The Middle East is a great venue when it's kind of full--but it can be a mess when it's completely sold out.
Unfortunately, Copeland's last show ever in Boston took place at the sold out Middle East this past Saturday. Opening acts included Deas Vail and Person L, delivering short but cute sets. Acoustics for the show were off, but Person L managed to push out a passionate performance. "Wooden Soldiers" and "Storms" were among crowd favorites, for those who were close enough to enjoy it.
I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody's Business were up next, and quite frankly I wasn't that interested. Ace Enders, the former frontman of The Early November, has abandoned his pop-punk roots in order to indulge other creative endeavors such as I Can Make A Mess. Although their sound pales in comparison to The Early November, the softer side of Enders shine through, and songs like "Old Man ... You're Not" (off the new record to be released March 23) gave credence to this.
Finally, Copeland took the stage. In between countlessly thanking fans for making this tour the most successful and memorable, lead singer Aaron Marsh belted out hit after Copeland hit. Although their last album was released was in 2008, no one seemed to care and enjoyed watching the band performing songs from Beneath The Medicine Tree ("Take Care," "California," "When Paula Speaks"), In Motion ("No One Really Wins," "Pin Your Wings"), and their last record You Are My Sunshine ("Grey Man," "Chin Up"). It was a very heartfelt performance from the Florida natives, and quite a satisfying way to end a career that was almost a decade long.
Too bad the venue was jammed, though. It would have been nice to have a little room to swoon.
Moving a show from a Saturday night to Tuesday evening at the illustrious Middle East sounds like quite of a buzzkill. But somehow it wasn't as damaging as it sounds for the release show for Crime In Stereo's latest creation "I Was Trying To Describe You To Someone' on Bridge Nine Records last week. The Long Island natives delivered an intense performance, showing that their latest material is arguably their strongest. It was a distinct balance between old and new, and fresher songs like 'Drugwolf,' and 'Type One' were go betweens for fan favorites like 'Small Skeletal' and 'But You Are Vast' found on their 2007 album, 'Is Dead.' While the boys manage to put on a show with alot of passion and heart, Defeater, one of the three opening bands (alongside Transit and Make Do and Mend) seemed to own the night.
As soon as Defeater stepped onstage, legions of their most devoted followers congregated to the front of the stage to mosh, crazily echo all the lyrics to every song faster thanlead vocalist Derek Archambault could belt them out, and to ultimately climb each other to rip the microphone out of Archambault's hand anytime he grazed them. With their latest record, Lost Ground, being well received from fans and critics alike, it's hard not to get excited when witnessing them live in concert. Every song Defeater performed had the audience frothing at the mouth for more, but it was 'Prophet in Plain Clothes' that turned out to be the most memorable of the evening. Maybe I was impressed because I haven't been to such a grimy punk show in ages (my calender has recently been infiltrated by that overcrowded, overpriced House of Blues bullshit), but the energy and mere presence of Defeater (as well as of their loyal fans) is definitely something worth checking out.
By ioncrash on Mon, Mar 8, 2010 12:26 pm
None-too-shockingly, Jonas Stein of Turbo Fruits (formerly of Be YourOwn Pet) turns out to be a pretty chill guy. After all, the dude’s written more songs about weed than I care to list right now. Getting high, being high, and having just been high: those are important themes. Leave it at that (I will just mention that one of their early singles is called “Volcano,” and involves Jonas saying “volcano” over and over). That said though, the guy IS a garage-rocker, and I was a little surprised when I went to his show with Surfer Blood and Doomstar!, and it turned out that he was the guy leaning quietly in a corner sipping a beer and people-watching.
We chatted for a minute about regular dude things, like vacation (“We just played a couple shows in Costa Rica. It was awesome. Best time of my life.”), beer (“Yeah I dunno, I like good Guiness and PBR. Nothing too fancy.”), and his band’s moustache contest (“We haven’t really decided how to tell who wins… volume, I guess.”) before he went to get ready for the show. For as laid back as the guy is, though, he knows how to wail. Turbo Fruits had everything you want in a live rock show: they were loud, their solos were awesome, they were tight as all hell, and the songs were interesting and varied enough to keep you involved. It’s kind of a shame they weren’t headlining – they probably would have really gotten the crowd worked up.
As it was, though, Surfer Blood was the headliner, and they did whateveryone expected them to do – they showed up and played their songs.I was a little disappointed that not much changed in the transition from album to live show – some more solos might have been nice, or a little running around and swinging from lighting fixtures maybe… maybe some choreographed dance routines? I dunno. But, that said, the show was pretty good – everyone got what they came for – good, tight, well-thought-out songs and a chance to see some dudes who’ve only just started to sell out shows. Next time around, maybe we’ll get a little dancing.
... the healthcare forum! The folks at the Sunlight Foundation are streaming it ... and cunningly including a sidebar that shows how much
money each speaker has received in campaign contributions from the
healthcare industry.
Our office is directly across from the Pine Street Inn so we have our fair share of homeless wanderers in the neighborhood. Occasionally they come into our building and hang out on the stairs or even, like just the other day, come into our office and move into our bathroom. It's worst when it's really cold and I always feel torn about booting these folks. Life must be hard enough. But at the some time...get the hell out of my office!
What would you do?
Please note: This is written by our beloved Art Director, who will be blogging from Sundance this week. (I'm just the copy and pasting monkey.) -CB
I never expected to end up volunteerig at the Sundance film festival. I
wanted to do it, but life always seems to come up. Well, here I am, six
days into the fest, finally reporting to the beloved Dig readers.
Seen 6 films, 1 set of short films, 3 parties attended, 1 denied,
and 4 celeb sightings. It has also snowed 5 out of 6 days and I am 100
hours behind on sleep.
It’s tough to keep track of everything that’s going on, there are so
many films to watch, places to check out, different events to make it
to, all while fitting in a six hour volunteer shift at one of the
theaters where I work as an usher, loading the theater before each
screening. “We have 10 seats open.” “Copy that.” “The entourage has
arrived and I’m walking them in.”
There’s a fun crowd at the fest. Half of the people I’ve met so far
have lived in Boston at some point in time. There are a handful of
Aussies, and a ton of people from Utah of course. And that doesn’t even
start to cover it. But the awesome thing is that everyone is here for
basically the same reasons… to see films, appreciate creativity, meet
people and party like we’ll all die in a blizzard tomorrow. It’s such a
change from ordinary life.
Boston's golden boys performed to a sold out crowd at the House of Blues on January 6th. Opening were The Dirty Dishes, who are Boston natives. The four-piece were a little of out of place, with their dreary sound permeating the crowd who were aching to dance. They have a bit of experimental sound, and vocalist Jenny Tuite's crooning was a bit refreshing, especially on tracks like "Back and Forth" and "Thin Air."
Their short set was followed by Magic Magic (who was busy partying it up with You Can Be A Wesley and Mean Creek in December at the Great Scott) and was pretty impressive. With a more mellow indie sound, and a drummer sporting a sweet bear hat complete with little furry ears, whisked the crowd away in their harmonious rhythms and obnoxiously lush vocals, with songs like "Over The Head" and "Sleepy Lion" providing further evidence of this.
Passion Pit was up next, and while they held up their end of the bargain pretty well, performing to a sold out crowd at the rather large venue made it a little hard for fans to truly enjoy their set.
While acknowledging their modest beginnings (vocalist Michael Angelakos recalled barely booking the Great Scott at the beginning of their career) after belting out opening track "I've Got Your Number," the band went on to perform some of Manners' most coveted songs like "The Reeling," "Little Secrets," "Eyes As Candles" and of course, "Sleepyhead" as the last song of the evening.
The decorations for the set consisted of giant panoramic screens constantly flashing different colored lights, proving that simplicity is key. My only complaint about their performance is that the HOB made it painfully impossible to a) dance and to b) feel any real intimacy for Boston's most explosive band.
By ioncrash on Mon, Mar 8, 2010 5:26 pm
None-too-shockingly, Jonas Stein of Turbo Fruits (formerly of Be YourOwn Pet) turns out to be a pretty chill guy. After all, the dude’s written more songs about weed than I care to list right now.
... the healthcare forum! The folks at the Sunlight Foundation are streaming it ... and cunningly including a sidebar that shows how much
money each speaker has received in campaign contributions from the
healthcare industry.
