Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: 2010 in Pictures, Part Two

Even though our tastes rarely seem to overlap, these year-end posts illustrate why I’m fortunate to have Jennifer on board. Thanks for a great year, Jennifer.


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Felicibago, Lebowski Fest, Louisville, KY, July 2010

Jon Walker

Nick White, Jon Walker and Nick Murray, The Young Veins, Crazy Donkey, Farmingdale, NY, July 2010

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Ryan Ross and Andy Soukal, The Young Veins, Crazy Donkey, Farmingdale, NY, July 2010

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Willie Nelson, Caeser’s, Atlantic City, NJ, August 2010

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Evan Dando, The Lemonheads, The Crazy Donkey, Farmingdale, NY, August 2010

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Matt Shultz, Cage the Elephant, Jones Beach Ampitheater, Jones Beach, NY, September 2010

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Amy Klein, Titus Andronicus, Webster Hall, New York, NY, September 2010

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Pete Wentz, The Black Cards, The Loft, Poughkeepsie, NY, October 2010

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Bebe Rexha, The Black Cards, The Loft, Poughkeepsie, NY, October 2010

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Ian Felice and Christmas, Felice Brothers, The Chance, Poughkeepsie, NY, Halloween 2010

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Mike Ness, Social Distortion, Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY, November 2010

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Glen Hansard, The Frames, Terminal 5, New York, NY, November 2010

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Brandon Flowers (solo tour), Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY, December 2010

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Ray Toro, My Chemical Romance, Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY, December 2010

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Frank Iero, My Chemical Romance, Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY, December 2010

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Mikey Way, My Chemical Romance, Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY, December 2010

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Gerard Way, My Chemical Romance, Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY, December 2010

–Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: 2010 in Pictures, Part One

Some technical difficulties held us up, but here it is, Jennifer’s favorite photos from her 2010 musical adventures/shenanigans.


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Alex Suarez (left) and Ryland Blackinton (right), This Is Ivy League, The Studio at Webster Hall, New York, NY, January 2010

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A.A. Bondy, Union Hall, Brooklyn, NY, February 2010

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Ryan Ross, The Young Veins, The Studio at Webster Hall, New York, NY, March 2010

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Eric Nally, Foxy Shazam, The Studio at Webster Hall, March 2010

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Jon Walker, The Young Veins, The Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY, March 2010

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Nick Murray, The Young Veins, The Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY, March 2010

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Nick White, The Young Veins, The Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY, March 2010

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Jonathan Coulton, The High Line Ballroom, New York, NY, April 2010

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HIM, Irving Plaza, New York, NY, May 2010

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Butch Walker, Webster Hall, New York, NY, May 2010

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Roky Erickson and Okkervil River, Webster Hall, New York, NY, May 2010

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Liz McGrath and Morgan Slade, Miss Derringer, High Line Ballroom, New York, NY, May 2010

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Cadillac Sky, Union Hall, Brooklyn, NY, May 2010

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Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch, the Dave Rawlings Machine, Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY, June 2010

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The Felice Brothers, Clearwater Festival, Croton-on-Harmon, New York, June 2010

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Z Berg, The Like, Maxwell’s Hoboken, June 2010

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Sean Van Vleet, Empires, The Studio at Webster Hall, New York, NY, June 2010

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Courtney Love, Hole, The Wellmont Theater, Montclair, NJ, June 2010

–Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Christmas Music

This week, Jennifer illustrates one of the great swaths of music where her taste and mine definitely do not overlap by putting together a compendium of favorite Christmas tunes, both profound and profane.

(I’m sick to death of Christmas music [and hate “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” with a passion]… but I love Dean Martin’s defining rendition of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”.)


There are a lot of things I genuinely love about the winter holiday season: my city dressed in her shiniest lights; the tiny, tiny children dancing in the Nutcracker who can’t really dance yet and just wave at their parents; and Christmas music.

Yes, really. Not all of it, mind you; I have something of an allergy to any and all renditions of Santa Baby and Baby, It’s Cold Outside, as well as most of the wretched sappy seasonal dreck on the radio. The following is a round-up of my favorite seasonal tunes, presented in no particular order, and interspersed with festive seasonal pictures from northern Manhattan.

All I Want for Christmas Is You, My Chemical Romance: Or, as my sister and I like to call it, All I Want for Christmas Is (Your Liver) . I am not quite sure how he managed it, but somehow Gerard Way made this song menacing, the kind of thing you would listen to while contemplating how to have someone (over) for holiday dinner with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. Needless to say, I love it and listen to it year-round.

Angels We Have Heard On High, The Family Force 5 Christmas Pageant, Family Force 5 : The sweet Georgia crunk version of this song; includes breakbeats and the line put your wings in the air like you just don’t care. I don’t really have to say anything else, do I?

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Christmas Drag, The Brobecks: Have the elves failed to bring you the object of your affections again? Then this is the song for you. It’s another one I listen to year-round because I just like it as a song, mostly for the thudding guitars. The Brobecks’ non-Christmas music is ALSO delicious; check it out if you like intelligent pop tunes.

St. Stephens Day Murders, from Bells of Dublin, The Chieftains/Elvis Costello: I was baffled by this song the first time I heard it, partially because I had no idea what St. Stephen’s Day had to do with anything, and partially because Elvis Costello mumbles. But really if you have ever had About Enough Family For One Day, Thank You, you too will sing along as he growls through and it’s nice for the kids when you finally get rid of them (RID OF THEM) in the St. Stephen’s Day Murders.

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Carol of the Bells, from X Christmas, August Burns Red : I was a little bit wary of the whole collection at first, because hardcore Christmas carols, that sounds like it could be unfortunate. I plunged in, though, and this track, an instrumental version of this song, immediately became one of my favorite pieces of music, just for pure listening pleasure. There are shredding guitars and power-driving hardcore drums – you will want to bang your head – and they slam through the song with stunning and exacting precision, not wasting a single note.

Fairytale of New York, The Pogues: A classic, and for good reason. Shane McGowan and Kristy MacColl capture the two sides of New York in midwinter: the wind does go right through you, but the bells do also ring out. It’s what’s running through my head when I’m thinking cranky thoughts about That Stupid Tree in Rockefeller Center, and also when I’m navigating hushed, snowy streets.

Do You Hear What I Hear?, Bob Dylan: I’ve already told you about his version of Adeste Fidelis, which continues to be a thing of beauty and a joy forever. This is another track off the Christmas record he released last year, and is just delicious. There is nothing sappy or overwrought about his delivery, it’s just him and his scratched up voice, singing the song. It’s like a refreshing glass of cold water after too much over-sweet eggnog.

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Oh Holy Night, from Christmas With Weezer, Weezer: I have four different versions of this song – The Chieftains, Harry Connick, Jr,, Sufijan Stevens, and this one – and Weezer’s version is currently my favorite. The guitars are pure Weezer, alternating between delicate picking and a big fuzzy roar, and Rivers Cuomo soars over them, giving the song both some real punch and a whole new life, in the process.

Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, Elmo and Patsy Shropshire: The Greaseman, a DJ at DC 101 back in the Dark Ages when I was in high school, used to kick off every Christmas season with this song, and to this day it just doesn’t feel like Christmas until I’ve heard it on the radio. Or, as happened last year, heard someone singing it in the elevator in the subway.

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And finally, some notable compilations and collections:

Excelsis: The Box Set , from Projekt: Three CDs of gothic/darkwave interpretations of traditional carols and songs. I bought the first one all the way back in 1995, and then lost it along the way. I was hunting for a digital download when I discovered they made two more, and decided to get all three. (They’re on sale!) They’re both mellow and delicately beautiful, and good to have on as quiet company for other tasks.

Songs for Christmas , Sufijan Stevens: There are five, count them, FIVE cds in this set. That is a lot of Christmas music, even for me, but if you dig his voice (I do) and his indie sensibility, it’s one-stop shopping for soothing respite from Top 40 irritations.

Xmas 11, by The Yobs, the seasonal alter ego of The Boys. They have several Christmas records; I just happened to stumble over this particular one in a record store on Bleeker Street in 1999. It is a collection of the most brilliant perversions of Christmas songs ever recorded. I would quote lyrics, but they’re unsuitable for a family newspaper blog. You can get a general idea here, start with “Oh Come All Ye Faithful”, and I’m really totally serious, these are NOT SAFE FOR WORK and you should send small children and anyone with delicate sensibilities out of the room. You may also have to consciously remind yourself not to sing their version of Guantanamera out loud in public.

— Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: My Chemical Romance

Yeah, you read that right. I’ll just say this is completely Jennifer’s thing and leave it at that.


The first time I saw My Chemical Romance was at Madison Square Garden, for the last show of their last tour. It was the first time I had ever been on the floor for a stadium show, and I remember at one point I turned to my sister and said Oh my god, we are really here and this is really happening.

On Friday night I had that same brief stunned moment of holy crap, this is not a dream about halfway through the evening, when Dr. Death Defying (aka Steve Righ?, or Steven Montano, of Mindless Self Indulgence) walked out onto the stage at Roseland and started doing the intro to Na Na Na. I was three rows back from the barrier, jammed up in the epicenter of the soon to be screaming, pogoing children, and I could feel the energy building in the crowd as they joined in, a little breathless but growing stronger with each word. Then Gerard Way walked out into the lights and the whole place went berserk.

It was an amazing show, y’all. They did a fairly even mix of their older work and songs from Danger Days, which is the new record, though my heart particularly lifted when they kicked into I’m Not Okay because I will love that song always and forever. Pulling out other highlights is kind of impossible, because it was like we all came home, and they were there waiting for us so we could sing and dance together, clapping and stomping and howling over the dueling guitars. Even I, decrepit as I am, joined in the pogoing for Planetary (GO!) and Desolation Row. Afterwards I walked out sweaty and sore and excited to do it all over again in April and May when they come back on a proper tour.

Anyway, taking pictures during all of this was . . . a challenge. A lot of them are, as I like to say, “atmospheric”, by which I mean, you’ll get more of an idea of the lights and smoke and color than their actual faces. But I did get a few good ones. The following are a selection of my favorite images:

Gerard Way, during “Cancer”, and probably my favorite shot of the evening:

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Gerard Way again, during the encore; “It’s fake fur!” he informed us, after putting it on. Also, it is really difficult to take a performance picture of Gerard Way in which he is not striking a campy pose.

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My other favorite from the evening is Mikey Way and his sparkly bass:

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I was on the other side of the stage from Frank Iero, and lost amid a sea of arms, so I didn’t get very many good pictures. I honestly couldn’t see him half the time. But this one I like:

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And finally Ray Toro, who wins the “this picture is totally blown out, but I kind of love it anyway” prize this week:

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And in conclusion, one of the Way brothers that I just like for the appropriately post-apocalyptic atmosphere:

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Other notes: The first opening band was the radio station “house band,” and they were so boring and awful I would have preferred to listen to twenty minutes of Creed. Scott Stapp may be a bombastic disaster but at least he isn’t dull. The second band was The Gaslight Anthem, who have recently released their third record, and are much better now that they’ve stopped shoehorning Springsteen references into all of their lyrics.

— Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Dogboy & Justine

Hey NTSIBbers, Help Some Cool People Put On a Show!

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, it’s Jennifer here, and I’d like to introduce you to my friends Racheline Maltese and Erica Kudisch, also known as Treble Entendre, and the musical they’re working on, called Dogboy & Justine. It’s an adaptation of a short play that Racheline wrote – I saw it last winter in Queens, and it was sharp and funny and amazing – and they need some assistance with getting it all the way to a stage. Here they are to tell you more about it:

NTSIB: There’s some information about your experience in music and theater work on the Dogboy & Justine Workshop Kickstarter page , but is there anything else that you have you participated in that people outside New York could watch or listen to or read?

Racheline: I’m Vito’s Roadhouse Dancer #10 in Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road, and while uncredited, I’m also a dying junkie in American Gangster. I’ve a lot of publication credits, but in terms of writing on pop-culture [you] can check out Whedonistas, an anthology from Mad Norwegian Press, in which I have an essay that talks about my relationship to gender and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’ve also got several pieces (including one relevant to Dogboy & Justine) in Idol Musings: Selected Writings from an Online Writing Competition from Fey Publishing.

Erica: And I’m not exactly a staple of the opera world, not yet anyway, but I have performed roles in Pittsburgh and Boston. As publication credits go I’m responsible for the current State of Research (the annotated bibliography of sources to date as of 2007) in the Video Game Music anthology From Pac Man to Pop Music .

NTSIB: What is Dogboy & Justine about? What are the stories you are telling?

Racheline: We like to call it a story about “life, love, and head injuries” and it very much comes out of our feelings about New York and the way that everyone here has to live so many different lives, even if they aren’t carrying around stigmatized secrets like sex-work. New York is one of the world’s biggest cities, and that means it has tons of small quasi-secret worlds. But doing what you have to do to survive – to pay your rent, to follow your dreams, to meet your desires – those are really common stories, and those are the stories we’re telling, just in an uncommon way. Although, we are using a somewhat conventional format to tell them — the musical theater backstage story.

Erica: Which is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting parts of the story. I’ve described it before as a “girl comes to the big city and gets a weird job” story just like 42nd Street and Thoroughly Modern Millie and Wonderful Town. But the spin D&J; puts on it doesn’t just tell a good story on its own, but it also takes apart those other stories and lends new depth to them.

NTSIB:What are some of the challenges of transitioning it from regular play to musical play?

Erica:The first big challenge is expanding it. Musical theater has different format conventions and requirements than straight theater. There are some composers who take the song-as-reflection stance (most classical musicals do this, like those by Rodgers and Hammerstein), and others who treat the music more operatically and have song-as-heightened action (Sondheim does this, sometimes Schwartz). I have to lay down what rules the music follows as I write it and make sure the audience can still believe that these characters have to sing in order to speak.

And I think the next hurdle comes when I have to decide what each of the characters sounds like. I’m also writing the lyrics, so that’s a little easier, and I can approach their personalities with words as much as with music. But with a cast like this, it’ll be really easy–and fun–to differentiate between their styles.

NTSIB: What are your musical influences? Where does D&J; fit in the broad spectrum of musical theater, which includes Broadway/Golden Age musicals like 42nd Street and South Pacific as well as Glee and American Idiot? Is D&J; “your father’s Oldsmobile”, or something completely different?

Erica: I’m an opera nerd. A lot of my influence is classical. Then again, so was Freddie Mercury’s. I’ve joked about the style I use when I write more classical pieces as Wagner-after-NIN. That influence definitely still persists when I write pop and musical theatre pieces, because I can’t turn my brain off.

But that’s good, because that means D&J; will have a weird and cool sound. So far it’s really jazz-influenced with this sense of the chords not going quite where you’d expect, and changing time signatures and irregular phrase lengths. The progressions are getting a little Radiohead in places, and, well, a lot Queen. Definitely not your father’s Oldsmobile–or maybe it was before you tricked it out and replaced the motor with a nuclear reactor.

Racheline: I’m someone who grew up on traditional Broadway and Golden Age musicals, but I’m also someone who is all over things like Wicked and Avenue Q and the really fantastic Passing Strange, which was created by Stew and Heidi Rodewald, and there’s a great concert film of it from Spike Lee. So I think you’ll ultimately find all these things in what we create. There are a few reasons our production company is called Treble Entendre, and one of them is that we love to bend expected stuff in unexpected ways.

NTSIB: What else are you working on?

Erica: If you want to check out INCEPTION: THE MUSICAL, it’s up on the Treble Entendre website! That’s the first project Racheline and I worked on together. It is, as you can guess from the title, a spoof musical based on the film Inception and the kinds of reactions there have been to it in the press, and also makes fun of the Joss Whedon musicals and movie musical resurgence tropes.

We’re also going to put on a fundraiser in the spring, “Key Change”. That’s going to be a cabaret evening in which we use Broadway and musical theater standards and sing them completely unaltered–except for the performers. It’s like D&J; in that we’re taking the old Broadway style and shedding new light on it.

And later next year, we’re hoping to put on one of my short operas, a modernization of Pygmalion–the Ovid, not the Shaw. It’s a weird and aggressive piece about art and populism and copyright infringement. Perfect topics for an opera.

NTSIB:And finally, the “what is the money for?” question.

Racheline: The funds will allow us to rent a theater for a week-long run of a workshop production. It will also allow us to rent studio space for the casting and rehearsal process, print programs, and do some basic publicity, as well as provide us some funds for sets and costume. It will also allow us to make sure that everyone who works on the show gets paid. We believe that artists deserve to get paid for their work and that means every cast member, every musician, every tech who works on the show will get a fee. We get paid last, if we get paid at all, and also only at stipend rates.

If there’s anything left-over it gets put back into the pool for future bigger and better productions. Right now we’ve already put about $500 of our own funds into getting this process up and running, but the best way to guarantee the pe
ople we work with get treated well is to have a guaranteed pool of funds to work with — that’s what Kickstarter is going to allow us to do.

Hopefully this will just be a first step in a project that really will generate jobs for working artists. Also, because one of our main characters is living with a disability, we’re going to set aside a portion of the door proceeds to benefit the Brain Injury Foundation of America, and that’s always going to be a part of what’s going on with this particular show. From the workshop, we’re writing them a check for at least $200, but depending on ticket sales and audience generosity that number may be higher.

***The Dogboy & Justine Kickstarter deadline is December 21!***

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: The Frames 20th Anniversary Tour

Today, Jennifer shows us how far Glen Hansard has come from And And Fucking And. (I don’t have a long memory, I just happen to have re-watched The Commitments recently.)


You may be most familiar with Glen Hansard’s voice from his being half of The Swell Season, or perhaps from his appearing in and writing all the music for the movie Once, or, if you have a very long memory, from his smaller role in The Commitments. The Frames is his regular band, and this past Saturday night they made a stop at Terminal 5 as part of their 20th Anniversary Tour.

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Glen Hansard, singing Disappointed

The Frames, if you don’t know them, are from Dublin, but unlike other Irish bands such as the Saw Doctors or the Pogues, they mostly don’t have a “traditional” sound. I say “mostly” because they do have Colm Mac Con Iomaire and his magnificent mournful violin winding through their big fuzzy guitars like a dark, shimmering ribbon.

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Colm Mac Con Iomaire and Glen Hansard

I’ve actually been puzzling over how to describe them since the show, and “loud-soft-loud-hyperarticulate-howl-of-rage” would be accurate, but so would “spare, sharp, bittersweet and delicate romantic melodies.” For examples of these variations, see “Fake,” off of Burn the Maps and also “New Partner,” from The Roads Outgrown, respectively.

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Joe Doyle

And, some news for established Frames fans: during one of their many encores (there were at least three!), Joe Doyle sang a song they had composed that day, which if the lyrics are anything to go by will probably be called “You Can’t Hide Your Love”. Or maybe “You Can’t Hide Your Love (For Someone Else)” since it was something of an elegy for the end of a love affair. In any case I hope they record it soon because I would like to listen to it about a million more times.

— Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Video Round-Up

This week, Jennifer makes NTSIB one of the few places on the internet where you will see the words “killer xylophone action” used together.


No shows this week, so I’m dipping into the video vault (aka YouTube) to highlight some music I’ve enjoyed recently:

Jail Weddings – I Just Thought You Were Someone I Knew

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I have already enthused at y’all about their EP Inconvenient Dreams, which is a five-song slice of joy. Now I am here to be flappy and flaily about their latest full-length release, Love is Lawless, which is both delicious and dirty. As you will see from the video, there are a lot of them, and they harmonize beautifully while singing songs with titles like “What Did You Do With My Gun?” The track in this video is something of a bitter kiss-off to a cruel, inconstant lover, with some killer xylophone and fiddle action.

Tour status: They just wrapped up a West Coast run, but it looks like they’ll be playing at The Echo in Los Angeles on Nov. 29, along with The Black Apples, Dante vs Zombies, and My Pet Saddle.

Surfer Blood – Floating Vibes

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A couple of weeks ago I had cause to get up at 5 in the morning to watch Subterranean a show on MTV wherein they actually play videos. (I know! On MTV! Has the world slipped off its axis?) The show is meant to be the reanimation of 120 Minutes, but it doesn’t quite get there, mainly because – at least in the episode I saw – the artist being interviewed between videos doesn’t seem to have much of a connection to what is being played. The videos themselves were actually quite interesting. I pulled this one out to share specifically because I like the “cable access tv” visual style they have going on, as well as their guitars.

Tour status: Currently running around Europe with Interpol, though they will be part of the Bruise Cruise to the Bahamas in February.

Christina Perri – “Jar of Hearts”

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Perri recently rocketed up the charts and into a record deal almost literally overnight after this song was featured on So You Think You Can Dance Canada. I happen to like this version better than the “official” video because I think it being just her and the piano showcases the power of her voice. Also, this is the kind of song you play – loudly, repeatedly, and as often as necessary – to stop yourself from taking a bad boy/girlfriend back into your life.

Tour status: She’s making appearances at various Christmas-special style shows; check her listings to see if there is one near you!

— Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Lucero/Social Distortion

Social D., yo. What more needs to be said? (Aside from, “Buying music at the grocery store, what!?”)


Before I get started on this one, I have to tell y’all that Social Distortion has a very special place in my heart. I spent a good decade (1998-2008) in cultural exile, by which I mean only listening to the classic rock station, buying music at Whole Foods and getting my (musical) news from Rolling Stone — okay, perhaps not so much cultural exile as descent into premature middle-age – and as you might have guessed, I didn’t go to a whole lot of shows during this time. The few I did attend were either Bon Jovi or Social D. (The epiphany that prompted my return to modern rock occurred at a Bon Jovi show, but that is a story for another time.)

Back then my sister had to coax me out, arguing that Social D hardly ever came east and I shouldn’t miss seeing them play. Things are different now, obviously, but their shows still feel like a special treat. This particular one also featured Lucero, who I honestly had forgotten was going to be there, and so was pleasantly surprised to see them.

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After listening to their set, I concluded I’d like to see them at their own show, somewhere other than the big cavern that is Roseland Ballroom. They didn’t get lost in it, but something about the ambiance was off. They have a big heavy country sound – this might seems like a contradiction in terms but I promise you it isn’t – and I think I might have gotten more into it at, say, Irving Plaza or the Bowery Ballroom. In any case, I only took a few pictures before I retreated to our spot on the risers. There was a big column blocking my view of the stage, but being up away from the crowd where I could breathe was well worth it.

At one point I did try to see if I could wiggle my way back in to edges of the pit to get some shots of Social D, but there were just too many people. So here’s the view from the risers:

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Brent Harding


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Brent Harding, Mike Ness


In the end I didn’t really care that I couldn’t really see them all that well. I could hear them just fine, and the power of Mike Ness’ voice has not diminished one bit. Plus they played my favorite song – Ball and Chain – and it occurred to me that I used to sing along because I could identify with the sentiments (I’m sick, and I’m tired, and I can’t take any more pain) and now I sing along because I did actually manage to slip loose of my metaphorical ball and chain. Though I do still sometimes buy music at the grocery store. Anyway, in conclusion: Thank you, Social D, for keeping me company during those bleak times, and I look forward to seeing you (and perhaps actually seeing you) the next time you come around.

— Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Titus Andronicus/The Felice Brothers

NTSIB loves the Felice Brothers. NTSIB also loves boys in dresses. Now we can enjoy our two great loves together! Hurray for Halloween!


Continuing my ongoing life-theme of music related traveling, last weekend NTSIB friend Joy and I drove up some twisty mountain roads to Poughkeepie to see Titus Andronicus and the Felice Brothers. Trivia: Joy first saw The Felice Brothers when they were playing on the subway platforms in Brooklyn; I only learned about them this past January, and for all of the times I’ve seen them this year, this show was the first one in an actual club. And it was wonderful.

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Titus Andronicus was once again amazing. The crowd was of course much smaller than the one at Webster Hall, and during the first song I thought they might be a little bit lukewarm. Oh, was I ever wrong. As soon as the second song started, they began moshing. And I do mean moshing; there was hair, beer and limbs flying everyehere, Joy almost got knocked over four times, there were dudes in tweed sport coats pummeling the bejsus out of each other in a circle pit during almost all fourteen minutes of Battle of Hampton Roads, and it was fantastic.

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Then the Felice Brothers came out. They had gotten properly into the spirit of the weekend and busted out some costumes. I’ll just let the pictures do the most of the rest of the talking:

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Various members of the Diamond Doves came along to play the horns and the occasional drum, and they also dressed up for the occasion:

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And there was a costum contest in the middle of the show. Here’s Ian Felice with his favorite, the girl who was dressed as a refrigerator:

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And in conclusion, one from the encore. This is the one that Joy leaned over to say “I like that one” after I took it:

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As for the music – I’m completely useless with setlists, and can only tell you that the songs they played included Run, Chicken, Run, White Limosine, River Jordan, Frankie’s Gun, Ballad of Lou the Welterweight, and Take This Bread, and that overall it was much more up-tempo than they have been recently. By which I mean, they didn’t play Damn You, Jim this time, to my everlasting relief. It’s a beautiful song, it’s just I find it unutterably depressing. (Song I really wish they would play live: Cooperstown.) In any case, it was a great night, and a great show.

— Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Black Cards

Jennifer re-employs her uncanny ability to get killer shots of Pete Wentz as he broadens the current trend of bands with “Black” in their names. While my taste frequently diverges from Jennifer’s, and NTSIB would not have any Wentz-related content without her, I’m truly proud to be able to feature her great shots here.


Black Cards

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Pete Wentz amid a forest of hands and cameras

Apparently I have some mysterious talent for taking reasonably good but yet oddly blown-out pictures of Pete Wentz. I took this a week and a half ago in a teeny-tiny club in Poughkeepsie. The occasion was the last night of a three-show mini-tour by Black Cards, which is his new band. Blown out or not I’m fond of it, though, because, well, look at his little grinny face. He was having fun, y’all, and I was glad I could be there to see it. (Also, that forest of hands and cameras? They were there ALL NIGHT. I was three rows back from the stage and that was essentially my view!)

As for the music: it was great. Their sound incorporates elements of reggae and dance-pop and is wholly different from Fall Out Boy, but is still definitely rock and roll. They don’t have a record out yet, but based on what I heard, I’ll be picking it up when it does appear. Meanwhile, you’ll find links to listen to and/or download the two singles they have on the internet here. Note: the singles are representative of their dance-pop side. They’re much heavier live, and the drums and guitars have a larger, more solid presence. I won’t make April’s head explode (today) by using any “sounds like” comparisons, but I will say: imagine what No Doubt might be like if they had Chicago grit and New York City glamour going for them.

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Bebe Rexha, Nate Patterson, Pete Wentz


You might now be wondering whatever possessed me to take a two hour train ride to Poughkeepsie to attend a show in a teeny-tiny bar by a band with no record out and only two singles on the internet. The answer is: April has Greg (fucking) Dulli, I have Pete Wentz. Also, while I’m not going to get into the tedious gory details, suffice it to say, the tour and the music were and are the physical fruits of Wentz’s recovery from a rough year. And it was really, really good to see him happy on stage again.

Meanwhile, here is another one of my favorite pictures from the evening:

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Bebe Rexha


This is Bebe Rexha (of Staten Island!), lead singer for the band. Her voice is delicious, and her stage presence is killer. I believe I used the phrase “hot reggae swagger” to describe it to people.

I’ll conclude now with an atmospheric shot of the alley next to the club, in honor of Halloween. And because everyone needs some spooky lights and shadowy dragons in their Wednesday, right?

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— Jennifer