Upon the end of your feral days

Last Thursday I went to the Middle East Downstairs to see one of my favorite bands, Sunset Rubdown. It was less epic than I'd hoped, having never seen them live before. It was also the first show on their summer tour and their first time playing some of the songs off Dragonslayer, set to come out at the end of June.

However, show openers The Witchies, just blew the crowd away. Imagine the Pixies making indie dance music via a quiet bald guitarist, a sick drummer and a beautiful female keyboardist with a killer, and severely underutilized voice. The Montreal trio is currently unsigned but I would not be surprised if they blowup before the end of this tour.

Elfin Saddle, the second band and also a trio, was one of the strangest musical acts I've ever witnessed. And when I say strange, I don't mean strange-entertaining, i.e. Bunny Brains. I spent their whole set trying to decide how I felt about them and I'm still not sure. Instruments they used included the tuba, accordion, contra bass, ukulele, guitar and xylophone. While they played I also pondered which musicians I'm familiar with would like to jam to/with Elfin Saddle. The first few that came to mind were Beirut, Andrew Bird, Animal Collective and Nick Drake, if that gives you any indication of the diversity. Some of it was ambient, other moments were straight rocking out and every time they started sucking they did something awesome. (I recommend checking out the photos on their MySpace page. I can only hope that the art installations highlighted in their photos are permanent home furnishings in the band's communal living space.)

Unfortunately Elfin Saddle's set coincided with a pretty epic BoSox game and they struggled to shrug off intermittent screaming from drunken bros crowded around a TV in the corner. I guess you can't go anywhere in Boston where there isn't a TV with the game on. Many in the crowd were clearly annoyed. I supposed I'm still new enough in Boston to find the home team pride thing endearing in most every context. I'm also fascinated by bros. More on that in a later post.

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of visiting Emily's family beach house in Nonquitt, Mass. Just an hour South of Boston and a short jaunt from the decrepid New Bedford, it is convenient and gorgeous. We rode bikes, swam and made a lot of delicious food with Momma Stone. The mango, avocado salsa Emily made for our fish tacos was definitely a highlight. On the way home we bought tomato plants, wifebeaters and a tiny charcoal grill. Life is good.