We saw Matt Pond PA at Kings, in Raleigh last Friday. This tour is the 10^th Anniversary tour for their "Several Arrows Later" album. So, they played that whole album, then finished up with a handful of songs from their upcoming album.

Fantastic show.

I'd been listening to that album in the past weeks, to study, kindof, for this show. And now I think I like it even more than I like "Last Light". So, win. I was a bit worried that some of the more delicate bits might not do well in a live setting - and what would the songs be without the loving production, and would all the little melodic curlicues survive? So I got too close to the record, I guess. But the songs worked great, live. The cellist and the lead guitarist took care of filling in all the details and accents that make the records so nice. Matt Pond's voice was great, and maybe a bit more aggressive than on the record. Everything was a little more muscular, actually. And watching them put it all together was awesome.

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Cello in a rock band? Hell yeah!

Young Buffalo opened. They're melodic and energetic, with great vocal harmonies and a fondness for quick major-scale guitar figures. I could've sworn the two singer/guitarists were brothers. They look similar and their voices work together in the way that siblings' voices often do. But, no, just friends. I liked them a lot. Will have to explore their records.

... at the Carolina Theatre.

Tomorrow, April 7^th, would have been Billie Holiday's 100^th birthday. For that, Cassandra Wilson is releasing an album of her versions of some of Holiday's standards. And in support of that record, she's touring. So, we caught her in Durham. The show was delayed by 30 minutes because of the Duke game.

Wilson rarely does straight covers, and she likes unusual arrangements and eclectic players; so of the songs I knew, I could only recognize them by their lyrics. So it wasn't a Billie Holiday tribute so much as Cassandra Wilson re-interpreting songs that Billie Holiday interpreted 60 or 70 years ago. Which was fine - I didn't even know it was going to be a Billie Holiday thing until last week.

Her band was fun. The woodwind player played a lot of bass clarinet - something I don't see very often; the guitarist (Kevin Breit) alternated between a miniature 6-string electric and an electric mandolin and put it all through a big mess of loops and modulators; the violinist often played with a wah pedal. The drummer, bassist and pianist kept things pretty straight, by comparison. And of course Wilson's low rich voice was the star.

Somehow I managed to get front row, dead center, seats. So it was like sitting in the middle of the band. We could hear all their little mumblings and cues and chatter. Fun. The 'no pictures' policy meant I could only get a quick shot at the end:

I just bought tix to see Robert Plant. That happens all the time, I guess. This time, though... The Pixies are opening. And that's a pairing I could never imagine ever happening, ever.

Saw Erykah Badu, in Durham, on Valentine's Day.

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The show started pretty late because that crazy wind storm that beat up the east coast delayed her plane. They delayed the start by a half hour (and sent an email to tell us that) - which gave us more time to linger over dinner. After the opener, an announcer got on the stage and told us that her plane had landed, and again to tell us that she was in the car, and again that she was in the building. She probably didn't start until 10:15 or so. And then the venue cut it off at 12:15 (turned on the house lights in the middle of a song). But she played a good set. Really, it was fantastic. She's so engaging, and so cleva. Her band was great and she kept them on a short leash: starting and stopping them with flips of her hand, making them do tricks.

It was a seated show, so there was some drama when a woman in front of us wouldn't sit down. Rows and rows of people yelling at her to sit, but she wouldn't. And then she turned around and told us all to fuck off. That got things cookin. Then there were three visits from the usher, once with a policeman in tow. They eventually moved her up way up front, and everyone was happy after that.

Sound was good. The songs were a bit stripped down from what they were on the records, but that just left more room for her to shine.

I thought I had all her records, but I guess not, because it seemed like I didn't know about half the songs. Still, she's good enough at what she does that they were fun all anyway. And now I know there's more Badu to purchase.

"Mali Music" opened. That's the stage name for Kortney Jamaal Pollard (and his band, I guess). His stuff ranged from reggae-flavored rap to contemporary Christian to jazzy piano ballads. He's a good pianist and has really nice singing voice, so I liked the piano stuff the best. Plus, being so simple, it sounded the best - given the traditional opening-band sound handicap. He was nominated for a couple of Grammys.

Saw the one and only current iteration of Fleetwood Mac in Atlanta, last week. When they first announced this tour, way back in the summer, ATL was the closest show to us. And since we have friends down there, we made a long weekend of it - for those wondering, ATL is approx. 8,000 square miles of tightly packed strip malls, laced with inadequate roads. FM have since announced a show about an hour from our house. Oh well.

They were great. They played great, sounded great and looked like they were having fun doing it. And best of all, my favorite, Christine McVie, was with them. She had stopped touring in 1998 - fear of flying, now remedied. She wasn't with them the last time I saw FM, which made a pretty big hole in the line-up. She's 71 now, but sounded nearly as good as she did in the 1970s. They all did, really. Even if they each backed off the really high notes from time to time, they can still sing.

No new album to support, so it was a Greatest Hits kind of show. And while they only played stuff from the Buckingham & Nicks era, they easily filled the three hours and still left a bunch of classics un-sung.

When I, my wife, and our friend Paige walked out of the Atlanta airport terminal, to wait on the curb for our ride, a very-nicely-dressed black gentleman strolled up next to us, to wait for his ride. He was wearing a "WBC" baseball cap. A young guy walked up to him and started talking. Then the young guy handed Paige his cellphone and asked if she would take a picture of him with this gentleman, which she did. Then the gentleman's ride pulled up and he rolled away. I'm pretty sure it was Evander Holyfield.

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Two weeks ago, we saw Adrian Belew at the Cat's Cradle. He's doing the 'power trio' line-up (him, bass, drums) this time. In order to squeeze in as many fan requested songs as possible, I guess, about half of the songs were abbreviated versions - verse, chorus, verse). This grated on me a bit. Still, he's always a good time.

Vaults miniature Mick Fleetwood:

Saw Mr. Beck Hansen last night, at the Red Hat ™ Amphitheater in loverly downtown Raleighville.

Because they got rid of the first three sections of seats in order to make a 'pit' area (so thousands of people could stand shoulder to shoulder in a 90-degree Raleigh July evening), I bought a seated ticket - right in back of the sound guy, as it turns out. At least I'd get the best possible sound!? I surely hope I didn't, because it mostly sounded like crap. The only songs that sounded good were the mellower things from his current album. Everything else - all the loud, rappy, sing-along songs - that was a mushy mess. So, though I couldn't really tell if they were any good, the band did seem to be having a good time. And from my vantage point, Beck himself was a very mobile and active indistinct black and white blob.

Beck is the bright-blue smudge on the far left. The big building in the middle is the county jail. Atmosphere.

The beers were $8, but they were 24oz, so not really expensive. The bros were there in force. I left my assigned seat early and wandered the place seeking better views - they were all better than sitting in back of the sound guy. The venue sits right next to - and because it's a bowl, right below - the train tracks, and trains always go by during shows. Last night, three Amtracks passed by. I wonder if the people on the train are able to hear the concerts.

Song selection was good; he easily filled the 90 minutes with his hits and the better of his non-hits. There are about a dozen songs I would've also liked to hear, but Raleigh's noise ordinances mean all shows there have to be done by 10:00 - there was only so much time.

A band called "Ghost of a Sabre-toothed Tiger" opened. They do the same kind of retro-psychedelic rock that Tame Impala does, so I dug them. And they actually sounded better than Beck did. They ended with a rockin version of Syd Barrett's "Long Gone", which was very cool. Turns out, though I didn't know it at the time, that their singer is Sean Lennon: son of John and Yoko. I reckon that gives them a better claim on the sound than the Aussies in Tame Impala. And that's probably the closest I'll ever get to a Beatle.

Dude is 64 years old.

He did a dual headliner show with Pat Benatar last night in Raleigh. They all did all their hits. So, for me, it was like being 10 again.

Rick Springfield rocked more than you might expect, and he's a surprisingly decent guitar player, which was fun to see. I was sure he only had two songs I'd know but it turns out there were probably a dozen - not counting the covers. He was goofy and hammy and loves being the center of the ladies' attention - so he spent a few songs running around in the crowd with his shirt off.

Pat Benatar, and her partner/husband Neil Geraldo were a touch more serious about things - not a lot of goofing around. Maybe a little too serious... They had a lot of canned backing tracks, and the effects on her voice were a bit heavy: so much that you sometimes couldn't her her at all - though maybe that was the point? What I thought I heard sounded fine, though. Geraldo (who played guitar on the original of Springfield's "Jessie's Girl", btw) is very good, very fast, very busy, and not at all the kind of player who simply plays the chords for more than a couple of beats; the bass player carries the tune. but given the way bass sounds in a bit outdoor concert, sometimes the tune had to be inferred from memory + vocals. But, they were still good. And they tore through all their hits, and a couple of covers, with a lot more energy than I was expecting.

So, a good time - more fun than I thought an oldies show could be.

Had tix to see Vampire Weekend in Raleigh last night. I didn't go.

I told myself it was because it was an outdoor show and there was a 60% chance of one of those strong late-afternoon thunderstorms - all true. But, honestly, I'd been hoping for rain all day. As much as I like the band, the prospect of shitty seats, outdoors, on a weekday, with a 40 minute drive each way was just too much.

Alas.

And today I bought a ticket to a New Pornographers show! Throwing my money away is fun!