TT The Bears Place, Cambridge, MA - Vasco de Gama, Miracle Legion, Throwing Muses
Vasco de Gama were a synthpop band if I remember correctly. There were certainly a lot of them around then. Even I wanted to start one - never happened. They were named after the famous explorer. Any information about the band has been lost to the mists of time.
Throwing Muses were discussed to some extent in this post. This might have been the show that Kristin Hersh played while extremely pregnant. I was right down front for that one. The Muses hardly ever got it wrong back then. (They kinda lost me around Hunkpapa and again with Red Heaven.)
New Haven's Miracle Legion - now there was a band. They made a splash with The Backyard EP (released on Incas Records), especially the title track. The entire EP is terrific. They were always knocked as being an REM ripoff, but it really doesn't do 'em justice. They were probably playing songs from Surprise surprise surprise when I saw 'em.
One big downside of being a modern ML fan is that only Drenched made it to CD on a large scale. Me and Mr. Ray is going for $129 on Amazon. Their final CD, Portrait of a damaged family is $65.
Mark Mulcahy is still recording and runs the Mezzotint label.
The Trouser Press Miracle Legion summary.
Miracle Legion available on GEMM. Or catch up with some MP3s.
So far:
Number of shows/bands seen, January 1986: 7/17
Number of shows/bands seen, February 1986: 3/8
Number of shows/bands seen, March 1986: 1/3
Number of shows/bands seen, 1985: 13/32
Number of shows/bands seen, 1986: 11/28
Total number of shows: 24
Total number of bands seen: 60
For fans of Mark Mulcahy, MASS MoCA has a show of The Rosenbach Company, Saturday, July 8 at 8 PM.
Ben Katchor and composer Mark Mulcahy (co-creators of The Slugbearers of Kayrol Island) return to MASS MoCA with a new pop musical that mixes Katchor's projected animated images with live actors, singers, and musicians. The Rosenbach Company chronicles the life and times of Abe Rosenbach, the world's preeminent rare book dealer, and his brother and business partner Philip. The brothers' collection included such literary treasures as James Joyce's manuscript of Ulysses and the original illustrations for Alice in Wonderland; Katchor and Mulcahy use their story to explore the obsessive nature of collecting and the relationship between cultural and commercial pursuits.
Tickets are $20 orchestra, $16 mezzanine. MASS MoCA is in North Adams, in northern Berkshire County. To puchase tickets, call the box office at (413) MoCA 111, or visit www.massmoca.org.
Posted by: MASS MoCA | 2006.07.04 at 15:33