The National Add 5th NYC Date

[Photo Credit: MySpace]

First four are sold out, I think (the 29th is the one possibility). Tickets to the June 1st show go on sale today at 12. A look at the new album at Billboard reveals the reasoning behind Bowery Ballroom over Webster Hall:

"The choice was between doing two shows at Webster Hall or multiple shows at Bowery Ballroom, and I think we felt playing Bowery would be a more fun and intimate way to introduce these songs to our audience in New York," [Aaron] Dessner says. And we're excited about having different openers each night."

While I cringe at the news that Sufjan Stevens is in the mix...the whole violence behind the bridge sounds like something right up my alley:

"Boxer" features a guest turn by Sufjan Stevens, who plays piano on "Racing Like a Pro" and "Ada." Padma Newsome helped arrange trumpet, flute, clarinet and strings, while Doveman's Thomas Barlett chipped in on keyboards and Marla Hansen sang backup on a number of tunes.

"I don't really have favorites, but there is one song where I beat the crap out of my guitar behind the bridge, and at the moment I find the violence of this playing to be very cathartic," Dessner says.

You can read more of the Billboard article here. Review the bidding...

NYC
May 28: Bowery Ballroom, w/ The Broken West *SOLD OUT*
May 29: Bowery Ballroom, w/ Doveman // Tickets
May 30: Bowery Ballroom, w/ My Brightest Diamond *SOLD OUT*
May 31: Bowery Ballroom, w/ Elysian Fields *SOLD OUT*
Jun 1: Bowery Ballroom, w/ The Philistines Jr. // Tickets

US/Canada
Jun 2: Johnny Brendas Philadelphia
Jun 4: Cabaret Montreal
Jun 5: Opera House Toronto
Jun 6: Magic Stick Detroit, Michigan
Jun 7: Metro Chicago, Illinois
Jun 8: 400 Bar Minneapolis, Minnesota
Jun 9: High Noon Saloon Madison, Wisconsin
Jun 11: Duck Room St. Louis, Missouri
Jun 12: Headliners Music Hall Louisville, Kentucky
Jun 13: The Earl Atlanta, Georgia
Jun 14: Bonnaroo Music Festival Manchester, Tennessee
Jun 15: 20th Century Theater Cincinnati, Ohio
Jun 16: The Basement Columbus, Ohio
Jun 18: Beachland Ballroom Cleveland, Ohio
Jun 19: Rex Theater Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Jun 20: 9:30 Club Washington DC
Jun 21: Middle East Downstairs Boston, Massachusetts
Jun 25: Casbah San Diego, California
Jun 26: El Rey Theater Los Angeles, California
Jun 27: Bimbos 365 Club San Francisco, California
Jun 28: Berbatis Pan Portland, Oregon
Jun 29: Richards on Richards Vancouver
Jun 30: Neumos Seattle, Washington

The Boxer has been leaking everywhere from Radiohead message boards to Smashing Pumpkins message boards. Interesting. I'm a man of my principles and I won't dabble until it drops. The word is it knocks Alligator on its ass. And that's saying something.



MP3: The National - "Lit Up" (Remix)

Snowden, ¡Forward, Russia! @ Bowery Ballroom, 11/28

Sadly, this could very well be my last show of 2006. The lineup of December shows in the city is severely unintersting and last night's show brought a good, not great, ending. Snowden far surpassed my expectations. I have only a handful of tracks from their album Anti-Anti but seeing them live brought their somewhat monotonous studio tracks to life. Their bass player really steals the show on stage and I should mention that she could very well give Stellastar*'s bassist a run for her money. I'll let InMyTree report back on that after their Black Cat show in December.

¡Forward, Russia! have received quite a bit of acclaim this year for their spastic live shows. I do love the album and their set last night was certainly entertaining but I can't say that it was necessarily jaw-dropping. The entertainment is completely based on the stage antics of lead singer Tom Woodhead (the drummer looked like she could have fallen asleep at any time) and there's no denying that he's a complete wild man on stage. I think he travels with an extra long mic chord to wrap around himself on stage. He also seems to have the mic toss and catch routine down which he also breaks out several times during a song. Strangely, in-between songs he turns into shy guy and barely says a word to the crowd. The bass player, Rob Canning does the talking. Now I could rattle off a bunch of numbers (Thirteen, Fifteen Pt. 1, Seven, Fifteen Pt. 2) that would consist of the song titles from their setlist but I'm not sure that would mean anything to most. They did play, for the first time in the States, a new song that breaks the trend of numbered titles, "Don't Be a Doctor" which actually sounded more like 8 songs rolled into 1. Overall, the setlist was short, as expected, and consisted of a one song encore.

Related:
AOL Spinner was there and they have a ton of pics from last night
NME was there too and they called it "triumphant"

The Kooks @ Bowery Ballroom, 10/24

The Kooks followed the same touring pattern of recent British successes and buzz band extraordinares, the Arctic Monkeys and Editors, by making two stops in their first tour of the States - in LA and NYC. And it makes sense because it guarantees a healthy number of ex-pats in the audience that know the music (and know it very well, I might add) and it gives the band a chance to generate some additional hype from their live shows to readers beyond America's two biggest cities. As Pitchfork mentioned yesterday, these guys have already opened for the Stones and gone triple platinum in the UK. Seeing them live was my chance to see if a) they're legit and b) if they have a chance to make it in the States. My conclusion after an extremely entertaining 45-minute set is a) yes and b) probably not. The band is very confident on stage, they show none of the awkwardness that I've seen from multiple Arctic Monkeys performances, which is fairly remarkable given their age. Lead singer Luke Pritchard reminds me a lot of a younger, more talented, Tom Meighan (Kasabian) - confident to the point of cockiness. He put on a show for the crowd, from start to finish. It's not just an act, though, they're a talented group of musicians and they've absolutely perfected their craft. They came out, ran through about a dozen songs in 45 minutes, the crowd bouncing along to every beat and shouting the lyrics to every song, then left without an encore. And that's just what I needed to see to prove the hype to be necessary. So will they make it here it in the States? The odds certainly aren't in their favor. As a young band, they suffer from an identity crisis that lends itself to many different genres (ska, brit pop, punk, etc.). Until they find their niche, it's probably not enough to attract much of an American audience but I've seen and heard enough that I believe these kids may just have a decent future beyond their debut album.