Amazingly, it doesn’t even end there. When I look back, Umphrey’s McGee made me a smarter music fan. Their complex brand of progressive rock and improvisation forced me to be more aware of every layer of sound, time and key changes and what it meant to control a crowd’s energy with the ebb and flow of music. I paid attention in my music theory class in college, because I wanted to understand more of what was going down onstage (I would have probably learned even more had my teacher not issued an open note test and doing homework as a class policies).

The show Saturday night was a perfect example of all of this. Two expertly constructed sets and one of the best Umphrey’s McGee encores I’ve ever seen. My single favorite Umphrey’s song to see live in “All in Time” and an absolutely ridiculous “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” with the Chicago Mass Choir (CMC). The opening line from the choir triggered a deafening roar from the crowd and shook the Aragon Ballroom. Sigh…I’m getting ahead of myself.

“Bridgeless” early on in set one was one of the songs my friends and I excitedly discussed wanting to hear (see…I Love You, Man). The “Take Me Home” tease in the middle of “Bright Lights, Big City” put the first Cheshire grin on my face. I was left hands on head, knowing that being back home playing in front of their hometown crowd meant as much to the band as it meant to me to be there. The “Hajimemashite” with Allie Kral (Cornmeal) would have been enough (Dayenu) to end the first set. Then they played “40s Theme.” Amen.

Speaking of amen…set two brought the first appearance of the CMC. Not before a “Miami Virtue” that included the Miami Vice pastel pink and blue lights to remind you that Waful is as smart and witty as he is talented. I had guessed “Booth Love” would include the CMC. Instead, they took their places for the only version of “Bullhead City” I’ll ever want to listen to again. “Glory” was already the single most beautiful and uplifting piece of music Umphrey’s McGee has to offer…and then they sandwiched it with “Amazing Grace” sung by the CMC.

Watch the videos. See why I am so thankful that his band has been a part of my life for the last decade. Follow as Umphrey’s McGee continues to push forward. It can be seen in their recent demonstration at the Apple Store and their recognition for their use of technology on CNN.com. I anxiously await to see where this band will go next.

I had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Health, happiness, family and friends. I’m far too shy to write this unabashedly about those things in a public forum. Instead, I will offer these thoughts on one of my favorite bands around…and hope all my friends and family know that my feelings are even greater for them.

The evening started almost as soon as Rob and I found our seats. Minor gave a brief speech about the evening and then asked Stevie Wonder to give a few words. Stevie talked about the various forms of soul music and what it means. He called soul music the color of our hearts and said that it is something that lives within all of us. Honestly, I could listen to Stevie talk for hours. His words bring always bring a smile to my face. From my experiences seeing him perform, it’s as much story time as it is showtime.

Several artists from across the globe came to grace the stage. There was afro-inspired soul music complete with African dancers. There was Latin music that had many in the Los Angeles crowd on their feet. They took us to church with some gospel music (it was Sunday after all). Rocky Dawuni busted out the first cover of the night with “Get Up, Stand Up.” The crowd obliged with those commands. Dawuni instead opted to high-knee kick for his rights.

The show went from great to perfect the second Minor announced a sexy front woman from Vermont would be taking the stage. Grace Potter sashayed out onto the stage to a roar from the Hollywood Bowl. I love seeing her get the recognition she deserves, almost as much as I love her. A nice little Grace Potter & the Nocturnals (sans Nocturnals) set ensued. First off was the all too appropriate “Hot Summer Night.” Then she grabbed her flying-v for “Paris (Oh La La).” It was in the middle of that song that I remembered how much more awesome music gets when you add horns. Minor’s band more than held it down in place of the Nocturnals and the horns certainly had me rocking a little more than usual.

After a super sped up “Medicine,” Grace announced she would be performing a song she’d never done before. She prefaced it with: “Nobody should do Tina Turner. Forgive me for my trespass. Kiss my ass if you don’t like it.” Honestly, I don’t think there’s a song she could perform that wouldn’t sound amazing. She invoked her inner Queen of Rock n Roll and busted out “Proud Mary” with such gusto that whole crowd was up and moving by the time the second section hit.

Janelle Monae was next up after a brief intermission. Besides Stevie (obviously) Monae was actually who I was most excited to see (yeah…even more than Grace). She has absolutely killed it at every award show I’ve seen her perform at. Monae eased us back into the show with “Smile.” Yes, it’s originally performed by Charlie Chaplin. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say most of the Bowl crowd (and all of you) know it from Michael Jackson. Monae has that voice DOWN. It was beautiful, with only a guitar and piano accompaniment. Next up was her mega hit “Tightrope.” I love the song, but the moves she busts out for it may be even better. Talk about some fancy footwork. Did I mention Janelle Monae can sing the crap out of Michael Jackson? In case I or all of you didn’t believe her the first time, she then did what she called one of her favorite songs. “I Want You Back” was a huge crowd pleaser, first and foremost with this guy right here. Seriously. That song is probably in my top-10 favorites of all time.

Sharon Jones was next. I love that woman. She’s usually a spark plug on stage, commanding her band the Dap Kings. Sharon was great. Don’t get me wrong. She did more smoother, soul number than I would have preferred. She just didn’t have the fire she usually has. Maybe it’s just hard to follow the high energy of Grace Potter and Janelle Monae. She dedicated her set to Amy Winehouse. It was a classy move considering Winehouse could have been performing there herself, had her life and career taken a different path.

Next up was the man we’d all been waiting for. Stevie Wonder took the stage and sat down at his throne of keys. He spoke more about soul music and some of his favorite songwriters. He played a little of this and then remembered he wanted to play a little of that. Professor Stevie Wonder was on stage and class was in session. Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me” started the sing-a-long with the crowd and it continued with Cooke’s “Wonderful World.” When you say soul music, one of the first names that inevitably comes up is Ray Charles. He was on Stevie’s mind too, as he took “What’d I Say” for a spin.

“Superstition” had the whole crowd up on its feet again. Seeing the packed Hollywood Bowl crowd singing at the top of their collective lungs nearly brought tears to my eyes (didn’t quite go 2/2 crying at the Bowl). It was such an overwhelming moment. Seeing James Brown three months before he passed has given me great appreciation for seeing and enjoying musical treasures while they’re still here on this planet to share their gifts.

The YOLA was brought out along with all of the other performers from the evening for a rousing rendition of “What’s Going On.” I was insanely jealous of those kids getting to perform both and the Hollywood Bowl and with Stevie Wonder, Sharon Jones, Janelle Monae, Grace Potter, et all. So much so that I nearly punched one on my way out of the Bowl as they walked to their bus. I’m getting ahead of myself though. Rob and I began heading towards the exit, believing the concert to be over. We realized that wasn’t the case and found a nice vantage point closer to the stage. Ironically enough, we had gotten to lower ground as Stevie and co busted out “Higher Ground.”

Such a memorable night and an experience I will not soon forget. Soul music moves me. It’s what I turn to whenever my mood hits a low point. I saw soul music in all forms last night and I can only hope that future generations will get to enjoy such an experience with new great artists and current artists that we will one day refer to as legends.

OHMphrey is the like the darkest, most evil sounding prog songs that Umphrey’s has to offer (“Wizard Burial Ground”, “Miss Tinkle’s Overture”, “Eat”), and adds another heavy metal thrashing guitar player and a bass player that drops jaws slapping a 6-string fretless bass. From my vantage point, the one and only thing I could see through the sea of heads was Cinninger’s hands. That’s all I needed, as long as I could hear the rest fine (and how could you not hear a prog band like that in such a small room?). To my surprise, the insanely fast shredding I was hearing was not coming from the hands of Cinninger. In my defense, I didn’t know Poland had played with Megadeath.

The first OHMphrey CD stemmed from a two-day recording session and yielded six tracks. The band had spent the week leading up to this show in Poland’s LA studio recording a new album. The music they play is based in harmonizing guitar riffs and driving bass. The thumping drums of Myers pushes the whole thing forward. You realize Joel is there when he comes in with his proggiest of patches on his synth.

They improvise a lot. Sometimes too much…at least they take too long to get where they’re going. That will happen when you can count the amount of shows the band has played on one hand. The solos from Cinninger, Poland and Pag dropped as many jaws as a Derrick Rose highlight reel. At times I got so caught up with how ridiculously talented OHMphrey was that if I didn’t love Umphrey’s McGee so much, I would wonder why Cinninger and Myers did anything else.

After checking in, we were ushered into one line . Two hours and some conversation about Jack Sparrow and the hilarity of Michael Bolton with the cute girls next us in line later, and we were being let in. No, not into the studio. Into another line. We were living the Seinfeld bit about moving from the waiting room to the smaller waiting room.

We were finally let into the studio and I was sat front row, right in front of Grace’s mic. Perfect. Grace and the Nocs were introduced to the crowd and were on stage for final touch ups. We were told Cee Lo would be doing intros for the band from some unseen location and then the band would perform. But not the whole song. Just enough to give you some big ol’ rock and roll blue balls. Full songs were to come later. This is also about the time when they told us that the shows interview portion would not be filmed in front of an audience.

You rarely get to see a band doing the behind the scenes stuff, but it great to see the band goofing around with each other. There is a lot of down time in between takes of songs when taping for a TV show. Grace and the rest of the band made sure to keep all of us entertained. Benny Yurco showed what true band love is, by picking Cat Popper’s nose for her. Grace marveled at Benny’s chest hair in the deep-v they had him wear for TV. This led to some conversation amongst the band about Grace’s chest and Cat grabbing herself a handful and proclaiming that her fingerprints would be all over Grace’s titties on TV. From Cee Lo’s undisclosed location, all we could here was, “Did someone just say titties?”

When Cee Lo did make his brief appearance in front of the audience, the only thing he did was flirt with Grace about her Flying V guitar. He never acknowledged the audience for his TV show once. Luckily Grace Potter & the Nocturnals appreciate their audience. When one girl told Grace she’d taken a 4 hour train ride just to see her perform, Grace thanked her and told everyone that they would always make it worth our while.

When Grace popped a guitar string, she even managed to entertain us while they restrung it. First she took a request from the crowd to do “Colors.” They ran through the chorus, but it’s not the high energy crowd pleasers that they’d been banging out. Grace announced to the band she’d rather do a song they didn’t know. This led to a hilarious attempt at Motorhead’s “The Ace of Spades” and a brief “Fuck You.” Grace decided it was too embarrassing to do the latter in front of Cee Lo.

All the wait was worth it. The four song set included “Only Love” with Grace on her B3 as well as “Medicine” and “Paris (Ooh La La)” on the Flying V. The set also featured a cover of Beyonce’s “What Don’t You Love Me.” The Nocturnals lit a fire under that song. The problem is, we DO love you Grace, because you make you so easy to love.

When you take a day off work, pay above cover for a ticket and find your way to Bee Caves two hours before the doors even open, you better pray the show will be worth it. You hear a rough and unpolished, brand new band doing sound check as you sit in the dirt outside, realize there’s another band coming before Explosions in the Sky, and hope for the best. “We Used to Wait for It.” We’re used to waiting for it. You kill another hour in the dirt, rationing out water and sunscreen. You sweat, holding sweatshirts for the thirty degree temperature drop on the way. The doors finally open. You’re told not to run, so you hop, skip and jump your way into the venue and settle in. Three rows back, dead center. The kids that got there at 11 am, 5 hours before you, got themselves an extra 5 feet closer than you. You get a perfectly cold beer and a cold enough water bottle as last supplies and hunker down. You joke that you wish you could take a number and go further out of earshot for Schmillion and be laying down, staring up at the sky for Explosions in the Sky, but you know that if you want Win Butler singing into your face, you’re going to have to stay right where you are. And you most certainly do want Win Butler singing in your face.

But before you can get to that moment, the sun’s up and you have to stand for two bands you don’t want to stand for. Having already decided I hated them from their sound check, I was moderately surprised by opening band Schmillion, the all-girl band who has a tenacious lead guitarist and a bunch of girls who want to be in a band. The bassist had her moments and the drummer was competent enough, but the singer’s voice was a major hindrance. Apparently they got the gig because one of the girls who “played guitar” was in “The Suburbs” short film. The other kids in the video were in attendance as well, but thankfully no one let them on stage with instruments. Schmillion’s matched outfits well, with their black t-shirts, black shorts and bright colored tights. They do a decent enough cover of Iggy Pop’s “Search and Destroy” and worked their way through a few originals to moderate applause. Honestly, I think the guitarist just needs to find a band that can match her talent and stage presence and look back on her time with this band and say “Schmillion, schmillion.” 6/10

“We call ourselves lucky, everyone else calls us Explosions in the Sky.” The only words spoken until their set ends. EITS is an almost purely auditory experience, so they get no picture! Known for their instrumental guitar sound paintings and for their work on the “Friday Night Lights” soundtrack, they sound like, well, explosions going off in the sky, but there’s not much going on stage to look at. The visual highlight was watching Win sit on the back of the stage and watch intently for two songs before running back to get ready. It’s great music to have in the background at work or while driving, but you don’t need to be third row center for this show and being forced to be there made the time drag. My cell phone reception was cutting out and it was pissing me off that I couldn’t play “turd” against Andy in Words with Friends. With no reception, I focused for the last twenty minutes and thoroughly enjoyed them. They even made it dramatic at the end with all three guitarists taking Townshend-esque wind-ups for massive strums. “That’s our time. We were Explosions in the Sky. Arcade Fire is going to take you to another world, soon.” 8/10

Click here to view the embedded video.

And then it was time. An opening video mocked suburban paranoia (as the kid next to me handed me a sandwich) before transitioning into the old “The Lusty Month of May” Camelot soundtrack song, as the band jogged on stage. “Two, Three, Four,” Win counted off before going into “Month of May” as two violinists, two guitarists, two drummers and Win’s brother, Will did everything else, playing behind him. It was high energy, without having to rely on kids on bikes like they had at the Grammy’s when they performed it, and less stroke-inducing lights. It’s a strong, hard hitting rocker, but hardly anyone’s favorite but they played the crap out of it. Win stood defiantly with his arms folded during the line “The kids are all standing with their arms folded tight.”

At 5:43 in the video (above) it all changed. Win took six steps forward, onto a platform right in front of us and held his guitar out like a gun. He stood there, strumming, glancing backwards as they transitioned into possibly the best thing he’s ever written. “Rebellion (Lies)” I gave Caitlin a bear hug from behind, held her close and we just jumped and didn’t stop. It didn’t seem like anyone around us was jumping, but we didn’t care. It was the only thing to do. And I just lost it. I felt completely enveloped in the moment and the song and cried my eyes out. I was euphoric. I still don’t have any answers for why I was so overcome. It’s only the second time I’ve ever cried at a show. The other one was when Ben Folds played “Zak and Sara” because it’s me and my mom’s song, but this wasn’t out of any sadness. It was just one of those moments that you live for where you stop worrying about everything and soak it all in and it felt so freeing.

Before going into “Rococo,” Win smiled and said “Sugar Plum Fairy, Sugar Plum Fairy” twice. Just like John Lennon while recording an early version of “A Day in the Life.” It was still every bit as charming as John all those years ago, when they were fab.

And, my god, was Win charming at every moment of his on-stage banter. “This next one is for anyone who was raised in the church, but wasn’t told the whole truth” before launching into “Intervention” and “All good things must come to an end. One! Two! Three! Four!” before “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)

Win was living up to his name all night, but Regine is an absolute gem on her own. I couldn’t remember the name of “Haiti” so I just wrote “Regine song” for the song she takes over on. With her gold dress with pink tie, cowboy boots, spark-ley gloves with the finger tips open and long streamers/ribbons attached to her wrists, she’s a vision. Her brown curls bouncing as she twirls, Regine exudes a quiet, calm over the crowd. She really shined as she made her final movements in the final encore song, “Sprawl II (Mountains beyond Mountains)” dancing around like a goddess.

There were a number of high points after the thrill of the opening 1-2 punch, from the soft sing-along at the end of “The Suburbs” pt 2 to Win taking his jacket off after “Regine’s song” and Regine’s accordion playing and drum playing and … instruments I don’t even know the names of, but all were just lovely.

Before leaving the stage, Win told us, “You have no idea how good you have it here. Keep it good.” We do. And we will. Thanks for making it that much better.

Performance: 20/20 Flawless. Win and Regine are the king and queen of indie rock. We are their loyal subjects. Everyone in this band knows their role, like a great basketball team. Win takes most of the shots, but Regine is always a threat from anywhere on the court, Will plays great d and can do the little things and the other 5 role players don’t get enough credit, but always come through night after night.

Crowd Engagement: 9/10 It was a young crowd, but an enthusiastic one. A lot of high school kids up front, because they were the only ones who could get there before 4 p.m. A guy next to me brought his 11 year old brother with a Bieber haircut who looked quite intimidated, but older brother shared his sandwich, so we cool. The crowd was loving, attentive and sang along, but didn’t jump around or get completely lost in the moment as much as I would have liked. Thankfully, they were short. And shared.

Ambiance: 5/5 Apparently most people had a nightmare of a time getting in and out of The Backyard, but it was a breeze for us. It helps when you get there two hours early and are the last people in the merch line because your girlfriend looks really cute in concert tees and this one was a special edition. I thought the acoustics were great and the stage set-up was fantastic, with three screens and plenty of room for the 8-piece to roam around.

Set List: 9/10 It was a smart set, full of hits and favorites, but not a particularly deep-cut filled set. Some Neon Bible favorites were missing, like “The Well and The Lighthouse” or “Black Mirror” and Caitlin was especially crushed to not hear “My Body is a Cage” but I got almost all of my favorites. I am sad they didn’t play “Crown of Love.” A tight 15 songs with a three song encore is nothing to scoff at, though.

Banter: 5/5 First rate all around. I scrambled to write down everything Win said. There are a lot of ways you could take his final quote of the night. All make me appreciative.

Total: 48/50, but I’m bumping it up to 9.7/10 because I can.

(read Caitlin’s review here. It’s fantastic.)

We didn’t have the glowing balls for “Wake Up,” like they did at Coachella (seriously, watch this video) but we didn’t need ‘em.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Set-list for Arcade Fire 5/3/11

1. Month of May
2. Rebellion (Lies)
3. Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
4. Haïti
5. City With No Children
6. Rococo
7. Intervention
8. The Suburbs
9. The Suburbs (Continued)
10. Suburban War
11. Keep the Car Running
12. No Cars Go
13. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
14. We Used to Wait
15. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)

Encore:

1. Ready to Start Play Video
2. Wake Up Play Video
3. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) Play Video

My phone started blowing up with messages, telling me something was happening at noon at 4th and Colorado, so I ran the mile over there and arrived at 11:30 to see the Third Man Records truck and a line. At that point, I figured Jack would introduce the shop and say a few words. I had no idea that I was about to have an unthinkably perfect  hour. Last year when Third Man had a pop-up show, I left work on my lunch break, drove 25 minutes each way, and budged the entire line to get into the shop before anyone. This time, I wasn’t in as much of a rush, so I only budged 4/5ths of the line**.  I made small talk in the line for a few minutes before, wait a minute, is that who I think it is?!Yes! It was Aziz Ansari, my favorite  comedian, standing near the truck. OK, I’ll get out of line for Aziz. I made my way over to him, and the only thing between us was a gigantic dude. He could tell I was trying to get a picture with Aziz, so he tapped my favorite Indian on the shoulder and asked if he could take our picture. Only problem was, this oaf didn’t know how to take a picture with an iPhone. “So I just press this button?” “Yup.” I don’t know what his gigantic hands were tapping at, but it took more tries than when Shifty White Guy took me and Meg’s picture for Halloween as his two hits of acid were sinking in ***. He finally gets the picture and ruins my chance for a smooth intro, but I did my best to recover.

I asked Aziz if he ever found a venue for a free show that he’d been tweeting about the day before. He said he’d lined something up at Frank, right next door to where we were standing. I joked that I wanted him to perform at my friend’s house, but didn’t want another Kanye situation. He laughed. It was definitely closer to a “that’s funny” than a pity laugh, but there were hints of pity. I got a more genuine laugh from him when I suggested he perform on top of the truck, as his character Randy, and he even gave one of those that “wait, maybe I could… nah” looks across his face.

As I got caught up in this conversation with Aziz, I started noticing that Third Man staff was setting up an old silver microphone and a chair. Jack’s gonna play, isn’t he? Aziz took out his camera, and the couple hundred people that had gathered poked their heads around, trying to see what was coming.  Third Man’s right-hand man Ben Swain came out in a suit with a skinny tie and rubbed his chin as he said, “Alright, ladies and gentleman, thanks everallofubuhy****  for coming out, I want to introduce to you, with no further ado, Third Man Records recording artist, Jack White.” Oh, man. It’s on.

We were given five and a half minutes of Jack. Let’s break it down second by second. Feel free to watch the video as you read.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Full video of Jack White performance via NPR

0:16-0:19 Jack pops out of the back of the truck, clutching his white, acoustic guitar (with a portrait of Veronica Lake on the back) with his right hand, while pushing his scraggly, black hair back from each side of his face with his left hand, revealing his thin, long sideburns as he strides up to the mic.

0:20-0:24 Grabbing the microphone, Jack says, “I’m a third man recording artist now, Swain?” drawing laughs from the crowd as he pulls at the guitar cord. A friend pointed out that you can distinctly hear my laugh at 0:24.

0:24-0:29 Jack strums the guitar once, tunes it, strums it again, and he’s set.

0:30-0:40 “Alright, it’s our maiden voyage, so glad you guys could be here but uh the feedback, don’t (strum) We’ll figure it out. (Strum) Alright, Texas, uh (strum, pick) everybody feel OK?” (cheers and “Yahhh!”)

0:40-0:45 “There’s more black edges than faces, but let’s do a Texas song.” Come on, Jack. We’re five feet away from you. How are we not going to take a picture? OK, you’re right. Be in the moment. Someone with a real camera will capture this. I put my phone away for once in my life.

0:45-0:55 Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away.” Hell of a choice, right there. Jack strums the opening riff, backing away from the mic while licking his lips.

0:56-1:00 He leans in close to sing the opening line, “I’m gonna tell you how it’s gonna be” with a pleading ache in his voice.

1:01-1:04 Oh, doctor. The high pitched pleading transforms into a soft, reassuring coo for “You’re gonna make sweet love to me.” I no longer have legs.

1:05-1:19 Back into the same pattern, but faster. High pitched pleading for “I’m gonna love you night and day” and a quick “My love is love, not fade away” before following up with a head shake and a softer, gentler “My love is love, not fade away.”

1:20-1:30 Booming voice and big aggression for “Yeah, my love is bigger than a Cadillac.” I almost want to put an exclamation point after Cadillac. He shakes the hair out of his face and goes back soft for “I try to show you, but you’re driving me back” as he backs away to strum and give an “I don’t need you, hypothetical girl” look.

1:31-2:02 This is raw, straight forward, no gimmicks, Jack.  Buddy Holly took 2 and a half minutes to play “Not Fade Away.” The Grateful Dead stretched it out to nearly ten minutes. Bruce Springsteen took half that much time. The Stones did it in a blistering two minutes.  Jack barreled through “Not Fade Away” in a minute forty that never felt rushed, but he flew through this section, building speed, playing with his eyes closed, so he could explode through the last fifteen seconds.

2:03-2:13 Hold on to your hat. Jack erupts with “Yeah, I’m gonna tell you how it’s gonna be!” No choice on the punctuation there. I could have caps locked every word. It was pure exclamation. He built up to this moment with a fury.

2:14-2:24 He slows it back down, getting softer with each “Yeah, my love is love and not fade away,” and closing with that Buddy Holly trademark hiccup before tilting his guitar upwards.

2:25-2:35 The crowd erupts as Jack strums and tunes quickly before saying “I’m gonna play one more for you.”

2:35-2:53 He tells us Third Man recently signed Seasick Steve to the label and they’ll bring him out next.

2:54-2:57 And there it is. “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.” Just a month and a half after announcing that The White Stripes would never play again, there it is. Jack backs several feet away from the microphone as he stumbles through the opening strum. He doesn’t look comfortable.

2:58-3:02 The crowd recognizes the song and starts to lose it. We thought this would never happen again. Does this mean White Stripes songs are on the table from now on? We can only pray.

3:03-3:11 Jack’s curiously missing a few notes in the intro and is holding his guitar like a stranger. It’s a little unsettling.

3:12-3:16 After a hair-clearing head shake, he regains his composure and finished the intro with a flourish, stepping up to the mic. Is he thinking about Meg? Is anyone?

3:17-3:22 Jack nestles up to the mic with his eyes closed and sings “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground when” and opens his eyes to flash a dead stare for “I know you’re not around.” Chilling.

3:23-3:32 I look around to see if we’re singing along. Mouthing the words seems to be the consensus, so I follow suit. Jack’s head goes back down, eyes closed for “Shiny tops and soda pops when I hear your lips make a sound. When I hear your lips make a sound.”

3:33-3:45 Now he’s looking out at us as he sings, but through us as he locks in that dead inside look. He always manages to look ghostly.

3:46-3:56 Backing away from the mic, he takes 10 seconds to strum that classic riff before leaning in and slowing down.

3:57-4:10 He moves purposefully, rocking back and forth while singing “If you can hear a piano fall, you can hear me coming down the hall.” Jack’s voice cracks on the end of  ”your pretty vo-iice” in a controlled panic. On anyone else, I’d say it was an accident.

4:11-4:24 “Every breath that is in your lungs is a tiny little gift to me.” Truer words have never been spoken.

4:25-4:45 Pacing the space behind the microphone, he’s giving Veronica Lake a workout as he bangs out the song. Head down, only showing his face to sing “It didn’t feel so bad ’til the sun went down.” He scowls.

4:45-5:00 With a pained expression, he flips his hair back singing “then I come home, no one to wrap my arms around.”

5:00-5:15 Head down, Jack flashes his eyes at us on the phrases he wants to stand out. This time it’s “If you’re thinking of the Holy Ghost.” Always.

5:15-5:25 He steps back and takes the final strums with slow, loving attention. How many more times will he play this live? You have to wonder.

5:25-5:40 Jack’s done. He lifts his guitar over his head, bows with a wry smile, mouths thank you, and says “Thanks for coming out, here’s Seasick Steve” before a quick hair push, unplugging and disappearing into the truck. And as quickly as he came, he’s gone. Until he’s needed 40 seconds later…

6:20 Seasick Steve is setting up to play sitting down and groans when he looks at the mic set up for a tall, standing Jack White. You can distinctly hear me laughing at 6:21. From inside the truck, Jack asks “Is that mic too high for you, Steve?”

“No, no. It’s all good. No problem” Steve tells him. And it was. I’d rather have five minutes of acoustic Jack than 100 sushi dinners with him. He’s said he’ll never join another band. The Jay-Z recordings may never see the light of day. Who knows what Jack’s gonna do next? With a restless musician like him, you have to figure we’ll always have moments like this. As long as I get to see Jack with a guitar in his hands once in a while, I’m a happy man.

11:05 Jack’s back on the intercom, saying “You’re playing too damn loud, Steve. You’re playing too damn loud.” Never.

*A friend in from Seattle asked if I wanted to join him for “an awesome dinner,” but I had to decline due to work. Hours later, I’m sitting at my desk watching his Twitter stream break my heart with tweets like “Jack White, Alison Mosshart and the Queens of the Stone Age just walked into the restaurant I’m in” and “I just lit Jack White’s cigarette” and “I’m literally throwing angry birds at Jack White right now.” He wouldn’t even tell me where they were. What? I would have been cool. Probably.

**Budging lines isn’t crashing, but I’ve made a real habit of it. The trick is to find people who aren’t paying attention in the front 10% of the line. All you have to do is stand by them and look inconspicuous. Eventually, they just accept that you’re part of the line. It has worked literally every time.

***Actually, the Shifty White Guy took an incredible amount of pictures of us on acid, but kept saying, “The little people keep disappearing into the corner!” Needless to say most of the pictures were blurry, and of us laughing.

****I listened to his part over and over. It seems like he was trying to say a combination of “everyone” and “all of you.”

Zynga, the San Francisco company behind FarmVille, Mafia Wars and Words With Friends, knows how to throw one hell of a party. Setting the bar high for freebie-filled events in the days to come, the browser-based game developer’s shindig at SXSW Interactive last night is among the most impressive events I’ve attended in my six years of South by Southwest-ing.

The venue

Last year, Zynga’s music event was held at the Fader Fort in East Austin the Tuesday night before SXSW Music and featured Metric and The Constellations. This year, the party was moved to the Zynga Dog House, (a.k.a., Whitley Warehouse, where we saw Chromeo Sunday night). Though I’d just been in the space 24 hours prior, the transformation was remarkable. Zygna painted the blank concrete canvas with splashes of red light, photobooth flashes, and the the joyous glow of vintage arcade cabinets and skeeball scoreboards. There were multiple bars and a lounge area in the center of the main room offering guests a place to nibble on food while watching the main stage. Entry was difficult, to put it mildly, with the wait-list line stretching on for blocks.

The drinks and food

My rant against freebies yesterday? Forget what I said—I’m a changed man. If Zynga’s lineup would have been Courtney Love reading the Bible aloud and a Spin Doctors ska cover band, I would have waited in line an hour just to get in.
Zynga went beyond the usual mid-shelf level booze and usual beer suspects with catering from Austin’s Word of Mouth Catering. The buffet was a culinary gang bang of amazing eats: ribs, grits, empanadas, sliders, tacos, fried pickles, onion blossoms and red velvet cake bites.

The show

Sleigh Bells started off the three-hour event in full effect with seizure-inducing strobe lights and booming blasts of electric kick drum. Backed by a towering wall of amplifiers, the duo of Alexis—wearing a sleeveless tee, American flag spandex pants and white Keds—and Derek—in a letterman jacket—came out to uproarious applause.

My initial reaction was that the sound wasn’t as loud as I remembered—the bass at their Carniville show during SXSW 2010 was so tremendous, I nearly vomited on more than one occasion. Then I realized I was wearing earplugs. I temporarily exposed my raw ears to the full impact of the band’s sound for a few moments during “A/B Machines” and I’m pretty sure there’s now a broad range of frequencies I’ll never hear again. Loud is what Sleigh Bells do, and they do it well.

Derek made his way to the amps to push out some squelches of ferocious feedback, and, though her voice was slightly weaker than I remembered (likely the result of more than a year of regular touring) Alexis still managed to scream and tantrum dance the crowd into a frenzy. She also spent some time leaning into the crowd (and appeared to repeatedly hit one dazed-looking attendee in the head with her breasts as she threw herself around).

Flying Lotus came out for a brief DJ set between the two bands. Smiling ear to ear, he stayed hunched low, laboring over tweaking knobs and sliding levels with his head bobbing rhythmically along to the trip-hop beats, harmonious cacophony and hand claps. FlyLo ended his set with a sincere thank you to the crowd and seemed truly humbled and grateful for the warm reception.

TV on the Radio closed the evening out with an equally noisy set of tunes, including some evolved takes of “Staring at the Sun” and “Wolf Like Me,” and a couple songs from their upcoming album, Nine Types of Light, including “Will Do” and an unidentified track which bordered on spoken word and was sort of awful (by TV on the Radio standards and, granted, first listens are tough at a live show when everyone is clamoring for the hits). The crowd turned into a mosh pit during the later parts of the set, a nerve-racking moment for my size 13 feet but evidence of the crowd’s enthusiasm.

Notably absent was bassist Gerrard Smith, who was recently diagnosed with lung cancer and is undergoing treatment.

TVOTR didn’t return for an encore, but the crowd at the Dog House stuck around for nearly an hour after the last note was played. Rumors persisted that Radiohead’s Thom Yorke would be making an appearance for a DJ set (he made a surprise appearance with Flying Lotus just days before in L.A.) but as the lights turned on and the crew broke out brooms to sweep up the floors, it proved to be nothing more than another SXSW rumor.

This afternoon, my ears are still ringing loudly, a preview of the days to come. Maybe there’s still hope for a Radiohead surprise performance during the week, but with no Thom in sight, it seems a little less likely (and chances were pretty damn slim to begin with).

Photos by @supercooleric and @sxswdiet

The smartphone app RedLaser is used by many to seek out the best deals, but no app was needed to find the best ticket Sunday night in Austin. Chromeo played a free show for fans and SXSW Interactive attendees at the RedLaser party at Whitley Warehouse, the home of last year’s Perez Hilton party and tonight’s Zynga party featuring Sleigh Bells and TV on the Radio.

The venue
As its name implies, Whitley Warehouse is a warehouse, which essentially turns into a humid concrete box when you pack in 1,000 or so hot, jumping drunkards. It was a sweatbox, but it was a well-lit one, thanks to rainbow-colored lasers dancing above the crowd before the show and Chromeo’s impressive lighting setup — columns lined with yellow flash bulbs that silhouette the duo from behind.

The Whitley is a huge venue but is broken down into three major spaces. The setup made for a much more intimate show than Chromeo’s usual Austin stop, Stubb’s.

The drinks

If you’ll excuse me for a moment, I’d like to rant about free drinks. I love beer as much as the next guy, and, heck, when it’s free, that’s about the best thing in the world in my book—just behind watching kittens sleep, the smell of al pastor, and the sweet sound of Thom Yorke. However, people’s SXSW party priorities baffle me. The math is simple: Drinks are cheap, concerts are not. I dropped around $40 last time I saw Chromeo and had maybe consumed $12 worth of beer. Therefore, if I can see an amazing band for free, wouldn’t it make sense to pick them over a “DJ” rocking out to an iTunes playlist with free watered down vodka drinks and beer?

I can get drunk any time I’d like with just a few minutes notice, but I can’t see a band like Chromeo on a whim. This is my logic in picking SXSW parties, though, judging from the 10s of 1,000s of followers the Twitter accounts dedicated to freebies at SXSW (full disclosure: I’m a hypocrite and follow them all) I may be in the minority in that belief.

All that to say, drinks weren’t free, but we got to see Chromeo for free, so you know, deal with it.

The show

Chromeo took to the stage around 11 p.m., (unfortunately not ushered out by the Chromeo chant).  The duo’s music plays not so subtle homage to many ‘80s classics — a gentleman in the crowd behind me asked his friends if they were a band from the ‘80s. As the band is custom to do, they opened “Bonafied Lovin,” arguably one of their most infectious tracks, with the riff from Dire Straits’ “Money For Nothing,” the song that serves as the inspiration for “Bonafied Lovin” (as made crystal clear by the song’s music video).

Dave 1 is a ridiculously charismatic French Canadian James Dean-type in black leather and a white tee. His eyes hidden behind black wayfarers, Dave effortlessly controlled the crowd as always. Paired with P-Thugg, the two are unstoppable — showing an unbelievable mastery of the hard-to-pin-down magic that allows a performer to get a group of strangers to participate in a drunken game of Simon Says, directing clapping and raised hands and jumping at just the right times. (There was also a notably excessive amount making out in the audience—I don’t know if it’s the first taste of spring that’s got Austinites feeling frisky or if people were really just digging the show.)

Dave’s constant and contagious grin turned south for a brief period of technical difficulties, but the crowd cheered and clapped on as the sound from the PA slowed to a trickle. PA problems popped up again in a few more songs, but the band didn’t seem to miss a beat.

Drawn back out for an encore by the aforementioned Chromeo chant, the band returned for Business Casual’s “Grow Up,” a track that so closely resembles Huey Lewis and the News’ “Stuck With You” that it might as well be a cover. Dave included some call and response action with the crowd, joking, “This is South by Southwest Interactive, after all.”

Chromeo plays again on Friday, March 18 at the Green Label Sound Showcase at La Zona Rosa with MNDR and The Cool Kids. Chromeo’s most recent album, Business Casual, is available now on slick white vinyl. RedLaser is available for free for iPhone and Android.

Having not seen Chromeo since Business Casual dropped, I was looking forward to seeing the new tunes live. Fancy Footwork is a much more dance-y album. The new album is more groove-based, baby making music. Live, it’s still a constant dance party. Also, one of my favorite parts of Chromeo is that practically every other song has crowd participation or call and response in it. The sold out crowd in Pomona definitely knew all their lines.

It may have been them feeding off the crowd’s energy, but Dave-1′s voice seemed to sound better and his guitar has even improved from the last time I saw them just over a year ago. P-Thugg masterfully tinkers with this synth rig, and steps out to slappa-the-bass (is that still funny?) for some additional bottom end when needed. Rob and I walked in just as they opened their set with “Tenderoni.” It was a perfect ebb and flow of new and old from there. “Bonafied Lovin’” may have gotten the biggest reaction from the crowd, but the “Night by Night” into “Mama’s Boy.” was probably my favorite of the evening.

@ZackTeibloom Robyn was an infectious party from the minute she danced her way out onto the immaculate new Moody ACL Studio stage to the perfectly appropriate “Time Machine.” It kind of felt like the Swedish Gay Time Machine** of concerts.  Tell people you’re seeing Robyn, and they’ll ask if it’s that “Show Me Love” Robyn from the 90s. Yeah, same girl. And better than ever. After missing a few Midwest dates due to illness, Robyn was a healthy burst of energy, even if she had to eat half a banana and chug some water to get through her set with two unforgettable encores.

Coming out in the jacket pictured, Robyn was flanked by two male synth/keyboardists and two male drummers, all in white jumpsuits. It was an assault from the word go. She sang over a backing track that mostly served to echo her call and response. Her voice sounded spectacular in a room with dynamite acoustics, and the girl can flat out dance. As my girl Meg said, “As much as I loved dancing to Robyn, I’d watch her dance and think no one else could do it as well.” Robyn oozed stage presence. It was hard to take your eyes off her. I didn’t even notice when one of her dancers unzipped his jumpsuit down to his waist for the second half of the show.

The show was a steady stream of Body Talk hits, with “Fembot” following “Time Machine,” and led to her taking off her jacket and yelping ‘How you doing, Austeeen?” and straddling the drum kit before launching into “Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do.” I found it a bit odd that she blew her single load of “Dancing on my Own” so early in the show, but she had more than enough to keep us locked in for the next hour after it. She danced around with determination, dominating the stage and doing that back to the audience, “I’m-gonna-make-it-look-like-someone-is-groping-me-self-hug” thing to smiles and hoots from the crowd.

From there, she revealed the glow in the dark aspect of her drum kit and ROBYN sign and later, her glowing bra. The drum sets also had two big Robyn’s painted on them, but all I could think of was “put a bird on it.” She addressed the crowd, saying “You could be doing anything. If you weren’t here, it wouldn’t mean anything. Thank you for coming out.” Then she threw a half eaten banana into the crowd.***

After a quick 50 minutes, Robyn left the stage and came back for an encore of “Get Myself Together,” Dancehall Queen” and a lovely “Hang With Me.” “Give it up for my band. Give it up for my crew, working hard. Give it up for you, Austin. I came all the way from Sweden to be with you tonight. Wanna hear another song?!” Of course we did. It wasn’t even 11. She had us all make a heart with our hands and came back with her Jacket back on for “U Should Know Better,” “Konichiwa Bitches” and the finale of Robyn finales. It felt way too appropriate for her to end with a slowed down, sparse cover of “Dancing Queen” into “Show me Love” as she blew kisses, saying “We love you, Austin.” Oh, Robyn. We love you too. You just sparkle.

Performance: 19/20 I can’t think of one thing she could do better. Unbelievable dancer, incredibly engaging and what a voice. A beautiful performance that left everyone buzzing as they left the incredible Moody theater. I’ll dock one point for paint by numbers banter, but she’s a top-rate pop star performer. It was a steal for $15 at this venue.

Crowd Engagement: 9/10 Really fun crowd. Danced a ton, totally locked in. Not too pushy or overly crowded, even from up close. Wasn’t quite the free for all it could have been, but it was nice to be comfortable and have some breathing room. Pretty ideal.

Set List: 7/10 I think the choice to have “Dancing on my Own” that early in the set was a bit odd, as it was clearly the biggest sing-a-long and hit and it’s hard to stay at that peak for an hour. She handled it well and I thought the spacing was mostly strong, but I don’t know why there was the need for two encores with just an 80 minute show.

Ambiance: 10/10 I think almost everyone who’s seen a show in Moody has a new favorite music venue in town. Wow. I know it’s easy to sound douche-y when describing this place, but well done. I hope to see dozens of shows here over the years. Spectacular sound, wonderful set-up, easy to get in, not one complaint.

Total: 45/50 or 9.0

*This Robin Sparkles, from “How I Met Your Mother,” headline reference wrote itself. But the more I thought about it, their careers are quite similar. Both foreign born, named Robin/Robyn. Both had big 90′s hits and seemed prime to fade quickly. Only Robyn had a resurgence, but it doesn’t seem like Robin Sparkles Scherbatsky wants to revisit it. Until they need material next season.

**I mean this in the nicest way possible. It was probably the most homosexual concert crowd I’ve experienced (outside of the 20 minutes I spent at Lady Gaga at Lolla.) Even gay guys thought so: “Just when I thought this couldn’t get any gayer, the pre-show music plays “You Make Me Feel Mighty Real” into “I Feel Love.” -@shivvy. It was a totally fun experience. Great energy, tons of dancing. Wonderful vibe. No judgment. I just feel like I would be remiss if I didn’t point out the make-up of the crowd.

***I’m really curious what you’d do with a half eaten Robyn banana. Do you hold onto it? you know how fast bananas rot. Are you gonna be that guy who licks it or takes a bite after her? The crowd really wanted that banana and I want to know why.

Photos by Mary Rehak of Shutter-noise