Built to Spill via Bradley's Almanac

"Best Built To Spill set I've ever seen? Ayup. Show of the summer? Newt says "Eye-firmative". Show of the year? It's looking good. 2010 has just four full months to change my mind."

There's a great review of the show, plus a set list, pix, mp3 and video. Check it.

(read Built to Spill review here)

Clam Jam!

The Beachcomber is hosting a Pan Mass Fund Raiser that can't be missed! Come join us for some fried clams, clam chowder, raw bar, steamers, and three local bands (Rip-it-Ups, Earth Junior and Bone) donating their time to help raise money for cancer research. Good people, good food, good music, good cause, good times!

20 bucks gets you food and music - food is served from 4 to 8pm and bands start at 8pm.

Not hungry? We can't fathom such a thing, but if you can't get here while we're serving food, stop by just for the music, 8pm to midnight and pay only $10.

Thursday, June 4th, 4pm to 12am - please come help us raise a heap of cash for this great cause!

it's almost time!

The Beachcomber opens every year on the Thursday before Memorial Day and closes on Labor Day. We can't imagine what kind of butterfly effect would occur if we changed this schedule.

There's a whole checklist of rituals to honor, including (but not restricted to), free pass nights on Thursday and Friday. With your paid admission, you'll get a free season pass. It not only looks cool, it actually does things for you - like get you discounts on some of the shows and let you park for free in our lot. Our pass is nothing like some other passes which are, to quote one of our facebook friends, "too tool to use."

Come Thursday and catch the Greenheads, Earth Jr. and The Ticks! The Ticks are hilarious and, as it turns out, great songwriters and performers. They bring it. Earth Jr. plays these rocking originals that make you wish they would just play originals, and then they bust out a cover that makes you wish they'd do more covers. The Greenheads threaten to blow out all our windows when they play the Comber - partially with volume and partially from sheer awesomeness.

In short, we lure you in with the promise of a free pass and then rock your world. You may cry real tears at closing time.

But let's not think about that now. Because we have a Huge! New! Summer! ahead of us.

On Friday we have the Nate Mott Band which, I am not ashamed to say, I have a new crush on. Go to their website and listen for a few minutes so you can have a crush of your own.

On Saturday we have Barrence Whitfield & the Savages. Do you know how lucky we are to have Barrence Whitfield so close? He just did a gig in Australia and is forever playing Europe, where people cannot get enough of him. If you've seen him, you know what I'm talking about.

On Sunday afternoon we have the Incredible Casuals. There would be an angry mob outside our door wielding pitchforks and torches if we didn't schedule Sundays with the Casuals.

On Sunday night, we have the Boston Naturals. It seems only right to have them back for the first Sunday night of the season, since they played the last Sunday night of last season. See? It's a delicate balance. Besides, we loved them and couldn't wait for them to come back.

If you have read this far, you are about to be rewarded for your patience and tenacity.

We are ringing in Memorial Day with Pato Banton.

Pato Banton is the cure for the evening news. Listen to his music for a few minutes and you may find your blood pressure lowering. Hip and dancey, his songs have a quiet grace that make you feel like everything's going to be alright after all. You will love, love, love this show.

We missed you so much over the winter, we've been extra busy lining up cool things for you when you come back.

ps - Be a Beachcomber fan on Facebook! You'll get to see everyone in real life soon, soon, soon when the club opens on the 21st, but this way you can get a head start.

A.K.A.C.O.D. in the Cape Cod Times

Ken Capobianco wrote a terrific story on A.K.A.C.O.D. in today's Cape Week. A.K.A.C.O.D. plays tonight and features Dana Colley (from Morphine).

Of Monique Ortiz, Capobianco writes: "Often she sounds as if she fell out of a '40s film noir, but she also has developed a vulnerability and emotional directness. You can hear blues rock influences as well of someone like PJ Harvey (who, let's face it, is one of the great modern blues vocalists)."

Can you imagine a better match for Dana Colley's saxophone? I've been a fan of pretty much everything Dana's been involved in, but this one sounds especially promising. I just wish they'd come up with a name that's easier to type.

See you there!

Happy Father's Day!

This afternoon we closed the outdoor deck for a spell since it was freaking freezing out there and not so many people wanted to eat lunch huddled under the awning. That made for a happy crowd inside. There were lots of kids, and lots of staff families celebrating Father's Day in the place we love most. Even in the rain.

Today wasn't such a bad one, rain wise. Sometimes it gets a little nutty. After all, we're something like 30 miles or so out in the Atlantic. On some nights it's like being an extra in a Gilligan's Island episode. They probably had a raw bar, too, and they always seemed to have fancy tropical bevs handy-by.

But they didn't have Squirrel Nut Zippers! We do. They're playing their first ever Cape Cod show right here on July 17. Tix on sale now.

Cracker 5/25

So on Sunday I went to the Cracker show and planned on being all Adult-like and hanging out back by the bar. After all, I'm not really in that "flirt with the band" place in my life and I'm not so much into crowds. And then I thought, well, I should go up front for a couple pictures - in case we start that blog we've been thinking about. So I scooched and squeaked my way through a mass of humanity (hi again, nice people who let me by!) until there I was, in front of the stage just as David Lowery was belting out Euro-Trash Girl - and I swear he was singing it just to me (while very coyly avoiding eye contact).

Here are the fruits of my total groupiness:

There's that ludicrously dreamy Johnny Hickman on the left. Dan, can we get his solo project here PLEASE?

And this is David singing to me.

Was it worth it letting me up front? Maybe not. But still, thanks.

The Greenheads 5/22

Steve

Sarah

The Greenheads

and then photographer had to flee, to avoid mass of dancing people.

Earth Junior 5/22

Colin

Liam

Ron

and special guest, Randy

Opening Weekend

Oh opening weekend, what would we do without you?

First off, opening night is like the first day of summer camp. Everyone is there and if you weren't there I am sorry - everyone else was there. It's always so good to see old friends and lo and behold there's a whole bunch of new people who turn twenty-one every year. They're there, too (they've been waiting so patiently).

Earth Junior (Thurs) invited very special guest Randy McDonald up to sing with them. We're pretty sure Randy is channeling Johnny Cash because that Cash voice just comes out of nowhere. And then on Saturday Barrence Whitfield had an uninvited guest up on the stage - who knows what he was channeling. Barrence REMOVED the guest from the stage, so we gave him a staff t-shirt for doing such a great job. We love Barrence more and more every time he plays.

The Incredible Casuals kicked off their 28th season on Sunday afternoon. According to Chandler (lifted from the Sonic Trout site):

EVERY SUNDAY AT TWILIGHT, MEMORIAL DAY (MAY 25th) through LABOR DAY (AUG. 31st)!!! -THE INCREDIBLE CASUALS AT THE WELLFLEET BEACHCOMBER, (Cahoon Hollow Beach, Wellfleet, MA., 508 349 6055), 5 to 8 -purposefully ripping off your head since 1980 or so. AND FURTHERMORE: For those poor souls who can't make it to the Beachcomber in person every Sunday for The Weekly Ordeal, now you can experience at least a sliver of it through the Beachcomber's stage cam!! (There's also a beach cam, for simultaneous ocean viewing -it's the next best thing to being there, all courtesy of our good pal, Henry Marcucella, who's obviously a genius...)

We got some ink on the Cracker show (Sunday night) - Ken Capobianco wrote an article in the Cape Cod Times and Ann Wood did a story in Provincetown Magazine. You can pick up Provincetown Magazine for free all over P-town (the current issue is not online). And there are pictures from the show coming soon. Soon because unlike Henry Marcucella I am NOT a genius and am having technical difficulties uploading pictures. Blogger says its publishing to our ftp server, but it's lying.

And just because.... This is what they had for the Beachcomber description on the Cracker website (now archived):

Bartholomew Gosnold gave cape cod it's name. but what kind of name is Gosnold? are there any Gosnolds in your phone book? i'm looking at the local phone book and there are no Gosnolds in the phone book. The vikings may have named this area the "Promontory of Vinland" of course this may have also been talking about a part of nova scotia or newfoundland. we will never really know. but one thing is for certain the vikings had much better names than Gosnold. "Erik the Red" for example. even "Lief" is much better. testing testing one two three is this thing on..

Pretty much sums it up.