I discovered The Mountain Goats early last year and fell in love with their music right away.  They have a great sound, and have a great story-telling ability through their music, which I’m finding to be a rare quality these days in music land.  Two songs I’m particularly jones’ing over are This Year and  Cobra Tattoo. Check ‘em out and you may fall in love as quickly as I did.

I had tickets for their show this Saturday, but disappointingly I had to give them away because it conflicts with a wedding I’m assisting at on the same night… sigh.  I really hope my friend loves those tickets!

I’ve been hitting the concert tip this year in a hard way and enjoying every minute of it. Here are a few of the notable shows I’ve been to this year and what’s coming up for me in music land.

Ben Gibbard (May)

I always find it weird when lead singers of band tour solo but still play songs from their bands. However, after seeing Ben Gibbard’s solo show at the Showbox, I forgave him very quickly An utterly amazing show.

Daft Punk (August)

This may have been the best show I have ever been to. Daft Punk had the sell-out crowd swimming in musical nirvana for their entire performance. See my past post for videos.

Arcade Fire with LCD Soundsystem (September)

This was unfortunately at HEC Ed Pavilion at UW and since they limited the number of people that could be on the floor, we were forced to sit in the stands which eliminated any possibility of an intimate setting. Something weird about sitting on wooden benches for a concert.

I wasn’t that impressed with LCD Soundsystem’s performance. They were WAY too loud and chose too many of their harder hitting tracks than I liked.

Arcade Fire, on the other hand, completely rocked the house. They have such an phenomenal stage presence and a really impressive stage setup.

Band of Horses (November)

I missed them the last time they came in the summer due to an insane work schedule, and regretted ever since. When I heard they were coming again, I snatched up tickets right away. They played at the the Showbox near Pike Place Market and completely rocked the house. I’m always surprised at how good the vocals are

Evanescence (November)

Amy Lee’s voice is surreal; just as good live as it is recorded. Wonderful performances of Immortal and Bring Me to Life, but I was largely unimpressed. Volume dial was turned up to deaf proportions. Thank god for ear plugs!

Here are the concerts that are on deck for me:

• Prefuse 73 @ Neumos on December 6th
• DJ Shadow @ The Showbox in February ‘08

Here’s my wish list of artists I need to see before I die:

• Radiohead
• Junior Boys
• Mute Math (yes I saw em earlier this year, but would love to see them again)
• Placebo
• Quantic (I missed him at the Decibel Festival this year)
• Explosions in the Sky (I was forced to miss this in the summer because my tickets were lost in the mail. Sigh)
• Feist (I just missed her at the Paramount!)
• Hot Chip (I had tickets for their show in June but they cancelled!)
• Nadia Ali (I just missed her show at Heaven. Damn)

I’m sure there are more artists I’m missing, but with my music insanity I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to list them all.

I’ve been a long time fan of Daft Punk and I finally got to see them live at the WaMu theater on Sunday. This was a top notch show with awesome visuals and the majority of the crowd going crazy with every track played. One down side is that I might have to call these guys Deaf Punk now that they may have blown my ear drums. Sacrifices I make for the artists I love… sigh.

Here’s a short video clip I took near the beginning of the show:

Shows some of the cool visuals on the giant pyramid LCD screens:
This clip is from their encore, where both their suits light up in red neon outlines. The crowd was just freakin’ crazy at this point: