live

Swingin’ Utters Middle East Downstairs – Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 18, 2018. Live Behold the Swingin’ Utters. I mean, seriously, look at them. Have you ever sat down and thought about this band? They’ve been around for nearly 30 years and have managed to stay active and relevant throughout their entire career, despite the name. And they really have a lot going against them. The Utters got their chops as a street punk band, who would not necessarily cater to an...

I’ve been intrigued with Brooks Wheelan ever since I saw him on SNL. Sure, the show didn’t give him much to do, but his desk pieces on Weekend Update were definite standouts and I still play them from time to time. Having noticed (and liked him) from the show, it only made sense that I would check out his debut album This is Cool, Right? Then it hit me: Wheelan’s standup is most definitely my cup of tea, and there...

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 over 10 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...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Live and Loud!! LP by Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards. In this digital age of perfectly pressed, equalized and mastered music, something truly seems to have been lost – particularly from live albums. These days, live albums just seem too contained; because those making the recordings often know exactly how to make and produce one, a lot of the of-its-moment energy which comes together at a concert gets forgotten and, because...

There is no doubt that the Oh Sees (formerly Thee Oh Sees, and now actually just OCs) 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...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the 2017 vinyl reissue of the Pack Up The Plantation: Live! 2LP set by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It’s far a far less common occurrence now (when virtually every band in the universe releases a live album and, thanks to digital technology,is able to “fix” every flaw in the show in post-production) but, at one time, the release of a live album meant that the band in question was confident enough...

With the amount of noise they’ve been making, it’s hard not to notice Priests. I know exactly when I noticed their noise, and that was years ago when I saw them on the Chris Gethard show. They were the musical guests for the Sleater-Kinney episode and I knew when I saw them that I had to keep an eye on them. Smart folks knew to do the same and for years everyone waited, wondering when they were going to make...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Record Store Day Exclusive Release pressing of Alice In Chains’ Live Facelift 12” EP. While readers may be familiar with parts of Alice In Chains’ new Black Friday/Record Store Day release, Live Facelift, it’s nearly guaranteed that they don’t know the whole thing. They may know some of the songs – like the performance of “It Ain’t Like That” because it was the song which was playing in the background as...

I can’t remember the last time I saw a mosh pit at a show. And it’s not because I’m old or anything (although by punk standards I’m ancient), because I go to shows all the time. It must be the way things go in Boston because I’ve seen my fair share of “No Moshing” signs since moving to the city. I’ve almost begun to think they were a thing of past, until I saw Jeff Rosenstock at the Sinclair, because...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into a vinyl copy of David Live 2LP by David Bowie. It’s incredible how good, interesting, revealing and even informative an album can be, while simultaneously being critically abhorred. How such things happen is anyone’s guess, but they do – a perfect example is the live album that David Bowie released in 1974, David Live. David Live was Bowie’s first official live album. The album compiled tracks from a two-night stand at th...