shows
Laura's Synopses:
older shows here
5-6-03Pedro the Lion-i had never heard pedro the lion before, but i've read good things about them in rockpile magazine. so when patts and brandt invited me to the FU church with them, and i realized i haven't been to a show in like 6 months, i was totally up for it. the three guys (of the band) were a strange bunch... i heard someone say the guitarist looks like someone from the movie Deliverance... and the singer/bassist/acoustic guitarist seemed like he was really trying to fight his awkwardness and insecurity. inbetween songs he would ask the audience if there were any comments or questions, which i thought would be something i would do too if i were a songwriter/musician. but he would stumble and trail off when he tried to explain anything, not thinking that the audience understood. when he played though, oh man... he is really good, and how he felt could really get through. i wanted to dance.
11-16-02GWAR-heh... i love gwar. tom, jamie, and i met up with julia, josh, jason, jimi, and nucci at the stinky old electric factory. the opening band was cleverly called Six, and they sorta sounded like godsmack, but more boring if you could imagine. in the pit for gwar, i was surrounded by fat, smelly, trailer trash lookin kids and parents. they were making me feel a little ill, but i tried to focus my attention on the gore. bin laden came out twice; once to pee on us, and once to be sliced open (while they played "Back to Iraq" hehe) Something that disturbed me was when they brought out a Mike Tyson-esque boxer and Oderus said "I'd fight you, but i'm afraid of negroes" and they played "Apes of Wrath" while they sliced him and teased him with a banana... that's just wrong... i don't think they're racist, but i don't know... that was pushing it. He told a funny joke, though... he said: Bananarama are going back on tour to benefit breast cancer (but he called it rotting tit syndrome), and for the tour they're changing their name to manogram-arama. hehe. slymenstra was there and she has a saggy butt now. i only got my boob grabbed once, but i turned around and got pissed and yelled "fuck off!" and the guy looked scared. christy was there... umm... i hurt my elbow... and got very showered in gore. it was lots of fun. on the way there, i was questioning that maybe i was getting too "old" for this kind of stuff, but as soon as gwar came out and i got that natural high, i thought HELL NO! hehe i hope i never get too old for this stuff... maybe i'll go deaf first, but even that won't stop me.
9-28-02Mindless Self Indulgence-me, tom, jamie, and jim drove down to the Transit night club to meet donnelly, wendy, melissa, and jim's little sister. but when we got there, they told us that the show was not to be all ages anymore, and you had to be 18 with an i.d. to get in. so we waited outside for hours until the money refund thing was straightened out, then i was a jerk and went inside at midnight to see the band by myself since donnelly and melissa were the only ones who could get in with me but they didn't know the band anyway. the stage was set up in such an awkward way, that you could only see the heads of the band members bouncing up and down once in a while, and the sound was pretty crappy in the tiny club. they were fun to hear and it was fun watching jimmy make the noises he does, and it was worth getting squished and sweaty for. it even made me dance with the weirdos around me. at the end of the show, they all walked off stage into the crowd and i was an inch from touching jimmy's fishnetted chest before all of these guys came to pat him on the back and do the "guy thing".
9-21-02Bright Eyes in Philly-my friend lisa stewart and i took the train to the trocadero, and before we went in i had to sell rick's ticket to some lucky kid for $10. this show was not nearly as great as the ny show, but it was still enjoyable of course. they played the exact same set as the night before, although this time conor was visibly wasted or high on some pills or something, because he was stumbling around stage, talking nonsense in between songs, and the emotional atmosphere his music had created in ny was a lot less intimate and real and euphoric this time. the audience didn't seem to appreciate it as much, and there was no connection between us and the band, and they were farther away because of how high the stage is set at the troc. i'm glad i had gone to the new york show, because i would have felt very unsatisfied if i were to just have seen this performance.
9-20-02Bright Eyes in NY-shana and i took the subway to irving plaza to see this amazing show. the opening bands were solo artists who had conor play bass for one, and multiple people come out to play for different songs for the other guy. they weren't exactly to my liking. i kept telling shana that bright eyes would make it all worthwhile, and they far succeeded. with the 14 other members backing him up, it sounded euphoric. especially during songs that start out with just conor and his guitar and soft singing, and then suddenly every intstrument pours in... ah, it was like heroine for my ears. i had to keep hugging shana, like i had to contain my happiness from exploding out of me and killing everyone in the room. the stage was only a couple feet higher than standing level and so since we were two people from the very front of the stage, i could see those expressions and details on conor's face that made it so much more intimate than any other show i had been to. when he plays, he feels the music so much that his eyes roll in the back of his head, and i could see the little puddles of spit that form at the sides of his mouth, and i heard everything he said to his friends in betweeen songs. during a more jovial song, the whole band danced and sang together with their beer bottles, while the audience danced and sang back. they played mostly new songs, but a few old good ones... like neely o'hara and love is real. it left shana and i both in a huge after concert high.
8-23-02Taproot/Deadsy/Dredg-rick and i took the train and met with wendy and donnelly at the troc. dredg was whiny and numbing my mind. if you can picture coal chamber doing orgy songs, that would be deadsy... they were horrible. taproot were so amazing, though. you could tell steve (the singer) was getting so psyched because the audience was digging it so much. he kept getting those little excitment bursts and let the crowd sing a lot of the words, and he must have jumped into the crowd atleast 4 or 5 times. he even let some random kid sing a verse of a song. the whole thing was great, it was like going to see one of your best friends play or something. it made me feel that happy-concert-high that i so have missed. on one new song, he bursts out with these deep, emotional, perfect growls/screams... they even got rick excited... they were so nice. it was fun, i'm very glad i was there to experience it.
6-02The Minor Times/Leavenworth-my memory is slowly growing more holes... hmm... i remember me and rick... and it was at the sellersville vfw... and jon came and talked to me for a while, which was cool... and schmutz (inkling's ex singer) was there... and the minor time's barney rubble bassist pissed me off again... and i got bit by lots of mosquitos... and i was sad cause jon wasn't drumming, but leavenworth kicked butt anyway.
5-02Bright Eyes/The Good Life/Mayday-it has taken me quite a while to sit down and comment on this show because thinking back all i feel is this amazing awe... like my mind took a deep breath and held it the entire time Conor was onstage. And that's exactly how the audience responded too... we were all holding our breath, unable to speak or respond with any kind of reaction. i guess we all just didn't want it to stop... we wanted to hold the moment in our lungs and never breathe it out. many new songs were played; 3 of which i had not heard til then. Laura Laurent actually made me blush. onstage, he stood amongst an all girl backup band. he played his songs with an anger and force that night which worried me a bit, but the whole night was amazing... it was beautiful... and with his Conor power, he pushed my emotional buttons like no other artist can. and jess was there to calm my girlyness from breaking out of the locked box i have it buried in far and deep within me.
4-02The Minor Times/Nutbox/Minkus-josh and i went to check out this "new inkling", which consisted of every original member, except the singer who was formerly fairmont's vocalist. we're not sure about if the "tim" in this band is the same tim from the inkling days, because if it is, he must have turned to anorexia... we got a scary feeling in our stomachs that it was him, though. barney rubble received our evil scowls when he put his bass down and hung by the rafters... i really don't like that eric imposter. their music isn't half as creative or unique as inkling. i enjoyed nutbox's yelling at the naked guy, who got naked again, and punched some more girls. there was a nameless band that came out and just jammed, but they were awesome, and reminded me of an isis, melvins, or today is the day band.
i saw a Leavenworth show sometime in february or march... they were good, but unfortunately recently broke up
3-27-02Coalesce/Burnt by the Sun-matt, yuri, jess, and i... lovely evening.
2-28-02GWAR-Tom, Josh, Jamie, Jimi, Jason, and I went and met Donnelly, Wendy, Brandt, and Patterson... fun times.
12-1-01Cave In-bill took phil, josh, and me... good stuff.
11-17-01Tomahawk/Syrup-syrup? or zztop in disguise as skin-tight-orange-pant-wearing cowboys? josh and i both agree that patton was "fucking awesome." i was a giggly, excited little girl again. (or am i always...?)
10-20-01Cursive/Desaparecidos/Sorry About Dresden/White Octave-white octave- much better than Sorry About Dresden. Lisa (from college), josh, and I took the train to walk 10 blocks to the secluded, abandoned apartment they call the Killtime. GREAT show. bad place. it was too crammed, and I was too short. luckily, some mighty nice people let me up to the front to watch the (no adjective to describe him) Conor Oberst perform with his new band. i am in complete awe of this boy. everything he does is beautiful. eye contact was continually made while setting up on stage, and while chatting among friends on the emo-kid-covered sidewalk.... i should have spoken. next time. cursive's first 2 songs were wonderful. only wish the train ran later. had fun, but now all my thoughts are about that beautiful Conor and his beautiful music.
10-?-01Dark Day Dawning/Redline/Set Ablaze/about 5 other hardcore bands-my good brothers (one literally, one spiritually) accompanied me to this hardcore-laden show at a Chalfont church. another one of those "fear for your life- they're throwing folding chairs and knocking over tables into us" shows. Set Ablaze were enjoyable, and Dark Day Dawning were my reason for attending. Sehr gut philly hardcore.
9-14-01Nutbox-the doylestown teen center... i felt like i was at a little cousin's birthday party or something... little kids filled the tiny place, along with parents, and lots of posuers and teeny bopper girls. i was almost the oldest non-parent there, besides members of Nutbox, Brandt, Jen Montgomery, and her seemingly cocky boyfriend. We watched part of Spinoff, but they were to my disliking... post outbursts, after their set, such as "OH MY GOD! HE TOUCHED MY HAND AND MY PEN!" drove me to grimace and leave. Nutbox put on a lovely show, making my crew who tagged along (Jimi, Josh, and Jason) new fans of the horn-core band.
9-2-01Plea For Peace Tour-The Eyeliners are old "punk" girls. Selby Tigers (?) were interesting to watch- not bad music, either. Cave In were beautiful- starting out with a tribute to Nirvana, and improvising with their toy guns and crazy sound effects. Thrice were a surprise... mixing hardcore and punk. Hot Water Music were too boring, and i was too tired to pay close attention to their set. Alkeline Trio weren't anything too special to get excited about, so leaving early and sleeping on the train sounded nice.
8-28-01Deftones-purely great show at the tweeter center... but i'm getting lazy with my reviews... Chino was drunk and complained about the "towels smelling like shit"... and they covered Bad Brains
8-3-01Warped Tour 2001-striving for air in the rancid pit... dropkick murphys, alien ant farm, rollins band, me first and the gimme gimmes, less than jake, bouncing souls, bigwig, madcap, flogging molly, pennywise, AFI... not much to really discuss except for the pure happiness and excitment i endured from being in the pit again with rancid playing. i actually got chills from anxiousness... right up front, hoping my ribs didn't collapse, not caring that i was showered in sweat, singing every word of every song... it was great- made the whole day with phil and jamie worth while.
7-29-01inkling/standfast/tally ho-craaaazy show at the vfw... two very drunk hardcore kids... me, josh, phil, tom, jamie, jim getting kicked/punched/smacked... "So In Love"... tables thrown, glasses broken, girls hurt, singers punched... NAKED drunk hardcore kid... more staring at Jon... full synopsis if i accumulate time...
7-21-01Ozzfest 2001-Never in my life have I had so much beer spilled on me! By the end of the day I smelled like a drunken, smelly, dirty, sweaty, old man. Nevertheless, I had an extremely enjoyable day. First- Tom, Josh, Corrie, and I followed the Kelly family to the ferry parking lot, where we crossed over to the "tweeter" center on one of these ferries. Next- was the listening to Beautiful Creatures without even glancing towards the stage due to our greediness for shade. Then- Josh and I pushed our way to the front of the second stage, where we were hounded by guards with hoses and fat teeny-bopper girls who would shove you just to stare and smile at the scribbles they would receive on their programs they bought just for this occasion. (we were right in the middle of the "backstage" area, where all the bands would pass us to get on and off the stage) It was really neat being in the center of all the action, though... the band members seemed so insignificant standing right next to us. I did get to ignore my nervousness and make an impression on a really cool guy from a really cool band... I talked to Taproot's singer- Steve. "Hey, I really like your shoes, they're cool. Where did you find them?"-me "hahaha! I got them from some company. They're golf shoes, see?"-stevie (showing me his soles, and giving me all his attention and lots of smiles) "Wow, do you play golf?"-me "Sometimes. not really. I'm not good or anything. I'm a hockey person, i play hockey."-stevie (getting pulled away by some fans) "Oh cool, well thank you."-me (getting my signed ticketstub back) I got patted on the shoulder, while he signed some more things for a couple minutes, then he came back and I inquired about upcoming touring and recording and such. He was only a LITTLE bit drunk. (O: Anywho... i couldn't see Drowning Pool. Taproot were great!! Although, I was fixated on their guitarist, Mike, most of the time... heh... i'm such a girl. Mudvayne looked pretty pathetic with all their paint and perfect hair spikes. Union Underground just got a sour face from me... the rest of the time i was waiting for Mike to come out of his bus. (O: After the $4 pretzel and the $3.50 water, we took our places on the lawn where we caught the end of Crazy Town- which were the worse band i've ever seen live... but comparable to Papa Roach's performance. Disturbed... what's with all the monkey noises? Linkin Park were alright, but i don't enjoy their music. Slipknot were crazy... they played their set so fast that i forget what songs they even played. Manson was great... it only upset me that i couldn't be closer and they didn't play any older songs. We tried to stay for Black Sabbath, in hopes that War Pig would be played early on, but after 2 1/2 songs of watching them stand there with the occasional jumping up and down of Ozzy, we got bored and left early... with the highest of respects of course.
6-28-01Fear Factory/puya/primer55/dry kill logic-this "dry kill logic" band did not grow on me at all. they were comparable to coal chamber, only much shorter, uglier, & angrier. the bass was turned up so loud that i had to plug my ears for fear they would bleed. at one point, i tried to check the time on the digital clock, but couldn't read it because my eyes were buzzing back and forth in their sockets. primer55 were standable, and puya i just don't like. the show was held at a shrunken electric factory called Tink's, where the majority of the crowd was buff, pony-tailed hicks who would beat and push each other, and get more pissed off each time. by the time fear factory came on, they were out for blood, and of course i was right in the middle of it, sitting up on a ledge, holding on for dear life- hoping i didn't get knocked backwards. they put on a good show, but we got pretty beat up... josh made the mistake of pushing one of the wife-beatered wife beaters out of his way, and got punched in the gut, phil & tom got out unscathed- complete with primer55 autographs, but when the show was over, my thumb was black, blue, purple, and green, and so swollen that i couldn't bend it. i had an ok time, but i definitely will not go back there.
6-23-01inkling/fairmont/cbgav/building on a fire-The Sellersville VFW... riiiiiight... so we stopped at a gas station (josh and i) to ask the nice clerk girl how exactly to find this "Sellersville", only to run into the band "Building a Fire", who held directions! Aimlessly, we followed the NY band through the windy roads, empty towns, and forests upon forests, until miraculously we ended up at this VFW so perfectly placed in the middle of nowhere. Upon stepping out of the car, we were informed that "the show is back there in the woods. just follow the trail." And so we followed this trail past the outhouses, picnic benches, and various rodents until we came to what looked like a private party under a pavilion in the middle of the woods. This was followed by a pause, a "hmmmm", and then a giggle as the faces became familiar to me. Hardcore + nature, what isn't to like? Everything about this show was great: the sights (trees, rocks, inkling's new bassist who looks like a moody Barny Rubble, Jon), the sounds (birds, mosquitos in your ears, inkling AND fairmont at the same show), the smells (pine, dirt, wet/old wood mixed with guy's deodorant)... and this was a very memorable inkling performance, with Nick breaking the neck of his guitar in half: mid-song... they never fail to put on a crazy, energetic show, and keep me smiling during the whole musical roller coaster.
6-2-01Nutbox/Wormbath...-Yet another mundane Lenape show and nothing new to be said except for the people who accompanied me for the night (Tony & his 2 friends- Amber & Kyle). My main entertainment was the always fun Nutbox, another banal set by Wormbath, and a few other bands not worth remembering. But there can always be fun found at a show... even if it is staring at the inexhaustible "Jon". (O: i'm such a girl
5-25-01Placebo/Idlewild-English invasion at the TLA... a very cool show. Idlewild weren't bad... they looked and performed neat... like an English/indie R.E.M. Placebo were great. The only let down was the poor quality of their sound... or maybe i was standing too close to the speakers. anyway, Brian's awesome, and their performance was "bloody splendid." I had full view of Brian, (who was within touching distance) during the whole show, and his precious Newports hardly ever left his hand... I could't understand how he can sing so awesomely. Highlights were when he played his keyboard for a couple songs, he danced a few times (during cigarette breaks), they went on to do a double encore, Brian dissed our crappy president, and dedicated a song to the poor security. "...open your eyes. this isn't a fucking sunday church picnic..." Phil and I met cool people, and we had lots of tiring fun.
4-14-01Big Dumb Face-my first adventure driving through south street and parking, and on an over-crowded saturday, even. This show was purely awesome, it reminded me a lot of the fantomas show. Wes is great! He made me laugh and smile the entire time. During the Relapse-sounding, growling songs there were giant red swirling pendagram projections on the wall, and throughout the show he did these crazy dances that i can't stop picturing whenever i listen to the cd now. His brother on guitar wouldn't stop flailing his tongue during his playing, and they did a heavy/bizarre "cover" of that annoying girl's song "i'm like the bird, i'll only fly away." it pissed me off, though, when Wes asked for silence in the break during Duke Lion, and the few morons who didn't take him serious had to be obnoxious. but, it was great... we all loved it (phil, josh, tom and i).
4-12or13-01Moist Chicken/El Destructo/Trans Agression/Wolfpac-i only went to this show with tony and 2 of his friends out of boredom and interest in catching up with tony. the first band were beyond bad... their singer was a chunky, middle-aged, balding man who wore nothing but a few strips of duct tape and glued chicken feathers... enough said. El Destructo were also disgustingly awful: with annoying vocals, a rip off of Slymenstra from Gwar, and falling under a new genre which can only be described as "hick-core." Despite the fact that Trans Agression was composed up of 5 young teenagers, they were the best band of the night... actual talent and all. Wolfpac were wolfpac. The conversations were better and more entertaining than the bands, but that's why i went anyway.
3-18-01Reach for the Sky/The Bastards/Dropkick Murphys-phil, josh, tom, and i listened to the craptastic first band from the car, eating cheez-its and staring at the shady phillians that passed by. after their awful performance was over, i went inside to meet up with lisa, christy, richie oi, smitty, al, and big ol' fez. maybe it's my lack of interest in punk anymore, but the bastards weren't very interesting. it was just cool seeing Lars Fredrickson play without the rest of Rancid backing him up. i'm not a very big fan of the dropkick murphys, but i must say they put on a really fun show. our whole group was in the center of the action, and i had a lot of fun. and thanks to fez for being my boyfriend/body guard for the night, and keeping the strong, mean guys away from my frail, little body.
