live

The winters in New England are brutal. So much so that it’s a wonder anyone would come here to play when it’s so cold out. Double that when there’s a snow storm. And those were exactly the conditions on Tuesday when Bat Fangs rolled around to the Sinclair for their live show. Personally, I was surprised the show was happening at all, but very very pleased that it did. Both Bat Fangs and Quasi are bands I’ve been meaning to...

Dave HillLive @ Village Social Club I’m all for checking out new venues in Boston, and lord knows we need them. The smaller and more intimate, the better. But, what I didn’t expect is that one of my favorite comedians would be playing a venue I’d never heard of. Maybe that’s because the Village Social Club isn’t the kind of venue you’d expect to see the alt comedy Dave Hill is known for. But, none of that matters. What...

Check out Dave James’ coverage of the scorching Lagwagon show at the Sinclair last week. Follow him on Instagram...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the LP+CD reissue of Live! by The Dils. While plenty of punk bands have been well exposed since the public became interested in learning about the early days of the L.A. punk scene (X’s catalogue has been reissued by Fat Possum Records, Porterhouse reissued (MIA) by The Germs and other labels have reissued titles by The Avengers, The Bags and The Runaways too), the truth is that giving all of the talent...

Praise the powers that be, I think I finally understand Ty Segall. I’ve been listening to the man’s records for ten years and think I finally get him. Not that he was that much of a mystery to begin with. He’s a garage-god, yes. He’s hyper-prolific, sure. He’s handy with the axe, definitely. I think it can be said that his records are very good, but with the exception of Manipulator, I don’t think any have quite stuck with me....

Pearl JamLive on Two LegsRecord Store Day Exclusive Everything critical that can be said about Pearl Jam has already been said. What’s left now are just end stories and personal experiences. The validity of “grunge” as a music genre can be debated (and it should be since it’s complete limited to the bands that came out of a certain part of the earth in a certain point of the 90s), but what is a fact is that Pearl Jam was...

What a year it’s been for live shows and what a time to be alive. Many of us took up hobbies during COVID and mine was trying to fill some gaps in my musical knowledge. Boy, did Superchunk fill that gap. Very seldom does a perfect band come along: one with a rich back catalog and a whole approach to making music that seems perfectly catered to your sensibilities. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of Superchunk until a few...

It’s safe to say that the Sleaford Mods are in a category all of their own, and this makes them hard to describe. I know descriptions don’t matter but with this band, it’s kind of fun. Sleaford Mods are a rap group (I think) made up of two British guys whose music sounds like a cockney guy speed-talking about working-class problems over simplistic, but grooving, beats. It’s kind of punk rock in the sense that it reinterprets and simplifies rap...

I’ve been a fan of Jon Snodgrass for over 20 years and have never seen him live. Embarrassing, I know. Especially considering how much I owe the man. Armchair Martian is such a no-brainer for anyone into pop punk, especially the Descendents/ALL/Fat Wreck variety, and I was hooked from the beginning (hey, when’s a new album coming out?), but I didn’t think country music could be cool until I heard his band Drag the River with ALL frontman Chad Price...

Photos by the unmatchable Brittany Rose...