Hugworthy goodbye by the Silver Jews

The Silver Jews played their last concert this weekend in the depths of a cave, 350 feet underground in McMinnville, Tennessee.

You might remember the Silver Jews from the August 2008 issue, where my buddy Dave told the story of knocking on the lead singer's door.

It's fair to say we're obnoxious fans of the indie-rock/alt-country band. We bought our tickets to the concert long before we knew it would be the group's last. The most striking thing, which you won't see in the video of their last song ever played above, is after the concert, lead singer David Berman came out to the audience. One-by-one, in what started in a pretty awkward fashion, the fans came up to him to give a hug goodbye.

His writing was so powerful, that even though the band can be described as having a rough lo-fi sound, that many of us felt he had touched our lives. I hope everyone has had some kind of art touch their lives like that.

Life changing

Earlier, I promised a fanboy review of the Silver Jews concert this weekend at the Beachland Ballroom.

I've been trying to evangelize this band, passing out CDs of my favorite songs to neighbors, people on the bus, whomever. My neighbor Krista agreed to join us for Friday night's show. She said she listened to the music on iTunes the night before, found it a tad off-key and yet somehow beautiful. The lyrics were brilliant, she said, and she had to hear more. She said she loved it, and she would be buying some CDs. I said, "Was it a life-changing experience?" She hesitated, but then agreed.

Lead singer/writer David Berman is a tad awkward in concert, but that adds to the charm. After he got going, he really found his groove. He had most of the crowd won over before he even walked on stage. After the concert, his wife and the band's bassist, hung out with the fans after the show for a bit. I've met her once before, and she remembered me (including specific details) and even came by a tad later to say goodbye when she was leaving. It was a fanboy's dream come true.

The concert started with my favorite song, and I'll end this post with Berman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDYSHXYfYiY

Serving you up some fist cuisine

The Silver Jews concert is 10 days away, as told in our August issue by writer David Ferrara.

You should be there Friday, August 29 at the Beachland Ballroom, because it is the best band you never heard of. (Click here to buy tickets.)

Here's an excerpt from a way-too-long interview with band leader David Berman, giving insight into his writing process of one of the songs off his new album.

Things like "San Francisco B.C.", there's this line like, "He came at me with some fist cuisine," and it had previously been, "He came at me with all he had." I took that out because I realized "all he had" was a cliché. I thought really quickly "fist cuisine." It was one of the last things I was changing, but now I look at it and I realize if I had one more day, I probably would have changed it to "he served me up some fist cuisine."

In case I sound like a super-fan...I am. And you'll see that in my upcoming blog review of the show.