Review | Long Time & Caroline Rose @ Great Scott
Photos by Matt LeBel and me. Any halfway adequate-looking ones of Long Time are his.
Tuesday night, Allston’s sweatered and plaid faithful flocked to Great Scott – no shade, I have lived in Allston, and in the wintertime I am reliably either sweatered or plaid – to see jazzy Boston folkster Thomas John Cadrin take a big huge leap. This was his first show with a full band, and as such, a new name. The band is named Long Time, and if you don’t instantly see the potential there to yell out “We love you, Long Time!”, please report to me immediately for Remedial Smart Remarks class.
The new name isn’t the only change. He played both new and older material, and every time he said “this is a new one,” things got louder and more rock-and-rollular, which was totally ace. Don’t misconstrue – I am not casting aspersions on the more folky end of the spectrum. Dear reader, I come from the land of Birkenstocks and hugs; I worked at a huge folk festival every summer for years; I am on record as Officially Digging It. But bringing some more rock to the table really works for Long Time. Those songs were my favorites of the bunch. The older material is more what I would think of as “warm bath music” in that it sounds about right to listen to while soaking in a warm bath. It’s calming. You can consider for yourself – this is their song “Victory March” from a past show at the Middle East.
I’m looking forward to seeing more from Long Time – I want to see the direction they take this new band. Will the ability to be bigger and louder with the full band govern the sound? No doubt they don’t want to lose the sound Cadrin started with, either. So we shall see! They’re playing Great Scott again on Dec. 18th, and then hightailing it down to New York to record at Converse Rubber Tracks. Big things, no doubt, are happening.
They were opening up for Caroline Rose, who, in her words, isn’t so much from New Hampshire like the rest of her band, but parks her car there sometimes. And yeah, the way she pronounced “park my car” – “perk my kerr” – is sure enough a sign she’s telling the truth there.
What she brought was raucous foot-stompers that, maybe if you weren’t paying much attention, just sounded like a party good time. But these songs channel rage and frustration with the status quo – her current single, “Blood on Your Bootheels,” addresses Trayvon Martin’s murder. Do not mistake it for the wholesome old-time country music it sounds like: this is punk by definition. She is a barn-burner and I am 100% on board. Not least because, as I mentioned last night, I have to give it up for another girl who chooses to rock the tube socks as performance-wear, and they’re even red-and-white. They don’t say “BACON” on them, but you can’t win ’em all. I’m pretty sure this means we are best friends.
Long Time Facebook / Twitter / Instagram
Caroline Rose Facebook / Twitter / website
