A few days ago Thirty Seconds to Mars released an “MTV Unplugged” ep. I’ve given it a few listens now. It is comprised of songs from their newest album This is War. Initially, I was excited, as my favorite Thirty Seconds to Mars song “Night of The Hunter” is on this piece and I always love listening to how a song sounds pared down to acoustic.
Jared Leto has a wonderful voice and articulates incredibly well courtesy of his acting background. However, one thing he does not do well is improvise. He is a very stick to the script type. On one hand, this leads to a degree of practiced percussion that doesn’t happen often. On the other hand, there is a level of redundancy to his work that is really noticeable in the acoustic sessions. The challenge of acoustic work is that it is so much subtler than electric can be. If the artist sticks to closely to the original piece, it can often fall apart. And that is exactly what happened with Night of the Hunter, unfortunately. Rather than becoming a chilling, heart-stopping piece it goes from layered to cacophonous. While still a gorgeous song, it lacks the knife twist that it has electric.
Every album by an artist that gets radio play has one “radio song” a song that is often not their most powerful, but has something that will catch the ear and compel the listen to look for more. That was “Kings and Queens.” Most of the time this song becomes the boring song on the album. While I adore Kings and Queens on the original album, it is the shallow, radio song. Not so on the Acoustic. The pain so easily overlooked in the album version is palpable in the acoustic. It haunts, chills, and brings out the mournful, yet hopeful tone of the lyrics. I got goose bumps when first heard this version.
I find “Hurricane” a throw away song. While the lyrics posit an interesting question “Would you kill to save a life?” It has never been a song that terribly kept my attention. It is the same way on the acoustic album—an obvious choice as it’s a radio song as well, but ultimately not one I’d pay attention to.
The few covers Thirty Seconds to Mars made have been interesting and always have a twist to them. “Where the Streets Have No Name” is surreal to hear in Jared Leto’s voice, instead of Bono’s . The addition of the background chorus was started by U2 however, Leto's orchestration is still fairly strong. However, this still has the same issues that “Night of The Hunter” had—Too many layers for an acoustic show. Unlike “Night of the Hunter” however, this song’s layering is essential to the sound of the song.
Overall, I would say this is not Thirty Seconds To Mars’ best work, however, it is still a solid album well worth picking up.
August 7, 2011
This City is my City (Lollapalooza day 2)
Venue: Same as yesterday, though this particular stage (The BMI stage) had the worst sound system I’ve encountered in a long time. And there was no adjustment made to compensate for the overactive bass.
Acts:
I briefly walked in on Death From Above 1979, while they were very good; I only saw pieces of their set as I was coordinating with people. I also spent an ungodly amount of time running to and from the FYE booth. Someone would make a large profit if they offered some kind of ride back and forth across the park. My spine is still throbbing. I’m still reveling in how gorgeous Lola is.
Patrick Stump: (3/6) I have to say found Stump because of Fall Out Boy. I do love his vocal range and his odd nasally voice. I will also admit that part of the reason I paid attention to Patrick was that everyone else was busy paying attention to Peat Wentz. Stump is far and away the more talented of the two. However, he is going to be haunted for the rest of his life as being “that other guy from fall out boy” so I’m going to shut up about peat and go right to Patrick.
Patrick Stump has a great vocal range, and a distinct voice, however, he falls into the same trap many artist fall into when they go solo. He tries to hard to be “not Fall Out Boy” and I find that that means he doesn’t actually have his own sound. What he plays is an amalgamation of hip hop, pop and funk and has an uncoordinated tone live. Recorder it is much better but still lacks focus. It is almost as though Stump has started over from ground zero musically but with his fame intact.
I’m willing to stick by him musically, as his lyrics are sharp and there is talent there as well as a lot of potential, however, he needs to get past his “I’m NOT FALL OUT BOY” phase and get focused. The R&B sound is interesting for him but it still feels like he’s trying to hard.
The emotion in his voice is undeniable, however. He has a lot of passion. Good luck to him.
The Pretty Reckless (4/6): I'd heard this band recorded and only truly knew one song of theirs. The impression I had from the album was good, but I had low expectations of their live show. While I did miss about half of it getting Patrick Stump's autograph, I am glad I made it back in time to hear some of their set. They were much better live than on the album. Very coordinated, a good balance of crowd interaction and performing. Taylor Momsen's vocal's were solid and matched up with the sound she produced on album. However, she didn't very at all. I would like to see her step out of her comfort box and experiment with what she's capable of vocally. I thought the band was solid and I adore Ben Phillips’ throaty scream voice as well and his guitar work is solid.
Where they really lost points, and some of my respect was their attitude. While I don't know the story behind it, apparently, they are notorious for being late. I wasn't at the beginning of their set, but according to one of the other people in line with me for the singing, they were late. They were also an hour late at least to the signing, I don't know if it got longer of if they ever showed up I had to cut out after standing in line for an hour. While a little slack can be cut when it's your show. In a venue wherein you have 45-minute sets, and 30 minutes for singings, that kind of lateness is unacceptable. I know it was they, too, not the FYE people as a) they'd been timely at the last singing and b) they said as much. If they ever want to be the headliner, they need to step it up.
Acts:
I briefly walked in on Death From Above 1979, while they were very good; I only saw pieces of their set as I was coordinating with people. I also spent an ungodly amount of time running to and from the FYE booth. Someone would make a large profit if they offered some kind of ride back and forth across the park. My spine is still throbbing. I’m still reveling in how gorgeous Lola is.
Patrick Stump: (3/6) I have to say found Stump because of Fall Out Boy. I do love his vocal range and his odd nasally voice. I will also admit that part of the reason I paid attention to Patrick was that everyone else was busy paying attention to Peat Wentz. Stump is far and away the more talented of the two. However, he is going to be haunted for the rest of his life as being “that other guy from fall out boy” so I’m going to shut up about peat and go right to Patrick.
Patrick Stump has a great vocal range, and a distinct voice, however, he falls into the same trap many artist fall into when they go solo. He tries to hard to be “not Fall Out Boy” and I find that that means he doesn’t actually have his own sound. What he plays is an amalgamation of hip hop, pop and funk and has an uncoordinated tone live. Recorder it is much better but still lacks focus. It is almost as though Stump has started over from ground zero musically but with his fame intact.
I’m willing to stick by him musically, as his lyrics are sharp and there is talent there as well as a lot of potential, however, he needs to get past his “I’m NOT FALL OUT BOY” phase and get focused. The R&B sound is interesting for him but it still feels like he’s trying to hard.
The emotion in his voice is undeniable, however. He has a lot of passion. Good luck to him.
The Pretty Reckless (4/6): I'd heard this band recorded and only truly knew one song of theirs. The impression I had from the album was good, but I had low expectations of their live show. While I did miss about half of it getting Patrick Stump's autograph, I am glad I made it back in time to hear some of their set. They were much better live than on the album. Very coordinated, a good balance of crowd interaction and performing. Taylor Momsen's vocal's were solid and matched up with the sound she produced on album. However, she didn't very at all. I would like to see her step out of her comfort box and experiment with what she's capable of vocally. I thought the band was solid and I adore Ben Phillips’ throaty scream voice as well and his guitar work is solid.
Where they really lost points, and some of my respect was their attitude. While I don't know the story behind it, apparently, they are notorious for being late. I wasn't at the beginning of their set, but according to one of the other people in line with me for the singing, they were late. They were also an hour late at least to the signing, I don't know if it got longer of if they ever showed up I had to cut out after standing in line for an hour. While a little slack can be cut when it's your show. In a venue wherein you have 45-minute sets, and 30 minutes for singings, that kind of lateness is unacceptable. I know it was they, too, not the FYE people as a) they'd been timely at the last singing and b) they said as much. If they ever want to be the headliner, they need to step it up.
August 6, 2011
Lollapalooza2011: Day 1
Venue: Grant Park (4/6)
I only hit one band this particular day, they were the reason I bought the ticket to Lollapalooza. Normally 200$ for three days is a bit rich for me and I was not aware of the secret pre-sale that makes it a lot cheeper. (downside being that it’s before you know who you’re seeing.) My bar for festival grounds is very high as I’ve been going to Summerfest since i was a teenager. The grounds were gorgeous.” The view of the skyline from grant park is utterly spectacular and the festival surrounds chicago’s Buckingham Fountain. There are no permeant faculties for this show so the bathrooms are exclusively port-a-potties, par for the course at festivals, but still not the best. There are eight stages spread out over a large enough space that there isn’t a lot of sound overlap. They also stagger the sets on stages that are close to each other. They do let you bring some food and empty bottles in and even have a refilling station. This festival seems more focused on taking care of its patrons than most. The drinks are cheeper for concert fair and they have a few vendors with local food and local merchandise. The food/ drink locations are spread out over the entire festival grounds so that its easy to access them.
I have to say its lovely. I adore chicago.
Crowd: (1/6) Wow. Yes, I know I was not there for the headliner, so the majority of the crowd was there for Muse. Yes, A Perfect Circle has odd energy and is generally very subdued. But come on people. This band has not toured since 2005. Show some love, or get the hell off the floor so that those of us who are there for APC can see.
The Show: A Perfect Circle (4/6): An odd band with an equally odd sound. The majority of the band members come from other bands including Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Puicfier and others. They have a heavy, dark sound that is not like many others. The lyrics are articulate and introspective, with an often vicious streak. I am personally quite fond of “Passive” and “Outsider” along with the creepy, if romantic “Pet.”
With this collaborative effort you get a lot of influences, but all of them are in the same vein. The closest I can label them is industrial, but with a more aggressive edge.
This band is also known for their covers. They have a positively haunting cover of imagine. Yes, the John Lennon son.
Live they were a little slow to get moving but when they did there was an energy to that was feral, dark and dug into something deep under the skin. There was some distance between front man Maynard James Keenan and the audience and not a lot of interaction between the artists. Each seemed to be doing their own thing emotionally, while somehow collaborating on a musical level. I think that is what contributed to the crowd’s subdued nature. When they finally hit their stride, even the distance couldn’t keep the crowd down. However, it took the majority of their set to get there.
Overall, I wish they would release more music, I doubt they will however.
I only hit one band this particular day, they were the reason I bought the ticket to Lollapalooza. Normally 200$ for three days is a bit rich for me and I was not aware of the secret pre-sale that makes it a lot cheeper. (downside being that it’s before you know who you’re seeing.) My bar for festival grounds is very high as I’ve been going to Summerfest since i was a teenager. The grounds were gorgeous.” The view of the skyline from grant park is utterly spectacular and the festival surrounds chicago’s Buckingham Fountain. There are no permeant faculties for this show so the bathrooms are exclusively port-a-potties, par for the course at festivals, but still not the best. There are eight stages spread out over a large enough space that there isn’t a lot of sound overlap. They also stagger the sets on stages that are close to each other. They do let you bring some food and empty bottles in and even have a refilling station. This festival seems more focused on taking care of its patrons than most. The drinks are cheeper for concert fair and they have a few vendors with local food and local merchandise. The food/ drink locations are spread out over the entire festival grounds so that its easy to access them.
I have to say its lovely. I adore chicago.
Crowd: (1/6) Wow. Yes, I know I was not there for the headliner, so the majority of the crowd was there for Muse. Yes, A Perfect Circle has odd energy and is generally very subdued. But come on people. This band has not toured since 2005. Show some love, or get the hell off the floor so that those of us who are there for APC can see.
The Show: A Perfect Circle (4/6): An odd band with an equally odd sound. The majority of the band members come from other bands including Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Puicfier and others. They have a heavy, dark sound that is not like many others. The lyrics are articulate and introspective, with an often vicious streak. I am personally quite fond of “Passive” and “Outsider” along with the creepy, if romantic “Pet.”
With this collaborative effort you get a lot of influences, but all of them are in the same vein. The closest I can label them is industrial, but with a more aggressive edge.
This band is also known for their covers. They have a positively haunting cover of imagine. Yes, the John Lennon son.
Live they were a little slow to get moving but when they did there was an energy to that was feral, dark and dug into something deep under the skin. There was some distance between front man Maynard James Keenan and the audience and not a lot of interaction between the artists. Each seemed to be doing their own thing emotionally, while somehow collaborating on a musical level. I think that is what contributed to the crowd’s subdued nature. When they finally hit their stride, even the distance couldn’t keep the crowd down. However, it took the majority of their set to get there.
Overall, I wish they would release more music, I doubt they will however.
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