bradley's almanac - a boston music blog

boston area shows of note:

friday, july 25th

comedian joel mchale

(from the soup)

@ the wilbur theatre

saturday, july 26th

bon iver

bowerbirds

@ the museum of fine arts

sunday, july 27th

the new collisions (debut)

red quiet

melt

@ tt the bears

sunday, july 27th

sunfold

antiques

@ the middle east upstairs

wednesday, july 30th

we are scientists

@ the middle east downstairs

wednesday, july 30th

earlimart

@ the middle east upstairs

wednesday, july 30th

spiritualized

the dirtbombs

@ the wilbur theatre

thursday, july 31st

the police

elvis costello & the impersonators

@ the tweeter center

friday & saturday

august 1st & 2nd

eddie vedder

liam finn

solo @ the opera house

saturday, august 2nd

wolf parade

@ the paradise

monday, august 4th

coldplay

@ the garden

tuesday, august 5th

(and every tuesday this month)

neil cleary's 'doozy'

a guest-packed 4-show residency

@ the lizard lounge

wednesday, august 6th

neil halstead (slowdive/mojave 3)

rogue wave

jack johnson

@ the tweeter center

saturday, august 9th

margot & the nuclear so and so's

@ the middle east

saturday, august 9th

melvins

@ the paradise

sunday, august 10th

ho-ag

six finger satellite

the in-out

certainly, sir

@ great scott

tuesday, august 12th

thao nguyen with

the get down stay down

david schultz & the skyline

pepi ginsberg

@ tt the bears

tuesday, august 12th

(and every tuesday this month)

neil cleary's 'doozy'

a guest-packed 4-show residency

@ the lizard lounge

wednesday, august 13th

radiohead

grizzly bear

@ the tweeter center

thursday, august 14th

grizzly bear

violens

outside in the courtyard

@ the museum of fine arts

friday, august 15th

the ex

getachew mekuria

debo band

@ the middle east downstairs

saturday, august 16th

+/- (plus minus)

broken river prophet (cd release!)

animal hospital

ba-na-nas

free kickass cupcakes from 9-10pm!

@ the middle east upstairs

tuesday, august 19th

(and every tuesday this month)

neil cleary's 'doozy'

a guest-packed 4-show residency

@ the lizard lounge

wednesday, august 20th

human league, belinda carlisle, abc,

flock of seagulls, naked eyes

@ the bank of america pavilion

thursday, august 21st

yndi halda

caspian

irepress

@ tt the bears

friday, august 22nd

obits (ex-hot snakes/rftc)

@ the middle east

saturday, august 23rd

amo joy!

franklin bruno

(from nothing painted blue)

one happy island (ep release!)

@ the lily pad

saturday, august 23rd

newbury comics / unnatural axe

30th anniversary bash

the meatmen, queers, nasties,

unnatural axe, sleazies

@ the middle east down

tuesday, august 26th

the final installment of...

neil cleary's 'doozy'

a guest-packed august residency

@ the lizard lounge

wednesday, august 27th

liz phair performing

'exile in guyville'

@ the paradise

wednesday, august 27th

xiu xiu

prurient

@ the paradise

monday, september 1st

the juan maclean

@ the middle east downstairs

friday, september 5th

silver jews

@ the middle east downstairs

saturday, september 6th

my morning jacket

@ the bank of america pavilion

sunday, september 7th

ryan adams & the cardinals

@ the bank of america pavilion

tuesday, september 9th

paul weller

@ the berklee performance center

saturday, september 13th

wfnx disorientation 2008

the kooks, flogging molly,

alkaline trio, rogue wave,

and more to be announced

@ bank of america pavilion

monday, september 15th

james

@ the paradise

tuesday, september 16th

a place to bury strangers

@ the paradise

thursday, september 18th

the walkmen

@ the middle east downstairs

friday, september 19th

sigur ros

@ the bank of america pavilion

friday, september 19th to

sunday, september 21st

all tomorrow's parties

with my bloody valentine, low

built to spill, mogwai, shellac,

polvo, yo la tengo, lilys, autolux

dinosaur jr, mercury rev, & more

@ the catskills in nyc

monday, september 22nd

mogwai

fuck buttons

@ the wilbur theatre

tuesday, september 23rd

writer dennis lehane

(release day for 'the given day')

@ the coolidge corner theatre

wednesday, september 24th

low

@ the museum of fine arts boston

saturday, september 27th

built to spill

performing 'perfect from now on'

dinosaur jr.

meat puppets

@ the orpheum

sunday, september 28th

the bird and the bee

willoughby

@ great scott

thursday, september 30th

boston spaceships

(gbv's robert pollard)

big dipper

@ the paradise

sunday, october 5th

pinback

@ the paradise

monday, october 6th

the wedding present

@ the middle east downstairs

monday, october 6th

stereolab

monade

@ the paradise

wednesday, october 8th

wire

@ the middle east downstairs

sunday, october 12th

the residents

@ showcase live, foxboro

sunday, october 12th

the notwist

@ the roxy

tuesday, october 14th

cold war kids

@ the paradise

friday, october 17th

jonathan richman

with drummer tommy larkin

@ the somerville theatre

saturday, october 18th

ra ra riot

walter meego

the morning benders

@ the middle east

tuesday & wednesday

october 21st & 22nd

billy bragg

@ the somerville theatre

wednesday, october 22nd

lyle lovett & john hiatt

(acoustic, on stage together)

@ the orpheum

thursday, october 30th

of montreal

@ the orpheum

saturday, november 1st

henry rollins (spoken word)

@ the orpheum

monday, november 3rd

coldplay

@ the td banknorth garden

visit tourfilter for more shows

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Mp3s: New Pornographers in Boston

The New Pornographers came to town last week for a strange little show at the Paradise, a night whose primary purpose was to extol the virtues of Jack Daniels to a bunch of random contest winners. Whatever the reason, I'm just glad I got a chance to see 'em after having missed their shows with Belle & Sebastian a couple months back. The New Porno's last two albums both wound up in my year-end top ten, but this show took me to a slightly higher level of fan-love.

The songs from 'Twin Cinema' sounded great, but it was the improved energy of the older stuff that really struck me. In a live setting, I dug the stuff from 'Mass Romantic' and 'Electric Version' even more. Just a great set start to finish, excepting a very rough mix during the first song (and despite a lack of 'All For Swinging You Around', my favorite NP song for a long while). Anyone who worried about a lack of Neko Case (out promoting her own solo album) on recent tours had absolutely nothing to fear... Kathryn Calder (A.C. Newman's neice, and she also appears on 'Twin Cinema') is an excellent replacement on vocals and keyboard.

Here's their set, and as I mentioned, don't let the dodgy, keyboard-heavy mix of the first song scare you off, the soundguy fixes it soon enough. If you look at the setlist photo below, they skipped 'Stacked Crooked', and the encore was made up of requests...

The New Pornographers

Live at The Paradise
Boston, MA
Monday, April 10th, 2006

(note: mp3 files removed on 10/1/2006)

01. Twin Cinema
02. Use It
03. banter 1
04. July Jones
05. The Laws Have Changed
06. Jackie, Dressed In Cobras
07. The Bleeding Heart Show
08. Testament To Youth In Verse
09. The Jessica Numbers
10. banter 2
11. Mass Romantic
12. From Blown Speakers
13. The Body Says No
14. The Bones Of An Idol
15. It's Only Divine Right
16. The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism
17. Sing Me Spanich Techno

encore...
18. The Fake Headlines
19. Jackie
20. Miss Teen Wordpower

The inherent cheeziness of the promotional event was not lost on Mr. Newman, who dedicated 'The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism' to Jack Daniels ("both the cause and the solution to man's problems"), and set up his guitars while donning full promo-gear, decked out in a cheap black J.D. hat and t-shirt combo. Apparently couldn't bring himself to wear it during the set, maybe realizing there was a chance many in the possibly unfamiliar crowd would think he was as serious as all the JD girls working the room.

A comment to the JD marketing team: If you're holding an event to promote a particular brand of alcohol, it might be a good idea to actually provide those in attendance with said beverage. Don't know if it's a legal thing, but discounted shots, samples, or even coupons would make more some kind of sense. I'm not sure the free hors d'ouevres (all meat, 'boo' said Amie) and the iTunes coupons made me wanna drink more Jack. I suppose they figure that putting a ton of banners and a great band in front of us might secure our purchasing allegiance. Or maybe it's not about the people there, but all about the advertising and tie-ins (with both WBCN and the Weekly Dig) leading up to the event. I mean, hell, how many times have I mentioned Jack Daniels in this post already? Feeling thirsty yet?

Footnotes: If anyone has an issue with this live set being made available, just lemme know (email link on left). Recorded with a Sony Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav and then edited to 192kbps mp3s. And keep in mind, sets are made available for a few weeks, and are not reposted once removed.

Labels: livemp3s