Cartel and Ok Go

Surprisingly enough, I haven't talked about music too much on this blog. At any rate - I'm a music geek. I'm lucky enough to have a job in which I can listen to music all day long. (Though as of late, I've been listening to a lot of NPR podcasts...) Anyhow, in the past few days I've had the chance to see some great shows here in Boston. And while I need to get these paintings finished, concert-going very much inspires my current project. The lighting, the theatrics, the noise - I thrive on it.

The first show I saw was Cartel. Now, I'm a huge fan of punk covers of songs (surprising, right?). This past summer, I got my hands on a CD called Punk Goes the 90's. Lots of inspired covers from the decade that was my coming-of-age. One of the tracks that rose above the rest was a take on Oasis' Wonderwall. Cartel's version was one of the few versions that, in my opinion, was far better than the original. I looked them up, bought their CD and couldn't stop listening to their debut album Chroma. Now Cartel was the opening, opening act for another band, but I went to see them and it was worth it. They put on a stellar show.

And last night was OK Go. If you don't know about Ok Go's genius, choreographed youtube video phenomenon, then please - see below! I first saw OK Go when they were the opening, opening act for Coldplay 4 years ago. I wasn't into Coldplay, but OK Go's debut album had been on constant repeat in the studio. That show was awesome, tons of energy and the lead singer even had a broken leg. And what I was most impressed by - after the show, each band member was out front, each with a notebook and pen, waiting for the hordes of concert goers to exit, and ready to collect emails for their email list. They could easily be described as the hardest working band in rockdom. Last night, they put on an explosive, jump-in-the-air-with-guitars kind of show. And now that they are the headliners, they have an artful video display behind the band and have cameras located on microphones, keyboards, drums, etc to project up on the screen. After harnessing the power of youtube and receiving gabillions of hits on their videos and appearing on countless talk shows, playing show after show - this band deserves every ounce of success they have achieved and more.

Over and out for now - back to painting!

Nothing, NOTHING is funnier than choreography....