The Giant Panther

I think I'm officially done ever going to the Tweeter Center again. It's a long drive for most in the Boston area, and things have gotten out of hand. I saw at least 3 people being arrested for drinking a beer in the parking lot (granted they were probably under age, but man things have changed since my high school days). Then when you get inside the venue, it's 8 bucks per beer, and they were enforcing a 1 beer per person rule. I bought one for me, and one for a friend back at our seats. As I was walking back, I was stopped, and told I had to dump one out, because I wasn't allowed to carry two beers. I told the guy there was no way in hell I was going to pour 8 bucks out onto the ground, so had to pound the first magic hat.

The entire event was a pretty sad state of affairs, I'd be surprised if there were 5000 people there. There's some unexplainable weird vibe I get from watching a show in a huge venue that is mostly empty.

The first band we caught was Wolf Parade, they had them on a second stage in a sectioned off part of the parking lot. They had some awful VW sponsored tent with a loud punk band playing not 50 yards from the Wolf Parade stage. Just as they were about to start, Spencer was like, what the hell is that noise? What a poor setup. Wolf Parade didn't even think about doing an encore, not sure if that is just how this festival was setup or if they just didn't dig playing for 75 people in a parking lot and competing with the Vdub tent.

They played at least 5 new songs, all of which sounded very promising, looking forward to their new album.

We then moved into the actual Tweeter Center for Neko Case. She sung her heart out as expected to an empty stadium, but she sounded great.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs were up next, I've never seen stage presence like Karen O. She came out in a tinsel covered cape and leopard print leotard. They were high energy and put on a good show except for Maps which they did acoustic, could have done without that.

I made myself scarce for Guster, because the thought of another 8 dollar beer was just too good to pass up.

We decided to stick around for Modest Mouse, a lot has changed since the last time I've seen them. It was mixed poorly, all I could hear was Isaac Brock's guitar (which seemed particularly sloppy that night). What a waste of Johnny Marr. The whole vibe was extra sloppy and we left after 4 or 5 songs.

Overall pretty disappointing, but at least we didn't hit any traffic!

Thanks to Ashley for finding the set times, (and Brad for pointing me to them!)

Main Gates 12:00
APOLLO SUNSHINE 1:00-1:35
BANG CAMARO 1:55-2:40
BAND OF HORSES 3:00-3:45
WOLF PARADE 4:05-4:50
NEKO CASE 5:10-5:55
YEAH YEAH YEAH'S 6:15-7:15
GUSTER 7:45-8:45
MODEST MOUSE 9:15-10:45
Curfew 11:00

I'm back in action. You're probably asking yourself, why did the Giant Panther do a best of 2006 album review and stop at #16? I wish I had a better answer for you, but the bitter truth is I actually started having work to do at work, unfortunate. But in case you were curious, here are the rest, I found them scribbled down in an old notebook. Looking back, it's amazing how much my tastes have changed already, or maybe I just played the albums too much, but here they are anyway:

15: TVOTR - Return To Cookie Mountain
14: Tapes N Tapes - The Loon
13: Decemberists - The Crane Wife
12: Black Keys - Magic Potion
11: Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
10: Aloha - Some Echoes
9: Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye
8: Cat Power - The Greatest
7: Hot Chip - The Warning
6: Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
5: Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming
4: M. Ward - Post War
3: Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
2: Sound Team - Movie Monster
1: Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther.

There you have it. So does anyone have any details on the Download Festival at the Tweeter Center tomorrow in Mansfield, MA for set times or anything? I will be there, and will surely have a lot to write about. Who am I kidding, nobody is checking this blog anyway, but it was fun to type again.