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.