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.
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!
Have you ever wanted to sing “I want to fuck… you baby” in a concert setting? Luckily for me, Van Hunt has made that dream a reality. The master of psychedelic soul performed “The Lowest 1 of My Desires,” from his unreleased album “Popular” at the Studio at Webster Hall on September 19, 2011 and the show was fantastic. This was the closing song of the night. Enjoy!
Fashion week in New York might have kicked off on September 8, 2011, but the place to be was at Webster Hall seeing the incomparable Patti Smith in concert. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer played a free show (with RSVP) to a packed house at Webster Hall in conjunction with Radio France. She wasted no time as she kicked things off with “Redondo Beach” from her epic debut “Horses.” The nearly 2 hour show afforded the audience a chance to hear a lot of songs off Patti’s recent career spanning collection “Outside Society.” Patti Smith seamlessly infuses poetry and punk and when she spoke, the audience listened.
Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye
She performed a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Play With Fire” and afterwards she talked about her recent live cover of Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep.” She said that unfortunately, she mangled the song, but she fully expects a box set of all the covers she’s destroyed over the years to be released. She asked if they can wait until after her death for such a collection. The entire show was amazing, but obviously the audience went nuts when she played “Because the Night,” “Free Money,” and “Pissing In a River,” which she dedicated to Amy Winehouse.
P-A-T-T-I
She closed out the main portion of the set with Land/Gloria, which lasted close to 12 minutes and was so incredible. You can hear a longer version on the Legacy Edition of “Horses,” which I highly recommend. During the encore, she performed “People Got The Power.” She closed the night with “Rock and Roll Nigger,” where she talked about the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and mentioned the lack of progress we’ve made since then. She told us to question society and to use our voices and take action, which is something I wish more public figures would do! She also advised that if the world isn’t a better place by the time we go to bed, tomorrow is a new day. What an inspiration!
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