The Rock And Roll O Logues

Mixed Emotions Regarding Wild Flag In Northampton Today

2012-02-02T11:10:00.003-05:00

Love that Wild Flag album. Saw the band play three times last year, and enjoyed each show quite a bit.

But: bought a copy of the Get Up 45 online and it came in the mail today. Listening to that thing makes me sad. Cause Wild Flag seems to be a Fully Functioning Rock And Roll Machine that intends to do things like play the northeast three times per year and record more records and rarely take time off, etc. Which I figure puts the odds of future one-off Sleater-Kinney (with Hazel opening, in my fantasy world) shows pretty low.

So: mixed emotions happening here in Northampton today.

Full Circle

2011-11-01T11:42:00.003-04:00

Was in New York over the weekend to see some music. Friday night was at the City Winery, mostly cause Darnielle and Finn were sharing the bill. Couple of my favorite singers on the same stage is generally enough to get me out of the house.

The unannounced addition to the bill was Rosanne Cash. She opened with "Girl From the North Country" which I guess is full-enough circle for most folks. But she closed with a song I'd forgotten about, "Seven Year Ache." Today I looked it up on the wikipedia and find it hit #1 in May 1981. And was followed, after a single week at the top, by the Oak Ridge Boys' "Elvira." AKA what was probably my first favorite song. And AKA what was definitely the first song on the first album ("Fancy Free") I paid my own cash money for. Picked it up at the now-defunct Tower Records at the Beaverton Mall. 4th or 5th grade. First of much cash money to be spent at that Tower Records before figuring out that better deals were to be had across whatever street that was at the Everyday Music.

Years and years later I remember going through the 50-cent bin of used LPs at that Everyday Music and coming across a copy of "Fancy Free." Guess I didn't think it was worth that kind of money at the time. Maybe I wanted it but didn't have the balls to bring it up to the counter. Maybe I was there with a girl (doubtful but it did happen occasionally) and figured I'd do better to make haste to the Sleater-Kinney rack. Kind of wish I'd picked it up now.

Lookout Mountain Lookout Sea

2011-07-13T11:05:00.003-04:00

That last Silver Jews record, while not exactly a shower, is turning into be one hell of a grower.

Been listening to it so much lately that last night Dean, the guy with a friendly side and the killer cut, showed up in a dream.

But he wasn't talking about insignificant shit. Or heavy metal. Didn't say much of anything, in fact.

It really was a pretty bad haircut.

Climbing Up The Walls

2011-06-20T22:41:00.004-04:00

Went over to Hugo's earlier tonight to watch the baseball game. I like Hugo's for baseball watching cause during baseball game hours the place is mostly just me and the bartender and a few local drunks.

But tonight: people came in around 9pm and played pool. And they put their quarters in the jukebox. And the first song they played was Climbing Up The Walls and I was 100% transported back 10 years to a time when OK Computer couldn't go a day without getting put in the CD player. To the year 2001 aka the first time I saw Radiohead play live, at the Gorge Amphitheatre out in Middle Of Nowhere WA. And as I recall after a fucking BLISTERING set they came back for an encore with Climbing Up The Walls.

I don't have conscious memory of the very first time I heard the recorded take of Climbing Up The Walls. But I sure as shit remember the first and only time I've heard it live. God damn. If there was a place and time to be, it was at the Gorge in June of 2001. And I remember it that clearly. I know the year. I know the month. I'm pretty sure it was in the latter half of the month.

Is there anything better than the Amnesiac tour at age 20? After a night of quite literally zero sleep but of many many Mirror Pond Pale Ales? And how about if they play the bulk of OK Computer? And if the 2nd encore is comprised of The Bends followed by Street Spirit? With a third encore of Motion Picture Soundtrack?

I've seen an awful lot of live music. But man, for a time and place, that Radiohead show probably can't be beat.

Did Something Just Now I've Never Done Before

2010-12-29T16:50:00.004-05:00

I sent cash in the direction of the Decemberists. Never did that before, I don't think. I know I've never bought a record. And though I've seen 'em probably 10 times or so, I think it was always for free in either record stores or at things like NXNW. Pretty sure I've never paid admission, mostly cause I've never much been into them enough to pay cash money to see them play. But they've always had a few songs that I've enjoyed.

And today I heard that new number, Down By The Water, on the radio again and man I like that song. I first heard it when Meloy was playing prior to Darnielle at CMJ a few months ago (again: free show) and was impressed with it then, and WRSI's been playing it semiregularly since then.

So today after I heard it again I figured I'd get it off the Itunes. But it was free!

So then I figured I'd go ahead and download 16 Military Wives cause I hadn't heard it in awhile and recalled it fondly. And then while I was at it I got California One, for exactly the same reasons. But those cost actual money. But, I figured, what the hell. It's about time.

So, Colin Meloy and John Moen and whatever the rest of your names are: you've got me to thank for that $1.98 minus whatever cut Itunes and then Kill Rock Stars and Hush take.

Also: you guys still on Capitol? If so, really?

If I Were Still In High School I'd Be Calling Myself A Homophobic Slur

2010-12-28T19:00:00.003-05:00

I'm selling a couple things on ebay. Dumb things like a couple Japanese-made Boss pedals form the 80s (that CE-2's going for $150! No shit!), like my old Whatever And Ever Amen LP (attn: investment bankers. You guys should have gotten in on the Ben Folds Five thing early, cause now it's paying off).

But even after I saw that my double-gatefold 2xLP copy of Smashing Pumpkins' last album, Machina the Machines of God, is going for outrageous prices, I didn't have the heart to sell it. When will I ever listen to that thing again?! But it's big, it's got an alternate track listing (ends with Blue Skies! has the b-side Speed Kills in there!) and I ended the auction minutes after I started it.

And then I ended the auctions for the Cherub Rock 12" single (Pissant and French Movie Theme on the b-side) and the Pisces Iscariot LP (translucent yellow vinyl!) too.

Good Food, Bad Luck At The Side Street Tonight

2010-12-27T21:57:00.003-05:00

It's bad news when you go out for a nice meal with the wife but the dinner music is a couple dudes on guitar and bongos.

Even worse when they do Stairway. They must think, to themselves, Wow we're gonna blow them out of the old water with our killer acoustic/bongo rendition. And they are not entirely incorrect.

And then they follow it up with D'yer Ma'ker.

I couldn't make this up if I tried.

Goddamn.

Look Out Tacoma Dome

2010-12-09T14:46:00.003-05:00

I wonder how much cash the Ticket Master makes selling email addresses to music venues. I get pretty regular emails from places all over the place. Some from places I've been to exactly once (North Star in Philadelphia, Black Cat in DC). Some from places I used to go to pretty regularly but now live far far away from (Neumo's in Seattle, Berbati's in Portland). Some from places in countries I haven't stepped foot one into in something like five years (Lee's Palace in Toronto, Bush Hall in London). Etc. Venues all over the world are, I presume, paying the Ticket Master for my email address, which the Ticket Master has cause once I bought a ticket online for a show at the Black Cat, or wherever.

Anyway: for no other reason than in 2001 I went up to the Tacoma Dome, up in beautiful/quasi-mythical Tacoma WA, cause all anybody wanted to do in 2001 as I recall was head up good old Interstate #5 to see AC/DC the T. Dome - for no other reason than I trekked up I-5 for AC/DC and made the mistake of buying that ticket online, today I am informed that should I wish to repeat that trek on July 8 I can catch the New Kids On The Block, with the Back Street Boys in the opening slot.

Look out Tacoma!

Big Day For Manchester At Northampton Area Grocery Stores

2010-11-16T15:30:00.003-05:00

Stop & Shop: Wonderwall
State Street: I Wanna Be Adored
Co-Op: 24 Hour Party People

Never Crossed Mind In 1999

2010-10-19T18:30:00.006-04:00

That 11 years later I'd be watching Ben Gibbard's wife sing God Bless America during the 7th inning stretch on national television.

Dance Party for the Kitchen Staff

2010-05-22T18:57:00.004-04:00

Rough day at work yesterday until I finally made it to the cafeteria just before 2pm. "Bizarre Love Triangle" was playing real loud on the radio and all the kitchen workers were getting down. I got the mashed potatoes and bok choy and a yogurt. Things were right in the world.

Letter to Record Stores

2010-05-17T17:10:00.005-04:00

Dear Record Stores: I don't want you to go out of business so please stock the records I want to buy and then I can happily buy them from you. Everybody wins.

I bring this up because the new Hold Steady and the new Josh Ritter albums were both issued on the same day a couple weeks ago. I walked down to Turn It Up that morning but they had neither on vinyl. So I drove to Amherst the next day and tried the Newbury Comics, who were out of both CDs and had no Ritter vinyl and wanted $20 for the Hold Steady vinyl. So I went home and ordered both from Amazon and they showed up at my door two days later, $23 including shipping.

Also: you should get together with Ritter and maybe have a heart-to-heart regarding songs about mummies and murder ballads and songs in which girls repeat "black hole black hole" over and over and over again. Might be a difficult conversation but it seems like a great way to sell more records. As I say, win-win.

Pavement At The Ballpark

2010-05-01T15:43:00.000-04:00

Listened to the baseball game on the radio the other day and they like to play a song when coming out of commercials. Somebody put "Silence Kit" into the space between the local Subaru dealership's ad and the bottom of the 5th. And here I thought the only way to hear that song was to put it on when I take a shower. If there were a hit parade for when I'm in the shower the first few songs on "Crooked Rain" would be at the top of the charts.

March 7 2009: The Lonesome Brothers - Brass Cat, Easthampton MA

2009-03-17T03:48:00.000-04:00

Drew called and asked if I'd like to arrange to get the night off in order to play in Easthampton with the Lonesome Brothers. I thought that sounded like a pretty good idea. Nothing says good times like Brass Cat, free booze and a Lonesome Brothers show.

They played two sets but I was tired and left halfway through the second. They opened with "Fins on a Cadillac" and somewhere in there did "Galaxy." Plus a bunch of other great great tunes. Looking forward to seeing them again.

March 9 2009: Lucinda Williams, Buick 6 - Calvin Theatre, Northampton MA

2009-03-09T03:50:00.000-04:00

Me and Caitlin got fourth row seats the day before and went to see one of our collectively favorite musicians play.

The openers were fucking horrendous, though the crowd was pretty into them. Imagine all the worst parts of Pink Floyd, whoever your least-favorite band is, and a jackhammer. Now combine all three. That's them. Spot on, talented musicians playing instrumental music to kill yourself to. Fucking awful.

Fortunately the openers pulled it together long enough to be Lucinda's backing band, and to do it quite well. She opened with some old tunes I didn't know, and closed with pretty much the same string of songs she closed with when I saw her in September, and it was great. "I Lost It" and "Metal Firecracker" were both highlights. The new stuff was great, especially "Real Love" and "Little Rock Star," both played back to back. And "Little Rock Star" didn't have that awful backing vocal line during the chorus which allowed the chords to ring through and turns out to be the only thing holding back the recorded take. I loved that song when I heard it live first, and couldn't figure out why I would have loved something like that once I heard the record. Now I know.

The closing few numbers included "Essence," "Joy," "Honey Bee," "Come On" and "Righteously." Nothing wrong with that.

And the encore was all covers, including Skip James' "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues," which it turns out is waaaaaay better when an actual blues band plays it than when Built to Spill plays it. And "Long Way to the Top," which is just plain fun to hear Lucinda play.

We went home happy.

February 21 2009: Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - Orpheum Theatre, Boston MA

2009-02-21T03:36:00.000-05:00

I was supposed to work this night. It was my weekend on. But I got it off, and Drew had tickets to see the Cardinals play and I'd never been to the Orpheum so I figured that figured for a good time.

Drove in with Caitlin and dropped her off in Dorchester to see Smita's new baby before heading downtown to commence drinking our way through the evening. The Cardinals opened with "I See Monsters" and it was great. They did "Let it Ride" and "Easy Plateau" and "Wonderwall" and "Come Pick Me Up" before closing the first set with a Neil Casall number.

Between sets I tried to procure us another two $10 24oz Harpoons but failed. Not saying why.

Second set started with "Shakedown on 9th Street" into "Rescue Blues." And they did "Oh My Sweet Carolina," aka the first Ryan Adams tune I ever saw live and as such the first Ryan Adams tune I'd ever heard. It was great to hear it again, and almost as good as it was in 2002. And they closed with another cover. Amuse yourself here, please, and try to guess what they played before continuing to read. Alright: I'll bet you a million bucks you didn't guess "Down in a Hole." You know, the Alice in Chains song. And yes, it was pretty amusing.

Show ended and Drew and I went down the street to wait for Caitlin to come pick us up and drive us home. Got some pizza in Somerville on the way out of town. I ate mine. Drew passed out face first in his. It was that kind of night.

January 31 2009: Adam Sweeney, Katie Sawicki - Conor Byrne Pub, Seattle WA

2009-01-31T03:26:00.000-05:00

Was in Portland with Caitlin anyway, and Sweeney tells me he's playing a show in Ballard and that we should come. And who are we to say no to Sweeney? So Ryan/Heather got called up, and they in turn called up Keith/Robin and every other Montana expat in Seattle, and we had ourselves a good old time.

Got into town a little late after making a stop for a couple beers with Alicia at the Red Lion in Kelso, but we still beat the Montanans. Got some Green Lakes and promptly ran into Behr (drumming w/ Sweeney these days), Fuller (providing percussion via egg shaker these days), Greene (who was nice enough to give us an advance of the new Pureka EP) and Allison Terry (hadn't seen her in at least 4 years!). And soon enough Sweeney himself, and soon after the Montanans. And Sweeney played but I hardly noticed cause I was too busy getting bought shots of the house's finest cheapest whiskey and then returning the favor.

November 23 2008: Rusty Belle - Black Moon, Belchertown MA

2008-11-23T03:07:00.000-05:00

We agreed to play this Southern Rock Tribute Night in Belchertown in exchange for a real gig there later on down the road. Which meant we drove to Belchertown, drank a few free beers at this really suprisingly nice place, played our most southern rock sounding tunes, and then sat down with more free beers to watch Rusty Belle play. They did covers like they/we were supposed to. Pretty good ones too. "Tuesday's Gone" and "Up On Cripple Creek" were the highlights. And I feel like they did something by the Stones but I can't recall what it was.

Nothing like free beer in Belchertown.

November 15 2008: Iron & Wine, Blitzen Trapper - Pearl Street Ballroom, Northampton MA

2008-11-15T02:52:00.000-05:00

Went solo to this show, after working eight hours and with 12 more to look forward to starting 7am the next day. But I hadn't seen Iron + Wine as a full band ever, and only once otherwise, and Blitzen Trapper were opening. So I was looking forward to things.

Ran into Sasha and Sara and stuck with them on the right side of the stage through the Blitzen Trapper set, most of which I didn't know but much of which I enjoyed. They closed with "Wild Mountain Nation" and it was probably their best tune of the night. Also the only tune of theirs I listen to with any semblance of regularity (read: probably once every three to 5 months). Draw conclusions as you care to.

Folks were flocking a little too heavily to where Sasha/Sara were, as they often seem to do, so I headed over to the left side for the Iron/Wine set. The Iron/Wine main mude and a backing lady opened as a duo with "He Lays In The Reins," which was quite nice. And they went into "Upward Over the Mountain," one of my favorite tunes but with a tambourine keeping the beat, and with the beat being just a hair too quick for how I feel the song ought to be played, it lacked that certain something.

A few more tunes were played minimalist-style, mostly new ones I don't know. They did do "Sea and the Rhythm" though, fucking perfectly. Shame they couldn't have hit all their songs like that one though, cause after the acoustic numbers out came a fucking reggae band. Reggae for "Woman King," which kind of worked but mostly didn't. Reggae for new songs which just served to bore me. And reggae for "Sodom South Georgia," which didn't work to the extent that I wonder if a better song as ever been played so wrongly.

Show ended, and I walked home wondering why I'd lost sleep just to watch Hampshire kids get down instead of leaving the second "Sea and the Rhythm" finished.

November 8 2008: The Mountain Goats, Kaki King, Larkin Grimm - Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn NY

2008-11-08T16:24:00.000-05:00

Rolled into New York in the early afternoon and spent the early afternoon taking it easy and reading and drinking coffee. Picked up a $6 half-pint of Jim Beam to ward off any temptation to buy multiple $9 drinks again, got a veggie burger and a salad and a beer at a Mugs on Bedford Ave, and made it to the Music Hall a few minutes after 8. Just in time to enjoy a couple $3 happy-hour-till-9pm Sierras. Which, if you're doing math and figuring in those 200ml of Beam like I wasn't, might start to make you nervous. You might be right to start to get nervous.

Got a great spot on the left side of the mezzanine, with a chair and a little table and a railing to lean on. The Music Hall seems way smaller when you're not on the floor, apparently.

The first act was competent but nothing to write home about. And Kaki King was better than she was the night before. But the Mountain Goats were fucking on. From what I could tell, anyway. Cause after Kaki King finished her set I poured my pint of Beam into my empty beer glass and started in. For some reason I was operating on the idea that 200ml of booze is two shots. I'm not sure why. But I'm here to tell you that it's definitely not. So the first half of the show is much more clear in my memory than the second. Opened with "Have to Explode" and "Heretic Pride" again, and it's not a bad way to start the show. "Pigs That Ran Straightaway Into the Water" was next. What a great fucking tune. I've always wondered why that one was never a staple of the live set. It works so well. Then "Moon Over Goldsboro," again amazing, into "Quito" which is always nice to hear, into "How To Embrace a Swamp Creature," which was great to hear again.

Then things started to get a bit fuzzy. John played "The Recognition Scene" and "Thank You Mario" solo, and the same tunes with Kaki as in Philly. It was great to have the view from the mezzanine for Kaki's lap steel part on "Supergenesis," which again kicked much ass. Probably the best song of the night, but a pretty convincing arguement could be made for "Moon Over Goldsboro" too.

After "Supergenesis" they did "Sept 15 1983," "No Children," "This Year." And that's when things got really really fuzzy. In fact, that's where I kind of passed out for minutes at a time on that rail I'd been leaning against. That's the sort of thing that happens when you drink 200ml of 80-proof liquor and then give it 45 minutes to really kick in. I recall the encore consisting of "The Mess Inside" and "Palmcorder Yajna." Appparently "Dance Music" and "Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod" got played too. At least nothing happened that I hadn't seen happen before, but I'm sad I wasn't able to enjoy the show like I might have otherwise. But what can you. Oh, that's right: you can not drink a half-pint of cheap bourbon. That's exactly what you can do.

November 7 2008: The Mountain Goats, Kaki King - Theater of the Living Arts, Philadelphia PA

2008-11-07T22:39:00.001-05:00

Got up early and drove my ass to Philadelphia. Not much traffic, $2.20 gas, weekend off, Mountain Goats relatively nearby and free tickets offered. Not a hard decision to make.

Got into town and drank a couple half-price happy hour beers and ate the best tempeh sandwich of my young life at the Royal Tavern, aka a place I had suspected but can now confirm to be my favorite place to eat/drink in Philly. Found another place down the street from the venue that was pretty quiet and drank another not-even-close-to-half-price beer and read a bit, waiting for the doors to open. I could see the kids queuing up down the block, but I guess I just can't get into that shit anymore. Give me an overpriced Yuengling and Larry McMurtry's 1999 memoir over chilly air and excited kids any day of the week.

Once the line cleared I walked down only to be turned away at the door by the security guy who objected to the pens I had in my bag. "No ink pens my man. I'll have to take those," he said. What the fuck. And it's not like I'm going to give him my pens. I told him I'd leave them in the car and be right back. I walked around the corner, put them in my shoe, came back. He let me in after groping me all over looking for, presumably, more pens. What the fuck.

Inside, it was easily the largest place I've ever seen the Mountain Goats play. I believe the capacity to the place is 810. That's a lot of people. I said hi to Brandon and set up shop in the bar to the left side of the stage, which wasn't a bad place to set up shop at all. Elevated so that I could see over the crowd and pretty close and with a waitress who came by every 20 or so minutes to sell me $9 drinks. I bought a few, figuring I hadn't paid admission so what the hell.

And why hadn't I paid admission? Because about six months ago Christen Greene emailed me asking for Darnielle's email address. She was doing publicity work for Kaki King and I guess Darnielle had left Ms. King a message in a green room somewhere and she saw it and wanted to get in touch with him, asked Christen if she knew anyone who knew him, Christen emailed me, and everything worked out. And then everything really worked out when they recorded an EP together and did a tour. To which Christen offered me guestlist spots for my services.

Kaki was awful. Easily the most technically proficient guitarist I've ever seen play. But awful, boring, etc. Didn't help that it seemed like she played for an hour and a half.

But the Mountain Goats! Here to save the day, opening with "Have to Explode" and "Heretic Pride." "Have to Explode" was great with a full band, definitely better than how John was playing it solo earlier this year, and it was great to hear "Heretic Pride" again. Not one of their very best songs, but definitely not one of their worst and a solid lots-of-energy-for-the-beginning-of-the-set jam.

Third tune was "The Mess Inside," one of my very favorite Mountain Goats tunes, and one that I've seen bring down the fucking house. Or rather, that I've seen bring down the fucking college coffee shop and the fucking barn. But with the full band it was slowed down slightly and the drums kept things a bit too steady. The give-and-take of the rhythm guitar in the recording, and in the solo performances I've seen, got sacrificed for a steady beat with no nuance. And it lessened the song in the same way that the full band lessened "Twin Human Highway Flares" when I saw them play it in Springfield last year. I definitely like most of the full-band arrangements the Mountain Goats have going these days, but some songs just don't work like that, and "The Mess Inside" definitely seems to be one of them. Which is too bad, cause what a great fucking song.

"New Zion" and "Moon Over Goldsboro" were next. Both were great. And "Moon Over Goldsboro" was beyond great. I don't think I'd heard it live since the 2006 tour immediately after "Get Lonely" was issued, and at that time it hadn't really entered my consciousness as a Great Tune. So I was glad to get the chance to hear it again.

John played some solo tunes in the middle of the set, just like he was doing earlier this year. They were, in order: "Source Decay" (great as always, and I don't think I'd seen him do this one without Peter), "Attention All Pickpockets" (great) and "Sinaloon Milk Snake Song" (never figured I'd hear it live and lots of fun). And then he did "Black Pear Tree." Just went right into it, playing the piano chords on the guitar. It was amazing. Easily my favorite song since that EP arrived in my mailbox last week. He sang the first verse and Kaki King came out in time to sing the harmony on "I suspect it's going to have to be." Then Kaki sang the rest of it just like she does on the record. It was fantastic.

Then they did "Bring Our Curses Home," my othe favorite song on that EP, with John singing and Kaki playing. Then "Mosquito Repellent," during which the band came back. Then a Morrissey tune I didn't know and then "Supergenesis," which I didn't much care for before but it was maybe the sonic highlight of the night. It sounded nothing like the record. John on electric, Kaki on fuzzboxed lap steel, Peter and Wurster playing what they play. The lap steel was AMAZING. My only regret was that I couldn't see how she was doing it cause she was sitting on the stage with it in her lap. I could listen to this song like they played it at every show and be happy.

After "Supergenesis" Kaki left and the band did "Sept 15 1983," which I think is one of their best songs ever, Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back In Town," "No Children" and "This Year." The kids up front got excited for those last two. So did the grown men acting like kids next to me in the bar. What can you do.

Encore was "Pigs that Ran Straightaway Into The Water," which was lots of fun with the full band and only the second time I'd seen it played at all, followed by "Palmcorder Yajna." Second encore was "Houseguest." Yawn.

And I went to get some pretzles from that place Caitlin and I stumbled onto on Washington Ave that opens at midnight the last time we were here. Good fucking times.

October 20 2008: Mirah, No Kids - Iron Horse, Northampton MA

2008-10-20T22:15:00.000-04:00

I like it when musicians I used to see on a regular basis in Portland make it out to Northampton and I'm able to see them again. Mirah especially. Caitlin and I got some food first and made it to the Iron Horse just in time to get the last table upstairs. No Kids, who are from Vancouver BC, played first and sounded like they're from Vancouver.

And then Mirah came out by herself and opened with "We're Both So Sorry." Really nicely.

The bulk of her set was "C'mon Miracle" and "Advisory Committee" tunes. There were a couple that I didn't know, but I'm not sure if they're new tunes or tunes from that album about bugs she recently did. They certainly didn't sound like songs about bugs, but I guess they maybe could have been. I wouldn't know, cause I listened to that album once and then never bothered with it again. One of those new/maybe-not-new songs was the one that repeats "We'll Never Change" at the end that I think she's played the last three times I've seen her.

"Monument" and "Jeruselem" and "The Sun" and especially "Mt. St. Helens" were the highlights, along with "We're Both So Sorry." The encore was started out with "Cold Cold Water," which I really really tried to get into like I used to but I think I'm too used to it these days. It used to move the fuck out of me. Now it's just another comfortable song with some nice lines. Other song in the encore was "The Garden," which never does it for me live.

Always great to see Mirah though. Shame that Calvin Johnson can't be there singing along every time though.

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

2008-09-27T21:48:00.002-04:00

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

2008-09-18T21:20:00.000-04:00

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

2008-09-13T23:08:00.000-04:00

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

2008-09-11T23:08:00.000-04:00

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

2008-09-04T23:08:00.000-04:00

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!

August 30 2008: Beck, Nada Surf, Band of Horses, the Round, Lucinda Williams - Bumbershoot Music Festival, Seattle Center, Seattle WA

2008-08-30T23:08:00.000-04:00

Bumbershoot!, I thought to myself, Shit yeah I'll fly out to the NW on a rediculously cheap ticket and see some family/friends and then go to Bumbershoot for the first time since 2005 and partake in that rediculously great lineup they've got going on this year! Shit yeah! Smooth sailing! Shit yeah!

But the sailing was not all that smooth. I woke up at Sweeney's new place out on NE 69th at at ridiculous hour. I think it was in the neighborhood of 7am. The idea was to walk to the 60th Ave. Max station, take it downtown, walk to the bus station, and get my ass on the 845 greyhound to Seattle in order to catch most if not all of Neko Case's set and most definitely be able to catch 100% of Lucinda Williams' set. This plan was going swimmingly up until the point at which the greyhound ticket seller informed me that the 845 bus was sold out. I went across the street to the train station, but the 830 train was also sold out. I went and got breakfast and tried to get unhungover and called people on craigslist who had advertised rides. No success, aside from getting breakfast. But if I'm going to be stuck somewhere for a couple hours and in need of breakfast, I'd rather be in Portland than maybe just about anywhere.

So anyway: I got on a bus at 1015, and it rolled into Seattle at 215. Ideally, Ryan/Heather would have been there to pick me up, we would have made speed a priority en route to the Seattle Center, and would have caught all of Lucinda. But they were not there, and were still 20m out of town. So I stashed my backpack in a locker and looked around for a cab. The line at the cabstand was three or four parties deep and no cabs were in sight. What was in sight was the Space Needle, and I figured I could hoof it the half-mile or so and save myself a couple bucks and probably get there by 235 at the latest. But I should have waited for a cab, cause it turns out the walk was really more like a full mile than half of one, and I didn't get into the stadium, where Lucinda was playing, until just before 3, aka 15 minutes after she'd started. Oh well.

Lucinda was great though, even if I did miss the first fifteen minutes. Walked in on a tune I didn't know, but next was "Out of Touch." The following tune, a new one called "Little Rock Star," was way way way better than its title might suggest. The highlights were definitely "Essence" and "Joy." An encore was some blues tune by a blues singer she cited but whom I'd never heard of and as such promptly forgot the name of, followed by a Fats Domino tune I'd never heard but which was called "I Live My Life" and was fucking great, followed by "a great blues number:" AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top." Not a bad set at all.

After Lucinda's set I met up with Ryan/Heather and Keith/Robin and we, after convincing Ryan that really no we definitely do want to see Damien Jurado and not play Dance Dance Revolution, headed to that stage they have set up behind the Key Arena to watch something called the Round. Important fact about the Round: two of its members are Damien Jurado and Jen Wood. And when they played Jurado tunes, they played the hits: "Ohio" (maybe the best I've ever heard it, with pedal steel accompaniment), "Lose My Head," "Letters and Drawings" (never seen it since the first time I saw him play, back before I knew the song, in 2002 I think. Goddamn was it nice to hear), and a new one that I vaguely recognized. Good to drink Mirror Ponds with all those folks and listen to songs like "Letters and Drawings." Goddamn is that kind of what I live for.

Interesting fact about history: when I first went to Bumbershoot, in 1999 because Pavement had sold out in Portland, one day's admission was $14. Another fact: in 2005, I got a two-day pass for $45. Last fact: this year's Saturday-only ticket put me back $40.

After dinner and a brief viewing of Band of Horses, who Robin wanted to see, Ryan/Heather and I split from Keith/Robin to head to the Mural Amphitheatre to watch Nada Surf. They were fantastic, but their bassist was sick and unable to play and the replacement didn't have dreads or sing backup, and they didn't do my favorite from the new album, "Are You Lightning." But they did open with "Hi-Speed Soul" and play most of my other favorites. Highlights: "Whose Authority," "Killians Red," "80 Windows," "Do it Again," "See These Bones," "Hyperspace," and the entire encore: "Blizzard of '77" into "Blonde on Blonde" into "Always Love" into "Blankest Year." No "Stalemate/Love Will Tear Us Apart" though.

And to finish off the night we went over to catch the rest of the Beck set with Keith/Robin. We were told we missed "Loser," which would just be amusing as hell to see played live after singing along with it so much at age 13. But he did play "Where it's At," which was amusing as hell to see played live after singing along with it so much at age 15.

August 23 2008: The Amity Front, the Sarah Levecque Band - Red Fire Farm, Granby MA

2008-08-23T23:08:00.000-04:00

We got onto this tomato festival bill, which paid in produce (I'll take my own personal big box of tomatos/watermelon/peaches/broccoli/the best garlic I've ever tasted in my admittatly young live/etc over $75 split four ways any day of the week) and which afforded us the immeasurable pleasure of sitting around a farm on a stunningly beautiful saturday afternoon, sipping cold beers and eating some really good tomato-topped pizza and listening to a couple of my favorite bands.

The Amity Front played right after we did. They played well. I hadn't seen them in a while, and they're still good. And Sarah Levecque played after them. Rest assured, they're also still good. And rest assured that there's absolutely nowhere else I'd have rather been that afternoon. It was perfect.

August 14 2008: The Hold Steady, the Loved Ones - 9:30 Club, Washington DC

2008-08-14T23:08:00.000-04:00

Last night of the little mini-vacation, in Anna's town! We got some okay food before the show at some place on 14th St. and went over to the show just before the openers came on. They played about the same as they have for the last week - competent but definitely not inspiring. Ran into this guy Mike whom I've run into on a few recent Mountain Goats tours, which was unexpected and nice.

The 9:30 club is bigger than I remember it being. And it was sold out and the audience wasn't too big on being polite, but Anna and I found a spot where we could both see and have easy bar access about halfway back from the stage. "You Gotta Dance With Who You Came With" got played again, along with "Curves and Nerves" and "Girls Like Status." I really like that "Girls Like Status" tune and had never heard it before. Heard "Chillout Tent" for the first time since 2006, and they played it better this time. Franz and Tad sang the main chorus lines together, and then Craig would follow up with the "They gave us oranges and cigarettes" line. I do like that song,

And there were horns! I don't remember on which songs, but they'd come out and play and then go hide somewhere until they were needed again. Too bad they were way to low in the mix.

And the people demanded a second encore after the first one ended with "Killer Parties," so we got "How a Resurrection Really Feels," which I believe was one of the horn songs. Pretty fun. Anna'd never heard of the Hold Steady and luckily had earplugs. And good sport that she is, when I jokingly offered to buy finest/cheapest shots afterwards she, despite having to be at work the next morning, said, "OK, but I think I can only do two."

All vacations should involve multiple cities and loud music, I think.

August 12 2008: The Hold Steady, the Loved Ones - Cat's Cradle, Carrboro NC

2008-08-12T00:55:00.000-04:00

It was good to be back in Durham/Chapel Hill/Carrboro again. Rolled into Durham via the overnight Greyhound from Nashville in the early AM and spent my morning downtown. Walked around, ate a kale sandwich that I've since been recreating in my own personal kitchen on a roughly daily basis, checked email at the library, etc.

Showed up at the Cat's Cradle a half-hour after doors opened and soon found myself drinking a beer with Mr. Perry Wright, newly moved from Durham to Raleigh but no worse for the wear. Which is to say that he still drinks beer like Sweeney does. But at least Mr. John Darnielle, who soon arrived, can drink a good local IPA at a reasonable rate. It was good to see both those guys. Yay Durham/Chapel Hill/Carrboro!

And yay Cat's Cradle! I used to have a VHS tape of Ben Folds Five playing a show there the month their first record came out. Goddamn was that a great tape. I believe they opened that set with "Best Imitation of Myself," a song which pretty much ruled my teenage years. So it felt good and full-circle to see the Hold Steady at the Cradle, with John and Perry in the audience with me.

The Hold Steady opened with "Ask Her For Adderall" and segued it right into "Constructive Summer." And then into "Yeah Sapphire," which I finally understood. That "I was a skeptic at first but these miracles work" line really is pretty great. "Cheyanne Sunrise" got played (introduced as "a cowboy song that goes out to all the cowgirls"), and it was nice to hear it live. I mean, if you follow a band around, after the first couple shows you're really just hoping to hear the b-sides. Ran to the bathroom to take a piss during "Navy Sheets." It's nice that they played it in the middle of the set to allow us discerning listeners a justifiable bathroom break.

The last two songs of the set: "How a Resurrection Really Feels" (never heard live before and it was fucking great) and "Slapped Actress" (in the back of the club there were fewer frat boys with backwards baseball caps to fuck it up). Not too shabby. The encore was "Both Crosses" (only song on the new record I hadn't seen live, and definitely the best tune on the record) (with Franz was on banjo and Tad on acoustic) into "Stay Positive" (what a great live song) into "Most People Are DJs" into "Killer Parties." Really, really, really hard to beat an encore like that.

August 9 2008: The Hold Steady, the Loved Ones - 40 Watt Club, Athens GA

2008-08-09T23:59:00.000-04:00

So one of the factors that pushed me over the edge of following the Hold Steady around for a few dates was that one of the dates would be in Athens, where I'd never been before but had heard was real nice. And it was. Enjoyed some good local beer and a reasonably-priced dinner a few doors down from the 40 Watt, and found UGA to be a pretty place. But Athens doesn't hold a candle to Oxford I'm here to say.

The show, however was maybe a million times better.

For starters, 24oz cans of PBR sold for under $4. And as if things couldn't get any better, the Hold Steady opened with "Constructive Summer" into "The Swish" into "Hot Soft Lights" into "Chips Ahoy" into "Sequestered in Memphis" into "212 Margarita" into "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" into "Hot Fries." Goddamn, where do I start? How about with "212 Fucking Margarita," which has arguably been my favorite song for the past six months. A song I figured I'd never see live. And it was great. Goddamn.

"Barfruit Blues" was played, which I hadn't seen since I saw them play it in Brooklyn last year, and "Ask Her For Adderall," which I saw them play at Wesleyan earlier in the year but didn't know at the time.

But the real hightlight, again, happened after the set finished up. First encore: "Citrus" into "First Night" into "Stuck Between Stations" into "Most People are DJs." Have I said "godamn" enough yet? Goddamn.

Second encore: a new tune called "Ballad of the Midnight Hauler" into "Killer Parties." "Midnight Hauler" is about a DJ who does a show for truckers. Great fucking tune, especially going into "Killer Parties." Best three lines of the night: "Hey why don't you play some music / You know your music so I'll let you choose it / Hey why don't you play some music now."

And as the show ended the bars throughout Athens called for last call and I exited the club into a sea of 19-year-old drunks with fake IDs. Rock and/or roll.

August 8 2008: The Hold Steady, the Loved Ones - Proud Larry's, Oxford MS

2008-08-08T23:59:00.000-04:00

Circa 5pm: rolled into Oxford MS, roughly pretty much in-between Memphis and Jackson, in a rental car with the windows down and the cicadas audibly electric and a complete fucking stranger named Corey in the passenger seat. How did this come to be? The answer: too complicated to really get into. But goddamn. Oxford MS. Oxford happens to be maybe one of the flat-out best places I've ever had the pleasure to visit. A few blocks of downtown centered around a square which is built around the old county courthouse. A college town in the summer without college students. Nice bars, good food, pleasant weather despite being in both the deep south and the month of august.

I was in town was to see the Hold Steady play at his place called Proud Larry's, which is right off the square and has a capacity of 295 patrons. But I do not for one goddamn second believe that the fire marshal would have been too pleased regarding the number of patrons at Proud Larry's. But the beer was good and local and reasonably priced and the Hold Steady were loud. And amongst those over-capacity patrons was this girl named Stephanie whom I've now run into four different times over the past four years, each time at a concert in a different city. How about that.

The Hold Steady opened with "Constructive Summer" and then went right into "Multitude of Casualties" and "Chips Ahoy." Not a bad way to open a set. "Two Handed Handshake" and "You Gotta Dance With Who You Came To The Dance With" (that "they powered up and proceded to jam, man" line was probably the best-delivered of the night") came in pretty quick. "Joke About Jamaica" was great to see after finally comprehending its finer qualities, and "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" provided catharsis after 60 hours of travel. The set ended with "Slapped Actress," which the assholes in the backwards baseball caps sang along with.

Encore started with "Certain Songs," which I'd never heard live before probably could have lived the rest of my life happy without hearing live. But the third and final tune of the encore was "Most People Are DJs," which fucking made my night. Goddamn do I love that song. And hearing it played live remained the night's highlight right up until the moment when I, an hour or so later, sat at William Faulkner's grave and drank a Wild Turkey straight-from-the-bottle toast to him, to Oxford, to the Hold Steady, to good fucking times. Goddamn.

August 2 2008: Josh Ritter, Erin McKeown, the Infamous Stringdusters - Shangri-La Music Festival, Blue Hill Fairgrounds, Blue Hill ME

2008-08-02T12:47:00.000-04:00

Drove up with Caitlin cause we had the weekend free and cause Josh Ritter in Middle Of Nowhere Maine sounded like a pretty good time. After eightish hours, when we finally rolled into Middle Of Nowhere, the weather was crisp and cool, the sky was low-overcast, and I changed into jeans and a sweatshirt. First time I'd been in jeans/sweatshirt in what felt like months. Goddamn it felt good. And the nice lady selling tickets was open to negotiation, giving us two admissions and one night of camping for pretty much half-price. To you, lady!

We set up the tent and went to watch the end of the Infamous Stringdusters' set. It was pretty good. I was mostly really really enjoying being at that exact physical location. Maybe 500 people, half in camping-type portable chairs, all surrounding a stage built in front of the county fairgrounds grandstand. After seeing Ritter play in the past few months to a packed Symphony Hall in Boston and a more-densely packed rock club in Brooklyn, this seemed like the perfect place to be.

Erin McKeown came on next. She was backed by Dave Hower and some bassist I didn't recognize. She was infinitely better with the band than she was by herself last month in Greenfield. I thought so. Caitlin thought so. And both of us were pretty sure it wasn't just that tasty Maine beer thinking for us.

And Josh Ritter! He opened with "Mind's Eye," played through a pretty standard setlist with the exception of "Bright Smile," which was really nice to hear. And Caitlin had never heard "Me & Jiggs," so I was glad for her (and for me) that he played that. "Kathleen" had the stupid interlude shit that he's been doing lately, but I didn't mind it so much. Ran over to the bushes to take a leak during "Murder On My Mind." And it was great to hear "Next to the Last Romantic" again. Shit, it was great to hear all those songs again.

What it comes down to is that it was just really really really nice to see Ritter play on a stage in the middle of Maine with only a few hundered other people in the immediate area. It was, pretty much, a perfect evening.

July 31 2008: The Long Winters - Castle Clinton, New York NY

2008-07-31T23:52:00.002-04:00

Drove down for the day to see the Long Winters. Hadn't seen them play a full set in almost two years, which happened the last time I saw them in New York. Livingston and I met up downtown to made a quick pre-show liquor run (me: Wild Turkey; he: apricot brandy. Sorry Josh, this is supposed to be impartial reporting and we can't just gloss over the facts), and found some folding chairs in the back of the free afternoon show. The back of which was pretty close to the front. As the initially-humid day turned into a pretty comfortable late afternoon we poured our liquor into cups that were otherwise being used to provide patrons with $10 servings of wine (note: these servings did not look to represent what, in my mind, $10 worth of wine looks like), and the time at which the Long Winters would take the stage approached. Good times loudly proclaimed their imminent arrival.

The band opened with "Give Me a Moment," which I hadn't heard live since Sean McCormick and I personally requested it from Roderick outside the Tonic Lounge in 2003. Unfortunately it's not the best song to open a daylight/outside/no-opener show with. But I still enjoyed it.

Aside from that first song, nothing much notable about the setlist. Old and new standards like "Scared Straight," "Carparts," "Fire Island," "The Commander Thinks Aloud," "Ultimatum," etc, all played well. I don't think I'd learned to really appreciate "Teaspoon" until about a year ago, so it was nice to hear it played live again. Fun set, but I think the Long Winters are much more a late-night/dark-bar kind of band, and the afternoon sun and the folding chairs didn't work much in their favor. But it was, I feel, an excellent use of my afternoon/evening. And afterwards Livingston and I enjoyed some tall boy High Lifes in that park across from the New York County Courthouse before I had to head for home. Good times!

July 28 2008: Aimee Mann, Ashley Pond - Washington Park Lakehouse, Albany NY

2008-07-29T03:15:00.002-04:00

Caitlin and I found out about this free show in a park a couple days ago. So we figured we should go. And it was fun, even though I didn't know most of the tunes that were played. I didn't even know she had a new album until yesterday. And listening to it in the car on the way to the show wasn't exactly the level of listening that seems to be required to uncover the quiet brilliance of her albums.

She opened with a few new tunes, followed by "Save Me," "Wise Up" and "Calling it Quits." It was pretty good playing, but the bass was pretty high in the mix. And there was no lead guitar player, just two keyboard players. Which was too bad - I feel like a good lead player is pretty important to her songs, and the keyboardists weren't able to do the same thing. But who cares - it was free and Caitlin and I were eating tomato/spinach/mozzarella sandwiches and drinking Widmers. A couple older tunes followed (including "4th of July," which I think she's played every time I've seen her and I don't understand why), then few new ones, and finally a set-closer of "How am I Different," which I'd never seen played before. So that was lots of fun. It was always one of my favorite of her tunes.

Somewhere in the middle there she said the show was being paid for with money that Elliott Spitzer got by suing record labels for payola when he was Attorney General. So, uh, go Elliott Spitzer.

The encore was "Today's the Day" and "Deathly." Two pretty great tunes. I think she's closed with "Deathly" every time I've seen her. Probably for good reason. But the keyboard-only arrangement of "Today's the Day" left out the guitar solo breakdown, which I always thought was the best part of the song.

I was slightly disappointed to hear nothing from "The Forgotten Arm," which I really really really like, and only one tune from "Lost in Space," which is a pretty fucking brilliant and only seems more so with time. But now I guess it's time to listen seriously to that new record and in six months kick myself for not appreciating the new tunes as much as I should have.

July 17 2008: Richard Shindell, Caroline Herring - Energy Park, Greenfield MA

2008-07-29T02:56:00.002-04:00

Caitlin and I drove up for dinner at the Pint to be followed by a free Richard Shindell gig. The skies were blue and not too hazy and there was a hot air balloon floating around. Hard to beat an evening like that. Caitlin had never seen Shindell before, and I'd never seen him with a band. It was fun. He opened with "The Last Fare of the Day," which was the best tune of the evening, did that Jeffrey Foucault tune that he does, and a few of those painfully sincere tunes that he likes to do.

Drew found us about halfway through the set, dressed up like he'd come straight from work. Which he had. People who work sure are interesting. Always having to be places.

The Encore was Dylan's "She Belongs to Me" with Caroline Herring (whose set we caught the last couple tunes of) and Mark Erelli (whose set we missed entirely due to getting that second round at the Pint) on a verse apiece. Good times.

July 6 2008: Erin McKeown - Energy Park, Greenfield MA

2008-07-29T00:06:00.001-04:00

Drove up with Drew/Lisa/Lisa's girlfriend to see Erin McKeown in Greenfield cause it was free. I'd never heard her play before. And I'm not tempted to hear her again. But her cover of that jazz tune "Rhode Island is Famous For You" was great. At least it was a nice day weather-wise.

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

2008-06-29T01:14:00.001-04:00

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

2008-06-29T00:49:00.000-04:00

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

2008-06-24T00:44:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-24T00:02:00.002-04:00

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

2008-06-23T23:56:00.002-04:00

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.

May 25 2008: The Benders - Middle Earth Music Hall, Bradford VT

2008-05-31T01:00:00.002-04:00

Caitlin and I had planned to see this show on June 1. But then we figured out that it was happening the weekend prior, aka the weekend my folks and sister would be in town. So after a little thought we just decided to pack Mom, Dad and Anna into the car and head north.

It was the last show to take place at Middle Earth, and for their last hurrah the owners flew various Benders members in. The guy on slide came from Taiwan. Bassist from Flagstaff. Guitarist from Nashville. And Bow (banjo) and the mandolin player were already around, presumably with nothing better to do.

It was a great show. The Benders are Caitlin's favorite group, and she used to see them all the time in Boston before they scattered. And they were fabulous live. Played all the hits, and a bunch of tunes I didn't know but really really really enjoyed. Bow was great to hear sing and play, and bassist's songs were nearly as good as Bow's. Amazing slide and mandolin playing. Dad said afterwards that he'll probably never see any group so talented play again.

And, um, the second encore was started up with "Stairway to Heaven." I'm not shitting. And yeah, it sounded about as rough as you'd imagine it would. Shame they hadn't just stopped after one encore, which ended perfectly with "Can't Wait." And man was it fun to hear "Can't Wait" live.

Finally hit the road at 1230am, and rolled back into Northampton a few minutes before three. Caitlin and I in the front with gas station coffees, the lion's share of my immediate family asleep in the back. Good times.

May 7 2008: The Hold Steady - Andrus Field, Wesleyan University, Middletown CT

2008-05-07T21:33:00.005-04:00

The Hold Steady! They played! A free show at Wesleyan University to celebrate the end of the semester! Afternoon rock and roll! Yeah! And the place just was crawling with drunk kids. Amongst them, three guys shotgunning bud lights. One of whom, the one without a shirt but with FUCK SCHOOL written across his chest, vomited it all back thirty seconds later. High fives ensued. Oh yeah!

And it was a pretty great show. I arrived about twenty minutes before they started playing and there were a bunch of folks on a hill facing the stage, getting all fucked up. Maybe fifty folks were standing at the stage. I went and found the table where they gave me a green wristband so that I could drink the beers I'd brought without getting hassled by the cops, headed for the stage, opened my first one, and pretty soon the band came out and started with a new tune called "Constructuve Summer," which segued right into "Hot Soft Lights." Then "Stuck Between Stations," then "The Swish."

As I say, it was pretty great. I took my shoes off and felt the grass between my toes. The band played a couple other new tunes, none of which I'd heard before, and some old tunes but nothing I hadn't heard before. The new one "Stay Positive" sounded pretty good. And "Stevie Nix" into "Multitude of Casualties" into "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" in the middle was lots of fun. Craig, to my amusement, had to chuckle his way through the "You don't have to go to the right kind of school" line in "You Can Make Him Like You." And the show ended after an hour with "Chips Ahoy" into "Killer Parties." Some folks yelled for another song, but most of the crowd just took another sip of whatever they were drinking (and they sure were drinking some awful stuff - until today I hadn't seen anyone with an OE forty since, uh, college), and that was that. I headed back to the car and was home by five. I can't imagine a better way to have spent the afternoon.

April 28 2008: Josh Ritter - Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn NY

2008-04-30T20:21:00.002-04:00

Caitlin and I went down to New York to see some friends and Josh Ritter. Who was pretty good. Show started out really well with "Naked as a Window" and "Mind's Eye," and he did "Come and Find Me" about halfway through, which I don't think I'd ever seen live before, and it was pretty good. "Here at the Right Time" was great, as usual, and it went right into "Wings," which I don't think I've heard live since the first time I saw him and which was hands down the best tune of the night. The lights were all the way off and you could just barely make out Ritter's form on stage, singing about little towns in Idaho and eastern Washington. I used to adore that song. Then I didn't listen to it very much. I'm going to start listening to it again.

Really, the whole show was great. But I'm left with a bad taste in my mouth cause three out of the last four songs he played just frustrated the shit out of me. "Empty Heart" is one of my favorite songs ever, but Ritter thought it might be fun/amusing/endearing to stop the song halfway through and discuss how nice the guy running the sound is. And that's fine. The sound guy can be nice. He can be an upstanding citizen. He can be a fucking pillar of society. But I don't need "Empty Heart" to be stopped halfway through to hear about it. And I especially don't need to be encouraged to dance to a little waltzy tune that Ritter's decided would be fun to play in the middle of "Kathleen." Instead, I need brilliant songs to be taken seriously and for "Kathleen" to be played like it ought to be played. I could go to the comedy club open mic if I wanted to hear stupid jokes about sound guys and even stupider jokes about dancing. I don't go to Ritter shows for comedy. I go to hear brilliant songs. And I especially don't go to watch a juggling routine in the middle of "Lillian, Egypt." I'd go to the fucking circus for that. I just want to hear brilliant songs played seriously.

So yeah. Great show, spoiled at the end by that sort of stuff. Which, to Ritter's credit, the crowd loved. Big cheers, big smiles on everyone's faces, etc. But I'd appreciate it if he didn't go for so many cheap laughs at the expense of the songs.

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

2008-04-24T01:12:00.003-04:00

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.

April 19 2008: Oneside - WWII Club, Northampton MA

2008-04-24T01:08:00.002-04:00

We were playing with this group Oneside, who are from Boston. They played some pretty good songs, with a really tight rhythm section. But, frankly, I was more interested in drinking free booze with Caitlin.

April 12 2008: Shawn Mullins, Tyler Ramsey, the Winterpills, Dar Williams - Northampton Box Office, Northampton MA

2008-04-24T00:49:00.001-04:00

Free show!

Met Adam and Sairi and Caitlin there. It was sunny and warm. Things were good. Dar played a couple of songs. Then the Winterpills did a couple. Then the other guys did a tune each. Then we went and got ice cream at the chocolate emporium. It was tasty.

April 5 2008: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, John Vanderslice - Mass MoCA Hunter Center, North Adams MA

2008-04-24T00:48:00.002-04:00

Caitlin and I headed up to North Adams to see Malkmus and his Jicks play in an airplane hangar. Or what seemed like one. I wonder what they used to manufacture in that space.

Vanderslice played first, mostly songs from his new album, mostly uneventfully. And he did throw "Time Travel is Lonely" in there near the end, but even that lacked any real captivating qualities. Too bad, that's such a great song. He's got a violin/bassist now who wears skinny jeans, instead of Broecker, so that made for some interesting arrangements. And for their last song the band got off stage with acoustic instruments and played "Nikki Oh Nikki" in the middle of the crowd with a lot of floor tom and harmony vocals. Which I thought was pretty great. Always did like that song.

The Jicks were pretty good, but pretty boring sometimes, and pretty full of stupid guitar solos. I used to adore the way Malkmus plays guitar. And I think he's the one who's changed here. Lots of boring wanking. And lots of the songs were long and dull. None of those atonal lines that always blew my mind. It occurrs to me that this is the only time I've seen Malkmus outside of Portland or Seattle, and maybe he just really makes a point to not play boring solos for minutes at a time in the Northwest. Maybe.

On the plus side, I hadn't heard "Dark Wave" in a while, and "It Kills" was lots of fun, with the backing vocals getting sung like they were before the album came out, and I hadn't heard "Vanessa from Queens" in a really long time. And Janet Weiss was playing drums, after all. Really can't complain about things when you've got Janet on drums.

March 29 2008: Kathleen Edwards - Pearl Street Ballroom, Northampton MA

2008-03-30T00:34:00.000-04:00

My plan was to head to the Brass Cat to see the Fawns play. Either that or go to the Amity Front's CD release show. But then Lisa called and said she and Drew were outside the Kathleen Edwards gig and some lady had given her an extra ticket for free, and I was third or fourth on the list but no one else was answering their phone on a Saturday night. And I'd been talking with Sweeney about Kathleen Edwards just yesterday, and he said I'd really like her, so I hopped on the bike and headed downtown.

She was great. Great songs, great band, great to look at. What more do you want from an act you've never heard before? My favorite song of the night was one that she played in the encore by herself on an electric mandolin. I have no idea what it was called. But man, was it good. I need to borrow some of her albums from someone.

March 27 2008: Fancy Trash, Barn Burning - Sierra Grille, Northampton MA

2008-03-28T00:29:00.000-04:00

We were playing, and so was this band from Providence (Barn Burning) and the Trash. It was fun, not the least because we got free food and all we could drink. Shame I had to be at work at 7am.

Fancy Trash played a bunch of new tunes that I enjoyed. And they were a bit more rocking than usual, cause Josh broke a string on his double bass and borrowed my Jazz for the show. It was a good time.

March 22 2008: The Mountain Goats, the Moaners - Black Cat Mainstage, Washington DC

2008-03-27T23:17:00.001-04:00

Washington DC! Anna was there, Ryan and Heather came up for a couple nights, Anna brought a friend who went to George Fox and apparently had a class with me, and we all got there early to grab eight barstools and start the night right with eight shots of the finest cheapest whiskey in the house. And, though those who know me might suspect the following statement to be a lie, I honestly didn't mean to order Heather one. Cause, you know, I'm her friend and I know she doesn't particularly enjoy finest cheapest whiskeys in the same way that some of us do. But it got ordered, and then that was that, and she downed it like a champ. Shit yes. It was that kind of night.

Ryan and I went pretty quick to PBR, cause sometimes you just can't beat $3 pints in plastic cups. And cause that helped Ryan's booze allowance (as dictated by the half of his marriage that brings home a paycheck) slide further than it might have otherwise, and cause I didn't feel the need to get all highbrow when my buddy's drinking Pabst. I forget what Caitlin was drinking, but let's just say she went for PBR too. An all-for-one night it certainly was.

And man, it was fun. Show started with a really great "Michael Myers Resplendent," into "Heretic Pride," into "Quito," on which I'd forgotten how great Peter's backing vocals sound and wow maybe that was the best performance of "Quito" I've ever seen excepting maybe that one time in Chicago, into a great great "Marduk T-Shirt Men's Room Incident," definitely the best of the tour, into "Wild Sage," which I'd call the best of the tour but that song is always so fucking great it's just too hard to tell. Man. Man do I love "Wild Sage."

The acoustic set was four songs long, including a song sung in Spanish that I'd never heard before and for which John had to ask someone in the crowd for help with the words. And the third song was "Elijah," which I'd never heard, and which has generally been and continues to remain one of my all-time favorite Mountain Goats tunes. And he just went right into it, just like that. Not even a second thought. Goddamn. And Caitlin was nice enough to go refill my PBR for me. I'll say it again, Goddamn.

After the acoustic songs, six tunes rounded out the set: "In the Craters on the Moon," "Song for Dennis Brown," "Dilaudid," "Love, Love, Love," "Sept 15 1983," "See America Right." And they were all fabulous, but I think "See America Right" was probably the best I've ever seen it. And I've seen it a lot, and seen it played pretty fucking nicely. Better than that time at Dartmouth? Better than that time in Northampton? Chicago? I think so.

Encore started with "Lovecraft in Brooklyn," loud and fast. Followed by "So Desperate," which I'd not really enjoyed all that much in past sets, but which finally made sense to me. For whatever reason, I'm not sure. Maybe it was just all that cheap beer floating around inside me. Followed by "This Year," which the kids dug. Gotta keep those kids happy.

Second encore was "Palmcorder Yajna" into "California Song." And man, I'll follow a tour any day of the week just to hear them play "California Song" as the last song on the last night. I got joy joy joy in my soul tonight.

And we ordered another round of whiskeys before leaving, and once again we ordered eight, and well, what are you gonna do. You're gonna give the eighth one to Heather and apologize and toast to rock and roll.

March 20 2008: The Mountain Goats, the Moaners - First Unitarian Church Basement, Philadelphia PA

2008-03-26T00:01:00.004-04:00

Caitlin and I, after taking the New York Mountain Goats shows off for reasons of schedule but not feeling too bad about it due to an unshakable feeling that they just might be huge rooms of kids unapologetically singing along, hit the road and pointed ourselves in the direction of Philadelphia. A town where I've never seen a bad Mountain Goats show, and where they're generally pretty fucking top notch. And I'd never before spent a night in Philadelphia that didn't involve seeing a Mountain Goats concert, so getting there a day early was fun. We stayed at Caitlin's friend Julie's place, who lives a mile or so south of downtown, where I'd never spent any time, and enjoyed ourselves pretty well at the Royal Tavern a block down.

The next day, day of the show, we showed up at the church at seven, cause our tickets said the show was at eight and we made an assumption regarding door time. Our assumption, however reasonable, was not as reasonable as it could have been. It was windy and really really cold and we stood there, nine-tenths sober, until 815. At which point we walked in. As yet another assumption regarding the show was revealed for the mere assumption that it was: instead of the show happening in the really pretty main hall, the one with pews and stained-glass and chandeliers that's advertised on the church's website, we followed a snake of people into the basement. Where there was a stage set up, and punk-ass kids surrounding it, and big ominous-looking speakers pointed right at us. I totally thought this was going to be a nice sit-down MFA-style gig. I was wrong. Caitlin and I glanced at each other. She worried the kids were only going to get more punk-assier. I turned to Maker's. We were seriously worried there, and the huge crowd growing denser around us every minute didn't help.

However! Show starts and no one pushes us around, and no one starts a mosh pit, and John walks to the microphone and says, "Hi. We're the Mountain Goats." And then he plays "Abide With Me." No Peter, No Wurster. No stupid Led Zeppelin intro music. Just John playing old songs. Songs mostly too old for people to sing along with, half of which I'd never heard before. "Abide With Me" went into "Blueberry Frost," into "Going to Reykjavik," into "Jeff Davis County Blues" (maybe better than the MFA? maybe? goddamn was it nice), into "Blues in Dallas," into "Duke Ellington," into "Song for Dennis Brown," into "Have to Explode." It was a great eight songs. It felt like old times. Hell of a way to start a set.

And then Peter and Wurster came out and they closed with five full-band tunes, finishing the set with "Sept 15, 1983" and "Lovecraft in Brooklyn," which was relatively mellow, vocals wise. I was digging it though. And the encore was a low-key "Babylon Burning," which I wasn't expecting at all and was lots of fun, into "Dance Music," kind of the way they played it in the fall, but slower. Way slower.

The people screamed for a second encore, but they didn't get one. And then we got into a cab, it drove slowly and evenly back to Julie's, and I dreamt about home.

March 15 2008: The Mountain Goats, the Moaners - Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge MA

2008-03-17T20:23:00.004-04:00

This was, like I was telling Caitlin as we were eating falafel for dinner, definitely the first time this little round of Mountain Goats that I felt actively excited for the show. So I followed that falafel and excitement up with quite a few Harpoons and enjoyed the hell out of the show. We were able to show up relatively late in the evening (an hour after doors, but still an hour until the Moaners started) and still get ourselves a nice spot with a stair to sit on while we waited and upon which to drink beer, and Peter found us as we were walking in and I was happy to be able to introduce him and Caitlin.

The Moaners, whose full set I finally caught, were great. Caitlin thought so too.

And the Mountain Goats started out the set with "Michael Myers Resplendent" and "Heretic Pride," just like they did in Northampton, but in Northampton they seemed tired and not excited to be playing, and seemed the opposite tonight. Even "Autoclave," which is definitely not my favorite song, sounded great. And the sound at the Middle East was bar none better than at any Mountain Goats show I've been to in the last year. Even that fucking slut who insisted on singing along couldn't ruin things. True story: I ask her if she wouldn't mind to please not sing quite so loudly, asking totally politely, totally thinking to myself, "ok Sohriakoff, don't come on too strong here cause this bitch is liable to insist on screaming in your ear if you sound too much like her dad, whom she most likely lives with cause she's clearly 17." And she looks at me like I'm some creep who's just felt her up on the subway or something, and informs me that she would very much indeed mind, and then leans over to her boyfriend to relate what has just happened. And then the boyfriend, in a tone nowhere near as polite as mine had been, feels the need to note that there is a whole room full of places to stand if I've got a problem with his slut of a girlfriend expressing her beautiful self. Caitlin, referring to this girl after the show, utilized a slang term for vagina that I'm not sure I'd ever heard her use in anger before - and not just once, but at least ten times. She didn't even stop singing after John prefaced "Love, Love, Love" by saying, "Not to tell anybody what to do, but this is another one of those quiet songs. Just so you know, if you paid to get in, that this song is quiet. That's really all I can tell you." But anyway - even that bitch couldn't ruin things. Plus she didn't know the old songs. Slut.

"Wild Sage" was fabulous, the best it's been all tour, and it led into "Sax Rohmer," which I hadn't seen live yet. Which led into the acoustic set, which was started with "Have to Explode," another song I'd never seen before. And "Jeff Davis County Blues" happened again. Man do I love that song.

And the set finished up with the following tunes: "In the Craters on the Moon," "Love, Love, Love," "Sept 15 1983," "Lion's Teeth," "Lovecraft in Brooklyn." It was fantastic. "Craters" and "Sept 15" were the best of the tour, maybe ever. "Lion's Teeth" was fucking ON, and "Lovecraft in Brooklyn" was maybe even as good as that time last year I saw it in St. Louis. Maybe even better. It was fucking nuts.

"Going to Georgia" opened the first encore, full band, and sounded good. I guess I prefer it solo acoustic, but it was fun to hear it with the band. And after "This Year" finished up and the monitor guy started to take microphones down and the lights and house music went up, the people refused to stop clapping and after a few minutes the band came back to do "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton." Good fucking times.

March 14 2008: The Mountain Goats, the Moaners - Remis Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

2008-03-17T19:52:00.002-04:00

Big story of the night, far as I'm concerned, was "Jeff Davis County Blues," solo acoustic, halfway through the set. Hadn't seen it live since New York in '06, when some asshole was singing along in my ear. Tonight, though! Tonight! The MFA crowd was as polite as they could be. And like John was just daring them to be assholes, he goes into "Jeff Davis County Blues" to start out the solo set that's apparently SOP these days. And he starts playing the song, and it's ridiculously quiet, and there's not one fucking peep until the final chords are fading away. I couldn't believe it. Not if I saw it with my own eyes. And that was all followed up with "Sign of the Crow," which I really like and had forgotten about, and a cover of a Rodney Crowell tune called "I Ain't Living Long Like This." What a great little string of songs.

"Marduk T-Shirt Men's Room Incident" opened the show, but it definitely lost something with the drums. "New Zion" into "Wild Sage" was really nice, and, as I said to Caitlin afterwards, "that's about the best performance of 'Love, Love, Love' you're most likely ever gonna see." "Lion's Teeth" led into "Sept 15 1983" to close the set, and I was happy.

Caitlin's friend Matt had come out with us, and it was fun to hang out with him and he said he really enjoyed it. And we had these Front of House tickets, which guaranteed us seating in the first three rows of an otherwise GA show, so we were able to watch from right in front of John's face.

And the show was over by 1030 so we finished the night with BBCs at some awful Somerville bar with songs like "Don't Cry" playing as loud as the show had been, watching people play the big game hunting video game. Good times.

March 13 2008: The Mountain Goats, the Moaners - Pearl Street Ballroom, Northampton MA

2008-03-17T18:49:00.002-04:00

So the big news for this show, as far as I was concerned, was not so much that the Mountain Goats were playing half a mile from my house, but that the Mountain Goats were playing half a mile from my house and my band was opening. And amongst the perks of opening a show, aside from free booze and putting your friends on the list, is getting to watch the soundcheck. Which is definitely pretty dull unless you're really fucking into the band that's checking sound and know that, historically speaking, Mountain Goats soundchecks are where all the old and seldom-heard songs get played. And tonight was no exception. Songs that were checked included, in order, "Going to Utrecht," "The Alphonse Mambo," "San Bernardino," "Marduk T-Shirt Men's Room Incident," and "Lovecraft in Brooklyn." Of those, only "Lovecraft" was in the set.

Unfortnately, I didn't catch much of the Moaners due to drinking the afore-mentioned free Harpoons and Heinekens backstage with Drew. But the Mountain Goats came out opening with "Michael Myers Resplendent," which song I really dig. "Heretic Pride" sounded good, and so did "Hast Though Considered the Tetrapod" and "Wild Sage." They didn't sound necessarily great, but they sounded good.

And after about a half-hour the band left the stage and John stuck around to sing some solo tunes, which were pretty appreciated by me after what seemed like a mostly loud-for-loud's-sake set. Amongst others, he did "Ghosts" and "Billy the Kid's Dream of the Magic Shoes," a song which I never really cared much for before but it felt pretty good tonight. And "It Froze Me," which I hadn't seen in a while. I can't remember when I last saw it, but I suspect it was Boston in 2006, when the crowd drowned out John's vocals with their own. It was real nice to hear it listened to and not sung-along to. Yay Northampton!

And after the acoustic interlude, the set finished up with four tunes: "Love, Love, Love," which was nice and subtle and nicely complemented by the drums;"In the Craters on the Moon" and "Lovecraft in Brooklyn," both of which kind of need the drums; and "This Year," which was just a huge singalong and made me wish they'd played something else. I guess I should be glad that the kids want to sing along to "This Year" and not "Sept 15 1983." Cause if anyone had been singing on that one, which opened the encore, I would have lost my shit. That song was amazing. And it was great to hear it now that I know how it sounds on the record. "See America Right" finished up the show. I traded smiles with Adam and was glad he got to hear it again.

And then the show was over and I packed up my shit and went home and had a beer. Not a great Mountain Goats show, but a great night all around.

February 28 2008: Steve Earle, Allison Moorer - Calvin Theatre, Northampton MA

2008-02-29T23:59:00.001-05:00

I cut out of internship a few hours early so Caitlin and I could get dinner and then a drink with Alicia and Rob and then see Steve Earle. He played the first half-hour solo acoustic, opening with "Steve's Last Ramble" and "Devil's Right Hand," the latter of which was really fun to hear. But like the show in general, it didn't hold up to the memory of the last (and only other) time I'd seem him play. "Someday" was pretty good, and "Tom Ames' Prayer" was pretty fabulous, and "Billy Austin" was undeniably fabulous. Never heard that song before, and man did it blow me away.

But for the last hour of the set he played his new album. I'm not sure if he played every last song, but he played the ones I like ("Jericho Road," "Oxycontin Blues" and "Red is the Color") and a bunch that I recognized from, but didn't paid much mind to, that one or two times I played the whole record through. And it went on for quite some time so I figure even if he didn't play the whole thing, he may as well have. The effect was the same either way: bunch of pretty good songs with a DJ spinning the rhythm tracks. Guess that's what happens when you start giving a guy Grammys.

But for the encores he played old tunes again, and finished up the show with "Copperhead Road" and "Christmas in Washington." Christ did the old hippies in front of me shit themselves over "Christmas in Washington."

And all in all was a pretty great show, especially those first 30 minutes. Man did those first 30 minutes have some great songs.

Febuary 2 2008: Adam Sweeney, Sarah Levecque Band - the Basement, Northampton MA

2008-02-04T11:43:00.000-05:00

Everyone likes free shows at the Basement, especially when it's people you're friends with plus people you've never heard of before and blow you away.

Sarah Levecque and her band played first, and it was pretty much like it must have been for people when they would see Lucinda Williams play small places like this. Amazing. She played mostly acoustic guitar and sang, and the rest of the band just played standard country. But her vocal phrasing and melodies were both just about perfect. She switched over to an electric guitar for a few of the later tunes, but the acoustic tunes were the best.

And Adam played next. He had those two dudes that I don't really know on double bass and fiddle, and Ben on drums. Ben got dragged to the show by John, who I guess told him that he could either spend the evening playing that board game Risk or come out to the show. So Ben barely makes it out of the house, and then he's got half a beer in him when Adam says, "Hey Ben! Wanna sit in?" And Ben figures he's got his cymbals in the car anyway, and free beer never hurts, so what the hell.

And it was a good show, expecially considering that no one on stage had played with the others in at least six months. "Albuquerque" sounded real nice, like it always does, and the Pureka's "Porch Songs" was a great way to end the set.

January 20 2008: Miss Tess - Toad, Cambridge MA

2008-01-21T11:40:00.000-05:00

We played first, and then stuck around to drink cheap beers and watch Miss Tess play some pretty great folky jazz stuff. Archtop, double bass, great voice, tasteful drums. Pretty dancable and pretty drinkable. Lots of fun.

December 30 2007: Harvey Danger - Neumo's, Seattle WA

2007-12-31T20:46:00.000-05:00

We got to Neumo’s about fifteen minutes before Harvey Danger came on, just enough time to get a Mirror Pond and a spot about halfway back where we could see, and where we once again ran into Keith.

And then the band comes on stage and Sean says, “Hi. We’re going to play our first album from start to finish. Starting now.” And he wasn’t lying.

Maybe six or seven songs were played immediately after “Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?,” including “Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas” and “Picture, Picture,” and they closed the set with Simon and Garfunkle’s “Hazy Shade of Winter.” Kind of a long set, and we (especially Caitlin, who it seems did not anticipate a solid five hours of music when she agreed to see “some music while we’re in Seattle”) were a little worn out by the end of it. But then, to start the encore, out comes someone Sean described as “more special than the special Olympics, more special than Charlie Brown Christmas Special.” Yes, John Roderick. He played lead electric guitar and sang Lennon’s part on “I’ve Got a Feeling.” Highlight of the show. Arguably highlight of the month. And then they finished up with “Wine, Women and Song,” “War Buddies” (which was amazing), “Moral Centralia,” and the Velvet Underground’s “The Gift.”

No “Little Round Mirrors,” no “Pike St./Park Slope,” kind of long, but a fabulous show. Glad I was there.

December 30 2007: Siberian, Damien Jurado, the Long Winters, Sean Nelson, Peter Parker, Pale Pacific - Chop Suey, Seattle WA

2007-12-31T20:42:00.000-05:00

So! Caitlin and I were planning to be in Seattle anyway, to see Harvey Danger. And then just before Christmas I heard the Crocodile Café had closed. Sad news. And that there was to be a benefit show for the Croc’s recently-out-of-work employees, on the very same night as and just six blocks away from the Harvey Danger gig. Happy news.

We showed up at Chop Suey a few minutes before eight, just missing Sonny Votolato, brother of Rocky. Which was too bad. But Pale Pacific were great, and Peter Parker were fabulous. Two groups I’d never listened to before, but it’s amazing what the three-songs-in-quick-succession format will do. Like musical tapas. And when you’ve got a Mack and Jack’s in your hand, what’s not to love?

Sean Nelson came on next. He sang three songs I didn’t know, while playing keyboard. It was fun to see him by himself, but he didn’t blow me away. Caitlin loved him though. I loved my second Mack and Jack’s.

And after a quick field trip down to Broadway to get a quesadilla, during which time we ran into none other than Keith Blood, who I didn’t know was living anywhere near Seattle, we were back in time to see Damien Jurado. But it wasn’t Jurado setting up on stage. It was a bunch of hairy guys. And I swear I didn’t have any idea who on earth they were until it suddenly hit me that Hey! Isn’t that Mike Schorr on drums? And then wait! Is that a really hairy Eric Corson there? AND DOES THAT MEAN THAT THE REALLY REALLY HAIRY GUY WITHOUT A FRONT TOOTH IS JOHN RODERICK???!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!! SWEET JESUS IT IS! SURPRISE UNANNOUNCED SET BY MY FAVORITE BAND IN ALL OF SEATTLE!!!!, WHO I HAVEN’T SEEN IN OVER A YEAR!!! HIP HIP HOORAY! And I about shit myself as they, collectively arguably my favorite formation of the Long Winters to see live, went into “New Girl.” Roderick’s guitar, after the first chorus, disattached from its strap but John continued without it and went on to play maybe the greatest strapless solo I’ve ever seen, and without resorting to the old going-down-on-the-knees trick. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed “New Girl” so much.

And then “Carparts!” During which Roderick broke a string and just let Corson’s bass take over during the bridge. It was great to think that here Roderick is, still playing “Carparts” in Seattle after all these years (at least ten, I guess), and still finding ways to maye it interesting.

But after the broken string they called it quits, even though Dave Bazan offered John his telecaster. Cause they had to make way for Jurado! Who played “Lose My Head,” a new one and then closed with “Paperwings,” which Bazan came out to play drums on. But everyone was talking all through the set.

And we stayed for one more act, who kind of sucked ass, before moving on to Neumo’s.

December 22 2007: Bryan Free, Deepest Darkest - Tonic Lounge, Portland OR

2007-12-23T15:56:00.001-05:00

If you had told me, three years ago, that "Lust" would be turn into one of the highlights of Bryan's shows, I would have called you out on that bullshit. Or else felt really sorry for Bryan. But it turns out that song can grow on a person.

And I don't think I'd seen Bryan play since July '05, when he had just Graeme on bass and I knew most of the tunes. But tonight it was a full band and all tunes that I didn't know, excepting "Lust." Graeme was on guitar, Bret Vogel on sax and keyboards, the guy who plays guitar for Crosstide on slide, the rest of Crosstide on bass and drums, and Bryan spent most of his time on a Rhodes. I was hoping for more tunes I knew, though. Two nights in a row of some of your favorite musicians make for fun times, but it gets a little old when between the two nights you only know six songs, total.

And it really was a whole lot of fun, mostly cause it seemed like I knew everyone in the room. Graeme (who was nice enough to get a hold of me in advance and let me know about the show and put me on the list) and Bryan and Bret, of course, but also Adam and Sairi (who were in Chehalis over Christmas and came down for the night), Livingston (also in town for Christmas), Eichenberger, Boyd, Blanchard, my sister Sara and her boyfriend Jarek, and even Eidan showed up by the end of the night. Many Deschutes beers were consumed, full advantage of indoor smoking was taken, and I didn't leave until two. Lots of fun.

December 21 2007: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Blitzen Trapper - Doug Fir Lounge, Portland OR

2007-12-22T18:53:00.000-05:00

I'm home for Christmas and Malkmus is playing at the Doug Fir. How great is that!? And Janet Weiss is now a Jick! So that was kind of amazing. And Joanna Bolme is still a Jick. So seeing them these days is really like seeing bits and pieces of all my favorite groups all on stage together.

And Katie came with me! It was pretty good times. I drank Black Buttes and Mirror Ponds. She drank various gin-based drinks. And we somehow found ourselves in the front of the room, right in front of Steve. I like the Doug Fir.

Blitzen Trapper played first, and they were pretty good. I think Katie liked them more than I did. And Katie played a pretty excellent bad cop to the assholes who shoved their way in front of us during their set. Assholes: "Sorry, this is our favorite band and we haven't seen them in a while." Katie: "Um, well I've never seen them and now I never will because you fat head is blocking my view....and WE'VE WERE STANDING HERE BEFORE YOU SHOVED YOUR WAY IN FRONT OF US." I love Katie. And I love the Jicks. I hadn't seen them play since I left Portland 2 years ago. It was too long.

They opened with "Baby C'mon." How can you beat a show when it's Janet Weiss on drums and you've got a Mirror Pond firmly in hand and they open with "Baby C'mon"? The show was mostly new tunes though, which I didn't know, and which I was unable to really appreciate cause I couldn't sing along in my head. They were pretty good tunes, though. With lots of the boring-type guitar solos that Malkmus seems to really get a kick out of these days, but there were some really top-notch ones too. Only a few tunes off the old records. "Animal Midnight" and "Mama" were both somewhere in the middle, and they closed the set with "Pencil Rot," which was pretty fantastic. That song is about ten million times better live than it is on the record. And they closed the encore with "Church on White." Great fucking night. Cries of MALLLLLLLLK-MUUUUUUUUUUS, at the pitch of a foghorn, went out as people unsuccessfully tried to get the band to come out for a second encore. In the men's room someone had graffitied Malkmus Is God above the toilet. It was a fun way to spend the evening.

And then Katie bought a pack of Marlboros and we went to sober up at a certain Burnside establishment that I'm not going to mention by name here. But somehow I found myself with another Mirror Pond in front of me. So after Katie went home I needed a little more time before driving back to the parents' house in Hillsboro. I got in the car, turned up the heat and fell asleep, and when I woke up I was out of gas. Maybe, just maybe, a ten-block walk to the Shell station on Grand and Washington at 330am is the only reliable way to know, to REALLY know, that you've had a better time than most that night.

November 17 2007: Rusty Belle - Brass Cat, Easthampton MA

2007-11-20T11:34:00.000-05:00

Drank a few beers and enjoyed most of the Rusty Belle set after we opened for them. Lots of folks were there, the Brass Cat was generous with the free libations, and Rusty Belle played a mostly-covers setlist. Covers like a bunch of songs I didn't know but that Caitlin did, plus "Honky Tonk Woman." Which was fun to hear, but I like their own stuff a lot too.

People were dancing. It was in Easthampton. Times were good.

November 15 2007: The Mountain Goats, the Bowerbirds - Empty Bottle, Chicago IL

2007-11-19T15:12:00.000-05:00

Ah, Chicago. After being awakened/evicted from my spot behind the dumpster by U of I campus police at 5am, I hoofed it to the edge of town and made it to the suburbs in 2 rides and 3 hours. $1.50 Pace fare and a $5 CTA day pass later I was downtown enjoying a spinach omelette, hashbrowns and toast. I used every little piece of portion-sized butter they had on the table. And didn't get a coffee - I got an egg nog latte. I was feeling pretty alright and in a mood to express myself via indulgence. It felt great to finally not have to bum anymore rides, to be at my final destination. And I'd forgotten how much I fucking love Chicago.

Called the Empty Bottle to see what time they open up for drinks and the guy on the other end said five. I called his bluff and walked in at four. He asked me what he could do for me. IPA, please. He asked for $3.75 plus tip. We had ourselves a deal.

Peter and John showed maybe an hour later and we shot the shit for a little bit. I was introduced to Wurster, who said "Oh, you're that guy. I've heard about you." Hear that? Jon Wurster's heard of ME.

And while I sat there nursing my beer I was able to catch the soundcheck. A Misfits cover, an Echo and the Bunnymen cover, "Barracuda" by Heart, that song "Da Da Da" that used to be in TV commercials, Pinklon, and a bunch of other tunes. All for me and the bartender. After which I went to find some food on Division St. Ate better tacos than I've had anywhere on the east coast, had a pretty good slice of pizza, had another beer. I love Chicago.

And the show itself was pretty great. Not as great as the last show I saw at the Empty Bottle, but close. "Quito" came out third in the set, right into "In the Craters on the Moon," right into "Mole." The electric came back out for "Maybe Sprout Wings." "September 15 1983" again, which is always a pleasure. "See America Right" on electric again.

First encore: that Misfits cover again, with Wurster on vocals and Phil/Mark Bowerbird on guitar/drums, and then "Houseguest."

Second encore: "California Song." Man do I love this song. Man do I wish that every time they played "Houseguest" they'd do it instead. It was great. Peter on bass, John singing "a song about where I'm from." I was happy.

Third encore, a number I've never seen encores at Mountain Goats shows, or really at most any shows, reach: "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton." Hail Satan indeed.

And then it was over. I didn't want to go home. I ate a couple more tacos and a tamale. I walked down Division and then up Damon to the blue line. I took it to O'Hare to sleep a few hours before my 630am flight. It was not the greatest sleep I've ever had.

November 14 2007: The Mountain Goats, the Bowerbirds - Canopy Club, Urbana IL

2007-11-19T14:31:00.000-05:00

At 5pm I was still in Cincinnati. Was I simply unable to get a ride? Had I decided to stop following the tour and just given up? Was I taking a day off to nurse my bruised chest? Or was I enjoying myself in the 70-degree sun and eating a sandwich with a Candra, the person I'd stayed with the night before and talked into going to Urbana for the next show and bringing my ass along? That's right - not only did I get a warm place to sleep, but a ride to the next show as well. Just can't beat that shit.

So at 6pm Central we left Cincinnati, listened to the Long Winters and Josh Ritter en route, and arrived in Urbana at 9pm Eastern. Urbana, city I'd been to just once before, for the sole reason of seeing the Mountain Goats. It was fun to be back and know my way around (kind of).

"September 15 1983" got played second, and was waaaaay dubier than it's been in the past. I'm excited to hear how it sounds on the record. "You or Your Memory" and "Color in Your Cheeks" were played for the first time that I've heard this month, and the drums thwarted singers-along on "Color in your Cheeks."

"Maybe Sprout Wings" was played, but on acoustic instead of electric, which toned it down a bit. I definitely prefer it electric. But there was no electric guitar at this show whatsoever.

The real highlight, both of this show and of my life thus far, was hearing "Soft Targets" near the end of the set. Tune is (a) musically and lyrically one of my favorites and (b) one I hold pretty dear for personal reasons. I didn't think I'd ever hear it live. I'm glad I was so very wrong. John told the crowd after it was over that that was the most fun he'd had singing a song all tour. I was still singing the "Hunt down the vampire" line to myself for days afterward.

Encore started with "See America Right," but it wasn't nearly as good as it was in Springfield, owing to the lack of electric guitar. But it was still pretty great. And some dumb asshole felt the need to broadcast the fact that he knew all the words to "Houseguest" by getting all in John's face and screaming them at him. Perhaps, one can fantasize, he wrecked his car on the way home.

And, as all great things must, the show finished up and Candra and Mike (dude I'd met in St Louis and then again in Cincinnati) ate some late-night pizza before I bid them adieu to find a place to sleep.

November 13 2007: The Mountain Goats, the Bowerbirds - Mad Hatter, Covington KY

2007-11-19T13:39:00.000-05:00

The greater Cincinnati area is a weird fucking place. I got into town around 2pm and after a visit to the Covington Public Library spent the pre-show hours drinking happy hour PBRs and smoking Kentucky-priced Camel Lights at a place called Bottoms Up, a couple blocks NW of the club. It was smoky, the beers were a dollar, and the next-youngest person in the room had a good twenty years on me. The jukebox played the majority of "Back in Black" during the couple hours I spent there, and during "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" one lady fucking nailed the "Hey all you middlemen!" part at the beginning. I was enjoying myself. And then all of a sudden I'm in an honest-to-goodness barfight with a fifty-year-old dude who's far too intoxicated to be standing, much less picking fights with people in their twenties. Bottles of liquor were broken. Glasses became projectiles. Chairs were thrown to the ground. While looking out for the dude's right fist my chest was caught off guard by his left foot. The whole thing came out of nowhere. It was crazy. And finally the majority of the dudes in the bar all pile on the guy and we throw him out onto the street. Fucking nuts.

And then the show happened! "Wild Sage" again, "Love, Love, Love" again, "We Were Patriots" again, "Mole" again, "In the Craters on the Moon" again. "September 15 1983" was played, and it was only the second time I'd seen it and I think it's my favorite of the new tunes. And "Dance Music," a tune I'm generally quite alright not hearing, was played with a really mellow feel (kind of like the way they used to do "Palmcorder Yajna"), and I dug it way more than the usual dancy style. "Dilaudid" made for a nice tune to start the encore with.

The songs sounded, again, great with drums. And you know what else sounded great? The fact that drums make the music loud enough so that even though I can see people moving their mouthes, I can't hear them. Take that, motherfuckers. Just try to ruin my show again. Just try. I've got Jon Wurster on my side.

And big news of the night: I got a place to sleep! A 19-year-old girl took me home and I stayed up till 6am drinking beers with her friends and becoming painfully aware how much easier it was to stay up till 6am when i was 19. But it was good times.

November 11 2007: The Mountain Goats, the Bowerbirds - Randy Bacon Gallery, Springfield MO

2007-11-19T12:49:00.000-05:00

I told Peter before the show: "You know, I thought I knew the shittiest Springfield around. I was wrong."

So yeah. Not the prettiest town in the world. Which made the Randy Bacon's light shine that much brighter. The place is a gallery by day, music venue by night. And there were seats! There were little tables with candles! There was red wine, gratis! Read: classy place with free booze and chairs to sit in and tables on which to place empty glasses. As far a cry from a soulless burrito-spewing food court as you could hope.

They opened with "Wild Sage" and "Tetrapod" again, did "How to Embrace a Swamp Creature," did "Alibi," did both "Orange Ball of Love" and "Orange Ball of Hate." "Slow West Vultures" was fun to hear again, especially with drums. "Maybe Sprout Wings" was great again. "In the Craters on the Moon" as well. Shit, the whole thing was great.

Especially great: "See America Right," with jangly electric guitar and drums.

Especially great: "Palmcorder Yajna," with jangly electric guitar and drums.

Unfortunate casualty of the drums: "Twin Human Highway Flares." The subtle shifts in the feel of it got lost with the steady beat. Which was a real shame, cause this is one of my all-time favorite Mountain Goats tunes.

And did I mention that there were seats?!!?? And that the crowd was polite enough to sit in them and not sing or yell or engage in other such activities?? Such bliss is hard to describe fully with mere words.

And it rained that night, but I was OK cause there's construction going on at MSU and I found a nice little place to sleep at a loading dock that wasn't yet completed but had a roof.

November 10 2007: The Mountain Goats, the Bowerbirds - Billiken Club, Saint Louis University, Saint Louis MO

2007-11-19T11:35:00.000-05:00

Hey! It was a slow week at school, the Mountain Goats were playing in the Midwest, and I had frequent flier miles burning holes in my pockets. Seemed like a no-brainer. So after probably the roughest week of the semester, I got up early and John took me to the airport. We took off and landed in Pittsburgh. We took off again, this time landing in St. Louis. I took the light rail to the Grand stop. I walked a mile north to SLU. Life should always be so simple.

The venue was the basement of the student center, aka a food court. You could get burritos or smoothies or hamburgers or beer. Those who know me personally can probably make a pretty good educated guess regarding which I found most appealing.

The Bowerbirds came on first. I like the Bowerbirds, though they don't blow me away. But it was nice to hear them play again.

The Mountain Goats, on the other hand, blow me away on a relatively consistent basis. Especially with Jon Wurster on drums. I'd never seen the Mountain Goats play a full set of tunes with drums. It was pretty great.

They opened with "Wild Sage," which remains one of my favorite tunes to hear their shows get opened with. And then into "Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod" and "In the Craters on the Moon" and "New Monster Avenue," all of which sounded great with the drums. And shit do I love "Craters on the Moon."

"Love, Love, Love" was quiet and Peter's bum bums after the verses were as subtle as ever and there weren't any assholes singing along with it. "Maybe Sprout Wings" was loud as fuck (John was playing electric), and the best I've ever heard it. "Mole" was great, "Lion's Teeth" was great (such a difference the drums and electric guitar make).

And then, second-to-last tune of the set: "We Were Patriots." Shit. Never thought I'd see that one live. Never thought it could sound so good with a full band. I would have gone home happy right there.

But then, second-to-none tune: "Lovecraft in Brooklyn." Which I recognized after a minute from having heard John play it solo in Brooklyn earlier in the year. And fuck. The drums, the riff, the phrasing and near-screaming vocals......it was pretty much the boiled-down essence of rock and roll. What a way to close a set.

Encore was "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton" and "Houseguest." "Death Metal Band" was great, as usual. And I'm getting tired of "Houseguest," but I suppose I'm the exception to that rule as most people seem to really dig it.

So yeah. "We Were Patriots." "Lovecraft." "Maybe Sprout Wings." "Craters on the Moon." No assholes singing along. No assholes yelling in my ear. Free show. $2 beers (I asked the bartender what she had that's local, she handed me a Budweiser). Nice campus on which to camp out for the night. Just can't beat that shit.

October 30 2007: Mary Gauthier, Drew Hickum - Iron Horse, Northampton MA

2007-10-31T17:58:00.000-04:00

Drew opened solo for Mary Gauthier! So Caitlin and Mariah and Lisa and I went. And you know how all too often you hear some solo opener at the Iron Horse and they're just awful? Such was not the case with Drew. He played the mellow tunes and one that I'd never heard and it was great. "Charleston," which is such a great song with Lisa's guitar part, sounded just as good they way Drew played it. I'm not sure how that works. But the whole set was just pleasant to watch.

And Mary Gauthier played for about an hour, and talked stupid folk singer banter for an additional half hour. But she played "The Last of the Hobo Kings" and "Mercy Now" and ""Can't Find the Way" and "Wheel Inside the Wheel." "Camelot Hotel was probably the best tune of the night - that "morning light is hell" line just kills me.

All in all, a fun night. Even if the beers and fries and veggie burger did add up to a pretty high number by the end of the night.

October 27 2007: Drew Hickum Band - People's Pint, Greenfield MA

2007-10-29T23:14:00.000-04:00

Went up with Mariah to see Drew and Lisa play. It was pretty good times. We drank some beers and ate some food and the music was good. Fun to hear "Charleston" now that I pretty much know it by heart and find myself singing it while waiting for the bus, and fun to hear all the other tunes too.

And the Pint's Tiger Bite, which is cloudy and a little bit sweet and which I had three of, is a beer that's genuinely good! How about that???

October 20 2007: They Might Be Giants - Northampton Box Office, Northampton MA

2007-10-22T19:18:00.000-04:00

So They Might Be Giants, whom I'd never seen play before, were playing for free in that tiny little room where the Iron Horse people sell tickets. Went with Caitlin an hour early cause we figured there would be some sort of line but no one was there. Matt was working and he told us to come back in 45m. So we got a beer at the Dirty Truth and came back in 35m and there was still no one there. People finally started showing up with ten minutes to go, and there were only a few dozen folks anyway.

And it was a good time. They played three songs. The first two I didn't know, and the third was "Istanbul." Which was pretty fun to hear.

The only downside was that it was for a radio broadcast, so the whole point was to make sure the songs sounded good on the radio, leaving us in the audience to listen to unamplified voices and instruments. So sometimes the vocals got overpowered by the horns, but it was free and a good time and no one was in a position to complain.

October 13 2007: Drew Hickum and the Ministry of Folk - Langdon Street Cafe, Montpelier VT

2007-10-14T14:13:00.001-04:00

Caught a ride north with the Ministry, sharing the back with Tate and Tate's bass while Drew and Lisa listened to and sang along with Mr. Al Green in the front. It was good times as Vermont flew by at usually 80mph, periodically 65mph every time Lisa saw a cop and slammed on her breaks.

But we got to Montpelier, a town whose name I have just now learned to spell, around 8pm and collectively found it to be beautiful and quaint and the sort of place a person could find themselves getting used to living in. And then we found the Langdon Street Cafe, which is located right on the edge of a little river that flows right through town, and the warm feelings in each of our hearts grew warmer. It was a nice place. They served us tasty sandwiches and a pretty great beer, the name of which I never quite got my brain around, but which came from a big carved-fish tap.

And the Ministry played pretty well to a few folks who dwindled to the maybe ten who were there at the end of the night. Drew and Lisa played a tune about Charleston to start out the second set that was just fabulous, and it was good times all around. Sarai and I did our homework in the back while drinking the afore-mentioned fish beers.

And, as we really should have figured out by this point in our lives, all good things must pass: the bar stiffed the band $250 and then the Red Sox lost spectacularly in the eleventh as we listened on the long drive home. But it was still fun times.

October 4 2007: Josh Ritter, Old School Freight Train - Somerville Theatre, Somerville MA

2007-10-09T15:14:00.001-04:00

Night two. Met up with Adam and Sarai for half-priced happy hour food and the Rockies game across the street from the theatre, and then we made our way in about a half-hour before music. It was a nice place, kind of like the Aladdin but smaller. And they had pints of Harpoon for $4. Good times!

The show was mostly the same songs, in a slightly different order. For instance, they played "Rumors" instead of "Mind's Eye" to start things off after "Moons." And it felt like "Rumors" was much better after the crowd was warmed up (cause lord knows the openers didn't warm up shit). And "Mind's Eye" is just such a great song to start out with.

"Monster Ballads" was played pretty early on in the set, which was nice to hear, and the encore was almost all tunes that didn't get played last night. It started out with "Lawrence KS," then "The River," and then "Real Long Distance" and "Next to the Last Romantic," with the opening players each taking solos on "Last Romantic." Which I could have done without, for the same reason that I don't go see Van Halen when they play, but what can you do.

And there were horns! a five- or six-piece section that came out for a tune every now and then and provided a nice contrast to last night's show.

And it was a great night. "Lawrence" was played with the full band, with lap steel and a really nice drum part. And I was really glad to hear "Long Distance" and "Last Romantic," which are two tunes I really dig off the new record.

And it was an early show so I was home by midnight and at the hospital by 645. Woo!

October 3 2007: Josh Ritter, Old School Freight Train - Pearl Street Ballroom, Northampton MA

2007-10-09T14:24:00.000-04:00

Big night in Northampton! Josh Ritter was playing with a full band and pretty much everyone I know was there. And after dealing with the openers (someone should let that fiddle player know that just cause he's got talent doesn't mean he's got a soul), Ritter comes out with an electric guitar to play "Moons" and go straight into "Mind's Eye." The band consisted of the bass and keyboard players that he's had for a while, and a new drummer, and a guy on lead guitar. And "Mind's Eye" was probably the best way to get that show going possible.

What it comes down to is that this show blew every other time I've seen Ritter right out of the water. Ever since I first saw him, when he opened with the then-unreleased "Girl in the War" and in doing so showed his hand too early, I've been forever frustrated that he wasn't playing his songs like they could be being played. Frustrated like the first night was a dream but I haven't been able to come since. Frustrated like I just can't get as high as I got the first time I got high. That sort of thing. But tonight was amazing. The set lasted 80 minutes and it seemed like 40. I came over and over. I got that high again. It was amazing.

They did "Wolves," and "Harrisburg" pretty early on, and when I say "they did," what I really mean is "they did better than I thought possible." And "Here at the Right Time," kept my back shivering the whole way through. And it was nice to hear "The Temptation of Adam," after finally figuring out that it's a good tune.

But then! Forty minutes into the set they go into "Girl in the War," played just as well as it was that first time, with the awful mandolin part finally getting thrown out and the second guitar player really pounding away just before and then during the "oooh"s. And then straight into "Rumors," which leaves me without words. They played it pretty much the way it is on the record, with guitar instead of horns, and with that piano part driving the whole thing. It was the best tune of the night. And then "Right Moves," and then "Me and Jiggs." Not a bad four-song run for the middle of the set.

And then "California" with that extra guitarist on lap steel. And then "Still Beating" with just Josh and the bass player, on guitar. And then "Empty Heart," which has really really grown on me lately. What a great song. And what a great way to end a set.

The encore was a Springsteen tune ("The River") followed by "Kathleen," which is Marie and Mariah's favorite of Ritter's tunes. They were excited to hear it and screamed at all the right spots.

It was a great night.

And I rode my bike home and was at the hospital at 645am.

September 30 3007: The Mountain Goats, the Bowerbirds - Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge MA

2007-09-30T13:10:00.000-04:00

With both an unbelievably vast amount of school work in real need of some ASAP attention and a ridiculously low and no-doubt unhealthy number of hours recently slept under my belt, I didn't study and I didn't sleep. I didn't take a night off to recharge the old mental-health batteries. I didn't think twice. I just drank beers with Sweeney in Cambridge and watched the Mountain Goats play.

And, in fact, not only with Sweeney but with Jared and Caitlin too! But those two didn't have tickets so it was just Sweeney and myself when it came down to business.

I figured if last year's show at the Middle East was any indication, I'd be wishing painful deaths upon most of the audience by the show's conclusion, so we stood up in that little bar area to the left of the stage, right in front of the speakers. The idea being that the closer we were to the speakers, the less we'd hear all the assholes in the room that we DIDN'T pay good money to hear sing. And we were rewarded for our forethought. Mostly. There was just nothing to be done about that guy behind us who felt the need to show off how he knew all the words to "Cobscook Bay."

Speaking of which, they fucking played "Cobscook Bay!" It was great. I really liked the bass part. And I really liked the "unmarked airplanes" line, but I knew that already going in. Really, that whole song. What a great song.

And they did, amongst others, "The Coroner's Gambit" (never seen before) and "Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod" (never seen with Peter) and "Up the Wolves" and "Grendel's Mother" and "Cubs in Five" and "Wild Sage." Sweeney reported being pretty much blown away by "Wild Sage," and I think I'd concur that it's one of their best live numbers.

And they did "Oceanographer's Choice," which I hadn't heard in almost two years. But I just can't hear that song live without wishing they had a full band backing them. But it was still great to hear. And they did that new one "In the Craters On the Moon" again, and another new one called "How to Embrace a Swamp Creature." And closed the set with "Nine Black Poppies."

Encore #1 consisted of asshole-singer favorite "No Children" followed asshole-singer favorite "This Year." And then "Shadow Song" for encore #2.

And fun times all around. It was only Sweeney's second time seeing them, and he called it the best show he's seen in a long while. And afterwards we got some Chinese food across the street from his new place, I slept on his futon, and I was only five minutes late to class on monday.

September 28 2007: Fancy Trash, Steve Sanderson - Iron Horse, Northampton MA

2007-09-29T17:07:00.000-04:00

The Trash played their fifth anniversary show, and for the occasion they were six musicians deep instead of three. I tried to listen more closely but cigarettes and $5.25 BBC porters and John's friend Evan got the best of me. But they sounded great, and the Iron Horse was pretty full.

And Steve Sanderson opened, but not the Steve Sanderson I went to college with. A different guy with the same name. Just to clarify.

September 26 2007: Damien Jurado - Pearl Street Ballroom, Northampton MA

2007-09-26T22:22:00.000-04:00

There are few pleasures greater than riding one's bike a quarter-mile, chaining it to a tree, and then watching one of the best songwriters around play his tunes, even if just for 35 minutes.

It wasn't the greatest show I've ever seen Jurado play, but it was great to see him again. He opened with "Ohio," but he had to kind of force it cause everyone was standing around drinking and talking and waiting for the opener to finish so they could see Okkervil River. But then "Abilene" was next and it was fabulous.

And he did "Lose My Head," which I hadn't heard since I first saw him play in 2002. That was probably the highlight. With runner-up being "Now that I'm in Your Shadow." And "Johnny Go Riding" the second runner-up - that "Judy she's out catching" verse gets me every time.

Real fun. And I was home by ten!

September 22 2007: The Mountain Goats, the Bowerbirds - North Star Bar, Philadelphia PA

2007-09-24T12:26:00.000-04:00

Oh man was this a fun night!

Woke up on Anna's floor in DC at around 11am, showered and ate some breakfast, and we we were on the road by noon. In Philly around 3, found the bar soon after, and then headed to old town cause Anna's never been to this particular historic city and she's into that sort of shit. And it was fun going around with her, watching her get all excited about old bricks. Which are pretty exciting, when you think about it. I just don't often find myself thinking about it.

So we do that for the afternoon, but then at 530 we make a beeline back to the North Star cause we've heard tell that during happy hour beer is half off and food is cheap. We find ourselves to have heard correctly. I order a Yards, of which I'd previously been unaware. Anna orders a Woodchuck. The grand total: $4. Then Anna orders ten Buffalo wings and another Woodchuck. Grand total for that: $5. Then I order a Rogue hazelnut brown, just cause I'm feeling Northwesty. And because it's only $2.50. Philadelphia! We raise our glasses to you!

And the North Star was really a classy place. From the outside, as we were walking toward it, it occurred to me that this was going to be pretty akin to a place I used to go called Eden's Gate in Newberg OR. Which was a real shithole with a $2 Chinese buffet every tuesday. But oh how wrong I was. I love being wrong like that.

And then when the doors opened to the show area of the bar I looked around and saw a tiny little room (reported capacity 250) with a tiny little balcony and a stage high enough that no one was going to have any problems seeing the stage. And we found ourselves a nice little spot just in front of the roof-hanging speakers, maybe four feet from the stage, and we were happy.

And when the Mountain Goats came on they opened with an unbelievable rendition of "Wild Sage," inarguably the best I've ever heard them play it. And just as I had hoped, our spot beneath the speaker pretty much kept us from hearing anything but the band - no singers along, no assholes talking, just music. It was beautiful.

And the show was about twice as great as Baltimore was. Maybe three times as great. They did the new song "In the Craters of the Moon" again, as well as another one that I really dug called "September 15 1983." In addition to "Grendel's Mother" and "Tollund Man" and "Jenny" (Sang "one thing in the galaxy" this time too - I really hope this is a trend) and "Up the Wolves." I was dancing for sure.

And if Anna thought they were dressed well in Baltimore, well they were wearing fuckin SUITS tonight. Peter looked fabulous. John's pants were too big and he kind of looked like Dick Van Dyke doing the penguin dance. But who gives a fuck what people look like when they close the set with "Cubs in Five" and "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton." Wow. I hadn't seen "Cubs in Five" since the very first time I ever saw them play, aka since before I even knew the song. So that was a lot of fun. And For all my bitching about people who sing at shows, there's exactly one time when I feel it's entirely appropriate and perhaps even necessary to do so: the "Hail Satan!"s. And I glanced over and even Anna's mouth was moving. Oh Anna.

And then for the encore: they start out with the repetitive chord that usually signals "Oceanographer's Choice," but then instead of "guy in a skeleton costume" comes, "I'm gonna drink more whiskey!!!!" That was pretty great. I hadn't seen "Commandante" since Olympia two years ago, aka not since I really learned to appreciate the tune. Then "Dance Music," then a particularly moving "Shadow Song," and then "This Year."

And the image of Peter in his pants, shoes, shirt, tie and vest sitting on the little chair in the back corner of the stage on bass, John singing some "ah"s off the mike while banging the hell out of the guitar, and the old brick wall behind them both with its burnt and discolored bricks going up two stories...that's how I'm gonna remember "Shadow Song" from now on.

What a great show.

September 21 2007: The Mountain Goats, the Bowerbirds - Sonar Club Room, Baltimore MD

2007-09-24T11:17:00.000-04:00

It just wouldn't be a Mountain Goats show without a whole lot of hanging out at the local Greyhound station. Which I did, because Anna's car wouldn't start so she had to take the trip north on the dirty dog. As in, Anna my sister! It's exciting to see rock music with blood relations.

So Anna's bus finally rolled into town at 9pm, we drove over to the club, and the Bowerbirds had just started playing. I think I mentioned to her at some point, "Oh I really like these guys." At a later point I realized that she thought the Bowerbirds were the Mountain Goats. She's so cute like that.

Anyway, so I enjoyed some Yuenglings and she had the sort of drink we used to give Ryan Blanchard shit for drinking. The room was Berbati's Pan-sized, and smoky. I'd forgotten that smoky bars exist. And when the Mountain Goats came on they opened with "Cheshire County," a song I hadn't heard since 2003. And then a fabulous new tune called "In the Craters of the Moon" and "Going to Utrecht." In all they played five tunes from "Nine Black Poppies." Pretty great.

At some point during the show, Anna leans over to me and mentions, "Wow, they're so well dressed!"

And I'd forgotten about how Peter's harmony on the last few lines of "Game Shows Touch Our Lives" (you know, from "Carried you up the stairs last night" through the end of the tune) just sends that song through the roof. Of course I hadn't forgotten about his subsequent bass solo. And they did "See America Right," which I hadn't seen in almost two years. And always great to see "Tollund Man."

And on "Love, Love, Love" they didn't quite get to the quiet/sublime feeling that was often achieved before folks started feeling the need to sing along (loudly) to it, but they sure got closer than they did last year. Which was appreciated.

And speaking of singing/screaming along, I came in knowing it's definitely not worth hearing "No Children" anymore due to such crimes against humanity, but this show leaves me wondering of "Going to Georgia" and "This Year" are now in the club as well. The club of tunes which are pretty good, but during which everyone freaks the fuck out and consequently ruins them.

But the show was a lot of fun and Anna enjoyed herself and it was over by 11 so we were at Anna's place in DC by midnight with enough time to go explore her neighborhood until closing time.

September 15 2007: Adam Sweeney, Drew Hickum Band, Whiskey Ina - The Basement, Northampton MA

2007-09-19T14:46:00.001-04:00

Walked to the show with Marie and Mariah and Marie's boy John. We enjoyed beers en route. This was to be predictive of the evening as a whole.

Hickum played second, with Adam back in the lineup on banjo, and it was murder. They opened with "1872" and followed it up with "Lonesomeville." "The Letterbox" sounded better than I think it ever has, and "Way Way" was just unbelievable - the mandolin with the banjo underneath it and Drew's voice over the whole thing. Wow. And then they closed the set with "Sarah Flynne."

And then Sweeney played, with actual musicians on the instruments, and it was the best I've ever seen him. Ben was on drums, half of Rusty Belle were playing accordion and singing, and there were guys on fiddle and bass. Sarai and I agreed that we'd never seen Adam with a better band. And the place was packed. Everyone was drinking beers and whiskeys and the afore-mentioned John bought me a beer. It was mostly new songs, with "Albuquerque" and "Linden" and "Wedding" thrown in, and "Doomsday Sunday Sermon" and "St. Peter" were particularly enjoyable. It was a great night all around.

........And then we all got trashed and stayed up till 4am! Woo!

September 8 2007: Drunk Stuntmen, Orange Crush, Unit 7, Rusty Belle, Fancy Trash - Pines Theatre, Florence MA

2007-09-09T21:51:00.000-04:00

The Trash were playing for free with a bunch of other local groups so Gabbi and Susanne and Jack and I went down for a couple hours to listen to some music and drink some beers.

We only caught the last couple Fancy Trash tunes, but then Rusty Belle played and their opening song (I think it's called "No Sacrifice") was fantastic! The dry drum sounds and the muddy guitar and harmony vocals were exactly what I wanted to hear. And Gabbi informs me that she has friends who often have parties where Rusty Belle play. I am excited about attending these parties in the future. This band totally exemplifies the reason I love living in Northampton.

But then after that came a wedding band, followed by a covers band, and then the Drunk Stuntmen, who were pretty good. And apparently their singer is Alex Johnson, who I'd just seen play solo the other night. Maybe it was just because I recognized some of the tunes, but he was a lot better with his band.

And you can't beat cold beers and local music following an afternoon of swimming at this unbelievably idyllic spot in Leeds. To western Massachusetts!

September 6 2007: The Fawns, Alex Johnson - Sierra Grille, Northampton MA

2007-09-09T20:36:00.001-04:00

I don't think I'd seen the Fawns since I finally got their album. And seeing as how they're maybe my favorite local group and this was a free show and I didn't have anything going on in the morning, I went to Sierra to see how music sounds over there.

Ran into Drew after the opener finished and we enjoyed the set from the back. The Fawns opened with "Any Day," and I think there are only a few pleasures greater than listening to Lesa sing the "la da da"s on that tune. And they played most of the rest of the album and a bunch of nice-sounding new songs. Drew got tired and wanted to leave after 45 minutes but I made him stay until they did "Snow Day," which he didn't know and which was pretty great. And then as he was leaving some girl walking by says, "Whoa fella, this pop music a little too much for you?" Which I thought was pretty funny.

So yeah - pretty great show. Enjoyed some O'Hara's stouts, which is my new favorite drink, and had a good time. And as always kind of funny to see Ken Maiuri playing with people who are not Dave Bazan.

September 1 2007: Drew Hickum Band - Elks Lodge Pavillion, West Springfield MA

2007-09-01T23:58:00.001-04:00

West Springfield...Western Massachusetts...Western New England...the Elks Lodge's Country West Fest...goddamn am I glad I live in the west.

So Drew was supposed to drink a beer with me last night but instead he called to say he was, quote, "running a little behind on the dinner cleanup." I informed him that I was sure he doesn't need friends so long as he has clean dishes. And predictably he didn't have much to say in response. But he did offer me a free ticket to Country West Fest. And I took him up on said offer. Because what else is a guy to do?

And so it came to pass that at 6pm I picked Caitlin up and we drove ourselves to the West Springfield Elks Lodge. Where there was no one in the parking lot. And just as we were starting to laugh our collective asses off that we were going to be the sole audience members at the Country West Fest we noticed a couple of high school-age kids pointing our auto to a long driveway that eventually led us to what we later learned is technically termed the Elks Lodge Pavillion, aka a tent with a stage in the middle of a field that sells draft Budweiser for $2.

So we drank $2 Buds with Drew and Lisa and Matt and their girlfriends (sans Mariah, who was in Worcester) for a couple hours (the Hickum Band was supposed to go on at 7pm but, seriously, one cannot expect the Country West Fest to stay on schedule, what with the crowd control required by the DOZENS of people who showed up) and had some laughs and I had a good time with Matt's friend Mya (I think that's her name?) talking about Portland and Sleater-Kinney and Slabtown and stuff of that nature.

And then, after the 16-year-old girl who sang a set of tunes with only a CD to back her (i.e., um, KARAOKE) finally finished, it was time to rock and roll. And as such the announcer says, fucking QUOTE, "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Drew Hickman and the Mystery of Funk." I shit nobody not. That's what the dude said. And they went straight into "1872." Beautiful.

And it really was a great night - no haze, no humidity, the perfect night for $2 swill beer and quality laughs and country music in the great out of doors. I can't imagine what else I might have rather done.

August 18 2007: John Prine, Josh Ritter - Charlottesville Pavilion, Charlottesville VA

2007-08-23T02:07:00.000-04:00

Third stop on the list: expensive folk music in Virginia.

So I was camping with Ryan and Heather at Shenandoah and we decided we needed to check out Charlottesville, where none of us had ever stepped foot one, and watch Josh Ritter play some tunes. For $35. But somehow $50 bar tabs and care-free on-vacation living seem to make $35 folk shows not seem like as big a deal as they might otherwise. And it was pretty great fun.

The amphitheatre was right in the middle of the downtown area, and about the size of the Pines in Northampton, and we got some really nice spots on the grass and watched Ritter win over folks who’d mostly (as we could tell) never heard of him. He opened with “Monster Ballads” into “Good Man” into “Wolves,” all of which sent tingles down my spine. He only did one new one (“The Temptation of Adam”), which was a shame because I was really really excited about hearing how “Rumors,” aka the greatest song of all time, would sound with just an acoustic guitar. “Harrisburg” was great, “Kathleen” was strange to hear without the usual Oh My God He’s Playing Kathleen cheers at the opening guitar bit, and “Girl in the War” was nice to hear, as always.

And then as he closes (with “Kathleen”), he gets a standing ovation! And the people keep cheering until he comes back out and does “Me & Jiggs.” And it was a great show…but…but I think I just perpetually hold Ritter to such an insanely high standard that he’ll always slightly disappoint me. Especially on songs like “Girl in the War,” which is near perfect but he never seems to quite pull it off live in a way that rings 100% true with the way it sounds in my head (which is directly informed by the one time I saw him when he DID play it brilliantly, the first time I ever saw him play in '04, when he opened with it and brought down the house). But that’s just my problem. And the first step is admitting you have a problem.

And then John Prine played for almost two hours, mostly keeping me utterly rapt but sometimes losing me a little bit. He played the two songs of his I knew (“My Mexican Home” and “Paradise,” which Ritter took the third verse on), and absolutely blew me away with three songs I didn’t know but that I intend to hunt down on record: “Six O’Clock News” (somehow he really drove home that “C’mon baby spend the night with me” line), “Angel from Montgomery” and “Sam Stone” (brilliant! “There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes / And Jesus Christ died for nothing I suppose”). In all he was fantastic. Backed by a bassist and a guitarist, and I really wish I had known more of his stuff going into the gig.

And then when the show finished we made our way to the South Street Brewery where their Satan’s Pony ale reminded me more of Mac and Jack’s African Amber than any beer I’ve had otherwise. So Ryan and I had a few. Naturally. And then back to the Motel 8. What a night.

August 10 2007: The Thermals, the Big Sleep - Maxwell's, Hoboken NJ

2007-08-23T01:40:00.000-04:00

Second stop on the list: moderately priced punk rock in New Jersey.

I’d never been to Hoboken. It seemed like a perfectly nice town for the ten blocks that I walked between the PATH station and Maxwell’s. And there was a nice view of Manhattan from the waterfront. But not such a nice town in that there wasn’t anyone I could sell an extra ticket to. Oh well. The show was moderately priced, after all.

The Big Sleep opened, making this the third time I’ve seen them open a show this year. And I still don’t much dig them. But then the !!!Thermals!!! came on stage as a !!!trio!!! I could barely contain myself. I think they opened with “I Might Need You to Kill” and then went right into “An Ear for Baby,” but memory can be hazy sometimes. But they definitely played a whole lot of great songs like “God and Country” and “Back to Grey” and “No Culture Icons” and “Overgrown, Overblown” and “Ultra Violet” and “Here’s Your Future” and “Pillar of Salt” (way better as a trio than the way they played it in Cambridge earlier this year as a fourpiece) and “St. Rosa and the Swallows.”

And it was just so great to see them at such a small place. Probably the smallest place I’ve seen them play since 2004, when they were doing an after-the-Pixies-show show in Bend (Oregon, naturally).

And I always think it’s pretty stupid when the band does the whole “hello X town!” thing, and at this show Hutch at one point asks “Who here’s from Brooklyn?” and some of the crowd cheers. And then “Who here’s from Manhattan?” and “Who here’s from Jersey?” But then after this he asks, nay demands, “AND WHO HERE’S FROM PORTLAND?!?!?!!!!,” and he was just so excited about Portland that I could not help myself as my right fist punched the sky and I responded, “Woo!” And then I felt kind of dumb, but it was ok. Cause fuckin PORTLAND man!

And then as if to entirely justify my above described actions, they covered “Big Dipper” and it was fucking amazing and I’ve never been so glad to hear a song that’s not a Thermals song at a Thermals show. And they followed that up with “It’s Only Trivia” and then that was it and I left floating.

August 9 2007: The Hold Steady, the Big Sleep, the Teenage Prayers - Prospect Park Band Shell, Brooklyn NY

2007-08-23T01:34:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the last day of school, and I had no intentions of staying put for 26 whole days waiting for the fall semester to start. So first stop on the list: free rock and roll in Brooklyn.

I got up early enough to make it into town to catch a noon Mets game, met up with Josh at his place afterwards, and we headed to Prospect Park (it being conveniently located just a few blocks away from Josh) at around 6, making a concerted effort to pick up a sixer of some 7.5% Jamaican stout en route. It was a maybe 70 degree evening, the sky was blue, the humidity was nonexistent, and we could just tell that shit was going to be good.

Enjoyed a few tunes from the Teenage Prayers, whom Josh in some preshow online investigation into the opening acts discovered were supposed to be “a more soulful Steve Malkmus,” but all I could tell was that we were really close to the speakers, which were really loud in my ears. Josh felt similarly. So we put a backpack and a shirt over our chairs and retired with the stout to the lawn where we leaned back and enjoyed ourselves. The aforementioned perfect qualities of the evening’s weather were here multiplied exponentially.

And then after an hour or so the Hold Steady’s appearance on stage started to seem pretty imminent so we reclaimed our seats up front and tossed back some Scotch from a flask throughout the set, and shit. I hadn’t seen them since I’d REALLY started to dig their stuff, and Josh had never seen them, and then they go and open with “Stuck Between Stations” and the spirit just led. In all they played everything from the new record except “Chillout Tent” (including “Citrus,” which I hadn’t seen played before and which I really really like), and “The Swish” and “Barfruit Blues” (which I hadn’t seen before) and “Stevie Nix” and “Multitude of Casualties” and “Your Little Hoodrat Friend” and “Modesto is Not That Sweet” (which I hadn’t heard before but really enjoyed), and they closed the encore with “Killer Parties.” And really, “Killer Parties” seems destined to go down as one of the all-time greatest songs to close a gig with. That baseline, those guitars, the ridiculous and ridiculously brilliant lyrics…mere words cannot describe.

So all in all the show was fabulous and my feet definitely left the floor a few times and the alcohol was at just the right place in my brain and many a moment left me literally grasping at my chest for my heart. It was amazing.

And, perhaps more telling than anything else: Josh Livingston was dancing. Really dancing. Possibly even dancing, in the parlance of our times, like a motherfucker. Such is the influence of cheap whiskey and great rock and roll. And the Hold Steady are truly a great rock and roll band.

August 3 2007: The Rentals - Hawthorne Theatre, Portland OR

2007-08-23T01:31:00.000-04:00

I was in town for a long weekend to see a cousin get married, and grasped the friday night of the weekend by the fucking horns and saw the Rentals play. What a great band. Matt Sharp just kills me. And on top of it all, I went to the show with my very good old friend Katie, with whom I spent considerable time in my younger days, much of which just happened to be spent making out to “Seven More Minutes.”

We had a couple beers at the Bar of the Gods before the show and then, in a demonstration of just how aligned the stars were on this night, got to the Hawthorne Theatre (which is just a renamed Conan’s, aka that place on Hawthorne and 39th) with EXACTLY enough time for us to get two drinks and then find a bench to stand and dance upon. Because once we had that bench (about halfway back in a small room, along the left wall, easy access to the bar, and pleasantly out of reach of punk ass kids who were into jumping around) firmly underfoot, out come the Rentals with “The Love I’m Searching For.” And we’ve each got some Maker’s in our hands but dancing ensues, especially when tunes like “Keep Sleeping” and “Naive” and “The Man with Two Brains” and “Friends of P” and “Barcelona” and “The Cruise” (with lead vocals by Sara Raddle, with whom I am presently and will forever be in love) get played. And they closed the set with “Please Let That Be You,” only to come back out again and finally close the whole thing with “Waiting.” Wow.

And my only beef with the show (aside from having a non-Sharp member of the band sing on “Getting By”) was the way the crowd fucking exploded when they played “I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams” to start the encore. Just like they did in New York last year. Seems to me that you’d get more excited about Rentals songs than Weezer songs if you’re at a Rentals show. And it seems a shame that the biggest crowd response came for a Weezer song. Cause give me those Rentals tunes over Weezer tunes any day of the week.

July 29 2007: Every Folk Player In The Known Universe – Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Dodd Farm, Hillsdale NY

2007-07-31T13:26:00.000-04:00

Day three. Jesus Christ. What was I thinking coming to this thing? I woke up with the worst hangover I’ve experienced in quite a while, and still exhausted, but the temperature in the tent had more in common with saunas than with traditional-type sleeping quarters. So I spread my boxer-clad ass out in some shade and fell asleep. At which time the earth continued to spin and move relative to the sun’s fixed position and as such when I awoke I was no longer in the shade.

Hours later I managed to find the Workshop Stage to catch Shindell and Kaplansky sing a really nice duet of “Good Year for the Roses.” And then saw each of them play solo sets on the Main Stage, along with sets by the Neilds and Arlo Guthrie. At which point I was finally feeling alright, but at which point the weekend was over and we drove home and I turned the air conditioning up as high as it could go.

Song Highlight Of The Day: Not sure. It was hot, I felt like shit, and nothing really stuck out. But “Good Year for the Roses” was really really really nice.

July 28 2007: Every Folk Player In The Known Universe – Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Dodd Farm, Hillsdale NY

2007-07-31T13:24:00.000-04:00

Started out the day with the The Grass Is Blue Song Swap at the Workshop Stage, at which Red Molly the Rowan Brothers and the Lovell Sisters all played mostly bluegrass tunes. I don’t remember much of the music that got played cause I was mostly focused on one of the women in Red Molly and the red dress/red goulashes/brown hair/pretty face/nice slide playing combo she had going on.

From there went to the Main Stage to see Tracy Grammar and Jim Henry play a great set, highlighted probably by “Crocodile Man,” followed by another Song Swap Thing, which the folk folks really seem to dig. This one had Red Molly (yay!), Pat Wictor and Ellis. Followed by a set by Mary Gauthier, who played the most amazing song about a hobo who died and how nobody rides rails anymore and how that’s kind of sad. And from there we all headed over to the Songwriting Process Song Swap at the Workshop Stage, where Dar Willianms, John Gorka, Mary Gauthier and Ellis all played some more. And we stayed there to hear the Just Gimme Some Truth Song Swap, at which the Strangelings, Shindell, Kaplansky, Kellogg, Gauthier, Grammar, Henry, Wenz, Terry Kitchen, and the Strangelings all sat around playing. And Gauthier played a couple songs for the third (third!) time that weekend (“Mercy Now” and “Wheel Inside the Wheel”), and Sweeney and I were rolling the proverbial fuck out of our eyes over this, but then “Wheel Inside the Wheel” turned into this unbelievable rock number with the full band and everyone playing along and Gauthier rasping the words out and Jim Henry playing the best guitar I saw played all weekend. It was amazing. The 18-to-20ish looking girl we were sharing a tarp with (people use tarps here instead of blankets, cause god hates folk festivals as evidenced by the insane amount of rain that falls on them) covered her ears for a couple minutes (cause rock music has to be loud) and then finally gave up and left.

Then back to the main stage for Gandalf Murphy and His Slambovian Circus of Dave Gilmore’s Wet Dreams, who are everything their moniker implies. But I was aware of this previously, so I skipped most of their set to get some ice, cause beer doesn’t keep itself cool in middle-level-of-hell type oppressive heat. And then Dar Williams came out and played and was reportedly intoxicated and did a few tunes I knew (“The Christians and the Pagans” and “When I was a Boy”) and then I retired to the cooler. Which soon ran dry so I turned to the bourbon. Which did not run dry, but it’s a shame it didn’t. And it’s even more of a shame that the red dress/red golashes/brown hair/good slide playing Red Molly girl didn’t exactly respond to my 2am advances as I had hoped she would.

Song Highlight Of The Day: the third run through of “Wheel Inside the Wheel,” as described above.

July 27 2007: Every Folk Player In The Known Universe – Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Dodd Farm, Hillsdale NY

2007-07-31T13:18:00.000-04:00

So I’ve been hearing Adam and Sarai talk this festival up for years, and I had a long weekend at my disposal, and I was able to get a ticket on the cheap, and I like camping and folk music so I figured I’d give the folk scene a try. It was interesting.

Adam and Sarai picked me up and we got to the farm around noon and started out by watching a whole bunch of people play two songs, each, on the Main Stage, in this order: Heather Waters, Derek Aramburu, Ryan Fitzsimmons, Zoe Mulford, Edie Carey. They were all competent. Fitzsimmons was more than competent, he’s friends with Sweeney, and was later told that I look like the guy. How about that.

We then, because we had already set up the tents and meanwhile enjoyed a couple of common-sense-dampening beers apiece and there was no other music going on, decided to brave the Beatles Forever free-for-all Song Swap at the Workshop Stage. Which was not as bad as it it could have been, save the big “Let it Be” singalong that Kaplansky led at the end. But Tracy Grammar and Jim Henry sang a really nice “Two of Us” (after which Tracy blew a little kiss to Jim and it was really sweet), and Richard Shindell decided (and we were grateful that he was in fact) too cool to play a Beatles tune and instead played a really nice song that he said was sort of a ten-years-later “She’s Leaving Home” story. Other folks who played were Marshall Crenshaw, the Strangelings, the Rowan Brothers, the Neilds, the Dust Poets, Annie Wenz, and Stephen Kellogg with His Sixers.

From there we watched Eilen Jewell (who was fabulous), Stephen Kellogg with His Afore Mentioned Sixers (who were trite and ridiculous and not horribly pleasurable for the most part), and what they call the Friday Night Song Swap, during which Richard Shindell, Lucy Kaplansky, Mary Gauthier and Marshall Crenshaw each played a song in turn. This was interrupted by a huge fucking downpour. But, aside from causing us to miss a couple tunes, that effectively cleared the place out and when we returned post-downpour we were able to get some really nice seats up close.

Song Highlight Of The Day: a tune played by some folks a few campsites south of us at around 1am, after the festival proper had closed up shop for the night, that I would imagine is called “Blue Coyote,” but I’m just guessing that cause that’s the line repeated in the chorus. But it was really really nice.

July 14 2007: Built to Spill - Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington VT

2007-07-18T20:23:00.000-04:00

On December 9 1999 I ponied up $10 to see Built to Spill play at the Crystal Ballroom. I'd never seen them before it was my first time at the Crystal too. And I've since caught a whole lot of shows. This was my eleventh I think, and a couple of Doug's solo shows as well. But none since leaving Portland. In fact, it had been exactly two years, one month and four days since I last saw them. Too long. Longer than I'd ever gone in the past, for sure. So I was really really excited. Ask Marie. We were a little late coming from her friend's house and I was freaking out in the car like I haven't done in a long long time. And then when we arrived with exactly enough time to buy $3 pints of Long Trail and there were maybe half the people there that would pack into the Crystal and we were able to waltz right up the front and there they were, Doug and Jim and Nelson and Netson all tuning up their guitars, and then they go right into "Liar," I just didn't know what to do with myself.

You know that Hold Steady tune that talks about certain songs getting scratched into our souls? I don't think anything could be more scratched into my soul than Built to Spill songs. Songs like "Car" and "Nowhere Nothing Fuckup" and "Made-Up Dreams" and "In the Morning" and "Velvet Waltz" and "Stab" and "Time Trap" and "Else," all of which they played. And then some of the great newer ones like "Goin' Against Your Mind" and "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss" and "Wherever You Go." Those songs.....especially "Car," which was just Doug and Nelson and was beautiful and I hadn't heard it since 2001. And especially "Made-Up Dreams," which I can't describe how it felt to mouth along "These thoughts are old let's keep it cold" and which I hadn't seen played since I saw Doug do it solo in 2002. Jesus. I love these songs so much I cannot begin to describe.

And then the set was closed with "Carry the Zero," and they came back for an encore of "Randy Described Eternity" with a ten-minute feedback jam outro, and wow. The show ended and I was ecstatic and Marie had bailed but Caitlin had arrived so Caitlin and I got a couple more beers before heading back to the campground just outside of Burlington where we were staying with Mariah, and I was happy. And I'm still singing "Randy Described Eternity" to myself, pretty much around the clock.

July 9 2007: Cat Power, Dex Romweber Duo - Pearl Street Ballroom, Northampton MA

2007-07-11T20:58:00.001-04:00

Three things I never thought I'd see at a Cat Power show: dude wearing a Blood Sugar Sex Magik tshirt, dude wearing no shirt at all, the best performance of "Satisfaction" I've ever heard. And now that I think about it, I think it was only the second time I've ever heard anyone try "Satisfaction," cause it takes some pretty huge balls to try and cover one of the greatest rock songs ever. And the last time it was Cat Power doing it solo on an acoustic guitar, but this time it was with a great blues/soul band backing her up and it was fucking fantastic.

Really, the whole set was fantastic. And I claim this despite the fact that I don't much care for her new album, and that I didn't know 75% of the songs she played. The guitarist and the keyboardist could have made anybody sound good, and the rhythm section guys were perfect, and the sound wasn't as awful as I've gotten used to at the Pearl Street. And I wouldn't have thought that I could have ever gotten behind Chan as an instrument-less singer, as in a singer who holds the microphone in her hand and sings into it and doesn't do anything else, but she was great. It would have been pretty hard to try to stand still. I wouldn't know though, cause I didn't try.

And the openers were this guitar/drums duo, and the guitarist/singer was this tall-and-stocky-type dude, no neck, slacks and shoes and white shirt unbuttoned halfway down, big lips, big chest, big sneer, missing some teeth, playing some great old-style blues/rock. The kind of guy who comes to mind when you picture the 45-year-old preacher of a tiny little whitewashed and white-skinned church on an old dirt road somewhere in Alabama, jumping all over the place and banging on the pulpit, testifying to the faithful on a humid 110-degree sunday night, more than willing to literally beat the devil out of you if that's what it takes. I dug his style, and his playing was pretty great too.

All in all, fun times. And I ran into Eidan and she bought me a beer and I was home before midnight.

June 30 2007: James Taylor - Tanglewood Shed, Lenox MA

2007-06-30T22:28:00.000-04:00

So for a $19 GA lawn price I went with Adam and Sairi and Mariah and Drew and Lisa to see Prairie Home Companion. And James Taylor was playing! How about that?

Our lawn area didn't give us any view of the stage, but we had blankets and food and wine and when we wanted to we could walk over to where we could see the stage. It was a perfect day and a beautiful drive and a good time with good friends. And James Taylor played the sorts of tunes you'd expect him to play, like "Fire and Rain" and "Something in the Way She Moves," and he sang Elvis' "Can't Help Falling In Love" with Garrison Keillor on harmony, and a really nice rendition of "Amazing Grace." Sure can't beat that for nineteen bucks.

June 29 2007: The Mitchells, Fancy Trash - Paper City Brewery, Holyoke MA

2007-06-30T00:36:00.001-04:00

I'd heard a rumor that for a nominal charge a person could drink all the beer a person could drink AND walk out with four bottles to go if a person were to find him- or herself at the Paper City Brewery on a friday night. And when Ben said that Fancy Trash was playing the deal was done. I drove down, parked in an alley paralleling a couple railroad tracks on one side and a canal on the other, walked through a mostly-unmarked warehouse door and ascended five mostly-unmarked flights of stairs until paradise was mine. The cover was six dollars. There were seven or eight Paper City brews on draft. Beer was free. People were enjoying themselves. There was a sign above the bar that read: NO CHUGGIN! THAT MEANS YOU!. Fancy Trash played a pretty great set. I had Ben's girlfriend Lauren all to myself for an hour.

Unfortunately times were so great that I had to force myself to leave at eight because I was all too well aware that were I to stick around I would find myself far to drunk to drive myself home. But I've presently ambitions to return every friday night for the rest of my life. Wow. Paper City. I have a newfound love for the city of Holyoke.

June 26 2007: Bob Dylan - Pines Theatre, Florence MA

2007-06-26T23:13:00.000-04:00

The music started at 7pm, with one opener, in Florence. I was stuck in class in Amherst until eight. At which point the hazy sunset made the whole sky red and orange and as I drove over the bridge to Northampton it made for a beautiful reflection on the water I'm sure, but I wasn't paying attention cause I was hauling ass to the show. I could hear "It's Alright Ma" as I walked from the JFK parking lot to Look Park.

Seeing as how the show had already started, I felt my $10 offer to the only scalper left was more than reasonable. He wanted $40. I explained to him that the music we could hear meant the show had already started. He explained to me that he was stubborn and petty and wouldn't take anything less than $40. I countered with $20. He with $30. I with $20 again. He wouldn't budge. I bid him good day and proceeded to talk my way into the show at no cost to myself.

I'm not sure how much I missed, but I can't imagine it was better than the part of the show I caught. Songs I hadn't seen him play before included "Shelter from the Storm" and "Desolation Fucking Row." Songs I was more than happy to hear him play again included "Tangled Up in Blue" and "All Along the Watchtower" and "Highway Fucking Sixty One Revisited."

And a tip o' the hat to the nice security man working the gate!

June 24 2007: Wilco, Low - Pines Theatre, Florence MA

2007-06-24T23:41:00.001-04:00

Wasn't a great show, but it was certainly pretty good. Especially considering that I got a free ticket from a dude with an extra. Lots of new stuff played that I don't know much of, but "Handshake Drugs" and "Jesus Etc" seemed especially nice, and it's always nice to hear a tune like "I'm the Man Who Loves You," and the last encore was closed with "Outtasite (Outta Mind)" and "I'm a Wheel," and it was a pleasant evening, and I took off my shoes, and you won't hear me complaining.

And Low opened! I've been meaning to see them play since I can remember, but it's just never worked out between us. But they did "Amazing Grace" and that was pretty special. No "Transmission" though. But I guess I couldn't reasonably expect them to play that.

June 23 2007: Haunt - The Basement, Northampton MA

2007-06-24T23:34:00.001-04:00

So it didn't really cramp our style all that much to have the cops show up at Marie and Mariah's because we were all moments away from heading to the Basement anyway, where we found Matt Hebert and His Band playing some pretty nice rock and roll tunes. Stayed for one set before deciding it was bed time.

June 23 2007: Drew Hickum Band - 39 Grant St (Porch of), Northampton MA

2007-06-24T23:15:00.000-04:00

So there I was, trying to be a good student by hitting the books on a beautiful saturday afternoon, when I heard a knock at the door. It was Marie and Mariah. They said they had beer in their backpacks and that I should join them on their porch and assist in the consuming of said beer post haste. And in situations such as this I am an easily persuadable man.

So we drank beer and called other people and other people came by and brought more beer with them and Drew and Lisa were amongst those who came by but instead of beer they brought guitars and played us some tunes. And life was good. Nothing quite like a nice vocal harmony with good friends and cold beer in a tall glass. But all things must pass, and the next thing anyone knows the cops are there on a noise complaint. At 1030 pm on a saturday night. Because there are exactly eight responsible, degree-holding adults standing around and engaging in such police-presence-necessitating behaviors as (a) listening to country/folk music and (b) enjoying ourselves at a reasonable decibel level. And while we were certainly not maintaining church-mouse-type decibel levels, we were just as certainly unable to compete with levels such as those being caused down the street at the monster truck rally at the fairgrounds.

But it just ain't a nursing party until somebody calls the cops.