The Flaming Lips [Fox Theater, Oakland 10.01-02.2010]

Flaming Lips @ the Oakland Fox

by Rebecca Gayle

On Saturday, Oct. 2, the Flaming Lips brought their quirky, out-there antics to the Oakland Fox Theater, transforming the venue into something that can only have sprouted from the wacky mind of lead singer Wayne Coyne, with help from the rest of the gang.

To start the show, second opener, HEALTH, an experimental noise-rock band from Los Angeles, shook down the house with its grippingly dark, bass- and drum-heavy noise rock. The darkly enthralling noise rock the band produced throughout the set could even be heard from the corners of the Fox’s bathrooms – an area of the venue that typically does not offer much listening – and brought Flaming Lips fans to the precipice of forming a mosh pit. (If any band could bring the relatively peaceful Flaming Lips fans to mosh, it would be HEALTH.) The melancholy of HEALTH’s unabashed noise-rocking left the audience no choice but to stare and stand riveted in awe of the sheer volume erupting from the instruments of the four relatively small-statured male band members maneuvering them. The music itself was not the only element of HEALTH that transfixed the audience, however; the energy with which each of the band members attacked their instruments, persuading them to make the maximum amount of sound possible, was impossible to ignore.

Bassist John Famiglietti’s twisting, writhing, and magnificent head/hair-banging alone was enough to warrant penetrating stares of wonder from the audience, but the impressive energy that each of the band members channeled into his instrument and performance really kept that attention riveted to the band and its sound as a whole. At one point in the show, all four band members seemed to be overtaken by a seizure-induced, frenzied need to dance, bringing their already high energy level to an even higher peak, at which it appeared all of them might collapse from exhaustion. Throughout their performance, the members of HEALTH more than established their talent, not only at making ear-blisteringly hard-driving tunes, but also at throwing down a solid performance that oozed an unyielding need to embody their music. All of the elements that HEALTH brought to its show – the band members’ incredible penchant for performing, the earth-shaking bass, the stack of pulsating amps, and the band’s innovative, hard-driving sound – made the show an absolute pleasure to experience and make the audience wonder, “Who are these guys?” and “When can we see them again?” – questions that every up-and-coming band wants to hear.

After HEALTH left a lasting impression on both the audience’s eardrums and minds, it was up to the Flaming Lips to top a highly energetic performance. And top the performance they did! The Flaming Lips managed to pull out all stops to provide what lead singer Wayne Coyne laid out at the beginning of the show – a total freakout. Small hand-held lasers were distributed to the audience before the band took stage, marking the beginning of a freakout that would prove to be no less than epic. Before the band began to play, Coyne took stage to warn the audience of two things: being crushed in the pit and the risk of seizures due to the intensity of the strobe lights they use throughout their show (these pre-emptive warnings practically guarantee a fantastic show.)

After some prep time to ready all the stunts they had in store for the audience, the Flaming Lips finally took stage, but not in the normal fashion. Instead, a video showing a naked woman dancing and gyrating played across the entirety of the Fox Theater’s stage. The woman then laid down, legs spread wide open, with the area around her vagina pulsating rainbow colors, and proceeded to “give birth” to each of the members of the Flaming Lips. And so began the show of a lifetime.

Lead singer and freakout leader extraordinaire, Coyne began this set in his typical fashion – climbing into a large, inflatable hamster ball and rolling around on top of the audience members in the pit. Once he had climbed all over the floor audience, Coyne exited the bubble and the band began to play its bass-driven “The Fear,” and the show really started to come to life. Even sans the human bubble, the Flaming Lips provided so many attention-grabbing stimuli throughout the band’s set that, frankly, one could not help but be overwhelmed, both visually and aurally.

The band whipped out so many antics that the show as a whole still seems incomprehensible. For example, Coyne shout-sang into a megaphone while standing on the shoulders of a bear (really, a man dressed in a bear suit), then, later in the act, proceeded to hold two giant hands that shot out lasers from their palms, pointing them at the two giant disco balls hanging from the ceiling to evoke an image of the night sky and the universe. The Flaming Lips also overwhelmed the audience with the sheer amount of confetti and balloons that they launched onto the crowd during one of their opening songs – so much so, that it felt as though the band was throwing a massive birthday party. The show as a whole – complete with audience members happily dancing and gyrating on the sides of the stage, clad in bright orange uniforms inspired by the kids’ show, “Yo Gabba Gabba!” – was no short of an assault on the visual and aural senses, but a welcome assault at that, and one that left the audience wondering where to look and what to expect next.

Even without considering the Flaming Lips’ experienced musicianship and incredible sound, this show was the show of a lifetime, complete with the most antics the majority of concertgoers have ever seen in a single show. The great music, paired with the mind-blowing freakout of the show itself, made this night at the Fox unforgettable and a memory that those in attendance will take to their graves. The Flaming Lips – even after over 20 years of performing – certainly outdid themselves, recreating an amazing LSD-like music experience that left the entire audience in awe of their abilities as musicians and entertainers. Even those unfamiliar with the Flaming Lips and their music should take a chance to experience the band’s amazing, mind-expanding, over-the-top showmanship, as no one can be disappointed by the elements of music and performance that the Flaming Lips continue to capitalize upon with time.

Panda Bear / Nite Jewel [Fox Theater, Oakland 09.06.2010]

Panda Bear Brings New Songs, Danny Perez to the Fox

by Rebecca Gayle

Closing out the Labor Day weekend, Panda Bear – otherwise known as Noah Lennox from the three-man band Animal Collective – left Geologist and Avey Tare behind to play a solo show at Oakland’s Fox Theater on Monday.

Opening for Animal Collective was Los Angeles’ Nite Jewel, a project that began with Bay Area native Ramona Gonzalez, who is both keyboardist / lead singer and owner of the Nite Jewel pseudonym. As is expected of an opener from Panda Bear, Gonzalez’s band was another heavily electronic-influenced group, with an emphasis on synthesizers and keyboards characteristic of the recent chill wave movement. Unlike many other chill wave bands, however, Nite Jewel differentiates itself with its emphasis on vocals, thanks to Gonzalez’s floatingly angelic voice, and dancer-friendliness.



Live, however, the overlaying dominance of Gonzalez’s voice on Nite Jewel’s 2010 release, Am I Real?, was lost, but, refreshingly, allowed listeners to appreciate the detailed electronic layering that the band creates with its synthesizer, keyboard, bass, drums, and occasional electric guitar. Amazingly – and unlike many an electronic band – Nite Jewel features a live drummer, whose precision and exactingness would fool anyone into thinking he was a drum machine instead of a living, breathing musician.

For the most part, Nite Jewel kept the crowd enraptured by its rousing, dance-y set. At times, however, some of the band’s musical effects – including the vocals – were barely audible over the layering of instrumentation. In spite of this, Nite Jewel managed to make a reasonably good impression upon the audience, and, during the last song of its roughly 45-minute set, whipped out all the stops with an especially rousing number that had Cole M. Grief-Neill, who played both synthesizer and electric guitar throughout the set, throw down an impressive guitar solo. At the end of the set, Nite Jewel had accomplished its mission to entertain the audience with its distinctly more dance-y and vocals-influenced electronic music.

After Nite Jewel, Panda Bear took stage, beginning his set with the enthralling, organ- and reverb-heavy “Drone,” one of the many songs from Tomboy, the highly anticipated follow-up to 2007’s Person Pitch, which should be released by the end of this year. New songs that make very strong candidates for Tomboy – the exact songs and song order of the album is yet to be determined / announced – comprised the vast majority of the setlist. Placed among the unfamiliarity of Tomboy’s songs – save for “Tomboy” and “Slow Motion,” which were released a few months ago – were a couple Animal Collective favorites from Merriweather Post Pavilion (“Guys Eyes” and “Daily Routine”), as well as two classics from Person Pitch, namely “Comfy in Nautica” and “Ponytail.”



Because Tomboy has not yet been released, the majority of Panda Bear fans found themselves hearing roughly 8 to ten previously unheard and unknown tracks, save for those fans who had seen Lennox on his Tomboy tour before it hit the Fox. Compared to 2007’s Person Pitch, the songs of Tomboy mark a rather drastic change from the light, airy, overly optimistic songs of Person Pitch with their darker and more somber nature, perpetuated by a heavy reliance on reverb and organs, which is not to be found on Person Pitch. Throughout his set, however, Panda Bear managed not only to tirelessly and seamlessly meld one song into the next, but he also played a very balanced set that lightened the sonic gravity of much of Tomboy with the lighter, happier songs of Person Pitch and Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, as well as Tomboy’s “Surfer’s Hymn,” whose composition somehow conveys sheer, utter bliss.



Despite being rather tied down to his keyboard / synthesizer equipment, as well as an electric guitar, Panda Bear still managed to captivate the audience’s entire aural attention with the innovation and intricacy of his new album. Visually, Danny Perez – the mastermind behind “ODDSAC,” the visual album created by Perez featuring the music of Animal Collective, as well as close friend of Lennox and the other members of Animal Collective – provided the backdrop, gripping the audience’s focus with looped mini-films that featured various colors and shapes melding into each other, interspersed with images inspired by campy ’60s horror films that characterizes his work. Needless to say, Perez’s show kept the audience’s eyes glued to the screen, always in suspense of what odd scene would come up next. During Panda Bear’s opening song, Perez began by displaying shapes of various colors that weaved and seeped into each other, but interrupted that rather peaceful experience by repeatedly flashing an image of the grim reaper as the song progressed and became heavier and more intense.

Another highlight of Perez’s visual contribution to the show was a clip of a girl happily jumping up and down, which he repeated throughout “Comfy in Nautica” and, toward the end of the song, began alternating with a flash of Jaws, creating the illusion that the girl was ever-so-happily being eaten by Jaws. Perez continued to catch the audience off-guard throughout the show, playing a reel that opened with a man and woman straight from the ’60s on a rollercoaster getting pulled up to prepare the first drop. Although this scene began quite normally, it quickly developed into something much more “Danny Perez” when the man and woman began making out and then stripping off their clothes while still on the rollercoaster. As a whole, Perez’s visuals perfectly augmented Lennox’s aural creations, making Panda Bear’s show infinitely interesting – and, at times, just plain weird – but certainly something unique and memorable.

At the end of the night, both Panda Bear and Perez presented the type of show that audiences rarely experience – one that is beautifully crafted and entirely unforgettable. Even with his set alone, Lennox solidified himself as an artist who continually reinvents himself in unpredictable, exciting new ways and practically guaranteed that the to-be-announced release date of Tomboy will find record stores packed with eager fans ready to bring the songs of Tomboy home.

The National [Fox Theater, Oakland 05.27.10]

Last week, the Oakland Fox Theater and Another Planet Entertainment featured yet another great act, the National, who graced the venue for not just one night, but two.

Opening for the National was Ramona Falls, a similar softer indie rock band from Portland, OR. Ramona Falls was an excellent choice of opener for the National; their similarities complemented each other and, because of that, played precisely to the taste of the National’s fan base, whetting the audience’s auditory palate before the National took stage. Like the National, Ramona Falls has a strong lead singer, Brent Knopf – also of Menomena – whose voice has incredible depth and clarity, which can easily and quickly mesmerize any listener. Supporting Knopf’s enthralling vocals is a strong repertoire of instrumentation that replaces the usual electric guitar with an acoustic one – a refreshing and appropriate substitution for the type of music Ramona Falls creates. Along with the softer, acoustic guitar, Ramona Falls adds very complementary, delicate piano segments reminiscent of Grizzly Bear’s compositions, which lend a refreshing and soothing quality to its music.

Despite Ramona Falls’ rather gentle sound, which could easily cause listeners to drift off into a peaceful trance, the band still manages to infuse its songs with a strong pulse, thanks to the lively, staccato drumming of Paul Alcott. The band also manages a balance of liveliness with a tinge of angst and, although Ramona Falls has the potential to become whiney, the drums, as well as the band’s mid-tempo pace, offset this. Furthermore, the band’s attitude and ability to entertain the audience between songs lent them even more character and cred. Unlike many other acts, Ramona Falls was not ashamed to promote themselves unabashedly during their performance and, importantly, repeated their name multiple times so the audience would not forget who was opening. The way in which Ramona Falls approached this shameless promotion – without rubbing the audience the wrong way, but with a great sense of humor – was truly ingenious and something other bands may want to take note of for future reference. The drummer, who did the majority of the shameless plugging, would first ask the audience something along the lines of, “So, what do you guys think of the National? Man, they’re good! My favorite song of theirs is ‘Mr. November,’ but they’re not going to f***ing play it…. Ramona Falls is pretty good, too. In fact, here’s my favorite Ramona Falls song!” and then Ramona Falls would launch into another song. By the end of their set, Ramona Falls proved that they, in fact, were quite worthy of their shameless self-promotion and likely influenced the National to play “Mr. November” during the encore.

After Ramona Falls did a fine job of opening, the National took stage, promoting its latest album, High Violet, which was released on May 11, and entertaining the audience with a great set. Throughout the set, the National played a wide span of songs from several of their albums, including Alligator and Boxer, playing an equal amount of songs from Boxer – released in 2007 – as from its newest album.

Anyone who has heard even just a single song by the National knows that its most distinctive quality is the richly smooth and deep baritone of lead singer Matt Berninger – a voice that is capable of coating the National’s brooding lyrics in a thick, soothing molasses that tastes sweet and delicious to the aural senses. To put things in perspective, Berninger and the rest of the National are so talented that they managed to transform some rather goofy lyrics into something that sounds quite serious and brooding. Take, for example, “Conversation 16” off High Violet: The chorus is, “I was afraid I’d eat your brains / I was afraid I’d eat your brains / ‘Cause I’m evil / ‘Cause I’m evil,” which somehow sounds quite poignant and sincere when sung in Berninger’s baritone. Paired with lyrics that are both melancholy and interesting, the National creates a sonic atmosphere that makes a deep impression, even upon first listen. The band also breathes this deep impression of talent and novelty into its live shows, mixing violin with trombone and trumpet – brass instrumentation not often seen even in the most “indie” of acts – with the typical guitar, bass, drum and keyboard ensemble.

Although one may guess that the National is as relaxing and laid-back to watch live as its albums may imply, the band put on an incredibly entertaining and exciting performance. The violinist would often come down from his raised stage in the corner to jam with the drummer. When not tied to his stand-up mic, Berninger would take every opportunity to step back to groove with the drummer and his supporting guitarist and bassist. Even tied to the mic stand, Berninger was still entertaining, rough housing the mic during most songs. Throughout the show, the National succeeded in riveting the audience’s attention with both its music and its penchant for showmanship. Before the National returned to stage for an encore, the entire band played an incredibly rousing version of “Fake Empire” that shook the Fox Theater with its energy and easily marked one of the two major highlights of the show. The other highlight was a very unexpected move by Berninger – during the last song or two of the set, he climbed off stage with his mic, complete with its long wire, and wandered around the entire pit while performing.

Overall, the National exceeded expectations, not only playing its sophisticated, distinct version of indie rock perfectly, but surprising with its live performance and energy, solidifying its place as an album chart-topper, as well as an equally talented live act.

Atoms for Peace [Fox Theater, Oakland 4.15.2010]

Here's a review of my amazing experience at the Oakland Fox last Thursday night:
Atoms for Peace

If you get a chance to see Atoms for Peace, do it!

Hot Chip / The XX [Fox Theater, Oakland 04.16.2010]

The XX opened for Hot Chip Thursday night and since their album came out late last year, a lot had been said about their live performances. I had seen a couple clips on the pitchfork website and was looking forward to seeing them for the first time. I was very impressed by their stage presence; it was not anything amateur. They were calm and collected; they played their songs very well and in a way as if they had been performing for years. Most opening acts do not really draw overly large crowds, but The XX had the place full. Everyone wanted to see this band play.

After the 35-40 minute set was over there was a huge ovation and a call for an encore! I have never seen that before, but I was right there with everyone else; I wanted to hear more from this band. There is something about these young musicians that hits something in people. It is either the music or the lyrics that connects with the listener, but whatever it is, it’s highly addicting.

After the roadies got booed for removing The XX set Hot Chip came on and turned the theater into a giant dance party. In a sea of people, some with green glow sticks wrapped around their heads, the sound of heavy beats and bass just got you moving. The music was pulsating and full of energy. Most of the set was dominated by tracks off the new album but they sprinkled in some oldies throughout the set.

Spoon / Deerhunter / Micachu and the Shapes [Fox Theater, Oakland 04.13.2010]

It was another visit to Oakland and back to the Fox Theater. This occasion was to see Deerhunter even though the headliners were Spoon, and yes, the Spoon fans I met that night did find it a bit strange but I assured them it was well worth it. And in a sense Deerhunter proved me right during their set later that night.

It first started off with Micachu and the Shapes who's album last year was part of Pitchfork's albums of 2009. There music is out of tune and sporadic and will use anything as an instrument (the percussionist finished off her beer then used it for her rhythm section, next to an empty wine bottle) but that is what grasps people's attention.

On to the band I was here to see, and like I said above, much to the bewilderment to some of the Spoon fans I met that night. I knew what Deerhunter was capable of so I just let them prove me right; that it wasn't a strange choice to be in attendance for the second opening act. What happened last night went far beyond anything I could have hoped for. They played several new songs intermixed with some old ones off of Microcastle.

But what struck me as to how good this band is was when they took the song "Nothing Ever Happens" and turned into a 10+ minute psyched out jam session which light up and blew up the theater. All eyes were now on Bradford Cox and his band mates. They slowed it down only to bring on some members of Spoon to finish off the set with a 12 minute song about friends, Cox crowd surfing and all. I was just hoping for 35-40 minutes but I got an hour, totally worth the money in itself.

Lastly was Spoon, the band everyone else was here to see. They started the set with a couple songs from their latest album and then went through their massive catalog of hits. This was my first live exposure to the band and I was not really blown away by them but I felt they played solid indie rock music. Towards the near end, Bradford came back on the stage to share a song with his good friends (I guess there was a theme here). Over all an excellent and more satisfying show to go to than the MGMT thing that was going on over at the Fillmore.