xrayspx's blog

I don't generally write much about shows anymore, but the Pogues, well, they're special. Thanks to being at the Concrete Abomination of Lansdowne Street there are no photos.

We saw them a few years ago back when this was still the Avalon, and allowed things like going outside to smoke, and where they believed in the comfort of their patrons and provided us with a nice springy not-concrete floor to stand on for 5 hours.

[music | Th' Legendary Shack Shakers - Bullfrog Blues]

We saw a rather short show with Wanda Jackson at the Royale last night. Unfortunately she has been playing pretty much a show a day for the last couple of weeks, and her voice was pretty well shot. The audience still loved her though, even though it was a shortened set, and it seems they're going to work out another date as a make-up show. Chances are good that whatever date they pick we'll either be out of town or have another show booked, we will see though!

[music | Throwing Muses - Soul Soldier, Live At The Middle East]

Here are some of my favorite photos from the fantastic Gang of Four show at the Paradise. We even got Hugo Burnham for a few songs! I know one of Natalie's cow-orkers had him as a professor in school in Boston, so we were glad he sat in.

[music | DEVO - I'm A Potato]
I don't have time to write much tonight, but I wanted to post some pictures

Tonight we saw the English Beat for the second time at the same venue, Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry. I've got kind of mixed feelings on the venue, since it's a pretty chill atmosphere with a BYOB policy, but they had chairs, for a dancy fun band, again.

In any case the band was great and after a couple of songs the crowd really started getting into it, as much as we could with the chairs around. They're going to be doing a couple more local shows, one at another Tupelo location in White River Jct. VT, and then back at the Londonderry location for New Years, which I may go to, depending on whether friends go.

Musically they're still really tight and really interact well with the crowd. The best quote, after Dave polished off a container of coconut milk:

"They can make wine out of it. And it's a fruit, just like the tomato. 53 years and I still can't get the fucking hang of this planet..."

Here are some photos from the show, not that great, but I was back 11 rows, and was bouncing around, click them to view at Flickr:

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Infected Mushroom just lied to my face, and made me walk out. I just paid $50 to watch people pretend to make music. It was insulting to the audience, and I can only hope they feel like complete frauds, though I doubt it.