Mp3s: The Wedding Present in Cambridge, MA
Posted on March 13, 2006 at 10:15 am | No Comments
This past Tuesday, David Gedge and his Wedding Present came back to the Boston area for the second time since the release of their latest album, Take Fountain, and they used the return to dig even deeper into the Weddoes/Cinerama catalog. Less recent songs, and more old faves they didn’t play back in April ’05. They touched on all six of their proper albums, and dropped in the occasional single-only track and Cinerama song. It was a real treat for a fan of Gedge’s entire songwriting career, and especially for one like me, who fell in love with ’em during the Bizarro/Seamonsters-era. Having seen them live a half dozen times (including as Cinerama), this one ranks nearly at the top.
Here’s Here was a recording of the set, which doesn’t sound quite as good as some of the shows I normally share, but is still well worth a download. Blame the acoustics at the good ol’ Middle East Down…
Live at the Middle East
Cambridge, MA
Tuesday, March 7th, 2006
(note: files removed on 6/5/2006)
1. Corduroy / Sucker
2. Blue Eyes
3. Always The Quiet One
4. Apres Ski
5. Go Out and Get Em Boy
6. Don’t Talk Just Kiss
7. Loveslave
8. A Million Miles
9. Suck
10. I Am From Further North Than You
11. Come Play With Me
12. It’s Not You It’s Me
13. Crushed
14. Falling
15. 2, 3, Go
16. Click Click
17. Ringway to Seatac
18. Brassneck
19. Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm
20. Heather
For those keeping score, ‘Go Out And Get ‘Em Boy’ was their first single, and can be found on the Tommy singles collection. There were two songs from George Best, their debut, and three each from Bizarro and Seamonsters. Three songs can be found on the Hit Parade 1 singles collection (including ‘Falling’, the Twin Peaks theme), and ‘Loveslave’ is on Hit Parade 2. One song each from Watusi (the excellent ‘Click Click’, which I’ve always wanted to see live) and the Mini EP. One song from Saturnalia, and three from Take Fountain. As for Cinerama songs, we got ‘Apres Ski’ off of Disco Volante, along with ‘It’s Not You, It’s Me’, which was Cinerama’s latest (last?) official single. Like I said, they touched on an awful lot of releases.
The setlist hasn’t varied much (if at all) during this tour, and familiars will know that they don’t take requests or do encores. Not sure I’ll ever get used to walking into a club and seeing one of my musical heros standing by himself behind the merch table, answering questions and taking cash. Sure does attract the fans, though, and you gotta wonder how much his presence there boosts sales. Me? I picked up the Cinerama tour DVD and a set of Weddoes postcards, the only two things on display I didn’t yet have.
Kyle over at Information Leafblower saw them a couple days before me down in D.C., and he’s got some more words and pictures for ya. And just a few days after me, Frank Chromewaves caught them up in Toronto, so behold his words and pictures as well. Frank saved me the trouble of describing the Weddoes lineup changes, but I will add that I thought the two new guys were ace, even going so far as to say the drummer was the best I’ve seen backup Gedge in years.
For some video action (of marginal quality, but still), someone shared up the band performing ‘Falling‘ at Neumos in Seattle last month, and another fan has a clip of them doing ‘Ringway to Seatac’ in Chapel Hill last week (follow link to the forum, where you’ll find a link to the video).
On an entirely unrelated note, you may have noticed that I’ve been conspicuously absent from the ‘Nac for a few weeks… I won’t bore you with the many reasons why, but I’ll sum it up with ‘life changes’ and leave it there, at least until my next giganto-post. Hopefully I’ll get to that in the next day or two, but regardless, Boston-area readers should stop by here tomorrow when I’ll start a contest to give away a couple of tickets to see a certain nostalgic new-wave-pop band on their farewell tour…
[Live MP3s] Undertow Orchestra in Boston (Bazan, Chesnutt, Eitzel, Johnson)
Posted on February 20, 2006 at 10:40 am | No Comments
When I first read about the talented men who’d be touring together as The Undertow Orchestra, my first thought was ‘I sure as hell hope they come to Boston.‘, while my second was ‘How cool would it be if they played at the Museum of Fine Arts?‘ Well, both hopes were fulfilled, and on Valentine’s Day, no less. From the get-go I figured it could be a perfect night, and it was.
‘All-Star Lineup’ sounds a bit silly, but these guys deserve the description if anyone does: songwriters David Bazan (Pedro the Lion / Headphones), Vic Chesnutt, Mark Eitzel (American Music Club), and Will Johnson (Centro-matic), joined by Centro-matic’s Scott Danbom on keys and violin. There wasn’t an empty seat in the Remis Auditorium as the band was introduced, and they came out holding a long string of valentine hearts, wishing us all a happy v-day as they manned their instruments. For most of the set, it was Eitzel and Johnson on guitar, Bazan on drums, Chesnutt on bass, and Danbom on the keyboard, but whenever Bazan came out from behind the kit to sing and strum his own songs, Johnson always swapped with him. Being the seventh night of the tour, they had the switches down, and the whole evening went smoothly.
Three songs fronted by Johnson, followed by three from Bazan, Chesnutt, and finally Eitzel. When the rotation was done, they started from the top and we got three more from each, with Chesnutt batting cleanup, unfortunately skipping one of his songs due to time. While they sang lead on six each, it was the backing vocals that made the night that much more special. Hearing Mark Eitzel sing harmonies on Pedro the Lion song, or having Will Johnson backup a Vic Chesnutt tune, or even better, when all five of guys sang together… just magic.
The between-song banter (which I’ve included below) was pretty amusing as well; the atmosphere was relaxed enough for Bazan to make a fairly unusual request from the crowd on Chesnutt’s behalf (which was eventually fulfilled, I believe).
Here, for your genuine listening pleasure, is was the entire set…
download as a single 162MB .zip file
Live at the Museum of Fine Arts
Boston, MA
Tuesday, February 14th, 2006
1. intro
2. Tent Of Total Mystery *
3. Vultures Await *
4. interlude 1
5. Just To Know What You’ve Been Dreaming *
6. interlude 2
7. Bands With Managers #
8. interlude 3
9. Priests And Paramedics #
10. Slow Car Crash #
11. interlude 4
12. Stupid Preoccupations ^
13. I’m Through ^
14. interlude 5
15. Iraq ^
16. Sleeping Beauty +
17. St. Michael My Pet Rat +
18. Home +
19. interlude 6
20. Just Some Silence *
21. Closing Down My House *
22. I See Through You *
23. interlude 7
24. Criticism As Inspiration #
25. interlude 8
26. The Devil Is Beating His Wife #
27. I Do #
28. Ladies And Gentlemen +
29. interlude 9
30. Patriot’s Heart +
31. interlude 10
32. Johnny Mathis’ Feet +
33. The Pool ^
34. interlude 11
35. In My Way, Yes ^
* – Will Johnson
# – David Bazan
^ – Vic Chesnutt
+ – Mark Eitzel
While I’ve been a Pedro the Lion, American Music Club, and Vic Chesnutt fan for many years, Will Johnson was a revelation for me. I’d completely missed out on Centro-matic’s during their 10 year career, so I picked up their ‘Triggers and Trash Heaps‘ EP after the show. Their next full length, Fort Recovery, arrives on March 7th, but you can stream the whole thing right now over at Misra Records.
Coincidentally, rbally made a Centro-matic-centric post on Valentines Day. Aquarium Drunkard treats us to a Vic Chesnutt post just yesterday.
On Monday, April 3rd, Will Johnson and Scott Danbom return to Boston with Centro-matic for a night at Great Scott with the Great Lake Swimmers and Mr. Drew O’Doherty. Mark that show ‘not-to-be-missed’.
The Undertow Orchestra tour continues tonight with a stop in Ames, Iowa, after which they head to Kansas, Texas, Tennessee, and they wind up in Georgia on March 1st. Don’t miss it, if it’s anywhere near you.