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 forty-third of hopefully 52 posts…
22Oct19
A night of the convinced and the convincers…
W.I.T.C.H. @ The Bell House
Although I had seen the listing for months, this show was not on my radar at all until @PeteLikesPhish’s review of DesertDaze that included glowing must-see praise of W.I.T.C.H. was enough to pique my curiosity. Here’s a pro tip: when someone is super enthusiastic about a band, you should check them out, they’re usually not wrong.
The Bell House may not have been officially sold out (or maybe it was by the time showtime hit?) but it was definitely a full house when the band took the stage. They kind of took the stage one-by-one soul revue style, one of two guitarists strumming a funky lick, then the drums, then the bassist, etc. By the time the first song was rolling, you kind of knew we were into it. Everyone in the band was festooned with a unique, big floppy hat which gave a kind of goofy, festive vibe to the stage right from the start. If you don’t know (and I didn’t until a couple days ago), the band is a “Zamrock” band (Zambian rock) from the 70’s, slightly legendary in their time before disappearing for 4 decades, only to be resurrected recently, revived by some younger European musicians, led by Jacco Gardner from the Netherlands, who has his own awesome you-should-check-him-out solo career and also, strangely or maybe not-so-strangely, played a prominent role in the backstory to Altin Gun whom we saw on Saturday. Sort of a coincidence, but also sort of all tied together with both of those bands playing Desert Daze, maybe? Strange regardless.
Anyway, so this band takes the stage and they’re immediately funking everything to pieces, immediate groove-a-thon happening midweek in Gowanus. Good shit and you’re kind of getting your dance on thinking you know what the rest of this show is going to bring. But the best thing about these guys is that there was much more than meets the eye. W.I.T.C.H. stands for “We intend to cause havoc” which is absolutely amazing on many levels, except for the fact that it wasn’t actually true. They didn’t cause havoc. If anything, the set brought some semblance of positive-energy calm (albeit a seriously funky calm) to an otherwise havoc-riddled world. The set felt like an oasis of awesome, music you couldn’t help smiling at. There was no anarchy here, everything was in its right place when the band — two guitars (both adept at soloing), Gardner on bass, drums, keys and vocalist.
At first listen, WITCH felt like an afrobeat-infused funk outfit and they certainly were for the first song. But they were actually a musical Russian doll, open up that funk band and nestled perfectly inside was a 60’s psych band, inside that was a baroque pop group, inside that was a disco act, inside that was a raging rock band, inside that was a James Brown soul review, and it just kept on going. At when you finally get to the singular figure inside all those nested dolls, each one perfectly realized by an international, multi-generational band that had the skills to pull off all those styles and get the crowd moving, when you finally unpack them all, you find Jagari Chandra, the original lead singer of WITCH and a powerhouse front man who transcended the fact that his voice ain’t what it used to be or that there’s a decades-long gap in the band’s existence and just lit up the room like the candles on a birthday cake. This guy was the real deal, strutting around, hitting percussion, singing his heart out, leading the band, doing lovably jokey front-man shit, occasionally pulling random pieces of fruit out of his pockets to take a bit before continuing on. I loved this guy, just loved him, it was hard not to. He would introduce songs with little stories, barely even stories sometimes… and these little bits of banter weren’t always the happiests — that time we spent our country’s independence day in jail, the time the woman I loved’s family told me to get out, etc… — but no matter what the situation, the song he wrote about it was an infectious funk-or-rama. That was basically the message of the band: no matter what happens, don’t worry, be happy, get dancing. Havoc? Not quite, not quite.
Possum @ Mercury Lounge
That 11:30 set on a Tuesday night in Manhattan ain’t the easiest thing, but this band Possum (from Toronto) has an album out that I’ve been loving since I first heard it many months ago and so I just had to check ’em out at what turns out to be their first ever gig in New York. Tough slot, guys, tough slot. I did my best to try and convince anyone and everyone to go, and I was happy to say at least 2 people (of the less than 20 total, including the 4 members of the band and the guy running sound) in the room where there by doing. I’m glad someone went, because these guys absolutely killed it. I had high expectations after listening to that record so many times, but they still surpassed them in a quick 35 minute set of all-killer.
The band is a classic two-guitar/bass/drum rocker and the music they play is best described as if Thee Oh Sees were a jamband. In fact, I spent much of the set wondering what they’d be like with a keyboard and second drummer like I saw with Oh Sees this past weekend. Still, in their present format, they were a formidable act. I think they did 5 songs and each one was a raging jammer. They hit for power, sure, there were some long stretches of intense drum-heavy, bang-your-head shit, but they also had a surprising bit of lightness, with some jazzy interludes and a lot of progressive-rock-style compositions with juxtaposed sections of varying styles and well-thought-out interplay between the different players. Color me impressed-as-hell! I loved this set!
If you’re reading this and are in the business of matching up-and-coming acts to open for established ones, these guys will warm the fuck up out of your crowd and absolutely deserve a chance to play in front of a large crowd, because I’m pretty sure everyone who saw them last night thought they were killer. I’d get there early to see ’em again, that’s for sure. Here’s hoping they return in a more attractive time slot very soon.
24Oct19 Jenny Lewis @ Kings Theatre
Caught Jenny Lewis last night. My review of the show is here.
Really enjoyed it, it’s hard not too. There are many ways to enjoy a concert and if you go to enough of them, it’s fun to try ’em all! I spent a lot of the night kind of trying to sort of imagine myself in the shoes of most of the crowd who I pegged as people who don’t get out too much to shows or not as much as they used to which is an understandable part of getting older. And so I could completely understand and empathize why the crowd was just way way into this show, like screaming like schoolchildren all night for Lewis who is, in my opinion, worth screaming for. I was a little surprised that they had a pit at Kings for this, I can only recall seeing that for Jack White there (maybe one or two others, but not that I can think of), which kind of tells you where Jenny Lewis ranks.
Side note: I was also happily surprised to see Jason Crosby, of all people, anchoring a three-person string section and handling a few front-and-center fiddle solos/leads. It’s a weird thing to see musicians like Crosby find his place over the years… it makes me feel like if you’re good enough, you’ll find some way to make a living in this business. Although that’s clearly not true, luck is a huge part of it, so kudos to Jason Crosby for being a go-to guy for so many musicians and bands. Seriously, he’s everywhere.
Anyway, good show.
26Oct19
Live From Here @ Town Hall
My “official” review is here. Of course, it was fantastic with more that-was-awesome moments than I have fingers to count them. I think of all the LFH’s I’ve seen, it was probably my least favorite, but I would take that with a grain of salt. Mavis was ridiculously good and I enjoyed Rachael and Vilray a lot more than I have in the past. I got to thinking about how Live From Here is like somehow the perfect context to see any music… like, it’s very hard not to enjoy any kind of music when it’s packaged in the middle of one of these shows. The energy and also the fact that it’s just a couple select songs that are being presented in a format to maximize enjoyment. I really felt that last night, it goes to the doesn’t matter who they book ethos of the show, it’s not just a pithy thing to say when you miss seeing Trey Anastasio and/or when Paul Simon cancels at the last minute, it really is true. I was also super impressed with Jeremy Kittel who was the fiddle player in the house band last night. His own stuff is quite good, his band is called Kittel and Co, check out their albums, very much RIYL Chris Thile. We saw him at Rockwood 3 earlier this year and it really exceeded my expectations, so I was very excited to see he was in the band last night, especially after not really paying attention to who would be playing until the lsat minute. Yet another thing I love about the show… I wonder it would be at all possible in my super-connected world to attend a LFH somehow remaining ignorant completely of who was playing until they appeared on stage. That would be the ultimate and probably make it much more enjoyable than spending a week getting excited about seeing one person or the other. Not sure I could pull it off, probably not, I make a point about knowing what’s going on on a night-to-night basis, but a fun thought experiment nonetheless. The highlights for me were the song of the week, “Muttonchops and Strawberries,” a very prog-style Punch-Brothers-ish piece, Mavis singing “Slippery People” which seemed to bowl the entire room over, the awesome Atoms for Peace song they did, Thile and Waronker sounded so good during that, that stretch in the second set when Thile played a gazillion amazing mandolin solos, and also had some great moments with Kittel and the encore thrown-together take on “Call Me Al,” which was just good enough to overcome the fact that they had no clue what they were doing, with a big save from whoever in the audience started singing the horn charts out. That was cool. Looking forward to my next LFH whenever that might be.
Frankie & the Witch Fingers @ The Sultan Room
I saw these guys earlier this year and did a relatively full review of that show, so not going to get into too much detail, but fucking whoah!, they absolutely crushed their late set in Bushwick last night. It’s fun to see the Sultan Room transform into a raging mosh party and didn’t it just suit this show perfectly? It’s weird how since seeing Thee Oh Sees twice last week, I’ve seen two acts that channel aspects of that band. Earlier in the week, it was Possum who captured the jammier side of Oh Sees. Last night it was the Witch Fingers doing their best version of the balls-to-walls visceral fuckyeahness of the LA band. Last night was also sort of the unofficial Halloween party night and in name and in spirit, Frankie & the Witch Fingers were the perfect band to play this Saturday night. As much as I loved the last time I saw these guys, the show last night was an order of magnitude better for some tough-to-put-finger-on reasons. Maybe it was the way the room was filled, the way it channeled the energy radially out into the perfect sized crowd, the way the band seemed that much more focused, not necessarily “polished,” but absolutely in charge, complete command of the music and the crowd. They spun off some short little instrumental things that provided enough texture to their otherwise drum-guitar-bass pummeling. Damn, they were awesome. This is a band that will be playing increasingly larger rooms and one that you sleep on at your own peril. They’ll be back soon, I have little doubt, don’t miss them. Fucking awesome.
