Girl Talk - Friday, April 27th

A few months ago, Sid and I were at a friend's place for a board game night. Said friend is big into DJing and conversation turned to my favorite mash-up artist and yours: Girl Talk. I immediately grabbed my phone to see when and where he would be playing in the coming weeks. Amazingly, he did have one Boston-area date on his tour, at none other than Merrimack College in Andover, MA. A couple of minutes later, I had secured two tickets to the show, courtesy of my phone. This is when I really appreciate having a smart phone.

Fast forward to the end of April and we are on our merry way to the burbs of Boston to join a bunch of co-eds at what must have been their "Spring Fling" entertainment or some such thing. Rolling onto their campus was sort of surreal, as it really seemed like a soundstage. Everything was so pristine and quiet and rather atypical from my Friday night college experiences. But I digress.

The show was held in Merrimack's Lawler Arena, which Ryan coined "the Fenway of Division 1 hockey". The place was pretty tiny for a relatively big hockey school, and the floor was filled with maybe a couple hundred kids when we got there. Naturally glow sticks and contraband nips abounded. I was curious to see how Girl Talk's energy would be with this fairly small college crowd, but he certainly did not disappoint. In fact, of the four times I have seen him, this show was probably the longest and with the most ornate background. And of course, there were more balloons and confetti than you could shake a stick at. I will always take an opportunity to see Girl Talk, no matter the audience or venue, since his shows are so full of energy and dance-able music.

I think Sid's pics portray a bit of what I'm talking about:

The Big Pink - Wednesday, April 25th

Ok, so make that 5 shows in 7 days. But I'll get to how I ended up at the Houston House of Blues later.

Last Wednesday the UK invasion continued and we headed over to Brighton Music Hall to check out The Big Pink. Neither Sid nor I knew a ton about the band, but from their singles ("Dominos" and "Stay Gold") and a couple of listens to their albums ("A Brief History of Love" and "Future This"), we decided to take the not-too-risky risk of checking out their show.

We were both a little surprised when we entered the venue and found about 50 people around the periphery of the hall, vaguely bopping their heads to the opening band. Not only was the number of people in attendance a surprise, but also the make-up of The Big Pink's fans: they were....eclectic. Next to us were three teenagers with X's on their hands (i.e., not legal to drink) and one of them also wore a wedding band. We were happy to see our favorite fellow fan of Scottish and British bands, who I affectionately call Gramps, there with his lady friend. Gramps has been front and center at previous Frightened Rabbit and We Were Promised Jetpacks shows, belying his 50 (60?) or so years. I managed to get a blurry cell phone pic:

The Big Pink didn't seem to mind the tiny crowd, or the fact that this was the last stop on what I'm sure was a draining tour. Although Robbie Furze, the lead singer, was great, my favorite performer was the female drummer. Girlfriend looked a little bit like Blossom, and had the 90's hairstyle and enormous headphones to match. She was awesome.

Nome sayin??

The other main member of the band is Milo, a dude in a hoodie who was over in the shadows playing with knobs for an hour (pictured with Mr. Furze below).  As for the music, it's upbeat, bouncy, and a little electronic, which is all great in my book. What's not to love? 

We Were Promised Jetpacks - Tuesday, April 24th

This past week has included a ton of great live music- four shows at four different Boston-area venues in six days - and I figure there is no better time to start off my live music blog. Let's do this!

Scottish bands are near and dear to my heart, since my beloved Frightened Rabbit hails from there, and FR is essentially the reason my now-husband, Sid, and I met (they also gave us a fantastic setting at which to get engaged). We Were Promised Jetpacks happen to be good chums with the boys in Frightened Rabbit, which is the main reason I checked them out to begin with. Scottish heritage aside, WWPJ certainly stand on their own (eight?) feet as a fantastic band from across the pond.

Sid and I arrived at Paradise Rock Club at around 9:30 last Tuesday, just in time to see the end of opener Breton's set. I wish we'd seen more of their set, since the band is comprised of a drummer, a guitarist, and a couple of people playing electronic things, and lord knows I love me some electronic things. Check 'em out:

We settled on a spot on the left side of the balcony for WWPJ, since our favorite spot on the right side of the balcony was mysteriously closed. While I could see almost all of the members of the band, aside from the drummer, I also had a nice solid view of one of Paradise's infamous poles. I could take the time here to complain about how I really don't like the reconfiguration of the Paradise after their 2009ish renovation, but then I'll really sound like a hipster, so I'll abstain. 

We Were Promised Jetpacks ripped through a good mixture of music from their older album, These Four Walls, and their newer release, In the Pit of the Stomach, which I admittedly do not know very well. One of my favorite moments was their performance of Keeping Warm, a meandering track that starts off nice and calm and builds into an upbeat melody. But really, Sid summed up the entire evening once we stepped outside: "I would pay the price of admission for It's Thunder and It's Lightning alone". I completely agree, and I would almost say that WWPJ suffers from the Curse of the Good Song. They have one song which is completely incredible, particularly live, and for me, I'm not sure that any other song they produce will ever quite live up to the awesomeness of It's Thunder and It's Lightning. Naturally, they finished with this song and did not return for an encore, and I think we were all perfectly ok with that.

I'll leave you with a couple of great pics from the show, taken by Sid, and a performance of It's Thunder and It's Lightning at KEXP a couple of years ago.