Photos: Crowded House @ Humphrey's Concerts By The Bay

Perhaps you remember that back in April, I posted the schedule for Humphrey's Concerts By The Bay. I knew there were a few shows I hope to catch- Broken Bells, The Comedians of Chelsea Lately, Bill Maher and a couple others. My wish list might not have been completely fulfilled, but when I found out on Friday that I was going to get to see Crowded House, I was ecstatic. Still, I didn't want to get too excited because things happen and sometimes guestlists have issues, and being a Sunday show, I knew there was a chance I'd be shit out of luck and have nobody to call if that was the case.

Fortunately I reached out and in the end, I'm not sure who made the magic happen, but when I arrived to the venue, I not only got tickets to the show, but my photo pass as promised as well as VIP passes. I met Oliver, who works for Universal Music Group, for a band meet and greet. We met with Brett who works for the Concord label (who was AWESOME, by the way) who escorted us backstage to meet Crowded House before their show.

Everyone in the band was kind and gracious, and though it wasn't an interview, they fielded our questions like how they pick their setlist, how they feel about LA, what they thought about Bob Lefsetz gushing about their show. Matt, the drummer, seemed intrigued by my name, asking if there were any songs about "Rosemary". At first they thought we'd won a contest, but when we explained that I'm a blogger and had been invited, they didn't shy from asking about my site and what I do. (What is it exactly that I do?) We took a group photo, then I took a band photo, and they excused themselves...Lawrence Arabia was mid-set and Crowded House still had to create a setlist for the night. Neil said they'd play just around two hours, so we let them get to work and went to find our seats.


For more about the show, photos, and setlist, click 'keep on reading'.

It's no secret that Humphrey's quite possibly has the most uncomfortable seating known to mankind, so instead of going to our seats, we attempted to sit along the wall on the bay side of the venue. Seeing that the area was full, and that our tickets were all separate, we sought out another plan. I asked a security guard if we were allowed on a balcony near the soundboard in the back, and with our VIP passes, we were, so that's where we enjoyed the show. And seriously, we enjoyed the show. Turns out that Brett is not just a label rep but a total fan of the band, so we all sang our lungs out, trying to keep our chatty excitement to a minimum, and absorbed two hours of Crowded House. There were some beautiful crowd singalongs. There were funny banter moments. There were some tasty beverages served up by our lovely friends who waitress at the venue. And then more singalongs. The band served up a lovely mix of songs from all of their records and there was so much music packed in that it was hard to be upset if they didn't play this song or that. In the end, it was a beautiful night along the San Diego bay and the concert easily goes down as one of my highlights of the year.

Sunday: Crowded House & Lawrence Arabia @ Humphrey's Concerts By The Bay

Sunday night, Crowded House take the stage at Humphrey's Concerts By The Bay. I know that ticket prices are steep, but if you can swing it the show is going to be a good one. Though I wasn't a big Split Enz fan (I was too young), I loved Crowded House from their debut self-titled record. I actually remember being 11 years old and buying a knockoff version of the cassette from the Swap Meet. Early piracy, I guess.

Anyway, the band split in 1996 and pursued several projects and since they reunited a few years ago, this will be my first time seeing them. I've seen Neil Finn before (at 4th & B) and I've seen Tim Finn (a KPRI Hornblower Cruise), but I couldn't be more thrilled to catch them back as Crowded House. I don't always agree with Bob Lefsetz, but after reading him gush about their show at the Nokia Theatre in LA, I'm even more excited.

Tickets are available here or you can buy tickets at the venue to avoid service charges. It appears that there are plenty of tickets still available.

"Saturday Sun" from Intriguer

Crowded House release new video: Saturday Sun

I LOVE Crowded House. One of my first band crushes many, many years ago, I still remember buying a cassette and listening to "Something So Strong" over and over (and over) again. The band is releasing a new record on July 13, titled Intriguer, and will be coming to San Diego this summer at Humphrey's Concerts By The Bay on August 22. Tickets are available here.

Diving Into The Past

I'm knee deep in this work project, but I'm playing office DJ for the day and we keep playing music from the past. So far, YouTube has allowed me to listen to Lisa Lisa, Counting Crows, Crowded House, Devo, R.E.M., Inspiral Carpets, Jellyfish, School of Fish, Charlatans, Kermit, and a few others. This was, and still is, one of my all time favorite songs.

Crowded House "Fall At Your Feet" (live)


Once again, I love YouTube. I'm even more glad that Google bought it, because I think they can really enhance the search mechanism there, because it could be a lot better than it is. I'm sure my sexy guy over at Google is already all over it.

Anti-Monday: demasiado, Prize Country, Loom

I completely intended to go to the Belly Up for Cary Brothers last night. I did. My car was pinging and I decided to stay home and try and get back on a normal person's sleep schedule, so instead, I stayed in and missed the show. boo.

I did, however, go to the Anti-Monday League show at the Casbah and wanted to post some pics.

When I got there on Monday, I just missed Ricksha. It had been a couple weeks since I ventured to the Casbah, so there was some catching up with friends and whatnot before Loom took the stage.

I'd call there music rhytmic hardcore. Heavy drums and guitar and bass, but with the beautiful layer of a violin adding to their sound. They're from Salt Lake City and I thouroughly enjoyed their set. The three guys up front alternated in vocals, and while the one looked like he had some sort of korg or something, I think it was really just a bunch of knobs and controls to handle their various lighting effects, which made snapping a photo at just the right moment, even just a point and shoot with flash, a little bit of a challenge.









I liked the band so much, I headed to check out their merch. They had American Apparel shirts for $15, always a plus because I know exactly how the shirts will fit, and for $20 included the shirt, all the CDs, some pins and stickers. Deal. The funny thing is that my shirt has been hanging at my kitchen table the last couple days and there's some scent on in or something that my cat LOVES, because he keeps pulling the shirt to the floor, wrestling it, and kinda humping it, despite the fact that he's fixed.

Prize Country was second and were more standard hardcore variety. Aggressive and driving music that reminded me of the bands I was into in high school. They were from Portland. I was fascinated by one of the guys tattoos. I think it has to be one of the coolest ones I've seen lately; a lot of it was Japanese inspired with gisha girls and then some zombies, and then some geisha zombies, but the one I liked was a cherry blossom the scrolls from his waist to his neck with a bird (raven?) perched on it.



I also noticed the tattoo on this guy's neck. It says "Booba" which he told me was his nickname for his wife, but with a cat named Boo, I made sure to capture it, too.





Both bands were super cool and hung around in the patio all night, chatting and hanging out with everyone.

Local boys demasiado finished up the night. When I think about them, I always know I like seeing them, but then I hear them again and get blown away. Where does that voice come from? Then there's all the running around and hiding and just stage antics that you cannot look away.











Suffice it to say, it was a great night and I'm glad I didn't miss it. There was an after party near my house. In this case, the rest of the night was NFB, but it involved looking for a lost dog, more drinks at my house, walking my dog at 4 am, hitting the taco shop, and other random shit that meant I didn't get to sleep until after 7 am. I have got to stop acting like I'm still in college.

I'm off to the zoo with my sister and my niece today, going with my mom to the INXS show at Harrah's tomorrow (yeah, you know you watched Rock Star: INXS!!), hopefully getting some Crowded House tickets for Friday, then Saturday will be the Southern Comfort Music Experience. Awesome.

OMG: Crowded House & Pete Yorn Touring

One of the bands I was hoping would be a staple in the Street Scene lineup was a reformed Crowded House. Apparently that is not gonna happen. Instead, Crowded House has announced a tour across these United States and will appearing at Humphrey's on August 24. This should make me very happy except that I'm pretty much priced out of Humphrey's, so unless tickets fall into my lap, I'll be out on the lawn across the street with a blanket and a cooler, listening from outside the venue. boo. Anyone else want to picnic?

Update...while Pete Yorn is opening on several of the scheduled stops, the opening act for San Diego will be 16 Frames, not Pete Yorn as I previously posted. If that changes, I'll re-post later.