On this day six years ago (May 3, 2014) I went to the Chameleon Club here in Lancaster on a tip from an old college pal to see a show he had seen the night before in Pittsburgh. The headliner was the Baltimore based indie duo, Wye Oak, and the opening act was a trio from Montreal, Canada called Braids. I had never listened to either band prior to that evening, and overall I enjoyed both performances. But from the first notes of Braids’ set, I was hooked. They brought an incredibly fresh mix of live drums, electronics, guitars, and plenty of atmospheric effects washing their percussion heavy sounds with an ethereal layer of ambience. Immediately after the show, I downloaded their current album at the time, Flourish // Perish, and started following them on social media. The following year they released Deep in the Iris, an album that has become a lifelong favorite of mine and shortly after that I found this video for “Blondie” recorded as a live session for the Wonderland magazine. From the magazine’s website…
Wonderland is an international, independently published magazine offering a unique perspective on the best new and established talent across all popular culture: fashion, film, music and art.
This video went into heavy rotation for me, and I loved the version so much, I ripped the audio so I could add it to some of my personal playlists. I’ve seen Braids a number of times since that first show, and I feel like this performance really captures the essence of how incredible they are live.
Let’s be honest. If you were born anytime before 1985, you remember a time when you couldn’t watch your favorite musicians perform live, on demand, whenever the fuck you want, with a super computer that you carry around in your pocket. If you’re a music fan who remembers those dark days, the abundance of high quality concert footage available anytime you want it on YouTube is really quite unbelievable. And I’m not even talking about the crappy phone footage that the annoying guy next to you at a concert painstakingly took instead of paying attention to the show. I’m talking about multi-camera, broadcast quality footage.
To celebrate this incredible gift to humanity, I’m sharing my favorite “single song” clips that I’ve watched over and over again on the Tube. And by the way, if you don’t feel like the ~$10/month it costs to get rid of the ads on YouTube is worth it, trust me. It’s totally worth it (and I don’t get anything for saying that).