Críticas

Fri 6 Nov – Night Eternal Above America tour

Secrets of the Moon - The reason I was willing to drive to San Antonio - did not disappoint, with their weird discordant atmosphere, and unrelenting, shapeshifting metal.

Divine Heresy - Dino Cezares does not disappoint, those nimble fingers are amazing. It's a shame I hate their songs/singer so much, and that their emotion is such bland testosterone rage.

Moonspell - I wasn't really sure whether I liked moonspell or not. There seem to be wildly varied opinions about them in the metal world at large. I dunno, I guess I have a soft spot for gothy doomy metal that doesn't overdo it. I liked the show a lot.

Sat 7 Nov – Fun Fun Fun Fest 2009

Young Widows - I missed Coliseum, but for as much as I like Coliseum's nuanced songwriting, Young Widows are much more varied, and had really memorable songs. I need to pay them more attention.

Foot Patrol - Silly songs about foot fetishism. You kinda wonder why the singer doesn't sing in a more well known band, though. His range is pretty solid.

Russian Circles - 3rd time's a charm. Finally got to see them, and they didn't disappoint. They led with Harper Lewis and Station, which already made my show.

After that, we skipped to Frank for some dogs and cocktails.

Ssion - for stumbling randomly onto a blue stage show of a band we'd never heard of, they were pretty damn fun. dancy and silly.

Death - Reunion shows of bands that you've never been into are hard to appreciate.

Yeasayer - Really excellent show. I've only flirted with listening to them, mostly on the back of Bat For Lashes' new album. They were definitely one of the better shows of the day, though.

Fucked Up - I ran over for a brief bit, and their show was absolutely as crazy as I'd heard their shows are. Their frontman cracked jokes about anti-anxiety meds and Eyehategod, and there was a ton of crowd surfing and general shirtless chaos.

Shearwater - I love Shearwater, so it was easy to choose to skip the end of Yeasayer to see them(him), but it was kinda the wrong choice. Very odd set, much more noisy than the other 1.2 times I've seen him this year.

Face to Face - lots of crowd heckling, as usual, but they put on a fun show, of what I heard.

Ratatat - long sound check, but sounded good after they got started. Opted to head to Mohawk for the option of sitting down/air conditioning/cheap beer.

Sat 7 Nov – Fun Fun Fun Afterparty

Twin Tigers - Fast and punky, definitely enjoyed their set. Will have to check them out.

The Octopus Project - Oh my god. I'd listened to them a little, but on record they come across much more chilled. The show was really energetic and electro, vs. the weird organic sounds on their albums.

Voxtrot - lovely as always.

Sat 7 Nov – Fun Fun Fun Fest Day 2

WHY? - The show was good, they played well, and it was a setlist full of songs I like. The rain definitely dampened it, though.

Coalesce - It's hard to say whether the sound peaking and distorting helped or hurt their set. After seeing so many metal shows, I'm used to being blown away by precision, rather than blasted with noise and emotion. With the downpour, though, it was hard to really get into the mood for that sort of chaos.

We took a quick run to Target for ponchos and dry/warm clothes at this point.

HEALTH - Fortunately, the blue stage was running behind, so we walked in just as they were soundchecking. It amazes me that they would use guitars to control the sounds that they produce. I don't know if that's something they do live, or if they actually make the albums that way. Definitely left them room to spazz out and be awesome, though.

Lucero - we found our way to the front-ish during lucero's set, so we could be close for the following shows on the orange stage. I dunno, lucero is ok in small doses - their songs kinda run together even during a short 40 minute set.

Crystal Castles - The shoving and umbrella waving was too much to deal with, so we backed out of the crowd after lucero, and watched CC from farther up the hill. That was definitely the way to do it, their light show is more than their stage presence, they played mostly in darkness, occassionally silhouetted against their lights.

of Montreal - Oh my god, the costumes, the weird videos, the awesome lyrics, the ninja dancers. So much awesome.

Danzig - I had to, just because I probably wouldn't see him any other way, now that his band isn't really a band any more, it's just whoever can put up with him. I caught Twist of Cain, and some glimpses of his skin tight shirt, and called it good.