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recommended boston area events

thursday, july 2nd

the church

adam franklin (swervedriver)

@ showcase live, foxborough

sunday, july 5th

city breathing

deep sea diver

adam rich

steve pardo & lindley cameron

@ the middle east upstairs

saturday, july 11th

the luxury

the click five

midatlantic

aloud

@ the paradise

sunday, july 12th

the dead weather

screaming females

@ the house of blues

saturday, july 18th

butterflies

travels

@ pa's lounge

sunday, july 19th

grand duchy (w/frank black)

the bunnies

van elk (w/valerie mistle thrush)

@ the middle east downstairs

sunday, july 19th

lymbyc systym

coralcola

the cush

the pandas

@ the middle east upstairs

monday, july 20th

you can be a wesley (cd release!)

casper & the cookies

everything, now!

magic magic

@ the middle east upstairs

monday, july 20th

green day

the bravery

@ the garden

tuesday, july 21st

mark eitzel & marc capelle

performing american music club songs

@ the lizard lounge

friday, july 24th

varsity drag (cd release!)

the grownup noise

winterpills

brendan boogie & the best intentions

@ the middle east upstairs

sunday, july 26th

pete yorn

@ the house of blues

tuesday, july 28th

cass mccombs

jennifer o'connor & band

mike bones

@ tt the bears

wednesday, july 29th

foreign born

the veils

faces on film

@ tt the bears

thursday, july 30th

justin ripley & his band

@ pa's lounge

friday, july 31st

destroyer (dan bejar)

iran

wooden wand

@ the paradise

friday, july 31st

depeche mode

peter bjorn & john

@ great woods

saturday, august 1st

alasdair roberts

@ lorem ipsum books, inman square

saturday, august 1st

wheat (cd release show!)

the xyz affair

@ great scott

sunday, august 2nd

soft power (featuring mary timony)

gramercy arms (featuring dave derby)

@ tt the bears

monday, august 3rd

billy bragg

@ the berklee performance center

monday, august 3rd

tinted windows

(james iha, adam schlesinger,

taylor hanson, & bun e. carlos)

@ the paradise

monday, august 3rd

coldplay

elbow

kitty daisy & lewis

@ the comcast center

wednesday, august 5th

the rural alberta advantage

joshua english (ex-six going on seven)

with lisa molinaro

baby teeth

@ the middle east upstairs

wednesday, august 5th

arctic monkeys

modey lemon

@ the paradise

wednesday, august 5th

joe pernice (solo show & book tour)

@ the brattle theatre (2 shows)

wednesday and thursday

august 5th and 6th

paul mccartney

@ fenway park

friday, august 7th

the electric prunes

love

sky saxon (of the seeds)

@ the middle east downstairs

saturday, august 8th

blondie

pat benatar

@ the b.o.a. pavilion

wednesday, august 12th

the warlocks

@ great scott

wednesday, august 12th

the pretenders

cat power

juliette lewis

@ the bank of american pavilion

thursday, august 13th

bat for lashes

@ the paradise

friday, august 14th

six finger satellite

@ tt the bears

sunday, august 16th

the decemberists

heartless bastards

@ mountain park, holyoke

sunday, august 16th

trashcan sinatras

@ tt the bears

monday, august 17th

the breeders

@ the paradise

friday, august 21st

choo choo la rouge (cd release!)

the big disappointments

impossible hair

the operators

@ pa's lounge

saturday & sunday

august 22nd & 23rd

bruce springsteen & the e street band

@ the comcast center / great woods

saturday, august 29th

caspain

actors & actresses

irepress

arms & sleepers

@ tt the bears

sunday, august 30th

the flaming lips

explosions in the sky

stardeath and white dwarfs

@ the boa pavilion

thursday, september 3rd

kay hanley (letters to cleo)

antisocialites

ingenue

@ tt the bears

saturday, september 5th

the pains of being pure at heart

cymbals eat guitars

depreciation guild

@ the middle east downstairs

saturday, september 5th

pet shop boys

@ the house of blues

thursday, september 10th

autolux

sleepy sun

@ the paradise

thursday, september 10th

dirty three

@ the i.c.a. boston

friday, september 11th

kings of leon

glasvegas

@ the comcast center / great woods

saturday, september 12th

the cult

performing 'love' in its entirety

@ the house of blues

sunday, september 13th

down

melvins

@ the house of blues

tuesday, september 15th

the horrors

@ the paradise

saturday & sunday

september 19th & 20th

boston lebowski fest

with movie screening & bowling

@ the house of blues & kings

sunday, september 20th

u2

snow patrol

@ gillette stadium

tuesday, september 22nd

son volt

@ the paradise

friday, september 25th

township

the lights out (cd release!)

reverse

gravehaven

@ tt the bears

friday, september 25th

charlatans uk

hatcham social

@ the paradise

saturday, september 26th

kmfdm

@ the house of blues

sunday, september 20th

maximo park

@ the paradise

monday, september 28th

sunny day real estate

@ the house of blues

wednesday, september 30th

mono

maserati

@ the middle east downstairs

sunday, october 4th

the "loud & rich" tour

richard thompson &

loudon wainwright iii

performing solo & together

@ the sanders theatre, harvard

wednesday, october 7th

bob mould

@ the paradise

saturday, october 10th

the psychedelic furs

happy monday

@ the house of blues

wednesday, october 14th

loney dear

asobi seksu

@ great scott

wednesday, october 21st

mum

@ the somerville theatre

saturday, october 31st

pinback

@ the paradise

friday, november 13th

janeane garofalo

rob riggle

two shows @ the wilbur theatre

visit tourfilter for more shows

Sunday, November 14, 2004

Live: The Arcade Fire

Had I sat down and written about Friday night's set by Montreal's The Arcade Fire immediately after coming home from it, you'd be reading a bunch of gushing, over the top gibberish. Seriously... it'd have been a stammering, probably embarrassing, hyperbolic freak-out, struggling for new adjectives, paragraphs that boiled down to 'Um... Wow!'.

Two days later, I'm still feeling it, still reeling from it, hardly coming down. It was one of those mouth-opening shows, standing there slack-jawed and smiling from beginning to end, feeling sorry for every single other person in the world who isn't in the room.


At 11:30 on Friday night, 45 minutes before they were due hit the stage, I was actually laying comfortably in bed. I was drained from a long week, from Silkworm the night before, and besides, it was freakin' cold out. Boston was covered in it's first (and far too early) snowfall of the year, but at that very moment, openers The Hidden Cameras were probably on stage over at TT the Bears. I have absolutely no idea where I found the motivation to rise, bundle up, clean the damn snow off my car, and get across the river to Cambridge. Actually, yes I do... it came from here. Their debut album, one of the best of the year. I just had to know if they could possibly, even remotely, recreate it live. And boy, uh, did they ever.

The sold-out crowd was equal parts excited fans, hopeful hipsters, and clueless college students who were there because it was 'the place to be' on that particular friday night. And every single damn one of 'em was swept up in what happened when the seven people on stage broke into the "Whooooooaaaa...oooohhhh!" vocals of "Wake Up", the first song. Seven voices yelling out in unison, it just sounded huge. I've been to TTs more times than I care to recall, and I have never heard a band sound this good, mixed this perfectly. Seven band members, all playing instruments, at times all singing. Drums, strings, keyboard, vibra-muh-phone, guitar, bass, tamborines, motorcyle helmet, accordian... I could hear every single note, every voice. I was just floored.


They actually introduced that first song with "This is our last song, thanks for coming!", and I'm sure there are people who still would have thought they got their money's worth had that been true. Playing and sweating for over an hour, they did mostly songs from Funeral, along with a couple from their self-released debut EP, what may be a brand new one (that's open for debate), and a well-chosen cover.

Y'know, I'm not one for crowds, and I'm the first guy to run screaming from sold-out shows. We were jam-packed into TTs, and as I suffered through 15 minutes of shoulder-to-shoulder pre-set jostling, I wondered if this could possibly be worth it. If anything could be. After midnight, that's when the sloppy drunks come out, and TTs was brimming with 'em. Loud talkers, slurring idiots, rude, jockeying louts. Fortunately, that all disappeared when The Arcade Fire started up. Nothing bothered me from that moment on... I swear, someone coulda been punching me in the neck for the whole hour, and I still would have exclaimed "Best show ever!". Just amazing.


And I recorded the whole damn thing. At this moment, having listened to it nearly a dozen times this weekend, it's the crown of my live collection. It seems logically impossible that their sound, the overwhelming hugeness comin' from that stage, could have been funneled into a little clip-on microphone... but somehow it was. It's a testament to their soundperson Sharon (who used to work at the Middle East) that you can make out every instrument in a single-mic recording. Just genius.
The Arcade Fire

Live at TT the Bears
Cambridge, MA, Nov. 12th, 2004

note: this set was reposted here on 3/6/2007

01. Wake Up
02. Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
03. Une Annee Sans Lumiere
04. Neighborhood #3(PowerOut) / Rebellion (Lies)
05. This Must Be The Place (Talking Heads)
06. Haiti
07. Headlights Look Like Diamonds
08. Burning Bridges (new)
09. Crown of Love
10. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
11. No Cars Go
12. In The Backseat
You could hear the shouts of pure joy near the beginning of each song, people just letting out an unfiltered "Yeah!!!", like we're at some olde tyme evangelical revival. "Praise The Arcade Fire! Have Mercy!". I love the moment where some guy yells out a perfectly unrestrained "Holy SHIT!". We were all caught up in it... the crowd swaying and smiling and jumping and cheering and appreciating everything in front of us.


I could go on, and on, and on some more. Get me talking about this in person and my eyes'll light up, you'll understand what this show did for me. Amie could tell, and she's making me take her along when they come back "in the dead of winter", as the band said from the stage. A stage they'd already outgrown before they even arrived.

So, yeah, um... Wow!

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