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In their show at the Paradise Rock Club on Wednesday as The Lone Bellow improvised various tunes from the 1990s, front man Zach Williams joked that there was a point when they considered becoming a wedding band. That would have … Continue reading
Here’s a good song for Halloween, “Raise the Dead” by Caravan of Thieves.
Caravan of Thieves are a fun band to play at your Halloween party because of songs like Monster, Ghostwriter and Butcher’s Wife that treat appropriately macabre Halloween type themes, but that’s not the only reason. They’re also a band that celebrates the things that really make a holiday like Halloween fun, dressing up in costume, and letting it bring out your wild side. To be sure they do their fair share of songs about kind of creepy, macabre themes, but there’s a playfulness to it. Think more Dia de los Muertos or even Carnival, Mardi Gras or a Gypsy Fair, than crass commercialism, blood and gore! It’s a party for one and all! Continue reading
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The 2013 Life is good Festival is only the fourth annual event since it began in 2010, but it has already shown itself to consistently be one of the best festivals in the area. This year was no different. There … Continue reading
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I’ve been a fan of Paul Weller since a friend introduced me to The Jam back in high school. His musical styles have evolved and changed with the times, but the fundamentals have remained. Clever, socially aware lyrics set to … Continue reading
This gallery contains 25 photos.
Thursday July 18 through Sunday July 21 I saw a lot of great artists perform live! These are my photos. They’re not great, as I was experimenting with a brand new camera. Still I wanted to share. I don’t have … Continue reading
Among the crowd at the Middle East, July 21st
When I asked Tim Barry how he would classify the style of music he plays, he told me, “I just say it’s Rock & Roll with an acoustic guitar.” I’ll buy that. I know that his solo set during the show at the Middle East Downstairs on Sunday, July 21st reminded me of what rock and roll is really about as much or more than did any of the sets by artists with full bands and electric instruments. He had the nervous energy and desire to please that an aspiring artist might bring to an important audition, yet he was confident and a consummate performer. He established a rapport with the audience that made it seem like he leading a sing along with a bunch of friends at a pub. This was especially true when he took the microphone stand from the stage and put in on the floor in front so he could sing in the midst of the crowd. This was a guy who was working his ass off to put on a great show, but having a great time at it. He told stories and philosophized, but mostly he played his heart out, and the crowd ate it up.
As he recounted in the post Musicians Egos and…, he had been largely responsible for bringing the show together, and several acts expressed their appreciation to “nice guy” Tim, either from the stage of when I talked to them later. It was a Sunday night show that certainly didn’t feel like it was happening on a Sunday night! I’ll have more to say about the other acts in later posts, but for now let me tell you about Tim Barry, and incredibly exciting artist I had the good fortune to interview on June 17 by phone from his home in Richmond, four days before the show in Cambridge.
Ade Denae, Cory Chisel, Matt Pynn and Will Dailey close the show Monday night.
The audience that turned out for the show on Monday at The Sinclair in Cambridge was small. Both the headliner, Cory Chisel from Appleton, Wisconsin and Boston’s own Will Dailey are capable of drawing much larger audiences, so I’m not sure what happened. Maybe the storm warnings around the area made people nervous about traveling in; maybe it was because it was because it was a Monday show during the Fourth of July week, and people were out of town; maybe it was because the show was not well enough publicized… Who knows? Whatever the reason, the turnout was small. That can really affect the energy of a show, but it didn’t seem to be the case on Monday night. Both acts played great, exciting sets. In fact one might argue the show benefitted from having fewer people in the crowd, creating a more intimate atmosphere and some exciting audience interaction.
As far as I was concerned, Chisel had some high expectations to meet. I’ve been wanting to see him play live since I bought a Windows desktop in 2009 and the music video for his song “Born Again” came with Windows Media Player. Continue reading
The Lone Bellow on stage at The Ark
When I decided to check out the show on Thursday, June 20 at The Ark in Ann Arbor MI where I was for a conference, I expected something pretty mellow. The Lone Bellow were headlining with an opening act called The Saint Johns. It had been a very busy few days, but I did find time to listen to the first song of NPR Tiny Desk Concert linked from the page announcing the show in The Ark website. It’s called “You Never Need Nobody,” and it is performed acoustically in the NPR offices, as the Tiny Desk Concerts always are. I liked it and decided to go. I didn’t have time to read anything else.
Now it says right there on the web page of the venue that “The Ark is Ann Arbor’s nonprofit home for acoustic music,” and that it presents “performers who fall into the wide-ranging genres of folk and roots music.” I love that stuff, and judging from video, as well as their name, The Lone Bellow would be an example of it par excellence. I looked looked at them in that video, dressed in dark colors, playing acoustic instruments, singing a song about heartbreak… They even had a mandolin… I knew what to expect. This would be a show full of sad, mountain music, albeit interpreted by New Yorkers, because the page said they hailed from Brooklyn. That was cool by me. I love that stuff! Wow, was I ever in for a surprise, a good one, but a surprise nonetheless! Continue reading
The Stage at the Fillmore for Father John Misty
“Father John Misty” (Josh Tillman’s stage name), is a square-jawed, blue-eyed, wavy-dark-blond-haired model-handsome man who had everyone in the audience, men and women alike, screaming out how they loved him. Faithful to his irony-filled persona, he tossed out oddly sincere soundbites, such as “Everyone, thank you for all you do that’s good.” The audience, caught up in wanting to capture this sinuous creature singing in a such an enticing manner, held up a Milky Way of smartphones, trying to capture the moment for Instagram or YouTube. He snatched up a pink-cased one and filmed himself performing, to delighted laughter. Despite the sometimes disturbing images of his lyrics, the trippy voyages his songs take, the overall effect is so outsizedly comic that it’s impossible to take too seriously.
I don’t recall exactly where I first heard of Father John Misty. I believe it was in a recommendation from Spotify, or another cloud-based modern music jukebox. It was the songwriting that first drew me in, with lyrics that read like a miniaturized “Day of the Locust” that attracted me. Most of his subjects are religious or scenes of Los Angeles decadence. “I’m Writing A Novel” is a particularly hilarious satire of Hollywood’s abundance of screenwriters, casual relationships and a fast-moving blur of faces going past.
FJM singing at The Fillmore
What kept me coming back is his voice. Very unlike most rock performers, FJM has an excellent and powerful voice with a great emotional range but also technically fine, one that he uses throughout the song to support those witty lyrics. I read of it being compared to Roy Orbison, and while I don’t agree that they sound at all alike, I do think that he’s one of the rare performers whose flexible range is employed well without being showy. It’s often pointed out in biographic clips on Tillman that he was previously the drummer for Seattle indie folk group Fleet Foxes. That’d be where the resemblance ends. His energetic vocals and drum backing do not resemble that group at all.
Misty opened with “Funtimes in Babylon,” a country-toasted wistful ballad that showcased his lovely voice. That characteristic, a pensive and regretful song that combines an inner ache with a surface veneer of cheeriness, makes his songs so listenable over and over.
I would like to abuse my lungs
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Ride around the wreckage on a horse knee-deep in blood
Look out Hollywood, here I come
The final number of his set, “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” begins with a hard and sexy drubbing from percussion, joined by a lick from the guitar, rhythmically coursing through images with hints of menace, finishing with the plaintive plea, “Someone’s gotta help me dig…” Well-received set that will help establish a solid fan base for this upcomer. Misty, who recently played a well-received set at Bonnaroo, seems destined to be changing the course of the current sound for a while.
Father John Misty at The Fillmore
Official Site: http://www.fatherjohnmisty.net/
SubPop Records Artist Profile: http://www.subpop.com/artists/father_john_misty
I checked out Cory Branan playing at Paradise Saturday. He was one of the acts that played before headliners Dashboard Confessional, and so the set was disappointingly short, only about short, 1/2 hour. Branan took to the stage before a rather quiet audience. Dashboard sometimes do a version of his song “Tall Green Grass” when they play live, but clearly this audience didn’t know who he was. Once he started though, he had their attention.
He has an impressive stage presence. He was last in Boston in October at Great Scott where he played a similar but longer set opening for Drag the River. John Snodgrass helping out on some vocals. But in both cases he followed a similar pattern. Branan’s genuinely a humble guy. He comes out, acoustic guitar in hand, looking the part of the humble singer/songwriter, folk artist. He apologizes to the audience for taking their time, and then proceeds to deliver a set that rocks like you would never expect an acoustic set to do. His fingers slide up and down his guitar, he strums or picks hard and fast, and his voice wails. It’s powerful and masculine, a real rock and rollers voice.
He’s a hell of a performer. He whips through songs like “A Girl Named Go” steadily picking up pitch and speed. volume as the girl name Go picks up speed in her car. “Tall Green Grass” he plays with with a humor and mirth. He played a new song from a forthcoming album, but gave no sense when it might be released.
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