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they’re taking over
I don’t mean to make this a Sigur Rós-centric blog, but here’s Stereogum‘s great report from Bonnaroo 2008:
They (i.e. Barbara Streisand) say people who need people are the luckiest people. But you know who really are the luckiest people? People who have a ticket to see Sigur Rós this summer. It’s not that I haven’t seen ’em before, but it’s been 24 hours and I’m still paralyzed from the 1AM bliss fest of their set Saturday night in That Tent. Here’s why you should sell all your possessions to secure a ticket to see them right now:
- The current setlist is a catalog-spanning beast, showcasing hallmark moments from each of the band’s style shifts, from the dark and dank Ágætis byrjun, to the slowest-of-core unpronounceabilites of the ( ) stuff, to the triumphant Takkisms. (Saturday brought “Svefn-g-englar” [the “it’s you-oooo” song], “Njósnavélin” [the “yu-silo” song], “Olsen Olsen,” “Hoppípolla,” “Glósóli,” and non-album crowd fave “Hafsól” [the drumstick-on-the-bass song]).
- The Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust stuff crushes it live, comes with lots of horns, ups the band’s overall joy quotient, and really seems to have loosened them up, as people, even more. Last night these included “Inni Mer Syngur Vitleysingur,” “Godan Daginn,” “Vid Spilum Endalaust,” “Festival,” “All Alright” (the one in English!) and of course “Gobbledigook.”
- Umm, “Gobbledigook.” Which winds up having 12 people on stage (fully clothed, sorry), a drumline powered by amiina, confetti guns, and, most notably, a wildly grinning Jonsi.
- The mariachi band that parades the stage during “Sé Lest” has a pretty great outfit.
- They are the best band in the world.
Read the entire Stereogum Bonnaroo entry **HERE**, plus check out some YouTube videos from the show there as well…
~Dan – np: Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog – Party Intellectuals
REVIEW: JUDE Christodal @ Aladdin Theater (Portland, OR – – 6/6/08)
FYI… PHOTOS of the SHOW at the BOTTOM
Before I begin… any tapers at the PDX show? If so, email me.
OK, well, I try to see Jude Christodal every time he comes by. Trouble is… the last time I saw him was at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN, around Memorial Day in 1999. That was, in fact, the first time I saw him, too. He was opening up for Ben Folds Five… and he blew me away (just as BFF did), and I went to Best Buy and bought his Maverick debut, No One Is Really Beautiful, the very next day.
Anyway, he’s now pretty much 100% independent in the U.S. (and on Naïve Records in France). Being from L.A. and on a French record label, he seems to either only tour the West Coast or France. He also writes for TV shows and whatnot… you, all, and everybody may have heard his song on LOST (the… um… pretty bad “poppy rock song” by the hobbit’s band) and his song on the City of Angels soundtrack (“I Do”)…
“You All Everybody” ain’t his normal fare, mind you. His normal fare is oft-dramatic, oft-comedic, oft-falsetto, oft-witty, oft-poetic singer-songwriter extraordinaire. He’s on the short list* of acoustic singer-songwriters who’ve broken through this metal heart… in short, Jude rocks. If you haven’t heard him, you’re doing yourself an injustice, IMO.
*-others on the singer-songwriter shortlist: Elliott Smith, Peter Mulvey, Glen Phillips, Sufjan Stevens,… and some Cincinnati locals like Ash, Ryan, Jason, Kim, Kelly…
Living in the Midwest up until last fall, I didn’t get a chance to see him again… until last night. I made the ~2 hour drive up to Portland from Eugene last night to the lovely Aladdin Theater (SE side of PDX). It’s a quaint old movie or play house… old, but still cute… not in total disrepair like many of these types of venues I’ve witnessed. Great concessions, too… goat cheese, mushroom & sundried tomato pizza and Fat Tire Amber, Deschutes Mirror Pond & Pyramid heff on tap (score!).
The opener, Ryan Andrew (from Castella), was good. He didn’t get warmed up himself until about the third song. Good voice and interesting songs. He played about 30 minutes, which consisted of:
- I Ain’t Comin’ Home Tonight
- It Hurts Like Hell
- The Only One (fav of set)
- When She’s Gone (guessing on name)
- Wonderwall (great version of Oasis tune… another fav of the set)
- The First Time
JUDE came on just after 9pm, and played with basically no break until about 11:15 and then came back out for a 4 song encore, wrapping up around 11:30… two and a half hours of quality Jude…
One of the funniest things (and there were many) was a girl named Molly brought up a sequined duck to the stage as a gift for Jude. “The prettiest thing a stripper ever owned,” gasped Jude. Then he quickly back-peddled, as to not seem unappreciative. “I mean at some point the dresses don’t fit anymore… I’m gonna sequin ducks.” He even serenaded it with a song later in the night (see pics below).
The crowd was very lively / rowdy / talkative / chatty / request-y. Jude fulfilled most of the requests. Some, though, he just couldn’t remember (his own “Charlie” and the chords to Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy“). He played over 30 songs, 2.5 hours, great concert all around. He also had many crowd interactive sing-a-longs. The best was the “drunk singing choir” for “Everything’s Alright.” It was hilarious… because it was true.
“The Minnesota people” were a bit too loud, but eh… it was all fun.
Oh, and Jude mentioned that the long-promised Cuba CD is on its way. Finally!! Apparently, it’s already done, in the can, what have you…
Here’s what he played:
- Out of L.A.
- I’m Sorry Now
- Mayfair Market
- Indian Lover (here’s where the duck was gifted)
- Break Up Song
- Run to My Room
- Rick James
- I Know (one of the best songs of the long night)
- In Between
- I Do
- Distance contest: Eastern Washington was the winner after a few disqualifications… namely Detroit (Oregon) and Minnesota (moved here from, not travel for show)
- Gay Cowboy (he wrote this before Brokeback Mountain… but check out this unofficial video)
- Prophet
- toying with “Crazy“
- Brad and Suzy
- Everything’s Alright (I Think It’s Time)
- Black Superman
- The Asshole Song
- Baby Ruth in Atlanta
- You Mama You
- Madonna (another one of the best songs of the long night)
- Love Letters / Ain’t No Sunshine (or maybe Love, Love, Love / Ain’t No Sunshine… or maybe all 3 songs…)
- Calling All Friends
- End of My Rainbow
- Cuba
- Fallen Angel (aka Fly Again)
- Money
- Your Eyes
- Encore: On the Dance Floor
- I Want a Duck (improv)
- Paper Towel
- Taking More and Giving Less
Note: I’ve got some pics from the show at the bottom of this blog post. Some of them are “artistic” (meaning: fuzzy).
Go check out his music on iTunes, Amazon… or CDBaby (you can sample songs there, too). My fav albums of his (though all are good) are Sarah (4th album, blue cover) and No One Is Really Beautiful (2nd album, greenish cover).
The appropriate linkage:
- http://www.judemusic.com/
- http://www.myspace.com/judechristodal
- http://cdbaby.com/cd/jude2
- http://www.naive.fr/
- http://www.myspace.com/ryanandrewsmusic
- http://www.officialcastellaband.com/
- http://www.aladdin-theater.com/
I’m going to the Bill Frisell & Eyvind Kang show tonight in Eugene (I’m stoked)… that’s all for now…
professional teller machine user,
~Dan
np: Various Artists – You Gan’t Boar Like an Eabla When You Work With Turkrys
JUDE CONCERT PHOTOS
all pictures (cc) 2008 Daniel Temmesfeld,
you may use freely under a creative commons attribution
(click for larger on photos below)
OK, judefuzz04 isn’t my photo… ::blush::
mini-REVIEW: Michael Franti & Spearhead @ the Cuthbert Amphitheater (Eugene, OR – – 5/24/08)
WOW! Fantastic show at the Cuthbert Amphitheater in Eugene, OR, last night… it was beautiful day, then it rained for the show… but it was a BLAST!
Openers: Lilla D’Mone Trio with My G – great musicianship in a hip-hop, funk soul rock realm. The lyrics were a little lacking in my opinion… they seemed to mean well but fall short. Alas, it’s probably why I gravitate to more instrumental bands anyway. Good pop lyricists are too few and far between. If I had to grade ’em… a B. Blue Scholars – a DJ & MC duo from Seattle. They were good, but I spent most of their set in the long and slow coffee line. Hmph. What I heard, I enjoyed (B+). The Coup – they were a very good act. Sort of a rap funk rock thing going on. Played for an hour, very enjoyable (solid A). Too many openers for my taste, but they were pretty good (all things considered).
Michael Franti and Spearhead put on a GREAT show. I had never heard them outside of their samples on MySpace, but my wife (and her boss) wanted to go… and the vibe I heard was good; so what the heck. Anyway, amazing show… good mix of rock, reggae, and hip-hop. I didn’t know the names of the songs, but I liked ’em… and even in the rain, it didn’t stop people from dancing in the aisles (and on the chairs). Oh, he did play a song I knew… Nirvana‘s “Come As You Are.”
I’m a fan of his music now… great stuff.
The Appropriate Linkage:
Eugene’s Saturday Market Live Stage 2008
I usually head down early to Eugene’s Farmers’ Market / Saturday Market for good local veg… then sometimes, if there’s good music scheduled, I make my way back in the afternoon…
Here are my 2008‘s catches, in descending chronological order (updated as they happen -or- as I remember to write about them)…
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May 17th: Pojama People (http://www.myspace.com/glennleonard) Good thing they had a tagline on the poster at Saturday Market; otherwise, there’s no way I’d head back out in the heat (it was bloody hot today). The tagline was something along the lines of “the music of Frank Zappa.”
I found a spot in the shade (thankfully)… I bought an ice cream sandwich (which ended up being a totally messy pile of yum)… I sat down and took in some Zappa and Zappa-inspired tunes (a not as messy pile of yum). They are made up of Alli Bach on percussion, winds, vocals; Glenn Leonard on drums (and a 13-yo student, Spencer Ewing, very capably sat in a few tunes, too); Brian Casey on bass; Ted Clifford on keys; and B-Bo on guitar. Per some webpages, they also sometimes have Ike Willis sing with them sometimes, too… cool.
They played a lot of instrumental songs, and they also played some Zappa tunes with lyrics with “liberty taken to them” — almost all politically bent (which is fine with me… and likely Zappa). Here’s what they played (thanks to Glenn for the setlist corrections)…
- Zoot Allures
- Arrogant Dubya Son (new lyrics to FZ’s “Idiot Bastard Son“)
- Help, I’m Iraq (new lyrics to FZ’s “Help, I’m a Rock“)
- RDNZL
- Duke of Prunes
- Eat That Tin Kong (a mashup of “Eat That Question” & “King Kong“)
- Sofa
- If I Fell (Beatles)
- You Are What You Is / Dupree’s Paradise / Improv
- Alien Orifice / Tribute to American Idol (new lyrics to FZ’s “Tinsel Town Rebellion“)
- McCain (new lyrics to Clapton’s “Cocaine“)
- Let’s Make Blackwater Turn Back (new lyrics to FZ’s “Let’s Make the Water Turn Black“)
- Village of the Sun / Achidna’s Arf / Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing? (with “13“)
They’re playing at Sam Bonds Garage on June 28th. If I’m free, I hope to see them again. They were good (ie- not your usual cover band).
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May 3rd: Big Roy and the Twigs (http://www.myspace.com/bigroyandthetwigs) I went to see Big Roy because I know him via the head of the accounting department at UofO, Steve Matsunaga (Roy is Steve’s son). I heard some of their tunes on MySpace, and figured, “what the hell.” I showed up, and they had already started their set. It was hot (not bloody hot), but I caught 4 or 5 songs. They had some decent chops, alas, all I really remember is that they seemed to play a lot of alt-rock covers (Red Hot Chili Peppers’ songs appeared at least twice). It would have been nice to hear some of their originals, too. I was melting; so I headed back to the car. Nice set, though. Hopefully I can catch ’em again sometime…
~Dan
REVIEW: That1Guy & Buckethead @ McDonald Theatre (Eugene, OR – – 3/22/08)
’twas an oddrocker double bill yesterday… That1Guy and Buckethead.
This was my fourth time seeing Mr. 1Guy. My review of his show last fall is here. That1Guy started right after 9pm and played for just about an hour. He started out with the haunting strings of “Forgotten Whales” (a song that actually made it on our wedding CDs for the dinner… teehee). He played a lot of instrumental tracks on the magic pipe (a big metal pipe jacked up on electricity), but he also did “Buttmachine,” “Weasel Pot Pie,” and “The Moon is Disgusting.” I kinda wish he would’a done “One,” alas he didn’t. He pulled out the magic boot (a cowboy boot jacked up on electricity)… it’s got a nice tabla-like sound. He also pulled out the magic saw (a large saw jacked up on electricity) and played “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” A couple times in his set he went to a very repetitive place, alas, still an overall great show from That1Guy. Check him out sometime if he comes to your town… todays show was a solid 4.5 stars.
Check out some videos of That1Guy (click the pictures)…
Live in Oz:
One:
Buttmachine:
Buckethead went on at 10:30pm. This was my third time seeing him, and my wife’s first time. I was bummed with no live band backing him. He played along to drum & bass & ’lectronic DAT tracks… that were TOO LOUD. It was too hard to hear him play his guitar half the time. Plus the live band atmosphere is much better. Anyway, he started out with “Jump Man/Night of the Slunk”… played a bunch of other stuff… also played “Stick Pit”… we had to leave 45 minutes in. The volume levels were PAINFUL (and we had earplugs in)… but not so much the guitar volume levels, mainly the backing tracks… ::sigh:: Guitars: 4.5 stars… everything else: 2 stars… so much so that it was unenjoyable past 45 minutes. I totally missed the potential for his patented nun-chuk robot dancing.
I hope to see him again soon (July in Dayton with my brother, maybe)… I hope he has his band back with him.
The appropriate linkage:
the guy with the shirt, the other guy with the pipe, and the guy with the hat walk into a bar
Three blogs within 24 hours… oy, not a good sign.
Anyway, I’m exicted about two more shows coming up (I love living in a cool college town)…
NYC trumpeter Peter Evans is playing at Cozmic Pizza on Monday, Feb 4th. He’s adventurous, he’s played with John Zorn in the past (yay), and his band projects (Mostly Other People Do the Killing and Spärks) sound cool, too.
http://www.myspace.com/peterevanstrumpet
http://www.myspace.com/mostlyotherpeopledothekilling
http://www.myspace.com/nycsparks
And then… That1Guy and Buckethead on the same bill (Eugene’s McDonald Theatre on Saturday, March 22nd). Cool. It’s the Saturday after finals… and my wife says she’s up for the challenge (she likes That1Guy enough, but has only really been “confronted” by Buckethead’s calmer stuff… as it’s good for massages and our weddings CDs, but not what he really does “in concert,” per se). :-)
http://www.myspace.com/that1guy
http://www.myspace.com/bucketheadfann
http://www.myspace.com/bucketheadnfriends
~Dan
REVIEW: Nellie McKay @ The Shedd (Eugene, OR – – 10/5/07)
Nellie McKay at the John G. Shedd Institute in downtown Eugene, OR – Fri, Oct 5th
We got to the venue right at 7:30. It’s a quaint music hall that was obviously converted from a church back in the day. There are hymnal racks and communion “empty” holders on the back of each pew. Anyway, Nellie ended up showing up late, as she was flying in from San Fran that afternoon. They pushed back the show only 30 minutes. There was no opener; so we wandered around the Institute for a bit. There’s a place to have dinner before the show… so that’s something to keep in mind for next time. There was also a nice “living room” where they had the concessions and merch. Amongst the concessions was a bottle of wine with Nellie’s picture pasted over the label. A local winery was one of the hosts/sponsors of the concert, and I suppose they were having fun.
We got to our seats and didn’t really like their location (quite right of center with Nellie’s piano blocking any chance of us seeing Nellie sing). The audience seemed to be showing up late; so we moved over to the (better) left side… only had to move over for people with tickets for our seats once (not bad).
Anyway, she played a great mix of songs from all three of her albums, as well as many standards, and some possibly not-so-standards. Here’s what I jotted down as the setlist (forgive the few that I had no clue on and couldn’t find info on from The Internets):
SET
Change the World
Clonie (start/stop… she complained that she needed to do it “punchier” and restarted it)
In a Sentimental Mood [Duke Ellington]
Oversure
Gin Rummy
The Dog Song
Toto Dies
Won’t U Please B Nice
Yodel
Cupcake
The Down Low (start/stop…. she messed up near the beginning of the song… then said how famous people either have “drugs or a teleprompter” and this show’s too cheap for either of those… then she restarted it…)
Columbia is Bleeding
http://www.columbiacruelty.com
http://www.stopcolumbia.org
Prisoner of Love (beautiful & haunting…) [Kitty Wells version]
Pounce (we sing this to our puppy a lot… a lot…)
Politan
Mother of Pearl
(switched to electric Ukelele)
If I Were a Bell [from “Guys and Dolls”]
Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter [Herman’s Hermits]
(back to piano)
I Wanna Get Married
A-Tisket, A-Tasket [Ella Fitzgerald]
There You Are In Me
Lali Est Paresseux
Mein Auto Zoom (thx for the title, nightlight)
Me Gusta Mañana (thx for the title, nightlight)
(back to front mic… singing to CD)
ZOMBIE!! (she went all out… and it was hilarious…)
Encore:
“Oh Freddie, I’m sorry…” (I don’t know what song this was)
…some song with something about “Jesus on toast” in it
Sari
Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans [Louis Armstrong]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
It was a fantastic, hour and 45 minute set (or so) from this energetic songstress. She truly seemed to be having a fun time up on stage, and the audience also had a blast. She had a signing session in the living room after the show. Had we known that was gonna happen, I would’a pulled out my VegNews issue with her big article… alas, we didn’t know. Nor did we want to fight the crowd to talk to her… Margarita was tired from working all day, and I was tired from doing geometric average annual returns and stock correlation homework all day. So we called it a night…
Check out some of Nellie’s tunes:
Or check out VegNews:
Anyway… I hope to see Nellie again sometime. I’m glad we finally got to see her yesterday after being a fan of her music for going on 5 years… :-)
~Dan
now playing: groundtruther (charlie hunter & bobby previte) with john medeski – altitude
REVIEW: That 1 Guy and Grynch @ John Henry’s (Eugene, OR – – 9/18/07)
Well, I think I’ll start posting concerts reviews here… as my “other outlet” is now not available to me (probably for the best).
On Tuesday night, I had the great opportunity to catch one of my favorite one-man musical freak-shows… That 1 Guy (http://www.that1guy.com/). I’d seen him twice before at the Mad Frog in Cincinnati, Ohio. I moved across country for school with my wife and puppy, and what do you know? T1G was playing here less than 2 weeks after we arrived. Yay!
Anyway, I started the evening with a fantastic meal (gardenburger w/ bleu) and beer choice (a Brother Thelonious Belgian-style ale) at the Eugene City Brew Pub. I walked around the corner to John Henry’s for the early show (it started at 7:30pm). I, luckily, got to catch most of the opening set by local metal band Grynch. They seemed to me to be a good combination of what I like in the Deftones and Fear Factory. They were also fairly tight on stage, and had a very professional sound. A welcome surprise to what you usually end up with local openers.
That1Guy came on around 8:30 perhaps? I don’t know… but it was good to see him set-up the pipe (how does he get it through customs when doing his Aussie gigs?). For those of you who aren’t familiar with That1Guy… well, he plays what most would consider to be plumbing (see picture below). Yet I’ve come to the realization after three shows and many spins of his CDs that he’s not even close to being a novelty act. He makes such well-conceived rhythms and melodies from his triggered-up & strung-up pipe, kick drums, magic saw, and tabla-stylized cowboy boot. His lyrics are usually plays on words and rhyme-y nonsense, but the main draw is his ferocity and skill in wielding that magic pipe to do his bidding. It’s a drum machine and stringed-instrument all in one. Truly a sight to see…
He played songs from his two albums (Songs in the Key of Beotch and the new The Moon is Disgusting)… Bananas, Oranges, the Moon is Disgusting, Buttmachine, Birds, Weasel Potpie… et cetera. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and the crowd seemed uber-into-it as well.
http://www.that1guy.com/
http://www.myspace.com/that1guy
the opener: http://www.myspace.com/grynch
~Dan
mini-REVIEW: Silverchair in Philly & Detroit (late-July & early-August ’07)
two little blurbs… two great shows… too much driving…
Philly~ I drove too much over this past weekend (16 hours of driving in a 34 hour window)… but I got to see Silverchair for the first time. It was at the Fillmore at the TLA in Philadelphia. The opener, We Are the Fury, was “alright.” I’ve seen better, but I’ve definitely seen worse. Silverchair came on around 10:10 and played around an hour and a half. The first two songs were muddy as hell, all bass and vocals, but luckily the sound guy fixed it by the 3rd song. They played most of the new album, Young Modern, “The Lever” and “Greatest View” from Diorama, “Emotion Sickness” and “Ana’s Song (Open Fire)” from Neon Ballroom, “The Door” and “Freak” from Freakshow, and none from Frogstomp (thankfully).
Detroit~ great show!! “Without You” instead of “The Lever” and no “Low” when compared to Philly. Fantastic set regardless!!!
~Dan
REVIEW: my crazy music-filled NYC trip in March 2007
Wow… today is my “first day off” from a show since last Friday (2/9)…
Here’s how NYC “for business” played out on the “for enjoyment” sense of it…
SATURDAY 3/10 I arrived in town at 11:30am. Checked in, and then headed up to “scout out” the Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater as that’s where MASADA was playing that night. While I was there, I got word that there were two free jazz shows going on that afternoon that were sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of U.S. Department of State. It was apparently spreading jazz music to 3rd world countries, and this was the coming home show. I love jazz, and I love how sometimes governmental bodies put good money to use for the arts. It seems weird how we seem to only export bombs lately. Jazz is better than bombs, but less than food and medical aid. I guess I should just be glad that is wasn’t bombs or Christina Aguilera instead of jazz.
Anyway, the Ari Roland Quartet was the free 1pm show. Great quartet, not unlike some quartets that I like… more straight jazz, flashy but not experimental (IMO). Enjoyable, but not mind blowing. “Safe jazz,” if you ask me. Their drummer was pretty good. My favorite song was the one penned by their piano-player. The Cultures of Rhythm was the free 3pm show (both of these free shows were at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Lincoln Center). COR were a bit more interesting. It was a jazz quartet, but “bouncier.” And it featured djembe, drums, hammond organ and a trumpeter. Trumpet usually excites me more than safe saxaphone jazz. Anyway, this band (Culture of Rhythm) had a great vibe. Very enjoyable…
After these free shows, I was pooped… and headed back to my hotel in Chelsea for a nap. The evening show was Masada and Cecil Taylor at Lincoln Jazz Center’s Rose Theater. This was Masada’s last show ever. I drove down to Raleigh, NC, last fall to see tham at Duke. This show, they amazed even more. Masada has many incarnations (as do many of John Zorn’s projects), but the standard acoustic quartet of John Zorn on alto sax, Dave Douglas on trumpet, Greg Cohen on bass, and Joey Baron on drums is the true Masada band. Masada tunes are all written by John Zorn… he’s written upwards of 300 one-page melodic tunes. These one-page 16-bar songs become the framework for jazz improvization. While some of it becomes quite adventurous and “avant-garde,” it still remains very melodic — which can be scarce for John Zorn material. Anyway, the four members of Masada were ON that night. It was truly a beautiful hour+ of music. I’m sad that it’s their last show as this original quartet, but I’m glad that I got to see them twice. I didn’t stick around for Cecil… I had other shows I wanted to fit in…
I took the subway from Columbus Circle (near Central Park) all the way down to the Bowery… walked about a mile to get to the Stone (an avant-garde music space) and made it just in time to see the Joe Morris Trio. It was basically a guy (Joe Morris) noodling on a guitar while another guy (Daniel Levin) was noodling on a cello and another guy (Michael Evans) was noodling on a drumkit. Udon!
I was toying with the idea of heading way the fuck back uptown to Lincoln Center for the 11:30pm show for Kenny Werner‘s Lawn Chair Society. I dig the CD (and it features trumpeter Dave Douglas and saxaphonist Chris Potter), but I didn’t have tickets and thought it’d be sold out, and I knew Dave Douglas wasn’t playing in the band that night (and I had just seen Chris Potter play a few weeks earlier in Cincinnati). It was rainy and I didn’t find the subway stop where I left it last; so I walked about 2 miles to Union Center (my pedometer was upwards of 11 miles walked that 1st day — it got about half that every day afterwards). My sleepy head won out and I crashed back to my hotel in Chelsea eventually…
Oh, speaking of crashing… they had 7th Ave closed from 27th St to 23rd St most of the day on the Saturday and Sunday that I showed up because they were filming chase scenes for the upcoming Borne Ultimatum. I didn’t catch a peek at anyone famous (Matt Damon or anyone), but it was interesting to see how they blocked a major road off for the better part of the weekend. The secondary chase seemed to happen right outside my window (on 25th St)… it’ll be weird to see when that movie comes out if I recognize any of the street stuff…
SUNDAY 3/11 I had a lazy and cheap Sunday… went to the Downtown Music Gallery’s free shows (they do them every Sunday). I spend a lot of coin at DMG for avant-garde jazz; so I figured I’d take in some free stuff. At 6pm, I saw Jason Stein (sax from Chicago) and Mike Pride (percussion from Brooklyn) toy around with some sounds. It was pretty intense, and very much avant-garde. I dug it. Next up (7pm) was Susan Alcorn on lap-steel. It was mesmerizing, entrancing, but uninviting. It really zoned me out for a good 45 minutes. Very much avant-garde lapsteel. At least it wasn’t country, eh? 
I was gonna catch two shows at the Stone after these free DMG shows, but I was worn out. Susan Alcorn fried my brain, or perhaps it was watching Jesus Camp that afternoon. Scary shit, that movie was…
MONDAY 3/12 Lazy Monday… I think I walked down to WTC and Statue of Liberty this morning, but I forget. That may have been Sunday morning (and then after got a shot of Johnny Walker Red at Elliott Smith‘s XO hangout). I didn’t pay for the ferry to Ellis Island… eh. Monday dinner was delightful. I caught some good thai grub with who law enforcement officers refer to as the “great-hatted bootlegger.” Keith was catching a Steve Earle show with a friend and we met up prior. Good food and conversation. Afterwards, I hussled out to the Jazz Standard (I forget what part of town). Brian Bromberg’s Downright Upright All-Stars were about 20 minutes in to their sold-out show, but the gate keeper let me sneak in to the standing-room-only part of the club. The club wreaked of pork and bbq sauce, but I guess that’s better than pork and bbq sauce and smoke… gotta love the smokin’ bans. Dave Weckl played dums for this band, and I had heard of his name before. Anyway, they played more accessible jazz (not safe, but not avant-garde). Very enjoyable stuff… I picked up their CD on the way out. I then headed to the Village Vanguard, and was gonna try to see the Village Vanguard Orchestra (a big band). They didn’t take credit cards at the door and I didn’t wanna shell out a lot of cash; so I quietly left and went back to my hotel. I was tired anyway…
TUESDAY 3/13 This was a Tonic night. I’m a big Ikue Mori fan… she is a laptop soundscape musician. Very avant-garde (‘cept her Painted Dessert is my favorite and it’s more traditional song structured). Anyway, Ikue Mori was playing a show with Briggan Krauss (on sax) and Jim Black (on percussion). It was quite avant-garde and was led by Briggan mostly. Ikue could have been there or not for all I know/care. Eh. Jim Black’s drumming was fantastic, but not drumming in the stricted sense. He played a lot of scraping movements along the cymbals… he also used a cello bow on the cymbals… he also covered his toms and snare with literally t-shirts to get a really muffled sound. It was weird, but good. The 10pm Tonic show was Ellery Eskelin (on sax), Lisle Ellis (on laptop and upright bass) and Erik Deutsch (on piano). I’ve enjoyed Ellery Eskelin’s guest spots on various jazz CDs I own. The show was good, but too dissonant for me at that point of the night; so I only stuck around for half of their set before heading back to the hotel.
WEDNESDAY 3/14 I opted out of the ambient-metal band ISIS. I love their sound, but just saw ’em a few months ago opening for Tool. I went back to Tonic instead for two bands that became the better choice. I saw Inlets and Edison Woods. Inlets was fantastic. It is fronted by Sebastian Kruger (who has played on My Brightest Diamond CDs). He is a multi-instrumentalist and has some great songs. He also has a dandy falsetto. Both his physical appearance and music sound bring to mind Jude and Sufjan having hot-n-nasty sex in your living room and popping out Sebastian as their “love-child.” So, yeah, in short, Inlets sounds like a man-on-man love-child. He washed up before getting on stage, mind you. Oh, and his EP is available FOR FREE at http://luvsound.org/. For Free. Next up was Edison Woods, which was a band much like Elysian Fields, yet maybe not as sultry. Their main vocalist/pianist didn’t have the best vocals ever, but their background vocalist had some operatic amazingness going. She should have been the lead vocalist. Oh well… the band also had cello and some brass and drums. I dug ’em… not as much as Elysian Fields, though. I’m bummed… Elysian Fields is playing at Joe’s this coming weekend. Keith, you should check Elysian Fields out. They’re Over the Rhine-y-ish…
THURSDAY 3/15 Thursday was one of the shows I was looking forward to the most (outside of the Masada show). Secret Chiefs 3 and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum at the Bowery Ballroom. I got there early enough, as I knew that SC3 was going on first, and they also had some limited edition vinyl singles that were rumored to be going quick on the SC3 board. I snagged my vinyl sets and a t-shirt. Trey Spruance (mastermind behind SC3 and Mr Bungle) was manning the table along with bassist and multi-instrumentalist Jason Schimmel (of SC3, but also in Estradasphere). My vinyl & t-shirt order total came up to a “magical number” per Trey. I just nodded in agreement and said “yeah.” I had no fucking idea what he was talking about… maybe because it was divisible by 9 or something. or maybe his brain is fried. Anyway, the artwork for the SC3 vinyl singles is kewl.
The show was anti-climatic. I mean, when I saw Estradaphere (a brother band of SC3’s) last year in Bloomington, they blew me away. Secret Chiefs 3 should have blown me away. The first three songs were utterly sloppy, though. By the 4th song, they started venturing into “known” territory and it sounded great. By the end, they had it going pretty good, but again, it was weird that it just wasn’t up to the level of tightness and musicianship that Estradasphere showed. I think Trey’s been off the road for too long… he hasn’t toured consistently since the Mr Bungle days. I think it showed. Also, they had two violinists (Anonymous 13 and Timb Harris)… I never knew A13 was a girl… but both she and Timb were good, but not as good as Timb was on the last Estradasphere tour. Other than the drums and basses, SC3 also busted out the Oud, Sas, Sarangi, Esraj, and probably even a Jalebi or two… and Trey doesn’t play any normal guitars… they’re all butchered and tuned oddly to some middle-eastern scale or something. It’s quaint.
Regardless of the seeming sloppiness at the beginning, it was still a fun evening… it was good to see SC3 play some great tunes like “Dolores Strike,” “Personnae: Halloween,” “Bereshith,” “Assassin’s Blade,” “Ship of Fools (Stone of Exile),” and definitely “Renunciation.” I only stuck around for a bit of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum’s set. They don’t do much for me on record (or live). I’d say the “Renunciation” encore and the vinyl singles (money directly into Trey’s hand) were the highlights.
FRIDAY 3/16 I saw a wonderful show at the Bowery Ballroom by Blackfield (Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson and Israeli popstar Aviv Geffen). I’ve posted a review in the blog as well. The opener was Jordan Rudess (of Dream Theater). I feel truly outraged at any elephant that lost its life to make pianos used by Jordan.
I think of any of the bands I saw… my wife (and others who aren’t into the avant-garde stuff) would have liked Masada, the Downright Upright All-Stars, Inlets, and Blackfield. SC3 was a bit too strange, even though she likes some of their recorded stuff.
Time for bed… 
~Dan
REVIEW: Blackfield @ the Bowery Ballroom (NYC – – 3/16/07)
The Blackfield show last night was excellent!!!
I showed up late (on purpose) as Jordan Rudess was opening. I had a slow subway ride to the Lower East Side, walked through the piles of snow to Leela Lounge (a tasty “hip” Indian restaurant), ate too much, then had a slow walk to the Bowery Ballroom. I still managed to catch about 20 minutes of Jordan’s set. I swear, it was painful. Nothing’s as boring as a rocker keyboardist playing piano-sounding keyboard classical-style songs for 45 minutes straight. I mean, yeah, he can play piano-board, but he still can’t write “a song” to save his life. I know I’ve griped about being bored at OTR shows. That’s mainly due to being tired and the music being slow. Jordan was truly bad, though (whereas OTR ain’t). I turned my iPod on and walked to the corner of the room to avoid it. I love 
love instrumental music. Jordan Rudess is just 
-ingly boring, though. The Dream Theater fans were eating it up like it was Chicken Pot Pie.
Ugh… I hate prog fans. No offense Steve, but I about had that reaction to you when you first started going on about PTree… “yeah, yeah, they’re a prog band.” They’re actually so much better than just about every prog band out there. Anyway, I’m glad that Porcupine Tree and Blackfield know things or two about song structure. I’m glad you pimped PT to me 4 years ago (wow… it doesn’t seem that long ago), but I couldn’t care less about the Dream Theater/Queensrÿche fans anymore… it’s just too much like watching a train wreck in a social setting.
Anyway, on to positive thoughts…
Blackfield came out. Steven Wilson was dressed like usual (t-shirt and jeans, glasses, floppy hair). Aviv Geffen (the other half of Blackfield’s songwriting) was dressed more like a rocker, dark shirt and tie, with glitter mascara and everything. The rest of the band was… the rest of the band (hired guns or friends or whatever). They played a good mix of Blackfield I & II songs (obviously). Steven also did his Cover Version I, which is Alanis Morissette‘s “Thank You.” It was just Steven singing and Aviv playing piano (no other band members on stage, and Steven not playing his guitar). It sounded great. Aviv also played a song on piano that was just him singing, too… I forget which song, but it was one of the quieter Aviv songs (maybe “The Hole in Me” than never got ‘boomed’ up like it does on disc).
Songs I know they played from I: Open Mind, Blackfield, Glow, Pain, The Hole in Me, Hello. Songs I know they played from II: Once, Miss U, Christenings, Epidemic, Where Is My Love?, End of the World. Other songs played: Alanis Morissette’s “Thank You” …and they probably played some that I’m forgetting…
I hope the filming turned out good for the upcoming DVD. I may have gotten into a few shots, as there was a guy filming the crowd some… I was in the back, though… so I doubt I’m in it too much… I bet the film crew started focusing on “shirtless Aviv” by the end…
~Dan
REVIEW: Estradasphere @ 2nd Story Nightclub (Bloomington, IN – – 10/6/06)
Estradasphere‘s show last night at the 2nd Story Nightclub in Bloomington, IN was PHENOMENAL.
I arrived in Bloomington and about crap my pants with how crazy the traffic and people in town were… apparently it is a HUGE Lotus World Music Festival this whole weekend… oy… anyway, I grabbed grub at the excellent veggie restaurant ROOTS (mushroom-patty burger, fried tofu cubes with homemade sweet plum sauce, cinnamon-or-ginger-spiced sweet potato fries, and a fresh (I saw him make it) orange and carrot juice). I was too stuffed for dessert. If I ever bring the wife to Bloomington, we’re totally hitting up ROOTS again.
Anyway, I head to the venue by about 9:30pm. The band hasn’t showed up yet. They were supposed to be there at 5pm to set up. Ru’ Ro’. I lie down on the couch in the venue, and by 10pm the band finally shows up.
The 1st opener (Das Trio) starts around 10:20pm. They had some skills (at least the bassist), but they were very muddy as a group… and the songs and vocals were not memorable. I’ve seen worse bands, but I’ve seen better. I apologize if they do a google search for their name and come upon this review. They showed potential, but the songs just seemed generic.
After Das Trio’s set, I walked around town again to kill time. I got what might have been the best double shot of espresso ever. Seriously. It was so flavorful. I totally recommend the Crystal Parrot in Bloomington. Wow. Yummy.
The 2nd opener was playing by the time I got back to the venue. Floating Hand was a three-piece, growly, death-metal slow-grindcore type band. I thought they were fantastic. Unfortunately, since Estradasphere showed up sooo late, E-sphere was setting up behind Floating Hand… which caused some ill-will (to say the least) between the bands later on in the evening (FH heckling loadly during E-sphere’s first few songs — even after E-sphere publically apologized and thanked FH for their music).
Anyway, after Floating Hand, I walked around in the cool air again… came back by 1:10am and Estradasphere was finally getting ready to start. For those who don’t know Estradasphere, they’re a sibling band (shared members) to the Secret Chiefs 3, which is a sibling band to Mr. Bungle. Anyway, they’re middle eastern-influenced progressive, jazzy, gypsy-folk, classical-tinged, insanity-for-compositional structure metal band from the San Francisco Bay area. There are 6 members in this incarnation of the band… Timb Harris on violin, trumpet and good-looks; Kevin Kmetz (aka God of Shamisen) on guitar, keyboards, and most notably the Japanese banjo-like instrument, the shamisen; Jason Schimmel on guitars (electric, acoustic, flamenco), banjo, and keyboards (including melodica); Lee Smith on drums (fast, too); Adam Stacey on accordion, keyboards & synthesizer, rhodes and melodica; and Tim Smolens on contrabass (aka upright bass) and electric bass.
The near-hour long 1st set (again, starting at around 1:10am) was seemingly mostly covers and/or new compositions. They (Estradasphere) have three full-length albums (and 2 live albums with add’l material) prior to their most recent release this year, Palace of Mirrors; yet they didn’t play anything from those albums. Odd choice, but regardless, it was fantastic to see and hear. World music with some pep.
The 2nd set, after a (literal) 2-minute break, was allegedly Palace of Mirrors in its entirety. I say allegedly, because for those tracking time, it was probably close to 2:15am when the first set ended. I had a two+ hour drive ahead of me (didn’t want to stay in a hotel — too busy this weekend to get home later). I left after the halfway mark of the album… basically after the whirlwind, violin & shamisen metal-in-your-face attack(!) of the standout track from Palace of Mirrors, “Smuggled Mutation.” I’m bummed I had to bail, but I think the club (or the police) might have shut them down anyway if they passed “bar closin’ curfew.” Sweet glory… almost an hour and a half of wonderful live music (not including FH’s great opening set).
I strongly recommend Estradasphere to anyone who likes world music, and also likes (or tolerates) harder music… but, really, the harder edge is drastically out of their live show (and album) when compared to their earlier stuff (like on Its Understood or Buck Fever).
http://www.estradasphere.com/
http://www.myspace.com/estradasphere
~Dan
TRIPLE-REVIEW: Tori Amos, Radiohead, Over the Rhine (3 cities in Ohio – – Aug 2003)
(originally posted to the old Over the Rhine Actwin list)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ohio is great for concerts… triple show review (8/24/2003)
Not every week do you get to see 3 of your Top 5 Artists. This was one of those weeks for me…
Tori Amos, Radiohead, and Over the Rhine.
Here’s a triple review of OHIO shows this past week…
I. Tori Amos
II. Radiohead
III. Over the Rhine (bookstore show)
I. TORI AMOS & Marc Broussard
PromoWest Pavilion, Columbus, OH (just barely outside of downtown)
Wednesday, August 20th, 2003
HIGHLIGHTS: The opener was good. Strong voice. Tori was great… there were some technical problems partway through the set, but she handled it well. Her dress ripped, too… the resulting song that came out of that one was great. :) Song highlights were: Sweet Dreams (a Winter b-side), Mr Zebra, Caught a Lite Sneeze, Mary (another b-side), I Can’t See New York, Hey Jupiter, Bliss, A Sorta Fairytale, China, Liquid Diamonds, Girl, Precious Things, Space Dog, and Cornflake Girl… a lot of great tunes. Plus a birthday number was fun, too… apparently this was her last show before turning 40. She seems to be cool with that. :) Hanging out in Columbus’ Short North was great the next day, too. Magnolia Thunderpussy (awesome music selection), Monkeys Retreat (cool Simpsons collector stuff), and coffee for me; jewelry and art shops for Margarita… lots of glass in the Cow Town. Seemed like the shops fancied it. We some some excellent Chihuly pieces… my credit card wouldn’t handle purchasing them ($32k to start). Oh, maybe next time.
BUMMER: Ben Folds not being there was the biggest bummer. This was one of the two shows that he wasn’t going to co-headline. I didn’t find that out until *after* I bought my tickets and booked the hotel. Another bummer… she seemed to play too much from To Venus and Back (4-5 songs, ugh). Oh well, she played enough other material to make up for it… :)
OVERALL: Great show… my 8th time seeing Tori, and the setlist was been vastly different every time. That’s what I love about her touring… from day-to-day, it’s a different show.
II. RADIOHEAD & Steve Malkmus and the Jicks
Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, OH (just outside of Akron)
Thursday, August 21st, 2003
HIGHLIGHTS: There There (with Ed on mini-drums and Jonny on mini-drums, keys, and guitar), Paranoid Android, Exit Music (For a Film), Lucky, Idioteque, Morning Bell, 2+2=5, Punchup at a Wedding, Wolf at the Door. They seemed to stick with the newer stuff, which is fine. But it seemed when they played any older stuff (Paranoid or Exit Music), that they were phenomenally tighter, and/or those songs lent themselves better to the live show. The Kid A stuff didn’t seem to lend itself as well (it did last time – 2 years ago). My favorite played was probably Paranoid Android. We moved up to the right side of the lawn, away from the crowd, after about 5 songs. We could see and hear (and breathe) way better. A nice breeze cooling us off, comfy grass to sit on, a beauty on my arm, and a great band flaoting through the air… ’twas a good time. Oh, and finally finding the only Indian restaurant in the Akron/Cuyahoga phone book was a blessing.
Different korma than our usual haunts (yummy as hell), and Strawberry Lassi (yum).
BUMMER: No My Iron Lung, Fake Plastic Trees, or Street Spirit (unless they had a 2nd encore that we missed)… also, the song “Kid A” was icky in the live performance (with a side of ICK sauce). Steve Malkmus & the Jicks were quite boring and lame. There were 2 or 3 Jicks’ songs near the middle-end that were *decent*. That’s about it. Oh, another bummer… Blossom’s parking is, like, miles and miles and miles from the venue. A 30 minute walk post-show is a drain. Oh, plus when we tried to check-in to our B&B at 3pm *no one* was there. We walked in, and *no one*. We eventually found a room with an A/C and napped until 5:30 until the proprietor finally showed up. It was surreal, at best. Quite disorganized B&B, but a KILLER house (O’Neill House in Akron) and a killer breakfast… yum.
OVERALL: Great lights, Thom’s a spaz, Jonny hates his guitar, Radiohead put on a great show again.
III. OVER THE RHINE and tons of books
Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, OH (just outside of Kentucky)
Saturday, August 23rd, 2003
HIGHLIGHTS: Hometown (Norwood) Boy, Suitcase, Anything At All, Show Me, Fever, Ohio, trivia break (Drew Vogel, aka D.V., won a framed poster), The Seahorse, and Summertime. They also had What I’ll Remember Most, Changes Come, and Bothered on the setlist, but didn’t play them. Suitcase was great.
Show Me was better than what I’d heard prior, and Fever was stunningly sexy (as usual).
BUMMER: I didn’t have my OHIO CDs from Paste yet. I didn’t even have them by the time I got home late Saturday night. I had K&L sign my Paste Order Confirmation email instead. I crack myself up sometimes.
OVERALL: Great set, sound was a bit off, but it was a really fun time. Song highlights were… all of ’em. It was good to see them in a nice intimate bookstore venue.
My wife (Margarita) somehow puts up with all of the driving to concerts… yay, I picked a winner! :)
Ohio traveller,
Dan
written in parts throughout the day, so…
pp: bela fleck & the flecktones – ten from little
worlds
pp: living sacrifice – reborn
pp: madonna – ray of light
pp: the magnolia soundtrack
np: sarah masen – carry us through
REVIEW: Over the Rhine @ Southgate House (Newport, KY – – 8/26/01)
(originally posted to the old Actwin list)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BERL wrote:
> The show last night at Southgate was really
> fun, great sound.
yes, indeedy, petey. it sounded better up top, much
to the opposite recommendation from some folks here
(ahem… ahem)…
> Kim Taylor opened… she did great. Much looking
> forward to her CD.
eh… she was ok. better than girheuB ikkiN, nice
voice… and she didn’t smoke and scratch her head
incessantly. :P
j/k, she was pretty good. does she have a CD coming
out? i was out running my camera back to my car
during her last song.
> Bothered
> Lucy
i liked what karin did vocally at the end of these
songs… nice stuff…
> Miles
nice rendition. have they done that lately? i don’t
think so. that might have been my fav song of the
night.
> I Radio Heaven to her naked pot-farming
> TV buddy. It was a groovy version, just two
> acoustic guitars, kinda strumming along. It was
> one of the few songs of the night that wasn’t
> shifted downtempo of it’s original version.
jack was also playing lap steel along with this.
and unless you were at a different show than i…
this was not nearly the same as the album version.
dude, it was a freakin’ DIRGE. slow and moving and
droning. i liked it a lot, but i just had to really
disagree with you, though.
DIRGE was what it was. a freakin’ DIRGE.
you could see them all moping while playing it… ;)
> “Orphan Girl” is that same Gillian Welch song
> they’ve been playing for years. (Yawn) Pretty
> and all, but (yawn).
mmm… better than some other songs. i kinda liked
it.
> this all leads to “Hello Ohio”. It pretty
> much was a song about the things she just
> talked about…
she gave away half the lyrics in her talking.
where’s the surprise? i hate it when performers
do that.
overall a good show… i was sleepy after a long
weekend, but it was enjoyable.
i ate the crumbs- spilled the wine,
Dan
np: king’s x – KX4
The dirge comments prompted a discussion of Poughkeepsie, which prompted a post from a bandmember (Karin Bergquist)… It prompted this on the otr.com splashpage:
:sigh:
-Eyvind Kang
-Frank Zappa
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