Last week was a very busy week with two shows in one week. Both, although musically very different, were both similar in the fact that they were each unique.
SHOUT OUT LOUDS
Luna Lounge, Brooklyn, New York
It was interesting to go to a show where the crowd is full of hipsters. Luna Lounge, is in the heart and soul of the hipster captiol of the world, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. There are moments when I'm there with friends, and you can feel the judgement because you do work during the day, and you do wear a tie, once in a while, that doesn't have skulls on it. That aside, when The Shout Out Louds took the stage the room was filled with some great high energy swedish indie pop rock. The odd thing was, was that this hipster crowd was not moving with it. But the band played on, and soon their short hour long set was on their final song. It was at this point that someone attempted a stage dive, and the passive crowd did not catch him. Overall The Shout Out Louds did a grand job of translating the newer, more studio sounding pop tracks, into live little rock/pop songs. With their sophmore album already out in Europe, and coming out in september in the US, the set list was a good variety of songs that you should already know and own, and songs that are easily obtainable on the internet. Hats off to Bebban Stenborg the tiny keyboard player. Every song she was taking out a new instrument from her kit. At one point she had two synths, a xylophone, an accordian, and a tambourine going on.
MEAT LOAF
Madison Square Garden, New York City
I should say that MADISON SQUARE GARDEN is a bit misleading, it was actually at THE WaMu THEATER AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, which is about 30,000 seats less than MAD, SQ. Nevertheless, this show fullfilled my boyhood dream of rocking out with Meat Loaf. I had the Bat out of hell II tape and played it so much it broke. My parents weren't to keen on me attending the tour for that in 1993, so i was left meatless...Until last friday! Shirts were made for my friend Rachel and myself. Her's contained the word MEAT, where as mine said LOAF. Our seats were in the back section with many other interesting folks including, many blue collar New Jeseryians, a german couple who didn't speak or even look at each other the whole time, and a mother who was having a great time!
Meat Loaf opened in an explosion of sound with All Reved up and No Place to Go and proceeded to play for over 2 hours. The set list included many of the hits, including Paradise By The Dashboard Light, a song that went on for at least 25 minutes, with a costume change in there too. Meat did not address the crowd until a good 45 minutes into the performance, at which point his first words were "I've been sick since march, I think I'm going to throw up " and the crowd went crazy. As a show, the band seemed off, and Meat Loaf staggered around the stage often times looking like he was about to keel over. But let's not forget, he's been sick since march. BUT, as an experience: It was just so fucking great. The show might have been full of awkward pauses, but those are what make it such a great story to tell.