By Bostonist guest contributor Christian Holland
If you’re a music nerd, the first rock 'n' roll show ever to be played at a just-restored 78-year-old theatre might be an occasion. If poppy nerd-rock maestros Deerhoof are headlining, it’s a full-blown holiday.
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Results tagged “concert”
Owen Pallett is a singing, violin-looping one-man orchestra from Toronto. Though a self-identified creatine-chugging "jock," he used to perform and record as Final Fantasy, a name swiped from an interminable video game franchise.
For the longest time, Team Robespierre was one of those things in the ever-crowded musicverse that this Bostonist never took the opportunity to look into. Whenever he'd look at concert listings for an impending trip to New York, their name always came up. But what were they? An underground catchphrase that only the uber-scene folks know the correct definition of and are able to use it in a sentence? A hipster kickball team that constantly put on shows in Brooklyn?
Dan Deacon and the Wham City crew compose the most irresistible arts community in America, consistently producing great music and art and promoting it in new and challenging ways. So it pains Bostonist to no end when he discovered the answer to the following equation last night:
Experiment + ICA = Epic Fail
"Our songs are all autobiographical," quipped Gogol Bordello frontman Eugene Hütz during a short break in the band's set Friday night at House of Blues. Hütz may have been referring to his lyrics - punk poetry preaching to the immigrant experience - but the group's unique sound is more fitting than anything else. From Hütz's singing style rife with Eastern European accentuations right down to the band's caustic mix of gypsy folk-meets-anthemic punk, Gogol Bordello are representative of many an emigration tale most Americans grow up learning. The fusion of old world Europe and new world US of A is more distinct and striking in Gogol than any other "punk-meets-(insert "old world" cultural musical tradition here)" on the market today. Considering celebratory, all-out dancing goes hand-in-hand with Ukrainian and Balkan-based folk, it's no wonder Gogol Bordello's live set tended to veer a bit away from the stylistically conservative three-chord punk of the group's peers and create an engaging and exuberant set.
This Bostonist can still recall a time, years ago, when he grabbed a couple of tickets to a taping of the Last Call with Carson Daly (don't judge) just to see TV On The Radio. The two-song set by the fiery and still-blooming Brooklyn quintet was forever burned into Bostonist's memory and made the embarrassment of having to watch Daly blather on for half an hour more than worth it. Since that day in April 2004, this Bostonist saw nothing but a bright future for TV On The Radio; while he pushed songs from Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes onto his friends for a solid year, hoping that one day the band would get its proper due. Thankfully, that day came, and those at the House of Blues last evening were all a part of it.
These days, filmmakers are testing out new and exciting ways to draw viewers into their narratives. Take the recent insurgence of 3D films. But where some grumble at the enhanced technology forcing viewers out of the movie, the folks behind Split/Signal decided to try an ear-popping way of marrying audiences with screened images. On Saturday night, The Center for Arts at the Armory played host to eight teams of filmmakers and musical acts, each group meticulously merging sound and picture, celluloid (or, in this case, digital) frame for musical note.
What does one do after attending a once-in-a-lifetime show by a renowned artist? How can you go back to the all-things-as-usual show when you've heard and witnessed the delights of a skillfully-performed, groundbreaking gig? This was the conundrum Bostonist faced since Wednesday's excellent Dan Deacon show at the Middle East. After a stunning set, where do you go from there? Well, you can only go up. In this case, to the planet Peelander.
Enter Shikari are either a concert promoter's worst nightmare or a dream come true. The U.K. quartet made mincemeat of the stage at Harpers Ferry last night as they used monitors like footstools, dragged mic cables through swarths of crowds like a leashed dog in heat, swung atop Harpers' supporting bars, drinking bars, and stacks of speakers like a monkeys gone mad, and managed to break a keyboard stand simply by placing frontman Rou's gigantic synth on top of it. And yet, despite the veritable structural breakdowns, a band like Enter Shikari is hard to come by; with the wave of a guitar, the scrappy youngsters managed to conduct a couple hundred eager, scrappier tweens in an hour-plus of fully-engaged mosh pit mayhem. All on a Monday night.
Coming from North Adams, western Mass.'s wilderness outpost of contemporary art, the Books delivered their thoughtful concepts to the ICA on Friday night* via a Postal Service of gentle electronica and indie (soft) rock boy vocals. Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong also brought several closets' worth of tightly-edited found footage to match their pop musique concrète. A mood of inexplicable optimism pervaded, in the split-screen video of animals stampeding forth into an avant-garde National Geographic documentary, in the birdsong stitched together into makeshift jazz, and the virtuosic solos built from archived laughter.
The first ever Rockus Collegiate Battle of the Bands goes down at the Paradise on Tuesday, April 14. Co-sponsored by Rolling Stone (ever heard of it?) and Veritas Records, the skirmish pits local scholarly bands against each other in an epic cage match of rock.
Under the pale moon for so many years
Before U2 and their army of fans annexed Davis Square, a quieter sect made its pilgrimage to the Somerville Theatre. Just thawed from a five-year hibernation and scarcely sighted in North America, Tindersticks played songs from last year's The Hungry Saw and a smattering of older material, hungrily lapped up by Saturday evening's crowd. (At one point, we're pretty sure we heard audience members shushing each other like cartoon librarians.)
A year ago, at a benefit for T.T. the Bear's bartender Jeanne Sheehy, the members of Letters to Cleo took the stage for an impromptu reunion, and they could tell from the reaction of the crowd that people were happy to see them. This year, they're back for a real reunion, playing 4 gigs in 3 cities.
"Virtue" was the theme of last Wednesday's Opera Boston Underground show, and its seven varieties were interpreted with varying degrees of precision by seven young singers. Baritone Graham Wright took a direct route to Courage, "Mut" from Schubert's Winterreise, and Julia Mintzer personified at least three or four virtues all at once, waiting for her husband to return from the Crusades in Henri Duparc's "Au pays ou se fait la guerre." There was lonely tower, a white moon, cooing birds in a willow, but the results of Mintzer's brooding, seductive mezzo were more immediate and vivid than all that. We neglected our Great Pumpkin Ale and allowed our artichoke dip to cool.
Tuesday night, while the Red Sox were busy collapsing in on themselves like a massive, dying star, AA Bondy and the Cold War Kids put on a sold-out show at the Paradise. When opening act AA Bondy took the stage, concertgoers put away the bad news mlb.com was refreshing on their phones in favor of Bondy's inviting folk.
"I lived in Boston for four years and I was never here. Call it what you will. But I'm glad tonight is the first night." On Friday night, Josh Ritter began his set in Boston's most esteemed concert hall (lined with statuary of "huge, intimidating, partially-clad figures") by singing about his native Midwest: "Idaho," Illinois in "Best for the Best," and the whole region as "story we made up to erase" in "Other Side."
Consistency is an underrated virtue in these challenging and changing times. Just as you can count on the stock market to recklessly bounce up and down like a fat kid on a trampoline, for years Boston has been able to count on the reliable Emergency Music to deliver the goods for the able ear. Delegates of pop perfection, old Emergency will headline an increasingly rare appearance this Saturday at T.T. the Bears. Bostonist caught up with singer and LOST devotee Jesse Duquette while sharing a couch during last Thursday’s spell binding episode. Naturally, the two subjects transgressed into one another.
Okay, it seems that we have a hangup on Alvin and the Chipmunks, but the success of that movie suggests that children are more in charge of their parents' dollars than ever. We're not talking teenagers controlling the box office--we're talking the little critters. Further proof of that was provided when Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour was number one at the box office.
Benefits for Jeanne Sheehy December 6--Tonight!: B.O.D., Willie T & Dr. X, Doug McDonald Band, Roger Fisk, Country Doctors, Wide Iris, The Delusions, The Outlets. Show starts at 8:45 pm. December 21: Jonny Pape, Auto Interiors, Joyce & Chick of Scarce, Downbeat 5, AdFrank, The Pills, The Shods. Show starts at 9:05 pm. December 28: Jules Verdone, The Douglas Fir, Baker, Francine, The Gravel Pit. Show starts at 9:10 pm. December 29: Keys to the...
The Eight Saturday, December 10, 9:00 pm T.T. the Bear's 10 Brookline Street, Cambridge (T: Central Square) $12 advance / $15 at the door More info Taglit-Birthright Israel and JDub Records is hosting a Hanukkah rock concert that will be held in cities all over the United States. Boston will represent at T.T. The Bear's this Saturday. The Boston celebration will be split between rock and electronica. The Brakes are straight-up pop-rock, and press for...
Indoor Yard Sale at the Papercut Zine Library Saturday, December 1, 10:00 pm to 5:00 pm Concert: 6:00 pm, $5 donation 45 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge More info The Papercut Zine Library is sniffing at the idea of holding a yard sale during the cold weather. They're taking their goodies inside and throwing their doors open to you, the discerning shopper, so you can pick up some cool holiday presents. The many items for sale...
One of the most famous sights in Cambridge--MIT's Stata Center, designed by Frank Gehry--is leaking. MIT is now suing Gehry for negligence. The Stata Center may look amazing on the outside, and it got a shout-out in Doonesbury, but Shelley Murphy at the Globe reports that the inside is a mess of cracks, drainage backups, and mold. MIT paid $1.5 million to fix problems in the Stata Center's amphitheater--which is a rotten icing on top...
Story time. It's early 2001 at a snowy New England college campus. Collegiate-Aged Bostonist takes in a set by San Francisco-based Matt Nathanson in the campus student center. It is Nathanson's birthday and Sister Helen Prejean (of "Dead Man Walking" fame) is also appearing on campus. Did we mention that this is a Catholic college? Nathanson winds up performing a very, very intimate two sets and, we imagine, having a pretty sucky birthday. But Bostonist...
Bostonist knew that with Wednesday night's Boston Pops EdgeFest finale would come a chance to see local talent (and Bostonist favorites) Mieka Pauley and Chad Perrone, but it wasn't until shortly before we braved the heat en route to Symphony Hall that we discovered that we were in store for another Boston music treat - three-fifths of the Ryan Montbleau Band (guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Ryan Montbleau, bassist Matt Gianarros and Laurence Scudder on viola), who closed out the night at the hall with a post-Pops performance.
We'd heard that the 2007 WBOS Free Summer Concert Series at Copley was going to be a great one - and lo and behold, the folks over at 92.9 FM have announced a schedule full of acts we'd happily plunk down money to see. We are going to be making the trek to Copley a regular part of our Thursday evening routine. The lineup boasts established acts (Martin Sexton, Jonatha Brooke), indie artists we can't...