"Last time I was in Boston, I was mugged," said Brian Oblivion of Cults as he crossed to the keyboard between songs. "The guy pulled a knife, told me to give him all my money. Then he taught me how to play Magic cards." Alternately prickly and engaging between songs, Cults dug deep during their actual performances to give rousing new power to their songs. Fresh off the release of their critically praised first album, the band played nearly every one of their released songs while the Mavericks won the NBA championship on the TV screens scattered around the hall.
Cults's power comes, in large part, from Madeline Follin's voice. Her live presence is intense, as she closes her eyes and switches between cooing and straining for emphasis. Songs like "You Know What I Mean" are completely new animals live, with a huge sonic presence that hits you right in the gut. Cults's ascent to popularity may seem arbitrary and sudden to some, but seeing them live leaves no doubt, they are the real deal.
Their tour mates, Guards, led by Cults touring drummer Richie Follin, warmed up the crowd with their bright, short songs. On record, their songs always come across as brilliant and striking but too brief, almost to the point of seeming unfinished, they held their own on the stage, ably setting the scene and even distracting the crowd from the basketball game.
SONG OF THE POST Oh My God by Cults The closing number of the evening and my personal favorite Cults song.
CULTS SETLIST Abducted The Curse Never Heal Myself Most Wanted You Know What I Mean Rave On Bumper Never Saw The Point Go Outside Oh My God
OK, time to use the blog for something I've never used it for before- a concert report! As it happens, I'm just back from seeing Arctic Monkeys and the Vaccines at the House of Blues. While the bands played on, the Red Sox and Bruins both won. All in all, a good night for the city.
The Vaccines got the night off to a bright start, right on time and with a chipper attitude. Alas, their debut album isn't out yet in the States, and they suffered a bit from the fate that befalls a lot of opening acts in huge venues: all the energy that they spent thrashing about on the stage, giving it their all and singing their hearts out wasn't reciprocated by the crowd. The crowd gave them a synchronized clap once and almost (almost) got moving during set highlight "If You Wanna", but considering how wild they proved themselves to be during the Arctic Monkeys set, it wasn't much. For their part, the Vaccines sounded tight and powerful on the big house PA, proving that sound-wise, they can hold a big stage. All their songs came from their concise and excellent debut album, which should be out in the US as of May 31st.
When Arctic Monkeys took the stage, chaos reigned. The ground floor crowd came ready to dance, thrash, flail, shout back lyrics and generally have a good time. The band gave them plenty of ammunition, front loading the set with well known uptempo numbers. Not content to pick "View from the Afternoon" or "Brianstorm" as the opener, they played them back to back, without a break, after actually opening the night with the brief and also high energy new song "Library Pictures." Boston fans got tastes of six new songs in all, including the aforementioned opener, the main set closing "Hellcat Spangled Shalala" and the two previously released preview tracks, "Brick by Brick" and "Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair." The other two new songs, "Black Treacle" and "She's Thunderstorms" were undoubtedly set highlights. Taking the cryptic imagery and West-Coast rock mentality of Humbug in an ear-pleasing pop direction, the songs are fine harbingers of June 7th's Suck it and See. The songs have a confidence, mastery and eloquence that marks them as the work of real pros who have learned how to please their audience while growing all the while. To the crowd's extreme credit, they weren't hung up on the olden days, not mad at the band for not hewing to its roots. Sure, the cheers for "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" were immense, but so was the reception for "Potion Approaching." Arctic Monkeys have proven beyond a doubt that an audience will follow you into new territory... as long as the new territory is still good.
SONG OF THE POST:
Black Treacle by Arctic Monkeys
Not officially out yet. Suck it and see if you like it.
Xtangtastix is a silly comic book universe created by the estimable Ted Jameson. Ted has kindly consented to let me play with his toys so, in the coming days, be prepared for exciting bulletins from the world of Mulligan Academy, the 2nd best school for gifted mutant youngsters.
Now, as you might have surmised from the above description, Xtangtastix is a bit of an X-Men parody. At least it was when it began. Now, it's.... well, I'm gonna knock together my 1st issue and see WHAT exactly it is. When it's done, you'll see it on my Parallel Comics website.
