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I have been looking forward to this show for months, with equal parts glee and trepidation. Glee, because this is a pop dream lineup; trepidation, because we are sending off Helicopter Helicopter, who are moving to Los Angeles. For both of these reasons, the room is already crowded when The Bon Savants go on. The typically bass-heavy TT's mix combines with their shimmery, reverberant guitar sound to make it really hard for me to hear any lead guitar, which is a shame, as it sounds great when I can make it out. The vocals are clear, though, and Tom has a wonderful, rich voice, with just enough vibrato to make it sound interesting and sophisticated. Like nodding to lounge without getting loungey. (The crafted Brit-pop songwriting contributes to this effect.) He still spends a lot of time in his falsetto, but it's getting better. They close with a cover of The Kinks' "Victoria." I love that song.
Fooled By April play to a nearly packed house. (The show sells out during their set.) Their songs all adhere pretty closely to a regular pop model--guitar solo after the second chorus--but you wouldn't want them to change a note. Their gift for melodies is amazing, and all four of them sing, which enables them to construct gorgeous harmonies. I am grinning like a fool by the second song. And those guitar solos are good; you know more or less where they're going to go (except the one great distortion pedal solo, which breaks things up nicely), and that makes them seem correct and inevitable. The set ends weirdly: some technical problems on the last song, and then they simply announce that they're done.
Tonight, I get my dream Ad Frank set. (It's like a theme.) The Fast Easy Women include Mike Quinn, my favorite of his rotating keyboardists. The set list has all my favorite beautiful bitter gems. The Women really rock them up--Shayne is particularly on fire on the drums tonight--and Ad kicks out the jambs. He sings with real passion and desperate intensity tonight, and it's probably the best I've ever seen him. And the mix is PERFECT, with piano and guitar exactly balanced, backing vocals just right, everything audible. Kristen Barry, another occasional keyboard player in the band, helps out on vocals for the last couple of songs.
At last, it's the bittersweet main event. As if we weren't sad enough at what we're losing, the fabulous Linda Bean is joining them on bass for their last Boston show, and Kristen Barry plays some subtle keyboard, too. There is much joking about LA and "making it", some Boston sentimentality, and a whole lot of rock. Helicopter Helicopter songs marry pretty, catchy pop hooks to powerful, swaggering rock energy. Julie plays most of the lead guitar tonight, and she is fierce. Dave Foy is absolutely perfect on the drums, with complexity and intricacy and dynamics, and tireless, blazing speed. All maintained over a long set that covers really old stuff, brand new stuff, and their brilliant last two albums. Julie and Chris should always sing together; their voices add up to so much more than they are separately. And Linda could have been in the band for years. I didn't think there was any way that they could finish this night and not have me screaming for more, more, at least one more song, but they come up with the ultimate closer: they cover X's "Los Angeles", Julie sounding almost more Exene than Exene, and it's the perfect ending.
