Nina
EMMA
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: akron/family, baths, brighton music hall, february shows in boston, gang of four, joe fletcher and the wrong reasons, Kitchen Sessions, laura stevenson and the cans, manners, neko case, streight angular, triumphant return, wavves
Never ending snow in Allston
Dear fine ladies and gentlemen who may occasionally have stumbled upon this blog and noticed the lack of action in the past, well… 2 months (and some weeks),
We now return to our regularly scheduled programming. I will not make excuses for slacking off, but instead just dive back into things and ring in this snowy, slushy, freezing month we call February. It takes some “umpf” to power through Boston’s frozen and wet tundra, and below we will at least try to motivate you off your cozy couch and out into the world. Yes, things still happen during the snowpocalypse. There’s even a stellar new venue in Allston, Brighton Music Hall, which is bringing in some of the most exciting concerts in Boston during the following months. Suck it up, buy some waterproof boots and get out there.
2/3 Neko Case @ the Wilbur Theater
At this point, the good seats at the Wilbur Theater will no doubt be sold out. But Neko Case’s powerhouse of a voice should rattle your bones no matter where you’re sitting. Middle Cyclone was pretty good, but nothing competes with her 2006 album Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. And, if you’re a New Pornographer’s fan but haven’t seen Neko bring it live (because she tends to, ahem, skip out on some concerts these days), you really, really should.
2/4 Wavves @ the Paradise
I am intentionally not listing Best Coast here, though she will be playing with her boooooyfriend. Regardless of their super obnoxious California stoner couple-dome, Wavves’ new album King of the Beach is ridiculously catchy and fun. In these cold-ass times, sitting back, closing your eyes and imagining getting high on a California beach before running into some breaking waves while listening to this album is almost mandatory. Also, know what warms you up in the Boston winter time? Skinny hipster mosh-pits! THAT’S WHAT.
2/5 Joe Fletcher and the Wrong Reasons @ Plough and Stars
Joe Fletcher’s first full length album White Lighter is some damn good Americana folk. He is a spirited dude, and Plough and Stars is just intimate enough for his spirit to become contagious. Below is a video from our friends over at Kitchen Sessions back in October.
2/7 Gang of Four @ the Paradise
THROOOWBACK! I’ve always wanted to see Gang of Four live, despite this being about thirty years too late. Anyway, 1977′s Entertainment! introduced me to post-punk, which is actually pretty abidingly chronological of me. Hearing “Anthrax,” “Natural’s Not in It” or “Damaged Goods” live would be pretty damn sweet.
2/9 Laura Stevenson and the Cans @ Great Scott
Read this excellent and in-depth article about Laura Stevenson from the Phoenix.
2/10 Deerhoof @ The Middle East Downstairs
2/11 The Hood Internet @ Brighton Music Hall
2/14 You Can Be a Wesley, Viva Viva and Drug Rug @ The Middle East Upstairs
2/17 Baths @ Brighton Music Hall
After years of remaining largely obtuse about electronic music, I’ve finally started to understand it’s appeal. Baths is masterminded by 21-year-old Will Weisenfeld, and his LP Cerulean proves that ambient beats can pack a serious punch. Two months of doing the most minimalist kind of dance – dancing-while-sitting-at-a-desk, that is – later, I am pretty psyched for this show.
2/17 Streight Angular @ Church
To be honest, though I’d seen Streight Angular’s name about a thousand times, I never actually listened to them until their recent single “Everyone is Syncopated” showed up on their Bandcamp. This track is pretty great in an impending mosh pit sort of way, and it is officially a mosh pit I’d like to be a part of.
2/18 Akron/Family @ Brighton Music Hall
2/18 MANNERS , Anna Fox and Chris North (of the Points North) @ Gay Gardens
If you haven’t gotten your hands on the Boston Countercultural Compass showlist (available in almost every bike shop, coffee shop, or independently owned anything throughout Jamaica Plain and Allston each month since about this time last year), you’ve probably missed out on some of Boston’s most wonderful offerings: DIY house shows. They come in all shapes and size, from fuzzy, experimental noise in an unfinished basement to cozy, New England living room shows with violins, flutes and drums. This show will likely be more the later, so bring your own beer, sit back Indian style and relax. And find a BCCC flyer, go their website, the Facebook group, or follow them on Twitter. It pays off.
2/19 + 20 Dr. Dog @ the Paradise
2/22 Mighty Tiny and Ketman @ Great Scott
2/24 White Rabbits and Magic Magic @ the Paradise
2/24 The Craters and the Points North @ TT the Bear’s
2/25 Asobi Seksu @ Brighton Music Hall
2/25 Galactic @ the Paradise
Filed under: Emma, Uncategorized | Tags: arcade fire, Dawes, finals, home, Houses, Jens Lekman, Kitchen Sessions, November, Serge Gainsbourg, Squinch Owl, thank yous, thanksgiving, Tom Waits
Our word count has taken quite a beating this month. I blame the onslaught of end-of-semester jitters, a perfect storm of restless legs, colder weather, needs for home and horrid, horrid amounts of work. We begin November still high off the fall magic of October and then plummet into the realization that it’s almost Thanksgiving, and every bit of work put off will be breathing down your neck with dragon-like force quite soon. Stage one: ambition and adderall. Stage two: boredom and burn out. Stage three: Turkey.
Thanksgiving is so rooted in traditions: Family traditions, friendly traditions, traditions misconstrued by false memories and drunk ones. It comes right at that time of year when I consistently reach my breaking point, and suddenly, without fail, everything I am working on or to seems insignificant, and I doubt I’m the only one who feels that way. When I return to the suburbs it usually only takes a few days for boredom to sink in. This time, I was charmed. The place you grew up, whether a small rural town, the city, or somewhere in between is honored during Thanksgiving. I apologize for the cheesiness but maybe that’s part of the charm, too.
So as I write from New Jersey, still seemingly full and sleepy from bird-induced tryptophan almost four days later and dreading the back to Boston commute, I’d like to say thank you. I know it’s a little late, I know everyone does this the day OF Thanksgiving, not after, but suck it.
I’ll say it briefly with words: Thank you to Allston, to Boston, to part-time (possibly stray) cats who kill the mice in my walls (and possibly in my head), to good beer and cheap wine, to crunchy leaves under bike wheels, to fighting the wind, to frozen hands swathed in soft gloves. To future confusion, to long talks, vaporizers and movies.
To the long way home, to the town I grew up in, with more leaves piled high than any other in New Jersey (a lot of this has to do with LEAVES, evidently), to the skyline, to old friends and their parent’s houses, to my parent’s houses, to bagels, to dirty basement irish bars and lost conversations, to wondering where missing people are, to bad jokes and good senses of humor.
Okay, that was less brief than I thought. Might as well have just composed my own version of “La Vie Boheme,” The college kid rendition…
And I’ll say it with music, too.
Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son – Arcade Fire (Serge Gainsbourg cover)
I’ve been on a slight Serge Gainsbourg kick, starting sometime around 4 AM while writing a philosophy paper and ending… not quite yet. When I downloaded Histoire de Melody Nelson in the throws of hard work, the haunting, creepy yet sublime combination of Gainsbourg’s french whispering (about a car accident between Monsieur Gainsbourg and a young girl named Melody Nelson’s bicycle and the infatuation that ensues… thank you, Lolita), electric guitars and horns in the background got me through the night. This is a cover by Arcade Fire. Not with the same effects as the original, but pretty damn good.
Reds – Houses
Heard them during a yoga class (harhar), was upside down and still wanted to fall into a blissful yet bouncy, floating sleep. I asked the instructor after for the band’s name, and downloaded the entirety of their album All Night. I don’t pretend to know much about electronica or ambient music, but I’m definitely a fan.
I Am Always Coming Home – Squinch Owl
I saw this rag tag group of Western Massers at Kitchen Sessions a few weeks back, and their first EP (which you can download AND SUPPORT THEM at a price of your choosing on their website, linked) has been a staple of my days since. Watch the video put together by the Kitchen Sessions crew here and enjoy some accordion thronged folk, complete with a work saw played with a bow and her remarkable vocals. I am always coming home, indeed.
Your Arms Around Me – Jens Lekman
Sometimes you just need some Jens. ‘Nough said.
That Western Skyline – Dawes
This song is simply beautiful, and lead singer Taylor Goldsmith’s voice is really showcased. It’s pure folk rock, The Band reminiscent harmonics and longing lyrics. I don’t know who this “Lou” he keeps singing to is, but if a friend was sad that their lady left them, I’d like them to whine to me as beautifully as Dawes does.
November – Tom Waits
To keep the voices in my head straight, Tom Waits needs to be listened to heavily about every 3 months. And to end this eclectic mixtape of strange, I give you Captain Eclectic McStrange and awesome, Mr. Waits, sing-yell-speaking about November because, “It only believes in a pile of dead leaves and a moon that’s the color of bone.” Thank you all, and to all, a decent end to the semester, a merry end to the year.
To more frequent writing, to New England winter survival tactics, to not drowning in books! …
And if you are drowning in books, I guarantee a “drowning in books” themed playlist, coming to you in an hour of extreme procrastination and sadness, which I’ll write while trying to get library dust out of my lungs. It’s the least we can do. Stay tuned.
Filed under: Nina, Uncategorized | Tags: belle & sebastian, bjork, dark dark dark, grizzly bear, oh land, perks of being a wallflower, seabear, sufjan stevens, winter
It's easier if you have a bear friend. (Photo by Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir)
New England winters always do a number on me. It settles in with the first chills of November and I’ll spare the sordid details, so let’s talk about tastes. Cravings spark for hot cinnamon caramelized everything, mulled wine, spiked cider, thick soup, and as with most other things on this blog, it translates to a matter of music. This is growing affection for thin ephemeral sounds that crackle like snow-caked power wires, whisper like clouds of breath forming in thin air, ebb slow like honey on its way to hot coffee, like blood in need of a good thaw. In the past, these icy months have spurred all sorts of unpredictable symptoms, including a short-lived Joanna Newsom obsession and many nights lying immobile under the power of In Rainbows. For better or for worse, it’s been interesting.
The winter mixtape has been a treasured tradition of mine, ever since stumbling upon and being thoroughly moved by the “One Winter” mixtape from The Perks of Being a Wallflower. (Though the book should be kept undisturbed in a time capsule with other 14 year old gems such as the irrational emotional breakdown and the oversize Nirvana hoodie, “One Winter” has stood the test of time.) When it’s not raining outside still shows the last of precious autumn – daytime is still ripe with picturesque collegiate dream scenes, scarves and falling leaves. But daytime ends at five now, Christmas lights are on sale and you’ve broken down and turned on the furnace at least once already. It’s all in the name of being prepared, right? So while you’re saran wrapping your windows and furnishing your hibernaculum, I’ll throw some tunes your way.
Oh Land – White Nights (see also: “Wolf & I”)
This Danish ex-ballerina makes twitchy shimmery music that sounds like delightfully delirious insomnia, glitchy music boxes, dream pop with a dance beat. She wants to make music “that sounds like it’s from 2050 but still feels really classic.”
Seabear – Libraries (see also: “I Sing I Swim”)
So this one time I lived in the library and never came out except for PB&Js and the occasional fire alarm. By “this one time” I mean November and December. Thanks, college. This lovely soft Icelandic murmuring sounds like the blessed moment when you fold your notebooks up, rub your eyes, and make your way back home. “Next time I wake up / I want it to be / in a rabbit hole / to the sound of you making coffee.”
Belle & Sebastian – Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John (see also: “Boy With the Arab Strap,” “Calculating Bimbo,” everything)
Norah Jones makes an unexpected appearance on this lovely track off Belle & Sebastian’s latest, Write About Love, and the duet is simultaneously peaceful and heartbreaking. Sounds like lit candles, lonely soup, watching flurries settle down under streetlights, missing summer and the loves that come with it. “Travel south until your skin turns, woman / Travel south until your skin turns brown / Put a language in your head and get on a train / and then come back to the one you love.”
Bjork – Hidden Place (see also: “Coccoon,” “It’s Not Up to You”, all of Vespertine)
People make fun of Bjork an awful lot, and those people are wrong. She might sometimes seem like she’s not quite made for this world, but in music that’s a good thing. Her influence can be felt in St. Vincent to the Dirty Projectors, not to mention a ton of electronic and ambient music. Vespertine is unpredictable – icy and alien, sparking with desire, harboring hidden textures and intimate shimmers. It’s so wintry that cracking ice and snow being walked on are actually used in some songs. According to Bjork, “It sounds like a winter record. If you wake up in the middle of the night and you go out in the garden, everything’s going out there that you wouldn’t know about…I was collecting together all the noises that I know that are like hibernating and that sound like the inside of your head.” Let it grow on you.
Dark, Dark, Dark – Daydreaming (see also: “Celebrate,” “Wild Go”)
Nona Marie Invie’s voice is haunting. I’ve had the good fortune to see Dark Dark Dark in intimate spaces and each time I’ve been moved by its honest emotion, fragile clarity, transcendent way of reaching deep into your soul, sounding like it came from somewhere so deep in the world it’s still prone to magic. Dark Dark Dark is from Minneapolis, but they’re really from the road, and their music has a timeless troubadorial quality. Lonely winds, epic journeys, and wild horizons are as present in their harmonies as the banjo, the accordion, and the viola. These songs tell tales of a world that’s often alienating and apocalyptic, but they come to you with warmth.
Sufjan Stevens – Vesuvius (see also: “Too Much,” “Impossible Soul”)
Age of Adz is so so so good. It takes the melodic appeal of Illinoise and Say Yes! to Michigan and combines it with the electronic experimentation of Enjoy Your Rabbit to make something epic. I’ll save the gushing for another post, but here’s a song that builds slowly into a chant, a prayer, a reason to get out of bed when it’s freezing and inexplicable things are clawing inside you. The glitching screeching mechanistic choral climax dissolves to a simple question – “why does it have to be so hard?” Why indeed.
Grizzly Bear – Foreground (“Colorado” is also something I’ve woken up during)
Today I fell asleep facedown in a pile of clothes and notebooks halfway through a Czech documentary narrated by a man with a startling gap in his front teeth. It was only 7 but it had already been dark for over two hours, I had been some degree of awake for about two days and the world was dark and wet and stressful. When I woke up, this song was playing, pretty and reassuring. I have to admit I haven’t made it all the way through Veckatimest since the first time I heard it because Grizzly Bear is a band I’ve trained myself to fall asleep to on long bus rides and I’m always out cold by the third song. Anyway, this. Warm, cozy, redemptive. Because sometimes you just have to sleep the day away. It’s okay, bears do it all the time.
Filed under: Emma, Nina, Uncategorized | Tags: autotune the news, boston counter cultural compass, Dawes, land of talk, mighty tiny, november shows in boston, peelander-z, sanity song, slim cessna's auto club, the joy formidable, upcoming concerts in boston, wadzilla mansion
Nov. 11 – Pretty and Nice, Oranjuly, Spirit Kid, Hot Protestants @ Mid East Upstairs
Nov. 18 – Brown Bird @ Audrey’s Loft?
Nov. 20 – Delorean @ Mid East Down
Also – not featured here: If you have not begun following along with the Boston Counter Cultural Compass, find it here and look out for all the underground goodness that is sometimes hard-to-find out about in this fair city compiled in one (or two) easy-to-read sheets.
Filed under: Nina | Tags: aesop rock, halloween, john darnielle, salem, the misfits
It’s Halloween! You know what that means – bands all over Boston are dressing up as other bands and playing sweet shows and massive amounts of college students are dressing up as Snooki, Lady GaGa, Wes Anderson characters, and other truly horrifying things, consuming an unhealthy amount of candy and having a frighteningly good time.
We’ve been trick or treating all over the internet and here’s what we rounded up:
So seasonally appropriate! Named after the infamous torture-town-gone-kitsch-kingdom, this band is disconcerting in all the right ways. I can’t tell if this is an interesting electronic track that conjures that particular kind of nightmare you want to carry through just to see what happens, or if it just reminds me of Skinny Puppy. Sure there was that whole “rapegaze” fiasco, but that was really Pitchfork’s genre-grubbing fault, and once people get over that this is sure to sell like gothcakes.
As classic as they go, old school punk rock goodness in a clean two minutes. No Halloween or Brooklyn house party or junior high school Jansport is complete without the Misfits.
3. Aesop Rock (feat. John Darnielle) – Coffee
We love Aesop Rock. We love John Darnielle. We love coffee. And everyone loves zombies! Seriously, this is so aptly named that there was an extended period of time when I couldn’t get up without hearing this – addictive and delicious! Aesop’s flawless here and every time John Darnielle chimes in at the end it gives me shivers. Also the music video is excellent.
Fun fact: Aesop Rock went to BU and majored in painting. So if you’re freaking out about the whole graduating thing, you know, there are options…
HAVE A GOOD ONE.
How to build a blogging empire
So, I’m a pretty avid doodler and sometimes these doodles manifest themselves as comics. For ages these have been gathering dust in moleskines and between class notes, but now that I’ve discovered that the BU library has scanners for mass use and that MS Paint is actually kindof useful, these might be making occasional appearances here. We’ll see how this goes. (They’ll also probably be of better quality when I don’t have massive papers due.)
Filed under: Emma, New Music, Uncategorized | Tags: csc funk band, drug rug, homegrown II, jeff the brotherhood, nashville, the temple, truman peyote
Homegrown II was a well oiled machine: There was genre variety, there were rapid fire sets, there were even really cool hand stamps. We did not end up at the Temple all day, everyday, all weekend like some troopers out there surely did, but our Saturday night experience started out funky with Brooklyn’s CSC Funk Band. We washed down all those horns with Drug Rug‘s tranquilizing grungy yet spaced out tunes and then got a nice dose of psychedelia courtesy of Truman Peyote.
The Temple was set up with two stages, and while the “stage stage” was being tripped out with lights and wayward sounds, little did we know JEFF the Brotherhood was getting ready to amp our brains out from the “floor stage.” Just as we sat down on the nice leather couch at the back of the room, the brothers of the Brotherhood started making the wood floor shake… and that wood floor, for future reference, has just the right amount of slip to it for badass guitarists to knee-slide. The Nashville-raised Orrall brothers were billed as futuristic classic rock which I admittedly scowled out until they melted my face off 20 minutes later. The Temple gets hot when people actually dance, and dance we fucking did. (For me, that meant kicking like Molly Ringwald in the part of The Breakfast Club where they all break it down in the library, boots and all).
Point is, listen to JEFF the Brotherhood (blog link) if you like that old school riff rock sound with new school flare. They’ve got some punk to them, with a garage rock backdrop and a little blues thrown in. Plus, the dudes dress like its 1975, and Jake, the guitarist, even has the haircut to match. They’ve been around since 2002 but are starting to grab a larger audience with their sixth album Heavy Days, as they should.
Oh, and their drumset says JEFFRO TULL. Awesome.
Enjoy.
Filed under: Emma | Tags: dan shea, homegrown, jamaica plain, rocktober, the needy visions, the phoenix, the whitehaus
HOMEGROWN II FLYER
A BIG omission from the Rocktober calendar:
This weekend at the Temple in JP is HOMEGROWN II. If you haven’t heard about it yet, read this article by the Phoenix in which Dan Shea of The Needy Visions explains his vision to do something about Boston’s need for a unified music scene. We agree, and Homegrown promises one small step for JP-kind (from the Whitehaus to the Temple, ya’ll) and one GIANT step for Boston-kind.
The lineup:
Friday, Oct. 15: Major Stars, Damon and Naomi, December Sound, Marissa Nadler, Black Pyramid, Bobb Trimble and His Flying Spiders, Life Partners, Eli Kesler, Larkin Grimm (NYC) and Mind Yeti.
Saturday, Oct. 16: Drug Rug, Tunnel of Love, Jeff the Brotherhood (TN), Truman Peyote, Parts and Labor (NYC), Jesse Gallagher(of Apollo Sunshine), Home Blitz (NYC), Colin Langenus Orchestra (ex-USAISAMONSTER, NYC), Bird Names (Chicago), Keith Fullerton Whitman, Ski Mask, People of the North (NYC), Reports, CSC Funk Band (NYC), Invisible Circle (NYC) and Fat History Month.
Sunday, Oct. 17: BBQ (Mark Sultan, of King Khan and BBQ, Montreal), Ty Segall (SF), Needy Visions, Lord Jeff, Alec K Redfearn and the Eyesores (RI), Hands and Knees, Many Mansions, The Men (NYC), Bezoar (NYC), Turbo Fruits (TN), Pujol (TN), Duck That and Double Awake.
Filed under: Emma, Uncategorized | Tags: allston, boston music scene, bowery boston, central square, great scott, harper's ferry, hornets! hornets!, independent venues, large music corporations, new york times, the hold steady, the middle east, the royale, tt the bear's
Image taken from Boston.com
As briefly mentioned in our Rocktober calendar, Harper’s Ferry in Allston Rock City is closing (after 40 years! THAT’S A LONG TIME) at the end of this month. Now, Harper’s was never my favorite Boston venue, and I know their closing was actually a long time coming. It has to do with the enormity of their space, the high rent on Brighton Ave (especially so close to Harvard Ave), some booking technicalities and of course… dun dun dun… THE ECONOMY. Still, the announcement that this checkerboard-floored dive bar with all those pool tables and pin ball machines in the back is closing its doors was met with a twang of sadness.
During these past three years of college fun and games, I’ve become particularly fond of the small(ish) venues in Boston. The Middle East, TT the Bear’s and Great Scott, to name some favorites, are impressively independent and have a flavor all their own. Admittedly, House of Blues and the Paradise often bring some excellent bills to this city, and thus I attend, pay too much for drinks and scoff at the ridiculous “non-denominational” decorations inside (HOB, I’m looking at you). But I resent them. That’s why I was confused when while compiling the Rocktober calendar, something became clear… ALL THE GOOD SHOWS ARE AT THE ROYALE. And this year, as the mammoth success story that is the Bowery Presents has extended it’s reach from New York City to the upper Northeast, instead of gravitating towards the muraled intersection of Mass Ave and Brookline Street in Cambridge every weekend, I keep ending up in the fucking theater district.
BOWERY... PRESENTS... BOSTON
Now, to back track, I can’t hate too hard on the Bowery Presents. They started out as pretty serious underdogs, and in 2007 the New York Times wrote this article about the Bowery Presents expanding from the depths of Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn all the way up to Radio City Music Hall and the historic Beacon Theater, kicking the far worse Live Nation’s ass out of the way of their uptown arch. They waged their takeover honestly, with a love for live music, and that’s really all you can ask for in a huge expansion project.
The worst part is – the dudes at the Royale are doing a good job. As far as big-ish, commercialized venues go, the Royale ain’t too bad: the stage is wide, the lighting is good, the room is swanky and the sound is pretty fantastic. It’s easy to go to their box office, the prices aren’t too bad (usually), and the shows are starting on time and are executed quite well.
Still, I have to remain indignant. For the majority of the ’00s, ever since that damn internet phase never phased out, record labels glared at music lovers who downloaded music illegally, traded songs over the internet among friends, and even streamed music from Last.fm. They went cross eyed from looking over their spectacles trying to figure out how they could continue to make money off those damn kids, who, for the most part, just wanted to listen to and spread the word about good music because it was what they loved, not because they wanted to rip off the bands. All the lawsuits, the impositions of higher fees on iTunes, Rhapsody, etc… it was all, in a sense, a panic that continues to sweep over every industry affected by the internet. And that’s a whole lot of industries.
Alas, fear not, corporation-mongers, sleep tight, swill merchants. Bands discovered that touring became the only way to make money these days, which led to the rise of concerts at affordable prices, and music lovers happily forking over cash to see shows. Therefore, it was only a matter of time before independent venues had to start competing with the booking power and money of something like Bowery Presents. Not so suprisingly, the Middle East, TT’s, Great Scott and all the other little guys seem to be feeling the damage. It’s sad, really, because everyone I know who goes to shows in Boston would much rather spend their money at the bars in Central Square and Allston than in the club-infested downtown area. The shows at the Royale are over by 10 p.m. on weekends, and when all the concert-goers walk out, the Pauly D blowouts and skintight mini dresses/too-high heels walk in. Who wants to see that? Not me.
So what will happen? I don’t think these small venues are really in grave danger yet, but there is a striking difference between where I’m seeing shows this fall versus last. There are still full bills at the independent venues almost every night, but bands like Menomena, Suckers and Real Estate (who would have been shoo-ins to play The Middle East a year ago) are going straight to the Royale.
Unfortunately, we only have so much time and money to spend on shows, and priority usually goes to the band we want to see, regardless of where they’re playing (unless they’re playing the Orpheum, because really? Fuck that shit). But at the same time, it’s important to keep supporting these independent venues, so if there is a show I want to see in good ol’ Central Sq. I’ll be there with bells on.
Oh and I’m ending this with a video of Hornets! Hornets! by the Hold Steady, because I just saw them at the Royale and it was awesome. And the title of this post is from the song. And the rest of the multimedia in this is just photos of clubs… and because I want to.
Filed under: Nina, Uncategorized | Tags: concerts, james murphy, lcd soundsystem, summer of the midlife crisis, the orpheum, this is happening
wait guyz you mean this isn't the daft punk show?
This was originally going to be a post full of sweet photos of LCD Soundsystem rocking out. I was so ready. I was so ready with two low-light lenses and too-cool press photographer hubris (I’ve shot for blogs, guys, I got this!) that when I got to the Orpheum last Tuesday and the hawk-eyed matronly ushers informed us that we could only shoot halfway back through the crowd, I was completely stupefied. I was oh so ready except I had nothing even resembling a zoom lens, so really I was shit out of luck. Failball.
Fumbled through some shots of pretty lights for the requisite three songs and disappeared into the crowd out of sight of Crabby McLazer-Eyes, who was fit to eject me for not having a real ticket. Nothing left to do but watch James Murphy do his thang.
On more than one occasion I’ve jokingly referred to the musical state of 2010 as the Summer of the Midlife Crisis, and LCD Soundsystem’s This Is Happening is pretty emblematic of this phenomenon. The first thing I catch onto in a song is lyrics and I guess I’m always skeptical when such overtly morose songs tack on dancey beats and inspire thousands of glazed-eye Urban Outfitters poster kids to fist pump like there’s no tomorrow. It took seeing LCD Soundsystem play live to understand the zen-like brilliance of Murphy’s musical philosophy. As Thao Nguyen once murmured in the opening to a song, “Sad people dance too.” It’s as good a cure as any.
Someone great is gone? Might as well dance.
You’re getting old and your rock star life is overwhelming and you miss your friends? Just dance.
Losing your edge to the art-school Brooklynites in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered eighties? Dance yourself young.
Talking like a jerk except you are an actual jerk? Dance yourself clean.
Didn’t accept a job writing for Seinfeld in your 20s? Well there’s really not much you can do about that, but I’m sure dancing will take your mind off of it.
So I danced. And so did everyone else. My most frequent criticism of large Boston concerts is that the crowds tend to be completely sober and immobilized even during the bounciest of sets. But the crowd at the Orpheum was definitely on their A-game that night. They were dancing standing up in their seats because schoolmarmy women patrolled the aisles with iron fists and horn-rimmed glasses. They were dancing and waving glowsticks and cell phones and arms. They danced and the ridiculously ornate 104-year old theater clouded up with dry ice and body heat and human sweat, partially because the air conditioner seemed to be broken, but mostly because bodies were actually moving.
this dude knows what i'm talking about
Sure, some of these bodies were on drugs. In fact, my hiding place in the crowd was directly beside a jumping writhing soaking wet couple that kept whisper-yelling sweet nothings like “Baby I love you. Baby I love drugs. Baby I’m so glad we have drugs.” Even better, immediately ahead was a foot-stomping fist-pumping chant-yelling bro who was getting down with his back to the stage so that he could give passersby in the aisle high-fives and spontaneous massages. (Dude won my respect when he managed to get a diminutive Betty White-esque usher to give him a pound.)
Let’s be honest, the whole scenario was several kinds of absurd. But beyond the thick layers of cognitive dissonance, it was a damn good show. Stumbling out of the Orpheum into a world without strobe lights I could pick out people from the show all the way down to the 57 bus in Allston by how sweaty they were. And that’s what it’s all about, right? Gold stars for Boston, and James Murphy is still in the running for world’s hippest dad. Yeah.
