Private Eleanor - "Photocopy of a Photocopy of a Photograph" '05 (mp3)

I've written about Private Eleanor, my friend Chris's band, a few times here before. And ever since J.G. borrowed my copy of their last album she's become a fan herself, so when they played at a club right in our neighborhood, Fletchers, on Sunday, of course we had to go check it out. They were opening for the Starlight Mints and Dios (Malos), and were the first band on the bill, so we got there good and early, around 8. We ran into Chris outside the club as he was carrying cymbals from his car, and he said they'd be starting between 8:30 and 9. So we went down the street to the record store, Sound Garden, and got some food at the Indian place next door, and chilled. When we got into the club at 8:30, they were already playing, although I guess we didn't miss too much of their set.

Fletcher's has kind of crappy sound sometimes, it's a good small room, but I think maybe the weird shape of the room and ceiling and all the rafters fuck up the acoustics. So they could've sounded better, but Private Eleanor still played a good show. They played at least one or two new songs, one of which I really liked. Chris added some tasty hi-hat action to "Seventeen," and got to rock out a bit within the constraints of the band's Simon & Garfunkel soft rock style (which I do not say disparagingly, I've been way into Simon & Garfunkel lately, shit, I drive a car named Cecilia). "Photocopy of a Photocopy of a Photograph" is definitely one of their best and most popular songs, although it's a little uncharacteristic, being so short and kind of aggressive, and they seem to end every show with it. It originally appeared on one of their earlier albums, but the version above is a re-recording from the sessions for their last album that's available on the audio section of their website.

We didn't stay for the Starlight Mints or Dios (Malos), who I've never heard, but the next act were this band from Austin, The Octopus Project , who were kind of a pleasant surprise. As they prepared for their set, they were setting up all kinds of props and decorations, like these green tarps over their amps that had ears and eyes and made their amp stacks look like crude Gumby-shaped monsters. And just before they started playing, all four members of the band donned these masks that looked like three prong electrical outlets, which, when worn on a human head, kind of look like a face with a mouth and two eyes. The weirdest part, though, was that they wore the masks on the sides of their faces, so that they could still face each other and look at their instruments, which was kind of brilliant. But the guitarists headbanged a lot and by the end of the first song they had all shook off or taken off their masks. Usually a bunch of props and schtick like this are an instant turnoff for me (see Peelander Z), but in spite of it all I actually liked these guys. They played these chugging instrumentals with big, warm keyboard melodies, nothing that hasn't been in the musical vocabulary of hundreds of indie bands over the past ten years, but still pretty enjoyable. And the girl keyboardist was maybe the greatest theremin player I've ever seen. I mean, it's not exactly a traditional instrument where it's easy to measure the talent of how one plays it, but she really had some masterful hand control and in one particular song played a solo of sorts that was pretty amazing. I don't know if I'd buy another album, but I'd definitely see them again.

Labels: Baltimore music, concerts, mp3, music babble

Karmella's Game - "Skip The Funeral" (mp3)

Karmella's Game might be my favorite rock band in Baltimore right now, ever since I caught a show by them about a year and a half ago. I've talked about them here a little bit before, and ranked them as the 3rd best live show I saw in 2005. Their sound is a kind of super girly synth-driven power pop that, if I just heard on record, would never leap out as something I want to hear, but their live show completely won me over by virtue of them being a totally tight band that isn't afraid of showmanship.

Last Friday, they played a release party for their first full-length album, The Art of Distraction, at the Ottobar, and it was nice to see them pack in a good crowd at a slightly bigger venue after seeing them fill up the Talking Head a couple times. At shows they usually wear these kind of private school uniforms, and all look like teenagers anyway, but on Friday they dressed up more like they were going to the prom. And they went all out, starting the show by playing the album's one quiet song, "The Remains," with the band's bassist on cello and three violinists joining in for a string quartet effect. They played for an hour and probably went through every single song they have. I'd been kind of holding out on seeing them for a while, because I was really waiting for the album to come out. The only thing they'd released previously, an EP that's now almost 3 years old, really doesn't capture the greatness of their live show, so I wanted to be able to finally take home a copy of all the newer songs they'd been playing. And the album still isn't quite all I'd hoped, but it's close enough. Not so close that I won't have to keep checking out shows to get the full effect, though.

Labels: Baltimore music, concerts, mp3, music babble

I feel overly dependant on this blog shit, when blogger.com was down for most of the past 4 days it was really unnerving me like some kind of fiend. This weekend was cool aside from that, though, went out for St. Patrick's Day for the first I can remember in a while. We live a few blocks from all kinds of cheesy bars, and the one we went to was blasting music like Stabbing Westward, I don't know how people are supposed to party and get their drink on to that bullshit.

On Saturday, I hung out with Jim for a bit and went to the Talking Head. We saw a few local bands were opening for Palomar, who I’m not familiar with and didn’t stick around for. Jim wanted to see a band he knows called Pontiak, who I kinda liked. Three unshaven dudes in knit caps making grubby, unadorned indie rock, like Lungfish with more groove. And they opened with a decent cover of "Jockey Full Of Bourbon" by Tom Waits. The band after them, Squaaks, is one of those bands that makes me feel like a sexist pig by virtue of being pretty boring to watch with the exception of their hot chick bassist. The band after that sounded decent for their first couple songs but not good enough to keep me from ducking out.

Labels: Baltimore music, concerts, meta

Grand Buffet - "Nate Kukla's History Of Lemonade" (mp3)
Last night, I went to the Ottobar to see one of my favorite live bands, Grand Buffet, with Jim, who's reviewing the show for the City Paper. It was at least the 8th time I've seen them in the past 4 years, maybe more like 10 times, I'm not sure. I think the best job I've done of explaining what I like about them was in my Five Years Of Fireworks review last year, but they're still kind of hard for me to defend, because usually I abhor the kind of tongue-in-cheek, pop culture referencing white boy indie rap that they do. But they're an incredibly entertaining live outfit, and they clearly put a lot of work into their lyrics and production, and I don't know, they just rule. Last night was kind of a weird show, though, maybe the first I've seen that wasn't all that fun.

One thing about Grand Buffet is that though they're from Pittsburgh, they're friends with many Baltimore artists and play here constantly and refer to it as their second home. So a good sized crowd always comes out for them, but venues always seem to be grasping at straws when putting together a bill for them to play on. They've played shows with indie bands like Deerhoof and Of Montreal, and old school hip hop like Black Sheep, and local white indie rappers and guys like Sage Francis. But sometimes they get thrown on a bill that's entirely novelty acts. Which is fair, since what Grand Buffet do is kind of novelty, although I'd to think that their skill at it kind of elevates them to something else.

When we came in, the first act, Shodekeh, a human beatbox was onstage. I'm not really gonna diss him as a novelty act, though, because beatboxing is just awesome. He did some duets with a saxophonist and then another beatboxer, and he later joined Grand Buffet for a song. He wasn't the best beatboxer I've ever seen, but he was still cool, I think he's local, I'd like to see him pop up at some of the Bmore rap shows I talk about on Gov't Names.

The second act was this guy, Dan Deacon, who is local and I've heard his name a bunch of times, but had never seen him before. He had this little table full of audio gear that he planted on the floor in front of the stage, and performed behind it. He had the stage lights turned off and operated strobe lights and stuff from his table. And he played pre-recorded synth parts and sang through an array of weird vocal effects. Definitely a novelty act. I actually really liked some of the sounds he was making, neat chaotic digital effects, but seriously, it was just a slightly more left field version of Atom And His Package. Plus he looked like The Riddler. And did fake New Year's Eve countdowns between every other song. He did a lot of awkward jokey banter about dicks and poop, and kind of reminded me of Cex's early live shows, except it was all form, no content. I think he goes way back with that whole crowd, Cex and Height, unsurprisingly, but I'm more ok with those guys.

The next band was Peelander-Z, who are one of these cheesy Japanese novelty/noize bands that makes serious bread on the American indie circuit. They dressed like the Power Rangers and were all schtick and barely any music, props and a lot of audience interaction. And when they did play, it was just really weak sludgy punk rock. If they were at least really heavy and rocked hard or made some wild noise, I might've gotten into it, but I just couldn't stand that shit, they drove me into the back room by the bar. The main guy had that shaved-in-male-pattern-baldness hairstyle that's big with American noize dudes these days, and when he said "can you understand my Engrish?", I couldn't tell if he was commenting on stereotypes or unwittingly reinforcing them. The crowd ate it up. Fuck that shit.

After an incredibly long set of Peelander-Z's bullshit, I was thankful for Grand Buffet to take the stage, and them on a bad night is still better than many bands' best, but their set was weird. They frequently pull some antagonistic Kaufman-esque shit on audiences, and that's what it felt like when they clowned on the Ravens and bragged about Pittsburgh winning the Super Bowl, but at other points it felt like something else. They have some songs called "Let's Go Find The Cat" and "Treehouse" that they've been playing live for years from a children's album that has yet to be released, that they don't rap on and are even more of a novelty than their other material. And there were some people in the audience that were very adamantly requesting those songs, and Grand Buffet, Lord Grunge in particular, was clearly annoyed and kind of pissed about it. He also made a lot of comments throughout the night, kind of kidding but kind of like he meant it too, that you (the audience) doesn't like them as much as you used to, or that you won't care about them in 6 months. And I mean, I give them credit for being realistic about what their appeal is and what people like them for, but it was depressing to hear that shit, especially considering that I've been seeing them for years and am not particularly sick of them. In fact, I was pretty excited to hear that they have a new album, King Visions, coming out this year, since their last new release was in 2003 and since then have only put out a best-of and a rarities comp. The new songs they played sounded good, too, and at some points they performed as well as they ever have, aside from the weird vibe. I hope it was just an off night, for them, but I kind of understand. They've been touring constantly and doing this for years and years. And I was kind of amazed that they kept their cool even towards the end, when some asshole in the front kept splashing beer on the stage right up at them, in a very deliberate way.

Labels: Baltimore music, concerts, Grand Buffet, mp3

Last night, I went up to Philadelphia to hang out with Joey O, which we decided to do because he had a couple free tickets to see Henry Rollins speak at the Electric Factory. I always end up going to Philly about once a year for some reason or another, and hadn't been there since April, so I guess it was about time for my annual visit. When I was driving up there, I thought back and figured out that I'd been to the Electric Factory 3 or 4 times when I was a teenager, but the last time had been about 7 years ago, which kinda blew my mind and made me feel old.

Joey used to work at Philly's alt-rock station Y100, which abruptly flipped formats and fired its staff a year ago. But he and several other ex-employees have kind of admirably and stubbornly kept it alive as Y100Rocks.com, and internet-only station, which now operates out of a "bunker" above a record store. So on Saturday we met up at the record store, browsed the used bins for a while, and then we went upstairs and Joey DJed for a bit. It's all run off a computer with playlist formulas and stuff, it's kind of cool and complicated, and can operate unmanned, or if a DJ is on duty, they can talk between songs and pick out what to play. So Joey and I talked on the air for a bit and I got to pick out a few songs, and I got to be heard on the radio by a few dozen people that happened to be listening on a Saturday night, that was kind of cool. The new White Stripes single that sounds exactly like their last single came on, so afterwards on the air I told the story about how my friends Tom and Jim were in the video and Jack White called Tom an asshole in the NME. After messing around on the radio for about an hour, we went and got some greasy pizza slices at one of those places that seem to be on every single corner in Philadelphia that make me kind of envious of Philly, and then went to the Electric Factory to see Rollins.

I'm not a big fan of any of Hank's music, but I've always liked his weird spoken word career. I've seen a couple of his talking gigs in Baltimore before, and of the albums I've heard, Think Tank is my favorite. I just like the fact that this straight edge punk icon grew up, got a little famous and got to be in some Hollywood movies, still makes pissed off records that sound the same every couple years, and has travelled the world more times than probably you or me ever will, gets to just go tell stories about his insane life and talk about how full of shit he is. If he counts as a standup comedian, he'd probably be one of my favorites working today. Last night wasn't as good as one of the shows I saw in Baltimore, but there were definitely some good stories in there. I think the single funniest moment, though, was at the beginning, when he came out on stage, right on time, and started to talk and kind of ease into it, but there were mic problems, and he'd just kind of interrupt himself being friendly and making jokes and suddenly turn to the soundman and go THIS IS A DISASTER, and then go back to telling a story, and then suddenly THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE, until the guy fixed the sound. I don't really blame him for being pissed, since usually soundmen at those venues have to deal with a dozen different mics and amps, and all he had to do was make one guy's mic sound good, but it was still funny how Hank reacted. He told some good stories about his USO tours and riding the Trans Siberian Express, but the best stuff was the random 20 minute tangents about Ted Nugent or deer hunting that he'd suddenly steer back into the story he was telling before.

After the show ended and Joey dropped me off at my car, I drove out of Philly listening to their hip hop stations, and was pleasantly surprised to hear them bumping a lot of Baltimore music. First Young Leek's "Jiggle It," then suddenly a whole half hour set of Baltimore club music, after a set of dancehall. And then I flipped over to the other station, and they were playing club music too! I know club music is kinda blowing up in the press, but damn, Philly, I didn't know you got down like that! Showing Bmore love on the radio and everything. So that was definitely the highlight of my drive home.

Labels: Baltimore music, concerts, story time

With links to things I wrote about them at the time on here or Gov't Names or in the City Paper. For the most part I'm only going to name the band I went to see and enjoyed seeing, and if it's more than one than I'll name them in the rough order of who I enjoyed the most, regardless of who opened or headlined.


1. Apollo Sunshine and Lake Trout @ The Ottobar, Baltimore, September 15th


2. Grand Buffet @ The Ottobar, Baltimore, August 16th


3. Karmella's Game @ the Talking Head, Baltimore, April 28th


4. The Posies @ The Black Cat, Washington, D.C., September 26th


5. System Of A Down @ the 1st Mariner Arena, Baltimore, August 22nd


(photo by Dawn Mercurio)
6. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists @ The Ottobar, November 22nd


7. Bossman, Skarr Akbar, D.O.G., Dirty Hearts and Q @ The Ottobar, Baltimore, October 16th


8. The Travis Morrison Hellfighters @ the Ottobar, Baltimore, February 22nd


9. Dinosaur Jr. @ the 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., July 11th


10. Noise Against Fascism: To Live And Shave In L.A., Mirror/Dash, Magik Markers, Nautical Almanac @ the Black Cat, Washington, D.C., January 20th


11. Elvis Costello & the Imposters with Emmylou Harris and Larry Campbell @ Wolf Trap, Virginia, July 31st


12. Grand Buffet @ the Ottobar, Baltimore, March 27th


13. Sonic Youth @ The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, April 15th


14. Apollo Sunshine and Lake Trout @ the Ottobar, Baltimore, April 23rd


15. Ogun, Ammo, Profound, Tyree Colion and Diablo @ Club 429, Baltimore, August 9th


16. Our Lady Peace @ The 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., September 22nd


17. Private Eleanor @ Current Space, Baltimore, August 27th


18. Ted Leo/Pharmacists @ The 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., June 23rd


19. Enon @ the Ottobar, Baltimore, March


20. The Evens @ The G-Spot, Baltimore, May 17th

Labels: Apollo Sunshine, Baltimore music, concerts, Dinosaur Jr., Dischord, Elvis Costello, Enon, Grand Buffet, hip hop, lists, Sonic Youth, Ted Leo, The Posies, Travis Morrison

Ted Leo / Pharmacists @ the Ottobar, 11/22/05
My Vien Ilin / Little Dawn / new song / Me And Mia / Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone? / The High Party / Dial Up / The One Who Got Us Out / Counting Down The Hours / Hearts Of Oak / Biomusicology / Heart Problems / new song / Timorous Me / Shake The Sheets / encore: Six Months In A Leaky Boat (Split Enz cover) / Suspect Device (Stiff Little Fingers cover)

Last night I took J.G. and her brother and one of his friends, both of whom just came home from college for the holiday, to the Ottobar to see Ted Leo. The first time I saw TL was a few years ago at the Ottobar, playing to a disinterested half-full room when he opened for the (International) Noise Conspiracy, who I didn't like at all. So it was cool to see him there again, headlining to a room packed full of people and really, maybe the best crowd I've ever seen at one of his shows, definitely louder and more appreciative than the audiences at his D.C. shows. And it was also cool to see him in a considerably more intimate setting than the last time I saw him, at the 9:30 Club.

Ted had a cold but for the most part the performance didn't suffer from it. The setlist was a decent mix of new and old, the highlights for me were "Counting Down The Hours", "Six Months", and also "Biomusicology" with Amy Dominguez, who played cello on the original studio version. There were a couple new songs, and the first one they played was really really good. Hopefully this means a new album next year, which is reassuring considering that earlier this year Ted was talking in interviews about hanging up the rock band thing and getting a day job.

Labels: concerts, Ted Leo

On Tuesday night, J.G. and I went to the Ottobar to see our friend Chris's band Private Eleanor. It was supposed to be an early show but for some reason at the last minute that was changed, so we got there way early and had to wait outside for a few, and elected to go to the Exxon across the street to snack on butterscotch krimpets. Also, one of the bands on the bill, Swords, appeared to have not shown and the replacement was a band from L.A. called The Brokedown. How they came from that far away and were added to the bill on such short notice, I have no idea. But they were pleasant and jangly, although I kept wishing for less songs with keyboards and more with 2 guitars.

This was my 3rd time seeing Private Eleanor, but the first since having their new album (which was reviewed by Jess in the City Paper) for a while and kinda knowing the songs. It's really been growing on me, it's good mellow music for cooking dinner to. Even as a live 6-piece they're still pretty quiet and restrained, but it felt like more of a rock show this time. We didn't stick around for the other 2 bands on the bill that are kind of well known and have gotten a lot of press, Dios (Malos) and Dr. Dog.

Labels: Baltimore music, concerts

On Saturday night, I hung out with Jim and we checked out "Cashed Out" at the Ottobar, a Johnny Cash tribute night that was put together to promote the upcoming biopic Walk The Line. We were among the first x number of people to enter the club, so we got passes to the premiere of Walk The Line at the Senator the night before the national release next week, so I'm hyped about that. Like Jim said, there was a weird spectrum of local acts playing Cash favorites at the show, from the straightforward to the half-assed indie to the novelty ukelele/melodica duo. This one band The Expotentials rendered their selections unrecognizable in a big mess of fuzzy garage rock, but their drummer was so incredible that they were my favorite performance of the night. After that, there was Cash karaoke, and half the people sang stuff that Cash covered and didn't even really popularize, like "Hurt" or a Neil Diamond song, which was weird.

Labels: Baltimore music, concerts

Last Thursday I took J.G. to see Evita at the Hippodrome, which I gave her tickets to for her birthday. It was cool to see the inside of the Hippodrome for once , it's really nice in there. I even kinda got into the play, it was well done and there were a lot of Broadway veterans in the cast. Never saw the movie or any other production of it, but I liked it. It's such a weird fusion of history and music and gallows humor. I had no idea Che Guevera could be so funny! And such a good singer!

Labels: concerts, story time

The Posies @ the Black Cat, Washington, D.C. 9/26/05
Definite Door / Please Return It / Second Time Around / Ontario / Throwaway / Everybody Is A Fucking Liar / I Guess You're Right / Start A Life / Precious Moments / Conversations / Dream All Day / Grant Hart / Flavor Of The Month / Solar Sister / encore: It's Great To Be Here Again / Love Letter Boxes / Apology / You're The Beautiful One

On Monday night, after I got out of my night class, I raced down to D.C. to see maybe one of my favorite bands ever. I didn't become fully obsessed with the Posies until after they broke up in the late 90's, so I never saw them live during their original run. But they keep coming back and doing tours together, so I've gotten to see them twice now in some reunited form, and I always get geeked out about it. There's a kind of faded glory to what they do now, a couple of guys in their late 30's, playing mostly songs they wrote over a decade ago to half full rooms in smaller venues than they played at the time. But they're still a pretty formidable live act and a lot of fun to watch. Jon Auer is a chubby guitar god who could pass for Antonio Banderas's brother, and throws his guitar in mid-air constantly, even during solos. And Ken Stringfellow is constantly jumping around and spitting, sometimes whipping his head back and hocking phlegm three feet above his head and then catching it in his mouth.

The first time I saw them live was about 4 years ago, when Jon and Ken had just started playing with a new rhythm section, Matt and Darius, who are still playing with them on their current album and tour. I remember at the time, I was a little unnerved by Darius's drumming, since he didn't really emulate the parts on the original studio versions of the songs, and I loved the playing of both of the Posies' 2 previous drummers. So if he didn't play the same fills the same way they did, it kind of ruined the song for me in some small, nitpicky way. But this time, it sounded like he'd really studied the old studio albums and picked up the essence of the songs, which made the show, in my eyes, a lot better than the last one.

I'd seen a few setlists from this tour already on the internet, so I kinda knew what to expect for the song selection. But there were a few surprises I wasn't expecting, and I enjoyed the large amount of songs from Amazing Disgrace, probably my favorite album. Their new album, Every Kind Of Light, has continued to grow on me since I reviewed it, so I wouldn't have minded if they'd played more than 4 songs from it, but 3 of them happened to be my favorite songs on the album, so I was happy with that. "Start A Life" and "You're The Beautiful One" were great songs to hear live, but I kinda wish they weren't still playing over the drum loops from the versions on Success and came up with different live arrangements.

Towards the end of the set, with little warning, Jon and Ken threw their mic stands down in front of the stage and jumped down to perform "Dream All Day" and "Grant Hart" down on the floor in the middle of the crowd. It was kind of a mess and someone's mic kept feeding back, but it was still pretty cool. Jon even threw his guitar up so high at one point that it bounced off the ceiling. After the show, I checked out the merch table, and the only CD they had for sale that I don't already own was one of Jon's side projects, so I bought it and a poster, and I shook Jon Auer's hand and he called me "bro". I don't get real nervous or excited about meeting musicians anymore, but that was kind of a surreal moment.

Labels: concerts, The Posies

Last night J.G. and I had a busy night out. First, we went to the big City Paper party for the Best Of Baltimore issue, which is I guess their biggest event all year. I also went to the staff party on Monday, which was considerably smaller. I've been writing for CP for less than 6 months now, and had only been in the offices once, so, like probably a lot of other freelancers there, I didn't know many people. But it was nice to say hi to the handful of people I have met, and I got to finally meet Jess Harvell, after a couple years of message board/blogosphere bitchiness and grudging respect and a few weeks of being cooperative and working together. Also got to meet Jason Torres, who's been covering Baltimore hip hop for CP incredibly thoroughly and for way longer than I have, and it was cool to find out he's seen Gov't Names and reccomend mixtapes to each other.

The big party on Thursday was at Ram's Head Live, which is a venue that opened downtown a few months ago, extending the franchise of the Ram's Head that's been in Annapolis for years. They book fairly big acts there, but I was expecting the actual room with the stage to be bigger, it seems like more than half of the place is taken up with little bar areas that have zero stage visibility. Seems like a waste of a potentially good place to see a show. It was a lot louder and more crowded than the staff party, which meant it was a lot harder to find people I knew, or carry on coherent conversations with them. So after a couple drinks and a run at the food table, J.G. and I decided to split for our next appointment of the night.

We went down to D.C. to the 9:30 Club to see one of J.G.'s favorite bands, Our Lady Peace. I took her to see them there for her birthday three years ago, a few months after we started dating, so it was nice to do that again. They put on a good show, and I am down with the Canadian post-grunge. Their drummer is good and the singer has a weird voice that sounds cool when he hits high notes, and always sounds kind of like he has a cold. He also wore a beard and a fedora, which he didn't take off for the entire show. The fedora, I mean. He didn't take off the beard either, though. It occurred to me during the show for the first time that some of their songs have a serious U2 vibe, in some of the guitar sounds and the big anthemic quality of the songs. And right as I was thinking that, he started singing a little of "All I Want Is You" during the last song before the encore. Their new album is pretty good and the new stuff mixed well with the old hits. And it's fun to go with J.G. to a show she's really hyped about, since usually I'm the one who's hyped about something, although I try not to drag her to see any bands she doesn't like or I don't think she'd probably like.

Labels: City Paper, concerts

Last night I went to the Ottobar for Lake Trout's CD release party. But I was a little more excited to see the opening band, Apollo Sunshine, who they played with last time I saw them back in April, and they really impressed me at that show. I bought a live CD from them after the show but had been looking and hadn't been able to find a copy of their first album ever since. But they just released their 2nd album this week, so I was able to buy that last night. They really might be the best live rock band I've seen all year. And they drove all the way down from Boston for the show, and got stuck on the NJ Turnpike, so they were in the car something like 10 hours before playing, and still put on an amazing show. I won't got into a lot of detail about them right now, but I'm probably going to try to review the album somewhere and if it's as good as their live show it's going to be a pretty gushing review.

Lake Trout were alright. My review of the new album wasn't super positive but I'm still a big fan of the band and I was pretty excited to get a promo 6 weeks before the release. It was cool to hear the new songs live now that I know them pretty well. I've been going to their shows for over 6 years now, and I get into a lot of their history in the review, but it's always been an up and down ride, some great shows, some boring ones. The highlights of the recent shows have been all the loud, fast instrumentals that aren't on the new album. At one point it was supposed to be a double album, with a 2nd disc of instrumentals, but that plan got scrapped. It appears that a limited edition 2CD version is being released in the U.K. in October, I'm hoping that's what I think it is and that I can order a copy somewhere.

Labels: Apollo Sunshine, Baltimore music, concerts

I've got 2 pieces in this week's City Paper. One is a System of a Down/The Mars Volta live review, which was a show I wasn't even planning to go to, until Bret, the CP arts editor, e-mailed me the day before the show. He had 2 tickets and couldn't go, and I guess since I did a SOAD album review for him a couple months ago, he offered them to me if I could review the show. I offered the other ticket to a few friends, and a couple really wanted to go, but noone was able to on such short notice. So I ended up going alone and giving away the other ticket (ok, I sold it, but for a pretty low amount, just enough to cover the cost of parking downtown). It was an awesome show!

My other article (and my first lead story for the arts section!) is a profile of a Baltimore MC named Skarr Akbar, and I've got a post over at Gov't Names with more info about him and a few mp3's.

Labels: Baltimore music, City Paper, concerts, Government Names, hip hop

Last night I went to see my friend Chris's band Private Eleanor play an album release party with the Seldon Plan. I'd seen them once before but hadn't heard a lot of the new album, which they played all of plus one of their best old songs. The show was at the Current Space, which was a gallery I'd never been to before. I thought it was odd for an art space to be right in downtown Baltimore where everything is big businesses and parking garages, so I wasn't surprised when it turned out to be a temporary space. Turns out the city of Baltimore is allowing some buildings that are going to be demolished at some point soon to temporarily house stuff like galleries. It's kind of funny, too, since the current exhibit is all about urban renewal and has all these slogans pretty much protesting stuff like what's going to happen to the building it's in, which is going to be turned into a bunch of luxury condos.

Labels: Baltimore music, concerts

I'm glad I decided to see Grand Buffet for the 2nd night in a row on Tuesday, because their show in Baltimore was ten times better than the one in D.C. (aside from the Scrooge McDuck/Nazi gold banter from the night before). They always have a loyal audience that shows up everytime they play the Ottobar and they feed off that. I knew from the moment Grape-A-Don walked in with a bunch of balloons shaped like a palm tree, a turtle and the sun that it was gonna be a good show. They had some technical difficulties with their discman, and apparently lost a disc with the instrumentals for a lot of their new stuff on it, so they played a great 45-minute set full of old Undercover Angels/Cigarette Beach-era stuff. Ned Oldham played unbilled before GB and I didn't even know that's who it was until someone mentioned it way after he played, and I didn't stick around at all that time for Magnolia Electric Co.

Labels: Baltimore music, concerts, Grand Buffet

Tonight I attempted, for I think the first time, that old trick of going to 2 shows in different places in one night. First I went to Fort Reno, which I hadn't been to at all last summer but went a few times the 2 summers before that, so I'm glad I got to at least one show this year. There's always at least one or two bands I wanna see there every summer. I went to see the new Dischord band Medications, who are basically 2/3rds of Faraquet, who I liked a lot and who they sound more or less just like (the 2 mp3s on their website happen to be my favorite songs from their album and EP respectively, so consider that a reccomendation). I'm working on a review of their album, so I won't say too much about them, but they were pretty good, although their drummer sometimes got a little caught up in the intricacies of their mathy rhythms and missed cues or almost messed up the song. They were opening for Mary Timony, and Devin Ocampo, the guitarist/singer from Medications is her drummer on her current album and tour. I didn't like her much last time I saw her and she wore that damn kittie mask, but I was kinda looking forward to seeing Devin drum with her, since I loved his drumming on the 2nd Smart Went Crazy album. But I decided to get out of there and get across town to meet my friend Mike and see another show.

Mike and I went down to the Black Cat's 'backstage' downstairs bar to see Grand Buffet, who were great as always, although we missed their first couple songs and they didn't play very long, since they were opening. But they did the non-LP favorite "Treehouse" and some other good ones. A lot of their shows have this odd rhythm where they play a 2-minute song and then talk for 4 minutes at a time between songs. Mike is gonna be in Baltimore tomorrow night so we might end up going to see GB again at the Ottobar to get a full set. They're touring with Magnolia Electric Co., who we only stuck around for the first few songs of. It's kind of an odd match, Grand Buffet opening for some country rock played by a Luke Wilson/Scott Bakula-looking guy, but they always seem to end up touring with mismatched bands.

Labels: concerts, Dischord, Grand Buffet

Elvis Costello & the Imposters with Emmylou Harris and Larry Campbell @ Wolf Trap, 7/31/05
(I'll add the setlist later if it shows up on this site, but it was pretty similiar to this show's setlist, except some of the first few songs were different or in a different order.)

Last week, I got a call from my friend/ex-roommate/ex-bandmate Mike, asking me if I wanted an Elvis Costello ticket. His dad had bought a few, but then the people he was going to take fell through, and since Mike knew I'm a big EC fan, they extended the offer to me, which was pretty nice of them. I wanted to see him when he came to the new Ram's Head in Baltimore a couple months ago, but by the time I decided I could afford a ticket, they were sold out. And the only other time I saw EC before, 3 years ago on the When I Was Cruel tour, was kind of a weird experience. I bought a ticket to see him in Philly, and then had car troubles a couple days before the show, and out of desperation asked for a ride on an EC newsgroup. I ended up hitching a ride with this weird bickering couple who was following Elvis around the country on tour. It was real nice of them but still an odd experience.

So anyway, on Sunday, me and Mike and his girlfriend and his dad went to see EC at the Wolf Trap, which is this gigantic wooden outdoor theater in northern Virginia that I'd never been to before. It's so rare that I see a show at a seated venue, it's an odd experience for me, but nice, and we had a good view. It was the last show of Elvis's summer tour with Emmylou Harris, playing both as part of the same set, singing each other's songs together.

The first 30-40 minutes of the show was just Elvis and the Imposters doing their usual rock show, starting with "Uncomplicated" and "Clown Strike", which was kind of a pleasant surprise since that's one of my favorites off Brutal Youth but not a real obvious one to play. Also good versions of "Chelsea" and "Clubland", which had an extended guitar solo that concluded with Elvis playing the melody of "I Feel Pretty" on guitar. "Country Darkness" might've been my favorite performance of the night, though, really subtle shifts of dynamics from loud to soft in the band. Then Larry Campbell came out and played slide guitar on "Waiting For The End Of The World", and after that Emmylou came out and accompanied the band for about an hour.

The part of the set with Emmylou was nice and laid back, some of her stuff, some covers, and some of Elvis's more countryish stuff from King of America and Almost Blue. Elvis also seemed to talk and tell stories a lot more than I think he usually does, which was nice, some funny anecdotes that I probably shouldn't bother trying to re-tell effectively. Steve Nieve is generally my favorite part of the band to watch, and even on the more subdued material he can be kind of animated, running around switching from one keyboard to another to accordian to melodica. The melodica in particular was a nice touch, especially playing that melody on "American Without Tears".

After an hour or so with Emmylou, she left the stage and Elvis and the Imposters played for a while longer, focusing heavily on The Delivery Man material. That album has kinda grown on me since last year, I didn't listen to it much when it came out, but it's pretty likeable. And those songs came across really well live, even ones I didn't like much on the album, like "Needle Time" and the title track. "Bedlam" is still my favorite off that album, though.

They came back out with Emmylou Harris for the encore, and the best surprise of the night was the cover of "Wild Horses", which was great, I love that song. Elvis laid it on the anti-war sentiment a bit thick, closing with "Peace, Love & Understanding" and "The Scarlet Tide", and got a lot of applause for it. By the end, the show ran at almost exactly 3 hours, with only the breif pause before the encore. Good show, although definitely a bit exhausting. Thanks again to Mike and his dad for inviting me.

Labels: concerts, Elvis Costello

Last night I drove down to D.C. to meet up with my friend Mike and walk to the 9:30 Club from his place for the Dinosaur Jr. show with the reunion of the original lineup. We got there during Bardo Pond, who were boring and whose drummer played the same fill every other measure of every single song. And I ran into Mat and Candy and watched the show with them. I'd seen J Mascis and the Fog a couple times, and those were about the loudest shows I'd ever seen, so I was really expecting it to be like that, but Dinosaur weren't quite that loud. Still pretty loud, but I wasn't really regretting not having earplugs. They're not a real charismatic or exciting band, but it was still a pretty good show, only stuff from the first 3 albums when Lou was still in the group. And the setlist was heavy on the first 2, not much Bug aside from "Freak Scene" in the encore. My love of You're Living All Over Me was recently reignited by the Merge reissue that sounds a hundred times better than the horribly mastered old SST CD, so I was happy to hear all those songs live, which have held up really well ("The Lung"!). J used some weird phaser effects on some songs that made them sound kinda different from the original recordings, but it was an interesting change. I don't have any special reverence for the original Dinosaur lineup, I like some of the later records almost as much, so it wasn't really a big deal for me, although it was cool to see Murph play drums on those songs. But still, I'm glad I went.

Labels: concerts, Dinosaur Jr.

Ted Leo/Pharmacists 6/23/05 @ the 9:30 Club:
Dial Up/2nd Ave, 11 AM/Me And Mia/Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone?/The High Party/The One Who Got Us Out/Counting Down The Hours/Little Dawn/Heart Problems/Biomusicology/Timorous Me/Hearts Of Oak/Shake The Sheets//encore: My Vien Ilin/Six Months In A Leaky Boat/(?)

It was cool to see Ted in a place as big as the 9:30 for the first time. I kind of got a concept of how much his fanbase has grown just from my immediate experiences more than the size of the venue, though: 3 years ago, I went to Ted Leo shows alone, then 2 years ago, my girlfriend starting going to see him with me, then last year, J.G.'s brother John came a long for a show, and this time, it was both of them plus John's girlfriend. I wasn't even really trying to get all of them into the music, it just kind of caught on.

Not quite the best show I've seen Ted do, but maybe the best setlist. I mean, the whole first half the set was nothing but songs I wanted to hear, and I can only think of a couple I was hoping for that weren't played. I liked how a big chunk of Shake The Sheets was played in the running order, too. I put that album high on my top ten last year, but I don't think it completely grew on me until the last few months. And last time I saw him was right before it dropped, so this was really the first show that I got to hear the songs live after getting to know those songs. Ted never seems to do very good encores, though. It was cool to hear "Six Months" with the full band, and I don't think I'd ever heard "My Vien Ilin" live before, and the last song was a familiar cover but I couldn't quite place what it was. But still, such a short and anticlimactic encore. It wouldn't kill him to hold back a crowd-pleaser or two for the very end of the show, y'know?

I've griped a little about the Pharmacists in the past, but I think the rhythm section has tightened up a little over the past couple years, and I'm liking the power trio lineup. The drummer, Chris, makes little mistakes a lot less often now, which used to frustrate me, even though I'm a drummer and I know how it is, a hundred things can go wrong with that many pieces to your instrument. And as much as I love when Ted ramps up the tempo and his strumming hand becomes a blur, sometimes I feel like they just go overboard with it and certain songs would benefit from being played at the tempo they're at on the record. I mean, I love "Little Dawn", but it was so rushed it fell like it was about to fall apart, and at the last show it was a personal highlight. Really, I'm nitpicking, which happens when I see a band enough times to notice differences between individual shows, but it was a good night. J.G. wanted to watch from the balcony, which was cool but kind of a change of pace for me. For all the dozens of shows I've seen at the 9:30, I think there've been maybe 3 or 4 where I've spent any amount of time up on the 2nd level. It's a good view, though, I should do it more often.

Labels: concerts, Ted Leo