Animal Collective at the Ottobar

Last night, the band Animal Collective kicked off their tour in support of their new record Merriweather Post Pavillion in their hometown of Baltimore in the intimate setting of the Ottobar.
The soldout crowd of about 400 filled up the club early in the evening, and were restless and a bit noisy for opener, local musician, Daniel Higgs.
When Animal Collective arrived onstage though, the crowd were riveted. The bands trippy, groovy electronics were incredible. Just using simple lights under tablecloths and an image of their most recent album cover on the wall, the show was simple, but the mood of the room was all about their sound and the audience grooving along to the music.
It was truly a privilege to see this amazing band in such a small venue.

M. Ward with The Vivian Girls at Sixth & I Synagogue

Over this weekend, I went to DC's Sixth & I Synagogue to see M. Ward. It was my first time at this venue- beautiful inside with great acoustics.
The Vivian Girls from Brooklyn opened up. I loved their enthusiasm on stage, and their sound reminded me of The Shaggs meets post-punk.
This was my second time seeing M. Ward play and, as before, he was great. He started onstage solo with an acoustic guitar. The ladies in the audience swooned.
A few songs in he brought out the full band, and the show was spectacular. I was blown away by his guitar playing on a John Fahey cover. I also loved his cover of Daniel Johnston's "The Story of an Artist".

Beirut at BAM

A couple weekends ago, I was up in NYC to see the band Beirut play at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, opening a series of concerts celebrating musicians from that borough.
He was accompanied by the Vassar Orkestar, which added significantly to the drama of their music. He played a few new songs from his new double ep set as well.

Antony & The Johnsons at the Keswick Theater

Monday night, we went to the Keswick Theater NW of Philly to see Antony & The Johnsons play. Suprisingly, the show was not completely filled. Despite that, the concert was amazing.
Antony's voice was beautiful. He said he felt like he had lemons on his fingers as he was playing piano, but the the support of the Johnsons, the music was great. He did a fun cover of Beyonce's "Crazy In Love" as well as songs from all his records.

Jay Reatard with Cola Freaks at the Black Cat

I went to the Black Cat Tuesday night to see Jay Reatard play. It was a good crowd of mostly dudes, but the show was really great. The openers were the Cola Freaks, a really high energy punk band from Denmark. The lead singer was really intense and he went into the crowd and had people scream into the mic.
I've been listening to a lot of Jay Reatard records recently, particularly Blood Visions. He was pretty fantastic live- reminded me of punk shows I saw in college. He played his set with very little break between songs, and I'm betting that in my younger days, I would have wanted to get in on a mosh pit.

The Magnetic Fields at Meymandi Concert Hall, Raleigh, NC

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to get to see The Magnetic Fields play in Raleigh, NC at the Meymandi Concert Hall. The show was truly memorable.
The band played their set all acoustic which is interesting because their new record has a lot of distortion in its production. The songs performed more pared down sounded incredible. A lot of it also had to do with the amazing acoustics of the venue, which was definitely set up for classical music. During the show, the power went out, but the sound of the instruments still carried well in the hall.
The show was so good, I hope that the band plans to record a live record from this tour. They played songs both new and old, which prompted me to want to re-visit some records of theirs I don't listen to as much right now.

The Wedding Present at the Black Cat

Last weekend, I went to the Black Cat to see Britpop legends, The Wedding Present play. Before the show even started, David Gedge was talking to fans at the merchandise table which I thought was pretty cool.
Their set was a nice mix of some of their classics as well as songs from their most recent record, El Rey. The band sounded great, and Gedge broke several guitar strings. It was odd that their roadie, instead of being the stereotypical middle aged dude, was a young cute woman wearing an Obama button.
As with all their shows, they played their setlist with no requests or encores. During their show, Gedge said they don't do requests because it was too hard to remember all his songs.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at the 9:30 Club

Last night, I went to the 9:30 Club to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds play. It was an interesting group of fans from aging goths, young hipsters, and some guy in a bathrobe wearing devil horns and a red glove on his right hand.
Nick Cave and his band were amazing- especially guitarist Warren Ellis, who looked like a madman onstage. Nick Cave was charismatic onstage and his voice sounded incredible. He even took the time between songs to sign autographs.

Glasvegas at The Ottobar

After the VP debate last week, I went to the Ottobar to catch up and coming Scottish band, Glasvegas play at the Ottobar. The turnout was a bit meager- there must have been about 30 people there, but the band sounded great. Since they only have one record, there set was only about half an hour, however all the songs sounded great. There were enough Britpop fans there that there was even a singalong.
The bassist and guitarist danced around like the Fine Young Cannibals, and the lead singer admitted his only knowledge of Baltimore was Hairspray. I bet it wasn't even the John Waters version. . .

Santogold at the TLA, Philly

I was lucky to catch Santogold in Philly at the TLA a few weeks ago. She puts on a great show. Accompanied by two dancers and a laptop, she sang nearly all the songs from her record, and she did a few of the songs from her mixtape with Diplo.
I particularly liked it when she did "The Guns of Brixton" cover song. The crowd was pretty wild for her music.

The Walkmen at the 9:30 club

Last night, after the rains from Hurricane Hanna passed over, I went to the 9:30 club to see The Walkmen perform.
Opening up was a group called Golem, a band inspired by Eastern European and Jewish klezmer folk music. They were fun to listen to, and the violinist was gorgeous.
The Walkmen's new record, You & Me, is really good- they seem to have a knack for writing songs about the holidays and New Year's. Live, the new song "In the New Year" was amazing- Hamilton Leithauser's voice crescendoed into a scream in the chorus. They played a nice mix of songs from all their records. It was also nice to see Leithauser smile and banter between songs.
At the end of their main set, during "Louisiana", keyboardist Pete Bauer's son rushed up on stage in a small set of earmuffs and played the wooden sticks.

Mission of Burma perform Vs. at the Black Cat

This past weekend, I went to see legendary band, Mission of Burma perform their album Vs. at the Black Cat.
Opening up was the band Versus, named after the Mission of Burma album. They haven't really played much since 2001, so I was pleasantly surprised at a chance to see them as well. They sounded good- playing a mix of old songs as well as some new ones.
This was my first time seeing Mission of Burma, and they were awesome. Their energy onstage really got the crowd going, even singing along. They had producer/musician Bob Weston on the sound board doing the effects for the songs. I really liked watching Clint Conley rock out. Despite their age, this band played better than a lot of younger acts.
For encore, highlights included "Academy Fight Song" and "This is not a Photograph".