:: rock the tropics ::

and what costume shall the poor girl wear . . .

(Reliable) rumor has it that a Velvet Underground tribute concert is in the works. We're looking at the near future (December? January?) as far as a tentative date, and West Palm Beach as far as rough location. Lots of quality local bands covering their favorite VU songs . . . Conceptually, thus far, this is my favorite local tribute show to date. I just hope it's ultra, ultra glam. Banana props optional.

. . . to all tomorrow's parties?

:: Unknown 1:21 AM [+] ::
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I was actually going to update yesterday morning. But, bless FPL, the power went out as I was typing up the end of the Microphones review, and I lost everything. Needless to say, I was completely deflated, and chose to take a nap rather than type up the whole messy thing again.

Which means that I also neglected to remind of the Beachwood Sparks show, which happened yesterday, October 23. In case you missed it, they opened for the Black Crowes at the Sunrise Musical Theatre. Tickets ranged from $39.50 to $29.50 (not that you need to know any of this anymore, but maybe the exorbitant pricing will make you feel a little better about not going). Did you go after all? Tell me how it went.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.




Show Reminders:

ø The Anniversary with Superdrag, Mars Volta (ex-members of At the Drive-In -- woohoo!), and Mates of State. Here's a link to the particulars (cover, address, etc).

ø Hey Mercedes this Sunday, October 28 at Respectable Street. With New End Original.




Show Review

So The Microphones played at PopLife this past Saturday night, although my friend and I ended up referring to "them" as "the lone Microphone," since it was just Phil Elvrum (of Old Time Relijun, D+), his acoustic guitar, and a teeny Casio (?) keyboard gyrating in front of the mic.

He was engaging and spastic and wonderful, but PopLife proved to be a disastrous venue. It's always been kind of hectic, hosting live music out in the courtyard, next to the fountain of croaking frogs, vision-restricting foliage, and oblivious club kids making their way to the hip hop room or the dance room, but generally the bands have been good about turning up their amps and drowning out the commotion. But Phil's quavering whispers and gentle strumming were no match for the general chaos that night. The door to the hip hop room was propped open throughout most of the performance, to the point where Phil -- ever the good sport -- found himself incorporating the offensive beats into his songs, and cracking Vanilla Ice jokes. Which was cute and witty and all, but at the end of the night both he and the tiny crowd clustered around the stage were visibly irritated.

So it't too bad this review is less about The Microphones and more about embarrassing venue conditions, but let this serve as a call to audiences, promoters, venues, and rude scenesters everywhere: if you treat your bands like this, they're going to stop coming altogether. It's not like they're clamoring to make the trek down to South Florida as it is. So watch out. And for God's sake, have a little consideration.

:: Unknown 12:48 PM [+] ::
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