Father John Misty The Ritz, Raleigh Tuesday, September 29, 2015 In front of a flickering neon heart emblazoned with the cursive words “No Photography,” Father John Misty knelt with his back arched Tuesday night, crying out “Save me, white Jesus!” while he filmed himself with an audience member’s smartphone. He had casually plucked it from […]
Justin Weber
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Live: Kid Rock, Foreigner and a night of folly in Raleigh
Kid Rock, Foreigner Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, Raleigh Saturday, July 11, 2015 The devil came down from Detroit, and he was looking for a sucker to scam. On Saturday, Kid Rock found more than 20,000 of them in Raleigh at Walnut Creek Amphitheatre. But how exactly does one businessman from Michigan repackage a culture not his […]
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Live: The Decemberists best Raleigh’s mid-week drizzle
The Decemberists, Shovels & Rope Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh Wednesday, June 3, 2015 Last Wednesday night, Chris Funk, a guitarist for The Decemberists, stood on an onstage monitor with his arms spread wide and slightly bent. He slowly undulated from his fingertips back through his chest. Everyone screamed. Funk was imitating Raleigh’s Shimmer Wall—or “that […]
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Live: Warming up to Cold War Kids again in Raleigh
Cold War Kids, Wild Fur, Jack The Radio Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh Friday, May 29, 2015 At the close of last week, I was a tangle of cognitive dissonance. Governor Pat McCrory, for instance, went against his Republican colleagues and vetoed both HB405 and SB2—the ones nicknamed by opponents the “ag-gag” and “license to discriminate” […]
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Live: Mandolin Orange warms to its homecoming
Mandolin Orange & Ryan Gustafson Memorial Hall, Chapel Hill Saturday, May 2, 2015 When Emily Frantz introduced “There Was A Time” Saturday night at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Memorial Hall, she called it an “old one.” The barbed, heartbreaking tune appears on 2013’s This Side of Jordan, Mandolin Orange’s most recent album before the new Such Jubilee. […]
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Record review: Oulipo’s Kisses to the Sky
Oulipo plays Kings in Raleigh Saturday, May 9, at 9 p.m. Tickets are $5. Dad & Dad and Manas open. It took four years for Raleigh’s Oulipo to arrive at last with its first full-length release, the new Kisses to the Sky. The wait proves worthwhile, as it’s allowed the group to define itself and […]
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Live: Celebrating an amped-up Record Store Day at Bull City Records
William Tyler, Ex Hex, Mac McCaughan Bull City Records, Durham Saturday, April 18, 2015 The first person in line outside Durham’s Bull City Records for Record Store Day 2015 arrived shortly after 6 a.m. I joined as the fifth fan not long after 8 a.m. The group stayed small until about 10 a.m. That’s when […]
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Live: New love and a love renewed in Saxapahaw
Hiss Golden Messenger, Natalie Prass Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw Friday, April 17, 2015 I did not walk into the Haw River Ballroom Friday night expecting to fall in love with an old flame. I billed this show as “The Natalie Prass concert” to my partner, in part because we’d both been enamored with the opener’s […]
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Live: Lots of lights, little substance from alt-J and Tycho
Alt-J, Tycho Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh Friday, April 3, 2015 The surest sign of spring in the Triangle might not be a light coat of pollen or exposed shoulders and bare knees or the first warm-weather day. And it’s not when the breeze goes from lion to lamb. The definitive signal is when all of […]