Samantha Moore went to see Clinic on Thursday and wrote a review:

I had never heard Clinic’s music up until last night. I had heard of them many times, in magazines, on blogs, on the street. But I had never heard a clear definition of their sound. Some people (ahem, ohmyrockness) says they sound like a “post-OK Computer Radiohead”. This means almost nothing to me mostly because Kid A and Hail to the Thief are not records I listen to very often (please don’t shoot me). Others (ahem Pitchfork) calls them “recombinant rock”….uh….okay. So I really didn’t know what to expect when I turned up at Music Hall (by myself because all of my friends are in the midst of finals….something I somehow miraculously avoided).
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Good ol’ Strapp is so great at giving us the show experience. Whenever he goes to see a show and writes about it, I wish I was there too! Check out his review of In Cadeo after the jump.

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One of my favorite bloggers, Kathy Cacace, was sent to cover the Fiery Furnaces at Brooklyn’s Southpaw on Saturday. As always, she writes the best shit:

The Fiery Furnaces are one of those bands I never entirely made up my mind about, so it’s extremely difficult to convince someone to go to their show with you. I was listening to Blueberry Boat for the first time in ages while washing dishes and, about six minutes into “Quay Cur,” my roommate, my most likely show buddy, said, “Hey. I—I don’t really like this.” I tried to defend them with my favorite song off of Gallowsbird’s Bark, “Rub-Alcohol Blues,” but I don’t think I won him over. But I wasn’t entirely won over myself; the great parts of the Fiery Furnaces’ complicated, eccentric albums are great, but the difficult parts always make me skip around to the Futureheads, or Felix da Housecat, or some other, easier “F” in my iTunes.
More after the jump
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Samantha Moore want to marry Decemberists’ frontman Colin Meloy, so she went to see his acoustic show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg and wrote this review:

I was a little weary when my friend Dorit asked me to go see Colin Meloy’s solo show. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Decemberists, but I didn’t know if he was going to play just solo stuff, or Decemberists stuff or what, and I didn’t really want to risk my $30. But I realized that I should go, because, let’s face it, Colin Meloy is amazing, and I should be taking more chances in my life anyways.

Full review and tons of pics after the jump!
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I didn’t always hate going to shows early to catch the opening band. I didn’t always think that there might be something on TV way more exciting than seeing whomever was playing live in the support slot of whatever band I was seeing. No, I wasn’t always like that until I started seeing shows in the emo/punk circut and got bored by their same-ness. They were all simmilarly awful.

I need to get out of that funk and belief. In the past two weeks I’ve seen shows with opening bands that I’ve fallen instantly in love with. First was Cheif opening for Duke Spirit (omgomgomgomg I love the duke spirit album Neptune is my soundtrack!!!!!!), and lastnight was The Republic Tigers opening for Jukebox the Ghost.
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“Adorable.” “Cute.” “Swedish.” These are all words that get thrown around by bloggers whenever Jens Lekman plays a show, and this past Saturday’s soiree seems to be no different. This was my fourth timing seeing the oh-so-silent one, but only my first time seeing him in the past year. After taking such a long break from him, I figured I would be treated to a new stage show, maybe a new set, and I was even holding out some hope for some new banter and stories. You see, about two years ago I had a good friend make a trip to Philadelphia to see Lekman, and she came back gushing about his witty repartee with the crowd, his all-girl band, and the various other quirks that have come to define his live shows. Because of her ecstatic review, I decided to venture out and see him for the first time. Adorable, cute, Swedish.

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Almack’s Dance Hall contributor, Samantha Moore, got her mind blown at the Crystal Castles show the other night. Thankfully, she was still able to turn in this review:

I wasn’t planning on going to see Crystal Castles last night. In my head I was telling myself that I had to work at 8 am, and I had school after that, and I had gotten 2 hours of sleep the night before. But being the NME slave that I am and being the NME darlings that they are, I just. couldn’t. help it. I had only heard a few of their songs before, but their live show was supposed to be incredible, so I couldn’t resist the urge to find out what the hype was all about.

more after the jump. Read more »

When we saw that Le Loup was playing at Union Hall, we knew that our friend Joe McCaffrey, from Nightmare of You, would be at the show. So we asked him to review the show for us! Here’s Joe’s Review:

Disclaimer*** This is a completely biased review. I hardly ever go
to shows unless I am either already a fan of the music or am somehow
affiliated with the organization. It is a very rare occasion such as
this that I find myself writing about the experience. I haven’t
payed respect to the exigencies of objective writing since college
and I don’t plan on rekindling that relationship anytime soon. With
that said…

More of the review after the jump:
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A year or two ago I saw Lily Allen get on stage at the Hiro Ballroom for her first ever New York City performance. How I got those tickets is beyond me, but I was there! It was like her coronation into our American hearts, and her debutant ball all in one. Last night’s Duffy performance wasn’t much different.

The teeny tiny 19-year-old soulful singer took the stage like a woman twice her stature and twice her age. Confidence spewing out and looking like she walked out of a photoshoot from the 60s (or at least a photoshoot doubling as Broadway’s Kristin Chenoweth). She should be called Duffy Springfield.
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The fine folks at Save Coney Island held a fundraiser on Saturday night at Southpaw. Their theme song is pretty rad too (it’s on their MySpace page). If you haven’t heard of these guys, here’s part of their mission statement:

Coney Island should be transformed in to the fabulous wonderland that it deserves to be. It should be redeveloped. But in a cautious and conciencious way that preserves it’s history and the magic that makes Coney Island the extraordinary, legendary, fabulous, spectacular, enchant-alicious, colorful, inspiring, fantastical place that it is.

Anyway, I got an email about the show and live close by so I figured that I’d stop by on my way out. I suppose I didn’t read the email too well because when I walked in there was a full-blown burlesque show happening. I just thought some bands were playing. Every community activist within a 15 mile radius descended upon Southpaw this night. Needless to say, they threw down, raised a ton of money and moved one step closer to their goals. Well done folks.

Some pics after the jump.
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ED NOTE: We were off burninating the country side last night so Sarah’s nameless friend covered this gig.

With nearly 30 years of touring under his belt, both with his many bands as well as his spoken word performances, Henry Rollins remains as relevant as he was when we all first heard him scream the words to Rise Above. While he continually made light of his aging years, he’s now 47, his ideas are young and thought provoking.
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