On Monday we were suprised with free tickets to the Spoon/Walkmen show that had been sold out at least since we tried to buy them almost 2 months ago.

Two bands I really like. It was great.

Also, it was the first show I’d been to at Center Stage, which I really liked.

Kathleen, Liz, and I went to see the Manchester Orchestra play at the Masquerade last night. Liz and I have been working on a website for them and Kathleen has been doing all the writing for the site,  so they had us on the guest list.

The site should be live soon. I’ll post a link to it when it’s officially launched.

Kathleen and I went to see Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks on Wednesday night. Even though I was extremely tired, we had a good time. We had ridden our bikes to dinner at Across The Street, and my bike tire’s went flat on the way back, so that sucked. And then the ATM broke in Little 5. Oh well…

It was great to finally see someone who’ve I’ve liked for so long, although they didn’t play any Pavement songs. They actually played mostly stuff off the new album, so I didn’t really know a lot of it. But it was still good.

A mix between a Q&A and a very loosely defined set list, this was a completely different experience from the last time I saw Yo La Tengo five or six years ago. It was very stripped down and mellow as opposed to more orchestrated, and mellow. And this time, they only played one song that had been released in the last ten years, a track from “I am not afraid of you…,” and only one song that Kathleen knew, Sugarcube. But that’s not surprising seeing as though they’ve been a band for basically as long as I’ve been alive. So it was a very interesting set, featuring a lot of b-sides, covers, and other rarities. The following clip was taken by kathleen:

The audience interaction wasn’t quite what I was expecting. Last time they hardly talked between songs, but this time they answered questions and told a lot of stories, which were both enlightening and hilarious.

Kurt Wagner opened for them, and for another veteran group, I’m only familiar with a handful of Lambchop songs, but I really enjoyed his set as well.