Tuesday, October 17, 2006

SHOWS: Lucero / Band Of Horses / Magnolia Electric Company



Well, we all know live shows are awesome. The only thing better than regular live shows, are those by bands we love. The Bay Area has had an influx of good concerts of late (with Bonnie Prince Billy on the horizon) so I had to take in a couple.

Last time I saw Band of Horses, a few horses were out sick so we got a 3 piece instead of a 5 piece performance. It ended up being a fantastic show nonetheless. Finally getting a chance to see a full band performance (at The Fillmore no less) was a treat. Pulling mostly from Everything All The Time, they cruised through the set effortlessly since it was at the tail end of their tour. They even skipped the whole "wait before we come back onstage for the encore" part which I'm particularly fond of these days. Their new songs sounded pretty raw, it'll be interesting to see how they come out after some more work. Here's a live cut off of their previous tour only EP.

::: Band Of Horses - (Biding Time Is A) Boat Row (live)
[Band Of Horses Tour Dates]
[Buy Everything All The Time]

Each time that I get a chance to catch a Lucero show, the audience gets bigger. Just two years ago I saw them at The Stork Club with about 25 other people. Last Friday I saw them at Slim's with 300 of my closest friends. Impressive as always, perhaps a little more drunk (which is a good thing with their style of music), and showing off the fuller sound of their newest release. I'm telling you, they'll blow up any time now (even though I've been saying that for a while). They even have their own YouTube channel where you can see videos and live concert cuts. Here's my (still) favorite track off the new album.

::: Lucero - San Francisco
[Lucero Tour Dates]
[Buy Rebels, Rogues, & Sworn Brothers]

It was kind of a light audience at Magnolia Electric Company's show at the Great American Music Hall a couple Saturdays ago (probably due to everyone being over-musiced at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival). But, as I've come to expect, Jason Molina and crew came through and ploughed through a brilliant set of mostly new material from Fading Trails. If you ever get a chance to check'em out, I suggest that you do. Molina's music is the kind I'll still be listening to in 20 years or so. Here's a live track from MECo's show at The Busted Lift in Iowa; also one of my favorite songs.

::: Magnolia Electric Company - Memphis Moon (live)
[Magnolia Electric Company Tour Dates]
[Buy Fading Trails]

You can purchase the excellent new albums by Magnolis Electric Company (Fading Trails), Lucero (Rebels, Rogues, & Sworn Brothers) and Band of Horses (Everything All The Time) over at Insound for 10% off by using the code "pushingfall06" at checkout. If you order more than $30 worth of stuff, the shipping is free. Awesome.

[Free stuff to be had from the current Macktronic contest.]
[Buy music from Insound.]
[Find/Listen/Download music at The Hype Machine.]
[Photo credit goes to wee mo.]