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 19, 2007

Mp3s: The Freewheeling Yo La Tengo live in Boston

Let us be very thankful for Yo La Tengo. It would be easy to take them for granted: A 22-year career of releasing consistently solid albums and playing wide-ranging venues, relatively drama-free, hype-free, and falter-free. And for the past 16 years, the same three talented people writing songs that are often shifting in style, shining a light on usually-obscure cover songs, all the while making everything they perform just so perfectly, well, "Yo La Tengo"-sounding.

If a visiting time-traveler had shown me each incredibly-varied setlist from the band's just finished "The Freewheeling Yo La Tengo" tour, and allowed me to pick just one show to attend, it would have been exactly the one I ended up at: The early installment of their two-show visit to the Museum of Fine Arts here in Boston this past Thursday. So many personal YLT faves were performed, it was as if it was tailor-made for my ears, but really, I owe that mostly to fellow fans and their requests during the free-form Q&A sessions that happened between many of the songs. "Stockholm Syndrome", "Decora", "Big Day Coming", "One PM Again", "Today Is The Day", "Pablo and Andrea", "Deeper Into Movies", "Detouring American With Horns": all songs that would end up on my own "best of Yo La Tengo" mix. Throw in both a Bob Dylan and a Neil Young cover, and I honestly couldn't imagine a better YLT show.

I'm also pretty thankful that I was even able to be there in the first place, after missing out on tickets when I wasn't sure I'd be free that evening. Unsurprisingly, both shows sold out quickly, and there were more beggars than offerers on craigslist that day. I thought I'd struck a deal for a ticket that afternoon, but the impatient seller sold it out from under me after saying it was available and all mine. So in the end, I owe my attendance to a kind soul with an extra guestlist spot. Had I not made it in after coming so close, and then saw this setlist, well, I'll just say I'm thankful it worked out...

Some Yo La linkage...

Their official site, MySpace page, Wikipedia entry, and Matador Records page.

Additional Audio: NYCtaper recorded the next (and final) night of the Freewheeling YLT tour, and has offered lossless files over here.

Some Mp3s from the Yo La Tengo site...

Mp3: Yo La Tengo - "The Summer"
(live on KEXP 10/15/07)

Mp3: Yo La Tengo - "I Feel Like Going Home"
(live on KCMP 10/07/07)

Mp3: Yo La Tengo - "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind"
Mp3: Yo La Tengo - "Beanbag Chair"
(both from their latest album, "IANAOYAIWBYA")

There are more Mp3s to be had at the band's own audio page.

Hip 2 Be Square was at the show as well, and you can read Kip's write-up here.

Video: Official clips for "Tom Courtenay" and "Sugarcube". Many, many live videos can also be found using a YouTube Yo La Tengo search.

Photos: My Flickr-hosted shots are here. Check out the full Yo La Tengo Flickr tag search. And as the band mentions above (thanks to an informed audience member), they played on (an unbroadcasted) Saturday Night Live over the weekend, performing "Mr. Tough" and another song. There's visual confirmation of this happening right here, in the form of a New York Times photo.

Upcoming live dates:
Yo La Tengo is once again performing their series of Hanukkah shows this year at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ, starting on December 4th and ending on the 11th. All eight shows feature special surprise openers, and all are already sold out.
Listen to all 'Nac-hosted Mp3s at the Hype Machine.

the fine print... If anyone has an issue with these Mp3s being made available, just let me know (my contact info in the 'nac faq). Live sets recorded with a Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav, edited for leveling, then converted to 192kbps Mp3s w/Lame. Files are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.

Labels: livemp3s