FYI, The Orange County Earth Day crew is back with a new focus on promoting public awareness of public transportation, alternative fuels, alternative energies and global warming. In other words, get your bicycle out and ride! Spare The Air Festival features vendors, food, lots of good music, great sponsors, and positive environmental awareness. Amongst some of your favs they're also rollin out Peanut Butter Wolf and Free The Robots so you know that $10.67 is totally worth it! And you get to check out the awesome Downtown Fullerton restaurant and bar scene, good stuff!

The deets:
Fullerton Transportation Center, 122 E Commonwealth Ave, Fullerton, CA 92832
Opens at 11am!
Tickets: $10.67

Labels: Concerts, Events

Matt Pryor of The Get Up Kids and New Amsterdams and Chris Conley of Saves The Day have announced a solo co-headlining tour! Two of my favorites from high school sharing a stage doing their acoustic solo stuff! Amazing! I can't wait! A limited number of tickets have been held for Matt Pryor fans and will be available through an exclusive Ducat King presale that begins today, June 11, 2008 at 1:00PM local time!
Click here to buy tickets

Tour Dates:
Aug 6 – Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock*
Aug 7 – Omaha, NE @ Waiting Room*
Aug 8 – Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater*
Aug 9 – Salt Lake City @ Burt's Tiki Lounge*
Aug 11 – Vancouver, BC @ Media Club*
Aug 12 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon*
Aug 13 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre*
Aug 14 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill*
Aug 15 – Reno, NV @ Satellite Lounge*
Aug 16 – West Hollywood, CA @ Troubadour*
Aug 17 – San Diego, CA @ House of Blues – San Diego*
Aug 19 – Anaheim, CA @ Chain Reaction*
Aug 20 – Phoenix, AZ @ Modified*

Go to Vagrant and get a mess of free mp3s from both artists!
New Amsterdams - My Old Man Had A Pistol
The Get Up Kids - High As The Moon
Saves The Day - At Your Funeral

Labels: Concerts, indie

After paying off one of the security to get all of us on the ground floor, we soon took in the sounds of Sebastian and Kavinsky who were warming up the crowd. The two DJs staged two sets in between Daft Punk and Ratatat. There were near 14000 people there, and sold out. We got there aruond 6 and the show wasn't starting til 8 o'clock with Daft Punk playing at 11!

Ratatat had an awesome back drop with what looked like to be shapes of silly putty, stop animation combined with speed and words. It was a really awesome set with sounds of wildcats during the song. They had the crowd going and this performance was better than the first time I saw them. I thought their set was pretty quick but still awesome. After that the battle began.

This was the first time I saw Daft Punk so I was totally ready to smash through the crowd to get in the front. After 20 minutes of the second set from Sebastian & Kavinsky, we were nearly there. Maybe about 6 rows back, trying to hold our ground. I think my right leg muscle got bigger. During the set, the curtains were closed, which got everyone excited. After ten minutes we saw a hand, or atleast a couple fingers sticking out of the curtain and it was awesome! They opened the curtains to reveal a giant pyramid thing covered with two huge screens. The synchronized lighting and video was completely amazing! They played a nearly 2-hour set and of course after ten minutes of encore chanting, they came back out with full on tron-esque red light lined helmets suits. I can't believe I almost turned down the opportunity to go!

Daft Punk and same set wil be playing Berkeley, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, New York, until they hit Canadia! If you are near one of those cities, I would TOTALLY recommend grabbing a show.

Daft Punk - Human After All (Sebastian Remix)
Ratatat - Wildcat
BONUS: One More Time Live Video I recorded. Get over the shaking haha, we were dancing.

Labels: Concerts, Daft Punk

Without a doubt, It was one of the best shows I've ever been to at a venue I've never been to. Last night was "high" energy with the Sierra Leone's Refugee All-Stars recreating a vibrant West African percussionist dance party. The stagecraft and colors coordinating with the light panels and instruments were brilliant. They use a musical message to spread love and peace as they have experienced the exact opposite from their own native homes in Sierra Leone. Read their amazing story here. After they finished their set, they bowed out and just the way they all lined up and went to their knees was very humbling, it really felt like they were living in appreciation of their lives. Everyone there was having a great time.
The Brain Placement. The stage revolved to reveal an 8-turntable set-up which made me think of a futuristic hiphop deathstar control room. The set started with a tutorial audio/visual about Vinyl, 45's, the history, and turntable kickback. It was genius; my appreciation for record collecting culture, DJs and all things turntablism went through the roof. They used nothing but 7" recs. The visual of a Jukebox robot destroying flying iPods was nuts! Shadow and Cut went back and forth quickly picking out their boxes of 45s turning the place into an art show with sound. There were all kinds of '50s,'60s,'70s funk furiously jamming out of those speakers with psychadellic visuals, beats and of course the scratch. Hand-eye-ear coordination at its best.
The Hollywood Bowl is such a chill place to hang out under the stars (smog) and listen/see a wide variety of music. Mad props to the lighting & camera crews. Definitely an amazing set up including wireless wrist cameras on Cut and Shadow. KCRW's World Festival, a collaboration with the LA Philharmonic Association, is completely appropriate as is was the case last night. We got there just in time, parked in a great spot, not to mention FREE tickets!

DJ Shadow
High Noon
This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way)
Erase You ft. Christ James

Cut Chemist
What's The Altitude ft. Hymnal
The Garden

Labels: Concerts, Events, Hollywood Bowl