Photos: Best Music Poll Concert 2008
Presidents of the United States of America
Death Cab for Cutie
Amanda Palmer
Bob Mould
Eli "Paperboy" Reed
All photos (c) Carina Mastrocola
It's a wrap: the 2008 Best Music Poll Concert is in the books, and as far as we know, no one died of hypothermia. Fuck, was it cold. As we're uploading this, it's 65 and sunny. This couldn't have happened 18 hours earlier?
This was our first year putting on the BMP exclusively at the Pavilion -- in recent years we've split the action between the tent and the clubs on Lansdowne Street, but with Lansdowne Street in its current state of demolition (as if Dropkick Murphys' pipebomb fantasy had finally come true), we stuffed everything under one roof. Death Cab were epic, and Chris Ballew's Presidents were far, far better than we had any right to suspect (and we're not just saying that because they covered the MC5 -- we'd forgotten how much OKGO owe their careers to the POTUSA blueprint). Bob Mould, in solo-electric mode, came out and played a bunch of hits, not to mention some Husker Du. Amanda Palmer played just her second show since vocal-cord surgery and unveiled a bunch of new solo material, then brought out fellow Dresden Doll Brian Viglione to play guitar on a shrieking version of Neutral Milk Hotel's "Two Headed Boy." Passion Pit went on first, for an audience in the hundreds -- but trust us, by next year there's gonna be a couple thousand people claiming they were there-when. (Alas, they went on before our photogs showed up. If anyone's got snaps, let us know.) For our money the scene-stealing act of the day was Eli "Paperboy" Reed, who delivered the same shockingly, effortlessly house-shattering soul set he's been plying in clubs -- but on the big stage it felt even bigger.
We're still recovering from the after-party, but we've already got a shit-ton of photos up in case you missed it. And you'll probably want to check back soon: we'll be uploading interviews, concert videos, and a few special treats throughout the week.
BMP 2008 PHOTOS: Death Cab for Cutie
BMP 2008 PHOTOS: Presidents of the United States of America
BMP 2008 PHOTOS: Amanda Palmer
BMP 2008 PHOTOS: Bob Mould
BMP 2008 PHOTOS: Eli "Paperboy" Reed