Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Hannah Montana (with Kay and Stacy), live in Denver
We just got a call from ex-Boston rocker and devout Red Sox fan Kay Hanley, who actually found herself stuck in Colorado for the first two games of the World Series. Well, maybe "stuck" isn't exactly the right word: she was among friends, including Stacy Jones (bio: Letters to Cleo drummer, Veruca Salt drummer, American Hi-Fi frontman) and AmHi-Fi guitarist Jamie Arentzen.
But the real shocker is what brought them all to Denver. The answer?
Hannah freaking Montana.
Jones is the music director on the blockbuster tour by Disney's hugest teen idol (aka Miley Cyrus, daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus). You'll perhaps recall that the tour is so ginormous, and sold out so quickly, and sparked such huge scalper price gouging, that a U2-like kerfluffle ensued, with angry moms and dads up in arms. Jones brought in Arentzen to play guitar in Hannah's backing band, and also asked Hanley to come sing backups. As you might expect, they're not really living the sex-drugs-rocknroll lifestyle (not that they were, anyway; Hanley's married with children). But they're finding plenty of ways to have fun: for updates, check Hanley's blog.
So what's it like touring behind every red-blooded eight-year-old's favorite rock star? Well, there's shopping at Barney's in Seattle. There's nightly exposure to "18,000 young girls screaming." And, most importantly, "great hotels, a sweet tour bus with door-to-door service, awesome band and crew, sold out arenas, and a generous star for whom I am happy to be a sideman," says Hanley. "No worries, no hassles. I am so spoiled that I almost feel guilty. Wait, I feel guilty about everything so perhaps my guilt is not a good barometer. Suffice it to say that this is the best job EVER."
Plus, she's getting to know the boys in the opening band -- next-in-line teen princes the Jonas Brothers -- and taking notes on the purity-ring movement, the Christian evangelical version of straight-edge. Look for more reports soon.
-- Matt Ashare
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Finding music has become simpler than second grade math lately.
You don’t even need to belong to a prestigious trading community (
which are learning to reinvent themselves); just Google for a Sendspace link, or read any music
blog, or start a music blog, or look at a MySpace page, or
download an album that the band won’t even make you pay for.
There’s no need to steal, when a lot of it’s sitting on the curb with a
hand scrawled “Free” sign slapped across the front. Obviously, though,
with this ongoing worldwide yard sale of music comes a lot of readily
available music that’s absolute crap, which is why it’s kind of
exciting to find ourselves at a half-full Great Scott on a Monday
night, totally blown away by
some band from Brooklyn, as we were a few weeks ago.
The few critics who’ve written about
Yeasayer, Brooklyn’s latest underground cause celebré, have noted similarities to Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon (with a dash of
David Byrne)
- likely because of their pastiche of echoing synthesizers and
African-sounding melodies, but that’s a limiting description of the music, though it’s undoubtedly tribal/rhythmic (take that,
Sasha Frere-Jones!).
Yeasayer’s textural amalgams of sounds are so multi-faceted that the
songs are like games of “name-that-instrument.” Their debut
All Hour Cymbals (We Are Free), feels like the perfect melding of innumerable influences, from middle eastern music, to
TV on the Radio.“2080”
for example, the opening track, is an apocalyptic tune (and who doesn’t
like those?); which ambles in with four part harmonies, and lead singer
Chris Keating’s confession “I can’t sleep when I think about the times
we’re living in,” then collapses in a mishmash of shouts and drums.
It’s urgent, dark, at times indiscernible - and wholly addictive. “Sunrise” is
decidedly gospel-like, grounded in falsettoed “ooo’s” and handclaps,
and spiked with low, pounding pianos, birds chirping, and - is that a
little girl screaming?
In a way, Yeasayer is a testament to how the availability of so much music (
despite the RIAA's efforts to make it not so) works. Their music is weird, it’s derivative of, well,
everything - but at the same time it’s refreshing and fantastically innovatory.
DOWNLOAD: Yeasayer, "2080"DOWNLOAD: Yeasayer, "Sunrise"
Monday, October 29, 2007
If it's good enough for JoJo, it's good enough for emo.
Over the summer we brought you Foxboro's favorite teenage pop-tart launching her comeback with a cover/rework/response to Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls," itself a thinly-veiled cover of the Boomer national anthem, "Stand By Me." Stop the presses: now Casey Crescenzo -- formerly of the Receiving End of Sirens, now leading his own band, the Dear Hunter -- has issued his own cover of Kingston's chart-topper.
This, kids, is what emo does best: when emo was still emo, nobody could sing worth a damn. Now that most emo kids can, we end up with pop muzik the way it would sound if Max Martin shopped at Hot Topic. We're sure there are people who still consider this a bad thing, but it sure as hell is entertaining.
Next-levelness? Check the drum-machine breakdown about 2/3 of the way in: if the concept-record thing doesn't work out, we encourage Casey to switch to beatmaking.
DOWNLOAD: Casey Crescenzo, "Beautiful Girls" (mp3) (via AbsolutePunk)
Previously:
BOSTONPHOENIX: Is It In The Stars?: The Rise of Casey Crescenzo's The Dear Hunter (2007)
THEPHOENIX.COM: Dear Hunter Q&A (2006)
Friday, October 26, 2007
Spoon, Don't Make Me A Target (Live in Boston)
Spoon, Underdog (Live in Boston)
Spoon, Black Like Me (Live in Boston)
Here, in its entirety, is the set Spoon played to a roomful of about 30 WFNX listeners and friends-of-OTD last week at First Act, prior to their big shew at the Roxy. By now everyone knows the single, but if you listen to only one of these we highly recommend "Black Like Me," which kills and feels like the "What Goes Around" to Underdog's "Sexy Back." Also, we guarantee you've never heard "Target" played exactly this way. Nor are you likely to again.
Random fact we learned: the Boston-based company that does Spoon's website (also Madonna's, Mike Jones's, and ASHLEY TISDALE's) employs, among others, Certainly, Sir's Nick Hubben and a couple dudes from Dear Leader. Sweet!
And as bonus tracks, here's the mp3s from the above set:
DOWNLOAD: Spoon, "Don't Call Me a Target (OTD Alive)" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Spoon, "Underdog (OTD Alive)" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Spoon, "Black Like Me (OTD Alive)" (mp3)
Lollapalooza flick by Carina MastrocolaIn addition to
OTD’s Friday, Halloween spirited MPFreeee goodness, here’s another pre-weekend treat: Checking our e-mail this morning and we had a happy message from the folks over at
Tourfilter (how do they always know about this shit first?) -
M.I.A. will play the Palladium on November 28! It’s not up on M.I.A.’s
MySpace, or horrible, neon flashing
website yet (we can’t handle the clashing/flashing imagery pre-coffee on a Friday morning), but a quick trip to
MassConcerts confirms it - the goddess of dark, daring, chirping, grunting, bumping, Pixies and “Rump Shaker”-thieving awesomeness (pre-
In Rainbows, “Paper Planes” was on repeat on our iTunes for, oh, three months or so) will grab Worcester by the balls for a night, with the Illinois-based hip hop duo
The Cool Kids. Holy Cross may never be the same. Tickets are on sale like NOW, so
get on it!
DOWNLOAD: M.I.A. "Paper Planes" (via The shiny new Hype Machine)VIDEO: M.I.A. "Bird Flu"
Damon & Naomi are calling their current tour “The Roaring Silence Revue,” a reference to the combination of their own subdued-but-steely folk sound and the deep-bass noise-rock of their tourmates, Japanese trio Boris. D&N are working their new Within These Walls (20/20/20), and even though their first CD after the breakup of Galaxie 500 was called More Sad Hits, this might be the saddest yet, inspired, they say, by a year of digging into Frank Sinatra and the weepiest albums of his that they could find — Only the Lonely and No One Cares. Combine Ol’ Blue Eyes’ long, slow breath control and unsparing emotional delivery with D&N’s abiding passion for ’60s Brit folk-rock and you’ve got the picture: by the time you get to Naomi’s album closer, the goth mother-daughter psychodrama dialogue “Cruel Queen,” you’ll be crying in your chai latte. Along for the tour are longtime D&N aides-de-camp saxophonist Bhob Rainey, trumpeter Greg Kelley, guitarist Michio Kurihara, plus cellist Helena Espvall from the band Espers on cello. (All are on the new disc.) And Kurihara — the Neil Young of Japan — will do double-duty in both bands | Middle East downstairs, 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge | October 29 | 617.864.EAST.
— Jon Garelick
Thursday, October 25, 2007
DOWNLOAD: Club D'Elf, "Halloween" (mp3)
Not the Misfits song, but instead a setting of the Harry Behn kids' poem, in a musical setting that comes from an odd source: Club D'elf drummer Erik Kerr's mom, who used to sing this tune to him in his romper-room days. With Kerr providing a rare vocal, Mike Rivard's postjazz supergroup vamps it up into a shmooove R&B tune, then assaults the melody with spook-city organ, ominous electronic noise, and a DJ scratching in B-movie horror dialogue. You wake up with this in your crate, you're more stoked than a Stormtrooper-masked seven year old with a bag full of the big candy bars. Happy haunting.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
If we didn't know better, we'd wonder whether the headline of the Boston Music Awards nomination press release was meant solely to appease OTD: after all, we know for damn sure that nobody else who reads BMA press releases -- i.e., Globe, Herald, Dig, your mom -- gives a shit about Killswitch Engage. How're we supposed to complain about the BMA's when our favorite Mass Metal destoryers get a league-leading seven nominations? (Scroll down for the full list.)
Well, as usual, they make it easy. Let's start at the bottom of the list, which mentions that Bobby Brown and Buffalo Tom are being inducted into the Hall of Fame. Let's repeat that: Bobby Brown and Buffalo Tom are being inducted into a hall of fame. The same one. On the same night. Far be it from us to suggest that Bobby and Buff aren't in the same league with Mission of Burma and Gang Green: we'll leave that to the message boards. But couldn't the BMA's have spared Mr. Whitney the indignity of being inducted the same year as everyone's favorite legacy-altrocking real estate agent? For shame!
This year's announcement also suggests that even the BMA's are beginning to run out of awards to bestow upon Aerosmith: having won every possible award at least twice, the Aeros are now being slotted in for "honorary chairman" (Joey Kramer) and a first-ever "personal achievment award" (ailing bassist Tom Hamilton).
On to our usual departments. This year's winner for most egregious "he slept here once" nominee: John Mayer, with three. Other non-residents include longtime LA girl Aimee Mann, recent departure DJ-C (now in Chicago, though he spent most of the year here), Frank Smith (Austin, but ditto), Isis (LA), Mr. Lif (who knows), and G. Love (Philly, last we checked, which wasn't recently).
The view from 10,000 feet is unchanged: the BMA's spend most of their time trying way (way, way, way) too hard to make the hub-of-the-universe case for Boston's mainstream rock relevance, and end up reminding you of shit that you already knew and wish you could forget (see: Boys Like Girls, five nominations; Click Five, two). And they do far too little to zero in on the up-and-coming bands who're making the most exciting music in town (we predict eight nominations for Drug Rug in, oh, about 2012, after they've moved to Athens or Portland or somewhere that gives a shit about pure awesomeness).
Also: can someone please stop distributing nomination ballots to the people who keep telling us how "great" the Boston folk scene is? It was over in 1968. Get over it.
As far as we can tell, there are exactly three good surprises on this list: Alana V from Medicated Kisses is nominated for Local Female Singer of the Year, which she is; Township are nominated for Best New Rock Band, which they may or may not be but deserve to be considered for; and the Dresden Dolls are nominated only twice.
In other news, the BMA ceremonies are moving back to the Orpheum on December 1: Avalon, of course, is out of business. Tickets are on sale now. Online voting begins Friday.
And the nominees are . . .
Act of the Year
Boys Like Girls
Dinosaur Jr.
Dream Theater
Killswitch Engage
Lori McKenna
Shadows Fall
Album of the Year (Major)
Boys Like Girls Self-titled
John Mayer "Continuum"
Josh Ritter "Historical Conquest of Josh Ritter"
Killswitch Engage "As Daylight Dies"
Lori McKenna "Unglamorous"
Shadows Fall "Threads Of Life"
Album of the Year (Indie)
Big D & The Kids Table "Strictly Rude"
Buffalo Tom "Three Easy Pieces"
Converge "No Heroes"
Martin Sexton "Seeds"
Matt Nathanson "Some Mad Hope"
Melissa Ferrick "In The Eyes of Strangers"
Patty Griffin "Children Running Through"
Sarah Borges & The Broken Singles "Diamonds In The Dark"
The Receiving End of Sirens "The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi"
The Slip "Eisenhower"
National Male Vocalist of the Year
Aaron Lewis (Staind)
Brad Parker (Aberdeen City)
Howard Jones (Killswitch Engage)
John Mayer
Josh Ritter
Kyle Patrick (The Click Five)
Martin Johnson (Boys Like Girls)
Matt Nathanson
National Female Vocalist of the Year
Aimee Mann
Amanda Palmer (Dresden Dolls)
Deb Talan (The Weepies)
Jo Dee Messina
JoJo
Juliana Hatfield
Lori McKenna
Melissa Ferrick
Paula Cole
Local Male Vocalist of the Year
Chris O'Brien
Eli "Paperboy" Reed
Jake Brennan
Pete Kilpatrick
Ryan Montbleau
Thom Moran (Bon Savants)
Tim Blane
Will Dailey
Local Female Vocalist of the Year
Alanna V. (Medicated Kisses)
Anna Price (The Silver Lining)
Aoife O'Donovan (Crooked Still)
Casey Desmond
Heidi Lee (The Snowleopards)
Holly (HUMANWINE)
Reva Williams (Gretel)
Rose Polenzani
Sarah Borges
Song of the Year
"Car Crash" (Matt Nathanson)
"Jenny" (The Click Five)
"My Curse" (Killswitch Engage)
"Satellite" (Guster)
"The Great Escape" (Boys Like Girls)
"Unfortunates" (State Radio)
"Unglamorous" (Lori McKenna)
"Waiting On The World To Change" (John Mayer)
Local Song of the Year
"Even Rats" (The Slip)
"I'm on Fire" (The Snowleopards)
"Moving Forward" (Protokoll)
"Pleasure Pleasure" (Bang Camaro)
"Radar" (Dear Leader)
"Supreme Girl" (The Sterns)
"Sweetest Goodbye" (Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers)
Outstanding Pop Act of the Year
Bon Savants
Boys Like Girls
The Click Five
The Everyday Visuals
The Snowleopards
The Sterns
Winterpills
Outstanding Rock Band of the Year
Aberdeen City
Bang Camaro
Buffalo Tom
Monty Are I
The Slip
Township
Outstanding Metal/Hardcore Band of the Year
All That Remains
Converge
Isis
Killswitch Engage
Shadows Fall
The Red Chord
Unearth
Outstanding Folk Act of the Year
Catie Curtis
Chris Pureka
Chris Smither
Crooked Still
Ellis Paul
Mark Erelli
Patty Griffin
Outstanding DJ/Dance Act of the Year
DJ BC
DJ C
Eli Wilkie
Porsches On The Autobahn
Steve Porter
The Campaign For Real Time
UV Protection
Outstanding Punk Band of the Year
Big D & The Kids Table
Darkbuster
Dropkick Murphys
Piebald
Street Dogs
Super Power
The Unseen
Vanna
Outstanding Americana Act of the Year
Dennis Brennan
Frank Smith
Girls Guns & Glory
Jabe
Sarah Borges & The Broken Singles
Session Americana
Three Day Threshold
Outstanding Funk/Jam Band of the Year
G. Love & Special Sauce
Lucy Vincent
Spiritual Rez
State Radio
The Eclectic Collective
Westbound Train
Outstanding Rap/Hip-Hop Act of the Year
7L & Esoteric
Akrobatik
Dre Robinson
D-Tension
Letia Larok
Mr. Lif
Slaine
Termanology
Outstanding Jazz Act of the Year
Club d'Elf
Dominique Eade
Hiromi
Jacques Chanier
Quartet Of Happiness
The Blueprint Project
The Leah Randazzo Group
Outstanding Singer/Songwriter of the Year
Alastair Moock
Chad Perrone
Dennis Brennan
Ellis Paul
Josh Ritter
Kristin Hersh
Paula Cole
Willy Mason
Outstanding Blues/Soul Act of the Year
Chris Fitz Band
Dwight & Nicole
Eli "Paperboy" Reed & the True Loves
Peter Gammons
Sam Bigelow
The Silver Lining
World's Greatest Sinners
Outstanding World Music Act of the Year
Atlas Soul
Roots of Creation
Soulfege
Spiritual Rez
The Superpowers
Westbound Train
Zili Misik
Outstanding Live Act of the Year
Bang Camaro
Dresden Dolls
Killswitch Engage
Matt Nathanson
Robby Roadsteamer
Session Americana
State Radio
The Campaign For Real Time
The Eclectic Collective
Best New Act of the Year
Hallelujah the Hills
Jen Murdza
Kid:Nap:Kin
Medicated Kisses
My So-Called Friend
The Dear Hunter
Township
Zili Misik
Local Producer of the Year
Adam Dutkiewicz (Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, Unearth)
Crit Harmon (Lori McKenna, Martin Sexton)
Ed Valauskas (Eli "Paperboy" Reed, Peter Gammons)
Matt Squire (Boys Like Girls, The Receiving End of Sirens, Monty Are I)
Mike Denneen (Fountains of Wayne)
Scott Riebling (Fall Out Boy, The Academy Is, My So-Called Friend)
Zeus (Shadows Fall, Hatebreed)
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Michael Potvin of Fantasy Mirrors and the Campaign for Real-Time: "Pat, Check This Out, or, A List of Bass Lines That I Dig"
1. Steve Miller Band, "Serenade"
2. Paul McCartney, "Goodnight Tonight"
3. Justice Vs Simian, "Never Be Alone"
4. Joe Jackson, "Steppin' Out"
5. Chromeo, "100%"
Fantasy Mirrors play Happy Endings' Halloween party at the Paradise Lounge this Wednesday.
The triple-super-secret long-advance torrent site OINK.CD -- perhaps the most advanced music-sharing community since Napster, and certainly the most guarded -- was raided this morning by Dutch and British police following what authorities described as a two-year investigation centered in Amsterdam and Middlesbrough. An unidentified 24-year-old man was arrested. One British website said the investigation was abetted by Interpol, who, by the way, we never liked. The BBC says the Cleveland Police were also involved, which is another reason we're glad we beat the fucking Indians. Don't bother googling for a site cache: it's gone.
On the message boards, one poster summed up the site's status in a single word: "bacon."
Whether this will be another Bay of Pirates or a full-stop shutdown remains to be seen. We mean good lord, man, where are P-Fork readers supposed to go after reading this?
Unlike most file-sharing communities, Oink was far from anonymous. The site kept -- and was in fact built around -- meticulous records of who uploaded and downloaded what to whom (with users required to maintain an average ratio of downloaded to uploaded material) and many usernames were apparently tied to IP addresses, and in some cases PayPal or credit-card accounts. In fact, as we often mentioned, if you were an international law enforcement agency or a record company spook seeking to create the world's greatest filesharing entrapment scheme, you probably couldn't have done much better than Oink. Let the conspiracy theories begin.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Queens of the Stone Age, In the Fade (Live in Boston)
Queens of the Stone Age, 3's & 7's (Live in Boston)
Queens of the Stone Age, Hanging Tree (Live in Boston)
Josh Homme stopped by to play a few songs for us and about 35 other lucky stiffs on Boylston Street last week before QOTSA's proper gig. We had our doubts about what the hell Homme would do without an electric guitar, and we were doubly dubious when we found out he'd requested no amplification of any kind: no wires, no monitors, no PAs, just two guitars and singing into the wind. Surprise: it was fucking awesome.
For those of you who want to take this set with you, we ripped the mp3s off the board and posted below: oddly, though, the sound may not be as good as the videos, since we basically had the equivalent of three stereo mics pointed at those dudes, while the board recording is taken from two room mics mounted at floor level from the corners of the stage. If enough people beg, we may eventually try to edit and post the video for "Hollow" and "I Never Came." But first we'll be polishing off the Spoon set that Caitlin blogged about earlier this week. Expect video and mp3s from that set in the next few days.
Also, we're gonna start inviting some of our friends along to these gigs. First dibs goes to anyone with a better video camera than we have, especially one that has the Panasonic logo on it and at least one XLR input. Holler at us if you want to get up close and personal. Upcoming gigs in the OTD Alive series include Mates of State/Via Audio, Jimmy Eat World, and the National.
DOWNLOAD: Queens of the Stone Age, "In the Fade (OTD Alive)" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Queens of the Stone Age, "Into the Hollow (OTD Alive)" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Queens of the Stone Age, "I Never Came (OTD Alive)" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Queens of the Stone Age, "3's and 7's (OTD Alive)" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Queens of the Stone Age, "Hanging Tree (OTD Alive)" (mp3)
Previously:
BOSTONPHOENIX: Josh Homme interview (mp3)
Friday, October 19, 2007
DOWNLOAD: ESOTERIC, "INCREDIBLE HULK RAP" (mp3)
A round of applause for Esoteric, one half of Boston indie rap's longest-running tag team: while the rest of the country is still busy trying to Superman that 'ho, Eso's bringing people "to their knees like a fake preacher" with soul honks, bongos, and left-leaning hooks to the body politic. His new solo jawn, Egoclapper, omits 7L, but on this tune he brings along all-state champ Termanology, with whom he celebrates undie rap's hood status as the "gateway drug between skater and thug." (Chris Faraone, what's really good?) Not hipster enough for you? No problem: Eso's got a Gary Numan mash-up mixtape coming too. (OMFG, did dude just breathe on Conor Oberst and G.I. Joe in the same verse?) Grab the track above, then get ready for an Egoclapper launch bonanza impacting October 27 at the Good Life.
Previously:
BOSTON PHOENIX: 7L & Esoteric's A New Dope
ONTHEDOWNLOAD: 7L & Esoteric, Mp3 of the Week: "3 Minute Classic"
We also highly recommend Eso's YouTube shennanigans, especially the ones with his dog. Pterrovision!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Britt and crew looked a bit confused at their noon-time
First Act gig yesterday (check back soon for live footage), and after their set, which just barely passed the 15-minute mark,
we were confused - we were ready to gorge ourselves on all that glorious Spoon minimalism, in a small space (even better!), but all we got was an appetizer. We wanted more! Where was audience-artist banter, and the obligatory acoustic renditions of obscure Spoon favs to appease the eager crowd,
a la Queens of the Stone Age last week? Maybe it was the early hour, or maybe it was Spoon’s grand plan to rope us hungry fans into last night’s Roxy show. We’re not gonna hate though. If the First Act show was jalapeño poppers, then the Roxy gig was like really good pizza - no fancy tricks, just a 13-year-old Texan indie rock band at it’s best. The hour and a half long set passed by in a satisfying blur of
Ga Ga tracks, already fine-tuned and feeling insanely comfortable, like we’ve known these songs for years, not months - and that pretty much sums up both the band and their sixth and latest album: that whole comfortable, confident simplicity thing, not to mention the fact that Britt Daniel just plain old knows how to write a good song. Other highlights: classics like “I Turn My Camera On,” an accelerated version of “Anything You Want;” and an intriguing cover of Destroyer’s “It’s Gonna Take An Airplane,” all bound by that piano-peppered, pounding beat that lies beneath everything the Spoon dudes do, which led to a lot of shaking asses at the Roxy - some good, some hilariously bad.
(This is not from the show. We shoulda taken a photo. Our bad.)
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Bodega's Oliver Mak: "Top 5 Reasons To Love the Boston Music
Scene"
Edited by Will Spitz
1_Viva Viva
2_Drug Rug
3_DJ Kon
4_Hearthrob
5_Our heritage: Morphine, the Noise, the Pixies, Buffalo Tom, Lemonheads, This Is Boston Not L.A.,
Juliana Hatfield, the Modern Lovers, Monoman, the Rat, the Middle East, Newbury
Comics, WMBR, all-ages hardcore shows at the Elks Lodge, the weird mid-'90s ska
explosion, and all the past scenes that have brought danger and magic to this
wonderful city
Monday, October 15, 2007
New suits, new ’staches, new songs — same old vaudevillian showmanship,
same old mathematically precise eardrum molestation. At a sweaty, stinky,
crushd-tin-box (sorry, we still have Radiohead on the brain) Middle East
downstairs last night the Hives lived up to Howlin’ Pelle’s ridiculous
tongue-in-cheek third-person boasts — as they always do, even if the shtick
starts to wear thin somewhere around two-thirds of the way in. They managed to
race through 18 songs — old and new — and almost as many Hives-are-law rants in
just over an hour. Highlights: a crushing rendition of “No Pun Intended,” one
of the best songs on the beyond-underrated Tyrannosaurus
Hives; the one-two punch of two ten-year-old songs, “Here We Go Again” and
“A.K.A. I-D-I-O-T,” both of which totally hold up; bassist Dr. Matt
Destruction’s facial expressions. Lowlight (yeah, just one, really): opening
and closing with songs from the new album, which, upon a scant two listens,
isn’t immediately turning our crank like Veni
Vidi Vicious and T. Hives did. Random
thought: Is Chris Dangerous the best punk rock drummer ever? Oh, and someone
over at LemmingTrail just posted the audio.
Setlist and photos here.