@ZackTeibloom Laura did such a spot-on job with her Flight of the Conchords review that I had to talk to the Conchords, their manager and biggest fan to see what they thought of the show.

Murray-

OK. Band meeting. Murray Hewitt speaking. Well, first off we had perfect attendance. Both Bret and Jermaine were present. As a bonus, we had a bit of a crowd there, too. Not just Mel. As many as three dozen people were there. I hear they even stuck around for two encores, yeah? I wasn’t there, 30 Rock was on, but I had Mel record it for me. It looked like at least three dozen attendees. New record for the Conchords! Let’s put that on the big chart. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom Tonight, I was going to make a crash. You know how I knew? Two Kiwi’s known as the Flight of the Conchords. A sold out show at Bass Concert Hall meant overwhelmed student-run security. I had my Dead Weather t-shirt on for confidence. The conditions were perfect.

Usually I have to scope out the situation for 10-15 minutes and make a plan. Not this time. I got there 20 minutes before the show. You know I like to be a little early. I got in faster than the people with tickets who walked in the same time as me. I can take my time, but sometimes you need a quickie.

There was no turnstile to walk through, no stamp or wrist band to verify entry and no beefy security guards for intimidation. No barriers tonight. Just a few careless student ticket takers who had no idea what Festival Crashing is. It’s crashing. It’s crashing time. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom In the last few months, I’ve been getting a lot of “You know how lucky you are, right?” from people jealous of the Festival Crashing life I’ve made for myself. Well, here’s your chance to live vicariously. “A Day in the Life”

11:30 a.m. “Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head.”

“Teibs, wake up, it’s time to get ready for the festival,” says a girl in a nightie. It’s Sami’s friend, Jessica, who I promised I’d help crash the festival that day. I’m where I always want to be: waking up on a couch after a full day of shows.  Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom This album never stopped growing on me. I should have listened to it as soon as I got it. The press release from the lovely Jessica Linker had the word Manpon in it. It was funny.

Somehow, I let it sit on my desk for two months before Paul Rudd told me he wanted Bonnie Prince Billy on his man crush team. That was all I needed to hear.

I finally gave this album a spin and it hasn’t left my car stereo’s 25-CD holder since. It’s great for driving, porch hanging and a newly single guy with lyrics like, “It’s pretty easy to have your fun, when you don’t belong to anyone.” Read the rest of this entry »

 @AndyShore Adam Lambert remains the favorite after last night. He and Allison Iraheta were clearly the best. 3/4 of the performers will make up the bottom three tonight. Danny Gokey and Kris Allen both had subpar performances last night. I am not looking forward to Paula Abdul’s performance. Perhaps even less than I am looking forward to Daughty’s performance. I’ve seen him live once. Well…he sang the National Anthem a Bears playoff game once, if that counts. It may have been the same game that Fall Out Boy was booed at halftime. Back to American Idol, I don’t want to see Danny Gokey go home yet. Read the rest of this entry »

Guest blog by Laura Sturm, @andlaurasays who bought Zack’s tickets for half of what he paid for them. He will never try to sell tickets on stubhub again.

New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo accapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo, also known as Flight of the Conchords, played an absolutely sold-out show at the colossal Arie Crown Theater in Chicago last Tuesday night.

Eugene Mirman, who also plays Bret and Jemaine’s steel drum-playing landlord on their hilarious and aptly titled HBO show “Flight of the Conchords,” opened for the two Kiwis. However, due to my friend’s incompetent directional skills (not my fault this time, Zack) and a quick sandwich, we ended up arriving twenty minutes late. This was just in time for us to catch the end of Mirman’s act and some guys singing a very unfunny song about Delta airlines. Read the rest of this entry »

 @AndyShore This is rock and roll week. I’m hoping Slash and a good dose of rock will make me forget how bad the Blackhawks played tonight. They were saying on the postgame show that it was the quietest playoff game ever. The fans had nothing to cheer about. We were never in that game. Homer grumbling aside, Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta figure to be strong this week. They both can rock with the best of them. Kris Allen is the least likely to rock out of these guys. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeiblom The first three crashes were like stealing. We just walked through the entrance all the way to the left without anyone paying any attention. Andy even walked right past a cop who could have been more clueless about what he was doing. The big crash for day 7 went wrong from the word go.

Sami’s friend Jessica was attempting her first crash with me as her guide. We chugged our ice coffee and water at the gate and went through the baggage check point. I noticed that there were four guards by the far left line and the crowd wasn’t quite thick enough to distract them to make our move. We made the move anyway. Big mistake. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom I can’t believe it’s over. After 11 days of Jazz Festing, I’m prepared to call it my favorite non-sleepover festival. Sure, you can rock harder at ACL or Lolla, but for a complete tapestry of music, Jazz Fest has it all. I feel like I know the NOLA scene better than any other town after the last week and a half.

I also realized I hadn’t given any of the shows I’d seen a grade in my review. I guess I was waiting for the bar to be set. And it was. Neil Young set that bar for every show I ever see from now on. The perfect 10. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom The response to the beach ball contest has been, well, pretty underwhelming. We’ve sent about 30 beach balls into the crowds with instructions to e-mail us your funniest picture. This is the only picture we got, and we had to remind our new friends to send it in.

I knew that getting the Festival Crashers beach balls ready for SXSW would have been wildly preferable. Everyone with their iPhones taking pictures of the balls, tweeting about it and inventing hashtags about the contest. In New Orleans, they just hit the balls and go on with their day. I at least hoped we’d get a ridiculous, funn picture from some New Orleans folks, but digital camera’s and unecesary e-mailing is just not part of the culture here.

It’s a bit disappointing, but seeing the pure joy on the face of this boy as he had his daddy hit the ball back and forth to him made it totally worth it. Our first winner of the contest is Ginger Anderson, a new friend to the Festival Crashers and a Dave Matthews fanatic. The real winner is that kid. Could he be more adorable?!

Andy- send that girl some Dave pictures and I’ll send the Port-O-Pong. Did you see that shudder go through her when she was looking at those pics? Good lord.