Goats & Fellows @the Middle East...

A very entertaining and lyrical show by The Mountain Goats and opener Christine Fellows!

Beware! I am even more of a hack at talking music as I am at talking movies. I'm afraid I can't offer anything too deep in texture, flavor, or the context of musical genres, movements, personalities, or history. Basically, I really enjoyed what I heard tonight. =)

For a couple of nerds on acoustic guitars, the Goats rock fun and hard. =) Lead singer and guitarist John is very animated in his performance. A great storyteller (in song and patter), he naturally brings just the right expression to each line of a song and pluck and strum of his guitar, whether it's exaggerated pain, cross-eyed fury, comic disbelief, a look of being lost in memory, intense focus on a single note, or, screw it!—I'm rockin out! Peter, being the bassist ("the best damn bassist on the indie rock scene" — John), mostly looks stoic until the encore, when he nods his head once or twice and the crowd goes nuts. =)

Christine's music reminds me very much of Aimee Mann's, which in my book is a very good thing, and says a lot about her voice and her lyrics. One thing that I noticed, but didn't necessarily hurt the music, is that about half the songs she performed started up in a similar all-at-once musical way. I'd only heard four or five of her songs before the show, and most of her set I was hearing for the first time, so on more listening, I may change my mind on that.

And more listening I shall do, as I went and bought myself a copy of her most recent album, PAPER ANNIVERSARY, right from her hands, which had just signed it. I mentioned how much I enjoyed the video for "Migrations" available at her website (click "Music Video"), and she had great praise for her performance artistic collaborator in it, Shary Boyle. A quite perfect marriage of visuals and song. Christine explained that Shary had created the imagery and a performance for every song on the album. I told her I hope to see some of those captured on film or video in the future and she said that she'd be very pleased if they could make that happen.

Tonight Christine wore a black housecoat looking thing, almost MATRIX gear, and a charcoal baseball cap. She made it look cute.


Aggravating that I had to be physically uncomfortable and tired while taking in such musical sweetness, fun, and adventure. The show was scheduled to start at 8pm. We showed up just about then. Good to be on time/on the early side to stake out a bit of space for the evening, but in the end I think Christine got started at about 10. Two hours? That's a bit much, no? Well, In, Rowan, and I planted ourselves near a railing on the left side of the front third of the floor facing the stage. Rowan and I could see the performers heads over and thru the audience noggins, and my sister could perch herself on the rail to get a decent view. But y'know, by the time the Goats really got going, I'd been standing for hours, and while they were performing had to work at maintaining the least bit of personal space around me and try to keep an unobstructed view of the really cute girl in the middle of the crowd pack to my right. Not easy. And after hours, as I said, not comfortable.

I've never been *super* keen on the live music experience. Arena stuff is its own thing. The shows I went to were all unique experiences, built by the bands, and I especially dug them because of the good company. In smaller, club venues, I'm partial to shows that don't typically encourage fist pumping and jumping around. Rows of chairs, or bleacher, cafe and/or booth seating certainly make it easier to take. I saw an excellent John Cale show at the Middle East many moons ago with Zorknapp. The performer and his music and his fans were just right for an attentive, sit-down audience set up, and that's what was provided. Rows of folding chairs in front of the raised stage. Everyone could see and hear the music making and the crowd was all kinds of pleased. That is pretty much how I dig catching live music. The Paradise in Boston has some great options. The club/mainstage is a big room with multiple levels. The stage is raised over a floor that's open and danceable. Around the floor are two bars towards the back, and steppes of seating and railed milling about areas that go up to a wider second floor with another bar, railed overlooks, and more seating in booth and freestanding varieties. I've also seen one show in the Paradise bar, and was lucky enough to have a barstool for my seat. The space is pretty multi-use, seating with tables surrounding two sides of an open floor, the third side features the bar, and the fourth is the backdrop to the low stage. It probably gets rowdy with the right performers, but I saw the Modern Troubadors, featuring Teitur and Abra Moore, a very mellow, low key, and wonderful show.

Maybe I woke up Old one day a few years ago...?

*sigh*

Frack. It's WAY late... Some things I'll mention now that I may or may not riff on at a later date but would like to look back on at some point and snicker or groan...

Cool guys who pick and twiddle little flowers from wherever. "I don't care if you're wearing a jacket made from carpet samples!" The bandana guy. The fist pumping loud mouth Mountain Goats fan. Our pre-show discussions on ("My Name Is...") Roosevelt Franklin and zombies, the Black Plague, and the religious right...

Gosh, we had an equinox a couple days back, didn't we? Hohum.


Keep on keepin on~