… and the glorious Black Lips are back in Boston at the Paradise Rock Club! IF YOU’RE NOT THERE THEN YOU BETTER BE DEAD OR IN PRISON
AND IF YOU’RE IN PRISON, BREAKOUT!!!!*
* A paraphrase of a quote from The Simpsons episode, “Bart the Daredevil.”
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Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 
I love the black lips but the show at the Orpheum in Boston was horrible. They played so loud that we couldn’t hear the lyrics or the rhythms. Maybe the sound is just bad at that place, Dinosaur plays loud but they sounded much better. I know you wrote a positive review about that show but I thought it sucked sound wise?
it was really loud and i have a terrible memory all I think I knew at that time was ‘Feel The Pain’ so I was excited when they played that, so you may be right. we’ll see what Chris says, he has a keen memory
Sorry I meant to say the middle east. The Black lLips sounded horrible there. I love everything about the Orpheum, my favorite venue by far. But I’ve never seen a show at the Paradise. How is it there?
which black lips mid east show are you speaking of? Both March 09 and 10 sounded great, I thought, top five shows for sure. Gentleman Jesse and His Men were real loud in 09, I would say during their set I had a tough time making out anything really, but they’ve more than made up for it in the times they’ve played around these parts since. At any rate, black lips were excellent. Bias abounds though as you can tell we around here are fanatics and also love the mid east to pieces.
paradise is somewhere in between mid east and house of blues size wise. sound has always been good and it still maintains a nice cozy atmosphere despite it being near double the capacity of the mid east. i can’t really imagine it being sold out for black lips, tho every show i’ve seen there has been just about maxed out.
Last year I brought friends to the March show. They’re in a band so I thought I would impress them with a great live show. They didn’t know much about tthe black lips so I thought this would win them over. They had great energy and you could tell they were playing really great but it was just too loud i guess which made the quality suffer. HArd to explain but we moved towards the back which was better but not much.
A little bias must have played in for you because it was nearly impossible not to notice. I obviously enjoyed it more than my friends but we all left dissappointed.
Well, just to clear things up. To my knowledge the Black Lips have never played at the Orpheum, which I belive you correct your own statement Nick when you said the Middle East, but just to clarify for someone who may have been skimming through. Yes, Dinosaur as always, was very loud at the Orpheum and put on one helluva performance, with songs from all over their discography like “Little Furry Things,” to “Get Me.”
In terms of the Lips, we have the utmost bias, as they are our favorite band and the namesake for this site to boot. For any show, any commentator is almost always biased, to different degrees. But, yes their shows are typically loud- in the sense of noise, mainly because they are a punk band or a rock and roll band, etc. but also because they are less technically inclined, so it’s a sort of chaotic noise. Now, Dino, on the other hand, has somewhat of method to their madness. The volume of their music is extremely high, but it is done so with much more technique and purpose. In any case, as fan both approaches work for me. And I could be wrong, but that’s how I see it.
Also, if you’re friends are “serious” or good lol musicians, then yeah there is a chance they wouldn’t dig the Lips, but that’s not always true. You are certainly right that often the songs don’t com through as much as the band’s presence itself. But that’s just it- it’s their energy that is really the most important thing. It’s just a colossus of excitement.
This was not meant as an insult to you guys or the band. I’m not trying to bash the the Black Lips. Thats exactly the kind of band my friends would like and they really liked the cds I played the weeks beforehand so its not like they are music snobs, the opposite in fact. They play 3 Misfits covers actually.
I don’t know if volume was the problem. Dinosaur was loud but you could still here exactly what was going on. I love the energy and performance but if the sound isn’t coming through it ruins it for me. ..I’m having trouble clarifying so I’ll just leave it at that.
Haha that’s okay man. No offense was taken! I didn’t think you were insulting us or the band and it sounds like you and your friends are fans, glad to see you guys enjoy the records. And, I didn’t mean to imply that they were snobs, but perhaps that they valued technique much higher than probably most Lips fans, I’d assume, maybe not? And I definitely hear ya, I’m just saying how I react to the music. I can totally see why one wouldn’t have the same or a similar reaction.