Concert Review: Shonen Knife (2016)

Concerts can be a gamble. While it’s fun to see the city, getting to some venues can be difficult and there’s a lot of waiting around that can leave you drained, especially if you have to wake up at a decent hour the next morning. Some bands like Van Halen have a terrific early catalogue and are terrible live, yet others like Blondie, X, and especially Willie Nelson might be better now than when they started. Where does Shonen Knife fit in?

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Concert Review: Pennywise (2016)

One infatuation I had in high school was MTV2. They’d show energetic rock music videos with creative editing techniques that fascinated me enough to venture out of my shell and attend the real life equivalents. Some bands needed to hide behind fast-paced editing or close-ups. Pennywise didn’t have the most energetic live performance of the year, though the rowdy Friday night bar scene reminded me of those visceral music videos of the early 2000s, by bands like A Perfect Circle, Linkin Park, and System of a Down.

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Concert Review: VG Pianist, MC Frontalot, Bit Brigade (PAX, 2016)

Videogame expo PAX hosted two nights of concerts over Labor Day weekend. The Friday night line-up consisted of opener Martin Leung the Video Game Pianist, nerdcore rapper MC Frontalot, and headlining the evening was Minibosses-tribute band Bit Brigade. I skipped the Saturday night line-up of Triforce Quartet, 1UPs, and Super Guitar Bros., although with more planning, rest, and effort, I probably could have enjoyed it as much as Friday’s festivities.

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