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 twenty-fifth of hopefully 52 posts…
17Jun19 Adam Platt Trio @ Letlove Inn
Another highly successful outing for the resideNYC crowd.
This was my 3rd or 4th time seeing Adam Platt, but I think the first time that wasn’t after something else, which has always been a bit of a squeeze-in and usually involved me getting there between sets. This time we were there from the start and whether it was the settled-in feel or the crowd or just whatever, I thought this was, by far, the best I’ve seen them.
The trio is Platt on piano with a regular bassist and drummer. It’s a classic only-in-NYC trio in that who are these guys? and also why don’t more people know who these guys are? Even though the genre is nominally “jazz” this is very much a bar band. For many in the room, the music is incidental, Letlove Inn is a cool spot with great cocktails and beers and a great laid back energy. Imagine if the front and back rooms of Barbes were squeezed into one space and that kind of covers it geometrically as well as vibe. As such, Platt just plays an old upright and ties together a string of obscure covers and standards from all over the map, sometimes engaging the audience, sometimes ignoring them. Last night they started with a song and damn, what is this song?, it’s a song that Medeski Martin and Wood used to play in their early days, I want to say “Chinoiserie,” but damn, what is this song? was a common theme for me all night as the trio weaved in and out of pieces, dropping hints of some along the way. That first piece sashayed into Radiohead’s “Everything In The Right Place” for a minute or two, a recognizable rest stop on an otherwise without-a-map roadtrip for Platt and the band. The trio shares some common DNA with The Bad Plus in their reverence/lack-of-reverence for their source material. They play songs they love and then smash them to bits looking for the gold inside. The highlight of the first set, a set that bounced between jazz and Latin and alt-rock and Radiohead, that poked and prodded at bits you just knew but couldn’t place, that had Platt bouncing along on the piano “jamming” in happy major keys and quiet pretty places, the highlight came at the end when they pulled out a version of Santana’s “Stone Flower” off of Caravanserai, an album that is absolutely in my top 10 of all time. That was, uh, a nice surprise, I mean, what a deep cut, what a strange thing for a piano trio to try and capture and yet, they played it so well, hewing close to the original, as close as you can for a piano-bass-drums to do to a frickin’ Santana song, while also using it as a seed to grow all this interesting, wonderful improvisation. I was downright giddy for the entirety of that piece.
We stayed for about half of the second (of three) sets and it was more of the same. The highlight here, was a take on Pink Floyd’s “Goodbye Blue Sky,” off The Wall. Are you getting an idea of what kind of trio this is yet? Their take on this was a marvel, it inspired some crowd singalong and then opened up into a rather lengthy, confounding jam that easily sounded like it could have been “Bird Song” or the coda of Phish’s “McGrupp,” a perfect lydian thing, a kind of blissful excursion of sunny summer days and ice cold lemonade. Wow. Not bad for a Monday night in Queens.
The Adam Platt Trio plays every Monday at the Letlove Inn in Astoria and is highly recommended, whether you’re solo or with a big crowd.
19Jun19
An excellent two-stop night tied together with some 70’s radio throwback vibes…
Father John Misty/Jason Isbell @ Prospect Park Bandshell
Wasn’t planning on hitting this show, but free ticket fell in my lap, the traffic wasn’t too bad and the rain more or less held off, so, what the heck! I freakin’ love shows at Prospect Park, but I think this was only my second or third “paid” show where they had the seats out from the bandshell and as good as a venue it is normally, it’s quite ideal when it’s a nice big general admission bowl. I don’t know if the show was sold out or what, but it was comfortably crowded by the time I got there, which was about 2/3 of the way through Isbell’s set. I caught the last 4 or 5 songs and in that stretch caught a rocking new one, his song from Star Is Born, a ripping cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well” and an excellent quiet duet sung by Isbell and his wife/bandmate Amanda Shires… as well as some funny banter (much lovingly centered around the Star Is Born film and Bradley Cooper in particular) and plenty of great rock outs. Which is all to say that in about 25 minutes I got the full spectrum of Jason Isbell’s greatness — awesome songs, killer band, winning stage presence. Along with his former band Drive-By Truckers, he’s the current flag-bearer for southern rock done right and he definitely does it right. Sorry I couldn’t have gotten there earlier, but glad I caught what I did.
It’s kind of a strange billing Isbell & Father John Misty, but I was kind of happy that most of the crowd seemed really into both of them, at least around where I was standing. Definitely some people there to see one or the other. How do those guys get on the same bill? Same booking agent, I suppose or something intangible like that. The thing that Isbell & Tillman have in common, I guess, is that they both used to be just “one of the guys” in other successful bands but were both clearly meant to write their own songs, lead their own bands and headline places like the Prospect Park Bandshell. They both have it which was the theme of my evening out as well.
After a 30-minute changeover in which the rain, miraculously, continued to hold off, Father John Misty took the stage with a rather sizable band. I believe the only other time I’ve seen him was solo at Newport Folk, although I am definitely a fan of his albums. His band had 10 members, I believe, including a horn section and multiple guys on keyboards. By the looks of it, it was superfluous, but from the get-go, it was clear that everyone in the band had a part to play. And by “clear,” I mean clear, it sounded so good where I was standing, more or less DFC in front of the soundboard. Sometimes with a bigger band, the intent is to create a nice wall of sound that’s more collective energy than individual musicians, but the opposite was true last night — I could hear exactly what each person was doing and it was always kind of just perfect in service of the song at hand. Which is how you want it with FJM, his songs are the fuel that drives the show. That being said, he’s the center of attention himself, he was made to front a band like this, he was shimmying and gesticulating and being goofy. I can see how he’s kind of polarizing, but the music is good and he’s kind of endearing, I think. There wasn’t much banter, more like physical banter within the songs, making gestures and jokes with his motions. On top of the that, the lights were also perfectly in service to the music. There’s always somethings to be said for bands/shows that feature a lot of improvisation, but it’s just as thrilling to watch a well-oiled machine just have at some A+ material and that’s what this show was, every detail seemed to make the whole better. I didn’t stay for the entire set (not due to lack of enjoyment, due to a places-to-be scenario), but when I was there, he mostly stuck to material off his latest record. It all sounded great. With the big band, it felt almost like Paul McCartney’s Wings or something like that, a kick-ass band with a powerful front man, something out of the 70’s, appropriate for a bandshell that has been putting on shows for 40 years. Good shit, glad it worked out I got to see healthy portions of both sets. Looking forward to heading back to Prospect Park soon.
Dylan LeBlanc @ Rough Trade
Bumped into some friends on the way out, so was running a little late to hit the show that had been on my calendar for last night, so I ended up getting to Rough Trade at about 10:20 for Dylan LeBlanc. I have no idea when he started, but I ended up catching a solid hour-plus, so no harm there. I’ve been a big fan of LeBlanc’s for his past couple albums, his voice and songwriting are once-a-generation level shit, not sure why the room was only half full or so, but fine by me, personally. I think Rough Trade somehow works when it’s packed and it works even when it’s empty, but I think the ideal situation is when it’s a little less than half full like it was last night. People kind of spread out so it doesn’t feel empty, it feels pretty intimate even from the back, but there’s lots of room to move around and dance or get up front if you want. And when it’s midweek like the last couple times I was there, the band seems to be pleasantly surprised that anyone’s there at all. It really is a great room, probably the best straight rock club in the city, if you’re asking me. Point being, I came in late, but was right up a couple folks back from the stage right away and was able to bask in the seriously killer throwback classic rock of LeBlanc.
At the end of the set one of the middle aged dudes who had been rocking out all night chatted me up and said he heard Yes and Radiohead in the sound, and I was headscratchingly thinking more like Tom Petty and Crazy Horse, but I didn’t think he was nuts. It just has that very classic rock feel, a little Laurel Canyon, plenty of guitar-meltdowns, really awesome songs, like every song is a keeper, and, like Isbell and Tillman, LeBlanc has got it in spades. Apparently he’s kind of absorbed the rock band The Pollies as his backing band, and they definitely are in the Heartbreakers/Crazy Horse vein, easily sustainable on their own, but a powerhouse backing Dylan. So that was two guitars — LeBlanc as abled a lead as his lead guitarist, monster bass/drums pair and keyboards. The set just got better and better as it went on, the kind of show you’re sort of rocking back and forth to, then bobbing your head and by the end you’re pumping your fist, bumping into the person next to you, even though you have so much room to dance. They played most of his brand new album Renegade as well as “Cautionary Tale” off his last one which is, if you haven’t heard it, one of those songs that everyone should know, just a perfect, absolutely perfect rock and roll song. They “jammed” it out in the My Morning Jacket sense, building controlled guitar peaks, each guitarist separately and then together. Both guitars were great, but it really was the rhythm section that built those solos, bass and drums good enough that good-enough guitar playing sounds phenomenal. I went in excited to hear a musician I’ve been listening to for a couple years finally play live and my expectations were vastly exceeded. Who knows, I’m already surprised more people aren’t onto this guy, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s headlining the Bandshell someday.
For the encore he brought out opener Erin Rae for a couple quieter duets, one of his songs and then one of her songs, and he works just as well in a close-harmony, acoustic vibe, because, he’s like, you know, the real deal. Then, as if to confirm my suspicions of his influences, he brought the band back out and they closed with a raucous cover of Neil Young’s “I’ve Been Waiting For You,” which was great and doubly so because it’s a song you don’t really hear covered but still kind of kicked ass.
Anyway, if you haven’t already heard Dylan LeBlanc, highly recommended, last two albums, and go see him next time he’s in town.
20Jun19
Khruangbin @ Summerstage
If you’re interested in my Khruangbin review, you can read it here. I had a bit of a hellish drive getting into the city and was overly optimistic on many fronts, including leaving my I-won’t-need-this!! raincoat in the car, which was, er, not smart. For those reasons and more I’d say that last night was probably my least favorite Khruangbin show of the 10 times I’ve seen them, but still, a mediocre Khruangbin show is still a lot better than most things, and I had a lot of fun and will agree that the show got better as it went along… the rain was fun and somehow paced itself nicely to the show. Bummed I missed the opener, annoyed that KM played first, which will someday seem ridiculous in retrospect, but whatever…
Krantz/Hoenig/Le Fleming @ 55 Bar (early set)
Got down to 55 Bar shortly after the start of the early Krantz set and was happy that they were saving a spot at the end of the bar for us. Characteristically awe-inspiring average WK show with Ari Hoenig and Orlando le Fleming equally in control as Wayne. A few flashes of absolute brilliance to go along with a hefty dose of just plain-old jaw-dropping sickness. Hoenig couldn’t be more different than last week’s Kush Abadey, just somehow simultaneously seems to be working very hard and not working at all. He looks at his hands with an expression of how are you doing this? And indeed, how does he do it? There was a moment where both Wayne and Orlando sounded like they were playing underwater, or at least submerged in some liquid, two liquids of different viscosity, one creating lots of little bubbles, Orlando making big, impossibly big bubbles of bass. Hoenig popping all of ’em, little and large , pop pop pop. That was a killer moment. Set was a brisk 45 minutes, but they got it done. Love the between set huddle for the band, Ari asking Wayne if what he played was what he was looking for, like a student hoping for praise from a tough teacher. My 20th Krantz show of 2019, I think I’ve missed only 3 and am lamenting any more I have to miss for the remainder. Still the best thing going, even on its most average night.
21Jun19 Iron & Wine + Calexico @ Prospect Park Bandshell
The Bandshell is absolutely one of my favorite places to see music in NYC. It really is so much about what’s great about the city distilled down into a single venue. On so many levels. I won’t go into every detail about what makes it so special, but one aspect that’s kind of great is how it can be a completely different venue/experience/space based on where you are situated inside (or even outside). There are multitudes contained in the Prospect Park Bandshell and that’s part of the magic.
Last night was the first evening of summer, the most daylight we’ll have in a 24 hour period until the next one and, weatherwise, it was, no-hyperbole, perfect outside. It was also a Friday night which made it even more perfect. I can’t imagine what excuse any Brooklynite within a subway ride or short car ride away from Prospect Park talked themselves into in order to skip the show last night. With a A-grade billing of Calexico and Iron & Wine playing what at the moment looks like their only NYC showing, playing for free on a night like last night in a place like the Bandshell, I mean why wouldn’t you go? And so, for the most part, they came. It was crowded and it was a very much Friday evening/first night of summer crowd. Often at the Bandshell, the music is the background to meeting up with friends or family picnicking on the lawn or a few beers. Last night that was definitely the case and I begrudge no one who came to the show last night thinking about who they’d be spending time with first and, yeah, maybe the music second (or third). That’s part of the allure, I think.
And what about that music? Well, 14ish years ago Iron & Wine and Calexico joined forces on an album I absolutely loved when it came out, In the Reins. I still impossibly have a t-shirt I bought when they played Webster Hall almost a decade and a half ago, which makes for an old shirt and an aging fan, for sure. I think a lot of my love for that album was nested in Sam Beam, Iron & Wine, whose Endless Numbered Days was a revelation to me and who was (and still is, more or less) of can-do-no-wrong stature. On paper the pairing with Calexico was a good one and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Since then, I’ve spent 14ish years trying to convince myself that I liked Calexico, too. Yet, every single time I see them, I’m left wanting until I’ve finally realized that I don’t think I really dig them all that much. I mean, they’re fine, they’re good. But they are a very milquetoast band, like they were created in a lab by bored musicologists looking for a band to fill time on public radio shows. They have a Latin tinge, but only a tinge, they sometimes rock out, but only a little; they’ve got some interesting instrumentation, but mostly play it safe; their songs are… fine, but nothing to write home about. Like, I’m hungry for lunch and someone hands me a Tic Tac (just one calorie) and I eat it and my breath is now fresh (not exactly what I was looking for, but fine), but only for a few minutes and then my breath is back to same old shitbreath and I’m still hungry.
Sam Beam, on the other hand, is a fucking sandwich. A big meaty voice slapped between two slices of hefty songwriting ciabatta, lyrics on top, melody on the bottom. That’s some deliciousness. Iron & Wine don’t leave you hungry afterwards. So, together, they’re good, not great, with a heavy helping of Beam. Last night’s set reflected that to a tee, everything Sam Beam did was great, his songs were the highlights, his voice carried the day. Calexico was fine, they were the backing band at best, they didn’t make the show any worse, but they didn’t make it great either, at least for me. The killer moment, for me was when it was just Beam and Joey Burns in duo for “Naked As We Came.” That was worth the price of “admission” alone, absolutely perfect version of the song, so much so that if the show had just been Beam singing his songs with Burns backing and playing guitar, it would have been that much better.
The show was good, not great, like I said. It was free music and I am not complaining in the least. The setting, the crowd, the weather, they all bump it up into very-glad-I-was-there level. The problem was, as I mentioned, that often the music at the Bandshell is background music. What Iron & Wine and Calexico played last night didn’t fit in well as background music. It requires close listening and paying attention, its strengths are in the subtleties. The crowd was extra social last night, it was the first official Friday of summer and a perfect night, why listen when you can chat? That’s fine, that’s the way it is, but the music wasn’t prepared for such a crowd. We took it in from three different spots, first on the side from the front of the lawn area and you could be excused from thinking there wasn’t any music playing at all. Then we moved to the very back of the seats, standing behind them and it’s amazing how much more you can hear when you get closer…. it’s like the Bandshell and the sound design are perfectly engineered somehow, it gets louder when you get closer, sure some pockets of better sound in other places, but when you hit that line of chairs, all of the sudden the sound just pops out at you. So that was better. For the last third of the show we made it into the seats and that was the most enjoyable, when the sound and the crowd and the setting really came together. That was nice.
Looking forward to making it back to Prospect Park… tonight!
22Jun19
Another beautiful day in livemusic paradise. I started my afternoon in Flushing working with Positive Legacy and the Freaks Action Network doing a little volunteer work which amounted to painting some barrier fencing in the park with some cool people listening to some awesome work-themed grooves courtesy of DJ Cochon De Lait. Weather was great and it felt good to do a little good.
From there I headed to…
Suzette & the Lovelifes @ Skinny Dennis
A beer and an afternoon set of music at Skinny Dennis is a nice way to ease into a Saturday evening. I got the impression that this was one of this group’s first gigs together with some admitted “working the kinks out” banter from the lead singer. They did sort of old school West Texas country and western tunes with some swing thrown in, mostly originals when I was there. The band featured a decent pedal steel player and this guy Sean Mencher on guitar who is maybe some sort of name in the Rockabilly world. So while the songs and band weren’t 100% tight, we got a lot of great pedal steel and twangy guitar solos which paired well with the ice cold $4 Lonestar after a few hours of manual labor. As it turned out the upright bassist had a rather stellar singing voice as well and he sang a few including a set closing take on Dylan’s “The Man In Me.” For some reason it seems like there is always at least one Dylan cover every time I go to Skinny Dennis regardless of who’s playing there. You’d guess Haggard or Jennings or Nelson, but somehow Dylan is as much a go-to in a honky tonk as those guys. It makes sense and still surprises me, I guess. Anyway, another great time at Skinny Dennis, good to get a weekly Brooklyn honky tonk fix for sure
Tortoise (Emily Wells opens) @ Prospect Park Bandshell
Two nights in a row and third in a week for free music in Prospect Park. As far as the week was concerned, Celebrate Brooklyn saved their best for last with an absolutely phenomenal show on another heavenly weather night. There was zero line when I walked up and the place had a nice sized crowd, but plenty of room to move around and find a good spot. I sat in the seats about 3/4 of the way back, more or less as close to the soundboard as you can get.
The opening act was Emily Wells playing with the Metropolis Ensemble which was a modified string quartet with a drummer and a guy playing something cello-sized that maybe had some electric components to it and then also a French horn. Wells sang and had some synth/electronics as well as some drumming/percussion and then played violin a few times. I’d listened to Wells last album and enjoyed, but apparently she has a new one recorded with the ensemble that’s escaped my radar thus far. I assume they played most/all of the album and I will definitely be checking it out. There was a certain Bjork feel to her singing, like a less-challenging version of Bjork, with a lot of orchestral energy. She’s actually quite good at the violin and so there was a natural symbiosis with the Metropolis gang. She was very appealing as a musician and the set seemed to get better as it went on. It was just the kind of set you might catch at the Bandshell, a set I probably wouldn’t have seen any other way, a set that creeps up on you, like some person you meet, then you’re acquaintances and then, lo and behold, before you know it, you realize you’re actually friends. The final piece was a grabber, slow-build to triumphant climax, maximal energy for an opening act playing to the most people of their set… the way all opening acts should. End big ye openers! Good shit.
It ended up being a perfect warmup for Tortoise. The Chicago artsy post-rock legends were playing their album TNT in full and it was a masterpiece of a set. I love the concept of revisiting an album live, there is so much weight there, history and present squeezed into each other like two atoms in a fusion reaction, creating more energy than seemingly could be container within. One of the cool things about Tortoise, seeing them live, is that they are very dynamic on stage, each player switches to a different instrument almost every song, sometimes within songs. And those instruments, double drums, double bass, sometimes double guitars, vibraphones and more, they fit together in so many enticing ways, so much chemistry and magical alchemy contained in those permutations. But, to me, they are a drummer band first, those two drum kits sit at the front of the stage for a reason, there is a rhythmic depth that creates both a delicious groove throughout, but also layered in so many ways, is incredibly cerebral. Of course, for a couple songs there were no drums at all, which was just as appealing. The moving around on stage seemed intensified as they were recreating an album. The move from studio, where each song is dealt with individually, tuned and optimized one at a time, perhaps a day or more devoted to a single song before tackling a new one, the move from the studio to the live setting, stringing together the songs one by one right after each other, last night with very little stopping in between, that shift created extra movement, the choreography of a Broadway show, everyone having their own trajectory across the stage and through the night, a 4-dimensional ballet with stops at drums and synthesizers and bass and sometimes leaving the stage altogether. Then they also had some guest musicians, Jim Elkington playing a bunch of stuff including lap steel, a small two-person horn section, Jaimie Baum on trumpet (it was a Chicago musician-o-rama last night, I can only imagine that Ryley Walker was a little disappointed he had his own gig last night, I can’t imagine he wouldn’t have been there otherwise), a string section (with a bassoon!) for a couple songs. And let me just say that for me, my favorite instruments really are pedal steel/lap steel and vibraphone/mallet percussion and last night both were featured prominently, sometimes at the same time, which was some extra goodies goodness for me. Over the course of the set the music dipped its toes into an almost ambient electronica noise, vibes and marimba layered beautifully, and aggressive postrock, double drums and chugger bass, soaring major-key gorgeousness to match the weather and weirdo jazz freakouts. It all tied together the way a stellar album should, even more so in the live setting.
They played an hour straight of nearly perfect music, not a wasted note, not an emotional string left untugged, and I must say, the energy and the crowd were with it. The sense I got sitting there was such a different feel from Friday night. I never had to strain to hear, I never had that distracted feeling from restlessness around me or excessive chatting. It just felt right last night. I have to say I also had to smile in appreciation for the people who left early, people i might have reflexively thought less of in the past, what kind of idiot doesn’t enjoy this enough to stay? Because what I realized is that many of those folks who stick around for the first 15 or 30 minutes and then leave, those are the people who came not knowing if they’d like it or not, the people who were willing to give it a shot, to check out something new because it was a nice night and it was free and, you know what, they tried it and they didn’t like it and were smart enough to realize it. That’s what it’s all about, frankly. And for everyone that got up and left quietly, there was someone like the couple next to us who clearly had no idea what they’d gotten themselves into, they got up after the Emily Wells set ready to go, smiling and content, and then said to us “wait, is there another band playing?” and sat back down, totally digging the Tortoise set that followed, That’s what it’s all about.
They played that hour or so and that was it, no encore despite a pretty good cheer for one. And as much as I wanted another song or two, I was fine with that. They had put so much effort into the set, it was like watching the symphony, a musical juggernaut that delivered from beginning to end, one of the best sets I’ve seen this year, easily and another song or two would have done little to change that. A very special night at the Bandshell.
Kaleta & Super Yamba @ Barbes
Just because you’re 100% satisfied doesn’t mean that you can’t squeeze in a little bit more and just because Barbes is packed to the gills doesn’t mean there isn’t room for a few more. Every time I see Super Yamba listed to play Barbes I’m like how can they keep playing that room, they’ve clearly outgrown it, but SY is now inextricably linked to the back room at Barbes the way so many bands are linked to different rooms in the city. It just feels right in there, it is their witches’ cauldron where the magic potion is mixed up and what a potion it is. So we walked up 9th St to Barbes after Tortoise was done and, of course, the room was fucking packed. It always is. But the strange thing is, it always is like this, is that there is always more room in there, you squeeze your way in, the crowd kind of shifts a bit and, whaddaya know!?, there’s room for you. Not just room to stand, but room to dance. And then another couple come in behind you and do the same thing and, whaddya know!?, there’s room for them, too! It seems to betray the laws of thermodynamics, the ideal gas law doesn’t hold at Barbes.
And with Kaleta & crew, it’s always worth it. Quite possibly the premier band to dance to in NYC right now, it gets none more funky than these guys, pure afrofunk fire. There are no breathers, no opportunities to take a break. It’s all killer, it’s all groovy as fuck, it’s all awesome. The room just pulsates with their music, the band was made to play in the space and the audience knows it, responds to it, dances sweaty to it. They were characteristically great last night, like all afrobeat-based bands, a greater-than-the-sum groove machine, big horns, deep bass, pile-on percussion, a worthy frontman in Kaleta. Another great Super Yamba set. I would’ve loved to stick around for the late set, but at that point, the smart thing to do was to head home… until next time.
