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My Warped Tour Top Ten

7/19/2015

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Warped Tour this year was absolutely phenomenal-- the mix of artists was great, the weather was great, and I didn't get sunburnt. I could spend a week talking about everything I crammed into one day at punk rock summer camp, but I've condensed it down into one top ten list, for your reading pleasure.
1. Mallory Knox
I had seen Mallory Knox once before, opening for Sleeping With Sirens and Pierce The Veil on The World Tour. They were great then, but my interest had dwindled in the months between. It took fifteen minutes pressed up against their stage to reinvigorate the flame-- they are a true punk band in that their power really has to be absorbed in a live setting. You aren't getting the true Mallory Knox experience streaming them on your couch.
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3. New Beat Fund
I am absolutely obsessed with the image of New Beat Fund. Their music is fun and infectious, but their visual presence is even stronger, like an Easter basket come to life. I don't even like the beach and New Beat Fund had me gunning to run off to Hawaii the second I got the chance.
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5. August Burns Red
Left. Shark.
6. Meghann Wright
I actually got the chance to talk to Meghann for a few minutes after her set at the Acoustic Basement. Seeing acoustic sets on Warped Tour is like seeing a penguin on a beach-- strange but completely provided for by nature (seriously, there are penguins that live on beaches). Meghann, who grew up in Hawaii, has all the punk intonations-- songs about fucking up, about drugs, about changing things-- but paired with upbeat acoustic backings. Meghann said that, growing up in Hawaii, there was a more accepting music community that prized all types of music. But hard work is still the name of the game-- her advice to anyone looking to become a Warped Tour artist is to be your own biggest champion, no one else is going to do the work for you.
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9. Pierce The Veil
Pierce The Veil are so good. Just. So good. They're, technically speaking, one of the best bands in the scene today, and instead of relying on technical prowess they they turn their attentions towards making the best music they possibly can. They don't rest on their laurels-- they make the best sound, the best show, and the best records they can, demonstrating just how much they deserve their success.
10. MACARONI AND CHEESE EGGROLL
This isn't even Warped Tour- it's one of the food carts that was at the stadium that day, but I ATE AN EGGROLL STUFFED WITH MACARONI AND CHEESE, HOW AM I EVER GOING TO FEEL THAT LEVEL OF HAPPINESS EVER AGAIN?
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2. Juliet Simms
I fell in love with Juliet's voice last year listening to Automatic Loveletter in the office at my internship. I honestly knew very little about her solo career aside from the single "Wild Child," so I lucked out when I decided to stop for her set. As with Mallory Knox, Juliet Simms has so much more power in a live performance, where it's guitars and drums and her unbelievable voice instead of studio magic pumping out of the speakers. She gave one of the most visceral performances I have ever seen from a solo singer.
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4. Icon For Hire
Am I enamored with Icon For Hire? Yes. I've been listening to them for probably five years now, and I never thought I'd see them live, let alone three times in the span of a year, let alone photograph them performing. There's something about this band that gets under your skin and changes your entire world. There's anger and rage coupled with so much hope and power that the set becomes less a concert and more a rally for you to go out and save your own life. 
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7. Pvris
Pvris are absolute game changers. As great as they are recorded, they're ten times better live-- with all the programming done in person and Lynn Gvnn's voice unhindered by a studio-- hearing her sing in person is like conducting a seance and filling a room with benevolent (if not somewhat terrifying) ghosts.
8. Warped really stepped up their heat game
I should save this space for a band, but I have to give major credit to the Warped Tour team for stepping up their game in the battle against the weather-- in addition to their normal free water stations, they added empty tents for shade (in lieu of sitting behind tractor trailers like last year) and added portable cooling stations with misters and fans. As someone who cannot tolerate heat (and does not want to tolerate heat, I have to give them kudos for their valiant efforts to fight the sun.
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Stalking Gia At Mercury Lounge

6/17/2015

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 When I sat down to talk with Stalking Gia after her performance at Mercury Lounge on June 10th, I was not sure what to expect. She was a gorgeous singer with an epic voice, and I was still sweating from the M14 bus I had taken three hours ago to get to the show. I was worried that she would have an ego to match her talent—but I lucked out. Not only was Gia incredibly kind, but she was a wealth of musical knowledge and passion. In fact, the first thing she did when we sat down was gush about movie soundtracks.


                “I’m obsessed,” she cooed. Soundtracks, particularly Donny Darko and American Beauty, influenced her first album, which she admits took a long time to write. She spent two years in LA putting the album together.

                But after spending all that time in California, Gia has returned to New York and completed her third show in the city. Why did she leave LA?

                “I had to get out of there before San Andreas happened,” she joked. “That earthquake is way overdue I don’t want to be there when it happens.” More seriously, she notes, “there’s nothing like a New York show.”

                Her Mercury Lounge performance was number three in her triumphant return to the city, and she has evolved rapidly in her short time back on the East Coast. She has made drastic changes since her first show at Pianos, moving from long setlists with no drummer to shorter, more immersive shows with all live beats. She describes her end goal for live shows as “a reenactment of Snow White.” She believes shows need to be not just heard, but felt. In the studio, “it’s more electronic,” she says. But eventually she hopes “to hire a full band, an orchestra, and have a really epic, evolved sound.”

                We discuss what makes her music so transformative— “when you’re writing for publishers you have to have this word and this sound¸ they have to be in control… but I sneak in my own ideas.” She concludes, “people want authenticity.” And that’s exactly what she gives them.

Check out the full photo gallery here!

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Chantal Claret Grabs New York By Its Very Sexy Throat

9/20/2013

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One woman can make my heart beat and stomach jump just by existing, and that woman is Chantal Claret. The last time I saw her perform, she was still the frontwoman of now defunct band Morningwood, opening for Mindless Self Indulgence in 2012. Since then, she's released The Pleasure Seeker EP, and a full-length album The One, The Only. Her headlining performances as a solo artist have been limited to Los Angeles until this week, when she made her New York debut at the Studio at Webster Hall.
I keep formulating a way to describe the show, thinking I'll pull the classic "but the highlight of the night was..." but every time I think I've whittled the voluptuous, full figured show into a Vogue model, I throw down the chisel and send myself back to sketch again, because every moment hid a highlight.
Chantal commands a room with her theatrics and powerful voice, which culminate in a performance and sound that combines the best elements of the late Morningwood aesthetic, 60's girl groups, jazz, and just a dash of punk rock. A friend described it best- she didn't dance to the music, the music danced to her. In such an intimate setting (and by intimate I mean church-style basement with notoriously spotty acoustics) there's no room for error, and not a single one worked its way out of the cracks. Chantal's voice was powerful, her skits were on point, and her command of the room never wavered. She's not afraid to get weird, and her risks are rewarding for everyone involved.

Several new songs were on the set list, including one that has yet to debut in Claret's home of Los Angeles. She instructed us not to tell California that piece of information, but I'm pretty sure about two people read this blog, so the likelihood of this reaching the west coast is slim.

Claret also covered Andre Williams' "Jailbait," and her powerful voice was best on show here, where she managed to make spoken word more brassy and bold than ever thought possible.

The entire selection of music was superb, but favorites included my national anthem "Real Girls," call and response "Davy Crockett," and "Pleasure Seeker," for which she had the entire audience seated on the floor as she serenaded her father, a sweet touch to a powerful night.
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Smells Like 2007: FOB, Panic!, and Twenty One Pilots take Brooklyn

9/8/2013

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Fall Out Boy played three acoustic songs on a platform in the middle of the pit, one of which they were joined for by Travie McCoy of Gym Class Heroes.
Last night, in a frenzy of subway fumes and the particles of perfume still clinging to our sweat-beaded skin, we emerged in Brooklyn to the roar of crowds who at long last had found the recipe for time travel. And as the lights dimmed and the screams buckled under the weight of drum beats and hardened vocal chords, the world was made right by the return of our personal rock and roll.

The night took several turns- the appearance of an unexpected hero (Marky Ramone took the stage for two Ramones songs, probably the biggest and most spectacular surprise of the night), the sudden intimacy of a private acoustic moment, and the explosive bombast that arena rock shows once drew lifeblood from. The reunion of Brendon Urie and Patrick Stump onstage, going belt-for-belt on 20 Dollar Nosebleed, was a sight and sound to regenerate the soul, one that was worth waiting for.
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    Emily Becker

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