[Live MP3s]: The Futureheads in Boston 2006
Posted on July 16, 2006 at 11:01 pm | No Comments
The finely-tuned machine that is The Futureheads played the last show of their recent two-week North American tour here in Boston, and the first descriptive word that comes to mind is ‘pro’. Tight, energetic, and well-mixed, the quartet was just plain on, and the near-sold-out Paradise crowd felt it.
It’s far too beautiful outside for me to be sitting here at my keyboard, so for more on the show, I’ll defer to this well-written review from Jay over at Clicky Clicky, who was above me in the balcony. Can’t say that I disagree with a single word he shares, and he also provided a link to some great photos from Flickr user Goodmj3. A few more words and pics can be found over at I Guess I’m Floating.
I’ll be sharing up some live songs from openers French Kicks in the future as well, but for now, here’s the entire Futureheads set for ya. And if you notice a slight amount of audio wavering during a song or two, well… blame the band. I try to remain semi-still when I record, but the Futureheads’ energy made that tougher than ever…
Live at The Paradise
Boston, MA
Saturday, July 1st, 2006
01. intro
02. Yes/No
03. Area
04. Cope
05. Meantime
06. banter
07. Burnt
08. Favours For Favours
09. Hounds Of Love
10. Back to the Sea
11. Stupid and Shallow
12. The Return of the Berserker
13. Fallout
14. A to B
15. Worry About It Later
16. Thursday
17. Skip to the End
18. He Knows
19. Man Ray
20. Decent Days and Nights
21. Carnival Kids
I was hooked on their 2004 debut disc right away (thanks in no small part to ‘Meantime‘), but it took awhile for the follow-up, ‘New & Tributes‘, to really grab me. While the album as a whole wasn’t as immediately catchy, the live show really brought those songs up a notch, and I appreciate it far more since.
Some F’heads links…
mp3: ‘Worry About It Later‘ (vagrant)
mp3: ‘Fallout‘ (679 remix)
mp3: ‘Skip to the End’ (vagrant)
video: ‘Skip to the End’ (vagrant)
mp3: ‘Let’s Dance’ (Bowie cover @ You Ain’t No Picasso)
live video: Their entire 30-minute T In The Park festival set. Great stuff.
After a couple European/UK festival dates, The Futureheads return to our shores later this month for another two-week trip…
7/25 – Philadelphia, PA (Starlight)
7/26 – Toronto, ON (Phoenix Concert Theatre)
7/27 – Detroit, MI (Magic Stick)
7/28 – Columbus, OH (Newport Music Hall)
7/29 – Chicago, IL (Union Park – Pitchfork Music Festival)
7/30 – Minneapolis, MN (Varsity Theatre)
8/2 – Denver, CO (Bluebird Theater)
8/3 – Salt Lake City, UT (Club Sound)
8/4 – Las Vegas, NV (Jilian’s)
8/5 – San Diego, CA (San Diego Street Scene)
postscript: If anyone has an issue with this live set being made available, just say the word (email link on left). 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.
Mp3s: Beirut live in Cambridge, MA
Posted on July 9, 2006 at 11:01 pm | No Comments
The band known as Beirut arrived in the Boston area during what can best be described as a perfect storm of blog-fueled buzz. The May release of their debut disc, ‘Gulag Orkestar‘, on Ba Da Bing; the music bloggers who gave it an early blessing; the certain taste-dictating website who backed them up; and Beirut’s close ties with NMH & aH&aH guy Jeremy Barnes, who mans the accordian on tour; all these factors combined to sell out their recent show at Brooklyn’s Northsix, and they’ve already sold out an upcoming Bowery Ballroom date.
None of this could have been expected when Boston-area booking maven Stacie Slotnick and her Critique of Pure Reason set up the June 24th show at the tiny Lily Pad in Cambridge, MA. A small art-space, it formerly held the Zeitgeist Gallery, and the closer that Saturday night approached, the more the buzz (and potential crowd size) built. Stacie smartly added a second show, leaving the band alone on the bill and allowing them two quick sets back to back. Her best laid plans still shut out dozens of hopeful attendees on that sweltering Saturday night… I’d never seen such a line anywhere in Inman Square, down the block and around the corner into the residential neighborhood behind the main drag (fortunately the unlucky latecomers could take comfort in some scoops of Christina’s ice cream).
The show had other strikes lined up against it besides the small size of the space: The PA system was on the fritz, so there was a major delay in the start time of the first set; the improvised vocal setup (through a keyboard speaker) caused some occasional feedback, and left singer Zach Condon’s excellent voice moderately muffled; the lack of even a slight stage lift meant that many in the crowd could barely see the band, myself included. And I’m not so short. I found myself raising my camera, snapping a shot, then bringing it back down to look at the lcd screen in order to find out what the band looked like.
And yet, despite those many obstacles, it was a great night. It all came down to the songs and their delivery. I bought ‘Gulag Orkestar’ after hearing the first couple net-shared songs, including ‘Postcards from Italy‘. Liked the disc enough at first, but found myself losing interest about halfway through. Not enough variation in the gypsy-flavored orkestrations, lots of songs and sounds blending together. But I’d heard such good things about their shows, and of newer material that was a cut above, so I took a chance (and what a chance it was… I sadly missed Asobi Seksu across the river the same night). Glad I did, though, as the new songs were far more memorable, the album material much improved in a live setting. The natural sound of the eight-piece band didn’t need amplification in the tiny room, and I almost wish the vocals didn’t either… but better to hear Condon’s voice a little muddy than not at all.
Here’s Beirut’s first set of the night, in its entirety…
Live at The Lily Pad
Cambridge, MA
Saturday, June 24th, 2006
01. The Gulag Orkestar
02. Zebra Safari / Jersey Shore
03. Mandaccordion / Monster Island (aka Brandenburg)
04. Postcards From Italy
05. Mt. Wroclai
06. Carousels
07. Maspeth
08. Montauk
09. Ederlizi
10. After The Curtain
11. Closing Song
12. Siki Siki Baba
As mentioned, a few of the songs above were written since the recording of Beirut’s debut disc, and as I read elsewhere, the song ‘Ederlizi‘ is actually a Goran Bregovic song from the movie ‘Dom Za Vesanje (Time of the Gypsies)‘. Set-closer ‘Siki Siki Baba‘ is a cover as well, originally by Kocani Orkestar.
Some Beirut-related links…
Their MySpace page. Another review of the Cambridge show over at Muzzle of Bees. Papermag interviewed Zach Condon back in May. BrooklynVegan chatted with both Zach & Jason a couple weeks back, and posted some pictures from the Northsix show. Zach made a guest-post over at Said The Gramophone on June 21st, and wrote a bit about some of his musical loves. RySpace has a few words and mp3s from Beirut’s June 17th appearance at Williamsburg’s Sound Fix Records. Plenty of Beirut clips on YouTube.
Beirut returns to the Boston area on Saturday, August 26th at the much-roomier Middle East Downstairs (wisely upgraded from PA’s Lounge). Tickets go on sale this Thursday, July 13th at the Middle East box office, or if you must, through Ticket$^%&$&#.
the fine print: If anyone has an issue with this live set being made available, just say the word (email link on left). 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.
On deck: Stand-out Boston live sets from the Futureheads and Camera Obscura. Well worth a little waiting.