When you read the setlist you think, oh OK, two killer Ringo, a new Ringo, Todd, a bit of a snooze and then Ringo again. But when you are there, you have to sit through excruciating versions of “Evil Ways”, “Rosanna” and “Kyrie”. It is deadly.
Lost is an interesting adjective, it simply has not been played since 1929. A rarity of the highest form and for Porter fans a glimpse into their idols less known works. With Showgirls and tap dancing a full out old time production.
So it turns out that Cold War Kids’ Nathan Willett and Matt Maust have a side project with We Barbarians’ Nathan Warketin! They even have a debut LP ‘Is Exotic Bait’ out soon, on July 8th via Frenchkiss Records, and a free residency at the Satellite this month. I got the chance to see them and totally enjoyed a high-energy show with trumpet, sax and multicolor-hair back-up singers.
talking to Sam before the show, he raised an essential point about defining the modern listener experience.
expressing rebellion against the musical world’s trend towards hyperspecificity, he argued that new artists are confined to certain niches if they hope to receive support niches which have often been exploited to their full extent.
I got a few times the Mogwai-fronted-by-Death-Cab-For-Cutie impression, but even this doesn’t completely define their sophisticated sound. There also was repetition, some krautrock-y feeling without being totally krautrock, these guys were definitively really hard to pigeonhole, and this is why they were interesting
This time was not as smooth as usual since Kera was fighting with some technical problems. She first broke a guitar string then had some sound problems, but at the top of this, a very loud electronic dance DJ party had started at the other end of Chinatown
There were no real weak moments. “I’m back” she exclaimed late in the show and really better than ever. Soul music walks hand in hand with trouble, with problems, with the constant ache of life, without one you can’t have the other, and Aretha has soul
She gave a short but intense set, all alone with her electric guitar and multiple pedals, producing some ambient, experimental lugubrious reverb-tinted soundscapes inhabited by her breathy and vulnerable voice, and it was part eerie, part haunting.
I have seen many incarnations of the Eels, and the one at the Orpheum on Wednesday night was a very lo-key, intimate and subtle one, with very quiet moments and people listening without making a noise, deeply submerged into Mark Oliver Everett’s son
He isn’t cute. There is something off center about him as a performer, a sort of nolle prosequi which was at the heart of both punk and No Wave: he doesn’t play nice. This saves him some headaches, among them the question of aging and it gives stuff like “Design To Kill” an entirely timeless quality: it exists in its aggression.
She appears on stage like a gracious and thin statuesque figure, quite dignified and she sang with a soulful and velvet voice,… I read that she interestingly describes her music as ‘a cross between Mary Poppins and Coldplay’, whatever this means, but I didn’t get the Coldplay vibe nor the Mary Poppins side, and I don’t think she was making allusion to her full-clothing
Perry has not sung with Journey since 1991, and Mark said he hadn’t performed in Los Angeles for 20 years! Nevertheless, his voice is still great, and although he said he was a bit out of breath after singing ‘Lights’, he can still totally hold the high notes in a very amazing way.
As she was wearing a long black skirt and a black top with a white collar, she might have looked like a sage schoolgirl entering catholic school had it not been for for her totally-Margot-Tenebaum dark eyeliner… And knowing that Mr Little Jeans is a name of a minor and humble character (the janitor) in Wes Anderson’s ‘Rushmore’, this makes complete sense
The result was quite minimalist, Amelia’s vocals were always front, but everyone was cheering at each of her moves,… I was taking tons of pictures and they came up all great. ‘Wait! Small adjustment’, she said while they had to move their equipment away from the sun, visibly ‘not used to direct sunlight’ and ‘designed for pale people in a basement’ as Nick Sanborn notice.
Looking at these stars, you wonder how much Strait is responsible for the fitful state of modern country (though I remain decrying what now feels like a golden age, the mid-1980s). George played for three hours plus and here is the setlist, read it and weep
First, they were playing their most nonchalant songs, which did not prevent people to start crowd surfing right away, then frontman John Paul Pitts said they were going up a notch, and suddenly they were playing much faster with people going crazy along the very good and sunny harmonies of ‘Miranda’
Morrissey even was joking around and being silly during the show- that’s right, *silly*. He named all the greats who’d played at that opera house, naming all the Golden Girls, threw in an anecdote of how Boston’s history pamphlet advertised that they had the ‘world’s smallest suspension bridge’, and he was slurring a bit, completely comfortable so very casual and jovial. Someone check his BAC?
With crowd’s favorites like ‘Feed me Now’, ‘Honest Feedback’ and ‘Benny Goodman’, they set the tone for a feel-good summer-time, yes it was a beautiful day and the music was driving the crowd into a festive and playful mood… but I almost forgot, just before their set, a wedding proposal happened on stage
Dance trumps rock, no two ways about it. Skrillex and two thirds of Swedish House Mafia siphoned off 75% of the audience, leaving 25% for Jack White and Vampire Weekend. The sheer numbers were incredible. Broken Bells was free and easy, you couldn’t move at Disclosures set which was occurring on a different stage at the same time.
Girls and girls and drugs and girls. Paarty songs. “That’s why the shows so cranky because I’m high on crills right now,” Earl said during Tyler’s show and Tyler agreed. “Awesssssome” he said like he just stepped out of one of his Adult Swim TV episodes. J. Cole said he’d been drinking all day.
Saturday was incredibly busy at Randall’s Island, a complete sell out from one end of the Island to the other with young kids, mostly college sophomores by the looks of it, planting themselves on every available inch of green. But the lineup wasn’t as good as Friday’s line up
Boston you didn’t disappoint. Your notoriously my least favorite city and when the crowd started walking out (for lack of hits) or sitting down or dashing out (during Meat Is Murder) your lack of fandom and lack of manners and couth were showing. But it wasn’t meant for you- it was meant for us.
You should go to Festivals the same way you listen to music in 2014, sample all the goods and then research further. Even bands you really wanna see, headliners Outkast for instance, this might not be the best way to check em out. You’d have to give up too much and wait too long (I figure 90 minutes) to get really great sitelines. That would be, wow, at least four sets.
The talk dirty stuff is a bit of a dead end. The line here, the one that resonates and which she doesn’t sing on Tuesday night, is “I knew that I was crazy alone; now I’m just crazy for you.” So, yeah a crazy ex-girlfriend but only up to a certain place and then other influences kick in.
From start to finish, the music was loud, upbeat and very melodic, but played with a hardcore energy and a punk ferocity. The guitars – actually there was only one, the other one was a bass – were powerful and Bob Mould was getting the biggest sound ever of his instrument.
M.I.A. And Solange – Webster Hall – May 10th, 2014 – Two of the best musicians around, M.I.A. has reinvented the dance song and is compied so predigiously and often it is ridiculous and Solange is an alt soul master, even if a reportedly nasty piece of work. Days before this gig she beat up Jay Z in an elevator
There is nothing inherently wrong with glitz, but Dolly has spent so much time focusing on her image and her bank account, that she has no energy left to put any heart into her music. I spent over $150 for two of the cheap seats at the sold out casino gig and in return my money, I got a lengthy Milli Vanilli tribute show.
Here is a true rarity, a better album chart than the single chart. Headed by the great Sam Smith and followed by Coldplay’s best album to date, Paolo is quite good, Paolma is alright and Pharrell, eaton and London Grammar maintain the quality.
EDM and pop is a little like the Monarchy versus the Pope in 14th century Europe in reverse; Europe was trying to disentangle itself from the Pope’s influence and EDM needs a strong union with modern pop and rock groups, it needs to entangle itself. Till then, this was a fine evening of dance.
The Decemberists came on when it was starting to absolutely downpour, and some people left and others toughed it out. I was amongst those who bailed; it was cold and rainy and a long day. From what I heard in my attempt to get out and not be soaking wet, The Decemberists definitely still have their niche and a huge fan base
If your idea of a good gig is something loud and cheery with an impressive light show and all that jazz, Lindley would not be your first choice. His stage is minimalist, and his music is acoustic, thoughtful and very eclectic. What you ARE treated to is a virtuoso display of stringed instrument musicianship, a lot of dry wit, and more than just a hint of “left field”.
Honoring the co-chair of Loews Corporation Andrew Tisch, the first thing that a pop picker like yours truly will notice is the return of the great Marshall Crenshaw. No shocker there from the man who got his start in “Beatlemania
Not long after a delicious and ferocious ‘Get Some’, she came back for an encore, to sing this familiar song in Swedish and the totally glorious ‘Sadness Is A Blessing’, which has to be Li’s gospel. She was holding her wounded rhythms at arm length and everyone in the room was with her
The songs exploded in a sort of ‘I-am-The-Walrus’ DNA, bathing in a Syd Barrett-inspired full instrumentation, with epic guitars – Charlotte was wearing a Zappa t-shirt – and avalanches of sweet vocal harmonies between the two. It was psychedelic but tainted by a certain time
Sometimes a bore, sometimes self-important (though not on stage), and sometimes they really do suck, yet they include you in and have the rouseiness of a football stadium with the subduedness of a manic depressive. They are one hit away from breaking really big in the States so catch em in nightclubs while you can
When I heard the news I wasn’t really excited for two reasons, first, do we really need to re-record the Beatles honestly? The original is great and this new one seems to be like a lazy attempt to make some bucks off an old classic. Plus, there is the ‘With A Little Help From My Fwends’ part that I am not very found of, when the fwend is Miley Cyrus!
Lily has gone on the record as not being entirely thrilled with Sheezus, but really, enough of this fucking English self-deprecation album. What is better? Prism? Lily has made three albums the equal of You Broke My Heart In 17 Places, what more do we want? Well, I’d rather not be called a misogynist but otherwise it is great to have Allen back.
On Tuesday night, the female duo was doing an in-store performance to celebrate the release of their album ‘Sistrionix’, and the store was packed when Lindsey Troy on guitar and Julie Edwards on drums took the stage to play an electrifying and totally badass set.
Yeah, we are all little monsters in it together doesn’t really mean much and yes, she has written a song as good as “Bad Romance” in way too long, and yeah, popstars need consistency, and Lady Gaga seems not to have it really. But they also need energy and joy and a throbbing exciting basslike brilliance and that she sure does have.
I don’t know about the back of the room, but where I was, people were religiously listening rather than singing along, and may be having some marijane with that? Having the occasion to listen to many bands around, I can tell that a lot of them try to cultivate that sort of repetitive, drug-inspired psychedelic sound,
To be honest, in the three other times I’ve seen Two Humans, I’ve never seen them have as much fun. I know it won’t convince them to stay together or just constantly keep playing shows (please), but I’m glad that they could enjoy themselves.
Solange mentioned both she and M.I.A., with her mind on Sunday no doubt, are both mothers now. Not in a stodgy way, but there was no dramatics this night, no kicking photographs , no attitude. The entire evening was spot on the money, in a terrific place to see a show, with a good looking audience and a sweet temperamental and endless intelligence.
This isn’t great art and only occasionally is it great pop but it is great something else: it is a great hope for all our futures, a true meeting plays for gays and straights, young and old, Cherokee and Anglo Saxon, to join in a world where, much more than Lady Gaga for whom there is always an undercurrent of persecuted minorities, we are one nation under an Arena
Jazz was alive at noon at the High Line Ballroom. The entertainment was spectacular. Jonathan Batiste, Questlove of the Roots as DJ, and finally the Harlem Gospel Choir. But more important we were there to learn about what the Blue Note group was doing and how the Bensusan brothers and their love and passion for Jazz could help market our products
During their seven-song set, their sound was immediately loveable and luminous, and got more or less on the explosive side, depending on the songs. Musically they may have sounded like Belle and Sebastian covering the Cure, but I didn’t get this impression right away
When it became apparent that Morrissey’s set was going to overlap with the WAS/PAWS bill, everybody really did agree that couldn’t work — even though the two venues are separated by a reasonably thick wall. Moz fans wouldn’t have been able to hear a lick of what they’d paid to see
This was, of course, the first night. But isn’t that your adrenaline fueled power play show? Let’s put it this way… the stage crashers infamous for hopping on stage for a hug at encore were so over zealous that Moz simply left.
El Vez may have a few more grey hairs since last time I saw him, but the guy does more costume changes than Beyoncé and can still kick his foot higher than his head. Did I mention how talkative he was, and how nice he behaved with women?
Ego mutinied against my supposed sovereign role as the reviewer to explore the parallels between the ethereal dreamscape conjured by the band’s choice of title and their performance. At times the performance was gracefully delicate, but the apparent burden of tension in the limbs of the band members informed the audience that the halcyon daze would not last.
It was an abbreviated set – approximately 45 minutes long (or, one minute for each member of the audience). Jordan even apologized for the weak performance prior to the encore
