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Ted Leo and the Pharmacists rockin’ at the Do-Division Street Festival.

On Friday, Apryl and I went to see Dolly Parton at the Chicago Theatre, which was one of Apryl’s Christmas presents. Dolly had to cancel the original date for the show, so Friday was a long time a coming. Anyway, the Chicago Theatre was quite amazing. It reminded both of us of the Orpheum back home, only twice as big. The first part of the concert contained a lot of her country numbers and stories of her childhood. After a short intermission, the second part was filled with more of her poppy type of hits. Even though I enjoyed the country side of the concert the best, it can be said that Dolly never failed to entertain. And if she hadn’t made it as a musician, I believe she sure would have made it as a comedian. I’ll let Apryl tell you more if she likes, but I will recall several of the songs Dolly performed:

Jolene, Coat of Many Colors, Two Doors Down, Why’d You Come In Here Lookin’ Like That, Thank God I’m A Country “Girl,” 9 to 5, Theme for Steel Magnolias (rejected by the producers), Backwoods Barbie, Jesus & Gravity, Better Get To Livin’, Islands in the Stream, and I Will Always Love You.

Tomorrow starts WEVL’s Spring Pledge Drive which goes from April 11-19. Show the love!

The sign above is the sole reason that I haven’t any photos to share with you from last night’s The Magnetic Fields‘ show at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Apryl, Trey, Rachel, Tim and I caught the second of six sold out shows the Fields are performing this weekend at Old Town. And unlike the new album Distortion, the show was a fairly quiet acoustic fare. This was the third time that I’ve seen the Fields (previous times were in Nashville and Los Angeles), and last night was probably the best. Partially because of the venue, but also because of the hilarious banter between drummer/piano player/singer/overall band manager Claudia Gonson and the band’s ringleader, Stephin Merritt.

Stephin was probably in the best mood that I’ve seen him, which really isn’t saying a lot. At one point when Claudia shared some of the band’s past gripes with record companies, she concluded with “we’re a lot happier these days”. Stephin thought about that for a second, and then uttered, “I’m not.” Of course, Stephin wouldn’t be Stephin if he was too happy.

Another funny stage banter came from Claudia when she was trying to buy time while Stephin tuned his guitar. For whatever reason, she started discussing the lack of news about Eliot Spitzer in the past few days. “It was all in the news and now nothing.” Stephin’s response to Claudia was “We’re in Illinois. We’re in Illinois.” John Woo, the lead guitarist for the Fields, gave his own explanation for the lack of recent scandal reporting, “It’s Spring Training.”

Some of the songs that I can recall: Papa Was A Rodeo, Dreams Anymore, The Abandoned Castle of My Soul, Yeah! Oh, Yeah!, This Little Ukulele, California Girls, I Don’t Believe You, The Book of Love, Too Drunk To Dream, Take Ecstasy With Me, Crows, Zombie Boy, The Nun’s Litany, and Three-Way.

Hard to believe, but Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” is ten years old! And to celebrate, Pitchfork has a feature where various artists’ give reactions to this timeless, indie classic. Among the artists reflecting are Kevin Barnes (Of Montreal), David Vandervelde, Saturday Looks Good To Me, Dan Snaith (Caribou), and… Memphis’ own (and old friend) Jeff Hulett (Snowglobe). Jeff remembers the first time he “saw” Neutral Milk Hotel playing at the Young Avenue Deli opening up for Superchunk. Apparently, he was too young and wasn’t allowed inside, and thus had to experience the show outside in the rain. I also remember that show, and it stills holds a high position as one of the best live shows I have ever seen. As for the underage part, Jeff should have done what me and my friend Daniel did when we drove to Nashville to see The Magnetic Fields in `97. Like Jeff, we were told we weren’t old enough to be in the club but weren’t kicked out when the Field’s drummer/singer Claudia Gonson got us to sell their merchandise. That was another show that ranks very high on my best live show list.

While we’re on the subject of Snowglobe, a few weeks ago, I discovered that an old video I did for Snowglobe was on YouTube. Really, I had no idea. See it here.

Also, I have edited a few clips from a Snowglobe CD release party I shot with some friends on Vimeo. Does anyone else use Vimeo?

One more self promotion: Today, I can be heard on WEVL 89.9FM from 4 – 6pm with another episode of The Music Lovers Monthly Review.

Snowglobe at the HiTone on Christmas Day `07.

Last week, I caught what I believe was Harlan T. Bobo’s first solo show in Chicago. Now, I’ve seen Harlan a ton of times, but never outside of Memphis. So I was pretty excited about it. However, that excitement quickly faded when after searching for a parking spot for about twenty minutes, I arrived at the club only to find that the evening’s show had sold out!

So how did I get in? Well, right as I am about to leave, someone from the club comes out and asks the door man if Harlan is on the Chicago label, Bloodshot Records. When I inform him that Harlan is actually on the Memphis label Goner Records, the door man becomes intrigued and starts up a conversation with me. After I tell him that I’m from Memphis and that Harlan hardly plays anywhere outside of Memphis (other than Europe), he sympathizes with me and lets me inside. Many thanks!

As always, Harlan put on a great show. However, the highlight was getting to see my friend John who was playing drums with Harlan that night. I hadn’t talked to John in probably a year, so it was really nice getting to catch up with him. Unfortunately, I didn’t see Jeremy (bass player and host of WEVL’s Out on the Side) after the show and missed my chance to say “hello.”

Below, the set list for that night: