Archive for My Immaculate Taste in Music
11.12.08
Posted in My Immaculate Taste in Music at 1:45 pm by Adriene
Last night, Jeff and I had one of our rare date nights and saw Coldplay at Philips Arena. If you know me even remotely well, you know that I’m a pretty rabid fan of theirs. I’ve been looking forward to the concert for a while now, and I’ve been almost giddy with anticipation for this for about a month now.
We got down to Philips around 6:00 with the hopes that we’d be able to sneak in a nice dinner at McCormick and Schmick’s, but that was thwarted when we got there to find an hour and a half wait ahead of us. We also tried Taco Mac, but the line was out the door. So, Food Court at CNN Center it was! Ah well. We have an anniversary coming up, so maybe we can go somewhere nicer for that.
The opener was a band called Sleepercar, which is apparently a side project of Jim Ward, formerly of Sparta. On the Jeff Holland Scale for Grading Opening Bands (JHSfGOB, where a 10 equals “OH MY GOD I HAVE TO BUY THEIR CD RIGHT NOW” and a 1 equals “Your singing is SO BAD that you make me want to take my finger, push it through my eyeball into my brain, and swirl it around for a while” [bonus points if you can place that quote]), I’d give them a 7. Fairly enjoyable, but alt-country isn’t really my thing, and they at least sounded pleasing.
Coldplay took the stage around 8:45, and the crowd was immediately on its feet. The set was a pretty good mix of old and new, flipping back and forth between standards like “Clocks” and “Speed of Sound” to some of the newer stuff from Viva La Vida. The stage setup was really cool, I thought, with a separate “crowd stage” set up in the back corner of the arena that the band used to do a small acoustic set towards the end of the show. In all, I thought it was a great show, and probably about equal to when Jeff and I saw them in 2005. There were some things I liked better about this show (it was more music-heavy than banter-heavy like the last show), and some things I liked less (the odd techno-set they did in the middle where they ruined “God Put A Smile Upon Your Face” and “Talk.”) I will say this - even if you hate Viva La Vida, the songs on that CD play VERY well to an arena. I actually got chills when they started the title track, and probably my favorite part of the entire show was “Lovers in Japan,” complete with technicolor butterfly confetti streaming from the rafters and Chris Martin exuding Bono-like energy as he ran around the stage.
Here’s the set list with a few comments:
Life in Technicolor - I actually immediately thought this would be a great intro song when I first picked the CD up. I was not disappointed.
Violet Hill
Clocks
In My Place
Speed of Sound
Cemeteries of London - The crowd REALLY got into this one - “singing la la la la la la la ley…”
Chinese Sleep Chant - It was interesting hearing them pair songs differently at the concert than they did on the CD.
42
Fix You - I was actually a little surprised they didn’t save this one for an encore. Though I’m glad they did a completely different encore set than when we saw them three years ago - some bands get in a rut.
Strawberry Swing
Techno Mini-Set:
God Put a Smile Upon Your Face - I leaned over to Jeff halfway through this and told him that I thought I could hear Scott yelling obscenities all the way from Louisiana.
Talk - I was not so much really a fan of either of these versions.
Green Eyes - I’ve noticed that they always try to do a little something extra for the Atlanta crowd on their tours, and this was their little gift to us this time, I guess. Chris said they hadn’t played it at all on this tour yet, and he mused that it was “total sh*t” as he fumbled over the first couple of notes.
Postcards from Far Away
Viva la Vida - This seriously gave me goosebumps. So beautiful live.
Lost!
Acoustic Set from “Crowd Stage”:
The Scientist
Death Will Never Conquer - Will sang lead on this one. The crowd loved it!
(Dance Remix of Viva La Vida played between main set and first encore)
First Encore:
Politik
Lovers in Japan - Probably my favorite moment of the show. This song plays excellently to an arena. If I say anything more, I’ll wind up gushing, so I’ll stop now.
Death and All His Friends
Second Encore:
Yellow - People started leaving after Death and All His Friends, but Jeff and I knew better - they hadn’t done this song yet, and I knew it had to show up at some point. When the house lights didn’t come up, I stayed put in my seat.
(The Escapist played as the band exited the stage)
In all, a pretty darn good show, I thought. It’s still hard to find another show that will hold up to my experience in Chicago seeing U2 back in 2005, but Coldplay never fails to pull the crowd completely in to their shows. I’ve definitely got the whole post-concert depression going on today.
PS - SCOTT, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO COMMENT IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE NICE. SO THERE. Haha!
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10.02.08
Posted in I am smrt., My Immaculate Taste in Music at 7:04 pm by Adriene
Lately, I’ve been trying to get back in touch with the music world after taking about a year hiatus while getting into the groove of motherhood. One of the first steps I took was to see what was in my iTunes library, and tried out the new Genius feature that will recommend things to you based upon what you already have in your library.
It was during one of these perusals of my iTunes library that I discovered that I must have had a momentary lapse of sanity on several occasions, because there are quite a few songs that I do not recall downloading at all there. At first, I thought I could blame one of my late night bouts of insomnia and heartburn during my pregnancy (and therefore the cause was obviously “pregnancy brain”), but no, the songs were all downloaded BEFORE I got pregnant. So, I’m at a loss as to what happened.
Here are the ones I have no memory of downloading:
- “The Human Hosepipe” by Harry and the Potters (I’m blaming this one on Kari)
- “Hysteria,” “Supermassive Black Hole,” and “Starlight” by Muse (I’m thinking I’m going to have to blame my emo/goth/intellectual alter ego for these)
- “Angel” by Aerosmith (WHAT THE HELL?)
- “Ana’s Song” by Silverchair (I… have no good explanation.)
- “Song 2″ by Blur (WOOHOO!)
Has anyone else had this happen? Oh, just me? That’s what I thought.
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03.27.07
Posted in My Immaculate Taste in Music at 4:38 pm by Adriene
Blatantly stealing an idea from Carla.
I’ve got my iPod on shuffle, and I’ve listed the first lines of the first 25 songs that pop up. Your job is to guess what song it is! I’ll cross the songs off as people guess the right ones.
1. He said I’m gong to buy this place and burn it down, I’m going to put it six feet underground…
2. If only I knew what I know, I’d make it a point to say so…
3. There’s air in my bones where marrow should be…
4. Well, it’s been building up inside of me for oh, I don’t know how long…
5. The crowds roll by, and I’m falling in…
6. Six o’clock in the morning, you’re the last to hear the warning…
7. I want to see what people saw, I want to feel like I felt before…
8. Hello, I’ve waited here for you…
9. When I go, don’t cry for me, in my Father’s arms I’ll be…
10. I’ve been up and down the floor, sleep won’t hold me anymore…
11. In the distance, she saw me comin’ round…
12. Who made up all the rules? We follow them like fools…
13. The time to rise has been engaged, we’re better best to rearrange…
14. Ten fingers counting, we have each nine planets…
15. He woke and knew that he was dying, he spoke and found that he was flying…
16. This could be the very minute I’m aware I’m alive…
17. You consider me the young apprentice…
18. Don’t believe what you hear, don’t believe what you see, if you just close your eyes, you can feel the enemy…
19. Oh it’s opening time down on Fascination Street, so let’s cut the conversation and get out for a bit…
20. Occurred to me the other day, you’ve been gone now a couple years…
21. People I know, places I go, make me feel tongue-tied…
22. There’s still a little bit of your taste in my mouth…
23. Four times he came by, I did not look…
24. I don’t know what you’re looking for, but you haven’t found it baby, that’s for sure…
25. Pack up, I’m straight, enough, oh say say say…
Happy guessing!!
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10.29.06
Posted in General, My Immaculate Taste in Music at 9:53 pm by Adriene
And I enjoyed every minute of it!
Several months back, Jeff and I made the decision to have a sort of “mini-vacation” in downtown Atlanta this weekend (a whopping 25 miles from home!) Why? Tech’s Homecoming game was this weekend, as well as all of the activities surrounding it. So, instead of driving back to our house after Mini 500 on Friday and then back down to Tech at 8am on Saturday so we could see the Wreck Parade, we got a room at the Renaissance right across the interstate from Tech, well within walking distance.
A couple of weeks after we booked the hotel, we found out that Mute Math was playing the Roxy on Friday night. EXCELLENT! Jeff saw them at Cornerstone a few months ago, and I’ve wanted to see them ever since I first listened to the CD Jeff picked up, so we were all over that.
The concert was AWESOME. Seriously. Best show I’ve seen all year, I think. They had three opening acts - the Bowie-esque Club of the Sons (very entertaining, even though their music isn’t quite my cup of tea), Jonezetta (somewhat reminiscent of Franz Ferdinand), and the Whigs (a band out of Athens, so they had a fairly large group of fans there, too - I was not terribly impressed. All of their songs sounded the same to me). But when Mute Math came on, it put all the others to shame. I won’t write a review here, mostly because I don’t think I’d be able to without gushing. 
Jeff and I managed to get there early enough to secure a spot up front and center on the floor, so when they played “Reset” for their encore, and Paul started passing around the Atari to the crowd, we were able to get our hands on it - very cool! Jeff shot some video of that part - and if you look closely you can see a moment where the Atari drops suddenly (at approximately 5:02 in the video), which is how I secured injury #1 of the weekend. I was passing it forward to the stage, since the song was just about over, and I thought the guy next to me had a good grasp on it, but he apparently didn’t, and I wound up dropping it on my head. I had a good red mark on my forehead the rest of the night, but as far as I can tell, I didn’t bruise!
Saturday morning, we slept in a little bit, since we were out late at the concert the night before. However, we slept a little TOO late and missed the Wreck Parade completely, including the ever-entertaining Contraption category. We spent most of the morning wandering around campus looking at the various Homecoming displays in front of the fraternities and sororities (including a very humorous display in front of one of the fraternities which consisted of a large Buzz swinging a helmet at the head of a Sebastian the Ibis. :lol:). We swung by Jeff’s fraternity house for lunch and then headed on to the game.
Let me tell you. Georgia Tech football is going to drive me to an early grave. I was a nervous wreck the entire game, from the moment that Reggie Ball fumbled on the first play of the game and a Miami guy ran it back for a touchdown. We trailed most of the first half, and I wasn’t feeling so well anyway, so I was sitting down a good portion of the time. After halftime, Tech seemed to get its act together again and pulled out to a two-touchdown lead with about 3 minutes left to go. My mood had improved significantly at that point, so I got caught up in the moment and started jumping up and down with the rest of the crowd. Which brings me to injury #2. You should really look where you are jumping when you are celebrating. I wound up jumping a little too close to the bleacher seat in front of me and banged my shin up against it, removing a little skin at the same time. IT HURT. BAD. I said a bad word or two. And it kind of ruined my mood. It’s pretty sore today, but I’m hoping it feels better soon.
After the game, we went back to Theta Xi to watch the end of the UF-UGA game. Georgia lost. 
:) :)
And UNC lost, too. :) :)
Now, if NC State had been able to pull out a win, it would have been a perfect weekend. But it was a pretty darn good one otherwise!
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09.17.06
Posted in My Immaculate Taste in Music at 9:19 pm by Adriene
(Yes, I know I’ve been scarce lately. Once again, life has been hectic and my blog has suffered as a casualty.)
Jeff and I got our tickets yesterday morning to see Mute Math at the Roxy on Oct. 27!!! :happydance:
This makes up for the other concert I was going to (Keane at the Tabernacle) being cancelled.
I’ll post a more substantial update on life in a couple of days.
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