photos by Tamara Porras

JKS @ Bowery Ballroom - 3/15/2012

John K. Samson of the Weakerthans (ex-Propagandhi) brought his tour in support of a new solo album to the NYC-area for two shows last week. One was at Maxwell's, the other at Bowery Ballroom. Pictures from the Manhattan show are in this post. Shotgun Jimmie opened.

John may be solo, but he played with a full band and performed material from throughout his career. There were Weakerthans songs, many which were recently performed in the same venue over the course of four nights, and even two Propagandhi cuts during the first of two encores. The full setlist, and more pictures, below...

Continue reading "John K. Samson played solo, Weakerthans & Propagandhi songs @ Bowery Ballroom (pics, setlist)"

John K. Samson on a boat (more)

Speaking of frontmen of punkish bands playing solo shows at Maxwell's, John K. Samson of The Weakerthans added a show at the Hoboken venue scheduled to take place one day before his tour hits Bowery Ballroom (tickets). He plays Maxwell's on March 14. Tickets are on sale now.

We recently premiered the track, "Letter in Icelandic from the Ninette San," off his upcoming solo album, Provincial.

All tour dates below...

Continue reading "John K. Samson adds Maxwell's show to tour (updated dates)"

John at Bowery Ballroom in December (more by Kurt Christensen)

As mentioned, Weakerthans frontman John K. Samson is releasing his first proper solo full length, Provincial, on January 24 via Epitaph. You've already heard one of the tracks, "When I Write My Master's Thesis". Another, "Letter in Icelandic from the Ninette San," is making its premiere in this post. As opposed to the rock of "When I Write My Master's Thesis," it's a softer country-tinged song, filled out with some melancholic violins. Stream it below.

John's tour in support of the album hits NYC on March 15 at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets are still on sale. Stream below...

Continue reading "listen to new John K. Samson (song premiere)"

photos by Kurt Christensen

John K Samson @ Bowery Ballroom

As previously discussed, The Weakerthans completed their four-night stint at Bowery Ballroom on 12/10. We talked at length about the third show, which Rah Rah opened, but only posted pictures from night one and night two. Here are some pics from night three.

If you missed these special shows, you can still catch The Weakerthans' John K Samson on tour, including Bowery Ballroom on March 15th with Shotgun Jimmie (tickets are still on sale). Look for his new LP Provincial on January 24th via Epitaph. Listen to the first track released from that album, with more pictures from Bowery, below...

Continue reading "more pics of The Weakerthans @ Bowery Ballroom, a new song from John K. Samson"

photos by Amanda Hatfield words by Andrew Sacher

When The Weakerthans walked on stage at the sold out Bowery Ballroom Friday night (12/9) to play their 2003 album, Reconstruction Site, you could see the appreciation of the crowd's enthusiasm on John K. Samson's face before he even picked up his guitar. And from the first chord of album opener "(Manifest)," it was obvious that the band were going to feed off of that enthusiasm for the entire show. Things picked up even more on the very memorable "The Reasons," which left no one out of the venue-wide sing-along.

As Ted Leo has pointed out, often times when bands play their older albums in full, it can come off as a cheap attempt at nostalgia. But what The Weakerthans did at Bowery Ballroom was the exact opposite of that. They played through the 2003 album's songs with the energy of a band touring their debut. And they were in great spirits all night, cracking jokes and coming off as totally genuine. Reconstruction Site is also the most carefully orchestrated of all their records, which came across flawlessly as they interwove pedal steel, trumpets, and glimpses of folk rock into the power chord driven fun they were having throughout the show.

After a couple slower cuts, the band and crowd hit their highest peak on "Plea From a Cat Named Virtute." When the distortion-charged song led into its much softer ending, the crowd's energy was still so high that they were even louder than John Samson as they belted along, "I swear I'm going to bite you hard and taste your tinny blood." When the band got to the second of the three hospital sonnets, "(Hospital Vespers)," they appropriated the reverse guitar of the album version to crashing chords and cymbals, turning the song from one of the album's most introspective tracks into something way more anthemic. They did keep things toned down a few songs later, when the band minus John left the stage so he could play "One Great City!" on his own. Before he began the track, he thanked NYC for our Occupy Wall Street movement and said it has inspired many others around the world, himself included. He opted to play the track on his electric guitar, despite having an acoustic on stage, and if anyone wasn't singing along with him the whole time, they definitely joined in on the refrain, "I hate Winnipeg."

The band closed their set with a few songs off of their other albums which they played in full on one of the other three nights, the last of which was last night (12/10) when they played their 2007 album, Reunion Tour.

The Friday show opened with a set from fellow Canadian band Rah Rah. Their set was full of upbeat indie pop songs culminating in pretty huge choruses, which often brought to mind I'm From Barcelona (if they had like, 23 less members). The members did a lot of instrument switching and almost everyone in the band sang lead on at least one song. And just in case their catchy songs weren't enough, their stage antics are sure to be remembered, which included throwing "R" "A" & "H" ballon letters into the audience, shooting out confetti, and breaking open a piñata at the end of their last song.

Weakerthans frontman John K. Samson will be back at Bowery Ballroom as part of a tour in support of his forthcoming solo album.

We didn't take any pictures at the last two nights of the Weakerthans Bowery residency, but we did post some from the first night, and we took some on the second night when Dinosaur Bones opened. Those continue, along with a shot of the limited edition NYC poster, below...

Continue reading "The Weakerthans played 4 NYC shows at Bowery Ballroom (night 2 pics, night 3 review)"

photos by Kurt Christensen

The Weakerthans @ Bowery Ballroom - night 1

The Weakerthans played their first of four shows at Bowery Ballroom last night (12/7). Last night's featured album was "Fallow" which they played in its entirety like they did in San Francisco....

"There were only a number of times when the crowd wasn't singing along with John K Samson who came out in a plaid shirt and jeans (so Canadian) proclaiming they would be playing songs from their debut album "Fallow' which features some of the "worst lyrics I've ever written" but that didn't stop the packed Independent to sing along with the humble front man who thanked the loving crowd to death for the all the support.

Some of the biggest cheers actually came when Samson acknowledged and praised the Occupy Oakland/Occupy San Francisco protests as "one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen... " this obviously would lead in to "Confessions of a Futon-Revolutionist" which despite the very politically driven lyrics got the biggest response during Samson's cry "leave the apartment to buy alcohol"

The title track "Fallow" finished the set containing the Weakerthans first album, then John K Samson seemed to breathe a little easier and lead in to a set and encore filled with fan favourites, all of course would be present over the next 3 evenings."
[Walk Left, Stand Right]

Tonight (12/8) they play "Left and Leaving". More pictures from last night's show below...

Continue reading "The Weakerthans played 'Fallow' @ Bowery Ballroom show #1 w/ Said the Whale (pics)"

Weakerthans frontman (and ex-Propagandhi bassist) John K. Samson is releasing his first proper full length solo album, Provincial, on January 24 via Epitaph (eight years after his 15 song demo Slips and Tangles was released). The album will feature re-recorded material from his two most recent EPs, City Route 85 and Provincial Road 22, and some new stuff as well. According to a press release, "Provincial travels four routes woven into the prairie landscape of Manitoba, the Canadian province where Samson lives. It finds familiar landmarks and forgotten ones; it mines the precise and particular." Check out a video of that landscape with an album preview below, along with the artwork and tracklist. The album is available for preorder at the Epitaph webstore.

John and his band, The Provincial Band, will tour the US and Canada in support of the album with fellow Canadian Shotgun Jimmie. That tour hits NYC on March 15 at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets go on sale Friday (12/2) with an artist presale and an AmEx presale starting Wednesday (11/30) at noon.

Meanwhile, The Weakerthans will be playing four albums in four nights in San Francisco this week, and NYC next week from December 7-10. All of those shows are sold out.

All dates, video, album art and tracklist below...

Continue reading "John K. Samson announces solo album & tour dates ---- (special Weakerthans shows much sooner)"