this is a big week for our friends!

i just found out that our friend jon’s band, memories from the space age, (myspace page here) is going to be on third rail radio, this sunday, 6-9pm.

listen in on 88.1fm if you are in the college park, maryland area. if not, you can listen to the mp3 stream instead.

yay!

the breeders showed up in our little town tonight:

(minus tonya donelly, but what are you going to do, right?)

we had a luke-warm reaction to some of their new songs, but kim and kelley’s voices are still really amazing and hearing them do old songs was great. i think the crowd was having a mixed reaction to them also, at first. that is, until this happened *

it made the crowd finally both sing and bounce.

overall a good show, but it made me feel pretty old - all of this music is really from back-in-the-day at this point. oh and, also, i’m too sleepy and cranky to be out this late on a weeknight. ;P

speaking of cranky, a message to the guy who kept yelling “free bird” during quiet moments in the show: it still wasn’t funny the 4th or 5th time you yelled it. i’ll thank you for refraining from now on.

* it was a micro version of when we saw the pixies at bumbershoot a few years ago, their first real show after getting back together. the crowd couldn’t help but pitch in with the vocals at just the right moment during just the right song - it was strangely moving.

a friend of ours is working on the first churches meetinghouse capital campaign, raising money to restore the sanctuary after the ceiling collapsed and forced them to close. it is a beautiful building, a centerpiece of the town, and has been used as a meeting and performance place - for things both church-y and not.

tonight there was a fundraiser for the cause:

the nields performed a sing-along (apparently not to be mistaken for a hootenanny. very confusing.) in a church around the corner from first churches.

lots of people showed up, sang, had a fun time, and, hopefully, put some money in those donation envelopes:

good job pulling it all together, gl! congrats!

oh, and when we were walking by the church to take the above photo tonight, tom spotted this graffiti on the construction scaffolding:

i love northampton.

we saw northern state headline a show last night at the pearl street club. spouse and dri also performed.

look, it’s our girl, sprout!

you can check out a little bit of the show by watching my crummy little video here:

or go to their site, or the youtube to see much better quality. go on, all the cool kids are doing it.

oh, and at this point, i’m pretty sure thurston moore is stalking us.

thanks to an urgent text message from my sister this morning, i now know that the new kids on the block will be appearing on the today show this friday, april 4th. this friday!! the rumors of a reunion, as reported here on this fine blog months ago, were true.

click to see the trailer, and then watch the other three videos of joey, jon and danny.
or go here to choose from the videos.

but as i look around the today show’s page for its concert series, i don’t see nkotb listed. are they not going to perform? i can hardly wait until friday…the suspense…

squeeeee!

my sister sent me an email with the information below, with the subject line above.

“After months of speculation and rumor, the Kids are coming back. A well-placed source tells PEOPLE exclusively that New Kids On The Block are indeed getting back together.

The band’s Web site, www.nkotb.com, which had been dormant, is now back up and running in anticipation of the official announcement, which the source says will be made in the next few weeks.

The site currently features a television graphic with a fuzzy, flickering photos of NKOTB in their heyday, and a link inviting fans to sign up for info.

The boy band, which made legions of tweens swoon in the early ’90s, selling more than 50 million albums, became a worldwide phenomenon before calling it quits in 1994.

Eighteen years later, they’re still “Hangin’ Tough.” The oldest “Kid,” Jonathan Knight, now a real estate developer, will turn 40 later this year. Since the band’s demise, former members Donnie Wahlberg, 38, and Joey McIntyre, 35, have seen acting success, while Danny Wood, 38, has worked as a music producer and Knight’s brother, Jordan, 37, has continued to record.”

omg!
christina, we have to figure out if we are going to see them in nj, for old time’s sake, or in ma, their home turf. either way, start growing out that jordan-knight-tail.