Carrie and Keith Do MSG
Two of the world's largest crossover Country stars joined forces this winter for a massive arena tour that came through NYC this week. Former American Idol and legitimate breakout star Carrie Underwood opened the show for Keith Urban at a sold out MSG, both dazzling the crowd with song and spectacle. While Carrie's set was slightly less ambitious – a mere 4 costume changes and a fairly pedestrian light show to complement the surprisingly competent songs – Urban was the complete package. Even somebody who couldn't hum a single one of his songs would have been transfixed by the ultra-sharp, 50 foot HD backdrop and his dazzling charisma and energy. The highlight of the set might have been when he took it into the crowd mid-song, standing in the lower ring of seats with a mob of fans and camera phones all pointed at him. In a moment of pure generosity and awesomeness, he took the guitar he was playing off his shoulder, autographed it on the spot and handed it to a stunned, random fan. An amazing move to cap off an unexpectedly spectacular show.
Foals on the Rise
The best band from CMJ last year finally returned to New York this week from England to play a couple of shows. With a few more months now under their belt, the postpunk/math-rock quintet graduated from the Pianos day shows of only 4 months ago to a nearly sold out Bowery Ballroom on a snowy Tuesday night. This is quite an impressive feat, considering the Sub Pop signees have yet to even release an album in the states; even scattered MP3s were rare until a few weeks ago. They've combined a hypnotizing Minus the Bear-esque guitar sound with the more standard Brit-rock thing. The unique combo definitely works, creating an intricate, well executed sound. These fellas should be worth keeping an eye on going forward this year.
Kanye Brings Some Cred to the Grammys
There is rarely a shortage of Grammy backlash the week following, but despite filling out their quota for lame collaborations and awkward moments, the show turned out some genuinely awesome moments. Most memorable might be the surprise Daft Punk appearance. Not only did the electronic legends, making their television debut, appear from inside their pyramid to provide live backing beats for Kanye West's performance of Stronger, but the camera actually hovered behind the scenes to show what those two robots actually do up there. Turns out, it's not just a couple ipod shuffles with audio-out cords, but a futuristic green LCD touch screen with some sort of virtual drum machine controlling all the blips and beats. Pretty rad.
Photo: Random Musings
