Posted on August 26, 2007 at 11:01 pm | No Comments
Details on some upcoming not-to-be-missed shows here in the Boston area, including appearances by Kevin Drew (of Broken Social Scene), Ryan Walsh (of Hallelujah the Hills), Bob Mould, Kristin Hersh, Tanya Donelly, Sleepyhead, the Cure, and non-musically but no less noteworthy, Monty Python’s Michael Palin…
Not sure which of Drew’s Broken Social Scene compadres will be making up the band (Mr. Canning, probably?), but I do hope that American Analog Set‘s Andrew Kenny is part of this particular incarnation, as I’ve read elsewhere. Be nice to see him on stage again.
And a special opener for the free show was announced over the weekend: Ryan Walsh of Boston’s own Hallelujah the Hills will be playing first with a rare solo set. Considering the event, it’s not like I have to tell anyone to arrive early (doors are at 7pm), but at the very least, pay close attention early.
Unfortunately for those with inescapable day jobs, the free admission wristbands will be given out starting at 2 o’clock on Tuesday afternoon at TTs (with no lineups before 1pm, so there will be many of us milling about looking like we’re, uh, not trying to form a line). And, oddly enough, there are no cameras or cameraphones allowed in the show, which clashes with BSS’s historical anything-goes attitude (and perhaps also clashes with the law: I’m not sure cellphones can be banned due to safety issues)… so I assume it’s a misguided MySpace “control the image” policy. Gotta keep those precious pictures for their own site, right? Ah, corporate tomfoolery at its finest. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when the first cellphones start snapping as the band takes the stage.
And an event that is guaranteed to be untouched by silly corporate hands: Ticket details for the amazing Kristin Hersh + Tanya Donelly team-up shows at the esteemed Brattle Theatre in Cambridge were posted on their site over the weekend, and here’s the skinny: Tix for both of the Saturday, October 6th shows (a 5:30 one and an 8:30 one) go on sale this Saturday, September 1st, exclusively through the Brattle website, but not at their ticket window. And although the Brattle site says you can get them via the excellent Virtuous online outlet, that’s since been changed. They’ll be $30 each for general admission, or you can spring for the $100 ‘premium seats’, which gets you into both shows, probably in the first few rows, along with ‘special goodies’ that will be announced later (a live recording, maybe?). Money’s tight lately, but I’m not sure I can resist, especially with K & T sharing the stage for some (Throwing Muses!) songs in addition to their own solo sets. Can’t miss a moment.
Mr. Bob Mould is performing a special short acoustic set at the small-ish Paradise Lounge on Monday, November 5th, after which he’ll be providing the ‘A’ part of a ‘Q&A’ session, and we the audience will be providing the ‘Q’s. Following that, we get a screening of his new concert DVD, “Circle of Friends”, which captures a 2005 full band show. And what a full band it was, with Richard Morel, Jason Narducy, and Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty. The DVD includes interviews with all involved, and what I’m sure is an amazing 22-song set that covers all of Mould’s songwriting career, including Sugar and Husker Du songs. The full tracklisting and a great live clip of “A Good Idea” from the DVD are here, and tickets for Bob’s appearance can be found here (scroll down), but won’t be for long I’d wager.
You can pre-order your own copy of Bob Mould’s “Circle Of Friends” live DVD here. Oh, and his next album will be out in January 2008 on Anti-Records. It marks his first solo release since 2005’s excellent “Body of Song”.
After a long absence, former NYC and now West Roxbury-based trio Sleepyhead is returning for a show, hopefully the first of many, and it’s in Cambridge at the Middle East on Saturday, September 29th with +/-, Moools, and my pals the Broken River Prophet. On their MySpace page, the band shares the news that they’re almost done their 5th album, which should be out in early 2008.
The one and only Michael Palin will be doing a reading at the First Parish Church Meetinghouse in Harvard Square on Friday, September 7th, from his new book, “Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years”. This is a personal can’t-miss, and my dad (who is responsible for my early Monty Python appreciation), is coming into town to see it with me. The event, which is being presented by the Harvard Bookstore, will no doubt sell out, and details on getting the $5 tickets (which are also good for $5 off at the store) can be found here. (thanks to Mike for the early heads up). As of a couple days ago, tickets were remarkably still available.
Here’s what is maybe my favorite Palin bit, from Monty Python’s 1980 “Contractual Obligation” album…
And lastly, yes, the big Fall 2007 tour from the Cure has now become the big Spring 2008 tour. All dates, including the planned September 25th stop at the Agannis Arena here in Boston, were completely canceled and will be eventually rescheduled, for the slightly sketchy reason that they need more time to finish their long-awaited next album. If that is, in fact, the real reason for the postponement, it seems to me that Robert probably shouldn’t have scheduled a tour until the record was in the can. The official Cure site is abuzz with sad, sorry tales of woe, of thousands of dollars wasted in non-refundable hotel and airline costs, many from Brits who have waited so long for a visit from the band that they sprung for overseas trips. Hey, Cure fans don’t need more reasons to mope, thank you very much. That next album had best be a damn good one, or I predict torch-waving mobs surrounding Mr. Smith’s castle tower.
Posted on August 22, 2007 at 10:57 am | No Comments
And here’s another prime example of a band whose album sparked my interest, but whose live show sealed the deal. I was duly impressed by The Broken West‘s Merge Records full-length debut, “I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On…”, enough to make sure I arrived in time to see them open for the Long Winters back in late March, but can’t say I really “got it” until I saw them run through their material on stage. Their set of finely-constructed, rootsy pop songs was too short by far, so hopefully they’ll be back soon for a headlining gig of their own. Here’s their seven-song performance…
Some not-broken Broken West links…
Their official site, Wikipedia entry, MySpace page, and Merge Records page.
Audio: Mp3s – “Down In The Valley“, the spotlit track from “I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On…”. The band also made an excellent live track available for download on their MySpace page, but given how unreliable MySpace is for grabbing files, here it is: “Big City” (live in Seattle, 4/17/07). So Much Silence also has live Mp3s of the band’s performance at SxSW earlier this year.
Video: A Broken West YouTube search results in lots of nice live clips. No official videos from the band so far.
The band has many upcoming live dates, but unfortunately none near Boston.
Listen to all ‘Nac-hosted tracks on the Hype Machine.
the footnote… 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.
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