As luck would have it, my buddy Zoomer came up with tickets to the first of two sold out show at The Roseland featuring The Raconteurs.
I had seen them at Bonnaroo this past June. The area in front of the main (What) stage was jam packed all the way to the sound booth; I’d guess at least twenty five thousand strong. This situation was not conducive to getting up close and personal with the band. So, my brother Ed and I chose to sit in the June sunshine, make some new friends and blatantly use The Raconteurs as the soundtrack for that portion of our afternoon. It worked out well because we wound up getting into the pit up front for the next two acts on the main stage that Friday night; Chris Rock and Metallica. We were well rested and ready to rock.
But back to last night. Seeing The Raconteurs in a venue that maxes out at 1,400 was much more about the band than the Bonnaroo experience. Zoomer and I met up on Burnside Street a block from the Roseland. A homeless man from the mission around the corner seemed to be having an argument with the dinner tray he carried as he paced up and down the street. Apparently, the chocolate cake on the tray disagreed with his entree and he was trying to get them to settle down. Making sure the truck was locked, we flipped the guy a five and went into the club. As is my habit, I staked out a spot up front and waited for the show to start.
READ ON for more of AJ’s Raconteurs @ The Roseland review…
It hardly seems like six months have passed since the beginning of the year, but here we are on June 26. While I’ve failed miserably at fulfilling all of my resolutions I did see a ton of incredible shows. Now I get to rate them, as this week’s B List looks at my ten favorite concerts of the first half of ‘08.
What’s the criteria for this list? Well, obviously I had to be there to catch the show, so I can’t give MMJ @ Bonnaroo “show of the year” honors even though the tapes seem to indicate they deserve it. All I can go by is my gut and how wide of a smile each of these performances induced. Here’s what I’ve got…
10. Jennifer Hartswick - The Blue Note - May 24
[Photo by Adam Kaufman]
I’ve had the pleasure of catching J-Ha at the Blue Note on three separate occasions, but the performance she gave at the legendary jazz club in May was the cat’s pajamas. I brought my cousin to the show, and it was incredible to see how in awe she was of Jen’s voice, trumpet playing and the way Jen took control of the audience. Let’s hope there are more Jennifer Hartswick gigs in store for us New Yorkers. READ ON for Scotty’s top nine shows of the first half of ‘08…
With the July 4th right around the corner, we thought we’d get the HT gang together again to slap a variety of foodstuffs on the grill and throw back some Six Point Hop Obama’s for another edition of At The Barbecue. This time around we figured we’d find out what has been burning up the iPods of our faithful HT Contributors as we approach the mid-way point of 2008.
Much like Fight Club there were no rules - the albums could be something released this year, something you’ve just discovered or an old classic that’s just been getting a lot of play. So sit back and enjoy, the Best Music Of ‘08 (So Far)…
Neddy:
Favorite album of the year has to be, no ifs ands or buts, John Zorn’s the Dreamers. You won’t find a more talented ensemble of musicians playing more soul-pleasing compositions in such amazing fashion anywhere else — I gar-uhn-tee. Your favorite genre — be it piano jazz, reverby surf, dirty funk or Lou Reed pop — is reinvented, dissected, exploded, imploded, impregnated and otherwise made to feel welcome in that cozy spot between the tiny hairs inside your ears and the squishy gray stuff beyond. All that and free stickers! Enjoy!
READ ON to see what albums your favorite HT bloggers can’t get enough of…
For someone who works a 9-5 job, and also runs a blog that has between three and nine posts a day, sometimes I feel like a slacker. That’s because I always seem to put off reviewing the rock shows I attend. For instance, last weekend I saw the tight-as-fuck Raconteurs at the world’s worst venue, Terminal 5. The show was incredible, and I had the best intentions of writing up a review. But I just never found the time. Plus, there have been so many well-written reviews of the shows from every media source that I just kept on putting it off.
Luckily, Glide just posted a terrific review of Saturday’s show on the main site. Let’s see what Shawn Donohue had to say about the show:
It is hard to get this review started without shouting from the written rooftop that The Raconteurs just may be the most exciting live rock and roll act playing today…so I will just come out and admit it – they are.
Truth!!! I could hardly see the show thanks to the horrible sight lines at Terminal Schwag, but you could feel the power throughout the room. I loved every minute of it, whether they played tunes from the first album or tunes from the second album. This was an all killer no filler affair.
The low end of this group provides a foundation laid in granite and allow the rest of the showmen to shine, but Lawrence on bass and Keller on drums are the engine that move this colossal muscle car into gear, rumbling the Raconteurs down the sonic highway straight into your ear hole.
Color me gnewblicious, but I wasn’t familiar with the rhythm section of The Raconteurs. Shawn hit the nail on the head when he said that the Steady As She Goes rhythm section allowed Brendan Benson and Jack White to show off their massive talents. Anyways, enough about my experience, head over to Glide to read Shawn’s extremely well written review.
You may have noticed banners for our Camp Bisco contest making their way into our ad rotation above the Hidden Track logo lately. If you haven’t already entered, be sure to enter your info into this landing page where we’re giving away a pair of ducats to Camp Bisco 7. Here’s your chance to see three nights of hosts the Disco Biscuits, rap legend Snoop Dogg, The New Deal and a slew of other untz-credible acts for the unbeatable price of zero dollars.
If Bisco ain’t your thing, maybe some of these links will be of interest:
Finally, NYCTaper hipped us to a crazy story out of England, where Glastonbury organizer Michael Eavis reportedly turned down an offer from David Gilmour for Pink Floyd to play Dark Side of the Moon. What a fucking numbnut!
I’m sorry for the lack of posts today, but I’ve been getting crushed lately at my real job. Hopefully we’ll return to a normal posting schedule next week. For now here’s a rundown of what you need to know this afternoon:
- The creators of the Yacht Rock viral videos that pay homage to the likes of Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald are taking the show on the road. Series’ co-creators JD Ryznar and Hunter Stair will screen the episodes at selected dates before a live audience in New York, Minneapolis, Detroit and Muskegon, Michigan. Or you can just watch them on YouTube.
- The Raconteurs blew the roof off a sold-out 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. last night. Thankfully you can stream the show for yourself over at NPR Music. Jack White and the boys return to the 9:30 tonight to do it all over again.
- Sam Roberts Band, a group that Some Dude featured in his Better Than Noodling column, topped the Canadian charts this week with their newly released album. Love at the End of the World sold 9,000 copies beating out the likes of Madonna, Three Doors Down and Death Cab For Cutie. 9,000 albums, aye? God bless our neighbors to the north.
It’s been awhile since we’ve given you a festival announcement around these parts, but old habits die hard and we thought the inaugural New American Music Union Festival was worth mentioning. The fest which is set to take place in scenic Pittsburgh, PA on August 8th and 9th is being curated by RHCP’s lead singer Anthony Kiedis and will feature an impressive roster which will include Bob Dylan, The Raconteurs, Spoon, Black Mountain and more.
Rounding out the lineup will also be fifteen bands from various colleges around the country who will be competing for free studio time.
If heading to the ‘Burgh for a festie and a tasty sandwich at Primanti Brothers isn’t for you, then maybe one of these recently announced tours will be:
Finally, earlier this year Tina Turner made her return to the stage with one of the better performances at this year’s Grammy’s - frankly it seemed like Beyonce had a hard time keeping up. Well the reinvigorated 68 year-old Turner announced earlier this week that she’ll be hitting the road this fall for arenas dates for the first time since 2000. I’m sure there’s a joke about Ike somewhere, but we’ll leave that up to you Mad Libs style to fill in. Take your best shot…
The writers over at Pitchfork usually play it really cool, but you can almost hear Amy Phillips orgasm as she lays out the lineup for the first All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in New York. ATP New York, which will be held at Kutshers Country Club in Monticello on September 19-21, features My Bloody Valentine, Mogwai, Low, The Drones and Fuck Buttons among an assorted cast of indie bands.
But what really set Phillips into convulsions was the news that the Meat Puppets (Meat Puppets II), Built To Spill (Perfect From Now On), Thurston Moore (Psychic Hearts) and Tortoise (Millions Now Living Will Never Die) will each play one of their classic albums from start to finish. It doesn’t get better than that for P4K.
As great as the hipster bloggerati thinks the music will be, we’re impressed with the setup of this festival. Concertgoers can choose to stay in a reasonably priced room on site at Kutshers. For instance, you can book a room with a double bed and a single bed for $450. That’s just $150 per person if you split it with two of your buddies. Plus you get to roam the expansive grounds, which are straight out of a scene in Dirty Dancing. No wonder Amy Phillips got so excited.
Let’s see what else is happening this week:
Finally, we’ve found detailed reports from two of the most anticipated tours of the Spring. The Raconteurs came, saw and owned the crowd in Seattle last night according to the folks at Reverb. Meanwhile, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss kicked off the Raising Sand tour with a chill-inducing set on Saturday night.
Over the past 12 months we’ve seen a number of bands create innovative methods to try to beat the dreaded internet leak. The latest brilliant ploy comes from The Raconteurs who have just announced that they will release their second album, Consolers Of The Lonely, on vinyl, cd and digital formats next Tuesday. In a little over a week we’ll have 14 new tracks from the supergroup.
The Raconteurs finished recording the album two weeks ago, and have opted to bypass the traditional “first week sales” marketing push the record labels love so much. Instead they plan to release Consolers Of The Lonely, and then promote the album after everyone has a chance to hear the music at the same time. We figure that there are some major label execs that are hoping the new album goes down like a lead balloon, but we’re banking on Jack White and the boys to deliver another delicious serving of rock. Read on for the full letter from the band, including the outstanding news that they plan to sell 320kbps mp3s.
