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Due to the Sox playing a home game, Brian and I decided to drive halfway to Boston and take the T the rest of the way. The ride was pretty uneventful, and we arrived just on time for my scheduled interview with Tom of Against Me!. I missed These Arms are Snakes because of it, but Brian, who had never heard them before, had some glowing things to say about their set.
On the way to the show, Brian was telling me about a handicap area that he was denied access to when he saw Ted Leo at Avalon a few weeks before this show. He pointed it out to me when we met up after the interview, and showed me a girl who was considered "handicapped" because her arm was in a sling. She also had eight or nine other people in the roped off VIP-like handicap area, even though non of those people were sitting with or even talking to her. She was younger (more on that later), and we discussed whether she put her arm in a sling just so she could get a prime viewing and sitting area. I argued that she wasn't smart enough to do that.
Cursive took the stage in full suits, except for Tim Kasher, who was in a tux. They looked like they were about to play at a wedding reception instead of to a sold out crowd full of punks, metalheads, young kids and others. They rocked out pretty damn hard, making good use of the trumpet and sax player (one also played keyboard). They had a high energy level on stage, blowing through their songs like a ferocious lion devouring its prey. Watching them live made me realize how heavy their songs actually are, even though they are clouted in melody.
As good as Cursive was, a decent amount of my attention was devoted to the handicap VIP area. Sling arm was caught drinking a beer (a Bud Light that was in such a cool bottle that I almost bought one before coming to my senses and realizing that Bud Light tastes terrible) by a bouncer. She ratted out the woman (she looked late 20s at the youngest) who bought it for her, all the while looking and acting like a victim who had been done wrong. The guyer had a long talk with the bouncer before going back to her seat. He told her to leave a few minutes later (she whispered a thank you to the bouncer as she left, a showing of appreciation that I couldn't figure out), while Slingy got to remain in her special area, beating the system.
If you've seen one Against Me! set, you've seen them all (though they do switch up their set list quite a bit), and I loved every minute of it, as I always do. Their set was a 45 minute long sing along party that no one really wanted to end. They seemed to impress a lot of people solely there for Mastodon, which is to be expected with them.
Against Me! played four new songs. One was "Americans Abroad," which can be heard on their live album. One was slower and had a bit of a country twang to it. The other two were more upbeat rock numbers with sing alongs choruses. I liked one much better than the other, but all four new songs sounded promising.
Before Mastodon took the stage, I was reminiscing in my stupidity about teh time they played an artist loft in Olneyville and I didn't go for some reason. Their popularity has flourished since then, which was evident in the rabid fan support they had the moment the lights went down.
They didn't have a great mix with songs sounding muddy and mushed together, but they were a lot of fun to watch, especially drummer Brann Dailor. The light show was pretty cool to watch as well (watching these four guys go to town on their instruments is quite a treat), but something wasn't quite clicking with their set. I don't know if it was because they were such a heavy band following more melodic bands, because of the fact that they had a "robotic" sound to their set (a sound described by Brian), or because they were just having an off night, but they weren't all that impressive sound wise. We ended up leaving about ten or 20 minutes before they finished (according to the set times I saw), but I wasn't all that disappointed in their set (them playing a bad set is better than some bands playing a great set).