i am nothing without pretend.

Sunday night, Baltimore two-piece Wye Oak played at Black Cat. I have been a fan for a while so it was exciting to see them on their closeout show for this US tour.

Along with a few new songs, they played much of Civilian (2011) and finished with their classic cover of The Kinks' "Strangers". My favorite song was the title track. Jenn Wasner's strong haunting vocals and Andy Stack's ambidextrous backing additions made for an entertaining combination.

i got it, you got it, she's got it.

I haven't been to a show in a while, partially due to laziness and apathy to the current popular music. My friend and I had planned on attending Hopscotch festival, but that plan got sidelined as well. When I found out that festival headliner The Jesus and Mary Chain would be playing at the 9:30 Club I jumped at the opportunity to see one of my favorite bands who of course broke up in 1998/99 and have been playing sporadically since then.

The audience of the sold out show was more diverse in age than you would see at most 9:30 events. It was nice to see everything from original fans to younger people who discovered them after they disbanded. Reunions are tricky, as is the controversy of fifty year old musicians taking the stage. Watching recordings of The Jesus and Mary Chain at Coachella in 2007 I wasn't pleased with the sound and so it's a bit nerve wracking to think that it might not be up to all the hype. Well, they surpassed my expectations.

With these types of shows the vibe can be more important than the song choice. For a band notorious for acrimony, they seemed appreciative towards the crowd and put on a great performance. I would have loved to hear more from Darklands (1987), but as the band explained they wanted to put together a setlist full of crowd-pleasing hits for this tour. It was an enjoyable show and I hope they put out their new music soon so I can see what direction they are moving into.

setlist

SXSW 2012.

After the past few years vacationing at Winter Music Conference in Miami and Coachella in Palm Springs, I decided to take the trip to Austin for South By Southwest. My friends and I didn't buy badges, which ended up saving us a lot of money. We were still able to see pretty much everyone we wanted to by RSVPing to events. Here are my favorite parts...

A. Performances [chronological order].
1. Star Slinger at Mohawk- DJ set
2. Miike Snow at Stubbs
3. Ramesh [formerly of Voxtrot] at the old Emo's space, The JR
4. Dry the River at the Spotify House
5. Zulu Winter at Mohawk
6. Girls at Stubbs
7. Diplo at the 1100 Warehouse
8. Black Star at Google
9. The DC guys, US Royalty at Virgin House
10. Sofi at Virgin House & The W Hotel

B. Meeting interesting people, spending time with friends, white picket fences, and unlimited barbecue.