Bowerbirds supporting The Mountain Goats Thursday September 27, 2007 Rex Theater Pittsburgh, PA
Bowerbirds autographed ticket stub
Bowerbirds: My Oldest Memory/Hooves/Slow Down/The Ticonderoga/In Our Talons/'Untitled'/Dark Horse
The Mountain Goats: Wild Sage/Nine Black Poppies/Dance
Music/You Or Your Memory/Old College Try/In The Craters On The Moon/Up The
Wolves
Pure Milk/Cobscook Bay/Abide With Me/Cheshire County/Woke Up New/Tollund
Man/Dilaudid/This Year/
Encore: The Sign/Houseguest
I discovered the band Bowerbirds totally by accident. For the past several months I have been fulfilling my out-of-hand addiction to blogs and the incalculable amount of music you can download. Someone posted their album and after a few listens I was immediately hooked. I soon discovered they were coming supporting The Mountain Goats. I heard of the Goats but never really got into them. After d-loading a bunch of their stuff I am still not. John Darnielle sounds too much like The B52's Fred Schneider and that is not a good thing. Believe me, they have some rabid fans. And some stinky ones. While waiting in the crowd by the lip of the stage for the show to begin some asshole cretin (or cretin's asshole, if you will) started blowing their whole. Man, whatever they ate for lunch smelled ten times worse on the way out. Seriously, I had to do everything within my being not to fucking puke. The shit I have to go through (literally) to get a decent shot.
Bowerbirds were tremendous. Three part harmonies and simple instrumentation add up to a beautiful psych-folk sound. I would love to see this band in a coffee shop style setting slugging a bottle of wine. They are just as good live as on their record. Really nice stuff.
They were very, very nice to talk to afterwards. They are real home-grown kinda' people. A genuine DIY ethic to their music. I hope to see them again.
The Mountain Goats weren't bad, but I just wasn't feeling them. Darnielle had to cancel the next scheduled show due to a family emergency and at one point in the already emotional show he stepped away from the mic to deliver a truly outstanding/heart wrenching vocal. It was a very moving moment.
Bowerbirds autographed Hymns For A Dark Horse CD cover
Bowerbirds autographed print
The Mountain Goats multi-autographed print
The Mountain Goats and Bowerbirds autographed flyer
Bowerbirds definitely made my Top 10 shows of the year!