Thank God For Mental Illness: Brian Jonestown Massacre @ Emo's

It's always a drag to be a man out of time. Never more so than if you are a pissed-off neo-hippie from a broken home, crafting some of the most charmingly ramshackle psychedelia ever recorded in the era of Green Day. Yet this was the unfortunate fate of Anton Newcombe, a one-man rock and roll factory whose manic style of frontmanship ensured tenuous relations with band members, record labels, and audiences alike. (The documentary Dig!, which chronicles the BJM's rise and fall in conjunction with rival band The Dandy Warhols, is widely considered one of the best rock docs ever made.) The drama often outshone the music, at least in the press, and after one of the band's more epic flameouts Newcombe retreated to Europe and kept making records, largely by himself.

Yet despite a relatively recent new album (2007's shoegaze pastiche My Bloody Underground) Despite numerous (and legendary) appearances at SXSWs past, the infamous rock and roll steamroller known as the Brian Jonestown Massacre have been a scarce commodity on the live circuit, at least in the Americas: except for a one-off appearance in New York City last fall, the BJM haven't properly toured North America in what seems like ages.