I can’t remember a time I attended so many shows consecutively. Perhaps not ever since my days in Patch. I may also be getting out of show-shape. Even with a VIP tag in hand, I think I may have hit my show viewing climax.
Okay, let’s turn this around.
Day 1 : Tuesday February 27th, 2007
I saw great music unfurl before me this past week. It started when I walked in to the Mezzanine on Noise Pop’s opening night and was immediately thrown back to my clarinet twirling band days by the Extra Action Marching Band. Loud and drum heavy, they certainly were the right outfit to get things underway. Some guy with a bullhorn played drum major while scantily clad boys and ladies cavorted around. Nothing like past marching band encounters I’ve made. Soon after on the mainstage appears David Cross of Mr. Show fame who decides to let the sponsors of the fest have it. Much of the night was funded by Doc Martens and their art promotional marketing project called Freedm. Cross tells the crowd he’s in town to sell shoes, that all of us should “buy shoes” to make the world better, or at least help the folks behind Freedm help us do that. Whatever he was trying to achieve seemed to fall flat on a crowd of drunken revellers waiting for something funny. And then the funny came with Har Mar Superstar doing his karaoke routine with a gospel tune playing behind him. What confidence! Starts his routine off by asking the crowd to “show some fucking enthusiasm motherfuckers!” He’s kind of this Jack Black/ Justin Timberlake character that likes to show butt crack. He kept me entertained by putting forth a casual, effortless performance and making it off stage without provoking a fight. And then I went home missing what I heard was a great peromance by Tapes n’ Tapes. Thanks to YouTube ‘you’ can actually catch everthing here:
Har Mar Superstar : at Noise Pop 2007
Tapes N’ Tapes : The Illiad
Day 2 : Wednesday February 28th, 2007
Promised my wife I’d take her to see John Vanderslice who she’s a huge fan of. I was more interested in the opening act, Damian Jurado, who had a track a while back called that floored me. The show was at the Independent in the newly named NoPa district, formerly known as Divisdero or Western Addition. We got to the show early and caught the cute and boring Submarines perform. They started off with an interesting sound, but wound up using so many cliched indie pop gimmicks that it annoyed me. Nice people though. I think some other band played and then it was Jurado’s turn. He played solo and accoustic for the first few songs and did display an admirable folky wisdom. He seemed like an aged bard of the sixties returning to warn us all of love’s twists and life’s turns. I have to say, I wanted him to rock. Just once at least, but he chose not to. Instead he made us all stand and listen to him pray with a guitar. He gained my respect.
And on comes Vanderslice. I was taken back to San Francisco in the 90’s when I’d first seen him with his band MK Ultra. He seemed a bit cocky then, and probably for good reason. After all he is talented and writes great tunes. But tonight he seemed a bit more at ease, older (well, I guess he was, and so was I). He played his classics and kept us all dancing and grooving in 90’s fashion. It really felt as if he was bringing me back to those post-grunge indie days when we all complained there weren’t enough venues in SF to play in or that all the practice spaces were being torn down to make way for condos. It all happened and yet there seems to be a pretty vibrant scene in our city. There are even about 10 decent venues where you can catch shows for under $20. Well, Vanderslice was brilliant and my wife was happy.
John Vanderslice : My Old Flame (acoustic)
John Vanderslice : Time Travel is Lonely (with Spoon)
John Vanderslice : Field Guide
John Vanderslice : Kyoto Pond
John Vanderslice : Up Above (Live)
Day 3 : Thursday March 1st, 2007
Attended A Night of Instant Calm by the McSweeney’s and Wholphin crews. It was nice to get an evening devoted to words and film to break up the music. The night got started with the amazing writer/poet/Youth Speaks admin Chinaka Hodge. She gracefully got the stale crowd excited and laughing with her rhythmic poetics and powerul presence. Also heard from Evany Thomas author of The Secret Language of Sleep: A Couple’s Guide to the Thirty-Nine Positions who put on a nice powerpoint presentation of her work, including photographs she had taken of her and her loved one throughout the night as they adjusted positions. Wholphin closed the night off showing some previews of their upcoming 4th DVD. If you haven’t seen any of this, do watch below:
Wholphin : A Stranger in Her Own City
Wholphin : Walley Ball
Day 4 : Friday March 2nd, 2007
So Meiko and I decide to make it a short night ny attending an acoustic show at the Swedish American Hall starting at 7PM. We get there at the tail end of the first act to find a small crowd gathered. We wonder if we are too early and realize we are. Just in time though to catch Thao Nguyen and her folky punk stylings. Seemed like many more started pouring in to hear this soul infused performance. She couldn’t be more than 25 years old, but you wouldn’t think that after catching her very well polished, confident performance. She sang those common folk tomes of love, hate, war and even got the somber audience to participate in some good old-fashon hand clapping. I’ll keep my ears and eyes out for Thao and you should to.
Thao Nguyen : Feet
Thao Nguyen : Moped
Then on came Zach Rogue, recent father, still in Rogue Wave, happy, pleasent disposition. Now the place was packed. So many white people you would have thought you actually were in Swede
n. Zach plays. He plays Rogue Wave songs with the drummer from Rogue Wave who just underwent a Kidney replacement. The songs are simple and kind. You’d think you were listening to the Shins. I thought I was listening to the Shins, until the Simon and Garfunkel duet of San Francisco, The Moore Brothers, come on stage and back that Zach up. If you haven’t heard The Moore Brothers, you are missing something. They have the most developed voices in town. They don’t just sing in harmony, they are harmony. If these guys weren’t attached at the hips from birth, they should be now. Perhaps then they would get the attention they deserve. The tunes the brothers backed Zach on were the best of the night, so far. They added a texture to the songs that would have made Brian Wilson proud.
The Moore Brothers : Bury Me Under the Kissing Teens
The Moore Brothers : Sad and Joy
The Moore Brothers : Colossal Small
Thumb of the Maid (Moore Bros first album and one of my favorites) : Hey Twelve
But the night goes to Vic Chestnutt. By the time he came on, the crowd had dispersed to the size it had been when I first walked in. All the googly-eyed teeny boppers split hoping to get word in with Zach. All the part time hipsters also split on to another show or to Sushi. My wife and I stayed along with Jonathan Richman and occcasional drop-ins by Jordan Kurland, one of the Noise Pop founders. Vic was accompanied by two other guitarists that weren’t necessary, but perhaps he brings them along to make sure he doesn’t lose it. After reading up on Vic my wife told me he’d tried to kill himself before and that he’s battling alcoholism. At least there was no alcohol being served this night, only soda and snacks. The songs Chestnutt played were painful and funny. He brought the antebellum south to life in one song depicting the ordniary ways of hard working folk. He made up a few songs on the spot, one in honor of Noise Pop that went: “We’re at mother fucking Noise Pop!” And I could understand why some folks left. His music wasn’t pretty like Zachs, but he told stories that require a mature listening ear. My favorite verse that I think I remember goes: “Neopolitan Ice Cream is never fully integrated until it’s too late.”
Vic Chestnutt : Tablet
Vic Chestnutt : Data
Day 5 : Saturday
Man, we really tried to stay out late to catch the Spinto Band, but we left after Dios Malo’s set at the very cool and well worth visiting Rickshaw Stop. The fist band we came across were The Old-Fashioned Way. Man were they good. I thought I’d seen enough of that large band thing with violins and multiple percussionists, but these guys seemed authentic. The lead singer had the voice of Nick Cave, but an octave lower. After them a decent band out of Chicago that tried to revive that Strokes sound came on and kind of excited me. They were called the Changes, but in the end they weren’t much of a change from that somewhat tired, garagey New York underground sound of a few years back. They were enthusiastic though! And then came Dios (Malo). I thought they were Blues Traveler at first, since the lead singer reminded me of that harmonica player front man. But these guys were nothing like those hippie stars of the early 90’s. Dios Malo were a tough looking, agro bunch of feel gooders. Their entire sound was driven by keyboard ambiance that at times sounded Flaming Lips-like and at times not. Overall, the night feltpromising, but I’d had enough. I needed sleep if I was to have a productive Sunday writing this entry, perhaps the longest I’ve produced in quite sometime without too much stress. So, goodnight Noise Pop and good luck.
The Old-Fashioned Way : Robot
The Old-Fashioned Way : Fluids
The Old-Fashioned Way : Zeitgeist
Dios : Starting Five
I’m not a huge fan of funk, but I am a fan of Dr. Ketchup. Sure, Jim Lint the keyboardist and band leader is a friend, and yes that does make me biased, but I know pure talent and raw power when I hear it. Dr.Ketchup captures the funk and the punk and the jazz of the urban, underground world that is the Philadelphia music scene. Their latest release, Modern Savages is over 60 minutes of the cleanest, tightest, most organic band sound I’ve heard yet from these guys. The opener, “Chunky” jumps into your landscape immediatetly with a Barney Miller vibe, but then levels out into a well controlled seminar between extremely talented musicians. The bass is prominent and fret defying, the keys always keep the herd in place while playing circles around them, an occassional sax and flute strut in and croon while drums hang on to it all for dear life. If it weren’t for bands like this, all we’d have these days to talk about on music blogs are emo-crazed boys and the girls that enable them. Thanks Dr. Ketchup for keeping the funk real and alive. You can listen and buy the entire album here.
Thunderegg, aka Will Georgantas, has come into his own. There’s a real songwriter awakening here. Past recordings were heavily driven by quirky, catchy lyrics, but now we not only get good literature, but also well crafted tunes of the solo artist variety ala Bill Callahan, Warren Zevon, and even a bit of Leonard Cohen. A back- up band makes all the difference in sculpting and defining a song, and Will seems to have found his mates. Oh, and I should mention the addition of producer Al Weatherhead in the collective bargaining of this new CD entitled, This Week. Will has got to be one of the most prolific songwriters around (perhaps may even give Robert Pollard a run for his four-track collection). He challenges himself to write a song a week and makes most of his work available for download. 
