Guided By Voices @ Maxwell’s

Seeing Guided By Voices in such an intimate setting reminded me of the times I saw them in shit holes back in Dayton. The venue and energy in the crowd better captured the essence of this band. These guys just plain rock and tonight was no exception. They played a 46 song setlist for almost 3 hours. The beer and liquor was flowing onstage and in the crowd and as Rob got sloppier onstage it became more intense and raw. Sad to see this GBV lineup close up shop once again. Some great videos here.

Over the Neptune / Mesh Gear Fox
#2 in the Model Home Series
Echos Myron
Break Even
Shocker in Gloomtown
Tractor Rape Chain
Expecting Brainchild
Pimple Zoo
Closer You Are
Sad If I Lost It
A Good Flying Bird
My Valuable Hunting Knife
Cut-Out Witch
Buzzards and Dreadful Crows
Striped White Jets
Kicker of Elves
Gold Star for Robot Boy
Wondering Boy Poet
Awful Bliss
14 Cheerleader Coldfront
Watch Me Jumpstart
Melted Pat
Atom Eyes
Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory
Queen of Cans and Jars
Game of Pricks
Gleemer
Johnny Appleseed
Weed King
Exit Flagger
My Son Cool
Unleashed! The Large-Hearted Boy
Motor Away
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Squirmish Frontal Room
Lethargy
Dodging Invisible Rays
Bright Paper Werewolves
Smothered in Hugs
Postal Blowfish
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Jar of Cardinals
Quality of Armor
I Am A Scientist
A Salty Salute
Matter Eater Lad
Some Drilling Implied
Don’t Stop Now

Palomar | Nada Surf @ Rock Shop

The final night to the Palomar Rock Shop residency was a special one and probably one of the best shows I’ve seen this band perform from their 5 night run. The highlight was starting a song in complete darkness and had audience members turn on their flashlights in a subsequent order to the music.

Nada Surf was supposed to play acoustic tonight but due to an instrument mishap we got a treat by seeing the band play stripped down songs on electric gear. Ira was sorta acoustic by playing an empty box. Kudos to him for playing days after getting his cast off his broken hand. Although I haven’t been that impressed with Nada Surf’s recent albums, when they decide to play acoustic they tend to stick with their classic hits. Tonight was an added bonus of having Doug Gilllard of Guided By Voices accompany them onstage.

Jens Lekman @ The Green Room

I was very eager to enter the mysterious “Green Building” in my neighborhood. Tonight it hosted a very special night with Jens Lekman and 400 of his closest fans. The beautiful brick walled venue with chandeliers had these bare tree branches for the minimal backdrop. Jens left Brooklyn on a sour note 2 years ago and mentioned that this show would act as closure for him to be at peace with it again. Tonight he sang his sweet songs to an extremely receptive crowd and was very chatty onstage. His story explaining his new song about Kirsten Dunst was particularly amusing. To end the very cold evening he stated “The night is young. If you see me in the crowd, and you want to hear a song just come up to me and I will sing it personally.” Some great photos here.