Wilco - Bank of America Pavilion, Boston June 28, 2007

Wilco
Bank of America Pavilion, Boston MA
Thursday June 28, 2007

Support Act - Low.

The list of "Bands I need to see" list got one shorter after last nights Wilco show. Somehow I have missed the band live, or skipped the band live or what have you, all the while wondering "why?". The chance came months ago when the tour was announced and I decided it was time.

I had not been to the Pavilion in years. It actually has moved since I had been there, but its current location is now 4+ years old, or more. Its a great venue with the skyline behind you and the water to the front and side of the venue. Per the norm, I attended the show alone and took up my spot in section 2. The venue is "wide" but I had a great view of the whole stage from down the isle.

Low was wrapping up their set and it didn't do a lot for me honestly. After their quick "stick around there is a great band coming up next" sign off, the lights went up and the stage would get turned over for Wilco.

About 8:45 the band takes the stage to a thunderous roar from the sell out crowd. This leg of the tour is wrapping up so the band should really be firing on all fronts. Without much more than a wave the band launches into "Shot in the Arm" from their great "Summerteeth" (check out my Forgotten Disc Friday entry on it) record. The band would hum along for 4-5 songs before lead vocalist and all around swell guy Jeff Tweedy says hello to the crowd. They are pretty much down to business tonight. Jeff mentions that the venue has a "curfew" so their would be less talking and more playing. He made if funnier by saying "So here is another song..after I tell you this story".

The band would pretty much move right along all evening. The banter would be funny at times. Jeff noted they could play and see themselves on "tv". (the venue has video screens on the sides of the stage). He'd also comment about some big pimples he has on his chin and the camera zoomed in...he commented he had finally hit puberty.

Still later in the set Jeff mentioned the bands "backdrop" which was still bundled up (ie not hanging) and I can't even be sure it was..or if he was being funny. Anyhow, he mentions that they have hit the big time with their backdrop and says as a finaly zinger "Thank you Volkswagen". ( the band recently liscensed some songs to volkswagen which has some fans crying sellout).

The main set ended with a fantastic version of Spiders with guitarist Nels Cline doing a number on his guitar. He and Jeff would really lay it down on this. Encore 1 openes with the always fun "Heavy Metal Drummer". Encore 2 saw the band pull out "Passenger Side" to the shock, suprise and even blank stares of some. It a song that that doens't get played quite as much. The band wraps up with the fun "Outtasite(Outta Mind)" and walks off to a thunderous ovation once more. The masses are satisfied so it seems.

One thing that is somewhat frustrating with bands in bigger venues is the whole "encore" break stuff. Jeff mentions they won't slow down so they can play more songs, but they leave the stage twice. I wish bands would stop this. Factor in the time you walk off x2 and that is at least one song. Need a water..fine flag down a road crew member. Its not a diss on Wilco but on the whole idea of it for any band. Stop..we know you are coming back.

Overall I was very pleased. Great sound, great song selection for me as a first timer and an overall decent crowd. Glad I finally saw them and I hope to not miss them again.

Here is the whole set if this is your thing:

Shot In The Arm
Side with the Seeds
You Are My Face
I am trying to break your heart
Kamera
Handshake Drugs
On and On and On
Impossible Germany
Sky blue Sky
War On War
Jesus etc
Theologians
Walken
I'm the Man who Loves you.
Hummingbird >
Spiders
Encore 1:
Heavy Metal Drummer
California Stars
Hate It Here
Encore 2:
Via Chicago
Passenger Side
Late Greats
Always In Love
OuttaSite (OuttaMind)

Links.
Wilco on myspace
Wilco on Wikipedia
Official Site

Boston Globe show review

Lay me down inside your flying bed

I added this weeks Forgotten Disc Friday if you want to check it out. No tunes as of yet.

Enjoy none the less..

-march

The big Friday announcement.

Well I have been eluding to this for a few weeks so I guess its time.

Recently I've noticed, and listened to some podcasts and blogradio stuff. Debbie at
Fresh Air Lover does a radio show once a week. If you can't catch it live Wednesdays at 7pm ET you can get it from the archive. Also a blogging favorite Annoyed decided to go the route of a podcast. After looking at both I decided the route for me is the mypodcast.com site. All I needed was a microphone and the free download of the software. With this site I could run 2 minutes or 1hr if I wanted to. Its very easy to set up and so far I have been pleased.

So the big tease is that I have done, and will do a podcast version of Forgotten Disc Friday. I have posted the last three weeks and at this time I think I'll post them on the podcast version a week later than the text version. That way I can "get to recording my podcast" whatever day and have it ready.

So if you so desire you can click over to the audio version of what you read here. Surprise its the same name.

2 quick things re: the mypodcast site. 1st is that due to copy write issues I can NOT stream or play music on the post. Kinda would be better if I could..but.. 2 I "DO" have to have that short advertisement in the blog. It is required per the service.

Since my mp3 hosting site is down at the moment I figured I'd point you in the podcast version for now. Updates to this weeks as soon as I can get in etc.

Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts, good bad otherwise.

-march

The Nightwatchman (Tom Morello) TT the Bears

*image from
this site

The Nightwatchman
TT The Bears Place
Cambridge, MA
Wednesday June 27,2007

Last night the time finally came to hustle in to the 350ish capacity TT The Bears Place to catch The Nightwatchman. I had blogged about this very show twice already in this blog.

Outside Boston it was day two of 90+degree days of heat. It was going to be a hot evening in the club for sure. According to the venue page Tom was due on stage at 10:40pm so I decided to time it "right" so I could arrive later and not sweat, quite so much.

When I arrived Dunkin Kensrue was on stage, and from the sound of things wrapping up. When he was done a fair number of the sell out crowd headed towards the door to step outside for a smoke, or to stand in a less opressive heat.

I settled in to a pretty decent spot, about 12 feet off center stage and about 2 persons shoulders distance to the left. About 10:45 the lights dimmed, the PA music came up and the crowd goes freaking nuts.


Tom arrives on stage dressed much like the picture you see here. Its honestly "trademark" Morello. Tom is touring in support of his latest record
One Man Revolution. I had borrowed the album from a co-worker after I got tickets for the show and when I played it I was less than thrilled about it. It was all very "samey" and the acoustic guitar never got really going, he sang in kinda a low drone etc. I had my ticket though and wanted to see what would come of it, and, I am damn glad I went to the show.

The show was a lot of fun. Tom played acoustic guitar and would play harmonica on occasion. Each of the songs seemed to really blossom in this live setting. Tom informed the audience that this was the last show of "this leg" of the tour. By the third song in the audience was in the palm of his hand, and, in ecstasy. Tom would tell stories and the audience hung on his every word. He is a smart, articulate, and very bright. As one would guess with his work in Rage Against the Machine we were pretty much expected to cheer when spoke of the foolishness of George Bush, or crimes against humanity or what have you.

The douchbaggery factor was actually not too bad. When Tom would play the slower, quieter songs the vast majority of the audience were at attention and quiet. Tom pretty much would do a rocker, then a mellow tune. At one point he had banter something like this:

"Okay, I am going to play a slower quiet song and I'd like it if you were pretty quiet. What I mean is, self police. If a person near you is talking while I am playing tell them to shut the fuck up..but do it nicely". Overall, this worked and it was employed at least 2 more times during the 75 minute set. Actually "shut the F up" became the battle cry from various parts of the room. As Tom would start something quiet you'd hear it from somewhere in the back and chuckles would abound.

By the third song, Tom said we were the best most wild audience audience of the tour. He'd later mention it again and that is was not some "Paul Stanley from Kiss canned text random bullshit thank you".

Of course folks were shouting out song requests, and Rage tracks were requested. At one point Tom starts playing the intro to "Bombtrack" and I swear I never thought an acoustic song could get that many people moving. He stops it abruptly of course and smiles. The audience was rewarded later with a very unique version of Guerrilla Radio.

Tom wrapped up the main set and never left before doing an encore. After two songs the audience just doesn't want to let go, so Tom does another.

The two finest moments of the evening for me personally were an absolutely barn buring foot stompin body bouncing sing along of an irishy tune "Road I Must Travel" (see a youtube MTV like video right here.. Before starting he tells the story of how he got his name and how he had to have an Irish Rebel song on his album. The crowd, as I have noted a few times, lost their freaking minds. Tom had everyone do one last sing along and I swear the floor moved. It was *one of those moments*.

Tom also did "This Land is Your Land" and before he began it, he told the story of how it was censored when it came out and the "last verse" had long been "lost". Tom played a blistering version of this and I don't think I had never heard the last verse of lyrics which are:

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

The audience goes berserk singing "This land is your land..this land is my land" and 200+ people start bouncing up and down at Toms request.

One cool thing Tom did was that with the purchase of a cd or t-shirt it got you a pass to do a meet and greet after the show. It was a school night for me so I passed on it.

I'll post the set list once I figure it out (or track it down). This is a show that I did tape and I think it needs to be shared here. I just need a smidge to get it converted down and then uploaded.

*** updated w/the set list***

One Man Revolution
Union Song
Maximum Fire Power
Flesh Shapes the Day
Midnight in the city of Destruction
House Gone Up Flames
?
The Road I must Travel
The Garden of Gethsemane
*bombtrack tease*
Guerilla Radio
Let Freedom Ring
E:
Alone With out you
This Land is Your Land
Until the End

One of the better "surprises" with regards to a live show I have had in ages. Tom brought the goods and left me feeling guilty for not digging the cd as much as I think I now should.

Rumor has it he will be back this fall doing this all over again. I think I'll be there, how about you?

Boston Globe review here
Boston Herald review
here

Cluster maps, frozen treat and the Beastie Boys

3 short, random things..

Okay I *think* I figured out what is up w/Clustermaps. It looks like it runs for a year then "archives" itself. If you want to see how much you were loved last year (if your clustermaps seem off that is). Click the map on your blog.

There is a navigation bar, click "Map Archive" then "thumnail" click "on" and there you have it.

Item 2.
Sweet lord this fahhhkin rules. I am not a huge ice cream person but when I am, I like it loaded up with even more fat and calories and what have you. I tried to find a page that just had a picture of the carton but every link I found so far (duh..i could google image it) but none the less, the other links just has nutritional value..zzzzz. Its got a SLEW of dough chunks as well as a lot of chips. It was buy one get one free this week...so call me crazy.

Item 3.
Grabbed the latest Beastie Boys cd on the way to work today. Its a totally instrumental album and I dug the instrumental stuff that was on Check Your Head that also landed on The in Sound from Way Out so I am hopeful. One site that didn't care for it much is
Pitchfork. The review is not the best but these people are paid to be pretentious a'holes. They are right on some stuff, wrong on others.

Day one of 3 90+ days temp wise. Here comes summer.

Cluster maps?

I just noticed today..cluster maps seems "off" or "odd looking". Anyone else having issues? I might need to do some checking.

Ummm thats about it. Don't waste your time on the Jet Li movie Unleashed. Total snore fest barring 2-3 good fights. Mrs March worked evenings this weekend so once the kids were fed and put to bed I watched it. I came *that* close to stopping it.

Vacation begins Friday after work...this is going to be one long ass week.

Had my time for you, do you really wanna hold me?

There is a new entry over at Forgotten Disc Friday.

I know I teased a little change to FDF last week..i am almost ready to roll that change out. Details VERY shortly.

Thanks as always for reading.

Stuff...

Lack of updates are abounding, not only here but many of the other blogs and sites I read. I guess its the nice(r) weather perhaps.

I grabbed the latest White Stripes cd this week. It is actually playing in the background as I type. So far its what I expected which is usually a pretty solid effort. Currently though, in all honesty, little holds a candle to Caspian. No record in 2007 has gotten more spins and "holy shit" moments from me. The band is from Boston so there is hope I will see them sooner than later. The band has the old obligatory myspace page. Click one or any of those songs, and crank your speakers up. No lyrics..just awesomeness. Some smart film/tv director/producer is going to come along and snatch them up soon..i can tell.

Other cds getting many spins.
Battles Sweet mother of all that is good and holy this record rules. I had been a fan of the band members prior work (Don Caballero/Helmet etc) and read one stellar review after the next and said "Let's Do This". I am pretty "brave" when it comes to following the lead on reviews. Granted the latest Destiny's Child could get smoking reviews and I'd ignore it (like all their other albums)..hey to each their own remember? Amy Winehouse is another artist that had a lot of press (good for her record bad and good for her image) couple that with a "smart move" on the labels part to have the cd be less than 10.00 and I said "what the hell". I didn't get it at first, now I do. It is very strong.

In a moment of weakness I bought a set of these a few weeks back. Limited to 1000 and already looking at doubling my money if I so choose. Speaking of Wilco I am FINALLY set to see them next week in Boston. Barring "new" bands there are not a lot of bands left on my "I need to see them" list. Somehow Wilco has eluded me up until now so hopefully the kids will stay healthy and I can have something to write up. The night before Wilco I am set to see The Nightwatchman which is actually Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine/Audioslaves) new/side/other project. A coworker loaned me the cd and I found it to be BORING. Tom is a great guitar player but he chose to keep the record a mellow and "samey" record. One ripper on the cd would have been nice. Hopefully live I'll be "pleased".

That is about it. Caspian..get it..today..and thank me later.
-march

Fathers day redux...

The weekend was pretty decent. Saturday we decided to have my mom and dad down for some steak tips and s'mores on the patio. Of course the moment I lit the grill the wind picks up and it gets grey. We bag eating on the patio and move it inside. It never rained so we went back to the patio and did a small fire and hung out. It was nice. My parents often will come but leave quickly after it seems. I am in no rush to push them out so it was nice they sat on the patio for a bit.

Fathers Day itself was nice. I got a candy bar from little march that was wrapped in a wrapper she did at camp. Its cool. I got some gift cards and a book I had wanted.

We bought a new kiddie pool and some water toys and did all that. For dinner we did the "99" and then had Cold Stone Creamery. On the way home we stopped at our local town common and the kids ran around for a bit. It was a great fathers day.

Little March wraps up school today with a half day in which she meets her teacher for next year. She was a wreck on Friday because she heard that someone said that someone said that someones cousin who lives 2 towns over said that Mrs F gives "A LOT" of homework.

Littlest is enjoying some free time but the month of July he is going to do a "summer school" 3 days a week. We don't want to lose ground where we gained so much this past year.

Happy belated fathers day to any dads that are reading.

Tonights the last night I am coming home to you

There is a new entry over at Forgotten Disc Friday. Not much more I can add I guess. Another big change, hopefully for the best, is headed for that site.

Thanks as always for reading.

In the News

Nola Ochs became the oldest person to graduate from college. She is 95 and earned her degree in History. She hopes to find a job on a cruise ship as a storyteller.

A professor of forensics at Texas State University wanted to study how a human body would decay in a field. The plan was put on hold because the fear vultures would circle and thus, mess up airline traffic.

The Beatles still sell, on average, 280,000 copies of their records PER MONTH.

The U.S. Divorce rate has dropped to its lowest level since 1970. (Bloomberg News)

Only 850 babies in the US were named "Katrina" last year. (Associated Press)

The number of celebrity photographers in LA has grown more than 10 times since 1992. Every week they generate 120,000 images. (Radar)

In China, doctors and hospitals report at least 7 million abortions per year but there are studies that show it may be as high as 13 Million. By comparison the U.S. reports about 1.3 Million. (New York Times)

Since November Viacom employees have viewed 2 million youtube clips to see if there is a content violation. Since that time there has been 200,000 requests to Youtube to remove copy written content. (Business Week)

More KFC Restaurants will open in China this year than in the US. (New York Times)

Sad News...

Always a bummer when someone dies. Don Herbert has died. Who you ask? Mr. Wizard! He was the science host of "Mr Wizards World" on Nickelodeon in the early 80's. He used to blow stuff up and do all sorts of cool experiments. Damn it..he made learning FUN!

Hope where ever you are there is an endless supply of test tubes, paper towel rolls and crushed up TNT.

Kids are funny...

Unless you have been living under a rock you have a least heard the name Amy Winehouse. Amy is a singer from the U.K that has made just as much noise in her music as she has in the press. She is well known for enjoying "one too many" drinks.


Rolling Stone has her on the cover as you can see by the image. Mrs.March a few weeks ago started listening to the cd and she is addicted. She plays it all the time in the car. The lyrics and content are not really for little ears so she has her "Winehouse time" in the car. As a sidebar it is exciting that Mrs. March is so "in to music" at the moment.

The copy of Rolling Stone arrived last night and as you can tell its not something we really want/need just laying out there for little march (8) to see. Anyhow little march does she it and Mrs and Little get chatting.

Little March - Who is that?!
Mrs March(MM) - A Singer, Amy Winehouse
Me - Mommy LOVES her cd!
Little March - More than High School Musical??!

so a few minutes pass and LM is looking at the tattoos etc.
LM - She is kind of scary looking.
MM - Well, its part of her act..she sings really well.
LM - Mom, those tattoos on her arms and stuff..are those the real kind of tattoos?
MM - Yes
LM - Why would she do that?!

Littlest March not to be outdone comes in the kitchen and announces that he "Needs to go Pee". I say "Well go to the bathroom and go".

He runs down the hall..I hear the lid and seat clank up against the tank and out of nowhere...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH whew that feels good.

Ahh kids rule.

Where to begin..

Many will be happy to know, as they read, this entry will have nothing to do with regard to The Sopranos. Mostly due to the fact you are reading the blog of a person that has not seen a single episode of the show. I know it is/was good and someday I'll get around to renting and seeing them all but I am in no rush.

On the home front I have a chipmunk problem in my back yard. I can't even say its a full on problem but I have 2 or 3 smaller holes in my back yard and I want this to stop sooner than later. Friday I looked on line for some advice and per the norm one page tells you to do A-B-C while another site says "NEVER" do A-B-C. One item I did find was gas or smoke bombs. Hell, fire and or explosives..sign me up! I'll have holes in my back yard yet.

I went to the local large home store and got a four pack of smokers. I read the instructions (yeah I really did) and I read one of the cooler parts..."You may need to use more than one smoke stick" Ohhh yeah.

We got back from the library and the kids went in, and I went right to the backyard. I am worried about pesticides or traps etc. I'll admit the critters are a far cry from an ugly creature. So, you light the stick, stuff it in the hole and cover with a rock. Simple.

Light one..drop..cover..then I heard. FSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SPPPPPPPPPPPOOOOOOOOOOFFF. Some smoke leaks up but it appears we have ignition. So I do another in a second hole and decide to wait. The idea is this smoke gets into all the paths and can get to them. Yesterday I concluded and then decided to fill in the hole(s) with some bark muclch and grass clippings etc. I packed it all down tight. Now we wait. See if they use another hole, or if I got em.

Not all that wild and crazy but I felt like writing something other than testing notes for my place of employ.

Well I didn't have much interest in sports or school elections

There is a new entry over at Forgotten Disc Friday. This weeks is a pretty safe choice that many have probably heard, at least in part, without even realizing it.

Thanks as always for reading.

Lazy....

I am sick and tired of being lazy. Granted this version of Lazy is saving me money, but I have been bagging going to concerts the last few days/weeks and it is starting to bug me.

Last week at the last minute Lightning Bolt was added to a bill at the super small art gallery in Providence called AS220. I called they were not even headlining so it would be an early night and short drive..for $8.00 and I bagged it.

June 1st I was on the fence about going to see the band Maserati in Somerville. I decided that it was more a hassle, and then I read today that Caspian was added to the bill. There is NO 2 cds getting more spins right now than Caspians stuff.

June 3rd, again, was on the fence about going to see The F**King Champs. It was a Sunday, it was raining..again I bagged it.

June 5th (last night) The Sea and the Cake were playing the Paradise in Boston. I have all their cds, love their stuff, have never seen them live and it had been on the radar for a good two months. I bagged it for hockey.

Finally tonight the deftones are playing Lupos in Providence. Again, 20 minutes from me, and their most recent cd Saturday Night Wrist still gets a lot of spins, but man...$37.50 for a ticket?!

Being lazy blows.*

*as a note its all me that is lazy. For most shows I come home, do dinner, hang with the other marches, do the bedtime routine and then head back out.

Now thats nice

If anyone wants to they can order me either one of these.

Headed to the "record store" today and I'm gearing up to drop some heavy dough. Details later.

What would you do?

If you live in, near, or have visited a "large" city chances are you have ridden said cities "transit" system. In the transit system underground you have probably heard someone playing a guitar or what have you.

What do you do when you hear the music? Do you just keep walking, do you stop and listen? Do you slow down and toss some change, or even a dollar in the case set at the performers feet?

What if the performer was a big name in their genre? What if the performer was using a 3.5 million dollar instrument?

The Wasington Post did a quick study on rush hour day. It was a Friday, before 8am on a January morning. The performer would play 6 pieces of music over the next 40+ minutes to close to 1100 commuters.

The total haul for his efforts? $32.00.

The whole effort was video taped and the performer later watched and said the hardest part to watch was the moment each piece ended. No applause, no nothing. The peformer would just start up again, almost embarrased.

The songs played "Chaconne" from J.S.Bach's Partita No.2 in D minor. This piece is considered one of the most difficult to master and runs over 14 minutes long.

Six minutes into the above song the performer gets his first person to stop. They slow, and lean against the wall and listen.

Next was "Ave Maria" from Franz Schubert. Upon conclusion it was greeted with silence.

During this part of the story it is told that where the performer stands is near the top of an escilator that takes over one minute to go from bottom to top (if they stand only) thus getting a fair amount of music. He has the second person stop to listen. As this person stands for just 3 minutes close to 100 people just pass by. For the first time ever, the listener leaves the performer some money.

Each time a child would walk past they would bend and twist as to see where the music was coming from. During this time a lottery/newpaper kiosic was heavily trafficed. When asked later one man said he could remember each of the 10 daily numbers he played and that the music he heard sounded like "What the string band played on the Titanic". When told he didn't give notice to one of the best musicians on the world he laughs and says "Will he play around here again?". The response was "yes" but you'd better hope you win the lottery to afford the ticket.

I thought this story was amazing. Part of me always feel like we are on camera at all times, so you have to wonder how to act. Now will every single guitar player I see in our local subway get change from me? Probably not..but I might slow down and at least listen for a second.

Also, I didn't know the peformers name either, or the classical pieces chances are in the hustle and bustle I might have just walked right on past as well. The performer playing a $3.5 million dollar Stradivarius? Joshua Bell

Here is his Wikipedia Entry

Also a direct link to this blog entry is here

Will I ever see the pleasure that will never end?

There is a new entry over at Forgotten Disc Friday. I was not so lazy this week I actually sat and did one. Hope you'll check it out.

Thanks as always for reading.