Boy & Bear at Bowery Ballroom (10/19/11)

So, I managed to get out Tuesday and Wednesday night and magically I’m still standing, though my blogging has fallen off a little as you can see. Technically, my CMJ started on Tuesday night, but it just so happened to be a show that was not part of CMJ both in actuality and in spirit. I spent the better part of Tuesday night at The Bell House watching a drop dead gorgeous performance by the lovely and charming Lisa Hannigan in a room where you could hear a pin drop. (In fact, the room was so quiet at one point, I watched a band member ask a photographer to stop shooting because the sound of his shutter was too loud). After the show was over I swung by The Rock Shop to see if I catch a couple of sets but the Tuesday night showcase had already ended. Because I didn’t want to feel like a lightweight, I headed over to Union Hall to salvage my multi-venue night and as luck would have it, I caught the last ten minutes of Mike Birbiglia‘s set. Wednesday night started out in more typical CMJ fashion where I caught an early set by Seattle’s Motopony after rushing home to change. After catching most of Motopony, whose album I’ve had on repeat for the last couple of weeks, I did a little subway shuffle over to the village to catch the much buzzed about Zola Jesus at the NPR Music show. After taking in Zola’s entire brooding and melodramatic performance at the hot and sweaty LPR (archived here), I headed down to the LES to catch one of the Canadian Blast bands, because as you may know by now, I am secretly and unabashedly Canadian. As I rolled up to pay my yearly visit to Arlene’s Grocery, Hamilton’s The Reason were kicking off their set of straight ahead Canadian rock with a bit of Eurythmics thrown in for good measure. My next and final stop of the night was The Bowery Ballroom where I caught the tail end of a rousing set by Austin’s The Silent Comedy as well as the better part of Sydney’s Boy & Bear set. After Boy & Bear, I had fleeting thoughts of catching Caveman at midnight, but since they’ll be playing at least another half dozen shows before CMJ is over, I figured I would catch them some other time. Here’s a list of things I might do tonight, in no particular order:

Thursday Picks (by venue):
Octoberman – Kenny’s Castaways
Datarock, U.S. Royalty, Jump Into The Gospel, Beg To Differ (DJ Set) – Brooklyn Bowl
Marques Toliver (High Road Touring) – Bowery Ballroom
Black Taxi, Beast Make Bomb, The Ruby Spirit (Rethink Pop) – Bowery Electric
Cheeseburger, Chelsea Wolfe, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Main Attractionz (Life or Death PR) – Cake Shop
Miracles of Modern Science, Shout Out Out Out Out – Dominion
Fionn Regan (Music From Irelan) – Fat Baby
Dinowalrus, Freshkills (A Heart Is A Spage) – Fontana’s
Chad Valley, Wise Blood, Penguin Prison, Art vs. Science (Windish) – LPR
Frankie Rose and The Outs, Talk Normal, Noveller (WNYU) – Littlefield
X-Ray Eyeballs, Memoryhouse, J Mascis, Dum Dum Girls (Sub Pop/Hardly Art) – Mercury Lounge
Sea of Bees – Living Room
Caveman, Step Kids (Deli) – Pianos
Lord Huron, The Lonely Forest, Dinosaur Feathers – The Rock Shop
Howth, Minden, Spirit Animal, Capybara, CP Stelling, Soft Reeds, Unincycle Loves You (Mecca Lecca) – Spike Hill
Beast Make Bomb, Hollerdo, Chad Valley (Suprise Attack) – Spike Hill
We Are Scientists – Studio at Webster Hall
Sunset Hearts (Portalnd ME Night) – Sullivan Hall
Givers, Alberta Cross, Portugal. The Man – Terminal 5
Metronomy, Class Actress – MHOW
Weekend, Millionyoung, Headless Horseman, Keepaway (Weird Vibes) – Cameo
Pearl and The Beard, The Suzan (Tom Tom Mag) – The Woods (RSVP)
Ninjasonik (Rap Rocks) – Southpaw
Grimes, King Krule, Dent May, Main Attrakionz, Bleached, Sharon Van Etten DJ (Gorilla vs Bear) – Shea Stadium
Teen Daze, Sunglasses, The Forms, Woodsman (Birddog PR) – Bar Matchless