Friday was back to Music Hall of Williamsburg. Do I say the Music Hall of Williamsburg? Anyway, missed the first band, but saw all of The War on Drugs. Easy to enjoy. I don't have any pictures of the very long-haired guitarist who didn't get off his knees while facing away from the audience for a few songs. I said later that it seemed like they were losing the war on drugs. Or winning, countered L. Here are a bunch of pics. First, the guitarist's foot, since he couldn't keep it on the ground when he was singing. Did I mention the keyboard crash? Now I did.



A little double drummer action. There was some difficulty keeping the beat, but the novelty outweighed that triviality.



Then Bishop Allen, Brooklyn's own, way of, obviously to people that know Boston, Boston. It's some street up there.

But back to our story. These guys I know about because of internet radio trying to play similar songs to songs I told them I wanted to hear that day. I heard them, liked what I heard, and bought tickets when I found out they were coming to New York. That was maybe two months ago? I figured I'd just get them and forget about it, since stuff sells out way too often and early in this town. This plan resulted in an unfortunate situation (after a fortuitous one), when we started with three on our way there but with only two tickets, and it sold out day of. Annoying. I can tell you this, though. That still didn't dampen my mood after seeing a fun band with an unanticipated guest, and then having these guys come out and sound so in control. Smart lyrics. Playful instrumentation (yes, with the ubiquitous xylophone-esque instrument). Tight arrangements. Pretty poppy, but not in any way that diminished from the concert being fun. And I give kudos and props (not or! and!) for covering Friday on My Mind for the first song of the encore. This set really seemed to genuinely capture what was going on on Friday May 16, 2008 in Brooklyn in a creative, intelligent way. A great night of music. Photos follow; it's what you people ask for.














Mark was back for Friday's Authentic Sh*t show on eastvillageradio.com. So far so good. I got a bunch of Phish shows, including one of my personal favorites, 11-11-98. A great band in top form in songs two minutes long with aching lyrics and twenty-four minutes with words for which the label lyrics would be overly generous. Jumbles of words that may not have made sense when written and certainly do not now. What a fun night that was. Four of us, and I just sent a few tracks to one of the others. We drove from Ann Arbor to Grand Rapids. [Side note in Phish-speak: The Halley's will lift you out of your seat, but I strongly advise starting from set one, with the blazing PYITE and sweetly psychedelic Gumbo.] What else did I get? Jane's Addiction from Philadelphia in 1989. Love those guys. Part of The Grateful Dead's set on 2-27-70. Oh and Tenacious D from Red Rocks that I haven't listened to yet! Yes!

No concerts on the radar this week, really. Or next. Might I be taking a break? Might not be a bad idea. Rest.