20th
I would have never expected Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody” was going to be my favorite act of My Gen, but that’s exactly what it was this year. It really is everything that you want a My Gen song to be - recognizable, catchy/hooky, and well-covered.
The rest of the show, from the top:
I thought Paul Anderson did an admirable job as our host for “The Late Late Show” last night, and I was proud of the Colbert bit my roommate, Tyler Harrison, did off the top.
“Chariot” by Gavin DeGraw - I liked the piano solo/breakdown in this quite a bit.
“Falling Slowly” by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - A shame that the sound didn’t work on Kurt’s guitar, but the vocals were almost more impressive because that backbone wasn’t audible to the audience (except very, very quietly).
“Feel Good, Inc.” by Gorillaz - I can’t remember the last time someone rapped at My Gen. Has that happened before? I thought the guys did pretty well - yeahhh, Sammy II! (My shutter shades almost appeared in this one, which would make them two for two on the year - Airband and My Gen. Alas, they didn’t).
“You and I” by Ingrid Michaelson - Cute as cute gets.
“All the Small Things” by Blink-182 - I loved the costumes here. I was never a Blink fan, although Ty is/(was?) a huge one, but this sounded pretty good to my ears.
“This Side” by Nickel Creek - Josh Larkin, the lead on this, was also in “Feel Good, Inc.” and “Zombie”. He’s a freshman! On SIIS! And a really nice kid! This was better than I expected, by far.
“All These Things That I’ve Done” by the Killers - I really, really wish this had the gospel flourishes in the choir that the original has. Choirs were basically the theme of the night, or something? Okay. I like a lot of Killers songs more than this one (including every song that comes before it on Hot Fuss), but this sounded very good.
“Neon” by John Mayer - If you don’t play guitar, well…the riff in this song is really, really hard. I really liked the soul&B vocal touch, too.
“Limousine” by Brand New (alternate video) - I was shocked this got in - long, dark song on a night that often favors short, poppy ones, but I guess “Karma Police” worked really well a couple of years ago. The vocals and dynamics were really good here, which is what you really want to nail on this one - also, a bow on the guitar! (not sure if either video shows it clearly…).
“Zombie” by The Cranberries - Yeah, this rocked pretty hard, and Kayla can SING! Um, I’m a little biased, I know all these folks, but I liked this quite a bit, and the audience seemed to be feeling it, especially considering it’s lesser known than a lot of these other tunes.
“The Luckiest” by Ben Folds - It is really gutsy to try any song by yourself. Hats off, man - your voice sounded a ton like Folds’s.
(here’s where the above “Use Somebody” falls).
“One Day Like This” by Elbow - I had never heard this song before, but the audience really seemed to dig it.
All in all, this was probably the most underground My Gen we’ve had since I’ve been at TU - other than Blink, the Killers, and John Mayer, this is a group that largely stays off pop radio (Use Somebody’s random run to the top of the charts this summer notwithstanding, it’s not like KoL get a ton of radio airplay as far as I know).
I thought it was a really good show overall, whether or not it had as many pop songs as other years.
