Music

Relating to CDs, shows, etc.

Gutter's Redemption

Mon, 03/01/2010 - 11:15am — xrayspx

-- Update: Seeing the reaction this has generated is driving me to demand one of these for all upcoming concerts, get ready Natalie.

Last week we got to see George Clinton at the House of Blues. Thanks to HoB policy of a rectal exam for every male customer, I have no photos of this event, which is why Natalie whipped out the following illustration:

Click for massive

I'm really happy with the way that came out, she really went nuts considering I counted 21 on stage at one point!

We were so happy to see this circus on stage, but it was hard knowing how tough it's been for Clinton. For a family that's gone through so much in the last couple of months to be up performing with that much energy was awe inspiring.

This was also easily the best sounding show we've been to at the HoB. I attribute that to the venue finally getting everything dialed in, and the fact that these guys are just that good.

Also, introduced us to local keyboardist Danny Bedrosian, who opened the show before playing the main set, and who has several local dates coming up. We'll be there, definitely.

HOWTO: Properly SPAM A Blog

Sun, 01/10/2010 - 5:21pm — xrayspx

For anyone spamming blogs, especially my blog, this is the proper way to do it. This comment is vaguely related enough that it seems like maybe the person just missed the point they were trying to make, or is a bad writer. In fact, it was copied from this Amazon review of a DVD from 2007.

So rather than general Russian cyrillic nonsense, how about you morons try a little harder. I'm leaving that comment up as a monument to the way you idiots should be working. Put your damn back into it once in a while.

Dinosaur Jr at the Middle East

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 2:24am — xrayspx

An evening with the Anti-Edge

I've seen The Edge from U2 saying that notes are sacred, and that they should not be wasted, and he certainly takes that philosophy to the hoop. J Mascis takes the contrary view. Prior to tonight's show, people were telling me it will be the loudest thing I've ever been to. Definitely not, but it is up there. My boots are still tied though, and that was in the same room, standing in the same place in front of the same stack of loudspeakers...

It wasn't the bad loud, like the Motorhead show a couple of weeks ago (which was kind of loud, but not ear-splittingly so, and yet it was such a jangly mess you couldn't hear anything anyway), this was the good loud, definitely. You could really hear everything, and I wanted to hear everything. Mascis has his schtick of being a mechanical automaton, built solely for the purpose of shredding a guitar, I believe it. I also believe that the breaks before the encore are just so someone can jam a key in his back and wind his springs back up. Barlow even made a point of swaying back and forth with a slackjaw zombie expression for a bit, wish I'd caught that.

It was great to see another band get back together and make the local rounds, we've been really pretty lucky the last few years to see so many good ones come through, and so many that seemed to be doing it because it's what they want to do, and not because they can make a couple of bucks.

Lou Barlow & the Missingmen opened, and after some serious technical difficulties with an effects pedal, put out a good solid set for what he said was their second show, ever. The Missingmen being those of "Mike Watt & the Missingmen", and I do believe that if Mike Watt comes to Boston, I will need to be there.

Here are some of the pictures that didn't suck. I was pretty close, but really should have made a point to be At. The. Front. at the Middle East, since their stage is somewhat lower than say, Paradise, and I keep neglecting that in favor of my Leanin' Pole. Silly me.

U2 at Gillette Stadium, Foxboro MA, 9/21/2009

Wed, 09/23/2009 - 12:32am — xrayspx

It's probably about time Natalie and I went to a big arena show, and so we did...

The reason I never was that into arena shows is the distance and lack of intimacy, never mind the multi-hundred dollar seats. However Natalie scored at the last minute by noticing $50 general adm. tix opened up and snatched them up on the spot. Apparently, there are a few "levels" of GA. There's "on the field", then "Red Zone", which I gather you pay a lot more for, and then there was some inner circle deal.

The trick with the inner circle was that it was guarded by a bunch of security passing people through. Had we not gotten the scoop that anyone with GA is allowed in, we never would have approached, because it looked "Exclusive". The Inner Circle held like a couple thousand fans and got you to within a couple of feet of the stage.

At that point, the only difference between this and any other show was that the stage was like 8' high. We took our spots 3 rows from the stage and laid in wait.

All in all, the show was great. We were close enough we didn't feel like we were watching TV from the stands. This was easily the biggest show I'd ever been to, previously it was probably "anything in a hockey arena", so NIN, Tool, that kind of thing. I think I'll take stadium shows much more seriously now, assuming we can get down close in and not spend a fortune to do it. Thanks U2 for making a show I wanted to see, even with 80,000 other fans.

Here are some of my favorite pictures, here's the Flickr set:

More Pictures

Alice in Chains, Paradise Boston 9/7/2009

Tue, 09/08/2009 - 1:13am — xrayspx

[music | Leonard Cohen - Don't Go Home With Your Hardon]

Yep, Alice in Chains (!) at the Paradise (!!)

I can't believe how incredibly lucky we were with this show! I'll get to the show, the luck actually started earlier. We rolled down Comm. Ave around 6:10 or so, and apparently, seems like this was move-in weekend at BU, at least, there was lots of "moving in" looking activity. AND there was a show at the Agganis Arena as well. Luckily they opened up the lot to general parking for the low low price of $25 (generally street parking is pretty easy to find, but with this triple hit, it wasn't to be).

So we slid into Brown Sugar for some of the fastest Thai food ever. Love that place, needs to be hotter :-)

We ended up making it in line just before doors, but wow was it a line. We didn't get in until 7:30, and by that time I thought I was fucked, with no good photo spots left available. Getting inside, that looked like the case, until we went all the way stage-left where there were some road cases and not much else. They had taken over the whole area at stage right for mixing desk and guitar tech stuff, so you couldn't reach the balcony from there, it was a bit of an odd setup. This is when I noticed there was also a barrier 3' out from the stage, which was unexpected. Maybe this was the better spot after all? I remembered from the Lupo's show a few years ago that Jerry was at stage-left for that one, so that's why I wanted to angle that way to begin with.

Turned out I was in the absolute perfect spot to shoot from tonight. The sound was fantastic, the crowd was perfect. Way better than most any Boston audience you get I guess. I've never lived anywhere else, but from what I understand, artists roll through Boston and the audiences are all too jaded and hanging around and not seeming into shows. Not tonight, not even a little. Everyone sang every word to every song, it was great.

At one point, Jerry Cantrell tried to hand a pick to someone and took a mean header off the stage into the 3' gated security area dealy. Got back up, miraculously, found a mike, and just said "Bitch cursed us this morning" (it might have been Duvall that said this, I don't think so). Evidently Mistress Carrie (Mistress Yoko?) jinxed the band by asking them if they'd fallen off stage in an interview this morning, they said it hadn't happened in some time, now BAM. Har.

I have to say I enjoyed this even more than the Lupo's show, if that's even possible, probably just due to my proximity. I got more energy from the band, and crowd, than I have in a long time.

Toward the end, the road cases I was camped out on became stage runway, so suddenly I was gathering up my stuff and joining the staff in holding the cases tight for Jerry and William so no one else took a spill. They were incredibly interactive with the audience and it was great to see how happy a band can look when they seem to be really having fun.

Here's the setlist as it was handed to me, looks totally accurate:

Rain When I Die
Again
Check My Brain
Them Bones
Dam That River
A Looking In View
We Die Young
Nutshell
Down in a Hole
God Am
Acid Bubble
Angry Chair
Man in the Box
Would?

Encores:
Sludge Factory
No Excuses
Rooster

And here's some of my favorites out of the dozens and dozens of pictures I got. Many more at Flickr, many more than that on my machine. Clicky Biggy:

PICTURES!

Pretenders, Cat Power and Jackie Jorp-Jomp, Hampton Beach Casino - 8/8/2009

Sat, 08/08/2009 - 6:12pm — xrayspx

--There were no cameras allowed tonight, so instead I live-blogged the first two sets from my phone, and kept a setlist for the Pretenders set--

Unnatural Born Singer
Why do I keep going places when I know Juliette Lewis is going to be there?

Just because someone can act like Janis Joplin and be a screaming disheveled trainwreck on stage does not give one the artistic cache to make people buy you as a musician. Juliette Lewis just strikes me as an actor acting like a musician they like.

Jackie Jorp-Jomp indeed

At least there were more people there this time around. The last time we saw her we were about the only people in seats (3rd row), so she had me, one superfan on the left, and one superfan on the right, to play to. I spent a lot of time under the concentrated gaze of Juliette Lewis and feeling kind of uncomfortable about it. I have to admit, she worked hard despite the fact that most of the venue was desperately empty, and it showed that she really did care about putting on a show. A lot of "hobby project" actor/musicians probably would have sucked a lot worse.

Cat Power, however, has 100x the actual soul of Juliette. She was really great. I've not listened to her CDs much, since I can't Get Things Done with slow music, but I really enjoyed her set. Aside from the obvious Fiona Apple comparison, she really reminded me of Beth Orton in a big way. Yay Cat Power, possibly the most OCD person, and second most uncomfortable person I've seen fight through it and get on a stage, the first most-uncomfortable being Kristin Hersh.

To them, it's so important to get the music out and perform it that they have to make themselves go on stage and do the job. I respect the hell out of that.

--end of cleaned and edited live-blogged piece--

The Pretenders set made me really happy, Chrissy Hynde exhales Rock. She looked and sounded fantastic, and at least two guitars were murdered by James Walbourne. They played several new songs that I didn't know, but lots of other people did, and the crowd was really into the show. I liked the un-complicated stage/lights.

I'm also appreciating the Casino a lot, I think especially with the death of Avalon and its subsequent replacement by a concrete-floored bunker-of-kitsch. The Casino's a great place to see bands in the summer and get the whole floor shaking. Social D should be good there.

Here's the setlist. I didn't do the first song, and then I immediately forgot it, so hopefully someone can remind me and I'll add it:

(some song goes here, it had maracas which were way too loud, I hate my memory)
Message of Love
Love's a Mystery
Kid
The Nothing Maker
Rosalee (murdered strat)
my city was gone
back on the chaingang
Angel of the Morning
Almost Perfect
The Last Ride
Don't get me wrong
Thumbelina (murdered tele)
Don't Cut Your Hair
Night in My Veins
Precious
Boots of Chinese Plastic
Mystery Achievement

Encores:

I'll stand by you
Brass in Pocket
Middle of the road.

Depeche Mode - Mansfield, MA 7/31/2009

Sat, 08/01/2009 - 12:50pm — xrayspx

[music | Eddie Murphy & Rick James - Party all the Time]

Twenty years ago, my boss saw Depeche Mode at Great Woods, with Nitzer Ebb opening. Last night I thought that that must have been the show to see. An archived Globe article tells me I'm wrong. Nitzer Ebb would have made a much better opener than Peter, Bjorn and John, though. PB&J just pretty much annoyed us. The best part of their set was my SMS conversation about it. ("they're playing "Party all the Time", swear to god". "Hey, they're doing the Jitterbug into my brain". "PB&J (HAH) are doing Erasure covers".) before it devolved into Scandinavian bands that should have been on the stage instead. "Hey, at least the Ace of Base girl was stacked, the PB&J guy is kind of doughy, but it's just not the same".

Update: My copypasta review at Last.fm has gotten a couple of comments which made a really good point. Looking back it looks like we didn't enjoy or somehow regretted this show. Negative, it was awesome, it could have sounded better, and I'm willing to accept that it might have been our position in the venue. Let me know if you were in the middle and it sounded great to you. I still have high hopes for the CD!

NIN/JA Tour, Mansfield MA

Thu, 06/04/2009 - 2:03am — xrayspx

[music | Pigface - Alles Ist Mine (DJ? Acucrack remix)]

I've been looking forward to seeing The Coup again since 2006. They're probably best known for the unfortunately timed release of the Party Music LP . In 2006 they opened for Les Claypool and damn near stole the show for me. Unfortunately I haven't bought the Street Sweeper Social Club CD yet, so I knew pretty much none of their music except the couple tracks I had listened to once. This is much more rock-with-a-rapper than The Coup, and it lacks a lot of the funk that makes me love The Coup, but they're different bands. Street Sweeper was good, and Tom Morello is great. In addition to their own songs, they covered the Paper Planes by M.I.A. Also, Boots Riley is simply a blurry guy, and cannot be photographed. And since we're talking about sampling a sample of a Clash song, Why doesn't anyone cover Guns of Brixton?

I've seen Nine Inch Nails many, many times, and as always the show was great. This was a little different format to allow for Jane's Addiction's set, so the sets were kind of short, but NIN played a fast-paced set and fit in lots of material into the relatively short time they had. This was a much faster-paced show than in November, for instance, which had a lot more concept-type instrumentals. It's sad to think this might be the final tour, though I never buy that. It was quite a while between tours in the '90s for instance. We'll miss you Trent, until you come back around.

During the NIN set, Natalie started elbowing me to death, and said "HUMANWINE" and was pointing. So I started looking around and thought I saw a guy who looked like M@, and was looking around for Holly, but saw nothing. Turns out that Holly was about 4" off my port bow, and I was looking over her to look for her. If I'd noticed her I surely would have tapped her and let her know how much we loved watching them work, and how we plan to watch them again soon, as well as to ask to get a pic with her. Seriously, go see HUMANWINE. Funnest. Live. Show. Ever. As an example of how ridiculous it is that I was staring right at this girl and didn't notice her, see this tattoo evidence:

This was my first time seeing Jane's Addiction, and I couldn't have been happier with their set. We don't see enough absolute shredding guitar hero Rock Stars and I loved watching Dave Navarro tear these songs up. Sound-wise it was pretty bass-heavy, but they were loud and hard, and that's what I wanted. They closed the set with Stop! and acoustic Jane Says. They played most everything I'd wanted to hear and they played it loud. And with good lights, and fun outfits.

Here's my attempt at explaining myself on the quality of these photos. I suck. I think I forgot how to take pictures during the NIN set, which is super hard for me to take decent pictures of in the first place with so much strobing backlighting. The Jane's Addiction set turned out much better, though it's a bit of a Navarro-fest. What can I say, he's a very pretty man.

I also learned that digital zoom is sold by charlatans, to morons. I'd never tried using it before and it was a huge mistake. We were back far enough that it seemed like a good idea at the time, and the pics looked pretty reasonable on the camera as I took them, but man did it make them all pixellated. Live and learn I guess, here are some of the better ones from the night, more here:

Pictures

Leonard Cohen - Wang Center, Boston MA 5-29-2009

Sat, 05/30/2009 - 2:59am — xrayspx

[music | Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Tower of Song] -- note: This isn't as much worth chasing down as it sounds, more just "fun".

¿Quien es mas Macho: Leonard Cohen, o Nick Cave?

Tonight's Leonard Cohen show will certainly have been the coolest show I go to this year. As people have been saying all tour, he just keeps going and going. This show clocked 3:15 including a 15 minute intermission. The arrangements were spot on, and at 74, he can run and skip around the stage better than I could. I am horrible at remembering sets, songs I know happened were:

Everybody Knows
Tower of Song
First We Take Manhattan
Boogie Street (Robinson)
A thousand Kisses Deep
Waiting for the Miracle
Democracy
Suzanne
Take this Waltz
Anthem
The Future
I'm your Man
Perfect Offering
Chelsea Hotel
Hallelujah
If It Be Your Will (Webb Sisters, awesomely)
Bird on a Wire?

Closing Time (laughs)
I Tried to Leave You (bigger laughs)

Fill in what I'm missing if you could, that would be swell.

Pictures and less than apt comparisons

Auto-Tune the News

Sun, 05/24/2009 - 1:05am — xrayspx

Study this, there will be a quiz at the end of the week:

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