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.
So, in that spirit, this is the nineteenth of hopefully 52 posts…
A short livemusic hiatus means took til Thursday to get rolling with any shows in this, the 19th week of ‘19…
Stella Blues Band @ Naumberg Bandshell, Central Park
It’s quite nearly free outdoor music season in NYC, my favorite livemusic season of them all. A great way to kick it off was at this killer hang in Central Park, music provided by Stella Blues Band. I predictably got there at setbreak, but didn’t take long for me to start digging this scene. There really is nothing like the Grateful Dead to bring people together… or should I say, the music of the Dead. Nothing like it and there never will be, the band’s history is a storied, amazing one, but the legacy of this music so often feels bigger than the band ever was, like Obi Wan Kenobi, strike me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”
My first observation is that pretty much every Deadhead looks like a narc these days, I do, you do, this made me laugh out loud, it makes it easy to realize that everyone was just there to have fun. The weather was very early-October, which was fine by me, flannels and fleeces abound, some dudes doing frisbee tricks, plenty of open containers. The bandshell is a great spot for music and hanging like this, never seen anything there, but I’d love to see more.
The band was fun, they were as good as they needed to be, the music playing the band to just the right volume and energy. It really felt like someone took a cross-section of the Dead’s history, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and just plopped down in the middle of Manhattan. There was something very surreal and dreamlike about the whole situation. Perhaps this was because every time the breeze blew these little leaves and flowers filled the air, like they were raining down on the crowd. I could tell you some of the songs they played, but it really, really doesn’t matter. What a great time.
Tatiana Hargreaves & Allison de Groot @ The Owl Music Parlor
I have to say that the move from Central Park West to Lefferts Gardens was a bit of a haul, took like 45 minutes on the subway, but the important thing is that I could take the subway from one spot to another and get that feeling like public transportation had actually transported me between two different universes. How could one city contain such multitudes? Talk about dreamlike…
On paper it might have looked like a dumb move to hit the Owl after that show (when hitting Mavis Staples was a more prudent geographic move, at least, if not musical)… but once I got there, I knew I was in the right place. Have you been to the Owl? This was my second time. I should stop calling it “The Owl” and call it by its full name “The Owl Music Parlor.” Have you ever been to a music parlor before. The place fits the description, it is indeed a parlor, absolutely a place built for music, run by musicians. What are the venues in NYC run by/owned by musicians? The Stone, LunAtico, Barbes, The Owl Music Parlor… sensing a theme? The best places in the city to see music… you should go to this one.
Last night was this duo, Hargreaves on fiddle (and some banjo), de Groot on banjos, some vocals, some instrumentals. The room was surprisingly full, but maybe shouldn’t be surprising… they put out a great album earlier this year (check it out!) and this was the end of a short album release tour. They sat across from each other, a microphone in between them (may or may not have been necessary) and just played this lovely old school folk music. Every song had a story, a history, a time, a place and, more often than not, a cast of characters. There is a strain of folk musicians these days who start almost every song with “this is a song I learned from….” These are great musicians who are highly informed by history and more often than not, as history tends to do, those stories are highly relevant to today’s world. Every song was just perfection, I loved de Groots gentle banjo playing and Tatiana’s forceful voice and fiddle. I loved the way they worked together. I loved how their talents pushed the narrative and never were just there on display for talent’s sake. I loved the enthusiasm of the crowd, how it was full of banjo players and fiddlers who chirped with recognition when Hargreaves mentioned obscure authors of the next song. I love how every folk musician I see these days learns songs from WPA field recordings and feel like I’d like to go to the Library of Congress and just listen to these recordings, they must be fascinating to hear. I loved how warm the room felt, everyone just so into the music, you could feel Hargreaves tapping the floor with her foot for each song, you could feel this tap-tap-tap-tap in the floorboards, these absolutely lovely 87%-cacao-colored floorboards. Have you ever been in a room to see music and just marvel at the lushness of the floorboards? They must scrub those things every night, so perfectly brown and lovely. And when these two ladies are playing, they are tapping the beat and you can feel it and you know that everyone else can feel it because all of the sudden everyone in the room is tapping their foot at the same time, playing along to the music. Not in an intrusive we’re-all-clapping-now! kind of way, but more in a communal one-with-the-energy kind of way. That show was really great.
Wayne Krantz, Orlando Le Fleming, Kush Abadey @ 55 Bar (last half early set + late set)
Fuck yeah, Wayne Krantz on a Thursday! Kush Abadey continues to go to Krantz school, Le Fleming continues to get better and better and Wayne fucking Krantz continues to blow the lid off the top of my head and make spaghetti bolognese with my cerebral cortex. Feast on, Wayne, I didn’t need that brain anyway!
Was it the largest late night crowd I’ve seen in quite some time? Youbetcha. Not to back-pat myself, but I think maybe 15% of the late set crowd were there because I just won’t shut the fuck up about going to see Wayne weekly and now that I know it’s actualyl working, I am not going to shut the fuck about it ever again.
WAYNEEEEE.
Late set was pretty loose and wild. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard them do “Another One Bites the Dust” with a light audience singlong, that was really great and the jam in it was ridiculous. Hopefully that becomes a regular part of the repertoire. Abadey was really all over the place, though, and sometimes it felt like they were going to end certain songs with the ending to other songs either because it was easier from where they had strayed or because they had plum forgotten where they were… managed to make it home every time, though, because it ain’t Wayne’s first time. Second set was anchored by some monster covers: Once In A Lifetime, Another One Bites the Dust, Back In Black, but… no Manic? What gives, I want my $15 back.
Don’t miss next week, A+ lineup and judging by this week, maybe a big crowd taboot.
10May19
AA Bondy @ Rough Trade
Livemusically speaking, New York City has been very, very good to me. After many years at it, I like to think I’m pretty good at this, but… but every once in a while, either because of hubris or bad luck or just statistics, things don’t quite work out. That was kind of how I felt Friday night. I had 3 shows on the calendar and while maybe it was a stretch, it was definitely possible to make them all. Well, the show in the middle turned out to not have an opener for some reason, which caught me a bit off guard, so that meant that the earlier show was not possible and then the show after was at Baby’s All Right, which is like my #1 can’t-figure-out venue as far as set times. Sometimes they’re an hour later than you think they’ll be, sometimes they’re right on time, with little rhyme or reason. I have to say, it’s annoying as fuck, but I was unprepared to get turned the way I did Friday. Website says 8pm. Is that doors at 8 or music at 8? Beats the fuck out of me… it’s just 8. A three band bill that starts at 8 means, to me, most like, at the earliest, sets at 8, 9, 10, but more likely 8:30, 9:30, 10:30. I was not prepared to arrive at 10:25 and the show to be over. We actually got there during the encore break and caught the final song of the night from Klaus Johann Grobe, enough to know I wish I had seen more and annoyed enough to marvel that a 3 band bill on a Friday night could be completely done in 2.5 hours. Eventually you get to experience everything, but man, that kind of sucked. Won’t be going back to Baby’s for a long while and it’ll take something special to get me to put it on my calendar.
Anyway, we did manage to see the no-opener AA Bondy play and it was quite good. My Bowery House List review will be up tomorrow, but in the meantime… AA Bondy is one of those guys I think I first discovered many years ago at Newport Folk Festival. He’s a kind of moody folk-rock kind of guy, a distinct voice and great, great songs. Seen him a few times since then and always really enjoyed. Then he kind of just stopped playing a few years ago. Every once in a while I’d think about him and what the heck happened and too bad he’s not around, so I was psyched to see he was coming back and with a new album no less. Apparently he moved out to California and did a lot of drugs and lost almost all he had in the wildfires out there and then switched from acoustic-guitar to synthesizers, but in the end, it still felt very much the same. Probably because the thing I liked most about him, his voice, was completely the same. The show was just him, solo, almost totally in the dark, running more or less through the album (which came out that day). I really enjoyed it, but it was a bit dark and melancholy, especially for a Friday night and man, it would have been nice if there had been another band on the bill or one of those other shows worked out, but what can you do?
11May19
Made up for it the next day with another longform livemusic’n…
Shag Horns @ Radegast
The plan was to hit Skinny Dennis for the afternoon show but en route I learned that there was a private event there until 6, so I went to Radegast a block away first. It was an absolutely perfectly gorgeous Saturday afternoon and the outdoor beer garden there was hopping, I mean, electric with a crowd that was totally getting down to the band playing. The band was called Shag Horns and they were a very bro-ish brass band, playing all these sort of 90’s and 00’s radio hits and the packed space filled with 20 and 30-somethings were just singing along having the time of their lives. In some ways, I felt completely old and out of place there, but I think, all things being equal, there are worse places to be than hanging out with a bunch of youngs having an absolute blast on a Saturday afternoon, plus big, fat German beers. Brass band covers of Blink-182 and Backstreet Boys and “Africa” and “This is How We Do It” and everyone singing and dancing. Quite a scene. I felt like the band was auditioning to play at everyone in Radegast’s wedding and, frankly, would definitely be psyched to be invited to such a reception. That was fun.
National Reserve @ Skinny Dennis
Back on schedule, instead of catching the last set of these guys, we caught the first set. Speaking of wedding receptions, it turned out that someone had rented out Skinny Dennis for a wedding party!??!! I mean, this is the diviest honky tonkiest bar in Brooklyn and to think of someone convincing themselves that this was where to have a wedding reception is a-maze-ing beyond belief. But it wasn’t just a wedding but a big Scottish affair with all the dudes in kilts and tartan decorations, so there was literally no connection to the bar/venue in any way, which made it even awesomer. A bunch of them were still lingering when we walked in as National Reserve was starting up… what a wonderfully strange world we live in.
National Reserve were fucking awesome. I will do everything in my power to see them every time they play one of these Saturday shows and think you should, too. This being my 3rd or 4th time I’m picking up on the repertoire a bit and that has not made a dent in my love for this band and their almost perfect fit with the Saturday-at-Skinny-Dennis vibe. Looking forward to this Saturday already. They did a nice little song-Phish-covered/Song-the-Dead-covered-long-ago one-two punch with Old Home Place > Sitting on top of the World. Sean Walsh is awesome, just exudes this country-rock-soul thing, but lead guitarist Jon LaDeau is the secret weapon, so many tremendous solos packed into pretty concise rock-and-roll songs.
Come out this Saturday!!
Banquet of the Spirits @ Happylucky No 1
We took a car over to Happylucky which was a bit of a cross-Brooklyn expedition, especially when you have a bladder full of two big German beers and two Lone Stars, but we made it intact. My first time at this new place in the Stone family. It’s really a gallery, although a bit sparse. Well-lit and just about the right size and shape for a performance space befitting the kind of music under the Stone umbrella. The room was more or less full, although I don’t think they had to turn anyone away… I hope to see many great shows there, and if they’re half as good as this first one, well…. cause last night’s show was a doozie.
Although the show was technically a Brian Marsella night, Banquet of the Spirits is a Cyro Baptista band, perhaps his main band that he leads. So, it’s Baptista on percussion as well as Tim Keiper on drums (Keiper was a drummer on that last David Byrne tour, the crazy awesome one that was heavy on the drumming, so he’s like, legit) and then Marsella on keys, of course and Shanir Blumenkranz on basses. Let me just stop here for a moment and sing the praises of Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz. If you know him, then you know, and you can skip to the next sentence; if you don’t then, my friend, please acquaint yourself with one of the baddest, best bassists (and beyond) you have not yet had the pleasure of having blow your mind…. he’s that good and makes everything he’s involved with hop a full grade, from B+ to A+, from already an A to what-the-fuck-is-going-on-here. That right there is an awesome band, pretty much an all-star at every position. What the band does not have in its usual form is a guitarist and frankly, it doesn’t need one. There’s a lot to absorb when these guys play, everyone more or less playing rhythm and melody concurrently, a heavy groove machine that’s cerebral enough to play the Stone and have a decent seat at the dinner table with the likes of head chef John Zorn. So, like, if you’re going to maybe think about adding a guitar player, he’d have to be up-to-snuff. Thankfully there are a lot of snuff-worthy guitarists in NYC, many of them friends and occasional bandmates of these guys already. But, like if you had your pick of the litter, the first pick in the guitarist draft, you’d have to go with Nels. Nels fucking Cline, that is. Why would you look any further than NFC? You wouldn’t. And so. And so. Nels Cline it was. Sheesh! This is going to be good, right?
RIGHT! Man, what a set these guys put on. Just a ridiculous hour or so of music. The funny thing was, they really didn’t need Nels and I think Nels kind of knew it. NFC is such a badass, aggressive guitarist, he’ll lay back a bit, but he’s not going to hesitate to take a set by its neck and wring the life out of it with his guitar if he has to. But he didn’t have to last night and so he really was hanging back in the best way possible. Chose his moments, chugga-chugga’d some serious rhythm along with everyone else and, naturally, took a few I-think-I-can-taste-the-music guitar solos for good measure. But this was decidedly not the Nels Cline show and was all the better for it. This was really an ensemble groove machine. If I have one complaint about Banquet of the Spirits is that this is a band built on rhythm, a band made to be funky-as-fuck and goddamn it, they are so goddamn groovy, it’s a thing to behold, rhythms from the ancient depths of humanity, from every corner of this globe of ours, beats and grooves that are in your DNA are manifest by these guys… and yet every time they play, it’s in some seated situation. Like, really, what the heck? I don’t think I’ve chair-danced so hard to a show as I did last night. I honestly was about 2 extra swigs of whiskey from my flask away from standing up and just clearing out all the chairs and just dancing my ass off, and I’m not sure anyone would have complained. Tim Keiper’s little daughter was there and she was getting up and walking up to the front, right in front of the musicians and not only sweetly, cute-as-fuck saying “hi daddy!” in the middle of the show, but also totally getting down to the music. I never wanted to be a 4-year-old kid who could just get up and start dancing without a care in the world quite as much as I did last night.
For a tight little ensemble, the band had a lot of different looks. Blumenkranz played a room-pulsing electric and also an upright and then would switch up to oud every once in a while. Marsella could change the complexion of a song just by switching from one keyboard to another, including some absolutely killer melodica playing. Keiper played this like Chinese somethingorrather for one song and it was totally killer. And then, Cyro is Cyro is Cyro. I’m not sure there’s ever been as ecstatic a musician as Cyro Baptista, an infectious, joyful, always-smiling presence whose playing just exudes happy in a way that no other musician I’ve seen quite does. One of the great things about this band is how great they are, which is a tautology, but also, like, the truth. Cyro Baptista deserves a band like this, filled with amazing talent, talent that clicks so well together, guys that share his joy and can turn that feeling into such jubilant music.
The set was just one long shit-eating-grin, that’s the only way I can describe it. Just happylucky in musical form. I guess they played songs, but it really was some tribal, ensemble groove. I loved the hell out of it and I hope the next time I see this band, with or without Nels, that there’s a dance floor.
Kaleta & Super Yamba @ Barbes
Luckily, there was a dance party a short drive away and so we made our way to Barbes just a few minutes before Super Yamba provided the perfect opportunity to get the shakes out. And shake we did! Barbes is that magical place where you can go see some serious shit, some sit-down-and-just-listen level of musical mastery and then also a perfectly-packed dance party. There are many bands who can fill that latter role nicely, but I think Super Yamba is the cream of the crop. Super funky, super fun, super yamba. Will see these guys any chance I get and they didn’t disappoint Saturday, even with a few technical hiccups.
Bro-brass-band to bar-band-rock to heady worldfunk to Afrogroove…. thank you, Brooklyn, you made up for Friday night and then some.
