I have, at various points in time, spent a lot of time entertaining myself by thinking up interesting/hilarious/very specifically themed tour pairings. It’s something to think about when I don’t have anything else to think about, and occasionally I entertained myself not just casually with these ideas, but wildly with them, although most of those…
Category: opinions about concerts
jesse malin & the st mark’s social @ kings barcade
I went to see Jesse Malin last night with Ash, basically on the strength of how much I love his ridiculous self-indulgent covers album, and I walked out a convert to everything else he does. The St. Mark’s Social, his current backing band, are incredibly tight musicians, and Jesse is a captivating frontman — can’t…
grant hart @ motorco music hall
I went to college in Minnesota; before that, I listened to the radio, to a few things I found on my own, to the Rolling Stones and the Band. And then I moved to Minnesota, and I met people who knew a ton about music, and my world opened up. Seeing Grant Hart last night…
the magnolia collective @ the station
Up front: 11pm is a late set for me, even on a Thursday, even in Carrboro three minutes from my house, but I’d been hearing great things about the Magnolia Collective’s residency at the Station for months, from various people (okay, including some people that I talk to but whose opinions are suspect, but mostly…
cleave-fest @ local 506
So far 2011 has been good to me, local music-wise. Good groups of people pulling together to do interesting and amazing things, forcing bands onto my radar that I would not have otherwise seen. Three of my first five shows have been locals, and I’m glad for it. I resolved it, anyway, to see more…
jason & the scorchers @ berkeley cafe
So more than three years ago, two days before 2008 happened, after the worst six months of my life, I went to see Jason Isbell at the Lincoln Theatre; there’s another story there, too, and it ends with me punching someone in the face, but it’s not the important story here (perhaps someday it will…
hungry heart of gold: neil young vs. bruce springsteen
Like last year’s Petty vs. Dylan covers benefit show, last night’s Neil Young vs. Bruce Springsteen benefit show played to a full house; a very full house, in fact. Which is a great thing, because shows like this are always a great time — I like them for the chance to see locals I might…
whitey morgan & the 78s @ the pour house
This show made me miss Chicago, not my people in Chicago like I often do, but the city of Chicago and the things it meant to me, in visceral, heartclenching ways — it made me miss Saturdays drinking and two-stepping at Carol’s, it made me miss the various residencies that Bloodshot artists do at various…
tribute to hank williams and townes van zandt
Townes Van Zandt wrote a lot of super depressing songs. I mean, they’re great — they’re spectacular. But they are SUPER FANTASTIC DEPRESSING, some of them. Jeez, Townes. The Magnolia Collective covered “Waiting Around To Die” in the best version of that song I have heard in a long, long time; but nobody did “Pancho…
the avett brothers @ cat’s cradle
The trouble is: I have been spoiled for all other Avett Brothers shows ever. I had never seen them live, after all. And tonight we could have driven to Asheville — but we didn’t; dinner with my parents — and seen them at the Civic Center with 7,000 other people, and it would have been…
brand new kind of photography 