Erin McKeown

Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA

A taping for the World Cafe.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rancid

Club Zoo, Pittsburgh, PA I hadn't seen Rancid since a late '90s Warped Tour or at least since the 1997 Tibetan Freedom Concert , and I'd never seen a full, headlining show by the band. Plus, I'd never been to the venue formerly known as Metropol, although I'd heard much about it (mostly negative), so it was going to be doubtless interesting. post continues.... Betsy, Ned, Steve, and I arrived to see the first (local) opener. Betsy and I were also interested in seeing if we'd get in with our "tickets"--Betsy came to the club to buy tickets and they gave her a copy of the club owner's business card, hand scrawled with "Rancid - admit one." This seemed a bit dodgy, so I emailed the guy who actually books the shows (an acquaintance) and he said it was okay. And, indeed, we got in with no problem. The bouncers didn't even bat an eye when they took our "tickets." We saw the first band, Weekend Warriors (enjoyable but forgettable),...
Read more

Green Day, The Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid, The Linda Lindas

Image
PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA....   Green Day's The Saviors Tour, in which they played all of Dookie and the American Idiot albums in sequence. (Probably not the best choice, as it severely constrained the setlist order and was not ideal for a stadium concert.) Rancid was probably my pick for the best all-around performance of the day, although the Linda Lindas were a lot of fun. Green Day had some great song performances but their set was a little bloated and lacking the loopy spontaneity I remember from seeing them in 1998 . Smashing Pumpkins was OK, but just like when I saw them in 2000 , I was left with a "good, but" vibe. I liked some of it. But when Corgan inexplicably brought out professional wrestlers from his wrestling promotion company-- well, big sigh. One of the most remarkable moments of the concert didn't involve a live performance. Immediately prior to Green Day taking the stage, they play Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" over the sound system and...
Read more

World Party, Jellyfish

Image
The Ritz, New York, NY.... Karl Wallinger is fascinating to watch on stage. He's a left-handed guitarist, but like Hendrix, he plays a right-hand guitar. So all of his chords are backwards. On top of that, he normally strummed with a pick but he used fingers only for solos. Each time he went into a solo, he had an eye-catching way of tossing aside his pick to the stage floor to play with his fingertips.   I was there with my friend Tim, and he bade me goodbye to catch a train back to Jersey during the encore break. Just as he was exiting the building, World Party returned to the stage with Sinead O'Connor in tow to lend her voice to a few numbers. World Party was originally scheduled to open for  her summer 1990 tour (including when I saw her at Jones Beach ), but World Party ended up not being the opening act. Instead, that gig went to Sinead's boyfriend Hugh Harris. (Harris was described in the press as "her new man" or "reported paramour.") It seeme...
Read more