This was a whole different experience right here. Hello once again, and better late than never we're back, with the twenty first edition of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series and this one brings us back to the same place we were on Tuesday, Hammerstein Ballroom(or, again, as the sign would indicate all over the building-the Manhattan Center). Tonight, 311 plays for their second night in a row in NYC. They have a new album out “Uplifter”- fans should check it out it's good stuff. The opener is State Radio-Pam and I head in after getting drunk around the corner at a real deal Irish Pub(it said Irish Pub on the sign). Walk in there feeling great made sure not to give them my lighter at the door this time. The crowd for this show at Hammerstein compared to the Pixies on Tuesday were two totally different animals. Both were equally dedicated, but tonight was more, searching for a word to use here: more one entity where as the Pixies fans were a bunch of separate individuals together-the 311 fans were more together, more in sync with each other. And there was a lot more pot in the building tonight. We hit the merch table as I pick myself up a tee shirt says 311 on the front and November 28th 2009 on the back with an “NY” and it's Jets green so it looks kinda like team memorabilia- they had Giants blue ones as well. It was only 25 bucks and they had a XXL, so it fit right over my Pixies hoodie. Then we went and bought seven dollar beers and now that I remember, I owe Pam a beer I never paid her for.
State radio was pretty cool. I had no idea who there were before tonight but they had some good 
vibes flowing. They were sort of like 311, a little conventional hard rock orientated yet still had that little dash of reggae/ska bop to it. It was cool, no weird instruments that I need to go look up on the internet, no stupid things like “This is a song about hope” or anything like that. The best compliment I've come to be able to dish out to a band is that they didn't annoy me in any way-and that's what this band did. They rocked because they didn't annoy me. I'm sure they have a myspace, probably http://www.myspace.com/stateradio .
The they took apart the stage and started rolling out the 311 gear, as they took the sheet off the drum kit to a huge roar from the crowd. Their lead guitarist uses a shitload of effects pedal because I saw them bring out like a two level rack of toys. I need to invest in some effects pedals. Anyway, 311 hits the stage after 9PM and at this point it's getting real cramped up there-we're
like, pretty far up there and it's about to get rowdy; and it did. They kicked off the set with “Beautiful Disaster” and the place was jumping. I'm telling you these people are crazy-song by song it just got worse, and by worse I mean better. It was frigging rocking in there! And everyone was dancing and shit and it was dark so I was actually getting behind girls like, groovin' because they didn't know I wasn't there boyfriend then they went and found him. I did this all night, even with that hot chick in the white top that I told Pam I thought was hot. Awesome. A couple 
songs later(wasn't taking down the set list because I was jumping up and down like a maniac) when they got into “Come Original” and “All Mixed up” is when I began to get “all bruised up”-there were different sorts of moshes going. You had the hardcore punk circle of death is what I call it, thats what when down at the Germs show I saw. There's a circle of people and there are usually 3 to 4 people being pushing one direction to the other slamming into everyone surrounding, me and Pam were getting knocked aside from time to time. Then there was also the 'push everyone forward spring' as I call it-where like 5 dudes line up and push everyone in front of them so everyone leans about 5 feet forward and then flings back at the rest of us spectators-but I saw this happen a few times and it was like right in front of us. The ruckus subdued after they ran off and had the drum solo followed by the whole band beatin the shit outta snare drums simultaneously-it was crazy. Then Peanut with the 10 minute bass solo, he's a frigging beast with it-I think he plays a 5 string bass(if not a 6 string). Then they all came back out and played something for “all the old school 311 fans” and jumped into “Down”, literally. I took flight lunging forward on to a bunch of other people(Pam said it best: “I don't think my feet were on the ground at all in there”) and then when I got flung back I was in the middle of one of
those circles of death and I got knock around pretty good before landing back in my spot to just jump up and down in unison with everybody in the building. Weed is being smoked everywhere, and cigarettes too people were just going all out. And funny at the beginning of one of the songs they played after that dude was like “Alright everyone put your lighters up for this one” and there were dozens of flames lit as event staff looks on, not being able to do anything about it because we smartened up and didn't tell them we had lighters at the door. Take that! One disappointment I had was that they didn't play “Who's got the herb” or “Amber” (or their cover of “Love song” now that I think about it) but they have an album to promote so you gotta play the new stuff and you can't play everything-that's why I'll see them again next time they hit town. Ended the set with a song called “Jackpot”, of which crowd participation was asked for-I don't remember what we had to do but we sang along something. It was just so nuts in there all night, afterwards was just a complete dead feeling. Felt like I got beat up, and it was a good thing!
Amazing, can't wait to see them again. Well, next time I thought I'd be posting was after I saw Weezer on December 10th @ the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, NJ. Pam also planned on riding along for this ride as well. As of December 5th the rest of the december leg of the tour was cancelled : Rivers Cuomo's tour bus went off an icy road and he cracked three ribs. I got a refund, but that doesn't make it not suck-
walking in my direction, so I was like “there he is!” in the obnoxious way I talk before getting serious and asking him “How's” the tour going?” Cris said “It's really cool man been great”-as he looks around- “we got three great bands tonight. I hope more people show up for Dynasty (Electric)”. I said told him how I thought they were cool last time they opened for the them and then he went on to talk about Elmo Kirkwood, Curt Kirkwood's son and member of the band Kirkwood-Dellinger, who were up after Dynasty Electric. Cris: “My nephew's band is really rounding out and he's a beast on guitar man. He's playing is getting so much better-like, me and brother have been playing together for years and this kid just sits around playing and we look at him like dude how'd you do that?” He seemed excited, didn't wanna keep him from any pre-show rituals.
Kirkwood-Dellinger was so much cooler than I thought they would. They were almost groovy at times- Elmo Kirkwood is a frigging beast with it. The stuff he was doing was pretty interesting and noisy. He didn't have as many pedals as his father, but was an absolute monster. There whole band was well rounded, as they switched instruments after every couple of songs. Played from like 930 to about 1030 probably a little after. Then, a warm moment, as I turn to take a look at the crowd about halfway through their set, there leaning on a pole about 15 feet away, is Curt Kirkwood looking on as a proud father watching his son become a rock star. After they went off we all sat in suspense awaiting that proud father to hit the stage with his great band, The Meat Puppets!!!
nice roar going when came out. I'm right in the middle leaned on the stage because they took the two amps in front of me away so I had plenty of room to put my note pad and camera down. Good times front row. They kicked off the set with “Plateau”, it was right at these first chords that for the first time of the night I'm past feeling tired and way too deep into feeling: “Wow this is freaking awesome” to even think about it. After that another favorite of mine in “Commin' Down” and that's when things started getting cerebral in a sense that everyone in the place had, for lack of better term given themselves to the music at this point. “Touchdown King” is a song off the 'Monsters' album (they're most interesting album-in a good way) that's been a staple in their live set for years now-so they drift off into oblivion in the middle of it. It's a blissful switch from song to 
outer space to song throughout every Meat Puppets set. They got into “Station” next-on the video you hear me say 'Station' before the song starts on the video because I saw Curt point to Cris(which is also on the video), signifying that this is the one he sings lead vocals. “Go to your head” was the first song of the night they played off the new album 'Sewn Together', which is an awesome record. The dude next to me asked me if I heard it and what I thought and I explained to him the intricacies of the greatness of the album. Then I saw Shandon tell Cris “Oh Me”, and off we went. The crowd is building as the night go on-I can't see it but I can feel it; the room getting smaller and everything being louder. “Up on the sun” was awesome, I should have taped that one but my arm would've got tired I think it ran about 8 minutes. That's when stuff started getting lost in the little light show we had going on-I'm not sure if they bring a light show or they just use whats there when they show up but you notice some of the pictures just look like cartoonish almost. Then a change up-I've seen it on YouTube but never personally, they jumped into “Sam” and for lack of a poetic description here: That sh!t was crazy! 
Who can keep up with those lyrics? (It's faster than R.E.M.'s "It's the end of the world as we know it", a song I have karaoked successfully without lyrics.. ) I tried and failed and for a dude with no voice I was getting it in. I must have screamed out “Attacked By Monsters” 5 times-I really wish they'd play that once when I see them-I've said before I bet they can't play it live. After 'Sam' they went into “Monkey and the snake” before doing “Light”, another one I don't recall ever seeing live personally-so I got that one too. “Aurora Borealis” was the yin to the yang of “Light”, a twangy, instrumental tune that makes you close your eyes and differentiate each instruments sound, switch back and forth from bass to guitar. Amazing. And if it couldn't get better-”Backwater” smacks everyone in the face. There's a light mosh behind me as I get bumped into every now and then. They got into “Lake of fire” fairly quickly after that, where when Curt was slowly strumming I said “Lake of fire already?” and they rocked it with that one-the extended version. Clocked at 6 minutes with the noise fest jam type ending of the song they always do. Shandon Sahm is the real deal too-I noticed it during lake of fire that he was fitting in just fine. With his cool Devo tee shirt on. After that they said goodnight and went off stage.
they neared the end of the tearing down the house with this song, the Sahm starts kicking his drum set around, and I thought that was so fucking awesome I started screaming “yea!!” and he stacked up his drum set in the middle of the stage and walked off as Curt Kirkwood was at the amp.. slowing turning it down....and down...and down...until the noise was gone and the only sound left was roars from the crowd and a “Thanks a lot, goodnight”.
What's really pissing me off is having to sit in this crappy spot for this opening act I've never heard of- “Whispertown 2000”. I was getting antsy, felt like screaming “lets go already” and here they are setting up there equipment at 9:02, do they realize it's a Tuesday night? But then came out these two hot chicks, one holding an acoustic guitar (which in my book makes a girl like, extra hot) and assuming the role of lead vocals. They played they're first song and I noticed the end of the song the drummer was playing a harmonica as well to add a little folk sort of feel. And the song wasn't bad, I was nodding a bit. They had a weird looking bass player, and the other hot chick who wasn't the lead vocalist was using that jingle-jangle thing that have the mini cymbals on them. I'm not going to look it up-you know what I mean. But when it came time for the third song she picked up a telecaster and added some effects to the bluegrass feel. All of a sudden it went from folk sounds to loud noise in a flip of the coin. Next song, the drummer gets up and switches spots with the chick just playing the telecaster, so now she's on drums and the drummer is on electric guitar and the lead singer has put her acoustic down for a few songs. The drummer is kicking ass on guitar on this first song he's playing on, and the drums haven't skipped a beat (no pun intended) with the chick drumming. Then everyone returns to their spots, a little tuning up and then I see the bass player pull his strap up really high and then he takes it and hands it to the drummer-now the drummer is playing bass and the bass player is on drums. Even if the music sucked, the interchangeable musicians was really cool. And they're weren't half bad. I thought they were kind of groovy if that word is still allowed to be used. I would definitely recommend checking them out @ Myspace.com/Whispertown2000
They came out kicking ass man. There was a drum set up in front of Kim Deal for the first song and they kicked it off with “Hoverin'”, a song by The Amps-another past side project of Kim's, they released one album called “Pacer”(It's being communicated to me that the song was actually recorded by the Breeders as a B-Side for Divine Hammer). After that song she moved the drum away and pick up her guitar, and there were smiles all around. You love to see a band enjoying themselves and not just punching the time card so to speak. They rocked through a couple more songs before getting into a few crowd favorites. “Huffer” off they're previous record Title TK was when I turned around and noticed the room had filled out and heads were nodding everywhere. And every time I looked up I saw pot smoke in the air-it wasn't me this time. Then “Divine Hammer”, a great song altogether. The Breeders have three guitarists so the abrasive, noisy intertwined melodies were freaking awesome-they were in top form. And just as everyone's rocking, you see Kim going to the effect mic set up on her mic stand and start breathing-you know what's coming. The baseline drops, drums kick in and here we go...........
CANNONBALL! What half the people in the crowd came to see. Pandemonium breaks out in there, good times all around. That was definitely the bong in this reggae song of a show and we're only half way through. They played some songs off “Pod”, including 'Happiness is a warm gun'. I love that song. They encored about five times seriously. They went off first at 11:14, and came back on right away. Now we have people in the back of the crowd chanting for “Gigantic”, a Pixies song written by Kim Deal that they have done live before-but I doubt they wanted to get out of Breeders form-and good for them. On the last encore, Kim
actually sat and played drums while the drummer played keyboard, and not your old mans keyboard. This thing was run through effects pedals and sounded nuts. They overall show sounded nuts, it was nuts. They went with the loud, quiet, loud format with the way they set their songs. Here's a soft one, here's a hard one-here's everything at once. The Deal twins and the Breeders proving yet again that all the good bands just fly under the radar. What a show. Loud, abrasive, sweet, soft and grinding guitars. Can't ask for anything more. I'll be wearing my tee shirt tomorrow proudly.
to date the best place in the city I've been to for seeing a rock concert. The first opener is different from last night, as tonight we will be hearing a band called “Dynasty Electric” along with Retribution Gospel Choir and the almighty Meat Puppets. Last night I got there early and TK Webb and the Visions went on at 8:30, so for tonight I caught the 8:30 ferry into the city and figure for once in my life I'll be the guy who only shows up for the headliner, like the rest of those people- I mean come on now I've had to go to my actual job before and morning after both these shows-I'm a little tired. So I had planned to miss “Dynasty Electric”.
for me to enjoy them. It was a really interesting cool sound. Kind of electronica but when the guitar player all of a sudden pulled out a saxophone and started whaling on it the crowd if it wasn't already was won over. And DeVeau was definitely hot. She was all over the stage. She stood on the table that the amps where on if front of me and literally it was wild man. My face to face with a vagina in the tightest pants ever. I heard Ted is the one who got her in on this gig. A freaking Theremin, now there's something I haven't seen live before or even heard of before. Could have sworn they played Shocking Blue's "Venus" before they went off. Good set.
city-I'm from the fucking desert man” and I said how I'd never experienced life like, living outside of the 5 boroughs and he's like “Yea like I can't even imagine it. So much goin on all the time. It's like the opposite for me." Someone had mentioned that they saw a picture of him hanging out with the dudes from Ween from this afternoon when the Pups played an afternoon show in Philly before tonights show. He's like "Wait a minute-from like this afternoon? they're on the internet already? then says "that's crazy man the world went and got itself in a hurry”- and did the funny voice as he continued quoting Brooks from 'Shawshank Redemption'. Then of course some guy gets out of a cab, another fan and starts saying stuff like “man Cris I'm so glad to see that you're all better and stuff. And he also mentioned how he's a lawyer and he was looking into Cris's case when he went to jail and didn't take it or something. Not for nothing, we're out here having fun-does the first thing out of everyone's mouth have to try and remind the guy of a part of his life that's behind him. Funny story though, Cris says “When I was sitting in prison a friend of mine, this girl, had like a shitload of coffee mugs made up that said 'FREE CRIS' on them. She was trying to raise money-I mean, I know your hearts in the right place and everything but I don't exactly think the feds are saying wow look at these great cups, open the gates.” After that the merch clerk, same as last night, very nice guy(name's Dennis, does WAY more than sell tee shirts); comes over with someone and says “Cris this guy is a huge fan, and one of NY's Finest.” Then the laywer dude is like “wow man , you could have been of use a few years ago” and then Cris's eye's widen as he says “Yea you could say that again”. Then Cris's phone rings and he picks it up but doesn't leave the circle like so I say to the dude next to me who just got his CD autographed(and help with getting me another signed ticket stub with his sharpie), I'm like “Can you believe we're standing on the street having discussion with Cris fucking Kirkwood?”and I said it as if I didn't meet him in December which I did, because I didn't want this dude thinking that he wasn't exclusive-he was loving it. The crowd disbands leaving just me and Cris and I didn't want to keep him any longer so I said “ight man, I'm gonna catch you in there-rock on” and he's like “Yea I gotta head in anyway, I have to say hi to Ted's mom” then he surprises me. Cris says as he puts his hand out of a shake “yea man see you inside-it's Jay right?” and I was like “Yea it's Jay like the letter” and then we both headed inside. He knows my name. Great stuff.
to everyone around me saying things like “Wow this is so fucking cool” or “I hope they play Attacked by Monsters”. They hit the stage at 12:01 AM; after midnight, now I feel like I'm at an actual rock concert. The Grateful Dead used to start show's at midnight and play til 8AM, damn do I wish that would be the case tonight. Bands don't do things like that anymore, but in reality they rocked harder then they did the night before. Last night almost seems like a test drive compared to tonight, being they played a similar set of songs with a few exceptions. The drift off solo's during songs were absolutely epic. The version of “Up on the Sun”(I clocked that version at 13 minutes at least) with Alan Sparhawk again coming out to play it with them and they also covered a song that, to be honest was so filled with heavy riffing feedback driven guitars that I have the slightest clue what it was. Eric Pollard, the drummer from RGC sang on Plateau with them, but only did the chorus parts-sort of like singing harmony. When the RGC boys headed off stage I tapped Eric's shoulder and said to him “man, welcome to the greatest day of your life!”. It had to be an experience for them, not only touring but sharing a stage with the brothers Meat. “Aura Borialis” was great, I love that damn song man. They played it last night as well, I'm not sure if I had it down Cris's vocals on “Station” (Curt makes him sing that one) were better sounding then last night, I think they added more monitors in his vocals because the harmonies were different sounding also. And I gotta tell you I can't get that song “Rotten Shame” out of my head, it sounds like a throwback Puppets song when it's on the latest record. Then the fastest, hardest version of Lake of Fire to date-Curt always fools the crowd like-he starts this really sweet melodic couple of chords and you're trying to figure what song its going to be then out of no where it's Lake of Fire. Meat Puppets show's are indescribable so pardon me if begin to lack adjectives after these two crazy nights. They ran off stage after that(with me getting the sole hand shake from Cris on the way off stage (I'm telling you we are total BFF now) and everyone was wondering if they were coming back out-everyone turning to me asking me if they came out for an encore last night and the answer was no they didn't-but last night they played Backwater and now they're off stage without playing it. Don't worry, here they come after about 10 minutes get up on stage and play “Backwater” like a millisecond slower version. The rhythm section was slower pace but Curt was going full force. Absolutely just played the shit out of that Strat to end they officially went off stage at 1:35AM. Unbelievable, the Meat Puppets once again fail to disappoint.
