Not so Terrible Love

Like probably a majority of the attendees at Hole’s show at Terminal 5 Monday night, I fully anticipated the evening to be a point-and-laugh spectacle, a game of “What drug cocktail is Courtney Love on tonight?” with maybe a few off-key songs thrown in for good measure. Let’s face it, the fact that the concert happened at all is in itself a minor miracle. 

Suffice it to say, Courtney (and her new bandmates) didn’t just defy my expectations. She chewed them up, swallowed them, and regurgitated them over all the naysayers who’ve doubted her over the years.

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Blurrrred: Salem at Glasslands 1/05/10

So Chicago-based death-crunk-goth-tech-slowcore trio Salem hit Glasslands in Brooklyn over a week ago now, and we've still yet to say anything about it. It's possible that's because, um, The New York Times was there and missed the point, and we're not much on cleaning up messes. It may be because Michael Stipe, also, was there, and he and I never get along when we encounter each other (it didn't happen this time). 

More accurately and more in the realm of possibility, though, it's because the friends I went to Glasslands with and I have been throwing around words, ideas, concepts, trying to get a handle on what exactly we lived through that night.

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Like Dominos: The Big Pink @ The Bowery Ballroom, NYC 12/3/2009

The Big Pink

Bowery Ballroom NYC

12/3/2009

Here's the problem for The Big Pink: they know a couple of songs, and they know them well. And they have an album, A Brief History Of Love, that's pretty fucking good. Then they go and sell out two nights in New York and suddenly have to reproduce the giant bombast of the album live, while maintaining the frosty intimacy.

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Amanda Palmer at Music Hall Of Williamsburg NY, 11/14/09

What is it about Amanda Palmer that causes every little dose of her to leave one wanting more? Maybe it’s that, live, her raw magic is very much akin to raw sugar:

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