[Live MP3s] The National played a bar in Boston
Posted on November 12, 2007 at 3:33 pm | No Comments
When I read that the National would be playing at a downtown Boston bar called Paddy O’s (legal capacity: about 230), my first thought was that someone had either A) gotten their info way wrong, or B) thought it was the first of April. After all, the band had just sold out the 1400-capacity Roxy a few weeks earlier, as well as two nights at the 575-capacity Middle East downstairs back in June. But when I realized the news was shared by Sean, who books Paddy O’s sister bar, Hennessy’s (a place that has started hosting some pretty great shows this year), I quickly realized it was no joke.
I’m one of those who only really “got” the National after seeing them live back in June 2005. “Alligator” didn’t grab me immediately, but after watching the band rip through 15 songs at a half-full TT the Bears, I was all in. And unlike its predecessor, this year’s “Boxer” hit me instantly, securing itself a seat high in my ’07 top ten list. But when I learned the band would play two likely-jam-packed shows at the MidEast Down, I balked at seeing the new stuff in that venue… “Boxer” is a more intimate record, and I felt better leaving its songs in my headphones rather than braving the potentially poor sight-lines and sardined conditions of the MEDown. When the band returned to play the Roxy in early October, conflicting plans, a general distaste for the venue, and another sell-out kept me away from that one, too. Call me crazy, but in my dreams the band would’ve played the Somerville Theatre or the MFA… that’s how I saw the “Boxer” songs brought to life, at someplace involving seats. But I’d completely forgotten how much rock the National brings to even their slower songs, and it wasn’t long into their Paddy O’s set that I was reminded of that. Powerfully.
So, about this Paddy O’s gig: Ostensibly, it was to mark the 100th installment of WFNX‘s morning show, “The Sandbox”, but in reality, it was to try and sell a whole lot of Miller beer products. As soon as I walked in, I was surrounded by Miller banners, Miller hawkers, people drinkin’ Miller, and embarrassingly, a botched sign promoting the evening’s appearance by “The Nationals”. Yes, it crossed my mind then that maybe this was all a ruse, and that Cristian Guzman or Nook Logan would be there to tell everyone what time it was (answer: Miller Time!). When I went up to the bar and asked what they had on tap, the bartender semi-laughed at me before responding: “Miller”. And that was it. Fortunately, the “Champagne of Beers” is one of my low-budget drinks of choice, so with High Life in hand I eased up near the front to make sure there were instruments up there. Whew, there were, and the drum kit definitely belonged to Bryan Devendorf. Then it hit me: I’m actually going to get to see the f’in National in this place.
After a too-long delay during which ‘FNX personalities reminded us a few times to drink up the Miller, we were treated to an on-stage appearance by four, and I kid you not, “Miller Girls”. Shirts tied in belly-exposing knots, smiles firmly in place, and not a word spoken by them (just the DJs leading them), it had to have been one of the most surreal introductions the National had ever received. Off to the side of the slightly raised performance area, the guys grinned sheepishly, probably not believing what they were seeing, same as many of us. So, so odd.
And then, finally, the six guys hit the stage: Singer Matt Berninger, Scott & Bryan Devendorf (bass & drums, respectively), Aaron & Bryce Dessner (guitars), and thankfully this time, Padma Newsome on keys and violin…
Live at Paddy O’s
in Boston, Massachusetts
on Friday, October 26th, 2007
01. Start A War
02. Mistaken For Strangers
03. Secret Meeting
04. Brainy
05. Baby, We’ll Be Fine
06. Slow Show
07. Squalor Victoria
08. All The Wine
09. Ada
10. Racing Like A Pro
11. Apartment Story
12. Fake Empire
13. Mr. November
14. The Geese of Beverly Road
15. Abel
The band was on fire, the songs intense, the crowd noisily appreciative. Normally I’d be annoyed by such an overly raucous audience (that’s the taper in me typing), but it fit just right at this small rock show, and swept me up. I walked outta there thinking it could have been the show of the year, and with distance, a few weeks later it’s easily in my top five.
Some National links…
- Their official site, MySpace page, Wikipedia entry, and their Beggars label page.
- Additional Audio: Four songs to stream on MySpace, as usual, and three older songs shared as Mp3s on their own site: “Slipping Husband“ and “Murder Me Rachael“ from “Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers”, and “Cold Girl Fever“ off their self-titled debut. NPR also transmitted a live National performance from DC’s 9:30 club in June, which you can listen to via the All Songs Considered podcast. I’ve excerpted two songs here for your listening pleasure…
Mp3: The National – “Mr. November”
(live on NPR from DC, 6/20/07)Mp3: The National – “Mistaken For Strangers”
(live on NPR from DC, 6/20/07)Also, the Boston Phoenix’s On The Download music blog puts my recording to shame by sharing soundboard audio from the Paddy O’s show, along with some sweet two-camera video action.
- Video: The aforementioned OTD live videos for “Brainy“, “Secret Meeting“, and “Mistaken For Strangers“. A whole bunch of preview clips for the upcoming National film, “A Skin, A Night” by Vincent Moon. A new Black Cab Session for “You’ve Done It Again, Virginia” that Berninger & a Dessner performed acoustically in the back of a London taxi just yesterday. The band also did one of the Blogoteque Take Away Shows, performing both “Start A War” and “Ada“. And, of course, there’s the handy National YouTube search.
- Photos: My point-and-shoot shots of the National at Paddy O’s are here. The Line of Best Fit has some excellent pics of the band’s performance last night in London. For many more photos, here’s a National Flickr tag search. Good thing Flickr doesn’t ignore the “the” in their searches, or you’d be looking at lots of pictures of parks.
- Tourdates: The National continues their worldwide trek in support of “Boxer” through the end of the year and beyond. Tonight they’re in Belgium, then they hit up most of Europe before closing out their 2007 road trip in Russia. January brings them south of the equator, with a stop in New Zealand and many more in Australia.
- Listen to any and all ‘Nac-hosted Mp3s at le 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 and then edited to 192kbps Mp3s. Files are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.
Friday Music Miscellany
Posted on November 9, 2007 at 1:53 pm | No Comments
Some randomness to close out the week…
I’m generally not a big fan of the little ‘culture of exclusivity’ that various music blogs have fostered and fed over the past couple years, at least when they flash neon signs saying ‘look at me! look at me!’, but I can’t resist shining a light on this brand new song from Somerville’s own Travels, who released their gorgeously haunting self-titled debut disc last week. “Animal” is new enough to be a non-album track, and it’s a stunner…
Mp3: Travels – “Animal“
Travels, for those not yet aware, is Mona Elliott and Anar Badalov, formerly of Victory at Sea and Metal Hearts, respectively, making beautiful music in their Union Square apartment. Aurally, Travels leans a little more towards Anar’s previous project than Mona’s, with mostly shared and semi-restrained lead vocals, although Mona takes over on this new one, and sings her heart right out. Mesmerizing stuff. Many thanks to the duo for allowing me to host this one.
Yes, everyone’s already shared this song, but that doesn’t prevent me from doing the same. It is new Cat Power, after all…
(update: the mp3 was mistakenly shared by the label, who is now asking blogs to remove it. as the ‘nac only shares officially sanctioned pre-release mp3s, i happily complied.)
Her upcoming (mostly covers) album is “Jukebox”, and is out on Matador on January 22nd. Check here for the full track listing, as well as what covers will be on a limited 5-song bonus disk that will come with some copies.
The Futureheads have finished up recording their as-yet-untitled third album, and they’ve just let the first taste of it out into the world. Surprise, it’s a rocker, with no dramatic shifts in style, and still ace. It’s got the stop/starts, the harmonies, the punch. Here ’tis…
It’s a measly 128kbps, and while the download from their site is terribly tagged, I’ve fixed that here. I do encourage you to head over there and sign up for their mailing list, though.
Depending on which side of Massachusetts you reside (the woody west or the concrete east), there are a couple things you must be made aware of happening tomorrow night, Saturday the 10th…
MySpace is putting on 31 same-day worldwide “Rock For Darfur” benefit concerts, and one of them is out in North Adams at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, featuring none other than Yo La Tengo performing acoustically. Tickets are still available here. And as I mentioned previously, Cambridge rock club The Middle East is marking their 20th anniversary of show-hosting with a party tomorrow night (it’s also serving as a birthday celebration for scene-staple Billy Ruane and MidEast booker Kevin Hoskins), and proceeds go to a far more personal cause: Proceeds will go to help out Stephen Fredette, former lead guitarist for Scruffy the Cat and currently of Pony, who was recently diagnosed with lymphoma. The lineup is super-solid: Hallelujah The Hills, The Thalia Zedek Band with her former Come-bandmate Chris Brokaw, M.G. Lederman (ex-Victory at Sea), Empty House Cooperative, Reid Paley Trio, Helms, IV Diffusion, and Drug Rug. Tickets are, remarkably, still available here, but since this show is in the upstairs room, they’ll no doubt be gone soon.
Another special benefit show happening at the MidEast is the Friends of John Concert on Saturday, December 15th. Tokyo Police Club, Vampire Weekend, and Ra Ra Riot will be performing in honor of RRR’s drummer (and Mass. resident), the much-missed John Ryan Pike, who sadly passed away near Fairhaven, MA in early June.
All funds raised from the show will be donated to the JPR Memorial Foundation, and will be used to establish a lending library of musical instruments for underprivileged kids who would not otherwise be able to afford them. Another of the foundation’s goals is to work with other teaching organizations to match up students and music teachers. I can’t imagine a much more inspiring mission to maintain his memory. Tickets for the benefit can be purchased here or at the Middle East’s box office. A definite sell-out, so do not delay.
Something slightly screwy happened with ticket sales for the two Magnetic Fields shows that are scheduled at the Somerville Theatre in mid-February. Earlier this week, General Admission tickets for the two shows were available via pre-sale, and quickly disappeared. Then, suddenly, some pre-sale tickets became available again this morning, but were changed to be Assigned Seating only. As of my writing this, you can still buy reserved mezzanine tickets for the Valentine’s Day show, but pre-sale tickets for the one on February 15th are gone.
According to someone at the theatre, the tickets were never supposed to be sold as General Admission, so the pre-sales people responsible for the mistake are going to be contacting everyone who bought one (including me) and assigning them seats. Hopefully they’ll do the right thing and make the newly assigned spots nice ones, or they’ll end up with a bunch of angry Magnetic Fields fans (scary!) whose early-action ends up costing them a good view of Mr. Merritt & co.
So when general public tickets for both shows go on sale tomorrow morning (Saturday, 11/10) at 10am via Ticketmaster, they’re going to all be assigned seating. Will they be better or worse than the ones that were/are available via pre-sale? Color me clueless.
I’ll wrap this up with a couple of distinctly non-musical (and entirely geeky) bits of event info…
Boston-area fans of fine comic book creation rejoice: Mr. Mike Mignola is coming to town. Yes, on Thursday evening, April 3rd, the Hellboy creator/writer/artist will be making a special appearance at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston to chat about on his past, present, and future works, focusing on what it’s taken to take Hellboy to Hollywood (and hopefully the Writer’s Guild strike will be over by then, otherwise I’m sure he’ll be talking a lot about that). Tickets are available here for ICA members, and will go on sale to the rest of us on November 21st.
Soooo… all I have to do is mention “Battlestar Galactica“, and it’s highly possible that any of you who’ve never seen the reimagined version on the Sci-Fi Channel are going to chuckle and browse away from the ‘Nac. But for those who have seen it, and who get it, didja hear about the free in-theater screenings of the new Battlestar movie, “Razor”, that are happening on Monday (the 12th) around the country? Well, two of them are here in Boston, and the registration filled up super-fast. But I’ll be there for a hearty helping of some big-screen Battlestar action. For those who won’t, “Razor” debuts on the Sci-Fi Channel on Saturday, November 24th.