I've decided after writing a terrible review of the Anberlin show (terrible referring to my writing, not Anberlin) that this blog is going to be more of a place to just type out my thoughts, rather than try to be a professional music writer or whatever. I'm just not a good writer, but i have a lot of thoughts pertaining to music.
Anyway...Kassie, Travis and I went down to Denver on Tuesday night and caught the Anberlin show at the Ogden Theater. First i'd like to say that i really like the Ogden, i always have, its a small venue so the shows are really intimate. The sounds is usually pretty good, very loud and i like that a lot. For this show however the vocals were not mixed very well at all, you couldn't hear Stephen's (from Anberlin) vocals really at all, especially when he was singing low.
Anberlin always brings it, they are so solid live. Once again they played a set that was dominated by their more energetic songs, songs like Dismantle.Repair, Godspeed, Never Take Friendship Personal. They write and record great slower songs, but rarely play many of them live besides Unwinding Cable Car for which they switched to acoustic guitars for.
They also neglected to play any song off of Blueprints for the Black Market, their first album. I don't count Feel Good Drag because they re-released that track on their latest album New Surrender and its their single right now. Usually they play Readyfuels but not this time.
Everyone has the sense that Stephen basically makes this band, and that's true. While the band is very solid, Stephen is just amazing live. He sings so well, very strong at times and then very soft but powerful. He doesn't strain to hit the high notes, night after night. He seemed a little distracted by something this night which took away from his usually over-the-top energy, but even then he owned the show.
Another great part of Anberlin's live show is that they don't waste much time between songs. Stephen rarely spends time explaining the songs or lyrics (which might be nice once in awhile, but he already explains a lot on his blog) and even though there appeared to be some technical difficulties, Anberlin continued to keep the flow going. the "encore" break was short, probably just to set up the track for the closer, *fin, which was amazing.
The setlist included songs mainly from Cities, 2.5 from the new album New Surrender and the rest from Never Take Friendship Personal. Here's the set from what i remember:
Adelaide
Feel Good Drag
Unwinding Cable Car
Resilience
A Day Late
Godspeed
Dismantle Repair
Hello Alone
Paperthin Hymn
Breaking
Disappear
-encore-
*fin
As for the other bands, Streetlight Manifesto was terrible. Scary Kids Scaring Kids was basically scary and lacked any real highlights. their sound was way too loud and the keyboardist, who never really played the keys, was dancing all over the stage like a tool. They lacked any creative interesting sound, which was enough for Kassie to take a nap during their set, no seriously, she fell asleep numerous times.
This was my third time seeing these guys live, it might not have been the best show i've seen, but still one of the best band to see live, no question.
Showing posts with label ogden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ogden. Show all posts
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Tiger Army/Street Dogs @ Ogden review
Last night i saw the Street Dogs and Tiger Army at the Ogden Theatre in Denver. First off, i love the Ogden, its one of my favorite venues, it was the first place i caught a show after i moved to Denver in 2000.
Anyway, the first band of the night was The Static Age. They suck. trust me.
On to the Street Dogs. I love these guys. For fans of Dropkick Murphys and bands the like, you should check these guys out. The Ogden was packed, i'm sure it finally soldout, and i had to be in the pit for the Dogs. It was pretty crazy, Mike McColgan (ex- leadman for the Murphys) came out in true Irish/Boston dress, a long black coat and a beret hat. He's looking pretty old these days, i hate to admit, but he's amazing. Starting with Without a Purpose, Without a Fight the crowd got pumped up. the Dogs blazed through all their hit songs from Strike a Blow, Back to the World, Defense of Dorchester, Tobe's Got A Drinking Problem and Fighter without many breaks. The Street Dogs are a Pro-Union band, anti-war and their songs hold nothing back. One might expect that with such strong views, their shows would turn into a soapbox but thats what makes Mike such a good front man. He makes his points without overstepping.
The crowd participation was great and Mike was climbing all over the place and encouraging the crowd to participate. He could have passed the mic a little more but maybe he has trouble bending over due to age. At one point, before Tobe's Got a Drinking Problem, Mike gave the pit a beer shower, which then caused everyone with a beer to pour into the pit, suffice to say i didn't smell good when i got home. But no matter, the Dogs played for about 40 minutes, covering all songs they should have minus Common People and Mass Deception. They played a few slow ballad type songs to mix it up, all in all, i was very impressed and i'd see them again.
Now on to the headliner, Tiger Army. Let me say that if Isaac hadn't had invited me to this show i don't know if i would have gone. I like Tiger Army, and i've tried for years to really get into them but they never stick. I've seen them before and their shows are always great, they are very energetic and it doesn't hurt that the bass player plays a stand-up bass. Tonite was much the same, they always play ten times faster live, which is great for the people dancing but i think it takes away from the unique sound that is Tiger Army. Nick 13's voice is great but i had a hard time hearing it last night. Also, if you didn't know the songs last night, they might have all sounded the same since the drumbeat is the same 1950's rock/shuffle beat at the same speed for most songs.
On top of that, the new bass player is a tool. don't get me wrong, he was an amazing bass player, but his mic skills were terrible, he only said maybe three different phrases on the mic from "let me hear you Denver" to "is everyone having fun tonite". that got annoying. and he wore sunglasses for the whole set. and Tiger Army did the fake encore thing.
But they were good. And the crowd loved them. I'm surprised that they gotten such a huge following, i remember back in 2000 that nobody really liked them, they just knew that Nick 13 and Davey Havok were buddies. But this place last night went crazy, so that was nice to see. I didn't recognize all of the songs but i know that they played a lot of new songs from their third and fourth albums. Maybe Isaac can give us a set list.
All in all, a good night, it was fun to get out again. Good thing i didn't stay home and watch the Rockies.
Anyway, the first band of the night was The Static Age. They suck. trust me.
On to the Street Dogs. I love these guys. For fans of Dropkick Murphys and bands the like, you should check these guys out. The Ogden was packed, i'm sure it finally soldout, and i had to be in the pit for the Dogs. It was pretty crazy, Mike McColgan (ex- leadman for the Murphys) came out in true Irish/Boston dress, a long black coat and a beret hat. He's looking pretty old these days, i hate to admit, but he's amazing. Starting with Without a Purpose, Without a Fight the crowd got pumped up. the Dogs blazed through all their hit songs from Strike a Blow, Back to the World, Defense of Dorchester, Tobe's Got A Drinking Problem and Fighter without many breaks. The Street Dogs are a Pro-Union band, anti-war and their songs hold nothing back. One might expect that with such strong views, their shows would turn into a soapbox but thats what makes Mike such a good front man. He makes his points without overstepping.
The crowd participation was great and Mike was climbing all over the place and encouraging the crowd to participate. He could have passed the mic a little more but maybe he has trouble bending over due to age. At one point, before Tobe's Got a Drinking Problem, Mike gave the pit a beer shower, which then caused everyone with a beer to pour into the pit, suffice to say i didn't smell good when i got home. But no matter, the Dogs played for about 40 minutes, covering all songs they should have minus Common People and Mass Deception. They played a few slow ballad type songs to mix it up, all in all, i was very impressed and i'd see them again.
Now on to the headliner, Tiger Army. Let me say that if Isaac hadn't had invited me to this show i don't know if i would have gone. I like Tiger Army, and i've tried for years to really get into them but they never stick. I've seen them before and their shows are always great, they are very energetic and it doesn't hurt that the bass player plays a stand-up bass. Tonite was much the same, they always play ten times faster live, which is great for the people dancing but i think it takes away from the unique sound that is Tiger Army. Nick 13's voice is great but i had a hard time hearing it last night. Also, if you didn't know the songs last night, they might have all sounded the same since the drumbeat is the same 1950's rock/shuffle beat at the same speed for most songs.
On top of that, the new bass player is a tool. don't get me wrong, he was an amazing bass player, but his mic skills were terrible, he only said maybe three different phrases on the mic from "let me hear you Denver" to "is everyone having fun tonite". that got annoying. and he wore sunglasses for the whole set. and Tiger Army did the fake encore thing.
But they were good. And the crowd loved them. I'm surprised that they gotten such a huge following, i remember back in 2000 that nobody really liked them, they just knew that Nick 13 and Davey Havok were buddies. But this place last night went crazy, so that was nice to see. I didn't recognize all of the songs but i know that they played a lot of new songs from their third and fourth albums. Maybe Isaac can give us a set list.
All in all, a good night, it was fun to get out again. Good thing i didn't stay home and watch the Rockies.
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