Live the dream like the 80's never happened.

3 shows in 3 days. Not Coachella, but this nice string of shows was a close second. The first show was on Record Store Day which was a day for people to support their local record stores. On said day, a lot of bands release vinyl specific to that day and are usually in limited numbers. They're obviously only sold at participating stores and many independent record stores have in-store performances and/or giveaways. Rasputins in Berkeley had Silversun Pickups play for about 45 minutes and then do a signing. I'm not that into them, but Kim and I were there getting some vinyl (I picked up the Gaslight Anthem vinyl released that day which has 6 live songs on it, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's new album and the Slayer and Bad Religion vinyls for ebay), so we decided to stay and watch. They played an acoustic set and it was pretty good.



The next night, Kim and I went to The Rickshaw Stop to see Jonah Matranga and Kimya Dawson play. The Rickshaw Stop was a neat little place (excluding it being hot as fuck all) which looks a lot like the "dream" room from Twin Peaks...but the floors weren't as cool.



I had picked up the Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen vinyls from Record Store Day for Jonah, so I gave him those before the show. I figure it's the least I could do for how much he's done for me...indirectly. He went on shortly after we got there. At first, we were right under the vent and arctic air was blowing right down on us, but quickly after Jonah came on, it stopped and the heat just kept on rising after that. Jonah's set had a handful of songs I hadn't seen him played in a while which included 'Disco Manifesto' and 'Oh, Boys'.



It was a nice little set and the audience stayed seated which felt almost like we were all still in elementary school. Right before Kimya took the stage, everyone got to their feet. About mid set, a bunch of short people through out the venue could be heard shouting (aka complaining) about the amount of tall people (aka how short they actually were). Kimya then invited the Willow's of the audience to join her on stage and have people sit back down and she finished the show that way.



I was semi-familiar with Kimya's stuff due to the Juno soundtrack. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't know about her till then, but was glad I found out about her. She's just as kind as Jonah and embraces her social awkwardness which then comes off as cute. Overall though, I really enjoyed her set and am looking forward to go through her stuff.

Monday night.
Bloc Party played at the Fox Theatre in Oakland. This theatre had been recently been renovated so needless to say it was flawless. The staff was compiled of people picked from the we-are-really-nice-people tree which was refreshing since most venues have people that seem generally unhappy working. We had general admission tickets so we were on the floor which means I didn't see the balcony, but everything I did see in this venue was top notch. The architecture was enough to keep me occupied till Bloc Party hit the stage. Also, the multiple vents on the floor spitting out cool air helped also.



Bloc Party came out and pretty much blew me away. I've been a mediocre Bloc Party fan for a while and really wasn't expecting much from them live. I was pleasantly surprised.



Intimacy, Bloc Party's latest album, is probably my least favorite of theirs, but the songs they played off of it were so much more incredible live. I really hate the song "Mercury", but live it was filled with so much energy that it was hard not to move to. That being said, they played a fair share of material off of all three of their albums which pleased me.