Hugo’s blog

The Sadies at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival on 2007-10-06

On Sunday, I went to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco to watch The Sadies play. I unfortunately missed a good chuck of their show due to a major traffic jam, but I really dig them. Ever since I saw them opening for The Tragically hip back in March, I’ve liked this band and I was glad to see them.

I saw a number of other bands as well, though I paid less attention to them.

The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival is pretty cool: good music (even if not all of it is what I would usually listen to), nice venue, well organized, free. I’ll be going again next year.

Genesis at HP Pavilion on 2007-10-09

Every time I saw an old band get back together, I have been tempted to go see them. I feel like it’s like going to see an old painting in a museum, being able to witness some musical history live. Though sometimes the rendition of songs may have faded a little, or the band isn’t quite the same. Anyway, I always stopped myself from doing it when I saw the price of tickets: I’m always wondering how much they do reunions to have fun and make fans happy versus making insane amounts of money, and the latter seems to be the main motivation. Fans are older, they have more money, hence they can pay hundreds of dollars (plus proportional TicketBastards fees) to relive a piece of their childhood.

Genesis’s reunion is no different, but for some reason I was interested enough to make the jump. A significant jump for me, as I hate large venues, and of course they don’t play in small places. So I bought some outrageously expensive, only after joining the fan club ($35 more) to ensure that I could have access to pre-sales in order to have my outrageously expensive ticket not suck too much in this huge venue.

So how was it? It was actually pretty good. Phil Collins is an excellent showman and makes your forget that you’re in a large venue far away from him. Their performance was good, mixing some recent songs with some old material for 3 hours:

• Behind The Lines / Duke’s End
• Turn It On Again
• No Son Of Mine
• Land Of Confusion
• In The Cage / The Cinema Show / Duke’s Travels
• Afterglow
• Hold On My Heart
• Home By The Sea / Second Home By The Sea
• Follow You Follow Me
• Firth Of Fifth / I Know What I Like
• Mama
• Ripples
• Throwing It All Away
• Domino
• Drum Duet
• Los Endos
• Tonight Tonight Tonight
• Invisible Touch

• I Can’t Dance
• The Carpet Crawlers

One thing which struck me is how much Tony Banks never smiles. You really wonder how he feels being on stage.

Anyway, I had a good time. I’m glad I went, but I think that I’m not going to go to a reunion tour show or a large venue anytime soon.

I almost forgot to mention that the best part of this whole experience was actually my neighbor: he was obviously a dedicated Genesis fan, early post-Peter Gabriel period. Every time a song he liked came up, he was becoming completetly ecstatic, grabbing the rail in front of us and vibrating from head to toe, playing air drums with Phil Collins. Fun!

The Tragically Hip at The Warfield on 2007-10-10

I saw The Tragically Hip only a few months ago, but it was such a great experience that I had to go again when I saw that they were playing again in San Francisco. And it was awesome, even better than the great performance at the Fillmore.

The Warfield is a smaller venue, and at the very front of the pit. Gord Downie was on fire, and show they played was amazing, with a great version of Hundredth Meridien for which Gord came on the rail right in front of me. This allowed me to take great pictures with the crappy camera in my Treo. Some bands give guitar picks to the crowd, Gord Downie gives his cloth tissues covered in sweat, and he gave his microphone to the girl in front of me. He likes to play with microphones.

The set list was great, and a little unconventional (e.g. Put It Off that they had not played live since 1997 according to HipBase):

• The Lonely End Of The Rink
• Grace, Too
• My Music At Work
• Gus: The Polar Bear From Central Park
• Family Band
• Ahead By A Century
• Gift Shop
• In View
• Poets
• Pretend
• Fireworks
• At The Hundredth Meridien
• Escape Is At Hand For The Travellin’ Man
• Fiddler’s Green
• Yer Not The Ocean
• Locked In The Trunk Of A Car
• Fire In The Hole

• Put It Off
• Mr. Soul (Neil Young cover)
• New Orleans Is Sinking

Update: here’s the video of Put It Off at the Warfield:

I have a short video (I removed the sound because it was horrible):

I’m looking forward to my next Hip concert!

Listening to music and podcasts in the street every day, I have been looking for years for great headphones. I have been looking for the following characteristics:

• Good sound quality
• Comfortable
• Durable

Many times, I thought that I had found the last pair of headphones that I would buy. But something happens, and I need to buy a new pair. So I try to buy headphones moderately priced (less than $50), as this little game can get expensive. Here’s the ones that almost made it for me:

Sony MDR-G73LP

The Sony MDR-G73LP are pretty cool. They’re over-the-ear headphones that go behind your head. However, the speakers are held by a “springy wire”, which means that you can wear a hat without any problem. They are held firmly on your ears, so you can hear the music well. The sound quality is great.

However, over time, the wire becomes loose, which forces you to buy another pair. This was fine as it took about a couple of years to get there. However, what’s more annoying is that constantly having this wire above your ear ends up irritating the skin.

That prompted me to look for another design after my second pair.

Koss Plug

I tried the Koss Plug for a short while. As their name suggests, they’re a cross between ear plugs and headphones. So you get good insulation from the real world and you can concentrate on whatever is playing. There is one drawback though: the sound quality isn’t great. The bass is too accentuated. Another drawback is that you’re really cut from the world, it’s a weird feeling walking in the street with them.

They’re interesting in airplaines though. They’re essentially a cheap version of Shure headphones, but not very suitable for day to day use.

Sony MDR-EX51LP

The Sony MDR-EX51LP were what I thought my last pair of headphones. They have an excellent sound, they have good insulation from the outside world, but not so much that that you have the feeling that you are another planet. They’re great.

However, they’re not very durable: the plastic over the wire is very soft and a couple of pair quickly showed the naked wire – I found a number of other buyers with the same complaint. The other problem that I encountered is that the plastic earbuds end up falling. They are by design removable in order to have different sizes, and also place new ones when they’re getting used. The downside is that after a while they have a tendency to fall off.

But I liked them enough to buy new pairs and new earbuds for them as needed, until I discovered that you’re not supposed to stick stuff in you ear canals all the time.

So I had to start my quest for new headphones again, but look for over-the-ear ones. And this is when I found my dream headphones.

Koss PortaPro

After doing some research, I ended up buying the Koss PortaPro. I was intrigued by them. I had seen a number of people with them over the years, and their 80’s look was funny.

It turns out that they get their 80’s look from being designed back then and introduced in 1984. And there’s actually a reason why 23 years later, Koss is still selling this model. Although they look big, they can be folded so that they actually fit in your hand. They have great sound quality, and they’re extremely comfortable: you can keep them on for hours everyday without any problem.

Unfortunately, recently, I started getting a connection problem in one of the cables. This is where those headphones are cooler than any other that I’ve owned: they came with a no-questing-asked lifetime warranty. So, last week, I dropped my headphones with a little note and a $6 check in a box and sent them to Koss. 5 business days later, I received a little package with a brand new pair in it:

So it looks like I found the perfect headphones: great sound, very comfortable, durable (raises from its ashes like the phoenix). If you’re looking for headphones, try them.

I got into the Smashing Pumpkins in 2000 (thanks to my friend Gerald), just in time to see (figuratively speaking) the band split. I then followed what Billy Corgan was doing, and actually missed a concert in Paris of Zwan which got canceled wore or less at the last minute. I basically thought that I was cursed, until Corgan announced that he was planning on putting the Smashing Pumpkins back together, and when I saw a few months ago that they were going to tour and play for 10 nights at the Fillmore in San Francisco.

I managed to get tickets from TicketMaster. Once I had a pair of tickets, I actually tried to buy tickets for a second show, but they were all sold out. Tickets must have been all sold within a couple of minutes, so I felt lucky I managed to get some. It actually was a special kind of concert, as people were waiting in line in front of The Fillmore hours before the show.

I actually almost didn’t get in: the tickets were Will Call tickets, so I needed my credit card to get them the day of the show. Unfortunately, my credit card was replaced by the credit card company a few weeks ago because it might have been compomised. At this point, I followed instructions from them destroying my card, only to realize the following day that I needed it to get my tickets. I then spent 30 minutes extracting from the trash and taping together the 50 little pieces that used to be my card (yes, I had been slightly overboard with the scissors when destroying the card), making sure that you could still read the number and see my name. So I crossed my fingers when approaching the doors, but they actually were happy to only see my ID, so I didn’t need to get into a long explanation to justify why my card in tiny pieces taped back together on a piece of paper.

The show started at 9pm sharp with a band from Portland, OR which was pretty good, but whose name I unfortunately did not catch. They played a good set for 30 minutes that did not seem like 1/2 hour (sometimes, support acts seems longer than they are, but here it was really enjoyable). One thing that I noticed though is that every support act that wants to make sure that people scream while they’re on stage tell people who’s playing next: “So the Smashing Pumpkins are here tonight!” Response from the crowd: “Yeaaaaaah!”

At 10.05pm, after the stage was prepared for the next part of the show, Billy Corgan entered the stage with an acoustic guitar and started playing some solo songs, that he referred to as “sad solo songs”. It was a gentle introduction to the show. He also said at some point: “Don’t worry, the rock ‘n’ roll party is going to begin soon”. He was soon joined by the whole band to play Today, and the show really began at this point.

They played a mix of older songs and of songs from their latest album, Zeitgeist. I find these songs really powerful on stage (United States, Tarantula, Doomsday Clock, etc.). At some point during the show, Jeff Shroeder’s amp broke down, which generated a 15 minute break. I was somewhat disapointed by the band which did not do much during this time (they joked about telling a story, but never did).

I was really impressed by the quality of the show. The sound was great. Despite my love of live shows, I often regret that the volume of certain instruments is too high and masks other ones or the singer’s voice. I felt that the sound engineers here at done a terrific job at rendering all the parts of the band. The songs and the performance of the band were really powerful, and it was really enjoyable to watch them play.

After 2h45 of intense performance (minus the 15 minutes break due to the amp), the lights came back on and people left the venue. It’s only when I got home and read a fan forum that I discovered that they actually played two more songs that we missed, which is too bad.

The playlist, courtesy of frenchy at Netphoria:

• Leaving Lament
• Rotten Apples
• Peace and Love
• 99 Floors
• No Surrender
• Today
• 1979
• United States (Jeff’s amp breaks down)
• Bleeding the Orchid
• Lucky 13
• Shame
• Hummer
• Bullet With Butterfly Wings
• God and country
• Death From Above
• By Starlight
• To Sheila (with Linda Strawberry)
• Tonight, Tonight
• Tarantula
• Starz
• Zero
• Glass and the Ghostchildren
• That’s the Way (My Love Is)
• Superchrist
• Starla
• The band leaves the stage
• Doomsday Clock
• Heavy Metal Machine
• Lights go back on
• Zeitgeist
• Muzzle

It really was an amazing show. Fortunately, there were cameras roaming around, so I can hope to see it again in DVD soon.

I have a bunch of crappy photos from the show. Great photos and videos are available from Netphoria.

I’ve been reading Isa’s blog for a while, and she is always raving about Rufus Wainwright, so since he was coming to San Francisco, I thought I’d check him out.

I basically went to the show without having ever listened to a song of him. The venue, the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, is an interesting venue for a modern music show. Apart from being where Sean Connery meets his daughter in The Rock (I saw it on TV recently), it’s a theatre with a mix of roman and greek architecture (thanks Wikipedia).

Anyway, I went to the show without ever having listened to his music. It was a show in two parts: there was an intermission in the middle. I actually enjoyed his slow songs or when there were few instruments, while I liked less songs that were more complex. So I ended up with mixed feelings. I may need to look into his discography to figure out if the different types of songs correspond to different periods, or if it’s just his overall style.

Ten years ago, while I was living in England, I heard on the radio Placebo play Bruise Pristine at the Glastonbury festival, and I liked their sound and went to HMV buy their eponym first album. I have followed their music ever since, but with the feeling that every new album is not as good as the previous one, though the All-Music Guide seems to disagree with me. Anyway, went I saw that they were playing in a small venue in San Francisco, I thought that I just had to go. It’s pretty rare to be able to see Placebo a couple of meters away from the band in Europe (just like it was for The Tragically Hip).

When we arrived, I noticed that I was taller than most people, which reminded me of a No Doubt show that I went to years ago. Basically, I seemed older than pretty much anybody else.

The support act was Evaline. They certainly had a lot of energy on stage. The drummer was impressive, and the singer loved to jump everywhere, especially on top of his keyboard. I’m impressed by how much weight a keyboard stand is apparently able to handle. Anyway, their music was not bad, but I guess that it was not quite my cup of tea.

Then Placebo came on stage. They mainly played songs from Meds, but also played older songs such as Without You I’m Nothing, and even songs from the first album such as Bionic or I Know.

However, I can’t say that I have been impressed by their performance. Yes, Brian Molko was sweaty, but it was not so different from listening to the CDs at home. Basically, they didn’t move very much on stage. I had the feeling that Stefan Olsdal was thinking: OK, during this song, why don’t I tryi to be on the front right of the stage for a change? And there was hardly any communication with the audience other than a How the fuck are you San Francisco?

So I’m a little disappointed by this show, and considering that my interest in Placebo is from 10 years ago, and that most people around me might have been in their early twenties, maybe you should stop listening to Placebo when you reach 30.

I have a bunch of photos on Flickr. I also have a couple of videos that I’ll put online as soon as I figure out how to download an 8.1MB video from it when 8MB is the limit for files sent via Bluetooth or get Missing Sync’s media conduit to work.

One thing that I really like about having lived in several different countries is that I have been exposed to a lot of different music, and that great artists that everybody knows in certain places are sometimes completely unknown in others. This has allowed me to see Ani DiFranco in a venue of at most 200 people in Paris, Ben Harper in a small club in Cambridge, etc.

Yesterday night, I was introduced to the Fillmore, which fits about 1000 people I’d say, to see The Tragically Hip, which is a massively popular Canadian rock band… in Canada. Gerald had taken me to one of their shows years ago. Since then, I’ve been listening to The Hip.

It was pretty much the same crowd: I was surrounded by Canadians. Some came all the way from Calgary in order to see The Hip play in such a small venue.

The support act was great. The Sadies put up a great show. They somewhat reminded me of Tarnation, but with a “rockier” sound, if that says anything to somebody else. They’re themselves Canadian, and who knows when I’ll have a chance to see them again, but I’m definitely going to get some of their CDs.

Then The Hip did a great performance. As I often realize, I appreciate a concert much better when I’m close (I remember not fully appreciating PJ Harvey at the Zénith in Paris, while I loved the bootleg I got of the show). Here I was at the second row, and I was able to witness the energy that Gord Downie puts into the show.

He basically doesn’t hold back. His shirt was soaking wet after the second song. He broke a guitar string during the second song, jumped all over the place for 1h45, gave away guitar picks, broken strings, towels, his microphone stand (yes, you read well). It basically was one of the best shows I had seen in a while.

The setlist is available in the HipBase forum. I have some photos on Flickr. And I tried to take a video of Blow at High Dough as you can see below:

I edited out the audio, as it was horrible, and you could not even recognize a melody. The result, without the sound isn’t great. You can watch the whole song on YouTube from another concert.

After a great performance, we were given when we exited the venue a pretty big poster for the concert, made of very thick paper. All I can say is that The Hip gives you plenty for your money, and even more. Don’t miss them.

A few weeks ago, I was raving (well, maybe not raving, but at least expressing satisfaction) about my Windows Mobile 5.0 device.

As I was asked today if I was still happy with it, I was reminded of what I’ve been meaning to do for the past week: warn people about Windows Mobile! I haven’t done too many weird things to my device, and yet it turns out that it crashes on average once a day. My Treo would crash regularly too, though this would always happen while I was doing something.

This is where Microsoft is better than Palm: my WM5 device crashes while I’m not doing anything. A couple of examples:

1. I set an alarm to wake up in the morning, and then I turn off my device and go to sleep. A few hours later, I open my eyes thinking that it’s a little too bright out for 7 in the morning; indeed, my watch says it’s 8.30am. My phone/PDA cannot be turned on: it crashed during the night
2. I’m waiting for a phone call. The phone’s not ringing. After a while, I take it out and turn it on to call and check why I’m note hearing from anybody. Oh, look at that: the phone cannot be turned on. It crashed again.

So this happens about once or twice a day. On the bright side, the reset button on the Qtek S200 is much more accessible than on the Treo. Maybe the HTC engineers were expecting users to need it on a regular basis.

It’s too bad, as I really quite like this device, but it’s really not realiable. I haven’t done yet what somebody ought to do with a Microsoft OS: do a hard reset and reinstall my third party apps. Maybe that’s the solution.

Update (2006-10-06): it turned out to be caused by a third-party app (Batti). The device is now extremely stable, though I now have issues with the Missing Sync… Sigh.

Hier soir, Laurent de Wilde était au New Morning pour deux concerts. Tout d’abord une partie acoustique avec le Laurent de Wilde Trio, puis une partie électro avec Laurent de Wilde Organics.

J’ai beaucoup aimé Laurent de Wilde Trio. Laurent de Wilde au piano, Darryl Hall à la contrebasse, et Laurent Robin à la batterie ont notamment joué des morceaux d’électro-jazz de manière acoustique, et je dois dire que j’ai été emballė. Comme le dit Laurent de Wilde sur son blog, ils préparent un album pour fin avril qui promet.

J’ai notamment beaucoup aimé leurs improvisations sur Quiet, Not Quite. Cela m’a rappelé un peu la façon dont dEUS, dans un style complètement différent, arrive à bousculer une mélodie dans une chanson qu’on aurait pu croire prévisible (comme Let’s Get Lost ou Little Arithmetics).
La deuxième partie de soirée a été beaucoup plus remuante avec Laurent de Wilde Organics. J’avoue avoir moins apprécié la partie électro, le tempo étant parfois un peu trop rapide à mon goût. Ceci dit, je suis encore un néophite en la matière, et mon oreille va surement évolué. Julien m’a également fait remarqué qu’un concert d’électro assis n’est pas vraiment idéal.

En tout cas, un très bon moment. Et en bonus, les musiciens avaient demandé aux spectateurs de ne pas fumer. Un concert sans cigarettes, le rêve !

J’ai pris quelques photos du concert.