Red Meat Reviews » LIVE

Foo Fighters at the Velvet Jones 1/28/11

Haaris Ahmed — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 23:09:14 +0000

You read the headline correctly, Dave, Nate, Pat, Taylor and Santa Barbara native Chris decided to do a show in SB, but instead of selling out a huge venue they opted to sweat it out at the Velvet Jones, a club that barely holds 300 people.

The concert was a secret, I didn’t find out about it till the day of the show. The rules to getting in were simple, follow the Foo Fighters on twitter and wait for some sort of sign. Between various twit pics of familiar features the California 101 North the Foo Fighter fanbase was in a nervous frenzy. I got a tip to que up outside Velvet Jones at 4pm from a buddy who was en route to pick me up. When we arrived we were greeted with small yet wide line of people. A bouncer came out announcing that you better have cash, be over 21 and the venue is only selling single wristbands. By the time my lady got off work and met up with our group the line was moving but luckily we got wrist banded up! A wave of 90′s nostalgia swept across my mind, it was rad to find out about a show via the internet and get tickets in an actual line and not an online fiasco.

I arrived at the nightclub around 9ish, caught some of the El Marichi Bronx, and then it was Foo Fighter time (around the 10pm mark). It was so surreal to see this band, who I have only experienced in a stadium setting. I was super close to the Foo, and so was everyone else because the venue is just that small.

So why were the Foo Fighters there? They decided to play their new album, cover to cover, no breaks, no bullshit, just pure Foo Fighter action. The new album rules, its super fast and aggressive, at least that’s how they rocked it on this particular Friday night. Instead of getting off stage after giving the crowd the entire new album(which is self titled, I think) they started busting out hit after hit form their extensive catalog of music.

I unfortunately had to leave at midnight, so I didn’t get to stay for the whole thing. Apparently the Foo Fighters played up until closing time, at least that is what the locals claim. I believe it, it looked like Dave Grohl was having a great time on stage, in between tracks he was talking shit and tweaking songs, he even gave his wife a little dedication. It was also a highlight seeing Pat Smear on stage, I have seen both Chris Shiflett and Taylor Hawkins bands at Velvet, but to see all those guys come collectively together as Foo Fighters at a place like Velvet Jones, well it doesn’t happen that often, I was just happy to be in the room.

The show was the tits. I hope more arena bands take a page from the Foo Fighters and play small club shows in Santa Barbara to work on new material as well as rock old hits until closing time; yeah I’m not going to hold my breath.

You are probably looking for a set list, Here is the set list that I ripped off of setlist.fm if you care about these types of things

1. Bridge Burning
2. Rope
3. Dear Rosemary
4. White Limo
5. Arlandria
6. These Days
7. Back & Forth
8. Matter of Time
9. Miss the Misery
10. I Should Have Known
11. Walk

12. All My Life
13. Times Like These
14. Generator
15. My Hero Play
16. Learn to Fly
17. Wattershed
18. Up in Arms
19. Big Me
20. Enough Space
21. Monkey Wrench
22. Hey, Johnny Park!
23. Everlong

Encore:

24. The Pretender
25. I’ll Stick Around
26. This is a Call

Also big ups to the Velvet Jones staff for being the best establishment for live music in Santa Barbara, you cats rule.

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Melvins Killing It at The Velvet Jones 9/16/2010

Haaris Ahmed — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:01:54 +0000

Before I get into the Melvins show quick shout out to the Velvet Jones. The club decided to do some remolding and it paid off in a huge way. They basically knocked off the awning above the bar, which opens up the entire space. It looks 10x bigger and you can hear a vast improvement in the acoustics, and the Melvins is a great band to showcase the now incredible sound that Velvet Jones houses. The owner decided to restructure some of the glasswork throughout the club as well, the entire place looks fantastic.

On to the show, it was AWESOME. The Melvins have played this venue before, and in true Melvins form, blasted the doors wide open. Coming out in Space Suits and matching capes King B and the rest of the band took the small club patrons on an audio journey that would be with you the next day, yeah it was that loud. Quick note, the openers were Totimoshi and they were awesome, I bought their 7inch, best $5 I have spent all year. Is there really anymore to say, we are talking about the FUCKING MELVINS. They were on point and it was a great show, end of story.

I may have had too much fun at the show, not only did I buy the wrong poster (i bought the slo poster not the Santa Barbara poster) i left the poster and a 7inch at the show. Lucky for me the people at Velvet held onto it and my lady picked up. Don’t mess with that brown liquor kids.

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PRIMUS SUCKS at the Santa Barbara Bowl 8/15/10

Haaris Ahmed — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:27:57 +0000

Another beautiful Sunday night in Santa Barbara and what better way to spend it than with PRIMUS. Before I get into that Wolfmother opened and they did a solid job performing a good mix of new and old and some covers to a unenthusiastic audience. They were saving their energy for the main act that came onto the stage nice and early around the 8pm mark, and since curfew is 10pm this should make for a solid 2 hour Primus show, WRONG.

OK fist off look at this STRONG setlist.

1. Pudding Time
2. Those Damned Blue Collar Tweekers
3. Duchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread
4. American Life
5. Golden Boy
6. Big in Japan (Tom Waits cover)
7. Over The Falls
8. The Toys Go Winding Down
9. Drum and Whamola Jam
10. Groundhog’s Day
11. Mrs. Blaileen
12. Jerry Was A Race Car Driver
13. In The Flesh (Pink Floyd cover)
14. Harold of the Rocks

Encore:
15. Southbound Pachyderm
16. Too Many Puppies

Awesome right? Southbound Pachyderm is a personal favorite. Les Claypool did his thing making complex bass moves look simple. The highlight is when he broke out the Whamola, totally awesome. The crowd was real into the show and if this was your first time seeing Primus then you were STOKED. Now on to people who have seen Primus. WTF is up with ending the show before curfew. Primus, who have not been to the Santa Barbara Bowl in years could have played a 2 hour kick ass set, instead they choose to only play a 1 hour and 25 minute kick ass set. Normally I would not complain, but we are talking about PRIMUS! These cats are supposed to jam out not call it in early. That left a bad taste in the collective mouths of seasoned fans, I especially feel bad for people who drove from LA to see Primus at this venue, its something else. The only thing I could think of was that they didnt sell out the Santa Barbara Bowl, that might be why they wanted to call it quits, or maybe they are getting old. One long time Primus fan and downtown venue/club owner that I will leave nameless stated he was “fistfucked in the face” along with a whole lotta of other super hallrouis shit that I could not retrain in my brain.

The verdict, despite calling it a night at 9:26pm it was a solid set. Weird visuals, on stage blow up astronauts and amazing musicianship made this a great Sunday night. HE COVERED TOM WAITS!!!! In the end they played 16 songs, and anytime you see a Whamola is a good time.

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Pack Your Heart You Might Need It – Deftones at the Ventura Majestic Theater 8/6/2010

Haaris Ahmed — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:55:50 +0000

Another night in Southern California and another kickass show, this time by the Deftones.

These dudes always manage to come through to Ventura Majestic Theater and blast the doors right off. Yes this was a sell out show and looking at the set list you can see why.

1.Needles and Pins
2.Dai the Flu
3.Risk
4.Beauty School
5.Knife Prty
6.Digital Bath
7.Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)
8.Lotion
9.Hole in the Earth
10.Diamond Eyes
11.Rocket Skates
12.Prince
13.You’ve Seen The Butcher
14.My Own Summer (Shove It)
15.Elite
16.Sextape
17.Lifter
18.Change (In the House of Flies)
19.Bored

Encore:
20.Caress (Drive Like Jehu cover)
21.7 Words

I TOLD YOU. Deftones have a large enough library of awesomeness that they could have played anything I would have been happy. As you can see the set list was super aggressive and they were on stage for quite a bit. The jams were tight and the acoustics were surprisingly crisp. Ventura Majestic Theater is an awesome venue, but it can be tricky on sound but lucky for me and the rest of the sold out crowd that was not an issue.

Chino was having way to much fun, smiling, screaming, running around and talking shit. Smack in the front center they constructed a raised level so Chino can be elevated so everyone could see him as he would rock the fuck out. The lights were pretty cool as well, they had these spot lights that looked all fragmented like in a comic book or something, you had to see it for yourself.

The only thing I didn’t like was the merch dude who wouldn’t sell me a limited edition poster print, he said it was for people that bought VIP tickets, damn that dude for doing his job!!!!!

4 Meaty Meats

Oh this is me talking with Chino outside the show. Funny story I met him at my first radio promotion for 89.5 WSOU Seton Halls Pirate Radio, we were doing the midnight release of White Pony at a Menlo Park Mall and I was lucky enough to me Chino and the rest of the Deftones and they were super nice. Thats what I told Chino outside, and although he doesn’t remember our 30 second encounter 12 years ago he does remember the midnight release and was still super nice. Big ups to Jen and her ninja camera skills for taking this candid shot.

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Right Ear Permanently Damaged – Boris at Casbah in San Diego 7/24/2010

Haaris Ahmed — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:53:35 +0000

For reals, my right ear has not been the same since. I should have worn ear plugs to the show, especially because of all the brutality I have but my poor eardrums through this past week, (Rage, Dead Weather and Tool) luckily the ringing has stopped. Oh the show? Out of all the shows I saw this past week this one took the feedback cake.

First off the drive to the venue and back was totally worth it, the Casbah (that is how they spell the name of the club) barely held 250 (rough estimate) plus it was Comic Con so there was a healthy presence of people from all over the world, I met 9 kids from Australia. There was 1 chick wearing a penguin costume, she was sweating and bouncing around like she was on “e” and smelled pretty bad. Oh the show….

HOLY CRAP BORIS IS AWSOME LIVE. 2 years ago I had to fly all the way to Ohio to see these 3 open for Nine Inch Nails in Ohio, and they killed it then, so when I heard about this being their 1st show on their North American tour I had to check it out. I got up right in front, my knees were touching the stage dead center.

As soon as that fist cord got pulled my ears and body got blown the fuck out!!! This show was LOUD, and loud is good in my book. They might have only played 13 songs, but the set actually clocked right around the 1 hour 45 minute mark. The set list was AMAZING, covering most of their recent work and throwing it back. Tracks like 16:47:52 were 8 were really nice low fi breaks where as the rest of the set was just exploding with blaring experimental rock audio. Since I was so close I was able to see their tricks/talents up close and personal. Atsuo is a MAD MAN on drums. He was one of the greatest drummers I have EVER seen, and his rock face was super duper awesome. In fact he was the most animated on stage, he was mic’ed upped for vocals and throughout the show as he was drumming he would belt out some shouts in the middle of songs just cause, AWESOME. Wata was the only one on stage not to break a sweat, she seemed like a statue, almost like a delicate piece of porcelain with that signature Japanese beauty, but then I noticed her fingers, wtf!!! She is an AMAZING guitar player, she was picking, soloing, feedbacking, plucking and just plain killing it, but all with that modest persona that the Japanese are known for. Takeshi played with his double neck the entire time, he was much like Wata on stage, but every once in a while he could not contain himself at times and rocked out. They were joined by a 4^th band mate on stage, I didn’t know who he was, but he loved the feedback and pulled some serious metal solo’s as well. There was no bullshit encore, just one awesome set. During their last song Atsuo jumped on his kit and threw up both his hands up the metal way \m/ \m/ and stood their looking over the crowd for what seemed to be a good 3-5minutes, then walked into the middle of the crowd to retire, there was another 5-10 minutes of just droned out feedback until the rest of the band exited into the middle of the crowd, fuck yeah….Here is the Set List

Set list
1. Farewell
2. Rainbow
3. 8
4. Lungs
5. Floor Shaker
6. Statement
7. A bao a qu
8. 16:47:52
9. Akirame Flower
10. PINK
11. korosu
12. 1970
13. untitled

Like I was stating before, the set was incredible, it was like a hurricane, started subtle then all of a sudden it was chaos, sounds bleeding in and out of your brain, chords clashing with non stop drum progression, then a clam cool slowdown, is it over? Oh no no, your just in the eye of the storm, and then before you know it your in that same world wind ride then spit out the other side, forever changed by this experience known as BORIS.

5 Metal Meats

Also…

The Merch was pretty awesome, no poster prints, but a shit ton of imported vinyl

Also this was the only picture i could take, in fact this was the last picture my Mytouch camera took, the camera no longer works, fucking technology.

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Anger is a Gift Time to Rally Rage Against the Machine at Hollywood Palladium 7/23/10

Haaris Ahmed — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 22:12:27 +0000

Before I start, milestone in Red Meat Reviews history, this is my 100th Post!!!! To commemorate this monumental moment I have picked a show to review that is near and dear to my heart. In true meat fashion lets get into it.

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE played the Hollywood Palladium last Friday, I can stop right there, but you know I wont.

Needless to say this show RULED. The set list was more like a greatest hits album, plus they covered the Clash’s “White Riot” and during the cover song Rage turned on the house lights, the spectacle was like traveling back in time to when people moshed around and no one in the place was standing still. It is very very VERY rare that LA get down, it felt like an east coast show, it was awesome to come out of the show bruised, aching and soar, but unlike my youth it took my 30year old body days to recover rather than a good night’s rest.

The show itself was amazing. the band did a great job of mixing up their set list and playing a raw, uncut, super metal show for its home town in Los Angeles. The sell out show consisting of 4,000 people got a treat of seeing a stadium band playing one of their smallest venues since their break up. I havent seen them play a show like this thins 97 at the electric factory in Philly. Conor Oberst opened, but I missed his entire set which is a bummer.

There was some serious police presence at the show as well. Lots of cops, undercover and even some officers in riot gear just waiting for something to happen. I will get into that in a little bit.

Here is Rage’s set list, it speaks volumes over anything else I would say about this show.

1. Testify
2. Bombtrack
3. People Of The Sun
4. Know Your Enemy
5. Bulls On Parade
6. Township Rebellion
7. White Riot (The Clash cover)
8. Bullet In The Head
9. Calm Like A Bomb
10. Guerrilla Radio
11. Sleep Now In The Fire
12. Wake Up

Encore:
13. Freedom
14. Killing In The Name

There was a reason Rage was there. It wasn’t cause they wanted money, it wasn’t cause they were doing some reunion hoopla, they were there to raise money and awareness about the purely racist law that Arizona is about to pass and the Racist FEDERAL Law that Arizona’s law is based on. It is rare that a band can combine both art and awareness and pull it off. Rage excels at this, having seen them 11 times now this show was one for the books. The only thing that sucks is the fact that they had to throw a show in order to rally people, especially the kids, to raise awareness and to boycott the shit out of Arizona.

Boycott ARIZON. Don’t visit there, don’t see sports that involve Arizona, don’t perform in Arizona, if something is made in AZ don’t buy it. If you live in Arizona, move now. Basically Fuck Arizona.
On a personal note I cant believe that I live in a time where this is even a topic of discussion. Anyone who agrees with what Arizona is doing should take a good long look at themselves and the history of the United States of America. Remember what is inscribed into our Lady Liberty’s book, and I quote “”Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”

The show gets a good ol fashion 5 meaty rating

Your Anger is a GIFT

Shout out to Christian aka the Asian Opera for snapping this rugged ass pick on his iphone while getting thrashed around with yours truly. Big ups yo.

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Got Hung at Dead Weather at Hollywood Palladium 7/21/10

Haaris Ahmed — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:04:30 +0000

Wednesday night, Hollywood Palladium, sold out show, blue motifs, whiskey smells and a whole lotta cigarettes describe this ultra rock show that Dead Weather put on. Allison came out looking like she was lost in 80′s rocking a Axel Rose hair cut looking super sexy while smoking and flicking madd cigs. Jack White was talking crazy amounts off shit having fun and even handing out some beer to some of the sweat soaked crowd press up in front. Dean was also doing his thing, at some points he was so into his performance he was literally rocking his keyboard back and forth, I thought he was going to toss it into the crowd. I wasn’t on Ben’s side, but he was playing like a mad man.

So yeah I thoroughly enjoyed this particular show. Dead Weather played a solid 2 hour set, all of which was good old fashion American rock n roll. check out the set.

60 Feet Tall
Hang You From The Heavens
You Just Can’t Win
…So Far From Your Weapon
I Cut Like A Buffalo
No Horse
A Child of a Few Hours Is Burning To Death
Die by the Drop
The Difference Between Us
I’m Mad
Hustle and Cuss
New Pony
Will There Be Enough Water?
Blue Blood Blues
Gasoline
I Can’t Hear You
Treat Me Like Your Mother

My rating, come on this was their best performance to date. Plus the poster art was SUPER DOPE

Madd props and and shout outs got to Kelly for taking these awesome pictures.

And this was too good to be true, and i got it on FILM!!!!

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LCD Soundsystem @ the Fox Theater in Pomona 6/5/2010

Haaris Ahmed — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:02:19 +0000

This was a bitter sweet show for yours truly. I love me some LCD Soundsytem but have only experienced them in festival format. Finally I get to see them do their own thing, and guess what, this is their last tour.

The show was kick ass, they played all their hits, and there was a lot of shit talking going on. Their on stage presence was real strong, playing on a tiered staged, a whole lotta lights and some serious fog action assisted in the street fighter uppercut that LCD delivered to the crowd. The set list was sick. Drunk Girls, YR City is a Sucker, and Daft Punk is Playing at My House were all crowd favorites. Pow Pow had this Lord of the Rings(when Sauron dies in the first one and there is a shockwave of bass) meets the Deathstar firing bass sound that travel through the floor up into your feet and out your third eye that made you say WOW during Pow Pow. But the jam of the night was “Yeah”. First off the song went well past the 10 minute mark. They turned on the fog machine to high and slowly but progressively had this warm green light that eventually took up the entire stage, now your cant see anyone, only silhouettes during this serious jam. Then out of nowhere, LAZERS!!!!! Shooting out all over the place, it was a sight to behold. They came out did a 3 song encore, and which included and ended with New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down.

Hopefully James Murphy will consider sticking around and continue to make kick ass music as LCD Soundsystem, if not is was a fucking awesome ride while it lasted. Thanks LCD Soundsystem, pow pow.

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Asobi Seksu Acustic Session Live in Santa Barbara

Haaris Ahmed — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:04:32 +0000

The first show of 2010 and its Asobi Seksu, a band that I have always wanted to see live, but every time they play I am flying somewhere or getting a tooth pulled. The same goes for Mastodon. Needless to say I was PUMPED when I arrived at Soho, a night club in Santa Barbara, last night where Asobi Seksu took the stage. When I got there it was interesting…

So I get there late and Asobi Seksu has already taken the stage, I walked in on them covering Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions (Mazzy Star side project) song, Suzanne(my favorite song off of the album Bavarian Fruit Bread), fucking awesome! Then they go into another acoustic jam and front woman, Yuki Chikudate, informs the crowd how excited she is about touring doing acoustic songs in support of their acoustic album. Come again? I was expecting a show with instruments that need to be plugged into amps to create cool sound effects an feedback. Needless to say I was pissed, on all their albums they do a lot of electrical work and I was psyched….OUT that is.

The show was anything but bad though. It was cool to hear songs like Layers and Mahnome done with an acoustic treatment. At one point James and the rest of the boys leave Yuki on stage for some solo time with her and a grand piano. Since it was an acoustic show there was a lot of storytelling going on throughout their set. The best stage patter came from a solo Yuki where she went into a story about eating Mushrooms at Martha’s Vineyard, stumbling across an injured bird in the woods, going into town to save this wounded creature only to be told that there was nothing they could do to so James Hana(guitarist, singer, dude with a pretty cool mustache) had to run over it, and that’s what Blind Little Rain is about. James wrote it in his head during this fiasco and Yuki made sure to give James his creative props.

The band also had to battle an interesting crowd. First off there was still dinners and people being loud in the back of the bar, which was distracting as hell but that was nothing compared to the duel train wrecks that were frolicking in front of the stage. There were 2 older and very inebriated women in twirling around like retarded chimps on LSD. It was embarrassing to watch and that shit had my ribs all sorts of cracked up.

The set was on the shorter end but I realized something, I like acoustic shows. I got a chance to get down and talke some shit with Yuki at the merch booth at the end of the show. She was all of 5 foot nothing but a super sweet heart, its always fun to talk to an east coaster on the west end. James Hana was chilling at the mech booth as well but he was talking to some other cats.

The verdict

I was surprised they got this many slabs, they have turn this acoustic hater!

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Sonic Youth Live in NYC @ Terminal 5

Haaris Ahmed — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:40:13 +0000

Sonic Youth is one of those bands that have been around for decades and are still pumping out albums that are always different from the last yet have their signature sound. Sonic Youths real draw is their live show, and a Sonic Youth show in NYC is always a treat.

Before we get to the main course there were some serious appetizers. 1st up was Cold Cave who was playing yet I had no idea they were going to be there. The pitchfork generation was going nuts, I dug their sound as well.

Good buddies of Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr. decided to open. Holy shit did they bring it; Lou Barlow set himself up in a half circle of amps 3 stacks tall, it was super metal. Dinosaur Jr did their thing for a solid hour and some change, mostly playing stuff off their new album, Farm, but throwing it back to keep the Manhattan crowd at bay.

Sonic Youth played for a solid 2 hours and their set was tight. They did a great job mixing older tracks like Silver Rocket, Shadow of Doubt, and White Cross and playing new tracks off of the Eternal (SY latest album)including Thunderclap (personal favorite of thee new album) Leaky Lifeboat, Anti Orgasim and Poison Arrow.

There was MOSHING AND CROWD SURFING!!! A sighting that is VERY VERY VERY rare on the west coast, kids dress up to go to shows now, we used to dress down.

In the end Sonic Youth brings the motherfuckinnoize. There live show is always on point, they span decades in creating, cultivating and preforming in the music scene. This review is askew cause I really like Sonic Youth and since this is my website I am giving them a well deserved 4 1/2 meat rating.

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