Notes from a Genius

I've fallen a bit behind, as life has taken a turn in a great direction and kept me busy, so I need to catch up on a couple of shows from a couple of weeks ago. First up, I went to see Laura Marling at Paradise in Boston. I had seen her in 2010 when she played SPACE Gallery here in Portland. She was a small, folk artist from Britain, she was friends with Mumford and Sons and actually dating Marcus Mumford (who happened to be in the audience with us that night- of course, Mumford & Sons had not exploded into the music juggernaut that they are now). It was a great, intimate show. Laura Marling seems to thrive on the smaller settings for her shows, because the Paradise is small as well (about 900 people), even though she could probably play a theatre like Orpheum in Boston. She played a great set, mixing older tunes with newer stuff from her latest album "Semper Femina," and I've always appreciated that she never does an "expected" encore, just ends the...

Last week, I went to see Jimmy Eat World at a new and "improved" venue here in Portland. The venue is Aura, which for all intents and purposes is supposed to rival places like the Sinclair and the Royale in Boston, and even perhaps the recently re-opened Sonia in Boston. And, for Portland, it's not that the venues are competing with each other, so to speak, but I think the idea is to bring in a mix of acts. This venue was built with $9 million and intentions to be a beautiful, spacious, new concert and private events venue. And here's the thing, having been to the venue for just this one show, all I could tell was that at least for a sold out show, the place seemed very tight and small, especially filled to capacity. I was a bit disappointed by the venue. The amps and gear were on the floor, the stage was built rather high. The balcony looked like an interesting vantage point. I stood by the bar and had a decent view of the stage, but the sound was a bit muffled. I ...