Grousing The Aisles: June Tunes
Summer tour season has started with a bang: Huge acts such as Smashing Pumpkins, The Police and Genesis are headlining the summer with reunion shows, but many smaller acts are also kickin’ ass this month. This week’s special Thursday edition of Grousing The Aisles takes a look at four concerts that have taken place within the past two weeks that you definitely need to hear…
The White Stripes 06/02/2007 SBD Rock Im Park Festival (FLAC, MP3):
For the past few weeks I’ve been hearing about how The White Stripes’ new album Icky Thump is a masterpiece. I finally got around to listening to the album last night, and it was so good I played it three times in a row. After that I decided to download a recent show from the Rock im Park festival that our good buddy mikessong uploaded. All of the Icky Thump tunes sound awesome live, and it is always a treat to hear other White Stripes classics like My Doorbell and Seven Nation Army. Of particular note is the triple encore of Blue Orchid, I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself, and the aforementioned Seven Nation Army.
The quality of this recording isn’t the best I’ve ever heard, but it is certainly listenable. I kinda like hearing the audience, and you can hear fireworks going off towards the end of the band’s set. If you are looking for a laugh, listen for the off-key audience warbler singing along with Seven Nation Army. I’m really excited to see my first White Stripes show next month when they play MSG. For now I’ll just play Icky Thump and this bootleg over and over again.
Read on for three more gems, including Keller Williams and the WMDs, Pearl Jam and a clip from Genesis’ tour opener in Helsinki…
Keller Williams and the WMDs 06/08/2007 DAUD (FLAC, MP3, STREAM):
Keller Williams has established himself as a dynamic solo performer, but some of my favorite K-Dubs performances have come when he plays in a band with the String Cheese Incident. Therefore I was pretty excited to hear that Keller was putting a band together for a few gigs this summer called the WMDs. Williams rounded up some of his favorite musicians for his new band, including former ARU drummer Jeff Sipe, SCI bassist Keith Moseley, and guitarist Gibb Droll. The WMDs played one of their first gigs on Friday in Richmond, and a taper has kindly uploaded the show to the Live Music Archive.
Upon first listen I really like the arrangements of classic Keller tunes like Best Feeling and Play This. The band sounds tight, and Keller is clearly getting off on playing with some of his favorite musicians. It wouldn’t be a Keller Williams show without a shit-ton of covers, and the WMDs don’t disappoint, offering up tasty versions of Bird Song and Burning Down the House. The quality of the recording is terrific, so check it out for yourself and go see the WMDs this summer.
Pearl Jam 06/08/2007 Festimad Sur FM (FLAC):
Pearl Jam started their European summer tour on Friday night in Portugal. The next night they were one of the headliners at the Festimad Sur in Madrid. The Madrid show was broadcast on the radio and uploaded to the major torrent sites soon afterwards. Even though the band hadn’t played together in a while, they sound tight as fuck. The setlist is extremely varied, covering material from throughout the band’s epic career. Since this was a festival show the band played a shortened set, yet they still managed to play seven songs during the two encores. Even Ween doesn’t play that many songs.
My favorite part of the show, outside of the Spanish announcers that introduce every song to the radio audience, is the second encore. The boys come out with Black from their debut album, and follow it up with I Believe In Miracles, Baba O’Riley and Yellow Ledbetter. Yellow Ledbetter now will always bring a smile to my face, thinking about the lyrics “potato waves make me fries.” Sadly Pearl Jam is only playing one gig in America this summer, when they headline Lollapalooza in August. It’s a shame, as these guys are clearly riding a peak with their live shows.
Genesis 06/10/2007 Tour Rehearsal DAUD (FLAC):
While we were searching all of the torrent sites for audio of Genesis’s opening show, we came across an interesting track from Sunday’s rehearsal. An intrepid taper setup his rig outside of the stadium and made a pretty good recording of the band playing the In The Cage medley. You can tell that Genesis spent months holed up perfecting this material before offering it up to the public. Perhaps The Police can learn a lesson or two about getting your band’s shit together from Phil, Mike and Tony. This track has whet our appetite, but we are ready to hear the whole show. Again, if anyone comes across audio from the tour please leave a comment or send us an e-mail.
What have you been listening to this week? Leaving a comment below…
At what point does Keller do the band thing full-time? I mean, he’s an incredible performer and a true talent at what he does. But at this point, who hasn’t seen the act? Can it stay fresh? The answers are everyone, and no.
As much as I love seeing his schtick, maybe the best move for him is to take the WMDs (or a reasonable facsimile if those guys have other bookings) on the road full-time and play some solo KW shit during setbreak or during a few tunes when he sends the band off. I think it’s a necessity at this point.
I love that Canon>icky thump>Canon(slow) from that Whitestripes show.
Keller will assume the position of exiting Nershi at some point.
His pulling in Moseley for this grouping is only a step in that direction.
: timestamp :
[...] HT Giveaway: Pearl Jam Live at the Gorge Just yesterday we posted a torrent of Pearl Jam’s appreance at Festimad Sur in Madrid last week, saying the band sounded “tight as fuck.” We then lamented our only chance to see them in these United States would come at Lollapalooza, which neither of us can attend. So, basically, we’re shit out of live Pearl Jam luck. [...]
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