photos by Oren Loloi

"Last, but in no way least, was Rural Alberta Advantage, who played their last NYC show of 2009. If you can believe it, the trio's percussive elements are highlighted even more live than on their smash album, Hometowns. In addition to the strong beats, Nils Edenloff's warbly croon wowed the audience throughout the mostly-originals set. A highlight was RAA's cover of Abba's "SOS" (of course, it's only fitting that a band that was formed at an open mic night would nail a re-interpreted Abba song!) Should, for some odd reason, you not care for RAA's music, it's worth going to a concert just for the history lesson. At the show, for instance, we learned that petrified wood is the provincial stone of Alberta, which is why it makes its way into "Drain The Blood" and that the best thing to do if you ever find yourself in Edmonton is to go to the Legislative Grounds and look directly at the lights. [CMJ]

The Rural Alberta Advantage headlined Bowery Ballroom on Wednesday night (10/7). The Openers were Kittens Ablaze and The Lovely Feathers. The latter, also from Canada, are now on tour and will be back in NYC for CMJ.

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for the show Rural Alberta are playing with Passion Pit at Terminal 5 on January 8th. More pictures from Bowery Ballroom, and all Lovely Feathers dates, below...

Continue reading "The Rural Alberta Advantage played Bowery w/ The Lovely Feathers (pics) -- tix on sale for Terminal 5 w/ Passion Pit "

Passion Pit @ Central Park Summerstage (gohingplaces)

"This whole summer - the past three months - have been all festivals," said Passion Pit bassist Jeff Apruzzese. "So I feel like I'm finally getting used to it and now it's over."

So, was this exhausting, rainy weekend worth it?

It was for Passion Pit who said they would "love" to play at ACL again.

"Definitely [we would come back]," said keyboard player and guitarist for Passion Pit Ian Hultquist. "Hopefully when we come back it will be more relaxed and not super intense like it was today." [the battalion]

Passion Pit played the rainy Austin City Limits festival over the weekend. Not long before that, they opened two nights in a row for Phoenix at Central Park Summerstage. They're still a relatively new band, but they've also played multiple nights at Pianos, Glasslands, a Rocks Off Boat, Bowery Ballroom more than once (more than twice even), Music Hall of Williamsburg, and technically even Webster Hall. Next up: a headlining show at Terminal 5 on January 8th. Tickets go on AmEX presale Wednesday at noon, and then general sale Friday at the same time.

Opening the T5 show is a Canadian band who also got their NYC start at Pianos, and who is headlining their own show at Bowery Ballroom this Wednesday night (Oct 7). I'm talking about The Rural Alberta Advantage. Tickets are still on sale. Kittens Ablaze and The Lovely Feathers are the openers.

All dates below...

Continue reading "Passion Pit playing Terminal 5 w/ Rural Alberta Advantage who headline Bowery on Wednesday - 2009 Tour Dates"