Photos of Ray LaMontagne at the Boston Opera House on October 9th

Ray LaMontagne played to a packed Boston Opera House for the first of two nights on Thursday, October 9th. For someone who is apparently shy, he puts on one hell of a show. Instead of standing front and center with the rest of the musicians behind him — they formed a crescent and played as a band. To see this in action, look at the third photo in the slideshow.

Ray sang a bunch of songs from the new album Gossip In The Grain that lands in stores October 14th. He mixed in a few of his older tunes including crowd favorites “Jolene” and “Three More Days.”

You can listen to all the songs from Gossip In The Grain on his MySpace page. “Henry Nearly Killed Me (It’s A Shame)” is great on the CD; but it flies off the awesomeness scale at a live show. The album’s pre-order page at Amazon.com includes the video for “You Are The Best Thing.”

If you’re new to his music, listen to the Ray LaMontagne station on Pandora Radio and you’ll hear similar artists including Amos Lee, KT Tunstsall and Matt Kearney.

The Boston Globe’s Sarah Rodman seemed to enjoy the show, too.

Last night in the first of two shows at the Opera House, LaMontagne maintained that spell, holding a hooting and hollering audience in thrall to his thoughtful ruminations. With a firm grip on sultry southern soul traditions, the loose-limbed grooviness of roots rock, and the poetic possibilities of confessional songwriting, LaMontagne offered a delicately mesmerizing 90 minutes.

Ray LaMontagne Photo Slideshow

UPDATE: It looks like changes were made to Ray LaMontagne’s MySpace page — you can’t listen to all the songs off the new album anymore — but they’ve got a few there to check out.

October at the Lizard Lounge: Session Americana, Dennis Brennan and Bill Janovitz

The Lizard Lounge is making it easy to figure out what to do in October.

They’ve got an impressive line-up every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday throughout the month. On Tuesdays it’s Session Americana, unplugged and in the round. Wednesday it’s The Dennis Brennan Band with special guest Jennifer Kimball. If Tom Waits had more rock and soul, he’d sound like Dennis Brennan. And then on Thursday nights in October it’s Bill Janovitz and Crown Victoria. You might remember Bill as the singer from one of the greatest bands ever (ever!), Buffalo Tom.

The Lizard Lounge is a 21+ club located at 1667 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge between Harvard Square and Porter Square. Doors open between 7:30-8:30pm — check their website for the specific show you’re planning to attend. The cover charge ranges from $5-$8. These are all shows that could sell out so buy your tickets in advance online at Brown Paper Tickets.

Here’s a low-fi video I shot of Session Americana at one of their epic shows in April earlier this year at the Lizard Lounge.

Videos of Mandy Moore, Lori McKenna and Mike Viola at the Lizard Lounge

Boston Pop Underground organized an excellent Fall Residency for Mike Viola at the Lizard Lounge. The third night was especially fun with Mike’s old band the Candy Butchers reuniting for an evening plus special guests Lori McKenna and pop star and actress Mandy Moore. That was a lot of awesomeness to squeeze into a club that fits 105 people. Mike is moving to Los Angeles and is working with Mandy on her next album. But before that all happens, his cohorts Ducky Carlisle and Bleu are joining him to play a few shows in Japan. Check out the trio’s new band, The Major Labels.

Watch the videos I shot of Mike Viola, Lori McKenna and Mandy Moore at the Lizard Lounge in the player below. Click on the rectangular box next to the play button to move to the next video. Or watch the videos over on YouTube.

Update: MandyMooreForum.com has sent a bunch of traffic to Exploit Boston! — thanks for linking over to Exploit Boston!.

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