boston area shows of note: friday, may 23rd joe lally (of fugazi) glorytellers thalia zedek drew o'doherty @ the middle east friday, may 23rd writer neil gaiman @ mit's kresge auditorium friday, may 23rd laura veirs liam finn @ the middle east saturday, may 24th cake, cracker, the english beat, bodeans @ the dcr hatch shell saturday, may 24th son volt @ the museum of fine arts boston saturday, may 24th the mary onettes @ the middle east wednesday, may 28th duran duran @ agganis arena friday, may 30th the gentlemen eric salt & the electric city the rationales (cd release) @ tt the bears friday, may 30th sea wolf the jealous girlfriends @ the paradise saturday, may 31st jeremy enigk damien jurado @ great scott sunday, june 1st ida michael hurley @ the nave gallery, somerville monday, june 2nd M83 @ the middle east downstairs wednesday, june 4thnd hayden @ great scott thursday, june 5th the breeders the montana boys @ the paradise friday, june 6th orbit taxpayer the fatal flaw boone @ tt the bears friday, june 6th styrofoam broken spindles @ the middle east friday, june 6th mudhoney the cynics @ the middle east saturday, june 7th jamie lidell jennifer o'connor (full band) @ tt the bears saturday, june 7th langhorne slim baker @ tt the bears saturday, june 7th pela static of the gods the motion sick shawn fogel @ the middle east sunday, june 8th donita sparks (ex-L7) & the stellar moments @ tt the bears monday, june 9th the kooks @ the paradise tuesday, june 10th swervedriver @ the paradise wednesday, june 11th the cannanes the in out painful dentistry @ the midway cafe wednesday, june 11th grand archives @ great scott wednesday, june 11th mark kozelek (sun kil moon / red house painters) marissa nadler @ the museum of fine arts boston thursday, june 12th tullycraft pants yell! the smittens @ pa's lounge thursday, june 12th damon & naomi helena espvall & masaki batoh @ tt the bears thursday, june 12th mission of burma performing the album 'signals, calls and marches' @ the paradise friday, june 13th mission of burma performing the album 'vs' @ the paradise saturday, june 14th centro-matic @ the middle east upstairs friday, june 13th r.e.m. modest mouse the national @ the tweeter center wednesday, june 18th jose gonzalez outside in the courtyard @ the museum of fine arts wednesday, june 18th sloan the golden dogs @ tt the bears thursday, june 19th retribution gospel choir (with low's alan sparhawk) @ the middle east upstairs thursday, june 19th the ting tings @ great scott thursday, june 19th sanguine drone (cd release) the crushing low 28 degrees taurus ekranoplan (chris pearson) @ o'briens friday, june 20th polvo birds of avalon @ the middle east downstairs friday, june 20th my brightest diamond clare & the reasons @ the berklee performance center saturday, june 21st eksi ekso (cd release) caspian hooray for earth dj die young @ the paradise friday, june 27th devo tom tom club @ bank of american pavillion saturday, june 28th peter murphy @ the roxy saturday, june 28th & monday, june 30th pearl jam ted leo & the pharmacists @ the tweeter center wednesday, july 2nd beth orton two shows in the courtyard @ the museum of fine arts saturday, july 5th cassavettes girls, guns, and glory teenage prayers @ the paradise tuesday, july 8th feist @ the bank of america pavilion saturday, july 12th bottomless pit the kadane bros. (of the new year / bedhead) chris brokaw @ the middle east upstairs saturday, july 26th bon iver @ the museum of fine arts thursday, july 31st the police elvis costello & the impersonators @ the tweeter center saturday, august 2nd wolf parade @ the paradise wednesday, august 6th neil halstead (slowdive/mojave 3) rogue wave jack johnson @ the tweeter center sunday, august 10th ho-ag six finger satellite the in-out certainly, sir @ great scott wednesday, august 13th radiohead @ the tweeter center thursday, august 14th grizzly bear outside in the courtyard @ the museum of fine arts wednesday, august 20th human league, belinda carlisle, abc, flock of seagulls, naked eyes @ the bank of america pavilion wednesday, august 27th xiu xiu prurient @ the paradise sunday, september 7th ryan adams & the cardinals @ the bank of america pavilion tuesday, september 23rd writer dennis lehane (release day for 'the given day') @ the coolidge corner theatre monday, october 6th stereolab monade @ the paradise sunday, october 12th the notwist @ the roxy monday, november 3rd coldplay @ the td banknorth garden 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 FireYou 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! Labels: livemp3s $blog_id=110047280196631888; $blog_mail="bsearles@gmail.com"; $file_name=$PHP_SELF; global $blog_id, $blog_mail, $file_name; include ("blogkomm/module/blogkomm_show_link.php"); ?> |
recent posts on the 'nac... latest comments... on the mp3 player
on the nightstand
on the screen other boston-based music blogs
boston music media boston live show info music blogroll
music audiocasts surf-worthy
frequent haunts boston-centric
( < | > random list ) some cele-bloggers |