Updated to include all the recent shows:
Keyword is “Experiences,” which takes slightly more into account how fun the show was than how awesome the bands were. Quality of opening bands are considered as well.
The Best
1. March 2010 – Black Lips/Box Elders/Movers+Shakers – Grade: A+
2. March 2009 – Black Lips/Gentleman Jesse & His Men/Mean Creek – Grade: A+
3. May 2009 – King Khan & The Shrines/Mark Sultan/Homosexuals – Grade: A+
4. October 2009 – KK+BBQ/Dum Dum Girls/Downbeat 5 – Grade: A+
5. April 2009 – No Age/The Beets/Lemonade – Grade: A+
6. October 2009 – Jay Reatard/Nobunny/Hunx and His Punx/Box Elders/Useless Eaters – Grade: A+
7. September 2009 – Walkmen/Here We Go Magic/The Dig – Grade: A+
Amazing
8. December 2009 – Arctic Monkeys/Screaming Females – Grade: A
9. August 2008 – Radiohead/Grizzly Bear – Grade: A
10. November 2009 – Pixies/Jay Reatard – Grade: A
11. November 2009 – Sonic Youth/The Feelies – Grade: A
12. February 2010 – Editors/Antlers/Dig – Grade: A
13. March 2010 – Spoon/Deerhunter/Strange Boys – Grade: A
14. September 2009 – The Rifles/Mike Fiore – Grade: A
15. August 2009 – Arctic Monkeys/Modey Lemon – Grade: A
16. May 2009 – Animal Collective/Grouper – Grade: A
17. September 2009 – Pains of Being Pure At Heart/Depreciation Guild/Cymbals Eat Guitars – Grade: A
18. July 2009 – Head Automatica/Cubic Zarconia – Great: A
19. July 2009 – Handsome Furs/Dri/Cinnamon Band – Grade: A
20. November 2008 – No Age/Soft Circle/Silk Flowers – Grade: A
Great
21. January 2008 – Editors/Hot Hot Heat/Louis XIV – Grade: A-
22. June 2009 – Sunset Rubdown/Elfin Saddle/Witchies – Grade: A-
23. April 2010 – Girls/Dum Dum Girls/Leisure – Grade: A-
24. July 2008 – No Age/High Places/Abe Vigoda/Ppalmm – Grade: A-
25. April 2010 – Harlem/Tulsa/Girlfriends – Grade: A-
26. October 2009 – KK+BBQ/Dum Dum Girls – Grade: A-
27. March 2010 – Beach House/Bacherlorette – Grade: A-
Very Good
28. October 2008 – Built To Spill/Dinosaur Jr/Meat Puppets – Grade: B+
29. February 2010 – The Growlers/Married Men/Forest Fire – Grade: B+
30. August 2009 – Warlocks/Morning After Girls/Vandelles – Grade: B+
31. July 2009 – Jay Reatard/TV Smith/Pretty & Nice – Grade: B+
32. September 2009 – Wavves/Ganglians/Many Mansions – Grade: B+
Good
33. March 2010 – Vivian Girls/Male Bonding/You Can Be A Wesley- Grade: B
34. January 2010 – Mission of Burma/The Konks – Grade: B
35. October 2009 – Rural Alberta Advantage/Lovely Feathers/Arletta – Grade: B
36. September 2008 – Paul Weller/Rifles – Grade: B
37. July 2009 – Trevor Hall – Grade: B
38. January 2009 – Mission of Burma/Neighborhoods/Faces on Film – Grade: B
Pretty Good
39. October 2007 – Morrissey/Kristeen Young – Grade: B-
40. March 2009 – War on Drugs/The Drones/Tsui – Grade: B-
All Right!
41. July 2007 – Psychedelic Furs/Alarm/Fixx – Grade: C+
42. August 2007 – Weird Al Yankovic – Grade: C+
43. September 2007 – Bob Dylan/Elvis Costello/Amos Lee – Grade: C+
Too Long Ago To Remember 44. July 2000 – B-52s/ – Grade: N/A
Bands: Black Lips, Box Elders, Movers and Shakers Venue: Middle East Downstairs (Cambridge, MA) Date: Thursday, March 25, 2010
Pre-Show: Once a year or so the Black Lips come to town. For me, Chris, and all big fans of the best band in the world, a Black Lips show is always highly anticipated. 2 months away! 1 month away! 2 days away! The day! The excitement builds intensely and progressively as the day nears. This time around was special though; Box Elders, openers for Jay Reatard at Harpers Ferry in October and favorites among Chris and I, were opening for the Lips! So we arrived at our favorite venue, the Middle East Downstairs, way before doors opened to secure a cozy spot in front of what would be Jared Swilley’s stage monitor. Doors at 8. Show at 9:30. We’re used to that. I always thought that was kind of lame, but not on this night. Chris spotted what he thought were the Box Elders hanging around the merchandise table at back. He was right. First, we killed a good deal of time chatting with Clayton, the long blonde hair guitar player and singer. Clayton explained to us, amongst many things, the meaning of a couple of songs like “Ronald Dean” and “2012.” Chris pointed out his particular admiration for “Atlantis” calling it his favorite and Clayton agreed with him on that account. He also said that his mother was NOT the drummer for Box Elders in the early stages. All she did was sing. The internet is wrong! After a short little break from discourse, we spoke to another member of the Box Elders, drummer Dave Goldberg. Our conversation with Dave was another great one and included a short discussion about Our Band Could Be Your Life and the late great Jay Reatard.
Movers and Shakers: Pretty boring. Some pretty good songs, but still pretty boring.
Box Elders: They are one of our favorites because they play brief and incredibly catchy ditties. They don’t fuck around. If the drum beats aren’t good enough for you, then you are a sad sad person. Dave has incredible command of his set and his left side organ, which doesn’t sound as apparent as it does on record, but is definitely pretty damn obvious and fun. As I’ve said before, just watching Dave do his aerobics and drumstick biting is a joy. Listening to the songs themselves, I felt, at the moment, as if Box Elders were the main act. The crowd certainly got more into Box Elders than pretty much all other openers I’ve ever seen. Whether they actually knew the songs is a different story, but whatever! They played all my favorites, which is pretty much every song on Alice & Friends. The most memorable song for me was “Hole in My Head” for no particular reason. “Atlantis” and “Jackie Wood” were just as entertaining as well. I’m just eagerly anticipating the next Box Elders show! Hopefully it will come sometime this year.
Black Lips: Chris and I were having some discourse after the show about watching the Black Lips from a non-moshing/standing view. I looked yesterday and somebody put up a video of a recent Lips Canadian show and had in the description that the boys are getting sloppy. Accusations of their alleged musical sloppiness have been tossed around for years, be it from Raconteurs fans or sidelined cinematographers. Screw all that garbage. You haven’t seen a Black Lips show until you’ve been in the center of crowd craziness. Great tunes and fun times. As customary, the guys opened with “Sea of Blasphemy” which instantly started up the chaos amongst fans. After that they played two tracks off their most recent release 200 Million Thousand, “Drugs” and “Short Fuse.” That was it for 200 Million Thousand cuts and nobody really seemed to give a shit, considering they toured behind that last year and played more numbers from that release at that time. They made up for not playing “Take My Heart” or “Starting Over” by performing B-Side “Make It” along with “Raw Meat” (which will be off their forthcoming release). As far as their 2004 We Did Not Know The Forest Spirit Made The Flowers Grow LP is concerned, they played “Stranger,” which I did not expect. Of course, they ended their set off with usual classic “Juvenile.” More on that in a few sentences. Magic time, another staple in Black Lips live performances, began with the playing of “Hippie Hippie Hoorah” and never really ended to be honest. It was all magic at that point. The band loves re-hashing Let It Bloom/Los Valienteles Del Mundo Nuevo classics and this night was no different with “Not a Problem” (my favorite Lips song!), “Take Me Home (Back to Boone)”, “Fairy Stories,” “Dirty Hands,” and “Buried Alive” all played. As far as Good Bad Not Evil is concerned, we got to enjoy a few really great pieces like “O Katrina,” “I Saw a Ghost (Lean),” “Lock and Key,” “Cold Hands,” and the Lips most recognizable track in catalog: “Bad Kids.” By the time the first chords of “Juvenile” were struck, I was sad! The Black Lips were potentially playing their last song until next time. I had memories of last year when Ian handed beers to us, Jared crowd surfed, and the worst: security getting all uppity and dismantling all equipment on stage at the end of “Juvenile,” before the band could even come back. Normally one to just hang back and watch others climb on stage or do whatever, I decided mid-song to pull myself on stage and jump off. I was expecting this song to be the band’s last (if last year was any indication) so why not? Well, security got really pissed and got me down from people’s hands. He walked me over to the exit, but instead I made a little turn to the merch table where who else but Dave from Box Elders was sitting! Dave kindly explained to security that I was with his band and that it won’t happen again. After sitting the rest of the song out, I made my way to the front as the Lips were coming out of the back room to play the Encore. And what an encore! We got surprised with “Ghetto Cross,” a We Did Not track which one can only expect to be a live rarity, as well as a brand new ditty. That was it. Side note: this was definitely one of the most exhausting and rough concert experiences I’ve had. The crowd was as tightly packed as can be and there was a tremendous amount of contact amongst all of us. That’s fine, though. We’re troopers.
Post-Show: Fun stuff didn’t end there. Chris got to chat with Cole and Joe after the encore and I got to hang with Dave behind the merch table. He said that that night was the best of the tour, performance wise and merch sales wise. He also hooked me up with a customized Black Lips t-shirt, personally painted and presented to me by Lips very own guitarist and vocalist, Cole Alexander. Cole’s the man. Dave’s the man. I’m very grateful of their showing of kindness to a random fan.
Grade: A+ – I’m not going to lie. I don’t remember much of Black Lips set and only fragments of Box Elders set. Nevertheless, I knew I had fun. I had a lot of fun…pre, during, post. Best concert experience? Definitely. There weren’t as many song memories as in past shows, but based on everything else it’s the best I’ve had.
Chris– Yep, Glen pretty much covers my sentiments. It was absolutely the greatest concert experience! To me, concerts are measured musically, viscerally, visually, and as an overall experience. I’d say the viscreal is the key ingredient in the memorable concert dish. That’s the difference between most seated concerts and “crazy” shows like the Black Lips. It’s like an altered state of consciousness, for me at least, for others this is literally the case! Seemingly, time is suspended and everything is possible. You feel more alive than ever. An amazing feeling. If you have experienced viscreally, what I am speaking of, and if you attended last Thursday’s show and was amongst the fun, wild, bedlam, then you know what I’m saying. I’m making no exaggeration, when I say, you do not know what will happen next. That’s exactly the appeal, and yeah sometimes it’s a challenge, sometimes you get thrown back and forth and lose your spot, or sometimes you can rest your head on a smokin’ femme :) I can’t imagine it any other way. And what better a band then the Black Lips to experience this visceral abandoment with?! In short, the Black Lips are synonimous with Rock and Roll today. They are our Beatles.
P.S. Box Elders rocked as well and if I had only seen them it would still probably be amongst my top ten favorite shows.
Bands: Beach House, Bachelorette Venue: Paradise Rock Club (Boston, MA) Date: March 28, 2010
Act One – Bachelorette – Bachelorette was boring. It’s not really the music that’s boring, it’s more of the process as a whole. She plays guitar for thirty seconds, turns the loop on, records into one microphone, loops that, turns on a drum pad, and then does another round of singing. She reminded me (at her best) of High Places and at her worst like your average shitty electronically styled opening act (cough Many Mansions cough). Some dude was apparently loving it so much that he thought it was wise to shout “you boring fucks need to learn how to move your body” after her first song. Yeah, maybe if I was tripping on shrooms like you…idiot. llalallalaallalala bum allalalalalal bum. Relaxing stuff, but annoying.
Act Two – Beach House – A very kind band. Kicking off the set with “Walk in the Park,” my personal favorite, was a wise choice. I could tell the sold-out crowd was made up of a lot of Teen Dream era fans so this opener definitely resonated with all of us. Lead singer and keyboardist Victoria Legrand amazingly executed her parts and that’s not without saying guitarist and back-up singer Alex Scally wasn’t awesome. He was. Speaking of Teen Dream, somebody commented that they played every song off of that. And you know what? I think they did! They also played a few old songs that many people were able to appreciate. Legrand and Scally’s between song banter was charming as they said things like “you guys are very lovely. Thank you for having us.” They genuinely seemed happy to be playing. They ended the set with Teen Dream closer “Take Care,” but that was only a little tease. It’s a great closing track and would certainly lead one to believe that was all they had left. But no! They came back for a one song encore of “10 Mile Stereo,” another great ditty off of Teen Dream. This song is the band’s heaviest offering (at least live) and I actually can’t imagine a better choice. Overall, I really enjoyed listening to one of my favorite albums of the year (and the other songs) performed in such a relaxing and enjoyable setting. If you haven’t heard Beach House, I’d recommend giving them a try.
Chris: The Black Lips put on the best show I’ve ever seen. Very extraordinary, wild, and unpredictable. Of course, they garnered the most audience response and rightfully so. As soon as they stormed into “Sea of Blasphemy,” the crowd went into a frenzy, never remaining still or apart till the end. They played a fairly diverse set with songs from 4 of their 5 studio albums. In my opinion, the best performances were “Dirty Hands” (by far, the whole crowd was most united for this number, rocking back and forth and singing the chorus, def. a highlight of not just this show, but all shows in my somewhat brief concert going career), “Buried Alive,” “Fairy Stories,” “Bad Kids,” “Starting Over,” you know what they were all amazing…. I tried avoiding that, but I couldn’t. The band was more energetic and enthusiastic then most other bands I’ve seen, specifically singer/guitarist Jared Swilley, who often hopped into the crowd and shredded on his guitar. Excellent use of feedback, I must say. He was just a pro in stage antics. Overall, my favorite show by miles. I can’t wait to seem them again, whenever that is.
Glen: Obsessed with the Black Lips for well over two months, I was, for lack of a better word, pumped to see them. Chatting it up with guitarist Cole Alexander before the show was quite a treat. Cole talked to us about what kind of venues the Black Lips are capable of playing in, their lack of ability to play certain songs, and finally their snorting coke and partying with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich in England. When Alexander and his crew took the stage, the crowd erupted in shouts of “ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh” — similar to the Mexican crowd on the opening track off their spectacular live album Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuevo. Then, in a blink of an eye, Jared Swilley picked up his guitar, and so did Cole and Ian St. Pe. Joe Bradley readied himself behind the drumset and the group opened with “Sea of Blasphemy.” The crowd erupted in a moshpit that involved lots of contact and screaming. The contact and the screaming never relented. Between songs, Jared kept remarking how he couldn’t hear the audience for shit (they were screaming out requests). Also between songs involved the tossing of multiple beers. Swilley dropped a pass and joked, “I didn’t play football in high school.” St. Pe, who a little later caught a beer pass, said “I played football in high school.” St. Pe was playing guitar in front of me the whole time. He was clearly inebriated but was still able to strum amazingly. He handed me one of the beers he caught and gave me a high five. Good man. The band was absolutely full of energy and lived up to their “one of rock’s best live acts” reputation. There was no mooning, making out, or pissing on the audience — and there didn’t need to be…crowd surfing and spitting sufficed. The Black Lips played a hodge podge of great tracks ranging from oldies “Bad Kids,” “Buried Alive,” “Dirty Hands,” “Cold Hands,” a 10 minute epic of “Hippie Hippie Hoorah,” “Not a Problem,” “Stranger,” “Katrina,” to songs off their 2009 release 200 Million Thousand like “Drugs,” “Short Fuse,” “Starting Over,” and “Take My Heart.” The last song came, at least for me, unexpectedly. I was having the most fun I’ve ever had and thus began “Juvenile.” Jared let the front row play with his guitar a little before full out diving into us. He was hanging onto the condensation-dripping wall while being pushed around. Beers were being spilled everywhere and everyone was going absolutely nuts. The security guards were getting so pissed that they cut the plug to the mics and started dismantling the band’s equipment. The crowds’ calls, “Encore! Encore!” were repudiated as the lights turned on and the background music played. I would have loved one more, but I can’t complain. If they were going to do an encore…the security were just assholes. It took almost 2 days for my inner-ear buzzing to stop, but it was well worth it and I’d relive the concert again in a heartbeat. Black Lips, if you read this…Boston loves you! Come back this summer…please!
Bands: Vivian Girls, Male Bonding, You Can Be A Wesley Venue: Great Scott (Allston, MA) Date: Monday, March 8, 2010
Act One – You Can Be A Wesley – I really liked this band. They rocked out and genuinely seemed passionate about playing music. That said, the vocals weren’t that loud and the drums really took precedent. Also, the band had a guy take care of playing videos on the screen behind the drummer. That was a bit unnecessary in my opinion and almost pigeon holes the band as just your average opening act. They weren’t just your average opening act, though. They’re better than that and judging from the audience’s response, it seems like they’ve built quite a local following. The jams weren’t exactly assaults on the ear, but they were straight up rockers. Awkward band name.
Act Two – Male Bonding – First, props to the guitarist/singer for having stickers of No Age and Happy Birthday on his little effects pedal bag. Second, I should have liked this band more than I did. They definitely had a No Age + bass thing going on. The extremely thick reverb on the vocals ruined it for me. I couldn’t make out a word (literally) that was sung, so they might as well just have put the mics aside. The drummer was getting quite a workout beating the shit out of his drum kit. The guitars were very similar in each song. Straight up punk riffs with some deviation. No one song really struck me as particularly awesome, though. It was basically a case of “oooh, this again. I get it.” Awkward band name.
Act Three – Vivian Girls – I should have done my homework. I heard most of Vivian Girls’ catalog last summer, but I never really got around to consistently listening to the Girls. It’s a shame, though, that I didn’t make much of an effort to at least re-listen to Everything Goes Wrong, an album that I awarded a really high grade to back in September. The two songs that I recognized were “When I’m Gone” and “Before I Start to Cry.” The latter was really amazing and the former just as awesome. The twelve or so other songs played during the group’s half hour set were affectionate and catchy. They showcased two new songs, which were great. I feel really bad that I couldn’t recognize the other tracks! Seriously, you don’t know how bad I feel. I feel like a casual fan! I guess, at the end of the day, that is what I am.
Bands: The Dig, The Antlers, Editors Venue: House of Blues Boston Date: February 18, 2009
Act One – The Dig –Love this band, man. When I saw them twice back in September, they rocked. The bassist/singer again stood out as an absolutely slick musician, keeping a great rhythm to compliment his singing. The amplification at the House of Blues really did push the pulse over the limit and, in fact, made all the instruments sound louder and more impacting than at the Middle East. “Penitentiary” and closer “Just Wanna Talk To You” stuck out to me as the two best songs from the band’s 30 minute set. The audience took notice of the band’s genius, as I heard a few people next to me comment on how good they were.
Act Two– The Antlers – Okay, so the Antlers. I’d say they were a good fit for pre-Editors opening band. As opposed to Hot Hot Heat, the band that performed before Editors in 2008, the Antlers relied on epicness. Keyboards, guitar, no bass, and loud ass drums. Most songs started out sort of slow, but by the end the band was in a full out jam and things really came together. The singer’s voice is powerful and as one kid said “angelic,” so definitely I got to say I didn’t mind them at all. Would I listen to them again? Probably not. They are probably great on record, too, considering bitchfuck and friends gave their last album a really high rating.
Act Three – Editors –This band has been a consistent favorite of mine for the past couple of years. Their live performance on this night definitely proved why. The light show is fantastic as always and as expected. That’s nice and all, but at the end of the day all four members gave it their all and gave the audience a great time. Classics like “Blood,” “Munich,” “Bones,” “Racing Rats,” “Escaping the Nest,” and “Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors” simply got the audience into a frenzy as did new tunes like “Papillon” and “Raw Meat = Blood Drool.” In fact, the entire set didn’t really have a disappointment in it. Tom smoothly and effortlessly moved from synths to guitar to piano. It’d be a disservice not to mention his stage antics. He loves his mics, that’s for sure. Chris played a mean lead guitar as the guy next to me consistently noted. By the way, you don’t need to remind the dude that he has synesthesia by shouting “colors” after every song and demanding multiple picks. Russell’s a fun guy. The band added in several quirks that really pushed the limits on what I thought they could do live. I really realized how much fun I had watching Editors during the encore. I started to really miss what I had just listened to. That usually means I had a great time.
Set List In This Light And On This Evening
Lights
An End Has A Start
You Don’t Know Love
Bullets
The Boxer
The Big Exit
Blood
Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool
The Racing Rats
Escape The Nest
Like Treasure
Bones
Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors
Bricks And Mortar
—-ENCORE—-
Walk The Fleet Road
Munich
Papillon
Fingers In The Factories
Note: Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to see the kiddie masses listening to good music. It’s kind of messed up to see them outnumber every other age group. I was once a kiddie who saw Editors so I can’t hate, but that was at a sit down venue. I don’t mind it; it’s sort of shocking since I’m used to being the youngest at most shows, 18+.
Bands: Forest Fire, The Married Men, The Growlers Venue: TT The Bears (Cambridge, MA) Date: February 16, 2010
Act One – Forest Fire –Unlike most of the bands that we see, the singer actually had an amazing voice to back up an amazing band. He also did a few song solo acoustic set which was pretty sweet. Campfire folk songs mainly, both of the depressing and uplifting variety.
Act Two – The Married Men – Picture like five dudes and one lone female who just got of work, but really didn’t. Dressed up for the junior prom or some shit like that and ready to kick some ass, they banged out a lengthy six song set that admittedly had some decent points, particularly the instrumentals. The music was a bit drawn out and stuff. The only thing they seemed excited about was their CD coming out that day.
Act Three – The Growlers – Oh shit The Growlers!!! The second Brooks Nielsen made it on stage, I could tell we were in for an experience. He was a genuinely funny man during set up, asking for one of his mics to be “wet as hell” and jokingly requesting if one of the guitarists could get some piss in his monitors, because he really had to go to pee. At any rate, the band performed two songs under your average white lights: “Sea Lion Goth Blues” and “Acid Rain.” These songs were among my pre-show favorites and it was just great to see them performed. Brooks then said “I know why people aren’t getting into us. It’s because of the lights. Turn them to fucking red or something.” And just like that Brooks was “stoked” and so wasn’t the rest of the audience and groupies/band members (hard to tell because they outnumbered the hoi polloi). Their fifty minute set had a bunch of other fun psychedelic numbers that entranced us all quite easily like “Stranger’s Road” and “Something Someone Junior.” The cross-dressing percussionist is a pretty damn random member, but he gets the job done well.
Final Grade:B+ – In terms of performance, persona, stage antics, and attitude, The Growlers definitely will long be remembered. I had an enjoyable time and I’m glad I found out about them so if they ever do come back (this was their first time in Boston) I’ll definitely attend.
Bands: Mission of Burma, The Konks Location: Paradise Rock Club (Boston, MA) Date: January 15, 2010
Introduction: A last minute decision was made to go to this show. I heard about it back in December and I was really excited and planning on going. I sort of forgot about it until the day of so at that point I got a hold of some tickets. Ben and I made the grueling walk to Commonwealth Avenue from Ruggles Station. We made pretty good timing, with only the diehards (including a J. Mascis look-a-like) standing there before us.
The Konks: I hate to say that these guys are your typical middle age garage rock band, but they really do embody that persona. “With cheap guitars and only two lousy drums,” they play fast paced Bompalicious rock that sounds incredibly polished given their frugality. Drummer Kurt Davis (looks like he is going to kick your ass at any given moment) knows how to command his two lousy pieces with precision and the two guitarists do their thing well enough. Most of the time I couldn’t make out what the fuck Davis was saying, but I did happen to notice a song that really stuck out. “God says ‘woah, motherfucker’ God says” is pretty messed up and I’m sure that’s their point.
Mission of Burma: “Wait, who are we seeing tonight?” joked (or was he being serious?) Ben as we approached the venue. In the grand scheme of things, I’m not too familiar with MoB myself, but still I was able to have a pretty great time. I recognized their older classic “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver” and new hit “1, 2, 3, Partyy,” but unfortunately the buck stopped there. I’m sure they played a good chunk of material from 2009’s The Sound the Speed the Light, but shame on me for not extensively listening to that (even though I gave it a 9 out of 10 rating). Peter Prescott’s between song banter was humorous and Bob Weston did a tight job on audio engineering. I was convinced Miller said “here’s a Jay Reatard cover” at one point, but looking back I’m almost positive he said “here’s a new one.” So yeah, these guys gave us an awesome show. It was nice to see a few under 30s in the crowd. I mean they might as well make it 40+ instead of 18 for these guys.
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 