Girl In A Coma. I love this band. Since I first saw them featured on an episode of Last Call with Carson Daly back in November of 2011 , I’ve seen this San Antonio, TX based Indie Rock band, or their lead singer, perform live four times . This year I saw the group perform at the Ink-N-Iron Festival and their lead singer, Nina Diaz, perform a solo set at the Hotel Café the day after. Their performance at the Echoplex on September 12, 2013 makes the cumulative number of times I’ve seen them perform live five.
I got to the venue early enough to catch the girls hanging out and spent a few minutes chatting with Phanie (the drummer). She told me about the band’s plans to start recording tracks for their next album after they wrap up their current tour and our mutual, and random (she’s the only friend of mine on Facebook who “likes” them), interest in the indie rock band, Screaming Females.
There was a lot going on in Los Angeles on September 12, 2013 (ie. Pixies playing the El Rey, Dave Stewart & Friends at the Troubadour, Jimmy Cliff’s free concert on the Santa Monica Pier, and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon playing in her new band Body/Head right upstairs in the Echo, etc.) but GIAC’s dedicated fans still showed up in numbers. I met up with another die-hard GIAC fan (who brought his daughter to the show) and he pointed out a fan who was in the military and was to ship out the next day to the middle east. GIAC’s fan loyalty has no bounds.
The girls rocked their set. Rather than go on in this entry about how awesome their performance was (which I’ve written about before here and here), just know that they deliver live, and if you are into their music, you will not be disappointed with their live show.
My autographed LP amongst the band’s merchandise.
After they finished their set, I lingered a bit to get them to sign my 2013 Record Store Day, limited edition, blue vinyl copy of their first album “Both Before I’m Gone”. Apparently, I must have been the last person who left the venue since the valet mysteriously disappeared with my keys. While waiting for my keys, I waited outside while the girls were loading up their van. Being as cool as they are, and after I had retrieved my keys, they snapped a picture with me before I took off.
Girl in a Coma are performing throughout the west and midwest through November. Follow them on Facebook or Twitter to know when they are in your neck of the woods. In the meantime, you can check out the pictures and video highlights I took at the gig I went to. Unfortunately, from where I was standing I couldn’t get many decent shots of Jenn (bassist) or Phanie performing, but I doubt people are going to mind the excess number of pictures of Nina. Enjoy!
Setlist, as provided by the drummer, Phanie Diaz:
Say
One Eyed Fool
Control
Adjust
Slaughter Ln
Si Una Vez
She Had A Plan
Ven Cerca
El Monte
Sly
Smart
Little Red Riding Hood (cover of Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs version)
Here is Now
Invisible
Encore: Their Cell (acoustic)
Girl In A Coma at the Echoplex 9/12/13Girl In A Coma at the Echoplex 9/12/13Girl in a Coma at the Echoplex 9/12/13.Nina Diaz of Girl in a Comat at the Echoplex 9/12/13Nina Diaz of Girl In A Coma at the Echoplex 9/12/13Jenn Alva of Girl In A Coma at the Echoplex 9/12/13Nina and Phanie Diaz of Girl In A Coma at the Echoplex 9/12/13Nina Diaz of Girl in a Coma at the Echoplex 9/12/13.Nina Diaz of Girl in a Coma at the Echoplex 9/12/13.Jenn Alva Girl In A Coma hanging with fans after their at the Echoplex 9/12/13Phanie Diaz of Girl In A Coma autographing a fan’s LP (FYI, this fan used to drum for the Beastie Boys back in the day) after their at the Echoplex 9/12/13Me and the gals of Girl in a Coma after their set at the Echoplex 9/12/13
To check out pictures of other bands I was able to catch at the festival, CLICK HERE.
Leaving The Locust, I headed back to the main stage to meet up with some friends and to get a good spot for both TV on the Radio and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Performing on the main stage, as I was walking toward it, was an experimental noise rock band from Atlanta, Georgia: Deerhunter.
Brandford Cox of Deerhunter at FYF Fest 2013
I wasn’t familiar with the band, but from where I was, and what I could hear, it came off pretty good. I’ll have to admit, I was a little thrown off as I thought the lead singer was a woman. After all, he was wearing a dress and a wig, and his voice was kinda Yoko Ono-ish. It was more shocking than anything when he tore off the wig half way into the set, and for a minute there I was lost in my own confusion.
Though I arrived midway through their set, I could tell that the music hit on elements of alternative, punk and shoe gazing. I was starting to get into it by the time their set came to a close, but before I knew it, Bradford Cox (the lead singer) put his wig back on, picked up a purse from the ground, and walked off stage.
Brandford Cox of Deerhunter at FYF Fest 2013Brandford Cox of Deerhunter at FYF Fest 2013 shredding behind the back.Brandford Cox of Deerhunter at FYF Fest 2013
The line-up for the 10th annual FYF Fest was stellar. For only $99, I was able to attend the two day festival, and though I had tried my darnedest to get a press-pass to no avail, I went guerrilla-style to catch those acts I wanted to see and take the best possible pictures I could. Links to the other acts I was able to catch will be posted when the pictures have been “corrected” and selected, but it’ll take some time going through the over 400 photos I snapped. It’ll take me at least a week to post everything I want to post, so keep an eye out for updates by following my twitter or instagram accounts (both have a @methodman13 handle).
Click through the name of the act to see the pictures and read the write up for the acts I was able to catch:
Earlier this week, I attended the memorial service for a neighbor of mine. Her husband had emailed me a little over two weeks ago about the service, and I was shocked at the news. Although I do not live in the same condominium complex anymore, for the 5 years I owned property there, their family was the best possible neighbors anyone one could ask for. I remember how we used to gossip about the trust fund baby who lived in the penthouse, and gleefully complained about his seriously crazy behavior. I remember when we gave each other simultaneous smirks in the garage after trust fund baby was hauled off to “rehab”. Mean spirited or not, we always had a good laugh about that.
The service was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. I gave myself an hour to get there, but I should have known that the 405 would have other plans for me. I got to the service late, and quietly sat myself down in a pew in the back. The final speaker, a well dressed, older looking gentleman, was up front reading his personal recollections of the deceased. He concluded his remarks with a story recalling the first concert they attended (Elvis Costello) and the last musical event they attended, an opera, and further noted that it would be her first and last opera. It was a lovely, personal story.
When he concluded, and made his way back to his seat, music started to play. With the opening chord progression, I could tell it was The Beatles’ “Let It Be”. I can’t remember which version of “Let It Be” was playing, but it really didn’t matter because I was already focused in on the lyrics:
When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be
My eyes stared watering, and I quickly gave up any attempt to stop the tears from tripping onto my black pants.
And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree
There will be an answer, let it be
For though they may be parted, there is still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
I later found out while talking with others in attendance that the husband had played “Days” by The Kinks to start the memorial service. I started to well up during that conversation. It may be an uptempo song, but the lyrics in that song still made me quite emotional.
Thank you for the days,
Those endless days, those sacred days you gave me.
Im thinking of the days,
I wont forget a single day, believe me.
I bless the light,
I bless the light that lights on you believe me.
And though you’re gone,
Your’e with me every single day, believe me.
Music is powerful stuff. Put in the right context it can make any grown man cry. On a slightly overcast day, within the four walls of a church, near the place I used to live next door to the deceased, during a beautifully respectful memorial, The Beatles made me cry. If the music tells the story, she was loved and will always be remembered, whether in song or in their hearts.
This is a three part blog entry. The link to the following day is at the bottom of the page.Oh, Coachella, how I’ve missed you. Though many expressed dissatisfaction with the line-up, I was ecstatic. In fact, I had circled more bands on the schedule than I could have possibly seen, so I was actually setting myself up with being disappointed based on the fact that I wouldn’t be able to see all of the acts I wanted to see. Kind of ironic now that I think about it…
I had work to finish up that Friday morning, so I knew that I was bound to miss a handful of acts that day. I picked up a friend in Santa Monica, and we began out trek out to the desert. I had prepared an iTunes playlist of all of the music of the bands I wanted to see, so our drive would at least have a good soundtrack.
As we got closer to venue, driving on the freeway, I started noticing billboards advertising the release dates of albums from bands performing at Coachella. I nearly swerved out of my lane when I saw a billboard for Daft Punks album release date. Umm … they weren’t scheduled to perform at Coachella… I told my friend that either this was an omen of a surprise set by one of the most demanded bands for Coachella, or it was the ultimate tease …
When we had parked and picked up our passes, we joined the mass of people on the festival grounds. Unfortunately, I had already missed the French turntable group C2C and the British rock quartet Alt-J, so I made my way to the Outdoor Stage to catch a few tunes by Of Monsters and Men. I have their album, and I their music, but at that time, I just wasn’t in the mood to listen mellow indie folk/pop. I think I was just a little too restless due to the long car ride. I’m thinking that Of Monsters and Men would have been the perfect band to see on a lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Not Friday. Plus, I was way in the back, standing, when I would have much preferred laying on the lawn somewhere.
I listened to a few songs then decided to make my way to the merchandise booth. I brought a poster tube with me since last year I picked up a dope, limited edition, Black Keys, Coachella poster. Unfortunately, it appears, Coachella didn’t allow for bands to sell their personalized Coachella posters. That was a disappointment.
All of sudden I heard Passion Pit start playing “Carried Away” and I looked down at my watch. Doh! I had already seen Passion Pit at the Hollywood Bowl, and they were terrific, so I had to kick myself in the rear for not paying attention to the time to be there when they started.
As I walked toward the Main Stage area, they were wrapping up their second song, I decided to video record what was going on while I walked toward the stage. It was quite uplifting. Passion Pit’s music has always had an airy and energetic quality to it, and it always seems to make people dance. When I took a look at the video later in the evening, the one thing I could notice was all of the random people frolicking across the lawn. That made me happy.
Carried Away
The Reeling
Love Is Greed
I’ll Be Alright
It’s Not My Fault, I’m Happy
Constant Conversations
Talk a Walk
Cry Like A Ghost
Sleepyhead
Little Secrets
Having learned my lesson by missing the opening of their set, I decided to leave Passion Pit early to go see a relatively new band that I was particularly keen on: Palma Violets.
A mix of garage and psychedelic rock, these guys had quite a following in England. I got to the stage early enough to get pretty close to the front. That being said, I was keeping my fingers crossed that they had a good live show, otherwise I knew it was going to be tough fighting my way out of the tent to find something better. They did not disappoint. They were good, loud Brit Rock. They sounded live, like they sound on their records, and performed with the kind of swagger that becomes rock-and-roll. Can’t get much better than that. What I particularly liked about this band was that their two guitarists had two quite distinct vocal styles. The bassist was more Clash. The guitarist was more Doors. Check out the two video and see if you kind of agree with me.
Johnny Bagga Donuts
Rattlesnake Highway
All the Garden Birds
Tom the Drum
Chicken Dippers
Best of Friends
Step Up for the Cool Cats
Last of the Summer Wine
We Found Love
14
Brand New Song
After Palma Violet’s set ended, I made a b-line to get as close as I could to the front for Modest Mouse . Apparently, everybody else had the same idea.
The crowd for Modest Mouse was a lot younger than I had expected. I remember buying their albums back in the mid 90’s, so I was taken aback that I was standing in a crowd of kids in their early 20s. It was super crowded, squeezed into space like a pack of sardines. The set started a little rough, but I think that had more to do with the sound levels not being mixed properly.
Isaac Brock, the lead singer, seemed banter with the crowd for small stretches, perhaps giving the mixing board more time to adjust the levels. Honestly, his banter felt awkward, but after it seemed to do the trick, as the sound definitely picked up. The highlight of the set was when Modest Mouse powered, and jammed, through three songs in row later in their set.
What I loved about Modest Mouse’s set was that it hit popular songs from almost all of the albums in their catalog. Loved that they played “3rd Planet” and “Paper Thin Walls” from “The Moon and Antarctica”.
Dramamine (Life Like Weeds Interpolation)
Ocean Breathes Salty
3rd Planet
Be Brave
Satin in a Coffin
Paper Thin Walls
King Rat
Cowboy Dan
The View
Float On
After Modest Mouse had finished their set, I decided that I would stay where I was and push further up towards the stage. After all, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were next, and since I had never seen them perform live, I decided not to venture to another stage. As people left, I kept meandering as far up as I could get, which was all the way up to the barricade that separated the general admission folk from the VIP folk. I had VIP last year through work, and bought a general admission ticket this year. I’m thinking that I may buy a VIP pass next year. I would have loved to get all the way up front for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
As I waited for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Main Stage screens lit up and a video started playing. Here we go again … Daft Punk music started playing and the Daft Punk helmet lit up the screen … with a message that the album was coming out soon. Then the video vanished. Are you serious? Like, seriously? If Coachella or Daft Punk was a girl, she’d be the most devilish tease that ever lived. At this point, I was kind of over it.
Back to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were my highlight from day one. As soon as Karen O took the stage with a gospel choir, in her white suit, cape and pope hat, to sing “Sacrilege”, I knew we were in for a treat. I sensed it was going to be a dazzling set, and dazzled it did from start to finish.
Karen O is a badass. Period. She rocked that fucking stage. Shoving the mic into her mouth to and going agro on “Pin” was amazing. Watching her strut her stuff all over the stage was the definition of “bad ass”.
She toned it down when she introduced “Maps”, as she should, and told us fans that the song was about love, and it was for us. “Maps” is seriously one of the best songs written in the 2000s, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs killed it for me.
Sacrilege
Rich
Under the Earth
Slave
Zero
Subway
Soft Shock
Pin
Gold Lion
Maps
Heads Will Roll
After the Yeah Yeah Yeahs wrapped up, I started to head over to the Outdoor Stage to see if I could catch any of the Band Of Horses set, unfortunately I got there a little too late as they were thanking the crowd. Before they dove into their last song, the lead singer simply stated, “Take care of each other”. I appreciated that sentiment.
My phone was running out of juice, so I started walking around the festival grounds to find a place to charge it. Last year, when I had a VIP pass, I could just charge my phone at an outlet in the VIP section. This year, however, outlets were a lot harder to come by. They had a “charging station” sponsored by Sony or Samsung or whatever, but the policy was that they took your phone and you came back an hour later to pick it up. Screw that. I went to one of the merchants at the General Store and politely offered 5 bucks to use one of their outlets. They had no problem with that.
After charging my phone, I was stuck with a bit of a dilemma. Jurassic 5 was playing the same time as Blur. I flipped a coin. The coin told me to go see Jurassic 5.
I loved Jurassic 5 back in the day. I do think they kind of jumped the shark a bit when they did that duet with Dave Matthews, but that’s a criticism for another time and place. The group disbanded in 2007, so them converging at Coachella was pretty big news for a Los Angeles, underground, hip-hop head like myself. With all four original MCs, and Cut Chemist and DJ Nu-Mark working their magic, their set was “best of” compilation.
Back 4 U
I Am Somebody
Jayou
Nu-Mark Desk Solo
Hip-Hop History
Break
Monkey Bars
Improvise
Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark Solo
Quality Control
Concrete Schoolyard
Countdown
In the House
Freedom
King Tee
Red hot
A Day at the Races
What’s Golden
This Is (Outro)
I didn’t bother taking any pictures of video since I was far back in the crowd, but that was actually by design, as I new that I wanted to see the Stone Roses. As I left Jurassic 5’s set a little early, and headed towards the Main Stage for the Stone Roses, I noticed that the crowd that was there for Blur had substantially dissipated. I was quite shocked, in fact, that they only pulled a club size crowd for their set.
Me, being the optimist, assured myself that it was simply a generation of concert goers who didn’t know how the Stone Roses music, specifically their self titled debut album, had shaped the history of pop music. I mean come on … “I Wanna Be Adored”, “She Band The Drum”, I Am The Resurrection” …. That whole album was one of the first albums that fused dance, pop, and rock into a brand new sound. The Stone Roses were an indie rock band that shaped and fueled pop music in the 90’s.
But … as they started their set, and Ian Brown took the mic … my optimism turned into a bit of disappointment. It wasn’t as bad as the Shuggie Otis show at the Echoplex that I saw last year, but it was very sad. The band sounded good … The levels seemed all right … it was just that Ian Brown was extremely pitchy. Unfortunately, it was not a performance worthy of closing the Main Stage on the first night, and it seems that the Coachella Festival organizers agreed as Blur and the Stone Roses swapped slots the following weekend.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I got to see the Stone Roses Perform, and I’m glad I got to see them rock some of my favorite songs, but it wasn’t the best way to end the first day of Coachella.
I only caught a few songs from How to Destroy Angels as I wanted to give the Stone Roses another chance. As I walked by the Main Stage again, all I could hear was Ian Brown’s voice missing the notes that I remembered from the album. I decided at that point that I was going to pack it in, head back to the house, and get ready for day two.
All of my friends staying in the house had gotten back in one piece and we talked about the highlights, and lowlights, of the day. We even got treated to a story about a valentine Karen O wrote one of the guests back in high school. I bust out the bottle of cask strength Glenlivet that I had brought with me, and plopped myself onto the couch. The scotch numbed the pain in my aching feet, and with Day 2 was a few hours away, I started to mentally strategize which bands I was going to check out, hoping that each band would live up to expectations.
#DKLPHOTOS 