CMJ 2011

Posted on January 10, 2012
Filed Under Blather, catses, friends, music, photography, politics | Leave a Comment

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Races

Races

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Bleached

Bleached

Listen Up: Lower Dens

Posted on January 13, 2011
Filed Under friends, music | Leave a Comment

Two of Stereogum’s top 20 overlooked albums of 2010, from Buke and Gass and Crocodiles, were in my (premature) best of 2010 list.  I came to new music kind of late in 2010, and a lot of good music came out last year, so I give myself a pass for missing a lot of things.  If I were to revise my list today, I’d keep those records on it, and the Buke and Gass album would keep its high spot on the list.

One album I didn’t hear in full until after posting my best of 2010 list is Lower Dens’ Twin Hand Movement.  This is an album that definitely belongs among my favorites for the year.

Their press sheet describes Lower Dens as a Baltimore band, led by weird-fi frontwoman Jana Hunter, that plays post-punk drone pop.  Okay, I guess somewhere in that description I start to get a hazy picture of what they really sound like.

I first discovered Lower Dens when I happened upon their 9-21-2010 Daytrotter Session, so that’s where I direct you first.  In the session, they play some of my favorites, including “Tea Lights” (love that beautiful, lilting guitar line, and the tone on the album version is especially lovely) and the fabulously titled “Two Cocks Waving Wildly at Each Other Across a Vast Open Space, A Dark Icy Tundra.”  After that teaser, you have to hear the whole album, on which you’ll be treated to gems like the glimmering, infectious “Hospice Gates,” and “Holy Water,” one of the first songs I’ve ever heard that I can compare with The Smiths’ “Oscillate Wildly” in that it’s so good that I didn’t notice on the first few listens that it’s an instrumental.

Twin Hand Movement was released in July of 2010, and Lower Dens have just released a new single, “Batman.”  They’re currently playing a handful of support dates in the Southeast with The Walkmen, and they hit SXSW this March.  They’re at the top of my list of bands to catch.

Lower Dens-“Tea Lights”

Lower Dens-“Hospice Gates”

Lower Dens-“Batman”

I have been busy

Posted on September 27, 2010
Filed Under family, friends, music, photography, the interweb, travel | Leave a Comment

Yes, yes I have been busy.

I’ve covered a bunch of shows for the good folks at QRO Magazine including:

Autolux at the Middle East
8/27/2010 Autolux w/This Will Destroy You at The Middle East Downstairs


Interpol at MHOW

9/10/2010 Interpol w/Cloudland Canyon at The Music Hall of Williamsburg


School of Seven Bells at the Middle East
9/11/2010 School of Seven Bells w/Active Child at The Middle East Downstairs


Basia Bulat at TT the Bear's Place
9/21/2010 Basia Bulat and The Acorn at TT the Bear’s Place

The day of the Interpol show in Brooklyn I was invited in to the Matador Records office to help moderate a live video chat with Interpol guitarist Daniel Kessler. It was all a bit off-the-cuff, and it was a lot of fun. The chat is archived here. I got a little tour of the Beggars Group office (I guess you’d call them Matador’s parent company) and met some of the very cool people who work there, too.

In amongst this hectic schedule of city hopping, picture taking, late nights, and hanging out with friends mixed with happy home-life and work work work, I joined friends Amy, Teresa, and Tomoko a few weekends ago for a couple breezy, decadent days at Top Notch Resort and Spa in Stowe, Vermont. Ah Vermont… We drove up on Friday night and stayed at Teresa’s friends’ ski lodge at Killington, and then drove up to Stowe on Saturday. Saturday afternoon we each indulged in Mount Mansfield Sauchas. What are those, you ask? From the Top Notch site:

Purity and simplification were the inspiration for the creation of this truly unique treatment. Drawing from the Sanskrit term to purify, our Mount Mansfield Saucha session allows you to experience an uncomplicated but completely luxurious three-stage herbal body service. To begin, a sea salt exfoliation removes tired skin and improves circulation. Organic lavender buds are added and then crushed with the salt to provide a sweet aromatic explosion. We use hot towels to remove the salt, leaving your skin velvety soft. Then, you are wrapped in thick linen sheets that have steeped in our detoxifying blend of indigenous Vermont herbs and flowers. In conclusion you may choose a 25-minute, 50 minute or 80-minute full body aromatherapy massage. We have developed a custom blend of sage, lavender, cedar and sandalwood essential oils for a completely soothing experience.

Now that I think of it… somewhere I have a small vial of the sage oil that my therapist gave me at the end of my saucha! That evening we had cocktails by the firepit and enjoyed the view of the mountains as the sun set before heading into the dining room for dinner–homemade local tempeh, anybody? The next day we got our pedicures and manicures, went into town and picked up sandwiches and a few gifts for our loved ones, and then set off on our return to Massachusetts. It was a lovely getaway, and just the beginning of our celebration of Amy and Doug’s upcoming nuptials!

Last weekend my darling friend Sarah came down from Portland and we had a girls’ night out on Saturday. I had a hunch that the bar at Gargoyles would be a good spot for drinks after dinner, and it was. This coming weekend we’ll have family visiting from Pittsburgh (yay!), and on Sunday night I’m covering The XX, Warpaint, and Zola Jesus at The Orpheum. Phew! Good things are happening. Stay tuned!

AND… if you’re so inclined… you can now follow me on twitter: @terkitty. Yep!

Warpaint with Javelin and Beach Fossils at Great Scott, 8/15/2010

Posted on September 8, 2010
Filed Under friends, music, photography | 3 Comments

I should have written about this show right after it happened. I’ve been playing catch-up. But anyway… Warpaint!

I first heard about Warpaint from a couple of my New York Interpol friends. They described Warpaint as an all-female band that comes out on stage looking really pretty, and then rocks really hard. Another friend mentioned them shortly after that. After our trip to Pennsylvania, I was going through a bit of show withdrawal, and when I heard that Warpaint were playing at Great Scott the night of our return, I wanted to go. We got home just in time for me to pull together my camera and batteries and get to Great Scott before the show sold out.

The first opener, Beach Fossils, sounded very poppy to me–jangly 80s-conscious stuff, which is apparently all the rage at the moment. It didn’t do too much for me, but they weren’t atrocious. What they looked like (silly and 80s conscious) struck me about as much as their music… not much –AND their whole vibe made me feel old.

Javelin made me feel old in a different way. With Beach Fossils, I could get why people would like it. Javelin just seemed totally foolish to me–like they were getting away with something by pretending to be musical, cool, or even interesting. The first thing they brought on stage was a tower of big old broken (except for one, I think) neon spray-painted boom boxes. Oh boy. Their sound was just a mish-mash of samples and knob-twiddling and falling-apart (literally) percussion. Samples and knob-twiddling and percussion can result in something good, but this did not. It felt sloppy. Like Beach Fossils, I guess Javelin are considered up and coming. I thought they were embarrassing and pretty terrible.


Warpaint at Great ScottWarpaint

After those two openers, I might have expected Warpaint to be a disappointment, but they weren’t at all. I think the evening’s line-up was a real mis-match. Warpaint are going out with The XX in the near future, and that tour makes more sense to me. The vocals and the music come from a much deeper, darker place than anything that Beach Fossils or Javelin offer up. My friends who told me I’d be impressed by their musical chops were right on. These chickies can play. They’re really pretty badass. At least a few of them are multi-instrumenatalists. The bassist and drummer switched places after the first song, and at the end of the encore three of the four band members went at it on the drum kit–and what resulted was a controlled chaos, not just mere chaos.

Their first full-length, The Fool, is set to drop October 26th (October 25th in the UK). I’m looking forward to seeing them again at the Orpheum October 3rd.

SXSW… and me!

Posted on September 7, 2010
Filed Under family, friends, music, travel, wide world of vacation | 1 Comment

2011 marks the 25th anniversary of the SXSW Music Conference and Festival in Austin, TX. I am going. I am SO FLIPPIN’ EXCITED! Ezra seems slightly confused as to why I’m so excited, but he is on board because 1) Houston–home to Simon, Frances, Eva, and Gia–is a mere two hours away, 2) Austin is supposed to be a pretty cool town, 3) March is the perfect time to get the heck out of Boston, and 4) some of his old college pals live in Austin and San Antonio. When all of this dawned on me–that all of those things come together with SXSW and that we could do it… Did I mention that I am SO EXCITED? The fest is 3/16-3/20. More on that later…

Interpol with Twin Tigers and The Postelles at Northern Lights in Clifton Park, NY 8/6/2010

Posted on September 1, 2010
Filed Under friends, music, photography | Leave a Comment

The Clifton Park show was bittersweet for me. I had SUCH a good time at the Interpol shows this summer, and I knew Clifton Park would be my last for a while. Even more than that, I knew that it would be my last time seeing Twin Tigers on the tour, and I feel like we became friends. I know when I’ll see Interpol again; with Twin Tigers I’m less sure. They’re a band with a lot of potential and they’ve done a lot of touring, so they’ll get up here eventually… But anyway, I knew it would be weird to say goodbye to everyone and it was a bit.

After the late night in Boston on Thursday I was pretty wiped out on Friday and had much to do. We would be heading down to Pennsylvania for a family visit immediately after the Clifton Park show, and in addition to needing to get myself ready for the show and to take pictures I had to pack and try to get the house together for our trip. It was a little bit of a struggle, but I managed to get on the road in time to make it to the venue just after doors opened.

I was on the guestlist in Clifton Park, and my photo pass for the night was actually labelled an all-access pass—though there was a note with it that specifically forbid me from photographing Interpol’s set. Alas. Northern Lights is a weird venue. It’s in what looks like an old strip mall kind of in the middle of nowhere. The stage is back in a corner and seems like it was just sort of dropped in the space. There’s a large bar that takes up almost half of the venue, and the whole place has an odd atmosphere (or lack thereof). There was a bathroom attendant—at least in the women’s room. My memory of the place is that all the walls were painted blue, there were glass doors at the back through which we could see the bands and crew walking past in between their sets, and the place was really cold. Whereas at some shows I end up sweating and frizzy, at this show I was very glad I’d grabbed a cardigan at the last minute. They had the a/c cranked the whole night. It just added to the weirdness of the night for me.

Some of Interpol’s gear was off to the left of the stage in crates and I could see labels on various drawers… things like “Paul’s strings,” “Daniel’s strings and cords,” and then a drawer labeled simply (if I’m not misremembering it) “Shite.”

The Postelles The Postelles at Northern Lights.


The PostellesThe Postelles at Northern Lights.


The Postelles
The Postelles at Northern Lights.

Even in this relatively little venue there was a tiny photo pit. I managed to photograph The Postelles’ entire set. I think I was only supposed to do three songs, but there was another photographer shooting them and he just kept going, so I did, too. The reception for The Postelles was a sharp turn from the reaction they enjoyed the previous night. People clapped politely but briefly after each of their songs, and their perky singer seemed to be almost apologizing for everyone’s lack of familiarity with them and with their music. Before launching into one song, he said, “This is a new one,” and then paused and said “but everything is new to you.” They played with their usual verve, but it was clear that they had to work for it.

beerTwin Tigers, running with the devil (a.k.a. Hoo-ray beer).

When Twin Tigers came out on stage, I wonder if I was the first person ever in the history of the world to feel a tiny bit sad to hear the opening notes of Van Halen’s “Running with the Devil.” They played well, and while it wasn’t as amazing as the previous night in Boston, I think they sounded good and a decent portion of the audience got into what they were doing. I photographed the first three songs of their set and then took my spot up front behind the barrier.

ForrestForrest Hall of Twin Tigers.


AimeeAimee Morris of Twin Tigers.


TTTwin Tigers.

Interpol’s set was really tight, but seemed to go by so quickly. My friends agreed that it felt short. The band played very well, but it felt business-like. During the encore, one song blended right into the next. The setlist was a good one. We got “Mammoth” instead of “The Heinrich Maneuver” and a beautifully played “Leif Erikson,” which I had not yet heard on this tour. During “Leif” I exchanged a nice little look of recognition with Daniel. I tried to take some pictures with my phone. It was kind of pathetic, really. Their lighting was pretty easy as far as concerts go, and the stage was on the small side so I could have managed a lot of nice shots. After the encore as they were leaving the stage both Daniel and Sam nodded, smiled, and waved at me. That was sweet! It was like they knew that this would be my last show for a while.

Afterwards my friends and I went over to the merch table to say hi to the Twin Tigers people. They were busy with merch boxes and stuff, but we chatted a little bit. As the venue was kind of out of the way, they were trying to figure out where to go to do something. I couldn’t hang around long as we were heading out for Pennsylvania, so I couldn’t help them with their plans for the night. I bought a copy of their album, Gray Waves (on blue vinyl!) and had them all sign it for me. Matthew wrote me a little message, signed the inner sleeve, and then signed on Aimee’s behalf since she had once again disappeared.

I looked up and through the windows at the front of the venue and saw Ezra standing there. I thought I was supposed to call him, but it was going on midnight and I can’t blame him for running out of things to do at that hour. I went outside and asked him if he could wait while I went to say goodbye to a few people. When I got back inside, it seemed like everyone had scattered. I headed back toward the stage and saw Matthew holding a box and talking to one of Interpol’s crew. While I was waiting for him, Sam’s drum tech came up to me and said he’d seen me at a lot of shows. I said that I’d been to a bunch and introduced myself. He asked how many shows I’d been to, and when I said twenty-something he said I won the prize. He dug into a black sack, pulled out three of Sam’s well-used (during the show, presumably) drumsticks, and gave them to me. Yay! He is really nice. I have heard people rave about what a good guy he is, and it was great to finally meet him after all this time.

CliftonParkstuffSam’s drumsticks, my pass, and signed Twin Tigers vinyl

A minute later, I got Matthew’s attention and he came over. He seemed a bit surprised and disappointed when I said that my ride had arrived. We hugged and I told him to keep in touch with me if he thought of it, and he said to do the same. Then I headed back to the merch table to see if I could find any of the others and ran into Forrest. He was kind of all over the place and asked where my friends had gone. He wanted to party! We said farewell. Unfortunately I couldn’t find either Aimee or Chris.

And that was the end of my Interpol/Twin Tigers/sometimes Postelles Summer 2010 adventures. I had such a great time and met so many cool people. I would do it all again right now if I could. My next planned Interpol show is on my birthday in NYC. And maybe… maybe… I will see some more shows in the UK in December. Twin Tigers… you need to get your southern butts up here. I’ll see you guys later.

Interpol with Twin Tigers and The Postelles at the House of Blues in Boston, 8/5/2010

Posted on August 31, 2010
Filed Under friends, music, photography | 1 Comment

This review/rundown has been much too long coming.

The Boston show crept up on me. For some reason after the New Haven show I thought I had about a month until my next Interpol show, when really it was only two weeks away.

As the show was right here in my town, I arrived very early. There was no one else in line, so I sat across the street near the WEEI studios where there was more shade. I drank an iced green tea, checked to make sure my camera, lenses, and batteries were all accounted for and working, and watched as a couple of House of Blues people played wiffle ball in the street. Eventually two girls showed up and I crossed the street to line up. Those first two girls were really anti-social, alas. They didn’t talk to me at all—one girl had her back to me in a sort of pointed way the whole time. Sigh… typical Boston. It was so unlike my experiences at all of the other shows this summer. After a while, though, two more girls showed up and they were much more friendly. At one point one of these new companions saw Paul entering the venue and went over to say hello to him. We’re not sure exactly what she said, but whatever it was it had quite an effect on him. A little while later someone poked out of the venue and gave her a wonderful hand-written note from Paul and a shirt signed by the band.

For the Boston show I was reunited with my girl Sarah. She took the bus down from Portland and made her glorious arrival around 4PM. The weather was so gross—very humid and then it started pouring. We had a little area of shelter, but it was pretty nasty weather for waiting in line. We got suitably straggly/frizzy and wandered down the street to try to hear some of soundcheck. Interpol played a couple of new songs with which we weren’t familiar, along with a nice drawn-out version of “The Lighthouse” and some of the other usual soundcheck suspects.

While we were down there the Twin Tigers guys showed up and started unloading their gear. I felt disgusting and shy (I always seem to get all shy at first), but Sarah said they were trying to get my attention—I saw Forrest and said “Oh hi.” They were looking roughly as wrecked as I was—no doubt they’d been riding in a van all day and the weather was unforgiving. Everyone was in crappy jeans/shorts/t-shirts/frizz.

Photo passesFree stuff! My photo passes (with the wrong date printed on them), the free ticket they gave me that I didn’t need, and a Twin Tigers sticker

Around 5:30 or so I went back to the car to change my clothes and attempt to neaten up. When I returned, Sarah and a few others had been moved to a different line. We were big enough suckers to go for the “Crash the Barricade” package, which gets you into the venue ½ an hour early. Oh, and supposedly the appeal of “free” water and “ice cream novelties” is also a part of the deal. Anyway, at this point I went to the ticket window, which can only be accessed from outside unless you work at the venue, to see about picking up my photo passes for The Postelles and Twin Tigers. They didn’t have the bands’ lists yet, though, so I had to keep going back to the window and checking. I ended up going into the venue with Sarah and having to go back out again twice to pick up my passes. The House of Blues staff were actually surprisingly cool about that. They’re not really supposed to allow re-entry, but they made an exception for me.

Sarah and I did manage to secure a good spot up front. Everyone around us was fine—mellow and not pushy.

The Postelles at HOB BostonThe Postelles. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

I photographed The Postelles from the photo pit. I’d been told there wouldn’t be one, which seemed odd to me. In fact, the pit was pretty sizable, and the venue let me photograph their entire set, which was great. The crowd reaction to The Postelles was definitely the best I saw on their brief jaunt with Interpol. People really seemed to like them, and I think there were more photographers covering them than there were covering Twin Tigers. They already have another date scheduled up here in December supporting a band called fun.

Postelles/Twin TigersAfter The Postelles. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

The opening notes of Van Halen’s “Running with the Devil” announced Twin Tigers’ set—they’d been taking the stage to that song for every show and I think I read in an interview somewhere that it was sort of their theme song for the tour. Uh-huh. They’d been slightly delayed as Aimee was having some kind of trouble with her gear and she was working with the Interpol crew to try to get it figured out. The crowd was really receptive for them, just as they had been for The Postelles, and they sounded as good as I’ve heard them, both in terms of their performance and especially in terms of the mix. Aimee told the crowd it was Matthew’s birthday and he looked a bit sheepish… like a little boy. Sweet! She said something about him being awesome. Aw… I’m pretty sure she invited the crowd to party with them afterwards. I particularly noticed Forrest’s guitar playing on this night and I was really impressed. At the end of their set (I was able to photograph their entire set, too) I bolted for the bar to get a drink and as I did Aimee got everyone to sing “Happy Birthday.”

Matthewathob
Matthew of Twin Tigers (with Forrest’s fluffy head in the bottom of the image). Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

Interpol’s set was good. For some reason I never feel like the Interpol shows in Boston are as amazing as they are elsewhere. Maybe it’s just the familiarity of the town for me. The first time I saw them here in ’04 was quite good, and they did sound good at House of Blues. On this night, maybe it’s the setlist that made it a little less than perfect for me. They played “The Heinrich Maneuver” (blah) and didn’t play “Leif Erikson,” which would have been nice for Sarah—and the rest of us! I managed to take a small number of photos of their set from the crowd. The House of Blues staff had told me that all cameras were going to be allowed going forward anyway (really??). They seemed pretty confused about their own policy! I took advantage as much as I could.

Daniel at hobDaniel of Interpol. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

Their full setlist from Boston went like this:

Success
Evil
Say Hello to the Angels
Summer Well
NARC
Lights
NYC
The Heinrich Maneuver
PDA
Barricade
Take You on a Cruise
Slow Hands
Not Even Jail
—
Hands Away
C’mere
Obstacle 1

They dedicated “PDA” to Wanda and made a point of giving setlists and sticks to a small group of fans that we’ve seen at a number of shows.

Interpol at hobInterpol. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

Afterwards, I said a quick hello to Twin Tigers at the merch table. We went outside, and then the TT guys came out and invited us to join them at the Cask and Flagon. I’d never been there before. It’s a big old sports bar and it’s kind of goofy. I got myself a drink (probably my fourth on the night and not my last—a lot for me!) and bought beers for Aimee and Matthew. I asked them what they were drinking and they said they’d have pretty much anything. Aimee said she’s poor and honestly didn’t care what kind of beer she had–said she didn’t even have a place to live! I got her a PBR and Matthew a Bud.

Sarah and I both talked to Chris a bit. He’s a super nice guy. I told him how good I thought they sounded that night and he agreed that it was good.

After a while I was sort of off to one side hanging out with Matthew, who had been texting a lot at first—birthday stuff, he said. He is a Braves fan… said something about being a poet—not exactly an amazing one (his assessment)—and then made some comment to the effect that the former poet laureate was nothing special. It was interesting to hear him and Forrest pulling out all this literary stuff. He mentioned that Sam is helping them—with label business, I think. I think I asked about them working on new tunes—wish I could remember the substance of what he said about that. I also asked if he thought they’d be on the tour with Interpol much longer and he said something like, “Sam likes us, but they all have their friends.” I told him that Forrest’s guitar playing had especially impressed me that night, and he seemed to get a tad defensive (!), saying that it was about the interplay of the two guitars. I was only making an observation about Forrest’s playing on that night—not saying that one or the other of them was a better guitarist. I told him they’d sounded especially good and he agreed and said that it’s hard not to perform well when you come out on stage and see all those people.

The night got pretty drunk and silly from then on. Sarah and Chris danced in the next room. Forrest and his latest girlie friend were somewhat entwined and they may also have danced a bit—not sure. Several drinks were consumed and foolishness perpetrated. Though it would probably be blackmail material, I SO wish we had some snapshots of the debauchery.

Eventually it got late enough and the bar got lame enough that the band wanted to head out. I was sad to say goodnight. The bar was lame, but we were having a good time anyway.

I had NOT been thinking and as I’d had so much to drink poor darling wonderful Sarah was forced to drive the two of us home! Medals for Sarah.

St. Vincent with tUnE-yArDs and Basia Bulat at Central Park Summerstage, 8/1/2010

Posted on August 24, 2010
Filed Under daytripping, friends, music, photography | 3 Comments

The Interpol show at Toad’s Place in New Haven was great for so many reasons, not the least of which is that the photos that I took got picked up by qromag.com and led to my being asked to cover St. Vincent, tUnE-yArDs, and Basia Bulat for them at Central Park Summerstage a week later. The show was on a Sunday, and I’m a fan of St. Vincent anyway–especially live. I’d photographed her once before, back in 2008 at the Middle East with none other than Basia Bulat. tUnE-yArDs was new to me, but came with my good friend Doug’s endorsement, so the whole thing was really a no-brainer.

We’ve decided that it’s much nicer to approach New York by car from the North than it is to approach it from the South. From the North you pass through Scarsdale and that whole area, whereas from the South it’s all Jersey and tunnels. We arrived in time to pick up my pass, scope out the food and drink offerings, and generally get the lay of the land. We got a reasonable deal on parking in a garage practically across the street from Summerstage as well. There was a pretty cool booth set up–it may be there for all the shows–where you could buy custom silk-screened t-shirts. I realized once I got home that Merrill Garbus, the woman behind tUnE-yArDs, was purchasing a shirt when I was photographing the booth.

Merrill Garbus buying a shirtThe fabulous Merrill Garbus (tUnE-yArDs) buying a custom-silkscreened t-shirt at Central Park Summerstage before her show with St. Vincent and Basia Bulat. Merrill, I promise that I took better pictures of you that day–see below!

There was a big photo pit, and quite a few other photographers were working the show. It was supposed to rain, but nary a drop fell all afternoon.

Basia Bulat exudes a genuine sweetness. She’s the kind of performer that you can describe as refreshing and not feel cheesy or cliched for saying it. I’m not positive, but it looked to me like she was playing with the same group she had assembled when we saw her back in 2008, including her brother on drums.

Basia Bulat at Central Park SummerstageBasia Bulat at Central Park Summerstage. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

Highlights for me were “In the Night” and “Before I Knew,” both from the album Oh, My Darling. The rest was good, too, but I admit that my previous familiarity with those two songs made them stand out for me.

Basia Bulat at Central Park SummerstageBasia Bulat. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

Next up was tUnE-yArDs. I think it would be fair to say that she pretty much stole the show. That’s saying something, because both Basia Bulat and St. Vincent played well.

tUnE-yArDs
tUnE-yArDs. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

People say she ratchets everything up a notch for her live performances, and now that I’ve heard her recorded material, I can vouch for that assessment. It’s not that the recordings aren’t enjoyable, but the live performance has significantly more kick, more fire. She drew in the crowd almost immediately and had everyone dancing, at one point jumping up and down, and cheering for more. When she sang “throw your money on the ground” in “Yes You,” I swear a few people were probably emptying their pockets.

tUnE-yArDstUnE-yArDs at Central Park Summerstage. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

Her set left me wondering what we can expect from her new record, which I believe she is finishing up as soon as she wraps up her current tour. If she captures half of what she showed live, the record’s going to be awfully good. Good friend Doug (mentioned above) pointed us to a live recording of a show she did at The Rock Shop in Brooklyn the next night. I HIGHLY recommend it.

It was a long afternoon, and though I was honestly starting to feel a little wiped out by the time St. Vincent got started, her set did not disappoint. What did disappoint a little bit was the sound. From where I was standing for most of her set–kind of off to the side–I couldn’t tell exactly what was wrong, but people were calling out for the sound guys to turn down the bass. It was a bit distracting, but I didn’t notice it after a while.

St. VincentSt. Vincent at Central Park Summerstage. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

Every time I see her perform I am struck both by her cuteness and by her seriousness as an artist. She assembled quite an impressive backing band–including, I realized toward the end of the show, Ian Hendrickson-Smith, a guy I knew briefly in school back in State College.

St. VincentSt. Vincent at Central Park Summerstage. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

I’d seen her on one of her first shows in support of her second album, Actor, and at that time the songs sounded perfectly fine to me–but just fine. As I would expect, the songs sound much better now that she’s been playing them live for a while. As before, the one older tune that she pulled out was “Your Lips Are Red,” which includes one of my favorite lines: “Your skin’s so fair, it’s not fair.” I know Actor was only released last year, and it’s a good album, but I find myself ready for new material from her.

The show wrapped up slightly early–just in time for us to get back to our car before the garage rate went up. On top of the show itself and the experience of photographing it (outdoors, in the daytime, which was good practice since I’m used to shooting in smaller, darker places at night), it was nice to just be in New York on a Sunday. I look forward to doing more of this sort of thing when the right opportunities present themselves.

Interpol with Twin Tigers and The Postelles at Toad’s Place in New Haven, CT, 7/24/2010

Posted on August 24, 2010
Filed Under friends, music, photography, travel | Leave a Comment

The New Haven show might be the highlight of the current Interpol tour for me so far, though the Buffalo show and the Boston and Clifton Park shows rivaled it in various ways, too. In terms of Interpol’s performance and sound, New Haven was far and away the best. I don’t know if I’ll be able capture here what a great night is was, but I’ll try.

Paul Banks of Interpol at Toad's PlacePaul Banks of Interpol at Toad’s Place in New Haven, CT. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

My friends and I actually drove into New Haven the night before the show and stayed at a nearby hotel. The day of the show was very warm and we were first in line by a long stretch, so we hung out in a coffee shop near the venue for a little while. Toad’s Place is in a nice neighborhood around Yale and there were a lot of beautiful old buildings and little shops and restaurants around. The guys working there were super friendly and at one point they let us look through one of the stage doors to get a feel for the size and setup of the venue.

We again heard most of soundcheck, which on this night included “Success,” “Barricade,” “Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down,” “The Heinrich Maneuver” (boo!), “Barricade” (again, twice more), “Stella” (again), “The Lighthouse” (which I’ve still never heard live), and “Summer Well.”

Across from Toad's Place
Across the street from Toad’s Place, taken on my Android.

About an hour before the doors were set to open I felt particularly gross from having been out in the heat for much of the afternoon, so I drove back to our hotel and changed. I returned to the venue a new person after washing up and putting on a dress. When I got back quite a few more people had lined up. Twin Tigers were moving their gear into the venue, and Matthew came up to me and said hello. Nice to know they hadn’t forgotten me.

I’d heard that Toad’s Place is a legendary club—that heavy hitters like the Rolling Stones have played classic shows there and that a show at Toad’s Place was not one to miss. At one point I wasn’t sure I was going to make it down for this show, but I am SO GLAD that I changed my mind and went. The venue has a great feel—laid back in one way but full of energy in another. It’s a good size—it holds something like 1200 people but retains a sense of intimacy. Everyone there—from the people attending the show to the crew to the guys at the bar to the bands—seemed to be in good spirits that night.

Right when we got in the venue and took our spot at the front I noticed a woman behind me holding a nice-looking camera. I tried to ask if she had a photo pass, but I don’t think she heard me. A girl behind me said that she used to work there and that they didn’t care about cameras. That was all I needed to hear. I’d been wanting to photograph an Interpol show for ages, and my DSLR and lenses were just waiting for me a few blocks away in my car. I ran out to get them.

On my way back from my car I ran into another friend of mine from New York who was also going to the show. More happy goodness on this night!

One of my companions for these shows likes to buy cocktails—sometimes for me and sometimes for herself—but one way or another she usually makes sure that I get plenty to drink and am feeling fine. On this night she accomplished her mission with flying colors. I was in a great mood.

The Postelles at Toad's PlaceThe Postelles at Toad’s Place. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

By the time Twin Tigers took the stage I was on cloud nine. I had my camera, the sound at the venue was tremendous, I was surrounded by friends, I had a perfect spot up front, and I’d had a few. I took lots of pictures and made a number of silly comments during their set.

Aimee of Twin Tigers at Toad's PlaceAimee Morris of Twin Tigers. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.



Matthew Rain at Toad's PlaceMatthew Rain of Twin Tigers. Photo by Terri Wise.

Interpol’s set was electric. The lighting was probably the best I’d seen on the tour up to that point, and it might have seemed even more that way to me since I was paying particular attention as I was attempting to take pictures–and because I was feeling giddy and more than a little tipsy.

Paul at Toad's PlacePaul Banks of Interpol. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

I alternated between dancing and snapping away.

Daniel Kessler of InterpolDaniel Kessler of Interpol. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

They played “Barricade” live for the first time and I was thrilled—love that song. Paul was literally dripping with sweat by the end of the main set and changed his shirt for the encore. I was very pleased that they chose not to play “The Heinrich Maneuver,” even though they’d checked it.

The night’s setlist looked like this:

Success
Evil
Say Hello to the Angels
Summer Well
NARC
Lights
NYC
Mammoth
PDA
Barricade
Take You on a Cruise
Slow Hands
Obstacle 1
——–
Hands Away
Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down
Not Even Jail

As far as this tour goes, it was a great setlist for me. I much prefer “Mammoth” to “The Heinrich Maneuver,” and think it works much better live–it has a much better intensity and was a much better fit on this night. As mentioned before, I love “Hands Away” and I don’t think they’d started swapping it out for “Leif Erikson” (which I also love) at any of the shows yet. “Stella” again fit the intensity of the night. It was just right.

Daniel Kessler at Toad's PlaceDaniel Kessler of Interpol at Toad’s Place. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.

Afterwards I wandered over to the merch table to say hi to the Twin Tigers people and we gabbed for a while. We talked to Forrest about The Smiths and Stereolab, and found out that they had scored a swank hotel (Down comforters! A big flat-screen TV!) for cheap–maybe less than we were paying, while we had ended up in a fine but pretty boring place a short drive away. They wanted to hang out more, and I very much would have liked to, but my friend wanted to get back to the hotel and wasn’t sure she could find it on her own, so I had to go. Matthew made me promise to hang out after the Boston show on his birthday and I said I definitely would.

Interpol with Twin Tigers and The Postelles at Pearl Street Ballroom in Northampton, MA, 7/23/2010

Posted on August 23, 2010
Filed Under friends, music, travel | Leave a Comment

I ended up arranging to meet up with friends for the Northampton and New Haven shows. Originally, I thought I would just drive home after each show, but it would have been incredibly tiring to do so. In the end it’s a very good thing that I stayed over both nights.

Northampton is a little over two hours from Boston by car. I arrived quite early and as it was a misty day I went to a coffee shop called The Yellow Sofa to get a drink and charge my cell phone. I ended up going back there twice during the day for various purposes. The people working there were great, so they all deserve a shout out. Yo, Yellow Sofa peeps, if I am ever back in Northampton, I will see you for sure. I was wearing my Devo t-shirt and two or three people commented on it, as is usually the case. Later on during the changeover between bands I noticed that the first guy who had commented on my Devo shirt was working for the venue. Unsurprising, really.

I got hungry after a bit and headed over to the discount natural foods shop across the street from the venue. They had some great stuff for cheap! I ran into Brandon and one of the roadies in the shop. I hung out by the venue for a while, eating my snack and scoping out the place. A friend of Sam’s from Florida came up to me thinking that I worked for the band. She was really friendly, but I didn’t catch her name. Thanks for being cool, old friend of Sam’s!

I was able to hear most—maybe all—of soundcheck. Pearl Street is a pretty old building and not terribly soundproof. I’m not complaining! They checked “Success,” “Summer Well,” “Barricade” (twice), “PDA,” “Lights,” “Barricade” (again), and I think “Summer Well” (again). It definitely seemed like they were working hard on “Barricade,” trying to get it right.

Some people I remembered seeing at the Bowery show in ’07 showed up and we got to chatting. We talked a little about Twin Tigers, and when I said I was having a hard time putting my finger on my first impressions of their sound, they said that TT remind them a little of early Smashing Pumpkins. They were going to the New Haven show the next night and will be at the United Palace show in New York on my birthday, too. Yay for new friends! My show companions arrived shortly after that.

Inside, the venue felt quite small—a little like Bowery Ballroom, but with less impressive sound. Alas, drinks in Massachusetts are not as cheap as they are in upstate New York.

The Northampton show was the first night that a second opener, The Postelles, was added to the bill. They struck me as eager little folks, and their music struck me as being quite happy. It reminded me of a certain segment of 80s college radio pop… sort of like the Rave-Ups, but that’s not quite it. A few of them wore hats. I thought they sounded pretty tight, but they’re not really my taste. My friend liked them a lot, though.

This was my third time seeing Twin Tigers, and some favorite songs started to emerge for me—“Red Fox Run,” “Gray Waves,” and “Everyday” in particular (and I still love all of those TT tunes, among others). My friend couldn’t stand their set because it was so loud—I can’t remember who told us, but apparently they were late to this show and had to use all their own gear (?). It was pretty much a wall of fuzz. I think I wore earplugs for their set, so it all sounded perfectly normal and good to me, but it probably wasn’t the best introduction to Twin Tigers for most of the people there. I’m not sure the guys recognized me right away, but my friend and I liked Forrest’s old-school U2 t-shirt (War-era) and told him so.

Interpol’s set was good, though not a standout performance for me. The setlist was the same as the first night in Rochester, and in fact I think they repurposed the one they’d used for the Allentown show on June 25th. I noticed that Dave Pajo seemed to be doing a little minor backing vocals during “Summer Well.” Either that or he was noiselessly mouthing something to the sound guy during that song. “Narc” was brilliant, as usual. A big cheer went up as they started into “Lights,” and after that song Paul said, “I’m hot as shit.” It wasn’t nearly as hot in the audience as it’s been at some shows, but the place wasn’t all that well ventilated. Anyway, the next night he would be hotter. Paul dropped his pick during “Take You on a Cruise” and played guitar with his fingers for a while before grabbing another pick. Sam looked unhappy about something during that song, though I never figured out what it was.

I didn’t get any pictures of note on this night except for a picture of Paul’s pedal board.
Paul Bank's pedal boardPaul’s pedal board in Northampton–taken on my Android

The crowd was remarkably tame after the show. People just sort of filtered out, and hardly anyone hung around. I thought about approaching the Twin Tigers guys to say hi, but I was feeling shy and thinking that maybe they didn’t remember me. My friends were pretty tired and wanted to get on the road, so after we hung around for a while and found that there was nothing going on we just left.

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