The tour starts in New Hampshire at the Hampton Beach Casino on August 4th and the following night they hit up the House of Blues here in Boston. Â I’ve been meaning to get over to the newly built House of Blues, which took place of Avalon and Axis on Lansdowne Street behind the Green Monster. Â However, I think I may have preferred this show to be at the BoA Pavillion down in the harbor. Â One of the better outside venues around and nothing says summer then a big old ho-down like this one.

If you’re not sure about these artists on paper, just give then a chance in the flesh and I promise you won’t regret the decision.

Tour dates:

04 – Hampton Beach, NH @ Casino Ballroom
05 – Boston, MA @ House Of Blues
06 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre
07 – Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
09 – Charlottesville, VA @ Charlottesville Pavilion
10 – Cary, NC @ Koka Booth Amphitheatre
12 – Louisville, KY @ Waterfront Park
13 – Nashville, TN @ Riverfront Park
14 – Knoxville, TN @ World’s Fair Park

Myspace Pages:

• Old Crow Medicine Band
• The Felice Brothers
• Dave Rawlings Machine
• Justin Townes Earle

Listen to a preview of what you’ll hear by streaming “Run Chicken Run” off of The Felice Brothers latest album, Yonder is the Clock.

I managed to get a couple of decent shots last night at LCD but again, nothing spectacular with the Casio.

Once again, James Murphy and company were impressive. A bit more so this time around as James wasn’t sick and they’re nearing the end of the U.S. Tour as they head home to NYC tonight for the final show. At the Bowery show in March, which was the first LCD show for me, I was very impressed by the energy and leadership that James shows on stage. He is a very unassuming frontman but pulls it off with such gusto.

However, this time around, I found myself spying on Al Doyle, the guitarist from Hot Chip, who joined the Soundsystem for this tour. Al was on point with his cue’s and was even making sure that everyone else was too. He was counting out the beats and coming up to the drums and hitting every chord with as much force as a right hook from ALI.

Still, it was the James Murphy show. With his towel in one hand and mic in the other, he belts out every lyric like it was his last breathe. He’s all over the stage but usually hanging out right near the drums as it’s quite clear he has a small love affair with this instrument. He plays a role in just about every instrument that is on stage, which makes sense as he plays every instrument on his albums. It’s the little things, a note here and there on the keys, a symbal mute to help the drummer and even helping Al to conjure up some nasty feedback during their hard rock punk tune that James mentioned was something a bit different then the usual before they began to play.

As for the song that really hit home last night, hands down it was “All My Friends” that wins the prize. “Yeah” may come in a close second but when James starts ranting, “Where are your friends tonight, where are your friends tonight”, and he kept going and going and the crowd kept on giving back with their fist pumps it sent shivers up your spine.

All in all, just another amazing night of music with LCD and just writing about them makes me want to hop in my car, point it south and except that extra ticket offer that is floating down there amongst my NYC friends.

Tonight is a special night for Boston based online social network, Going.com. They’re throwing down a party for their home town as they start to promote the heck out their new name. They were formerly known as HeyLetsGo and changed their name a few months ago.

What is their niche you may ask? Well, they put themselves inbetween Myspace and Evite. In three cities – Boston, New York and San Francisco – you can go on to their site and find out just about all the cool happenings in each city. Anything from shows, parties or even beer pong tournaments. As a member you can create invitations and extend those invitations out to other members.

As a promotional tool, they’ve joined up with JetBlue to offer free airfare to Going.com members between the three cities through sweepstakes.

Tonights party in Boston is being held at the Mansion at 1 Boylston Place. The party is free to Going.com members, you just have to RSVP (click here to RSVP). While it’s free, you must get their early as it may fill up quick and they’ll turn you away if the bar is full, or make you wait.

It’s the last party in a three party series that Going.com kicked off in San Francisco on May 2nd and worked their way over to NYC for a party at Hiro Ballroom on May 10th where Albert Hammond Jr. played. Tonights gig brings Perez Hilton, the infamous Hollywood blogger, and Lady Sovereign, the self-destructing female rapper from the UK (read and watch her antics down in Brooklyn from Vegan).

Should be an interesting night.

I promised a few pics from the NYC weekend. If you don’t know me personally or our friend, Mr. 2000, then these won’t really mean much to you other then the fact that we look like we’re having a good time. And I guess that’s ulimately the purpose of posting them. Because, man, it was a good time.

Mr. 2000 with his signature “Hand behind the head” move 

I’m a maniac, maniac…

Kip in the crowd with champagne glass in hand –

Your’s truly in front of Justice –

Not since the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995 has there been anyone who can hammer out a guitar solo with enough anticipated precision in every note to make you want to shake your head off. It was one of the greatest abilities the “dancing bear” had in his arsenal. He made you think he was going to hit one note, then fake you out and go in a completely different direction. With just one note he could cause you to leap out of your seat in awe.

This may sound stupid, but I got the new Dungen album back in the fall and I misplaced it until just a few days ago. I had left it in my disc golf bag of all places. Had I been listening to this album for most of the fall it probably would have landed on my year end list.

I was on my way home from work when I came upon “Samtidigt 2″, the second to last song on the album “4″.  If you’ve never listened to Dungen, you should know that they are typically coined as a psychedelic rock group.  So it’s not a strange thing to think of bands like the Grateful Dead when listening to their music.  However, until now, I hadn’t heard a guitar solo quite like the one on this song.  It truly conjures up memories of Jerry and his finger picking madness.

That means it’s The National showcase day on the square.

They play tonight and tomorrow at The Middle East Downstairs. Both shows are sold out.

Links of Interest:

Download: “Fake Empire” – From their recent release, The Boxer

Purchase The Boxer – (U.S.) (U.K.)

Official Site: www.americanmary.com
Myspace: myspace.com/thenational

I was introduced to The National like a lot of music fans two years ago when their album, Alligator, came out of the wood work and squeezed passed the critically acclaimed and highly publicized Sufjan Stevens album, Illinoise, and made it to the top of many ‘Best of’ lists.

There is an immediate appeal to The National I think for almost everyone I know. There is something about the simple melodies but complex persona that intrigues most fans of music. They seem to wrap up a lot of sound in to a tight package. They’re never really too risky or experimental. Some may even argue that their most recent album, The Boxer, isn’t risky enough.

But maybe not being risky is risky. There are many bands, and I mean many, that I think try too hard to be different or unique. It’s probably due to an overbearing front runner who feels his artistic ability is above and beyond the norm. And his bandmates are like sheep and go along because, hey, “we’re in a rock band man and all we care about is drugs, sex, and rock and roll”.

The National come from a different breed then most young indie rockers. They’re all in their 30’s. They all held or rather still hold regular day jobs and don’t seem to prescribe to the whole rock ethic. Things maybe changing for some of the members as they slowly but surely make their way out of the day job and in to the spotlight but in the end, their music has stayed consistent.

In their earlier work (self-titled album The National and Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers), the vocals have a bit more snap to them. The pop anthems are worn a bit more on their sleeve versus the actual fabric. The songs themselves have all seemed to skate along the same line. Matt Berninger writes from an outsiders point of view and mixes the every day man’s life with the surreal life. This combined with their remarkable ability to write catchy pop anthems is what makes everyone I know say, “Hey, these guys are really good”.

We all seem to relate to this group. Whether you’re reaching the parenthood years or fresh out of college, The National has a song for you.

The Boxer has been resonating with me for the past two weeks. While their music has stayed consistent over the years, The Boxer has taken a bit of a step forward even though it may seem as if they are taking a step backwards by toning down the volume. It’s the subtle nuances of each track that make this album special.

Having the show at The Middle East is just about as perfect as it gets.  The National are an intimate band and the fact that my apartment is literally around the corner and the Middle East itself is a tight little venue with low ceilings, tonights show has intimacy written all over it.

My vacation out to the Left Coast was remarkable. You couldn’t ask for a better time. I’m not the biggest fan of L.A. but my sister lives there so it brings it up a few notches. We then headed up the coast, through Santa Barabara and landed in the magical land of Big Sur. And I mean magical. The place is one of the greatest spots in our country. We stayed at Fernwood Resort, which is basically a few motel rooms, tent cabins and camping spots along Rt. 1 or Pacific Coast Highway. The owner, BBQ Dave, makes one of the greatest Rib Eye steaks you’ll ever have. He uses a peppery BBQ sauce, wraps the rib eye with a string, smokes it for a day and then throws it up in the grill to order. You could cut the meat with a spoon. Little did we know, Bobby Flay has approved this wonderful piece of meat – AND IT ONLY COST $18.95!

We got to hang with some old friends, recent San Fran implants, and smoked some stogies as a celebration for our gathering. It was also my birthday this past Saturday so we took in a ball game at AT&T park and saw a boring offensive game, 1-0, where the only run was scored by Barry Bonds, hitting his 739 homer. And guess who missed the homer. We got in at the end of the bottom of the 1st and he hit the damn thing as we were walking in.

My girlfriend and I are now completely obsessed with the city of San Francisco. We stayed just over the bay in Oakland in a part of the city called Ridgeport. It was a nice area and we could easily see ourselves living there. But as life goes, nothing is ever that easy. Unless you’ve watched the DVD The Secret then everything is easy, all you have to do is manifest everything and it will come to you, right?

Ok ok, it’s enough blabbering about my personal life. Now it’s time to get back in to the swing of things. I’ve been getting PR about the new Queens of the Stone Age album, “Era Vulgaris”, due out June 12th. So far they’ve sent me an MP3 and this YouTueb video called “The Bulby Video (F. Sick Sick Sick)”. It’s kind of interesting, funny but also a bit annoying. This is apparently the first single off the album, which features Julian Casablanca providing background vocals. I’ll have another song from the album up in a few days. I will also have a review of the Ror-Shak album, Deep. I’m hoping to have all these things and more up as soon as possible. Here is the QOTSA video: