Tripping Daisy – May 11, 2017
Club Dada – Dallas, TX
’90s Dallas alt-rock/psych band Tripping Daisy have reunited to headline the 8th annual Homegrown Fest on May 13th (which also features Mutemath, White Denim, Lower Dens and more; remaining tickets will be available at the gate). Ahead of Homegrown – and four other reunion shows in the following weeks – they warmed up with their first show in nearly nineteen years on May 11th at Club Dada, the site of their 1990 live debut. Best known in the ’90s for their 1995 MTV staple and Modern Rock top ten hit “I Got A Girl,” Tripping Daisy are perhaps most famous today for the bands they morphed into after disbanding in the wake of founding member Wes Berggren’s death in 1999. Tim DeLaughter, Mark Pirro, Bryan Wakeland and Jeff Bouck formed The Polyphonic Spree while Ben Curtis first teamed with his brother Brandon to co-found The Secret Machines and later formed School of Seven Bells. In short: seemingly all roads in Dallas rock lead back to Tripping Daisy (or, in the words of Dallas musician Annie Clark – who cites I Am an Elastic Firecracker as the first album she ever bought, and later was a member of the Polyphonic Spree before making a name for herself as St. Vincent – “I was 12 and they were a Dallas band. That was a big deal”).
Their return to Club Dada on May 11th marked their first concert since 1998 and the relatively small venue couldn’t hold all the fans that wanted in on the reunion. A crowd took over Off the Record next door to sneak a peek. Meanwhile in the club the band went big with sound and vision, including an old-school movie projector displaying animated movies on them as they played, superimposed with the black and white swirls and bubbles of a light installation. The crowd was ecstatic, there were mosh pits and crowd surfers, and Tripping Daisy delivered much more than expected, playing many songs twice in fact: first in the regular set, then a second time in a marathon encore. It was a warm-up gig after all (the practice didn’t hurt)…
Watch over an hours-worth of footage from the show in the playlist below, or click on the song titles in following setlist for specific songs:
Trip Along
Rocketpop
On the Ground
Bang
Piranha
Waited a Light Year
Bandaids for Hire
Same Dress New Day
Mechanical Breakdown
About the Movies
Our Drive To the Sun
Sonic Bloom
One Through Four
Field Day Jitters
This Cradle Song
Encore:
Creature
Blown Away
I Got a Girl
My Umbrella
Tragiverse
Trip Along
Rocketpop
On the Ground
Bang
Mechanical Breakdown
One Through Four
Creature
MGMT – May 5, 2017
Beale Street Music Festival – Memphis, TN
MGMT not only played their first show since 2014 at Memphis’ Beale Street Music Fest, they also live debuted material that will appear on their recently completed new album, confirmed earlier that day for 2017 release. Among the live debuts were the new album’s title-track “Little Dark Age,” three other originals and a cover of Q Lazzarus’ “Goodbye Horses.” Watch a sampler of footage of all five live debuts below, followed by full track downloads of each and the full concert. More information on the new album, including full video of all five live debuts with the lyrics transcribed have already been posted here.
Time to Pretend
Brian Eno
Alien Days
Little Dark Age
Kids
Weekend Wars
Congratulations
James
Goodbye Horses
Electric Feel
Me and Michael
When You Die
The Youth
Angélique Kidjo And Friends – May 5, 2017
Carnegie Hall – New York, NY
Beninese singer Angélique Kidjo played Talking Heads classic 1980 LP Remain In Light in its entirety at New York’s legendary Carnegie Hall with friends, David Byrne among them. “Brian Eno and Talking Heads understood the magical power of African music,” Angélique told Playbill prior the concert, “but instead of trying to clone it, they created their own style based on the hypnotic rhythm patterns of Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat.”
“Friends” listed on the program included the Antibalas Horns, Lionel Loueke, Jason Lindner, Nona Hendryx, Ki Ki Hawkins, Brandon Niederauer, the Kuumunity Collaboration Choir and Generation Percu, and Byrne guested unannounced on “Once In A Lifetime.”
Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
Crosseyed and Painless
The Great Curve
Once in a Lifetime
Houses in Motion
Seen and Not Seen
Listening Wind
The Overload
Encore:
Burning Down The House
*setlist possibly incomplete
The Cornell Chimes – May 8, 2017
Cornell University – Ithaca, NY
40 years to the day of arguably the most celebrated concert The Grateful Dead ever played, Deadheads gathered at Cornell – the site of the famed 1977 show – and elsewhere to celebrate the anniversary. Tompkins County Legislature officially declared it “Grateful Dead Day,” a proclamation was read at Cornell, a commemorative concert was held in the school’s Commons, The State Theatre of Ithaca and Port Chester’s Capitol Theater both hosted listening parties (of a recording of the original show remastered from the presumed lost but recently rediscovered “Betty boards” tapes), and Dead tribute band Gratefully Your recreated the entire 5/8/77 setlist live in Albany (more details on all of the above and other anniversary festivities are here). The most unique tribute though goes to the Cornell Chimes’ Grateful Dead covers on the school’s McGraw Tower bells. Marking the first time Dead songs have been performed on these bells, the set took special planning, as they only have 21 bells to work with. Filling out the set were two Beatle tunes and ’60s staple from Simon and Garfunkel. The setlist is below, following a Facebook Live webcast via Ithaca’s 14850 Magazine.
Touch Of Grey
They Love Each Other
Hey Jude
Ripple
Playing In The Band
Blackbird
Sound Of Silence
Uncle John’s Band
The Future Heart 