The Mekons at The Bell House on July 31, 2009 and The Murcery on August 1, 2009

So for my first review on the re-started blog, I'll be reviewing a show that I went to that is also available online. Well sort of. I saw both Mekons shows. The first was at The Bell House, was "acoustic" (more about that later) and not recorded. For that one I have pictures. The show at The Mercury is available here at NYC Taper. No pictures though. I'm sure you can find some if you look around. But what more could you want if you can get the entire show on MP3 or FLAC?

So first, a discussion about the first show. I was hoping that it was a mistake when The Bell House had the set listed as acoustic. I had good reason to hope since they seemed to be using the promo material from their 2007 tour. Unfortunately, this not a mistake. The band played seated and "acoustic" like they had in 2007. Why do I keep putting acoustic in quotes do you ask? Well that's because everyone except for the drummer played the exact same instruments both nights. The real difference was that the band played seated and the drummer played a hand drum set the first night. Other than that, there was nothing more acoustic about one night versus the other.

One thing that could have made the first show more acoustic than the second one would have been Tom Greenlaugh. Unfortunately, he was not with The Mekons either night. Jon explained that he had some family business he had to deal with. Whatever that means. So yeah. That was the big disappointment for both nights. However, Susie Honeyman was with them the first night, and I don't think I've ever seen her play with them live. So that was nice.

Anyway, I still haven't said anything actually reviewing the first set. Honestly, I think they might have been better off without Tom. That last time (Fall 2007) he seemed out of it, and I think he was forgetting words to songs. This time they also played a good mix of songs from different albums. I think only maybe 2 or 3 albums weren't touched at all between the two shows. It wasn't a tight set by any means, but in a spacious venue like The Bell House, this is hardly a problem. If my memory serves me correctly, they came back for two encores. I didn't like the friend they had sing "Heaven and Back." The guy couldn't even remember the words.

But really, I had few complaints. I could come up with 10 songs I love that they didn't play, but I also heard them play 10 others that I love just as well. With a band that's been around as long as The Mekons, you can't expect to hear more than half of your favorites.

So my last disappointment about The Mekons shows was that the 2nd night, they played a nearly identical set. There were probably no more than 5 songs that were played one night and not the other. This was really disappointing when they played the quieter material from Natural the second night. I don't dislike any of those songs, but they were played pretty heavily the last time I saw them, and I definitely could have used more full on rock songs. That being said, both sets were fantastic, and "Memphis Egypt" and "Where Were You" were enough to complete my night on Saturday.

And what about the recording of that second show? It's pretty good. Clear sound. NYC Taper does great work. You can hear the audience cheer in the middle of "Cockermouth" when Jon ripped his shirt open. On some of the quieter songs, you can hear people talking, but that's going to be the case with any non-soundboard recording in a bar. Mostly, you just hear The Mekons in all of their glory. I wish the guitars had been louder, but that's probably because of the absence of Tom. I highly recommend it.

I am Re-starting this blog

From now on this will be the Live (and sometimes not) Music Review. What does that mean?

Well first, and most importantly, it means I'll be writing in this thing again.

Second, I will renew my focus on live concerts. In fact, I'll make it a goal to review a live show every single day. I'll probably come closer to 4 a week. Will I really be attending 4 concerts a week? No. I will be reviewing concerts that can be found online as well as concerts I have attended. Some of the ones I attend will turn up on NYCTaper, but most will not. I will be reviewing shows that have previously been recorded and are available on all of the free tape sources on the Internet. I will also provide links to various resources as well as reviews of new sites as I discover them.

I do not record concerts myself. I don't have the equipment, the know-how, and to be honest, I don't really want to if there are other people out there doing it. Recording concerts would severely impair my ability to stand up front and shout as loudly as I want. It's just too high a price.

Probably my biggest resource for the time being will be the Live Music Archive. Hopefully other tapers will see this blog and give me more resources. It's my hope to encourage taping and sharing of live concert material. Music is usually best experienced in a live setting, and too few bands make their concert recordings widely available.

So moving forward, this site will provide nearly daily reviews of non-album live shows/recordings. I will also review new albums as I obtain them, but these reviews will be much less regular than the live reviews. Pictures will be available when I went to shows and my girlfriend took pictures. I also need to change the name.

Rated O by Oneida

I saw Oneida Friday night and realized I'd failed to write a review of their album. I've failed to write a lot of reviews lately to be honest, but given how many times I've seen Oneida, I should at least say a few things about the new album.

So in case you haven't heard, it's a tripple album. Sort of. It's not a tripple album in the way that Sandinista was a triple album. This one really could fit on just two records. It clocks in just under 2 hours, and none of the three discs are longer than 40 minutes. But given that I only had to pay $15 dollars for it, I can't really complain. And once I finally listened, it was clear why this was a tripple album: each disc is totally different.

And the first disc is really the big shocker. Instead of opening with pulsing keyboards and shredding guitars, opener "Brownout in Lagos" is a mess of noise and programmed beats. And the vocals? That's a guest singer. And things just keep getting weirder from there. "What's up Jackal" features official Oneida member Hanoi Jane on vocals, but his vocals are so distorted that you really can't tell whose singing (I just know it's him because he sings it live. I could be wrong though. For all I know, someone else sang it on the album.)

Basically nothing on disc one sounds like Oneida. This can be enjoyable and interesting. But it can also be tedious and annoying. "10:30 at the Oasis" is a dozen minutes of electronics that makes for good background music, but really doesn't give me any of the thrills that I go to Oneida for. And "The Human Factor" is just awful. I have a firm policy of never skipping tracks on albums. I sometimes have to break that rule with this one. It's 10 minutes long, and while the first half is horribly boring (droning noise and unispired drumming), it's the final half that is excruciating. Basically, it's just a bunch of yelling. I can't make out any words, and I don't really care to even try. I usually just turn it down. This is by far the single worst track that Oneida has ever recorded and released. I took a moment to think that over. Yes. It is.

Disc 2 is what I had been waiting for. Not every unreleased song I've heardt hem play over the past two years is on there, but the four best ones are. And they're right up there at the front. Beginning the disc, frequent set starter "The River" quickly dispels any fears that the studio versions of these songs wouldn't live up to the live version. "I Will Haunt You", "Life You Preferred" and "Ghost in the Room" are also equal to their live versions. Which is to say, they rock harder than just about anything else out these days.

The remaining three tracks have not been live staples. In fact, I think I've only heard "Saturday" maybe once or twice. They're all pretty good, but after 4 solid winners, I find myself drifting. "It Was a Wall" is especially weak, but thankfully it's the shortest track on the disc. Compared with the first four tracks, the final three sound like Oneida running out of ideas. Listening to it, I feel like disc two is deliberately winding down to prepare us for disc 3.

Disc 3 provides something I knew I'd hear but hadn't heard performed live: new long jams. There are really just two on here, but that's enough to satisfy me. The Disc opens with "O" which is a pleasant 13 minute jam featuring lots of sitar heavy in the mix. "End of Time" is basically a three minute drone that gets you ready for the finally, "Folk Wisdom." Unfortunately, this jam just doesn't measure up to my favorite 10+ minute Oneida tracks (it does manage to be the longest though at just over 20 minutes). "Changes in the City" had more direction, "Sheets of Easter" was a bolder statement, and "Double Lock Your Mind" just rocked harder. This doesn't mean that "Folk Wisdom" isn't a lot of fun. And it's one of the few Oneida jams that falls off the rails completely halfway through and then manages to pick itself back up completely.

In the end I don't think Rated O will be the milestone achievement for Oneida that they might have hoped for. To be sure, it's a fantastic rock album, but other than the first four songs on disc two, it doesn't offer anything that they haven't already done better. This isn't much in the way of criticism given how good this group's previous efforts have been. And it's the second album in a row where they've managed to surprise a fan whose caught nearly every New York show since 2006. That's not an insignificant accomplishment.

And the show on Friday? Great as usual. The setlist was short, but they squeezed in 3 more songs after they "finished". Setlist as I remember:

Jackal
Ghost in the Room
Saturday
New Jam that I don't know
I will Haunt You
River
Up with People

So apparently I forgot to post Acid Mothers Temple Pictures

I have a lot of other things to post, but I figure I can take care of this right now.

Saturday June 7 Bruar Falls: Dark Meat

I was on the fence about this show. I have Dark Meat's only album, and I saw them last year. Both the show and the album were enjoyable, but neither really blew me away. The album sort of lost steam for me towards the end, and I thought a lot of the band members at last year's show were unnecessary. Especially the fiddle player who spent more time dancing around than playing her instrument.

This time the band was only a nine-piece with only one backup singer/dancer. The fiddle players were gone as well as the 2nd drummer. This was probably for the best since the stage wasn't even big enough for the band they had. The trumpet players had to play in front of the stage, and the band was still smashed together. But it worked. Everything sounded great, and the band was much more tight and focused than the previous show. They only played one song I recognized --"Three Eyes Open"; the rest of the songs were new. I missed "Freedom Ritual", but for the most part I loved the new songs. I had trouble singling any one song out as a favorite because nearly every song was at least as good if not better than the last.

And the band had just as much energy as last time, but it was more focused. Sure, the backup singer did more dancing than singing, but that's what she's better at. And the trumpet players were jumping around, but they were ready to play when their time came. And the one drummer seemed to accomplish just as much as two drummers did last time. I think the band benefited from playing in a smaller venue. This time everyone was forced to get close together, and the band could really feed off of the audience's energy. Last time, The Musichall of Williamsburg felt woefully empty. Hopefully things will pick up for Dark Meat. I can't imagine that they can afford to keep touring and losing money with the audiences they are drawing currently (probably a reason the band was scaled back).

Pictures soon hopefully.

PJ Harvey and John Parish: A Woman a Man Walked By

There is an ongoing debate among Simpsons "fans" about whether or not the show should continue to exist. I've always been baffled by those who wish it off the air simply because the episodes over the last several years have not (supposedly) been as good as earlier episodes. I've never really agreed that they've been that bad, and even if they were, who cares? It doesn't make the earlier episodes any worse.

But after hearing the last 3 PJ Harvey albums, I am beginning to understand why someone might wish The Simpsons would go away. Each PJ Harvey album since 2000's Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea has been increasingly disappointing (and even that one was a disappointment when compared with her previous two efforts). These albums have been so bad in fact that it has poisoned the other PJ Harvey albums I have. The most recent collaboration with John Parish is no exception. While some of my disappointment can be passed off to Parish, it still manages to go back and taint Dancehall at Louise Point, an album from what I considered Harvey's best years.

So what's so bad about it? Just about everything. The music is rarely interesting, Harvey's vocal delivery approaches the obnoxious at points and the lyrics just sound a bit silly. From the beginning with "Black Hearted Love", the album disappoints. This is the kind of mid tempo rock song that might have been decent enough filler 15 years ago, but now, it's hard not to grow impatient. The album picks up with the second track, "Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen" which features less electric instrumentation, but a much more driving melody. Unfortunately, the next few songs are snoozers, and when things pick up with the title track, they don't move into any welcome areas.

I bought this album shortly after moving in with my fiance, and it can frequently make my enjoyment of music much more fraught than it used to be. Now, when I listen to a loud song that I love, I worry that I'm driving her crazy. There's always a dueling desire within me to turn the volume up to maximize my enjoyment or down to avoid making her miserable. No such battle takes place during the louder songs on this album. I just want to turn them down for both of our sakes.

Wednesday May 6, 2009, Bowery Ballroom: Akron/Family

So in the last four weeks I've seen my three favorite live bands. And all three times I've walked away somewhat disappointed. With Oneida, it wasn't their fault, I was extremely tired, and the venue was suffocatingly humid and hot. And Acid Mothers Temple basically did what I expected them to do. But Akron/Family I had high hopes for, and they kind of let me down.

Why you ask? Well lets start with the set list:

They Will Appear
River
The Alps and Their Orange Evergreen
Gravelly Mountains of the Moon
Ed is a Portal
Creatures
Everyone is Guilty
Sun will Shine
Last Year
Woodie Guthrie's America
Crickets
Freestyle audience jam that I didn't stick around for

If you look at the setlists from the last shows, you'll notice that there's not a lot here that they didn't play those nights, and some great songs that I've been hearing a lot of were left out. Lake Song and Raising the Sparks were especially missed. I thought that they were going into Lake song towards the end of The Alps and their Orange Evergreen, but it didn't happen. Just about everything that bothered me about the last shows was present last night in greater quantity.

But what really had me disappointed was the length of the actual set. I've grown very accustomed to two hour sets from these guys. Not counting anything after Last Year, the set couldn't have been an hour and a half. From most bands these days, it wouldn't be bad, but Akron/Family has set the bar pretty high, and they did not live up to it. Even more alarming is that this is similar to the previous 4 shows I've seen where I just sort of assumed the shortened sets were due to circumstances. But no. Apparently now that they are a real three piece band (with horns/woodwinds backing them), they only play hour and a half sets. From a lot of bands, this would be great, but when amazing jams are getting left out of the set, it's a real bummer.

And then there's how they've been ending the shows. I was briefly excited to see Dana go back to the drums and Seth pick his electric guitar back up after Woodie Guthrie's America. I thought they might play a real encore. But no. It was Crickets. The most boring and useless song Akron/Family has ever performed. And then it got worse. Because for some reason the audience is supposed to sing the final melody over and over. This went on for what seemed like forever. Eventually some girls at front got impatient (not that I wasn't there 5 minutes before them, but all I could think to do was groan) and started stomping and chanting. Eventually this caught on and we got a pretty neat audience/band jam in the middle of the place. I might have been more into it if it hadn't taken so long to get there and the actual set had been better. Instead, I just felt kind of cheated and mystified at how people could be so into it.

I hope this doesn't mean the magic is wearing off for me. Nearly 3 years ago, before Love is Simple was released, I saw them perform at the Bowery, and it was one of the best shows I have ever seen, if not the best ever. They closed with Ed is a Portal like they always did in those days, and while the closing rap had never excited me, they somehow managed to turn the entire audience to mush by the end of the performance. Was I witnessing something similar last week, but unable to take part myself? Or was it really not as good? I don't have an answer, so this review is done.

Akron/Family: Set 'Em Wild Set 'Em Free

This is a hard album for me to review. By the time it arrived in the mail, I had heard 9 of these 11 tracks live on multiple occasions. Because everything sounds better live (especially with Akron/Family), I was inevitably a bit disappointed. Making matters worse, I received the album on MP3 several weeks before the CD arrived in the mail. Since listening to the CD, I have found myself enjoying the album a lot more than I did at first. Further proof that MP3s do not sound as good as CDs. I just wish more people felt this way.

But even with CD quality (which I contend is as good as vinyl) sound, I find myself feeling disappointed and frustrated with this album. There are just too many songs that do not live up to their live versions. One, MBF, should not have even been recorded in the studio. This track is not as much as a song as it is Akron/Family playing as loud as they can. Seth wails away on his guitar and Miles screams. Live, it works. On the album, it's just kind of irritating and doesn't fit with the rest of the material which is mostly wonderfully melodic.

Penultimate track, Sun Will Shine also does not live up to its live version. The song only has one lyric "The Sun will shine and I won't hide" that gets repeated several times. Live, Miles only sings it a few times before Seth's guitar blasts it off into the most wonderful places eventually leading the audience into some beautiful but loud white noise. On the album however, the line gets repeated almost to the point of being obnoxious. And while the same guitar melody is played, it does not flow naturally into the white noise that concludes the song. The only song that is an improvement over its live version is Last Year, simply because the band doesn't insist that everyone sing along for 10 goddamn minutes.

But after listening to the album several times and getting further away from the live show, those two songs are really my only complaints. Sure, Akron/Family sound better and more adventurous live, but that doesn't make the album any less inspired. Their albums hold up better than those of their predecessor's The Grateful Dead. In fact, opener Everyone is Guilty might actually benefit from the studio treatment. The song has actually had a long road to travel before becoming an actual song. The first couple of times I saw it, it was just an instrumental (or nearly instrumental) jam that didn't seem to go anywhere. Now, the song is a tight and constantly shifting powerful rock song driven by a wonderful groove. The first time I listened to it, I found the constant tempo and melody changes jarring. But after repeated listens, I find myself craving it.

The band's other two rockers are also broken into movements. Gravelly Mountains of the Moon sounds like it's a pleasant acoustic singalong until around three minutes in when the electric guitars and horns kick in, giving the album an extra kick that it was needing around the halfway mark. My only complaint with the song is the "Put me in, let me run with the ball. Ha!" coda that concludes the song. Studio restraint does not manage to dampen my irritation with it. They Will Appear" is almost more successful, but the rock part of the song just feels to short. I once thought that it could eventually become their closer and replace Ed is a Portal (which has actually been replaced by Everyone is Guilty/Sun Will Shine/Last Year), but they haven't figured out how to make this one take off. It's a wondeful song, but not much of a jam.

And then there are the album's numerous smaller pleasures. The mostly acoustic The Alps and their Orange Evergreen, Set 'Em Free and Many Ghosts (the last two have not appeared live at any show in NYC) are both simpler wonderful songs that show what a great songwriter Seth is growing into. Dana's one contribution Creatures may not be the major work that Lake Song was, but it definitely makes the album more interesting.

Ultimately, I like this album. What had me disappointed is not what's on it, but what's not. Akron/Family have worked hard to cement their reputation as one of the most formidable live bands around today. And they have yet to release an official live album (they sell a live disc on their site and at shows, and included a DVD with Love is Simple), and I have seen several major set changes that have yet to be documented publicly in a live format. For their third album, The Allman Brothers decided to do a live album. The Grateful Dead did it on their 4th, and the MC5 made their first album live. So why the hell hasn't Akron/Family released a live album after five studio albums? I make this complaint about tons of bands, but this is by far the most egregious failure of a band to release a record showing them at their best.

Friday April 17, 2009, Mercury Lounge: Acid Mothers Temple, Sonic Suicide Squad and Floating Action

We arrived towards the end of Floating Action's set, so we really just got to hear about one and a half songs. The first had a fairly solid simple riff that worked for me. The final song featured a toy piano. It was pretty mellow, but enjoyable. They seemed to have some enthusiastic fans in the audience. Afterwards, before Acid Mothers Temple, some guy who overheard me saying nice things about them felt the need to interject that they were "yacht rock". I didn't really agree with that assessment. Anyway, I've written enough about a band that I heard for all of ten minutes.

Up next were Acid Mothers Temple's touring partners, Sonic Suicide Squad. I was pretty sure I knew what these guys were going to do before I arrived. When I saw that they had a saxophone player and a trumpet player, I had my doubts, but within a minute into their set, it was clear that my first hunch was right. Sonic Suicide were a noise band. My friend Patrick claims her heard a bit of melody in one of their numbers, and I think I remember hearing one bit of structured sound, but for the most part, each piece was a slab of chaotic noise. They used some sampled spoken word bits, but other than that, there was nothing but noise. For some reason, the guitarist had 20 (we counted) pedals, but we couldn't hear any noticeable effects. Maybe they were being swallowed up by the guy on the various electronic equipment.

Anyway, for what it was, I thought it was enjoyable. They couldn't have played more than 30 minutes, and that was probably just right. Anything more, and I might have grown impatient. As it was, it was a nice warm up for the main attraction...

Last time I saw Acid Mothers Temple I was a bit disappointed. Half of the disappointment was seeing a band that I felt was going through the motions. The other half was the bastardized version of La Novia they performed in the middle of their set. This time they didn't even play La Novia. And it was the same lineup of the band that I had seen last year. And with maybe a couple small exceptions, they played the same set (Intro jam, Dark Stars in the Dazzling Sky, Slide guitar Jam, Pink Lady Lemonade with Cosmic Death Disco thrown in the middle, Milky Way Star) minus La Novia. But this night was better. They played a quieter version of Dark Stars before playing the full version that worked quite nicely. And I was actually getting into Milky Way Star this time.

It is disappointing to see a band that's capable of releasing as many as eight albums in a year play almost identical sets every time. There have been some changes since the early 2000s when every show included a 30 minute version of La Novia, but Pink Lady Lemonade remains the 30 minute centerpiece of their set. Kawabata Makoto even manages to include it in other Acid Mothers projects at least briefly. While it is a great jam, and the solos he unleashes for the 2nd half are truly stunning, it always comes with ten minutes of repetition beforehand. Sometimes the melody begins to build on itself, but this is never a guaranteed occurence.

But even if their sets evolve slowly, I will keep coming back. Even if they play the same songs, they are always looking for ways to make them more interesting, and no song is ever played the same way twice. But that's not even the point. Beauty never gets old, and watching Kawabata swing his guitar around his head while moving his fingers all over the fretboard is the most beautiful thing one can ever witness at a rock show. And as long as he keeps doing it, I'll be there even if they never change their set, because with all of the bands I have seen, none of them on their best days come close to displaying the perfect beauty of Kawabata Makoto playing guitar.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It's Blitz!

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs last album Show Your Bones proved that the group was more than just a gimmick. They were able to tone down the sonic aggression, develop their sound and still deliver captivating songs. Unfortunately, none of those successes are repeated on this album. While SYB saw the group adding acoustic guitars and synths to the mix, It's Blitz! is almost entirely dominated by keyboards, and that's a real shame since Nick Zinn was one of the most interesting guitarists around. This was always this groups secret weapon. Sure, Karen O is right out front with her vocals -and she's a very capable frontwoman, but it was Zinn that added that really made their music unpredictable and was as equally capable of beauty and agression as Karen O.

Unfortunately, none of that is on display here. Instead the songs are dominated by keyboards, and while none are particularly bad, none of the tracks show the sheer joy of "Mystery" from SYB. Instead, this is a fairly restrained and dull affair. After listening to this album more than five times, I can't recall more than half of the tracks. That's never been a problem with the other two YYY albums. The hooks just aren't here.

Opener "Zero" shows promise. It's no coincidence that it's the only song from this album that they played on Saturday Night Live last week. It has a catchy synth hook, and is a genuinely strong pop song. But right after that, things go downhill. "Heads will Roll" tries to keep the party going, but it just doesn't work. "Soft Shock" is even worse and begins to approach irritating territory. By the time I'm listening to "Runaway" I've been so bored that it's hard to notice that this is a pretty song. Closer "Little Shadow" would be a nice bring down if the rest of the album had some life in it. Instead, it just feels like the final disappointment.

Black Lips: 200MillionThousand

It seems like their last album Good Bad Not Evil just came out. But of course that's not true. I just bought it recently, that's all. But it does seem like the tour to promote it never ended, and that may be true. Whatever the reason, 200MillionThousand seems almost unnecessary. Not that it is. It's actually better than their last album in places, and definitely doesn't sound like a retread. But if you had asked me who I wanted a new album from in 2009, The Black Lips wouldn't be on my list.

I probably wouldn't even be mentioning all of this, but this album is too fucking long by at least 10 minutes. Their last two albums were under 40 minutes, so why the hell is this one 50? Sure, 3 of it is silence for the hidden track (and why the fuck is any band including hidden tracks in 2009? Do they pull this crap on every album?), but that just adds to the frustration. It's also not hard to find the tracks that are worth cutting. "I'll Be With You" just sounds unnecessary when the band already has "Dirty Hands", and about half the songs on the 2nd half are pretty forgettable. At least I've forgotten them while writing this review.

All that aside, the album has its strong moments, and shows a lot of promise. Opener "Take My Heart" is a nice dirty rocker, and "Starting Over" is a pretty little song. "Big Black Baby Jesus of Today" is one of their harder rocking songs. Really, the album's best moment is it's official final track "I Saw God". The song opens with inaudible narration that actually gets bleeped out towards the end. This jarring gimmick might frustrate and irritate a lot of listeners, but I think it works. Otherwise, you wouldn't notice that he's cussing, and it adds a certain element of sonic terrorism that makes the song more dangerous. When the final build kicks in, you're definitely paying attention, and that makes it all the more powerful.

But it's the actual final track that highlights my problem with this album. Where "I Saw God" was a thoughtful restrained song, "Meltdown" sounds like something that was crapped out in one jam session with little to no thought put into the lyrics...which is fine. But I would expect a song like that to rock a little harder. In fact, I wish just about every song on here rocked a little bit harder. The Black Lips definitely have no shortage of catchy hooks. What they seem to lack is the ability to translate those hooks into energy in the studio. Live, they definitely know how to make their songs roar. Which is maybe where these songs should have stayed.

March 27-29: Akron/Family

And I'm back. I guess. I really don't have the discipline to keep a blog. Or interesting enough thoughts. But I went to another concert, so here I am.

Being the super fan that I am, I went to all three Akron/Family shows last weekend. The first was at The New Museum in Manhattan, and the 2nd two were at Union Pool in Brooklyn. Openers were Lexie Mountain Boys (who actually had to play after Akron/Family Friday due to traffic troubles), Golden Sparkle Band and Larkin Grimm.

I guess I'll cover the openers first:

Lexie Mountain Boys: I think I would have liked them less if they were the opener. They only played for about 10 minutes after Akron/Family had finished, and that's probably as much as I can take. LMB are an all female group that sings and doesn't play any instruments. They have interesting outfits. Their "songs" are really just a lot of chanting and yelling. It's somewhat entertaining, but to be honest, it looks like some Williamsburg hipster performance art piece more than an actual band that tours, which is what they are. I saw them back up Akron/Family in 2006 at what I considered to be one of the best shows I've ever seen. There, their chanting really helped add something to the music. By itself, I think I would start getting annoyed if it went on much longer than 10 minutes.

Golden Sparkle Band: Jazz group. Piano, guitar, sax/clarinet, trumpet/bass clarinet, drums and standup bass. I really don't know what to say about these guys. I don't listen to much jazz, so it's hard for me to evaluate them fairly. I wouldn't say that I enjoyed them especially, but I wasn't bored or annoyed either. When I do listen to jazz, I tend to prefer the late-career John Coltrane stuff that manages to dance on the border between total chaos and controlled improvization. I wouldn't say these guys managed that. The pieces seemed to have a pretty clear written melody that they would then take detours from. They even had written music with them. When they joined together to play a clear tune, I found myself more involved than I was for the rest of the set.

Larkin Grimm: She continues to impress me. The first two songs which just featured her playing dulcimer and singing were a bit difficult to get into, but once her "band" (a woman on violin and a guy on some Asian instrument I still don't know the name of) joined her, things picked up greatly, and she never lost me. She managed to get the entire audience singing along for the entirety "Ride that Cyclone", and it worked a lot better than I thought it would. The bulk of her set was from her latest album, Parplar, with the exception of the first two songs and another song called "Butcher". Vocal theatrics were even more present than they were the first time I saw her, but instead of being annoying, I found it quite captivating. If you told me that my favorite new musical discovery of 2009 would be a hippie female singer/songwriter with a penchant for high pitched yells, I woudln't believe you. But here we are.

And here's my attempt at a setlist for Larkin Grimm:

Unknown song
Another song I don't know
They Were Wrong
Ride that Cyclone
Parplar
Butcher
Durge
My Justine
Anger in your Liver
Hope for the Hopeless
Mina Minou

And finally. My review of the 3 Akron/Family sets. Here are my rough setlists:

Friday:

Quiet song off the first album that I've never seen them play. I think it might be the hidden track.
River
Unknown new song--Seth sings. Something about objects appearing closer than they are.
Lake Song (with a seperate jam at the end)
Ed is a Portal
Everyone is Guilty
Sun will Shine
Last year

Saturday:

Meek Warrior
River
Lake Song
Raise the Sparks
Ed is a Portal
Everyone is Guilty
Sun will Shine
Last Year
Phenomenon

Sunday:

Meek Warrior
River
unkown song from Friday
Gravelly Mountains of the Moon
Ed is a Portal
Drum machine song that Dana sings
That jam where Miles screams a lot
Everyone is Guilty
Sun will Shine
Last Year
Then they went outside, kept singing Last Year, and then I know you Rider and then Crickets...this went on way too long.

As you can see there was some difference between sets, but not really enough for my tastes. I hadn't heard Sun Will Shine before, and since it was really good, I liked hearing it all three nights. But there were a lot of songs they could have swapped out that I would have liked to have heard. I was surprised to not hear "They Will Appear" which they also didn't play new years, but played at both shows I was at last year (except for NYE of course).

But overall, all three nights were strong sets. New Years Eve, I was very disappointed to see them as a three piece (with backing horns and woodwinds) for most of their set. To me, Akron/Family is a band that needs two guitarists, and ideally 2 drummers and some other people to mix it up. Their brass/woodwind section helps fill out their sound wonderfully, but they tend to stay in the background. The exception was Saturday night when the tenor saxophonist and the alto saxphonist from Golden Sparkle Band joined them for a couple of noisy solos in Lake Song. But I think Seth has really gotten good at looping his guitar at the right times, and using his small keyboard to really fill out the sound.

I still think they were a stronger band when they played with Megafaun, but this was a vast improvement over New Years Eve where I felt their sound was just a bit too empty. I'm once again optimistic about the future of Akron/Family.

So the sets were all great. But I have a complaint with how they ended every one. The segue from "Sun Will Shine" to "Auld Lang Syne" and into "Last Year" was neat. Would have been neater on New Years though. On New Years Eve, I thought "Last Year" was something they had just thrown together before the show for the holiday. Apparently it's on their album and it's their new closer and sing along. That's really a shame because it's just not very good. It's just one line, "Last year was a hard year for such a long time. This year's gonna be ours," and they repeat it over and over. While the silly rap at the end of "Ed is a Portal" and the sing along "Love and Space" managed to get the audience in a joyous mood, this one is just a downer. And I honestly just get annoyed being asked to sing it for 5 goddamn minutes. It doesn't have the spiritual component that made those other closers so successful. Sunday night was the worst where they took it outside where no one could hear them and then added 2 more dull acoustic singalongs.

So yeah. I hope they drop that shit or find a better closer that's actually fun to sing along to. Their sets deserve better.

Friday January 9, 2009 at the Bowery Ballroom: Camper Van Beethoven!

I always experience a bit of worry when going to see a musician or a band that is several decades past their best work. Camper Van Beethoven released an album in 2004, but it kind of felt like a weirder Cracker album, and doesn't hold up to Camper Van Beethoven's best work. But I'd never seen CVB or Cracker (yes, I actually like Cracker), so I decided I would have to give them a chance.

Fortunately, all of my fears were totally groundless. Camper Van Beethoven played a pretty comprehensive set that included favorites from all of their albums. Sure, there were a lot of songs I would have loved to hear that they didn't play (Abundance, Surprise Truck, Sometimes, Jack Ruby, She Divines Water, etc.), but this is almost always the case with bands like CVB that have dozens of great songs. There was very little talking between songs. David Lowery told one not-very-interesting story to introduce one song, and other members of the band mentioned other concerts they were playing. But that was it.

While the band was not especially energetic, the audience was clearly having a blast. I am always reminded of the age of these groups when I arrive and notice that I'm one of the younger members of the audience. Pretty much everyone there looked like a middle aged former hippie. There was some great air guitar, bass and drums played. As much fun as I was having, I just couldn't match the excitement of those around me, and I didn't try.

For me the highlight of the set was "Interstellar Overdrive" which closed out their set. Much less noisy than the original Pink Floyd and CVB versions, it still had some pretty solid guitar playing in the middle. I was also really excited to hear "Circles" played live, but it just wasn't as good without the backwards vocals. There really wasn't a weak moment in the set.

Anyway, NYC taper has a complete set list as well as a recording, so just go over there if you need that stuff. The setlist I picked up as well as NYC Taper has "White Riot" listed, but I definitely didn't hear that played. Maybe it was some unrecognizable version...

Wednesday December 31, 2008: Last show at the Knitting Factory-- Akron/Family, Deerhunger and Dirty Projectors

Dirty Projectors

Deerhoof

Akron/Family



Well those are the only bands that we got to see. There were at least 7 other bands, but we didn't see anything that wasn't on the main stage, and we missed Megafaun because they played at 8:30 and The Knitting Factory didn't open the doors in time for people to get into see them. I'll never understand why clubs do that.

So first up were The Dirty Projectors. I think I may have seen them open for Jarvis Cocker. At least one song sounded familiar. But this was much worse than I remembered hearing at that show. Basically the first two thirds of their set was awful and nearly unbearable. The Dirty Projectors basically seem to be at war with melody and rythm. And that's fine. There are lots of bands that play songs without any followable tune that I love...well maybe just a few. But the way these guys (well 2 guys and 2 girls) did it just grated on me. And the weird vocals would be fine if they merged with the music better, but instead they were way up the mix and super grating. Especially one song that was basically only sung by the lead male singer. But at the end things picked up. The last two or three songs were actually quite good. One was a briskly paced number that showed off some pretty strong guitar playing. And another featured a very noisy freakout at the end. I started their set bored and annoyed, but by the end, I was fine with it.

Then Deerhoof. I like Deerhoof alright. This was the third time I've seen them. The first time, the band got lost on the way to the venue, showed up about an hour late after people had been given refunds and sent home and played a 20 minute set that was actually quite impressive. Since then they've grown up a lot as a band and gained a much larger fan base. And a rowdier one too it seemed last night. For a variety of reasons, I was not in the mood for a lot of pushing, shoving and crowd surfing. So that really put a damper on things for me. And to be honest, I ended up more focused on that than much else. I liked Deerhoof alright. But I've never found much of their music very memorable. I find it hard to come up with anything to dislike about them, but the goodwill I have towards the band doesn't really extend much to their music.

And then the main attraction. To be honest, I felt kind of ripped off. This was my first time to see Akron/Family perform as a three piece, and it was kind of a drag. They were joined by a woodwind section for most of the set, and members of Megafaun came out periodically to add guitar/bass or extra percussion, but they were not featured as members of the band as they had been in the past. Raise the Sparks suffered when Seth's guitarstrap came undone, and there wasn't another guitarist to help pick up the slack. And the sound just wasn't as full as I've been used to at Akron/family shows.

But if the band had been as together as I'm used to, I would have been less disappointed. But their set was about a half hour shorter than the last 3 shows of theirs that I've seen. And to be honest, it was the first Akron/Family show I've seen in years that did not offer me something new and exciting from the band. From any other group, this set would have thrilled me. But coming from these guys (who last fall put on possibly the single best show I have ever seen), it just felt like a giant letdown.

Here's the rough setlist:

Auld Lang Syne
Lake Song
Turn on Your Love Light
New Song
New Song
Crickets
New Song
Raise the Sparks
Ed is a Portal

The new ones aren't that new by now, but I still don't know the titles.