If I’d designed the variables and controls myself, I couldn’t have come up with any better experiment to discover a general principle of aging among touring artists.
Since it opened, Beast of Bourbon in Bed-Stuy has proved to be not only an enticing neighborhood bar, but a great venue for events as well, so, logically, it was the spot of choice for New Year’s Eve, with no knowledge of what would be in store.
Poi Dog Pondering recently wrapped a four-night stand at City Winery Chicago in support of new project Everybody’s Got a Star. Rock photographer Philamonjaro was on hand to document night three.
While the long trek from New Jersey to Queens during Friday rush hour was a drag, and the outdoor stadium’s 10 o’clock curfew left the band scrambling for time, this show by these reunited Minneapolis marvels more than exceeded my expectations.
This free mid-summer River Rocks soiree was a Murderer’s Row of Fanclub favorites, all dripping with their trademark three-part harmonies and Byrds-ian melodies.
Did the Welsh settle America? Find out what Prince Madog and John Evans have been up to.
In which Segall christens the remodeled Turf’s most distinctive and enduring feature and re-inaugurates the club as vital.
The very roots of metal, on display in two different forms.
“Music is just because you have to have it,” says the songwriter.
Van Etten has also grown better at projecting her voice to fill larger venues in a way that doesn’t seem forced but more emotionally in depth in a way that makes the songs greater than ever. When she thanks her audience for coming, it’s just as heartfelt.
Like he did playing with X a few blocks away at the Wonder Bar in December 2012, Doe still sounds every bit as revitalized as the formerly decrepit, once again hopping Asbury Park beachfront.
After seeing this ethereal Brooklyn five-piece twice before at mammoth-sized Manhattan venues, it was nice to finally get to see them up close and personal at this much smaller, superb-sounding space, doing one of their own headlining shows.
Has an artist ever played such a wide selection of her back catalog, containing so many words and lines of melody, on one tour?
With 17 of the night’s 18 songs coming from the Glasgow band’s last three (of five) excellent albums – including seven from their newest LP Desire Lines – this was an embarrassment of riches.
British folkie Garrie was only allotted 30 minutes, so this set opening for Dutch baroque popster/psych rocker Gardner couldn’t match his hour-plus long headlining show last year at Joe’s Pub. But this was still worth venturing across two rivers from New Jersey!
Hot on the tail of their Southeastern US tour, World War IX returned to New York with a vengeance.
Ecstatically opposed to a high concept approach, but with visual sense, and moments.
This Newcastle, UK quintet played a terrific show, even if the set’s inclusion of ten new LP songs undercut some of the band’s typical rapid-fire, crackling pace.
When two of pop music’s best songwriters, Pernice Brothers/Scud Mountain Boys’ Joe Pernice and Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake, come through town to perform acoustically as The New Mendicants, you drop everything and go.
11pm may seem like a strange time for an entire show to start, but when a phenomenal band from the Shanghai, China scene pairs up with the monsters of Kabuki surf punk, attendance becomes imperative.
A night of planet engulfing reverb—the mortal bewilderment of Benji couldn’t be smothered with any less.
This Philadelphia quartet’s My Bloody Valentine-esque onslaught continued through eight explosive tunes, which often flew by in a tumultuous blur. Don’t be misled by the unassuming moniker; on this night, Nothing was really something.
It sure was strange to see NYC’s poppy Pains for this fifth occasion, as frontman Kip Berman was backed by a completely different lineup than the familiar one that played the other four!
I missed London’s Toy when they played this superb-sounding tombstone store turned music venue back in January, so I was grateful to have this chance at redemption four months later. As expected, it was easy to lose oneself in a head-bobbing haze.
In a word, their hour long set was epic. We overuse that word in the human race just like we wear out words like amazing but nonetheless if you were hesitating even in the slightest about seeing them as they embark on their upcoming tour, think again. It could easily be the best show you’ve seen all year and one you’ll remember and cherish for decades to come. It will make any doubters a believer in the blissful power of shoegaze music.
It is strange to be anything at all and still we’re all glad for the shared experience of hearing someone like Jeff Mangum who is not like anyone else we’ve ever known.
England’s Factory Floor three piece started out slow but pretty soon female lead singer Nik Colk was starting to dance to her own rhythms as the heightened sense of beats took over the crowd and made for an awesome beginning set for many people. Some fans were even so appreciative of the beats by live drummer Gabriel Gurnsey that they started crowdsurfing!
Not content to put on a run-of-the-mill gig, this elusive, secretive seven-member Swedish collective delivered another energetic, elaborate, and exhausting extravaganza.
The classic lineup rolls on like an out of control freight train, only on roller coaster rails with insane grip.
If there’s no other Pitchfork festival band that you check out the full set for, make it Slowdive and you won’t regret it!
After their breakthrough third LP Too True and a Late Show with David Letterman appearance, Dum Dum Girls played two of their biggest headlining shows in NYC.
Midwestern rock duo makes music increasingly ravaged by winter, plays a show at the end of the worst one yet.
Two days, ten acts: Lizzo, Jeremy Messersmith, Best Coast, Matt and Kim, De La Soul, Valerie June, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Dessa, Guided by Voices, and Spoon.
Was it worth schlepping from New Jersey to Manhattan on the night of the city’s tenth-highest rainfall total in record-keeping history, to see these golden-voiced teenaged sisters from Indianapolis trill together? In a word: yes!
The Spudboys from Ohio land in the Big Apple and go down a storm, playing material recorded from 1974-1977.
An incomparable showman handles the violin with the light and playful manner his celebration rock requires.
Seven bands, two nights, thirty five bucks. What a bargain!
On the Emblems anniversary tour, the band is determined to articulate every sound as powerfully as possible, as if the songs, ten years older but ten times more vivid, can be made new again.
Day 3 of Boston Calling, featuring Modest Mouse, Brand New, Tegan and Sara, Phosphorescent, Kurt Vile, Built To Spill and more.
Karl’s voice is undiminished in its power and clarity after all these years, a time which included a brain aneurysm which left him with the inability to speak. That he recovered so well is a testament to his passion and drive as a musician.
Day 2 of Boston Calling, including sets from Death Cab For Cutie, The Decemberists, Warpaint and more.
Everything profound she follows with a laugh, sometimes in the middle of a song if she can break its spell.
Day 1 of the Spring edition of Boston Calling, featuring Jack Johnson, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, and Cass McCombs.
This show spotlighted the veteran trio’s new 32-song tenth LP Purgatory/Paradise, while Muses co-founder Donelly joined her half-sister Hersh on stage for five older numbers.
Yes, the night has darkness on it’s side but Elbow makes it all the more brighter and worth living, even if we still end up on the losing side.
This cozy mid-afternoon Greenpoint brunch gig, opening for veteran CT folkie Kath Bloom, was ideally suited to Draper’s soothing approach.
