The Pixies
November 21, 2009. Aragon Ballroom

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Doolittle, the band played the entire album from start to finish during every show. Not only that, but they opened with b-sides from the album singles and finished with more b-sides. I caught the act on the last of three nights in Chicago and they pulled out some Surfer Rosa hits for the encore including “Gigantic,”  “Where Is My Mind?” and “Vamos.” This was quite a treat for me as Doolittle is my favorite Pixies album, but it’s a little weird knowing exactly which song comes next. I guess it’s the latest trend for bands to do this, but I don’t think it will last.

Arctic Monkeys
December 6, 2009. The Riviera

Two weeks later and just a couple blocks away I had the pleasure of seeing the Arctic Monkeys play at solid set at the Riviera. This was the first night of their North American tour and I was pretty impressed. Their first album is still my favorite, and I’ve yet to hear the latest release, Humbug. The songs that were new to me came across strong live, but I heard several others comment that the same songs aren’t as powerful on the album. Of course they played their biggest hit to date, “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor,” but skipped a few other favorites from their first album. Overall it was a very high energy show and one of the cheapest concert tickets I’ve bought in years.

Pete Yorn/Phoenix/The Flaming Lips
December 11, 2009. Allstate Arena

Prior to last Wednesday I was completely oblivious to this show. A friend of mine had a ticket with my name on it and I was incredibly excited to finally see the Flaming Lips after several failed efforts to see them in the past five years. I don’t know much about Pete Yorn, but I think with a little effort I could be a fan. The sound could have been mixed a little better, but I’ve heard worse.

Phoenix played a whopping three songs. Their drummer was called back home to Paris due to a family emergency, so they improvised a very quick acoustic set. They are an electric rock band and the acoustic thing was rehearsed last minute. Kudos to them for giving it their best. Hopefully their die hard fans were understanding.

The Flaming Lips started off strong, but the setlist wasn’t very diverse. The opened with “Race For The Prize” (the only song they played from Soft Bulletin), played one song from Transmissions… (“She Don’t Use Jelly”), and everything else was from the latest three albums. You’d think there would be more variety from a band with more than ten albums under their belt. Frontman Wayne Coyne spent a lot of time between songs trying to engage the crowd, most of whom had been on their feet the last three hours and had a full day or work or school prior to the show. They’re just humans, Wayne! Still, it was quite a spectacle with several bursts of confetti throughout the night, hundreds of balloons raining down, and Wayne walking out on the crowd in his inflatable human sized gerbil ball right off the bat. At the end he mentioned something about wanting to come back and play Lollapalooza.  Do it!

Filed under: General by John