Friday, June 16, 2006

Echo and the Bunnymen

Tim and I went to Hollywood to see Echo and the Bunnymen in concert on Monday.

Echo has a lot of cool music and the concert was good (though not spectacular). They were compared to The Doors earlr in their career, and they always play (at least) one song by The Doors when they perform live. This time, they played "Roadhouse Blues," which is unfortunately not a song I like. I was really hoping to hear their covers of "People are Strange" (they recorded a studio version of this, which is their biggest hit by a huge margin) and "Paint it Black" (I have a live version of this on my iPod playlist). The only other song I really wanted to hear that they didn't play was "Bedbugs and Ballyhoo."

The lead singer was having conversations (that were not always entirely kind) with the people in the front. I was having trouble understanding him on lots of occasions---I heard him, so maybe he was speaking in Simlish? At some point, I heard him say that he wouldn't play a song that was requested, and I knew that the request must have been either for "Freebird" or for "People are Strange." They have a reputation for refusing to play "People are Strange" in concert, and Tim noticed them definitively refusing this song later in the concert.

Going back in time a bit, Echo was something like 35 minutes late in starting their concert. (Lame...) The opening act gets my wtf award, and Tim had an even more adverse reaction to them.

Going back in time further and befitting our location, the person at security who checked me seemed to enjoy feeling me up for more than was comfortable for my tastes. But it's the price you pay when you go and see a concert in Hollywood (especially when it comes to a group that peaked in the 80s...well, not really, but it's fun to say). I did much better with the security at Coachella, so clearly I should have brought a math journal with me on Monday.

2 comments:

Lemming said...

I think my description of the first band was something along the lines of a "baritone barrage of rectally-resonant noise on a monotone carrier wave that'll leave you bleeding from your ass."

Yeah, that's about right.

The concert was worth going to overall, but not great. There were elements that were highly enjoyable. On the other hand, I'm very fond of "Roadhouse Blues", but they butchered it.

Oh wells. Fun was had, and it was certainly better than staying home.

Mason said...

Opening act: Well, Folks... I think that about says it all.