Catching Up on Summer Shows

Man! This summer has gotten away from me, for sure. All the shows, no time to write. I guess it's a good thing that life gets busy being lived. July was chalk-full of shows, so I should do some catching up. Mid-July, I went to shows pretty back-to-back-to-back on two separate occasions. I was finally able to see Arcade Fire, at an outdoor venue in the water district of Boston, at the Blue Hills Pavilion. Not my favorite venue, but I was close enough to make it count. Holy cow! That band puts on one hell of a show! The showmanship of everyone in the band (and that's 8 people!) never missing a beat, even when Win Butler's wife, Regine's headset microphone wasn't working. They played for almost 2.5 hours and played pretty much everything and then some that I could've wanted, having been a fan of theirs since the first album. Opening with "Wake Up" (which is probably their biggest hit) was a bold move, since I pictured it more as their last encore song. I knew I was in for one hell of a show after hearing it first and the feeling never disappeared. If you haven't seen them, you should!


  1. Pastime Paradise
    (Stevie Wonder song)
    Play Video
  2. Everything Now (Continued)
    (instrumental version)
    Play Video
  3. Wake Up
    Play Video
  4. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
    (w/ "I Give You Power" snippet)
    Play Video
  5. Intervention
    Play Video
  6. Rococo
    Play Video
  7. Electric Blue
    Play Video
  8. Put Your Money on Me
    Play Video
  9. My Body Is a Cage
    Play Video
  10. Cars and Telephones
    Play Video
  11. We Used to Wait
    Play Video
  12. Half Light II (No Celebration)
    Play Video
  13. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
    Play Video
  14. The Suburbs
    Play Video
  15. The Suburbs (Continued)
    Play Video
  16. Ready to Start
    Play Video
  17. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
    Play Video
  18. Reflektor
    Play Video
  19. Afterlife
    (w/ New Order's "Temptation" snippet as outro)
    Play Video
  20. Creature Comfort
    Play Video
  22. Encore:
  23. Everything Now (Continued)
    Play Video
  24. Everything Now
    Play Video
  25. Rebellion (Lies)
    ("Wake Up" chorus attempted at the end)
    Play Video
  26. Song played from tape
    Walk on the Wild Side
    (Lou Reed song)
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My sister and I went to see one of our favorite "local" Boston bands in July as well. Animal Flag. The singer has a voice reminiscent of Conor Oberst and their live sets are incredible. They were the opening band for a couple of other bands, which we didn't even stick around for because we were solely interested in Animal Flag. They recently put out a new album and their set focused on those new songs, which was a little disappointing to me, because I love their first album so much, but that's the risk when a band only has about 25 minutes to play and gain some fans. 


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Then, my sister and I headed out again a couple nights later to see an incredible new Australian punk rock band, Camp Cope as they were playing a headlining show at the Sinclair. It was the last night of their first American tour and they were amazing. Their new album "How to Socialise and Make Friends" is probably going to end up in my Top Ten list at the end of the year. They remind me of early Sleater Kinney and Hole and those early '90s punk rock, all-female bands. You should definitely check out their album. 



They brought a couple of amazing solo female artists along with them for this tour. One of them seemed like a rather "local" bred musician, Sidney Gish, who played guitar and loops along with her incredible songwriting/lyric skills that enticed the crowd to start the night. I hadn't listened to any of her stuff prior to the show, but she made a fan out of me after watching/listening to her for 20 minutes. 


After Sidney Gish was an absolutely incredible girl who goes by the stage name Petal. Her songs were deeply introspective and her voice forced you to listen and demand attention and quiet from the crowd, who gladly obliged. This was one hell of a set. She put out a new album (Magic Gone) a few months ago and after seeing her live, I found myself going back to it and giving it a couple of more listens. 



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