[Live MP3s] Low & Pedro the Lion in Somerville 2005
Posted on February 7, 2005 at 1:44 pm | No Comments
Saturday night’s Low & Pedro the Lion show at the Somerville Theatre was just what I needed after a relatively long personal live-music drought. There’s always that dry spell in December & January, with both touring bands & show-going students on holiday break, so with the blizzard blowing a couple shows I’d planned on (and with me regretably skipping last Thursday’s Arcade Fire show), it’d been too damn long since I’d been out.
This was probably the 4th or 5th time I’ve seen PtL, and while I’m not quite as enamored with their latest LP as I’d hoped, this was by far the best I’ve ever seen ’em play. The rhythm section that David Bazan has pulled together was so right on, Frank Lenz the perfect fit on drums (as he was with Starflyer 59), and Ken Maiuri playing bass and adding ace backing vocals. TW Walsh filled it all out beautifully with second guitar, the occasional keyboard line, and a little shaker-action. It all just worked for me.
The live versions of the recent stuff made me appreciate the album much more, they skipped a couple clunkers, and even the older stuff had well-chosen minor tweakings that fit in really well. Throw in a Neil Young cover (with Low’s Alan Sparhawk guesting on tasteful guitar-wankery), and I got the full-on live-music head-buzz. After some recently faded enthusiasm, I am wholly back in the PtL booster club.
Pedro the Lion
Live at the Somerville Theater, Somerville, MA
February 5th, 2005
[ download the entire set as one .zip file ]
1. Penetration / Never Leave a Job Half Done
2. Magazine
3. Foregone Conclusions / I Do
4. Keep Swinging
5. Start Without Me
6. Bands With Managers
7. Transcontinental
8. I Am Always The One Who Calls
9. Simple Economics / When They Really Get To Know You They Will Run
10. Revolution Blues (Neil Young cover w/Alan Sparhawk)
11. A Mind of Her Own
I’m loving the new Low album, and as glad as I was to see them live again, there was a little something missing. Maybe it’s this new-Low, the occasionally-louder, more dynamic Low experience that threw things off… of the many times I’ve seen them, they’ve never failed to take me to another place, to transport me somewhere I wouldn’t mind living full-time, lulling me into some kind of half-asleep-but-totally-not-bored trance. I missed that Saturday night, although older songs like ‘Shame’ and ‘Violence’ nearly got me there. I suppose I have to separate those previous experiences, leave them behind, and just judge the new material, the new live Low, on it’s own.
That said, they sounded great, Alan’s guitar-work has come a long way, or maybe the rockier songs allow him to show off a bit more… thinking back, though, it was I Remember, one of the quietest songs, where I really noticed. It’s not just Def Leppard he’s getting his tricks from.
Their set, including a new one with my (obvious) guess at the title…
Low
Live at the Somerville Theater, Somerville, MA
February 5th, 2005
[ download the entire set as one .zip file ]
1. Death of a Salesman
2. Monkey
3. California
4. (That’s How You Sing) Amazing Grace
5. Shame
6. Everybody’s Song
7. Silver Rider
8. Walk Into the Sea
9. Dragonfly (new)
10. Laser Beam
11. Pissing
12. I Remember
13. Broadway (So Many People)
14. When I Go Deaf
15. Sunflower
16. Violence
17. Cue The Strings (fadeout)
Other Low & Pedro related bits…
- PTL was still selling their 2004 Tour EP at their merch table, and it’s well worth the measly five bucks. It’s a six-song live-in-studio affair, three of their songs and three covers: A Randy Newman song, a Cat Power song, and my fave, a cover of Radiohead’s Let Down. If you can’t grab the EP at a show, you can order it here.
- If you can’t wait to hear that Radiohead cover, you can check it out over at Pure Volume, who are hosting a whole bunch of Pedro tracks, including an entire live set recorded last year in Omaha.
- While it’s not necessarily news to many, Suicide Squeeze Records has officially announced the signing of David Bazan, TW Walsh, & drummer Frank Lenz’s new non-Pedro (and more-electronicy) project, Headphones. Their debut self-titled full-length will be out in May, and they’ll appearing at this year’s SXSW festival (do let me know how they are, Frank).
- The long-standing, and always-complete Low site at Chairkickers.com is undergoing it’s first facelift in years. Lots of content is forthcoming, but for now you can check out a super-cute little video of Alan & Mimi’s daughter Hollis Mae, alternately holding a sharpie and a cookie, and signing copies of the new album at a Duluth record store.
- If you catch any of this tour’s remaining dates, while you’re at the merch table you’d be wise to pick up the first release on Low bassist Zak Sally’s new comics publishing imprint, La Mano. It’s a collection of John Porcellino’s King-Cat comics & stories called ‘Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man‘, and it includes work from the late eighties up through stuff he finished up just last year. Read it yesterday, and it’s worth ordering if you can’t pick it up yourself. Here’s hoping that Mr. Sally puts out some of his own stuff (including his two Recidivist mini-comics) somewhere down the road.
The Miracle That You Missed…
Posted on February 2, 2005 at 10:42 am | No Comments
Let’s just skip the pleasantries, shall we?…
As promised, I pulled a bunch of mp3s off the ‘Nac on Monday, and boyohboy am I getting overwhelmed with emails from the unlucky. Sorry ’bout that, but space was running out and a house-cleaning was long overdue.
And a note for a few: If you’re thinking of asking me to repost ’em, or send them straight to ya, try not demanding it, and while you’re at it, skip the l33t $p3@k. “wud u post fil3z plz?! can u uze s3nd1t?” guarantees a direct flight to my trash folder.
Might as well get the token Arcade Fire mention out of the way, right? They appeared last night on Conan O’Brien, and their performance of ‘Neighborhood #2 (Laika)’ was… well… odd. Here, see for yourself (avi video captured by Aeroplane from the af.net forum. update: here’s the easytree torrent, too). Something was certainly lost in the televised translation. I mean, it was them, but their on-stage theatrics seemed fairly out of place when viewed on the tv screen, and not from the middle of an enthralled crowd.
Speaking of which, Amie and I will be at the Roxy tomorrow night for their return to Boston. I can only hope it measures up to what I experienced at TTs last fall. I’m going to try recording it again, so keep an eye here for some mp3s in the next few days.
The Ida show that was bumped by the Blizzard of ’05 has been rescheduled for Sunday, February 20th. Tickets are available over at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts site, and thankfully, the lineup is exactly the same, with Thalia Zedek & Jodi Buonanno opening up.
I’m damn glad I’ll be able to make it, as the new date missed my D.C. trip by just a few days. Whew. I can’t stop listening to their new record… as a matter of fact, it’s in my headphones right now. I’ve got it in constant rotation with the new Low and the way-better-than-expected Lou Barlow disc.
Spent a bunch of time this weekend recording many of the stellar streams from the CBC Radio site. If you haven’t been over there yet, gogogo (click the ‘table of contents’ link once you’re there).
102 different live sets, all of pretty great sound quality, with photos and write-ups to go with ’em. You’re bound to find something you already love, or discover something totally new. So far I’ve grabbed about a dozen different sets, and I have so many more to go. (thanks to chris for the heads up)
As a big fan of Ricky Gervais and the Office, I shook my head last year at news of the proposed U.S. remake. Then I heard he’d be directly involved, and my hopes rose a bit. Then I heard Steve Carell would be playing David Brent, and they rose a bit more.
Well, someone shared up the entire pilot, and it’s pretty much a carbon copy… it renders the remake as redundant as their staff at Slough. I honestly wish I could erase my memories of the original so that I could watch it with fresh eyes… for anyone who’s seen the BBC version, they’ve made it impossible to watch this new one without comparing it scene by scene.
Credit to Carell, though… he does the best he can given the situation, and the rest of the cast hangs in there. We’ll be seeing Carell again in another all-too-familiar role, as Don Adams’ Agent Maxwell Smart in a new Get Smart movie. I’d be more frightened if Mel Brooks and Buck Henry weren’t writing it. Might not suck.
My favorite Boston band of the moment… On Fire