Better Than: Sitting at home, curled up on the couch reading Proust and listening to NPR.
The Decemberists have asked a lot of their fans on this tour. Anyone who doesn't like its new album, The Hazards of Love, is out of luck: The first part of the show is a front-to-back performance of the sprawling song-cycle, whose plot is too convoluted to spell out here. Let's just say it involves an omniscient narrator (The Rake) who's killed three of his children; a man named William who was turned into
A few miles away from the Masshysteri-a at the Wedge, The Rural Alberta Advantage played a short but sweet set culled from its 2008 album, Hometowns. (Flickr set; critpick) In front of a small, appreciative crowd, the bass-less trio spun songs about everything from rockslides to running away. Acoustic guitar, keyboards, the occasional double drum and random percussion laid the groundwork, while vocalist Nils Edenloff's softened nasal-twang drove the songs forward. Think the Decemb
Electric Six!The Pageant
*The Unconscious/The Great Crusades, Monday, December 28
*Memories of Elvis, Saturday, January 9
Off Broadway
*Afro Zep, Saturday, November 7
*Frontier Ruckus/Theodore, Sunday, November 15
*The Rural Alberta Advantage/Shaky Hands, Wednesday, December 9
*Funky Butt Brass Band, Friday, December 18
Firebird
*Anders Parker/Jon Hardy and the Public/The Dive Poets, Friday November 20
*Grand Buffet, Thursday, November 26
*Mayday Parade, Sunday, December 13
*Electric Six, Wednes
