This week rollcall

[gaaaaaaaaah]

I had a great time last night. My seat was a kinda weird angle, but not bad at all.

I was very impressed by the Joy Formidable. I've only heard the single of theirs that DC101 plays a bit, but that was a fantastic opening set, and I'd love to see them on their own. The little jam/noisy bit at the end of Whirring was terrific. It felt like a young band doing their best to take advantage of playing to an arena crowd and from what I could tell of the floor, people were digging it. Good for them.

Social D were good, but maybe not my thing. A couple songs really grabbed my attention, and I'd probably like the others if I were familiar already. But they sounded great, and must have had a bunch of fans there by the size of the crowd for their set. And the t-shirts on the three kids next to me.

Then the Foos were terrific. I'd never seen them, but I pretty much knew exactly what they'd play. I can't fault them for playing their two dozen songs that an arena of people know by heart, but I would have loved to have heard Big Me or Aurora or I Should Have Known or more from S/T or Colour and Shape. That's a petty complaint because the songs they played were so great. Once they played Stacked Actors I was pretty much set. That's probably my favorite FF song. I stood up the whole set and a lot of folks in my 200 level seat did the same, and it looked like the higher seats were mostly standing too. Good crowd from where I was, but I'd believe it if you said it was shitty elsewhere.

It was nice to see Dave in storytelling mode for a bit, and he seemed genuinely happy to be back in the area. Hopefully they come back again quicker than last time.

This was probably the first real arena (unless Patriot Center counts) show I've seen, and I didn't mind the venue at all. I wouldn't want all my shows to be arena sets, but it was a nice change of pace from clubs and theaters.

[ggw]

Social D was great but way too short. Foo Fighters were good but way too long.

[sweetcell]

last night's show was excellent.  exactly what an arena rock show should be.  more later.

[kosmo vinyl]

last night's show was excellent.  exactly what an arena rock show should be.  more later.

The ability to turn bland songs into something spectacular?

[blipvurt]

I was surprised by how little Grohl came down the runway or whatever..

Really? Having a second solo stage rise up at the back of the arena and dedicating two major portions of the show to that stage wasn't enough for you? He even commented on how he did that to give the people with shitty seats in the back something special. How many other arena bands give a shit about that? What would have satisfied you, if he came and played in your lap?

I thought Grohl orchestrated a pretty amazing feat of rock showmanship last night. You could tell he was putting his all into giving the audience the best possible show. I don't even really dig the Foo's on the radio but Grohl and Co. transformed themselves to deliver one of the most fun arena performances I've seen in quite awhile.

[hutch]

dean and britta at the national gallery of art playing while the screen tests were on the big screen was pretty cool...


unbelievable how many people showed up...


i was the last person to get in.

 

[sweetcell]

was pretty resigned to not going to the foo fighters show last night until medmad came through with some front row uppers.  the last 4 times i've seen dave/the foos have been from 25 feet away or less, luckily their stage show did a great job of filling the whole arena.  not sure if the people on the floor could see this, but the entire stage was made up of LCD panels (video 1, video 2).  from my vantage point i got the full effect of the light show. speaking of the floor, it was way undersold (pic).  a few hundred more people could easily have fit in there.  it was a little embarrassing when dave ran to the back mini-stage and there was no one on the barricades.  maybe it's fire/safety regulations that stipulate you can only have X number of people on the floor, regardless of whether they're standing or sitting? 

the show was 3 hours long, the encore being an hour of that (which we saw from the lower bowl, having snuck down).  i can see how some might say that's too long, but i loved every second of it since the show just kept getting better as it went on.  dave really gave it his all and local references were fun, like describing the soulless malls of springfield, but he might want to get some new stage banter material: he's been flogging that story about the girl in grade 7 who broke his heart for some time now.  it was cool to see bob mould brought for the encore but i feel his presence wasn't used to it's full potential.  it was great to see how much love pat smear got when he was introduced.  more pix & setlist.

for others who were at the show - dave twice mentioned "see you at the 930".  i thought he meant that he would play there at some point, but the missus thought that he was inviting people back there for a drink immediately after the show.  did anyone else catch this?  did anyone head over to the 930??

joy formidable: pretty meh, for me.  their first few songs were alright but that noise-jam at the end just bugged.

social d: i love me some mike ness, but something didn't click last night.  their performance was fine, but i didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the other times i've seen them. 

[wml7]

I was able to trade my nyc floor ticket for a dc floor.  I wish I could make it to the ny show but I couldn't.  I wasn't able to sell my 217 level ticket but I could see it from the floor and it didn't look like a bad area.  I thought Joy Formidable are really starting to blow it up.  I've seen them a few times already and love watching them.  Social D was pretty good and I've seen them like 11 times now or so through out the years.  Mike Ness still brings it.  During their set a mini mosh pit broke out which cleared the area around me.  I was happy it cleared the area out because there was this couple behind me who would just talk the entire time during Joy and Social D.  It was just nonsense stuff too and of course they had to shout talk since it was so loud in there.  The mosh pit took care of those two    Foo Fighters were pretty good http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ULjd6u_66U  Dave still tells the same stories and I didn't realize this till now, but has been telling each city they will come back to play in a smaller club.  Tonight they play NY, so he will probably say they will come back to play Roseland or Terminal 5.  All in all good show 

[kosmo vinyl]

Fitz and the Tantrums - tonight  Show would have gone to 11 had I gotten the chance to DJ, so it will just be a 9.5 evening

need a little playlist to get in the right mood?

http://www.mixcloud.com/DJWren/dancin-on-the-green-line/

[azaghal1981]

Turned away.

dean and britta at the national gallery of art playing while the screen tests were on the big screen was pretty cool...


unbelievable how many people showed up...


i was the last person to get in.

 

[thatguy]

speaking of the floor, it was way undersold (pic).  a few hundred more people could easily have fit in there.  it was a little embarrassing when dave ran to the back mini-stage and there was no one on the barricades.  maybe it's fire/safety regulations that stipulate you can only have X number of people on the floor, regardless of whether they're standing or sitting? 

the capacity of the floor is set based on the space available.  if all of those people cram up to the front, the back looks empty.  it was at capacity.

for others who were at the show - dave twice mentioned "see you at the 930".  i thought he meant that he would play there at some point, but the missus thought that he was inviting people back there for a drink immediately after the show.  did anyone else catch this?  did anyone head over to the 930??

yes, people did.  i sent a warning over to the club to expect that misunderstanding, and they turned away probably 40 or 50 people.

[sweetcell]

will do.  probably a game-time decision, will depend on what my sunday looks like.

yeah, i live a couple of blocks away, so i'm in the same boat

hoya- not looking likely.  i'm off for a long run, then have guests over later this afternoon, and a ton of stuff to do around the house and yard.  i think my evening entertainment, should i get around to it, will be limited to pats/jets.  if you end up going, please be sure to piss me off with stories of how good it was.

[sweetcell]

speaking of the floor, it was way undersold (pic).  a few hundred more people could easily have fit in there.  it was a little embarrassing when dave ran to the back mini-stage and there was no one on the barricades.  maybe it's fire/safety regulations that stipulate you can only have X number of people on the floor, regardless of whether they're standing or sitting? 

the capacity of the floor is set based on the space available.  if all of those people cram up to the front, the back looks empty.  it was at capacity.

right, and my point is that that "capacity" it set too low - not that my opinion if worth much, since i'm not in the crowd safety business

for others who were at the show - dave twice mentioned "see you at the 930".  i thought he meant that he would play there at some point, but the missus thought that he was inviting people back there for a drink immediately after the show.  did anyone else catch this?  did anyone head over to the 930??

yes, people did.  i sent a warning over to the club to expect that misunderstanding, and they turned away probably 40 or 50 people.

cool, thanks for clarifying.  i'm sure that's all staph needed - end of shift, cleaning up and closing down, only to have a few dozen foos fans show up demanding drinks and dave

[HoyaSaxa03]

will do.  probably a game-time decision, will depend on what my sunday looks like.

yeah, i live a couple of blocks away, so i'm in the same boat

hoya- not looking likely.  i'm off for a long run, then have guests over later this afternoon, and a ton of stuff to do around the house and yard.  i think my evening entertainment, should i get around to it, will be limited to pats/jets.  if you end up going, please be sure to piss me off with stories of how good it was.

Yeah, saw that it's sold out.  And I'm wearing a very comfortable pair of slippers.

[lily1]

kosmo, my friend went and texted me from the showing telling me that the music the dj was playing was fantastic!

go kosmo!

Fitz and the Tantrums - tonight  Show would have gone to 11 had I gotten the chance to DJ, so it will just be a 9.5 evening

need a little playlist to get in the right mood?

http://www.mixcloud.com/DJWren/dancin-on-the-green-line/