Archive
Venue: Black Cat
Twin Shadow
Highlights included: A horribly uncoordinated crowd-led singing of happy birthday to lead singer, George Lewis Jr. An attendee's on-stage marriage proposal just after the first song (she said yes) Presentation of a candle-laden birthday cake, properly extinguished George's throwing of the entire cake into the audience George later kissing the victim of the previous highlight […]
Polyphonic Spree
They played long; the played well. They played what I wanted to hear (several songs from their first album, including Soldier Girl) and their requisite cover was Live and Let Die. Instead of a typical encore where the crowd is expected to woo them back onto stage, they played a single set that was only […]
Trust
HHH HHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHH HHH HHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH If Trust's show was an elliptical machine, your program would look something like that. It was more than the thin stacks of uniform-colored LEDs that made me think of a visit to the gym though. Indeed, the pace […]
Pissed Jeans w/ Purling Hiss and Priests
Pissed Jeans' frontman made the announcement: "folks, there's a very special guest in the audience tonight by the name of Dave ————— that's right Dave Matthews is in the house…"
Suuns
The Black Cat's backroom has a capacity of about 100, I'm guessing. The Suuns show was probably at about 25% capacity, but they didn't seem to care. They were strictly business in an indie kind of way. They were confident, mildly self-entertained, and as best I could tell, able to execute exactly as they had […]
Indians and Cat Martino
Twitter-style reviews (that were never actually tweeted). @heyiamindians A vest and a see-through top walk into a bar…and play nice songs very true to their recorded work. But I still can't help but think they are only an (un)plug away from a Danish version of the Steve Perry-led Journey. @CatMartino "At what point does music […]
M83 w/ Active Child
I haven't seen this much purple and aqua since the introduction of Columbia Bugaboo jackets and their popularity on the landfill propped ski slopes of southeast Michigan! That was the late 1980s. Sure enough, in 2011 at the Black Cat, M83 paired its nicely done LED stage lighting with lots of synths to conjure up […]