Concerts!

I decided that I would start going to more live music this year, and I have been implementing this plan with moderate success. Over the weekend I went to not one, but two concerts! My friend JV took me to Bella Electra-jazz brass and electro-rap, and last night I went to the Killers. It was fabulous. The first show was at Hidden Agenda, a location in the industrial area of town through a secret entrance in a car garage. I’ve been there before, and the venue being small, it makes for an excellent and personal show. The Killers, naturally, played a somewhat larger venue. The Asia World Expo has an indoor arena about half the size of a football field of all standing room. We waltzed in and squeezed our way to the mid-front as they were playing “Mr. Brightside”.

The best thing about both of these bands is that it was clear they just loved performing. The Killers are just talented and enjoy making music. The drummer was clearly having a ball, he and the guitarist were showing off, and the singer was belting it like he had an immortal throat. They did last “All These Things That I’ve Done” as their pre-encore finale and reprised the “I’ve got soul, but I’m not a soldier” build multiple times, simply because it was clearly everyone’s favorite part of that song. They brought it in the encore, playing “Jimmy was a Friend of Mine,” and “When you Were Young”. I was incredibly pleased. They had incredible energy. I recommend them as highly as I would recommend Phoenix live (very highly).

Weirdly, the Killers didn’t have an opening band. They played a concise show and everyone got home at a reasonable hour from the venue an hour out of the city. I’m really happy with my big band of this year, and shall continue to go to smaller ones for my fix. I think mainly I am going to start going to more gigs.

If you’re interested in getting your musical horizons expanded: here is Hidden Agenda’s facebook, Untitled Entertainment  has great updates, and Time Out HK (if you didn’t know already) always gets concert info.

Next weekend I’m off to vacation with some girls for the holiday weekend, so once again it will probably be more than a week before I update. I do what I can.