Night of Concerts

I absolutely cannot complain about last night in any way, shape, or form (unless we're talking about someone in the shape of a stupid fat man that kept falling into me or retarded mosh pit dudes). Hot Hot Heat flew in from Canada just to play a concert at USC for Welcome Week. Their set was well over an hour long and completely inspired, totally energetic, 100% on the ball ... just a great live show. The lights were fabulous, the crowd gave [too much] feedback, and the band just refused to mess up.
Their openers sucked. Do not listen to Big City Rock (they want to be U2 and/or Coldplay and/or Keane ... avoid!), and do not listen to Katy Perry (even though she dug my bag). She's crass for no reason, sings about high school crushes while well into her 20s, and just likes to throw swears out there because she can. Yep, really sticking it to the man there, but dropping an F-bomb during Welcome Week. That worked ...


After that was over, we headed on over to the Echo to see the end of the F*?k Yeah Fest (hey, I'm trying to keep it PG as well!) ... that was great. Silversun Pickups was nosier and awesomer than I remember them being. Like noise-rock shoegaze or something. Eerie and definitely a tad creepy, but invigorating and unique as well.
Giant Drag was amazing. Awesome. Too cool.
Annie was a bit honked off last night, though. Some jerk in the front kept harassing her, I guess, and that upset her quite a bit. Her pre-amp was sounding like "the Loch Ness Monster with diarrhea" and she threatened to beat the crap out of several concert goers.
The profanities and threats aside, though, she was right on. And Micah, the drummer/synth player, was brilliant ... he somehow kept time and played synth at the same time ... blew my mind. Indeed.
What an inspiring night. Check out the flickr set here.