The guys in Geronimo! are many things – smart, hard-working, insanely talented. And you can also add “generous” to that list: for a limited time, they’re offering their excellent full-length album Fuzzy Dreams for free, right here on the internet. They’re also playing a free show at Chicago’s Double Door on March 29 with local favorites Kid, You’ll Move Mountains. (Also: Brontosaurus and The Soil And The Sun. I haven’t personally checked those  bands out yet, but chances are they’re pretty rad.) Further details about the show can be found here.  Even if you can’t make it out to Double Door that night, GET THE ALBUM. I guarantee you don’t have another record in your collection that sounds like Fuzzy Dreams, and at this price you’d be an absolute fool not to at least give it a courtesy spin.

From everybody here at Assault: Congratulations, Geronimo!, on being three years old. And also on being so ridiculously awesome.

Casual.

That’s one of the most astounding things about Neko Case’s talent: there is something casual about the way she uses her voice. There’s no strain to her belting; it’s just a natural, relaxed singing that happens to a powerful, soulful tool for expressing the emotions within the song it’s singing. It’s notable in an age where American Idol hopefuls are still belting “At Last” with every last bit of power they can muster, breaking any semblance of a tasteful use of melisma to prove how “good” they are at singing. So, it’s both astounding and refreshing that Case gets her point across while always sounding like she could, conceivably, tear down counties if she went at full blast.

But she never does, letting the songs shine just as much as their singer. it’s fitting, then, that Case’s concert at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton on Friday was casual, like a group of musicians who happened upon the venue and decided to play the set. She and backup singer Kelly Hogan joked and riffed off each other’s personalities while Case and the rest of her band struggled against the cold weather to keep the instruments in tune. Still, it was a professional show, from the opening note of “Things that Scare Me,” not embellishing on studio versions but offering a rundown of some of the finest American roots rock of the past ten years. The proceedings had a relaxed vibe throughout the show; there’s not much showmanship from the band. Just standing and playing – but they played great music well.

The set leaned heavily on Case’s last album, 2009’s Middle Cyclone, culling nine of the fourteen songs on that album. Otherwise, the band evenly distributed songs from Case’s other efforts (not counting The New Pornographers). This worked out in the show’s favor, as much of the Middle Cyclone material is Case’s most propulsive, giving things a natural momentum by the time the main set ended with “This Tornado Loves You.” That still left plenty of room for slow-burners like “Margaret vs. Pauline” and “I Wish I Was the Moon,” each given beautiful renditions. The encore hit a high point with the Gospel rave “John Saw That Number” before the show faded out gorgeously on “Star Witness,” showcasing Case and Hogan’s beautiful interplay.

Case’s Anti- labelmates Lost in the Trees opened the show with a set that echoed the staid forlornness of Arcade Fire’s quieter moments. Their strings-and-roots-rock approach felt like a shyer, but more bombastically orchestrated complement to Case’s set. Plus they danced out with a dinosaur skull puppet during their first song. And ribbons. But seriously, a dinosaur skull puppet.

Like rock ‘n’ roll? Also like formal wear? The Grape Juice-sponsored Windy City Winter Ball, now on its third glorious year, presents an opportunity to put on your finest clothes and then spill beer all over them. On the bill: Detroit Cobras, Hollows, Rambos, and DJ Billy Ocean (WLUW 88.7). Shit pops off at Double Door at 8pm February 5th -- this Saturday -- so purchase tickets now and take your tux to the dry cleaner. $10-$12 seems almost too reasonable for an evening that promises so much excitement and enchantment, so why you hesitating? (The show is 21+; mature, sophisticated, and very drunk adults only.) Here’s a little promo video to seal the deal:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjrLuq1Xa3M

That’s right – everybody’s favorite scuzzy brother/sister garage combo are preparing to lay it down all across the nation! (“It” being some of the most ridiculously awesome noise put to tape this year.) I have no problem recommending this band to you, but meet me halfway and exercise some caution when you actually check ‘em out: their songs have been known to spark riots when introduced to otherwise tranquil environments. Take two Ambiens before you press play.

White Mystery tour dates:

Jul 27 2010 9:00P The Turf Club Minneapolis, MN
Jul 29 2010 9:00P Gallery Show Missoula, MT
Jul 31 2010 8:30P KEXP Seattle Radio Seattle, WA
Jul 31 2010 10:00P The Funhouse Seattle, Wa
Aug 1 2010 9:00P Slabtown Portland, OR
Aug 2 2010 9:00P East End Portland, OR
Aug 3 2010 9:00P Johnny B’s Medford, OR
Aug 5 2010 9:00P The Hemlock San Francisco, CA
Aug 6 2010 11:00P Ghost Town Oakland, CA
Aug 7 2010 9:00P El Rio San Francisco, CA
Aug 8 2010 9:00P Redwoods Los Angeles, CA
Aug 9 2010 8:00P The Soda Bar San Diego, CA
Aug 10 2010 2:00P Cheap Tricks El Centro, CA
Aug 12 2010 8:00P Beerland Austin, TX
Aug 13 2010 9:00P Saturn Bar New Orleans, LA
Aug 14 2010 9:00P Glenn Danzig’s House Nashville, TN

Read our review of White Mystery’s excellent record HERE.
Sign up for the band’s mailing list HERE.
Peruse the band’s recently re-designed website HERE.

The goal of a good concert by a major pop artist, whether Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, P!nk, or Christina Aguilera, is not musical; it’s spectacle. By that standard, it’s clear that there’s no reason to evaluate Lady Gaga’s concert at Boston’s TD Banknorth Garden too deeply from a strictly musical perspective. If you’ve seen the music videos, the costumes, heard “Bad Romance,” it’s clear that she’s going to measure up. The show is outfitted to her style – complete with a so-close-to semi-coherent storyline about getting lost on the way to the “Monster’s Ball” (“The greatest party in the world!”) as an excuse for skits and costume changes. So the most interesting things about Lady Gaga’s current tour are not necessarily the most entertaining things.

It would be easy to summarize the inventive theatrical aspects of the show and leave it there. It opens with Gaga performing “Dancing in the Dark” while her silhouette is projected on a big screen. There’s a car with a piano in its hood. She sings “Monster” while in a costume that resembles a sea anemone. Some music video outfits get re-used for the tour. There’s an enormous blood-flowing fountain during “Alejandro.” One of her dresses has moving parts. Trap doors and moving platforms everywhere on stage. Oh, and a 40-foot sea monster ties into “Paparazzi,” and somehow makes sense.

These things measure up and are spectacular. The sea monster, in particular, is a “Wow” moment, and her dancers’ choreography is tight and exciting. In a show this big and structured, there’s not much room for spontaneity. Everything is planned for maximum entertainment value, and things are paced relatively well in terms of song choice.

The show wasn’t perfect, though. Part of it is a problem of quantity of material. Hearing “Just Dance,” “Pokerface,” on “Bad Romance” on the radio five times an hour for a year can’t fool anyone: but Gaga only has an album (and an eight-song add-on to that album) to her name. That turns out to be about 85 minutes of music. It doesn’t help when both are packed with filler – songs like “Beautiful, Dirty, Rich” felt like an afterthought both musically and visually. But again, the music is beside the point.

So, there was lot of between-song time. Posing for pictures. Skits to move the “Monster’s Ball” plot along. Personality-less dance music matched with abstract video clips to allow for costume changes and stage setting. Even if excusing a moment taken to call a fan and chat with her before upgrading her seats (sponsored by Verizon for charity), things sometimes felt padded. The show’s rhythm was start-and-stop throughout the night. It’s a necessary evil, given the number of costume changes (and how intrinsic fashion is to Gaga’s appeal), but the lulls dulled the show’s momentum frequently.

The most revelatory thing about the concert was musical, though. For three songs in the middle of the show, Gaga played a set on piano. It’s here that things the fans don’t see in music videos or hear in singles surface. For one thing, she’s got a strong voice. It’s surprising how powerful she sounds when she’s on, mainly because songs like “Pokerface” have that autotune stench all over them. For this reason, “Brown Eyes,” from her debut The Fame, came off fantastically, especially in a show where just about every song sounded exactly as it did on record. It was like a whole new tune.

She also played an actual whole new tune, a roots-rock number that sounded like prime Elton John (for the old fogeys, I’m talking some Tumbleweed Connection shit). It doesn’t measure up – so very little in all pop music can measure up to Sir Elton – but it was surprising to hear a song stripped down of any electronic or pop influences and still be damned good. Maybe that shouldn’t be surprising from someone who spent a time writing songs for Britney Spears, but to actually hear the solid foundation that lies underneath that avalanche of hooks on her singles was a joy.

Finally, the piano set was the only time that it seemed like there was an honest-to-God person running the show. Sitting there at the piano in fishnets and bra and panties, talking about exes, breaking nails mid-song and joking about it, it seemed for once like an intimate club show despite being in the same venue where Celtics fans root madly. Letting the audience sing the first verse and chorus to “Speechless,” then pausing a bit to seemingly appreciate it, Lady Gaga seemed vulnerable, which is a bigger shock than anything she could deliver in a music video or robes made of Kermits (that outfit, unfortunately, was not used for this tour).

Despite being a show full of surprises and spectacle, much of Lady Gaga’s current iteration of the Monster’s Ball tour is predictable. That’s not to say it’s a letdown at all; everything is precisely planned while remaining varied. Even expecting the unexpected, there’s plenty of surprise and novelty on this iteration of the tour. But the songs are exactly as they are on their albums. The thrill is all in the spectacle, and even from my last-row seat, the atmosphere got me up and dancing any time there was action on stage. But the soul of the show is in that piano set; after all the glitz, the music’s got to stand up. That’s where it’s proven that it does.

Man, Coheed & Cambria are on a friggin’ roll these days. Their spring tour (in support of the fairly awesome Year Of The Black Rainbow) was a smash success – they sold out all 27 dates, which is a pretty big deal in a year when even most major acts are practically giving tickets away. Year Of The Black Rainbow charted at #5, too, selling over 50,000 copies in its first week. Those aren’t exactly Drake numbers, but it’s nothing to shrug at, either, considering they’re a weird-ass prog band crafting a massive multi-album story arc involving a bunch of sci-fi shit that doesn’t make any sense to me. (And I’ve been listening since their first album came out.) So, cheers to these guys – their hard work has paid off, and they’re still on the hustle. The band will be joined by Porcupine Tree, another weird-ass prog band, for all of the dates, and their pals Circa Survive will tag along for a few dates too. If you didn’t catch them the first time around, here’s your chance to do it up right:

Coheed and Cambria with Porcupine Tree and Circa Survive
8/12 Hollywood, CA Hollywood Palladium *^
8/13 Las Vegas, NV The Joint *^
8/14 San Diego, CA 4th and B (21+) *^
8/16 Albuquerque, NM Sunshine Theater *^
8/17 El Paso,TX Club 101 *^
8/18 San Antonio,TX Sunset Station *^
8/20 Memphis,TN Minglewood Hall *^
8/21 Asheville, NC Thomas Wolfe Auditorium *^
8/22 Nashville, TN War Memorial Auditorium *^
8/23 St Louis,MO Pageant *^
8/24 Grand Rapids,MI Orbit Room *^
8/26 Cleveland,OH Nautica Pavillion *^
8/27 Columbus,OH LC Pavilion Outdoor Amphitheatre **
8/28 Pittsburgh, PA Ches Arena **
8/30 Richmond,VA National **
9/01 Norfolk,VA Norva **

* w/ Porcupine Tree
** w/Circa Survive

Do you remember the Fireside Bowl? I use the word “legendary” a lot, but this place was actually LEGENDARY. A decrepit, smelly bowling alley that hosted punk & indie shows all throughout the 90s, the Fireside always looked like it was going to collapse. Seeing a show there was exciting, not just because you were getting a fix of raw, awesome music, but because you could quite literally die. I unfortunately never got to see any of the really legendary shows there (Third World Timmy, to this day, still talks about the time The Fux became his favorite band, based solely on one live performance there; he still has a Fux poster in every room of his apartment), but last week I got an email from our friends in Geronimo! telling me that they’d be performing there this Tuesday. (That’s TODAY, if you’re reading this right now.) How pumped am I for this show? Well, let’s see. Geronimo!’s Fuzzy Dreams is one of the best rock records I’ve heard this year – a unique blend of post-rock, punk, and prog, featuring keyboards that don’t sound like keyboards and guitars that’ll slice your head off. And the drums? Don’t even get me started on the drums, mostly because I don’t know the correct terminology to describe what Matt Schwerin does, and also because I will never stop talking. Sometimes I’m air-drumming along, using every available surface, and it gets so intense that I have to punch myself in the face. That’s the kind of band Geronimo! is. Plus, I haven’t been to the Fireside since 2002, so it’ll be interesting to see what’s goin’ on there. (It was used for the bowling scenes in The Break-Up, so I’m thinking there’s been some serious renovation.)

Also playing: Warren Franklin, Bust, and The Please & Thank Yous. I don’t really know those bands, and I don’t like to try and do a rundown just based on their MySpace pages or whatever. But I’m willing to bet that they’re all cool, since they’re down with Geronimo!, and this show will probably be one of the most bro-tastic things you see all year. When I found out about this show, I immediately googled the Fireside to try and find out if they were going to have shows there on a regular basis; all their website mentions is bowling, so I don’t know exactly what the story is behind this. If you’ve never been there, I suggest you check it out – it’s part of Chicago history, and, besides, what else are you gonna do on a Tuesday night? GO TO THIS!

Hold on to your butts – noted screamo fiends Pianos Become The Teeth just kicked off a massive tour that will take them all over the country and probably result in America’s total destruction. Should be a good time. We’ve got dates, but – not so fast – have you picked up a copy of their latest release, Old Pride? We reviewed it here and found it quite delightful; you will most likely have the same reaction, provided you can handle the level of rawk these guys are throwing down. They’re totally brutal, but also pretty smart and sophisticated – if Thrice’s The Illusion Of Safety got regular rotation in your Discman, you might want to check this out. It’s even harder, and more atmospheric, and you will die from listening to it too loud. Top Shelf  just released it on vinyl, so now’s the time!

PIANOS BECOME THE TEETH:
Jun 11 Charm City Art Space – Tour Kickoff/LP Release Show w/ Ruiner Baltimore, MD
Jun 12 The Dungeon w/ The Saddest Landscape Williamsport, PA
Jun 13 It’s a Kling Thing! House w/ Sea Skulls Akron, Ohio
Jun 14 Justice Records w/ The Reptilian Mount Pleasant, Michigan
Jun 15 The DAAC w/ Victor! Fix The Sun Grand Rapids, Michigan
Jun 16 Treasure Town w/ Suffix Chicago, Illinois
Jun 17 Afterschool w/ Szep Alma Merton, WI
Jun 18 1108 Hour w/ Neverender Cedar Falls, Iowa
Jun 19 Salt Water Taffy House w/ Lizards Have Personalities Kansas City, MO
Jun 20 Vaudeville Mews w/ Sea of Trees, + more Des Moines, Iowa
Jun 21 The Ghost House w/ Cerulean City, Flesh Eating Skin Disease Lincoln, Nebraska
Jun 22 The Blast-O-Mat w/ Colors, Citizen, Crooked Ways, Life Won’t Wait Denver, CO
Jun 23 The Basement w/ WeDropLikeBombs, + More Ogden, Utah
Jun 24 Brawl Studio w/ Dead Heroes, Bone Dance, + more Garden City, Idaho
Jun 25 230 West Riverside w/ Not To Reason Why, The Toy Garden, Anadonia Spokane, WA
Jun 26 The Black Lodge w/ Not To Reason Why, You May Die In The Desert, Grenades Seattle, WA
Jun 27 The Kenton Club w/ Not To Reason Why, Kidcrash, You and Us Portland, OR
Jun 28 TBA! PLEASE HELP! Redding, CA,
Jun 29 Sue’s Java Cafe w/ Lemuria Redding, CA
Jun 30 Unholy Grounds w/ Florentine Camerata, Di Bravura Olivehurst, CA
Jul 1 Texas Toast House w/ Matsuri San Jose, CA
Jul 2 The Captive w/ Cabin Fire Fresno, CA
Jul 3 Eastside Cafe w/ Summer Vacation, ColorChromatic, Agosto Espias El Sereno, CA
Jul 4 The Cabin w/ Touche Amore, Creatures, Matsuri, + more Garden Grove, CA
Jul 5 Yayo’s Tacos w/ Caravels (Their Homecoming Show!) Las Vegas, NV
Jul 6 Che Cafe w/ Touche Amore La Jolla, CA
Jul 7 TBA! PLEASE HELP! Phoenix, AZ,
Jul 8 The Hideaway Lounge w/ Barbarian, Mongrel, + more El Paso, Texas
Jul 9 The Pine Box w/ Squares, Ivy League, and Oh Infamous City Midland, TX
Jul 10 The Ten Eleven w/ I Ignite, Illustrations, + more San Antonio, TX
Jul 11 Super Happy Fun Land w/ Diving, My Brother’s Keeper, iDreaminstereo Houston, TX
Jul 12 1919 Hemphill w/ We Were Skeletons, Nouveux Riches, + More Ft. Worth, TX
Jul 13 Bad Granny’s Bazaar Oklahoma City, OK
Jul 14 The Warehouse w/ Losing Sleep, No Country, + more Mountain Home, Arkansas
Jul 15 The Tavern w/ This Is Not An Exit, Les Doux Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Jul 16 The Firehouse Birmingham, Alabama
Jul 17 The Greenhouse w/ Tir Asleen, + More Rome, GA
Jul 18 Earshot Records w/ Miles Apart Greenville, SC
Jul 19 The Basement Studios w/ Barrow, Lewis vs Clark, Iselia, 2613 Raleigh, NC
Jul 20 7 Day Weekend w/ Barrow, Lewis Vs Clark, In Desperation, Postcards Greensboro, NC
Jul 21 Ted’s Red Shed Annandale, VA
Aug 5 Monarch’s Bar w/ JUNE PAIK, BATTLE OF WOLF 359 + more Baltimore, MD

What do you get when you have a two-hour long talk show setup without guests? That’s the central question for Conan O’Brien’s touring show, The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour. He’s doing exactly what he’s been doing for most of his entertainment career, but it’s really unlikely to have a guest-centric show on tour (he manages: New York had Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, Boston had Ed Helms and The Dropkick Murphys). For the first time in his career, O’Brien’s truly the center of attention. Yeah, he hosted shows, but all the late-night network talk shows are billed as as “[Name of Show] with [host].” There is no “The David Letterman Show” or “The Jay Leno Show” (…until there was one), just “Late Night” and “The Tonight Show.” This means that O’Brien’s live tour is an incredibly odd, unique beast: it’s almost literally the first half hour of his Late Night or Tonight Show format, but stretched over two hours with no commercial breaks (except for one that’s a comedy bit, albiet for a real burger joint).

The late night talk show is strange, format-wise. Think about it: it almost entirely exists as a commercial for its guests’ projects. It barely masquerades as entertainment, compared to, say, a sitcom. For the audience, how much value is there, really in the guests?* Every show warms up the audience with a monologue, and only Craig Ferguson currently differentiates from this pattern: [Recent news topic] [Obvious joke about celebrity foible/outrageousness of the topic itself] [Comment on audience reaction to joke] [Start new joke]. As much as “Team Coco” wants to criticize Jay Leno’s show as being stale, obvious and mean-spirited (and they’re right), O’Brien’s talk shows have always been equally confined by the format trappings: 10-15 minute monologue to open and half an hour of guest interviews/performances in the back half. Each show, then, is truly defined in its tone and its host’s entertainment sensibility in the brief comedy bits that fills the time between those two obligations, and that is where O’Brien regularly shined. And that’s really the great realization of The Legally Prohibited… Tour: the opportunity to see Conan O’Brien’s brand of absurdism given more or less free-reign.

“More or less” because some of those talk show habits don’t break. There’s still a monologue, and with a two-hour show, it gets really long. O’Brien didn’t do the standard talk show monologue based on the latest news; instead, he talked at length about how he dealt with losing The Tonight Show gig. In doing so, he strained the limits of his own self-deprecation, but was also funny throughout, whether during the opening skit showing his sad home existence without show business or going through the “8 stages of mourning for talk show hosts” (spoiler: he does not spend a lot of time on the “blaming myself” stage). He’s very funny at it, but for an audience member, the feeling of “gee, you’re still going on about that?” creeps in several minutes into it. The thing is, O’Brien’s never been a stand up comedian; his best moments during monologues through the years have been his reactions to jokes that bomb. Some of the best comedians take their personal lives and transform them into something the audience can relate to, but that’s hard to do with “losing a talk show and getting a multi-million dollar payout” as the subject. Thankfully, the show quickly rights itself into glorious silliness.

Oddly, the most wonderful thing about the show is not necessarily O’Brien himself – hopefully his (arguably justified) victim complex runs its course when he starts up on TBS this fall – but the way the variety show format really gives his weirdness, his writerly tendencies and writers’ skills free reign, full of showbiz bullshit but far from the familiar showbiz bullshit context. Maybe the Walker Texas Ranger Lever “Chuck Norris Rural Policeman Handle” is a retread (down to the clips all being previously used on Late Night years ago), but having Andy there to comment and quip about them showed why he was so missed on Late Night after he left. It’s pretty much a fanboy’s dream come true for this fan to see O’Brien and his staff be given so much time to fill without stopping for lame interviews. It was filled with fan service: a video of Triumph the Insult Comic dog customized to every town, the “Chuck Norris Police Handle.” Regulars Andy Richter and Deion Cole got individual chances to shine. A famous Eddie Murphy outfit and Meat Loaf prop get resurrected to hilarious effect.

As much as the show might be directed for longtime fans, though, parts of the show – not a specific 30-minute block or anything, but strewn about – seems to simply be Conan-pleasing. Specifically, when he’s jamming out with the “Legally Prohibited Band” (basically, the Max Weinberg 7 with a conspicuously absent Max), it seems like he’s having a blast. It’s fun to see, but he’s neither a great comedy song writer nor a great musical performer. There’s some thrill in seeing him cover “On the Road Again” or “The Weight”, but, huh? More or less straight covers** were a strange choice. Most of the value seems to be (a) to keep Conan on stage, (b) segue between comedy bits and (c) to indulge his musical whims a bit. To be fair, his show band has always been a crack group of musicians, so they handle the music very well. The addition of the “Cocettes” on backup vocals add a, weird, near-parodic air to the musical performances (even if they are good in the role). It’s a strange thing to see O’Brien, clearly not completely comfortable playing music in front of an audience (compared to hosting comedy) backed by such a full band. It’s entertaining as a novelty.

The events that caused O’Brien to lose his Tonight Show position were transformative; for the first time in his career, a subsection of the public rallied behind him, almost out of nowhere. It’s unique to him; when Letterman got shafted for the Tonight Show gig, the world was not inter-connected via blogs, Twitter, 24×7 news cycles in such a way that what is a relatively small, devoted fanbase can make a personality a massve success. His personality has become the selling point, like Letterman before him. It explains how he can do a national tour while waiting out the moratorium on his TV presence (hence the tour title, natch). So, the stage show is excessive and more than a little narcissistic, but how could it not be? To not have this show be built from the perspective of “So What Have I Been Up To?” would be strange, and not in the strange-funny way that, say the masturbating bear is always a great fucking joke.

Finally, the show opened with Reggie Watts, who is probably one of the most inventive stand up comedians working today. Watts has a loop machine and improvises his way through his set hilariously. It’s absurd and strange and not at all “standard” to stand up comedy. In other words, Reggie Watts is the perfect opener for the Conan O’Brien tour. It’s kind of painful to have him in this paragraph, so close to the footnotes. C’est la vie.

*Does anyone care about any of the anecdotes actors and actresses have for their latest movie? How do you think filming this most recent work went? (Hint: celebrities split evenly between “So much fun! Everyone was so great to work with!” and “So difficult. Some real hard work went into this thing.” A good predictor on this is genre: comedy or drama. Action movies can go both ways. It can be a game, when you think about it too much).

**More or less: “Polk Salad Annie” becomes a nice joke on his upper-middle class roots; “On The Road Again” gets an extra verse about “My own show again,” as in: “I can’t wait to get.” That one kinda feels tiresome.