Saturday night I caught Titus Andronicus (with opener Lost Boy ?) at The 7th Street Entry. I'm a HUGE Titus fan, but this show was way better than even I expected.
Prior to the show I saw that Titus frontman Patrick Stickles was working the merch table so I HAD to go exchange a few words with him. He's a fascinating guy: 1) Named his band after a Shakespearean play; 2) Wrote a concept album centering around the Civil War; 3) Wrote this ridiculously great review of the first Replacements show for SPIN; 4) Does personal singing telegrams in the NYC area for $50; 5) He wrote a song about his eating disorder; and 6) Titus' next album is concept album about dealing with manic depression, which I believe he has. He's awesome. So I had a brief chat with him and saw a tour poster I needed desperately to buy after the show (it has a "Manifest Destiny" theme, which is so Titus Andronicus it's ridiculous).
Anyway.
Lost Boy ? is a punk band out of Brooklyn with a poppier sound than most of their cohorts. I grabbed their free stuff on Bandcamp a couple weeks ago when I saw they were opening and it's quite enjoyable. The music translated well to the stage and they were a fun opener.
Titus took the stage with just Stickles telling a story about the rest of the band not being there because they had a 'petty fight' earlier in the day. He said Tom Petty's best album was Full Moon Fever they said it was Damn the Torpedoes. This looks so cheesy written out, and it was cheesy when he said it, but you know what? He pulled it off. As expected he got a little way into the song and the band joined him on stage. The next 1:15 or so was seriously rocking with humorous/interesting monologues sprinkled in. The best was after "A More Perfect Union". During that tune a bro started crowd surfing...barefoot. After the song, Stickles noted that he wasn't going to make people not crowdsurf even though it's "incredibly selfish", but if anyone did it they had to wear shoes because no one wants your disgusting bare foot in their face. It was a fantastic rebuke of this guy and he didn't do any more crowd surfing that night.
The band played most of their best songs (although not "My Eating Disorder" which I was hoping for) and covered Beck's "Devil's Haircut" then finished the main set. After they left the stage the drummer went to the merch table and started selling stuff. As I saw him tell someone there wasn't an encore I went to buy the poster and a 7" split single with Free Energy. While paying, though, the rest of the band retook the stage and was looking for the drummer because they decided to do an encore after all. I was more than a little embarrassed as he quickly found my change and ran back onstage (the bassist started doing a beatbox beat and Stickles sang Ben Harper's "Steal My Kisses" over the beat to kill time). It was worth the embarrassement though, because the entire encore was Replacements' covers. "Can't Hardly Wait" (awesome), "Bastards of the Young" (hit and miss on the lyrics, but still great to hear), and a bit of "Treatment Bound" (too short), finished the show and sent everyone in the place out of the Entry absolutely delirious.
Back after pre-Labor Day Internet crash. Spent much of the downtime at Chicago Jazz Festival, which was terrific. Saw 9 or 10 sets over 3 days, including this monster show with Jack DeJohnette, Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill, and Roscoe Mitchell. Day 2, after thunderstorm blew through, was Wadada Leo Smith, followed by Charles Lloyd/Bill Frisell. (That was the storm that crashed the Internet!)
Down there for shows all day Saturday, including the pride of Cleveland Ernie Krivda and Howard Levy's Chicago Chevere; the latter was fun, as I was standing off to the side directly behind Howard - cool sense of what it looks/sounds like from onstage. On the main stage that night was Gregory Porter, who is the real deal; then Rudresh Mahanthappa, doing a very hard-edged show with his "Gamak" group; and Jason Moran and his "Fats Waller Dance Party" - a good but curious show, during about half of which he wears this gigantic Fats head:
But a highlight was two shows with the drummer Hamid Drake, one with his 'Chicago Trio' of Harrison Bankhead and Ernest Dawkins, which was very moving and spiritual; and in a quartet with William Parker, Kidd Jordan and Cooper Moore, where they just blew the doors off for 45 minutes. He was artist in residence for the Fest, and wish I had seen his other sets.
We skipped Sunday night, where I am told Lupe Fiasco showed up to perform with Robert Glasper. It was the first time I really "did" the Jazz Fest, as it's in a much better location than in past years. I am ready for more shows - and won't have to wait long, as Hyde Park Jazz Fest is coming up at the end of the month!
Craig, thanks for the link to that review of the Replacements reunion. That was seriously awesome. I've never listened to Titus Andronicus, but I think I have to now.
Going on sale this week for local shows in November: Kanye West, Jay Z, My Bloody Valentine, Elton John...
Kanye and Jay Z are going to be purchased, but MBV chose a horrid venue that has terrible muddy sound. So, I'm not sure. Elton John might get considered at another time, but not for this November!
Just ridiculous...all free. Definitely planning to be downtown for Eddie Palmieri Thurs and L. Subramamaniam Fri...hopefully more over the weekend. Esp those of you who are more familiar with the African artists, please LMK if you see any names not to miss.
Saw Blondie and X at the 9:30 Club in DC on Monday night. This was my fourth time seeing X and I stand by my conviction that they're the best live band I've ever seen. They bring it every night, and I'd go see them anytime, anywhere. Blondie was a lot of fun. It's only three original members at this point (Debbie Harry, Chris Stein and Clem Burke), but they played everything I wanted to hear and threw in a few curveballs (ending Rapture with a segue into No Sleep Till Brooklyn was a personal favorite). Debbie's voice isn't what it used to be, but they had a good time and the audience did, too. Clem Burke is a ridiculously great drummer.
If Eddie Palmieri and his Salsa Orchestra come to your town, go, go GO! Absolutely powerhouse band...cool summer night...outdoor promenade packed with dancers (many of whom could actually dance!)
Eddie's a great player - I wish I knew enough about music to know what he's doing. Only way I can describe it is he takes those Latin chords and turns them inside out; spinning them out into jazz improv, but always tethered to dance music. I'm going to look around for Eddie solo recordings.
It actually starts tomorrow with a half-dozen shows simultaneously across downtown Raleigh and a six stage street festival on the weekend. I don't think there are enough people who play Bluegrass to fill up all the time.
ETA: The plan is to see Steep Canyon Rangers, Della Mae, Peter Rowan, and Nora Jane Struthers on Wednesday, and enjoy the street festival on Friday and Saturday (Jim Lauderdale, Chatham County Line, Si Kahn, Missy Raines, Old Man Luedecke, Bryan Sutton, among dozens of others).
Haven't had time to note that I went to a show Saturday night, The Milk Carton Kids (like a more country Simon and Garfunkel with stand up comedy between songs) opened for Over the Rhine ( it was my umpteenth OtR show). Every Over the Rhine tour is a little different; this one was four additional musicians for a 6- piece band. Given that it was promoting their new album there was a lot of material from that album played, which had the twin results that a lot of the audience did not know a lot of the songs and that there was a preponderance of more sedate, mid-tempo numbers, so it never quite built as much energy or dramatic force as some OtR shows I've been to. On the other hand, the sound was great and it was easier than at some past shows to follow the lyrics - and for all that the new album has stretches that lean too far into country for my full enthusiasm, there are some great lyrics there. So not my favorite OtR show but still a really good one.
This picture pretty much describes what it's like in Raleigh right now. People are playing whenever and wherever they want, and walking down the street with an instrument garners at least a few invitations to join in.
Saw Midlake on Wednesday at Dan's Silverleaf in Denton, TX. I've been waiting for them to play a local show since I moved to Dallas in 2010. As the band started in Denton where the group members when to school and studied music at UNT, it was a special concert. Also Tim Smith, who did vocals on their first three albums has left the band, so another band member, Eric Pulido, has taken over vocals. His voice is different, but he seemed to do well and they played songs off of most of their albums, thought not so much The Courage of Others, and of course some from their upcoming album, Antiphon.
Well last night I was at the House of Blues in Chicago for a show that I did not choose: I was chauffeuring/accompanying my daughter and her friend. An interesting evening was had by all.
Opening act: Dagoba, from Marseille. Competent and passionately enough done metal, but I didn't find it especially interesting. Granted I had never heard them before, but the songs all sounded pretty similar to me and consisted mostly of a dominant high-speed drum beat and some screaming. And the lead singer was one of those guys who believes that the way you show you are rock and roll is by making sure that between every.single.song you (a) say f*** three times, (b) pour water over your head and spit it over the audience (c) tell everyone you love them and (d) make everybody fist pump and make the horns. It just feels like a combination of juvenile and fascist to me. And the rhythms were so fast it would have even been a challenge to headbang unless you had inadvertently stepped on an exposed power cable. The crowd seemed pleased, but I've heard more interesting metal.
Main act: Dir En Grey from Japan. This was really interesting, but I am still uncertain what it all meant. Much more musically varied and dramatic, a range of song forms and vocal styles ranging from a pure falsetto through J-pop worthy singing to banshee shrieks and gutteral growls. Really accomplished and striking video graphics playing on a screen behind the band. Lead singer began in a black kimono with a black veil that shrouded his head for several songs before pulling it back to reveal skeletal make-up. This photo is from Google but it's from the same tour:
The whole thing was very theatrical in a very Japanese kind of way. (As my daughter commented, the first band, although French, were indistinguishable from similar American bands; the Japanese band conveyed a sense that they were doing something different, maybe even something different from what we thought). Here's what I mean about being unsure what it meant: at one point one of the more compelling songs (at least to ears who had only heard them before once on a burned CD played in the car on the way down to educate me) was accompanied by a moving video montage that was composed of historical and fictional footage of the atomic bomb being dropped on Japan, of Japan surrendering, of Americans waving flags and rejoicing, of dying infants and destroyed communities. So suddenly I have a Japanese band with the singer dressed as a skeleton/dead person showing a Chicago audience pictures of Americans killing Japanese children while singing in Japanese...and the audience are jumping, screaming, fist-pumping and doing the metal horns. And I am standing there at the fringe of the mosh pit trying to figure out what is actually going on - what the band want to say and how this is working as cross-cultural communication. I still have no idea. At the end of the encore the singer revealed that he knows at least two words of English by screaming "Last Song" eight or nine times in a rising crescendo, which seemed an effective way at least of getting that message across. The last video involved a frantic collage of dancing Hindu gods, gorillas, and women on motorcycles and may have had something to do with religion and death. The crowd loved it; I was left unsure whether any of us actually got it.
Driving 3 hours back from Chicago after midnight in the rain drinking energy drinks to stay safe and then needing another hour to wind down when I got home and getting to bed at 3 a.m.: I am getting too old for this.
On Wednesday hit The 7th Street Entry for three local (and varied) acts. First up was the electro pop of Wiping Out Thousands. They were better than the last time I saw them (I think the smaller room worked to their advantage), but still have a ways to go on their live show. Up next was rapper Greg Grease. Grease was seriously great. Brought up some other local rappers on some songs, had a DJ that still scratches, and generally slayed. Finally, there was indie rock band The Cloak Ox. They were very good, but I don't think I was in the right head space after the visceral feel of of both WOT and Greg Grease. While the music was great, I just felt a bit bored.
Saturday night. HOVA!!!
Jay Z was seriously great. I've seen a lot of bands (obviously), but Jay seemed sincere about his enjoyment of the show. He mentioned that he regretted "sleeping on" St. Paul. He thought we'd get up for the hits, but the raucousness of the crowd was constant through the hits and the deep cuts. It was a comment much different than the usual ego stroking of the locals, because he straight up admitted St. Paul had won respect it didn't have previously. On the one hand that's an insult, because it goes back to the stupid coastal 'flyover state' mentality, but at least he was willing to admit he was wrong. The only real negative of the show was that he turned over 10 minutes of his set (when he completely left the stage) to TImbaland who is touring as his DJ. Timba just played some of the famous beats he's written, and generally bored the crowd. It almost wrecked the show, but when you can return from the break with "Somewhere in America"/"Big Pimpin'"/"Dirt Off Your Shoulder" it gets the crowd right back into it just a bit.
That's me second from the left at The Current's 9th Birthday on Friday. It was a great show (Har Mar Superstar, Lizzo, Strange Names, and Actual Wolf). Lizzo was my favorite local album of 2013 and she sure proved why. Girl is a force of nature.
I saw the Tedeschi Trucks Band at the Warner Theatre in DC Saturday night. Beautiful venue, I'd only been there once before, and that was to see the Wiggles. Slightly different experience this time. The Warner reminds me of the Fox Theater in Atlanta, which is high praise. Show was excellent, there was an opening act called The London something-or-other (I can't remember and they weren't announced before the show). Blues-rock power trio, mostly originals, good stuff. As for the headliners, that's a big band, 11 people. Horn section, backing vocalists, two drummers, bass, Kofi Burbridge on keys/flute and, of course, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks. Derek Trucks is an amazing player, I don't think he said a single word to the crowd the whole night but his guitar had plenty to say. Best slide guitarist I've ever seen. Susan Tedeschi is a great guitarist in her own right, and a powerful singer, reminds me of Bonnie Raitt but her voice has a different quality to it. Sold-out show, the crowd was enthusiastic and the band responded. They said it was the last show of this leg of their American Tour, I think they're going to Japan next. Well worth checking out if they come your way.
1) Roky did say 'Thank you' to the crowd once;
2) Roky seemed genuinely happy, which was wonderful to see;
3) The bassist needed to tell Roky what song was next before every song, so while he's doing leaps and bounds better than he was, it's clear he wouldn't be able to do something like a tour without significant help;
4) The band as a whole seemed to not only respect Roky, but to genuinely love him; and
5) The crowd was happier than just about any concert crowd I've ever been in. Everyone just spent the whole set beaming and soaking it in.
This was an absolutely wonderful experience. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it here (I may have, I don't exactly hide it), but I was diagnosed with OCD about 20 years ago and have dealt with it ever since. So to see someone overcome a much more significant mental illness and do what he did last night was awe inspiring.
Here's a picture I took with my phone at the start of "You're Gonna Miss Me":
Pixies last night - Fun show, zero banter, they just let it rip. Even better for those more familiar with their stuff, as most of the crowd seemed to be. Unvarnished, tough, loud!
Thanks for posting that Plong. I'd seen the aftermath, but hadn't seen the original review yet. Scathing is the right word for it.
Tom Briehan writes at Stereogum but got his start at the Baltimore City Paper. He's been tweeting about the CP getting bought by the Baltimore Sun a couple weeks ago and how horrid that is for Baltimore. I have to think this whole situation adds fuel to that fire.
Seeing The Sonics tonight. A little OG garage rock for my Saturday.
Comments
Prior to the show I saw that Titus frontman Patrick Stickles was working the merch table so I HAD to go exchange a few words with him. He's a fascinating guy: 1) Named his band after a Shakespearean play; 2) Wrote a concept album centering around the Civil War; 3) Wrote this ridiculously great review of the first Replacements show for SPIN; 4) Does personal singing telegrams in the NYC area for $50; 5) He wrote a song about his eating disorder; and 6) Titus' next album is concept album about dealing with manic depression, which I believe he has. He's awesome. So I had a brief chat with him and saw a tour poster I needed desperately to buy after the show (it has a "Manifest Destiny" theme, which is so Titus Andronicus it's ridiculous).
Anyway.
Lost Boy ? is a punk band out of Brooklyn with a poppier sound than most of their cohorts. I grabbed their free stuff on Bandcamp a couple weeks ago when I saw they were opening and it's quite enjoyable. The music translated well to the stage and they were a fun opener.
Titus took the stage with just Stickles telling a story about the rest of the band not being there because they had a 'petty fight' earlier in the day. He said Tom Petty's best album was Full Moon Fever they said it was Damn the Torpedoes. This looks so cheesy written out, and it was cheesy when he said it, but you know what? He pulled it off. As expected he got a little way into the song and the band joined him on stage. The next 1:15 or so was seriously rocking with humorous/interesting monologues sprinkled in. The best was after "A More Perfect Union". During that tune a bro started crowd surfing...barefoot. After the song, Stickles noted that he wasn't going to make people not crowdsurf even though it's "incredibly selfish", but if anyone did it they had to wear shoes because no one wants your disgusting bare foot in their face. It was a fantastic rebuke of this guy and he didn't do any more crowd surfing that night.
The band played most of their best songs (although not "My Eating Disorder" which I was hoping for) and covered Beck's "Devil's Haircut" then finished the main set. After they left the stage the drummer went to the merch table and started selling stuff. As I saw him tell someone there wasn't an encore I went to buy the poster and a 7" split single with Free Energy. While paying, though, the rest of the band retook the stage and was looking for the drummer because they decided to do an encore after all. I was more than a little embarrassed as he quickly found my change and ran back onstage (the bassist started doing a beatbox beat and Stickles sang Ben Harper's "Steal My Kisses" over the beat to kill time). It was worth the embarrassement though, because the entire encore was Replacements' covers. "Can't Hardly Wait" (awesome), "Bastards of the Young" (hit and miss on the lyrics, but still great to hear), and a bit of "Treatment Bound" (too short), finished the show and sent everyone in the place out of the Entry absolutely delirious.
The show was so great.
Craig
Down there for shows all day Saturday, including the pride of Cleveland Ernie Krivda and Howard Levy's Chicago Chevere; the latter was fun, as I was standing off to the side directly behind Howard - cool sense of what it looks/sounds like from onstage. On the main stage that night was Gregory Porter, who is the real deal; then Rudresh Mahanthappa, doing a very hard-edged show with his "Gamak" group; and Jason Moran and his "Fats Waller Dance Party" - a good but curious show, during about half of which he wears this gigantic Fats head:
But a highlight was two shows with the drummer Hamid Drake, one with his 'Chicago Trio' of Harrison Bankhead and Ernest Dawkins, which was very moving and spiritual; and in a quartet with William Parker, Kidd Jordan and Cooper Moore, where they just blew the doors off for 45 minutes. He was artist in residence for the Fest, and wish I had seen his other sets.
We skipped Sunday night, where I am told Lupe Fiasco showed up to perform with Robert Glasper. It was the first time I really "did" the Jazz Fest, as it's in a much better location than in past years. I am ready for more shows - and won't have to wait long, as Hyde Park Jazz Fest is coming up at the end of the month!
Doofy - Sounds like you had a great weekend!
Craig
Going on sale this week for local shows in November: Kanye West, Jay Z, My Bloody Valentine, Elton John...
Kanye and Jay Z are going to be purchased, but MBV chose a horrid venue that has terrible muddy sound. So, I'm not sure. Elton John might get considered at another time, but not for this November!
Craig
Just ridiculous...all free. Definitely planning to be downtown for Eddie Palmieri Thurs and L. Subramamaniam Fri...hopefully more over the weekend. Esp those of you who are more familiar with the African artists, please LMK if you see any names not to miss.
Eddie's a great player - I wish I knew enough about music to know what he's doing. Only way I can describe it is he takes those Latin chords and turns them inside out; spinning them out into jazz improv, but always tethered to dance music. I'm going to look around for Eddie solo recordings.
Here's a video of the Orquestra in full swing, you will see what I mean. And then there is guitarist Nelson Gonzalez: Wow.
It actually starts tomorrow with a half-dozen shows simultaneously across downtown Raleigh and a six stage street festival on the weekend. I don't think there are enough people who play Bluegrass to fill up all the time.
ETA: The plan is to see Steep Canyon Rangers, Della Mae, Peter Rowan, and Nora Jane Struthers on Wednesday, and enjoy the street festival on Friday and Saturday (Jim Lauderdale, Chatham County Line, Si Kahn, Missy Raines, Old Man Luedecke, Bryan Sutton, among dozens of others).
This picture pretty much describes what it's like in Raleigh right now. People are playing whenever and wherever they want, and walking down the street with an instrument garners at least a few invitations to join in.
Craig
After this weekend, I'll need a Bluegrass antidote. If BG is high, tight, fast, and, well, white, perhaps I should listen to Dub.
Opening act: Dagoba, from Marseille. Competent and passionately enough done metal, but I didn't find it especially interesting. Granted I had never heard them before, but the songs all sounded pretty similar to me and consisted mostly of a dominant high-speed drum beat and some screaming. And the lead singer was one of those guys who believes that the way you show you are rock and roll is by making sure that between every.single.song you (a) say f*** three times, (b) pour water over your head and spit it over the audience (c) tell everyone you love them and (d) make everybody fist pump and make the horns. It just feels like a combination of juvenile and fascist to me. And the rhythms were so fast it would have even been a challenge to headbang unless you had inadvertently stepped on an exposed power cable. The crowd seemed pleased, but I've heard more interesting metal.
Main act: Dir En Grey from Japan. This was really interesting, but I am still uncertain what it all meant. Much more musically varied and dramatic, a range of song forms and vocal styles ranging from a pure falsetto through J-pop worthy singing to banshee shrieks and gutteral growls. Really accomplished and striking video graphics playing on a screen behind the band. Lead singer began in a black kimono with a black veil that shrouded his head for several songs before pulling it back to reveal skeletal make-up. This photo is from Google but it's from the same tour:
The whole thing was very theatrical in a very Japanese kind of way. (As my daughter commented, the first band, although French, were indistinguishable from similar American bands; the Japanese band conveyed a sense that they were doing something different, maybe even something different from what we thought). Here's what I mean about being unsure what it meant: at one point one of the more compelling songs (at least to ears who had only heard them before once on a burned CD played in the car on the way down to educate me) was accompanied by a moving video montage that was composed of historical and fictional footage of the atomic bomb being dropped on Japan, of Japan surrendering, of Americans waving flags and rejoicing, of dying infants and destroyed communities. So suddenly I have a Japanese band with the singer dressed as a skeleton/dead person showing a Chicago audience pictures of Americans killing Japanese children while singing in Japanese...and the audience are jumping, screaming, fist-pumping and doing the metal horns. And I am standing there at the fringe of the mosh pit trying to figure out what is actually going on - what the band want to say and how this is working as cross-cultural communication. I still have no idea. At the end of the encore the singer revealed that he knows at least two words of English by screaming "Last Song" eight or nine times in a rising crescendo, which seemed an effective way at least of getting that message across. The last video involved a frantic collage of dancing Hindu gods, gorillas, and women on motorcycles and may have had something to do with religion and death. The crowd loved it; I was left unsure whether any of us actually got it.
Driving 3 hours back from Chicago after midnight in the rain drinking energy drinks to stay safe and then needing another hour to wind down when I got home and getting to bed at 3 a.m.: I am getting too old for this.
On Wednesday hit The 7th Street Entry for three local (and varied) acts. First up was the electro pop of Wiping Out Thousands. They were better than the last time I saw them (I think the smaller room worked to their advantage), but still have a ways to go on their live show. Up next was rapper Greg Grease. Grease was seriously great. Brought up some other local rappers on some songs, had a DJ that still scratches, and generally slayed. Finally, there was indie rock band The Cloak Ox. They were very good, but I don't think I was in the right head space after the visceral feel of of both WOT and Greg Grease. While the music was great, I just felt a bit bored.
Saturday night. HOVA!!!
Jay Z was seriously great. I've seen a lot of bands (obviously), but Jay seemed sincere about his enjoyment of the show. He mentioned that he regretted "sleeping on" St. Paul. He thought we'd get up for the hits, but the raucousness of the crowd was constant through the hits and the deep cuts. It was a comment much different than the usual ego stroking of the locals, because he straight up admitted St. Paul had won respect it didn't have previously. On the one hand that's an insult, because it goes back to the stupid coastal 'flyover state' mentality, but at least he was willing to admit he was wrong. The only real negative of the show was that he turned over 10 minutes of his set (when he completely left the stage) to TImbaland who is touring as his DJ. Timba just played some of the famous beats he's written, and generally bored the crowd. It almost wrecked the show, but when you can return from the break with "Somewhere in America"/"Big Pimpin'"/"Dirt Off Your Shoulder" it gets the crowd right back into it just a bit.
Craig
That's me second from the left at The Current's 9th Birthday on Friday. It was a great show (Har Mar Superstar, Lizzo, Strange Names, and Actual Wolf). Lizzo was my favorite local album of 2013 and she sure proved why. Girl is a force of nature.
Craig
Har Mar Superstar. I have no idea how he is able to sing in that position, but he does.
Craig
I saw the Tedeschi Trucks Band at the Warner Theatre in DC Saturday night. Beautiful venue, I'd only been there once before, and that was to see the Wiggles. Slightly different experience this time. The Warner reminds me of the Fox Theater in Atlanta, which is high praise. Show was excellent, there was an opening act called The London something-or-other (I can't remember and they weren't announced before the show). Blues-rock power trio, mostly originals, good stuff. As for the headliners, that's a big band, 11 people. Horn section, backing vocalists, two drummers, bass, Kofi Burbridge on keys/flute and, of course, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks. Derek Trucks is an amazing player, I don't think he said a single word to the crowd the whole night but his guitar had plenty to say. Best slide guitarist I've ever seen. Susan Tedeschi is a great guitarist in her own right, and a powerful singer, reminds me of Bonnie Raitt but her voice has a different quality to it. Sold-out show, the crowd was enthusiastic and the band responded. They said it was the last show of this leg of their American Tour, I think they're going to Japan next. Well worth checking out if they come your way.
Craig
A few other notes:
1) Roky did say 'Thank you' to the crowd once;
2) Roky seemed genuinely happy, which was wonderful to see;
3) The bassist needed to tell Roky what song was next before every song, so while he's doing leaps and bounds better than he was, it's clear he wouldn't be able to do something like a tour without significant help;
4) The band as a whole seemed to not only respect Roky, but to genuinely love him; and
5) The crowd was happier than just about any concert crowd I've ever been in. Everyone just spent the whole set beaming and soaking it in.
This was an absolutely wonderful experience. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it here (I may have, I don't exactly hide it), but I was diagnosed with OCD about 20 years ago and have dealt with it ever since. So to see someone overcome a much more significant mental illness and do what he did last night was awe inspiring.
Here's a picture I took with my phone at the start of "You're Gonna Miss Me":
Craig
Pixies last night - Fun show, zero banter, they just let it rip. Even better for those more familiar with their stuff, as most of the crowd seemed to be. Unvarnished, tough, loud!
Bonus: Hologram Kelly Clarkson.
Tom Briehan writes at Stereogum but got his start at the Baltimore City Paper. He's been tweeting about the CP getting bought by the Baltimore Sun a couple weeks ago and how horrid that is for Baltimore. I have to think this whole situation adds fuel to that fire.
Seeing The Sonics tonight. A little OG garage rock for my Saturday.
Craig