A Thumbnail Sketch

Springsteen setlist

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:13:04 -0400

Wrecking ball 10th Avenue Freeze Out No Surrender Outlaw Pete Hungry Heart Working on a Dream Badlands Adam Raised a Cain Something in the Night Candy’s Room Racing in the Street Promised Land Factory Streets of Fire Prove it all night Darkness on the Edge of Town Waiting on a Sunny Day Raise Your Hand (sign pickup) - instrumental I’m Goin’ Down (sign) Be True (sign) Jailhouse Rock (sign) Thunder Road Long Walk Home The Rising Born to Run (Jay Weinberg on drums) Cadillac Ranch Bobby Jean American Land (E Street Band) Dancing in the Dark Rosalita

This actually happened.

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 23:12:22 -0400

Allow me to set the scene: The Hold Steady had just finished the encore of a fine performance at the Starland Ballroom, a fantastic venue located in an unlikely spot along an industrial park on the fringes of Sayreville, NJ. As per usual, the house lights came up, and the PA bean to play some recorded music. In this case, “Thunder Road.” And then this happened:

Yes, that was about 300 people singing “Thunder Road” a-capella, spontaneously. The house sound guy actually turned the PA off halfway through. It’s a scene that I’ve never seen before, and will probably never see again. Chalk it up to “only in Jersey,” maybe, but it was pretty unbelievable. I’m glad Courtney had the presence of mind to record it.

Is it a match?

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 22:16:58 -0400

Do you read Indexed? You should. Anyway, in the spirit of that blog, I give you an observation from Friday night’s dinner:

A Music Inquisition

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:05:22 -0400

Nice Facebook meme, courtesy of Mark Cummings.

It’s a situational analysis of favorite artists and albums. Everyone asks, “what is your favorite song” or “favorite band”? I think those things change by the moment. So, here is a list of my favorite songs, singers and such by situation (you like that alliteration, huh.)

1. It’s late at night and you are in the middle of a long drive. You’re sleepy, but this song comes on the radio and you get your second wind.

“Stand” – R.E.M.

2. Song that really doesn’t fit your voice, but you sing it anyway……(in the car)

“Last Goodbye” – Jeff Buckley

3. Song you regret knowing all the words to.

“Copacabana” – Barry Manilow

4. Song that reminds you Summer, Fall, Winter and/or Spring.

Summer: “Rain In the Summer Time” – The Alarm

Fall: “Ole!” – The Bouncing Souls

Winter: “Valley Winter Song” – Fountains of Wayne

Spring: “Cerulean” – The Ocean Blue

5. What song gets you in the Holiday spirit.

“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” – Darlene Love

6. You are depressed and this song puts you way over the edge.

“The Drugs Don’t Work” – The Verve

7. A song that you wish you wrote.

“Promised Land” – Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

8. Song you wish no one ever wrote.

“Hands Up”

9. Who do you think has the best voice for Rock and Roll? Male and Female

Michael Stipe, Neko Case

10. The best concert performance you’ve ever seen.

Bruce Springsteen & The Seeger Sessions Band, PNC Arts Center

11. Band you hope does NOT have another album (i.e. has served their purpose)

The Killers. Would have said Nickelback, but they served no purpose to begin with.

12. Who is the better guitarist -Lindsay Buckingham or Mark Knopfler.

Nils Lofgren

13. Singer or Band you wish you could see in concert

Led Zeppelin

14. If you could meet ONE Dead Musician in the afterlife, who would it be?

John Lennon

15. You are stranded on a desert island with a record player. You can bring 3 albums only. What are they? NO GREATEST HITS ALBUMS

Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

The Joshua Tree – U2

Reckoning – R.E.M.

16. St. Peter wants to hear you sing a song before letting you into Heaven. What song do you sing that convinces him you aren’t the rat bastard everyone thinks you are.

“Phantom Eyes” – Marah

17. You’re driving and someone cuts you off, what song do you want playing on the radio.

“Let It Be” – The Beatles

18. A song that makes you think of dying/death.

“1930” – The Gaslight Anthem

19. That rarely played song/s that makes you think about someone else and who?

“You Nerve Me” – Possum Dixon. Reminds me of my apartment mates at 3417.

“Go West” – Pet Shop Boys. “It’s all ice!”

20. What song do you think you can pull off doing karaoke like nobody’s business?

“Should I Stay or Should I Go” – The Clash

Sleeping is giving in.

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:44:10 -0400

Sleeping is giving in.

Review: Sink or Swim -- The Gaslight Anthem

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:30:50 -0400

Last month, for the first time in 21 years, I got together with my 8th grade classmates. It was a good reunion. I saw guys and girls that I hadn’t laid eyes on since the last post-graduation party in the summer of 1988. It was a reunion devoid of the discomfort that reunions commonly elicit. My classmates and I shared stories, photos of our families, tales of the people that weren’t able to make it that night. It was a great time by all measures, and at the end of the evening I was sure that the calls to “do this again soon” wouldn’t ring hollow.

Recovering the next day – who knew those guys could drink like that? – my thoughts turned inward. I pondered my transition from an awkward, unsure and insecure boy, through my fun-loving twentysomething years with few cares and boundless possibility, to a suburban dad with a steady job, a wife and kid, and a comfortable home on a pretty piece of property.

What struck me more about being “old,” more than anything, was the lack of urgency in life. On reflection, it seems that as we grow and mature, we trade excitement for stability, risk for complacency. And above all, we begin to sacrifice discovery for the comfort of the known and familiar. Few and rare, it seems, are my peers that have retained their daring and impulsiveness.

This, of course, is a crying shame. What made my youth exciting was the newness, the freshness. All of the firsts: First love. First broken heart. First time I felt real danger, and the first time I felt wrapped in security that didn’t come from home. First time I saw new life, and the first time real loss touched my adolescent soul. The reckless abandon and the thrill of rebellion. Even the discomfort and awkwardness, and the feelings of isolation and loneliness.

I miss those thoughts and feelings. Sure, I’ve seen a lot in the years since then, and I’ve had experiences that I could have only dreamt about back then. But the firsts. The firsts…

Like in the summertime when we first met/I’ll never forget, don’t you forget/These nights are still ours.

– “Boomboxes and Dictionaries”

Sometimes, all it takes is a voice to breathe life into those old memories, to put a spark to youthful idealism…

We are the last of the jukebox romeos/We are romantics by the light of the four winds/We came to sing out a chorus, reinvent the good times/Bring it all back home again.

– “We Came to Dance”

And the urgency…

And then I heard it like a shock, from my skull to my brain/I felt my fingertips tingle and it started to rain/When the walls of my bedroom were tremblin’ around me/His ramshackle voice over attack of a blues beat.

– “I’da Called You Woody, Joe”

I’m not much of a believer in coincidence. Call it what you will, but I think this life can give you what you need when you need it. And so it goes with Sink or Swim, the debut from The Gaslight Anthem. Released in 2007, but unknown to me until this winter, this album has been more of a revelation than any disc I’ve had in years.

Their sophomore effort, The ‘59 Sound came highly recommended, punk-pop fusion with the kind of songwriting that my home state is known for – honest, blue-collar songs of love and loss. It’s a great disc, it really is. But it’s got that polish to it, that smoothed-out sound. It’s strong, but it lacks urgency.

Sink or Swim, by comparison, grabs you from the opening chords and doesn’t let go. Behind the solid rhythm section of bassist Alex Levine and drummer Benny Horowitz, lead singer and songwriter Brian Fallon pulls you into a steamy world of romantic punk kids, old souls grappling with love and loss, pain and redemption, and the struggle to find their place.

If this sounds like the back story to “Jungleland,” it’s no accident. Fallon embraces the Jersey Shore sound, crafting an homage to the old beat-up cars, dark misty roads, and a handful of archetypical girls named Maria and Mary. But rather than coming off as cloying or dated, he and guitarist Alex Rosamilla put an electric charge into the songs, freshening the old E Street themes with a decidedly modern thrust.

All of this is, of course, exactly what I didn’t realize I’d been needing to hear, until I heard it. It’s the urgency I’ve been missing, the sense of the now.

We’re much too young of men/To carry such heavy heads/And tonight for the first time/It felt good to be alive.

– “Drive”

I think that sometimes it takes the perspective of youth to remind me why things are important, to renew the passion, and to set me straight.

Its alright man, I’m only bleeding man, stay hungry stay free and do the best you can.

– “We’re Getting a Divorce, You Keep the Diner”

I've never been asked to be a third...

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:39:51 -0400

As if I didn’t have a long-enough to-do list, Courtney and MJ have asked me to be a part of their pretty-darn-good music blog! I am flattered and honored.

My first post is up, and that also means that I can cross commenting on their blog off of the aforementioned list. Enjoy!

when adam and larry are found dead as the result of a murder-suicide pact, you can all blame...

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:39:49 -0400

when adam and larry are found dead as the result of a murder-suicide pact, you can all blame “all that you can’t leave behind”

A Response to TD 16 - Win, Place, or Show

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:01:41 -0400

This is a reply to Courtney and MJ’s Throwdown #16.

Brilliant conceit, this is. I’m an album person. I have plenty of singles, and I embrace the shuffle, but I believe that a true artist uses the album as a canvas, with each song a series of brushstrokes that contributes to the whole. It’s great when an individual cut can stand on its own, but composing an album, linking the songs together to form a cohesive whole, is an act of ruthless dedication. Good songs invariably end up on the production room floor, to be released as b-sides or one-offs.

So to find a run of three consecutive albums? It’s near impossible. To crib some of Courtney’s list:

Bob Dylan: Bringin’ It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde.

The Replacements: Let It Be, Tim, Pleased to Meet Me.

R.E.M.: Life’s Rich Pageant, Document, Green.

The Rolling Stones: Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street

It’s hard to add to this list, and that includes consideration of other “greats.”

Springsteen? Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town are fantastic, but I still haven’t come to grips with the unevenness of The River.
U2? War, The Unforgettable Fire, and The Joshua Tree are most likely the nadir of a band that is fighting hard for sustained relevance (note that popularity and relevance are not the same thing). MJ goes in the other direction by starting with Boy, but leaving The Joshua Tree out of a “best” U2 list is like leaving Young Frankenstein out of a best Mel Brooks film list.
Nickelback? DMB? Oops, sorry. I’m sure there will be a post about hugest rock ‘n’ roll douchebags that we can include them in.

I’m sure there are some that I’ve missed. But I haven’t listed my choice…yet.

I’m going with Wilco. Being There, Summerteeth, and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The three albums where Jeff Tweedy found his voice, then found his footing, and finally crafted his cohesive statement. Feel free to disagree vehemently in the comments. But I leave you with just a sliver of the argument, for your listening pleasure:

She said "focus". Whatever.

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:28:20 -0400

So when last we spoke - and before I posted from Hershey - I said I had a “to do list” of bloggable things. Here we are, then, and the to do list has only grown. New items that need to be covered:

Notes on Gaslight Anthem at the Stone Pony
Notes on Bruce from Hershey
A few words about the 12x12 project
My 8th grade 21-year reunion (nope…not kidding)

The fact of the matter is that time is tight. I had been blogging on the train on the way home, and I hope to get back to that. But the last few weeks have been insane at the office, and I’ve either been too busy or too tired to write. I know, I know — excuses. And I agree. Frankly, I’m probably missing out on an opportunity by not posting when I’m tired — who knows what pearls of wisdom will come forth from my addled brain?

Anyway, I’m not making any promises. But I am going to keep trying to get on the stick here. Not for anyone else’s benefit, but my own — I like to write, and I need to focus on stuff I like.

Springsteen setlist - Hershey

Fri, 15 May 2009 23:58:00 -0400

Badlands
Spirit in the Night
Outlaw Pete
Radio Nowhere
Out in the Street
Twist ‘n’ Shout (sign)
Working on a Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
The Ghost of Tom Joad
Raise Your Hand
Give the Girl a Great Big Kiss (sign)
Trapped (sign)
Waiting on a Sunny Day
Promised Land
Backstreets
Kingdom of Days
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born to Run
Hard Times
Thunder Road
10th Avenue Freeze Out
Land of Hope and Dreams
American Land (E Street Band!)
Rosalita
Bobby Jean

Springsteen in Hershey - in game

Fri, 15 May 2009 21:02:36 -0400

So I missed the pregame post. Sue me. This is a perfect venue on a perfect night. Skies are clear. Seats are filled. And the E Street is here to fulfill their solemn vow: to rock the house. I fucking love it. A Beatles cover in the first set. Jay on the skins. This rules.

Catching up

Tue, 05 May 2009 20:13:12 -0400

So, I’m on the train. When the train is interminably delayed, happiness is a tethered BlackBerry.

I’m way behind in posting. I think I owe the world (and by the world, I mean myself) a few blog posts:

Notes on the Springsteen show in Boston
Notes on Boston in general
Replies to two of Courtney and MJ’s throwdowns
Review of Julia’s restaurant in Atlantic Highlands (no, Kelly, I didn’t forget)

I’ve also been cooking up some actual blog posts, but everything is sitting behind the mountain of work I’m under at the day job. Plus, there have been a few things going on in life that have been taking up my attention.

And life doesn’t stop. Gaslight Anthem at the Stone Pony this weekend. I. Cannot. Wait. So I think there will also be a new-to-me review of Sink or Swim in my blogging queue. I’m prolific in my mind. On the blog? Not so much.

Anyway, posts are coming. Maybe even one or two tonight if this train continues its slow crawl and my BBerry battery holds out.

Boston Setlist

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:58:00 -0400

Badlands
Adam Raised a Cain
Outlaw Pete
Out in the Street
Workin on a Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
Ghost of Tom Joad
*signs*
Raise Your Hand
I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide (request)
I’m Goin’ Down (request)
Growin’ Up (request)
Waiting on a Sunny Day
Promised Land
The Wrestler
*hi from patti*
Kingdom of Days
Radio Nowhere (Jay Weinberg on drums)
Lonesome Day (Jay Weinberg on drums)
The Rising (Jay Weinberg on drums)
Born to Run (Jay Weinberg on drums)
*break*
Hard Times
10th Avenue Freeze Out
Land of Hope and Dreams
American Land
*E Street Band*
Rosalita

Bruce Springsteen - In Game

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:27:32 -0400

Badlands, Adam Raised a Cain, and Outlaw Pete to start. 100 feet from the stage, maybe, right in thje center. No Patti tonight. The Boston crowd is alive.

Bruce Springsteen - Pregame

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:25:05 -0400

So I’m sitting in a stairwell in the TD Banknorth Garden, waiting to be let into the floor area for tonights show. We missed the “pit” by about 30 people. C’est la vie. Never been on the floor for Bruce before, so front if the barricade will do nicely. Its a rainy day here, very chill and gray. My hoodie is all wet from waiting on line. There’s still about 2 hours until show time, so it’s all hanging out ahead of us. But dry hanging out. We’ll be let in as soon as the band finishes sound checking. This show doesn’t count for 12x12, by the way. Next month in Hershey may, but I’d prefer to get this done without using a Springsteen show.

Things to do on Boston

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:47:04 -0400

Rob: You know what Boston makes me want to do? Fight!

Sometimes the Wayback Machine seems like it's busted

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:15:18 -0400

A blog I frequent picked Matthew Wilder as the recipient of their Mustache Wednesday honors. While the man has a mad ‘stache, I think consideration of the bigger picture — the look and the song — is cause to pause. This shit used to be cool.

A response to TD10 - Shuffling Off

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 00:07:32 -0400

This is a reply to Courtney and MJ’s Throwdown #10, Shuffling Off.

Good theme this week. Except, of course, whever I do shit like this the song that comes up is a random track from a holiday CD or a novelty disc that I ripped for sake of completeness. So it was with great trepidation that I switched my home iTunes to shuffle, hit play, and waited for song 10.

I had nothing to worry about.

12 Bands 12 Months: Nada Surf, April 15, Brooklyn

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:32:00 -0400

Don’t push me cause I’ll fall in love/with whatever you just said ♪

I’ve been on a good run of late, show-wise. Nary a clunker. Usually, that has me nervous that the next $20 I drop on a show will result in abject disappointment. But there was something about Wednesday night. Wednesday night just couldn’t go wrong. Wednesday night, I was going to see the soundtrack to my life.

If you know me, you know that I’m the all-in type. I don’t half-ass anything, my kitchen renovation excepted¹. I like it or dislike it. Love it or hate it. There are few things I’m “meh” about. Mets? Love ‘em. Yankees? Fuck ‘em. Pizza? Best food invented². Broccoli? God’s only mistake.

So it’s been with Nada Surf. I’ve been loving them for about 8 months, which is about par for me: find a band I used to kind of know something about, get re-hooked by a song, song becomes an album, and before I know it their catalog is on my iPod and they’re zooming up my last.fm stats. But I hadn’t gotten around to seeing them. They’ve been at the Bowery Ballroom (great venue), Terminal 5 (overpriced), and Maxwells (best non-Stone Pony Jersey venue) in the past year, but I kept missing them. So when this show popped up on their website — and not Pollstar or OMR, by the way and damn you — and I happened to be checking their site out, I circled it and grabbed tickets. I was not to be denied.

Again, this is the point in my life where things usually fall apart. The big build-up, the stumbled-upon gig…expectations are high! FAIL impending! Driving to Brooklyn that night, I kept reminding myself that live music is organic, and sometimes organic matter, well, stinks.

Thankfully, the first opener didn’t turn out to be much of a bellweather. Or, if they were, then the whole night would have been one good song³ sandwiched by 5 mediocre ones, wailed out by some French folk with a collective lust for flat chords, spastic drumming, and monotone bass lines. Underground Railroad, they were called. They can stay down there.

The second opener, Holly Miranda, was genuinely good. But I can’t remember exactly how good they were because I was either talking or drinking during their whole set. But I did remark several times “They’re good!” to Andrew, and he responded in the affirmative, so I am sure it wasn’t just the Gennie Cream Ale⁴ doing the talking.

While waiting for Nada to take the stage, we headed up front. It should be noted that I consider this a minor victory. After all, from our spot during the opening acts we were maybe 20 feet off the stage, and on a riser to boot. Decent spot to be sure. But it was on an angle, and frankly, I was not to be denied this show! We found a spot in the second row of people and waited.

It was about then that the doubts were creeping back in. So far, it was a pretty great night: good venue, good beer list, good company, and good conversation. Now that the main event was minutes away, would it hold?

Beautiful beat, get me out of this mess ♪

A friend today, remarking on my obsessive recounting of the night, said that I seemed to be in my element. I was. I was surrounded by sound, lost in rhythm. I felt my soul being healed.

When the amps kick on, when the drummer sits down and taps the skins in anticipation, when the bassist fiddles with his strap and the singer adjusts the microphone, that, for me, is a healing moment. The world melts away. Cares and problems, dilemmas and worries, they fade into that little buzz that always comes right before the vocalist says hi and the first chords are played. And for two hours or so, very little else matters.

Oh fuck it, I’m gonna have a party ♪

And so they were awesome, in every sense of the word. Three guys, plus one on keys — a benefit of being “home” and close to their session keyboardist. Holly Miranda on few guest vocals. A spare stage, minimal acoutrement, vintage amps.

That Matthew Caws isn’t a world-famous lyricist is a travesty and a gift. He writes songs that are expressive without being weak or emo. He captures moments and paints the picture with precision. He, bassist Daniel Lorca, and drummer Ira Elliot harmonize effortlessly, adding a depth to songs about love and longing that lift them out of sense of despair into one of redemption and hope. The people that populate Caws’ world are flawed without being tragic. They’re real, and they connect.

Lorca and Elliott provide a solid rhythm section, and Caws’ guitar moves between tender and frantic, such as during the show-opening “Treading Water”, with ease. Nada Surf set the tone early, dialing up the tempo on every song, and moving quickly from song to song. The crowd, which had swelled from about 50 for the first opener to somewhere near capacity, was above all else appreciative.

The setlist was, frankly, like something I would have set up on my iPod. They played the hits, so to speak, spanning their last three releases. For the encore, Caws led off with the very pretty “Blizzard of ‘77,” followed by “Always Love,” and closed with “The Blankest Year” and the ensuing party on stage.

In the end, this was a show I needed to see. They’re solid performers, and they have a body of work that wants to be played out live. But I’ve seen plenty of good bands and great live shows. Hell, last month’s Gaslight Anthem show was pretty damn good.

No, what made this show special was the connection. As I said way back at the top of this novel, this band is the the soundtrack to my life right now. And to have that soundtrack wrap me up and take me away for a few hours? I’d never trade it.

Where are we going? I don’t care.
Our friends all left, let’s go anywhere.

¹Jesus, the kitchen. 5 years later and the drain still leaks a bit, there’s a weird hump in the floor in front of the sink, the cabinet trim moulding is still in cardboard boxes on top of the cabinets, mocking me. I bring this up, by the way, so nobody else has to.

²To be specific: Pete and Eldas for thin crust, New Corner for “plain” Neapolitan, and Bottoms Up for insanely decadent thick crust.

³The good song, it should be noted, was sung by the female guitarist, and had a stripped-down Velocity Girl sound to it. Distorted yet melodic, catchy, and not at all awful. She should leave that band.

⁴Thanks Steve!