Also, since you (and Target) love The Hold Steady, may Bostonist make a gentle reminder to pick up tickets to their upcoming September TT's show? Question: are The Hold Steady the rockingest band fronted by a BC grad? Answer: Bostonist doesn't know, but Bostonist does know that you can go to TT's after 6 and pick up tickets without a service charge, and you should go there soon to get your Hold Steady tickets and (since you love hype) your Clap Your Hands Say Yeah tickets. (Bostonist still can't believe that the latter was confused with Get Him Eat Him in an earlier post, but then again, there's really a spate of mono-syllabic bands ordering you to do stuff right now.) Do it before the students come back, with their disposable income et al.
Results tagged “elisabethdonnelly”
Bostonist gave a little squeal of "Oh no she didn't!" when Natalie Portman's odious Sam, in last year's more odious Garden State, cites Lyle Lovett as an ugly dude who bagged a hottie with his 1993 marriage to Julia Roberts. (PS. Boston-area media: stop citing Portman-who really inspires awful copy from drooling men-as a celeb Boston can be proud of. Just because she went through 4 years at Harvard meant that some hard-working kid who lacked the connections, cash, or film career to get in didn't get in. So whatever to her SAT scores.) If "Sam" had seen Lyle Lovett live, or knew how he's written scathing, hilarious songs, she would've shut up about his percieved "unattractiveness." Because Lyle Lovett has fantastic hair and he can write a kick-ass song, from the early "God Will" to "That's Right (You're Not From Texas)" (And for the last one, he leaves his "girl from Georgia" on the side of the highway for daring to ask "How come you're always going on/about that lone star state?", all of this delivered in a jaunty western swing tune.) Bostonist has seen him 4 times live and he always puts on a show. One show, a drunken woman yelled out at one point, "I love you Lyle!" when he was delivering a monologue about how he wasn't popular with the ladies in high school and he replies, with perfect timing, "Where were you when I needed you?" A country iconoclast who writes lovely songs, give Lyle a chance. (and unemployed Bostonist free tickets?) He's at The Bank of America Pavilion, aka Harborlights, and it's on the banks of the harbor where the descent of night is a pretty show. If you're too poor for Harborlights, Bostonist recommends going there anyways and listening to the sounds coming out of the tent. You can chill out on the bench in front of the houseboat and have a good time-bring some wine and it's a hot date-all the same, whether it's at Lyle Lovett, Elvis Costello on Saturday, or maybe when uber-dreamy geek Clay Aiken comes to town.
Bostonist has been tangentially aware and thoroughly admiring of Jessica Hopper's writing since college and discovered that, among other things, Hopper was publishing the funny-as-hell Hit It Or Quit It music zine and writing a column in Punk Planet, alongside reading tour-mate Al Burian. Hopper's on the up and up and last year, her fantastic essay "Emo: Where The Girls Aren't" was featured in Da Capo's Best Music Writing 2004. Her byline is featured in a bunch of publications, and when she's not writing about The Mountain Goats and The Hold Steady, she's summing it all up on her hilarious blog. Hopper and Burian--Bostonist is, admittedly, less familiar with his work--are touring around New England today and tomorrow and tonight you can find them at The Dirt Palace in Providence at 7:30 PM, whereas tomorrow they'll be reading at Flywheel in Easthampton at 8PM. They promise that it will be a battle of good vs. evil and it's going to kick ass.
So since there's no Providencist yet, Bostonist has to tell you about what's going on this Saturday in our fair neighboring city of fun and arts. Get yourself down to Providence because AS220, which is devoted to promoting and encouraging art from music to visuals, is taking over Empire Street and celebrating their 20th anniversary and recent renovations. It's all free, and there will be, in the words of their website:"food, games, music, dancing, art, spoken word, mind-reading, 7-foot blue bunnies, and things that come in 20's!" Reasons why you should go? Free sets from Ted Leo, Mary Timony, Lightning Bolt, and the ever-fantastic Alec K. Redfearn and The Eyesores. There's a Bizzare Bazaar, a Rock N' Roll Yard Sale and arty stuff from people like Scotty The Blue Bunny and The Dirt Palace. Hours are from 1PM to 1AM and the party's going to go strong. Heck yes to art spaces staying strong and thriving and if AS220 has to put a free Ted Leo set on to celebrate it, than who is Bostonist to argue? So many reasons to go down to Providence!
Needless to say, she's like the grand dame of the chick lit genre and she's reading at the Wellesley Free Library tonight at 7PM. Hear her talk about her latest book, Little Earthquakes, and see if she'll dish on the upcoming film version of In Her Shoes, with Toni Colette and Cameron Diaz as sisters. Ask her whether it's really feasible to hide out in Princeton like you're in With Honors or something! From her website, she's as likable as her books and it should be a good time.
Expect to see a sausage-fest tonight at the Middle East upstairs (okay, it's a generalization, and maybe a little unfair, but if there are any rock chicks who are ready to go to this show give a holler, dude)for the first Boston-area appearance of 24-year-old Gustav Ejstes, who goes by the name Dungen, and who released a note-perfect slab of 70s pyschedelia last year, Ta Det Lungt (which means Take It Easy). The album is...