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

Monday, November 06, 2006

Mp3s: Rose Melberg live in Allston

I've been in love with Rose Melberg's voice and songwriting since the first few notes of Tiger Trap's self-titled K Records debut back in 1992, and feared I'd never get to see her play live when they broke up the following year. With her on the west coast and me up in Vermont, I held out hope that she'd head east with one of her follow-up projects, as half of guitars-n-harmonies duo the Softies or with trio Go Sailor. My wish came true in the summer of '94 when the Softies came through Burlington on a tour with Crayon, and it was as special as I'd imagined. Her voice always hits me just right, and in person it's hard to imagine a prettier sound.

Twelve years is way too long to wait for a second fix, but while Rose has been writing and releasing songs all along (solo and with her bands), I've been missing her rare live appearances. Distance and motherhood have kept her off any roads near Boston in recent years (she took an almost five-year live break until 2005), and when her newest (and to my ears, most beautiful) solo album "Cast Away The Clouds" came out last Spring I quietly wished she'd tour for it. Months passed with only a couple dates on the wrong side of the continent (she currently makes her home in Vancouver), until word came from record label Double Agent that she'd be doing a few east coast shows in October... and one was about a block from my house.

Although it was a Sunday, I'd rarely seen a night with so many great shows going on in the Boston area at the same time. There were at least three other lineups I might have seen, and all were courtesy of the excellent North East Sticks Together (N.E.S.T) Fest going on that week. But with Rose in town (and also a N.E.S.T. event), there was really no internal debate about my evening plans. All the competing musical choices resulted in a sparser crowd at O'Brien's than I'd have otherwise expected, but one that was no less appreciative. The lighter attendance may also have been due to the unusual performer/venue combo: the Allston bar is more often host to far louder lineups, so pretty-pop fans might have been out of the loop or too far from the T for this one.

On this night, the loudest sound during Rose's set may have been O'Brien's cash register, or even the squeaky bathroom door, which almost act as instruments on these recordings. Also accompanying Rose's voice and guitar is keyboardist and backing vocalist Nick Krgovich (of P:ano), who is a big part of the reason that "Cast Away The Clouds" is as gorgeous as it is. Here's their wonderful set...

Rose Melberg

Live at O'Briens, Allston, MA
on Sunday, October 15th, 2006

1. Ciao Allston
(by Ellie Marshall with Christmas)
2. Things That We Do
3. Irene
4. Take Some Time
5. Putty In Your Hands
6. The Orchard
7. Cold Sea
8. Something Else
9. Golden Gate Bridge
10. Me & the Bees
11. Cast Away the Clouds
12. Coldest Night of the Year
(by Mann & Weill via Vashti Bunyan)
13. Each New Day

Some Rose-y links...

Her Double Agent page, MySpace page, and Wikipedia entry.

Stream the lead-off track from "Cast Away The Clouds", "Take Some Time", over at NPR, which chose it as a song of the day back in May.

The stellar WMBR radio program "Phoning It In" had Rose performing on the phone in July. ~~Unfortunately the 'listen' link is broken at the moment. Get on that, Nadav! :)~~ Go have a listen. Speaking of "Phoning It In", go listen to recent appearances from Portastatic's Mac McCaughan and Centro-matic's Will Johnson. Those links, thankfully, are very much in service.

Download an mp3 of Rose covering Anne Briggs' "The Time Has Come", courtesy of Double Agent.

In a September guest post on The Rawking Refuses To Stop, Chad from Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands comes up with collaborative gold in the form of Rose guesting on a performance of "The Biggest Lie" with Elliott Smith in Tempe, Arizona back in 1996. Not only is there audio, there's video. Brilliantly heartbreaking.

All sorts of other YouTubey goodness: The video for "Take Some Time", along with a live performance of the song in NYC last June. There's also a live clip of her doing "Irene" at NYC's Cake Shop in April, "My Broken Heart" in San Francisco in May, and a little April on-stage Softies reunion in Seattle.

Last but hardly least: Pick up your very own copy of "Cast Away The Clouds", which you can listen to while sipping from your stylish Rose Melberg coffee mug.

the fine print... If anyone has an issue with this live set being made available, just say the word (contact info in the 'nac faq). Recorded with a Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav and then edited to 192kbps mp3s. Mp3s are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.

Labels: livemp3s