James Brown opening for the RHCPs is wronger than a wrong thing. t sigh

No kidding. Flat out shocking.

I hear most of the Lollaetc. bands are planning on proceeding with summer tours.

So, the Decemberists and the Long Winters were fairly disappointing live. The Long Winters relied on Let's Active-ish power pop versions of their songs (both the guitarist & bassist had Rickenbachers, which was my first clue that things were amiss [subdigression - I quite like Let's Active, but I don't think of the Long Winters as having the chops to pull off the janglepop effectively]), which unfortunately served to flatten the pleasurable nuances of their songs into three-chord-plus-lousy-solo blahness. The Decemberists were just kinda boring. No improvisation, very little stage patter, just a few songs from Her Majesty. The high point was "The Tain," which is exciting with the different parts and such.

In fact, I'm a bit interested in how both the Decemberists and the Fiery Furnaces, two of the more aurally adventurous indie-rock artists working today, are producing complex multi-part works about pirates. The FF are better at it, for sure, with their sonic montage and wacky, clearly metaphorical lyrics, but it's just fascinating that the Decemberists have chosen to challenge their Randy Newmanish soft-rock tendencies in EXACTLY the same manner as the FF, when I can't see how either band could have known about the other's new direction.

James Brown opening for the RHCPs is wronger than a wrong thing.

Yes, but I can't complain as at least I get to see both. Hoping for a nice long set from him.

Maybe the Decemberists had an off night. They've been quite engaging and friendly when I've seen them.

I hear most of the Lollaetc. bands are planning on proceeding with summer tours.

The problem is that it's kinda late in the game to book the mid-sized & large clubs at which most of them would normally play. Most places probably already have their schedules set through August.

Maybe the Decemberists had an off night. They've been quite engaging and friendly when I've seen them.

It might have been. They seemed remote and a bit stiff.

Most shows don't start until about 10 unless it's a pretty big name playing an all-ages show. Then it might start at 9.

Same in D.C. Differences: a) Most of our venues are all-ages; b)It used to be that most shows ended by 12 or slightly after because Metro closed then. Now Metro is open until 2 on weekends, so clubs ignore that.

And I would have bought Lollapalooza tix, except both of their D.C. dates are weekdays and the bands I wanted to see were split between Thursday and Friday. I think they wuld have done better with a one-day concert on the Friday only.

The problem with Lolla was that most of the bands playing appealed to a slightly older crowd who were less likely to want to spend all day (or two days) at an outdoor festival mixing it up with those pesky kids.

That could be -- I mean, it was a mix of bands that I was interested in therefore -- yes.

James Brown opening for the RHCPs is wronger than a wrong thing.

Well at least the Chili Peps are trying to honor their inspiration. Sort of like The Clash taking Bo Diddley on tour, or when The Pretenders had Iggy Pop open (and Chrissie would go out and kiss the stage after Iggy had performed).

Hayden, pirate bands are an actual sub-genre these days (search for pirates on CDBaby and you'll see). Dave Eggers' pirate supply store is but one manifestation of a generalized west coast pirate/punk frenzy which has been building over the last five years.

Yeah, but the Fiery Furnaces are NYC-based. And not using the melodian-mandolin sounds of The Tain (which, now that I look into it, isn't so much about pirates as it is based on an old Irish song-cycle about war). My thesis has gone pfffffffffft.