Night After Night

Writing, a blog, and a newsletter. By Steve Smith.

Rock, pop, etcetera

  • Best of Boston Music 2015.

    Right now on the Boston Globe site, you can read a couple of pretty great team-sourced lists of the best recordings released by local artists in 2015. There's one for pop music and one for classical music; naturally I took advantage of my editorial access and contributed to both lists. Here are my five small

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  • Ten albums without which 2015 would have been less rich, and more.

    Today – Friday, December 11 – the Boston Globe posted lists of the best albums of 2015 as selected by six critics: staffers James Reed, Sarah Rodman, and Jeremy Eichler, plus regular contributors Julian Benbow, Jon Garelick, and Siddhartha Mitter. Those lists will all be in this Sunday's print edition, too. Last year, I was

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  • Acid flashback: Ben Stas photos posted on Noise Floor.

    Uncle Acid & the deadbeats, by Ben Stas/Noise Floor Photography When I posted my Boston Globe review of a concert by Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats here last week, I suggested that interested readers watch out for a subsequent post by photographer Ben Stas on Invisible Oranges. Turns out I was half-right: Ben's posted more

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  • Live review: Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Royale, Sept. 14, 2015

    Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, by Ben Stas/Boston Globe "Uncle Acid dispenses mystery, melody at Royale"Boston GlobeSeptember 16, 2015 A fun show with a solid bill, top to bottom. Keep an eye out for a report with copious photos from Globe shooter Ben Stas at metal e-zine Invisible Oranges; meanwhile, read what Ben wrote about

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  • Album review: Iron Maiden, ‘The Book of Souls’

    Album review: Iron Maiden, The Book of SoulsBoston GlobeSeptember 4, 2015 Another one from last Friday…this actually shared a page with my Scorpions feature story, which made for a rather interesting impression on folks who mostly knew me for my work in The New York Times, which was about 99.99999995 percent about classical/concert music. @nightafternight

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  • Interview: Rudolf Schenker of Scorpions

    Scorpions, by Oliver Rath "Scorpions celebrate a half-century, on record and onstage"Boston GlobeSept. 4, 2015 Did you know that the venerable German metal band Scorpions turns 50 this month? Neither did I… and according to this interview (and others I've read), neither did founding guitarist Rudolf Schenker until he went looking for an old tape

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  • Live review: Yes + Toto, Foxwoods Resort Casino, Aug. 7, 2015

    Billy Sherwood, by Leslie dela Vega for Rolling Stone Yes + TotoFoxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket, MA, Aug. 7, 2015RollingStone.comAugust 8, 2015 My second piece of music writing for Rolling Stone, and a review I ought to have posted a long time ago… the very first show by Yes following the untimely death of founding bassist-vocalist

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  • Live review: Slipknot + Lamb of God, Xfinity Center, Aug. 4, 2015

      Mick Thomson and Sid Wilson of Slipknot, by Matthew Shelter for Rolling Stone Slipknot + Lamb of GodXfinity Center, Mansfield, MA, Aug. 4, 2015RollingStone.comAugust 5, 2015 Much to my surprise and delight, my debut writing about music for Rolling Stone, to which I'd previously contributed a sizable Doctor Who feature last fall. I'm grateful

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  • RIP Chris Squire (4 March 1948 – 28 June 2015)

    Chris Squire, by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images   Utterly devastated beyond words to have to report the sad news of the passing of my dear friend, bandmate and inspiration Chris Squire. #yes — Geoffrey Downes (@asiageoff) June 28, 2015 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Farewell, Chris Squire. I came to Yes late, but made up for lost time, and I

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  • After 20 years, Keith Lockhart keeping the Pops youthful

    Keith Lockhart, by Suzanne Kreiter/Boston Globe "After 20 years, Keith Lockhart keeping the Pops youthful"Boston GlobeMay 5, 2015 My front-page story about Keith Lockhart and his eventful journey to the Boston Pops, with which institution he celebrates his 20th anniversary in a spring season that starts tonight (May 6) with a swanky concert featuring Bernadette

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  • Slayer at the Sinclair, April 29, 2015

    Slayer, by Benjamin Stas/Boston Globe Slayer at the Sinclair, April 29, 2015Boston GlobeMay 2, 2015

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  • Album review: Colin Stetson & Sarah Neufeld, ‘Never were the way she was’

    Album review: Colin Stetson & Sarah Neufeld, Never were the way she wasBoston GlobeApril 28, 2015 Proclaimed "the Neil deGrasse Tyson of the avant-garde saxophone world" in a concert review by some wag who used to write for The New York Times, Colin Stetson has made a beautiful new record with his Arcade Fire colleague

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  • The Nile Project at Tsai Performance Center, March 27, 2015

    The Nile Project, by Kayana Szymczak for the Boston Globe The Nile Project at Tsai Performance Center, March 27, 2015Boston GlobeMarch 30, 2015 I'm reasonably sure that I didn't use the word fad when I filed this review, since that term doesn't accurately portray my feelings about artistic and cultural fusion, which can be a

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  • Album review: Imperial Triumphant, ‘Abyssal Gods’

    Abyssal Gods by Imperial Triumphant Album review: Imperial Triumphant, Abyssal GodsBoston GlobeMarch 10, 2015 Easily the best new metal album I've heard this year. Anyone with a taste for adventurous extreme music is urged to investigate; for anyone already into bands like Deathspell Omega and Gorguts, this is a welcome necessity. Also worth your time:

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  • Bob Dylan and His Band, Orpheum Theatre, November 14, 2014

    Bob Dylan and His Band, Orpheum Theatre, November 14, 2014Boston Globe, November 16, 2014 "You were off base with your review. He was horrible. I couldn't understand any of his lyrics or the songs he was seeing. It was an awful show and I wouldn't ever go back to see him. The band sounded beautiful

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  • Album review: Buzz Osborne, ‘This Machine Kills Artists’

    Album review: Buzz Osborne, 'This Machine Kills Artists'Boston GlobeJuly 8, 2014

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  • Yes at Blue Hills Bank Pavilion, Boston, MA, July 8, 2014 (setlist and photos)

    Yes performing "Siberian Khatru" at Blue Hills Bank Pavilion When it comes to the Yes shows I've caught since I first started attending in 2004 (late start, I know), as well as those I've heard via various audience-sourced recordings floating around on the Interwebs, there's a simple, fairly reliable rule of thumb: As goes "Siberian

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  • Interview: Steve Howe of Yes, July 7, 2014

    Steve Howe, left, with Yes, by Rob Shanahan "Yes forges ahead with classic albums and new music"The Boston Globe, July 7, 2014 My second Boston Globe byline, and a treat I couldn't resist giving myself, having seen Yes five times since 2004 – the last tour to date with vocalist Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick

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  • Another ending, and a new beginning.

    [I intended to post this here on Monday, but the DDoS hacker attack on Typepad put paid to that notion, so I posted this on Facebook. Here it is, in case you missed it before now.—Steve] A new baby…a new work status…and now, a new job. What started with a simple email I received a

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  • Colin Stetson with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus at Merkin Concert Hall, March 22, 2014

    Colin Stetson and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, by Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times Colin Stetson with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus at Merkin Concert Hall, March 22, 2014The New York Times, March 25, 2014 This one came out really, really quickly, despite some hair-splitting fact-checking that ran up to deadline hour. Once I had

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