bradley's almanac - a boston music blog

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 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!

Labels: livemp3s