live

The Ergs!/Boris the Sprinkler/EggheadLive @ Crystal BallroomSomerville, MA One of the funnest tours of 2024 might be over, but it’s never too late to find out about it. Huh, I should work on my intros more. But why didn’t I write about the Egghead/Boris the Sprinkler/Ergs! East Coast tour before? Because, hindsight makes fools of us all. But, I’m no fool. This one was special, and if you were there (or WANTED to be there) you know what I’m...

WHO: The Clash WHAT: Live at Jaap Edenhal, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1981 WHY: We’re not accustomed here at GC to recommend bootlegs, but this one is probably the mother of Clash bootlegs. Live at Jaap Edenhal is a live bootleg recorded from the console, and catches the Clash still at the height of powers still. This is finally a cohesive, high quality, complete capture of the band playing mostly their entire catalog (Combat Rock excluded). It’s interesting both as a testament...

YOLO. You only live once. And for a music fan that’s important. A few years ago I realized how important it is the seize the moment, get off your ass, and see a band you like, because you only live once. They only live once. I once drove 2 hours to Western Mass to see Lee Scratch Perry and then beat myself up about it a little because I just could have seen him in Boston the next time. But...

METZ are a reckoning band for me. Their music sounds endlessly complex and simple at the same time. I know I like them (more than like them, actually), but their music just doesn’t stick once I turn it off. Really, the only time that has happened to me with their music is with A Boat to Drown in. I love that song, and it’s safely stored in my memory bank. It’s what I think of when I think of METZ....

The last thing you think about after you have a near-death experience is when the next good show is coming to town. But, I love music. It’s funny, because I got hospitalized right after the last show I attended in November, and after you rehab and try to get back into your routine, the thought inevitably pops back into your head: when am I going back out there to catch a show? Starting a new demanding job didn’t help either:...

Pearl Jam Give Way Record 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...

Happy Thanksgiving! We were still so naïve in 2002. The Hives had released their second album Veni Vidi Vicious, and it was getting some mainstream attention. Not sure why. Maybe it was riding the coattails of that garage sound a la the Strokes/White Stripes/Yeah Yeah Yeahs that was all the rage at the time. As documented in Lizzy Goodman’s excellent book Meet me in the Bathroom, and the less excellent documentary movie that followed it a decade later, there was...

There is no doubt that the Oh Sees (formerly Thee Oh Sees, then just OCs, then OSEES) are an unstoppable force. Releasing what seems like their 40th album this year and another one already announced, it’s important sometimes to step back and assess what you’re getting with this band because their catalog can easily meld together into a metropolis of music. With all this published material, what would front man John Dwyer choose to highlight in a live set? The...

Seeing Ted Leo play live is not something I take lightly. It’s deeply embedded in my DNA at this point. It’s something I started doing 20 years ago with people who would go on to become some of my closest friends. Seeing Ted Leo and listening to him is more than just the music: it’s a walk down memory lane. And as the man took a break from music, I took a break from that connection. Ted Leo has now...

Miles Davis Live: What it is Montreal 7/7/83 There’s this story of Miles David being confronted by a fan in the 80s or whatever and the fan saying to him that he can’t really get into the new style and direction of his music. Miles supposedly replies, “Should I wait for you, motherfucker?” By all means, Miles. Artists should be allowed to pursue their art the way they want to. They should be allowed to express themselves the way they...