Dan on MySpace

This past Saturday I went to see Cold War Kids play at the Warfield in San Francisco. We Barbarians opened the show which was said to start at 8pm, only to notice the set schedule in the box office as I was buying a ticket with their set time starting at 7:45pm. I showed up at 8:15pm just to hear them ending as I bought my ticket. Thanks a lot Warfield for not letting me see an opener.

I did catch Richard Swift who was pretty good and first had heard about through his South by Southwest daytrotter session that he did. I also had a conversation with a guy in Page France after their concert that I booked at Sonoma State who was telling me that Richard was one of the best guys he saw at SXSW so I was looking forward to it. It’s a trio with Richard playing keyboards for most of the set except for a few songs when he played guitar. They kind of reminded me of Koufax a bit but a little more singer songwriter esque I suppose. One song I know for sure he played was “The Songs of National Freedom” that’s from the session he did.

Cold War Kids went on and their stage setup was kind of cool with 3 lights that backlit them and the drummer with a cool looking drum riser. Watching these guys play is such a fun thing. Their guitarist who does some backup vocals does one of the weirdest dances while he plays and then would go over to the bassist and lean their heads into each other which was pretty entertaining. The crowd for this show was kind of odd, I think it was a mix of weekend warriors with suit coats and MTV/Live 105 fans. Not what I expected, every time a song from the full length would be played, the crowd would cheer really loud, it was like watching a concert with a Red Hot Chili Peppers crowd or something. They did an encore with 2 songs and finished with Saint John with a bunch of guys from the opening bands playing random percussion and a bottle too. From what I remember, these are the songs they played that I knew, We Used to Vacation, Hang Me Up to Dry, God Make Up Your Mind, Hospital Beds, Robbers and Passing the Hat.

Here’s some links to some free mp3’s and such. Mediocre camera phone photos to come.

http://www.daytrotter.com/daytrotterSessions/718/free-songs-richard-swift, http://www.myspace.com/webarbarians, http://www.daytrotter.com/article/211/free-songs-cold-war-kids
Cold War Kids Live on Jimmel Kimmel:

After a nice hour+ ride from the Northbay to the city - and after getting robbed again of $5 at the bridge Misty, Matt, Chrispy Finch Fry and I started drinking. By the time we left we had succesfully taken lots of free merch and offered the Annuals a show at our house. They were cool about it and said that their other band, Sedona, might be interested. But this is supposed to be a show review, although I don’t have so much time right now so I’ll get down to the grit. Annuals rocked. Misty and I had seen them one time before at Bimbo’s 365 with Blonde Redhead, one of our favorite bands, and they were amazing there. The sound at Bottom of the Hill can’t really compare to Bimbo’s but Annuals pulled it off really well. I was amazed just at how well they fit on that tiny stage cuz there’s like… …50 of them. I felt bad after their set, I spent all my money on booze and didn’t have anything to spend on their merch. Next time, Gadget. Annuals got everyone singing on Dry Clothes and I even heard a good amount of harmony from the crowd, which the singer commented on, I think. I couldn’t really hear what he said but that’s what I was thinking about the whole time. Manchester Orchestra were good. The singer reminds me a lot of Claudio from Coheed and Cambria: big guy, high voice. He did this weird thing, which I know is a performer’s trick, where he just stared at the back of the room, or the tops of everybody’s heads. I have this thing about making a connection with the crowd, maybe it’s like a pet peeve. It seems like a band has more fun if they make a lot of eye contact and communicate with the crowd. Seems more sincere. But they sounded awesome, minus the five minute solo singer intro and outros.
I often find my friends and I playing this game at shows and I’m sure you do it too, time to time: find a famous person, or local friend who looks like, or like the sibling of someone in the band you’re watching. That’s what we were doing the entire time The New Frontiers were playing. The singer was the mirror image of Dave Grohl and Tom Petty’s future test-tube baby, while the bass and keyboard players were both long lost brothers of local friend Dillon Rego [of Alaskas]. Guitars were supplied by son of John Mayer and my friend Sean [Methamphetamine Disaster] played drums. Not in reality though. In reality it was a cool band from Texas, although they sounded like they actually could be an amalgamation of Tom Petty, Dave Grohl and Dillion Rego…
Kevin Devine was also great. He reminds me of a young, angry David Bazan.