Happy Belated Matador at 21!

This year has been the year of rock and roll for me. Yes, there have been years when I have seen a large number of concerts (1995 and 1996 were very fruitful in this regard--maybe even early 1997), but living in Vegas has put a damper on the rock and roll. Getting older hasn't helped; in talking with Todd about turning 37, we mentioned that 35 seemed manageable, but that 37 is just too close to 40 and the-old-guy-in-the-corner for comfort. So, while in Park City for a family reunion, I happened to hear about a Modest Mouse show in Salt Lake. I scrounged up the details and found that not only was it a concert, but a FREE concert as part of their city concert series. I met my friend Eric and went to the show, which was enjoyable, if you're into spending time in a city park with roughly 40,000 strangers. Later, I spent some birthday money on a last-minute concert decision: the Pixies came to Vegas (there was a rash of shows in late September/early October--no one, and I mean NO ONE comes through town, but in the span of a couple of weeks there was Vampire Weekend, Band of Horses, the Pixies, and the gigantic Matador show--of course, saying "no one" should probably be tempered with the fact that I no longer pick up the free weeklies to see who's coming, nor do I get much reliable music information from the teenagers I spend my days with). When I initially saw the tickets for the Pixies, they were $180 or something crazy like that, but I think I was looking at the pre-sale/hotel room combo. The show was great, and, considering my Pixies obsession started about the time they were falling apart, it was the first real chance I had to see them. They played the album "Doolittle" in its entirety, in addition to the b-sides from the singles and a few of their most popular tracks. I would've stayed much later if they would have continued. But this is not a post about the Pixies (well, okay, it kind of has been); it is about the mother lode.

I heard from Todd about the Matador at 21 show in the works for Las Vegas for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of October, and the list of featured bands read like my college soundtrack. After sweating the ticket details and thinking it was unlikely we'd get to go, we ended up with four tickets, thanks to Todd's quick mouse finger and the help of one of my former students, Kahla, who bought the tickets at a local record store for me since I was out of town when they went on sale. Luckily, Eric and Danny were willing to come down from Salt Lake to spend the weekend with us. That's enough narrative. I've narrowed the pictures I took to a kind of representative sample. When shooting concerts, I always shoot a ton because of the questionable and constantly changing light. This weekend was frustrating, since the lights for opening bands was much, much dimmer than for the headliners, and many of my digital shots are really noisy. I was extremely glad to have been able to bring my camera, as well as get some seriously sweet hook-ups from another former student, Lindsay, which allowed us to sit in a swanky box just off to the side of the stage.


Chavez and the crowd. I'm probably exaggerating, but their performance was almost worth the entire ticket price. They were so tight as a band and I was so excited to hear their set--they set a really high bar for all three evenings.


James Lo (introduced as the "best Asian drummer from Detroit"--correct me if I'm wrong, Todd) won the award for most amazing drummer for the weekend (and probably most Asian).


Pavement--I saw them last on their tour for Wowee Zowee; I had heard this was their final show, but apparently, they've played a few more since, and are even playing with Smashing Pumpkins at some point ("Range Life", anyone?). Malkmus was doing his best to keep the spotlight on himself, Spiral Stairs lost it multiple times because of horrible, horrible sound/monitors on the right side of the stage (every band had the same issue), Bob Nastanovich was all sorts of yelly, and Steve West and Mark Ibold just kept doing what they do (and even doing it with various equipment malfunctions). It was a fun and laid-back set, despite the equipment mess-ups and onstage tensions.


Ted Leo in the after-hours battle with F'ed Up.


BLUES EXPLOSION!


BLUES EXPLOSION!


BLUUUUUES EXPLOSION!


Did I mention BLUES EXPLOSION?! Laura and I saw them clean back when we were dating. I can only imagine the serious deep-knee bend regimen Jon Spencer has to keep up to stay in tip-top performing shape.


Mac from Superchunk. They could easily have played another couple of hours and I wouldn't have complained. Saw them last in October of 1995 in the basement of the (I can't remember the name) club in Salt Lake City.


Spoon--saw them in SLC, L.A., Tucson, and now Vegas. They played some older stuff, which I was grateful for, and I think they even neglected to play 10:20 AM, which is quite possibly the worst song in their (and many other bands') catalogs.


Ira of Yo La Tengo not smashing his guitar.


You're doing it wrong.


(Insert rock jump here--looks like Rock School worked).


Guided By Voices--I don't know enough to get as excited for these guys as everyone else did, including the guy who stood in front of us and sang ALL the lyrics, complete with theatrical/operatic arm gestures (next to his very drunk and affectionate booth mates, who didn't need any R & B to help them make the rest of us uncomfortable). There was enough arena rock posturing, high kicks, and goofy guitar hero antics for my tastes. An enjoyable set, but I would have appreciated more time distributed to people I wanted to see. And we know it's all about me.

I'm not a music critic, and I don't know if anyone else would agree or understand what I would have to say about it, so I won't drag this entry out any more than I have to. It was probably a once in a lifetime experience, and it came to VEGAS! I can still hardly believe it myself. Best of all, I wasn't the oldest person there by far.