The New Year | Club Metronome | Oct 13

It's always nice to have a quality hometown show. It's doubly nice when the band ranks fourth on my "most listened to" list on Last.FM. That's where The New Year stand for me and why I was excited to see them make a VT stop for their first time.

In a rare move, my wife came to the show also. Prior to having kids, my wife and I would regularly hit shows together. However, due to the cost of babysitters and general exhaustion of parenthood, she's left the concert-going to me. So, it was fun to have her company for the night.

We got to Burlington early so we could grab a pre-show dinner. Here's the thing, it was a Monday night in Burlington and the economy is tanking. However, you would never know it from the restaurants. We had to go to four different places before we could find one with less than a half-hour wait. And we were only able to eat at Sweetwaters because we were willing to sit at the bar. I guess the financial downturn hasn't impacted the Queen City yet.

Lendway opened the show. I've known Michael Clifford, guitarist and vocalist, for Lendway for a few years. he used to work at Buch Spieler in Montpelier and would offer great tips on albums to check out. However, he would also share some of the tunes he had written and recorded by himself. Now, 99 out of 100 times someone you know casually gives you a copy of their music, it stinks. However, Michael's stuff was fantastic. Gorgeous pop songs that I'd play over and over on my iPod. The problem was that whenever I'd ask Michael about putting together a band, he'd talk about problems playing with this guy or that guy. It never worked out.

Well, Lendway has worked out for him.

My wife pegged their sound as being similar to Luna which is a good comparison. There's a bit of a Dead and Beatles feeling in there too though. Regardless, it's infectious stuff and they played it well. Their debut album is coming out next month and they're having a CD release party on Nov 14. However, I'll post more about those things later.

The New Year hit the stage around 10pm and immediately started ticking off songs from their new album. "Folios", "The Company I Can Get", "X Off Days" all fell towards the start of the set. In fact, I think we heard the majority of the songs off the self-titled release. Braving my permently foggy memory, I believe we also got "Gasoline", "End's Not Near" and "Chinese Handcuffs" off their prior albums.

Despite a slight rattle off the drum kit, the band sounded good. What sucked was all of the talkers in the back of the room. I could live to be 104 and I'll never understand why people pay to go to a concert and talk the whole time. It's arrogance. Why else would the talkers think what they have to say is more important than what is going on the stage? I'm not expecting people to be mutes (God knows I comment on the show to my friends mid-song; but with a brief interjection) but do they really need to carry on constantly?

it's just a shame because The New Year have some beautifully delicate songs that are quiet. When folks are chatting, it stomps all over the beauty.

Don't take that mini-rant as a sign that I didn't enjoy the show. The louder songs weren't impacted at all and I still thoroughly enjoyed the entire evening.

By the way, the photo below explains how they get the drumming piece done on "The Door Opens". Matt Kadane plays the cymbal while Chris Brokaw does the main drumming.

Lastly, Bradley's Almanac has posted the mp3 files from The Kadanes Brothers set at The Middle East from this past July. I'd also keep watching the 'Nac for the mp3 files from the Boston show of this tour with the full band.