I am so pleased to utter a sentence I’ve been waiting to say for seven years: Garbage is back! The alt-rock quartet made their return to the New York stage on May 22, 2012, with a way-sold out show at Webster Hall. In the mid-90s when Garbage first hit the scene, they were able to penetrate my ears when I was basically only listening to classic rock, 80s music and R&B/funk. Bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana did nothing for me at the time because I just couldn’t understand the usage of screeching guitars in the music, but Garbage brought me over to the “dark side,” if you will. Also, in the pre-mix CD/iPod era, our musical attention spans were much greater and I remember wearing out (and never skipping tracks on) Garbage’s self-titled debut as well as Version 2.0 (which would rank high on my top albums of all time list, should I ever get around to making one). I mention these two types of feelings because I heard them expressed over and over again at their show.
Shirley Manson of Garbage
At the stroke of 9 PM, the wait at last was over. Garbage hit the stage and for nearly 2 hours, they slayed the audience with a hit-packed set that was anything but garbage. Before the night was over, the band played the first track off each of their 5 records, generous selections from each album, including their new and independently released record “Not Your Kind of People,” their two soundtrack hits (“The World Is Not Enough” from the James Bond movie of the same name and “#1 Crush” from “Romeo and Juliet”) as well as a few non-single gems like “Metal Heart” and “Supervixen.”
Duke Erikson of Garbage
Garbage has so many hits that most bands would have saved tracks like “Stupid Girl,” “Only Happy When It Rains,” “Push It” or “Why Do You Love Me” for the encore, but instead, they were just peppered into the main set, which of course made the crowd go extra wild. Shirley Manson talked about how it was great to be back and in the 7 years that they’ve been away, they’ve gone through a lot personally with new additions to families and many losses as well. She also introduced the band, something very uncommon to see at a Garbage concert (and I know as I’ve seen them many times in many different sized venues).
Steve Marker of Garbage
The show, which will be on my top shows list of 2012 (out of hundreds of bands I will see before this year is up), had so many highlights that it’s hard to even think of all of them. However, the second song of the night “Temptation Waits” with its wonderful lyrics such as “I’ll tell you something/I am a wolf but I like to wear sheep’s clothing” got the crowd revved up and before launching into the lyrics of “#1 Crush,” Shirley sang the chorus of Madonna’s “Erotica.” It was also great to hear “Cherry Lips” from their last album “Bleed Like Me” and the new single “Blood For Poppies.”
Shirley Manson of Garbage
With a 21 song set list, there’s no way to complain about song omissions, but just to show how many great songs Garbage have, here’s s a few singles that were not played: When I Grow Up, Special, You Look So Fine, Androgyny, Breaking Up the Girl and Bleed Like Me. For the fans keeping track of what songs from what albums were played, here’s a break down:
Garbage: Supervixen, Vow, Queer, Stupid Girl, Only Happy When It Rains, Milk
Version 2.0: Temptation Waits, I Think I’m Paranoid, Push It, The Trick Is To Keep Breathing
Beautiful Garbage: Shut Your Mouth, Cherry Lips
Bleed Like Me: Bad Boyfriend, Metal Heart, Why Do You Love Me
Not Your Kind of People: Automatic Systematic Habit, Blood For Poppies, Battle In Me, Bright Big World
Non-Album Tracks: The World Is Not Enough, #1 Crush
Shirley Manson and Butch Vig
Welcome back Garbage! The show was anything but garbage. Although Shirley Manson said that New York crowds are very tough to please, I didn’t hear anyone say one bad thing about the show as I rocked away into the night.
Duran Duran will release a live document of their 2011 tour entitled “A Diamond in the Mind” on July 2, 2012. The set was recorded live on December 16, 2011 in Manchester, England. The track list is:
1. Return To Now 2. Before The Rain 3. Planet Earth 4. View To A Kill 5. All You Need Is Now 6. Blame The Machines 7. Safe (In The Heat Of The Moment) 8. The Reflex 9. The Man Who Stole A Leopard 10. Girl Panic! 11. White Lines 12. Careless Memories 13. Ordinary World 14. Notorious 15. Hungry Like The Wolf 16. (Reach Up For The) Sunrise 17. Wild Boys / Relax 18. Rio 19. A Diamond In The Mind (Credits)
The CD has the following tracklisting:
1. Before The Rain 2. Planet Earth 3. A View To A Kill 4. All You Need Is Now 5. Come Undone 6. Blame The Machines 7. The Reflex 8. Girl Panic ! 9. Ordinary World 10. Notorious 11. Hungry Like The Wolf 12. (Reach Up For The) Sunrise 13. Wild Boys 14. Rio
Remember the other day when I told you how amazing Emeli Sande’ is? Well, I am putting my money where my mouth is and all you have to do is click “play” to see and hear for yourself.
Emeli’s career really took off overseas after Coldplay’s lead singer Chris Martin heard her cover of their track “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall.” She was invited to open for Coldplay on their UK tour last year and before long, Emeli scored a number 1 album on the charts.
All you have to do is hear her voice to know she’s going to be a huge star, so with no further delay – enjoy!
It’s been a long wait for New York fans to see Britain’s The Vaccines in concert. April 23, 2012 proved the wait had been worth it as The Vaccines played a sold out show at Manhattan’s Webster Hall. In 2011, after The Vaccines announced a US and Japan tour for the fall, lead singer Justin Young had to have 3 surgeries on his vocal chords (despite still playing 150 shows that year) and took some time to recover.
The Vaccines
Hitting the stage at 10 pm, after great sets from The Drowners and Porcelain Raft, The Vaccines wasted no time and did what they do best – rocked the crowd! Their music is short and sweet post-punk (whatever that means) and rock. They rarely have a song lasting over three minutes in length and with the introduction of each song, it is like a shot of adrenaline is administered to the audience. They played favorites like “If You Wanna” (which was so fuckin’ rockin! The entire venue was bouncing up and down!), “Post Break Up Sex,” “Ra Ra Ra (Wrecking Bar)” and closed the show with “Norgaard.”
Justin Young of The Vaccines
They also played 3 new songs, presumably from their upcoming album, which has been reported to be released before the end of 2012. A video of one of those tracks “Teenage Icon,” will be shown on According2g.com very soon, so stay tuned. The light show was a bit underwhelming, as usually at Webster Hall, you walk away into the night blinded, but I am not complaining, I am just observing. The Vaccines played in front of a huge banner of their album cover “What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?” and the band jumped around all over the stage and the audience followed suit – though thankfully for me, no moshing occurred. Welcome back Vaccines and thanks for a great night!
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