Live Review: Florence and the Machine at the Greek

Live Review: Florence and the Machine at the Greek

Florence and the Machine review: Roaring: Aidin Vaziri | It's easy to see why Welch connects with so many people. For one thing, in an age where AutoTune-enhanced vocals seem to dominate the charts, she can really wail. Even though her songs tend to start out timidly, with some polite plucking of the harp and a flourish of drums, they inevitably end with the singer opening her paint-peeling pipes full blast. In the band's best moments - the anthemic "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)," the deceptively tender "Cosmic Love" - she was part Goth siren, part soul vixen. Imagine the 6-foot-tall love child of Nick Cave and Alison Goldfrapp wagging around in head-to-toe Gucci while bellowing to the moon. Even though a new album is in the works, the set focused almost exclusively on the songs from "Lungs," which were written after a bad breakup with boyfriend Stuart Hammond (they ended up getting back together). Despite the celebratory tone of the night, each one concealed a world of violence and hurt. "No kiss, no gentle word could wake me from this slumber," she sang in "Blinding." "Until I realize that it was you who held me under." Read more.

Pop Quiz: Jason Isbell

Pop Quiz: Jason Isbell

Aidin Vaziri | Since former Drive-By Truckers guitarist Jason Isbell set off on a solo career five years ago, he has been logging thousands of miles on the road and hanging out with all kinds of characters. Many of them appear on his third album, "Here We Rest," which he recorded with 400 Unit, a band he picked up along the way. Isbell settled down long enough at his home near Muscle Shoals, Ala., to knock out the record last year, but for the most part he's been living out of a van.


Jason Isbell
Q: A couple of years ago your van was cleaned out in San Francisco. Your drummer also quit here. What bad thing do you think will happen this time?
A: That was just a terrible day. We've always had a great time in San Francisco. We'll probably be hung over. That will be the only bad thing that will happen.
Q: How much whiskey do you go through on an average day?
A: I'm on my second one right now. But I'm drinking it in coffee, so it's a little more dignified.
Q: Why did you ask people to stop taping your shows?
A: It makes me mad when people are holding up their phones and videotaping. If someone wants to stare at their phone, they can do it at home. You're supposed to go to a show and get drunk and get laid. You don't get those things if you're sitting there worried about your stereo line connection.
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Beyond The Dirt: Mötley Crüe

Beyond The Dirt: Mötley Crüe

Mötley Crüe's Vince Neil reflects on 30-year run: Aidin Vaziri | The overdoses, breakups, fights, sex videos and frequent prison stays have only made Mötley Crüe stronger. This year, the eternally decadent Los Angeles hard rock band - featuring the original lineup of singer Vince Neil, bassist Nikki Sixx, guitarist Mick Mars and drummer Tommy Lee - celebrates its 30th anniversary with an arena tour with Poison and the New York Dolls. The show hits the Bill Graham Civic on Wednesday. Neil, who owns a home in Danville, looks back on the group's studio releases and marvels that he survived. "When people give us lifetime achievement awards and all that, I think, wow, we've been together 30 years," he says. "Not too many bands can do that." Read more.

Live Review: U2 at Oakland Coliseum

Live Review: U2 at Oakland Coliseum

U2 review: Soulful, impressive and worth the wait: Aidin Vaziri | It was massive. It was relentless. And, above all else, it was heartbreaking. But enough about the gnarly traffic jam outside Oakland's Overstock.com Coliseum on Tuesday, which turned a typically easy commute to the ballpark into a panic-laced three-hour ordeal dotted with beaming red lights and a robust chorus of car horns. The real action took place inside the stadium, where nearly 70,000 fans slowly filtered into their seats to finally catch a glimpse of U2's big-budget 360° world tour, rescheduled from last year after the group's front man, Bono, injured his back during rehearsals. The singer, wearing his ever-present sunglasses in the middle of the evening, made up for the nightmare commute with a little flattery and a lot of passion. Read more.

Review: Vetiver, 'The Errant Charm'

Review: Vetiver, 'The Errant Charm'

Review: Vetiver, 'The Errant Charm': Aidin Vaziri | Andy Cabic, the singer-songwriter and driving force behind Vetiver, gave away the game a few albums back. The San Francisco band's "Thing of the Past" offered reverent covers of early '70s folk-rock oddities by Townes Van Zandt, Garland Jeffreys and Norman Greenbaum. But by revealing his influences, Cabic also revealed his deep love for the kind of music he makes - it's the kind of passion that drives otherwise rational men to spend huge swaths of their weekends fingering dusty old records in search of the perfect three-minute soundtrack to a summer daydream. On "The Errant Charm," the group's fifth studio album, he comes up with almost a dozen of his own. With the drifting acoustic riffs of "It's Beyond Me" and "Worse for Wear" giving way to the languid AM funk of "Can't You Tell" and the cosmic country swirl of "Wonder Why," the music remains light and airy even as the lyrics take occasional dark twists. "Short dollars, I'm spending my peace of mind/ When is this old world going to treat me kind," Cabic sings, his mellow voice belying the troubles that make him toss and turn at night. The unobstructed optimism of the group's 2009 indie hit "Everyday" still surfaces here, but it's in the expansive, slow-burning sorrow of album closers "Faint Praise" and "Soft Glass" that Cabic earns a place alongside his obscure heroes.

Pop Quiz: Jackson Browne

Pop Quiz: Jackson Browne

Aidin Vaziri | It's not often you get the chance to catch Jackson Browne at an intimate venue like the Great American Music Hall. But that's where the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee will be on Friday, presenting a rare stateside show by the Cuban singer-songwriter Carlos Varela. Browne, 62, might sit in on a number or two, but the main reason for this small-club appearance is to introduce Varela, a well-known Latin music star who embodies many of his own political and poetic ideals, to new audiences. Speaking by phone from New York last week, Browne told us what makes him such a fan.


Jackson Browne
Q: What was it that made you want to throw your name behind him?
A: He's a brilliant singer and songwriter. He's not like anybody else. A lot of North Americans just think of Buena Vista Social Club when they think about Cuban music. But Carlos makes rock music. He's the one guy who sings out about what people feel in Cuban. He's from a generation that's really impatient, that wants something to happen, something to change. He's the voice of Cuban youth.
Q: How's your Spanish? Can you guys even talk to each other over the deli tray backstage?
A: I speak a little bit of Spanish. Cuban is really hard. He has to repeat himself all the time. I do make sure people are handy so if anyone is trying to communicate an ideal or subtlety we can do that.
Q: So you travel with an entourage of interpreters?
A: No, just friends. When I was staying at the Hotel Nacional, we were in my hotel room drinking rum and singing songs to each other. At a certain point, my room filled up with a whole cast of bilingual people. One of the people in the room translating our songs to each other was Benicio Del Toro.
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The Set List: U2's 360° World Tour

The Set List: U2's 360° World Tour

U2 going full circle with stadium show: Aidin Vaziri | Even for a band known for its grand gestures, U2's 360° world tour feels like a monumental undertaking. Forget the oversize white flags and malfunctioning neon lemons of the past, this time the action takes place in "The Claw" - a 150-foot circular stage featuring a massive exostructure that takes four days to build, weighs 400 tons and requires 48 semitrucks to haul between cities. According to Live Nation Entertainment, it is not only the most expensive tour of all time, it is also the highest grossing. Almost a year after it was postponed because of front man Bono's emergency back surgery, the in-the-round stadium show will finally roll in to the Overstock.com Coliseum in Oakland on Tuesday. In anticipation of its arrival, we shuffled through a pile of recent set lists and put together a fairly comprehensive preview of what fans can expect to hear during the 2 1/2-hour concert. (Spoiler alert: They're not playing "Mofo.") Read more.

Review: Diego Garcia, 'Laura'

Review: Diego Garcia, 'Laura'

Review: Diego Garcia, 'Laura': Aidin Vaziri | Diego Garcia, the man Spin magazine once described as the Julio Iglesias of indie rock, was nearly famous with his New York band Elefant. But their sleek, unabashedly romantic take on the Strokes' sound never found the audience it deserved. On his first solo release, the impossibly handsome singer, born to Argentine parents in Detroit, finds a more suitable setting for his brooding songs. Drawing on his Latin background, the album is resplendent in fluttering Spanish guitars and dramatic strings. Garcia, who plays Thursday at Hotel Utah, goes into full crooner mode on tracks such as "You Were Never There" and "All Eyes on You," tracing the romantic ups and downs that led to his marriage with the record's namesake, Laura. They live in a lush apartment on the Upper East Side with a baby girl now, but you would never tell from the heartbroken lyrics that fill the album. On "Nothing to Hide," Garcia is practically on his knees when he belts out the chorus, "In my heart/ I got nothing to hide." Despite the persistent risk of schmaltz (he straddles the line nimbly), "Laura" makes a lovely companion piece to Elefant's lost classic, "Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid." It feeds off the same insecurities and inspiration, but now under the magnifying glass that comes with age.