Tag Archive for live at Candied Pop

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Bobby Bare Jr. at Mercury Lounge, NYC - November 17 & 18, 2006

Published by David November 23rd, 2006 in Review and Concert. 0 Comments

This past weekend I caught the last couple of shows that Bobby Bare Jr. did with his current line-up of the The Young Criminals Starvation League. The YSCSL are a rotating cast of stellar musicians that Bobby hand picks for each album and tour. Bassist Richie Kirkpatrick will pick up his guitar and head out on the road with his band Ghostfinger and fellow band-mate and former YSCSL member Matt Rowland will be rejoining him after spending the past couple months in Los Angeles recording an album. The drummer Van Campbell will be going back to record and go on tour with his own band The Black Diamond Heavies. Bobby will be heading to Barcelona for the 1st and 2nd of December along with Corey Younts who has been playing keyboards on tour for the past three months and has a long past with Bobby that goes back before they were both as both of their fathers played together. Original Bare Jr. members will take reigns in the vacant spots.

After seeing the band two months apart with this line-up they really have grown and tightened up in that short time-span. After the show on Friday Corey spoke to me about it and it’s a little sad to think that this lineup will not be playing together for quite some time if ever again. Although Bobby has strong personality on stage he allows his band members to show off their qualities as well. He has no objections when Richie presents us with power stances or jumps down from the stage and into the audience where he showboats his playing. Bobby encourages Corey and Van to give us everything they got as well. The highlight song from their set on both nights was “Borrow Your Cape” from The Longest Meow which on the album you can clearly hear the backing of Jim James and his band My Morning Jacket. Live Bobby and the band are able to transcend the composition and make it into their own.

Centro-matic were the headliners so-to-say during this tour, but Bobby got the better time spot at these Mercury Lounge gigs starting at 10:30. There were two opening acts who rotated spots both nights: Charles Bissell of the Wrens and David Vandervelde. I am not familiar with the Wrens but I think Charles Bissell needs accompaniment by another human rather than his own feedback and echos. I caught Vandervelde on Saturday night, who had his friend Ben Clark with him. They did a stunning rendition of Phil Ochs’ “Pretty Smart on My Part”. After a couple folkie type songs, Richie and Van joined them on stage for the first time with a rousing number and Corey came on for their final upbeat and rocking song. On Friday night, I stayed for a little bit of Centro-matic’s set and I enjoyed them, but just like their recorded works they never seem to break out out of the warm fuzzy shell that surrounds them. After hearing a couple of my favorites such as “The Mighty Midshipman” I didn’t need to hear anymore. Their foggy sound does not hold up after the rollicking mayhem that Bobby Bare Jr. and his Young Criminals create. By Saturday I was too wiped to stay even for a note of their set. Hoping next time Bobby’s in town he’s the main act so we get the full set treatment.

Bobby Bare Jr at Mercury Lounge photo 2

Michael Franti & Spearhead at Webster Hall, NYC November 11, 2006

Published by David November 17th, 2006 in Review and Concert. 3 Comments

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On an unusually warm Saturday night in November, Michael Franti and his band Spearhead performed to a sold-out crowd at Webster Hall in New York City. As soon as we arrived to our chosen spot on the floor: stage left and close to the bar, the band walked on stage and began performing without Franti. Mysteriously the vocals emerged to one of latest songs by the band which calls for our troops to come home from Iraq “Time To Go Home”. At first it seemed like it was a recording until Franti walked in and received huge welcome. In an instant the crowded audience immediately became hot and sweaty; I don’t think I was the only one to become very drippy.

All of Franti’s songs with Spearhead are written with the intention to be played live, embedded with call-outs and response getters such as “How you feelin’?” He also ignites his fans to from group hugs and prompts them to jump up and down somehow creating a positive pogo mob. Whether it be a small audience of three of a couple tens of thousands his message is always the same: peace not war or to put in his words “Power to the Peaceful”. The songs are combination reggae-funk-pop-acoustic-soul infused with politics in a non-forced humanizing fashion. The fact that show was on Veteran’s Day made it feel somewhat special since most of the songs on the latest album Yell Fire are about war and in support of the soldier as an individual. Franti, the band, my friends and the audience were all on an emotional high after the past weeks Democratic victory, which Michael expressed after the first song by saying, “I had an amazing week! How bout You?”

The entire set was short for what the band usually plays at under 2 hours, due to the fact that Webster Hall usually has dance night on weekends at 11:00. They played a great mix of new and old songs, including one new one “Everything Has Changed”. The highlight of the night was a speedy fast rendition of Sublime’s “What I Be” mixed in with a little “Twist and Shout” “ahhhs” and hand gestures as well as incorporating the Sesame Street theme song, C is For Cookie and other SS favorites. This was my second time seeing the band, the first being back in September 2003 at the Austin City Limit’s Festival, and strangely even though three years has past it was a very similar show. That would be the only negative thing to say about Franti. He is always on and continually influences great massive vibes but he is at fault for sounding repetitious. I recently watched his captivating film “I Know I’m Not Alone” which focuses more on his experiences in Iraq, Israel and Palestine and the people of those countries and less on music. But some of the same raps he used in this film, as well as the show I saw three years ago were virtually the same he is still using. With that said, I still fully enjoyed the show and would see him dish out these same raps over and over again because the message is important and needs to be beaten into everyone’s skull. And like I said in my review of Yell Fire if for some crazy conservative reason you don’t want to listen to his message you will certainly get a workout if you compy with his direction to move.

Setlist
Time To Go Home, Yell Fire, People In The Middle, Sweet Little Lies, East To West, Crazy Crazy Crazy, Rock The Nation, Stay Human, Sometimes, Hey Now Now, All Night Long Aint, Hello Bonjour, Light Up Your Lighter, What I Be (Sublime) + Sesame Street Medley, (Encores) Everything Has Changed, Please Take Me Home, I Know I’m Not Alone, Everyone Deserves Music, Everybodyonamove
got the list from Spearhead message boards but my wife pointed out they missed “One Step Closer” and we think the songs are little out of order.
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During “Light Up Ya Lighter”

From Europe 2. !Forward Russia¡ - Give Me A Wall

Published by Marc October 16th, 2006 in Random, Free Tracks and Concert. 2 Comments

OK. To be short today.

I saw yesterday these guys and gal (drummer is a girl) from Leeds. These (Forward Russia with a reversed ! before and and a ! after) are completely mad and furious. Sort of crossover between Bloc Party and These Arms Are Snakes. They are absolutely not arty, juts playing an extra-strong rock. Influences? They are certainly post-punk, funk, coming from Leeds just as Gang Of Four. The incredible guitar let think of Sonic Youth (the guitarist name is… Whiskas). Les Inrockuptibles also name At The Drive In and The Rapture. Some shouting are also coming from a hardcore tradition.

Than, it’s certainly not Stockhausen but yes some pleasure… with some irresistible tracks.

Wikipedia
My Space (Four tracks : 19-9-16-12).
Video of Eigtheen On band web site.

(I forgot to say : the name of the tracks are… order in which they were released…)

Available on emu but is it for US?. Let know in a comment…

Elf Power @ 40 Watt 8/5/06

Published by Scott August 15th, 2006 in Free Tracks, Review and Concert. 2 Comments

Elf Power recently headlined a night of the Team Clermont Ball at the 40 Watt in Athens and played two sets. The first consisted of their own material and the second was all covers, including eyebrow raising fare like “Ghostbusters” (actually a lot of fun) and that annoying theme song from The Greatest American Hero. I finally got a chance to listen to the whole show, generously made available by Sloan Simpson at his great Southern Shelter blog.

I jumped on the covers set first because I was very curious to hear the band’s versions of those songs. Novelty tunes aside, Elf Power has excellent taste. They play loose and likable versions of The Beatles, VU, Dylan, Stooges, Sabbath, Neil Young, and Bowie among others. Their take on My Bloody Valentine’s “When You Sleep” is especially good. Nothing’s Going To Happen, their ‘02 covers album, is also worth checking out if you can’t get enough of them playing other people’s songs.

The first set is pretty cool too. They give a nice sampling of their catalog, with a song or two from each of their albums except for their debut, Vainly Clutching at Phantom Limbs. (That’s the only one I haven’t heard, incidentally. I’m still hoping for a reissue that lands on eMusic some day.) The band sounds like they’re having a fine time as they run through some of their best material. “The Separating Fault” and “Skeleton” are particularly strong. But the real standout for me is the jangly, slightly faster version of “All the World Is Waiting” from their most recent album, Back to the Web. It loses most of its glam swagger but the scrappy, stripped down translation calls attention to just how good a song it is.

Elf Power has played several times in Atlanta or Athens in the last few months, but I haven’t caught any of their shows. I hope to get another chance to, not only because I want to see them again, but also so I can get my hands on a copy of their tour only rarities collection, Treasures From the Trash Heap. I must have that album!

Fusion: From Shakti to Tabla Beat Science

Published by James August 9th, 2006 in Album and Concert. 2 Comments

The word fusion often conjures up images of well-meaning Westerners poaching and butchering musics from outside their cultural sphere or Jazz artists looking to throw everything into the mix including country pedal steel to look sophisticated and post-ironic. Most of the time that image is dead on. In the case of Shakti and Tabla Beat Science some of that is true but more often than not it is an experiment that works in that both groups manage to successfully blend two different musical traditions and in the case of the latter use those traditions as a bridge to another.

Shatki I first stumbled on Shakti’s live album about fourteen years ago as a freshman in college and maybe it was the environment where everything felt new and imbued with a sense of idealism but the album gripped me. With a scant three tracks sprawled over an epic fifty plus minutes it blended trance like percussion with perfumed violin passages and numbingly fast guitar parts. It was exotic and though, at the time had been released seventeen years earlier, it sounded so different as to surpass the stage of novelty and become something all together transformative.

Hyperbole aside, the album remains in my collection and finds itself pulled out at least several times a year which in of itself is a testament to its longevity. What drew me in was how McLaughlin approached the joining of his art with that of Shankar, Raghavan and Vinayakram, and Hussain. Rather than trying to force the music of Southern India into the Western Canon he looks to find ways to incorporate himself with the result being a blissed out journey through frantic and cracked ragas. It is a journey of equals as McLaughlin performs with the ensemble as an equal, trading licks with Shankar and as Hussain, Raghavan, and Vinayakram thunder in the background. By approaching the music in this manner the group has created a work that does not find itself sounding dated, a problem that plagues most fusion music.

Tabla Beat Science is an evolution of Shakti’s work in that the compositions are not designed to force particular instruments into fitting a particular ideal rather it seeks to create another layer to their respective traditions. Live in San Francisco at Stern Grove sees the collective of Bill Laswell, Talvin Singh, Karsh Kale, Trilok Gurtu, Ustad Sultan Khan, and Zakir Hussain, the bridge between the two groups, branch out into a soundscape dominated by Hindustani music, Hip Hop, Drum and Bass, Dub, and Trance.

Laswell’s influence can be distinctly felt as the performance is a thick stew of sound where fragments of traditional structure float about occasionally only to be submerged under waves of rhythms and melodies. Where McLaughlin worked to insert himself into the music Tabla Beat Science appears to be trying to create a new language where the voices of the tabla are comfortable alongside a turntablist and aggressive breakbeats, though much of the groundwork for this was laid by Kale and Singh as individually each has extended dance music further into traditional South Indian music. The results are nothing short of transformative as the group captures the energy of Shatki’s recording some twenty-four years earlier and amplifies it to a joyful apex.

While both Shakti and Tabla Beat Science can be filed under fusion they restore more than a modicum of respect to the genre. If you often find yourself disregarding boundaries or feel most rewarded when you listen to music that takes chances these two albums are must haves that will not disappoint.

Athfest 2006 Outdoor Stage 6/25

Published by Scott June 26th, 2006 in Meta-Chatter and Review. 1 Comment

I caught the tail end of Athfest’s free outdoor shows yesterday. Had a really good time hanging out and taking in the scene but was kind of disappointed by the two bands I saw. Dubconscious, as their name implies, play delay heavy, dubbed out rock. They sounded okay but my friend and I lost interest after a while and wandered off to score some burritos. My feeling toward that style of music is ambivalent at best. We missed the mini twenty minute set by The Dexateens but made it back for Drivin’ N’ Cryin’s first song. I love the balance of Southern fried hard/roots rock on their first four albums (haven’t heard the rest) and was pretty excited to see them. Unfortunately, they were only okay. Kevn Kinney has a great voice but it was lost in the mix for this performance. Their albums have some pretty heavy guitar crunch but that edge was shorn off in favor of extended jams and a more classic rock feel. I’m sorry but watching some dude go off on a Hammond XB-2 for multiple solos is about as exciting as watching someone type. Oh well, it was still fun getting out for the evening and the price was right.

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