Revenge of the Book Eaters @Beacon Theatre, Aug. 26th

What a great lineup -- A.C. Newman of The New Pornographers, recent tourmates Grizzly Bear and Feist, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene, and Britt Daniel of Spoon, with affable host Demetri Martin, and guests Sarah Vowell, Leo Allen and Eugene Mirman. This year's show benefiting 826NYC was much more music-oriented and therefore more enjoyable than last year's benefit show.

To sum it up, A.C. Newman is good, but can't replace Neko Case on "Challengers." Grizzly Bear again wowed me with their haunting harmonies -- I must buy their album. Jim James blew me and the rest of the crowd away. Feist not only read beautifully, but sang beautifully ("The Water"). It was strange but cool hearing BSS's "Superconnected" performed with only two members (and Kevin Drew is kinda douche-y, thanking the crowd several times before we even started applauding). And Britt Daniel is such a wonderful crooner.

Here's Britt singing "Black Like Me" from Spoon's latest album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga:

With all this indie rock goodness, you'd think they would have taken advantage of more collaborations, but alas, not really. Feist sang on a Grizzly Bear song, and A.C. joined Britt for a cover of an Alex Chilton song, "Hey! Little Child":


Good times for a good cause.