So CMJ 2007 has come and gone. Considering I only saw one show last year (Snowden at White Rabbit), I think I did much better this year. Although, I didn't even need my pass really. All the really good shows weren't letting anyone in without tickets, so if you didn't have a ticket, or if the show wasn't already free, you were out of luck. But that's ok. I saw Black Kids so it was all good.

Tuesday night, I saw Regina Spektor at Hammerstein with Robin. Now, this wasn't a CMJ show, but it was still amazing. I hadn't heard too much of Regina's music before Tuesday, but her performance was AMAZING. She totally blew me away. On Thursday, I ordered all of her records and I'm eagerly awaiting them in the mail.

Wednesday night I TRIED to see Black Kids at The Annex. Mates of State were headlining and it turns out that the show had been sold out for awhile. I was disappointed, but learned a little while later that would be playing the free Brooklyn Vegan showcase on Friday at R Bar.

I rushed to R Bar after work so that I wouldn't miss Black Kids set. But when I got there, Yeasayer was still on stage much to my delight. They were very good actually, and I was happy that I caught a couple of there songs. After their set, the room got REALLY packed for Black Kids. They opened up with "I'm Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" and it sounded great! I think they played 4 or 5 more songs. This band is totaly worth all the hype. They're energetic, fun, and definitely make you want to dance. Reggie said something about how they had been having some problems with some of the shows, but it seems like their set at R Bar went off perfectly. They were the one band that I REALLY wanted to see so I was happy that I was ab;e to make it out there. I only wish that I could see their shows in Atlanta in November. And they're only playing like a week before I get there. UGH!

Later on in the night, Georgia and I saw M.I.A. at Terminal 5. We got inside the venue probably around 9:30, so we didn't see the opener. Terminal 5 is a new venue ALLLLL the way down on 11th and 57th. It's not around anything, but it's a good size. There's the floor of course, and then two balaconys, each with a sitting area and bars. I guess M.I.A. went on around 10. She tore that shit up! I didn't know if I'd have as much fun as when I saw her at th 40 Watt two years ago, but I had even more fun because I had Georgia to sing all the songs with. I think she opened with "Bamboo Banga". From Arular she played "Amazon," "Galang," "10 Dollar," "Bucky Done Gun," "Pull Up the People," and "Sunshowers." From Kala she played, "Paper Planes," "XR2," "Bird Flu," "Jimmy," "Hussle," "20 Dollar," and "Down River." She had African Boy come out and do "Hussle" with her and she invited the audience up on stage with her for "Bird Flu." She was like, "If you can make it on stage, you can come up here and dance." Of course there were mad people that got up there, but I must say it was pretty cool, especially the fact that she got them all to get off the stage when the song was over (this was in the middle of the set) so that was pretty impressive. She encored with "Boyz" and "URAQT" which was AWESOME! M.I.A. shows are so much fun because everyone knows the words and you can't help but jump around and scream your head off and get sweaty. Not to mention that M.I.A. and Cherry are mad awesome whiners.

I'm exhausted, but this week was definitely a good week of shows.