Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks

Paradise Rock Club: Boston, MA – April 3, 2008

Yes, this show was on April 3, and yes it is April 30.  I think its safe to post this now… twenty-seven days later.

Twenty seven days ago, my close friend, short-lived band-mate, mentor, martyr, singer-songwriter, one third of KC Quilty, manager of this blog and prolific writer for the Tech, ”MIT’s oldest and largest newspaper & the first newspaper published on the web,” Sarah Dupuis invited me to join her to the sold-out Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks show at the Paradise.  She had press passes and decided that the show would be far more enjoyable with a friend rather than a photographer, so she invited a friend who is a photographer.  Thus, I not only got to ride shotgun in a Volkswagen Jetta and eat a bitching hamburger from Brookline’s B.Good, but got to see Stephen Malkmus and the fucking Jicks FOR FREE.  The only catch was that Sarah had to take credit for any of the photos that would eventually be printed–I felt like a blacklisted screenwriter… in the best way possible.  I won’t give a full review of the show, because Sarah’s is far better (three times better), but what I can say is that the show was mindblowing.  

Here’s an excerpt.

The best by far of the three dates, however, was the sold-out show at Paradise. Each of Weiss’ drum fills was crisp and forceful, Bolme kidded with the audience about the lack of pot (“I smell no weed at this show at all. What’s wrong with you?”), and Malkmus’ perfectly in tune guitars transformed even the most tame album tracks into epic jams. And for those local fans curious to hear Malkmus’ views on their home city, he had this to say during the show: “Boston? It’s a nice street … a real nice street.” -Dupuis

Read the full article here.

And here is a gallery of my blacklisted works from the show:

Stanko / Andrew Shea / Monitor & the Merrimac / Bruhder

The rest of my fantastic journey through northwestern Connecticut in photos and links. photos and links. 

Stanko [at the Newtown Teen Center - Newtown, CT]

Sounds Like: super nintendo, surf-rock, synth-rock

myspace

Andrew Shea [Cafe Napoli - Watertown, CT]

Sounds like: Singer-songwriter heavily influenced by elliott smith. but with yelling. and more storytelling.

myspace / cdbaby

Monitor and the Merrimac [Cafe Napoli - Watertown, CT]

Sounds like: Alt-country, bluegrass, folk with a striking vocal similarity to Isaac Brock.

last.fm / monitorandthemerrimac.com

Bruhder [Cafe Napoli - Watertown, CT]

Sounds like: The child of Mates of State, Moldy Peaches and Ben Kweller with an acoustic guitar and five vocalists.  Every song is a giant chorus.  They would be the next big thing if they were in Brooklyn instead of Connecticut–so incredibly radical live.

myspace / official page on pink teeth records

Guy Named Josh [Heirloom Arts Center: Danbury, Connecticut]

I took the long road out of Boston with an old Olympus SLR to my small woodland Connecticut town on December 19th.  In my month home, despite numerous episodes of extreme boredom, anxiety, and coughing fits, I narrowly managed to get out to some shows and take some pictures. 

For a long time there was a very small venue in Danbury, Connecticut with very high ceilings known as the Empress Ballroom.  Touring pop-punk and screamo bands made frequent appearances but very very infrequently played to a crowd larger than fifteen or twenty kids.  Eventually the Empress Ballroom went under and is in the process of becoming the Heirloom Arts Center.  When completed the Arts Center will be home to art shows, concerts, foreign and limited film screenings and a complete bar.  At this point though, the place is quite literally under construction.  The owner, being friends with a number of people from the Tape Reels For Eyes art collective allowed them to put on an experimental noise show in the midst of rebuilding the space. 

I walked into the future space of the Heirloom Arts Center to the smell of stale cigarette smoke and electronic beeps and blips emanating from a pair of speakers sandwiching a man with a microphone and an old suitcase full of wires and audio equipment.  It became quickly apparent that the only instrument was the man’s vocals being layered, cut, split, looped and completely abliterated by the dozen or so effect pedals.  It was certainly noise by definition, but it was so sharp, coherent and mind-numbing.  I quickly snapped a picture [above] of my friend watching the action in front of him in the dark, taking advantage the new flash I had just hooked up… and had neglected to sync.  One fucked up photo later we were talking to the man who suddenly had a name: Josh.  Josh went to NYU and explained that this was his first time performing his stuff without two drummers.  I need to see this.  Now.

merry christmas! here’s a song!

ted rogers - have christmas       (mp3)

The Little Ones/1990s/Voxtrot

The Middle East (Cambridge)

Voxtrot is one of those bands that upon hearing them for the first time, went out and learned as much about them as humanly possible (which at the time was only that they were from Austin and had the first three songs off thier EP on thier Myspace), tried to show the EP to everyone I knew, and finally motivating me to follow the band’s releases. I was excited when they followed that initial EP with two others. I was excited when the s/t LP came out. I was excited when I heard they were playing in Cambridge. I was depressed when I thought I had missed that show.

I was fucking eccstatic when I realized I hadn’t.

Thus we took an outbound train to Cambridge. The show opened with The Little Ones, a band I had heard almost nothing about, who, with the help of possibly the happiest bassist ever, put on an extremely tight, extra bitchin’ set. Between sets I stopped over at the merchtable only to realize that I was face to face with Voxtrot’s frontman, Ramesh. Apparently he went to my college. Apparently he liked my jacket. Apparently he had recently gotten an operation on his leg. He introduced me to the girl on the cover of Your Biggest Fan. Once again, this only cements my opinion that the Middle East is in fact the best venue in Boston. Back to the show. Glaslow-alumnis 1990s played a much looser set, which really only makes sense with their loud, fast, bang-it-out style of rock n roll. I also appreciated it when the three on stage would quickly and completely unintelligably babble in thier obscenely thick scottish accents.

Voxtrot opened aptly with “Introduction,” moving into “Kid Gloves” with some help from the Little Ones. The energy was indescribable and the entire show was amazing, but the highlights were definitely the now anthemic songs from the Raised by Wolves EP. The show closed with “The Start of Something,” a song that for most people, introduced them to Voxtrot and became the quintessential indie love song. The stage was rushed by the Little Ones, as well as what seemed to be every single person backstage. The song itself was epic–what came off as mellow on record was an anthem on stage. Yeah, that was awesome.

The Little Ones – Cha Cha Cha
1990s – Thinking of Not Going
Voxtrot – The Start of Something
Voxtrot – Raised by Wolves/You Can Hide Your Love Forever <—ridiculous unreleased track

LCD Soundsystem/Arcade Fire [Randall's Island NYC October 6, 2007]

After a fairly uncomfortable ride on China Town’s Fung Wah Bus (which when searched in google images results in a series of pictures of overturned buses), a septic-fragrance-fueled walk through Canal Street, multiple sweaty subway rides, an hour long wait for a bus involving a two-block line, a run-in with a convenience-store employee who refused to believe that if I was born in February of 1989 that I would be 18 (despite the wall calendar behind him), and one final bus ride, I arrived at Randall’s Island for a day of music [excluding Les Savy Five which I had missed due to the aforementioned reasons] featuring Blonde Redhead, LCD Soundsystem and the Arcade Fire.

Blonde Redhead put on an excellent set, but in no way prepared me for how inconcievably righteous the headliners would be.

LCD Soundsystem

-video courtesy of betterthandisco.com

On record, LCD Soundsystem write perfect pop songs that are all too long. Live, LCD Soundsystem performs perfect pop songs. perfect. Also, just throwing this out there, James Murphy reminds me of Ian Curtis. That’s why I was ridiculously pleased when I bought the 7″ Arcade Fire/LCD Soundsystem split vinyl which to my surprise featured LCD covering Joy Division. Anyway, so the set was rad. I danced my ass off. What really blows me away is the fact that I found North American Scum to be a fairly weak song on the new record–it was fucking… I don’t know… glorious live. Best songs of the set: All of My Friends, Yeah, North American Scum, and New York I Love You.

Arcade Fire

-video courtesy of betterthandisco.com

How do I even describe this show? Religious experience? Audible Baptism? Rebirth? I was enjoying myself and having a great time until Neighborhoods #1 (Tunnels)–from that point I couldn’t move. I could yell. I couldn’t move. I just stood there with my jaw hanging open. Yelling every word. It was amazing. I would reschedule my wedding/birth of my first child if it fell on the same day as an Arcade Fire show.

…is unbelievable.

Despite complaints of compression rate from Pitchfork, I am thouroughly lost in this album.

Thurston Moore / Kings of Leon / My Holy Ghost

This morning feels like the first time I’ve sat down with no essay hovering over my head in two weeks… oh fuck, I forgot, there is an essay hovering over my head. Oh well, here’s a megapost of what’s gone down since the Devendra show…

Thurston Moore at the MFA

On Thursday night the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston had its annual College Night boasting a performance from Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore. Tickets were limited [read here as free] and the show was excellent. Moore came on stage rocking a GZA Liquid Swords shirt–bitchin’. I had never listened to Thurston’s solo stuff and seeing the man brandish an acoustic guitar got me a little uneasy. I was afraid there would be a severe lack of noise. There was noise. Really fucking good noise.

Kings of Leon at the Orpheum

The Orpheum is falling apart. Let me rephrase that: The Orpheum is falling apart in the best way possible and its so fucking Rock n Roll. Boston’s classic theater is probably the coolest venue I’ve ever been to, even with terrible seats and the very prospect of being seated in the first place. Manchester Orchestra really wasn’t anything spectacular so I’ll just move onto Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club [or BRMC as an army of hipsters call them] took the stage after a Southern A Capella Gospel and banged out some very good, very drunk rock songs. Still though, I couldn’t fully enjoy it as I was seated. The lights came up and it hit me that I would soon be seeing the band that had [among other artists and events] defined my Junior and Senior years of high school. The lights went down and a room full of people who had patiently waited through two bands and tiny seats erupted as The Kings of Leon walked onstage. Opening with Black Thumbnail the set was pretty spectacular. I left the show with no voice, so that’s good.

My Holy Ghost [Braintree, MA]

My face melted when I saw these guys. Connecticut-based rock band with some progressive and hardcore influences. They’re from a couple of towns over from my hometown, so I’ve seen them a couple times before but this show introduced a strong Explosions in the Sky instrumental influence. I’d give you mp3s but they’re not available for download so these links will have to do: myspace purevolume

[TO BE CONTINUED seeing as that paper is haunting me]

So last night (and by last night, I mean the night before last night), this girl…

…asked if i wanted to go see this guy live at the Roxy…

…which pretty obviously resulted in this guy…

…signing my library card.