Tegan & Sara returned to New York City after a triumphant start to their Sainthood tour last October with 2 sold out Town Hall shows.  This time was very different.  They’ve embarked on the North American leg of the tour and did not include a New York date.  Instead on January 27th the following appeared on their website:

 

we’ve decided, quite spontaneously, to offer an opportunity for some of you to spend an intimate night with us at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. perhaps it’s worth noting that my use of the word intimate only applies to the small-ish size of the venue and the stripped down nature of the material we will be performing. i wouldn’t call it an acoustic performance so much as a night of reinterpretations of the well worn and well loved album versions you’ve come to love.

 

With that small bit of info and the onsale date a couple of days later and the fact that the show would be February 15th we were left to fend for ourselves.  It wasn’t until the tickets went onsale that we learned they’d be $75.  That is a lot more than Tegan & Sara shows usually cost, and a lot more than Music Hall of Williamsburg shows usually cost.  In fact I know quite a few people who didn’t buy tickets because of this price.

 

For those of you non-New Yorkers reading this, The Music Hall of Williamsburg is a very popular venue located in Brooklyn.  It is also very small.  It’s capacity is about 550, and was formerly a great venue called Northsix (it’s on North 6th Street).  So shows there tend to be small and sell out very fast.

 

Anyway obviously I bought a ticket and let me now guide you through my evening with my favorite two Canadian twins.

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This post is going to be a little different than our first installment in the Great Concerts series.  The last was about the legendary David Bowie and was literally a historic concert.  This one is more personally historic, although there’s a lot of history behind this one as well.  Let’s begin.

 

The year is 1999.  Hole has released their 3rd album Celebrity Skin() and commenced an ill-fated co-headlining tour with Marilyn Manson that fell apart.  Hole hadn’t toured in years and the album alone was a long time in the making, but the fans still wanted to see the band (even with new drummer Samantha Maloney replacing Patty Schmel).  So for once the band did the right thing and went back out on the road alone.  This would be the final Hole tour (except no one knew it yet).  They sold out 2 shows at NYC’s famed Roseland Ballroom, appearing on David Letterman right across the street in the process(the appearance would air on the 20th, but was taped earlier in the week).

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This post is the beginning of a new series here at Media Decay that will be almost like a recommendation area for concerts.  Basically it’s writeups of some particularly special concerts I’ve either attended or heard.  One feature of these is that I’m going to do my best to include at least some audio from the shows in these posts, although if a show is available commercially this will be more complex.  I hope you enjoy the first installment of this series and come back for more.  It should be monthly. Click a song title to stream that song.

 

The first installment is all about David Bowie.  A consummate showman and the definition of rock star, I’ve managed to see him live twice before he retired from music (if you didn’t know Bowie is retired from music due to his heart being fucked).  The very first time I got to see him was this show, perhaps the best concert I have ever experienced (and I’ve been to a lot of concerts).

 

The date was January 9th 1997.  The place NYC’s legendary Madison Square Garden where many years before Bowie had already put on one of the greatest shows of all time that would be released as the movie Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars.  This show was to celebrate the legendary rocker turning 50 (his actual birthday was the 8th).  As a way to celebrate this milestone he decided that he wanted to share the stage with acts that he’d influenced and who had influenced him in return.  We’ll get to who exactly that was in a minute.

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The Pixies started their 3 day, 4 show, 95% sold out NYC run tonight at the Hammerstein Ballroom.  If you didn’t know this is the Doolittle Tour.  For the anniversary of Doolittle the band is doing a tour and playing the entire album plus b-sides.  Very cool.  Anyway I’d seen The Pixies once in 2005 and was incredibly impressed.  They really brought it.  And tonight was no exception.

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Alyson Greenfield is a singer/guitarist/pianist from Brooklyn by way of Alabama.  Here’s my attempt to explain why you should definitely check her out.
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Tegan & Sara kicked off their two night stint at New York’s Town Hall tonight and I’ve got your first report on the show.

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Melissa Auf Der Maur played her first NYC show in a very long time last night and of course I was there.  It was also my first trip to the new Knitting Factory Brooklyn.

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