Broken Bells & Plants & Animals @ MHOW in Brooklyn - pics

it was a great show. much better than i thought after a subdued album listen

Please stop with the meaningless drivel and malaprops:
"Brimming with melodious texture and refined emotion"
"nearly spotless and blatantly thought through"
"their exciting identity crisis of stoner sludge-rock meets tainted indie crooning"

from the jerk who said malaprops...get your own blog to voice your crappy opinion or shut up.

"Drivel and malaprops?"

Take it to the New Yorker, wordsworth.

Good review, I agree wholeheartedly with your feeling about concerts in which the performer strives to reproduce their albums exactly. However, in this case, since the songs were relatively unfamiliar, and the sound SO perfect and the playing so precise, I gave them a pass, and thought it was a stunning show.

Agree w the review and with 3:27. Well put.

PURLJAM MSG in may!!

@ 3:17, you're the reason I don't read these threads. Even if you don't like a few bits or style of the writing, what point is it to give vapid criticism on a message board like this. I wish we could agree to discuss the music and not the writing or photos on this site, it's not why people come here... or maybe it is?

I don't know, every now and then I scroll down to a thread on BV to see if there's a good discussion, and I'm almost always met with people just shitting on one thing or another. BV has the most down-trodden, troll obsessed threads ever. I'm surprised the pharma companies don't advertise Anti-depressants on here.

IMO it was a great review. I like the BB album and have an idea for what to expect at a show. Thanks, Ben.

my contention is with the phrase "pleasant filth present." yikes.

"Openers Plants and Animals plenty soiled up the venue..."

Huh? Don't attempt clever wordplay if you haven't first mastered the English language.

I don't see anything wrong with either of those phrases. Why don't you just post your own unimpeachable review?

4:18, Big vocabulary does not equal good writing. If you'd like constructive criticism, I'd say the writer should focus on figuring out what he/she would like to say and work on expressing it in the simplest possible manner. 3:17 was absolutely right, a phrase like "blatantly thought through" means absolutely nothing and is burdensome for a reader to have to sift through. Why not use "well thought-out," "masterfully constructed," "brilliantly conceived?" Clarity means much more than attempted cleverness to a reader.

i agree with 5:04, but at the same time this person is not a professional music critic, probably more a music fan. so why judge the writing?

james mercer always sounds exactly like the record. it's just how he is. always was, probly always will be. that's why i stopped paying to see the shins live. but this new band is fucking awesome. wish i could've gone :(

I like the album. Sounds like an American version of Blur. Perhaps it's the residual effect of Danger Mouse's work with Albarn. Either way... good stuff.

The live show was a little stiff which is totally understandable. Sometimes bands change up tempos and make slight augmentations for their live performances as they play the material more and get more comfortable.

It wasn't necessary; hopefully Mercer and Burton realize as more shows unfold that they are readily capable of playing with precision and thoroughness, and that their skill will only shine clearer with a little dirt thrown over their pristine looking glass.

I think the writer meant by blatantly thought through that its patently obvious every little detail was accounted for on this record. And those aren't even big words.

this is from their encore:
Neil Young's 'Don't Let it Bring You Down'

I think they did a great job

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkySV_Gr_f4

This review was MADE for ripfork.com

Guggenheim billed it as a performance piece and it was just an installation. Resultingly, the crowd simply waited for the "show" to start, limiting anyone's ability to freely explore the space (the ground floor was packed with indian-style seaters, and the balconies were lined with people holding onto their spots like grim death.

it makes no sense for them to deconstruct the entire TD North venue to play a show the next night ~50 miles south at an amphitheater (which probably would require a different stage setup anyway). They'd play Providence or Mohegan Sun before that (and I think those are both highly unlikely).