Backstage Pass

     The next chapter in the ever-evolving saga of Taking Back Sunday started with a bang Friday night, as the band made its Madison Square Garden debut.
    Though the Rockville Centre-based band's 45-minute set was shorter than usual and the sound was a bit muddy, it did offer some clues about TBS’ next move, especially since the addition of guitarist/singer Matt Fazzi who replaced Fred Mascherino in February.
    Opening with “Error Operator” and “Liar,” which showcase the heavy-hitting guitarwork of Ed Reyes and Fazzi, the band is concentrating on the hard rock end of their catalog and making those songs sound more aggressive than their original versions. (They even look more aggressive as bassist Matt Rubano bounded around  the stage and Mark O'Connell pounded the drums.) Even the one still-untitled new song they unveiled, with lines like “I’m ready to begin again,” has more in common with Queens of the Stone Age than the emo-pioneering sounds of their debut “Tell All Your Friends.”
    That doesn’t mean the band is ready to abandon its past, though, giving the early hit “Cute Without the ‘E’” a prime spot in the set and featuring singer Adam Lazzara scream, “Louder!” as the crowd sang along. But they do seem set on changing it, as a smiling Fazzi gave the backing vocals a poppier sound than the original, or as Lazzara busted out Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” in the middle of “A Decade Under the Influence.”
    Though TBS is currently working on a new album in Brooklyn, they jumped at the chance to play The Garden, even unveiling a new backdrop (and t-shirt) that uses graffiti to change the iconic “I” in the “I (Heart) NY” logo to “TBS.”
    “[My Chemical Romance] gave us a call and said, 'Hey, do you guys wanna play Madison Square Garden?'  Lazzara told the crowd.  And we said, 'That's not funny, man. That's a mean joke.' But they were serious.
    The night also closed a chapter for My Chemical Romance, whose two-year tour supporting the great album “The Black Parade” ended Friday in grand style, headlining the venue where the band’s brothers Gerard and Mikey Way first developed their arena rock dreams at a Smashing Pumpkins concert.
    In front of family and friends, as well as a capacity crowd, My Chem made the most of the memory with powerful versions of “Welcome to the Black Parade” and “I Don’t Love You” and a dramatic take on “Helena” that left the crowd wanting more.

SETLIST : Error Operator / Liar / Set Phasers to Stun / One-Eighty by Summer / (untitled new song) / Cute Without the ‘E’ / Spin / A Decade Under the Influence / What It Feels Like To Be A Ghost / MakeDamnSure

PHOTO: Matt Fazzi at Madison Square Garden by Charles Eckert for Newsday. 

Hayes Carll paused a moment for a confession.

"I don't have a lot of love songs," he told the Bowery Ballroom crowd. "I have a lot of sex songs."

He also has a lot of songs about drinking, playing in bars and love gone wrong. Do you really need any more reasons to run out and buy his fine "Trouble in Mind" album?

Well, Carll delivered many more, with his winding Dylanesque rockers like "A Lover Like You" and his engaging stories about playing in Crystal Beach, Texas, roadhouses where he was part of the daily specials ("All the fried chicken you can eat and Hayes Carll - $4.99").

All that experience has made him quick on his feet, too. When he started his gorgeous ballad "Willing to Love Again" with the line "I drink too much" and received an inappropriate "Woooo!" as a response for the somber confession, he smiled and started over, saying, "You're fun."

Well, he would know. 

SETLIST: Faulkner Street / Beaumont / I Don't Wanna Grow Up / A Lover Like You / Drunken Poet's Dream / Willing To Love Again / I Got a Gig / Wish I Hadn't Stayed So Long / Down the Road Tonight / Bad Liver and a Broken Heart 

PHOTO: Hayes Carll by Keith Carter for Lost Highway 

You can't keep Regina Spektor down.

Though it wouldn't have been understandable to cancel her free-to-festivalgoers appearance at the Tribeca/ASCAP Music Lounge on Tuesday, she decided to play hurt. “In my defense, I did get injured at the Tribeca Film Festival,” she said, after hobbling onto the stage, favoring her left ankle. Spektor fell down the stairs after a screening of “The War,” joking that she probably did “serious damage” but didn’t seek medical attention.

“I’m in denial,” she said. “I’m just icing it.”

Trooper that she is, Spektor’s performance didn’t suffer at all, pulling out gorgeous versions of "Fidelity," "Samson" and even the appropriate “Bobbin’ for Apples” for the occasion, putting extra emphasis on the line, “I’ll always opt to fall down these stairs in the end.”

She did buckle a bit after stomping and drumming her way through "Poor Little Rich Boy." "I almost made myself pass out with a broken ankle," she said, afterwards. "See, I'm such a --- baby."

"Toughen up," she told herself. Then, she did.

SETLIST: On the Radio / The Flowers / Better / Poor Little Rich Boy / Apres Moi / Bobbin' for Apples / That Time / Fidelity / Field Below / Samson 

Halfway through Estelle's show at Highline Ballroom, John Legend, who signed her to his new Homeschool Records label and produced her new album "Shine," turned to the crowd and said, "Now you know why I believed in her."

Yeah, we do. For more than hour, Estelle proved herself to be the real deal.

And all the star power that showed up to help her out -- Legend, reggae star Kardinal Offishall, the great Rah Digga, and Gym Class Heroes frontman Travis McCoy -- was a sure sign that the rest of the world will soon find this out for themselves. Her mix of reggae, hip-hop and pop was addictive, as was her stage banter, which ranged from stories about the relationships that spawned some of her songs to philosophical advice ("We've --- up the ozone layer, so if you like someone, have sex. There's not much time.") to some helpful ways to differentiate her from the other British female singers currently flocking to the States ("I don't do drugs. I love Amy, but I don't.")

It's a good distinction since Estelle came across as a cross between a streetwise Amy Winehouse and a lucid Lauryn Hill -- a combination that is pretty hard to resist.

PHOTO: Estelle for Homeschool/Atlantic Records 

Estelle ready to 'Shine' [Newsday]
Listen to 'Shine' [VH1]