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 twentieth of hopefully 52 posts…
16May19
Can’t imagine a much better Thursday night than the body/mind/spirit spa transcendence I caught last night…
Linda May Han Oh @ National Sawdust
If you can get there on time, the shows at National Sawdust are really great because, first and foremost, they book very interesting and almost uniformly excellent music there, the space is almost perfect in terms of its size, sound. layout, vibe, energy, the location is pretty easy, and the shows are early and on time, typically starting at 7 and done around 8 or so, perfect for combining with another stop or two (or 3 or 4).
Last night it worked out that I was able to get into Brooklyn early enough to get into the room just a few minutes after Linda Oh had started. This was an album release show for a record coming out today. The show was exquisite. Oh is a bassist whose talents are apparent merely from the other musicians she plays with… the last time I saw her was with Vijay Iyer and Tyshawn Sorey and she was the highlight of that show which is near the top of my list for 2019. For this show she had an interesting octet, which more or less looked like and also played out like a jazz quartet and a string quartet sewn together. The “jazz” side included heavy hitters Matt Mitchell on piano, Ches Smith on drums and vibraphone and Greg Ward on saxophones.
The songs were very composition heavy and were all interesting in very different ways. It seemed appropriate that the show was in a room like National Sawdust, the kind of room that NYC thrives in filling, a program that shifts between classical and experimental, jazz, electronic, pop and beyond. This music really did feel like a bridge between jazz and classical music. Some pieces would start at one end of the spectrum, ornate orchestration, complex-but-beautiful choreography between the different instruments and then sort of morph into something more jazzlike, loose with some groove, solos from the saxophone and piano, like a material changing phases, solid to liquid to gas. Other times, it was more like the two things were going on at the same time, ice cubes floating in a glass of water. Some were very theatrical, soundtrack to a movie in her mind. A couple of the compositions were real stunners, hypnotic things that elevated beyond genre. They were mostly originals, although they did one kind of decontructed Charlie Parker thing that was kind of mindblowing and another that was inspired by a traditional Chinese piece that was out of this world, wowwowow shit. Oh mostly played upright, although she did play electric for one of the early songs and then for one she kind of conducted a piece that was accompanied by a video clip along with a nice explanation about these pearl divers in the part of Australia she is from.
This was a real only-in-New-York treat, I couldn’t help but think about how the state of musicianship in this city is such that a show like this, 8 musicians of varied background, so willing to do something new and interesting, risky and experimental but also quite beautiful and awe-inspiring, and a space like National Sawdust to make it happen in… I don’t think that can happen anywhere else in the world, and maybe not just the place, but also this time. Feels like such a golden age of amazing music. Sometimes the shows that aren’t even on your radar end up making the night.
On this night, though, as good as that was, it was only the beginning…
Broken Social Scene @ Webster Hall
My Bowery House List review for last night’s BSS show is here and I think you should read it, because, why not? The tl;dr is: sooooo good. I love this band so much. This was my 16th time seeing them and they’ve more or less made me fall in love with them, head over heels, each of those 16 times. The new Webster Hall didn’t feel all that different from a room-layout perspective, but the entryway is definitely new/better/bigger as well as the stairway getting in and out, which used to be a bit of a probably-not-up-to-code nightmare, so from that perspective, better. Sound was definitely very good, so that also felt like an improvement. So, I think overall, definitely a better space, although it doesn’t necessarily feel that different when you’re actually in the main room watching the music.
You should absolutely, no doubt, definitely hit one of these shows. They seemed to promise different stuff each night and also hinted coyly about a free show back in the city in July, which was very excellent news.
I honestly don’t think I enjoy a live band quite as much as these guys. Just awesome songs in a jubilant atmosphere. They started at 9:06 and ended at 10:59 for a rather hefty, all-encompassing, full-repertoire, ass-kicking show. 5 stars, no doubt.
Wayne Krantz, Evan Marien, Mark Guiliana @ 55 Bar (late set)
My Thursday night ended, as all Thursday nights must, at 55 Christopher St. Got there between sets to some wild-eyed first-set-goers. The lineup of WK, EM and MG seemed to have lived up to expectations. I could write 1000 words on Krantz weekly, but suffice it to say this lineup were it to be something that happened with any regularity, could easily become the second coming of K3. Evan Marien continues his path to peak Krantzdom, just such a fluid understanding of what Wayne is doing. Mark Guiliana is really one of the best drummers on the planet, says me, and did nothing to dispel that last night. There are like three classes of Wayne drummers, the hard-hitters, the soft-groovers and the rare transcends-all-categorization. All three categories work and create a much different palette and Thursday-night experience, but that third batch, that’s where the real magic happens. Guiliana brought as much swing and funk to Krantz as I’ve seen in a while, but did it in such a subtle, heady, headfucky way, it was a sight to behold. It’s been a long while since I’ve more or less stopped paying attention to Wayne and just gave my undivided attention to the drums and bass, but last night, Wayne could have been strumming a straight single chord the whole night and it would’ve still been an utterly awe-inspiring experience. There were a few jams where Mark was more or less leading them, playing as dynamically and melodically as Evan or Wayne, but also propelling with a zillion overlapping rhythms. The guy is a genius.
The addition of “Another One Bites the Dust” to the late set repertoire deserves its own paragraph break. Was this something Wayne has played with any regularity? Last week felt like the first time I’ve seen it and last night it was so freakin’ great. What a perfect song for Wayne to play, his “covers” more like taking a riff and taking it, taking it, taking it boldly where no guitar/bass/drums trio has gone before. He has an uncanny ability to unlock the magic in some simple classic riffs, U Can’t Touch This being the Krantz “Dark Star” for quite a while. Another One Bites the dust, with it’s clash of straight funk and fuck-yeah rock-out is a great fucking pick and it gets the crowd juiced.
The set ended (or did it??) with perhaps the most miraculous take on Manic Depression I’ve heard Wayne do yet. The thing about last night’s jams was that they felt very cohesive… which is to say, very often the trio will start in a spot and then take a sharp turn here or there, with these crazy punch-to-the-jaw juxtaposition changes, not smooth, but jarring… intentionally jarring. Like, “oh, you thought we were playing that, but now we’re playing this, motherfucker!” It’s positively thrilling, a jolt of Krantz adrenaline to the heart. Last night, the jams really moved smoothly, there were a couple holyshit drops, a nonzero number of free-fall-off-the-100th-floor dives, but more often than not, they never lost sight of where they had come from and thus were able to return, after however many minutes of pure exploration, back to where they had started. Verrrrry impressive. That’s what you get with the comfort of two guys like EM and MG, it’s so fun to see who Wayne feels comfortable with and who keeps him working a little harder.
Last night also was one of the more fun nights at 55 Bar, huge crowd of Freaks front to back, a veritable dancing section in the rear. The band felt it and blew threw the set-closing Manic Depression… good Lord, did I mention how goo this version was, a masterpiece of improvisation, hair-raising rock, hip-slurry funk and some take-my-brain-please fugue action that had someone looking around for their cerebrum on the floor with a flashlight. But no, this would not end the night, they tacked on one more, completely superfluous, but take that mutha past 1am for the freaks in the back.
See ya next week.
17May19
Nicole Mitchell, Tomas Fujiwara, Patricia Franceschy @ The Stone
I often say that you can just go to certain rooms whenever, certain venues that you could just pick a random night and it’ll be good. Barbes, LunAtico… The Stone. I certainly believe such an assertion to be true, but it’s nice to see in action every once in a while, just to confirm. Surveying my “early” options for a Friday, the show at the Stone last night seemed worth a look-see, so what-the-heck, how bad can a flute/vibes/drums trio be? Plus Nicole Mitchell is kind of a visionary from what I’ve seen/heard/know/read and Tomas Fujiwara is on a long list of ridiculous drummers in the city.
Turns out the set was the sort of “debut” of the trio, if it’s even a thing that will continue beyond last night. Certainly should because, lo and behold, no surprise, it was quite fantastic. Mitchell is someone who has always struck me, in my limited observation, as sort of serious, a bit professorial and not one to get caught up in trivilialites or extraneous pleasantries. I honestly don’t know where I got that impression from, but that’s what I brought in to a show last night where she was just the opposite. She was kind of playful with a lot of giggling in between songs, coming off as the cool aunt figure who also is a killer flutist.
The music was her originals as well as songs from the other two and the childlike energy permeated through all three. It bounded between hypnotic and groovy, sometimes closer to straight jazz, other times pure head-clearing, cloud-leaping float. As beautiful as a flute-vibes combo sounds, Nicole and Patricia pretty much found all those different spaces in the sound, watering flowers in the garden and watching them grow, impossibly lovely. The lack of any semblance of a low-end or really any sharp corners at all, gave it all a very dreamlike quality, I happily dozed off into several quick long-week-over blissnaps. It should be said that Fujiwara really is an underrated guy on the drums. This city is so full of top-notch drummers, you need an advanced degree in applied mathematics to sit down and enumerate them all, so it’s good to not lose sight of guys like Tomas, who is very much in the restrained side of things, thoughtful melodic rhythms. Nicole Mitchell is really something special, I highly recommend checking her out, and now that the picture of her in my head has done a 180, I’m even more looking forward to the next time I see her play.
Oneida @ Littlefield
It was all a perfect “time killer” before the trip to Gowanus for Oneida. It’s fun to keep track of your shows and to know that this was my 14th Oneida show, which felt somehow fitting, knowing that I’ve seen them more or less the same number of times as I’ve seen Broken Social Scene, plus or minus a set over the years. Oneida is, like BSS, one of those must-see acts that plays once or twice a year and is worth ignoring all else on the calendar to go see (ironically, I thought long and hard about skipping the O show to see BSS again last night, but verrrry glad I didn’t). They’ve also got this BIG all-encompassing sound like BSS, something that really fills all your spaces, but in a much different way. While it’s typical to see Oneida is weird DIY spaces, I’ve probably seen them in more rooms that don’t exist anymore than most other bands, it was nice to see them at Littlefield, a good space for them, even if it was relatively empty (maybe 20% full?).
They always kind of shake me in a certain space deep inside every time, but last night felt especially awesome to me. The first song was classic Oneida, just 5 guys — organ + synth + guitar + guitar + Kid fucking Millions on the drums — vamping. Maybe it was one chord, maybe it was a lot, but it feels like just one chord, just riding that over and over and over, like a collective musical grunt. Uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh… and on top of that, or underneath it or just wrapping all around it is Millions just drumming like an alien. To see Kid Millions play the drums is to understand the limits of what the instrument can do in all its boundary-embracing glory. The thing is, he’s hitting those drums HARD and he’s hitting them relentlessly, and he’s just doing some serious advanced-degree complex rhythmic shit, but…. but… but, he’s also kind of funky as heck. Like, you can very well dance to this music and I, for one, was dancing pretty good. That first piece, though, pure mind-inversion, like take a normal song, sound filling up empty space, a melody where silence one was… now turn that inside-out… no empty space, just sound everywhere and where the melody once was, that’s the blank space. Can you dig it?
The second piece was when the grooves kicked in proper. The second song, who knows what the names are, but they have names and lyrics (who can hear what they are?), but this second thing they did was phenomenal. It was like Eno-era Talking Heads mashed with Black Sabbath, Ozzy bringing the headbang to a Crosseyed and Painless jam. Holy fuck, that was good. The rest of the set kind of oscillated in this way, dance-meets-metal-meets-punk-meets-jambandesque-meets-”bits of my brain are leaking out of my earhole and it feels kinda nice.” Late in the set they did a slow-for-Oneida piece that was pure psychedlia, a rare kind of ambient thing, it was awesome. The jams (or “jams”) went just long enough, the band seemed in good spirits as usual, the crowd was small but pretty deeply into it, they know you gotta bring it every time you see Oneida because who knows when the next time will be? And Littlefield worked great for it. The cool light backdrop was used perfectly, almost the whole time had these red pulses that slowly danced, giving the evil sound a sort of we’re-in-the-depths-of-hell kind of look, dark and blood-red… and then every once in a while, whoever was doing the lights would just change it up for a second, once with a rainbow thing, like a subtle nod to the subtle tie-dye roots of the Oneida sound and then an occasional flash of bright white, as if to say, this feels evil, but don’t worry, it’s actually good. Good good good. Really fucking great, one of the better Oneida shows I’ve seen. Looking forward to the next.
18May19
National Reserve @ Skinny Dennis
Back to Skinny Dennis. Last week when I got there, a Scottish wedding reception had just wrapped up at Skinny Dennis, this week when I arrived there, the room was packed with about 40 people in the midst of an I-shit-you-not hot dog crawl. When they cleared out the room was almost empty with mostly people there to see the music and by the end of the set/show the room was almost full again with young people mingling. Which is all a long way to say that the scene at Skinny Dennis is a dynamic and ever-entertaining one, somehow capturing the nexus of where the bar sits, the corner of Metropolitan and Berry, the heart of Williamsburg, young-meets-old, weird-meets-pedestrian… the perfect place to put a legit honky tonk.
The band was phenomenal again. Guitarist John Ledeau was not in attendance and the lead guitar duties were taken by one longer-haired I-know-that-guy guys for the middle set and then another dude for the late set. I have mentioned in the past that the band is sort of like a condensed bar-band version of the Allmans and that really bore out Saturday with covers of Statesboro Blues and Come On Into My Kitchen. Basically, if you go see these guys play, you’ll hear at least one or two covers of songs you fucking love, except they’ll sound nothing like the version you like and maybe even better. That’s the kind of band they are. They did a superb sorta-singalong version of the Beatles’ Don’t Let Me Down amongst many others. Mostly they rock, fit the room perfectly, and frontman Sean Walsh is another NYC hidden treasure, but the whole band is great. They are not playing this Saturday (although I may hit National Reserve Sat. afternoon regardless) and are back playing a night set on Friday 5/31, which you should check out.
Wolf! @ Hometown BBQ
Thankful to be invited to a birthday party that featured 2 sets of the wherebegone Wolf!, Scott Metzger’s primarily bandleading outlet for many years but totally off the radar these days for multiple reasons, I suppose. Towards the end, Metzger had taken what was a foundation of rockabilly groove and psychedelic honky tonk and turned it into one of the more interesting jammers out there. It was impossible to see these guys play and not think that they were the best thing ever. This band was Metzger’s baby, the vehicle for his own meandering and guitar explorations. I am happy to report that despite whatever absence it’s been, the trio — Scott with Jon Shaw on bass and Taylor Floreth on drums — were pretty much at-or-near their peak powers. Which is all to say, they fucking killed it, super tight pocket, plenty of me-dance-funky-now grooves and just as much of the top-notch Scott Metzger mindmelt guitar playing as you could ask for on a Saturday night. Hometown was kind of the home for the band when they went from where-is-everyone? small crowds to packed houses and it really felt it this weekend. It was sort of a sweet sorrow kind of show, who knows if/when Wolf! will play again, but they’ve certainly maintained the rights to that exclamation point at the end of their name should they ever need to utilize it down the road.
