The Walkmen, Exit/In, Nashville, TN - 1/15/2011

I think that there is nary a better band playing in the country right now than the Walkmen.  They have put out a remarkable string of albums going back to their debut and are making music for the ages.  To put it another way:  I was psyched for this show.

We finally tried NY Pie in West Nashville before the rocking ensued, and it was pretty great.  According to the Exit/In website, there was no opener with the Walkmen going on at 9, so we ended up getting there way too early, but it was fine as lots of friends came out.

The openers ended up being Lower Dens, who sounded great.  They very much had the early 80's new wave thing down, but the singer had some pipes.  I kind of wish they had ended their set a little earlier, as they went on a bit too long, but they were good.  As I was grabbing a beer during their set, I got a chance to shake hands with Hamilton, the Walkmen's frontman, and thank him for coming back to Nashville.  He was gracious.

So the Walkmen come out with no fanfare at all.  The crowd was nice and full but not crazy.  We were pretty front and center, much more so than normal.  And what can I say?  They absolutely killed.  One of the better shows of the nascent year, but I don't see much that could top it.  The Nashville Scene did a nice write-up with lots of pics, too.  I can hardly express how good these guys are, how amazing their songs are, how many classic tunes they could play but didn't ... just about perfect ...

Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone (couldn't think of that one before ...)
Angela Surf City
In The New Year
138th Street (!!!)
Blue as Your Blood
Woe Is Me
Little House of Savages (!!!!)
All My Great Designs
Victory
While I Shovel The Snow (best song of the night - transcendent)
On The Water
Canadian Girl (!!!!!)
All Hands on the Cook
Juveniles

New Country (just Paul and Ham)
The Rat
We've Been Had (!!!!!!!!!!!)

Guided by Voices w/ Times New Viking, Cannery Ballroom, Nashville, TN - 1/14/2011

I first saw the "classic" GBV line-up in 1995 at the Masquerade in Atlanta, GA.  We drove down without tickets (5 hours from my South Carolina hometown), rocked out to them with support from Chavez (!!) and Sixteen Deluxe, chowed down post-show at a Waffle House and then drove back home, getting back to Sumter at 7 in the morning.  It was fairly epic.  GBV was touring Alien Lanes and were every bit as awesome as I could have imagined.  They opened with "Shocker in Gloomtown," ended the main set with "Echos Myron," and basically left me speechless.

I proceeded to see the newer incarnations of GBV multiple times over the years, including four (!) times on their farewell tour in 2004.  I was and remain a bit of a fan.  When they announced the classic line-up tour for 2010, I was a bit peeved at myself for not making the effort to see them in Vegas or Columbus, but I just couldn't swing it.

Lo and behold, they decide to come down to Nashville for a big rock show.  My fiancee moved down here more or less the same day as this show, but she still made it out there with me for what proved to be a long night of rock.  We met up with friends and actually grabbed a great spot, which in the Cannery is a huge deal.

First up was Times New Viking, whom I'd seen in Columbus before.  They've never really done it for me, and tonight was no exception.  It was fun enough, I guess, but nothing too fantastic.

Without too much down time in between, Uncle Bob and company took the stage.  They proceeded to rock a very long, exhaustive setlist that should pop up on http://www.gbvdb.com/ any day now and from which I'll transfer to here.  They pretty much hit all the classics, even hitting a couple tunes from Mag Earwhig!.  The band sounded tight-ish though not overly professional.  Bob was great as ever, drinking hard, doing big kicks, and sounding great.  Tobin Sprout looked the same as in 1995.  The rest of the band looked a good deal older/worse for the wear, but they delivered the goods.

Similar to seeing Pavement last year, it was a great nostalgia trip but not exactly a "great" show.  I had a blast, I sang along, I loved every minute of it, but it definitely reminded me that you can't bottle the magic of a certain time/place (see 1995 above) and recreate it all over again.  All of which also underscored the very powerful reaction I had to seeing the Walkmen the following night, i.e. seeing a band in their prime and at the height of their powers.

We left after the first encore, and they apparently came back for a second encore that included "Motor Away" (doh!).  Also, Jim James was spotted by friends at the show, though we missed him personally.

Wolf Parade, Exit/In, Nashville, TN - 11/22/2010

Wolf Parade had already put on one of my favorite shows of 2010 with their set at Pitchfork, so getting to see them at the Exit/In was pretty darn exciting.  They released one of my favorite albums of the 2000's (Apologies to the Queen Mary) and one of my top 10 favorite songs maybe ever ("Shine A Light").  Good stuff.

We got inside for the opening a band, a Modest Mouse-by-way-of-Japan band whose name escapes me now.  They were good in a goofy, fun way.

Wolf Parade hit the stage and opened with "You Are a Runner ..." and really didn't let up from there.  One of the best parts of this show was that it was at a perfect capacity - not so full that you couldn't move but also very high energy and with everyone totally into it.  I kind of took down a setlist but kind of didn't.  They played "Palm Road," "Language City" (which features maybe their best outro), a killer "I'll Believe In Anything"/"This Heart's On Fire" in the middle similar to Pitchfork, and an encore that included, yes, "Shine a Light."  They closed the whole thing out with "Kissing the Beehive."

Solid show, great band.  I didn't get around to writing this until 2011, so it's a bit skimpy on the details.