British pop-punk quartet the Futureheads (right) displays a confidence and charisma far beyond its years. Just consider the band’s cover of Kate Bush’s ‘‘Hounds of Love’’ on its selftitled debut album or its rollicking live shows. Hailing from the backwater of Sunderland, band members met at the Sunderland City Detached Youth Project, which aimed to […]
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British pop-punk quartet the Futureheads (right) displays a confidence and charisma far beyond its years. Just consider the band’s cover of Kate Bush’s ‘‘Hounds of Love’’ on its selftitled debut album or its rollicking live shows. Hailing from the backwater of Sunderland, band members met at the Sunderland City Detached Youth Project, which aimed to […]
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”They say I’m wise beyond my years,” 20-year-old Willy Mason sang during his hour-plus set at T.T. the Bear’s on Wednesday night. It’s true that the Martha’s Vineyard-based indie folk troubadour is known for songwriting sophistication and onstage poise. Even more remarkable, the lyric was from one of his older songs, ”Live It Up,” a […]
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Former Guided By Voices frontman Robert Pollard is known for two things: drinking hard and playing long. He delivered on both fronts during a 2 1/2-hour set before a full house at the Paradise on Friday night. Pounding beers and drinking tequila from the bottle, he powered through nearly 40 songs from his prolific 22-year […]
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In the 16 months since Franz Ferdinand last played Boston, the stylish Scots have soft-shoed their way from alt-rock darlings to genuine mainstream contenders. At the Grammys, that was them up there with Los Lonely Boys and Black Eyed Peas. So when they stepped on stage at the Orpheum on Saturday, it was time to […]
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CAMBRIDGE — It’s not just any rock musician who earns cheers for pulling out a flute. But Gustav Ejstes, the mastermind behind Swedish psychedelic rock band Dungen, has got something special going on. Downstairs at the Middle East Thursday night, he held a good-size crowd rapt during an hourlong set, sung entirely in Swedish, that […]
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Madeleine Peyroux showcased the supremacy of a powerful song — and the remarkable instrument the human voice can be — at the Berklee Performance Center Tuesday night. She may be young, but her smoky vocals bear an uncanny resemblance to the late Billie Holiday’s. Her wise, emotionally resonant renditions of blues and country standards manage […]
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Sad songs can rock, too. This antithetical approach to the often slouchy sulkiness of indie pop music was born out to excellent effect at Avalon on Saturday night, where coheadliners Death Cab for Cutie and Ben Kweller delivered vastly different but equally dynamic sets full of heartfelt emotions and brash and swaggering guitar-driven rock. The […]
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He couldn’t have looked more different from the Man in Black. But singer/songwriter Josh Ritter gave a rousing performance dedicated to the recently departed Johnny Cash at the Paradise on Friday night that showed how deeply Cash had touched his music. The Idaho-born, Boston-based musician was received warmly as he took the stage in a […]
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With their shaggy hair and their mod-style garage-punk energy, the London-based Libertines were being referred to as England’s answer to the Strokes even before their debut full-length came out earlier this year. The band’s lead vocals, which are split by guitarists/songwriters Peter Doherty and Carl Barat, have a nonchalant cool that does bring to mind […]
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