2 posts tagged “show”

Hey everyone, who are your favorite bands or artists to see live?

1. Rock the Bells

So, last weekend Emily and I went to The Gorge to take in the glorious music festival known as Rock the Bells.

It was amazing! To see the hip hop acts that were the heroes of my youth performing live on stage for the first time ever was a wonderful thing. The primary reason we were there was to see A Tribe Called Quest (more on them later), but there was plenty more to enjoy as great performances were offered by the likes of De La Soul, The Pharcyde, Murs, and Mos Def (a Hip Hop artist many white people tend to enjoy).

It was a great day full of energy, fun, and quality hip hop that just reaffirms my conviction that people like 50 Cent and The Game shouldn't be allowed to record music, or at the very least a clearer line should be drawn between what would properly be referred to as hip hop, and what should be referred to as rap.

The only sad part of the day was that some of the acts didn't make it to the final show, so we weren't able to enjoy performances by some artists we wanted to see... like MF Doom for instance.

Yet, all in all it was well worth the cost of admission. I just hope they have a great lineup again next year!

2. A Tribe Called Quest

Tribe didn't invent hip hop, they weren't the first act to create an organic fusion between jazz and hip hop, but they just might have been the first artists to reach the pinnacle of each. Wrigley Field is so beautiful and perfect that its as if the idea of baseball itself, the best of what baseball can be, took on the physical form of a stadium... that's what Tribe is to hip hop. They're the incarnation of hip hop, of all that hip hop can be, or should be.

The best of hip hop today looks back to Tribe for cues. Even Kanye, when asked about the pressure of releasing a sophmore album after such a highly successful first album, pointed out that when he creates an album it shouldn't merely be judged against the litmus test of his own albums, but against the greatest albums hip hop has ever produced and the first example he listed was Tribe's "Midnight Marauders."

For my money, while some match the genius perhaps, no album will ever surpass the amazing cocktail of genius, inventiveness and fun of "Midnight Marauders," and its immediate predeccesor, "The Low End Theory."

So, it was amazing when the lights went out at Rock the Bells, and with more power and volume than ever before the base line from Bugging Out filled my fortunate ears. At the beginning of every new song I thought I might explode from joy, or spontaneously burst into flames as the titans who saved me from trash music as a child performed at the top of their game on stage before me.

No other musical act has been with me as long as Tribe has. When I went through the common youth group practice of feeling guilty and getting rid of all my music that wasn't Christian, or that contained cursing, Tribe alone survived. I loved those CDs so much that apparently I was willing to risk the eternal fate of my very soul to continue my relationship with them. No other artist has stuck with me that long, no other act would have been listed as one of my five favorite bands were you to ask me at 11, 16, 21, or 26.

So, when Tribe took the stage, it was a lifetime of enjoyment and appreciation coming to fruition. We would have gone home happy if they'd been the only act that night, and if you ever get the opportunity to see them live, saying I highly recommend you do so is obviously a huge understatement.

3. Seven Pounds

So, #3 will actually be much shorter than it should be. I wrote at length, twice, about Will Smith's next film, Seven Pounds but VOX sucks, and as has happened far too many times before on VOX... but never on blogspot, I lost everything I'd written. If it weren't for the fact that I'd miss my wonderful neighbors, I think I'd have been gone a long time ago to a blogging site that doesn't erase everything you've written if you are unexpectedly moved to another page, and where the creators are familiar with a feature known as "autosave"... or any save for that matter which didn't require you to publish you entire post as hidden periodically. 

Anyway, here is the shortened version of my thoughts on Seven Pounds.  

On Wednesday, I got the chance to be a part of the first real audience to see the film thanks to my friend Austin. We got to see the film in its current form, which will no doubt change some between now and the film's release date in December. It was fantastic.

In my opinion, it was the strongest performance in Will Smith's impressive career.

As an aside, if you ever look for a sign that the shadow of racism still touches our country, just look at Will Smith. Think honestly about how often he's discussed as the biggest movie star in the world... doesn't happen that often does it? Sure, he's given credit as a box office power, even as a megastar, but it's still not as much as he actually deserves. Outside of Wild, Wild West, the man is immune to big box office bombs, and he has the longest streak of consecutive $100 million grossing films ever (and in addition to the 8 in that streak, he has 4 more films that would fit into that $100M category, one of those in $300M territory). If Will Smith were white, there wouldn't even be a conversation, it would simply be understood that no one draws people to the theater more effectively than The Fresh Prince, but he isn't white, and thus he often doesn't even make everyone's short list. So, if surveyed, I bet many people probably wouldn't even guess that he's done things at the box office that Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Mel Gibson and the like have never done.

But, back to the film. I won't go into details about the plot so as not to spoil anything, suffice it to say that Smith stars as a man who is crippled by guilt over a past event. What I will say about the film is that, to use some critic cliches, it's emotionally gripping, powerful, and engaging. It pulls you in and doesn't let go, and at the end I found myself wishing I could stay in the rich world I'd been introduced to, continuing to witness the lives of these characters.

Smith shows off an impressive combination of both range and depth in the film that he doesn't often get credit for being capable of. The film is also impressive in that it enters the realm of the morally gray that most big Hollywood films avoid like the plague.  

Anyway, the gist of what I'd like to say about Seven Pounds is that it gets my wholehearted seal of approval, you should all go check it out when it comes out December 19th.

4. Lost

Not too long ago, I never would have expected to see myself writing about Lost in a "five things" post. I absolutely love the first season, but became completely disenchanted when the second season came and it became clear that many of the hints and mysteries of the first season were being abandoned and changed, or at the very least that the writers had changed their minds about quite a bit. For me, as I've written here before, mysteries just aren't fun if there isn't actually an answer. What's the point in trying to figure out the solution to a riddle if the rules and key points of the riddle might just change midstream.

Yet, even though we were not as into season two, Blockbuster online gives us the ability to rent DVD's with no risk, so we decided to give the show another chance and watch season three, and boy am I glad we did! The narrative seemed to finally be settled, at least on the key points, and the writers seem to have a fairly clear idea where the audience is headed again... and it's great! My hope is that it was a similar season two slump, along with the writer's strike, that led to Heroes being awful last year, so that it too will have a similar resurrection for season three.
 

After watching season three on DVD we plowed right on to season four in HD on ABC.com. I know most people have already made up their minds on the show one way or the other, but for those who haven't, the show is vast in scope (even if it is on an island), it's well acted, for the most part is filled with strong storytelling, and it has reestablished itself in my heart as my favorite show on network television.

Now if only I didn't have to wait until early 2009 for season five. =/

5. Football       

Football season is back, and I missed it more than I thought I did. Granted, it's pretty easy to miss when your favorite team is the reigning champion and you got to watch them overcome a team that many thought was unbeatable in remarkably dramatic fashion.

So far the season has been entertaining, and this weekend looks to continue that trend. Outside of seeing my Giants play again, which always fills me with both excitement and anxiety, the game I am looking forward to the most is the Cowboys vs. the Eagles on Monday Night Football. Both teams looked fantastic last weekend and seeing them square off should be a good time. Plus, there's the added drama because of the history between McNabb and T.O.
 

Anyway, not much to say there, I'm just really glad that NFL action is back.