April 20 2007: Kristin Hersh, Dolorean - Iron Horse, Northampton MA

I got pretty excited when I heard Dolorean was coming to town. And for good reason. Their 35-minute opening set was some of the best 35 minutes of live music I've heard in a while.

They opened with "Heather Remind Me How This Ends," without keyboards but just two guitars, bass and drums. Al played the nicest rhythm you've ever heard, the rhythm section was perfectly subtle, the lead guitar player knew just how to play the song, and Al's voice sent shivers down my spine. They then went into "To Destruction," "Put You to Sleep," "In Love with the Doubt" and "What One Bottle Can Do." Sometimes Al would play acoustic, sometimes electric. Sometimes the lead player would switch to steel guitar. Through it all nothing could have been better. It was perfect.

And that word Perfect gets batted around an awful lot and seems often used to describe things that really aren't inarguably and utterly without flaw. But I use it here in nothing but the truest sense: I wouldn't have changed one second of the set. Nothing could have made it better.

Especially after they went into "Violence in the Snowy Fields." Unbelievable. People were on their feet to applaud. And then when the set closed with "Hannibal, MO" the audience clapped, and clapped, and clapped. For a few minutes there I thought the band might have to come back out for one last tune, but then a CD started playing over the PA came and somebody announced that Kristin Hersh would be up in a few minutes. Goddamn.

But I suppose that if nothing else Kristin deserves credit for the sheer balls required to take a stage after Dolorean. Cause no matter how great she could have been, she could not have matched those opening thirty-five minutes.

April 14 2007: Son Volt - Pearl Street Ballroom, Northampton MA

So after some major carpool drama we finally got back into town by 9 and Caitlin and Alicia and I met up with Classmate And Soon To Be Neighbor Marie and a couple of Caitlin's friends and we all drank beer and watched Son Volt play. Son Volt, whose songs I don't really know at all but who I'd seen at Bumbershoot a couple years ago and was impressed by. Son Volt, whose songs I really want to get to know now.

It was just a great rock show. Two guys on guitar, one guy on bass, one guy on keyboards, one guy on drums, one of the guitar guys singing and playing harmonica. Good solid electric guitar rock tunes interspersed with good solid one acoustic/one electric rock tunes. The kind of songs that (if you're like me and didn't know them in the first place) you really enjoy at the time but fully realize that you could be enjoying them so much more if you only knew them enough to sing along in your head and anticipate that harmonica line.

But it was mostly a social-type occasion, with half the show spent near the front where it was too loud to talk and the other half spent near the bar where it was too loud to talk but where we tried anyway and where there was convenient access to overpriced beer. And I'm pretty sure good times were had by all.