Bleu

I had heard about Bleu for ages on the Jelly-L and Audities, and
finally, in Tucson, the last CD we purchased was his CD. Then it ended
up in a box in New Jersey for months. Well, finally, last week, I
started playing it a few times, and I was impressed. Its no wonder
that the Jelly-L was raving. He has a bit of a Jellyfish quality to
him and he probably is a Jellyfish fan.

For his show, he was solo, and he did a lot of looping in order to get
a full band sound. I was totally meserized by the way he would loop
things. I'm so facinated by that! Early on in the show, he told
everyone (who were sitting along the sides) to get up, stand up, in
the middle of the room in front of the stage. It was funny. :) He
actually played a lot of new stuff, probably at least half new, and he
was halfway apologetic about it, but said how it is fun to play new
songs too sometimes.

Lets see, some of the songs that I do know that he played were:
3's a Charm
We'll Do it All Again
Could Be Worse

After he finished breaking down from his set, I said hi to him and he
was very nice. I don't recall what we talked about really, but he said
that he played Tucson about a year ago with Switchfoot. I remember
that tour and didn't go because I was busy with moving and did not
have either of their CDs at the time.

The Argument

These guys I was REALLY excited to see. Probably more so than the rest
of them because since the first 4 part harmonies streamed from my
player when I first played the CD, I was in musical heaven. While
Spiraling is great, they are from NYC so easy to see again, and though
Bleu is good, I wasn't super familiar with his songs. But The
Argument, I have played their CD on endless loop over and over and
over again. IMO, they are the BEST Jellyfish influenced band out
there. Easily.

I started out watching from the sides, sitting down, and I started to
be VERY unimpressed with the sound. People kept standing in front of
me, and I kept sliding closer to the stage, and pretty soon, I was in
a dead spot sonically, and during "Speak My Mind" which is one of my
fave songs on the album due to the most amazing 4 part harmonies and
competing lyrics, right before the best part of the song, I leaped up,
ran to the floor in front of the stage, and got to hear everything
better. Sadly though, still not good enough. The whole sound was very
flat. Not compressed or anything, but flat, like a wall. I couldn't
hear any individual intstruments or voices pop out at me. The mics
were waaaaay low, esp the guitarists. And the room itself seemed
poorly designed for sound. Long and narrow, brick walls, wood floor,
there were lots of deadspots in the room. I'm hoping that it may have
just been a bad night and that another night there, the sound would be
better. At one point, the sound guy exchanged a mic in the bass drum.
Oh well.

Anyway, The Argument put on a great show and I sang along to my
heart's content, and there were quite a few others doing that. There
were a few other moments of 4 part harmony bliss were I smiled with
glee. It was a very good show.

Some of the songs they played:

Incognito
Song 2
Movin' In
NYU Girls
My Dumb Luck
Speak My Mind
Everyone's Selling Something
Act My Age

I know they did throw in at least one or two new songs in there and
talked about an album they are working on.

So, that was yay. After the show, I talked to Scott, the lead singer
and keyboardist, I'd exchanged a number of emails with. He was very
nice, and it was nice to finally meet him after exchanging
correspondances. I also spoke with Matt, the guitarist. I told Matt
how the 4 part harmonies are my FAVORITE, and that sometimes, his
guitar playing reminded me of Jellyfish. He looked at me agape and
said "I LOVE JELLYFISH!" (there aren't a lot of people in the world
who even know who they are, so its always cool to meet someone else),
so then we talked about Spilt Milk and Jon Brion. It was very nice.

Spiraling

Spiraling headlined and by the time they went on, there was a decent
crowd. Again, the sound disappointed me, which in a way made me happy
because then I KNEW that it wasn't The Argument's fault. That sounds
weird, but there you go. Anyway. They still put on a fine show.

Their setlist (this one is accurate, I got it from Marty, so I know it
is right):

Transmitter
(Get Your Own) Holy Grail
A Face for Radio
Excellent Body
Ah Sugar (one of my FAVORITES!)
Lightning Twice
No Transformation Here
Are You Here (Parts 1 and 2) (one of my other FAVORITES)
Texas is the Reason
You Can't Get There

So, there you have it.  GO SEE THEM when they hit a town near you.  :)

Stacy