I had the luxury of getting into St Andrews Hall last night on MCB's dime to catch the Broken Bells show. I arrived at the perfect time....the opening band was nowhere to be seen and the roadies were just about finished setting up. After I ordered a Rolling Rock, a projection started beaming to the tune of a lullaby-esque melody. Broken Bells pretty much ran through the extent of their debut album's tracklist. Unsure of how the tranferrance from recording to live performance would be, it came off stunningly well...just as verbatim as Interpol's live shows. After never having the opportunity to see Mercer or Dangermouse live in their other outfits, they proved to be a great combination of a multi-intrumentalist and an outstanding vocalist. Standout performances of the night included "Vaporize", "The High Road", "October", and a cover of The Miracles' "You Really Got A Hold On Me". The only downside to the show was how stuffy and sweat-inducing St Andrews can get. Towards the middle of the encore I was pleasantly waiting to go outside for some fresh air. Other than that, it was a great show. I highly suggest catching Broken Bells live on tour or at least picking up their record.
For tour dates and record info, visit brokenbells.com
If you would like something revued by the legendary -jr, feel free to mail hard-copies to 11859 Sycamore, Plymouth, Mi. 48170....and I am partial to vinyl.
-jr
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-jr is a musician/dj/blogger/writer from Detroit, MI. He performs in the band The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre and writes a cultural blog under the same moniker. When Dj'ing he uses the handle DJ JCM. He has been an integral part of the Detroit Music mechanation for the past 10 years. He knows just about everything about music on both a local and national level. His opinon is gold and is infallible. This is what's been in my ear lately.