Live, last night: Cage the Elephant with As Tall as Lions (Photos)
Cage the Elephant, As Tall As Lions
Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro
Tuesday, Feb. 23
Cage the Elephant with As Tall as Lions - Images by Independent Weekly
Showing posts tagged “Cat’s Cradle”
Five words without Jonathan Richman (tonight at Cat’s Cradle)
...am on the Internet, just not into it.
There were warning signs from the start. The first two Web sites encountered during a little table-setting—the Vapor Records site and Richman’s MySpace page—delivered direct hits to my optimism. “Please note that Jonathan Richman does not have any direct involvement with the Vapor Records Web site and does not participate in the Internet on any level,” offered the former in polite parentheses. And the latter helpfully (and equally as politely, although the host did raise his or her voice twice) pointed out, “Please be aware that I am NOT Jonathan Richman nor has he anything to do with this here site—it’s strictly unofficial and fan run. Just as—to my knowledge—EVERY internet site dedicated to Mr. Richman is.”
Thus, I wasn’t surprised when his manager told me that Richman hasn’t done print interviews for years, engaging in only the occasional TV or radio spot. And with that, a rather crucial component of “Five Words with Jonathan Richman” went missing. But the show must go on though.
Please be aware that I am NOT Jonathan Richman nor did he have anything to do with these here responses. Continue reading »
Raekwon, Elliott Yamin cancel local dates
So this makes Anna Kendrick who?
Raekwon the Chef was due at Lincoln Theatre Thursday, Jan. 14, while American Idol ex Elliott Yamin was expected at Cat’s Cradle on the same date. They’ve both canceled their appearances. No reason has been given for the missed gigs, but if you’ve seen Up in the Air, perhaps Raekwon is Vera Farmiga to Yamin’s George Clooney? Scandalous.
Joanna Newsom to Carolina Theatre, Beach House to Cat’s Cradle
Cat’s Cradle announced two big bookings this afternoon: The Carrboro club presents the mighty harpist Joanna Newsom at Carolina Theatre Thursday, March 25, just ahead of her appearance at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tenn. A little more than a month later, Beach House and Washed Out will play the Cradle itself, on May 1. These announcements suggest being patted lightly on the face by tiny, soft kitten paws.
Live: Jesus Lizard Stuns Cradle, Film at 11
When last night’s show first started, David Yow, the Jesus Lizard’s elemental front man (”singer” just doesn’t get to it,) made an early impression on one of my friends—a palm print. Yow gallivanted his way across the forest of young punk dudes and oldsters trying to get a lift, stepped up to him and slapped him straight in the face. As the guy was telling me the story, he raised his eyebrows, smiled a little, and said, “Hard.” Another friend was set adrift in “the pit,” a term destined for sounding corny these days, but there it is. Distracted in a moment when he was helping suspend Yow mid-air by supporting his tailbone, he got clocked and lost his glasses.
Thing is, last night’s The Jesus Lizard set at Cat’s Cradle was hardly a place where negativity held any sway with people. It was fucking joyous. You could not turn your head without seeing someone grinning like they were gonna soil their pants. People who didn’t know each other pulled each other up from the floor. Yow checked out every inch of the place, hanging from a fan one song, off to check the stability of some wooden staging boards the next. The band—Duane Denison, David Wm. Sims, and Mac McNeill—surged and jabbed like boxers. McNeilly pulled one of those anomalies you only see occasionally, a drum solo as brutal as their set in pace and pummeling heaviness. Denison and Sims blasted on guitar and bass what bordered on the best industrial clatter (certainly The Birthday Party is in there, always).
All this is what makes the combo of their sound and Yow’s ring-leading such a physical thing: They beat everyone up. Metal schmetal. Last night it was hard not to get punch-drunk. Skulking around like he knew no other place but that room, Yow coaxed the lot along, feeding beer to the diehards down front, twitching himself around in inhuman contortions. Continue reading »
Stream the LP: I Was Totally Destroying It’s Horror Vacui
The player has expired, but listen to some of Horror Vacui here.
Per our review of I Was Totally Destroying It’s second album, Horror Vacui, and our feature about the band in this week’s newspaper, it’s safe to assume that we’re pretty into IWTDI’s work of late (which, we know, might shock some). Trouble is, you can’t pick the record, released via Portland label Greyday Records, in stores until Tuesday. After the jump, though, you’ll find the whole thing streaming—at least until the band’s CD release show at Cat’s Cradle Saturday, Oct. 10, at 8:30 p.m.
Live: Ra Ra Riot is fine
All smiles, but down with darkness: Ra Ra Riot
Ra Ra Riot
Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro
Wednesday, Oct. 30
The populist Vampire Weekend? That’s what a concertgoer behind me dubbed Ra Ra Riot as the Syracuse band tore through an hour-long set of baroque-tinged chamber pop last night at Carrboro’s Cat’s Cradle. Not sure what that whole populist thing means—can you pay for a cello on a part-time salary?—but the polyrhythms and the elastic voice of frontman Wes Miles smack of the aforementioned bloodsuckers’ mega Afro-pop. Yet, that spectator was kind of right: For every moment of international studies student wonder here, there is a pounding, Arcade Fire-style singalong above, suggesting Ra Ra Riot can grow beyond the little chamber in their chamber pop. After all, the deceptive energy of their elegiac debut LP, 2008’s The Rhumb Line, imparts a ferocious live charisma that won them scores of indie-admirers long before they’d even put songs to tape. And, now, they’re making it all work at once. Continue reading »
Scott McCaughey and Steve Wynn talk baseball (some more)
Scott McCaughey and Steve Wynn co-captain the Baseball Project, a four-piece that brings its diamond-centric songs (not to mention some non-national-pastime-themed works of McCaughey and Wynn) to Cat’s Cradle on Saturday night. We asked the pair to name their five favorite ballplayers and five favorite baseball songs. And because there wasn’t a game on, they agreed. Continue reading »
Arrogance talks about itself then and now
As the members of Arrogance assembled for their semi-annual-or-so rockanalia that returned to the Cat’s Cradle last Saturday night, we couldn’t help but notice that the gathering had even more juice than usual. It’s been 40 years since Don Dixon and Robert Kirkland bonded on the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill campus, establishing the roots of Arrogance. That alone marks a pretty significant anniversary. To make the show even more special, original members Jim Glasgow and Mike Greer planned to guest with former Arrogance percussionist Ogie Shaw.
In an effort to wrap some kind of Now-and-Then perspective around the proceedings, the Independent Weekly caught up with Dixon as well as fellow eternal rock stars Rod Abernathy, Scott Davison and Marty Stout (we weren’t able to get in touch with Kirkland) and asked them about the gig. Then we revisited the questions, asking the four guys to imagine it was the mid ‘70s instead of the tail end of the ‘00s. It ended up going something like this…
And, hey, if you made it to the show, tell us how the memories served you. Continue reading »
Live: The Meat Puppets don’t grow old
Mom, do we have to?
Meat Puppets, Retribution Gospel Choir
Sunday, June 14
Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro
The Meat Puppets and Retribution Gospel Choir don’t seem to have much more than a touring van in common, at least at first glance. Continue reading »
