June 27 2008: Josh Ritter and the Boston Pops - Symphony Hall, Boston MA

Caitlin and I went to see Ritter play with the Boston Pops backing him up. It was unbelievable.

We got some floor seats the day of the show for relatively cheap and showed up at Symphony Hall to find that the seats included a table and drink/dessert service. In a place that's pretty unbelievably good-looking. I was expecting something in vein of the Schnitzer. Instead, it was a big room with a level floor, with all these people sitting in folding chairs and drinking their drinks and eating their desserts. There were two short balconies, and the place was surprisingly small. Someone who spends their free time writing wikipedia entries says that Symphony Hall is "widely considered to be one of the two or three finest concert halls in the world." I can't speak to that, but when we walked in and I saw what I saw, I got pretty excited.

And Ritter came out, with the regular band plus the orchestra, to open with "Idaho," mostly solo/acoustic, but with piano, french horn and what was either the kick drum or some fancy orchestral drum at the very end. It was almost perfect. Or I thought almost perfect until the next tune, "Best For the Best," which included the full orchestra for the entirety of the tune. The orchestra played a mostly backing role until the third verse, when they really swelled up, and then in the fourth verse they REALLY swelled up. I was pretty much beside myself. And the crowd was polite as could be. They didn't talk, they didn't yell, they just sat there and listened and then clapped after the song ended. How much better? How much better? Could my life get?

The answer to that question was answered during the third tune: "Other Side," which I'm pretty sure I've never seen played before. It was inarguably the highlight of the night. Started out with just acoustic guitar for the first half of the first verse, and the band and orchestra came in for the second verse, and then REALLY came in between the second and third verses, the break between which got extended to probably a full minute. Josh was singing some "oh no no"s, the orchestra was going at full power, and then everything dropped off entirely with nothing but acoustic guitar for the "So at night I sit and watch for stars" line. Some more "oh no no"s during the outro. Goddamn. Godmotherfuckingdamn. THAT, my friends, was perfect. I get chills just listening to the tape.

"Rumors," "Girl in the War," "Wolves," "Bone of Song," "Right Moves," "The Temptation of Adam," etc. These were all pretty good, but they had nothing on those first three tunes. The orchestra just lends itself to the slow tunes. Slow tunes like "Monster Ballads," which was particularly nice to hear. And "Thin Blue Flame," which was performed by just Josh and a violinist. Caitlin (and apparently most of the crowd) thought this was flat-out mindbendingly amazing. I thought it was pretty great, but not standing ovation great. The violinist came in during the third verse and stayed with him through the end of the tune, and was good enough to follow Ritter through his last verse fuckup/restart without missing a beat. You think of classical musicians as working off of sheet music (which this guy was) and unable to accommodate improvisation. But this guy didn't miss a beat, and I was listening for it. My hat is off.

Towards the end of the set Robert Pinsky came out to read a couple poems to the tune of "Edge of the World." Which was fun and interesting. I hope the old lady behind us in the line to get in was satisfied. "Who is this Ritter character," she asked. "Is it kid music or adult music? I'm just here to see Robert Pinsky read."

My only real compliant is that the arrangements often had the orchestra playing second fiddle (ha!) to a guitar or piano solo - everyone in the band seemed to play their standard lines with little accommodation made for the fact that they had all these backing players at their disposal. Particularly the "Right Moves" and "Empty Hearts" solos - they could have been so much better had violins played them instead. But maybe no one pays me to arrange their orchestra's music for a reason. Who knows.

The set closed with "Kathleen." It was great. Not much going on orchestrally, but still great. The encore was "Wildfires" (amazing - now that's the way to start an encore) and "Empty Hearts." I was happy. Caitlin was happy. We drove to Revere and ate cheap onion rings on the beach. What else can you do after you see Josh Ritter backed by an orchestra?

June 26 2008: The Hold Steady, Aberdeen City - Paradise, Boston MA

So a couple days ago I looked at the Hold Steady's website to see if they were playing any shows anytime soon. And there it was, a free show in Boston on thursday. I love not working!

I dragged Sweeney out of the house by promising to buy him a beer and to help him pack stuff up the next day, and times were good. I'd never been to the Paradise before and was pretty pleased with the layout. We got ourselves a spot to stand upstairs just across from the stage, high above the craziness that we figured was going to ensue.

The first band was pretty rough. Rarely does one see the lead guitarist play with his teeth. Probably because it makes the guy look like a fucking douche. Maybe this guy was doing it to keep people from noticing that all his band's songs were bad Radiohead ripoffs. Who knows. What I do know is that Sweeney and I were definitely paying more attention to our High Life consuption than we were to the openers. Thank goodness for earplugs.

And then the Hold Steady came on stage and opened with "Constructive Summer," a tune I've been playing pretty regularly around the house as of late. Great fucking tune. And from that into "Sequestered in Memphis," "The Swish" and "The Cattle and the Creeping Things." Not a bad way to start a show. And those earplugs? I couldn't bear to keep them in.

Most of the new record got played. Everything, I think, except for "Both Crosses," which is a shame cause I think that's probably one of the best tunes on it. They played "Knuckles," which I'd never heard before, and closed the set with "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" into "Slapped Actress." The encore finished up with "Southtown Girls," which I honestly don't dislike anymore. I really like the riff. And the structure doesn't annoy me as much anymore. But they opened the encore with "One For the Cutters," arguably one of the worst songs I've ever heard. Seriously. Why do bands do stuff like that? I do not know.

But you just can't beat a free show sponsored by Miller in which the lead guitar player feels the need to prophylacticly cover his pedals with cellophane. That's my kind of show.

June 19 2008: Carrie Rodriguez, Adam Sweeney - Iron Horse, Northampton MA

Went down to the Iron Horse to see Sweeney's last east coast gig before he moves back to Portland. It was pretty good times. He played a few new tunes that I hadn't heard and played the old ones as well as he usually does. Drew and Lisa and Caitlin and Mariah were there, and so was everybody's best friend BBC porter. And so was some lady who kept glaring at me and Caitlin while we were whispering things to each other during the music. I couldn't even hear Caitlin was saying sometimes, I just sat there nodding and then whispering appropriate responses like "that's crazy!" and "uh huh" back to her. But apparently this lady could hear everything. It was impressive.

Carrie Rodriguez and her band played after Sweeney finished. They were alright. It was hard to tell what with all those goddamn people whispering to each other.

June 13 2008: REM, Modest Mouse, the National - Comcast Center, Mansfield MA

It was a idyllic fucking day. The sky was blue, Cait and I were in Boston anyway, and we got what were otherwise $40 lawn seats for $15 each at the last minute. We got picnic supplies from the Foodmaster: bread, tomatoes, mozzarella, chips, tonic water and a lime. We went home and made sandwiches and cut the limes up and put them in a tupperware. Picked up some Tanqueray nips on the way out of town.

Made it out of town with relatively little traffic and were soon walking around with our shoes off on soft green grass and eating tasty sandwiches and enjoying gin & tonics. There were cute little kids running around. It was 70 degrees and there was no humidity and they sky was blue with little white wispy clouds. Oh yes.

The National played first. They seemed alright. We were sad when they stopped playing because we were getting a kick watching some teenagers across the lawn try to dance. And Modest Mouse! I hadn't seen them in three years, I think. Definitely not since their newer album, which Ben played around the house quite a bit and had a song on it, "Dashboard," that I really like. They played it. They didn't play much else that I knew. But that was ok. There were some more kids dancing and they were fun to watch too.

And REM! Whom I hadn't seen in five years. They were better then. But they were pretty good here too. Opened with the first song from the new record and then into "Begin the Begin" and "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" I liked this. I like the new record, am always glad to hear "Begin the Begin," and had never seen "Kenneth" played live. It was a great way to star the set.

"Circus Envy" was played fourth, and I'd never seen it before and always liked the song. Reminds me of the couple months I spent driving clients around in a van with the "Monster" tape and not much else. They did "Man -Sized Wreath" and "Departure" and "Hollow Man," none of which I'd heard before and all of which were great. "Houston" was played, but the keyboards and bass were way too low and so it lost so much of what makes the recorded take great. "Electrolyte" was fun to hear again and reminded me of driving around San Francisco in 2002. And near the end of the set, the band huddled on a corner of the stage and got out acoustic guitars to play "I've Been High" followed by "Let Me In." Jesus, did I wish I was in a club. Those songs were amazing up on the grass and I can't imagine how much better they would have been with the band right in front of me. And "Let Me In"!!!!! They played that one the first time I saw them play, when I went up to Seattle with Ryan in 2001 and I didn't even know the song. It's since become one of my very very favorites and I always figured that seeing some tune from the second half of everyone's least-favorite REM record could never happen twice. And wow was it worth the wait.

The set finished up with "Orange Crush" and "I'm Gonna DJ." The encore was the new single followed by a half-assed "Losing My Religion," then "Rockville," "Fall On Me," "Pretty Persuasion," and "Man in the Moon." Johnny Marr joined them on those last three. The encore highlight was definitely "Fall On Me," not for them playing it fantastically or anything, but just because the other tunes were pretty sub-par. Which was too bad. I've seen "Losing My Religion" and "Man on the Moon" be fucking showstoppers. Oh Well.

And! Nothing from "Up"! Which I kept holding out for. I was disappointed. But we still had a great time, and for pretty cheap. And for the record: for the second time in his life, Adam Sweeney passed up a $15 REM show. Dude needs to get his priorities straight.

June 3 2008: Justin Townes Earle - Iron Horse, Northampton MA

So this Justin Townes Earle character happens to be Steve Earle's kid. And we got thrown onto the bill and were given free booze so I stuck around to watch him play. Lots of pretty good old-style country tunes, and a few great ones thrown in every now and then, performed by two guys dressed like they're old dudes in Nashville. Good times.