Show Review

The Secret Machines, The Charlatans UK, and Buffalo Tom were among the top acts assembled for WFNX Boston’s “Lansdowne Street Block-Party,” the first of two shows promoting the results of the18th annual “Best Music Poll.” The event displays artists that are voted by listeners to be the “best music” on the scene. This year’s celebration of all that is popular and radio-friendly lined up a good mix of hip-hop, punk, and a half dozen or so acts that could have easily been mistaken for The Strokes.

In the past the “Best Music Poll” showcased artists like Beck, the Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam, a good six months before they were embraced by the mainstream. This year’s lineup was much less capable of such a boast in the future.

The outdoor stage was an alternative to the several other clubs hosting the event on Boston’s famed Lansdowne Street. Taking the stage as the sun began to dip behind the skyscrapers, OK GO! played a painfully regular set of songs that sounded like watered down B-sides from the Clash’s “Give ‘em Enough Rope,” and presented themselves with the image of the Who’s “Quadrophonia” era “Mod” getup. The fans pressed their way to the front of the stage and sang every song word for word. However, the OK GO! failed to draw attention away from the almost-rehearsed stage antics they repeated throughout the set. Presenting themselves in full-length suits on a warm day in May spoke to the phony nature of their live experience in a way that was only exacerbated by the repetition of the “tricks” they repeated on stage throughout the duration of their performance.

Next up on the outdoor stage was Buffalo Tom, a guitar/bass/drum trio who can do more with two chords then anyone since Sublime was recording low budget albums in a basement. Buffalo Tom reinforces the idea that when it comes to songwriting, less is more. They put enough heart and soul into their music, and performance, that the lack of technical efficiency was easily overlooked for the aggressive authenticity that provided a modern sound which could easily be imagined on the same bill as the Pixies, circa 1988.

Closing the outdoor stage duties was the British act the Charlatans UK. The most impressive part of their performance was how the dynamic the front man engaged with the crowd. Most unresponsive crowds are met with enthusiastic pleas from the singer for engagement. This was not the case with the Charlatans UK. The less the crowd responded to the standard, “front-man draw-in” techniques, the less their singer engaged. Bringing the experience around 180 degrees, the more the crowd responded, the more energy and warmth their front-man exhibited. Beyond the performance, the musical element left something to be desired. The sound of the group would have been pretty skin-and-bones had it not been for the keyboarder adding some meat to the dynamic. Layering the crunch of the guitar with spaced out keyboard riffs, their keyboarder really gave the guitar something to strum about. They came off as a pre-primadona Oasis, borrowing from the Mick and Keith dynamic of the Rolling Stones, rather than just ripping off the Beatles.

With the final notes of the sets having been played, the outdoor component of the block party wrapped up. As production crews began disassembling the stage, the party moved indoors to several of Boston’s leading venues, all located on the one-block stretch of Lansdowne Street, directly behind Fenway park.

Aberdeen City started things off around 10PM inside the Axis, a CBGB-esqe club that’s easily dwarfed by the maximum capacity of the Avalon, which is next door, and host of the bigger names of the night. The Group initially came off as a “Creep”-era Radiohead knockoff with a live show that was good for killing time before the bill’s bigger acts went on. However, things picked up, and they proved to the crowd, and their critics, that they are more than a group of Radiohead-wannabes. The spontaneous live antics of the group showed they had much more to offer than bland 90’s radio re-runs. With dynamic energy that found a lead guitarist pitching water bottles to the drummer, that were then hit into the crowd, it is fair to presume that Aberdeen City is a band whose live experience will change night to night, venue by venue. They’re an act whose notoriety still leaves something to be desired, but what they will grow to be in time has yet to be decided.

Getting stiffed with closing duties, the Secret Machines didn’t begin playing to a far-from-packed crowd at the Avalon until close to 1AM. Prior to the show, we caught up with Benjamin Curtis of the Secret Machines. When asked about what kind of show we should expect he said one with a “beginning, middle, and an end.” Keeping his word, the Machines started things off with the first track on their second studio album Ten silver Drops called “Alone, Jealous, and Stoned.” The bulk of the set reached into their whole catalog, including fan favorites like “The Road Leads Where it’s Led” and their new, radio-friendly single “Lightning Blue Eyes.” As the 2AM curfew for venues in Boston approached the Secret Machines brought the set full circle with the first track off their début studio album Now Here is Nowhere, a sonic nightmare of an album opener aptly titled “First Wave Intact.” Using album openers to book-end their set-list, Curtis kept true to his word providing a “beginning, middle and an end” to a set performed for a small cluster of fans that spent 7 hours on their feet for a shorter-than-average set by the Machines. The general consensus amongst the crowd was that their patience was rewarded in full with the intimacy of the show, letting the devoted few have their favorite act to themselves. Rewarding the devoted few, and picking up a few new fans along the way, the Secret Machines’ set proved that they are a band who continues to build on their stage presence and fan base with every show they perform. Benjamin Curtis said prior to the show that, “you can’t judge your own place in history (because) history will decide.” Clearly the Secret Machines are establishing a place for themselves in history that is still being determined.

Photos by Scott Fleishman