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Melbourne-based, American ex-pat musician, Michael Beach, played his debut album, Blood Courses, in its entirety, to a crowd of friends and strangers at Grant and Green in San Francisco on Sunday night.

Michael Beach is the lead singer and guitarist of the Electric Jellyfish and this is his first solo effort. The Jellies are on their 2nd USA tour and I saw them at Hemlock in San Francisco and Luigi’s Pizza in Sacramento—both amazing shows. The band has really come into their own since their last tour.

Blood Courses is described as “a haunting exploration of life, death, beauty, and darkness that unfolds as much as the listener allows it.” The album cover is an unfinished painting by my friend Bridget O’Brien and the website was designed by yours truly.

The full album is available for listing at michaelbeach.org/listen or you can check out my favorite single below:

Outside Lands is a big, 3-day music festival in Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco. I caved and bought a ticket for Friday night in spite of the following reasons. My reasons were only reaffirmed when I was there and I’m thankful I didn’t shell out the money for the full 3 days.

1. Long lines for food
2. Long lines to get an alcohol bracelet
3. Long lines to get alcohol
4. Long lines to pee
5. Burn out and exhaustion
6. $$$ Tickets
7. VIP Areas
8. Half-assed fans
9. Having to pick between 2 good bands
10. Corporate sponsorships

Don’t get me wrong; I liked the line-up and I liked all the performances. Radiohead put on a fantastic show even if I only could watch them on the screen. And #9 wasn’t a problem because no one else played at the same time as the headliner. But I still feel like I paid $100 to go to a crowded Radiohead show.

Last night I saw my friend’s band, Balmorhea, play at Cafe du Nord. I was surprised to find that they were the opening act because in Austin—their home town—they’ve played sold out shows at much larger venues. They had just as many, if not more, viewers than the acts that followed—or perhaps they just knew more people in San Francisco.

Their instruments consist of acoustic/electric guitar, stand-up bass, fiddle, (something that looks like a larger fiddle—not sure what instrument it is), keyboard, melodian, and drums, which my friend plays. The melodies are entrancing and the listener is never quite sure what to expect next. With no vocals or repeating chorus, the songs don’t have the predictable repetition that prevails in most pop songs. Each song feels like you’re on a ship at sea waiting to see what weather Neptune is going to send you next.

You can still catch them in the western states in the next few weeks. Check out below for a sample, “San Solomon”

While waiting for the Yeah yeah yeahs to take the stage at the Fillmore last night, Verizon wireless had a screen projected on the side of the auditorium displaying text messages sent by people in the venue to a special address. “I love this band!!!!!!,” “I love their sound :),” “Hi mom!” and other inane, boring texts scrolled up the screen.

Rather pissed off by the blatant marketing scheme and curious to see if they did their QA, I decided to send the text, “Fuck Verizon,” to the number and see if it would make its way to the screen. The band came on, I forgot about the text, and never noticed if it showed or not.

This morning I got a text:

Congrats! You won for texting to the screen at the Fillmore, courtesy of Verizon Wireless. Contact Chris at 415-555-5555 to claim your prize!

I called Chris and he told me I won two tickets to any show of my choice at the Filmore. “You’re eating your words now,” he told me. But I wasn’t; I still have the same opinion of Verizon, despite the free tickets. Curious to see if he had the same opinion, I asked, “Did I win randomly or because of what I wrote?” It was random.

So I’m going to see Bebel Gilberto on September 9th courtesy of Verizon Wireless.

I made this logo and it turns out it’s an interesting juxtaposition of the minor pagan  holidays of St. Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s day. After making it, I realized it would make for a good color blind test since people who can’t distinguish between red and green would be confused here. If you’re color blind, you’ll only see St. Paddy’s day; if you’re not, you’ll see both.

Madeleine Peyroux performed last night at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa. I know, weird location, right? It’s a drive but I wanted to be sure I saw her since I missed her when she was in Oakland a few months ago.

She and her band put on an excellent show. At the medium-sized venue almost any seat is a good seat.

To me, she has always been somewhat of an enigmatic figure. I heard Careless Love one morning on KFOG while I was still half asleep and immediately fell in love. That day I searched online for “Madeline Peru” to find out more about her. Last night marked the first time I’ve ever actually seen her perform, since she’s not a pop diva and all over the media.

A big part of a show’s enjoyment is as much the spectators as it is the performers, and last night, the spectators put on a poor performance. It was all middle-aged north bay dandies continuing their Valentine’s day mushiness. At one point somebody yelled to turn the bass down because they couldn’t hear her, to which she responded, “Really? I was being loud.” My roommate and I played a game to see who could find a non-white person first; it took at least 5 minutes.

Madeleine has no say in who her audience is, so she held up her end of the bargain and put on a stellar show.

Below is an incomplete set list of the songs I remember her singing:

• Blue Alert
• Dance Me to the End of Love
• Don’t Wait Too Long
• Carless Love
• Everybody’s Talkin’
• (Looking for) the Heart of a Saturday Night
• Weary Blues
• You’re Going to Make Me Lonesome When You Go
• Half the Perfect World
• I’m Alright
• Smile
• J’ai Deux Amours

Last night I checked out three bluegrass bands at 12 galaxies as part of the San Francisco Bluegrasss and Old Time Music Festival. I saw the Spillit Quikkers, Belle Monroe & her Brewglass Boys, and Poor Man’s Whiskey. The show was early; 7:00 and by 8:30 they were clearing everybody out for a metal band.

I saw Peter Rowen, the star of the festival, last year, and he’s playing again this year.

So this post is a little late, I just wanted to make sure I logged this concert for my own good. Last Tuesday I saw Rob Curto’s Forró For All at the Elbo Room.

Forró is music from the north of Brazil a that includes an accordion and African beats. I didn’t understand the Portuguese but the music was great for dancing.

My brother called me up yesterday offering me a ticket to see the Rolling Stones at the Oakland Coliseum. I sat in the 9th row of regular seats, directly facing, but still quite far away from, the stage. I had never seen the Stones and probably wouldn’t have bought a ticket because I thought the geezers were overpriced, but I was proved wrong.

Van Morrison opened up and unfortunately did not play Moondance, despite there being an almost full moon. (Correction: Apparently they did play it but I missed it; I missed the first couple of songs.)

The Rolling Stones and gang rocked the crowd with nothing but classics. I carefully recorded the set list for posterity:

• Jumpin’ Jack Flash
• It’s Only Rock’n'Roll
• Let’s Spend the Night Together
• She Was Hot
• Dead Flowers
• Street of Love
• Bitch
• Midnight Rambler
• Tumblin’ Dice
• Got the Silver
• Connection
• Under My Thumb
• Just My Imagination (Running Away from Me)
• Start Me Up
• Honky Tonk Woman
• Sympathy for the Devil
• Paint It Black
• Brown Sugar
• (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

I was amazed at how much energy McJagger has on stage and how he’s 65 and still a sex symbol; women were throwing their braziers at him and he lifted up his shirt to show them washboard stomach.

The stage decorations were the most I’ve seen at any concert before. I guess if you can’t really see the band, you’d better get to see some fireworks or something. For a couple of songs, a small part of the stage rolled down the catwalk, through the floor seats, to right in front of where I was sitting. They were close enough to where I didn’t have to watch them on the monitor.

The Rolling Stones are legends and still know how to entertain even a crowd as big as the Oakland Coliseum.

Australian band, You Am I, played to a not-so-sold-out show at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco last night. They’re virtually unknown in the United States, unless you’re Australian or have visited Australia, but big in their homeland, so my one ex-pat Australian friend tells me.

Opening band, the Fleshies, was an easy act to follow, even for street musicians, even for a 3rd grade kazoo player. If they put as much energy into being good as they did making faces and rolling around on the floor, they might have gotten people other than their friends and other than You Am I fans to watch them play. They proceded to show their ignorance and lack of tact by saying, “We’re Men at Work. Get it? ‘Cause they’re Australian.” Not funny.

I must admit I’m not too familiar with their repertoire, but the show was still entertaining and front man Tim Rogers amped the crowd. The last two songs were ones I knew (most likely their biggest hits): Berlin Chair and Miss You like Sleep. (Berlin Chair actually inspired half of Silverchair’s name.) They also played a shortened version of Neil Young’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.

Moral of the Story: No matter how big you are, there’re still a lot of people who don’t know you so stay humble and try to win their hearts too.