Dredg @ The Great American Music Hall (5/21/10)

Dredg performed another blistering alt/prog rock set to a sold out crowd last night at the Great American Music Hall. The band took the stage around 10:45pm and launched into "Saviour" which appears on their most recent release, 2009's The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion. Let me first apologize that the videos that I caught below are so dark, but at least the audio's decent. Hopefully, the tracks will give you a sense of the bands diversity, from punchy punk/alt rock anthems to slower, incredibly melodic ballads. Take it from me, these guys deserve to be BIG. But I've been saying that for years now. If you like what you hear, be sure to check out my previous reviews of a few of their past shows here.

Here's "Saviour":



The Los Gatos, CA natives comprised of Gavin Hayes (vocals), guitarist Mark Engles, bassist Drew Roulette and drummer/keyboardist Dino Campanella were joined periodically throughout the night by guest guitarist, Ben Flanagan of the Trophy Fire (as seen in the far right of 'Saviour').

Soon after, the band performed a track off my favorite Dredg album, El Cielo, which was released in 2002. Here's "The Canyon Behind Her":



Slowing it down a bit and giving the crowd a chance to take a small break, Gavin and crew played the serene 'The Ornament' which was recorded for the album Catch Without Arms but never made it to the final release in 2005. Here's "The Ornament":



The last song I caught before my battery died was another track from The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion called "Gathering Pebbles". Hope you enjoy it, here's the video:

Conan O'Brien @ the San Jose State Event Center (5/5/2010)

Conan O'Brien's 'Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on TV' tour swung through the Bay Area last night appearing at San Jose State's Event Center in front of a sold out crowd who chose to spend their Cinco De Mayo with Conan instead of a margarita. Conan brought along his trusty side-kick, Andy Richter, along with the Legally Prohibited Band, led by Richie "LaBamba" Rosenberg. Two 'Co-Kett's' also joined the band as background singers.

Conan spent the evening changing up between canned comedy bits, musical numbers and pre-taped video segments. One of Conan's Tonight Show writers even did a 5-10 minute stand-up routine, which was arguably one of the funniest moments of the show.

Here's a bit of his opening monologue where he made references to the number of geeks in the audience and funny comments about how he didn't even know San Jose had a hockey team -- one that's in the playoffs, no less!:


Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and the masturbating bear both made appearances as well, although Conan was quick to point out that both were potentially the intellectual property of NBC. The masturbating bear quickly changed costumes into the self-gratifying panda bear in an effort to avoid any potential legal challenges.

Another great moment was a collection of Walker Texas Ranger clips that Conan spun through towards the end of the night. Here was the best clip:



He performed a number of rock(abilly) songs throughout the night. Here's how they closed the show and a clip at the end of Conan running around the auditorium with the inflatable Meatloaf bat onstage as well:

Eluvium @ Cafe Du Nord (5/2/2010)

Eluvium opened 'their' hour-long set last night at the Cafe Du Nord with a haunting 15-minute piece that took a page out of Angelo Badalamenti's playbook. The subtle textures quietly built into a piece that pulled you into a hunt for Laura Palmer's killer before blowing-out your eardrums as the music turned into noise that resembled a WWII air raid siren.

Luckily, before blood could trickle from our ears, the noise abruptly went silent. I wasn't sure if the volume and intensity of the sound was meant to startle the crowd and force us to pay attention. Or if the exercise was meant to deafen, and make the resulting compositions all the more complex.

Here's a short clip of Eluvium's quieter piano ballad:


Eluvium, aka Mathew Cooper, was joined by two other musicians who added layers and electronic bleeps to the subsequent soundscapes over the next 45 minutes as the crowd quietly took it all in. Cooper created (mostly) ambient, experimental, electronic music throughout the night and adeptly switched between keyboard and guitar as needed. Some of the most intriguing performance techniques involved a Nintendo Wii Wii-mote controller. The Wii-mote was shaken at certain times or moved in circular motions at others. Although I’m not exactly clear what was being controlled.

Cooper has been releasing Eluvium albums since 2003, and of which, I’ve been a big fan of Lambent Material (2003) and Talk Amongst the Trees (2005) – both of which are completely instrumental. Eluvium’s most recent release, Similes (2010), must have some vocal tracks included since Matthew actually sang throughout a few of the selections last night.

It was a treat to finally get to see Eluvium perform and be sure to take a listen to the video snipets I captured.