After a pretty disheartening week, it was a happy accident to stumble into Shoppers for the last set of the night by The Chick Magnets. We are regulars at this bar, more sports than live music usually, and this was just the kind of night cap we needed.

The band covered a satisfying and diverse set of songs from Santana’s Evil Ways to Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode and the Kingsmen’s Louie Louie. Adam Pell sang lead on most of the songs, although other members of the band took their turns at the mic. Every song was tackled with great energy. The finale was the sozzled appearance of Nancy, who apparently wandered into the bar for the sole purpose of asking to play drums with the band, claiming it was her 50th birthday. The band let Nancy sit at the drum kit and to everyone’s surprise, she knew how to play. She led them in a slow albeit decidedly less than sultry take – what Pell deemed “the stripper version” – of the Rolling Stones’ Honky Tonk Women. After the song, Nancy wandered off and the band closed the night with The Letter that was more Joe Crocker than The Box Tops.

The Pop Disaster opened their New Year’s Eve gig at the Matterhorn near the Sunday River in Maine with a rollicking one-two punch of Better Than Ezra’s Good and the Gin Blossoms’ Hey Jealousy. The first set lasted about 40 minutes and was a fair balance of crowd-pleasing singalongs and surprisingly stylish arrangements of many a well known pop songs. The effect was a solid, consistent sound on tunes as varied as the Black Crowes’ Hard to Handle and Alanis Morissette’s Ironic.

Around Summer of ’69, it got to the point where songs started to blend together but every now and then, the band would pull out something like a smoking punk version of Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire and deliciously funkified take on No Doubt’s Just a Girl.

The second set was more of the same. The band popped out with a borderline-brilliant spontaneous acapella Born This Way intro to One Direction’s That’s What Makes You Beautiful. Their last song before the New Year’s countdown was a rousing singalong on 4 Non Blondes’ What’s Up?

After the countdown, the band returned for one last set that was noisier and sloppier than the two previous, and yet pitch perfect for ringing in the new year.

They started with a fast Spanish guitar vibrato/tremolo but all psyched out, which I love – and then one of the band members screamed from the middle of the audience and they became kind of an indie pop version of Godspeed You, at least insofar as the very long talking portion of their music. In reality, they started as a bunch of hipsters drawing out the start time of their set, milling around, being cool. Two of them were affable musicheads, but one of them.. oy vey – he had the worst case of I’m-sure-intentional bedhair I’ve ever seen and he had a squirrel tail hanging from the butt-crack-line of his pants. The squirrel tail just didn’t make sense with the rest of his outfit: a pretty standard vintage set of intellectual hipster clothing. I had the misfortune of standing behind a middle aged rocker woman & man whom they seemed to know well. The entire band made their way over one by one to pay their respects. SquirrelTail smacked the ass of the middle-aged gentleman every time he passed, which would have been fine except I was convinced he was doing it to get attention. Oh those attention-getters, how I hate them yet love them. And SquirrelTail spoke with many pauses, as he considered whether his next words were ironic enough to utter. Well, SquirrelTail turned out to be a stand-out performer. The other two band members twitched nervously on the stage (ducking their heads, rubbing their eyes), while SquirrelTail convulsed and gyrated and generally made a spectacle of himself. SquirrelTail was entirely consumed by the personas and words of his music, which is not a bad thing. Eyes uplifted, hands fluttering, spoken word. I started wondering whether the show was actually performance art rather than music, and then I worried SquirrelTail couldn’t actually sing, but he could. And their lyrics were poignant, verging on Bright Eyes but less witty. They were interesting. But then they were sincere and sweet enough that I wondered whether they were a Christian band – that’s the sort of fear a few months of Houston radio stations will put in you. Their sound was very much Friends of Dean Martinez, The Books,… even down to some wailing lap steel. The lap steel player, the shy guy who also played the guitar with pretty gold plates that made all the psychy noodly noises, was my favorite. Sometimes he went into that dark spaghetti western sound that I find delicious. A more rocking song verged on White Rabbits. The band was playing for their record release, but this in-store version of a record release was an acoustic set with a limited number of band members. All in all, they were engaging, and reminded me how rejuvenating weirdness and art can be.

Dan Hardy played two sets at Joco’s in front of a crowd of a dozen regulars. Since Hardy plays the area circuit, I’m not sure if tonight constituted an average crowd. With an acoustic guitar and a voice higher than you might guess, he covered a range of songs from Goo Goo Dolls’ Slide to a pair of Tom Petty covers American Girl and Mary Jane’s Last Dance.

His best was a deconstructed version of Wonderwall. His mash up of Message in a Bottle/Crash into Me started to steer a little too John Mayer for my tastes. Better was a mellow version of the hipster go to song Take Me Home, Country Roads. His one attempt at banter, about snapping a “G string” fell flat but Hardy had the crowd singing along the entire night which to my mind meant mission accomplished.

If three days of back-to-back performances was taking its toll on Amanda Palmer and company, it was hard to tell. From the extended introduction to Do It With a Rockstar, with Palmer barreling through the audience with a megaphone, to the crowd singalong of Massachusetts Avenue, the new tracks came alive tonight. In particular, The Killing Type packed a wicked punch and is my hands down favorite from the live performances.

The sound was better than on Tuesday night and you could hear the difference especially in the two songs supported the string quartet Trout Heart Replica and The Bed Song. The strings vibrated throughout the room and it brought the emotional force of the compositions to full tilt. There was a moment during Astronaut where the melody is carried just on the weight of Chad Raines’ guitar and it carried crisply out to the audience and completely blew me away.

Though the setlist was similar to Tuesday night’s performance, when it veered off, it went in great directions. Hearing a live version of Idioteque (one of a few Radiohead songs covered by Amanda Palmer) was completely amazing, even if the song was more frenetic than even the studio version. The band pulled out a cover of The Motel’s Total Control that slipped easily in their set and bracketed by a conversation about the band performing with the Muppets. During Bottomfeeder, Palmer tossed herself into the crowd and surfed while singing the chorus.

You can tell the band is having a good time with one another. The chemistry shines through (Raines headbutting bassist Jherek Bischoff and standing on Michael McQuilken’s drumkit and McQuilken’s dead on impersonation of Elmo. Palmer’s take on Janice was pretty funny too). They closed the show by bringing everyone onstage for a jam of Leeds United and, as if not to be outdone, Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra took one last song to the house, a Dresden Dolls classic Girl Anachronism that left the crowd winded and ecstatic.

Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra setlist
Do It With a Rockstar
Missed Me
The Killing Type
Astronaut
Trout Heart Replica
The Bed Song
Idioteque
Lost
How Awesome is My Band/Scene Change Music
Total Control
Bottomfeeder
Want It Back
Massachusetts Avenue
Berlin
Olly Olly Oxen Free
Encore
Leeds United (with Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys and Jaggery)
Girl Anachronism

I’m not sure I can adequately describe how much I loved watching Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys perform. The music hints at some kind darkly lit industrial folk tale ala the real Brothers Grimm’ The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids where the wolf eats all but one. But their songs are backlit with a perverse joy and it comes out sparkling and LOUD during their live performance. You have band members weaving through the audience playing their instruments. You have funky costumes – some ironic, some wayward – and as a band, they wander the stage like a traveling circus. Through it all, Walter Sickert anchors the performance pounding out strong melodies and baying these fierce, fuming lyrics and damn if it doesn’t come off as revelry.

The songs during the thirty-minute set were taken from SteamShipKillers released in 2010. Although Sea Song was their ode to love and opposition to hatred and bigotry, it was Feathers, (with the gorgeous vocals of Jaggery’s Mali Sastri) that really struck home to me. It was a haunting and visceral performance. They closed the set with a fantastic call and answer Off With Her Head. Half the audience shouts “Off” and the other half shouts “Head” and behind the cacophony, the band plays on. Utterly brilliant. Utterly captivating.

Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys setlist
No Room
A Friend in Goddamn
Sea Song/Love and Marriage
Feathers (with Mali Sastri)
Off With Her Head

Tristan Allen performed a single solo piano piece in between sets from Jaggery and Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys. He was jumpier tonight than on Tuesday and the music was choppier but when he hit his stride about halfway through, none of that mattered. He has the ability to create sounds from a single keyboard as if they are coming at you from every direction and it’s fire.

Amanda Palmer’s transformation into a balls out rockstar is complete. If her live show is any indication, the new album Theatre Is Evil (out in September) is going to be thunderous. There have always been hints of it in her past material (Leeds United which transformed itself tonight into a foot-stomping-dance-party-encore and the Dresden Dolls’ frequent cover of War Pigs) but we’re entering into new territory.

Leading the show with a raucous version of Do It With A Rockstar that brought down the house, the four piece band (including Chad Raines who opened with the Simple Pleasure, bassist Jherek Bischoff and drummer Michael McQuilken) then accelerated into a theatrical, jaw-dropping version of Missed Me. It was so audacious in its execution, I don’t actually want to tell you what they did just in case you get the opportunity to see it for yourself. The setlist was heavy on new material some of which the audience had never heard before and at least one Berlin that had been only played live one other time. There were some old favorites including the frenzied Girl Anachronism which fit right in among the new tracks and a scuzzy, grimy version (meant in the nicest way) of Astronaut launched to another planet by Raines’ guitar riff.

The four string quartet played during Trout Heart Replica and The Bed Song (arranged by Bischoff). Palmer introduced Trout as the saddest song ever, but it’s not. The Bed Song, however, is a strong contender. Arranged with the strings, the song catches in your throat. I hope the band records a version with strings and releases it for our consumption. A horn section was recruited for the tail end of the show. Olly Olly Oxen Free closed out the main set and I think once the song is better known, it will maintain its rightful place as a show closing singalong. Palmer dragged everyone on stage for one last time on Leeds United so we could party with a true rockstar.

Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra setlist
Do It With a Rockstar
Missed Me
The Killing Type
Lost
Astronaut
Trout Heart Replica
The Bed Song
Bottomfeeder
Girl Anachronism
Want It Back
Enter Sandman (partial)
Massachusetts Avenue
Berlin
Olly Olly Oxen Free
Encore
Leeds United

Tristan Allen fingers fly across the piano. His ability to create a cascade of sounds out of one instrument is sublime. He was invited to play a single piece tonight ahead of Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra’s headlining set. The piece lasted about six minutes and the melodies he created were truly like standing on the edge of the sea and being washed in the spray. Remarkable.

Jherek Bischoff hijacked a string quartet made of local musicians recruited to perform with Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra of which Bischoff is the bassist. Whatever. It worked brilliantly. He lead them through a short set of mostly instrumental songs made up of original compositions from his new album released last month, Composed. Bischoff pulled off a command performance with his back often to the audience, in order to orchestrate the arrangements with his new recruits. At one point, he traded his guitar for ukelele and plucked the shit out of it. The music was dynamic, fluid and utterly captivating. Bischoff has a somewhat understated presence onstage until he starts strumming and then he vibrates like an instrument himself.

The name of this band was familiar to me, but we actually ended up at this event (their CD release indoor picnic) as a way to fill time between other events. Their dress was moderately steam punk. There were three guys and one girl. The music was momentous, and they threw their bodies into poses that matched the grandeur of the music. They combined classical, prog metal, gypsy punk, and music that could be a film score. That’s when I remembered that I probably recognized their name because they provide live music for movies at the Alamo. “Phantom of the Opry” was an amusing song. The kids playing on the ground in front of the stage (this was a family event) with balls and hula hoops added an odd but entertaining dimension to their performance. Overall, none of us really liked them – I don’t think they’re meant for causal listening.

[Portland, OR] I didn’t want to like this guy because he had a stereotypical tall hat on – very Portland. And because he sounded like Tom Waits, whom I really really dislike. And because he passed out a card proclaiming himself as a steampunk Professor Gall: alternative just like all the other alternative kids. But I liked him in the end. He demonstrated why average singer/songwriters are so mind-numbingly boring. His voice was dynamic and interesting, as was his music. He played a guitar and stomped on a mic’ed box. His lyrics were also smart and interesting. He confirmed the winning of the crowd by leaping on the bar and stalking back and forth for his last song – I felt sort of sorry for him that he felt he had to work that hard to grab the interest of the people. Interestingly, the guy next to us at the bar was a friend of his from many years back – they’d roomed together in Portland but bar guy now lived in Denver. They were metalheads back then

The Dresden Dolls announced two shows at the Wilbur Theatre, one for each of their major label releases. The second night was dedicated completely to Yes, Virginia, released in early 2006.

The Dolls opened with back to back banging versions of Sex Changes and Backstabber. Playing the album in order, there wasn’t really that much surprise to be had tonight. Instead, the night became a kind of lovefest between singer and keyboardist Amanda Palmer and drummer/guitarist Brian Viglione and the audience. In addition to offering some backstory on how the album was made, the duo played off each other as if 2006 were merely yesterday.

The best of the night was a gorgeous rendition of Delilah with Georgia from Bitter Ruin adding some harmonious textures. There was also a extended, rousing version of Mandy Goes to Med School that pitched the audience into a frenzy. There was definitely a shift in the energy level, one that rocketed up and up and didn’t drop again until the house lights came up. Amanda Palmer did a short solo take on Me & the Mini Bar that somehow, even in its quiet aspirations, kept the momentum rolling into the end of the show. They closed with an encore that included Amanda Palmer racing through the mezzanine, and a run through of their iconic single Coin-Operated Boy. Their rendition of War Pigs (a Black Sabbath cover that’s been in their setlist before) was everything fans have come to know and love about the Dresden Dolls. It included an extended duel between Brian’s drums and Amanda’s keyboards, interplay that clearly displayed their affection for music, the fans and each other. It was an awesome, otherworldly display that – because the Dresden Dolls are shortchanged as an oddball indie act – not enough people have witnessed in the last ten years.

Though ostensibly the Dresden Dolls are no longer recording new music together (both have released other projects) here’s hoping they come together once in a while and remind us of just how great they are. They can play whatever they damn well feel like, and I would come back for more.

Dresden Dolls setlist
Sex Changes
Backstabber
Modern Moonlight
My Alcoholic Friends
Delilah (with Georgia Train)
Dirty Business
First Orgasm
Mrs. O
Shores of California
Necessary Evil
Mandy Goes to Med School
Me & The Minibar
Sing
Encore
Mein Herr
Coin-Operated Boy
War Pigs

Bitter Ruin is the reason I go to concerts. To have a musical duo blow you off your feet from the first note and keep you suspended in time until the last strum of the guitar is why I go to live shows. To do that as complete unknowns is a minor miracle.

From the heavenly harmonies between Ben Richards and Georgia Train to the haunting melodies, their songs transcend the music two people should seem capable of achieving. Even with a certain amount of theatricality, songs like Relief and Soldier shone in their right. The best of the night was the simple A Brand New Me which had the strength of stirring musical number and kept the audience hushed until Georgia sang the last note.

Referred to somewhat obliquely as just Georgia and Ben, the former has a voice that is out of this world, the latter is a pretty stellar vocalist and guitarist. Together, they make an outstanding duo. Georgia is the kind of person that could sing the ingredients on a shampoo bottle and people would perk up. But the fact is that Ben kept up with his harmonies all the while turning his guitar into a one man serenade. The opening act was a rare one that felt like their time on stage was too short.

Side bar, however Amanda Palmer keeps finding these exquisite musical acts to open her shows, she needs to keep it going forever and ever. In fact, she should start a circus and invite all her former opening acts to take part.

[France] “Those, those beautiful boys / Those, those beautiful boys / Born illegitimately / To a whore, most likely / He became an orphan / Oh what a lovely orphan he was / Sent to the reformatory / Ten years old, was his first glory / Got caught stealing from a nun / Now his love story had begun” – those lyrics are pretty much why I went to this show – and because I think their general sound is pretty remarkable – [on a side note, you've got to hear how they sing the song to really appreciate it, and, as usual for me, it was not played at their live show which I sadly realized was because it features Antony from Antony and the Johnsons who was not touring with them] – it ends up I may have been more enthused about the crowd than the band, but the band deserves a lot of credit for the crowd – so the crowd was fantastic – some mix of neo psych hippies, ravers, plain old burners, steam punks, and some unfortunate ones in renaissance garb – the common theme was iridescent eye paint or painted-on pencil moustaches on girls, which I came to find out was part of the whole CocoRosie cult I didn’t know existed – surprisingly, at least to me, there were also lots and lots of lesbians – I’m always confused as to how the lesbians unite and figure out which bands they love but turns out one of the sisters is a lesbian plus the band promotes drag, androgyny, etc. – there were also an awful lot of young females falling out, e.g., being carried out because of excess consumption – not sure if it’s because the crowd was pretty young or if the band attracts a druggier crowd – anyway, the band is comprised of 2 sisters who are artistes in every sense of the word – one had long romantic hair and sang in an operatic voice (properly trained) and plucked a harp – the other one with the squeaky baby voice that defines CocoRosie (at least to me) strutted around with male attitude and had a baseball cap on top of a feminine doo-rag on top of long brown hair – I much preferred her – there was a keyboardist guy and then a little unassuming guy who did a human beat box solo that was amazing and referenced actual American hip-hop songs – their music is a lot more diverse than I was aware of before the show – they manage to incorporate electronic, hip-hop, classical, and pop into a sound that ends up being pretty distinctly theirs – many bizarre instruments come into play – I think the thing I liked most about their sound is that they play childhood innocence off of the dark realizations of growing up and seeing stuff – especially with the two sisters interplaying their vastly different attitudes and sounds (think Enya intermixed with ghetto dance rap), it’s a bizarre but beautiful marriage of cultures (which I am always a fan of) – so I thought they were from France and assumed their inclusion of rap and the bad sister’s headdress was a nod to the French Muslim outcasts – I also assumed their air of hipster superiority was a product of general French superiority, but turns out, they’re American, and the superiority is a product of New York – the good sister moved to France early on to study opera but the bad sister moved to Brooklyn to party at Kill Whitie parties – those parties are a whole other conversation, but the sisters are worth looking up in general because of their interesting backgrounds – other notes of interest: 1) Rockboy overheard a couple mating in the outhouse bathrooms, 2) the most shocking girl was the one in a modest dress with granny panties that clearly shone through (a lesson to the young girls) , 3) the bad sister moistened her clarinet in her beer like the bad ass she is, 4) Rockboy happily gave up all claims of being a hipster once he realized that hipsters are now parting at the back of their skull and combing their hair forward, and 5) there is a series of really interesting photos of the sisters that do a nice job of expressing their artistic vision

I’m a sucker for a good cover band, and ScatterShot was probably one of the better I’ve ever seen. We showed up in time for their second set of the night, complete with a “Sing with the Band” competition (for girls only) and credible takes on Def Lepard’s Pour Some Sugar on Me and Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer. A little Billy Idol, Michael Jackson and Journey found its way into the set. They capped off an hour-long set with The Isley Brothers’ Shout. The crowd was more than happy to oblige.

[Durham, NC] a top show – their album is called “Genuine Negro Jigs” and that’s a pretty perfect description – this show was being broadcast live over a radio station in Chicago – the formal setting of chairs and big cameras and big lights might have made them uncomfortable because all three sat stiff and unsmiling while they were waiting to play – they came alive with a vengeance once they started to play, adding dancing and facial expressions and stories to the music – ended up being an incredibly charismatic band – in addition to encompassing all artistic aspects of the music, they embrace it anthropologically, which is transmitted to the crowd with little spoken bits in between each song – they alternated through finger clackers, dobros, banjos, fiddles, a jug and a kazoo – they encouraged the audience to sing along to their first song “Don”t Get Troubled in Your Mind” – they got their next song “Georgia Buck” from Joe Thompson, an old guy who taught them a lot of what they know – they switched into early jazz with Papa Charlie Jackson’s “Your Baby Ain’t Sweet Like Mine” – highlights: 1) “the jug solo” as Rockboy called it, 2) Rhiannon’s barefoot tap-style dancing, and 3) realizing the kazoo is responsible for that wacky old-timey vaudeville sound

I love a good cover band any day but this wasn’t one.

Totally Inappropriate played two 45-minute sets for the Saturday night bar crowd that got better for those smart enough to keep drinking during the break. Songs like Hey Jealousy, I Don’t Wanna Be were ripped through with abandon – enthusiasm being the only thing this band had going for them.

The bass and drums were too loud, the singer’s voice was drowned out and still terrible (either he couldn’t sing or couldn’t hear himself but the bottom line was painful). Tom Petty got two nods, the Black Crowes and some Red Hot Chili Peppers found themselves on the set.

As a weird sidenote, the lead singer was kind of vulgar with his between song banter. Something about screwing “with your clothes on” and similar such nonsense. Totally inappropriate, indeed. And decidedly unpleasant to boot.

Gorgeous. Not the transvestite stage spectacle and loud queer politicizing I expected, but rather a focus on the music, which is more beautiful and orchestral than I realized from their studio recordings. I finally understand why they’re described as chamber pop. Young cute Canadians – maybe not cute – they were each a little dorky and odd in their own way. The lead singer pleased me with his tall lankiness and dark eyes, and his distinctive prettily quirky voice that warms me like the sound of a well-liked familiar friend. There were two fiddlers, a keyboardist, an occasional trumpeter, a drummer – maybe 7 or 8 people on stage total? Their songs are complicated but hooky, like The Shins but more comfortable. They toy with sounds and their voices and the instrumentation in a sophisticated and sonically pleasing way. They’re often billed as “gay church folk music,” and part of what attracted me to them in the first place was their blaspheming of religious imagery by jumbling it up with explicit homosexual lyrics. While there is something majestic and holy in their sound, the term “folk” doesn’t do credit to their sound. This band and I were meant for each other.

complex and sophisticated music that was possibly based in Afro-pop or new wave but verged into prog rock – absolutely inventive – lead vocalist/guitarist communicated musical genius to me and I fancy he wrote the songs and what with his crazy guitar skills he couldn’t help but throw a little prog into the music – his voice was also very good something between Antony and the Johnsons and Elvis Costello and Paul Simon – he was usually accompanied by three female backing vocalists who created a fabric of sweet noises that went from an ethereal drone to a’cappella to screaming – sometimes they would juxtapose their harmonizing almost in a beat boxing fashion so that it created a synthy sound which was amazing – departures from the general sound included the beginning of the set in which the lead guy used an electric guitar in a singer/songwriter style, when he accompanied the black-haired female vocalist in a very pretty jazz vocal, when the entire band would bend over at the waist and incongruously thrash to finish a song (just made me giggle), when the bass guitarist brought out an upright bass which added a jazz feel again to the music, and when the blonde female vocalist took over the stage in a liltingly funky M.I.A.-like song – in other amusing sidenotes, the band generally engaged in anti-cool posturing with the lead guy wearing two massive cardigans, the bass guitarist in an old-school sweatshirt that had some witty saying on it that I forget now, the black-haired vocalist in a plain black t-shirt with a little necklace, etc. etc. – there was also a drummer whom I’m sorry to say I could not see at all

Okay, when you’re slotted into Lecture Hall C in the Science Center at Harvard University, you know the acoustics and performance space are not going to be ideal. The ‘Cliffe Notes, an all female a cappella group, gamely took to “the stage” at the bottom of the auditorium to perform as part of Arts First Weekend at Harvard University. They launched into fairly rote versions of Love Song and Call Me. Despite the a cappella arrangements, there wasn’t anything particularly novel about their interpretations of the pop songs. Isn’t the point of performance to put your own stamp on it?

As if to prove exactly that, it was the last number, a medley of Abba songs, that not only showcased their vocal talents, but also provided a spark in their performance. Finally, the girls looked like they were loosening up and having a fun time and the arrangements were dynamic and creative. They ended on a high note, literally.

The ‘Cliffe Notes setlist
Love Song
Call Me
Son of a Preacher Man
Abba medley

The Noteables, a performance group focused on musical theater, were helped by neither the venue nor their songs choices during the showcase as part of Arts First Weekend at Harvard University. For starters, the acoustics in Lehman Hall were painfully stifled, half of the performers were mouthing the words but no one in the audience could hear the sound. A percussion performance in another building pounded its way through the room to compete with the piano accompaniment for the entire twenty minutes.

But even that would have been overcome had the performance itself not been pretty weak. Half the troupe seemed ill prepared for the opening number There’s No Business Like Show Business, as if they had never seen the choreography before. The song choices were particularly strange since half of the songs were tasteless, totally inappropriate for the crowd of parents and young kids like the lament from Chicago, Class, which is mostly a string of vulgar observations. Don’t Be the Bunny was enjoyable, if a little out of context. That left their signature song, Corner of the Sky, which at the least showcased the performers at their best as a group. But considering they were trying to pitch their upcoming full-length performance, this montage seemed really ill-considered.

The Harvard Pops Orchestra, led by conductor Allen Feinstein, performed a classical piece, the limbo and an original composition for the showcase as part of Arts First at Harvard University. Feinstein couched the performance as “how a garden hose can inspire classical music” before launching into a version of Limbo with the garden hose as the limbo stick and members of the orchestra performing the limbo. The final piece featured a soloist using the garden hose as a horn. It sounds indelicate, but the entire performance was polished, surprising and thoroughly enjoyable.

As part of the Arts First Weekend at Harvard University, the Opportunes put on an enthusiastic a cappella set that featured radio-friendly interpretations of well-known songs. The set started with a Michael Jackson medley that included Smooth Criminal and a wicked version of Man in the Mirror. Various players took turns with solos, and Daniel Oshima handled the beat box (apparently more appropriately titled “vocal percussion”) throughout the set. A gorgeous rendition of Heart of the Matter showed both the creativity and energy that the vocal group put into their arrangements, and their version of Forever even featured some dance choreography. They closed with Change in My Life before running out of time because a mariachi band was waiting in the wings for their turn.

The Harvard Opportunes setlist
Michael Jackson medley
Heart of the Matter
Everybody Knows
Forever
Last Name
Change in My Life

Vermillion Lies, billed as sister cabaret, opened for Amanda Palmer. The two sisters harmonized and clapped and played a ragtag of makeshift instruments to great effect. The opened with a little ditty about cutting open Grandfather, then sang the song of the two sisters with Long Red Hair. The songs smacked of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, definitely not the happily ever after kind. They harmonized beautifully, kept up the chatter in between songs.

“What’s in the box?” we were prompted to ask before Blue (complete with a marionette performance). The Astronomer was a dirty song “the solar system really turns me on
I’m floating through your galaxy your milky ways are all over me”. They closed with two romps through Circus Fish and wildly entertaining Global Warming, which got the crowd pumped and chanting along to the refrain:

global warming – it\”s hot!
global warming – it\”s not cool!
global warming
it\”s too cool for school

Carson Kressley was tapped to host the True Colors Tour 2008. His early introductions were peppered with dirty but completely lame, predictable jokes. But as the crowd warmed up, so did his delivery. During the set change before Cyndi Lauper, Carson had a good 20 minutes to keep the crowd spirited, and it was then that his talents brought fore. He managed a number of good jokes on the gays, shot t-shirts into the crowd (including one pulled from his crotch) and interacted with people in the audience. He also found two older gentlemen in the crowd who were getting married after California legalized gay marriage. It was a touching moment crammed between Carson hitting on just about every man that caught his eye. Which tonight was pretty much all of them.

Cover act cross between the Andrew Sisters and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Got a earful of Crazy in Love (Beyonce), Heart of Glass (Blondie) and their finale was Walk Like an Egyptian (Bangles). Also did Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. Nice voices, 40′s style dresses but my attention wandered two songs in. The crowd was into it more than I.

Friend3 and Friend2′s band of four months – they both sing though Friend2 is more Mountain Goats while Friend3 is dramatic rock, Friend1′s ex-roommate is on trumpet, “burner” on incongruent V-shaped guitar, long curly hair on drums, band includes some three other members-mostly brass, so as the vocals/songwriters varied did the music, from witty-lyric silly-voice songs to dramatic rock opera numbers to a rock-medium when both sang together, distinctive diverse band with musical talent, they\”re disparate right now plus can’t judge them fairly because I know them

the fantasmous band, all hoppy and Charlestony with the 7 foot man in short pants as their lead singer, they\”re not meant to play outside – better in an old bar with wooden floors!

so good that I was in continuous state of body prickles and it wasn’t only because of the horror of the previous band, one of the most charming and engaging bands I have seen in a long time, in large part due to the charismatic lead singer – a pug girl with a shock of blonde hair and a puppy dog enthusiasm and energy, she sang in an old-timey cutesy voice – kind of playful but high high quality, she verged on insane – jaw bracing, eyes darting – and I kept waiting to see a dark side but she maintained this tremendous aura of joy and quirkiness before, during and after her set, she also played guitar, the violinist was fantastic – a wispy near-severe former gothic woman in a red satin dress and ripped arms – purportedly one of the best in town, the positive interaction between the lead singer and the upright bass player when leaning in to share the microphone also built the appeal of a band that enjoys each other and enjoys what they’re doing, mostly old-timey swinging jazz and country songs, cute lyrics, one Spanish guitar song, one more modern-sounding song that reminded me of CocoRosie, the girl has it is my point

The Dresden Dolls came out for the Winter Tour to close out 2007 (and on New Year’s Eve in NYC). Their Boston date was supported by Meow Meow and Luminescent Orchestrii, as well as an art house performance by members of the Lexington High School Drama Troupe. Opening with a back-to-back raucous versions of “Girl Anachronism” and “Missed Me,” the songs set the tone for a wild romp through mostly early tunes. The Dresden Dolls are never dull but there was something surprisingly normal about the whole affair. Mostly lacking the “cabaret” aspect of their performance, this was a straight rock ‘n’ roll concert.

That didn’t stop the audience or the duo of Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione from enjoying a frisky race through some well-worn hits like “Coin-Operated Boy,” and some lesser played tunes like the gorgeous “Ultima Esperanza” and “Boston.” They invited Sxip Shirey to play a searing cover of “You Gotta Fight for Your Right To Party!” and closed out the show with the entire Luminescent Orchestrii on a cover of the iconic Eurythmics hit “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This.”

Despite having a cold which caused Amanda to have problems with some the notes, there wasn’t a dull moment in the set. Amanda even spent some quality time in each corner of the house, moving through the audience and Brian spent a chunk of time handling guitar and drums at the same time and also took lead vocals on “Fight For Your Right” with Amanda on his drum kit.

Luminescent Orchestrii gypsy rock music with international influences. Four performers guitar, violins and bass that rocked out to mostly foreign-language tunes that ranged from a Yiddish waltz to old French folktale. Sxip Shirey, who jammed a variety of guitar parts, also acted as the MC for the night. Their performance was part jam band, part Bar Mitzvah band, a touch of tango, beat boxing and a heck of a punk attitude. All four took vocal duties at various times. The two ladies, Rima Fand and Sarah Alden, handled most of the harmonies and bassist Benjy Fox Rosen only lead on the mic was on in Yiddish. The energy level was otherworldly.

The band brought out Dresden Doll Brian Viglione for two numbers, and Meow Meow and Lance Horne could be seen waltzing in the background.