Indie Soundcheck

Sunday-Thursday nights at 11pm, Ryan Miller hosts Indie Soundcheck, playing new indie bands and underground classics.

Send us some feedback!  Either use the link at the bottom of this page, or send me an email at ryan@fm1021milwaukee.com !

CONCERT REVIEWS

(Just some thoughts from me....feel free to email me your thoughts on the shows as well...)

The Hold Steady @ Turner Hall Ballroom 4/11/08

Photo Credit - CJ Foeckler

The Hold Steady is one of those bands that is so unique, despite not doing anything to reinvent the wheel.  They are a band that had folks drive up from Chicago and over from Minneapolis for this gig.  They sold out Turner Hall Ballroom.  Singer Craig Finn has so much visible joy when performing on stage (despite the angry face in the above photo), it's hard for it not to carry over to the audience watching him.  He's fun to watch.  He sings lines from his songs, and then off the microphone he seems to react to the lines he just said.  My words don't do it justice, but it's neat to watch.

Three out of the first four songs were the three songs that I wanted to hear the most (Hot Soft Light, Chips Ahoy, and Stuck Between Stations), so it was kind of weird getting them all in the beginning of the show.  The rest of the show was just as good though, and the crowd was so in to it.  The fans sang their hearts out on every "whoa-ah-ho-oh-oh-oh-ha-ho" in Chips Ahoy, and everyone was dancing in having a great time.  Except for the jokers to my right who were pretty much just trying to hit on this one girl the whole night....kind of annoying, but I won't let it take anything away from the show.

But the end of the night is worth commenting on.  During the last song of the encore, people started throwing stuff on stage.  I didn't get the sense that it was meant to be malicious or anything...but just the same, they were throwing stuff on stage.  I really can't get behind that.  Why is that even an option?  What has to happen in one's mind that leads them to a decision that it's a good idea to throw bottles/cups at people that are performing for you?  During the last song, something just about hit Craig, and you could see his thought process going on in his head that led to him leaving the stage while the last song was still going on.  In the end, the rest of the band members crowded around his microphone and sang the last couple of lines themselves.  I don't get the sense that it was planned that way.

So it was another awkward end to a really great night.  Not quite as awkward as the first Bright Eyes show from last year...but it had me leaving the venue on a down note, when the rest of the night had me feeling like a million backs.  Great show.  Bad ending.

Seriously people.  Don't throw stuff on stage.  Don't be THAT GUY.

Vampire Weekend @ Turner Hall Ballroom 4/5

(photo credit:  CJ Foeckler)

They're so easy to like.  When asked why I think they're so popular, that's the best answer I can come up with.  They aren't an aquired taste.  You'd have to be a grump or go out of your way to dislike the band.  They made their Milwaukee debut at Turner Hall Ballroom.  It was a short set -- they really don't have too much material outside of their self-titled record.  But it was a set with some great energy, that sounded great in the room.  The songs on the CD translate to the live show very well.

That said, there is some room for improvement for their stage show.  The in between song banter was not very good, and probably led to the audience being very chatty....moreso than usual.  About midway through the first verse of "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" Ezra stopped the song, and had to switch guitars.  I couldn't quite make out what the problem was from the balcony....did he break a string or was he just playing the wrong guitar?  Anyway, while it certainly adds a human element to the performance (sh*t happens), it was kind of tacky, and they started the song over.

The highlight of the night was watching everybody get in to "A-Punk".  The view from the balcony was great for that.  I hope we keep playing it a lot in regular rotation on this radio station.

The may be a little bit green behind the ears when it comes to the live show, but Vampire Weekend is the real deal.  Next time they come through town, they'll be even better.

Oh, and Ezra will be co-hosting Indie Soundcheck on Thursday the 17th of April, and selecting the music for that hour.  Make sure you listen for that!

Jens Lekman W/ The Honeydrips @ Pabst Theater 3/29

(photo credit CJ Foeckler)

(Jens Lekman, above)

(The Honeydrips, above)

Where do I start?  We'll start with The Honeydrips, the opener for Jens Lekman.  The Honeydrips are just a guy.  Mikael.  Friend of Jens.  And his opening act performance was the most forgettable opener I've seen in a long time.  My gripe wasn't that he had the energy of a doorknob.  My gripe isn't that he was performing with a recording as his backing band.  My gripe was that the recording was the only music coming from the stage, despite Mikael having a guitar strapped around his shoulder for his entire set that he didn't strum once.   It was a prop.  It was karaoke.  It was a waste of my time.  Todd Snider wrote a song once about how a band was looking for a gimmick, and then decided that they'd be the first band who wouldn't play a note..."silence...music's original alternative...roots grunge."  That's essentially what the Honeydrips were.  Bad.  Very bad.

Which brings us to Jens Lekman's portion of the program.  I haven't been on the Jens bandwagon nearly as much as some of my friends and contemporaries.  Yeah, it's fun, and it's well done, but I always thought his voice sounded like a mixture between Barry Manilow, Stevie Jackson from Belle & Sebastian (not known for his voice), and Morrissey.  I couldn't get past his voice.  I expected that the show would be him alone on stage with his guitar, and the looping his guitar and vocals to do his songs.

I could not have been more wrong.  Full band, including string section.  It was a great performance that involved some very witty banter, a lot of dancing on stage, and for the first time, I was able to get past his voice.  I'm typically a music-before-lyrics kind of guy, but this was the first time I truly appreciated how brilliant he was.  Looking back on the show, I think the first word that will come to mind when asked to describe it will be "FUN". 

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks @ Pabst Theater 3/20

(photo credit Dale Reince)

This was a show of hits and misses.  Much like his new CD, "Real Emotional Trash".

If you were expecting Pavement songs this time around, you would have been disappointed.

The Jicks are some great musicians, including the former drummer from the new defunct Sleater-Kinney.

The highlight of the night for me came just four songs in, when he played the epic song from the new CD "Baltimore".  I sincerely think that's a candidate for song of the year...and it's not just because I'm from Maryland and like that someone wrote a song about a city in Maryland.  It's a song that changes direction about halfway through, and builds up to a great jam at the end.  I highly recommend downloading the song...it used to be available for free at the Matador Records website....check it out if you dare.

"Baltimore" was followed by the new CD's official single, "Gardenia", which has grown on me a lot since the first time I heard it.  But there we were, five songs into the set, and I had already heard two out of the three songs that I really wanted to hear.  An odd position that I don't find myself in very often.

All in all though, it was an entertaining show, and I'll probably catch him again at Lollapalooza.  And you should too.

Jose Gonzalez @ Pabst Theater 3/18

(photo credit: CJ Foeckler)

I'm not the first person to say it in print...but it was one of those shows that gives you goosebumps, it was so moving.

For a healthy chunk of his set, it was just his guitar and his voice that were filling the Pabst Theater.  He had a couple of additional musicians later in the set that complimented him very well.  Also worth noting -- the light show.  I don't know if those were his lights or if that was someone from the Pabst who was working the show...but the use of lights was tremendous.  It was a great audience too...very little cat-calls for songs or random "whoot-ing".  But very enthusiastic.  We all knew we were seeing one of the best shows of the year.

He said he'll be back to Milwaukee sometime soon.  I hope he does.

The Editors / HHH / Louis XIV - Pabst Theater 1/27

(photo credit:  CJ Foeckler)

Pretty good show at the beautiful Pabst Theater.  Louis XIV have a new CD coming out and they played a few songs from it, and I was very impressed.  The dual-violin setup is something you don't see at too many rock shows these days.  Hot Hot Heat played a studio session for FM 102/1 earlier in the day which was a lot of fun...but the concert that night left me feeling that they could have been better.  Maybe my expectations were too high, but I was a bit disappointed.  They did play everything that I was hoping they would play, though.

The Editors were very good, and it's worth noting that I believe that their light show was maybe the best that I've seen in the last two years.  It's possible that the fact that the two opening bands didn't really do anything with the lights accentuated the fact that the Editors used them well, but I was amazed.  The singer's stage presence is also noteworthy -- you can tell that he's feeling the music through his entire body.  The band played everything I was hoping they'd play, although I'm questioning whether the lead guitarist was hitting the right notes towards the end of the show....maybe he was partaking in the mysterious "red cup" that has plague previous performers at the Pabst (cough, Bright Eyes, cough).  During "Munich" and "Smokers Outside Hospital Doors", I'm pretty sure he was consistantly sharp.  But other than that, their set impressed and solidified their place in today's indie rock scene.