VEGASinsight Archives

Concert films can often be a letdown. The entire concept of capturing the experience of a live performance on film or record seems counterintuitive: We go to concerts to engage in a sort-of primal, communal connection with both the music and other concert-goers. It’s not just about seeing your favorite band or artist perform your favorite songs — there is a shared experience, and energy that cannot be replicated, even watching a great concert displayed on your 48-inch plasma, booming through your surround sound speakers.

But U2 3D comes damn close.

This too-short film captures U2’s mammoth Vertigo concert tour, with footage shot in Latin America, including two nights in Buenos Aires and two nights in Mexico City, among others. The arena concerts were shot in real time with state-of-the-art, digital, 3D cameras (developed by 3ality Digital), and the resulting film is the first of its kind (but based on trailers preceding the film, not the last). Though the 3D experience (aided by special glasses almost as funky as those Bono wears through most of the concert) is simply an enhancement to what amounts to a beautifully shot, brilliantly edited concert film, it does make for a convincing “live” feeling.

To be honest, there were a number of times I had to refrain from singing along or applauding between songs during my screening of the film — something that felt so right but might have been socially awkward in the sparsely attended 9 p.m. Sunday showing. Galaxy Theaters have some of the most cutting-edge digital projection and audio systems in the business, and that came through perhaps most effectively with U2 3D. I don’t think I’ve ever heard and seen such crisp, intimate sounds or visuals from a concert film, period. When the Edge and Bono sing dual vocal parts during a quiet refrain, you can hear the nuances in their voices so clearly, and so distinctively hear the Edge to the left of Bono, it’s eerie. When Bono sets off a flare to the far right of the screen, it sounds like someone in the far right of the theater did so (causing me to jump a bit).

U2 3D was directed by Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington, the latter of which has helmed such music videos as Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy,” U2’s “One” and The Fray’s “How to Save a Life.” The attention to musical details (overhead shots of the Edge on keyboards, multiple angles of Larry Mullen, Jr.’s drum kit) is a delight, but so are the digital effects that in hands less talented than Owens and Pellington would just be distracting. Words displayed on the giant video screens behind the band literally leap off the screen toward viewers, at one point becoming psychedelic-colored swirls floating in front of the stage. And though it’s a gimmick that has become overused in commercials, when Bono “draws” in the air glowing figures, it’s a true “ooh” moment.

Of course, the band’s performance is truly the glue that holds all this digital wizardry together. Even knowing U2 3D is edited together from about a dozen different concerts, it smoothly and effortlessly looks, sounds and feels like a singular experience. And running through almost 30 years of the band’s catalog — from early-’80s material such as “New Year’s Day” to Achtung Baby!‘s “One” to newer hits like “Beautiful Day” — there is something for every U2 fan.

U2 3D is only showing for a limited engagement at the Galazy Cannery (2121 E. Craig Rd. in North Las Vegas) through Thursday, Feb. 28. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at the box office or online at www.galaxytheatres.com. Don’t miss this one — it’s an experience that only the full digital delivery and size of the movie theater can truly deliver.

For you local active rock and alt-metal fans who were afraid you’d miss some of your favorite mosh-inducing bands because the Rockstar Taste of Chaos tour was not coming through Las Vegas, you can breathe easy … or mosh hard, or whatever.

Three dates have been added to the 2008 tour, and one of those is the Pearl Concert Theater inside the Palms Resort Casino April 8. Though headliner Avenged Sevenfold will not be performing on the Vegas date, fret not — there is still plenty of guitar-shredding awesomeness: Atreyu, Bullet for My Valentine, Bless the Fall and Idiot Pilot are all part of the lineup, plus special guest Japanese rock bands MUCC, D’espairsray and The Underneath.

Tickets are now on sale, so get a move on, you Hot Topic-shopping maniacs!

Buckethead, the lanky, white-masked, bucket-wearing virtuoso guitarist — who has performed with such artists as Les Claypool and Guns N’ Roses — used Rox Club (5285 Dean Martin Drive) as a warm-up venue for his current U.S. tour on Friday, Feb. 8.

Prior to starting his tour in Flagstaff, Ariz. on Saturday, the artist formerly known as Brian Carroll played to an invited crowd of about 140 people at the small, off-Strip rock club, taking the stage alone, surrounded only by his iPods, amplifiers and guitar pedals.

Despite a few technical glitches — including blowing the head of one of his amplifiers about three songs into the set — Buckethead ably rocked the enthusiastic crowd for about an hour. The audience included a number of Las Vegas musicians, journalists and diehard Buckethead fans.

We were on the scene to capture video and photos from the concert. Click here to check out the gallery from the show.

Well, not quite … but here’s a very interesting video about the Fremont East nightlife scene starring some of its most popular faces:

The parking lot at the Freakin’ Frog (4700 S. Maryland Parkway) last night was nearly full–not necessarily a surprise for a Saturday night at the only viable live music establishment on the parkway these days. But it was hard to say exactly why it was packed. Was it the football game on the projection screens? The draw of Big Friendly Corporation? Opening band Chemical Ex? Or just a bunch of UNLV students needing their selections from the 700-plus beer catalog?

Either way, the Frog was pretty well populated–every table full, patrons at the bar shoulder-to-shoulder. There was actually a doorman checking IDs. Of course, he made a point of telling me he didn’t need to see my ID, making some offhand comment referring to my, um, advanced age. (I’m sure the kid wasn’t old enough to get in the bar six months ago anyway, so … there …)

It was about 10:30 p.m. and no bands had played yet. Chemical Ex was barely starting its soundcheck, with the always-able Tommy Marth controlling the boards. My friends and I managed to find four seats at a long table in the center of the room.

Chemical Ex is a local band fronted by a youngish girl singer/guitarist named Maryam Haddad. Apparently, this was the first live show the band has played in about a year. Browsing the band’s MySpace page (www.myspace.com/chemicalex if you’re curious), it seems that year was spent changing members … often.

From the start of the quartet’s set, I was wincing. Chemical Ex plays this safe, boring maudlin pop-rock (sorry, ladies, there is nothing “indie” about it, save for your lack of a record deal) that sounds more like The Corrs or Sixpence None the Richer than anything else. I could deal with that, if the band offered more by way of performance. Haddad is an attractive young woman. But she has no stage presence and doesn’t use her lithe body to do much more than hold down the floor. For example, during one song in particular, “More”–the only truly groovy and rocking song of Chemical Ex’s set–Haddad is unencumbered by a guitar. It’s a perfect time for her to writhe, dance, tease, whatever–show some expressive emotion, connect with the audience. But no. She stood there, swaying a little bit and … that’s it.

The rest of the band–including Love Pentagon’s
Marites Velasquez on bass–doesn’t do much to engage the audience either. They’re all adequate musicians, and the songs would work well on a soccer-mom station such as Mix 94.1-FM. But there is nothing urgent or immediate about the band, its music or the performance.

Earlier yesterday, I finished reading Reckless Road, a photo-heavy bio of Guns N’ Roses following the band from its earliest days up to the release of Appetite for Destruction. And after enduring Chemical Ex, I couldn’t help but think about how defused rock music has become since GNR’s debut 20 years ago. Yes, it might be cliche for a band to be living in squalor, doing drugs and bringing strippers on stage at every performance. But it was all terribly exciting and dangerous.

After I first read Henry Rollins’ Get In The Van about 10 or 11 years ago, I felt that my life was, in comparison, woefully inadequate. My band toured nowhere, I continued working my shitty job instead of following my heart and dreams, I felt like I was running with my car in neutral. That was a wholly different experience from the communal debauchery of GNR’s early days, especially from Rollins’ loner, straightedge perspective, but it still felt very real, very earnest.

But bands such as Chemical Ex have no such rawness, no such energy, no such soul. Oh sure, Haddad might be pouring out her little heart into those lyrics of hers, but if she is, I’m not convinced. Neither will anyone else be.

This Friday you could do whatever typical Vegas drinking/clubbing/sex toy partying thing it is you normally do to inaugurate your weekend … OR you could immerse yourself in something really sexy: CULTURE.

“Noise” — the semi-regular live painting/music/hippie fest held inside the Aruba Hotel’s Thunderbird Lounge (1215 Las Vegas Blvd. S.) — is hosting a special, themed event, “Day of the Dead,” this Friday night at 10 p.m. Yes, it’s two weeks after the actual dia le los muertos. Whatever, don’t get technical.

There will be spoken word, a drum circle, live music by The Experimental Freakshow with The Touch, and art by a whole slew of folks, including Gina Quaranto, Jada Fire and Katlyn Breene. There will also be a special slide show/altar set up to honor dead loved ones, featuring images submitted by “Noise” attendees.

The “Noise” people are also asking for canned food and sleeping bag donations for Las Vegas Peace Project and Project Purpose.

Oh, yes, and I’m sure you can drink and fornicate and whatever else you enjoy doing as well. Well, save the fornication for AFTER the event. Maybe get a room at the Aruba. I highly recommend it.

And a thanks to Chris Snethen for linking to my Killers rant from yesterday on his excellent blog, The Vig. Hope that Sam’s Town taste washes out soon.

I have a love-hate relationship with The Killers. I loved Hot Fuss, despite whatever middling review I gave it in the Las Vegas Weekly. That disc lived in my car for a long time. But I was very disappointed with Sam’s Town, probably because the band’s drastic change in sound seemed forced, not organic as I think they expected it to appear. The sophomore songs did grow on me after seeing them performed live a few times, but I still do not have Sam’s Town and that’s fine.

What’s odd is that the band’s B-sides, bonus tracks and unreleased songs in the interim seem to be my favorites. I have a collection of gems such as “Where Is She” and “Where the White Boys Dance” that always seemed, to me, more worthy than half the material on Sam’s Town.

Well, now The Killers have released Sawdust, a collection of those rarities, B-sides and other stuff sitting around the band’s vault. And, after listening to a song I’d not previously heard (the Sam’s Town bonus track “All the Pretty Face”), my belief that this material is much more favorable to my ears is reinforced.

If you’d like to discover for yourself and live in Las Vegas, head to Tao inside the Venetian at 11 p.m. tonight, where Vinyl Wednesdays is hosting a release party for Sawdust. The MADaM crew is giving away copies of the disc and other Killers swag, the Bargain DJ Collective is spinning and there will be local art. So your only excuse for not going is because your mom said “no.”

Presumably, most of the free world–OK, fine, most of the Las Vegas Valley–OK, fine, most of the music-loving, under-40 folks in the Las Vegas Valley–knows the third annual Vegoose festival is coming to the Sam Boyd Stadium in Henderson this weekend. So we don’t need to tell you–the music loving, under-40 folks–about how you attendance is mandatory, unless you really want to miss the (temporarily?) reunited Rage Against the Machine, Daft Punk, Muse, Public Enemy, Queens of the Stone Age, moe., Atmosphere, or a dozen other hip-hop, rock, jam and electronic bands.

What you might not know about are the official/unofficial Vegoose after-parties. Now, I’m not talking about the Vegoose at Night concert series, where bands such as the Shins, STS9 and Thievery Corporation perform midnight concerts at the House of Blues and Joint after the festival proper ends each day. No, there are a few more options, and both should satisfy you whether you’re a Red Bull-and-vodka-drinking clubgoer or a Pabst Blue Ribbon-swilling hipster.

Let’s get the mainstream stuff out of the way: Saturday night (Oct. 27), Daft Punk hosts an after-party at LAX inside the Luxor, with DJs AM and Steve Aoki (Kid Millionaire) spinning. Were Daft Punk actually PERFORMING, this might be the only time LAX at the Luxor is worth dealing with. But if just hanging out in relative proximity to the French duo is enough for you, Steve Aoki is a DJ worth shaking your ass to. AM … um, well, whatever.

A less obnoxious and more fun (and FREE) option might be the Las Vegas Weekly’s After-Goose party at Beauty Bar (517 Fremont St.) at 9 p.m., also Saturday. Eugene Hutz and Pedro Erazo of Gogol Bordello will spin the tunes while A Crowd of Small Adventures, The Skooners and Sparkler Dims play live music. And did I mention it’s free? Yeah, you know where I’ll be after Vegoose Saturday night.

Reports confirmed by John “Ducky” Slaughter of M.A.D.a.M. indicate that “Flux Fridays” at the Stratosphere’s four-room nightclub Polly Esthers is ending. Johnnie Rox and his crew — who previously held a long residence with their popular “Rawkerz” Saturday night parties at Beauty Bar — are now moving to, according to Slaughter, a new home at a “locals venue with [a] stage for bands.”

Isn’t that what they had at Beauty Bar?

However, the planned performance by indie-electro group Datarock at Polly Esthers this Friday is still on. See flier below for details.

Curses, people: My favorite site for discovering/recovering music, The Hype Machine, is launching a new version of, um, itself, but here’s the trick: it won’t launch until 10,000 people are viewing its front page all at once. That means 10,000 of us need to leave this window open on our browsers before the music blog aggregator will be accessible (to all but those few people who already have beta test access).

Even Neil Gaiman’s pushing this on his blog. Come on, people, load up and leave it up. Only 7,000 6,500 or so more people to go.

EDIT, 5:30 p.m.: OK, publicity stunt over. The username and password for the “beta” version of Hype Machine is … get ready … “hype”.

Hype Machine indeed. Well, thanks for the extra love coming from Google, Technorati and the like.