Really hilarious byplay between these two: they’ve obviously become quite good friends as they play the US and Ireland together. I felt almost like I was at another “Boy Least Likely To” concert (where the two lead singers – or the lead singer & the number two, who knows – poked fun at each other all night).
Barnes is the “only lap slide guitar player in Ireland”, among other things (according to Mulvey). He’s got a gruff, low voice he uses sparingly. His guitar playing is crazy. Mad skillz. Mulvey was in very high spirits and absolutely bouncing during some songs. At the end, they did five or six songs together, most of which they had never played together before, and Mulvey wouldn’t even tell Barnes what song it was before he started — only what key it was in. Not that it made a damn bit of difference!
Truly talented musicians yet they will likely live in obscurity for years, given their place in the “folk” singer/songwriter small world.

Nan’s brother’s band’s latest incarnation. Formerly Caviar, formerly Figdish. It’s quite amazing to watch the transformation of Mike and Blake’s music together as the years go by. I started going to Figdish concerts…let’s see…1995 maybe? Figdish was pure rock. Caviar added in a little bit of sampling, a little bit of electronica, more pop than rock. Prairie Cartel is solid rock with a big dose of electronica. Like Beck and The Glimmer Twins thrown into a blender together with a little dash of Snow Patrol on top. Anthemic choruses.
Whether you like these guys’ music that much (as much as me) or not, they’ve been playing together for so many years, they KNOW how to put on a show. Compared to the three or four 12-teen bands that went on before them, the contrast was remarkable. You might not become their biggest fan, but you’re not going to walk away from the Prairie Cartel without feeling that these guys played their hearts out and completely harmonically so.

New Year’s Eve show, band all in tuxes. Some technical difficulties at the beginning created large breaks between songs / they must have changed the wire to Craig Finn’s guitar several times. But once that was fixed, it was a great show, probably the best I’ve seen them play (this was third time I’d seen them).
Odd concert in that it was one of the very few concerts I’ve been to where it appeared that the boys in the audience knew the lyrics better than the girls. Definitely a crowd pleaser, lots of singing along, pumping of fists, etc.
Pretty rockin’ show.
*The small downstairs stage at the House of Blues.

Really intensely rocking out. Raucous. Riotous. Very, very awesome. But occasional dips into jam-band territory (if your songs have words, I prefer those parts).
However insane Jack White is, or wants to be thought of as, he’s a consummate musician and clearly surrounded himself with other very talented guys. I could feel my pulse throbbing along to the beat and the bass, but it was a damn good concert.

I bought the tickets because their Christmas album is one of my all-time faves. They were even quirkier in person than I could have imagined. But the music was lovely. And some of the songs I hadn’t heard before were lots of fun, particularly “Jesus Shaves” which I must now buy a copy of.