I was in Boston to see a show. Allow me to detail my day for you:
Wake up at noon horribly hung over. My friend had a seventies party the night before and I got trashed on Schlitz and PBR. Talked with my lovely girlfriend for an hour, went back to sleep because I was still miserable.
Wake up at three. Miserable. Try eating. Makes me nauseous. Dry heave while cursing my life, hoping I'm OK for the show.
Five o'clock. Get in the car. This is the latest we can leave to make doors at 8PM. Better, still headachey. Nausea replaced by cautious optimism.
Five Thirty: Interstate coffee, water and ibuprofen. Recovery is mine.
My roomer and I arrive and board the T at Oak Grove and ride into town. We make a couple switches and get to The Paradise right at 8. Those Darlings aren't playing yet. My roomer has a friend there we meet. Have a beer.
Go in for Those Darlings. Energetic dirty southern country rock. Three ladies playing guitars and bass and a dude on drums. Best served with chicken and whiskey. See their song about getting drunk and eating a whole chicken for further evidence. Watching them I got the strong impression they should be playing at a bar in a Rob Zombie movie. At the very moment I was saying that, a friend said "They should play at a bar in a Quentin Tarantino movie." Which of us is right? Only time will tell.
The blonde singer guitarist from Those Darlings really impressed me. She can solo and belt. I didn't think of it too much until she switched over to bass. I hadn't noticed the bass playing before, except that it had been a tiny little girl. Blonde lead took over and really filled out the sound.
The drummer has an interesting thing going on. I feel like he's working in an fairly unique way.
Overall, I give them a thumbs up.
Hacienda sets up. I hadn't seen them before and only heard snippets and that was months ago. So it was a fairly fresh experience for me and it blew my hat off.
If I had a hat, that is. I don't.
Bearded Dr. Who on guitar impressed me right off the top. He's got a pretty good sound coming out of that thing PLUS he seems to have chops. The Freddie Rodriguez looking bassist was superb. His doubled over, high-neck throbbing bass playing and enthused singing carried well across the room. I've never seen a bassist use the cutaway so much.
I love the sounds that organist makes. I don't know much about ivory-tickling, so I can't judge his skill. But those were some sweet sounding instruments.
The drummer was cool, I guess, I didn't really pay a whole lot of attention (during this set) except when he sang. Yes, Hacienda has a singing drummer. Has a singing everyone.
I was quite impressed. They seem to be skilled, music-loving guys. They're sound, while amplified, is organic and raw. At least live it is. The mic on Dr. Who could've been louder.
They finished, setup began for the headliner. One of the kids I was with knew the bartender. We indulged to the tune of several PBRs.
Dan Auerbach took the stage and I didn't stop grinning for the rest of the night.
He came out and started under a single light, Hacienda standing in the dark around him. Dr. Who's arms crossed over his guitar. Dan plays Trouble Weighs A Ton and silence falls over the crowd. For a bit, anyway. By and by, Dr. Who sings backup.
Hacienda changed their clothing from when they had played twenty minutes earlier. Dr. Who now looks more like a sailor.
Then they kicked off I Want Some More and lit up the room.
I'd like to point out that apart from being skilled musicians, Dan has a talented stage artist. Whoever programs lights for his shows does a bang up job of being engaging and working with the music while not being flashy and over the top. Very good at ferreting out the mood and amplifying it with different gels, footcandles, movement and light quality.
So of course I Want Some More was electric and amazing. And I was wondering if they were going to play everything in order. They didn't, but they did play everything off the album plus three covers.
I don't know what the last tune was. It was excellent. The covers all surprised me in their excellence. Money and Trouble was a particular favorite.
At some point, Freddie Rodriguez was so into the music he lost his hat. That was a highlight. When I Left The Room explained the song for me. It swells and explodes and contracts and holds with such precision and delicate ease.
After seeing the show I couldn't tell you which song on the album I hold above any other. Or below.
But here's what really amazed me about it, and maybe because it was their second day of playing and they weren't tired of the tour yet, but the energy, the love and the connection these guys had on stage was absolutely incredible. I felt a bit like an emotional vampire because the passion they were channeling into their instruments, through their amplifiers and drumskins was in turn energizing me. Even though I slept terrible drunk sleep and had been unhungover for all of four hours when they took the stage, I was re-energized. I was awakened. Every atom jangled with the joy of the music.
These guys were in tune with each other and they were loving every second of the music. Scanning the stage you're struck by six sets of glistening white teeth as the band members grinned through beat and note.
The sounds produced and the emotional depth and breadth of this set-up is absolutely staggering. I went in knowing I was going to love some parts, and those parts did not disappoint (The solos, for instance, in Streetwalking) but I was dumbstruck by how the entirety of the show floored me.
In the car ride home (more on that to come), my roommate pointed out something that's actually fairly depressing. He said he couldn't get that into it because he knew they weren't 'A band.' Everything about them resonates like a band, but the fact that the set-up was Dan Auerbach supported by Hacienda detracts, I guess, from their bandiness.
And while I didn't feel the same way, I did feel depressed. Because they aren't a 'band' in title, they could fall apart at any moment, I think. That would be a great disservice to the music world. These guys were so on their game and into it... it would be a shame to allow such a partnership to dissolve.
So I think they should do it. Jack White has his Raconteurs, Dan Auerbach should have his other project that is also extremely awesome.
So the concert had to end. And it did and I was left with my ears itching for more (an actual itch, too, I can still feel it).
The rest of my day went like this: Grab a bite to eat and a beer to drink at a nearby restaurant (The Sunset, maybe? Good burgers, lots of beer, many tequilas), leave only to find out the T is shut down. Take the longest, most expensive Taxi ride of my life out to Malden ($35 dollars!).
And then the drive from Malden to Portland. It's about 100 miles of interstate. Normally that part of it takes no more than two hours. But because of the snow, we were stuck going 40 MPH on I-95. Blinded by-and-by by roaring semis.
We got home at 04:00 AM. And it was worth every god damn penny. It was worth being hungover that day so I could go from being cripplingly miserable to profoundly ecstatic. It was worth paying $35 dollars and riding in the back of a taxi driven by a man who needs more practice on snow. It was worth white-knuckle driving as a snow-twister kicked up by a passing tractor-trailer truck envelopes the car in whiteout conditions. It was worth getting five hours of sleep because I got called in today.
The energy, the precision, the emotional range. The depth of the talent and love for that music on that stage should send everyone home happy.
I still can't decide if it's worth comparing to The Black Keys. Both are sublime, superlative, even. But it's not really the same style of music. It is a bit of an apples and oranges situation. The concert left me wondering if I prefer apples to oranges or vice versa, though.
Excellent concert. Truly inspiring.
Labels: Awesome Music, awesome people, dan auerbach, hacienda, hangover, the black keys, the paradise, those darlings