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It was a good weekend for shows around here. On Saturday night I went back to the Lizard Lounge to see A Northern Chorus play. What a great place to see a show. It feels like someone just threw down some Persian rugs, turned on the red lamps, set up a bar in the corner, put a PA system in a basement, and invited all of their friends. Well, that's not too far off. If you haven't seen a show, any show, at the Lizard Lounge, you need to get yourself there, soon. I got much more into Charlene's set than I did last time that I saw them, fortunately. They can really get a good dreamy goove going. I chatted with their dummer, Brad, whose blog I've been reading for years, after the show, which leads me to Sunday night...
Last night I headed to the Paradise Lounge for the first time. Unfortunately, not many people followed me to see Mark Gardener (if you don't know, his old band wrote this blog's eponymous song). There were almost as many band members in the crowd as there were paying customers. Even though he's been able to get quite a crowd out the past few times that he's played Boston over the last couple of years, it seems that the Dinosaur Jr. show at the Middle East won out with the indie crowd last night. Of course this makes the show seem that much more intimate for us sitting at the tables behind Mark eating his pizza and drinking his wine before the show, but of course I wish that more people had come out to see him. It's their loss; the show was great. The other bands playing, Hopewell and Goldrush (doubling as Mark's backing band), played great sets to open things up before Mark played a good mix of stuff from his new solo record and four Ride classics.
Mark opened up with the first track on These Beautiful Ghosts, "Snow In Mexico." My very first impression of the song was that the lead guitar really reminds me of "From Time To Time" (on Carnival of Light). Of course, I loved hearing "Taste" and "Dreams Burn Down," but damn, the new stuff is good. The full-band treatment with Goldrush at times points the songs in a Ride-esqe direction without sounding too much like they're just trying for the obvious easy sound. With the wall of guitars on stage, though, it would be hard not to get a big sound like that. At almost all times someone was playing the 6 and 12-string acoustic guitar, with others on the 6 and 12-string electrics.
The connection between the two nights, other than the really good music, was seeing Randy and Brad from Charlene at the Paradise Lounge show on Sunday. Randy let me know that they're at work on a new album so they won't be playing live much soon, but I'll certainly be there the next time they get out. As Brad mentions in his blog, he saw Mark with that other band about a dozen years ago in the Paradise's main room. As he told me that I remembered having a conversation about Ride on stage there before some show (Supergrass? Coral? Super Furry Animals?) a couple of years ago. Was it Brad? Probably was, if I really think hard about it. For those of you who ditched Mark to see Dinosaur Jr, Brad has been so kind to put a recording of the show on his site. It'll be there for a few week, so enjoy. You shoulda been there, though.
Now Playing: Mark Gardener - These Beautiful Ghosts (natch)
Jerad posted this in Live | Comments (0)
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