the motivation for this outing – this band has twice been the “best show ever” that I missed and Rockboy saw – they definitely knew how to work a crowd though I found the mix of psychobilly and exhortations to chant “Hell Yeah!” disconcerting (it’s the name of their album – but still – I attributed their lack of cultural consistency to being from Denmark) – the lead singer, Patricia Day, has the most gorgeous honey-rich speaking voice I have ever heard and wooed the crowd with winning grins and a tight black dress – she also played a fat upright bass and regularly stuck a fat little tongue out of her mouth at the crowd – she paused midway through the show and yelled at a guy in the crowd, “Can you please stop choking him!?” and proceeded to fully berate him, telling him to cool his hormones, it was very exciting and set the audience to cheering – the other highlight of the band is the guitarist (and husband) and sometime bass guitarist/vocalist as well, Nekroman, who also plays with The Nekromantix – it seemed he must have emerged from the womb playing psychobilly music but I found the tattoos of vegetables on his neck distracting – their sound is great: although the instrumentation tended toward straightforward psychobilly, the songs were distinctively more melodic and gothic-lite than typical – a sound similar to Tiger Army’s but I might think that because they share a label – they also did a ska song that was particularly pleasing to me (they have three, says Patricia) – although they put on a good show (though bringing drunk attention-seeking girls on stage was a mistake) their sound was quite off to the point that her voice was muffled and the overall sound was scratchy – Rockboy felt that they were rushing through songs and had lost that raw passion that new bands have

a Chronicle-recommended show despite distinctly being non-headliners and they were great, band centers around the wailing tiny female (almost a la Ole Grand Party but with less drama) with shaggy brown hair who was simultaneously playing lead guitar, excellent steamrolling hard rock riffs with plenty of rollick and groove to boot – the songs I liked less slowed down and focused on her voice

I still don’t like this band – annoying pop punk with heavy new wave influences – Elvis Costello does not belong on the punk platter – it’s not that they’re poor musicians or lacking in professionalism or passion – and when they spoke with their little accents and used words like “geezer” without irony I almost really liked them

the high quality of their sound was immediately apparent – rich and full despite it being an acoustic show, I take note of them because of the distinctive voice but that actually became annoying – seemed contrived – he does have a good voice but could change up on its nasally execution every now and then, very attractive band – appear serious and smart, did a short set of only three songs but with a wide range of sounds from psychy indie rock to hoppy dance hit “Something Is Not Right With Me” in which the drummer continued to play drums with his left hand while shaking the shaker with his right hand¦ which was terribly impressive to me

Despite ticket prices coming down across the board, Madonna is still selling out shows with the top ticket price at $350. Who has that kind of money to spend?

It’s a rhetorical question. Don’t answer.

Madonna makes a convincing case for forking over the money, from the elaborate dance routines, to an enormous set of movable parts that extended half way across the arena, to Madonna herself. She continues to reinvent her old material, turning Human Nature into a grunge rocker (complete with a Britney Spears cameo) and Rain into a mash-up with the Eurythmics’ Here Comes the Rain Again. Madonna looks unbelievably hot and muscular and her voice sounded great. She opened the show with Candy Shop and a stunning dance routine and then set out across the long catwalk to a secondary stage set up in the round dead center of the arena floor for Beat Goes On.

Everything moved. The screens pushed back, raised up and pulled forward. Floors dropped below the stage and raised up in the air. Slender half-sized screens, pushed by Madonna’s troupe of back-up dancers, flashed images of Justin Timberlake and other Hard Candy contributors during various songs. It was total overstimulation and to die for.

The last Madonna show I forked over my life savings for was Reinvention which was a good choice because despite promoting a not-so-great album (American Life) the show itself was a greatest hits set and it was spectacular. It was simply stunning, overwhelming and such a completely outrageous display and I loved every second of it. I expected every moment of the Sticky and Sweet Tour to be the same.

I love Madonna’s new album Hard Candy and that alone made it worth heading down to Boston to see the Sticky and Sweet Tour, even if the ticket price made me gag. The show was heavy on tracks from the new album, but Madonna generously added in some of her best hits including a couple of favorites of mine Human Nature and Ray of Light.

The show was divided into four segments, thematic breaks if you will though the average person probably doesn’t obssess over the difference between the Gypsy segment and the Pimp segment. But I guess if you’re an artist, it helps to keep the creative flow organized. Much of this show was a mash-up of various components from the album and samples from other artists. Vogue featured the numerous strains of ticking clock from 4 Minutes. Like a Prayer borrowed from Felix’s dance track “Don’t You Want Me” (and frankly was one of the highlights of the night.) Into the Groove included an entire interlude dance routine on jump ropes and another Madonna hit Jump.

Borderline went from ballad to a straight rock song giving it an almost Natasha Bedingfield vibe. During She’s Not Me, Madonna confronts her own ghosts, four dancers dressed in Madonna costumes and blonde wigs from various music videos, including the bride from Like a Prayer. (Okay, honestly, the way I just described it doesn’t do the scene justice – it was exquisitely choreographed.) Before Hung Up, Madonna screamed at the crowd “I hope you registered to vote” and then claimed she wasn’t allowed to make political statements before telling us to “Vote for Obama.” She also led the crowd in a sing-a-long of American Life after seeing a handful of guys hold up signs in the audience. The crowd itself was pretty weak, and Madonna made a comment about it, and then thankfully cranked up the energy level in spite of the lackluster response she was getting.

The sound in the Garden tonight sucked but it was more noticeable on some songs than others (I couldn’t figure out why.) Spanish Lesson actually benefited because the lyrics were completely drowned out by the mix. During Heartbeat, it was almost painful to listen to and then one song later, Borderline, you wouldn’t have noticed any problem.

It’s well known that Madonna likes it warm for her vocal chords and having sweat through the Garden during other shows, I knew what to expect. One, jungle-like temperatures. Two, a long wait past the posted start time. Three, a lot of drunk, screaming fans every time the house music swells up and down even when there is no indication the show is about to start. Madonna had a DJ play a thirty-minute set around the time the show was supposed to start, but it was still another hour after that before she took the stage. She also apparently has numerous oddball demands on her hotel space and of the venue itself, but when you bring along 250 staff, crew, dancers and musicians, I guess any amount of accommodation and travel plans is an organizational nightmare. How taxing is it to get her extra bottles of Kabbalah water, really?

It’s a rhetorical question. Don’t answer.

Madonna setlist
Intro/Candy Shop
Beat Goes On
Human Nature
Vogue
Die Another Day interlude
Into the Groove/Jump
Heartbeat
Borderline
She’s Not Me
Music
Rain/Here Comes the Rain Again mash-up
Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You
Spanish Lesson
Miles Away
La Isla Bonita/Lela Pala Tute
Doli Doli interlude
You Must Love Me
Get Stupid interlude
4 Minutes
Like a Prayer
Ray of Light
American Life sing-a-long
Hung Up
Give It 2 Me

80s Texas country cool lead singer (suit, gum-chomping, Elvis sneer, and sunglasses indoors) ended every song with a gimmicky Elvis-like thank you – there\”s no doubt that they\”re good at what they do but also true that 1000s have already done what they do – wide range of country, rock and pop – distinctly heard the influence of Roy Orbison, The Traveling Wilburys and Tom Petty (but this would be as deep as I delve into country)

the Chronicle was correct to classify this band within the cream of Austin – they are infectious plus interesting enough to be enduring – the lead singer is inexpressibly darling and delicious, in his dark elfish-ness with a T Rex voice and mischievous knowing smiles – with his voice and a competent band, every audience I\”ve seen has been unable to not dance – which was unfortunate in the case of this crowd: the drunk college artistes stumbling around in their European knee-length jean shorts and vintage cowboy shirts were amusing but the thought of the middle-aged couple grinding in New Age slow motion with their general total lack of sexiness and 80s perms still puts me in an uncomfortable place between admiration for out-there sex and personal aversion

I was silly excited to see this show – I only discovered him in the last year or so but love his work with The Modern Lovers AND his solo career – of course the post-punkness of The Modern Lovers is appealing to me but there is generally something very appealing to me about his voice and his song constructions – so he turned out to be a bit of a wack job with perpetually turned-up eyebrows in a seemingly contrived expression of innocence and goofiness that I suspect masks a deep dislike for humankind and a vicious little ego – but maybe being an odd genius results in such behaviors and feelings – the real surprise to me is that the man is a guitar virtuoso, playing songs riddled with jazz and Latin influences and then handling both the bass and lead progression in a song – he would end each song with a spin of his guitar – in my theoretical version of his life, he was the sort who got bored so easily and quickly that he had to constantly move on to new things or be suffocated, so he was a punk and then went into a prolific career as a singer/songwriter and then moved out of the US and became infused with new sounds and learned to speak French and Spanish – he sang several songs in Spanish and midway through the show got into the habit of re-singing the song he just sang, either a new version of the intro or the entire song in a different language, I found this presumptuous and pretentious and wasn\”t sure if he was trying to insult the crowd or really saw value in resigning the same songs – oh! oh! the most important part for understanding my impressions of this show: $15 was charged for him alone without the standard two opening bands, he started at 9pm, he insisted on no air-conditioning at the show, it is still in the 90s in Austin, therefore eccentric or pretentious – he had something of the Mountain Goats about him but his songs aren\”t as quirky or deep but rather more childlike and silly – this may have been a reflection of his poorly crafted set list for the show, at least insofar as the songs I like by him – lastly and most importantly, I figured out that my affinity for Jonathan Richman is a result of the incongruity of his post-punk voice overlaying infectious little Latin-flavored melodies