HYLI Vol. LXXXVII - Protest The Hero and Dave Matthews Band
It's Live Music Week: the HYLI Boys are back with two playlists from good live acts.
Hello our beloved friends and readers. Sorry for the absence, Patrick was out of town for the holiday and we both have kids and stuff. We apologize. As a precaution, we’re gonna slow it down for the rest of the year and just finish up with our respective End of the Year lists in December. We appreciate you all sticking around and reading this every week and we’d rather pare it down a bit than give you some half-assed weeks. So thank you! Enjoy this fun playlist week. Love you. Bye!
Playlist - Protest The Hero
I saw Protest The Hero during their Halloween is for Always tour last week a few weeks ago, and it was the first time I saw them since the 10-year anniversary tour where they played Fortress in full (arguably my favorite concert ever) and it was an absolute blast. The Halloween is for Always setlist was definitely made for fans and not for touring their most recent release (2020’s Palimpsest) (Patrick: are any bands touring off 2020 releases anymore?) (Andy: they didn’t tour at all after dropping it was my point), of which they only played two songs. As great as it was I couldn’t help but wonder what the perfect setlist would be. So, I made it. I made the setlist on pretty much one pass - I think there is something to be said for gut reactions to these things rather than tinkering too much. Enjoy.
I think it is well-known that Rody is pretty bored of playing “Bloodmeat” so I figured we’d get that out of the way as the opener (Patrick: bands looooove playing songs they hate as an opener, what are you doing Andy) (Andy: he has played this song for 100 years he is tired of it). I mean… you can’t really not play it. I had to limit myself to only a few Fortress and Kezia songs.
I think Pacific Myth is some of Protest’s best work and unfairly maligned by both the band and fans. I’m not sure why. Some of the most fun riffs and lyrical melodies are on that EP. Lots of callbacks and motifs throughout. If we ever do an ‘underappreciated’ theme, this might be the pick. I went with “Tidal” because I must have listened to it 1,000 times the week it dropped. It had been almost 4 years without PtH music and I was starved. What a way to come back! Pacific Myth really felt like a bit of a swan song for the band.
“Palms Read” is just so damn good man. Another song that just has great lyrics to sing along with (Patrick: oh I thought lyrics don’t matter????) (Andy: they don’t but when they’re good they’re fun). “For a million years raise your glass / We will never answer where we came from…” The instrumentals at the end of the song make up some of my favorite Protest music ever. The “From The Sky” ending gives me chills, man. This is the song I was most disappointed to not hear from Palimpsest. The ending would have been unreal fun live. What is the deal with the love lost on “Yellow Teeth” from Scurrilous? This song is just so goddamn good. Rody is on another level here. It riffs so hard.
I love Jadea Kelly on Protest songs. She kills it on “Hair-Trigger” even though she has like 3 lines. She should be featured on every record. The ending of “Turn Soonest to the Sea” is just all-time gang vocals in a live setting. Especially if you’re with other die-hard fans. How the fuck do they write this when they were like 16 years old? Seriously.
I just love this band so goddamn much man. They’re so important to me for so many reasons. Really just a band I’m totally fine with being such a huge dork about (Patrick: as opposed to all the other times you’re a dork and torn up about it). Their music is part of my being at this point. Not sure if they have a bad song. Two albums in my Top 10 All Time. Fortress is a 10/10 perfect record, no flaws. I love the band Protest the Hero. Hope You Like It ‘cause I Love It.
Patrick: I felt bad springing this playlist idea on Andy for playlists of great live bands because it is inherently easier for me. Have any of the bands Andy has sent in HYLI history released a live album? I’m sure someone has, but it doesn’t seem like there’s really jam-band-type energy to metal music. It isn’t about stretching a four-minute studio song to 12 minutes, it’s about throwing an elbow in your friend’s face and then smiling about it. Just different stuff, ya know? (Andy: yes I’m very well aware)
That being said, I think he embraced the nature of this idea and kinda made it his own. Best of all, listening to this playlist he made, it made me kind of want to see Protest the Hero live. That’s great! A big W!! I have liked the band’s stuff in the past but I have to admit it’s a bit of an “enjoy it while listening but never really think to listen to them” kind of relationship. The songs are good! The albums are fun! I only listen to them when Andy asks me to (Andy: Please listen to them every day, thanks).
“Palms Read” just goes. I’ve said it either to Andy privately or maybe in one of the other HYLI volumes but Protest just kind of seems to me like My Chem for people who wear corpse paint instead of just eyeliner. When Rody gets in that upper register on that track, he sounds so much like Gerard Way, but the band is absolutely shredding behind him. I could see myself having a fun ass time hearing that song live. “Yellow Teeth” is sick too. I don’t think I’ve listened to that album before because a) Andy has never asked me to and b) the artwork is unfamiliar to me. But I enjoyed it and will be checking the album out if he ever asks me to listen to them again (he will)(Andy: please listen to Volition, thanks).
Ultimately, I enjoyed everything here. This isn’t necessarily what I envisioned when I asked Andy if he wanted to do this playlist, but it’s all good music so who gives a shit? Maybe I’ll see the band Protest the Hero now if they ever come to the city Charlotte North Carolina. Thanks, Andy!
Playlist - Dave Matthews Band
Patrick: I like going to shows a ton (Andy: same!). “Shows,” imo, are mostly for bands that tour a ton and play a venue that doesn’t hold thousands of people and where you are standing and can see the stage from any angle in the building (Andy: what?). Shows rock! The vast majority of the live music I see is A Show at a Venue that I probably don’t love but (almost) always have a fun time at. I also love going to Concerts. I’m being a dork here but they feel like different things to me. Concerts are big. Concerts are grand productions. Concerts take place at outdoor amphitheaters that host multiple thousands of people in the summer, mostly sitting on blankets, or sitting in the same seats indoors at the venue where the local hoops team plays (Andy: I’ve been to two concerts ever by this metric). Do you know who puts on a hell of a concert (Andy: Taylor Swift?) *Yasi Salek Voice* David Matthews.
Before my mom passed away, there were only a handful of bands that both my mom and dad liked. Dad liked and likes stuff like Static-X (maybe he should do a week of HYLI with Andy) and Metallica and Mastodon and also the Rolling Stones lol. Mom liked Counting Crows and Weezer and Blondie and 10K Maniacs. They both loved David Matthews. I have only seen the man play once in my life (the Alpine Valley show in 2004 that “#41” on this playlist comes from) but I believe both of them saw him together three or four times. They were Dave Heads (is there a name for this fan community, please sound off). One of the last concerts, if not the last, my parents went to together before my mom passed was a Dave concert in Chicago that I got them tickets to and my mom called me on the way home like “yo music is sick i love my son and i love music.” She passed away seven years ago last week and I thought about her a lot while listening to this Dave playlist the last few weeks. Shoutout to mom.
As I’m sure we have mentioned 100 times at this point, Andy and I have a group text with some of our oldest friends loosely for music-related convos. Shoutout to Michael Blanchette, our first subscriber. They’re going to be beating my ass in the group texrt for writing this many words about David Matthews. Frankly, I never listen to this dude’s albums on Apple Music. Why bother? In my opinion, they’re simultaneously over-produced and under-performed. You can tell that the songs are begging to have the studio sheen removed and to also be stretched out to 3x-10x their studio length. Wanna know something about David Matthews? He’s a sick guitar player! The dude uses CHORDS and so few people use chords anymore. Let him play some live with the rest of the band! Also, Tim Reynolds. Maybe that dude doesn’t play as many chords but he sure does fucking solo. It seems like he doesn’t always tour with them but you can tell when he does because there will be some sickass electric guitar solo ripping through the song in a way that they never DREAMED of recording in the studio. Everyone else is fine! The drums are solid, bass is there, and the horns are great. I’m not going to mention the fiddle man, fuck him.
I’m not going to go song by song here (other than to say “#41” is the best live song and thus the best Dave song) but these are mostly the best live versions of my favorite Dave songs to hear live. I listen to this guy maybe once a presidential term but when I do, I have a great time. I’m listening to this playlist right now and browsing the local tour routing for the band. Maybe 2024 will be the year I attend a second DMB concert. Hope you like it and hope you have a great rest of the year.
Andy: I think Patrick intentionally pushed this week to take up three weeks of listens because 1) he knew I’d be listening to nothing but the Protest playlist and 2) three weeks is just enough time for some Musical Stockholm Syndrome to set in for me. Hi, it’s me (Patrick: Taylor Swift voice), I didn’t hate this Dave Matthews Playlist.
The live versions of these songs give them life they don’t have in the studio sessions (Patrick: how do you possibly know this). I don’t know how to articulate it more than that. It doesn’t need to be complex, it’s that simple. One is alive and interesting and worthwhile of your time and the other is not. Live > Studio simply put. The studio songs do not have fun, the live songs do. I am not a DMB album guy, but I’m fine being a DMB (Live) guy.
The first 30 seconds of “Ants Marching” had me sweating. Like… I was going to have to suffer through this week of music for my good friend. By the end of the song, I was fine. It’s crazy how much DMB I know from never having listened to him and just shopping at Publix all my life (Patrick: huuuuuge grocery store band). “Warehouse” is fun. “Grey Street” horns go off. “Gravedigger” is the best track here for me. What is a DMB concert like? Are you just chilling on a blanket drinking a Michelob Ultra? Standing in front of a seat lightly bobbing along? Is there a pit of like old people bouncing and being happy? Actually, don’t tell me. It can’t be as fun as the image I have in my head.
Vocally and lyrically David Matthews does nothing for me (Patrick: I actually feel like he’s an underrated singer if you can get past the weird accent-thing and him uhhh scatting seemingly every song lol). That is totally fine! (He also went up against Rody in my listening, so that is not quite fair to him). His voice is an instrument and it works along with the rest of them. It works for what it’s doing and I’m not gonna worry about it. I do find it interesting that I can barely understand what he’s saying half the time (Patrick: I wonder where Andy thinks this man was born and if I gave him 100 guesses whether or not he’d be able to get it)!
One of the more shocking things I’ve liked during this experiment, if I can say so myself! I’m here for Live Dave Matthews Band! I’m going to pass on any studio recordings and continue to be a dork about those. I Liked It.