As I said on twitter, there will be many verbose posts on this show because it struck a lot of chords (I'll let you decide if the pun was intended or not). As my friends David and Bill pointed out, a blog is something that anyone can read, and you should only post things that you're not afraid for people to read. They also said you shouldn't be afraid to say something just because you're afraid you might "offend" someone or cause a planet to go out of alignment or something.
So, that said, I am comfortable with the bands I am speaking about reading this. What I have to say is mostly positive, and the things that aren't are truly constructive criticism. Being an artist and a perfectionist myself, I know that bashing does nothing but that getting no feedback at all can actually be more frustrating than being bashed. New ideas and constructive criticism are always a good thing (even if I scream at you that you're a moron, I actually do appreciate it).
Did I tell the bands what I'm about to say to their face? Hell no. Why? this has more to do with the fact that me walking up to someone to say "hi" is more nerve racking and requires more energy than you could possibly imagine, than it has t do with "I'll say on my blog it's cool if they read this, but I honestly hope they never know." I hope they do know to be honest, but I'm always afraid to approach anyone with criticism since I like to make everything easy and happy all the time.
The Green Seed - They surprised both me and my husband. We knew this was a hip-hop group, but we had no idea that they were a hip-hop group who rapped about video games, x-men and sci-fi movies. I love the nerd references, and I loved that these guys are absolutely not afraid to do what they want with their art. Nerd rap is not a big genre and not even MC Chris will ever have the kind of fame that brittany spears or nickleback has. Yet, there were three black guys playing to an audience of pasty white children like me and getting a decent audience response from 25 people, half of whom appeared to be friends, crew, etc. of the headliners. They will never get love from alot of people, but they will got alot of really genuine love from the few of us who appreciate what they're doing. I love anyone who's willing to tow the line to make the art they think they should make.
Aside from that, these guys are genuinely talented. Complet is the main MC and it was his lyrics that turned my head and made laugh. He went completely off during "Xmess", a song where he lambasted the creators of the Xmen movies, all the time showing off his rhythm and rhyme. It was catchy, musically viable, and hysterical all at once. Rtist is usually the 'back up' MC and his rhythm is insane. I have never heard anyone that can rap that fast, use syncopation and keep right on the beat the whole time. He also added a lot of character to the show by joking around in between songs. Their DJ/mixmaster DJ FX is ridiculously talented. He did a great job of mixing and his scratching was fucking brilliant -- the rhythms were so cool I have been staring at my screen for 2 minutes to come up with the right word to describe them.
My only constructive criticism is something my husband said, that I have to agree with. Sometimes their "references" consisted of them just spouting off a bunch of game and movie titles, and it wouldn't hurt if sometimes they were a little more clever with their references. MC Chris has always done a great job with this, and it wouldn't hurt them to borrow from him in this aspect just a little. They are nothing like MC Chris and overall that's a really good thing, but I'd just like to see them figure out how to make their references a little less direct in some of their songs.
That said, any and all nerds out there who like music should go check out the green seed. I'm looking in the direction of everyone who reads this blog because I know all of you and you all are music lovin', card carryin' NERDS.
Broken Letters- they're definitely talented, and definitely don't sound like Nickelback. I generally love any indy rock sound over any standard radio rock anytime. I'm not saying that to be "all indy and shit", I'm saying it because it's true. It's like me saying I usually would rather look at any cute Indian chick than any cute Asian chick -- It's just a preference. That said, I felt like I didn't know what they sounded like. I heard a lot of influences and I heard a little bit of their own sound emerging, but I really wanted to hear more. Also, I like my music to move and go somewhere, and theirs kind of meandered. For me, it wasn't bad, it was just kind of... there. But maybe me not "feeling" them is like me not "feeling" 'lost in translation' -- it may just be a style that I don't really get.
Daikaiju- Wow. I don't think I can possibly really explain to you what I heard from them on Saturday. It was absolutely unreal. The problem in my trying to explain the sound is that their myspace clips don't even do it justice, never mind mere words. The recorded version of their music is so much less intense and energetic than what I heard Saturday. This is not to say that the CD wouldn't be good, in fact the clips on myspace sound great, but this band is one who's true nature cannot be captured in a recording studio. I would call them "Hardcore Surf Fusion".
They played so hard and so fast at Workplay that it was unreal. The thing is, it still sounded amazing. All the rhythm complexities, chord progressions, and variances in sound came through very clearly even though they were playing at a blistering pace. And it was definitely loud, but it wasn't "speed metal" loud and it wasn't ALWAYS loud. Like I mentioned before, they used different sounds, volumes, tempos, rhythms, etc. Each song was unique and they even had a couple with a darker feel like "Escape from Nebula M" (which happens to be on their myspace page).
I do not play an intrument, so sometimes I am impressed by things that really aren't that remarkable. So, on the way home, I asked my husband who plays guitar as a hobby "was the lead guitarist as good as I think he was?" His response was "the progressions in surf rock are not as difficult as they are in something like blues, but you're playing them 20 times faster, so it still takes a lot of skill. So, yeah... He was really good."
I don't want to just trumpet the lead guitarist because they were all talented. Rhythm guitar is honestly hard to tell one way or another how talented someone is because they're playing the rhythm part, but he kept up and he definitely added to the sound.
I don't play bass, but I play bass in rock band, and my general observation is that with a bass line it's really simple: if it sounds hard, it usually is, and if it doesn't, it's not. I know that rock band has only a passing resemblance to real life, so I'm not claiming to be an expert based on my experience playing a video game. But, if I'm right, then the bassist was brilliant. Actually, just watching him, I could see he had equally nimble fingers to the lead guitarist and, in some places, was all over the fret board just as much as the lead guitarist... sorry that can't be easy. Actually, they played a very bass heavy song that I loved, and he was pretty much the one leading the pack on that song. He did a great job.
I don't play drums, but I am a tap dancer, which means I know something about rhythms, and which ones are hard and which ones are easy. You might be thinking "yes, but drum sticks and feet are very different." Yes they are, but brains are brains. The hardest type of rhythm to wrap your head around is a repeating pattern that has a slight alteration occasionally. I heard/saw a lot of these... at like 2398203948 bpm no less. There were also several songs with at least a few tempo changes, which are hard for all members of the band, but as the drummer, you have to be spot on or the whole band sounds like shit. Not a problem.
Daikaiju is one of the most intense, most musically interesting and most talented bands I have ever seen. I was absolutely blown away. I think my brain is splattered all over the back wall of Workplay from that show.
I really don't have criticism but if I were forced to give some, I would say that they don't need the theatrics: they wear masks, they have fancy lighting, they have a disco robot on stage... it's really not necessary. When you're that good, you don't need a gimmick. However, if it makes them happy to wear masks and have disco robots, who am I to judge? As long as they play like that, they could come out naked for all I care.
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