03.31.2004 Whiskey Friday The Skelig, Waltham, MA
Whiskey Friday plays bluegrass. That alone is major cred in my book. Bluegrass is more alive than just about any form of music there is, and it’s a hard sell in Boston. This six piece band (there were only five members performing tonight) plays with polish and poise, and most of all, a tremendous energy.

Their performance was excellent despite some real tough impediments. Let’s start with the monsoon weather running through Waltham for the last three days without much of a break and expected to last up to another week. Not just temperatures in the low forties, but rain, wind, cats and dogs.

Then. The venue. No words express how horrified I am that The Skelig offers this space for performance artists (they have an actual stage in the rear of the bar) but I’ll try. The speakers were mounted so that the performers had to face the front entrance in order to avoid feedback. But the tables lining the wall were facing the entrance as well, so the band had their backs to the audience. And moving to the bar only resulted in a side view of the band, so still little chance of watching the instrumentation. The mic was placed in front of a vertical support column so whoever was singing at a particular moment was serenading the pillar, and the space was small so they band members had to manuever around each other to take their solo turns. The forty-five minute set showcased original tunes, including “Hard Sell” as well as classics dating back to before any of them were born. The harmonies were terrific, and Tom’s strong baritone carried through the room on its own strength, bypassing the mic. “Ruby” brought the show to a rollicking close.

It was amusing to watch patrons enter the bar to their very own bluegrass performance. Equally amusing to stand behind the band and watch them strut, we were literally talking behind their backs. But they gamely performed and purely from an aural aesthetic, it was a rewarding performance, even if the visual element was stunted by the venue itself. The Skelig must do more solo acoustic performances than band because there was no other possible explanation for a design like that. Whiskey Friday made the best of a wet night and a constricted stage. That, too, is major cred in my book.

Set List
Live and Let Live
I Never will Marry
Rebecca
Mean Old Wind
Southern Flavor
I’ve Endured
Blackberry Blossom
Molly and Tenbrooks
True Life Blues
Hard Sell
Ruby

Butterfly Boucher – nice try. Her solo act live was better than her full-band album versions of her song, and even at 9.99, I’m not prepared to buy the cd. The overall package was just too much Ally Sheedy in Breakfast Club and not enough Ally Sheedy in Buried Alive II.

Despite saying I would never listen to Gavin’s disc, I have and actually like most of it. Shh.

I’m not sure I get Gavin DeGraw. He falls somewhere between Howie Day and Josh Groban, and he’s not really as polished as either of them and I really thought his music was immature. The weird thing is, he is clearly a physical malfunction, and I’m not sure if that’s a genetic disease, a result of taking too much of something. It was bizarre to watch him twitch and jerk to the beat. Bizarre and too much. His comments in between the songs screamed “Dumb college jock.” I agreed to listen to his cd just to make sure that I really don’t like anything about him. I’ll get around to it sometime.

03.02.2004 Barenaked Ladies Everywhere For Everyone Tour Fleet Center, Boston, MA

Opener: Butterfly Boucher
Gavin DeGraw

Barenaked Ladies throw a wild party, but this one was kind of a downer. It was mostly because their newest album isn’t very peppy, and that translated in their live show. Sure, they had a series of short films that entertained during breaks in the set. And even the slow songs (ballads?) like “War On Drugs” aren’t really bad songs. They just aren’t exciting, live concert BNL fare. And then they had to go and ruin “One Week” by lumping it into a percussion-free medley with “Roadrunner.” Their coup was supposed to be the new song “Shopping” complete with a shopping cart dance number, and I know I’m supposed to enjoy it, but I hate that song.

I almost, and I rarely say this, want to say this concert was too long. I only saw BNL for the first time a few months ago, and it was their hour set at MixFest, and it was a tight, high energy production. This was spurts of tight, high energy production mixed in with balladry, head-scratchers and just down right bad, bad ad libs – for a band famous for ad libs, that is bad, bad.

The first half of the show was a pretty generic run through of their hits. I liked them, but they weren’t anything worth mentioning. “Another Postcard” is a good, catchy tune and “Too Little Too Late” is a good catchy soon. You see where I’m going with this? Then that break where they formed a circle around their bass player and destroyed some songs by removing the fun…er, the percussion, out of them. And I have to say that the versions were kind of interesting and I will probably like them a hell of a lot more on CD than I did live.

There were some bright spots. “A” was just awesome. The highlight. That and the bass solo, which was too short for my liking. “Pinch Me” was solid, but then they killed the momentum with “War On Drugs” and then the Beat the Crew segment which was supposed to be funny and wild going into the audience and quizzing them, but all they did was make this poor kid look stupid. I was done then, and unlike most fans who have been fans for eons, the old stuff that they finished the show with didn’t interest me.

Having said all that, the very last song “What a Good Boy” was just about the most gorgeous fuckin’ thing I’ve heard in long time.

BNL is offering their official bootlegs online for 20 bucks for two discs. The idea appeals to me immensely but I haven’t gotten around to buying it because I didn’t really care for the show much. Fortunately, I’m seeing them again the first week of April.

BNL Setlist
Intro
Maybe Katie
Too Little Too Late
Grade 9
It’s All Been Done
Another Postcard
Celebrity
A
Just A Toy
For You
Roadrunner
One Week
Bass Solo
Upside Down
Testing 1,2,3
Box Set
Wrong Man
Shopping
Concert Going
Pinch Me
War On Drugs
Beat The Crew
Never Is Enough
Old Apartment
1st Encore
Brian Wilson
If I Had $1,000,000
2nd Encore
What A Good Boy