A Chat by Steven Frith, Jeff Walker, and Danny Walker

Down to the final four and our contestants get to pick from the extensive list of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Top 50 Most Influential Rock and Roll Songs. Will we have an all men final 3 - or will Syesha send one of the boys packing?  No Paula drama this week, but still an eventful show, see what My Social Standards had to say about it all.

Jeff: ok, let's get rollin...
Jeff: so finally some songs we're all more familiar with
Steve: Familar songs was a nice change of pace.
Danny: for sure, expect when the life is sucked out of them by archiebot 3000
Steve: First of all, was it just my TV or was the background music really quiet
Steve: the vocals were fine but you could barely hear the rest
Jeff: didn't notice it specifically
Steve: oh ok
Jeff: maybe we just had the volume really loud
Steve: Really it's been more of the same though. Cook was solid, but not excellent like he had been a few weeks ago.
Danny: thought david cook was solid but forgetable
Jeff: yeah. hungry like the wolf was too karaoke. baba o'reilly is such a classic and an epic, but the minute and half isn't enough time
Steve: I didn't like Hungry like the wolf. Not a huge fan of the song anyway, but he didn't give me a reason to like it
Jeff: yeah, i don't think he felt confident - based on the interview - and it showed
Steve: I was expecting him to blow up this week too
Steve: So that disappointed me
Danny: felt like he put more interest and time into baba oriley and phoned in hungry like the wolf a bit
Jeff: for sure
Steve: Castro was gawd-awfulSteve: I felt that the only way Syesha had a chance was if Castro completely sucked and she was awesome and that MAY have happened
Danny: I thought besides the lyric f-up mr tambourine man was his best he's had
Steve: I still wouldn't be surprised to see him move on though
Jeff: yeah, jason has a lot of songs, and while i don't care for I Shot the Sheriff as a song, i agree with danny
Steve: But that's a pretty big f-up this late in the game...PLUS it's not a vocally challenging song
Jeff: but he never picks tough vocal songs
Steve: no he doesn't, but if you are going to go easy, you can't f - up.
Jeff: yeah, but his voice may have been the best. had bob dylan's tone, but his voice was pretty good
Steve: and he was HORRIBLE in his first song, I shot the sheriff...you can't do that to a song that Marley sang then covered by another great with Clapton
Jeff: yeah, and add nothing new while trying to look like Marley
Steve: I have a theory that I started to think last week
Jeff: what's that?
Steve: I think that Castro decided to get high before last week and thought to himself that it would be funny to push how bad he could be and move on...
Steve: last week, it was just not have a good week, this week he was like, okay, I'll just suck on one and forget the lyrics to another, laugh it off and see what happens...
Steve: he probably saw both Brooke and Archie get through with forgetting the lyrics, and thought it was his best chance
Jeff: don't know about your last point, unless he's getting paid to promote don't forget the lyrics
Steve: It's not a real theory, you're taking it too literal
Jeff: but i think the judges are so pissed at him, b/c he doesn't seem to care
Steve: he doesn't
Jeff: he always seems embarrassed
Steve: Syesha is up there crying and he is laughing when he should be getting kicked off the show
Jeff: i didn't care for the crying
Steve: Amy started crying right with her though and voted for her actually - her and Cook
Jeff: wow
Steve: I thought she was great in both songs
Jeff: i agree with randy that she messed up the Sam Cooke song
Danny: and the talking about the origin of the song and felt fake as all hell
Steve: I think she has the most star presence and talent of the group
Jeff: i get that syesha really felt the song, but yeah, it was too much
Steve: you are so cynical danny...u never believe what anyone says haha
Danny: I think she should remain in theater
Jeff: she seems well-suited for the stage
Steve: Yea, I'm not sure about her having a pop career, but I don't think so for anyone else either
Steve: Cook has been less then impressive for several weeks now
Danny: I think cook has the best chance with pop rock
Steve: Archie was actually good tonight I HATE to admit
Danny: I thought he sucked the life out of his songs
Danny: and anything else he touches
Steve: He could lip sync to your favorite song and you would think it was awful though
Jeff: i'm still annoyed that he and a lot of the other contestants all season seem to have no concept of music history
Jeff: archie picks elvis, then says that he didn't know the song
Steve: that I agree with completely
Jeff: like why even say that - you just look like an idiot and don't seem like you connect with the song as well
Steve: I did think about that too as they show them (apple product placement here) listening to the song
Jeff: yeah. and cook got crap for his covers, when apparently this was a norah jones version and it was never mentioned
Steve: the one he did today was? which song?
Jeff: Love Me Tender
Steve: How do you know all of this?
Jeff: that one i looked up
Danny: we were sitting here looking things up
Steve: ahhhh....were u doing that during Castro too to miss just how bad both of his performaces was and missed how good Syesha was
Danny: ummmmm castro's first was awful yes
Danny: but outside of the lyrics f-up the second was his best he's had, albeit not saying much
Jeff: didn't mind Syesha's first, but it was too much like two different songs - never flowed
Jeff: and Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" is one of the best songs ever and she tried doing too much with it. emotion is fine, but the runs and rearrangements destroyed it
Jeff: and what the hell was with Archie throwing in the "beautiful girl" to "Stand By Me"
Jeff: Sean Kingston already destroyed the song, why do further damage
Danny: like syesha doing a "tina turner" song which was originally CCR
Steve: Take the performance as is...the whole entertainment genre is someone copying someone else
Steve: very very little is original
Steve: Anyways this is getting really long, who's out...
Steve: bottom 2 as well
Jeff: Has got to be Castro and Syesha, right? even though Cook wasn't on his A-game
Danny: castro and syesha bottom two
Steve: Yeah, has to be
Steve: who goes?
Danny: castro
Jeff: however, Daughtry went home when there were only 4 left and one of his songs wasn't so good, so who knows
Steve: I think Cook has too much of a following
Steve: this has turned into a total popularity contest
Jeff: that's what it pretty much always is
Steve: I am 50/50 on who I think goes
Jeff: i don't know if syesha has the fan base, but can castro really stay?!
Steve: Exactly
Steve: Castro deserves to go and has so for several weeks now, but he continues to find a way to keep staying. Syesha has been good for several weeks now but is always in the bottom group.
Jeff: i'm going castro is gone
Steve: I think I'll lean that way too having hope that America might actually get it right, but only 51/49 believe so
Danny: jeff brings up a good point, back early in the season josiah's stand by me had more emotion than archie
Jeff: may not have been sung as well, but was more heartfelt
Steve: I hadn't started watching yet
Jeff: yeah, he should've made it to the top 24 and was cut
Jeff: any idea what next week's theme is?
Steve: No theme, 3 songs each, contestant choice, judge choice, and producer choice
Jeff: ah, yeah
Steve: are they new songs or one's they've already done?
Jeff: i think they're new - maybe one isn't - contestant choice
Steve: oh ok
Jeff: final two week they definitely sing a repeat song
Steve: gotcha, that's lame - we already have heard that
Jeff: but hopefully castro will be at home stoned the hell out
Steve: as a kite

Reviewed by Steven Frith

Date: 4/18/2008 (Other Dates)
Venue: Arco Arena, Sacramento

My Rap Concert Standard - **New Standard** Kanye West

Kanye’s creativity, ego, music, pursuit of perfection and humor all have a part in making this one of the best performances I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending.

Headliner: Kanye West

Opening Sets: Lupe Fiasco, N.E.R.D., and Rihanna

Time of Whole Concert: about 5 hours

Ticket Prices if You Didn’t Buy From a Scalper (aka retail price): $39.50 – 72.50

Crowd: A surprisingly young crowd with a lot of high school kids. But there were plenty of adults though too, which was evident in the long beer/alcohol lines. I have to admit that I was surprised that the crowd was as racially balanced as it was. When going to a DMX concert some years ago, I was among the only white kids there, but no one would feel uncomfortable or in the minority at this show.

Review:

Opening Sets:
With all of the opening acts, the concert actually felt a bit like a radio show concert. Each act had about 30 minutes, and then there was about 15 minutes of setup time in between performances. The one thing that was nice was that the concert actually started on time. I got to the POS that is Arco Arena at about 7:15 (with the show scheduled to start at 7) and the music was already playing.

I have to tell you starting out that I wasn’t very interested in seeing any of the opening acts. I had heard of Lupe Fiasco, but couldn’t name any of his songs prior to the show. N.E.R.D. featuring Pharrell Williams has a couple songs I like, but I’ve never been able to get into the group too much. And Rihanna is actually a bit of a guilty pleasure as I really like a couple of her songs – but not enough where I would actually go to a concert just to see her.

Lupe Fiasco started things off, and his energy was contagious. I had never even heard of anything he was performing until his final two songs, yet I was very intent just watching how he took energy from the crowd and how the crowd took the energy back from him. Lupe squeezed as many songs as he could in his 30 minutes, and had Matthew Santos join him about halfway through to help him finish out his part of the show. I feel like Lupe’s performance was actually the second best performance of the night. When he played “Superstar” and “Daydreamin’” to close out his set, even I was getting involved. I might actually look at picking up his disc after this.

N.E.R.D. and Rihanna were somewhat disappointing in my eyes. N.E.R.D. went 2nd and had a lot of energy, but Pharell is rap’s version of Britney Spears. Not in the crazy, rehab kind of way, but in the studio magic making your voice sound better kind of way. I know the acoustics in Arco are horrible, but you could still tell that it just wasn’t quite right. “Lapdance,” “Rockstar,” and “She Wants to Move” all had people excited, but they just didn’t sound great. And may I go on a mini-rant asking why do some rappers have like 30 people on stage? Seriously, most of those guys weren’t doing anything and it was almost distracting. Also, why do some rappers (N.E.R.D. included) constantly TRY to involve the crowd? Don’t tell us what to do, we are paying to see you, if you put on a good show, we (as the crowd) will do what we can to show you we are having a good time anyway. Sorry, but it annoys me when someone keeps telling me to wave my hands, or say this or say that. Moving on…

Rihanna’s performance left a little to be desired. She didn’t do a bad job, but the crowd just didn’t seem connected. It may have been the 3 or so ballads she performed, but even when “Please Don’t Stop the Music,” “SOS,” “Umbrella” and “Shut Up and Drive” came on, the crowd just seemed marginally into it – which surprised me. The prop cigarette on one of her slower songs was unnecessary too.

Main Act:
Let me just start off by saying that sitting through the 3 hours of opening acts, the long setup time for Kanye’s stage, and all the breaths of second-hand, diluted weed smoke were more than worth it for this show. The sound effects before Kanye was even introduced set the stage for the entire show. Thunderous sounds of a rocket went from one end of the arena to the other, rocking the entire place as if an earthquake just hit. This began the journey that took the crowd through a spaceship crash on an unknown planet because as Kanye put it: “Earth has lost all of its creativity.”

The lights, video, smoke, and a moving stage was all Kanye had to work with for this 90 minute show of 19 songs. A tight script didn’t allow for a lot of veering off to conversations with the crowd or any free-styling, but this was a live action musical. There were no back-up dancers or singers to support him. The band wasn’t even on stage, as it was in an orchestra-type pit in the front of the stage. This show was all about Kanye and he didn’t disappoint. His energy was incredible and I caught myself wondering, not only how he is going to be able to do this for a long tour, but how he was going to finish the night. He was dripping sweat after about four songs and was running around the entire time.
I won’t go over the set list (although almost all of his hits are included), but as you can imagine, he gave a nice tribute to his recently passed mother. After “Hey Mama,” Kanye sat in reflection on the side of the stage as a Kanye-fied version of “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey played and took you to the beginning of the finale of the show. At the end, there was no encore, but he left so much on the stage, that there was no need.

Some of Kanye’s known intricacies did come out in the show, and he was big enough to even poke fun at some of them. First of all, as part of the performance and wanting to “come home” he gave a short prayer (based on the story of the show) before “Jesus Walks.” As he talked to God, he promised a couple things, such as that he “would stop talking so much shit.” He also said, “God, if you get me off this planet, I’ll stop spazzing out at award shows. Just help me get home.” While I really liked the whole show, it was obvious that it was the 2nd show of the tour as there were some glitches.

There were a couple times that you could see Kanye the director, as he was telling people when to start the smoke when it should have been going already. During one song, there was a screen in his way, and n the flow of the rap he said, “get this shit out of my way.” He even apologized for mistakes at the end. Some probably didn’t think this was necessary and he shouldn’t have said anything, but I think it shows his pursuit of perfection and his frustration in giving us anything less.

Verdict: As if it isn’t clear enough already, I suggest finding any way to go to this concert. I know a lot of venues are sold out, but Stub Hub is the right route to take, because you don’t want to miss this. If you aren’t into the opening acts, Kanye’s show didn’t start until nearly 10:30, so you probably don’t have to be there at 7 if that’s the case.