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Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Well hello there.
First, let's get a couple of things outta the way...  The Red Sox lose their season opener, and the media freaks out a little bit. Don't sweat it... it's good to get used to small disappointments early on, and to remember what a bunch of asshats our local sports scribes can be. No worries. I need a promise to be made, though. Down the stretch, when we're toughing out a close battle towards the playoffs, can we come up with something better than "Cowboy Up"? Seriously, it's hard for anyone, much less a bunch of Boston sports fans, to look good in a cowboy hat. Even cowboys have a rough time of it. I was thinking maybe "Pirate Up!", or even "Spaceman Up!". Much cooler. Just an hour or so until Curt "the Paladin" Schilling starts his first regular season game. I'll be listening here in the cube. On the TeeVee front: This sucks. But it's Fox, so it's unsurprising. Wonderfalls was an excellent show, and therefore had little chance of surviving. Snowball, meet Hell. On the other hand, this rocks. I got into Farscape way late in its lifecycle, but devoured the repeats and dvds. Glad we'll have some more time with those characters, and to maybe see those loose ends tied up. If only that'd happen with Twin Peaks. Yeah, right. Snowball, etc. Saw Greg Dulli fronting his post-Afghan Whigs band, the Twilight Singers, on Friday night at the Paradise. Just, um, wow. My expectations were so, so high after the show they played at TTs last fall, and I'll be damned if they met them. What a band. I can't imagine a better live band out there right now. They are the definition of cheese-free rock. Dear Leader did a fine job of opening up with some solid Perrino-penned songs (he late of the Sheila Divine). I loved the stuff from their EP, great to see it in full-band form. I was surprised to see Tugboat Annie's former bass player Jon up on stage... no clue he had joined up with Aaron. The last time I'd seen him on stage was coincidentally right there at the 'dise, when Tugboat opened for, of all bands, the Sheila Divine. Confluence. The only thing that might have made the night better would have been a shorter between-band wait. I mean, what's up with the hour-and-a-half action? Just a tad too prima donna for my tastes. Dulli mumbled something about having a 103 degree fever, and (jokingly?) said he'd be hitting the hospital after the show. The excuses didn't matter, because it only took about two songs to forgive and forget it. So, so good. Snagged a setlist...  Unsurprisingly, personal favorites were the old Whigs songs. Uptown Again killed me, and I got goosebumps when the drum beat for Something Hot started up. We got a fair number of covers and random song-references this time, too. Last October they played most of Outkast's Hey Ya, but not this time. Dulli introduced their cover of Roses with "Hey, remember last time we were here and we played 'Hey Ya'? Well, we're not going to do it again, but have no fear... the second single is here." We also got Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit (with a little Summertime lyrical intro in there) and a cover Bjork's Hyperballad thrown in for good measure. All You Need is Love, the Layla piano outro, and Don't Fear the Reaper made excerpted cameos as well. Yes, we resisted yelling "more cowbell!". That joke is now so old it's growing mold.   The band was so right on, the whole set through. Just top notch players, all around. 'Specially the drummer, Mr. Bobby "Rock Ascot" McIntyre. Totally impressed, once again. Never missed a beat, despite the presence of two overly-flirtateous (with the band, and, um, with each other) tight-clothed young ladies in the front row. Those two were hell-bent on distraction, and Dulli's grin couldn't be contained. "This next verse is for you, ladies!", he said during The Killer. They tried their hardest to get backstage, and I saw them standing by the tour bus after the show. Godspeed, ladies. Keep the dream alive. Sheesh.   Listen, when Dulli returns, whether it's with the Twilight Singers, solo, or as half of the Gutter Twins (his project with Mark Lanegan)... don't miss it. Seriously, just go. We all need a little unfiltered rock n' roll entertainment fix to keep us going.  |
 neil halstead live in cambridge, ma on november 14th, 2008 previously: joy formidable - boston 2011 recent posts on the 'nac... on the nightstand boston-area music bloggers
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