I made our way up to the front and settled in but once the music started, we were quick shoved to the side. Our moshing skills were evidently not up to par. (And here’s my second shout out) thank goodness for my 6 foot tall, gentlemanly friend JP. He saved Gretchen and I more than once from being tossed to the floor. After he would get through making sure we were alright, he would help a group of guys throw someone in the air to crowd surf. He wanted Gretchen to go but for girls the experience can be a bit too friendly, if you know what I mean. I did however see a kid no more than 10 or 11 and wearing a Gogol shirt get bounced around in the air twice. It was awesome.

You can listen to an interview with Eugene and some live music from the band on Here and Now (Boston’s NPR). You can also download the infectious ‘Start wearing purple’ from the Gogol site here.

I worship the Sounds after last night’s show. Worship, I say!

I didn’t think it was possible but this one blew away the last 2 shows they’ve done in NYC.

By the end of the night, I could barely speak from all the singing.. or rather, screaming along. One of the best shows I’ve seen this year, easily.

The set was a perfect combo (8 from each!) of the debut, Living In America and the latest release (which, if you are reading this site and don’t know, slap yourself on the wrist), Dying To Say This To You.

It went:

Queen Of Apology
24 Hours
Hit Me!
Song With A Mission
Much Too Long Now
Night After Night
Living In America
Mine For Life
Tony The Beat
Painted By Numbers
7 Days A Week
Rock N Roll
Hope You’re Happy Now
–
Dance With Me
Fire
Ego

Maja is such a star. Who else could rock out with that dress and a pair of stilettos for virtually, the entire show?

She commented how other bands say that NYC is a tough crowd to play for, but the Sounds have never had any problems; which as you could guess, fueled the already overzealous crowd even more!

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if they came to New York once a month?

I need that rush more often.

If you miss the opportunity to see them, particularly on this tour, you are a grade-A-classified fool!!

I must say, I was pretty impressed by Morningwood last night.

Having seen them open for one of those secret Scissor Sisters shows over the summer, I wasn’t thrilled in the slightest. The vocals were shotty, as were the songs and I wasn’t feeling the general statement the band was trying to make.

Understanding that they will probably wind up being an MTV flash-in-the-pan (all the tweens were in the front row with fists raised), and they are super silly, I can appreciate Morningwood in a different light.

Last night they put on a really fun show and even I was rooting for them.

The closing trio of Nth Degree-Take Off Your Clothes-Jetsetmusicletter was fantastic.

The band sounded tight throughout their 40-minute set, and the teasing/taunting of the crowd actually worked this time.

Apparently there are 3 kinds of audiences, according to Morningwood… ‘the tittie’, ‘the tittie’s nipple’ and ‘the bead of sweat on the titties nipple’.

Last night Morningwood declared us the bead, and I declare them not as shitty as I originally thought.