Random Music Thoughts – November 3, 2011

Last night was We Were Promised Jetpacks at Metro. They were great as always. They had a ton of energy and the sound was amazing. I’m not sure whether it sold out but there were ton of people there. I’m glad to see that more people are getting into them. The guys handled the transition to Metro with no hangups. They started the set with “Circles and Squares.” They played about an even amount of songs from both albums. They didn’t do an encore and they ended the night with “It’s Thunder and It’s Lightning.” It was a good show and I had a blast.

Alternative Press has an article with Ben Nichols looking back on Lucero’s That Much Further West.

Metro just announced that the Falcon is opening for Naked Raygun. Now I’m even more inclined to go.

I don’t know how I didn’t hear this Chuck Ragan song until today, it features Brian Fallon as well:

SXSW 2010 Recap – Friday

Friday I got off to a late start b/c I was pretty tired from the night before. The plan was to go to the Village Voice party, especially for Superchunk. The party was out of the way at La Zona Rosa. Sadly, when I got there, the line was ridiculously long.  I ended heading out of that area as soon as possible but it was too late.  I had already wasted about an hour that day and didn’t see any bands.  I went into a panic mode trying to find any show that I could get into but all the lines were ridiculous. I somehow ended up crashing some party that I shouldn’t have been it.  The drinks were good but I didn’t know any bands. I ended leaving and saw Ben Nichols behind Beauty Bar.

Ben Nichols

Two years ago, I had no idea who Lucero was.  Since then, I have seen Lucero four times. Because of that seeing Ben Nichols at SXSW wasn’t anything special.  Even seeing him solo wasn’t that different because he often plays alone at Lucero shows. It was somewhat noteworthy that because it was a day show, Ben was not completely wasted.  Also, he played a fast version of “Nights Like These.” Apparently he only plays that fast version when doing solo performances so that was new to me.

(photos by me)