Categories
Concert Reviews

The Hotel Cafe Tour Stops in NYC

The Hotel Cafe Tour hit New York City Monday night to a standing-room-only crowd at the Fillmore at Irving Plaza. The night featured 15- to 20-minute rotating performances from Ingrid Michaelson, Cary Brothers, Joshua Radin, Meiko and Priscilla Ahn.

While Michaelson may have been the main draw, with her MySpace success and songs featured on “Grey’s Anatomy,” all the musicians featured throughout the night impressed the crowd. Whether it was Ahn playing the kazoo during one of her songs or all the performers accompanying Brothers on backing vocals for his song “Blue Eyes,” they kept the audience attentive.

I’ve never been to a concert that rotated performers every 15 minutes or so, but surprisingly enough the show ran extremely smoothly. Each performer played three to four songs every time they were onstage, sometimes bringing out previous performers to sing with them. For the most part, the musicians were a bit mellow — many playing acoustic guitars — but Michaelson’s set as well as Brothers’ livened up the audience.

Michaelson started out her first set of the night by playing “Breakable” from her latest album, Girls and Boys. The piano accompaniment throughout the song was strong but never overpowered her vocals. “Overboard” featured Michaelson’s falsetto singing range as she sang “To fall” — lyrics from the song — repeatedly, hitting a higher note with each repetition.

She explained “The Hat” as being her hoedown song, and at the end of her first set she joked with the crowd, promising that she’d be back after “one more of the whole buffet of singer songwriters” took the stage. “We’re going to make you cry tonight,” she said, alluding to the mellower, down-tempo sets of songs.

Ahn took the stage shortly after, with her light, airy singing style and guitar and strings accompaniment. She introduced her song “Astronauts” by saying, “This song is called ‘Astronauts’ and it’s about astronauts.” Another song, “Leave the Light On,” she told the audience, was inspired and written when she was 18 and living in Pennsylvania with her parents, practically in the middle of the woods. Coming home late at night, her parents would never leave the lights on and she was constantly scared that she was surrounded by “cougars, bears and rapists” in the dark.

Radin took the stage next with his guitar, and later Ahn came back out to accompany him as well as Allie Moss from Michaelson’s band. Solid and soothing vocally, Radin joked about one of his songs, which was inspired by falling in love on a train while in France. “This song gets tons and tons of airplay … on my mom’s iPod.” He had the audience singing along to “What If You,” a beautiful vocally driven song with his light guitar playing blending well with his soft vocals.

Michaelson took the stage again awhile later, playing a few more from her latest album. “Die Alone,” she told the crowd, was inspired by her constant fear of dying alone. “I know everyone feels that way sometimes,” she said. While her voice in the song sounds pretty lighthearted, the guitar accompaniment portrayed a feeling of anxiousness and fear.

Crowd favorite of the night seemed to be Michaelson and her radio hit, “The Way I Am.” With classic lines such as “I’d buy you Rogaine when you start losing all your hair/Sew on patches to all you tear/‘Cuz I love you more than I could ever promise,” she had practically all in attendance singing along. At times she seemed like a choir teacher directing those in the audience who helped her out by clapping along during certain points in the song.

Categories
Q&A

Sia Interview on mp3

I know I have been slacking lately on my blog posts. So hopefully I’ll make it up to you with the second part of my interview with Sia live on mp3 for you to listen to! Special thanks to my tech-savvy friends, Tom, Joel and Dan for making this possible! Listen to my phone interview with Sia here.

Lots of exciting things are coming up and I promise to update my blog more! Look back later this week for a concert review of Ingrid Michaelson and The Hotel Cafe Tour as well as some album reviews and interviews in the upcoming weeks! Thanks again for reading and for all your comments! 🙂

Categories
Festivals

SXSW Recap

No, unfortunately I wasn’t one of the lucky ones to attend the festivities in Austin, Texas, this past week, but hopefully one of these years I’ll cover South by Southwest! Anyway, below is a list of some bands that a bunch of music mags/websites have been covering as well as some of my picks. I’ve been lucky enough to have covered quite a few of the bands that attended this year’s festival for my blog, and at least one band on this list is bound to impress you. Be sure to check out sxsw.com where hundreds of songs are available to listen to from many of the bands that performed at the festival.

Who the music mags and websites are telling you to check out:

Duffy
I was covering a show at the Knitting Factory a month or so ago and met some guys from her record label, raving about her, telling me that “my homework” was to go home and MySpace Duffy. Well, I slacked a bit on my homework assignment and a few weeks passed, but her name kept coming up all over the summer festival lists so I finally checked out Duffy’s website and was quite impressed with her vocals. She’s been compared to Amy Winehouse, but to me sounds a bit more sophisticated with an old school ’60’s vibe. Check out her catchy song, “Mercy.”

My Morning Jacket
I’ve read that they play incredibly live. A blend of rock and folk music, one of their songs, “Gideon,” featured on their MySpace vaguely reminds me of U2.

Be Your Own Pet
South by Southwest seems to be the preview of their international tour promoting latest album, Get Awkward, available in the U.S. March 18th. The female-fronted punk rock band definitely has lots of energy and plenty guitar riffs to satisfy any guitar-fiend.

Vampire Weekend
Their MySpace groups their music as punk/new wave/classical, an eclectic combination of genres for sure. Interestingly enough, by listening to them, you can see a bit of each genre resembled in their music. Could there be a flute in their song, “APunk”? Take a listen for yourself.

Liam Finn
This New Zealander was named a Rolling Stone “Artist to Watch” in 2007 and I can see why. His mix of folk rock is intriguing to listen to. Check out “Second Chance” on his MySpace, the song starts off with a soft drum beat that blends well with his voice, later slowing down for an instrumental feature mid-song before picking back up again.

My picks:

Sparky’s Flaw
From the beginning chord in their song, “Under Control” I was hooked. I also love the back story on the band – four friends from high school + 1 college roommate = Sparky’s Flaw. Not to mention, three of the guys are in their last semester of college and are recording their debut full-length album (due out this summer) during winter and spring breaks. It’s a pop/rock mix comparable to Maroon 5 and The Fray with a soulful blend of saxophone, keyboard and guitars.

Hello Tokyo
This Brooklyn-based female-fronted band has been building up a strong fan base over the years, playing gigs throughout NYC and D.C. while their debut full-length album is due out this April. While some songs are a bit down-tempo, “Radio” is one of their most upbeat, energetic songs and definitely showcases the strength of the band.

Happy Anarchy
When I caught up with them at a recent show of theirs and asked how they would describe their music, they couldn’t. Which I think is a good thing. They compared it to many different genre’s, not wanting to put it into one certain category. “Its classic American rock music,” guitarist Yuhei explained. “It has a little bit of everything. We take influence from the Chili Peppers to Radiohead to older bands like The Who. I think the cool part is just whatever anyone thinks it is. I’ve learned to like the fact that you can’t be like, ‘Yeah, they’re like this.’ There’s potential for a lot of people to like our band.”

Jon Foreman
The Switchfoot frontman has been getting much praise for his recent solo EP’s from both critics and fans alike. Two of the four EP’s released, titled “Fall” and “Winter,” have that stripped down acoustic feel of being in his living room while watching him play.

Sia
Sia’s live performance showcases her incredible vocals and her stage presence is impeccable. Constantly interacting with the audience, taking song requests and nailing high-powered crescendos in many of her songs had the audience erupt in applause and screams at a recent NYC show. This Australian singer definitely is making her name known in America.

There were well over 1,000 bands featured at this year’s SXSW so there’s no possible way any music magazine or blogger could have it all covered. Check out sxsw.com to listen to some of the featured artists and for more SXSW coverage from people who were actually there, check out Rollingstone.com as well as MTV’s concert blog.

Categories
Concert Reviews

Sia Plays Sold-Out NYC Show

Webster Hall was packed with a sold-out crowd Saturday night, those in attendance anxiously awaiting for Australian singer/songwriter Sia to take the stage. And she did, shortly after 9 p.m., with the “Rocky” theme song blaring through the speakers. Sia and her band came out in bright, neon cartoon-character-type outfits for her first song of the evening, “Buttons.” She had the crowd singing and dancing along to the fun, up-tempo song, a hidden track on her latest album, Some People Have Real Problems.

(Check out her performance of “Buttons” on Jimmy Kimmel Live here for more of an idea.)

Sia is by far the most energetic singer I’ve ever seen in concert. In between songs she’d be dancing with so much energy, always with a bright smile on her face. Her concert was very interactive, whether she was asking the crowd if it needed anything, taking notes from fans with song requests or reading messages from fans on her message board while dedicating a song to them. She even traded her own scarf — one she bought in Chinatown, she told the audience — for a fan’s scarf.

Sia played a 90-minute set of 15 songs, mostly tracks off of her new album, as well as a few old fan favorites, such as “Broken Biscuit” and the infamous “Breathe Me” — her hit from the final episode of “Six Feet Under” that “totally resuscitated my dying career,” she told the audience.

I was blown away by Sia’s voice on many songs. “Lentil,” one of her more emotional songs, was powerful, with her voice building up into a crescendo in the middle of the song and then falling to a whisper by the end. On many numbers, audience members would break into screams after one of her more powerful chords.

What was interesting to me is that Sia’s songs are a bit more down-tempo than you would think a performer with her amount of energy would perform, possibly even falling into the category of easy listening. She told the crowd that her next album will be more poppy and performed a song from her “future album” titled “The Codependent,” which was definitely more upbeat and seemed more of Sia’s style.

Possibly one of her strongest songs of the night, Sia dedicated “You Have Been Loved,” to “all the losers in love.” She preceded the song by telling the audience of how she and a friend were calculating the statistics of all the single people in the world. “I’d like to assure you that there are 1.2 million people you can find a soul mate in and not to worry,” she told the crowd.

Although she couldn’t perform every song shouted out to her, she encouraged fans to write requests on her message board a week and a half before the show so the band can practice them. “I try to make dreams come true,” she joked.

Sia had many in attendance singing along to her choir-y song “Death by Chocolate” while the crowd favorite of the night seemed to be her vocally powerful song “Breathe Me,” as screams and claps from the audience could be heard well after she finished the song.

The night ended with an encore performance of “Somersault,” definitely a crowd pleaser. Sia preceded the song by telling the audience that she hated the idea of an encore. “I used to have a non-encore rule, but management told me I have to do it,” she joked.

Har Mar Superstar opened the night and definitely put on an interesting performance, as the singer stripped down to his underwear. Screams could be heard throughout Webster Hall, either of pure shock or excitement I’m not too sure. Lead singer, Har Mar, jumped into the crowd, dancing with some concertgoers throughout part of his set, definitely getting the crowd energized while a few concert-goers seemed a bit disturbed, screaming, “Put your clothes back on!”

Either way, the mix of Har Mar’s pop/club music livened up the audience, and as the house lights rose throughout the venue at the end of the night and concert-goers were ushered out the doors, they definitely could not forget Har Mar Superstar’s intriguing performance or the sheer energy and amazing vocals of Sia.

Categories
Q&A

Sia Interview Featured on Rolling Stone

You read it correctly! Part of my interview with Sia is featured in this week’s Rock & Roll Daily blog on rollingstone.com. You can check it out here. Feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think!

Categories
Interviews

Sia

I love interviewing bands, hence why I started this blog in the first place. But what I love most is how, despite often asking very similar questions to each band, some musicians can be incredibly refreshing and give very unexpected answers. Australian singer-songwriter Sia Furler is a breath of fresh air in the music industry. Her quirky answers during my phone interview with her and infectious laugh throughout made it such a delight to talk to her. (Read on to find out what I mean!)

You can find the full interview with Sia below or listen to part of my phone interview here. In addition, you can read my write-up featured on Rolling Stone‘s Rock & Roll Daily blog here. Feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think! In the meantime, check out this stream of her performing on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. For Windows. For Quicktime. She’s playing a sold-out concert at Webster Hall in NYC Saturday, March 8. I’ll be covering the show, so keep on the look-out for a full review sometime next week!

I love the colorful album artwork. Did you design it all yourself?
Well, we started out, me and my friend Eric [Spring]. I’ve been doing Apple Art on the computer for the website. I started for fun at airports when I couldn’t get wireless Internet to surf crap gossip websites. I decided to start for fun, matching art for the song titles because I felt we need a reason to sell C.D.’s. People just don’t buy music unless there’s something in the packaging that’s worth having. I thought it would be fun to do pictures, make flashcards for every song. Halfway through, because I’m an incredibly lazy fucker, I got tired of doing it, so then we engineered a competition for the fans, like 20,000 fans. It had to be cohesive with the cover, so we gave them the cover, which I did with my friend Eric in the Le Parc Suite hotel after breakfast in Los Angelis. A lot of people don’t really notice that on the cover art work there is someone who is being rained on, who is really having a bad day with a big frown. And then there is another person who is smiling but has no arms and legs. That’s what I meant when I said, some people have real problems and they’re not complaining.

How did you choose the title for your album?
We would make jokes about it all the time. During recording people would come in and complain about, I don’t know, like their coffee bang ditter or traffic, or that their cleaner didn’t do something. And I’d say, “Some people have real problems.” Like, they’re waiting for a lung or they don’t have a mum. When anyone would say a really, stupid, rich person’s complaint then we literally would say, “Yeah, some people have real problems” and it would be hilarious and it just stuck. I thought it would be a funny name for an album. And then I thought people would ask me about it a lot and if I were to get rich and successful I would remember to not turn into an asshole. But I am one, so it didn’t work. [Laughs] No it’s working.

Did you go in having a concept for your album?
No. I just wanted to make an album that didn’t really sound like it belonged to any particular era. I just wanted it to be . . . not really fashionable or anything. I wanted to make an album that had good songs and was recorded mainly live. That’s all. I had about 48 songs, ‘cause it had been a long time since I had put out my last record and I’ve been writing so much. So I just gave them to Jimmy [Hogarth] who was the producer and I said, “Could you choose the best songs?” He came back with 18 and then we ran out of money between 14 or 15 so we just ended up with those ones and then we chose the best out of those. The ones we were most attracted to, sexually [laughs] and that was it.

I don’t really have as much involvement in it. I like to just write the songs and then once I’ve written them and recorded them, when I’m in the studio I’ll know if I really hate a sound that someone uses. I like to trust all the musicians, all of them are awesome. Generally, they bring their own great thing. Jimmy has good taste and I trust him. I only really listen to them when I’m writing them and then when I’m recording them…I didn’t even listen to the mixes. I didn’t have any headphones so I listened to them through my Mac speakers and I thought they sounded good. There was only one thing that Jimmy sent me that I went back on. The horns were too jazzy and I didn’t like it. We had to redo the horns. I wanted them to be like a marching band. But that’s all, that’s the only thing we had to redo.

Do you have a favorite song on the album?
“Academia” is my favorite and then I like singing “You Have Been Loved,” it’s a good song to sing live. But yeah, I think “Academia” is my favorite and I like “Buttons” too.

I love the lyrics on “Academia.”
Thanks! That was like a vomit song. You know, when you just literally pick up a pen and they just go “bleup.” That took five minutes to write and then we researched it just to make sure all the words are right.

And you recorded that song with Beck, right? How was working with him?
Yeah. It was good. He came out for the day. I had a day where I gathered all of my friends to help me sing backing vocals. ‘Cause I wanted a big choir-y sound on “Death By Chocolate.” And then he came down and I asked him if he would sing on “Academia.” I had already asked him in an email but I asked him again because he hadn’t responded so I asked him in person. I was like, “Do you hate it? Do you want to do it?” and he said sure. That was a bit of a treat. But really, he’s just being really supportive. He’s doing me a favor. When people like you ask me about it and then you write about it and when people Google Beck, my name comes up. So he’s basically doing me a big favor.

What is your writing process like?
I write everyday. It used to be much more loose. I write with people, I can’t really write by myself. I mean I can, but it’s not as fun. I like to be part of a team. Mid-day we usually schedule one or two songs with different writers. Sometimes I have an idea and I just write it down and remember it, like one sentence and then I can build a song around that. Normally it happens while I’m in a room with another writer and it’s been scheduled, but it’s different every time. Normally the chorus comes first and then the music gets the feeling of the song from me and it just comes out and if it doesn’t come out then we move on and we start a different kind of song.

How do you feel this album is different from your previous albums?
I guess I’m in a better mood. I wasn’t in a good mood the last album. And this album I’m in a much better mood and I think that’s reflected in the times. And it’s hairier. A lot hairier. [Laughs] It needs a haircut actually.

I was curio
us about your song “Lentil.”

Did that title confuse you? [Laughs] It was a dog called Lentil, that was the first dog I ever fostered and I couldn’t take him with me back to London because he didn’t have the right rabies shots and it was in Australia. I had to go back to London to work and I had to leave him in Australia and I felt so bad because I loved him so much. I found him a really good home and he’s so happy now. I see him every summer. He’s a good boy.

In “Playground” you sing, “I don’t want to grow old/Bring me all the toys you can find.” I feel everyone can relate to that, is that a fear of yours, growing old?
Totally. Yeah, and also I just don’t want to stop having fun. I think it’s a decision to grow old. I saw my mum made a decision and she just got old over night. It was like she made a decision and it was like, “Why are you doing that?” She just reversed that decision. She came to New York for Christmas, where I live now. And while she was here she reversed that decision and I’m so glad. But yeah, I just don’t want to make that decision to grow old.

How are you staying young?
A lot of dancing, shopping, hanging out with good people. Dancing, more dancing. Singing a lot, good dating, a lot of good dating. Making stuff, fun stuff, crafting.

Were you originally a back-up singer for Jamiroquai?
No. I mean I was. I went down there and recorded some stuff and he paid me and everything. But then he said my voice was too distinctive and he never used any of it. It’s probably for the best. He was really nice to me when I was first starting out as a singer and he actually gave me a bunch of money to help me pay my bills. He was gonna start a record label and wanted me to sign to it but it never happened. And we never saw each other ever again.

And you’ve sang for Zero 7 too. How do you feel all these experiences and people have influenced you and your music throughout the years?
Well, a lot because I don’t listen to music. When I’m surrounded by those friends and musicians they play music constantly. So I guess I’m heavily influenced by whatever they’re listening to at the time. And of course by dynamics, band dynamics and friendships and all that sort of stuff. But yeah, I can’t do that anymore because I’m getting busy with the solo stuff so I’m not doing the next Zero 7 album. That’s sad because that was the best fun and I think my best work has been with them. But maybe one day we’ll be able to do some more. It would be nice.

Over the past 10 years, you’ve progressed so much. Do you feel your fans have changed at all?
No, I feel like they’ve stayed the same, but then maybe they’ve grown slightly. Like its’ expanded, like they’ve told their mums. [Laughs] That’s what I think. I know I have a loyal fan base because a lot of them have been on the message board for five years. But yeah, I think it has definitely gotten bigger.

How is your tour going?
It’s been amazing, people are so nice! They’re giving me gifts. They pass me notes while I’m on stage. I love it! It’s been really good audience participation. Like, sometimes there will be a note that says, “Could you dedicate the next song to blah, blah from blah, blah. We danced our wedding to this song.” It’s so nice. Other notes would just be like, “Show us your tits.” I’ve gotten presents; someone gave me a handmade scarf the other day. Other people gave me the most amazing toiletries and smelly bath things. Someone gave me so much beautiful essential oils. Another bunch of people gave me awesome joke presents, like silly masks, whoopee cushions, and suspenders. I think they all seem to know what I like, which is really weird. Nobody has given me a present that I’m not into. I’m becoming a really good receiver! [Laughs]

What was your inspiration behind Some People Have Real Problems?
It’s a long time coming. It was like four years of accumulated experiences. One of the songs didn’t make the last record another one was a song that didn’t make a Zero 7 record. One of them was one I was writing as a pop song for some other pop star. When I thought maybe my solo career was over, I started thinking I would try and write pop songs for big stars. Like Shakira and Paris and Britney. In the end, we realized I was going to make another solo record and so I collected all the songs I had been writing. There’s a few B-sides that we didn’t use and didn’t put on the album. It was a pretty simple process for me anyway. Probably not for all those poor fuckers at the management company and the record label and everyone who’s working their asses off to do the other stuff that I don’t even know about.

My life is so abstract. Like my life right now, I’ve done seven interviews before you and everyone’s been asking me, “So, you’re really blowing up right now. Your face is everywhere, how does it feel?” And I’m like, that is hilarious to me because that is so abstract. I have no awareness of it because my days are exactly the same. Every day I get off the tour bus in new city. I get into a hotel room, I take a shower, I get into bed and I do, like five hours of interviews, and then I get into a taxi and go to the venue, do a sound check. If it’s not catered at the venue I maybe will get to go around the venue to the closest restaurant to get some dinner and then come back to the venue, do the show, get back in the tour bus, drive overnight, wake up in a new city and do it all exactly the same all over again.

Yesterday was my first day off in 2 ½ weeks and I went on a mission to buy my love interest some underpants alone. I was like, I need a mission. I was so grateful for the mission because I actually left the hotel room even though I was still tired. I’m working really hard. But I was so grateful. I’m in Chicago and I left the hotel and went for a walk and it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t been for a walk or outside with real people, like humanity, not just working or in a venue or in a hotel room or in a taxi or in a tour bus for 2 ½ weeks. I went into a Starbucks to get a coffee because normally my manager will bring me a coffee while I do interviews or whatever. I don’t even do the normal stuff that normal people do, like stand at a bus stop with people, what I would normally do in real life.

It’s been so surreal. It’s so funny, because I go into a Starbucks yesterday and nobody recognizes me. I’ve been recognized once in Starbucks. I’ve still got jet-eye so nobody ever recognizes me if I’m walking on the streets. All the posters are down now, that was for the first week of the release, they had posters all over the streets in the cities or whatever. Now I’m doing all this promo and it’s in the papers the days before I get to the city that I’m getting to. But I don’t even get a chance to read any newspapers or anything like that, you know. It’s totally abstract to me, just totally surreal. I have no awareness
because my life is me, in a hotel room with the shits. [Laughs] It’s so funny because I’m sure people think it’s really glamorous, like I must be living the fucking high life right now, doing the shows, traveling every night. It’s a lot of hard work. It’s just working hard. I guess that’s why the success is happening now.

Do you think your song, “Breathe Me,” being featured on Six Feet Under’s final episode was part of this success?
Oh absolutely. That laid the foundation for sure. Because I had a very small fan base in America thanks to Zero 7. But yeah, I think that really launched my solo career, absolutely. I have a lot to thank that music supervisor of Six Feet Under for.

What do you think you’d be doing right now if it wasn’t for your solo career?
I’d probably be making another record with Zero 7 or I’d be a dog rescuer, or video director. Yeah, I might be a filmmaker or something like that.

How would you explain your album to someone who’s never heard it before?
I have a standard response. I say its easy listening, just because it keeps people’s expectations low. You can’t really go wrong if you say that to someone. It is pretty easy listening. You either like my voice or you don’t. It’s definitely an acquired taste, but if you like it your generally gonna like it. It’s not going to offend you; it’s pretty middle of the road. It’s not really trying to be anything…its just doing its thing, existing. I think that’s normally what I say. Or I tell people its thrash metal if I want to confuse people. [Laughs]

What’s the most rock-star thing you’ve ever done?
It’s probably spending a lot of money on my dogs. On spending a lot of money having them looked after while I’m on tour and then having them flown to New York from LA at the end of the tour. I guess that’s pretty privileged. If you’re talking about getting drunk and hurling on a celebrity, like that kind of rock-star gossip, I haven’t really got any of those for you. I have a cache of successful friends, but I’ve never vomited on any of them or gotten pregnant from any of them.

Amy Winehouse or Britney Spears?
Whose baby would I like to have? [Laughs] Well, I’m rooting for both of them. I care about Amy. I care about her because I am a fan and I’ve met her a couple of times and I kind of stalk her. I’ve got her phone number and whenever I listen to her album and I love it I text her and say, “I’m listening to it again, it’s so good!” Or when I saw those pictures of her after they’d been in a fight and I felt really sad about it I sent her a text saying that I cared about her, and I wished her lots of love. She never responds. I know she gets them though because her manager told me. She doesn’t really respond to anyone, she doesn’t do email. If I had Britney Spears’ number I’d do the same for her. I care about people in pain, you know? You’ve got to be a careless person not to care about people in pain. I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs. I had total nervous breakdown when I was making the last album. The reason I care and that I write to Amy is that I can identify with people in pain, I guess. One of my fans told me he was in pain on the message boards recently and I gave him my phone number. I was like; “If you’re going to hurt yourself just call me.” I don’t know. I’m rooting for both of them. I don’t want to see anyone in pain. I don’t know about ridiculing people in the press, its mean and it’s dangerous.

Who’s the coolest famous person you’ve ever met?
Probably Chrissie Hynde from The Pretenders. About seven years ago, I had a hit in the UK that went to number 10 and I was on this show called, Top of the Pops. She was on the show that night as well and she introduced herself to me and she just gave me a lot of great advice. She said don’t read press. If you believe the good, you believe the bad and there will be bad, it will suck you up. I’m a huge fan. I’ve met a lot of people that I admire. I’ve met Annie Lennox, Stevie Wonder, Ryan Gosling, Beck is a friend of mine. People who I’ve respected and I adored growing up and even more recently, people whose art I respect. It happens, its more and more common especially since I moved to L.A. for three years, it’s crawling with celebs.

Speaking of Beck, you’ve collaborated with him and Giovanni Ribisi on your album, how did those collaborations come about?
Well, Beck I met through Nigel Godrich, who produces all of Beck’s albums and Radiohead and Air and who was actually an original member of Zero 7. Then he got the Radiohead gig and he got really busy with that. I met him through the Zero 7 bunch. And then Nigel introduced me to Beck about five/six years ago. Giovanni is Beck’s brother-in-law. So I met him through Beck.

Working with them is always really fun. They’re really nice and really supportive. Any time I’ve ever asked them for help they’ve helped me. The thing is I’m opposed to thinking that everything is competition and that we should all be helping each other. I asked Amy Winehouse to do a collaboration and she said, “No way.” And I was like, “Why not?” And she said, “I’m intimidated by you. I’ve been listening to you since I was a teenager.” I was totally shocked because she’s my favorite contemporary voice. Her and Lauryn Hill. I just think that’s shocking to me and because we sound so different. I was just shocked.

Who else would you want to collaborate with?
Jeff Buckley, Elvis [Costello], Barr, this artist called Barr, I love him, he’s like a poet. Har Mar Superstar.

What was your favorite album when you were 14?
When I was 14 . . . I was like 11 or something when I first got into Terence Trent Darby and the Bangles. That was the first record I ever bought, the Bangles’ “Manic Monday.” I was listening to Soul II Soul when I was 15 and Malcolm McLaren.

What’s on your current playlist?
I don’t really listen to music; I’m going to be honest with you. I don’t have a playlist. I have a playlist that I made to deejay to this stand-in in Hollywood once. That has on it “The Macarena,” Billy Joel, “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” “Candy,” “Madness”, “On the Wings of a Dove,” Blondie, “Hanging on the Telephone”, Joe Jackson, “Steppin’ Out.” Just fun, dancing around songs really. I dance a lot. If you go to my website, siamusic.net, you can see me dancing. I love to dance. I’m a big dancer, a big fan of the dance.

When do you think you’ll know when its time to retire?
I don’t know if I’m really that keen on getting a whole bunch of plastic surgery and anything like that. I think I’m just gonna do it for another couple of albums and then I’m gonna start doing movies, like directing movies. I’m writing one at the moment called Sister, which I want to direct in the next four years or something. But I think I should concentrate on the singing while it’s happening and ju
st develop those movie projects.

So do you see yourself directing huge movies or more underground?
I think a nice fine line between indie and Hollywood blockbuster.

For more info. on Sia or for future tour dates, be sure to check out Sia’s website or herMySpace

Categories
Q&A

Q&A with Kris Roe of the Ataris: Part 2

As promised, part two of my Q&A; with Kris Roe. If you haven’t yet, check out the Ataris’ MySpace, which Kris runs personally, for the latest tour dates and music. And be on the look out for a new album in the near future!

On this tour, are you just playing the whole Blue Skies album?
I’m playing our whole Blue Skies album from start to finish and then I also play a handful of songs from our other records at the end. Time permitting; I usually play four or five of our other most well known songs at the end. “So Long, Astoria” and “In This Diary” are usually always in the set and the other three I just toy with what people are drunkenly shouting at me or what I feel like playing.

Why did you decide Blue Skies?
Well, it was beyond the five, six year anniversary of that album, and almost the 10 year anniversary of that album and I think that was the album that, other than So Long, Astoria, got most of our core fan base into our band. We usually played the majority of songs from So Long, Astoria over the years and Blue Skies we played like the four, five most known songs. There was the other half of that album that we never played since we recorded. And that’s the same way probably with a lot of bands. You record an album, you play the best four or five songs and the rest are just album tracks. So, I just thought it was a fun challenge to go out and do something like that. And also, I feel it would bring a little bit more interest to the show to people that wouldn’t necessarily just come out and see me play acoustic. Maybe they’d be like, “Wow, that’s kinda cool he’s doing a whole record and playing a few other songs.”

I think that the majority of the album people are always singing along with. For me, there are some songs that were later on the album and were just kind of filler. I think that’s why that album did so well. We kind of back loaded the album. The strongest songs are the first five or six songs. There are a couple of strong songs later on the album. But for the most part, that’s why we put those songs towards the end of the record, because we wanted to make the strongest record from the beginning because most people only listen to the first five songs of an album anyway and then the diehards listen to the rest. I think people know most of the songs, but I don’t expect them to know every one. If they do, they’re usually creepy or too much of a fan. No not, really. But you know what I mean.

How would you describe your fan base? Has it changed a lot over the years?
It definitely changes throughout time because music changes. I think it depends. I think to sum it up, we have this core fan base and those are the kids that really come out, the kids that have been listening to the band for so long and they kind of grow with you. And then we have the people that discovered our band on So Long, Astoria when they heard “In This Diary” and then “Boys of Summer” and that’s cool too. But those are the people, I think, that usually have a shorter attention span. This is just a guess off of what I have seen. Because, I think the radio public are more on to the next thing because they love the current single and that’s fine, but that’s how it is where I grew up. In Indiana people just discovered shit off of MTV and the radio unfortunately. For me, a lot of my friends, we were kind of the kids who seeked things out, discovered bands and just stayed with them. Those are the kids that really stick around. Once we get a new album out and we have a song that’s on the radio or MTV you’ll notice a new resurgence of new fans. Right now, it’s kind of mid time between records and I’m not really out supporting anything, I’m just out doing this for fun. So it’s usually the diehards. The people that really love your band and your music and know the songs.

80% of the people that come to these Blue Skies shows are not the kids who are more apt to yell for “Boys of Summer.” There are those nights. When you play a college town you assume that will be more of the thing because that was more their era. I think the kids that come to these shows; they were into the band before that. I love just as much the kids that got into our band because of that song than the other ones. I think it’s equal. I try to make sure to play some songs from that record at the end. I think those are two of our most popular records and I really try to make a fair set if I have time.

Do you have a favorite song to perform?
I think the best song in our band’s history is the song “Fast Times at Drop-Out High.” That was an older song that I feel stood throughout the history of our band and doesn’t feel dated to me today. There are some songs you write and a month or two later after you record them, you’re like, “That feels really dated” and it’s something you don’t ever want to play again. And then there are some songs that stick throughout. Pretty much everything I play in my set I feel happy playing. There are a couple songs that I’d rather not play and are slightly dated, but I want to make the people who paid happy and give them a set that’s good for them. There are some songs I sing, either love songs from the past that I don’t believe a word I’m singing anymore that I’m just singing so people want to sing along and hear it and there are some songs that I still believe like the day I wrote it. But, that’s the good thing about being a songwriter. You move on and your songs stay frozen in time and you just gotta live with that.

Do you remember how to play everything and all of the lyrics?
No. [Laughs] But I give it a shot. Most of the stuff. I have a handful of songs beyond the Blue Skies album that I can choose from every night within reason. If someone is yelling out something that is rare, I’ll sometimes take the challenge. Sometimes I fail miserably. Like, last night I think I failed miserably on a couple.

You’ve been doing this so long, what inspires you to keep going?
Hands down, it’s the only thing that I really enjoy doing. I take photos, I like doing that. I have some other interests. For right now music is the only thing that I know and the one thing I want to continue doing. That’s pretty much it. I’m a really driven person, but I think when you get something that you know, it’s like if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It’s true. Just keep moving forward and try to do as much as you can.

Can you tell us about your photography skills?
Skills, I don’t know. I just take photos of things that I like and strike me. Overall, my general photography is stuff that’s kind of sad but beautiful at the same time. Growing up in the Midwest you have all this worn down beauty. You have these old factories but you also have a side to it that’s kind of tragic but beautiful and that’s the thing I come across in my photos. I just became a photographer by accident. I stole my old roommate’s camera because I needed to take photos for a record because we had a deadline and the guy that was doing the photos flaked out. And after I was like, “Well, shit, I can do this.” So I always feel weird saying I’m a photographer because there are so many people that go to school and do this for a living and for me it’s just something I do. I think anybody, if you have a good eye, you can take photos. Anybody can write a song. It’s all in here. [pointing to heart]
It’s all trial and error really. For me, it’s like guitar; I never read a book of fuckin’ tablature or chords in my life. I just hear it and go. Look at the Ramones, look at painting, or photography, or anything, it’s all in here.

Are you working on a new album?
Not currently. Planning to do a new album, but probably later in the year. I’ve written some rough ideas of songs, but for the most part, that area is just getting started. I’ll probably be doing this touring off and on throughout the summer just to have some money so when I do go in the studio I’ll have some money put aside to pay the bills. I think it will be my hope to realistically get in the studio by late summer now. I think by then I will have tapped every market I can actually play. After this tour and South America and Japan we’re going to try to book Europe and Canada and I think after that, the only thing I can really do is go in the studio. It’s really hard to go beyond that when you’re just doing a solo tour. We used to play Australia a lot, but I think to go down there and do a tour by myself I’m not sure I can do that by myself. But, who knows.

Welcome the Night is a little deeper and darker than So Long, Astoria. What was going on in your life when you wrote it?
I agree with part of that. I think So Long, Astoria has a lot of really personal songs but I think the biggest difference is that album [So Long, Astoria] was a bit more uplifting and positive and optimistic and Welcome the Night was not necessarily self-loathing or anything, but it was more self questioning. That was just because I wasn’t really happy with my life at the time and I was just trying to find a place in my life where I was content and happy. That album was kind of a cathartic process of me questioning myself and trying to find that place in my life. So, that’s what I was doing. Kind of like therapy, that album was. I think where I am at now, writing is a little back towards where I was when I was writing So Long, Astoria. I think your writing reflects where you are in your life. I’ve kind of come around full circle again.

How did your fans respond to that?
I really expected, overall, to be a split kind of thing. I just wrote what I know and I always like to change it up and do things that are different and daring. I think that I really expected half of the people to get it and really pay attention and the other half to be like, “What the fuck?” and that’s good ‘cause unless you shake shit up, then you’re selling yourself short. I think art is about people questioning and people not understanding it. I think it would be more of a tragedy if people just listened to it and got it the first time they heard it. Things that are easily palpable for me are things that fall to the way side and is the art and music that you’re going to forget 10 years from now. I think that was an album that needs to grow on people. The people that really paid attention to it, I think they got it and the other ones weren’t supposed to get it.

What is your typical writing process like?
Laziness. No, I’m really bad. I keep a little journal. Usually I write the most when I’m just sitting in my car because I don’t let myself get distracted. When I’m just driving around the country I’ll get a piece of scrap paper and I’ll just write my thoughts and later I’ll put it altogether and try and make it into songs. I write a lot of free verse and poetry and things and put it all together and make it into something. It’s changed throughout the years. Before, in earlier albums, I used to write more in a format and start with the actual verse, chorus, verse, chorus. Later, as we went along, I started writing differently. Now, it’s a little different, more disjointed, but it comes together after the fact. Musically, I usually come up with a melody or music part in my head and I’ll jot it down. I put the two together at the end.

Have you ever been afraid to give away too much of yourself in your music?
The only time I was ever afraid of that was when I didn’t want to dispel too many things that would scare the shit out of my mother and father or my ex. There was one point when I finally realized that as a writer, I think your only duty is really to say everything you need to say despite what some people might read or see. After writing that last album, the immediate response I got from a lot of my fans was, “Are you okay?” And I’m like, “Yeah, ‘cause I wrote it two years ago and if you were to ask me then I would have been like, no I’m not.” Today, yeah, it is a thought. But you really can’t give into that. You really have to keep pushing it and write everything despite the consequences or that’d be your biggest mistake.

How would you explain your music to someone who has never heard it before?
I think we’re a band that has something to offer everyone. I feel it’s really personal stories. I try to write things that I feel everyone can relate to but that are brutally honest and really try to put my whole heart out there, sometimes to my disadvantage. Definitely, when you do that, you get a lot of the creepy people that are like, “Oh my God!” asking me all these questions. It’s like you don’t know me, but you know me. It’s kind of weird. I want to be known as a storyteller or the singer/songwriter type artist. That, I would portray to someone who had never heard us.

Categories
Interviews

The Ataris

In a way, I feel like I grew up while listening to the Ataris. Everyone has that one album they remember listening to like it was yesterday. That album for me was So Long, Astoria. The entire album was the anthem to my senior year of high school you know, that tumultuous time of having no clue what you want to do with the rest of your life and the thought of becoming an adult causes more anguish than anything else. Okay, maybe that’s being a little too dramatic. But come on, “Being grown up isn’t half as fun as growing up/These are the best days of our lives/The only thing that matters is just following your heart/And eventually you’ll finally get it right.” Those lines from “In This Diary” were my motto just five years ago and I’d like to think they still are today.

Kris was nice enough to sit down with me last Friday before his show at Maxwell’s in Hoboken and talk to me about the Ataris, the state of the music industry and his current acoustic tour, among many things. I’m going to break up the interview into two posts because it’s way too long for just one and you guys really should read the entire thing. He’s not only a good interview, but an amazing musician to see live so be sure to check out his MySpace and see when he’ll be playing your city!

How is the tour going so far?
Well, hands down, this has probably been the most crazy, cursed tour I’ve ever been on, at least the beginning of this part of the tour. I did a small run on the West Coast and those dates went amazing. But the first four shows of this tour, two got canceled due to the fact that the shows were double booked and two got canceled due to winter storms. But, as of last night, that was the first show of the tour and it ended up going really well and tonight’s show is nearly sold out so I think the curse is coming to an end finally so that’s good.

I saw on your MySpace the massive bulletins, “Please repost tour dates.” Do your fans request certain places to play?
In the years I’ve been touring, you make a note of where you actually can play and draw people. This tour was pretty much all booked by me off of our MySpace. I made a kind of, rough routing and then I went over it and started filling in the gaps. Usually when you’re booking the tour you start with the weekends and get the good cities where you know you’ll draw good on the weekends. For instance, I know Hoboken has to be a weekend and Long Island and other parts of New Jersey are usually some of our stronger markets. I wanted to make sure that our strongest markets I put on a weekend. A Monday is a Monday no matter where it is. It’s usually your weakest night and you just try and fill up the dates. I try not to take any days off. It’s usually 50 some odd dates with no days off and then I go to South America and Japan on the same tour. It’s definitely a lot of fun and it’s the best thing I could be doing. There’s no overhead hardly on these shows. Just a hotel room and gas every night. Me out traveling in my car. It’s a good way to make a living I would say.

Have you always been a very DIY type of band?
I think this band was kind of founded on that belief that you just gotta do everything yourself. No one’s going to do it for you. There’s so many bands out there that the harder you work at it, the better the shows are going to be and I think that’s pretty much how this band started getting to people, our C.D.’s got into people’s hands. We just toured enough that finally we were probably halfway through our second tour ever, right when our Blue Skies album came out and at that point we started realizing it went from 50 people at the shows to 300 people at the shows and we didn’t do anything different other than keep going to the same areas and get in the van and people would come out and see us. Just continue that kind of mindset and it really works.

Do you think it’s been word of mouth?
Oh, yeah. When we started there wasn’t that mentality, there was no MySpace, there was no Facebook or any of those places where you could just get on and promote it like that. It was all word of mouth. It was you go out and play a show and they’re like, “Hey, we saw this good band play last night. Go out and check them out next time they’re through.” And you trade phone numbers with other bands and are like, “Hey, there’s a place that books bands in Albuquerque or in Phoenix.” Now it’s easy because you put up a bulletin and are like, “Hey, I need a show in St. Louis.” And somebody emails you and says, “Hey, I book shows here.”

Also, I keep a list of all the people who have booked good shows for me in the past and now I have good contacts and most of them stay current and you write them back and say, “Hey, can you book me on the next tour?” But we have a good booking agent; he books some of the biggest bands in rock music. But the thing is he’s got so many bands I didn’t want to trouble him and ask him, “Hey, will you book an acoustic tour for me?” He books the Ataris and I was like, I can do this myself and I just wanted to see if I could do it. First time I did it and it went well. He actually emailed me the other day and said, “Man, I gotta compliment you on your booking” and jokingly said, “if you ever need a job as an agent, you know where to call.” And I was like, “Sorry, I hate dealing and haggling with people, I’ll leave that to you.” I just want to go out and play. Anything to get a show, I’ll do it.

Do you take fans requests?
For the most part, if it’s something valid I will. I’ve done some weird things. I played this guy and girl’s wedding once and that was great. An endless bar and their mom paid me $1,000 to play a wedding and paid for all my travel. It was like, “Alright I’ll do that. Sure.” I’m probably more reasonable than any band. If you had a reasonable request and could meet the guarantee of the tour, pay the costs, I’ll play anywhere I don’t really care. I mean I’m not a whore or anything, but I’ll definitely do anything within reason as long as there will be people there and it fits into the current routing of the tour.

You guys have been together since, what, 1994?
I think our first real tour, when we really put ourselves on the map was more like 1997 or 1998. I’ve been recording songs myself since, the first Ataris album. All the demos were just me and a drum machine and I’d give that to bands we’d see. Through that we got a record deal and put out three independent records. Probably about halfway through our second record, Blue Skies is when people started actually taking notice. I think for our first record when it was out, nobody paid attention. Once we got out there and really started touring, at that point, ’97, ’98 that’s when people actually started coming out to see us.

That’s been 10 years. Have you seen a huge change in the music industry since when you started?

/>Oh, for sure. There are two things you notice. Obviously, when we started, the Internet was beginning, but it wasn’t a prominent factor. Now, it’s over saturated. There are so many bands. Anyone and there brother can record music and put music out. B. Like I said, booking shows is so much easier. There’s pros and cons of it. I think that it was better for rock bands then on some levels because it was so much easier to make an impact. Now, if you put an album out there are 10 other bands that are just as good as you that have an album out too so it’s harder to make headway and really get your name out there. Whereas then, there weren’t as many bands doing it. But, at the same time, it’s easier to do it now. I don’t know. I try to change with the times. I’m just utilizing the tools I know I have compared to back then when I didn’t have them.

So, over the past 10 years, have you ever had to have a day job?
I’ve worked so many odd jobs. Literally, I can go down a list. I’ve worked restaurants, I’ve worked at a factory, I worked in an adult bookstore for six months, I worked at a K-Mart, Taco Bell. I’ve done it all. That was like from 15-20. I think about 22 or 23 was the last time I had a real job outside of this band. So I feel very blessed that I’ve been able to spend nearly seven, eight years of my life job free other than the music. There are definitely times now and in the last four years that have been a struggle. The one thing that I will say about the music industry is that it is very inconsistent. There might be six months where you make a lot of income and then the next six months it’s very slow. So that’s why, right now, if I’m out and I stay touring and stay busy I’m able to pay all my bills, but if I’m not, then I might as well work an odd job, because you’re sitting around at home and you’re not making any money when you’re sitting around at home.

I read on Wikipedia that you sold an old drum set to pay for rent.
First off, never believe anything you read on Wikipedia because that’s the most inaccurate account of anything. When I first started dating my girlfriend, her mom wikipedia’d me and there was stuff on there that I went on Wikipedia and changed myself. I was like, “Holy shit, your mom wikipedia’d me? And now she thinks I’m a drug addict or this or that because I wrote one thing in a song.” Wikipedia is so fucked. Some other Internet sources are fine, but Wikipedia is a joke. I’m sorry. And you notice that because you start doing a bunch of interviews and everyone gets their questions from Wikipedia. And you’re like, “This is so easy.” So me and John one night, we were like, “Let’s go on Wikipedia and change it because we’ve got like 20 interviews in one day coming up next week.” And we changed it and wrote shit that wasn’t true to see if they’d ask us based on that and it was totally, probably 5 out of 10 interviews were like, “So, I heard you were once a drug dealer in Columbia.” And we were like, “Yeah, I lived in Bogotá for five years of my life and I dealt smack and lived down there, and yeah, I lived in a hut.”

I am resourceful and within reason, when I’m sitting around at home, everything is expendable when it comes to material possessions. I’ve sold all kinds of shit on my eBay. For me, I’ve got a lot of things and I keep everything and I’d rather a fan to have it then for me to have it. But I don’t play drums regularly and so I never sold a drum set. I’ve sold like old lyrics I’ve had and art photography, and old guitar equipment. But, for me, if I don’t need it and I’m not using it and it’s sitting in my closet, I’d rather one of our fans to have it and be stoked on it. So, yeah, whatever. Mortgage. It’s a hard thing.

You guys broke away from Columbia and have your own label now, right?
Quite a while ago. We did our last album, Welcome the Night, on this label Sanctuary and then about five months after we put that album out the label folded and they basically decided that they weren’t going to put any future records out from anyone. There were a lot of good bands on the label like Morrissey, Tegan and Sara, the last one they released was the girl from the Cranberries, her solo album. After that they said they were just going to keep her back catalog and not put anything else out. Currently, we’re basically just waiting to record some songs and then we’ll start deciding where we’re going to put it out. We have label interests, but not until we have some songs to play for them can we really decide what we’re going to do.

We have our own label imprint on our last album. But in this market, it’s not something I would expect to pursue. I wouldn’t want to have a label per say. You can put your imprint or whatever you want to call it. That was pretty much the extent of it. It was strictly in case we wanted to exercise that option really.

A lot of bands are breaking away from the major labels. Do you think that’s the future?
I think on some levels it is. Unless you’re a band that can exist by selling records through the big conglomerates like Wal-Mart and places like that. Those are really the only places that people buy full records I feel. Independent record stores don’t make enough of a dent in it anymore. People buy the song on iTunes that’s a single or they’ll download the record for free. Unless you’re like a pop, R&B;, hip-hop or country artist. If you’re a rock band, you probably sell a small fraction of what you would have sold six years ago. A band like the Foo Fighters who would win a Grammy, they would sell like, maybe 800,000 of a record now, where six years ago would probably be a double platinum album which would be a couple million. That’s just the changing market if you’re a rock band. I think you just have to change with it and realize that’s how it goes.

They’re actually talking about lowering the number it takes to have a gold record. Now, currently, it’s 500,000 for a gold record and a million for platinum. Within this coming year I think it’s going to lower in half, like 250 or something for gold and then platinum is going to be like 6, 7, 8 I don’t know. That’s pretty crazy because for the size of our country, I mean, based on other countries, a gold record in the UK, it’s a small country, but it’s less than 100,000. It’s changed a lot. It’s really put a dent in the music industry. On some levels, I think that’s good because it really shakes shit up and I’m all for that, but if you’re a real starving musician and you’re trying to support yourself on your art, it kinda fucks you really bad.

For part two of the interview, to read about the upcoming album and Kris’ typical writing process as well as the change in the Ataris’ fan base over the years, click here.

Categories
News

MTV News Featured Member

Guess what! I’m featured on MTV’s concert blog, You R Here, as a featured member for this week! I tried to take a screen shot to paste it in my blog for you all to see, but it wasn’t working for some reason. See for yourself at http://www.mtv.com/news. If you scroll down to the right hand side you’ll see a picture of me and my friend Wendy (she takes all the pictures for my blog). Feel free to peruse previous posts I’ve uploaded on MTV and leave comments!

Be sure to check back later this week for an interview with Kris Roe of the Ataris!

Categories
Concert Reviews

The Ataris’ “Blue Skies, Broken Hearts” Acoustic Tour Hits New Jersey

Marking almost the ninth-year anniversary of the release of album Blue Skies, Broken Hearts . . . Next 12 Exits, frontman Kris Roe of the Ataris has embarked on a massive tour playing the album in it’s entirety as well as fan favorites from previous albums. Having recently finished up touring the West Coast, Kris is touring everywhere from New Jersey down to Florida back Midwest to Michigan and Illinois before traveling to South America and Japan.

His almost one-hour set began at 11:30 p.m. with first track on the album, “Losing Streak.” “This is a sing along show so I hope you all sing along,” Roe told the audience at Maxwell’s in Hoboken Friday night.

I’ve been to many concerts over the years, but none quite like Roe’s acoustic set Friday. He had practically every person in the room singing along word for word to each song played that night, something I’ve never witnessed at a concert before. Granted, those in attendance seemed to be die-hard fans, making up the standing-room only crowd. With such a good crowd, for hit “So Long, Astoria” off of the album of the same name, Roe got off the stage and walked into the crowd while playing the song on guitar. Instead of singing it himself on stage with his microphone, he let the audience take over singing the song. Possibly the highlight of the night, those in attendance demonstrated that the Ataris’ fans are far from extinct.

Playing a 17-song set, Roe had so much energy and you could truly tell that he was having just as much fun as his fans in the audience, joking along with them and playing any song they screamed out to him. Crowd favorite seemed to be “San Dimas High School Football Rules,” as loud screams from the audience could be heard when he started playing the first chord of the song. A solid guitar sound, Roe helped peak the crowd’s energy.

Afterwards he told the audience, “This is a really sappy album I wrote 11 years ago,” before beginning song, “I Won’t Spend Another Night Alone.” With classic lyrics like, “The things you make me wanna do/I’d rob a quick-e-mart for you/I’d go to the pound and let all the cats go free/Just as long as you’d be with me” he got the point across. Roe sang part of the chorus, then told the crowd, “Alright now, just you guys. Ready? Sing aloud” as all in Maxwell’s sung in unison “I won’t spend another night alone.”

He introduced the next track, “The Last Song I Will Ever Write About A Girl” as being “a complete fuckin’ lie, which I’m sure you all realized by now.” He ended the song explaining that he was 19 and angry when he originally wrote it. “Broken Promise Ring” Roe wrote when he was 14, while joking to the audience, “If it sucks don’t blame me.”

Roe explained that many of the songs he’s been performing on this tour from the album, Blue Skies, Broken Hearts . . . Next 12 Exits have never been performed live before, like last song on the album, “In Spite of the World.”

The last few songs played were from previous albums. He played “I.O.U. One Galaxy” as well as “In This Diary,” “So Long Astoria” and last song of the night, “Summer Wind Was Always Our Song.” Roe’s solid guitar and vocals throughout the night blew me away and sounded even better than on his albums, a feat not many musicians can accomplish.

Half of D.C. based band Army of Me opened the night with a 40-minute acoustic set with frontman Vince Scheuerman alternating between guitar and piano and Brad Tursi on guitar. They played nine songs, mostly off their debut album, Citizen.

“Meet You at the Mouth” opened the night with strong vocals and guitar while second song of the night, “Saved Your Life” slowed down their set a bit. Vince and Brad played to a packed room, combining solid vocals and guitar features throughout their set.

In addition to songs from their latest album, they covered a song by Detroit-based singer Brendan Benson as well as played a new song of their own. Before playing piano-based song, “Better Run,” Vince explained that while Army of Me is a rock band, they recently started playing piano at their gigs. Vince started out the song solo on piano while Brad accompanied him with light guitar picking soon after. Army of Me had the audience helping out with their next song, a new one for the guys, clapping along to keep the beat of the song. Brad kept telling the audience, “This is a rock song, you guys are the rock.”

Vince explained their second to last song, “2 into 1” as being “a song about unity and love” and then ended their set solidly with emotional song, “Rise” a little after 11 p.m.


Be sure to catch Kris Roe on the rest of his “Blue Skies, Broken Hearts” acoustic tour. Check his MySpace for future tour dates.
For more on Army of Me check out their website.