July 14, 2017

The Weekend of Wonderful Sounds

As summer finds itself in full swing, I've seemed to have upped my concert repertoire over the recent months, and rather swiftly, I might add.

I've headed to shows all throughout the city [and a few burbs] that include: Tool, Rhiannon Giddens, Gary Clark Jr., Air, The B-52's, Gorillaz, and Natalie Merchant [Phish is on deck for Sunday]. All of these were fantastic shows. I'm going to delve into a few details about two of them, which is particularly easy because I saw both artists this past weekend.

Gorillaz

I'll take you over to Northerly Island where I saw Gorillaz on Saturday, July 8th. Now this was a band I had been quite enthused with over the past decade and then some. I remember being 18 [yeah, I was late to the party] and running into the Jamba Juice I was working at, only to Zach Braff my co-workers by putting my headphones in their ears and playing 'The Sounder', insisting that they needed to hear it. I remember hearing that for the first time and it being a song I had to listen to over and over.'Ghosttrain' was another favorite at that point in time.


I'm pretty amped on their latest album, as it possess a glorious hype and overall different vibe from their former work. Saying that, Gorillaz always tend to do their own thing and it's rather difficult to compare songs as they vary significantly, as do their albums. Please, let us not forget 'M1 A1' which always enthusiastically scares the hell out of me, but gains a groovy rock ability mid-way. Their concert delivered for new fans and those who have been there since the beginning. They kicked it off with 'Ascension' where I thoroughly lost my shit. There are so many great songs to dance to on Humanz that it really accentuated my hype. I believe I danced the entire concert. You couldn't not.


When they slid gloriously into 'Last Living Souls', it warranted another mind-losing session as I've loved that song for too long not to see it played live. 'Charger' was a serious shock to my system because I didn't even see that coming and it's one of my favorites off the latest. I fell in love with 'Out of Body', which I had heard before, but apparently not thoroughly enough. That was a song that required some righteous grooves. Everything continued to be outstanding all the way until they closed it up with 'Demon Days', which could not have been more appropriate. Such a beautiful song and a great way to send us off. It's always fun being the first U.S. show, we were the fun experiment for the new setlist, which is pretty lovely.