Feb 24
DaraAmericana, Psychedelic, Southern Rock, Thrash
so here’s the story – I came to love one song (“Good Bye Mary Lou”), a punkish bluegrass song, by this no-name band called Angels of Light and propagated it through all mixes therewith – I had a vague notion of Akron/Family but didn’t know they’d been the backing band for Angels of Light until I read their show bio – the show bio also mentioned Michael Gira as the lead singer of Angels of Light which got Rockboy excited because he knew him as the lead singer of the Swans – anyway, we went to this show because of a string of distant associations – I was mostly pleased and the anti-anything-remotely-psychedelic Rockboy was not – they are in essence a jam band, tapping such a wide variety of sounds that I characterize them officially as a schizophrenic band – they literally have no distinguishing characteristic which, even if I am a girl who loves variety, may not be a good thing for a band looking to make a name for themselves – they began with a song that made me love them: a more psychedelic Songs: Ohia (melancholy folk) – suddenly it was thrash which firstly is a signature move of this generation (to intersperse loveliness with hardness) and secondly seemed an misguided attempt to prove they’re not soft or that they’re hip to all aspects of our culture – but in sum, it didn’t sound good and it didn’t sound organic – they then proceeded into the other tagsound of this generation of music, Afro pop, which they did very well, reminding me of Paul Simon – in the end, I believe that they will return, if they want to endure, to the sounds that are their strength: very pretty and sophisticated pop – if it matters, they dress like 70s road hippies with t-shirts and bandanas which seemed to me a lame attempt to suggest campfire jams
Jan 29
DaraCountry, Goth, Rockabilly
formerly in Flat Duo Jets – night and day, fantastic guitar player and great singer, gothic rockabilly?, this raucous acoustic set was accompanied only by his junkie sister on a weird box-drum that she tapped and thumped very well – made me think of Italian operas (dark emotion in his voice), David Lynch (had a song that quoted Blue Velvet), Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus (gothic country), Jonathan Richman (mixed trinkling melodies with odd singing),…
Jan 29
DaraAlt-Country
sang in X, The Knitters, and The Original Sinners – I know her distinctive voice but walked out of her set at SXSW because it was so dull, I was able to figure out why at this show, the woman writes two-chord trite love songs with unimaginative lyrics and melodies, she frankly doesn’t have a lot of talent or skill but there is still something about the tinge-of-crazy wail in her voice and her fierce wacky persona (even at 50+)
Jan 25
DaraCountry, Rockabilly, Swing
a fine boss-girl of a lead singer in her red dress with zig-zagging fringes and scattered arm tattoos – in addition to her solid version of low-toned female rockabilly vocalizing, she handled DJ responsibilities in between sets – the band was completed by an upright bass guitarist, drummer, and lead guitarist – some covers, old country, rockabilly, swing; and then a song where the vocalist left and the musicianship was turned up and it was very exciting psychosurf; and then our personal finale was a song that started like the Flipper song with “HA HA HA HA HO HO HO…” lyrics, was dedicated as “The Laughing Song” to the upright guitarist’s “partner,” and has been determined by the wonderous Google to be a The Residents song of the same name that is described as sounding like The Flipper song – it must be noted that the venue was satisfyingly swanky rock club and the environment on their ‘Swing Night’ was earnest, clean dance devotion with a crowd of youngsters, hipsters, oldsters alike
Jan 18
DaraBluegrass, Country
A new band formed from members of The Maybelles and Jenny and the Corn Ponies with a regular Monday evening gig at the Hole in the Wall for the foreseeable future. Despite newness and fluctuating membership, they have a sound – pop-bluegrass/country – and they have a shtick of sorts. There’s Mama on the fiddle, Sister on the guitar, Daddy on the upright bass (Ani DiFranco looking female), and a sometimes lap steel guitarist whose baby-face serves well as the little brother figure. Sister’s voice is pleasant but is at its best when being harmonized with by Mama’s deeper voice. Daddy’s my favorite, though, with her genuinely twanging voice, fierce stage energy, and her own songs that blend light lesbian politics with traditional bluegrass sounds.
Jan 15
DaraBlues, Country, Indie Rock, Soul
Although it was the first time in some ten years that both primary contributors to Concert Central were actually at a concert together, we only saw a couple of songs. But the band still managed to make their goodness clear. A rootsy indie sound and fronted by a very lovely young girl with a great voice. Originally from Alabama but now in Austin
Oct 30
DaraAlt-Country, Bluegrass, Rock and Roll
Those Darlins aren’t so darling anymore – they done went and grew up into proper rock stars and will probably continue on to implode like real rock stars – these three girls and a drummer sing deceptively simple and fun sing-along songs about being slightly trashy and Southern – their music’s actually not so simple though… it’s rooted in authentic country, honky tonk, Southern rock and even some blues but performed (especially tonight) with rock ‘n roll and even garage rock swagger and snarl – they confessed midway through their set that they’d performed and drank beers earlier in the evening at another Austin venue and it was pretty clear that they were still feeling the effects – the blonde one with long curls was slit-eyed and repeating herself – her performance was most affected – the resident ‘bad girl’ with the husky sexy voice eventually spewed beer on the crowd and bit pumpkin meat from a jack o lantern on the stage and spewed that too – the smallest one with the short curly black hair and the Janis Joplin maleish voice had changed the most in appearance (more bold) but was the best behaved – they opened with an instrumental surf rock song – they sing about getting drunk and eating a whole chicken, being a “snaggle-toothed mama” in a trailer far away, and warning her boy that he knew she was wild one all along – they made me nostalgic for my 20s, when being a wild one was only fun, but then they made me remember that I’m happy to be in my 30s – I still really like this band but, as their senior, I am worried for them 
Oct 28
DaraBluegrass, Folk, Punk, World Music
I loved this show and so did the crowd –I think this band is basically the foundation for slam-grass and the gypsy punk movement – impossible not to dance to a rowdy accordion – and then the old Irish ballads communicate a sense of warmth and companionship – although not always the vocalist, Shane McGowan was the center of the show – the band wouldn’t be half as interesting without his slurred snarling vocals – having just watched the movie biography of his life (Should I Fall From Grace), I was firstly amazed that they were charging so much to see a man who was such a high liability for not showing up or not being able to perform and secondly felt a kinship with him like I kind of knew him – I figured he must have sobered up if they were touring like this – not a bit – his spoken words were so unintelligible (partly because of his accent but mostly because of intoxication) that a band member would translate what he was saying for the audience – funny and horrifying all at the same time – like the irresistible draw of looking at a car wreck – he frequently left the stage between songs and progressively relied more on the microphone to hold him up – despite all of that, his singing was mostly on target–it was disturbing or touching that his band members accommodate him as he is so that he can perform and that his fans almost celebrate his self-destruction – part of his mystique – oh and he’d gotten his first set of false teeth recently but didn’t wear them to perform…. someone said the movie about his life should be shown to kids to terrify them into sobriety – “hghgthzzz” as Shawn would say
Sep 09
DaraAmericana, Bluegrass, Country, Jazz, Swing
the more that I understand the sound of Texas swing, the more I appreciate this band – they elaborate on the sound and play intelligently and creatively – always based in country but sometimes leaning more toward the bluegrass then toward a solid swing song and then a waltz and then almost jazzy – they’re very good musicians and make the song their own while maintaining its integrity – Jeremy, the lead singer’s, voice might not be remarkable but what is remarkable is his deft management of the band and dedication to the music he loves
Jul 23
DaraAmericana, Rockabilly
the lead singer of this band annoys me to the point that I can’t fairly judge their music, she is so unjustifiably full of herself and blatantly self-aware on the stage, we were semi-positive that we were giving this band a second chance and they got the same rating they got the first time: unsatisfying rockabilly poseurs, perhaps because they’re from Seattle and don’t have the Texas roots as a foundation
Jul 21
DaraAlt-Country, College Rock, Hard Rock, Punk
sported the polish and confidence of a band who has performed for years and years – almost want to write them off as silly party boys but they managed to pull off sunglasses at night, coordinated movements, and holding the guitar up for the audience to worship because they are sincere in their worship of rock and because they can back it up with some really good music – very nearly 3 separate bands within one: they had very tight garage punk songs that were distinguished by short punctuated segments a la The Hellacopters, they had songs that were spot-on expressions of the nichey genre ‘punk n’ roll,’ and they have their country a la Cracker – lots of wah wah pedal too – they’re fun for the whole music family
Jun 13
DaraAmericana, Blues, Folk
a lot of prep work went into this show: discussion, watching of the biography, etc. and it made it all the more exciting to see the actual 77-year-old man walking down the little aisle – the charm that won him 5 (plus?) wives is still apparent – he just opens his mouth and amusing folksy tales pour out, that’s his “ramblin’” part – the names of celebrity pals were dropped left and right (Kris Kristofferson, Woody Guthrie, etc.) – he’s a good guitarist, trained by Woody Guthrie and acting as mentor to Bob Dylan eventually, as informed by the movie – he doesn’t write too many of his songs and talked about the person who wrote each song before playing it – style ranged from bluesy to Guthrie-esque to Townes-esque folk-country – overly-delighted fawning middle-aged crowd that is typical to the Cactus Café – the downside was that Jack was struck with allergies or a cold and his voice kept getting scruffy to the point that he eventually cut his second set short – his first set wasn’t even that long –RamblinBoy reported that he actually played more songs than what he did in Marfa the weekend before possibly because he didn’t have enough of a voice to chat too much – we got to talk to him on the way out after waiting out a very old hippie who actually had a twig sticking out of his hair
May 21
DaraFolk, Gypsy, Jam Band, Punk
I was annoyed at first with their youthful self-important casual-hipster postering. They were basically gypsy-punk-lite with a folky-campfire bent. If they were being serious, they started the band when they were biking to Mexico and Canada together and “are still friends.” The vocalizing and music was intentionally messy but the 8-band-member choruses were engaging. I was especially charmed that their second song was “Daisy, daisy, give me your answer true…” Some of the band members were of questionable talent (spoon guy), but some had former band geek potential.
Apr 16
AndrewFolk, Southern Rock
The Indigo Girls came to Boston for a brisk two-hour set that covered their career of classic tracks and the full breadth of their new album Poseidon and the Bitter Bug. The Indigo Girls have polished their performance to the point that their songs stand as a testament in their own right, even stripped of all the flash of the full band performance like on the heavenly version of The Wood Song. Backed only by Julie Wolf on keyboards, accordion and vocals, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers scorched the stage with their trademark vocals and gospel harmonies. The crowd embraced old and new songs, lending their voices to Power of Two and an enthusiastic rendition of Closer to Fine (one verse of which was given to opener Lucy Roche who couldn’t compete in personality or stage presence with Ray or Saliers). The highlights included a jam on Shame on You that brought the crowd to their feet, and the live debut of the scorching ballad True Romantic to lead off the encore.
Indigo Girls setlist
Love of Our Lives
Sugar Tongue
Fill It Up Again
Dairy Queen
Power of Two
Driver Education
What Are You Like
Reunion
Run
Yield
Get Out the Map
Shame On You
Fleet of Hope
Moment of Forgiveness
Digging for Your Dream
Ghost of the Gang
The Wood Song
Second Time Around
I’ll Change
Land of Canaan
Closer to Fine (w/Lucy Roche)
Encore
True Romantic
Galileo
Mar 31
DaraCountry
straightforward country but then did a gorgeous spaghetti western song, basically a more country coherent version of Dirty Three, think it was mostly the pedal steel guitar, otherwise not really my style
Mar 21
DaraCountry, Folk, Singer/Songwriter
I’ve seen her before in The Knitters – suppose I developed an affection for her because of Rockboy’s minor obsession and because I am fascinated by people who traverse from the world of punk (X) to the world of country (The Knitters) – the crowd was a lot of late-middle-aged men with badges…. ech – Exene looked ancient… maybe 60? – she had attitude in abundance in demeanor and speech but her music was just blah – singer/songwriter with a slight country-folk twang – we left for hotter waters
Mar 20
DaraAlt-Country, Indie Rock, Pop
I have an extreme fondness for this band’s vocal harmonizing and general sound (please see “Shake Our Tree”)… quirky fun indie pop with interesting lyrics – very unfortunately, the Mohawk’s sound system totally failed the band and underplayed the voices and highlighted the less interesting instrumentation – additionally, in what I saw (a lot), they did not play my song – I think it’s possible they’re solid song crafters and it’s just a matter of being better on album than live – their physical appearances were interesting enough though that I suspect the Mohawk is to blame
Mar 20
DaraAlt-Country
I woke up weary from the second 12-hour day of SXSW but was stirred by the thought of seeing one of my newest favorite bands, The Black Angels – I confuse them with The Black Keys (whom I love too) and The Black Lips and The Black Keylips… it gets complicated… but I had pretty much straightened out that the Keys were garage while the Angels were gorgeous lovely sonic psych metal – anyway, I hustle over to this bookstore at something like 11:30am and am discomforted by the sight of about 8 disheveled young-hipsters, as I’ve taken to calling the femme boys and mottled girls who make up our new generation of ‘with-it’ youth, because this is not the size or the composition of the crowd I would expect for my favorite band… I am patient… because this is required at SXSW… especially when you’re groggy and unable to think of a better course of action to take – I am further discomfited by the young goofy look of the young-hipster band themselves, who are five feet from me setting up – I am comforted though by an exchange between two of the disenchanted alienated 21 year olds: “who are they?” “they’re our friends from New York” “are they any good?” “no… no… just kidding… [in a low confidential voice] they’re really good” – anyway anyway, they start and it’s not my band, not even close – they’re alt-country-rockers – in typical band fashion, they throw out their name and I hear something in addition to ‘The Black Angels’ – I wait until the song finishes and hustle out only to arrive home and figure out I had neglected to look at the preceding line of my webpage schedule and thus the beginning of the band name in all of my SXSW fervor – in all fairness, they were a very decent band and it was all my fault
Mar 18
DaraAlternative Rock, Blues, Comedy, Country, Electronic, Pop, R&B, Rap, Rock and Roll
We’re all bickering on a hot street: WomanInCharge on crutches and no cabs in sight. Two of us head off towards busier corners to find a taxi when what to our wondering eyes should appear, but an oddly shaped taxicab coming so near. We whooped, climbed in and shortly realized that this was no normal taxi. It was shaped like a big box, had a stripper’s pole and fluorescent lighting. Even better, there was an interactive jukebox-style touch screen with a wealth of music videos from the 70s to 00s to choose from. 3 to 4 TV screens allowed a clear view for every passenger. The kind of random magic that only happens during SXSW… or anytime of the year for the lucky few who know to call 512-626-TAXI.
Feb 11
DaraFolk, World Music
I arrived on time to one of my favorite minor music venues in Austin – an excellent little music store that convinces excellent musicians in town for bigger shows to do short acoustic pre-shows at 5pm right in the store. I am a fan, what with the early hour and the free beer. This show didn’t bode well with an anomaly of a line bending literally three blocks around the store – usually it’s me, some normal people, and then the regular sketchy types there for the free beer. I found parking, jogged in high heels optimistically up to the line, and picked an average girl to ask: “Is this line for Andrew Bird!?!” in a tone appropriately laced with disbelief and disdain. She turned and concurred, just as a guy with a camera, documenting the ridiculous crowd, was yelling to the line that they were at capacity and we could all leave… But I was busy recognizing the girl’s face – I know some multiple hundreds of people younger than me (former lives of teaching middle school and TAing undergraduates) and usually can’t place them beyond the face. I briefly considered flight and feigned non-recognition, but some tenets of bonding in our former life together and a sudden welling of her name made me say it… And she looked as mortified as I felt, as I realized that she was a former middle school student of mine (much worse prospect than a former undergraduate), and here we were, at the same place, with the same goal, three years later. We exchanged niceties. I fretted about the damned low-cut shirt I’d found myself in today. Imagined the tales she would have for her-classmates/my-former-students the next day… My point is, if you haven’t heard of Andrew Bird yet, mark my words, you’ll be hearing about him soon enough.
Nov 26
DaraBluegrass, Country, Goth, Gypsy, Punk
this band was my favorite from a wealth of SXSW fantastics and I was even more impressed this time, some bands strike the personal chord and this band is one of them for me, the singer’s voice is a tremendous creening wail and the fiddler fiddles like a mad genius and the whole band has the fierce energy that sets a crowd to dancing without their full consent, the drummer was on top of his drumset several times, they paint traditional bluegrass/country-type-songs black and then hype them up with a gypsy punk undertone, inspiring as recordings and even moreso live
Nov 26
DaraAmericana, Country
totally captivating, three winsome (very) young girls who rock like boys – one or two of them actually went to a girl rock camp, there was a pretty little long-haired blonde who keeps her wild-side feminine, there was a sexy official-bad-girl in tights / mini skirt / raccoon hat / LA Guns t-shirt, there was an underage cute one in a curly bob who is probably the secret baddest of them all, oh and there was a guy playing drums but nobody paid attention to him, they met in Tennessee and do raucous sitting-on-your-porch country numbers that they wrote themselves
Nov 26
DaraAmericana, Rock and Roll
in same indie-psych-rock vein as The Parson Red Heads but not as pleasing – I attribute it to the pop-rock quality of the singer’s voice
Nov 26
DaraBluegrass, Country, Jam Band, Rock and Roll
mix of psychedelia and folk in an indie style – reminiscent of Grateful Dead and Neil Young , many band members, we enjoyed them
Oct 03
DaraAmericana, Country, Texas Blues
80s Texas country cool lead singer (suit, gum-chomping, Elvis sneer, and sunglasses indoors) ended every song with a gimmicky Elvis-like thank you – there’s no doubt that they’re good at what they do but also true that 1000s have already done what they do – wide range of country, rock and pop – distinctly heard the influence of Roy Orbison, The Traveling Wilburys and Tom Petty (but this would be as deep as I delve into country)
Sep 19
DaraAlt-Country, Glam, Indie Rock, Singer/Songwriter
knew them from one song that I really liked on Pandora but was more interested when I found out that Stephen Malkmus of Pavement is a member – turns out they’ve been around since the late 80s – the lead singer David Berman is very engaging – he’s thin (a la melancholy drug abuser) with swagger and sunglasses and a speak-singing low voice that alternated between sounding like Lou Reed and David Bowie – they’re like a lo-fi country or indie rock band with a poet/glam rocker fronting them – Emo’s was overflowing with random people – the whole band had class and I am a new fan
Sep 19
DaraAlt-Country, Indie Rock, Singer/Songwriter
started by informing the crowd that he’d started the tour with a band but was with a band no more, generally seemed bitter and Emo’s is just a venue entirely unsuited to a singer/songwriter, otherwise he did a good job for being a lone guy on a big stage, nice voice and sufficient stage presence, think his purported nuance was lost on a crowd of that size though
Sep 19
DaraAlt-Country, Americana, Folk
really disappointing, bill themselves as NY-style experimental country but it’s more like average-Joe alt-country with a lot of pretension, some five guys sitting in a row without instruments but with sunglasses provided the vocals, lots of jangle, low-key and uncomplicated, vocals were especially low quality
Sep 13
AndrewAmericana, Singer/Songwriter
Andrew Mitchell hit the stage at Kennedy’s Midtown bar with his guitar, opening with a more than respectable version of R.E.M.’s (Don’t Go Back to) Rockville. His 45-minute set also included the Styx cover Come Sail Away and Woody Guthrie’s Pretty Boy Floyd, a throwback to 1939. Considering he was playing to only a handful of people, he still gamely put on a noteworthy show.
Sep 13
DaraBluegrass, Britpop, Classic Rock, College Rock, Jam Band, Southern Rock
not as dirty (”music for the unwashed and well-read” as they say) as I remembered them – darling curly haired middle-aged member still smoked on stage but nobody else did – think the vision I have of them all living together in a trailer in a incessant jam session is just that (a vision), easy to pick out the member who sang on the cover of Gin and Juice with his highish irreverent voice, had them classified in my head as hard bluegrass but totally inaccurate, covered a huge range of styles on a generally “rootsy” (as they said) foundation, started off with strong twinges of Cajun but depending on who sang veered toward British invasion, Southern rock, etc. etc., they’re a more countrified Grateful Dead, you should know that guitars, mandolins, bass, accordions, keyboards, drums, fiddles, banjos, lap steels are employed
Jul 25
AndrewFolk, Singer/Songwriter
Catie Curtis brought her phenomenal singer-songwriter talents to Natick for a homecoming performance of sorts. The Center for Arts in Natick is an intimate stage to play on, where the artists just walk into the room and on to the stage. Accompanied by Kevin Barry, who has played with Paula Cole and Mary Chapin Carpenter, Curtis opened with waggish Slave to My Belly and masterfully ran through a two-hour show that covered many of her most popular songs and new ones from her upcoming release Sweet Life.
In the folk tradition, Curtis peppered every song with commentary, random stories about herself and her family and life as an artist. One story was about a sign on a church bathroom stall door that said “Please flush the toilet behind you.” Sure, it had nothing to do with the song that followed, but nobody in the audience minded even a bit. She explained a name change of the track Are You Ready to Fly? from the new album was because people weren’t taking in the wistful meaning of the original title Teenagers Jumping off the Bridge.
She had her rockin’ moments, notably Kiss That Counted and her softer side, a gorgeous cover of Emmylou Harris’s Red Dirt Girl. Lovely was a track that, as she said, “she wrote in the 20’s” and would have easily fit as a big band tune (or Cole Porter for that matter). Other tracks from the new album, out September 8, The Princess and the Mermaid and Happy were standout moments in an otherwise impressive showcase.
A request from the audience for Dandelion made her react in surprise, “Really?” but she gamely played the song. Towards the end of the night, she played a song for parents of teenagers, Don White’s Be Sixteen with Me. Another request Magnolia Street bookended her main set paired with the doleful Hard Time with Goodbyes.
The encore was two songs. The first, the exquisite Love Takes the Best of You was introduced by Curtis taking requests then concluding “I’ll play a song you’ve never heard.” She finished with Passing Through which ignited a soulful impromptu audience singalong on the chorus.
Jul 25
AndrewFolk, Singer/Songwriter
Chris Trapper strapped on the guitar and launched into a 45 minute warm-up for Catie Curtis with the heartfelt Letter to the Middle of the World. Armed with a raspy, unpolished voice and slight stutter, the lanky performer quickly warmed the crowd to him, wrapping each song in a story. Boston Girl was written after spending a year on the road, about the comforts of coming home. Birthday Song was his answer to singing happy birthday to an audience member. And Wish I Was Cool was every geek’s high school reunion song.
His set transitioned smoothly from folk balladry like Starlight to more uptempo numbers, the best of which Boston Girl left huge smiles around the room. Sure, most of the songs were about that special girl but his awkwardness and utter sincerity made the delivery of each wholly charming.
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