April 20 2008: Lou Reed, Thurston Moore - Calvin Theatre, Northampton MA

I guess maybe Emma was supposed to go to this show, cause Drew had two tickets and no one to go with. So I offered to buy beer if he wanted to take me.

Thurston Moore was up first and played three songs. The first an acoustic number I didn't know with a woman on violin. The second was Cohen's "Hallelujah" with Thurston on acoustic, violin woman on violin, and some other guy on vocals. And the third was ten minutes of noise with thurston on electric, violin woman on violin, some other guy on bass, and about a million different fuzz pedals. If it had been a bunch of kids at the Elevens playing it I would have walked right out, but I was willing to give Thurston the benefit of the doubt. And if nothing else it was pretty amusing to watch everyone in the Calvin try to figure out what the fuck was happening. When it ended there was probably a 60:40 claps-to-boos ratio.

Lou played about half songs I knew, half ones I didn't, and played them all pretty well. "Sweet Jane" was second in the set, and thought it was good I've heard it better. "Ecstasy" was really good, as were the two songs from his Edgar Allan Poe album. He did "I'm Set Free," which I didn't expect at all and which was really fun to hear. And a new song, presumably called "Power of the Heart," which was slow and maybe the best thing I'd heard in a month. Drew agrees. It was incredible.

And for the encore, he did "Pale Blue Eyes." Never thought I'd see that live in all my life. It was good. Not great, but really really good.

For a couple beers thrown Drew's way, the night was well worth it.