Sharon Van Etten took top billing at the Paradise on Thursday night, but it was Shearwater that had me crazy excited about a show for the first time in 2012. The Austin collective has lingered on my “must-see” list since I first discovered Palo Santo nearly six years ago, and though this was a somewhat unconventional live lineup for the band – sans Thor Harris and Kimberly Burke – Jonathan Meiburg and company did not disappoint.
Better late than never, right? The new (to me) album that I spun most frequently last year was actually released in 2009 (The Wooden Sky’s If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone – thanks, Visible Voice!). Without further adieu, here are some of FiTi’s favorite albums of 2011…
Wild Flag (shown above) // Wild Flag // Debrief: 3.07.11 @ Brighton Music Hall
The Deep Dark Woods // The Place I Left Behind
Telekinesis // 12 Desperate Straight Lines
Elbow // Build a Rocket Boys! // Debrief: 9.26.11 @ Paradise
Fleet Foxes // Helplessness Blues
When Mike Doughty announced that he was splitting from ATO to self-release Yes and Also Yes this year, it might have seemed logical for him to return to his early “Small Rock” solo roots. But the Brooklynite’s approach on Yes has much more in common with Haughty Melodic than the sparse compositions from Skittish, and after one listen it was pretty clear that – following a series of more intimate tours in support of 2009′s stripped-back Sad Man Happy Man – it was time for him to put the band together again.
So Doughty arrived in Boston on Tuesday with his Band Fantastic, establishing the mood immediately with a trio of crowd pleasers as the audience continued to fill up the Paradise. “(I Keep On) Rising Up,” “27 Jennifers” and “Tremendous Brunettes” pulled from Doughty’s major pre-Yes releases, but from that point on the main set leaned heavily on some of his new album’s finest moments.
It’s hard to imagine that a large chunk of Blind Pilot’s catalog was written while the band was just a duo, busking in the UK and touring the West Coast by bicycle. At a packed Paradise on Tuesday, the now-six-piece Oregon group was a finely tuned machine, with each member playing an essential role around every gorgeous turn, whether the song was old or new.
They’re both bands that draw inspiration from vintage ’70s sounds, but the big difference between co-headliners Dawes and Blitzen Trapper could be summed up pretty succinctly by their choice of cover songs at a jam-packed Royale on Friday night: Dawes turned in a faithful rendition of the sunny Paul Simon track “Kodachrome,” while Blitzen Trapper tackled the grittier Zeppelin classic “Good Times Bad Times.”
Dawes played first, taking the stage before 7 p.m. and squeezing everything that it could out of its hour-plus set. It’s been a crazy year for the VH1 “You Oughta Know” poster boys, but if the road is wearing on them they weren’t showing it as they nimbly rocked through songs from their standout second album, Nothing Is Wrong, and took time to stretch out on material from their 2009 debut, North Hills.
The Head and the Heart has been crazy busy since making its Boston debut back in February, when it opened a pair of shows for Dr. Dog at the Paradise. The Seattle band’s self-titled debut album has since received a proper nationwide release on Sub Pop, selling some 70,000 copies and propelling it to appearances at Sasquatch, Bonnaroo, the Newport Folk Festival and Austin City Limits Music Festival.
Things have continued to fall into place for THATH on its first full headlining tour, and its show at Royale on Friday was just one of many sell-outs it’s scored across the country. This is all an awful lot to happen to a young band so quickly, and in these cases the hype can often outpace and overshadow a group’s development. To THATH’s credit, they’re clearly making the most of the opportunity, gigging nonstop and making a strong connection with its rapidly growing fanbase.
THATH led off its first Boston headlining set with the album-opening 1-2-3 punch of “Cats and Dogs,” “Coeur d’Alene” and “Ghosts,” a tactic that instantly sucked in the capacity crowd and serendipitously enlisted it as a makeshift seventh member, adding an atmospheric layer to the band’s already stellar vocal harmonies.
Elbow may fill arenas and headline massive festivals back home across the pond, but that doesn’t mean the band is any less loved by its Stateside fans. Here, the crowds are just smaller. Much, much smaller.
It’s a real treat to be able to see such a polished, passionate and humble rock act in an intimate setting like the Paradise, where fans jammed into every nook and cranny for a rare U.S. headlining show from the British band last night. The enthusiastic crowd sang and clapped along on every turn in the band’s well-paced, 100-plus minute set, which focused equally on its latest effort, Build a Rocket Boys!, and its Mercury Music Prize-winning predecessor, The Seldom Seen Kid – with a few selections from 2005′s Leaders of the Free World mixed in for good measure.
Wilco’s performance at the Wang last night was by far the shortest headlining set I’ve seen from the band in years. It also happened to be one of my favorites.
The setlist was just north of half the number of songs the band performed during an epic, 39-song set at the Orpheum during its 2010 “Evening With” tour, and it was refreshing to experience a concise, well-paced night that was light on traditional Wilco live staples and heavy on songs from its new album, The Whole Love. (Stream it on NPR until it hits stores next week.)
Early on in Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s headlining set at the ‘Dise last night, shouts of “We missed you!” could be heard bellowing out from the balcony.
It’s been a couple of years since audiences have heard much from the band, and as CYHSY re-emerges from that hiatus it’s taking strong steps towards a major, once unthinkable turnaround from overhyped indie rock whipping-boy to an underdog that crowds can really get behind once again.
When Death Cab for Cutie played a much more intimate show at the ‘Dise less than two months ago, the setlist matched the setting. Though the band was warming up for the release of its seventh album, Codes and Keys, it pulled extensively from its deep back catalog with early career gems like “Your Bruise,” “Photobooth,” “405″ and “Company Calls.”
Back to a more familiar venue size for a show at the Bank of America Pavilion on Monday, the band got downright anthemic.