sinclair

Seeing a good opener can be a cathartic experience. Sometimes it’s interesting, and you check them out when you go home, but most of the time it’s forgettable. I can count on one hand when an opener has blown me away, and I don’t even need all my fingers. When I caught the last few songs of Die Spitz at an OFF! show years ago all I could think of is how loud it sounded. Then, watching them put their...

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Photos by Zack Bates...

Give it up for Tim Heidecker. The man is a dynamo that won’t stop. Constantly on the move, Heidecker always has a project he is working on: from sketch comedy, to his podcast (or “show” as he likes to call it), to his standup, to legitimate acting, to his music. Not that I’m a music snob, but I never knew if Heidecker was making joke music or “real” music — you know, for the sake of writing good songs, or...

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Everyone should be listening to Fucked Up. That’s a fact. Unfortunately, hardly anyone does. That’s a sad fact. I mean this in the sense that this band should be much much bigger than they actually are. For one thing, they play glam punk, fuzzy and complex, and layered. They release a plethora of vinyl and take it on tour with them. They’ve proven twice now that expansive concept albums are well within their skill-range. Of course they’ll try it (Pitchfork...

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...

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

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...

Mannequin PussyLIVE @ Sinclair, Cambridge, MA10-27-21 One of the joys of being an avid music listener is getting absolutely blindsided by a band you’ve never heard before. I try never to pay too much attention when listening to new music, which is a perfect way to let an album kick your ass out of nowhere. That was the case in 2019 withy Mannequin Pussy’s Patience. It turns out I had actually heard of them before, having seen them play the...