“As it so happens, this one goes out to all the ladies!” A song intro by Alex Turner, front man for Arctic Monkeys, one of the coolest and most charismatic bands on the planet. Dispensing with too much in-between song chit chat, the band kept building upon the frenzy within the audience throughout their hour and a half set. The fans in attendance, who started lining up a 6 am in morning to ultimately bask in the stunning lights of pure and unfiltered cool glowing from the stage, made the first of two back-to-back Arctic Monkeys shows at the Fox Theater in Oakland a tough one to best. The band is in the midst of their world tour in support of their fifth studio album, AM, which was released earlier this month. Showing confidence in the future, the band closed out the show with an encored that ended with their new hit single, “R U Mine?”, which might just be their best song yet.
AM & Shawn Lee at Rickshaw Stop (“Sounds of Summer” Album Release Party) | San Francisco, California | 6/26/2013 (Concert Review)
2013 is shaping up to be a great year for new music and exciting artists playing live dates, and AM & Shawn Lee are most definitely a part of both. With the release of their second collaborative studio album last month, La Musique Numberique, it is fueled by some amazing songs that translate brilliantly well in their live sets. The transatlantic writing and recording process (with AM in Los Angeles and Shawn Lee in London) produced an electronic and synth-driven collection of songs that fuse sounds from past decades (particularly the 70s and 80s) but sound as contemporary as anything else released in the past few years. As performers, both sides of the duo have a very relaxed style and great chemistry. As the climax to their “Sounds of Summer” touring album release party, it was a festive night at Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco last night, with a great crowd in an intimate venue. If you’ve never checked out their music, you are missing out and you can preview over at SoundCloud… awesome stuff!
AM & Shawn Lee Close Out “Sounds of Summer Tour” With Their New Album ‘La Musique Numerique’ and “All The Love”
AM & Shawn Lee are touring their second studio album, La Musique Numerique, with release party concerts in Chicago, IL, Rochester, NY and tour dates spanning California with shows in San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Diego. With AM hailing from Los Angeles and Shawn Lee from London, the duo have collaborated to create a fresh sound influenced by disco, soul, R&B, funk, electronic, and other genres, with a bit of a late 70s/early 80s vibe. The track “All The Love” has earned significant acclaim. [Read more…]