As of Jun 2009, In The Aeroplane, Over UC will no longer be updating content. But, with an extensive archive including tons of  show reviews and videos, we hope the site can live on well past its year of coverage of Urbana-Champaign happenings. Thanks to everyone for support and readership of the site, and please enjoy some of our favorite concert reviews from the past year.

Thanks again,

Carlye

For more photos, a review and video, click the jump:

Woah.

If I were to indulge in my current state of oh-crap-school-night-overwhelmed-with-a-to-do-list mind, I would leave you with that. Woah. Because, truly, that’s the only word to describe the crazy, wet chaos that was Girl Talk’s show last night.

From the get-go, a packed-to-the-Gillis (heh heh) club was confusing, both to the regulars and the newcomers. For the few of us who spend at least twice as much time between the venue’s rainforesty painted walls than campus bars like other college kids, it was jarring to see so many people, so many unfamiliar faces, so many…stiletto heels. But, shoe wear cynicism aside, it was confusing for the first-timers, too. Between the off-hand overheard comments regarding toilets — “omg, I heard this was the only bathroom in the place?” — and other typical aspects of Canopy, some of the crowd knew what body-banging contact they were in for, while a bunch seemingly had no clue.

Which brings us back to the “woah”. Unlike the typical Girl Talk performance, this one was surprisingly tame, even though calmness usually doesn’t relate to a stage full of enough shirtless, sweaty men to pretend you’re in Cabo. Unlike the usual power struggle between everyone bumrushing the stage while those on it try to push their way to the front like a human version of a sliding quarter machine at a casino (since, you know, the whole “point” is to get as close to Greg Gillis as possible or whatever), Canopy stationed staff between the crowd and the stage, which worked well to keep the stage full but not overwhelmingly so.

One problem, though — the front row was absolutely stuck, crushed against a barricade with nowhere to go and no chance to move, even with repeated pleading to the staff standing between them and moving up, where they would be able to take a full breath. There didn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to who made it onstage and who didn’t — the best way seemed to be by getting pulled up from the corners, though a bevvy of girls seemed to think that flirting and huddling near security guards would prove more fruitful — but the scene between the stage’s edge and the audience was, well, not a pretty one, and quite chaotic in a dancing-carnage sort of way, to say the least.

The show was what Gillis sets out for it to be — fun. Crazy, toilet-paper gunned, confetti-sprinkled fun. And though some of his equipment may have died leading to an abrupt end of the set, the crowd made sure to get their money’s worth, whether that be face value, twice that, or whatever price named through the many Craigslist resales of tickets, proving that the hottest show in town was, well, just that.

Video:

(It’s short, but there’s only so many flailing limbs you can capture without getting dizzy. This is just a tiny glance into the night:)

For the original post, click here.

For more photos and video, click the jump:

Broken Social Scene:

Video:

Broken Social Scene performing “7/4 (Shoreline)” at Foellinger Auditorium on 10/19:

Live Vicariously:

Broken Social Scene’s Website

Broken Social Scene’s MySpace

For the original post, click here.

For more photos, reviews and videos from the festival, click the jump:

Wednesday: Elsinore, Decibully and Times New Viking

Thursday (Part One): Carl Hauck, Ryan Groff, Oxford Collapse and The Forms

Thursday (Part Two): Butterfly Assassins, Dark Meat and Dan Deacon

Friday: Sunset Stallion, Owen, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, Santa, Black Mountain and The Hood Internet

Saturday (Part One): Hathaways, The Living Blue, Jesse Sykes, Yo La Tengo and High Places

Saturday (Part Two): The M’s, Headlights and Asobi Seksu

For more photos, a review and video, click the jump:

Company of Thieves:

Video:

Company of Thieves performing “Under The Umbrella”:

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin:

Video:

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin performing “House Fire”

It’s a wonderful thing, when the Courtyard is full of people. Spirits are high, performances are better, and it’s easy to ignore that neon siding on the ceiling. And, for Company of Thieves and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’s show, the music overcame the venue, a feat that’s, well, not always attainable.

If there’s an efficient way to win over a crowd, COT by far hold the secret to it. With their rock tendencies and gifted frontwoman Genevieve — the way she belts out songs is downright stunning — they played to a crowd that, for the most part seemed to not know who them an hour before, though the long line at their merch table afterwards would have everyone think otherwise.

There’s something that’s more likeable about Company of Thieves than just their undeniably good music, though — they ooze genuineness. Unlike the rock bands comprised of twenty-somethings that throw on this hat and that shirt to “fit the part” and climb up the popularity ranks, Company of Thieves are natural, believable even, and both their talent and excited stage presence drive home the fact that this is what they do, and damn, do they love doing it.

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, plainly put, didn’t seem as physically jazzed to be there. But, considering there’s no way to get the crowd clapping to some songs about houses burning down and slow-paced tunes about relationships’ fall-outs, its less of a critique and more of a comment about their placement after a high-energy band. An interview with Phillip Dickey, a member of the band, reinforced their quietly expressed excitement, displayed through his adorable nerves throughout the video.

SSLYBY has a funny way of playing music that seems categorically like folky-rock-pop ballads, but somehow, when it starts, you feel a need to dance, more so to that than horrendous house music crap specifically designed to yield the same result. Always a pleasure live, the show culminated with my personal favorite, “Modern Mystery,” an interesting three minute-r that rounds out with a heavy guitar section and a chorus of vocal chanting, acting like tiny applause for how enjoyable the night was overall.

Live Vicariously:

Company of Thieves’ Website

Company of Thieves’ MySpace

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’s Website

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’s MySpace

For the original post, click here.

For more photos, video, a review and a download of the show, click the jump:

Jeff Tweedy:

Photos by: Donald Rasmussen

The big test of playing in Foellinger — especially with just guitars and especially, especially alone — is overcoming. Overcoming the seats, the dark upper level and the unbearable lecture memories embedded in those warm bodies staring back at you.

For Tweedy, of course, it’s never a problem.

Sitting in front of what seemed to be the entire extended family — his boys, slumping in the seats, his wife, attempting to go unnoticed, his more “mature” relatives, if you may, sniffing throughout the show’s first half — I noticed early on that there was already an odd sense of intimacy unlike most shows. But, not counting those who share his last name or the fact that I was half-mistakenly sitting in the second row for the performance’s entirety, the unspoken rapport between man and audience was apparent and, well, didn’t stay silent for long.

Let’s just put it this way — that crowd could not keep it in their pants for the man. Could not. Somewhere between “Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard” and Jeff’s self-deprecatingly sarcastic banter, the audience slowly erupted into a chorus of song-title shouts, ranging from typical to obscure to who the hell knows what, which resulted in a ton of hilarious commentary. Luckily, Tweedy edited down the options, choosing to pass on Pet Shop Boys (one of a handful of odd, balcony-screamed suggestions) and instead go with a cover of Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees”, performed during his memorable second encore at the front of the stage.

But, back to the actual show. It was Jeff Tweedy, live in concert, so it was obviously good — “Jesus, Etc.”, “Spiders (Kidsmoke)”, “I’m The Man Who Loves You” and a tip of the hat to Stephen Colbert were all included — though the most entertaining were the ones tied into the performance’s non-musical aspects, the best being his own son yelling out “Dad – ‘Hummingbird’!”

“Did my own son just yell out “Free Bird?” Tweedy confusedly mused, attempting the self-proclaimed difficult Wilco song and after goofing on the whistling and high notes, announcing that his child will have to work his way through college due to the mistake.

If you missed this one…well, you missed out. But, courtesy of Matt Fender‘s twitter and rhinowing’s posting, here’s a link to download the show:

Jeff Tweedy, 1/31 at Foellinger Auditorium <- – - (click to download)

01. One By One – 3:40
02. I’m Always In Love – 4:08
03. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart – 4:22
04. Muzzle of Bees – 5:41
05. Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard – 2:14
06. Radio King – 4:25
07. Wait Up – 4:51
08. Hummingbird – 4:23
09. Jesus, Etc. – 4:21
10. Everlasting Everything – 4:32
11. Airline to Heaven – 5:01
12. Wilco the Song – 3:40
13. Henry & the H Bombs – 3:22
14. The Ruling Class – 4:44
15. Spiders (Kidsmoke) – 4:32
16. encore break – 2:56
Encore One:
17. Remember the Mountain Bed – 6:55
18. Fake Plastic Trees – 6:22
19. I’m the Man Who Loves You – 2:58
20. encore break – 2:04
Encore Two:
21. A Shot in the Arm – 4:48
22. Someone Else’s Song – 3:31
23. Acuff-Rose – 3:51

Video:

“I Am Trying To Break Your Heart”:

“Fake Plastic Trees” (Radiohead cover):

“Acuff Rose”:

Live Vicariously:

Wilco’s website

Wilco’s MySpace

For the original post, click here.

For more photos, a review and video, click the jump:

Man Man:

(All photos by Carlye Wisel; Photo 10 by Alex Davis)

Man Man is a band that proved themselves to be hyped, but never over-hyped. Unlike someone such as, say, Dan Deacon, Man Man’s shows don’t make you feel like you’re supposed to dance — the irrestistablility lies in the fact that you just can’t really help but do it. There seems to be a lot of artists out right now who are more about a crazy show than the actual music (cough Dark Meat cough), but with Man Man, the focus is on the brilliant music and the rest naturally falls into place. Banging on pots and drums, the men faced each other as usual, gallivanting and playing with glazed-over eyes, stuck in their own face-painted, feather-wearing, peyote-infused jam session, all while inviting the crowd in on their jagged melodies and wild times.

Video:

Live Vicariously:

Man Man’s Myspace

Man Man’s Website

For the original post, click here.

[Kimya Dawson, L’Orchidee D’Hawai and Angelo Spencer at the Independent Media Center on April 13, 2008]

For more photos, a review and video, click the jump:

Angelo Spencer:

L’Orchidee D’Hawai:

Kimya Dawson:

Angelo Spencer, the first opener of the evening, was quite the modern day troubadour. Taking ambidexterity to the limit, he played guitar with the upper half of his body and an abbreviated drum kit with his feet. There was something inescapably amateur about his sound, but even when the Frenchman’s banter was a bit lost in translation, people continued cheering for him. The speak-sung lyrics and spastic strums highlighted both a slight similarity to Art Brut, and unfortunately, the void of not having a full band.

L’Orchidee D’Hawai was next, and played songs in Polish that people liked and tunes in English that people didn’t dance to. With an obvious ethnic quality built into their sound, their instrumentals worked well while the vocals were accented and not too appealing. But, it became more worthwhile to tap a foot along from the excited happiness the band — specifically the constantly grinning bassist — exuded.

Two hours after the start of the show, headliner Kimya Dawson sauntered onstage. Dressed in a brown t-shirt and a skirt seemingly made of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bedsheet, she sat down, and asked the audience to do the same. Since the audience was originally seated and had to stand to make room for everyone, this was no easy task. The crowd may have looked like a sea of comfortable cross-legged bodies, but people squirmed and re-adjusted constantly throughout the hour and a half set.

Dawson played a slew of songs, with the goofiest being those from her upcoming kids’ album called Alphabutt, named after a tune about poops and farting, out later this year. Covered in tattoos of things such as a panda, bunny, white horse and various phrases, her cutesy demeanor was infectious, particularly when she became bashful while bantering. Her honest, pop culture-infused lyrics and trademarked style of quickly singing strung-together terms yielded tunes featuring Dawson talking of bears, humans as animals, and kids breaking bones. The live performance was exactly what you would expect — intimate, fun and full of well-crafted music.

She held onto the Juno tunes until the end of the night, and still used them sparingly, refraining from playing the inferable crowd favorite, The Moldy Peaches’ “Anyone Else But You.” Now famous as a Bleeker-Guff duet, “Anyone Else But You” and the Juno soundtrack seems to easily parallel that of Garden State, another independent film that unexpectedly became a wild success with a soundtrack to match. And, though this comparison would make Kimya Dawson this year’s The Shins — who were ironically playing as the last people filed out of the venue — it’s a hell of a lot more fun to get behind a singer-songwriter whose next album is for kids but still fun for adults, instead of a snoozefest like Wincing The Night Away.

Videos:

L’Orchidee D’Hawai performing at the IMC:

Kimya Dawson performing “Tire Swing”:

Kimya Dawson performing a song off of her upcoming children’s album, Alphabutt:

……………………

Live Vicariously:

Angelo Spencer’s Website

Angelo Spencer’s MySpace page

L’Orchidee D’Hawai’s Website

L’Orchidee D’Hawai’s MySpace page

Kimya Dawson’s Website

Kimya Dawson’s MySpace page

For more photos and video, click the jump:

The Love Language:

Video:

Headlights:

Video:

For the original post, click here.

Video:

-OverUC.com