You're all chrome

Tickets to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs show sold out in like 2 minutes while I was watching coworkers play a friendly game of softball. They are still on sale however on craigslist and eBay. FOR ONLY $70-$90. Heads will roll.

Let me take you on a trip around the world and back

Last night I attended my third Depeche Mode concert in twelve years. That's right, they come around every four years, like clockwork, except that one year when they came back several months after I saw them, on the day that I was graduating from college, and I wasn't allowed to go to the concert since my parents thought it was important for me to graduate from college and all. Rats. Side note: Paul Sarbanes, of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for all of you accounting nerds, spoke at my graduation about something Benjamin Franklin something, something. In case you were wondering what I would have missed had I gone to the concert instead.

So last night we packed ourselves into the Accord and drove to bumblefrick Virginia. My brother, sister-in-law, and Papa T. That's right, I was on a date with my dad. HOT.



And also literally, it was a very hot outside.

Papa T brought binoculars and lamented the fact that he did not have his Nikon D90 and a big lens with him because that definitely would not have been at all burdensome. In between losing my voice from all of the WOOOing & SINGING and dancing up a storm in my one square foot of sweaty dance floor, I took some extra blurry photos and videos.

This here is a fairly accurate representation of our view. But probably a little zoomed in. If my memory serves me correctly, I bought these tickets online pretty much the minute they were released to the public.



One of the screens was just to the right. Here I captured Martin, my lover brother from another mother.



I also shot some shitty video snippets. In your room your burning eyes cause flames to arise.



Are you clapping for an encore? I leave you with the more upbeat Enjoy the Silence.

Getting pumped up for the Depeche Mode concert in July and my Depeche Mode cover band some time in the future

This video gives me nightmares.

Pinkeye outbreak averted

I wouldn't want to preemptively make the call, but I think I left tonight's We Are Scientists concert at the Hard Rock Cafe without contracting a severe case of pinkeye or ear infection or bubonic plague. You may or may not remember my concert diseases from last year. I wrote this post after coming home from the concert but before waking up in the morning and finding out that I had turned into a full-fledged zombie. At that concert, Keith had walked out into the crowd, singing one of their songs. As I was swooning, I reached out and touched him, and then again when he was coming back to the stage. Then I blacked out from sheer joy and woke up the next morning ready to film Part II of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. Tonight, Keith walked out into the crowd again. The venue was tiny, and I was standing at the top of three steps leading up to the bar area, so not right on the main floor area. He made it to the steps, right in front of me, stood there for a few seconds -- I could have reached out to him -- and then had to abort mission and retreat as his mic cord got stretched out a little too far and he started losing sound. Come back! I want to make out with you! Give me more pinkeye! It was too late.

We Are Scientists tonight

Bloc Party tonight

GET READY

Depeche Mode has announced a TOUR OF THE UNIVERSE in 2009.

Six years ago I went to see the EXCITER tour with my brother, and it was a defining moment in my life. I had grown up hearing a constant stream of Depeche Mode in our household for as long as I could remember, watching my brother watch their videos and concerts on video, yelling at him to turn down the speakers. They were as familiar to me as my mother's pierogi (called vareniki in Russian). It wasn't until I saw and heard the live show that the realization came: I just couldn't get enough. It was as if I had been eating vareniki indifferently all this time, and then after a huge vareniki feast, I realized that vareniki were the essential staple of my sustenance. Deep.

This is an excerpt from the Exciter tour from their DVD called "One Night in Paris". Watch Martin get a little funky on the guitar at around the 4:40 mark.



Two years ago my brother and I saw the TOURING THE ANGEL tour, which was even better.



My brother skipped my graduation and got to go see them again that year in Atlantic City. I was not so lucky.

Papa T has actually never wholly approved of us listening to Depeche. Says it's too dark and depressing. Well. Each and every one of their songs is a love song. Of course sometimes things get a little dark and depressing.

You can fulfill
Your wildest ambitions
And I'm sure you will
Lose your inhibitions
So open yourself for me
Risk your health for me
If you want my love
If you want my love

It's just gonna get into this ridiculous Russian doll situation

Flight of the Conchords on youtube. Amazing social commentary. I can't embed, so you'll have to click here and here and here.

Ghost Under Rocks

I must have listened to this song at least 30 times today. It entirely captured my mood this morning, in a perfect 4-minute musical capsule. It was therapy, of the finer things variety.



Ra Ra Riot is in town at the Black Cat on October 12. I may have to go just for this one song.

NPR + iTunes = free concerts

This might have already been common knowledge for others, but today I discovered that iTunes has free downloads of live concerts from the All Songs Considered NPR program.

I am currently listening to Radiohead's show from August 28th in Santa Barbara and giving the Internet a virtual chest bump.

Other concerts downloaded:

Animal Collective
Arcade Fire
Arctic Monkeys
Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie)
Devotchka
Fleet Foxes
French Kicks
The Good, The Bad, & The Queen
Iron & Wine
The New Pornographers
OK Go
The Raconteurs
Spoon
Swell Season
Walkmen
Wilco
Yeah Yeah Yeahs

My plane and train rides in Germany will be spent listening to concerts and learning useful German phrases courtesy of Rick Steves.

Hat jemand gefurtz? Did someone fart?

Sie sind ein Engel, von Gott gesandt. You are an angel from God.

Ich habe keine Krankheiten. I have no diseases.

Iche habe viele Krankheiten. I have many diseases.

Ich habe mein Geld/meine Handtasche/meine Brieftasche/meinen Glauben an die Menschheit verloren. I've lost my money/my purse/my wallet/my faith in humankind.

Cause I need your sway

To continue the YouTube rampage, here is a video of the band I am seeing tonight:

This is how to waste time on the Internet

I don't have a work permit, a place to live, or the start date of my rotation, but I already know the concerts I will be seeing while staying in Dublin.

The Wombats:



MGMT:



Liam Finn:



The Swell Season:

Looking ahead to a concert bonanza

Next weekend is concert bonanza. Three concerts in three days. I am especially looking forward to Liam Finn:



I don't particularly care for this music video as it is too artsy for me, but this song has been one of my favorite songs for, oh, the past 6 months. I can't quite put into words what this song makes me think of, but it's definitely something warm and fuzzy.

I Am Scientist

Thoughts on tonight's We Are Scientists concert at the Black Cat:

1. I touched Keith Murray, the lead singer TWICE (he came down and walked around in the crowd)
2. I had a PLETHORA of moments with Chris Cain, bass guitarist, where he was singing and looking at me, and I was singing and looking at him, and we were singing together, to each other.
3. I am a sixteen-year old schoolgirl.
4. When I wake up tomorrow morning, I am going to be on my deathbed. Please send flowers.

Concert Announcements

The Kooks - 9/8; on sale Saturday, June 28 at 10 am

Cold War Kids - 10/18; on sale Friday, June 27 at 10 am

WAS Concert!

I have purchased 2 tickets for the We Are Scientists concert in August:

We Are Scientists
Black Cat, Washington, DC
Sat, Aug 2, 2008 09:00 PM

If you feed me lots of sushi and chocolate and tell me how pretty my hair looks, I will consider letting you have the other ticket. Actually what will really happen is that I will have to beg someone to accompany me. PLEASE COME, THEY ARE GOING TO BE AWESOME, I'll say. And you will have to grudgingly accept after I complement you hair and stuff your hands with chocolate.