Sound-checked, plugged in, and ready to rock (bands you saw)

[donblood]

YEAAHHH new Tele!  If for some reason I ever feel like I need another guitar, that's my one.

& fantastic photos as always, narlus.

[Maaik]

I saw this band Hawks tonight and also their singer's penix.c

[monkeypants]

So I saw Mavis Staples on Saturday and she was pretty great...at least mostly.   Things kinda began to drag very slightly in the final third of the show, starting with a couple of instrumental numbers clearly designed to let her catch her wind.  (Which, given her age, I can hardly blame her for.)  Coulda used a horn section, but the guitarist was super sharp in a Steve Cropper kinda way which made me notice less.    The woman has still got it, though.  Good god, you could launch a thousand ships with that voice.

[mountmccabe]

Last night I went to another of the Downtown Chamber series' concerts.  The focus of the evening for me, and the reason I went was Bartok's 5th Quartet, which was as lovely as expected (which is to say mostly not at all) and wholely enjoyable.

Of more of a suprise to me where the other pieces.  The Kodaly was announced, but I had no familiarity with his Sonata for Cello (op 8), of which the 3rd movement was performed.  Good living shit that was a fantastic workout.  The breadth in just that one movment had me reveling.  I need to find myself a recording of the full piece (and I can't wait for when the soloist tonight has it all ready for performance.)

We also heard Boulez's Anthemes for solo violin (dizzying and interesting if not entirely pleasant) and various modern classical arrangements/versions of American folk music including Mark O'Conner's "Appalachia Waltz" (arranged for strings and clarinet) and "Song for Julie," for clarinet, violin and cello, the first professional performance of a (classical) piece by Jocelyn Adams of the Low Anthem.  These latter two pieces were both rich and lovely and were approaching the border between country and classical music that I never really knew existed.

[YojimboMonkey]

Fishbone was RED HOT

These guys opened, they were kind of 311-lite but their drummer was dynamite


Angelo was manic, dude has way more energy than he has any right to, I mean damn




Fishbone kept it old-school, mostly playing stuff from the self-titled EP, In Your Face, and Truth and Soul.  I was jumping around like an idiot.

The English Beat headlined, opening with their cover of Tears of a Clown, which I love, and they were good but for me it was all about Fishbone.

Then Angelo came to the bar and I got to meet him and touch him and slobber drunkenly about how much I loved him until a fat bouncer made me leave.  Which was great. 




Angelo was not impressed.

[YojimboMonkey]

I mean, they played Lyin' Ass Bitch and Party at Ground Zero AND Bonin' in the Boneyard.  Holy shit.

[davy]

Damn it, I should've gone to the ATL show. Damn it. Love those songs.

[edison]

I saw the Fiery Furnaces a couple of weeks ago in Strasbourg - first and only show of a slow year so far. I enjoyed myself, or at least as much as the person who's just spent three entire days working 10 hours straight can enjoy themselves, but overall I was a bit surprised and disappointed at how straightforward and sort of flat the show was. They played mostly pretty good versions of many of their best songs, but it just felt like it was one competently executed song after another without much momentum. On a more positive note, the setlist did a very good job at reminding me that I should listen to Gallowsbird's Bark more:

1. Rub Alcohol Blues
2. Charmaine Champagne
3. Duplexes Of The Dead
4. Automatic Husband
5. Ex-Guru
6. Chris Michaels
7. The End Is Near
8. Keep Me In The Dark
9. Up In The North
10. Drive To Dallas
11. Evergreen
12. Crystal Clear
13. Chief Inspector Blancheflower
14. Cut The Cake
15. Ray Bouvier
16. Worry Worry
17. Wolf Notes

18. Waiting To Know You
19. I'm In No Mood
20. A Candymaker's Knife In My Handbag
21. I'm In No Mood
22. Two Fat Feet
23. Asthma Attack
24. Japanese Slippers
25. Here Comes The Summer

26. Tropical Ice-Land

[monkeypants]

Hey davy, the Levon Helm show last night was great.  He had a big 12-piece band (5 horns!) and they were just about perfect.  It's hard to imagine this style of music being played any better.   Levon only sang lead on a handful of tunes, which was a bit surprising, but that's not even a complaint - and of course the drumming was fantastic.  The man really knows how to put the roll in the rock.  Good times.

I also enjoyed the Wood Brothers' opening set.  They're a rootsy upright bass/guitar duo.  Anyone familiar with these guys? I was impressed.

[davy]

Hey davy, the Levon Helm show last night was great.  He had a big 12-piece band (5 horns!) and they were just about perfect.  It's hard to imagine this style of music being played any better.   Levon only sang lead on a handful of tunes, which was a bit surprising, but that's not even a complaint - and of course the drumming was fantastic.  The man really knows how to put the roll in the rock.  Good times.

I also enjoyed the Wood Brothers' opening set.  They're a rootsy upright bass/guitar duo.  Anyone familiar with these guys? I was impressed.

Oh man, that's good to hear. I am definitely jealous.

I listened to The Wood Brothers' last album once, but it didn't catch. They're probably the type to make a bigger impact live.

[elpollodiablo]

Uncle Monsterface at Death By Audio last night was the most fun I've had a show since the hippie days. It had all the energy and abandon of a jam show: people were jumping, dancing, yelling, tossing inflatable balls, laughing. I got high with a few strangers in the midst of the crowd. Best show I've seen in New York. Greg you gotta see these guys.

Also I saw a dude from Math the Band retching violently enough on the street last night that I approached him to see if he was okay. He was all "Oh yeah this happens before every set we play--HRRRROARK--but no man I'm cool thanks for asking--BLRRRACK"

[narlus]

Kreator/Voivod/Nachtmystium/Evile:
review:
http://www.bigtakeover.com/reviews/kreator-with-voivod-nachtmystium-and-evile-the-palladium-worcester-ma-friday-march-5-2010

Voivod




Nachtmystium




Evile

[donblood]

Fact:  I used to play shows with those bands.  The first time I played with Math the Band, we were doing an unholy Christmas-themed show, and when we got there, dude is like "Hey I brought a Santa outfit I'm not using if you guys need it.  I also have the Easter Bunny and Abraham Lincoln."

Also my friend Gabe, who was in OUCH with me, had his girlfriend break up with him because she wanted to go back to dating girls.  Then she started dating Marty from Uncle Monsterface.  Nobody really knew how to feel about that.

mighty fuck, x-post narlus, never x-post with narlus

[elpollodiablo]

That is weirdness, blood; Marty is a friend of some other Astoria friends of ours. He actually went to Medieval Times with us in February!

[alexandra]

I took Miles to see the Magnetic Fields on Wednesday. i love them.

[donblood]

That is weirdness, blood; Marty is a friend of some other Astoria friends of ours. He actually went to Medieval Times with us in February!

Somehow missed this post.  That's bizarre!

Reminds me:  in 2000 I spent a semester in Southeastern Massachusetts and started playing open mics with a schizophrenic guy.  He'd been at the school for nine years getting crazier and crazier.  I improvised chords on the acoustic guitar while he ranted about conspiracy theories;  the locals loved us.  The only local who didn't was this tiny guy with a reedy voice singing freak-folk.  He thought we were horning in on his act or making fun of him, but in reality I had no idea what freak-folk was at the time.

Five years later I "met" the freak-folk guy in Western Mass, we hung out, got along great.  And he always looked familiar, until one day I put it together and asked him if he'd ever played open mics in New Bedford.  Oh how we laffed.

[narlus]

a smattering of shots from the Scion Fest...

full gallery and review:
http://www.prefixmag.com/photos/scion-rock-fest-columbus-oh-picsreview/

Deadsea (psych/metal/rumble)


Black Tusk (southern kick ass metal)


Hate Eternal (death metal from ex-Morbid Angel)


Lightning Swords of Death (black metal from LA)


Saviours (oakland riff masters)


Black Anvil (brooklyn black metal)


Acrassicauda (Iraq's leading metal export)


D.R.I. (old school hardcore/thrash)


Thou (deranged Louisianiers)


Pelican (post-rock meets metal)


YOB (doom of the highest order)


Shrinebuilder (metal über-group)

[elpollodiablo]

The Magnetic Fields show last week was splendid! Got to hear a few of my favorite tracks, including You & Me & the Moon and Fear of Trains. And the rendition of All the Umbrellas in London was pretty devastating.

[alistarr*]

Pelican (post-rock meets metal)

ha, the audience is wearing a distinctly different set of expressions in this picture to the others you posted. i hope they were still pretty good. we saw them play a while back in a club where the stage was in the middle of the room and it was a fun time.

[davy]

Ha! I was just thinking the same thing. "Post-rock meets metal," indeed.

[YojimboMonkey]

I've seen Pelican live.  They are more energetic than their music would suggest they should be.  But yeah, I imagine it's a lull in the midst of that kind of fest.

[davy]

There's only one guy in the front that's even looking at them! Look at those two dudes right in front of the guitarist, all glancing away shyly.

[narlus]

yeah, I'd say that Pelican were a bit of the odd man out in the 24 band lineup.

[davy]

The more I look at that photo, the more it cracks me up. It's like the audience is about to tell the band that they've been seeing someone else.

[narlus]

Harvey Milk/Coalesce:
http://www.prefixmag.com/photos/harvey-milk-coalesce-the-atlas-moth-middle-east-pi/