My goal for 2019 is to write at least a little something about every show I see, preferably by the next day, we’ll see how it goes. I will compile weekly and post here as-is. If you prefer to get these reviews in your inbox each day they are written, email me and I’ll add you to my mailing list.
So, in that spirit, this is the seventeenth of hopefully 52 posts…
22–23 April livemusic in Phoenix
Occasionally travel for work which gives the opportunity to try and check out some music in new places, which is fun. This week I’m in Phoenix and made my way to a couple shows…
Monday night there were a couple biggish indie rock-type shows in town, one being Chvrches and Cherry Glazerr and the other being Soccer Mommy and it ended up that both were sold out. I made a little bit of an effort to see if I could find a ticket but in the end I think it was a hidden blessing because plan C ended up being a little more local flavor which was just fine by me. Of course, most moderate-to-large sized cities have a rock club or two that touring bands come through and the fact that Phoenix had at least two of these sold out on a Monday night was not lost on me. But many towns have their hidden gems where the weird shit happens and, to me, those are the placed I’d like to find.
Monday night was a place called “The Trunk Space” which was a short walk from my hotel in a rather desolate outskirts-of-downtown spot that was just past where a bunch of apartment developments were and possibly the future home to more new similar kind of things, so who knows what that area will look like in a few years. The “venue” was part of a church, I have no idea if the church is still in use, but this space was sort of next to/adjoining/across-a-courtyard from the church itself. It was a small space with the feel of maybe a large classroom (maybe an old Sunday school spot) or even a small cafeteria. The “stage” as it were had this giant mural of basically a Shrek-like character’s face, like he’s about to eat all the musicians on stage and looks pretty happy about it. Not very church-like. The gig was $7 to get in, they had $1 waters and $2 sodas for sale and a little room off to the side with a very eclectic range of vinyl for sale for $2 each. Perfectly weird. The crowd was just as eclectic as the records for sale… I joked that I was the oldest and squarest person there, but there was no one scene represented. This was a perfect spot to spend my Monday night…
I walked in about halfway through the second-to-last band and they were… fine. Kind of postpunky, brash, not necessarily good at their instruments (guitar/bass/drums///woman/woman/dude), but really, did it matter? The one interesting thing was the singer using a sort of echo effect on her voice, kind of subtle, but gave it a little extra (needed) oomph.
The headliner was called Nanami Ozone and this was kind of the kick-off show for a tour they’re heading out on that will take them, among other locations, to NYC’s own Trans Pecos in May. They were a lot of fun… two guitars/bass/drums, they immediately popped compared to the previous band. The lead (the only woman in the band) clearly belongs and loves being in a rock band, like she seemed like a nice person but when she was playing and singing she was making these snarling faces that just worked. There were like 30 people there and clearly a lot of local fans and all and all a pretty great set.
Then last night I hit Valley Bar which is like a five-minute walk from my hotel in downtown Phoenix but still was hard to find because you have to access it from an alleyway which is in no way obvious. Even in sterile-as-hell Phoenix, there are some hidden secrets and cool spots and this was pretty cool. There are actually kind of two rooms downstairs once you find the alleyway door, one is just a bar and a pretty great one at that… and then the performance space. The venue is more or less like a big basement with a stage at one end, no frills to be seen, very simple bare-bones lighting. I caught the last 3 or 4 songs from the opening band called Pro Teen, the pun of which I did not get until the headliner said it out loud. They were actually quite good with the penultimate song being a borderline great indie rock song. Would check those guys out again.
The headliner was Chris Cohen from LA. I have been really digging his new album and was glad to get a chance to see him. He actually played National Sawdust a couple weeks back. His sound is kind of like if Sam Amidon went electric with a full band — Cohen on guitar/vocals, a great bassist who did backup vocals, killer drummer and a keyboardist. There was also this kind of Gruff Rhys vibe in his sound, a very laid back, layered-melodic thing. The music seemed to evolve and grow more complex as the set went on, with the beginning being kind of lovably ragged, almost out-of-tune feel to a tightened-up, damn-this-is-great thing.
It was kind of cool to sort of experience this “growth” over the 4 bands I saw the last two nights, from this sort of pure-energy, we-just-want-to-rock trio all the way up to Cohen’s band which was a legit band, very good chemistry, the kind of band that was built for a certain sound and just delivers.
Thanks to Phoenix for offering up a few choice options on early weekdays, because you never do know…
24Apr19
While NYC is the home to a slew of great venues where you can see national acts of all sizes almost any day of the week, the true greatness of the city’s livemusic universe are the rooms where you can see local musicians do things you just can’t see anywhere else in the country/world. Last night things worked out perfectly for me to visit 3 of those clubs, 3 spots that you can see great music 7 days of the week, 3 rooms that I would have no trouble telling an out-of-town visitor to just go to, no matter who was playing. In a single evening, I was able to experience 3 very different bands playing 3 very different shows but somehow all being a part of what livemusic in New York City means to me…
Okyyung Lee @ The Stone
The Stone is a special place. Each week a different musician “curates” 5 nights of music (Tue-Sat), basically doing whatever the hell they want. 100% of the door goes to the musicians. There is no bar, no nothing, it’s just music, just what the curator wants to play or who they want to play with. I don’t know of any other place in the universe that does what the Stone does. It’s a place for musicians to experiment or play with people they don’t usually play with or play in a room much smaller than they usually would… it’s music for music’s sake, pure.
This week is being curated by cellist Okkyung Lee. I had no plans to hit one of her sets but it worked out that I had nothing to do and figured I’d head in early and check it out. What could be bad? I have seen Lee play in other groups and in Zorn improv nights @ the Stone, but never a show that was just hers. Thursday night she was playing with a quartet featuring Ches Smith on drums and mallet percussion (I wish I knew the right name for every mallet percussion instrument, but this was not a vibraphone, maybe a glockenspiel?), Maeve Gilchrist (harp) and Jeanann Dara (viola). I’ve seen Smith plenty of times, easily one of the best drummers/musicians in the city (if you don’t know him, you should), the other two I’ve never heard (of), but no matter. What could be bad?
One of the things that is kind of fun about the “new” Stone space is that there is no backstage, just a spot where the musicians hang out before the set that’s through a window from the performance space… that is, you can look through this window and watch them before they come into the room. From where I was sitting I could see Lee and she definitely seemed kind of frantic and, if not quite anxious, definitely not at ease. When the quartet finally entered the room she audibly said “oh boy!” Not a great way to get rolling. She was a bit frazzled and fastforwarding to the middle of the set she confessed that she felt unprepared; that preparing new music for 5 nights was not easy — wait, wait, wait, let’s pause right there… she apparently wrote all new music for each night of her residency? That’s fucked up impressive right there, no matter the quality. Who does that? — that, sure this was a week for experimenting and whatever happens happens, but in the end, she couldn’t leave it at that, she was not relaxed about it at all. The thing about it is she made this little “rant” midway through the set after which she and the quartet had already played a couple rather dazzling pieces of music. I don’t think she was bragging, she was apologizing. Perfectionist.
The music started off with Smith on whatever it was he was playing: one chord at a time, twinkling crystals of sound and then, Gilchrist matching on the harp. Smith would play and then Gilchrist would respond, like Ches throwing a stone into a pond and Gilchrist responding with ripples in the water. It was a recurring theme to the music, little bits of almost call-and-response, but not really “call,” more like action-and-reaction, sometimes it was pairs of musicians, othertimes trios and then all four. There was no indication that the music had just been finished that day as Lee suggested, or that it had been rushed or not rehearsed at all, it was lovely and experimental and excellent. I suppose you might call the music “classical” but really it was a brand of sound that I feel only exists in places like the Stone (of course, this can’t be true…). Experimental, jazz meets new-classical, pretty-meets-challenging. The overriding thing here was the juxtapositions of sounds, the different instruments working together in interesting ways. First of all, does anyone ever not want to hear a harp played well? I mean is there anything more soothing, more heart-achingly beautiful than the harp? No, says me. That sound mixing with the strings and the percussion, so much different feels, different texture. It wasn’t one person sticking out, but all four of them in all possible permutations, and that is really all in the compositions of Lee.
Only in New York.
Los Cumpleanos @ Barbes
I knew where my night was going to end, but there was some time before the Thursday ultimate, so I zagged against the grain out to Brooklyn to perhaps the premier whatever-goes-on-here-is-amazing venue in the city. I don’t think you can beat Barbes. Everyone should go there at least once a year/month/week, everyone that comes in from out of town should just hit Barbes no matter what’s going on. I have been there countless times despite it’s relatively inconvenient location (for me) and I have never been disappointed with the music I’ve seen there. For that reason alone I headed to Brooklyn last night, what could be bad?
The band was Los Cumpleanos, one of many world-wise, Latin groove bands that play across any week of the year at Barbes. I had never seen these guys and they did not disappoint. The group was a drummer, a percussionist (mostly congas), a keyboard player who had an array of at least 4 keyboards — organs, synth, synthbass — and a trombone player. The trombonist played through some (light) effects which gave a little extra sound to his sound and the drummer also used some digital pads/effects, so there was a bit of an electronic feel to their cumbia-influenced thing. Unsurprisingly, theirs is music for dancing, a lot of fun, a lot of smiles and joing around and plenty of movement in the half-full room. If I had to put them up against other Barbes bands under the same Latinfunk umbrella, I’d put them under Super Yamba and Locobeach and Anbessa Orchestra… they were fun, but there was a piece missing somehow. Maybe a guitar or another horn or a bassist, something to provide a little more oomph. The keys player is fine, but playing bass and adding effects and not quite good enough to create a lot of interesting melody on his own and a single trombone can only do so much. A solid B, I’d go see them again, especially on a weekend night with a bumping crowd, but not quite first tier.
Wayne Krantz, Evan Marien, Cliff Almond @ 55 Bar (late set)
Three for Thursday has to end at 55 Christopher… has to.
Again, I feel like I’ve said it all and yet, so much more to be said about Wayne’s world, that alternate universe he creates on Thursday nights. And the theme that struck me this week was one of variations on a theme. And this idea seems to extend, repeated patterns on every scale, livemusic fractals that start with Wayne’s penchant to take a very simple riff and just cycle it, over and over until it mutates and become something unique and awe-inspiring. And zooming out a bit, you find the fact that the Krantz repertoire is week-to-week more or less static and yet, within that repeated structure, an infinity of possibilities seems to exist, a simple rock in a forest when flipped revealing all sorts of mutant creepy-crawlies, millipedes and centipedes of guitar/bass/drums, scattering in random directions, short jams and long jams and jams that go nowhere and improvisation that goes to where only the gods know how to get to. And zooming out further you have all the residencies in the city, the repeated themes of musicians and venues and the variations therein and all the magic there is to discover, day after day, week after week, year after year…
Going to see Wayne on a weekly basis is like going to the gym, mental exercises that get easier and more interesting with each repeated visit. Picking up on nuances in the music and in my own listening, finding those repeated patterns, new appreciations. It has become one of the great joys of my livemusic life to walk into 55 Bar on a Thursday night and know, just know that there is going to be something amazing within, but to not know, to have no idea what it’s going to be. Isn’t that why we do this? Last night’s set was great on its own, of course, a many-directioned thing that started hot and just got more and more interesting. Perhaps the highlight was a one-two punch of covers of U Can’t Touch This and Back In Black which were played back-to-back last night. These are repertoire regulars, merely launching points for some of the sickest improv jams you could ever hope to see, ever hope to see in a room the size of 55 Bar for $15 a head, stand as close as you can handle, hope to handle, played by some of the craziest-talented musicians no one outside the room has even heard of, would ever go out of their way to see. It’s just you and the 25 other weirdos in there, either you’re crazy or everyone else in the world is crazy, but either way…. and last night it struck me how absurd it is that those are the songs he covers every week and it strikes me that it’s no accident, that this is Wayne Krantz saying: I will take the dumbest, simplest songs/riffs/ideas and make absolute mindmelting gold out of whatever you can imagine. Give me a couple plain old beans and I’ll grow a beanstalk to magic worlds in the clouds. Back In Black was especially nasty last night, they typically do a long intro which is usually more than just an intro and you don’t even realize they’re playing the “song” until 5 minutes when he unleashes that riff and you’re like “fuck yeah!” but last night they kicked off with the melody from the initial drop, took that crusher blow and just built from there. Things got pretty hairy.
Anyway, so they killed it, but the cool thing was that even thought it was the “same” as last week, it was so, so different. Wayne last week really took control, took some wild, amazing solos, carried the team on his back to victory. Last night he didn’t need to do that — Marien and Almond are Top Tier Krantzers and he didn’t need to give them much direction and my, how the playing reflected that comfort. Marien seemed to be taking control almost as much as Wayne, even called out for a song to play toward the end. Almond is probably the drummer who has the most recent WK experience and plays like it. When Wayne calls for the drums to drop out, as he does from time to time, I loved how Cliff didn’t just stop as most drummers do when Wayne asks for it, he kind of did this cool drums-fade-to-silence thing, creating transitions without the usual abruptness.
Of course, they closed, as they must, with Manic Depression which seems to, week after week, become less and less recognizable… it’s a classic Krantz riff > improv > riff > wilder-improv > riff > waaaaay out there shit > finish up. That’s how Wayne “covers” a song, it’s a suggestion, a launching pad, a handful of simple beans. It’s magnificient as fuck.
Only in New York.
25Apr19
National Reserve @ Skinny Dennis
OK, so I am now convinced that the band that plays under the name “Off the Road Again w/ Sean Walsh” irregularly on weekend afternoons at Skinny Dennis is actually just the National Reserve, more or less, playing under a pseudonym, more or less. Caught the 3rd set yesterday afternoon and it was such a gloriously good time. These guys are so good, starting to get some touring under the belt and it shows… two guitars who can both go for it and a rocking rhythm section, doing a very much bar-ready rock/country-rock. Walsh’s voice is just made for this and he’s just got it if you know what I’m saying. Played a few of the same songs from the previous show, but the version of “Trouble In Mind” yesterday was a burner, like if the Allmans were a 4-piece playing in a honky tonk. Crusher. Walsh is a good guitarist, but the other lead guitar player is totes legit, great feel, great sound, nothing fancy southern rock licks, but it works. When Walsh goes around with the tip bucket he kind of bangs out this beat on it and the rest of the band just does this funkrock improv thing which is like the highlight of each set. Can’t recommend this enough. Yesterday they also had a mandolin player sitting in, although you couldn’t hear him all that well. Gonna do my best to hit this anytime they’re playing (next up 5/11 and 5/18).
Resura Arkestra @ Nublu 151
From there it was over to the East Village where we caught the first set of Resura Arkestra, who were pretty damn fun, if not very impressive at times. The first half of their set was some next-level voodoo. At first the band was like a Noah’s ark of musicians, almost set up in two-by-two symmetry on the Nublu stage which can extend up the stairs behind them… so at the top there were two horn/saxophonists, then two guys playing some sort of African marimba (one each, that’s a lot of gear already!), then one step down, on the “stage” itself were two bassists (!!! yes, this band has two bass players !!!), a drummer plus three percussionists = two pairs of percussion and then a single guitarist to round out 11 gentlemen in the Arkestra. This band is a rhythm machine, almost pure rhythm and low-end, but… so many rhythms at the same time, so many different speeds overlapping with each other… like the universe itself, so many things in our existential plane operating on so many time scales, to things happening faster than femtoseconds and other things taking millenia to transpire, all of these natural processes overlapping so fast and so very slow… and that’s what Resura does, they encompass it all, rhythms from the cradle of mankind, something so primitive and old and yet, so complex, so many layers, so much going so fast and then so much going slower and slower. And, naturally, you can still dance your ass off to it. So, the first few songs were almost mindblowingly groovy, a mix of Fela-style afrobeat and James Brown straight funk with a bit of Sun Ra-esque large-ensemble otherplanetary weirdness. The room was 1/4 full at best, maybe less… there were more people there to see the music than there were playing music, but for a good while it was a close call. But the people who were there were way into it and treated to some deep groove. Pretty impressive. The latter third of the set was not quite at that high level, one song was a little smoothjazzy and another was just merely good, but I wouldn’t say it was “bad,” just not quite as good as the first blast of tunes these guys played. I would absolutely see them again and recommend checking them out.
Mary Lattimore & Meg Baird @ Union Pool
Mary Lattimore is some special shit, some timebending, soul-raising, synonym-for-beauty creating musician. She plays the harp, but more than that, she illuminates the space around her, creates light where there wasn’t any before, like there are almost sparks of joy and happiness and beauty coming off that harp, it’s blindingly good. She uses some looping and some effects and a very small dose of synthesizer to enhance her harp playing, her use of effects is almost Frisellian in its nature, she’s almost as good as using light-touch electronicalia to color her playing as she is at actually playing. Everything she does blows me away, transports me, makes me want to drop everything, clear my mind and just listen… not just listen, but soak in it.
Last night she played the second of two nights at Union Pool with Meg Baird. They have an album out, Ghost Forest, and it’s just magnificent, but, naturally, seeing it live is much better. They opened with an instrumental piece, Lattimore on her harp, of course, and Baird on guitar, at first playing electric with a healthy dose of distortion. From the start it was magical. Lattimore plucking notes and creating these musical butterflies that just fluttered around the room, like animated flying creatures going to and fro, Baird chugging along like a cartoon princess surrounded by all these flying things. Most of the set had vocals and lyrics, sung by Baird, who has this rather excellent old-school folk voice, like she was plucked out of the 60’s folk scene, Joni Mitchell’s long lost twin sister or something. She moved to an acoustic guitar for the bulk of the set and the balance of sounds — her voice, her guitar and Lattimore’s ethereal playing — was just awe-inspiring perfection. We were standing right at the stage and it was almost too much, like after about 15 minutes I wasn’t sure I could endure much more of the music from such close range, because it was sooo good and so rather precious and subtle and beautiful and fragile and just shifting from one foot to another, or letting my mind drift from one thing to another, anything I did seemed like a distraction or unworthy of what I was in the presence of. But somehow I survived.
During the set I was thinking about how enamored I am with Mary Lattimore and that as much as I love her playing solo, she seems to do just as well in a variety of duos I’ve seen/heard her in… maybe more so. And as much as I love listening to the harp on its own, how last night it was somehow more prominent by being less prominent, if that’s even possible. That her playing as part of this almost-folk music, letting her whispers of sound float around something that could also probably stand on its own made her playing even more powerful.
It really doesn’t get much better than that set of music last night. 5 stars.
