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.

The New Pornographers @Battery Park, July 4th

Just like last year's 4th of July celebration with Belle & Sebastian, I wanted this year to be another fun gathering of friends, food and fireworks. We were almost thirty people strong, mostly from two of my worlds, concerts and kung fu. A bunch of us got there earlier to secure some prime real estate in front of the stage, and we enjoyed a leisurely afternoon only slightly marred by rain.

This was my third time seeing The New Pornographers -- I saw them two years ago with The Sadies and Stars at Prospect Park, and last year at the Nokia Theater opening for Belle & Sebastian. They play solid power pop that is ideal for an outdoor crowd -- you needn't be hugely familiar with their accessible music to have a good time. They maintain an energy that is upbeat and reminds me of The Cars at times. I thought the sound where we were was a little muddy, but at least we had a great view of Carl Newman and Neko Case and their flaming red hair:

(Kathryn Calder kinda has red hair too, I think!)
The New Pornos entertained us with a good mix of the old -- a lot from their last smashing success, Twin Cinema -- and some new from their upcoming release, Challengers. I particularly liked "The Bleeding Heart Show" with its chorus of Hey Las.

After the show, we lost a few and then ambled our way to a bar for a stretch, and then headed to the FDR Drive for the fireworks spectacular. At that point, it was raining harder and we were feeling chilly, but it was all good times. Hooray!