The British Are Coming...

Friday: Blanks at Knitting Factory (Intern Dave also saw some other stuff)
Saturday: Bloc Party, Mew)
Sunday: (Lady Sovereign)
All weekend: (Sound Team and Cold War Kids)
(__) = not seen

Let's start with Friday. Blanks. Awesome. If you like the Rapture or any good dance-rock band, then you will like these guys. They are all really talented and rocked to the Old Office crowd at Knitting Factory including one of the guy's moms really rocking out. (I wish I could insert a video or picture here but neither Intern Dave nor I brought a camera.) Because I am not ready to give a fully upwards thumb, I'll give them a 3/4 up thumb. Good times.

Saturday: I really wanted to see Mew and pushed my brother to go early (6:00 set time) to see them. He argued that if the Secret Machines were boring (which is absolutely possible) that he would not enjoy Bloc Party as much. Valid argument but I won and we arrived in time to see Mew. As we pull up to the entrance, I realize I don't have the tickets. I did not even think once throughout the day about bringing the tickets. So back home we went to get the tickets and then arrived only in time for the last two Secret Machines songs. And they were good. I was pretty bummed we didn't get to see Mew or Secret Machines as even my brother thought those two songs were entertaining. He kept turning to me and asking if they were British because I guess their Seattle (or something like that) accents came across as British-like.

When we arrived, I ran into Bloc Party's sound guy and asked if they were going to go on ontime and he told me they would. Then I ran into one of my friends who works for Warner Bros. (Secret Machines' people) and we had a good little discussion about if on time meant 8:30 (what I had on my/Bloc Party's label schedule) or 8:40 (like the Secret Machines/WB schedule). They started exactly at 8:35. The set was pretty short (an hour and change with the long encore) but worked.

The sound was much much better than their last appearances in New York and great compared to other outdoor shows. It helped the music come across much better.

So it seems that Kele is becoming a rock star. He had a lot more banter ("It says 'no diving' ...Fuck it."), etc. I didn't mind it but it was just funny to watch. He definitely works the crowd much better now.

In general, the band gets better every time I see them. So it was a really fun concert and the venue was great. (3/4 thumbs up)

Sunday: Lady Sov
I have no review because I wasn't able to go but would love to hear from someone who did.

I also was not able to catch any of the many Sound Team/Cold War Kids gigs and don't know if I'll be able to make it tonight in Brooklyn.

I am still working on the review of the mix. Paul, I promise you will get your shoutout soon.

That's all for now.
-Intern Dan