September 27 2008: Ryan Adams and the Cardinals - Auditorium Theatre, Rochester NY

So Drew had the hookup for free Ryan Adams tickets and was offering to drive and I had the weekend off and we pricelined a decent room downtown for $60 so off we headed to Rochester. Of course, I don't really know much of Ryan Adams' catalog. I'm pretty familiar with "Heartbreaker" and really really like that Whiskeytown tune "Jacksonville Skyline" that Caitlin's always playing. Other than that, it's a couple tunes on "Gold," a handful on "Cold Roses," and that's pretty much it. But a free show is a free show, and I'm always up for trips out of town to see music and drink beer.

Drew's seats were dead center, ten rows from the stage, in one of the more ornate theatres I've been in. Not too shabby. Things that were shabby: no beer options aside from Coors Light after the people in front of us bought the last Heinekin in the house. But no worries: if there are two guys too good for Coors Light out of a can at a Ryan Adams show, they are not me and definitely not Drew.

The band played two sets with no opener. In the first set I knew two songs: "Come Pick Me Up," which they did second and which I really really enjoyed, and a pretty good cover of Oasis' "Wonderwall" that they crowd went crazy for, but I've seen Oasis do it better. Second set the only tune I knew was "Let it Ride." But they closed with a great number that Drew said was on "Life is Hell." Maybe I'll have to give that album a listen. I was hoping to hear "Magnolia Mountain" or "Oh My Sweet Carolina," which he opened with to great effect the only other time I'd seen him, but no dice. Good show though. Just a shame he was too cool to play an acoustic guitar.

And after the show we had ourselves a good time at this bar that we happend to walk past and that I recognized as a place I'd spent time in with Ryan and Heather the only other time I'd been in Rochester, and then we made it to another bar that Peter Hughes had reccomended to us and where we both ordered the $3 pabst-and-shot special. Not a bad night at all.

September 18 2008: Built to Spill, the Meat Puppets - Pearl Street Ballroom, Northampton MA

Me and Jared Jost went to see Built to Spill in an upstairs space billing itself as a ballroom! Just like old times! We didn't drive to the show in a big-ass van with a tape deck, but things change. Instead he drove in from Boston after work and met me at Sierra and we drank great beer and ate great food before the show. Give me food and beer over a van any day.

The Meat Puppets opened. They were mostly awful. And the only songs they played that anyone in the audience seemed to know were "Plateau," somewhere in the middle, and "Lake of Fire," which they closed with. Frankly, Nirvana did them better. They also did that Jimmy Driftwood tune "Tennessee Stud."

But Built to Spill! Martsch, Nelson, Netson, Roth, Plouf, plus some dude on cello! And they played straight through "Perfect From Now On." Which was great on one hand, cause that's a pretty good bunch of songs. But I didn't really enjoy knowing exactly what was coming next. However, I'd never seen them play "Kicked it in the Sun" before, and hadn't seen songs like "Untrustable" or "Out of Site" in quite a while. And to hear them with the cellist was lots of fun.

After they finished those eight "Perfect From Now On" tunes they went right into "Goin' Against Your Mind," which I really like but always wish they'd play like they played it in 2006 before they recorded it. That opening guitar line that they do these days just plaes in comparison to what it used to be. And for the encore it was "Big Dipper" followed by "Car." Fun to hear those tunes again too.

And fun to hear Built to Spill songs with Jared and then retire to my porch after the show and watch the cars drive by and drink cheap beer and finish off Jared's pack of Parliments. Just like we used to do.

September 13 2008: Sarah Levecque - The Basement, Northampton MA

The nice thing about playing your own show is getting to invite Sarah Levecque out to open and then getting to see she and Pete (I guess they fired the band) play while drinking free BBC pales.

The basement stunk, olfactorally, but what else is new? And Sarah/Pete were, as is also not new, fantastic. And good enough to hold their own without the band. They played most if not all of their new record, which I've been playing on repeat recently, and it was just plain nice to see them again.

September 11 2008: The Fawns, This Frontier Needs Heros - Sierra Grille, Northampton MA

Went to see the Fawns at Sierra!

This Frontier Needs Heros, from New York I think, opened and were pretty good. Some pleasant songs but I don't remember any of them now.

And the Fawns played like they usually play: well. Opened with "Any Day," finished with "Would You Stop?," and in the middle played a bunch of other tunes. Including "Snow Day" with Philip Price sharing Henning's mic for backup vocals.

Good times, especially for $2 and with ready access to O'Haras.

September 4 2008: Silver Jews, Mike Flood - Iron Horse, Northampton MA

The Silver Jews! In my town!

Caitlin and I got there just as Mike Flood (an old-time local who according to Silberstein was once in Sebadoh) was starting and headed to the bar where we ran into Shoshana! Who invited us to her/Luke's table upstairs, which was way better than dealing with the kids downstairs.

The Jews opened with "Trains Across the Sea," which pretty much made my night right there, and then into "San Francisco B.C.," which continues to grow on me and was pretty good live. Behrman wasn't on guitar though, aside from one tune in the encore, but was just sort of hanging out and singing into the mic. And though his big goofy glasses earned him some style points, he wasn't a particularly effective front man in the guitar-less tradition. Whatever, cause who needs to be a particularly effective front man when you play a songs like "Random Rules" (including some local on trumpet) and "Horseleg Swastikas." "K-Hole" reminded me what a great song that is, and "Aloysius, Bluegrass Drummer" was fabulous. And "Smith and Jones Forever" too. Not a bad set at all. I was enjoying myself. Caitlin appeared to be enjoying herself. Shoshana/Luke looked pretty happy and it turns out it was their 19th wedding aniversary that night.

The encore was where it was really at, though: "Pretty Eyes" (never listened to it seriously before aside from apreciating the delivery on the "That's not what I'd call a life" line, but it was great through and through live) into "The Wild Kindness" (with full-on keyboards and perfect. One of my favorite songs ever probably) into "Tennessee" (one of my favorite Jews songs) into "Punks in the Beerlight" (which the kids starting jumping up and down for, and which really is a great song).

No "Candy Jail" or "Party Barge," but we went home happy and filled with BBC porter. And did I mention they did "The Wild Kindness"?!?!?? Yay!