GROUPLOVE AT RED ROCKS

Thursday night, August 21, 2014, the wife and I went to Red Rocks to see Grouplove and others, part of the Honda Civic Tour. I liked the warm up band, something like STRFKR, I loved Grouplove (the reason I went), while the headliner (Huh???) Portugal, The Man was OK, but was nothing memorable with one song merging into the other. Portugal, The Man seems to have more of a cult fan base/following, many of the people in attendance coming to see them, many t-shirts with their name printed on them.  Waiting in line to buy a drink I met a young couple who were "following" Portugal, The Man, having been to several shows of theirs recently. I told them about my trip to NYC last weekend to see Echo and The Bunnymen. They were excited about that because they had a band they were following and I had a band that I was following. It's not the bands or their music, but the fact we share something in common, "following" and supporting a band motivated by the music we respectively like.

We got there early and found seats right next to the sound booth in general admission. A light rain fell part of the evening, but we were comfortably prepared for that possibility. All those drops of rain lit up in the stage lights looks a lot worse than it really was. My feet were sore the following day at having danced around for much of the evening, especially the hour or so Grouplove was on stage. We got home and were in bed just before 1 AM. I shot some video of the show (see below), but in the middle of a favorite song of mine I turned it off, determined to enjoy the moment and not watch it through a camera screen over my head, not wanting to be little more than a tripod.

From Reverb:

The synthpop act Grouplove, who hail from Los Angeles, brought energy and dance to the rock formations of Morrison’s pride. They were able to get the crowd dancing and swaying their electronic hippie-offspring beats and personable stage personas. Singer Hannah Hooper brought her game to the rocks in the sky, summoning a feeling of togetherness, not just among the band, but with the entire audience. Between her near-rapping and mega-positive interactions with the crowd and her bandmates, she introduced a persona everyone seemed to latch onto.

“This crowd could not be more amazing,” said vocalist and guitarist Christian Zucconi. “This is a dream.” More pop-centric songs like “Tongue Tied,” the popular radio dance track, made an interesting distinction in contrast to the slower, more classic-rock-like songs such as “Slow.”

The song brought out a somewhat unexpected breakdown and guitar solo, followed by the catchy, albeit grammatically incorrect chant, “Time moves slow.” From there a drum-only sequence led to a Radiohead-esque space expedition, which felt reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s more reverberated works.

To break through the “Borderlines and Aliens” dance-pop trend, but to keep with the best-of-covers precedent, the band teamed up with some Portugal. The Man members to finish with an encore of “Teenage Wasteland.”

Read it all, with pictures,  here:
http://search.aol.com/aol/search?q=grouplove%20red%20rocks%202014%20review&s_it=keyword_rollover&ie=UTF-8&VR=3430

Download the audio from the show here:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/77fn8laykgir/GL%20RR%2020140821%20MP3.rar

FOSTER THE PEOPLE, RED ROCKS, AUGUST 6, 2014

After seeing Foster The People's live show at Coachella 2014 via live stream, I realized how much I like their sound and made a commitment to see them next time they passed through the Denver area.  That opportunity came up soon enough when they announced their upcoming show at Red Rocks Amphitheater.  They performed on August 6th only a few days after having played in Chicago at Lollapalooza before 30 or 40 thousand people, which I also live streamed.

We depart work a little early in an effort to get to Red Rocks before the doors opened, wanting to get a good general admission seat near the stage.  As we stood in line in the parking lot a brief rain shower passed through, dropping large rain drops backlit by the sun over the foothills.  Not enough to get wet, more of an interest because one could literally watch individual drops fall from high up.

We found a seat near the sound booth with a clear view of the stage.   Two bands opened up for Foster The People.  The first was the Swedish band NoNoNo followed by Swedish indie pop band Lykke Li (subject of a future post?).  I enjoyed both who kept the audience entertained while we waited for Mark Foster and his band to take the stage.

A beautiful evening with a cooling breeze.  I was in a good mood by the time Foster The People took the staged for an hour and a half and rocked the house.  Each of the bands commented on their appreciation at performing in this famed music venue.  Even with a bum knee and sore foot, I was on my feet the whole time.  I'm already waiting for them to swing through Denver on their next tour!

The wife was the designated driver and we make it back home after midnight.  I was dragging at the office the following day, not a big deal since I was in an all day meeting where all one had to do was sit and listen.

Reverb writes:

Lead singer, guitarist Mark Foster is clearly the star of Foster the People. The band was solid and played the material they had, quite well. Still, to me, FTP’s best songs sounded like some far more original band’s weaker songs. Good, just not anything you’d wanna rush back to hear.

The crowd “woo’d” at the appropriate parts of most of Foster the People’s glossy, slick, overproduced-to-please songs. But by the 40-minute mark, some attention spans were being stretched. Many of the crowd, who earlier on, seemed to be saving their energy during Lykke Li’s set, were evidently saving it for “Pumped Up Kicks.”

After a heartfelt “We remember where we were at back then, playing Red Rocks two years ago during the Colorado fires” Thank You address to the crowd (Foster didn’t talk much to the audience) they encored shortly after with, what else?

Read it all here:
http://www.heyreverb.com/blog/2014/08/07/photos-foster-people-lykke-li-red-rocks-show/93125/

Download the audio from the show here:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/4nf54hiypin/FTPRR06082014MP3.rar