Archive for April, 2008

April 30, 2008: The Golden Boys, Club Deville, Austin TX

Posted by Dara on 30th April 2008 in Country, Garage Rock, Psychedelic, Southern Rock

fantastic, their sound had a roundness and polish that you don\”t often hear in live music, lots of energy, diversity of sounds revolving around hopped-up rock country, from garage to psychedelia, very energetic show with lots of appealing personalities, I think there were two exchanging vocalist duty, stilly-moustached keyboard player, and a guitar player who kept leaping up to the microphone to yell out punk references, if all of that wasn\”t enough they claim Jay Reatard, Gun Club and Lee Hazlewood as influences

April 30, 2008: The Abby Birds, Club Deville, Austin TX

Posted by Dara on 30th April 2008 in Britpop, College Rock

unassuming look but quite good, Rockboy pointed out that you don\”t often see a female on lead guitar (usually it\”s bass) and she was darling and pouty too, the rest were baseball capped average joes but they enthusiastically played noise-pop, bit of a shoegazer sound

April 29, 2008: Monkey Town, Hole in the Wall, Austin TX

Posted by Dara on 29th April 2008 in Modern Rock, Punk

though seem to just be starting out they were really fantastic which I hope they know, the definition of “tight,” self-contained NOFX style punk with some Dead Milkmen (per Rockboy), the lead singer had just the right amount of passion and sincerity and the bass player was oddly and weirdly intent maybe as bass players should be, I would say much more complicated punk which is why they’re post punk and fantastic

April 29, 2008: Context Clues, Hole in the Wall, Austin TX

Posted by Dara on 29th April 2008 in Indie Rock, Pop, Psychedelic

pop pop pop rock, then picked it up a little to “rock” as they said but it was more like pop pop rock then, I liked the lesser pop version but overall they were quite good, 60s jangly pop with psychedelic edges, I suspect that the gray-hair member of the band is behind their sound rather than the cutesy-voiced singer but who knows

April 29, 2008: Bare Bones Orchestra, Hole in the Wall, Austin Tx

Posted by Dara on 29th April 2008 in Blues, Country, Glam, Indie Rock, Performance, Singer/Songwriter

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

April 22, 2008: Clyde & Clem’s Whiskey Business, Hole in the Wall, Austin TX

Posted by Dara on 22nd April 2008 in Bluegrass, College Rock, Country

young whippersnappers with too little cred (in music or life) to be as cocky as they were in their silly sunglasses and tidy little mohawks, had a huge college-hippie crowd, they do mostly covers (I believe) of bluegrass/country, grudgingly acknowledged that they sounded the tiniest bit like O\”Death but don\”t take that too seriously

April 15, 2008: Kari and Jason, The Parlor, Austin TX

Posted by Dara on 15th April 2008 in Art Rock, Indie Rock

friends of Red Leaves (names may be misspelled), daters who looked nearly exactly alike, reminded me of Yo La Tengo in terms of sound and the insufferable attitude (particularly the girl), she played guitar, keyboard, etc. and he played guitar, tambourine, etc. – something about her atonal voice reminded me of The Slits – they were stripped down but I quite liked them

April 5, 2008 Margaret Cho Orpheum Theatre Boston, MA

Posted by Andrew on 5th April 2008 in Comedy

I Love Margaret Cho. She comes across as very down to earth, she’s your best friend. Even standing on stage in front of hundreds of people, she managed to make the show seem like a conversation in your living room. Granted, you’re talking about her menstrual cycle, sex, penises, gay cruises, fag hags, P-Town, Asian stereotypes and her parents. Well, actually for some of us, that pretty much is a normal conversation in our living rooms.

April 5, 2008 Liam Sullivan Orpheum Theatre Boston, MA

Posted by Andrew on 5th April 2008 in Comedy

Liam Sullivan is a one-note comedian whose fame has spread thanks to YouTube vids of him dressed as a blond named Kelly. Liam took the opening spot on Margaret Cho’s Beautiful stand-up tour, performing first as a buxom hardcore lesbian named Susan. Then it cut to video segments (I think these are the same ones that made the rounds on the ‘net). One was Aunt Susan visiting Kelly’s house with her lesbian lover which ended with the music video Let Me Borrow That Top (which featured cameos by Amanda Palmer, Margaret Cho and Dave Navarro). The other was a skit about a couple going to a sex counselor. Parts were funny.

Then Kelly came on stage in person and sang her trademark tune “Shoes” which was flat, repetitive and and not particularly funny. It was a relief when he introduced Margaret Cho and bounced.

Kelly appears in the Dresden Dolls’ video “Shores of California” in her Betch t-shirt.

April 4, 2008: Cruiserweight, Stubb’s, Austin TX

Posted by Dara on 4th April 2008 in Emo

pop punk verging on emo, liked them but they’re weird-kept suspecting they’re a Christian band, three are siblings, lead singer is very attractive clean girl who is a natural performer, she wore hot shorts, they’re like the band your high school friends put together if you’re a girl

April 4, 2008: Kingsley, Stubb’s, Austin TX

Posted by Dara on 4th April 2008 in Emo, Pop, Punk

nauseating pop punk, crowd of 18-21 year olds

April 4, 2008: Chili Cold Blood, Jo’s Coffee Shop, Austin TX

Posted by Dara on 4th April 2008 in Blues, Classic Rock, Funk, Hard Rock

as good as I remembered, some kind of heavy-riff wah-wah-funk bar blues, from Sabbath to classic rock to, apparently have another band that’s all old country (Moonhangers)