So last night was the big Indie Pop show at the Somerville Theater last night. Ben Gibbard [from Death Cab For Cutie] played with David Bazan [formerly Pedro the Lion] and Johnathan Rice.
Ben opened with a cover of "To Sing For You" [Donovan], and melted it seamlessly into Postal Service's "Brand New Colony", which is the first time I started crying.
I want to take you far from the cynics in this townGibbard's songs work well when stripped of the full band [Death Cab] or electronica [Postal Service], further cementing my position that he's probably one of the greatest songwriters of the century. Five songs into the set, Title and Registration proved to be his first misstep.
And kiss you on the mouth
We'll cut out bodies free from the tethers of this scene,
Start a brand new colony
There's no blame for how our love did slowly fadeBeautiful, right? I was totally tearing up again, until he cut it short, joking about being out of tune. Which I had noticed, but was willing to forgive in exchange for some heartbreaking lyricism. But now that he had pointed it out, it was of course all I noticed throughout the rest of the evening: Ben Gibbard really can't sing very well. When sitting at the piano for "Soul Meets Body", I wasn't sure how he was going to pull it off - I thought maybe he would spare us the falsetto, but no.
And now that it's gone it's like it wasn't there at all
And here I rest where disappointment and regret collide
Lying awake at night
I don't think the crowd seemed to mind much - Plans material was well received, as was old and obscure 7 inch split singles. A sing-along was had by all, and a bit too loudly from some young girls near me for my taste. He played a few brand new tracks, which sounded kind of meh, but I bet will be improved by a band.
Other notes? "Recycled Air", a nice Postal Service ballad, kind of flopped - it works so well on the record but stripped of its electronic ambience it lacked it's recorded punch. More covers - Harvest Moon, All Apologies also both fell flat for me. Good job with "Such Great Heights" - riding somewhere between Postal Service and Iron and Wine's cover.
I've always like David Bazan live and on record, but even I realize that he's been writing and singing the same song for 10 years now. Don't get me wrong - it's a great song. But he's definitely an acquired taste. Opener Johnathan Rice went in one ear and out the other.
If I sound cranky I was - I know I was lucky to see this sold out show in such a small venue, but here's what the top of the Somerville Theater looks like:
I've found out that row LL in the center balcony is the last row. I could feel half of the sound moving beneath me and not reaching up to the nosebleeds. So, would I go see Ben Gibbard again? THE ANSWER IS PROBABLY NOT, BUT WE STILL LIKE DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE.
Additionally, I rescued my review of the last time I saw DCFC from the old and broken web-log.
I bought a new phone this weekend [go full qwerty keyboard!], and am ready to retire my old Flavor of Love ring tone ["The bitch - she, she spit in my hair, and a little tiny bit got on my face, so I'm gonna whoop that bitch's ass, and I mean it"].
'Cause when life get ahold of you, it uses no Vaseline. It simply bends you over, and it's very painful.
[via]
Additionally, Thela's "You ghetto banshee bitches..." will make an excellent alternate.
I can't remember exactly what the deal was, but I checked out a few more Lollapalooza bands way back before getting sick. I remember The 1900's were pretty generic. I remember Illinois was pretty generic.
However Mickey Avalon totally caught my ear. You know, like this could be the afternoon act to see kind of thing.
PLUS his kind of music? It is RAP, BOY-EE! Actually, musically, it wasn't as jokey as his image may make it seem - I think he kind of takes himself a little seriously. However, is the the first unknown-to-me act I may have to see at Lollapalooza this year? THE ANSWER IS YES!
So last week, before I got sick, was the big noise pop show at the Orpheum. Modest Mouse, Man Man and Love as Laughter. I didn't bother to take pictures because I was in row N of the orchestra and knew that they wouldn't come out from back there.
A few weeks ago I was starting to try and figure out what makes some indie rock bands better than others. Love as Laughter were fine musicians, but were missing that something that would make them above average. I just kind of sat there.
Man Man, however. My God. If you are a band of six men dressed in white, banging on anything available for 40 minutes, chant-singing, running around - well, you only are one of the best bands ever. It was actually slightly reminiscent of another "man group", only without the theatrics. I'm not sure about running out and buying their records [I can't imagine it's the same at home alone], but would I go see them again? THE ANSWER IS YES. AND I WOULD ALSO HIRE THEM TO PLAY MY WEDDING!
Modest Mouse. This is how I define what makes some indie rock bands better than others: Would I suck the DNA out of the lead singer?
So I wasn't a total fangurl, mostly because at row N, it's a little tough to get worked up about a boy. There was dancing and singing along a plenty through the first 2/3 of the set. Johnny Marr was there too, and looked like he was having fun. Also, he looked really old. He got to take some of the between-song banter while Isaac smoked. I think that was my only complaint: it was song - everybody move around, change instruments, tune things, towel off, drink, smoke, say hi to the audience - then play another song.
Once they hit "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes" all of that changed. That shit was scorching. That must have been 15 minutes of awesomeness - after the song proper, including top-of-lungs sing-a-long we then got the jamming, the incoherent ranting, only to have it start right up again with "Doin' the Cockroach". This was the moment I had been waiting for, this was the bliss.
Half the encore ["Bury Me With It"] was amazing, but it didn't really matter by then as I was pretty spent. I was hoping for "Out of Gas" or "Cowboy Dan", but they're not playing them this tour. Still, it was most of what I hoped it would be, once things got moving. Will I go see Modest Mouse at Lollapalooza this year? THE ANSWER IS THEIR SET SHOULD JUST BE A 45 MINUTE TINY CITIES.
As cranky as I got at the end of my Wordpress era, BostonNOW [via] really got it right in macking out all of the community-blog features of Wordpress. I set mine up in minutes.
I had totally meant to check out their initial meeting one Saturday afternoon a few weeks ago - something came up and I can't remember what now - because turning web-logs into print-news-logs seems like a neat idea. So it's been bookmarked, delicioused, blogged, etc. Let's try a new primary news source for a week.
What inspires me most about BostonNOW is the fact that maybe after a week of just posting bits of crap about the internet and what shows I've been to, I can take an hour and actually write something [ok, a 'piece'].
Oh yeah right, and last night I decided to write a book. Again. And be a photographer and movie star.
Remember when Modest Mouse played the Orpheum? Man, that seems like years ago even though it was only last Friday. I've been so sick since Sunday - for reals, I don't think I'll need a high colonic for years. But I have so many stories and no time to tell them, as tonight I can finally move 10 feet from a toilet bowl.