IT BEGINS! B&S Tickets

I guess I'm the only one who who wasn't impressed by either of the bands live, though as I said B&S were good at times. Both have lisping gingers as frontmen, did anybody notice that?

B&S was some of the best musicianship I've seen in a very long time. It's refreshing to wake up the next morning and not have your ears ringing because everyone was turned up way too loud.

This was my second time seeing the New Pornographers and my first time seeing B&S. I think I liked the New Pornographers much more this time, if only because Dan Bejar wasn't there. Man, I hated that guy at their last show at the 9:30 Club. I didn't mind the lack of female vocals so much really. I thought they got some decent harmonies with just the guys. I think Kathryn forgot she wasn't supposed to sing. I saw her singing on the final song of the set. Very good set list too.

B&S didn't disappoint, but I'm not sure I'd say they blew me away exactly. Still, I had a great time and I was really psyched to hear "Judy" especially. They put on an excellent show. The sound mix was impeccable last night.

If you're really into musicianship, check out the country music festival at the Kennedy Center later in the month. Del McCoury, Earl Scruggs, Marty Stuart, Kenny Vaughan, Vince Gill…the list goes on and on…

http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/festivals/05-06/country/

Originally posted by eros:
B&S was some of the best musicianship I've seen in a very long time. It's refreshing to wake up the next morning and not have your ears ringing because everyone was turned up way too loud.

Every single person I've ever taken to see B&S or that I know has seen them has walked away totally happy. I've seen them when they're OK, but for the most part they are always great. They praised the 9:30 Club last night, saying it's one of their favorite places to play. Seth, any chance you can bring them back this summer? Stuart hinted they may return. Great, great stuff.

By any chance, does anyone have a recording of any of these shows? I'm dying to get a live version of "Electronic Renaissance" and "Your Cover's Blown".

Originally posted by bearman:
By any chance, does anyone have a recording of any of these shows? I'm dying to get a live version of "Electronic Renaissance" and "Your Cover's Blown".

The stream is available on NPR.org. Anyone know a good way to capture it?

Great show, I'm happy…it was worth the $$$$$$$$$$


The New Pornographers were alright, I wish they had had a female vocalist but I guess there's nothing anyone can do about that. I'd like to see them sometime again when they did.

I really enjoyed Belle & Sebastian. They played a lot of good stuff and were obviously having a good time. I danced a bunch, and left in a really great mood.

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
Last night was my first time seeing the the NPs and while I appreciate the catchiness of the songs am still ambivalent towards as I'll give the records the odd listen but little more. Seeing as Kathryn's voice was shot and none of the girl singer songs could be performed , it got a bit tedious as the set went on when they couldn't decided what to play next. Carl's comment about not liking boy singer bands and specifically mentioning Fall Out Boy, Hawthone Hieghts and All-American Rejects was funny. And they played "Graceland" and acknowledged it being a request for the previous night. It's probably just a personal pet peeve, but get a freakin' guitar tech to tune your guitars and stop doing it between songs on stage.

They played Graceland? Haha, that was my request, I'm thrilled that got recorded.

Originally posted by eros:

Originally posted by bearman:
By any chance, does anyone have a recording of any of these shows? I'm dying to get a live version of "Electronic Renaissance" and "Your Cover's Blown".

The stream is available on NPR.org. Anyone know a good way to capture it?

They'll be formatting it soon to download. I think they said it would be by Wednesday.

Originally posted by eros:
The stream is available on NPR.org. Anyone know a good way to capture it?

If you have Linux or Mac OS X (or maybe Windows?), you can use MPlayer to capture the streams, play them, and convert them to PCM (so that you can convert it to MP3 by another program, such as iTunes or LAME).

Here's the command I'm using to do just that as I write this:

mplayer -dumpstream 'http://wm.npr.na-central.speedera.net/wm.npr.na-central/asc/live/20060306_asc_bellesebastian.wma?MSWMExt=.asf'

Here are some links:
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html
http://www.elsewhere.org/journal/archives/2004/09/25/howto-capture-streaming-audio-for-later/

Originally posted by Darth Ed:

Originally posted by eros:
The stream is available on NPR.org. Anyone know a good way to capture it?

If you have Linux or Mac OS X (or maybe Windows?), you can use MPlayer to capture the streams, play them, and convert them to PCM (so that you can convert it to MP3 by another program, such as iTunes or LAME).

Here's the command I'm using to do just that as I write this:

mplayer -dumpstream 'http://wm.npr.na-central.speedera.net/wm.npr.na-central/asc/live/20060306_asc_bellesebastian.wma?MSWMExt=.asf'

Here are some links:
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html
http://www.elsewhere.org/journal/archives/2004/09/25/howto-capture-streaming-audio-for-later/

Would you mind converting the B&S and NP streams to MP3 and sharing them? Or, if you email them to me (will ***AT*** eggdropper ***DOT*** com), I can host them.

Why don't we wait until Wednesday? If Graace is right, maybe NPR will post them in MP3 then. NPR has posted at least one of their shows in MP3 format in the past. (Bloc Party, I believe.)

I'm listening to the B&S steam right now, and the quality doesn't quite seem up to NPR's usual standards. The vocals don't sound like a soundboard recording and the quality is very compressed. Oh, well. Better than nothing.

For Belle and Sebastian, a New Sound at the 9:30 Club

Tuesday, March 7, 2006; C09

The New York post-punk label Matador has released a lot of caustic stuff over the years, but currently its top attractions are a pair of dulcet pop-rock bands: Glasgow, Scotland's Belle and Sebastian, and Vancouver, B.C.'s New Pornographers. The bands, touring together, played the first of two sold-out nights on Sunday at the 9:30 club, where they proved entirely compatible but surprisingly unequal.

Overcoming a reputation for being awkward and introverted, Belle and Sebastian justified headliner status with a performance that was as relaxed as it was well-arranged. The band's 90-minute main set was framed by two ballads from its whispery early days, "The Stars of Track and Field" and "The State I Am In," in which singer-guitarist Stuart Murdoch sounded characteristically fragile, and the other players barely intruded. Yet the bulk of the octet's show was drawn from its new album, "The Life Pursuit," which successfully blends the band's original sound with bits of T. Rex, David Bowie and even Kool & the Gang.

Cello, violin, trumpet and vibes embroidered the sound, but guitars and keyboards drove nearly funky new material including "White Collar Boy" (which actually sounded as much like the Undertones as it did T. Rex) and "The Blues Are Still Blue." Murdoch made an unexpected transformation into showman, proving he can now dance nearly as well as he can brood.

Midway through the New Pornographers' hour-long set, singer-keyboardist Kathryn Calder spoke briefly to demonstrate just how hoarse she was. She sounded fine harmonizing with guitarist and principal songwriter A.C. Newman, but perhaps her strained voice unsteadied the rest of the sextet.

While the audience favorites "From Blown Speakers" and "Sing Me Spanish Techno" were adequate simulations of their glossy studio versions, their roughness did not boost the songs' appeal. When the essence of a band's message is in lines like "ooh la-la la-la," the articulation has to be just right.

– Mark Jenkins

Haha, some chick is pretending to be me in the recording. Oh god. Jumping on the Graceland bandwagon.

Without any female vocal at all, the NP kind of lose their edge.

Originally posted by HoyaParanoia:


i'm not sure how many of you were stage right, maybe 10 feet out from the food window, but there was this group of 5 or 6 girls there who might have been the most annoying people i've ever seen at a show … one of them started complaining during the first song that "everyone here thinks they're too cool to dance," (this is during "stars of track and field," mind you) … they then proceeded to throw elbows, dance wildly to every song (no matter how slow), and chat up any single guy in a 10-foot radius … one of them literally talked throughout the entire show, she was physically incapable of keeping her mouth shut for more than 1-2 minutes … needless to say, we got the fuck out of there and moved back to the bar about 20-30 mins into the show

We were right there with you, propping up the bar. I liked the girl in Ben Stillers oscar outfit. Halfway through a song she stopped her conversation, jumped up and down excitedly and screamed "I love this song". Shame you missed half of it you vaccuous tart.

On the whole I didn't find them that annoying although the 7 foot blond always seemed to manage to stand in front of me.

Belle and Sebastian put on one of the best shows I've ever seen. It absolutely blew me away. The setlist was almost perfect, although I would have liked to hear at least something from Arab Strap, and more from Catastrophe Waitress. Luckily I found a ride from the club, so I didn't need to leave early and metro. I really hope they keep their word on that summer show.
I thought the New Pornos were very good as well, even without Kat's vocals. They kept me very entertained.

http://www.dcist.com/archives/2006/03/07/new_pornographe_1.php

DCist's review of the New Pornographers from last night.

I pfff at that review. NP put on a good show. The other band members carried the weight of the missing female vocals quite well.

Originally posted by lukas:
I pfff at that review. NP put on a good show. The other band members carried the weight of the missing female vocals quite well.

I agree.