Live Music: Ben Lee and Dinosaur Jr.
Ben Lee:
When Ben Lee played in Seattle at the beginning of November, I'd resigned myself to not seeing him live this tour - there was just too much going on at the time. I took it like a man - no tears were shed. Honest.
A couple of days before I left for the East Coast, oldest_song texted me with: "Ben Lee is playing the Middle East on November 21st! Wanna go?"
The answer to that was "w00t!"
So, last Wednesday, she and I completed our Cambridge crawl from Porter Square to Central Square by descending the steps of the Middle East [Downstairs] and watching Ben rip it up in Boston.
Some interesting tidbits: this tour was just him and his support guy [guitarist or bassist or keyboardist - and backup vocals]. So all the pieces he performed were stripped down, gritty, chewy nuggets of musical goodness.
Also, the Middle East [Downstairs], is a pretty small venue. Where Ben can pack in 300 easily in Seattle, there were maybe, at most, 150 folks in the audience. And they took some warming up.
By the end of the show, he had folks singing choruses and humming along - one of his biggest strengths is his rapport with the audience. He's an amazing showman - and, I quote oldest_song - "A big dork." He makes the show silly fun. :)
His cover of one of the recent cover songs from the Against Me album, New Wave, was intense. For the record [no pun intended], he and his touring buddy loved the new Against Me album so much, they covered the entire thing - it's available on his website [linked in his blog entry]. http://www.ben-lee.com/media/newwave.htm
Other standouts were "Ripe", "Is This How Love's Supposed to Feel", and a knockout version of "Cigarettes Will Kill You."
Dinosaur Jr:
oldest_song and I had made plans to see Dinosaur Jr, a couple of weeks before flying out. On Friday night, we zipped down to the Paradise, one of the clubs I used to frequent quite often when I lived in New England. The place has changed a bit - no longer a shallow raised area in the back, but full fledged balconies ring the back walls facing the stage, replete with tables and booths. Swank. They kept the distinctive thin, flattened venue configuration, which makes for some weird viewing options - we settled in on the balcony and had a great view the entire night.
The opening band did little to impress - noisy, off-key guitar and singing - a couple of solid musical moments, where something was building - then bled away like a stuck pig. However, near the end of their set, J. Mascis came out and played percussion for them - which was fun to see - he's a good drummer, too.
When Dinosaur, Jr. took the stage, they blew the doors off the place. Loud, LouD, LOUD! Balls trembled, ears bled. The majority of the music was stuff I had not heard - hadn't bought an album in quite some time, something I will rectify after experiencing the concert. J. Mascis is still a stunning guitarist. The only thing that marred the show was the vocals kept getting buried in the mix. 1 out of 5 songs could you actually hear any lyrics at all. *Despite* that, the music was so powerful, and so intense, it didn't matter. oldest_song and I bopped along the length of the performance.
Been awhile since I left a club with my ears ringing. The show kicked ass. We both gave it a resounding - "Wow."
When Ben Lee played in Seattle at the beginning of November, I'd resigned myself to not seeing him live this tour - there was just too much going on at the time. I took it like a man - no tears were shed. Honest.
A couple of days before I left for the East Coast, oldest_song texted me with: "Ben Lee is playing the Middle East on November 21st! Wanna go?"
The answer to that was "w00t!"
So, last Wednesday, she and I completed our Cambridge crawl from Porter Square to Central Square by descending the steps of the Middle East [Downstairs] and watching Ben rip it up in Boston.
Some interesting tidbits: this tour was just him and his support guy [guitarist or bassist or keyboardist - and backup vocals]. So all the pieces he performed were stripped down, gritty, chewy nuggets of musical goodness.
Also, the Middle East [Downstairs], is a pretty small venue. Where Ben can pack in 300 easily in Seattle, there were maybe, at most, 150 folks in the audience. And they took some warming up.
By the end of the show, he had folks singing choruses and humming along - one of his biggest strengths is his rapport with the audience. He's an amazing showman - and, I quote oldest_song - "A big dork." He makes the show silly fun. :)
His cover of one of the recent cover songs from the Against Me album, New Wave, was intense. For the record [no pun intended], he and his touring buddy loved the new Against Me album so much, they covered the entire thing - it's available on his website [linked in his blog entry]. http://www.ben-lee.com/media/newwave.htm
Other standouts were "Ripe", "Is This How Love's Supposed to Feel", and a knockout version of "Cigarettes Will Kill You."
Dinosaur Jr:
oldest_song and I had made plans to see Dinosaur Jr, a couple of weeks before flying out. On Friday night, we zipped down to the Paradise, one of the clubs I used to frequent quite often when I lived in New England. The place has changed a bit - no longer a shallow raised area in the back, but full fledged balconies ring the back walls facing the stage, replete with tables and booths. Swank. They kept the distinctive thin, flattened venue configuration, which makes for some weird viewing options - we settled in on the balcony and had a great view the entire night.
The opening band did little to impress - noisy, off-key guitar and singing - a couple of solid musical moments, where something was building - then bled away like a stuck pig. However, near the end of their set, J. Mascis came out and played percussion for them - which was fun to see - he's a good drummer, too.
When Dinosaur, Jr. took the stage, they blew the doors off the place. Loud, LouD, LOUD! Balls trembled, ears bled. The majority of the music was stuff I had not heard - hadn't bought an album in quite some time, something I will rectify after experiencing the concert. J. Mascis is still a stunning guitarist. The only thing that marred the show was the vocals kept getting buried in the mix. 1 out of 5 songs could you actually hear any lyrics at all. *Despite* that, the music was so powerful, and so intense, it didn't matter. oldest_song and I bopped along the length of the performance.
Been awhile since I left a club with my ears ringing. The show kicked ass. We both gave it a resounding - "Wow."