Matador at 21

From October 1-3, 2010, fifteen friends and I attended the Matador at 21 event in Las Vegas, Nevada, hosted by Matador Records. This was the most fun I've had in ages. Thanks again to Matador Records and its staff for putting it on.

Matador 21 (in 15 minutes)

Over the weekend I wasn't planning on taking photos or video for the most part, so I don't have a lot more than what you see on this page. I wasn't even using my good SLR camera until Saturday night (check around the 6 min mark on the video below for the reason why). I condensed what footage I did have down into a nice little 15 minute video:

Ted Leo

Ted Leo - "Multitasking"

Ted Leo was everywhere all weekend! Here he is um, "multitasking":

Ted Leo covers Beat Happening - "Cast a Shadow"

Ted covering the Beat Happening's "Cast a Shadow" at the Karaoke Underground event:

Here are some photos I took of him during his main set on Sunday:

Matt Sweeney

Matt Sweeney pops up during Guided by Voices

In addition to singing in the band Chavez on Friday, Matt showed up a few other places. Here he is popping up from the crowd during Guided by Voices' set, (along with an encore crowdsurf from Guided by Voices' Mitch Mitchell):

Matt Sweeney & Rio cover "Sweet Jane"

And here he and his buddy Rio are covering the Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane":

Guided by Voices

Guided by Voices - Tobin Sprout

Tobin Sprout singing the songs "Awful Bliss" and "14 Cheerleader Coldfront" If anything, watch the first 30 seconds of the video to see the inadvertent iPhone ad that I made:

and a small pile of photos:

Tom Scharpling

Here is WFMU DJ Tom Scharpling showing off his many talents including:

Singing
Wrestling
Tambourine Tossing
Crowd Surfing

Miscellaneous Random Shenanigans

Stephen Malkmus - "Lay and Play"

Here is Pavement's Stephen Malkmus doing a "Lay and Play" on a song where he wasn't (obviously) the singer:

Yo La Tengo vs. Guided by Voices - Red Rover

Here is the very tail end of the Yo La Tengo vs. Guided by Voices Red Rover game: "Red Rover Red Rover, we call Mitch Mitchell over!"

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Cup Thrower Incident

After The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's very energetic set, the audience kept yelling for an encore. When they didn't get one (apparently their set ran long), one guy from the crowd showed his displeasure. I am told that the cup thrower got 86'd.

Karaoke Underground

One of the highlights for me was watching Karaoke Underground at 3am on Sunday Morning. In addition to the videos above, I took video of a few performances of random people. It was really great to see every day people performing songs they love in front of a crowd, especially songs that aren't in most karaoke bars. I don't know who they are personally but guessing they might want to see the footage. contact me if you want credit, etc.

Karaoke Underground: Punk Rock Girl (Dead Milkmen)

Karaoke Underground: Mass Romantic (The New Pornographers)

Karaoke Underground: 99 Luft/Red Balloons (Nena)

Karaoke Underground: Needle in the Camel's Eye (Brian Eno)

Karaoke Underground: Head On (Jesus and Mary Chain)

Karaoke Underground: Boys Don't Cry (The Cure)

Karaoke Underground: Harnessed In Slums (Archers of Loaf)

update: One down....I found out via Facebook that these guys were friends of a friend of a friend:

Erik writes:
Besides Dave at the helm, the other two are Doug (the one with the Goblin T-shirt) and Omri (in long-sleeve button-down). Don't know the guy who provided the comic relief by rolling around on the floor and ramming his head into the wall nor the skinny guy in shorts who seemed to be his friend.

Chavez

Sonic Youth and Pavement's equipment

Pavement

Come

I think them playing at the 3B Tavern in Bellingham, Washington might
have been one of the first proper concerts I saw as a 21-year-old. Somewhere I have a photo of the flyer, I just recently mailed it to a guy in one of the opening bands who I hadn't talked to in 15 years.

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Yup, a lot of other people were taking pictures too.

Superchunk

The Clean

Hailing from New Zealand. I got a clock photo of Robert Scott a few days later here in Portland. I first heard them in 2003 when I was biking around the south island of New Zealand, so I'd always been curious to see them. I stayed with a family in this little seaside town (Okarito) and the guy and I would stay up for hours talking about music.

I didn't have exactly the best vantage point to take photos.

The New Pornographers

Liz Phair + guitarist Greg Suran

Tom Scharpling, Ted Leo, & Jon Wurster

Yo La Tengo

Miscellaneous Fun