Butch Walker rules

Sometimes we ask bands the question "If someone is hearing your band for the first time, would you rather their first impression be listening to your album, or seeing your live show?"  Sometimes there's an obvious answer, sometimes they have to think about it.  I saw Butch Walker last night for the second time ever, and I decided that he's definitely someone you need to see live.

I can't say enough good things about Butch Walker.  Maybe I'm just trying to make up for being late to the party, since I really only started listening to him a couple months ago.  There's just something about his live show that sounds simultaneously intimate and bigger-than-life.  He played Webster Hall, and I was standing pretty much all the way in the back of the balcony, but it still just felt like we were a bunch of people in a room hanging out, and some of them were playing music.  At the same time there are songs that, when they're played live, there's not really a way to describe it except to say that they sort of fill up your heart.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that if I had to choose only one song to hear performed live for the rest of my life, I'd be satisfied to choose Butch Walker playing "The Weight of Her." (I don't know under what circumstances someone would make me choose that, but play along.  And since you asked, my runner up might be Envy on the Coast "Sugar Skulls" or The Graduate "Justified".)  Back in November when we were setting up for our interview with Butch at the Blender theater, they started sound checking The Weight of Her and I stopped what I was doing to watch sound check on the monitors downstairs because that song is too ridiculously good live.

As an encore, Butch leaped off the stage and dragged his mic to the middle of the venue and sang Hot Girls in Good Moods from the middle of Webster Hall while partying with the crowd. Unbelievable.  Such an absurdly good show.

Friday night I went with Maggie and Sarah (who shot most of our Warped Tour stuff, and now works at Newsweek.com on an awesome webseries called "The District," among other things) to see Vinnie and Mike from I Am the Avalanche play acoustic solo sets at Angels & Kings.  So good.  Check out Mike's solo stuff HERE and go HERE to find out about more shows like this.

Belated '08 Wrap-Up

I'm terrible at those wrapping-up-the-year lists that people make, top 10 songs/albums, etc. Usually I end up putting fall releases higher on the list than they ought to be, just because I'm listening to them at the time I'm writing the list. I can, however, do a pretty decent concert wrap-up. I probably spent atleast 20x more on shows than CDs last year, anyway, so it seems appropriate.

I went to 76 shows and saw 135 different bands (and saw 86 bands for the first time).

I saw these bands atleast 5 times:
I Am the Avalanche, You Me and Everyone We Know, Four Year Strong, Lannen Fall, Socratic, The Graduate
I saw these bands atleast 3 times:
Farewell, Forever the Sickest Kids, A Loss For Words, Danger Radio, Every Avenue, Hit the Lights, Holiday Parade, Just Surrender, Mayday Parade, Paper Rival, Paramore, The Scenic, This Is Hell

Top 5 shows this year:
1. Inklings Birthday Party (The Graduate, Socratic, Lannen Fall)
Imagine that you're watching one of your favorite bands, and you and pretty much everyone around you are completely shmammered and shouting along to every word (and those that aren't are thanking you for introducing this band into their lives). Also you put on the show. I think Naomi and I spoiled ourselves a little with this show.
2. The Starting Line final hometown show (w/ Bayside, Four Year Strong)
Not only was this definitely the best Starting Line show I've ever seen, it was one of the best shows in general. I hadn't seen them play The Drama Summer since the first time I saw them back in 2002.
3. Long Island Warped Tour
Maybe it's cheating to list a festival tour, but sooo many bands killed it at this date.
4. Butch Walker
I'd never seen him, or really listened to him much before this, but he is to Naomi what Michael Jackson is to me. The first 20-30 mins of his set were acoustic & piano songs, which were unbelievable, and the rest of it was full band, and all those songs sounded HUGE. This is what musicians need to aspire to...and it doesn't hurt that he's one of the most sincere & laid back people we've worked with for Inklings.
5. Four Year Strong/I Am the Avalanche/This Is Hell/A Loss For Words tour
We saw this tour twice in California-- once at the Knitting Factory, once at a Veterans Hall. So different, both shows so solid.

Band I travelled the most/furthest for this year: You, Me, and Everyone We Know
Technically this should go to FYS/IATA/AL4W because we saw them in California...but YMAEWK gets it because I saw them 6 times, but not once in NYC. Also because of the pain-in-the-ass transportation issues coming home from most of those shows...like when I got home from our first shoot with them at 3:30am to find out I locked myself out of my apartment (I slept on the couch at work for an hour until Naomi took me in to sleep on her couch), or the time when there was no EZpass in the car we'd rented to go see them with The Dear Hunter and they tried to charge us an extra $100 for returning it late. Good times.

Best venue I went to in 08: The Electric Factory (Philly)
Worst Venue I went to in 08: Vibe Lounge (Long Island)-- aka Death Trap. I would like this place to get shut down asap...I always feel like I might die every time I go there, plus every band sounds TERRIBLE there. I worry that now that the Knitting Factory's gone/moved, MORE bands will play there :(


2009 has started off a little slow for Inklings, but have no fear, things will be picking up immediately!