Battles - The Paradise, Boston November 12, 2007

Battles
The Paradise, Boston MA
Monday, November 12, 2007

Second time is the charm.

Battles returned to Boston in just a few short months. I had tickets for their show earlier this year but fell ill the night of the show and skipped it. When I saw they were coming back I grabbed a ticket and prayed for good health.

Rolled in to the sold out Paradise about 10 minutes before the band hit the stage (9:20pm) which is nice, but harder to find a spot to stand. The band was still setting up the gear. One thing that stands out his how the band had all their gear right up to the lip of the stage. This included John Stanier's drum kit. He puts one of his cymbals up about 4 feet above his head and his kit is probably all of four drums, but he makes some great noise. He got his chops working well and really showed he has come far from his days in Helmet

Ian Williams was on the far left of the stage and was fun to watch him alternate between guitar lines to keyboards. Dave Konopka switched between bass and guitar and was pretty much in the middle of the stage. To the right was "vocalist", keyboard and guitarist Tyondai Braxton.


Konopka walked on stage at the start and began a cool bass loop as the band came out slowly. The tour is winding down for the critically acclaimed Mirrored album and the band was really firing.

The bulk of Mirrored was played and the sold out crowd held on for dear life at time as the band really got cooking on a few tunes. Some of the song had longer, and slower build ups (made you want to yell LETS GO!) but once they got rolling it was a treat.

Towards the end of the set, the song "Atlas" that probably sold more than its fair share of records took off and it was a terrific version. Trying like hell to sing along the audience did "moderate" considering nobody has any idea what Braxton is even saying. Leading up to "Atlas" some folks behind me were having a rather lengthy and semi loud discussion about "something' when another fan finally spun to them and said "Can you discuss this later?" So good.

As the set wrapped up another "tool" moment took place. Another guy decided to chant "Encore" between the main set and that "encore". Just chanting "Encore" huh? God I miss lighters sometimes.

A short set (about 1hr 10 minutes) but considering the band only has one full length out its about right. We wanted more and if the band keeps up this pace there will be plenty more for next time. Catch em if you can, but your days are probably numbered unless you live in South America.

I'll probably have an mp3 sample up Thursday (long story)....

*Drum set image from here