Blog

Destrophy
Papa Roach
Buckcherry
Avenged Sevenfold
Lacuna Coil
Chimaira
Killswitch Engage
Disturbed
Pomeroy
Dirty Little Rabbits
Rehab
Chester French
Panic! At the Disco
Fall Out Boy
blink-182
2Cents
Otep
Shadows Fall
Five Finger Death Punch
The Sleeping
Atreyu
Hollywood Undead

☆ = number of times seen live (plus one for the name)
No stars = seen just once

Sum 41
A Static Lullaby☆
Straight Outta Junior High☆☆☆☆☆
The Killers
Louis XIV
The Faint☆☆☆
Orienda Fink
Ladyfinger
Swizzle Tree☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Grasshopper Takeover☆
Creedence Clear water Revival
hEADaCHE☆☆
The Period
Treaty of Paris☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Anchondo☆☆☆
Sarah Benck and The Robbers
Lucky Boys Confusion☆☆
Slang 5☆☆☆
13 Stories
Haven 21
The Semester
JV Allstars☆
Inept
Ludo☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
The Effects☆
Chapstick Villains
rochester
Round One Knockout☆
Nobody's Rebel☆
Hold For Swank
The Hooligans
Ben Folds
Pomeroy☆☆
Eyes Catch Fire☆☆
Peachcake☆☆☆☆☆☆
Noah's Ark Was A Spaceship☆
Shinyville☆
Femme Fatality
Motion City Soundtrack☆☆
Hellogoodbye☆☆
Straylight Run
Against Me!☆
Alkaline Trio
Will Hoge
Flyover Country
Parallex
Your Face☆
Shinedown
Trapt
Venaculas
(hed) PE
Stigmata☆
Emphatic
Wicked Wisdom
Jazzwholes☆
meg and dia
Paramore
Underoath
Senses Fail
From First to Last
The Academy Is...
Quietdrive☆
Rookie Of The Year
VKS
Flatfoot 56
Bowling for Soup
Army of Freshmen
Punchline
O Lovelle
Pepper
The Wailers
Hawthorne Heights
311☆
Say Anything
Matchbook Romance
Yellowcard
Blue October
noizewave☆
Nifty 250
Buck Bowen
Oranjesta☆
Right Side Impact
Go Crash Audio
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus☆
Singularity Sound Machine
Man's Last Great Invention☆
Less Pain Forever
Screaming for Silence
Amsterband/Ha Ha Tonka☆☆☆☆
Trippin Default
The Livingstons
Flurry
Plain White T's
Jack's Mannequin
Panic! At the Disco
The Terminals
The Celebration
Atlas☆
Sequel To Adam
No Action
Old Boy Network
Stay Classy
Two Point Eight
Street Dogs
Flogging Molly
The Architects
Emery
Scary Kids Scaring Kids
kadisfly
Tilly and the Wall☆☆
Page France
Shockstars
My Chemical Romance
Rise Against☆
Cloud Cult
Jeff Johnson
The Rocket Summer
Boys Like Girls
Melee
Amber Pacific
Edmonton
Monty Are I
Services
Berg Sans Nipple
Eagle*Seagull
Flowers Forever
Ozma
The High Court☆
The Frantic
Down to Earth Approach
Last Fast Action
Dameria
Comeback Kid
Silverstein
The Actual☆☆
Tokyo Rose☆
Bear Country
Mae
Amberlin
Metro Station
Spitalfield
Meat Puppets
Cursive
Baby Walrus
Little Brazil
Sounds Under Radio
Neva Dinova
Race For Titles
Oppenheimer
They Might Be Giants
Thunder Power!!!
UUVVWWZ
The Evening Broadcast

Sun 27 Apr – Mississippi Music Fest

'Twas awesome. Despite my having to wake up at 0430 in order to do load-in. Arg.
It's very unfortunate, but we had to do it inside because the weather sucked. But we had six bands playing. The battle of the bands finalists - The run* and The Tapedecks played first, The Run* ended up being the winner, but I really hate them since they play the same damn songs every time, and their guitarist is a complete asshole.
Anyways, then came Daphne Willis & Co.
They were kind of boring. I guess they were okay chill music, and they were decent for what I was doing - sitting in the volunteer room talking with Xtopher (of Intellidance fame). Then was The Drew Davis Band. Eh, they were okay for what I was doing - still chilling.
Then came the awesome bands.
Pomeroy was so full of energy and had such great music. I bought a CD and got it signed by the entire band (one member twice by accident haha). Although, for their first three songs I ended up having to guard the back door, but I was able to escape that when six came along and I had to go do security on the front stage. Then I got to dance around to Pomeroy, yay.
Last, and certainly the most anticipated, was Quietdrive. Front stage security was needed at this point because people began crowd surfing and we were supposed to catch them and get them back on their feet and into the crowd. However, the only one we caught was one girl who was clearly tossed up involuntarily - she looked absolutely horrified, and begged to be carried (or whatever the proper verb would be) to the front, and we got her down and sent her on her way. The rest of the guys kept telling people to send them to the back of the crowd - and that's stupid, because the people in the back don't WANT (and in some cases are unable) to hold those people up in the air, and WILL drop them. But whatever. Quietdrive was fun, and I have to say, they better be loading up their next CD with a lot of songs featuring violin, because the vocalist is absolutely awesome with one.
Their set list (I swiped a copy during load out; and a pick and a broken drum stick, lol) was as follows:
1: Maybe Misery
2: The Season
3: Take a Drink
4: Get Up
5: Hollywood (new song)
6: Both Ways
7: Rush Together
8: Let Me Go In
9: Pretend (new song)
10: Frozen Foods
11: Do You Know
12: Time After Time
13: Handsome Devil's Benediction
14: Rise From the Ashes
And because we were the best fucking crowd ever, they gave us one more song:
Encore: Toxic (cover)
It was a pretty amazing cover, too. Cool show, can't wait for next year's MMF.

Saturday was the day - the Day On the Hill, that is.
So that means I've been sitting on this for 5 days now. The review is long overdue...

First off, the weather was cold, the ground was super muddy and the sun was ducking in and out of the clouds. There had been talk about snow, but that all managed to hold off.

Perhaps the weather was the reason why, but when the Roseline took the stage, there was less than 50 of us there. They had been scheduled to start up at 12:30, but when that time came The Faint were still soundchecking. So The Roseline started up at about 1 o'clock. The music was immediately engaging. The harmonies were spot on, the rhythm section sounded amazing. Unfortunately, the big gigantic empty tent made the vocals as muddy as the ground we were standing in, but it was still wonderful. However, due to the late start, the band was only allowed to play three songs. The band obviously wasn't thrilled about that, and neither was the small crowd, but there was nothing to be done about that. They are definitely on my "must see" list, and since they got away before I could buy a CD, I tracked one down at the best record store in the midwest, The Love Garden, before heading back home that evening.

Between sets (except between G. Love's and the Faint's, during which we were bombarded by the same Fugees track for an hour...literally) there was a DJ in the back spinning some classic funk records out of a milk crate on some fancy turntables. I don't know if I recognized a single song, but if I could get ahold of that playlist I would.

Next up was Pomeroy. I'd seen a fragment of a set of theirs a few years ago, but they didn't play a single one of those songs in their short set. We did get some funky beats, fancy percussion and a long-haired headbanging keyboard player. I don't dance but even I can appreciate some great butt shakin' music and that's exactly what Pomeroy's music is for. Front man David Fairbanks' rapid fire vocals didn't seem to go over well with the majority of the crowd, but I had me a good ole time.

Next was G. Love and Special Sauce. By this time, the tent was starting to get full - not uncomfortably croweded, but nice and full. And folks were loving it. There were hippies in tie-dyed t-shirts dancing with their bare feet in the mud. There were heads bobbin', people bouncing up and down and even some mud slingin'. Garret pulled out some of the classics, several from the last album and even a tease of "Gin 'n' Juice." Most major props of the show go to Jimmy Jazz, the upright bass player. I was amazed at his skill and ability to jump off into crazy riffs without losing the groove of the song.

And finally came The Faint. I have heard mixed reviews of their live shows, but was uncharacteristically optimistic. And they were great. By this time, there was no grass left up front at all, so those of us who wanted up front just sunk down, got stuck and danced in the mud. And outside of one of the new songs, the first song of the encore (a strange choice to start the encore if you ask me...), no one stopped dancing at all. The almost sinister aspects to some of their songs were lost in the bright light of late afternoon and the video projections were nearly impossible to see, so it just kinda boiled down to a muddy dance party with great music. The new songs blended right in (except for the one) and the songs from "Danse Macabre" really stood out the strongest in the setlist.

P.S. - This is a slightly edited version of a post from my blog here

Here it is, the list of bands I can remember seeing/have ticket stubs for. Live music rules. You should go see some. Right now. Or wait for tonight when there may be a band playing in your area.

Lipstick Homicide x2
Snow Demon
the old man
Samuel Locke Ward & the Boo Hoos
Ed Gray
alex body
Tim Krein
Naked Hasselhoff
Grand Archives x2
Yarn Owl
Modest Mouse x4
The Night Marchers
Band of Horses x2
Cass McCombs
Sonic Youth
The Jesus Lizard
Built to Spill x3
Awesome Color
Band Of Skulls
The Dutchess and the Duke
Spinnerette
Deerhunter
Earth
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
The Thermals
The Gossip
Girls
Akimbo
The Shins
Delta Spirit
Horse Feathers
Ah Holly Family
Buffalo Death Beam
The Brian Jonestown Massacre
Spoon
Fruit Bats
Sera Cahoone
Superchunk
The Black Keys
Neko Case
Mike Doughty
Blitzen Trapper x2
Tapes 'n Tapes
Lucinda Williams
Kinski x2
!!!
Forro In The Dark
Langhorne Slim & the War Eagles
Old 97's
Two Gallants
John Vanderslice
Thao with The Get Down Stay Down
Ravens & Chimes
Beachwood Sparks
Foals
Green River
Eric's Trip
Flight of the Conchords
Iron & Wine
Mudhoney
The Vaselines
Low
Fleet Foxes
Comets on Fire
No Age
Red Red Meat
Les Thugs
The Fluid
The Helio Sequence
Pissed Jeans
Wolf Parade
Seaweed
Constantines
Obits
The Lights
Android Hero
The Decemberists
Death Cab for Cutie
The National
The Breeders
Bayonics
Michael Franti & Spearhead
Petit Mal
House of Large Sizes x20
Intervision
Isis
Wolves in the Throne Room
Man Man
Sunset Rubdown
Johnny and the Moon
Buddy Miles
Ted Leo and The Pharmacists
Love of Diagrams
Love as Laughter x2
of Montreal
Loney, Dear
Dan Bern x5
Jeff Tweedy
Pieta Brown x3
Greg Brown x5
Bo Ramsey x4
David Zollo x6
Hamell on Trial
Drive-By-Truckers x7
Centro-matic x3
Dave Matthews Band
Lucy Kaplansky
Alice Cooper
311 x5
Tool
Tricky
Ani DiFranco
Vic Chesnutt
Beastie Boys
Pearl Jam x4
Frank Black
Murder City Devils
Eddie Vedder
Rage Against the Machine
Cibo Matto
Run DMC
Blondie
Tracy Chapman
The Roots
OutKast
Biz Markie
Live
Handsome Boy Modeling School
The Black Crowes x2
The Diplomats of Solid Sound
The Beat Strings x2
The Teddy Boys
Kelly Pardekooper x2
Shatzi
The New Duncan Imperials x6
The Slats
Fuel
Gandharvas
Dead Dare
Metallica
Jerry Cantrell
Goldfinger
Fastball
Rev. Horton Heat x2
Marcy Playground
Everclear
Sister Soleil
The Bent Sceptors
Mike Watt & the Secondmen
Foo Fighters
Talk Show
Treble Charger
The Verve Pipe
Tonic
K's Choice
Wilco x3
KISS
Beck
Atari Teenage Riot
The Smashing Pumpkins x2
Garbage
Tori Amos x3
Alanis Morrisette
Ween
Widespread Panic
Galactic
Stone Temple Pilots
Incubus
The Donnas
OK Go
The Eggnogs x2
Mr. Blanding's Dreamhouse
The Broken West
Death Ships
The Mittens
Rooney
The Hackensaw Boys x5
Martin Sexton
Junior Brown x3
The Nadas
Alejandro Escovedo x2
The Gourds
Groovatron
Truckstop Honeymoon x2
Sound Tribe Sector 9
Mofro
Slobberbone
BottleRockets
Lucero
Split Lip Rayfield x3
Keller Williams x3
Leftover Salmon
Papa Mali
Robert Randolph & The Family Band x2
Tea Leaf Green
BR5-49
Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise
Pomeroy
Guided by Voices
Particle
Donna the Buffalo x2
Chris Duarte
Mountain of Venus
Los Lonely Boys
Dirty Dozen Brass Band
North Mississippi Allstars
Hot Buttered Rum String Band x2
The Pushbacks
Houston
Todd Snider
Disco Biscuits
Lotus
Buckethead
Backyard Tire Fire
Shooter Jennings
Cross Canadian Ragweed
Gov't Mule
Camper Van Beethoven x2
Cracker
Big Head Todd & The Monsters
Blues Traveler
Andrew Bird
Les Claypool
The Flaming Lips
Gabby La La
Railroad Earth x2
Yonder Mountain String Band
Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
William Elliot Whitmore x2
Hurra Torpedo
Deep Fried Pickle Project
Calexico
Ozomatli
String Cheese Incident
Matisyahu x3
Blueground Undergrass
Old Crow Medicine Show x2

This list is incomplete, but I can't think about it anymore. Anyway, I've seen a lot of bands and it's been awesome. If you want to talk about bands, live music, or anything, drop me a line in the shoutbox.