By weeklydig on Tue, Mar 16, 2010 3:17 pm
LIVE REVIEW BY RILEY OHLSON
RJD2 got his start DJing for Columbus rap group MHz in the '90s, but is better known for his solo work, beginning with Your Face or Your Kneecaps in 2001, and hitting his stride with widely acclaimed 2002 release Deadringer. He's continued his hip-hop collaborations since then, releasing another three solo albums, most recently The Colossus. On Monday, March 8th, he took his newest act to the Paradise.
The show began with RJD2 in a get-up straight out of an '80s version of The Hurt Locker (defusing bombs in ... Grenada?), complete with a glittery welder's mask. A litany of "balls" jokes and a short ditty he dubbed "The Nutsack Symphony" drew a mixed reaction from the audience, but all was soon forgotten as he launched into his set. The sellout crowd started to bob their heads, and you could feel the collective loosening of hips as "Good Times Roll Pt. 2" called out to the people, "Are you ready!" and the room dutifully responded, "Yeeeaah" (although omitting the "noooo" that accompanies it on the album).
The set proceeded with a mix of live stuff, DJ'd tracks and a sliding scale of mixes between the two. RJD2 was joined by three musicians who accompanied him with everything from drums and keyboard to guitar and, perhaps in a bass-heavy, hip-hop danceparty first, a glockenspiel.
Behind them was the increasingly ubiquitous video screen for those with particularly acute ADD. Although we spent the better part of the show in obstructed seating (read: standing/dancing) that would've made the Garden proud, we caught some of the Aquateen Hunger Force, grainy '70s, and black and white noir movies ... even a scene from Tron.
Although the live stuff occasionally lacked the crowd-rousing energy of his DJ tracks, his pacing of the show was masterful. It never stalled, and each acceleration into another crowd pleaser seemed to build to even higher levels of dance euphoria. By the end of the show, I began to suspect that it was all deliberate—that RJD2 treating the whole set the same way he cuts a track, knowing when to bring the listener down a bit, and exactly when to raise their heart rate again. He spliced together newer stuff, live stuff, and older hits like "The Horror" and "Sunshine Maybe Rain," without breaking a sweat (which is more than can be said for the crowd). At one point, the group even faded a live song so seamlessly, it felt like I was on my porch hearing a track on one of his records end.
As the blowing wind, strumming guitar and syncopated snare of "Ghostwriter" first started to drift out of the speakers, it was easy to tell this was the one song that everyone in the room knew for sure. You could feel the anticipation of the crescendo of horns in the song saturating the room, like a rain cloud about to burst. By the end, the crowd was amped to start their "one more song chant." When RJD2 returned to the stage, he shouted, "I don't know if we can do one more song," and even though the next thing out of his mouth was eminently predictable, no one was any less pleased: "But maybe we can do two more songs."
The encore started off with a marriage of a throwback video game and a battle hymn, and ended with an acoustic clap-along ballad that let the crowd down easy. At some point during the evening, the video screen had turned monochrome blue. The fact that no one I talked to could pinpoint quite when that was is probably the best testament to RJD2's totally enrapturing live performance.
The Middle East is a great venue when it's kind of full--but it can be a mess when it's completely sold out.
Unfortunately, Copeland's last show ever in Boston took place at the sold out Middle East this past Saturday. Opening acts included Deas Vail and Person L, delivering short but cute sets. Acoustics for the show were off, but Person L managed to push out a passionate performance. "Wooden Soldiers" and "Storms" were among crowd favorites, for those who were close enough to enjoy it.
I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody's Business were up next, and quite frankly I wasn't that interested. Ace Enders, the former frontman of The Early November, has abandoned his pop-punk roots in order to indulge other creative endeavors such as I Can Make A Mess. Although their sound pales in comparison to The Early November, the softer side of Enders shine through, and songs like "Old Man ... You're Not" (off the new record to be released March 23) gave credence to this.
Finally, Copeland took the stage. In between countlessly thanking fans for making this tour the most successful and memorable, lead singer Aaron Marsh belted out hit after Copeland hit. Although their last album was released was in 2008, no one seemed to care and enjoyed watching the band performing songs from Beneath The Medicine Tree ("Take Care," "California," "When Paula Speaks"), In Motion ("No One Really Wins," "Pin Your Wings"), and their last record You Are My Sunshine ("Grey Man," "Chin Up"). It was a very heartfelt performance from the Florida natives, and quite a satisfying way to end a career that was almost a decade long.
Too bad the venue was jammed, though. It would have been nice to have a little room to swoon.
Moving a show from a Saturday night to Tuesday evening at the illustrious Middle East sounds like quite of a buzzkill. But somehow it wasn't as damaging as it sounds for the release show for Crime In Stereo's latest creation "I Was Trying To Describe You To Someone' on Bridge Nine Records last week. The Long Island natives delivered an intense performance, showing that their latest material is arguably their strongest. It was a distinct balance between old and new, and fresher songs like 'Drugwolf,' and 'Type One' were go betweens for fan favorites like 'Small Skeletal' and 'But You Are Vast' found on their 2007 album, 'Is Dead.' While the boys manage to put on a show with alot of passion and heart, Defeater, one of the three opening bands (alongside Transit and Make Do and Mend) seemed to own the night.
As soon as Defeater stepped onstage, legions of their most devoted followers congregated to the front of the stage to mosh, crazily echo all the lyrics to every song faster thanlead vocalist Derek Archambault could belt them out, and to ultimately climb each other to rip the microphone out of Archambault's hand anytime he grazed them. With their latest record, Lost Ground, being well received from fans and critics alike, it's hard not to get excited when witnessing them live in concert. Every song Defeater performed had the audience frothing at the mouth for more, but it was 'Prophet in Plain Clothes' that turned out to be the most memorable of the evening. Maybe I was impressed because I haven't been to such a grimy punk show in ages (my calender has recently been infiltrated by that overcrowded, overpriced House of Blues bullshit), but the energy and mere presence of Defeater (as well as of their loyal fans) is definitely something worth checking out.
By ioncrash on Mon, Mar 8, 2010 12:26 pm
None-too-shockingly, Jonas Stein of Turbo Fruits (formerly of Be YourOwn Pet) turns out to be a pretty chill guy. After all, the dude’s written more songs about weed than I care to list right now. Getting high, being high, and having just been high: those are important themes. Leave it at that (I will just mention that one of their early singles is called “Volcano,” and involves Jonas saying “volcano” over and over). That said though, the guy IS a garage-rocker, and I was a little surprised when I went to his show with Surfer Blood and Doomstar!, and it turned out that he was the guy leaning quietly in a corner sipping a beer and people-watching.
We chatted for a minute about regular dude things, like vacation (“We just played a couple shows in Costa Rica. It was awesome. Best time of my life.”), beer (“Yeah I dunno, I like good Guiness and PBR. Nothing too fancy.”), and his band’s moustache contest (“We haven’t really decided how to tell who wins… volume, I guess.”) before he went to get ready for the show. For as laid back as the guy is, though, he knows how to wail. Turbo Fruits had everything you want in a live rock show: they were loud, their solos were awesome, they were tight as all hell, and the songs were interesting and varied enough to keep you involved. It’s kind of a shame they weren’t headlining – they probably would have really gotten the crowd worked up.
As it was, though, Surfer Blood was the headliner, and they did whateveryone expected them to do – they showed up and played their songs.I was a little disappointed that not much changed in the transition from album to live show – some more solos might have been nice, or a little running around and swinging from lighting fixtures maybe… maybe some choreographed dance routines? I dunno. But, that said, the show was pretty good – everyone got what they came for – good, tight, well-thought-out songs and a chance to see some dudes who’ve only just started to sell out shows. Next time around, maybe we’ll get a little dancing.
... the healthcare forum! The folks at the Sunlight Foundation are streaming it ... and cunningly including a sidebar that shows how much
money each speaker has received in campaign contributions from the
healthcare industry.
Our office is directly across from the Pine Street Inn so we have our fair share of homeless wanderers in the neighborhood. Occasionally they come into our building and hang out on the stairs or even, like just the other day, come into our office and move into our bathroom. It's worst when it's really cold and I always feel torn about booting these folks. Life must be hard enough. But at the some time...get the hell out of my office!
What would you do?
Please note: This is written by our beloved Art Director, who will be blogging from Sundance this week. (I'm just the copy and pasting monkey.) -CB
I never expected to end up volunteerig at the Sundance film festival. I
wanted to do it, but life always seems to come up. Well, here I am, six
days into the fest, finally reporting to the beloved Dig readers.
Seen 6 films, 1 set of short films, 3 parties attended, 1 denied,
and 4 celeb sightings. It has also snowed 5 out of 6 days and I am 100
hours behind on sleep.
It’s tough to keep track of everything that’s going on, there are so
many films to watch, places to check out, different events to make it
to, all while fitting in a six hour volunteer shift at one of the
theaters where I work as an usher, loading the theater before each
screening. “We have 10 seats open.” “Copy that.” “The entourage has
arrived and I’m walking them in.”
There’s a fun crowd at the fest. Half of the people I’ve met so far
have lived in Boston at some point in time. There are a handful of
Aussies, and a ton of people from Utah of course. And that doesn’t even
start to cover it. But the awesome thing is that everyone is here for
basically the same reasons… to see films, appreciate creativity, meet
people and party like we’ll all die in a blizzard tomorrow. It’s such a
change from ordinary life.
By weeklydig on Tue, Mar 16, 2010 7:17 pm
LIVE REVIEW BY RILEY OHLSON
RJD2 got his start DJing for Columbus rap group MHz in the '90s, but is better known for his solo work, beginning with Your Face or Your Kneecaps in 2001, and hitting his stride with widely acclaimed 2002 release Deadringer.
By ioncrash on Mon, Mar 8, 2010 5:26 pm
None-too-shockingly, Jonas Stein of Turbo Fruits (formerly of Be YourOwn Pet) turns out to be a pretty chill guy. After all, the dude’s written more songs about weed than I care to list right now.
