Live Show Review - Calvin Johnson, Ted Leo & New Pornographers, Headlights

I went to a few shows this past week and am just going to cover each with a little blurb.

Thurs 4/16 - Went to the Nerve Art Center for the first time with about 30 other patrons. Its a warehouse space in a very sketchy area of Bloomfield. Reminded me of the all ages shows I used to go to back in the day. City Center was the first act up which is lead by Fred Thomas of Saturday Looks Good to Me. It’s a lot more of an experimental venture than the usual pop flavor of his previous outings which I have enjoyed. It was interesting, different. No guitars or drums; more loops and samples. Next was Calvin’s new venture the Hive Dwellers. It was a good performance but just didn't strike me on first listen as some of his other albums.

Friday 4/17 - Decided to take it easy on Friday night since I had to work all day Saturday. Ended up going to the CMU show with a friend who isn't into music (besides some Brittany). It was a really nice night and Ted Leo put on an outstanding show playing most of his hits from previous albums trying to win over the crowd (which he didn't do the last time I saw him). Its funny, my friend who I thought would be more into the New Pornographers turned out to really like Ted Leo a lot better. NP was solid but they don't do a lot for me on stage. They played most of their latest album which I found a bit boring. We ended up leaving early as NP just wasn't doing it for my friend.

Sunday 4/19 - Interesting night at the Brillo. The Love Language from Chapel Hill opened. They were a 7 member group when they only needed 4. They had 2 keyboards, 3 guitars that just became a little redundant with someone always banging on a tambourine. Evidently they had been traveling with Headlights for over 2 weeks and had become good friends as both bands were feeling no pain (pretty buzzing) that evening joining each other on stage. LL were ok, but weren't my speed. Headlights, who I enjoy, play mostly sappy indie pop although their latest album stretched their bounds. This was a bit of a sloppy night as most of their set was mired by some fun debauchery. It was good show, but more in the fun loving drunken mode. About 40 people were there to see it (more in the beginning when I arrived at 10:30p) and the show ended around 12:30a. Decent night for a good band.