Mp3s: Arcade Fire in Boston
Posted on May 29, 2007 at 6:07 am | 1 Comment
Of the many memorable moments from the Arcade Fire‘s show here in Boston a few weeks back, there’s one that’s really stayed with me: At the end of the main set, as the band finished up “Rebellion (Lies)” and left the Orpheum stage, a melody rose above the massive applause. At first I thought it must be a pre-encore taped track, until I realized that it was coming from all around me. The entire crowd was recreating the vocal line from the long-faded second half of the song, and it was just beautiful. Our own attempt to give the band back a little bit of what they’d given us.
As I wrote back in late 2004, the Arcade Fire were an incredible live band right out of the gate. No matter what you think of their latest heavily-hyped album (me, I think it’s very good, but didn’t strike me quite as much as their first), you can’t deny their ability to put on a show, to not just play but to entertain, and without pretension. Everyone up on that stage seems to throw all they’ve got into the performance, even when the air feels ready to boil. Yeah, it was incredibly hot in the sold-out crowd that night, and if the spotlights threatened to cook all ten band members, they only showed it through pouring sweat. When Richard chased a drum-carrying Will down my aisle with drumsticks during “Neighborhood #2 (Laika)“, maybe it was to escape those stage lights.
My personal high point?: “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)“. It sounded better than ever. And my only complaints (aside from the sauna)?: No “Wake Up“, and no opening appearance from The National, who would open up elsewhere on the following day. I will say that I was glad to discover Wild Light, who played our show.
I’ll resist further rhapsodizing about the night, and just get to the live tracks. For a spot-on review of their Toronto show that expresses much of what I’d say about this Boston stop, hit up Chromewaves. And for the rest of my photos from the fifth row, check out my Flickr set.
Live at the Orpheum
in Boston, Massachusetts
on Thursday, May 10th, 2007
01. Intro / Black Mirror
02. No Cars Go
03. Haiti
04. Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
05. In The Backseat
06. My Body Is A Cage
07. Windowsill
08. The Well & The Lighthouse
09. Ocean Of Noise
10. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
11. Antichrist Television Blues
12. Keep The Car Running
13. banter
14. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
15. Rebellion (Lies)
encore 1…
16. wicked banter
17. Intervention
18. encore applause
encore 2…
19. Neon Bible
Some Arcade Fire link action…
Their official site, Wikipedia entry, MySpace page, the band’s Merge Records page, and the fantastic Us Kids Know site (here’s the thread on the UKK forums that discusses the Boston show). Mp3s: NPR broadcasted the Arcade Fire’s appearance at New York’s Judson Memorial Church on Feb. 17th, and you can download the entire set here. Video: AF would probably be a finalist in the “most-YouTubed live clips” contest, so do a search over there for the payload. Official videos from “Neon Bible”? Not so much. Kinda surprising that we haven’t seen any vids by now, actually. But if you haven’t yet, make sure you take a look at La Blogothèque’s Take-Away Show clip of the band performing “Neon Bible” in an elevator and “Wake Up” in the middle of an enraptured Parisian crowd. The Boston Herald, Boston Globe, and the Phoenix all weighed in on the show, as did an AF fan named Jeff over on his “My Fox” site. Listen to all ‘Nac-hosted tracks on the Hype Machine.
the post’s post-script… 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.
Mp3s: David Bazan in Somerville, MA
Posted on May 23, 2007 at 8:01 am | No Comments
It’s safe to say that, to varying degrees, I’m a fan of everything David Bazan has ever done: All those ace Pedro the Lion albums (I was on board from the moment I heard “It’s Hard To Find A Friend”), last year’s “Fewer Moving Parts” solo EP (which got re-released yesterday courtesy of the wonderful Barsuk, his new label), even the guitar-free diversion that was the Headphones‘ 2005 debut. The guy (and his collaborators) rarely lets me down, either recorded or in person, and his opening performance for DCFC‘s Ben Gibbard here in Boston a couple weeks back was no exception.
Like Gibbard, Bazan’s set pulled from all over his personal back catalog, including PtL, Headphones, and solo songs, along with a couple covers: A Dylan tune and his mesmerizing version of Radiohead‘s “Let Down“, which he referred to as “the best song ever written” from the Somerville Theatre stage. And hearing him play it, it’s kinda hard to dispute that.
If forced to file one complaint, I s’pose it’d be the absence of new material in his set, but given the abbreviated time slot of an opener, can’t fault him for that. Looks like we may have to wait until the fall for new stuff, when he’ll head out again for a tour of his own before he ventures back into the studio to record his first Barsuk full-length, due sometime in 2008. Maybe he’ll use that autumn opportunity to road-test the studio-bound songs? Here’s hoping. Oh, and word is that David has decided go back to using a band name, while still letting people know that he’s involved by releasing that next album as “David Bazan’s Black Cloud”. Which has an amusingly appropriate ring to it.
Here is David’s Somerville set…
Live at the Somerville Theatre
in Somerville, Massachusetts
on Monday, May 7th, 2007
01. I Do
02. Shit Talker
03. The Man In Me (Dylan)
04. banter
05. Transcontinental
06. June 18, 1976
07. Selling Advertising
08. Of Up And Coming Monarchs
09. Let Down (Radiohead)
10. Cold Beer and Cigarettes
11. Big Trucks
12. Bad Things To Such Good People
13. Bands With Managers
Some Bazan-centric links…
His own website, Wikipedia entry, MySpace page, his new Barsuk Records page, Jade Tree page, the Undertow Music Store page, and a couple fansites: PtL dot com & PtL dot org. Mp3s: “Cold Beer & Cigarettes“ from “Fewer Moving Pieces”; “The Longest Winter“ & “When They Really Get to Know You They Will Run“ from “It’s Hard To Find A Friend”; You can find links to more Mp3s thanks to PedroTheLion.org and Pedro-the-Lion.com, as well as the PtL Purevolume page. A wealth of listening ahead there. Courtesy of NPR, listen to David’s performance from the 9:30 Club in DC a few days after the Somerville stop. You can either stream it or download the set as a single Mp3 file. Here’s what David played that night: David Bazan at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC on May 10th, 2007: Backwoods Nation, Cold Beer & Cigarettes, The Man In Me, Transcontinental, Shit Talker, When They Really Get To Know You They Will Run, Foregone Conclusions, Let Down, Selling Advertising, Of Minor Prophets and their Prostitute Wives, Of Up and Coming Monarchs, Bands With Managers.
Video: Bazan and PtL live clips are all over YouTube, but there’s been a noticeable lack of ‘official’ video output from him over the years. The tastefully-named Mp3 blog (and fellow Blog Fresh Radio contributor) It’s Hard To Find A Friend recently shared a few David PtL/Bazan & Ben Gibbard rarities, and just yesterday offered up a bunch of covers that David has performed. As always, you can listen to all ‘Nac-hosted tracks on the Hype Machine.
the post-script… 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.