Dare Olonoh

I drove down to IU with some buddies on Saturday to see the Lupe show.  I’ve seen Lupe four of five times live now and it’s easily the most energy I’ve ever seen him have.  It was a good enviornment for a show… 5,000 college students, most of whom had been drunk since ten in the morning from their first tailgate of the season.

Lupe also previewed a couple of tracks from his new album coming out at the end of ‘09 (seems a little premature huh?).  The video is below.

I’ve been a big fan of Maroon 5 since before they blew up and became super popular.  And I remember around that “pre-pop stars” phase about four or five years ago, just missing out on getting to see them live in a small venue that only held a couple of hundred people… it was a HUGE letdown and I’ll probably never get over it.  And after seeing them live for the first time last Thursday in a huge outdoor venue with thousands of other people, I’m even more disappointed about that missed opportunity years ago!!!

Their set was great.  Adam Levine’s voice was just as good live as it is recorded, so much so that I heard a couple of people accuse him of lip singing, which was laughable.  And the lighting of their set was dope as hell, too.  It seemed like every song had the perfect color combination to go along with the mood of the song.  But a huge complaint I have is the fact that their set went on before the Counting Crows so it was still light outside when they started playing, which takes away from some of the experience.  Also, Maroon 5 was such a live and hype band that the Counting Crows’ subdued set was extremely anti-climactic.

One of the biggest highlights of the night for me was Maroon 5’s cover of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game.”