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Concert Review: Rural Alberta Advantage

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Bands: Rural Alberta Advantage, Lovely Feathers, Arletta
Venue: Middle East Upstairs
Date: October 8, 2009

Arletta
Good band! Unfortunately the front-man’s high E string broke during the first song. Fortunately, a middle age dude named Spencer volunteered to restring the guitar. He got that done by the end of the second song. Arletta continued to play their brand of folk, except for one “arena rock” tune (jokes) that sounded more like Built to Spill than Kings of Leon. They were enthusiastic the whole time and made good conversation between songs. The attractive off-gray jumpsuit wearing violinist did a spectacular job on a couple of songs. They just finished recording an LP in a Charlestown studio.

In-House Music: The Supreme Genius of King Khan and His Shrines. Amazing.

Lovely Feathers
I’ve been a Lovely Feathers fan since summer 2005, when I heard “Pope John Paul” on WMBR after leaving the North Shore Mall. That song stuck with me for a while…I remember writing about it for my freshman portfolio. Heck, two weeks ago I had a crazy dream that I altar served a mass and this was the opening hymn.  But the opening riffs to the song about the late Polish holy figure were never played! Bummer! Nor did they play the classic faux-glam pop track “Rod Stewart.” They did play 6 songs off Fantasy of the Lot. Don’t get me wrong, FotL is a very good album, but it pales in comparison to their past work. I never actually realized how instrumental the keyboard was in the Lovely Feathers until last night. Songs like “Gifted Donald” and “Family That Doesn’t Know The Game” are okay, don’t get me wrong, but come on…they don’t have the live flair like “Pope” and “Rod” probably would. Of course, if any song was recognized it was “Lowiza,” which is about the singer’s cheating old bastard grandfather who isn’t quite into his wife (grandmother) any more. It was awesome! “Are you sexual?” sang the amped-up keyboardist. Unfortunately the backing vocals weren’t really noticeable on a lot of the other songs. That was a tad disappointing. “In The Valley” was great with both singers belting out the lyrics. The keyboardist really nailed this song right on the money. “She says hi to the man in the house. She says I am the man of the house!” “Frantic” is another one of my long-time faves that got me and the rest of the room going. “Wrong Choice” was pretty damn awesome as well. Overall, I was happy to finally see them in concert. Do I really wish they played my two faves? Of course. Next time, maybe.

Set List
1. Long Walks
2. Gifted Donald
3. Family That Doesn’t Know The Game
4. Finders Fee
5. Lowiza
6. In The Valley
7. Frantic
8. Wrong Choice
9. I Don’t Know!

Rural Alberta Advantage
So basically I only knew four songs from RAA prior to going to see them. I really don’t know how to describe them. It’s  a dynamic trio, in that the drummer also plays the keyboard, the front-man plays guitar and keyboard, and there is another drummer. I guess the best way I could put it would be an epic Page France. I couldn’t get too into many of the songs because I didn’t recognize them. Most of the audience recognized all the songs and appropriately bobbed their head or just flat out danced. Anyway, they played the Middle East two months ago. Guess they love it! They were sure appreciative of everyone coming out. The front-man did a solo acoustic of “Eye of the Tiger” after asking the audience: song from the 70s or the 80s? 80s won. It was awesome to hear the tales of Alberta. Especially of the late “Mr. Barnes.”

Set List
1. “New”
2. “Rush Apart”
3. “The Ballad of the RAA”
4. “Jungle”
5. “Luciana”
6. “Frank, AB”
7. “Eye of the Tiger” — The ’70s song was going to be S.O.S by Abba!
8. “North Star”
9. “Drain The Blood”
10. “Four Night Rider”
11. “Edmonton”
12. “Summertime”
———-Encore———
1. “Mr. Barnes”
2. “Sleep All Day”
3. “Don’t Haunt This Place”

Concert Grade: B

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Concert Review: Wavves, Ganglians, Many Mansions @ Great Scott (9/27/09)

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Bands: Many Mansions, Ganglians, Wavves
Venue: Great Scott (Allston, MA)
Date: Sunday, September 27, 2009

Many Mansions
This band embodies what has become of the psychedelic trance/drum and bass genre. Their set up was different for sure: one man controlling the drum and bass machine, the effects pedals, and singing while the other dude was just on stage to (apparently) play with the visuals on the projector. And the visuals were weird as hell. Some of the images: an African boy running in a field, an African guy nailed to a cross and decaying, trees, a bunch of people moving away from a building, people break dancing, and an African woman doing a dance in the forest. These images did all sorts of crazy things like spin, flip, illuminate, and fade. The visual arts component was better than the music. I felt bored by the music, at least initially. A few of the electronic drum schemes were catchy and maybe one song was actually “good,” but other than that this band just didn’t do too much for me.

Ganglians
The best I can describe Ganglians is proto-Wavves. They played a lot of catchy noise-pop that certainly the crowd was into. There was definitely an element of their music (the bass lines, probably) that really allowed for dancing and grooving. The lead singer was rocking out and everyone in the band looked like they were having a blast. I sensed a lot of Jay Reatard garage-pop, especially in the drumming and singing. There was one number in particular that had a near identical drum part as “Blood Visions.” A song I highly recommend checking out that they played is “Blood on the Sand.” “Hair” had me mistaking this band for the War on Drugs with its active keyboards. Overall, this was a really good second band!

Wavves
After ten minutes of “technical difficulties,” the crowd got a little antsy. Like…maybe Nathan Williams consumed Valium and E before the show and couldn’t figure out which amp to plug his guitar into. Or maybe not since the only amp on stage was a huge Marshall double-stack mammajamma. Safe to say that no public breakdown happened last night. Williams, with his New York Death Adders hat and tee, welcomed the crowd saying “Hi, we’re Wavves” before blasting into “So Bored,” my favorite song! Everyone easily recognized this song because it’s Wavves’ biggest and just started going nuts, singing along, dancing, etc. The next set of seven or eight songs potentially ended with the word “Goth” or “Demon,” I just can’t remember. That’s because there was, at least for me, an unexpected amount of moshing. The first I got hit I was kind of like wtf okay that’s cool. But then I looked behind me and people were getting pushed around like crazy, bumping into each other. So the next twenty minutes turned out to be an awesome re-visitation of old No Age shows, because of both the music (noisy punk) and the crowd response (moshing). The final song they played was “No Hope Kids,” an awesome song to end the show! Pure pop beneath the massive wall of noise. Unfortunately they only played for 30 minutes, but it was a lengthy 30 minutes. After sweating my ass off from all the moshing and losing track of time, it felt like just enough.

Final Comments: Wavves put on a great show and the experience of watching them play was very top notch. Wouldn’t it have been better if I knew a majority of the songs performed? Probably. I didn’t let them bug me and in the end I walked out of Great Scott knowing that I had a shitload of fun. That said, this show is not comparable to some of the best shows I’ve seen. I would give it somewhere in the B+/B range.

Crowd during Wavves
Crowd during Wavves
Once Nathan Williams got stuff to work, all was well
Once Nathan Williams got stuff to work, all was well!
Art, Culture Jamming, Entertainment, Music

Concert Review: The Rifles

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John: Last night, I ventured with Glen and Paul to the Great Scott in Allston, Ma. We went to see the two amazing acts: Mike Fiore, of Faces on Film and the British indie band, The Rifles. Though this was my first time at the Great Scott, I could tell it was a slightly smaller, and a bit more intimate venue than that of the MidEast. But, I liked it.
The gig was amazing, though that goes without saying. Mike Fiore had very passionate, and at times depressing, lyrics. His voice was like that of a male angel, singing the travesties of life, love and the injustices of the world. I especially loved when he sang something to the effect of “before she left I would never need medicine.” Thought not many people were drawn to him, I was. I could never be able to perform by myself in front of a few people, let alone a group of one hundred or so; and so, I commend him for his bravery. Due to being the lesser known opening act, most weren’t crowding around him. They were all waiting for the Rifles.

Glen: Mike Fiore did go a bit under-appreciated. I recognized a few of his tunes, notably “I’ll Sleep To Protect You,” “The Medical Mind,” “The Winners Daughter,” and the classic closer “Natalie’s Numbers.” For an acoustic solo musician, he deserves a lot of credit. The Rifles surprised me in a number of ways. I didn’t anticipate such a lengthy set (17 songs including the two song encore). The Rifles played seven songs off of their top 10 album of 2009 The Great Escape and a number of songs from No Love Lost. There were clap-alongs, sing-alongs, requests…you name it. Amazing drumming, amazing guitar solos, amazing singing. “She’s Got Standards” stood out as did “Romeo and Julie,” with its catchy “woh-woh-woh-oh” bit. I’m definitely glad I ventured out to see this show. It goes down as amongst the best.

The Rifles Set List
1. “Science in Violence”
2. “She’s Got Standards”
3. “Repeated Offender”
4. “The Great Escape”
5. “Peace and Quiet”
6. “Out in the Past”
7. “History”
8. “Hometown Blues”
9. “Spend a Lifetime”
10. “Toerag”
11. “Robin Hood”
12. “When I’m Alone”
13. “The General”
14. “Local Boy”
15. “Romeo and Julie”
——
16. Encore #1
17. Encore #2

Music

Concert Review: The Walkmen, Here We Go Magic, The Dig @ Mid East Downstairs (9/19/09)

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Ham!

Bands: The Walkmen, Here We Go Magic, The Dig
Venue: Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge, MA
Date: Saturday, September 19, 2009

The Dig
Ben: The Dig was really good. They have great bass work. The bassist/singer looks like John Mayer but dresses and sings like the guy from Vampire Weekend [Ezra Koenig]. The guitarist/singer’s songs kind of remind me of early Radiohead. The Dig does unconventional rhythm very well. I’m getting technical here but they use weird time signatures and timing changes, and sometimes it’s hard to tell where the “center of gravity” is. But it’s a really nice change from your standard timing in music. It’s also a technique that’s *very* hard to pull off. With their stuff it’s often much harder to locate the center of gravity. That’s what really stood out about them for me.  Really great, inventive rhythms.

Glen: The Dig were just as awesome Night Two as Night One and in the end probably slightly better. They changed up their set-list trivially. Both nights the song I loved most was “Penitentiary.” It has all the makings of a mainstream power pop number, yet it still maintains a very distinctive alt-country sound. The bassist/singer’s voice is very distinctive. I think the guitarist/singer’s songs were more experimental, less hard rock. An example of the heavier stuff was the song “Just Wanna Talk To You,” bringing back memories of live Louis XIV but more explosive and…better! The first night they ended with that…the second night it was second-to-last.

Chris: Pretty damn loud and noisy, so of course I liked it. They rocked out and were really passionate about their music.

Here We Go Magic
Ben: Here We Go Magic was great especially considering the drummer situation. It was the first time I heard “Tunnelvision” with electric instruments and I liked the noisy turn it took towards the end. Luke’s vocals were great.

Glen: Go Chad! Once again, I want to recognize him for truly being instrumental to HWGM’s Night Two set. Night One was ambient…Night Two still maintained ambiance, but all songs especially “Tunnelvision” and “Fangela” sounded far greater with Chad. It takes a lot for an experimental folk band like HWGM to perform a well-executed set; each band member was up to task and enthusiastic.

Chris: I liked it, but not as much as the first band. I commend Chad, the fill-in drummer for having the chops to play on par with the band. Also the bass guitarist and the pianist were sexy!

The Walkmen
Ben: The Walkmen are a tight group with a good mix of songs. Good mix of alt-country, folk, and noisier rock. Really great singer.

Glen: Showcasing quite a bit of new material (according to the band, some old songs they refuse to play), The Walkmen proved that they didn’t need to delve too deep into their repertoire to be awesome. Both nights were astonishing (mind-blowing), but Night Two took the cake! Night Two was quite similar to Night One in a lot of ways; a brass section was featured notably on “Canadian Girl,” “Louisiana,” and “Red Moon,” Ham’s veins were popping out of his neck, etc, etc. Both nights featured the best of the Walkmen (at least according to your average fan): “In the New Year” and “The Rat.” BUT only on Night Two did The Walkmen play “Thinking Of A Dream” (incredible audience reception), “Donde Esta La Playa,” and Bows and Arrows classic “138th Street.” The Walkmen are a class act and no less than one of the best active bands in today’s post-punk revival era.

Chris: They put on a fantastic show! I loved “Louisiana,” especially the horn section. My favorite song was “In the New Year.” Hamilton clearly has a distinctive voice.

Music

Night One: “The Rat”

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Just a few notes from last night: The Dig were amazing. The bass lines on all of their songs just were, again, amazing. Pure rock n’ roll. Here We Go Magic were without their drummer and as a result they had to rely on looped guitar effects and spacey keyboards. Of course, “Fangela” and “Tunnelvision” were the most recognizable highlights. As witnessed in the video above the Walkmen played their most all-time most popular song “The Rat” followed by “In The New Year,” their hit from 2008’s You and Me. They also performed “Canadian Girl,” “Four Provinces,” “On The Water,” “Postcards From Tiny Islands,” and “Red Moon” off of You and Me. Of course a four piece horns section contributed to a few of those songs and it was awesome! They might have played “Little House of Savages,” but I honestly can’t remember! They played a three song encore. The last song of the night? What else but a 9 piece rendition of “Louisiana”! That would make Chris happy if they did that again. I just want to say that Hamilton Leithauser is the man. I’ve always thought of him that way, but you gotta see this guy live! He was pounding shit out like crazy and he’s always got that look like he is pissed, but he really isn’t.

Can’t wait until tonight!

Music

Concert Review: Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Depreciation Guild, Cymbals Eat Guitars @ Mid East Downstairs (9/5/09)

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Bands: Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Depreciation Guild, Cymbals Eat Guitars
Venue: Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge, MA
Date: Saturday, September 5, 2009

Cymbals Eat Guitars: A very young band that doesn’t sound musically immature in the least. These guys played a very polished set that sometimes bordered on hardcore punk  and power pop at other times. The lead singer, Joseph D’Agostino, said to his fellow band mates after the second song “My left ear is shot. Between soundcheck and this.” That didn’t seem to make a difference at all. Cymbals was about passion all the way through. They played most songs off their debut Why There Are Mountains in addition to a couple new ones off an EP that will be released on September 22. Their most noteworthy song was “And the Hazy Sea.” Their last song “Wind Phoenix” was correctly predicted by a shouting fan in the audience. Neil the bass player responded “whoever just said ‘Wind Phoenix’ wins.” And that was a great song to cap off the set!

The Depreciation Guild: The Depreciation weren’t bad. They had a projector that featured various rainbow-esque patterns. That was different. A little thing that confused me about this band was that there didn’t seem to be a need for a drummer. The drum machine seemed to work fine along with the plethora of effects pedals. Their sound was somewhere between ’80s new wave and modern day neo-psychedelia. Unfortunately, there weren’t many “noteworthy” tracks. They all sounded roughly the same. I don’t think I’d want to watch them again, but they fall in a line of average-ness that seems to be a hallmark of opening acts.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: From the opening chords of “This Love is Fucking Right” I knew the Pains would be awesome! And they did put on a terrific show. Of course, probably like many audience members, I am a very big fan of their self-titled debut. My eyes were fixated on the band so I didn’t get a chance to see audience reaction behind me, but I’m sure people were grooving and singing along. They played “Young Adult Fiction” second, a solid choice…I love the title and play-on song meaning: two people hooking up in the library. They followed with a non-debut album track “103” before playing three more album favorites: “The Tenure Itch” (about student-teacher relationships according to Kip Berman, lead singer), “Stay Alive” (a jangly twee pop number) and “A Teenager in Love” (kick-ass drum beat). After this they stopped for a brief moment as Kip reminded concert-goers that it would be perfectly cool for them to leave if they had to catch a train. He knew the deal from living in Boston. I feel bad if anyone did leave since they sure missed a great second half of the set. A brand new song “Higher Than the Stars” was played then the classic 4 note pop-punk jam “Come Saturday” followed. Another new one “Twins” was showcased before the catchy “Everything With You.” The final song before the encore was “The Pains of Being Pure at Heart,” which was well-done as expected. The encore was “Gentle Son,” the album closer off their self-titled. The band, uber-appreciative of the crowd, thanked us and left the stage. It was too bad they couldn’t play each and every song off Pains, but then again I haven’t encountered a band that played an entire album start-to-finish. Maybe someday. A quick note: Peggy Wang’s backing vocals were awesome! They must be appreciated.

Grade: A

Music

Concert Review: The Killers

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Band: The Killers
Venue: TD Banknorth Garden
Date: 9/4/2009

Comments: As of recently, I took a little trek to the TD Banknorth Garden to see the one and only Killers. And I can say they put on one hell of a show. With a set list ranging from Hot Fuss to Sawdust and Sam’s Town to Day & Age, they played all the right songs, including an acoustic version of “Smile Like You Mean It.” Not only were the Killers on the ball, but the opening act, Wolfmother, were also on their game. Their set list included “Joker & the Theif,” “Woman,” and “White Unicorn” among some possibly new songs off Cosmic Egg. Well anyway, The Killers left the stage after the traditional closer of “All These Things That I’ve Done” and came back for an encore with “Human,” “Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine,” and an absolutely huge and perfect rendition of “When You Were Young.” Other big songs of the night were “Shadowplay,” “Somebody Told Me,” “For Reasons Unknown,” “Mr. Brightside (as an opener bizarrely),” “Read My Mind,” “Bones,” and a bunch of others I can’t remember. Overall, a phenomenal showing from one of my favorite bands, The Killers.

Music

Concert Review: Arctic Monkeys (Paradise)

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Date: August 5, 2009
Venue: Paradise Rock Club (Boston)

Introduction
2:30 PM, August 5. eBay. 2:35 PM. Free Arctic Monkeys tickets. It’s funny how things work. You know, going from about to spend $100 for a pair of tickets to spending absolutely nothing. Lucky me I won two tickets through a Boston Music Spotlight giveaway that I learned about on Tuesday.

Modey Lemon
Unfortunately, unlike normal, I was not able to do much research on this band before hand. I was really impressed by their hard rock/garage ways during their 45 minute set. Their last song (no clue on its name) featured a lengthy guitar solo/jam that was perhaps the best of its kind that I’ve seen live.

Arctic Monkeys
Great! They started off with “Pretty Visitors” and “This House is a Circus,” both of which I haven’t heard much of. But the crowd immediately connected with Alex Turner and crew. “Brianstorm” really got every one going, myself included, as it was a flawless performance of an amazing track. The next noteworthy track in my opinion was a new one off Humbug, “Dangerous Animals,” that has Turner spelling out a catchy D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S. The group ended up playing four more spectacular songs off the new record: “Crying Lightning,” “My Propeller,” “Cornerstone,” and “Secret Door,” the first song during the encore. The best song of the night I thought was “Fluorescent Adolescent.” I’ve been a very big fan of this one for over two years primarily because of its heavy, post-punk flare and its great lyrics. The Arctic Monkeys added a light light part right in the middle of the song that was essentially a perfect fit. I was awe-stricken by the end of the song. “The View from the Afternoon” was another highlight! “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” obviously received the best crowd reception. That’s in large part because it’s better live than on record. “If You Were There, Beware” got the people around me to sing along and rock out. After that they played a “Red Right Hand,” a Nick Cave cover. I never heard the original, but this one sounded naturally fit to be an Arctic Monkeys tune. Turner’s ultra-British voice really came through on “Only Ones Who Know,”  sounding quite like the man himself Pete Doherty. The set ended with the fitting “Do Yourself A Favor.” The men came back on stage a few minutes later after constant applause. Turner humored us by saying that he had his car key in the ignition, but just couldn’t leave. He seemed naturally interested in performing for “Bous–tin.” “Secret Door” with its warm and fuzzy opening segued into pounding drums and sweet guitar licks. The infectious “505” finished their 1 hour and 20 minute set off.

Conclusion: This concert will go down in my life’s history as the best free show of all time. Even if I did shell out $50 bucks a ticket, I still would have been just as pleased. It will also be placed amongst the best sounding and best performed shows I’ve seen. Unfortunately since I arrived a little late I had to settle for a side view instead of front and center, but that’s just what happens and you gotta deal! Overall, I give it a A/A+ rating.


“Crying Lightning”

Entertainment, Music

Review: Head Automatica & Cubic Zicronia @ Great Scott (7/23/09)

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Bands: Head Automatica and Cubic Zirconia
Location: Great Scott, Allston
Date: Thursday, July 23, 2009

Cubic Zirconia: I’ll be straight up here, I focused more on the amazingly attractive, sexual chocolate lead singer than on the music itself. If you witnessed the band’s somewhat bizarre performance which included a song, proclaiming “FUCK WORK” about 20-30 times, then you would realize that the singer would probably not take offense to being referred to as “sexual chocolate” haha. I dug her sexually charged dancing and I particularly enjoyed when she stared right into my eyes and sang at me. Glen and others also noted this, thus confirming that I wasn’t merely delusional and horny. As Glen affirmed, “she likes you!” Besides being very appealing, in a stunning, gorgeous gold dress, she and her mates rocked out and were able to get the crowd moving in anticipation of Head Automatica. Continue reading Review: Head Automatica & Cubic Zicronia @ Great Scott (7/23/09) →