----- Original Message ----- 
From: <rob@splitsville.com>
> I've seen the last several shows in Boston, and I have to agree for 
> the most part with the assessments below. Their last show at the 
> Paradise was pretty good, and they actually put on a fairly 
> energetic (and free) show at Copley Square last summer. I write 
> 'energetic' in relative terms. They ain't GWAR, that's for sure.
>
> But the tunes always sound great, the stage patter is funny at 
> times, and they always whip out a good cover or two (at Copley they 
> did a 70's medley of riffs from stuff like Kansas, Derek and the 
> Dominoes, etc.).
> My expectations are pretty much in line with how they perform, so I 
> keep coming back.
>
> Plus Brian Young is a great drummer, and Jody Porter more than 
> covers for Collingwood in the guitar licks/moves/stage presence 
> areas.

Yeah, they're not bad live at all, but it gets to the point where 
after you've seen them a couple times, you pretty much know what 
you're gonna get.

Speaking of Jody Porter, we saw his ex-wife Britta Phillips and her 
current life/work partner Dean Wareham do a really good set at the MFA 
last week.  It's the weirdest thing: Dean Wareham has been doing 
basically the exact same thing for 21 years now, albeit in slightly 
different contexts, and yet he always sounds great.  Extremely 
underrated guitarist.

Although my favorite part of the set was the encore, Dean's beloved 
"Bonnie and Clyde."  It was really funny because, as my friend JO (who 
speaks French fluently) and I (who speaks French very very poorly 
indeed) noticed immediately, Dean Wareham's French is actually pretty 
good: he was singing the song as a song.  Poor Britta was doing an 
okay job of it, but she was clearly singing Brigitte Bardot's part 
phonetically, which can't be easy.

Opening act was Keren Ann, who was working with a stripped-down, 
keyboardless group (herself on vocals and acoustic guitar, an electric 
guitarist who doubled on bass and a drummer) and so didn't have the 
scope and musical variety of her richly-arranged records.  She sounded 
great, but I would have liked to see her with her full band.

S