Not So Silent Night - Karl's 30th Birthday!

For Karl's 30th birthday, we went to a concert called "Not So Silent Night" at Oracle Arena in Oakland with our friends Dana and Nick, who had just arrived from Chicago. I will admit that my main motive for attending the concert was to see the Killers....I wasn't all that interested in the other bands (Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, and Death Cab for Cutie). Coming away from the concert, I was impressed with Franz Ferdinand and thought, "I should buy more of their music...", but the Killers were by and large the BEST and most entertaining band of the night. I could have listened to them play forever!

Throughout the show I took videos of each band to post here. I apologize if some of them are a little fuzzy or out of focus...these were taken with a small digital camera and the lighting and people moving around in front of me seemed to affect the clarity of the picture. Here are the videos...enjoy!

1. Franz Ferdinand singing "Take Me Out", the one song most of you might recognize from them:




2. Bloc Party. I don't know any of this band's songs, so I am not sure what the song is called...Karl really enjoyed this band.





3. Death Cab for Cutie. Again, I don't know what song this is, and I actually recorded some of the songs I knew of theirs, but I want you to check out the bassist in the red vest...I was highly entertained by his CRAZY LEGS!!! Keep watching, you'll see what I mean. I think the crazy legs make an appearance around 30 seconds into the video... Side note - we all noticed this band seemed to really play to their drummer as opposed to playing to the crowd. This bothered all of us. It also led me to call them "Death Cab for Cute Drummer" because they seemed like the drummer more than the audience.




4. The Killers - song one, "Human", a new release for them. Great song.



5. The Killers - singing my all-time favorite Killers song, "Read My Mind". Fantastic.




This concert made me love the Killers even more than I already did. Their frontman, Brandon Flowers, was energetic, excited, and played to the crowd. I was amazed at how good he sounded even though he was running around the stage and climbing on things, etc. I also think he has a lot of feeling in his voice, and this is one of the factors between "good" and "great" for me. I would say he's probably the second best live performer I've ever seen in terms of his ability to entertain. First place goes to Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day. I've seen some amazing bands and artists live...the Rolling Stones, U2, Fleetwood Mac, Madonna, the Police, Dave Matthews Band, etc. so to say this guy was the 2nd best I've ever seen is saying a lot.

Enjoy the videos and be sure to catch the Killers if they perform in an area close to you! :) I wish I could see Fleetwood Mac again on their upcoming tour but unfortunately they don't seem to be making any west coast stops.

Oh and HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY TO KARL!!!!!!!!!!