Category: music

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Best concerts of 2010

GRINDERMAN Nov. 22 at the Riviera. Nick Cave was pushing himself up against the crowd, letting the fans in front touch with him their hands as he spouted his funny, vulgar, erudite and/or raunchy lyrics. Grinderman’s albums are almost but not quite non-stop rock, and the show was similar, whipping up even more intensity. Cave let out a few more blood-curdling screams than he does in the studio, and his bandmates sang the call-and-response backup vocals like people yelling for help in an emergency. Read More / Photos

BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY Sept. 28 at Ronny’s. The new songs were transformed into sprawling, loose-limbed, full-band arrangements. … Will Oldham took the stage and removed his flip-flops, revealing his pink-painted toenails. Oldham’s fingernails had pink nail polish, too, and his eyes were underlined with black makeup. The eyeliner was smeared on the left side of his face, looking like a bruise. As usual, Oldham’s face was covered with bristly hair, including a walrus mustache. As he sang, Oldham often contorted his legs and arms as if he were improvising some yoga moves. … As Oldham writhed and the band filled out the songs with an almost jazzy sense of exploration, it reminded me sometimes of Van Morrison from the Astral Weeks era. Read More / Photos

ROBBIE FULKS RESIDENCY all year long at the Hideout. One of the most delightful things happening in live music in Chicago is the ongoing residency by Robbie Fulks on most Monday nights at the Hideout. As a series, this perhaps deserves a special place outside my top 10 concert list, but let’s give Fulks the kudos he so richly deserves and just say that live music rarely gets better than this. He played 38 dates at the Hideout in 2010, and a fellow fan who’s been keeping track of the set lists tells me he’s played more than 400 different songs over the course of those shows. Fulks doesn’t just do the same sort of set every week. He plays with a revolving set of other musicians and singers and sometimes organizes the shows around themes, such as tributes to Alex Chilton or ’70s country music. I feel like something of a slacker because I made it to only five Fulks Hideout shows. (I saw Fulks perform with Nora O’Connor Feb. 8 and Dec. 27, with the Hoyle Brothers April 5, with Greg Cahill April 26, and with Robbie Gjersoe and Jenny Scheinman Aug. 23.) Fulks is a terrific guitarist, very skilled at acoustic finger picking, the sort of musician who can quickly learn new songs and improvise. He’s also an excellent songwriter, a good singer and one of the funniest, smartest raconteurs around. All of that, plus his great taste in music and musicians, adds up to an experience that’s truly enchanting to witness. The sets I saw with O’Connor were probably my favorites — she’s such a beautiful singer — but the other sets included many highlights, too. At the show with Gjersoe and Scheinman, it was exciting to see the three musicians skillfully finding their way through some songs they clearly hadn’t rehearsed, playing with a sense of improvisatory exploration — and doing it with a light sense of humor about it all. Photos from Feb. 8 / / Photos from April 5

THE NATIONAL Sept. 26 at the Riviera. Lead singer Matt Berninger began the concert closely hugging his microphone, but as the show went on, he became more animated, bouncing his microphone stand like a toy. During instrumental passages, he paced the stage, raising his clenched fists, like someone fighting off voices in his head. Berninger’s dance is awkward, lacking the typical rock-star moves, but it feels authentic. He seems to be expressing the emotion and energy he’s feeling from these songs in the only way he can. … It was thrilling how the National’s songs built to dramatic climaxes … During the final song, “Terrible Love,” Berninger walked out into the audience, singing out in the midst of the crowd’s voices for several minutes. Read More (Note: The photo above is actually from a different National show, their set this summer at Lollapalooza.)

THE ARCADE FIRE Aug. 8 at Lollapalooza in Grant Park. The seven musicians in the Arcade Fire are still swapping instruments and working up a sweat as they pound away with their violins, guitars, keyboards and even a hurdy-gurdy. The songs from the new album The Suburbs, sounded strong, but older songs provided the cathartic climax of the concert, as the audience sang along with “Rebellion (Lies)” and “Wake Up.” It was as if the crowd was defying the lyrics Win Butler had sung earlier in the new song, “Month of May” — “Now, some things are pure and some things are right/But the kids are still standing with their arms folded tight.” These kids were not just standing there with their arms folded tight. Read More / Photos

TITUS ANDRONICUS July 17 at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park. From my review for Signal to Noise magazine: The Bruce Springsteen influence was obvious from the opening seconds of the first song, “A More Perfect Union,” when singer Patrick Stickles yelled out the lyrics: “I never wanted to change the world, but I’m looking for a new New Jersey, because tramps like us, baby, we were born to die!” Guest players on horns and strings gave the songs a sense of grandeur resembling Neutral Milk Hotel, as Stickles and his bandmates flailed around with their guitars every chance they got. An American flag was draped over the front of the keyboard, and the Stars and Stripes dangled from Stickles’ guitar, too. Titus Andronicus is hardly your typical bunch of patriotic flag-wavers, but the band’s lyrics show a deep appreciation of American history and the long struggle to secure our freedoms. Amid the loud, rollicking chords and Stickles’ keening, emotion-drenched vocals, the crowd chanted, “U.S.A.! U.S.A! U.S.A.!” Read More / Photos

JÓNSI April 28 at the Vic. The concert built from a hushed quiet in the early songs to a cathartic burst in the encore, with Jónsi singing in a falsetto that was often angelic and occasionally demonic. The set itself was a masterpiece, with a shifting series of projected images making the stage feel like a cabinet of wonders. Photos

JANELLE MONÁE March 29 at Schubas. She wowed me with her strong voice and her sense of drama. I also noticed some interesting almost orchestral flourishes in the song arrangements. She and her backing musicians came out onto the stage in druid robes for a Spinal Tap-esque entrance, with a fog machine going, and the whole show had an air of spectacle about it, despite being at little ol’ Schubas. Photos

RICCARDO MUTI CONDUCTS THE CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Sept. 19 at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. It was a great spectacle to see so many thousands of people cramming into the park to see (or at least hear) the debut of the great maestro as the CSO’s new musical director. The fans waved Muti flags as he nimbly led the orchestra through a lovely outdoor concert, making even the most familiar pieces of music (such as the Fantasy-Overture from Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet) sound fresh. Photos

TUNNG Nov. 17 at Schubas. The spirited, sing-along and dance-around-like-a-fool side of Tunng was on full display when the group came to Chicago for the first time in three years. Given Tunng’s reputation as something of a folk-rock group, who would’ve expected Mike Lindsay to don a pair of goofy glasses that would’ve been appropriate for Bootsy Collins? … This was quite a joyful musical affair. Read More + Photos

RUNNERS-UP
SYL JOHNSON Nov. 27 at the Old Town School of Folk Music.
PHOSPHORESCENT Aug. 5 at the Empty Bottle
LCD SOUNDSYSTEM July 17 at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park
LIGHTNING BOLT July 18 at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park
JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE Sept. 18 at Lincoln Hall
SUPERCHUNK June 20 at the Taste of Randolph Street
FANFARLO April 7 at Lincoln Hall
THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH May 28 at Lincoln Hall
THEE SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA May 27 at Schubas
CARIBOU July 12 at Millennium Park
IGGY & THE STOOGES Aug. 29 at the Riviera Theatre
CONDO FUCKS and ELEVENTH DREAM DAY May 16 at the Hideout
JENS LEKMAN Jan. 3 at the Viaduct Theater
ANDREW BIRD Dec. 16 at the 4th Presbyterian Church
THE FLAT FIVE Dec. 10 at the Hideout
GUIDED BY VOICES Oct. 13 at the Riviera
THEE OH SEES Sept. 16 at Lincoln Hall

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Best Records of 2010

THE NATIONAL: HIGH VIOLET (4AD)
myspace / artist website

From the opening notes to the very end, High Violet continually strikes that tricky balance that the National is known for — somehow sounding dazed and tense at the same time. The National has made some great records before, particularly 2007’s Boxer, but this one feels like an almost perfect distillation of its tightly wound, tamped-down anthems. Unsettling phobias run through the lyrics about ghosts, zombies, circus geeks and swarms of bees, but the majestic music feels more like a tonic to scare off the fear.

KELLEY STOLTZ: TO DREAMERS (Sub Pop)
myspace /artist website / free mp3 of “I Don’t Get That”

San Francisco singer-songwriter and all-round musical genius Kelley Stoltz has made a string of top-notch records that hearken back to the golden era of the ’60s, playing most of the instruments himself. His latest record continues in that vein, but it leans more toward the Kinks and the Troggs, with the rawer sounds of ’60s garage rock. The compositions are still beautiful, with smart chord changes and guitar and bass lines that accomplish so much in a few simple turns, but it’s all a bit rougher around the edges. There’s one cover, a catchy take on an obscure 1965 British single, “Baby I’ve Got News For You,” by Big Boy Pete — and it’s a terrific match with Stoltz’s originals.

Click here to see Crawdaddy’s video of Stoltz playing an acoustic version of the same song.

BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY & THE CAIRO GANG: THE WONDER SHOW OF THE WORLD (Drag City)
label website / myspace / artist website

Will Oldham, who most often calls himself Bonnie “Prince” Billy these days, is one highly prolific singer-songwriter, with a complex, hard-to-track discography. He’s been on something of a roll with his last several recordings, and the latest is one of his best yet, a collaboration with the Cairo Gang, otherwise known as Emmett Kelly, a talented Chicago musician with a sensitive approach to playing the guitar. When the two of them play live together (something that really ought to be seen), you can feel how they’re feeding off one another. And that comes through on this strong set of 10 mostly acoustic songs. In a review earlier this year for Signal to Noise magazine, I wrote: Oldham has never sung better, gently catching all the subtle nuances of his melodies. His lyrics read like poetry on the page, but somehow even his archaic turns of phrase feel natural when he sings them. … Oldham dares to let his mind take him to places other songwriters avoid. On the last track, the elegiac “Kids,” he sings from the perspective of an aging man who’s afraid of moving, fearful of losing his ability to sing. If anything, Oldham sounds more fearless than ever. The two Bonnie “Prince” Billy shows I saw Chicago this fall were great, featuring Kelly and a full band. But this earlier, apparently unamplified duo concert by Oldhan and Kelly — captured on amateur video at Monster Island Basement in Brooklyn — looks even more amazing. The clip below begins in the middle of one song, “With Cornstalks or Among Them,” and continues with the song, “The Sounds Are Always Begging.”

ARVO PÄRT: SYMPHONY NO. 4 (ECM)
label website / fan website

Arvo Pärt is one of the great living composers, and this year ECM released a recording of the first symphony he’s written in 37 years. The symphony is not really the form of music he’s known for, and this is not a typical symphony. Although Pärt has a full orchestra at his disposal — the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen in 2009 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall — the symphony often sounds more like a piece of chamber music. It opens with serenity and stillness, like glimmers of light blinking in a night sky. But the same formulas that bind together the stars take on another, more menacing aspect as the symphony unravels over the course of three movements, arriving at a strangely tense and unresolved climax — unresolved except for the slight, almost passing resonance of a bell ringing at the very end. Like much of Pärt’s music, it feels mystical and soulful. (Here is a short essay I wrote about Pärt for a feature on classical music’s most inspiring people in the summer 2010 issue of Listen magazine.)

THE 1900s: RETURN OF THE CENTURY (Parasol)
label website / myspace / buy at Bandcamp

The 1900s have been one of Chicago’s best bands over the past few years, and they emerged from some apparent turmoil with a slightly reconfigured lineup on this new record —sounding as strong as ever. The music isn’t quite as lushly orchestrated as it was on their superb 2007 album Cold and Kind, but the melodies are just as inventive, the words are great pop-song poetry, and the vocals by the trio of lead singers have never been so lovely. Another addictive collection of sweet songs with a bittersweet tinge.

PHOSPHORESCENT: HERE’S TO TAKING IT EASY (Dead Oceans)
myspace / label website / free mp3 of “Mermaid Parade”

Phosphorescent — which is essentially one guy, singer Matthew Houck, plus whatever musicians he assembles — has made good records in the past, but he/they seem to have found a new sense of purpose after doing a Willie Nelson tribute record in 2009. The result is the year’s best country record — or should we say alt-country? Country-rock? Forget all those labels. These are just great songs from top to bottom, with arrangements reminiscent of classic, old-time country and western.

THE SADIES: DARKER CIRCLES (Yep Roc)
label website /band website / myspace

No doubt, the Sadies are one of the most talented guitar bands you’ll ever see in concert. Using barely any effects pedals, they’ll show you how guitar, bass and drums are played by people who really, really know how to do it — but they also put that virtuosity to the service of the songs they’re playing, rather than simply showing off. And over their past few records, they’ve also matured into strong songwriters. The Sadies’ previous album, New Seasons, was my favorite of 2007. The new one ranks a notch below that one, but it’s a nearly unassailable bunch of tightly arranged roots-rock tunes, concluding with an incredible overture of sorts — the accurately named track “10 More Songs,” which crams a whole album’s worth of majestic guitar riffs into 4 minutes and 15 seconds.

THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH: THE WILD HUNT (Dead Oceans)
myspace / label website / free mp3 of “King of Spain”

The Tallest Man on Earth — the stage name for Sweden’s Kristian Matsson — is a very traditional, acoustic-guitar-picking folk-rock singer-songwriter. It’s an old genre, but it’s far from exhausted, and Matsson is doing it as well as just about anyone right now. His dexterity on the guitar is impressive, and he’s surprisingly lively in concert, rarely standing still for more than a minute or two. But he’s mostly worth watching because of his gift for memorable melodies and words.

GRINDERMAN: GRINDERMAN 2 (Anti-)
band website / myspace

It was hard not to wonder if the first Grinderman record would turn out to be a one-off stunt by Nick Cave. He recorded under a different name than usual, working with a subset of the musicians who play in his bigger band, the Bad Seeds, and the experience seemed to give him a jolt of electricity. It’s a good thing Cave reassembled Grinderman for a sophomore record, which is just as raging and raw as the first one, running over with black humor in the lyrics and an unstoppable power in the ragged blues-punk guitar riffs. This year, the middle-aged Cave showed the kids how to rock. (Warning: The first of the videos below, “Heathen Child,” is NSFW. It’s also insanely, wonderfully weird.)

JANELLE MONÁE: THE ARCHANDROID (Bad Boy/Wonderland)
artist website / myspace / video trailer

If only other young pop and R&B divas were as inventive and daring as Janelle Monáe. Her ambitious debut runs a wide gamut, from an orchestral introduction to bouncy dance music and elegant ballads, with a sci-fi theme running through the whole thing. She made her record the way she wanted to, and she had the director’s vision — and the powerful, nimble voice — required to pull it off.

AND THE NEXT 50 … in roughly descending order:
11. Kings Go Forth: The Outsiders Are Back (Luaka Bop)
12. LCD Soundsystem: This Is Happening (DFA/Virgin)
13. The Arcade Fire: The Suburbs (Merge)
14. She & Him: Vol. 2 (Merge)
15. Mavis Staples: You Are Not Alone (Anti-)
16. Nina Nastasia: Outlaster (Fat Cat)
17. Dios: We Are Dios (Buddyhead)
18. Sharon Van Etten: Epic (Ba Da Bing)
19. Tunng: …And Then We Saw Land (Thrill Jockey)
20. Best Coast: Crazy For You (Mexican Summer)
21. Deerhunter: Halcyon Digest (4AD)
22. Caribou: Swim (Merge)
23. Avi Buffalo: Avi Buffalo (Sub Pop)
24. Midlake: Courage of Others (Bella Union)
25. Kronos Quartet with Alim & Fargana Qasimov and Homayun Sakhi: Rainbow: Music of Central Asia Vol. 8 (Smithsonian Folkways)
26. Dr. Dog: Shame, Shame (Anti-)
27. Black Mountain: Wilderness Heart (Jagjaguwar)
28. A Broken Consort: Crow Autumn (Tompkins Square)
29. Laura Marling: I Speak Because I Can (Astralwerks)
30. The Vaselines: Sex With an Ex (Sub Pop)
31. Spoon: Transference (Merge)
32. The Black Angels: Phosphone Dream (Blue Horizon)
33. The Besnard Lakes: The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night (Jagjaguwar)
34. Owen Pallett: Heartland (Domino)
35. Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra: Kollaps Tradixionales (Constellation)
36. Woods: At Echo Lake (Woodsist)
37. Cave: Pure Moods (Drag City)
38. Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings: I Learned the Hard Way (Daptone)
39. Justin Townes Earle: Harlem River Blues (Bloodshot)
40. The Fall: Your Future Our Clutter (Domino)
41. Laura Veirs: July Flame (Raven Marching Band)
42. White Hills: White Hills (Thrill Jockey)
43. The Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O.: In O to Infinity (Important)
44. Belle & Sebastian: Write About Love (Matador)
45. Charlotte Gainsbourg: IRM (Elektra/Asylum)
46. Clogs: The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton (Brassland)
47. Gil Scott-Heron: I’m New Here (XL)
48. Jónsi: Go (XL)
49. The Love Language: Libraries (Merge)
50. Barn Owl: Ancestral Star (Thrill Jockey)

And then there were, oh, about a hundred more records I heard from 2010 that I liked — if only I had more time to absorb them all.

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Favorite photos of 2010 Part 2

LIGHTNING BOLT — JULY 18 AT THE PITCHFORK MUSIC FESTIVAL
SLEIGH BELLS — JULY 18 AT THE PITCHFORK MUSIC FESTIVAL
JOHNNY & THE LIMELITES — JULY 22 AT LAURIE’S PLANET OF SOUND
CAP’N JAZZ — JULY 31 AT WICKER PARK FESTIVAL
MAVIS STAPLES — AUG. 6 AT LOLLAPALOOZA
THE BIG PINK — AUG. 6 AT LOLLAPALOOZA
JIMMY CLIFF — AUG. 6 AT LOLLAPALOOZA
THE BLACK KEYS — AUG. 6 AT LOLLAPALOOZA
LADY GAGA — AUG. 6 AT LOLLAPALOOZA
STARS — AUG. 7 AT LOLLAPALOOZA
METRIC — AUG. 7 AT LOLLAPALOOZA
SOCIAL DISTORTION — AUG. 7 AT LOLLAPALOOZA
EDWARD SHARPE & THE MAGNETIC ZEROS — AUG. 7 AT LOLLAPALOOZA
FRIGHTENED RABBIT — AUG. 8 AT LOLLAPALOOZA
THE ARCADE FIRE — AUG. 8 AT LOLLAPALOOZA
THE ARCADE FIRE — AUG. 8 AT LOLLAPALOOZA
WANDA JACKSON — AUG. 27 AT FITZGERALD’S
IGGY & THE STOOGES — AUG. 29 AT THE RIVIERA
THEE OH SEES — SEPT. 16 AT LINCOLN HALL
JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE — SEPT. 18 AT LINCOLN HALL
BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY — SEPT. 28 AT RONNY’S
BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY — SEPT. 29 AT LINCOLN HALL
GUIDED BY VOICES — OCT. 13 AT THE RIVIERA
THE VASELINES — OCT. 28 AT LINCOLN HALL
MONARCH — OCT. 31 AT THE HIDEOUT
MIYA MASAOKA’S “LED KIMONO,” NOV. 20 AT THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CHCIAGO
GRINDERMAN — NOV. 22 AT THE RIVIERA THEATRE
GRINDERMAN — NOV. 22 AT THE RIVIERA THEATRE
GRACE POTTER & THE NOCTURNALS — DEC. 4 IN THE CHICAGO BLUEGRASS & BLUES FESTIVAL AT THE CONGRESS THEATER
EDWARD SHARPE & THE MAGNETIC ZEROS — DEC. 4 IN THE CHICAGO BLUEGRASS & BLUES FESTIVAL AT THE CONGRESS THEATER
THE FLAT FIVE — DEC. 10 AT THE HIDEOUT

SEE MORE PHOTOS IN PART 1.

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Favorite photos of 2010 Part 1

EBONY BONES — FEB. 6 AT GREEN DOLPHIN STREET
ROBBIE FULKS — FEB. 8 AT THE HIDEOUT
TINARIWEN — FEB. 28 AT THE OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF FOLK MUSIC
THE IKE REILLY ASSASSINATION — MARCH 1 AT SCHUBAS
A SUNNY DAY IN GLASGOW — MARCH 3 AT SCHUBAS
MUCCA PAZZA — MARCH 6 AT ST. PAUL’S CULTURAL CENTER
EFTERKLANG — MARCH 8 AT LINCOLN HALL
WOODS — MARCH 15 AT LINCOLN HALL
PERE UBU — MARCH 14 AT LINCOLN HALL
JANELLE MONÁE — MARCH 29 AT SCHUBAS
SERENA-MANEESH — MARCH 31 AT THE BOTTOM LOUNGE
FANFARLO — APRIL 7 AT LINCOLN HALL
WHITE MYSTERY — APRIL 17 AT PERMANENT RECORDS
JÓNSI — APRIL 28 AT THE VIC
DELTA SPIRIT — APRIL 30 AT THE KALYX CENTER, MONTICELLO, ILLINOIS
ELEVENTH DREAM DAY — MAY 2 AT THE HIDEOUT
CONDO FUCKS — MAY 16 AT THE HIDEOUT
MONO — MAY 22 AT THE EMPTY BOTTLE
BESNARD LAKES — MAY 24 AT THE PRITZKER PAVILION
THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH — MAY 28 AT LINCOLN HALL
ANDRE WILLIAMS — MAY 29 AT SCHUBAS
COCOCOMA — JUNE 5 AT DO-DIVISION STREET FEST
WARPAINT — JUNE 6 AT DO-DIVISION STREET FEST
YAKUZA — JUNE 5 AT THE BEAT KITCHEN
YAKUZA — JUNE 5 AT THE BEAT KITCHEN
SHE & HIM — JUNE 7 AT THE PRITZKER PAVILION
MATMOS & SO PERCUSSION — JUNE 12 AT THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CHICAGO
SUPERCHUNK — JUNE 20 AT THE TASTE OF RANDOLPH STREET
CARIBOU — JULY 12 AT THE PRITZKER PAVILION
ROBYN — JULY 16 AT THE PITCHFORK MUSIC FESTIVAL
TITUS ANDRONICUS — JULY 17 AT THE PITCHFORK MUSIC FESTIVAL
LCD SOUNDSYSTEM — JULY 17 AT THE PITCHFORK MUSIC FESTIVAL

SEE MORE PHOTOS IN PART 2.

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The Flat Five? It Must Be December


Earlier this year, I contributed a short article to the Chicago Reader’s “Best of Chicago” issue about The Flat Five, naming this local group the “Best Cover Band That Plays One Gig a Year.” At least, that has been this group’s performance pattern since mid-2007. Each December, this super group of singers and players convene for one night of performances at the Hideout. This year, that blessed night arrived on Friday (Dec. 10), with two sets at the Hideout. But as it happens, the Flat Five are going to play at least one more show this winter, Jan. 7 at Evanston Space. As I wrote in the Reader, it sure would be nice if that Flat Five played more often.

Who are the Flat Five? Even if you don’t know the band name, you may recognize the names of some of the members: Kelly Hogan, Nora O’Connor, Scott Ligon, K.C. McDonough and Gerald Dowd. For these gigs, Alex Hall ably filled in for Dowd on drums, adding some accordion, too. (Dowd is on tour, so he wasn’t available.) While they all have ties to the alt-country scene, what they do in the Flat Five is more like a combination of supper-club cabaret with rock cover band. Beautiful harmonies and a quirky, smart selection of songs originally written by people such as Harry Nilsson, the Beach Boys, the Free Design, Spanky and Our Gang, XTC alter-ego the Dukes of Stratosphear, the Zombies and Bobby Hebb. (Plus a few songs by Scott Ligon’s brother, Chris Ligon.) The Flat Five practiced a repertoire of about 45 songs this time, and they spread out quite a few of those over the two sets Friday night, with just a few repeats.

As in past years, it was a true delight to hear these voices joining together on songs such as “Sundays Will Never Be the Same,” “Kites Are Fun” and “This Will Be Our Year.” And how many other “cover bands” do a “four-fer” of songs by Nilsson? There was rock, jazz, ballads, country, even a little bit of gospel. And it sounded glorious.

PHOTOS OF THE FLAT FIVE












VIDEOS OF THE FLAT FIVE

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The Return of the 1900s


On first listen, the new album by the 1900s, Return of the Century, sounds not quite as lush as the Chicago group’s earlier orchestral pop. But it doesn’t take long for these 11 songs to reveal their catchy little intricacies. This is a beautiful pop record — pop in the old-fashioned style, with well-crafted melodies and arrangements packed into songs lasting just a few minutes each, with the sort of love-song lyrics that seem like poetic glimpses into someone’s diary. The 1900s have gone through some lineup changes since putting out their debut, Cold & Kind, in 2007, but the band still has three great vocalists — Edward Anderson,Caroline Donovan and Jeanine O’Toole — and the blend of those voices continues to define the sound of the 1900s. Violinist Andra Kulans and bassist Charlie Ransford are still with the band, too, doing the crucial work of filling out the bright sound.

The new songs sounded strong when the 1900s played Friday (Dec. 3) at the Empty Bottle. In fact, while Return of the Century is a bit on the mellow side, these songs had more rock in them live — partly because Anderson added a touch more fuzz to his guitar lines. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen the 1900s over the last several years, and they haven’t failed yet to put on a good performance. It was fabulous to see them in action again.
www.myspace.com/1900s

PHOTOS OF THE 1900s








OPENING ACT TRISTEN

PHOTOS OF OPENING ACT TYLER JON TYLER



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All Hail Syl Johnson

Longtime Chicago soul singer Syl Johnson’s been getting a lot of attention the past month, thanks to the Numero Group’s release of the wonderful six-LP and four-CD box set Complete Mythology. If you haven’t read or heard any of the press coverage, it’s all well worth your time. Johnson also put on a terrific show last Saturday (Nov. 27) at the Old Town School of Folk Music. More on that in a minute.

One impression you get from reading about Johnson is how challenging of an interview he can be, given his tendency to quickly jump from one subject to another. Peter Margasak described this particularly well in his Chicago Reader cover story, “The Real Syl”. And the Chicago Sun-Times’ Dave Hoekstra captures this bizarre quote from Johnson as he ostensibly answers a question about his classic (or should-be-classic) tune, “Is It Because I’m Black”:

“I was saying a woman doesn’t make as much as a man if they’re on the same job. The man don’t mean no harm. In fact, the holy Quran says man is a step above the woman. That’s true — in some spots. To make a long story short, I had squirrels in my eaves. I had to go out to Addison to get a squirrel trap. I glued the nuts in there. They’re very smart animals. But I got ’em. And every last one was a male. Isn’t that incredible?”

Um… OK.

Yesterday, The New York Times jumped onto the Syl Johnson bandwagon with another story. Echoing the other journalists, Ben Sisario noted: “In conversation, Mr. Johnson is as tricky to follow as the twists in his career. Alternately shouting and cooing into the phone, he made bold declarations like “I am a multifaceted genius” and told long stories about the old record business that ended with his victimization at the hands of ineffective promo men. He sang snippets from his songs and blew bluesy harmonica melodies.”

The Numero Group posted a transcript Sisario sent the record label of the first part of his phone conversation with Johnson:

Syl (picking up the phone, semi-shouting): “….now what’s the problem?”
Me: Uh, hi, is this Syl Johnson?
“Yeah, this is he.”
This is Ben Sisario from the New York Times.
(shouting) “Who is this?”
My name is Ben Sisario. I’m calling from the New York Times.
“Oh yeah! I’ve been looking for your call. How do you spell it?”
S-I-S-A-R-I-O.
“What’s the first name?”
Ben.
“Ben?”
Yes, sir.
“Like Ben….?” [I think he was starting to sing the Michael Jackson song, but at the time I didn’t catch that.]
Like Benjamin Franklin.
(laughs) Oh wow—that’s on the what, dollar bill and shit? Who on the dollar? George Washington. Benjamin Franklin on the what? Ten?
He’s on the hundred.
Oh! That’s the shit I like, the hundred! (laughs)
How are you?
“I’m cool and the gang, man.”

Now, getting back to the concert Johnson performed last week at the Old Town School. The evening had a celebratory feeling, as Johnson was finally getting more widespread recognition for the great music he’d recorded years ago after spending a long time in relative obscurity. The set included some of the tracks that the Numero Group dug up for the box set — songs that Johnson barely remembered recording and had apparently never performed live. “I’ve never heard this before in my life, I swear,” he said before one song.

Otis Clay sang a bit with the 14-piece band, and Gene Chandler of “Duke of Earl” fame made a surprise appearance, but Johnson was the center of attention almost all night, dressed in a sharp red suit and showing few signs of age in his vocals as he sang great numbers like “Is It Because I’m Black?” and “Take Me to the River.” The band, especially the horn section, did not seem completely rehearsed, having some trouble early on knowing exactly when to end a song, but that just added to the loose, jam-session vibe of the music. It was a little odd, however, when the horn section packed up before the encore, prompting Johnson to exclaim, “Shit, I ain’t got no band with me!”

Based on what I’d read about Johnson, I expected he would probably deliver a speech of some sort during the show — and he more than fulfilled that expectation with a long statement before the final song. He complained about not getting royalties from the old records he’d made for the Twilight and Twinight labels and going to court to get money for the samples of his music that turned up in numerous hip-hop tracks.

“It took me 40 years to get my shit back,” he said. His advice to other musicians? “Cut a deal with a record company, but not your knees, because you will get fucked.” But when it came to the Numero Group, he had nothing but praise. “They’re and they’re straight,” he said. “I never got a penny until this Numero Group. … They’re the first people after 40 years to give me a royalty check for fucking Twilight-Twinight Records.”

The band finally had to nudge Johnson to play one more song, and he closed the night with “Sock It to Me.” What a memorable night it was.

The Numero Group has posted links to even more Syl Johnson press coverage here. Here’s Greg Kot’s interview in the Chicago Tribune. And here’s Alison Cuddy’s interview with Johnson (including an in-studio musical performance) for WBEZ’s Eight Forty-Eight show: Part 1 and Part 2.

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When The Who Came to Town

The Nov. 29 issue of The New Yorker has a wonderful essay on Keith Moon’s drumming by literary critic James Wood. Reading this appreciation of Moon’s insanely great drumming made me think of the following article, which I wrote in 2007 for Pioneer Press Newspapers, looking back on two concerts the Who performed in the northwest suburbs in the late ’60s. There are many musicians I’d love to travel back in time to see — to see them when they were their prime or when they played to small crowds before they became huge stars. Near the top of my fantasy list: The Who in the 1960s or early ’70s.

The Who at the First Monterey International Pop Festival, just a few days after their concert at the Cellar in Arlington Heights.

ONCE UPON A TIME, a brash young rock band from England descended on Chicago’s northwest suburbs, smashing guitars and making a loud and rebellious racket. Forty years later, fans vividly remember when the Who came to town. The Who’s earliest U.S. concerts included a June 15, 1967, stop at the Cellar in Arlington Heights on and a July 31, 1968, show at the New Place between Cary and Crystal Lake.

Paul Sampson, now a Crystal Lake resident, owned the Cellar, a teen club at the corner of Salem and Davis streets that hosted concerts by Chicago bands such as the Shadows of Knight as well as touring acts like Cream. The building is now an auto repair shop, not far from the Arlington Heights post office.

“The most distinct thing that I remember about the Who was Peter Townshend coming to my office,” Sampson says. “He says, ‘I can’t go on. I’ve got guitar-string problems.’” Sampson recalls thinking that Townshend was “a little spoiled,” a quality common in that era’s rock stars. “I thought, ‘Give me a break,’” Sampson says. “Needless to say, I let him know that he wouldn’t be paid if he didn’t go on. It just doesn’t work that way. I guess he found it within himself to go out and take care of whatever the issues were.”

John Sennett, who now lives in Schaumburg, was a 13-year-old Arlington Heights kid when he went to see the Who that night. “I had all their albums, including their monumental first, My Generation,” Sennett says. “My brother Michael was in a band called the Reejuns. They played some of the Who songs, so I was quite in touch with the Who. They were very ‘tough’ at the time. A street band, singing songs of the street, of the youth.”

A critic for the Chicago Tribune noted that the Thursday night concert got started late, after 20 minutes of “electronic troubles.” The Who ended up playing for only 15 minutes, the newspaper reported, “but it was sweet and loud.”

Sampson doubts the concert was that short. “No, no, I do not recall that,” he says. “I’m pretty sure if they had gone on for 15 minutes, there would have been reservations at the end. … Generally, when a group came in, they were contracted for 45 minutes. The total onstage routine … had to be close to that.”

Kirby Bivans, an Evanston musician in a band called the Other Half, was in the audience. Answering questions by e-mail from his current home in Switzerland, he recalled: “Pete Townshend was having problems with his amplifier and they had a little roadie who was scurrying back and forth behind the amplifiers to try to fix the problem. Pete’s solution was to ram his guitar neck into the amplifiers and sometimes he would knock them over, causing the roadie to cover his head and tried to get away; it was both shocking and comical. We would see the roadie run back to the front of the building and get another amplifier top and bring it back and connect it, only to have it malfunction again causing Pete to ram his guitar neck one more time into it. And sometimes Pete would just throw his guitar neck as high as he could and it would get caught in the chicken wire, which was only about three feet above his head. That would cause him to get really angry and he started pulling it down.”

Sennett says the Cellar’s acoustics basically consisted of noise echoing off concrete walls. “That’s the way we liked it,” he says. “Hard guitar chords and tough vocals along the tracks, in a warehouse.” He saw Sampson looking through the glass window of the Cellar’s control booth, which was above the crowd. Sennett remembers Sampson looking “elated.”

“They were really loud,” Sampson says. “It was ‘bang, crash, bang, crash.’ It was a bit of smasheroo-type thing. I don’t know how much musical value one got out of that, but it became one heck of an act. That’s what they were famous for.” Sennett remembers “bass and drums pounding till the walls shook.”

As the Who finished their set, Townshend smashed his guitar. “Their last song was ‘My Generation’ of course, and during the song the little roadie lit some smoke bombs and we all started choking,” Bivans said. “Someone opened the fire doors and we all tried to get out as fast as we could, along with the Who. The band jumped into a waiting black Cadillac limousine and drove away as fast as they could.

“After the show, the guitar player in my band came up to me, and I said to him, ‘I just ran into Keith Moon.’ He said, ‘Far out! Did he say anything to you?’ I said, ‘No I really ran into him; he almost knocked me over trying to get out!’”

After the concert, a fan asked Townshend what he would use for his guitar the following night. “Glue it back together,” he responded, according to the Tribune.

The next day, the Who played the first of two nights at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, followed by the First Monterey International Pop Festival that Sunday, which D.A. Pennebaker filmed for the documentary Monterey Pop.

Sennett says the experience of seeing the Who at the Cellar had a lasting impact on him. “Their pounding chords and disruptive nature drove my personality throughout my youth,” he says. “Playing in a small venue like the Cellar made the Who one of us — no different, except they knew how to play excellent, earth-shattering music.”


Read the original Tribune review of the Who at the Cellar in 1967.

Paul Wertico, an acclaimed jazz drummer who lives in Skokie, was a student at Cary-Grove High School when the Who came back to the area for another concert in July 1968. Wertico was already a fan, especially of Moon’s drumming. The Who played in the courtyard of a small club called the New Place, which was in an unincorporated area between Cary and Crystal Lake, on Route 31 less than a mile south of Northwest Highway. After the opening bands finished playing, the audience waited, anxiously wondering where the Who were. Their equipment was onstage, but there was no sign of the band.

“I was standing maybe three feet from the stage, and all of a sudden, a helicopter lands in back of the fence, and they hop over the fence,” Wertico says. “There was a mad crush to the front of the stage.”

Recalling the Who’s famous personas, Wertico says, “I remember (John) Entwistle being really staid and just looking out. He was watching Keith and he was really playing. The other three guys were going completely ape. Roger Daltrey’s twirling the microphone. He’s got tape on the microphone so it doesn’t fall off. And Townshend’s doing all those windmills. Keith broke so many drumsticks. We were wondering if they were broke to begin with, because it was so ridiculous the number of sticks he broke during that performance. Is he using sticks that were cracked already?”

The Who were so loud that they knocked out the power seven times that night, and each time, Keith Moon continued drumming as the electricity went out. Then came the smashing finale.

“All of a sudden, Townshend put his guitar through one of the high-watt amplifiers,” Wertico says. “And Daltrey’s doing the same thing, taking his mike stand and destroying stuff. And Keith’s knocking over everything. Part of Pete Townshend’s guitar landed right in front of me, and this big guy who worked for the Who just jumped and grabbed it. It was so exciting, it was just unbelievable.”

The show left a big impression on Wertico. “The thing that blew my mind was they went through that whole thing of trashing their equipment in a place like that,” he says. “That’s amazing to me. You’d think they’d just save that for the big shows. They did not go on autopilot. They could have been playing for a million people that night. It was stunning, the amount of energy and the amount of joy. That’s what made me want to be a musician, that spirit.”

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Grinderman at the Riviera

The concert by Grinderman Monday (Nov. 22) at the Riviera was one of the best I’ve seen this year. Not that this was surprising. Nick Cave hasn’t disappointed me yet in the five times I’ve seen him in concert. Is it possible Cave’s actually become more of a live wire as he’s gotten older? He certainly seems completely uninhibited as he commands the stage.

Monday’s concert was an improvement over the exciting but too short 2007 set by Grinderman at Metro. Now that Cave and his Grinderman mates have two strong albums’ worth of material to draw from, they were able to put on a true full-length concert. Warren Ellis, he of the long and shaggy beard, often went wild on his guitars and violin, making searing hot noises, the sort of solos that are more about one big, scratchy sound than the individual notes. Cave often played guitar, too (something he doesn’t usually do when he’s touring with the full Bad Seeds lineup), as well as grinding out some grimy-sounding notes on the keyboard. But more than anything else, Cave was pushing himself up against the crowd, letting the fans in front touch with him their hands as he spouted his funny, vulgar, erudite and/or raunchy lyrics.

Grinderman’s albums are almost but not quite non-stop rock, and the show was similar, whipping up even more intensity. Cave let out a few more blood-curdling screams than he does in the studio, and his bandmates sang the call-and-response backup vocals like people yelling for help in an emergency. Like a lot of Cave’s music, the Grinderman songs are rooted in the blues, but Cave and his cohort make a twisted, punk sort of blues.

See my photos of Grinderman on the Chicago Reader’s Photo Pit page.

www.grinderman.com
www.myspace.com/grinderman

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Creative Music Summit


The Creative Music Summit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago certainly lived up to its name — at least on the one night I was able to attend, Saturday (Nov. 20), a concert that doubled as the 15th anniversary of the Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival. Despite the “jazz” label, this concert was far-ranging and inventive, combining several different strains of music and performance.

The first half of the concert featured Miya Masaoka’s “LED Kimono.” Masaoka played the koto, a traditional Japanese instrument with plucked strings that sounds somewhat like a harp, as well as making sounds with a laptop and electronics. Meanwhile, Arnold Davidson recited text from Luigi Russolo’s “The Art of Noise” in the original Italian. But the focus of attention was Mariko Masaoka-Drew, who stood center-stage with her head covered by a horse’s-head mask. She wore a kimono with LED lights in one sleeve, striking poses throughout the performance. The music was tinkly and abstract — not often offering the listener anything solid to grasp onto. But considered as a piece of performance art — an audio and visual spectacle — “LED Kimono” was pretty interesting. That horse mask and kimono created an unsettling image.

PHOTOS OF MIYA MASOAKA’S “LED KIMONO”


The second half of the concert featured Francis Wong and an ensemble he put together called Legends and Legacies. As the name suggests, the music drew on Asian traditions even as it explored new musical territory. The first piece was “FLUX,” created by percussionist-singer-dancer Dohee Lee. It unfolded like some mysterious, ancient ritual, beginning with dancer Sherwood Chen sitting cross-legged and playing with a bunch of small, thin wooden sticks. Building over the course of what seemed to be several movements, “FLUX” climaxed with Lee dancing and clapping cymbals together.

The ensemble also played Wong’s piece “Shanghai Stories,” which he said was inspired by the stories of his father and grandfather about their days living in Shanghai, including the work they did as jockeys. And then the concert concluded with Wong’s arrangement of “Beyond the Bridge” by the late Chicago jazz legend Fred Anderson.

Throughout all of these pieces, Wong’s Legends and Legacies played a mix of jazz elements (including singing by Dee Alexander and woodwinds by Wong, Ed Wilkerson and Mwata Bowde, violin by Jonathan Chen and bass by Tatsu Aoki) with Asian instruments (taiko drumming by Amy Homma, drumming by Dohee Lee and shamisen by Aoki), as well as avant-garde classical and drone music. The way these various forms of music melded together was impressive and sometimes dramatic.

PHOTOS OF FRANCIS WONG’S LEGENDS AND LEGACIES











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Tunng at Schubas


I’m not going to use the genre catchphrase that the British band Tunng got stuck with a few years back. Let’s just say it involves a combination of folk music with electronic textures and percussions. You get the idea. (If not, Google it.) Even if that label was a bit constricting, it’s true that Tunng makes music out of that combination of sounds. And what beguiling music it is. The group’s latest record, …And Then We Saw Land, is filled with loopy, catchy tunes where the voices of Mike Lindsay and Becky Jacobs and harmonize chant together over a delightful jingle of jangling percussion and inventive guitar melodies.

The spirited, sing-along and dance-around-like-a-fool side of Tunng was on full display when the group came to Chicago for the first time in three years, playing Wednesday (Nov. 18) at Schubas. Given Tunng’s reputation as something of a folk-rock group, who would’ve expected Lindsay to don a pair of goofy glasses that would’ve been appropriate for Bootsy Collins? Meanwhile, Jacobs frequently did a cute sort of robot-walk dance. Meanwhile, the drummer — um, was that Martin Smith? I believe so — was tickling some of the sea shells and car keys arrayed in front of him with this bare toes. (He also play keyboard and a bunch of other percussion.)

This was quite a joyful musical affair, reminding me of the communal feeling of harmonizing by Scandinavian bands Müm and Efterklang. Tunng mostly played songs from its new record, and then dug out a couple of older tunes for the end of the show, “Bullets” and “Woodcat.” Many of the songs opened with recordings of spoken word, often used for humorous effect, as when the members of Tunng followed some instructions on how to make your fingers create the optical illusion of a sausage floating in front of your eyes.
www.tunng.co.uk
www.myspace.com/thisistunng

PHOTOS OF TUNNG












The opening act was Louisville singer-songwriter Cheyenne Marie Mize, who’s played as a member of Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s band. She played a solid set of songs from her solo album Before Lately, showing that she’s someone to watch.
www.cheyennemariemize.com
www.myspace.com/shinymoneymize

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The Vaselines at Lincoln Hall

The Vaselines don’t sound like a band that skipped 21 years in between albums. Until last year’s reunion tour, which included a wonderful show at Metro in Chicago, the Scottish group hadn’t played in two decades. Led by Frances McKee and Eugene Kelly, the Vaselines played old songs that still sounded fresh, including the classic “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam,” while displaying a great sense of humor.

Since last year’s reunion concert, the Vaselines have released an album of new songs — actually, only the second full-length album the band has ever put out. Sex With an X, recently issued by Sub Pop, is a rare example of a reunited band writing and recording great songs that stand up well to the group’s original output. The new record sounds more polished than the old ones, but they’re in the same spirit and style.

The Vaselines were back in Chicago this week, playing Thursday (Oct. 28) at Lincoln Hall. It was another fine concert, and this time, the band had some new material to play. The Vaselines played six songs from the new album, including a couple of the catchiest songs anyone has put out this year: “I Hate the 80’s” and “Mouth to Mouth.” It would have been nice to hear “My God’s Bigger Than Your God,” too, but the half-dozen new tunes sounded strong next to the 16 Vaselines oldies in the set list.

The stage banter was hilarious and charming, just as it was last year, with McKee smiling as she made sarcastic remarks about “shagging,” while Kelly mostly played the hapless straight man.

The originally scheduled opening act, Dum Dum Girls, cancelled their appearance, which was disappointing, but the replacement, New York guitar-and-drums duo Schwervon, turned out to be a good surprise, with a lively set of songs. And then, as if making up for the lack of Dum Dum Girls, the Vaselines finished off their encore with an energetic rendition of their old song, “Dum Dum.”

www.myspace.com/thevaselinesband

SET LIST: Oliver Twisted / Monsterpussy / I Hate the 80’s / The Day I Was a Horse / Sex With an X / Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam / The Devil’s Inside Me / Molly’s Lips / Slushly / Poison Pen / Bitch / Such a Fool / No Hope / Rory Rides Me Raw / Ruined / Son of a Gun / Let’s Get Ugly / Mouth to Mouth / Dying For It (The Blues) / ENCORE: Sex Sux (Amen) / You Think You’re a Man / Dum Dum

PHOTOS OF THE VASELINES











PHOTOS OF SCHWERVON


VIDEOS OF THE VASELINES AT LINCOLN HALL

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Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan


Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan have recorded three albums together, but they’ve never toured the United States as a duo until now. They finally made their Chicago debut Friday night (Oct. 22) at Lincoln Hall. Campbell used to sing and play cello in Belle and Sebastian; Lanegan has sung with numerous rock bands over the years, including the Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age, the Gutter Twins and the Twilight Singers (not to overlook his solo music, including the excellent 2004 album Bubblegum). Together, they sing chilled-out duets, with Campbell soft, wispy vocals whispering alongside the gruff half-spoken word that seem to be emerging from deep inside Lanegan’s chest. Their sound owes a lot to the 1960s records by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, and other musical acts over the years that have featured contrasting male-female vocal mixes. It’s enticing and beautiful, if somewhat sleepy, music.

That was exemplified with the stunning performance that opened Friday’s concert, the song “We Die and See Beauty Reign” (which also opens the third and latest record by Campbell and Lanegan, Hawk). Backed by a band of four musicians, the two singers performed the song in super-hushed tones, and the audience watched in utter silence. It was almost spooky how quiet it was. On their records, Campbell and Lanegan sound like lovers or friends whispering secrets to each other. That’s how they sounded in concert, too, although they didn’t look like that. The two spent most of the show, standing at their microphones, not moving around a great deal. They sometimes glanced across the stage at each other — Lanegan squinting or cocking his eyebrow — but didn’t interact a whole lot beyond that. But most of these songs are so low-key that the laid-back performance style seemed appropriate.

Midway through the concert, some audience members suddenly grew rowdy. A few guys yelled out comments about how sexy Campbell is — which she did her best to ignore. The rude shouting was an unwelcome disruption of the concert’s enchanting mood.

PHOTOS OF ISOBEL CAMPBELL AND MARK LANEGAN










The opening act was Willy Mason, an impressive singer-songwriter, who played solo-acoustic. He also made an appearance during the Campbell-Lanegan set, singing three songs with Campbell. (He also appears on a couple of tracks on Hawk.) The dynamic between Mason and Campbell was quite different from that between Lanegan and Campbell — he has more vocal range than Lanegan, and more of a country-folk sound. His mini-set brought some nice variety to the concert.
www.myspace.com/isobelcampbell /www.isobelcampbell.com
www.myspace.com/marklanegan / www.marklanegan.com
www.myspace.com/willymason / http://willymason.com

PHOTOS OF WILLY MASON


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Avi Buffalo at Schubas


Avi Buffalo started out as the musical stage name of singer-songwriter-guitarist Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg, which played Wednesday (Oct. 20) at Schubas. Still, Zahner-Isenberg was clearly the focus of attention and the key creative force on the stage. Avi Buffalo played a cool set of songs from its self-titled debut album, which came out in April on Sub Pop. In both his singing and his guitar playing, Zahner-Isenberg displays tremendous creativity. His melodies sometimes jump and twist like a Shins or XTC tune, and his falsetto singing is also in the same realm as the Shins’ James Mercer. Drummer Sheridan Riley’s percussion artfully filled in the spaces in Zahner-Isenberg’s songs. As crafty as those songs are, the live performance by Avi Buffalo was refreshingly simple and straightforward, without a lot of sonic effects to dress up the intriguing music.
www.myspace.com/avibuffalo
avibuffalomusic.com

PHOTOS OF AVI BUFFALO









The opening acts were Whisker Music and New Ruins, both of whom play roots rock. I especially liked the set by Whisker Music, a Chicago band that released a self-titled debut EP last year, reminding me of alt-country by groups such as the Blacks.

PHOTOS OF WHISKER MUSIC


NEW RUINS

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Sufjan Stevens at the Chicago Theatre

By his own admission, Sufjan Stevens has been uncertain about what musical directions to pursue since his 2005 popular and critical breakthrough, Illinois. It’s not as if he’s been silent; his orchestral suite The BQE was an impressive demonstration of his sophisticated composition techniques. His new album, Age of Adz, is a bold attempt to make a dramatic break from the folk-rock that made Stevens music. Or is it a desperate, overwrought attempt to do something different? The new songs aren’t without merit, but too many of them are weighted down by too many layers of electronic bleeps and textures. The problem isn’t that Stevens has gone electronic. It’s just that his new songs are built up with such labored arrangements that the various instruments often seem to be clashing against one another. Perhaps that’s the intended effect, but it makes for some rather weary listening. (Stevens also released an “EP,” All Delighted People, which is actually longer than most albums.)

Backed by 10 musicians and singers, Stevens focused on these new songs for most of his concert Friday night (Oct. 15) at the Chicago Theatre. At a few points, he all but apologized to the audience for playing the new stuff. It was impressive to see the musicians pulling off these complicated songs live, but the songs still didn’t really click. The drawn-out “Impossible Soul” culminated (as it does on the record) with Stevens singing Auto-Tuned vocals, which just felt like a bad joke. (Stevens sarcastically introduced the song as “the adult-contemporary mini-series song,” which wasn’t too far off the mark.)

The highlights of the show were those moments when Stevens played acoustic guitar, banjo or piano. After a long wait for some songs from Illinois, the audience finally heard the band play “Chicago.” And then came an all-Illinois encore, with Stevens playing four songs with minimal accompaniment. It was a great reminder of what made Stevens’ music so compelling in the first place — and a stark contrast with the bulk of the music he’d just played. Before closing the show with his haunting song about serial killer John Wayne Gacy, Stevens thanked the audience for being “very patient.”

The opening act — and also a member of Stevens’ band — was singer-songwriter DM Stith. It was odd to see Stith playing in such a huge room, not too many months after seeing him play at a little Chicago art gallery. He sat by himself now on the dark Chicago Theatre stage, playing an acoustic guitar and using looping pedals to create a spooky atmosphere. His set was captivating, but too short — only four songs.

SET LIST: Seven Swans / Too Much / Age of Adz / Heirloom / I Walked / Now That I’m Older / Vesuvius / Futile Devices / Get Real Get Right / The Owl and the Tanager / Impossible Soul / Chicago / ENCORE: Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois / Decatur, or Round of Applause for Your Stepmother / Casimir Pulaski Day / John Wayne Gacy, Jr.

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Guided By Voices at the Riv


Some people say it isn’t cool to wear a T-shirt for a band when you’re at a concert by that band. Showing too much team spirit, perhaps? Well, it might have been a bit nerdy, but I wore a Guided By Voices T-shirt Wednesday night (Oct. 13) when the reunited band played at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre. It was a T-shirt I bought on the night of the final Guided By Voices concert — well, it was supposed to be the final concert, anyway. That was on New Year’s Eve 2004, a long, sprawling affair that saw Robert Pollard bidding a boozy farewell to his longtime bandmates. A very memorable night (which I blogged about here — please pardon a few of the broken links on that page).

The mega-prolific Pollard has continued cranking out solo albums and recordings with an almost bewilderingly long list of bands since then, and I have to admit that I’ve lost track of Pollard’s prodigious output. But when Pollard announced he was getting the boys back together for a short reunion tour, I was eager to relive the GBV experience. And this was the “classic” lineup from the early 1990s period when I first discovered and fell in love with the band, playing just songs from those years.

As the group played Wednesday at the Riv, it reminded me of the first time I saw GBV, in 1995 at Lounge Ax. There was Pollard in the center of stage, jumping around, kicking up his legs and twirling his mike like, well, Roger Daltry. Meanwhile, guitarist Mitch Mitchell and bassist Greg Demos were jumping around a fair amount themselves. In the small confines of the Lounge Ax, I remember feeling the sensation that the band was rushing toward the audience the entire time it was playing. The guys were playing on a bigger stage this time, without that feeling of small-club claustrophobia, and they were clearly older — but the energy and spirit hadn’t changed all that much.

Like many of the GBV concerts in the days of old, this one wasn’t perfect. At some moments, the band sounded sloppy. And there were a few lulls. But when things clicked, it sounded great, quickly pouncing on one great song after another. Pollard named almost every song before the band launched into it — a habit he said he was once berated for, by another musician he didn’t name. The crowd, clearly packed with some fervid GBV followers, responded with enthusiastic hand-waving and singing when the group played its most beloved songs, such as “Echos Myron” and “Game of Pricks.”

It was really nice to see a GBV concert with Tobin Sprout in the lineup, since Sprout used to be the band’s second voice, always singing a few songs on each album. More laid back than his fellow band members, Sprout nevertheless seemed to be enjoying himself, smiling as he played rhythm guitar and occasionally stepping up to the mike for songs such as “14 Cheerleader Cold Front” and “Awful Bliss.”

Filling out the reunited lineup was drummer Kevin Fennell. Pollard joked about how much trouble he had finding some of these guys to reunite the band. Where did he find Sprout? “He was swimming in the Great Lakes,” Pollard claimed. “We got them all back,” he said. “We’re the Blues Brothers.”

While Wednesday’s show wasn’t nearly as much as a marathon as that 2004 farewell show, the band did deliver 39 songs, including three encores. The songs came from some of GBV’s best albums: Propeller, Vampire on Titus, Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes and Under the Bushes Under the Stars — plus a sampling from various EPs and lesser-known records. I was especially excited to hear a couple of my favorite songs, both from an EP called The Grand Hour: “Break Even” and “Shocker in Gloomtown.” Both of those tunes have riffs built around distinctive, odd rhythmic gestures, unfolding like epic classic-rock suites even though they’re only a few minutes long. They’re prime examples of what made GBV so great.

SET LIST: Weed King / Exit Flagger / Cut-Out Witch / Gold Star for Robot Boy / Striped White Jets / Shocker in Gloomtown / Tractor Rape Chain / My Son Cool / Bright Paper Werewolves / My Impression Now / A Good Flying Bird / Watch me Jumpstart / Closer You Are / Awful Bliss / 14 Cheerleader Cold Front / Pimple Zoo / Buzzards and Dreadful Crows / My Valuable Hunting Knife / Echos Myron / Break Even / Gleemer (The Deeds of Fertile Jim) / Lethargy / Hot Freaks / Game of Pricks / The Queen of Cans and Jars / Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory / Motor Away / Unleashed! The Large-Hearted Boy / I Am a Scientist / ENCORE 1: Postal Blowfish / Jar of Cardinals / Matter Eater Lad / Don’t Stop Now / ENCORE 2: Dodging Invisible Rays / Quality of Armor / Smothered in Hugs / ENCORE 3: Johnny Appleseed / Some Drilling Implied / A Salty Salute

PHOTOS OF GUIDED BY VOICES
























The opening act was another Ohio band, Times New Viking — a good fit with Guided By Voices. The group’s songs aren’t as catchy as Pollard and Sprout’s, but they share some of the same to-the-point scrappiness. Times New Viking crammed a lot of songs into its opening set.

PHOTOS OF TIMES NEW VIKING



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Belle and Sebastian at the Chicago Theatre

Belle and Sebastian are a delightful band to behold in concert, as these Scots proved once again Monday (Oct. 11) at the Chicago Theatre. The band has a fine new record out today called Write About Love, which doesn’t really break any new artistic ground. It just sounds like a fairly typical Belle and Sebastian record, with the band’s trademark mix of bright and wistful melodies. And that’s perfectly acceptable to me. I’ll take a new Belle and Sebastian record any day.

The seven members of Belle and Sebastian plus five supplemental players assembled across the Chicago Theatre’s capacious stage and opened their performance with the opening track off the new record, “I Didn’t See It Coming” — a great song that showcases within one track the band’s various strengths, including that lovely mix of male and female vocals. Belle and Sebastian front man Stuart Murdoch spent the first part of the song in a stiff pose, his hands in his pockets, a scarf hanging over his sport jacket. Midway through the song, as he took over the lead vocals, Murdoch loosened up and began dancing a bit. And before long, as the concert went on, Murdoch was moving around the stage with a jaunty step, acting as if the place was his own personal dance floor.

Murdoch really knows how to work a crowd. Early in the show, he compared the concert experience to foreplay and sex. “I promise you we will come at the same time,” he said. During “Lord Anthony,” he brought a woman from the audience onto the stage to apply some makeup to his face (in keeping with the lyrics of the song). Later, he threw soft footballs autographed by the band into the crowd. At another point, he went out in the audience and selected several people to clap and dance onstage. Pretty soon, it looked like a party up there on the stage, and a few of the ladies took the opportunity to kiss or hug Murdoch.

Although the concert opened with a song from Write About Love, Belle and Sebastian played only a few songs from the new record. Instead, the group offered something like a greatest-hits collection for its fans. By my count, Belle and Sebastian played songs from all of its studio albums except Storytelling (2002): one from Tigermilk (1996), four from If You’re Feeling Sinister (1996), three from The Boy With the Arab Strap (1998), one from Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant (2000), five songs plus one B-side from Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003), one from The Life Pursuit (2006), and three from Write About Love.

The most glorious musical moments of the evening came when the instruments dropped out and Murdoch and his band mates sang a cappella, or with minimal accompaniment. Their voices sounded pure and lovely.

SET LIST: I Didn’t See It Coming / I’m a Cuckoo / Step Into My Office, Baby / She’s Losing It / I’m Not Living in the Real World / Piazza, New York Catcher / Lord Anthony / I Want the World to Stop / Sukie in the Graveyard / (I Believe in) Traveling Light / The Stars of Track and Field / Mayfly / There’s Too Much Love / The Boy With the Arab Strap / If You Find Yourself Caught In Love / Simple Things / Sleep the Clock Around / ENCORE: Judy and the Dream of Horses / Me and the Major

www.belleandsebastian.com

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Teenage Fanclub at Lincoln Hall

I’ve been a member of the Teenage Fanclub fanclub for 19 years now — ever since hearing the Scottish band’s wonderful 1991 album Bandwagonesque — but somehow I’d never seen the group until now. Bandwagonesque was the band’s biggest moment as far as popularity, but Teenage Fanclub has never stopped making highly appealing power-pop with strong melodies and harmonies. All of that came through loud and clear on Tuesday (Oct. 5), when Teenage Fanclub played the first of two concerts at Lincoln Hall in Chicago.

Teenage Fanclub has a fine new record out this year called Shadows, and Tuesday night’s show featured several songs from it, including the catchy “Baby Lee.” The set also drew on records from throughout the band’s two-decade career, though just one from Bandwagonesque, “The Concept” — which sounded positively epic. It was also great to hear “It’s All In My Mind,” from the 2005 record Man-Made, a song that really sticks in your mind.

The affable Norman Blake stood center-stage and handled most of the stage banter, but he’s not the only singer-songwriter in Teenage Fanclub. He was flanked by Gerard Love and Raymond McGinley, and both of them took turns singing lead vocals. Teenage Fanclub finished the show with the very first single the band ever recorded, “Everything Flows,” from the 1990 record A Catholic Education.

SET LIST: Start Again / Sometimes I Don’t Need / The Past / It’s All In My Mind / Don’t Look Back / Baby Lee / Verisimilitude / Shock and Awe / I Don’t Want Control / About You / Sweet Days / Your Love Is the Place / The Concept / Ain’t That Enough / When I Still Have Thee / Sparky’s Dream / ENCORE: Can’t Feel My Soul / I Need Direction / Today Never Ends / Everything Flows

PHOTOS OF TEENAGE FANCLUB








The opening act was Radar Bros., a band on Merge Records with a pleasant-enough if not terribly exciting indie-pop sound.

RADAR BROS.

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MusicNOW opens 2010-11 season

MusicNOW performances are the sort of concerts where you might actually get to meet the composers. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra presents these concerts of new music several times a year — but not inside the CSO’s usual home, MusicNOW takes place over at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance.

The 2010-11 MusicNOW series opened with a concert on Monday (Oct. 4), putting Mason Bates and Anna Clyne in the spotlight. They’re the CSO’s new composers-in-residence, and they’re playing a major role in shaping the MusicNOW concerts. (I took the above photo when they appeared Oct. 13, 2009, at a CSO press conference.)

Monday’s concert began with Enrico Chapela introducing his 2009 composition, “Li Po,” which was inspired by the famous Chinese poet. Cliff Colnot conducted 18 musicians, but they weren’t the only sources of sound. Other, more abstract noises came from speakers out in the auditorium, providing a stereo counterpart to the ensemble. In one passage, “Li Po” sounded like a deconstructed version of a more traditional orchestral piece. At another point, the sawing of the violin bows sounded like the cawing of seagulls, juxtaposed against a noise resembling the revving of motorcycles. Bells and gongs added some important punctuation points to “Li Po,” which concluded with all the string players plucking single notes simultaneously, making one impressive thwap.

Next, Marcos Balter introduced his 2009 string trio “Vision Mantra.” Violin, viola and cello played rapid, repeating lines, creating an aural puzzle as the notes overlapped and converged: Which instrument was playing which note? It wasn’t always clear until the violin or viola stretched out the notes above the more frantic backdrop.

Clyne’s “Steelworks” (2006) is industrial music — inspired by scenes of a steel factory at work. A video by Luke DuBois showing steel-mill images duplicated in a two-by-two grid played as Cynthia Yeh played a vibraphone and other percussion, creating rhythmic patterns. Wearing outfits that looked like factory uniforms, bass clarinetist John Bruce Yeh and flutist Jennifer Gunn came out onto the stage in the middle of the piece (something you don’t usually see at a classical concert) to play their parts. Near its climax, the piece featured notes that rose until they reached a pressure point and fell — something like a steam engine or hydraulic machine.

All of the composers were present at Monday’s concert except for Ana Lara — and as it happened, her piece, “Bhairav” (2000), was my favorite of the evening. While the other pieces all had striking moments, this was the one that, for me, was more than an interesting academic exercise. This string quartet found a balance between the beauty of melody and the eeriness of dissonance.

The concert concluded with Bates’ 2005 piece “Digital Loom,” which pitted organist Isabelle Demers against a click track of electronic beats. Although Bates said he was inspired by electronica, the rhythms he employs in “Digital Loom” aren’t exactly the more frantic sort of tempos usually heard on a dance floor. In the opening passage, the noises included something that sounded like frogs chirping. Divided into five movements but never pausing, “Digital Loom” felt more like a contest between the organ and the electronic beats than a duet. Spotlights cast red columns up from the stage as Demers played, creating a spooky, twilight mood in the dim auditorium.

The MusicNOW series will continue with concerts on Dec. 13, Jan. 31 and March 21. For details, see http://cso.org.

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Eels at Metro

Eels may be the only band I’ve ever seen with a fake set list. As opening act Jesca Hoop performed before the Eels show Friday (Oct. 1) at Metro, I took pictures of a set list taped to the show, which was labeled “Eels” and appeared to be a list of the songs the singer-songwriter E (a.k.a. Mark Everett) would be performing later with his band, Eels. Well, I was fooled.

While I do admire the music of Eels, I must confess that I’m not all that familiar with the song titles. But as I consulted my pictures of the set list on the back of my camera during the show, I quickly realized something was fishy about those titles. Fellow music photographer and writer Kirstie Shanley (a.k.a. Kirstiecat) then informed me that the fake set list had been replaced with an actual set list as Eels took the stage. I’d missed that moment since I was standing over on the other side of the photo pit. She was kind enough to share her photo of the actual set list with me (in which a few titles were partially obscured).

All of this is yet another example of E’s peculiar sense of humor. I don’t know what all of the fake song titles mean. One includes the stage name of the new Eels guitarist, “P-Boo.” And while Eels actually played a cover of Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Summer in the City,” the fake set list included a different Lovin’ Spoonful hit, “Do You Believe in Magic?” And at the point where Eels played George Gershwin’s “Summertime,” the set list indicated, “If on a Winter’s Night.” Also, what’s with all of the songs about summer? During “Summertime,” E opened a cooler and tossed some ice-cream cones and other frozen desserts into the audience.

E played the first few songs either solo or accompanied by just pedal-steel guitar. Then for the rest of the set, Eels were in their rock-show mode. E’s face was barely visible, hidden behind dark shades, a bandana and a mass of facial hair. And the other four musicians, all of them bearded, wore sunglasses as well.

Opening act Hoop’s music still hasn’t clicked with me, and her set didn’t quite win me over. Still, it was tons better than the first act of the night, a ventriloquist comedian whose jokes fell flat with uncomfortable silence. Was that E’s idea, too?

ACTUAL EELS SET LIST: Grace Kelly Blues / What I Have to Offer / End Times / She Said Yeah / Gone Man / Summer in the City / Tremendous Dynamite / In My Younger Days / Paradise Blues / Jungle Telegraph / My Beloved Monster / Spectacular Girl / Fresh Feeling / Dog Faced Boy / That Look You Gave That Guy / Souljacker Part 1 / Talking’ ‘Bout Knuckles / Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues / I Like Birds / Summertime / Looking Up / ENCORE 1: That’s Not Her Way / ENCORE 2: I Like the Way This Is Going

FAKE EELS SET LIST: New Pollution / She Said What? / Gone Baby Gone / Tender Dreams of Love / Beethoven’s Cunt / Not Now / The Name Game / Butter Blues / Gimme a Jingle / Blowing Sunshine (Part 1) / Spectacular Giraffe / Peace Frog / The Book You Gave That Girl / Soul Cake (Part 1) / P-Boo, Baby / Karate Monkey / Roxanne / If on a Winter’s Night / Blowing Sunshine (Part 2) / ENCORE 1: Do You Believe in Magic? / ENCORE 2: Hot Blooded

UPDATE: Thanks to Chris Fairfield for e-mailing me and filling in the gaps on the set list.

PHOTOS OF EELS











PHOTOS OF JESCA HOOP


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The Clean at the Bottom Lounge

The Clean came to Chicago for the first time in some years on Thursday (Sept. 30), playing at the Bottom Lounge. The New Zealand post-punk trio has been making music since 1978 (with some time off now and then along the way). This was the first time I’d ever seen them, and it was a pretty cool experience. When the band switched from guitar to keyboards, the artsier side of its music came out. But the final stretch was more poppy and melodic.

Guitarist David Kilgour left the stage rather abruptly at the end of the main set and then again at the end of the first encore, almost seeming to surprising his band mates, drummer Hamish Kilgour and bassist Robert Scott. It seemed that the band was calling it a night at that point and the Bottom Lounge turned on the house music. But the audience wasn’t ready to leave, giving the Clean a loud and sustained round of applause, and finally the guys came back and played one of their best-known tunes, “Tally Ho!”
www.myspace.com/theclean

PHOTOS OF THE CLEAN








THE CLEAN’S SET LIST

The show started out with an energetic set by Chicago’s Mannequin Men, including a whole bunch of new songs. A new album must be in the works — or should be, in any case. www.myspace.com/mannequinmen

PHOTOS OF MANNEQUIN MEN




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Bonnie “Prince” Billy and the Cairo Gang

The most recent record from Bonnie “Prince” Billy, The Wonder Show of the World, is yet another very strong collection of songs by the prolific, enigmatic singer-songwriter Will Oldham. And it’s one of 2010’s best records. Oldham’s key collaborator on these recordings is Chicago guitarist Emmet Kelley — also known as the Cairo Gang. (Or is that the name of his band?) The songs on Wonder Show are mostly spare and acoustic, with a folk-rock sound that’s occasionally reminiscent of early ’70s Neil Young.

But when Bonnie “Prince” Billy and the Cairo Gang came to Chicago for four concerts this week, the new songs were transformed into sprawling, loose-limbed, full-band arrangements. The music often sounded much different from the studio recordings, but it was equally beguiling. Oldham and his band played two shows Tuesday night (Sept. 28) at Ronny’s in Logan Square, which is — let’s face it — something of a dive bar. It’s quite a bit smaller than the last place I’d seen Oldham — the Vic Theatre, where he played my favorite concert of 2009.

I was at Ronny’s for the late show on Tuesday. After an opening set of atmospheric, droning folk rock by Scott Tuma, Oldham took the stage and removed his flip-flops, revealing his pink-painted toenails. Oldham’s fingernails had pink nail polish, too, and his eyes were underlined with black makeup. The eyeliner was smeared on the left side of his face, looking like a bruise. As usual, Oldham’s face was covered with bristly hair, including a walrus mustache. As he sang, Oldham often contorted his legs and arms as if he were improvising some yoga moves.

While Oldham often plays guitar in concert, he left all of the guitar playing up to Kelly at these shows. The two clearly have a close musical connection. Kelly has a gift for playing loose, informal renditions of songs. Kelly and Oldham seemed to be giving each other cues on where the songs were going. Kelly would lean forward, pausing as he waited for Oldham to come in with a vocal line. The rest of the band (bassist Danny Kiely, drummer Van Campbell, keyboardist Ben Boye) followed their leads.

Chicago singer-songwriter Angel Olsen provided harmony vocals — and she also sang lead on the first song of the show, a rocker called “Sweetheart.” When Oldham, Olsen and Kelly sang together in the quieter moments, the concert had the feeling of a basement choir practice among friends. But this was also a strong rock show. The opening track of the new album, “Troublesome Houses,” was transformed from mellow folk-rock into a louder, more driving song.

Here’s the photograph I took of the set list, which Oldham had in a notebook he carried onto the stage.

The songs were: “Sweetheart” / “With Cornstalks or Among Them” / “Go Folks, Go”” / “Easy Does It”/ “Where Wind Blows” / “I See a Darkness” / “Teach Me to Bear You” / “New Wonder” / “Island Bros” (?) / “Troublesome Houses” / “Kids” / “That”s What Our Love Is” / “Where Is the Puzzle?” ENCORE: “I Never Thought My Love Would Leave Me” (traditional folk song) / “Price of Love” medley

I did not recognize the first song of the encore, but based on the notes I took on the lyrics, it seems to have been the folk song “I Never Thought My Love Would Leave Me,” which has been performed by June Tabor and the Chieftains. The final verse was particularly striking as Oldham sang it: “I wish my father had never whistled/I wish my mother had never sung/I wish the cradle had never rocked me/I wish I’d died, love, when I was young.”

The final song was a long medley built around throbbing chords on Kelly’s guitar. Beginning as a cover of the Everly Brothers’ “Price of Love,” the medley incorporated at least one other song, Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s “Madeleine-Mary,” before circling back to the chorus: “That’s the price of love, the price of love, The debt you pay with tears and pain.”

As Oldham writhed on the stage Tuesday night at Ronny’s and the band filled out the songs with an almost jazzy sense of exploration, it reminded me sometimes of Van Morrison from the Astral Weeks era.

On Wednesday (Sept. 29), Bonnie “Prince” Billy and the Cairo Gang played two more shows, this time at Lincoln Hall. This time, I attended the early show. Chicago musician Josh Abrams played a cool opening set, performing deep, jazzy ruminations on the gimbri, a North African instrument in the lute family.

Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s early set list on Wendesday turned out to be quite different from the previous night’s late show. Of the 11 songs, five were repeats. (The show was also briefer, with only 11 songs compared with the 16 at the Ronny’s late set.)

The vibe and performance were similar at Lincoln Hall, with just a little bit less of the more rocking songs. It struck me on Wednesday that many of Oldham’s songs feel like plays — short dramas being acted out on the stage, proceeding from one act to another with a real sense of surprise, even if you’ve heard the songs before. The audience followed along with rapt attention. When a song finally reached its closing line, the crowd often paused before clapping — as if we were all holding our breaths, wondering whether that was really the end.

Oldham’s strange expressions and gestures also seemed like a performance by an actor — not that I think there’s anything phony in his quirky moves. In the song “Teach Me to Bear You,” Oldham clenched his arms in front of his chest and bared his teeth as he sang the lines: “But my hands are empty, and my throat cracked and drawn, because I gave away the name you gave to me. Yes, I sang away the name you gave to me.” The specter of Oldham standing there in that posture was a vivid dramatization of the lyrics.

Here is a photograph I took of Emmet Kelly’s copy of the set list. The band added one song not listed, “Troublesome Houses,” and skipped a few others.

The songs were: “Because of Your Eyes” (Merle Haggard cover) / “The Sounds Are Always Begging” / “With Cornstalks or Among Them” / “Island Brah”? (This seems to be the song that looks like “Island Bros” on the previous night’s set list.) / “Merciless and Great” / “Another Day Full of Dread” / “Go Folks, Go” / “Troublesome Houses” / “You Remind Me of Something (The Glory Goes)” / “Teach Me to Bear You” / “You Are Lost”

Oldham, Olson and Kelly’s voices sounded beautiful at the concert ended with “You Are Lost,” one of the best songs from Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s 2009 record, Beware.

All in all, these were two more remarkable concert performances by one of today’s greatest songwriters.

See more of my photos of Bonnie “Prince” Billy.

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The National at the Riviera

The National’s latest record, High Violet, is shaping up as one of my 2010 favorites. Like the band’s previous album, Boxer, it’s an almost perfect distillation of what makes the National so great: moody music with tension boiling just below the surface. The melodies may seem minimalist at first, as Matt Berninger’s conversational baritone spells out the lyrics in small gestures, the tune moving up and down by only a few notes. That first impression is deceiving, and the National’s melodies start burrowing their way into your memory.

The National played a sold-out concert Sunday (Sept. 26) at the Riviera Theatre, which was a fine opportunity for me to catch a full-length show, in contrast to my truncated experience watching the National at Lollapalooza. (Thanks to music blogger www.babystew.com for letting me use his ticket to the Riviera show, which I’d failed to plan for.) The concert drew heavily from High Violet and Boxer, with just a few older songs, including “Abel” and “Daughter of the SoHo Riots” from 2005’s Alligator.

In concert, the National raised the tension level of its most subdued songs. The harmony vocals were especially strong, as several members of the band joined their voices together with Berninger on those unforgettable choruses. The crowd sang along at key moments, too. But Berninger was the focus of attention for most of the night. Berninger began the concert closely hugging his microphone, but as the show went on, he became more animated, bouncing his microphone stand like a toy. During instrumental passages, he paced the stage, raising his clenched fists, like someone fighting off voices in his head. Berninger’s dance is awkward, lacking the typical rock-star moves, but it feels authentic. He seems to be expressing the emotion and energy he’s feeling from these songs in the only way he can. A singular rock-band frontman, he’s fascinating to watch.

It was thrilling how the National’s songs built to dramatic climaxes, and the show ended with an encore featuring three of the best: Another track from Alligator, “Mr. November,” in between two of my favorites from High Violet: “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks” and “Terrible Love.” During that final song, Berninger walked out into the audience, singing out in the midst of the crowd’s voices for several minutes.
www.myspace.com/thenational / www.americanmary.com (The National website)

The Riviera concert began with a nice opening set by Owen Pallett (the artist formerly known as Final Fantasy). After the National, I ran down to Metro, arriving in time to catch 45 minutes of the concert by Caribou. The psychedelic electronic rock was a cool way to cap off an evening of great music.

I did not take photos Sunday night, but here are my previous pictures of these artists:
The National at Lollapalooza 2010
The National at Lollapalooza 2008
Caribou July 12, 2010, at the Pritzker Pavilion
Caribou at Pitchfork 2008
Caribou April 11, 2008, at the Empty Bottle
Owen Pallett April 10, 2010, at Lincoln Hall

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Jay Bennett tribute

More than a year after the death of Jay Bennett, those of us who knew him and his music still feel the loss. Some of his friends, fans and musical collaborators came together Saturday (Sept. 25) at Subterranean for a tribute show. The concert raised funds for the Jay Bennett Foundation, a group started by his brother, Jeff. The foundation aims to support music education. It’s a fitting mission for a foundation named after a brilliant musician who also studied education.

Edward Burch, the other half of the duo Bennett and Burch, was the musical ringleader on Saturday night, backed by an ad hoc ensemble of Bennett buddies calling themselves the Third Verse Quiets. Other performers included David Vandervelde, Ben Clarke, Dorian Taj, Steve Frisbie, members of Dolly Varden, Robbie Hamilton and the Resurrection Hens.

The wide-ranging concert demonstrated the breadth of Bennett’s songwriting, from folk and country to power pop and rock. Highlights included Vandervelde performing “Beer,” the final track on Bennett’s posthumously released album, Kicking at the Perfumed Air. It’s a touching, bittersweet song — seeming at first like something of a novelty or throw-off. On the original recording, Bennett sings in his deep, husky voice: “That first beer, that second beer, the third beer is the best. I love beer, more than the rest.” Yes, it’s a bit of a joke, but Bennett turns into a poignant commentary on drinking and human yearning. Vandervelde played it as more of a rocker, but it was just as wistful.

Steve Dawson and Diane Christiansen of Dolly Varden performed a lovely vocal duet on “I Want You Back,” from Bennett’s 2004 album The Beloved Enemy. And the final set by Burch and company included a cool medley of Big Star’s “Try Again” segueing into Bennett and Burch’s “My Darlin’.” It was touching to see Jay Bennett’s niece — the girl for whom he wrote that song — taking part in the festivities as raffle prizes were handed out.

Kicking at the Perfumed Air is available for free download at the Jay Bennett Foundation’s website, but the foundation encourages listeners to make a contribution.

ROBBIE HAMILTON

BEN CLARKE

RESURRECTION HENS

DAVID VANDERVELDE

DORIAN TAJ

STEVE FRISBIE

EDWARD BURCH

DIANE CHRISTIANSEN AND STEVE DAWSON

MARK BALLETTO

VIDEO OF “MY DARLIN'”

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Deerhunter in a parking lot

Deerhunter, whose new album Halcyon Digest, is out today, played a “secret” show Saturday (Sept. 25) in Chicago — at least, that’s how it was billed. The promoters leaked out a few clues about the location last week, then revealed the location 48 hours before the show, so it wasn’t exactly top secret. It turned out to be an odd location: the parking lot of the Chicago Tribune printing plant, underneath the Kennedy Expressway overpass. The weather was chilly for the 4 p.m. concert. The ambience was industrial. The sound was echo-heavy, but not all that bad considering the concrete acoustics. Deerhunter played a bunch of songs from the new record, with guitar chords swirling. The band sounded even more fierce during the encore. http://www.myspace.com/deerhunter





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Kelley Stoltz plus Sonny & the Sunsets


Sonny and the Sunsets were the headliners Friday (Sept. 24) at the Empty Bottle, but the main draw for me was opening act Kelley Stoltz — a terrific San Francisco singer-songwriter who also happens to be touring now as the drummer for the Sunsets. The Sunsets played as Stoltz’s backup band for the first time at this gig, and it seemed like they already knew his songs well.

Stoltz’s three albums to date have been excellent, filled with lots of smart 1960s-style song craft. His new record, To Dreamers, comes out Oct. 12 on Sub Pop. I haven’t heard it yet, but the songs sounded strong in concert, living up to the description on the Sub Pop website, which says the record “blends a bit more post-punk abandon into its layered everyman pop.” Stoltz turned up the Kinks/garage rock vibe a bit this time, playing songs such as his new single, “Baby I Got News For You” — a remake of an obscure 1965 song by the British singer Big Boy Pete a.k.a. Peter Miller. (Miller plays on Stoltz’s new recording, using the same valve amps and guitar he played in 1965n — here’s the original song. And here’s the new Stoltz song “I Don’t Get That”. Sounds like his ’60s vibe is still intact. www.myspace.com/kelleystoltz

Sonny and the Sunsets are also firmly rooted in the ’60s, and they played an enjoyable set after Stoltz, reprising the summery sound of their show in July at the Pitchfork Music Festival. The set did get a little loose and sloppy at the end, but it had the feeling of a sing-along party. www.myspace.com/sonnythesunsets







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Fennesz at the Empty Bottle


Fennesz (a.k.a. Austrian musician Christian Fennesz) doesn’t tour in the U.S. all that often, so his concert last Thursday (Sept. 23) at the Empty Bottle was something of an event for his local fans. Performing solo for most of the set, Fennesz used guitar and laptop to sculpt intricate waves of sound. For the encore he was joined by Chicago guitarist David Daniell and drummer Frank Rosaly, who added more textures to the sonic art. It was almost but not quite a reunion of the concert I saw at the 2009 Big Ears Music Festival in Knoxville, Tenn., featuring improvised music by Fennesz, Daniell and drummer Tony Buck of the Necks. Thrill Jockey recently released an excellent recording of that concert under the title Knoxville.


Keeping with the theme of instrumental drone and ambient music, the Sept. 23 show also featured opening sets by Daniell and Rosaly (who were in great form) and the Chicago group Male. (Rosaly played with them, too, making him the constant element in all three sets.)



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Justin Townes Earle in Chicago


Justin Townes Earle really delivered Saturday night (Sept. 18) at Lincoln Hall, singing his smart original songs and some well-chosen covers with a strong voice and a raconteur’s flair. It was a great performance from beginning to end by a musician who can hold his own on the stage with nothing more than his voice, his acoustic guitar and his wit.

But the concert also came with some disturbing news about an incident two nights earlier in Indianapolis. I hadn’t heard anything about it until Saturday night (and I got the impression that many others in the audience were similarly unaware of the news), but Earle was arrested after his show in Indy. At several points during the Chicago show, Earle mentioned that he’d just spent a night in jail. He said his wrists were still chafing from the handcuffs. But when an audience member asked him what had happened, he wouldn’t get into details.

According to a report on the American Songwriter website, Earle was arrested and charged with battery, public intoxication and resisting law enforcement after his Sept. 16 gig at the Indianapolis club Radio Radio. “Earle, who had complained about the sound during the show, allegedly became incensed after the audience heckled him,” the website reports. “According to reports, Earle is accused of destroying equipment backstage and punching the club owner’s daughter.”

The websites My Old Kentucky Blog and Saving Country Music also described the concert and its aftermath. Audience members and Earle reportedly got into a belligerent exchange during the show, and someone in the audience threw a shirt that landed on Earle’s guitar in the middle of a song.

On Saturday night, Earle sounded defiant about what had happened, blaming the owner of the Indianapolis club for his arrest and criticizing the treatment he’d received from the police in Indiana. When Earle played some covers in the middle of his Chicago set, someone in the crowd shouted at that lamest of concert remarks, “Free Bird!” As it happens, one of the contentious moments in Indianapolis occurred when an audience members yelled “Free Bird,” and Earle reportedly responded, “Fuck ‘Free Bird.’ I fucking hate Lynyrd Skynyrd.” In Chicago, when that oh-so-predictable song request rang out once again, Earle said, “Don’t act like Indianapolis did. That’s what got me locked up.”

On Saturday, Earle was actually quite well-behaved, constantly referring to the audience as “ladies and gentlemen” in his Southern drawl. Whatever happened in Indianapolis, he mellowed out by the time he reached Chicago. But as Earle wryly remarked, “We’ve had an eventful tour so far.”

Saturday’s show also featured a pleasant opening set by singer-songwriter Jessica Lea Mayfield. When Earle took the stage, he said he was feeling under the weather — possibly because of his overnight stay in that jail cell — but it didn’t seem to affect his singing. “I’ve got a bit of a sore throat, but I’m going to sing my ass off,” he promised — and that’s just what he did.

Midway through Saturday’s show, Earle’s violinist, Josh Hedley, broke a string and was unable to continue performing — leaving Earle to perform alone for the rest of the set. Earle performed many of the songs from his new album, Harlem River Blues, a solid collection of alt-country songs with full band arrangements in diverse styles. Notably, one of them, “Rogers Park,” is about Chicago, drawing on Earle’s memories of the gritty neighborhoods where he lived as a teen. “I lived in Pilsen for a little while, and I lived in East Rogers Park,” he said Saturday, indicating that not all of his memories were pleasant. “In ’99? Hell no.”

As good as Earle’s own songs are, the concert was also memorable because of the great covers he played: The Replacements’ “Can’t Hardly Wait” (which he introduced as a “country and Westerberg” song), Lightnin’ Hopkins’ “Bad Gasoline,” Mance Lipscomb’s “So Different Blues” and Randy Newman’s “Louisiana 1927.” For that classic song, Earle laid his guitar down on the stage and bravely sang it a cappella, all by himself. The crowd inside Lincoln Hall barely made a noise, other than a few whoops of appreciation, as Earle sang out: “Louisiana! Louisiana! They’re tryin’ to wash us away!” It was a stunning and powerful moment of music-making by one very talented guy. Now, let’s hope the rest of his tour (and career) aren’t eventful in the same way as his visit to Indianapolis.

www.justintownesearle.com / www.myspace.com/justintownesearle


UPDATE, Sept. 21, 2010: Bloodshot Records just issued this statement from Justin Townes Earle about his arrest in Indianapolis: “Unfortunately, reports surfacing online about the incident in Indianapolis are not accurate. I have been advised by counsel that I should not comment on a pending criminal matter, but suffice to say that I am looking forward to having my day in court. I would also like to say that I oppose violence against women in any form.”

UPDATE, Sept. 23, 2010: Earle’s website posted this news yesterday: “Justin Townes Earle has decided to suspend the remaining dates on his tour and enter a rehabilitation facility. Earle is strongly committed to confronting his on-going struggle with addiction and thanks his family, friends and fans for their continued support through this difficult time.”

PHOTOS OF JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE







PHOTOS OF JESSICA LEA MAYFIELD


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Thee Oh Sees at Lincoln Hall


Thee Oh Sees stomped through a strong set of garage-rock songs Wednesday (Sept. 15) at Lincoln Hall. By the end, it was clear that Thee Oh Sees are one of the best bands today that channel the sounds of the 1960s Nuggets era into their own original tunes. The San Francisco band’s main singer-songwriter, John Dwyer, sometimes held his guitar up high, right next to his face. Other times, he crouched down low. There was something rooster-like about his posture, which he might have learned from watching clips of ’60s bands appearing on TV shows. Keyboardist and percussionist Brigid Dawson mostly sang harmony vocals, but her voice was a key ingredient in Thee Oh Sees’ bewitching sound.

As much as the band stayed within a certain sonic template — mostly keeping the guitars in fuzzy feedback territory — the music ranged from tight three-chord riffs to sprawling psychedelic jams. That same variety is apparent on the latest record by Thee Oh Sees, Warm Slime, which is either an album or an EP, depending on how you define these things. The record starts off with the title track, which runs for more than 13 minutes long — one of those songs that locks onto a cool groove and just won’t let go. It’s almost half the length of the entire record, which continues with six considerably shorter and more concise tunes. www.myspace.com/ohsees

The opening acts included Hot Machines, a Chicago trio with some familiar faces: Jered Gummere, whose other bands include the Ponys; Alex White, whose other bands include White Mystery; and Matt Williams, whose other bands include Lover! and Live Fast Die. (How do these folks have time to play in so many different bands?) Their cranked-up guitar rock was a good match with Thee Oh Sees. www.myspace.com/hotmachines

PHOTOS OF THEE OH SEES

















PHOTOS OF HOT MACHINES


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Frost and ICE

On Sept. 11, it was possible to see two concerts of daring, challenging music in one evening in downtown Chicago — and I managed to attend both. (I did not take photos at either, however.) First up was the closing day of Sonar Chicago, with Australian-Icelandic musician Ben Frost playing at the Chicago Cultural Center. A short time after Frost finished, the International Contemporary Ensemble (or ICE) performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Sadly, I missed most of the Sonar festival, which seemed like a cool addition to Chicago’s September music lineup. Frost stood alone on the stage inside the Claudia Cassidy Theater, switching between his electric guitar and an array of electronics, including a laptop, as he made unsettling and droning noise. Frost created dissonant, almost overwhelming mountains of sound, including some looping repetitions that seemed to sample an animal’s growl and human breathing — familiar sounds that became strange and menacing in this new context. www.myspace.com/theghostofbenfrost

ICE called its concert “Roots and Return,” since it traced “the web of connections between recent works and the classic pieces that inspired them.” For instance, the first half of the concert featured Arnold Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1 from 1906, while the second half featured the Chicago premiere of John Adams’ 2007 piece inspired by Schoenberg, Son of Chamber Symphony.

As always, it’s cool to see the flexibility of this ensemble. ICE is an interesting hybrid, sort of like a symphony with a big roster of musicians and sort of like a chamber group, such as a quartet. For each piece that ICE performs, the group pulls a shifting lineup of musicians from that big roster, putting together whatever musicians are required for each composition. An ICE performance might be just a piano solo — or it could be a symphony with a miniature orchestra.

The first composition ICE performed Saturday is a perfect example of the sort of music it’s well-positioned to play: Pierre Boulez’s Memoriale (…explosante-fixe…originel), a 1985 piece for flute and eight instruments. Flutist Claire Chase is ICE’s offstage leader, and she often takes the lead onstage, too. She dominated the Boulez piece, but conductor Jayce Ogren kept the flute and strings in fragile, delicate balance.

Composer Dai Fujikura was present at the concert, and ICE played two new pieces by him, including one that he wrote specifically for the ensemble — called, appropriately enough, ice. Although it was performed without any pauses, it felt like a suite, progressing from one movement and mood to another with some unexpected directions. The opening’s pizzicato strings were eerie, and the climax — or was it a denouement? — was a low, trembling duet between flute and percussion. After intermission, Fujikura answered questions from Chase in an onstage interview, saying that he’s never collaborated so closely with an ensemble on one of his compositions. ICE pianist Cory Smythe also performed Fujikura’s new composition, returning, a sequence of notes that wandered across the keys without much reference, following what seemed to be a strange logic.

The Schoenberg Chamber Symphony and its counterpart by John Adams were high points of the program — although it would take close study to reveal exactly what Adams pulled out of Schoenberg. The strings were nimble during the Schoenberg, with a strong presence of woodwinds, including oboe, bassoon and contrabassoon. The symphony ended with a dramatic punch. Adams’ piece had the cycling, intricate sequences typical of minimalist music. But surprisingly, some woozy, almost romantic melodies emerged at times on top of those music-box patterns.

iceorg.org / ICE podcast including interview with composer Dai Fujikura. / WQXR recording of ICE in concert, including Fujikura’s ICE.

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The Dø at Schubas


On Monday night (Sept. 14), Chicago was lucky to receive a visit from the Dø, a French/Finnish indie-pop duo. Schubas was a little bit empty as the opening bands played earlier that night — hey, it was a Monday, and Pavement was playing down at Millennium Park — but the room was about half-full by the time this delightful European act took the stage.

The duo — singer and sometimes guitarist Olivia Merilahti and bassist/multi-instrumentalist Dan Levy — had a guitarist, drummer and roadie for this tour, and the songs sounded fresh and lively. They played some new songs, as well as an appropriately bouncy cover of Janelle Monae’s “Tightrope.”

The Dø, by the way, pronounces its name like “dough,” with a long “o.” The group takes its name from the first note on the “do re mi…” musical scale. The Dø’s debut album, A Mouthful, came out in Europe in 2008, but it did not get an official U.S. release until this year. (An aside: The whole idea of import records seems so obsolete today. Who wants to wait months or even years for a record to get an official release in the U.S. if it’s worth hearing now? File sharing, myspace and amazon.co.uk have practically erased international boundaries, at least as far as release dates go.)

Listen to the Dø at www.thedo.info and www.myspace.com/thedoband

The opening acts were the Wooden Sky, a Toronto band playing likable roots rock, and Dirty Diamond, a Chicago band with three female singers who seem to be aiming for a sort of girl-group party-pop sound.

PHOTOS OF THE DØ










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Billy Bragg at Dominican University

“Forgive me for going on a bit,” Billy Bragg said, near the end of his concert Friday (Sept. 10) at Dominican University in west suburban River Forest. He had, in fact, gone on a bit. Bragg talked to his audience considerably more than most musicians do. And, yeah, it would’ve been nice to hear maybe another song or two in place of some of those spoken words. But then, it wouldn’t have been a real Billy Bragg performance. Bragg likes to talk. And for the most part, I think Bragg’s fans wanted to hear what he had to say.

Not surprisingly, Bragg — who makes no secret of the fact that he’s a socialist — had some cutting things to say about the current state of American politics. Sipping from a mug of hot tea in between songs, Bragg quipped, “I am simply drinking tea. It is a beverage issue and not a political issue.”

During a monologue about the economic downturn and the government’s response, Bragg said, “A country where the markets make policy is not a democracy.” But he emphasized optimism and working for change over being cynical. “Cynicism is our greatest enemy,” he remarked, later adding: “Woody Guthrie never wrote a cynical song in his life.” Bragg urged his fans to work at persuading other people to take a more progressive, enlightened political outlook. “Only the audience can change the world,” he said.

Oh, and what about the music? Bragg played alone, using an electric guitar for much of the show and an acoustic guitar for several songs — sounding relaxed as he sang many of his most popular tunes in a strong, confident voice. He injected humorous touches in some of the songs, like a White Stripes riff. The Woody Guthrie songs (including two from “Mermaid Avenue”) were wonderful, and “Everywhere” was somber and moving. The encore felt festive, ending with the crowd singing the chorus of “New England.” And then Bragg spent a good amount of time talking with fans and posing for pictures at the merch table.

SET LIST: “To Have and To Not Have” / “The Price I Pay” / “Greetings to the New Brunette (Shirley)” / “Tomorrow” (new song from “Pressure Drop” play) / “I Ain’t Got No Home” (Woody Guthrie cover) / “Sexuality” / “Everywhere” / “The Unwelcome Guest” / “Ingrid Bergman” / “Way Over Yonder in a Minor Key” / “The Fourteenth of February” / “There Will Be a Reckoning” (new song from “Pressure Drop” play) / “No Power Without Accountability” / “The Milkman of Human Kindness” / “Levi Stubbs’ Tears” / “I Keep Faith” / ENCORE: “Tank Park Salute” / “The Saturday Boy” / “New England”

Read my interview with Billy Bragg in Pioneer Press. Billy Bragg’s website: www.billybragg.co.uk

The opening act was Australian singer-songwriter Darren Hanlon, whose music was new to me until I checked out his myspace page last week. I’m quickly becoming a big fan — his folk-rock songs were melodic and often quite humorous, and he was a perfect match with Bragg. www.darrenhanlon.com http://www.myspace.com/darrenhanlon

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Neu’s pulse beats in Hallogallo 2010


The 1970s German band Neu! is no more, but Hallogallo 2010 is almost the real thing. The one surviving member of the original duo, Michael Rother, is touring America for the first time in ages, playing the mesmerizing, driving instrumental music he recorded three decades ago in Neu!, along with some of his solo music. One of those old Neu! songs is called “Hallogallo,” and the name of this new touring band is Hallogallo 2010. It’s Rother plus Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and Tall Firs bassist Aaron Mullan.



Shelley and Mullan played their roles perfectly Wednesday, Sept. 8, at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall, duplicating the tight, almost mechanical rhythms that Neu! pioneered. That beat that became known as “Motorik,” German for “motor skill.” Going through my photos from the concert, I noticed how happy Shelley looked as he did his part. Together, Shelley and Mullan were a pulsing machine. Rother played electric guitar, keyboards and electronic devices on top of that rhythmic foundation. It was minimalist, focused music, with twitchy energy.




The evening began with a strong set by Chicago’s Disappears — noisy and chaotic, but with a insistent beat that proved to be a good match for Hallogallo.
PHOTOS OF DISAPPEARS


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What is this thing called ‘J.O.E.’?


For better or worse, the information that Redmoon Theatre puts out about its events can be a little vague. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out exactly what this thing is that Redmoon’s doing. That can create some cool surprises, but it can also be confusing. So what is this current Redmoon thing called J.O.E., which opened Thursday and runs through Monday at South Belmont Harbor?


J.O.E. stands for “Joyous Outdoor Event,” and it’s essentially a revamped version of the play/concert/acrobatic spectacle that Redmoon performed last summer at the same location. But it’s been expanded into a festival of sorts, with daytime activities for kids (or kids of all ages, as they say), opening bands and then the main event — the play itself — starting at 8:30 p.m.


The play, or what-have-you, is Last of My Species II: The Perilous Songs of Bibi Merhdad. Last year, the show was called Last of My Species: The Fearless Songs of Laarna Cortaan, and it purported to be the debt U.S. performance by a Norwegian singer. The gimmick was the same this time, except that the “concert” was by a singer who was — um, Persian, I think. At least, that seemed to be the gist of the humorous narration provided by a character who was supposedly an Austrian musicologist.


The Chicago Reader’s Gossip Wolf column this week revealed the secret identity of Bibi Merhdad. It is actually none other than Chicago singer-songwriter Azita. It’s pretty awesome to see Azita playing a piano as she is carried into the park like an Egyptian pharaoh.


Thursday night’s performance was rather sparsely attended. Maybe it was the fact that it was a Thursday or the fear of rain. Or maybe people were unaware of J.O.E. or confused about what it was. In any case, the crowd was so spread out across the grass and bleachers that it failed to generate the sort of audience excitement that’s really necessary for a Redmoon Spectacle to come alive. I bet it will do well if the weather behaves and bigger crowds show up over the weekend. For someone who went last year, however it was disappointing to see how much of the show was a retread. Just minutes before the show was about to end, the rain came pouring down and the spectacle came to an abrupt end — as Azita, er, Bibi was trying to play a song in the rain on her piano.


The band playing before Thursday’s show was Chicago’s great soul revival act J.C. Brooks and the Uptown Sound (who also play Sept. 10 at the House of Blues). There weren’t many people near the stage as they played, but several of them got up to dance. Friday’s band was Ezra Furman & the Harpoons. Still coming up: Saturday, 7 p.m.: Scotland Yard Gospel Choir. Sunday, 6 p.m.: My Gold Mask, followed at 7 p.m. by SSION. Monday, 2:30: Purple Apple, followed by a 5:30 performance of the Bibi Merhdad spectacle.



This J.O.E. thing is not the only Redmoon event this month. In fact, it feels like a warmup for the next event, which is The Astronaut’s Birthday, being performed every Thursday, Friday and Sunday from Sept. 9 to Sept. 26 in the plaza of the Museum of Contemporary Art. It sounds like the Redmoon artists will be making cool use of the MCA’s facade during their show.

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Wanda Jackson at FitzGerald’s

She’s known as the Queen of Rockabilly, and she deserves the title. Wanda Jackson is one of the pioneers. She played with Elvis. She was even his girlfriend for a while. She may not have been as famous as the other folks (mostly guys) who blended together country, blues and folk to create the stuff known as rock ‘n’ roll and rockabilly, but her songs — like “Mean Mean Man” — still sound great all these years later. And Ms. Jackson still sounds pretty great, too.

She’s in her 70s, but she’s still touring, and she made a stop Friday night at FitzGerald’s in Berwyn. I had the pleasure of interviewing Jackson in 2007 by phone, but this was the first time I’d ever seen her perform in concert. She was sassy, funny and spirited throughout a good long set, playing all of her oldies plus a couple of songs she just recorded for a seven-inch single with Jack White producing: Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good” and Johnny Kidd’s “Shakin’ All Over.” After the show, I bought the single at the merch table, where Jackson was up past 1:30 a.m. signing autographs. She told me the full album produced by White will be coming out in January.

Jackson spent some years playing Christian music before she went back to her early rockabilly tunes, so it wasn’t surprising that she included at least one song in her set with a gospel message — but what a song. She played one of my favorite classic country songs with a religious theme, Hank Williams’ “I Saw the Light.” Jackson’s backup band was the Lustre Kings, who played a fine opening set of their own, including some Elvis songs they were practicing for an Elvis festival the following night in Green Bay. Oh, and did I mention that Wanda Jackson threw some water at me during her set? She was saying, “Boy, it sure is hot in here, isn’t it?” and then she splashed some water from her bottle at a few people, including me. Fun times.


PHOTOS OF WANDA JACKSON AND THE LUSTRE KINGS















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August concerts

Concerts I’ve seen lately:

THE SWELL SEASON’s Glen Hansard and Marketa Iglova played five songs Aug. 12 at Lincoln Hall following a screening of the film that made them famous, Once, and a Q&A with Sound Opinions hosts Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis. What a delightful evening. (Of course, now I keep thinking about the tragic death of a fan that happened at a Swell Season concert in California a week later.)

LOST IN THE TREES played Aug. 16 at Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion, part of the “Dusk Variations” series. A nice example of an indie folk-rock band making sophisticated use of chamber-music style strings.

MY MORNING JACKET played Aug. 17 at the Charter One Pavilion, which was my first visit to this concert venue on Northerly Island, where Meigs Field was until Mayor Daley ordered in the bulldozers. Charter One is basically a parking lot and bleachers set up in front of a big stage, with vendors selling tallboy cans of Bud for $11. ($11!!!) Not really my sort of venue, but I guess it served its purpose as a setting for My Morning Jacket’s arena rock. The band showed that it still knows how to rock out with a vengeance — at least when it’s playing its old songs. Luckily, the band played a lot from It Still Moves and Z, but I wish they’d played even older songs. The more recent songs are lackluster in comparison, although the band almost brought them to life on stage.

THE SADIES were scheduled to play two nights at Schubas, but the second night was cancelled, and the band ended up playing just one show, Aug. 20. It’s a shame that this terrific band hasn’t become more popular and moved up to bigger venues. On the other hand, it’s nice that Sadies fans can still enjoy seeing them up-close in an intimate venue like Schubas. The guitar licks were as awesome as they usually are, and it was great to hear the Sadies doing some songs from their excellent recent record, Darker Circles. They even did double duty, playing as the backing band for Jon Langford and Sally Timms during one of the opening sets. And they finished off the night with an encore medley of tunes originally played by Them in the ’60s: “Gloria,” “”I Can Only Give You Everything,” “Baby Please Don’t Go” and back to “Gloria.”

Sorry, no photos from these concerts, but my camera will be back in action very soon.

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Phosphorescent at the Empty Bottle

The night before Lollapalooza (Aug. 5), Phosphorescent played an excellent set at the Empty Bottle — almost as good as anything I saw during the three days of Lollapalooza that followed. Phosphorescent’s recent album, Here’s to Taking It Easy, is one of the year’s best so far. The band (which started out as an essentially solo project by singer-songwriter Matthew Houck) played an odd, atmospheric variation of alt-country on its first two albums. The meandering quality of those records disappeared when Phosphorescent released a Willie Nelson tribute album in 2009, For Willie, and now that tighter focus carries on with Houck’s new batch of original songs.

The live show delivered the same smart mix of lush cosmopolitan country and ragged roots rock, with Houck’s voice sounding delightfully creaky. During the encore, Houck played a few acoustic solo songs, then the band came back for a soaring version of “Los Angeles” and one final blast of raucous rock.

The evening started out with a strong set by Chicago band Ceiling Stars, who earthy rock proved to be a good fit with Phosphorescent. In between those bands, noteworthy singer-songwriter J. Tillman, who has released seven albums in the past five years including the new Singing Ax, played a solo acoustic set. His songs sounded great — assuming you could actually concentrate on hearing them above the din of people talking over at the bar. Tillman tried not to complain too much, but he seemed a bit unnerved, saying, “This is brutal.” (Kim Bellware of Chicagoist also reported on this.) On a few occasions, the Empty Bottle has succeeded in presenting a performance of quiet music without the annoyance of bar chatter, but more often than not, acoustic shows are a bad fit with this venue.



PHOTOS OF PHOSPHORESCENT, J. TILLMAN AND CEILING STARS









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Lollapalooza Wrap-Up

Last year, I skipped Lollapalooza. It was the first time I’d missed Lolla since it changed in 2005 from a touring festival to an annual Chicago event. My main reason: I simply wasn’t that excited about the musical lineup. I wasn’t thrilled about everything on this year’s schedule, either — with a reasonably diverse list of 150 musical acts, who could be? But this year, Lollapalooza definitely had enough quality bands to hold just about rock fan’s interest for most of the weekend. And the inclusion of the Arcade Fire as one of the headliners clinched it for me. There was no way I was going to miss this.

Overall, Lollapalooza 2010 turned out to be a pretty good time. I saw several great sets, several good sets and some mediocrity. There were a few moments of feeling trapped inside crowds, getting rained on and stepping in mud, but for the most part, it was a pleasant experience. The addition of Columbus Drive as a pedestrian thoroughfare did make it easier to get around the festival grounds.

I reviewed Lollapalooza for Pioneer Press, including an overview of the festival and the headliners. And I also blogged here with some thoughts inspired by the Arcade Fire’s closing set on Sunday.

As always, it was impossible to see everything I wanted to see. So, yeah, I missed Devo, Spoon, Rogue Wave, Gogol Bordello, Warpaint, Nneka and major chunks of the shows by MGMT, the Drive-By Truckers and Social Distortion, to name just a few. During Friday night’s headline sets, I caught the first several songs by the Strokes (who sounded pretty tight) before heading to the other end of the park for the last part of Lady Gaga’s overblown, screechy spectacle.

I also dashed back and forth Saturday night. I began with Green Day setting off fireworks, and then I went north and watched most of the show by Phoenix, and then I went back to see Green Day set off more fireworks. By that point, the show had devolved into an oldies medley with “Satisfaction,” “Hey Jude” and “Shout.” What was this, a rock concert or a wedding? And Phoenix still hasn’t won me over yet, either. When I was in the photo pit for the first three Phoenix songs, the band’s energy impressed me, but I just don’t find the tunes all that interesting.

On Sunday night, I tried to stay in one place. While I would have liked to see at least part of the Soundgarden show, I didn’t want to miss a moment of the Arcade Fire. And I also wanted to see the National, who were playing just before the Arcade Fire on that end of the park. Alas, after catching the first half of a fairly strong set by the National (with a guest appearance by Richard Reed Parry of the Arcade Fire), I found myself standing across the field, waiting to photograph the Arcade Fire and trying to hear as much of the National as I could. Not an ideal way to experience the show. It sounded like the National finally broke out of their low brooding mood later on during the set.

Other highlights of the festival included Mavis Staples’ set on Friday. She and her backup vocalists began with some a cappella gospel, lifting their beautiful voices into the summer-afternoon air and singing, “I Am His and He Is Mine.” Later in the set, Staples introduced guest guitarist Jeff Tweedy “of the Wilco band,” who produced Staples’ forthcoming album, You Are Not Alone. He also wrote the title song, which sounded lovely in concert, bringing together Tweedy’s folk rock with Staples’ soulful vocals.

Another great set came Friday evening, when reggae legend Jimmy Cliff made a rare appearance. Cliff was considerably more exuberant and energetic than I’d expected for a performer who’s 62. He danced across the stage with a light and joyful step, even doing a few karate kicks. His voice had a weathered but strong quality as he played classic songs including “The Harder They Come,” “Sitting in Limbo,” “You Can Get It If You Really Want,” “Many Rivers to Cross” and covers of Cat Stevens’ “Wild World” and Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now.” A good vibe was in the air, as the crowd clapped along. PHOTOS OF JIMMY CLIFF.

I was not prepared for the outlandish experience of seeing Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. Having listened to the band’s record, somehow I expected a much more staid concert of the singer-songwriter variety. I didn’t realize Sharpe and his band have a fervent cult following — or that Sharpe likes to get right out into the crowd. The show had the feeling of a hippie circus, and some fans even climbed up into the trees.

The XX were a little pale and restrained, looking and sounding as if they didn’t really belong outdoors under bright summer sunlight. But they drew a big crowd with their cold, minimalist tunes, and the sound was cool indeed.

I wish I’d heard more garage rock at Lollapalooza, though the genre isn’t really well-suited to concerts on big stages where the crowd is so far away from the band. The Soft Pack were my favorite out of the scrappy young garage and punk bands that I saw, and I also enjoyed Wavves and Harlem.

Stars were as emotional and appealing as ever (even if their most recent songs aren’t as memorable as the early ones). Meanwhile, the New Pornographers did what they always do well: play one upbeat, catchy power-pop song after another. Neko Case of the New Pornographers later showed up on guest vocals with the Dodos, who played an intriguing combination of acoustic blues with more angular rock.

Metric’s Emily Haines seemed unstoppable as she sang and danced. I haven’t listened much to Metric’s records (and haven’t been that thrilled with what I’ve heard), but I can’t deny they put on a good live show.

The Antlers sounded magnificent and epic when they played songs from 2009’s Hospice, but the band’s other songs were less dramatic.

Dirty Projectors were the only band I heard talking about fonts during their stage banter. Their odd guitar lines and stunningly precise vocal harmonies created a sound that’s complex without being too off-putting.

Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison seemed to be pouring everything he had into his emotional performance.

It was raining during the set by British singer Frank Turner, but the damp weather didn’t diminish the strength of his forcefully delivered acoustic rock.

Other bands I liked: Social Distortion, Skybox, Mumford & Sons, the Black Keys, the Big Pink, the Walkmen, the Morning Benders and Grizzly Bear. MGMT sounded great when they played their cool new song “Brian Eno,” but I’m still not thrilled with the more popular music from their first album.

Despite the praise and hype that’s been heaped on them in England — and despite the presence of ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr — the Cribs were pretty dull.

And I don’t understand all the excitement about X Japan, which is just a Japanese version of Western hair-metal music. Other hard-rock bands from Japan, such as Boris, are far superior. But it was interesting to see X Japan’s fans gathered along the barricade, clasping red-haired dolls. As at many other Lollapalooza sets, it was the fans who made the show.

PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT LOLLAPALOOZA:

DAY ONE: PHOTOS OF LADY GAGA / PHOTOS OF THE STROKES / PHOTOS OF JIMMY CLIFF / MORE PHOTOS FROM DAY ONE.

PHOTOS FROM DAY TWO.

DAY THREE: PHOTOS OF THE ARCADE FIRE / MORE PHOTOS FROM DAY THREE.

MUSIC UNITES US (INCLUDING REVIEW OF THE ARCADE FIRE).

MUSIC DIVIDES US.

LOLLAPALOOZA FENCE CRASHERS.

PREVIEW FOR PIONEER PRESS.

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Lollapalooza: Music Divides Us

Music unites us? So I said yesterday in my post about the Arcade Fire’s Lollapalooza show. But music sometimes has the opposite effect, as the Arcade Fire points out in the lyrics of “Suburban War” — “Now the music divides us into tribes/You choose your side, I’ll choose my side.”

The various musical tribes seemed like they were at war during Lollapalooza. A war of words, anyway. On Friday night, as Lady Gaga played at the south end of the park, I saw a couple of young guys running north into the field where an audience had gathered to hear the Strokes. “Fuck Lady Gaga!” they shouted, emphasizing their proclamation with a gesture of simulated jacking-off.

Not long after that, when I was standing in the photo pit in front of the Budweiser stage, waiting for the Strokes to start playing, some of the fans chanted the same phrase for a minute: “Fuck Lady Gaga!” And from what I hear, people also chanted the same thing at a Friday-night set by 2ManyDJs.

On Saturday, while Green Day and Phoenix played on the two main stages, fans watching the Empire of the Sun on a smaller stage reportedly chanted, “Fuck Green Day!” The hostility carried over onto the Internet, where some Soundgarden fans derided Arcade Fire fans as hipsters who like “crap music.”

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with expressing your opinions about what music you like or don’t like. It’s all part of a great freewheeling debate. But it quickly becomes tiresome when the debate devolves into insults about the fans in rival musical tribes. Those tribes aren’t defined as narrowly as you might think. Believe it or not, there are at least a few people out there who like both Lady Gaga and the Strokes.

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Lollapalooza: Music Unites Us

As much as I prefer seeing concerts in small clubs, I have to admit there’s something really cool about the communal feeling you get when you’re with thousands and thousands of other people who all like the same musical artist — especially when the musicians are putting on a hell of a show, singing and playing with unbridled passion, and the crowd is responding with thunderous applause. A sea of arms waving to the music. Groups of people dancing. Audience members singing along with the choruses, shouting things like “OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH!!!” far louder than they ever sang anything in church or school. If you happen to be stuck in such a scene at a show where you don’t like the music, it can feel rather hellish, as if you’re surrounded by the brainwashed members of a religious cult.

But if your musical tastes are in synch with the throng around you, the feeling can be transcendent. For at least this brief time — at most an hour or two, maybe a few minutes in the middle of a concert — it feels like the world is right. And if you’ve ever felt like a musical snob, hoping that the masses don’t discover those favorite obscure bands you’re hoarding like a secret — if you’ve ever felt like a musical weirdo because the bands you really like rarely play at venues bigger than the Hideout and never get played on the radio — then suddenly this big concert experience makes you feel like some sort of crowd-loving populist. It is possible for big masses of people to like the same music that I do! And it isn’t somehow ruining the music, as I’d feared it would. The world is right. But then, of course, the concert ends. And you start slipping back into the same old attitudes you’d had before. For a moment, it seemed like you were in synch with the rest of humanity. Now… Well, you’re not so sure about that anymore, but at least you know it can happen for a few minutes.

At Lollapalooza this past weekend, that experience came for me during the Sunday-night finale by the Arcade Fire. This was the fifth time I’ve seen the Arcade Fire, and I’m not sure if they’ll ever top the first two amazing shows I saw them do, at the Empty Bottle in 2004 and Lollapalooza 2005. Surely, by now the Arcade Fire must have mellowed a bit.

But damn if they didn’t put on an intense show on Sunday, the very sort of barnstorming set that helped to make them popular in the first place. They were more careful with their antics than five years ago — Will Butler did not jump into the photo pit wielding a microphone stand, as he did at Lollapalooza 2005, coming close to dinging me in the head. (Here’s a video of that moment; I believe I must be just outside the frame.) And as far as I was able to observe, no helmets were required since no one was drumming on anyone else’s head this time.

But the seven musicians in the Arcade Fire are still swapping instruments and working up a sweat as they pound away with their violins, guitars, keyboards and even a hurdy-gurdy.

The songs from the new album The Suburbs sounded strong, but older songs provided the cathartic climax of the concert, as the audience sang along with “Rebellion (Lies)” and “Wake Up.” It was as if the crowd was defying the lyrics Win Butler had sung earlier in the new song, “Month of May” — “Now, some things are pure and some things are right/But the kids are still standing with their arms folded tight.” These kids were not just standing there with their arms folded tight.

What followed, as Lollapalooza ended, was a crush of concertgoers trying to reach the exit gates. I got stuck in a seemingly immovable mass of people near one of the beer tents. Everyone remained fairly calm and patient, and I finally broke free of the pack. The crowd streamed out into the streets of downtown Chicago. Walking on Monroe along the Art Institute, I was in the midst of some folks who began clapping spontaneously. And then a bunch of us began singing the wordless chorus from “Wake Up.” It felt like we were trying to stretch out that beautiful concert for a few more minutes. Even half an hour later, riding the el home, I think I heard someone whistling “Wake Up.” And then the spell was broken, and the world was back to normal.

PHOTOS OF THE ARCADE FIRE AT LOLLAPALOOZA.

More blog posts coming soon, including: Music Divides Us … And more from Lollapalooza 2010.

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Lollapalooza Photos: Arcade Fire

Lollapalooza 2010 is over, ending with a good and proper climax from the Arcade Fire. More photos (and yes, some actual words) coming soon from Lolla. In the meantime, here are my photos of the Arcade Fire show from a couple of hours ago.

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Lollapalooza Photos: Day Two

Photos from Day Two of Lollapalooza 2010, Aug. 7, 2010, at Grant Park in Chicago, including: The Kissaway Trail, The Morning Benders, The Soft Pack, Skybox, Harlem, Dragonette, Stars, The XX, Grizzly Bear, Metic, Social Distortion, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Green Day and Phoenix.

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Lollapalooza fence crashers

[nggallery id=11]In the first two days of Lollapalooza, I’ve seen four incidents of people coming in over the fences without paying. The first time was during Mavis Staples’ set on Friday. As Staples was talking onstage about the march to freedom, security guards were marching out a couple of fence-crashers they’d caught. Later on Friday, I saw one guy scrambling over the fence to the west of that same Budweiser stage. Then a group of a dozen or so came over the fence in the same area. No security personnel were in the area at the time, and they all got in.

The biggest breach,, shown in the photographs above, came Saturday during the set by Stars on the Budweiser stage. It was a large group. I estimated about 40 people, then asked some other people who’d witnessed the incident how many people they thought they’d seen. One said 50, and another said 70. Most of these crashers appeared young, probably high-school age. They came all at once, climbing over the fence along Lake Shore Drive near the northeast corner of the Lollapalooza grounds. Then they knocked over a second fence, which completely fell to the ground. As audience members laughed, pointed or cheered, the kids scrambled into the park, most of them apparently getting away. The security guards grabbed a few of the crashers and were holding them near the fence when I left the scene. Later in the day, the fence they’d pushed over was back in place.

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Lollapalooza photos: Lady Gaga

Here’s the first batch of my photos from day one of Lollapalooza. I wasn’t able to get into the photo pit for the Lady Gaga show — I chose to see Jimmy Cliff, and getting to the Lady Gaga stage in time for admission to the photo pit proved impossible after that. However, I did walk over later and catch the last half-hour or so of the Gaga show. I took some photos from the audience, which is always tricky. Here’s what I got.


PHOTOS OF LADY GAGA AT LOLLAPALOOZA, Aug. 6, 2010, Grant Park, Chicago.

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Cap’n Jazz and Mission of Burma

This past weekend’s Wicker Park Festival had a pretty strong lineup on both days. I was there for the two final sets on the north stage Saturday night: Mission of Burma followed by Cap’n Jazz.

The two bands have something in common. Both labored in obscurity when they were originally together. And both are more famous now that they’ve reunited. Well, “famous” is a relative term here, but at least they’re getting more recognition now, long after original hey day.

In Michael Azerrad’s terrific book about underground rock bands of the 1980s, Our Band Could Be Your Life, he describes Mission of Burma touring the country and playing in front of barely anyone. Reunited now since 2002, Mission of Burma at least draws a decent-sized crowd.

The aging punks sounded fierce and alive as they played Saturday on Milwaukee Avenue. The kids in the crowd started moshing, slamming up against one another, as Mission of Burma ran through some of its best-known old tunes in the final part of the set: “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver,” “This Is Not a Photograph” and “Red.”


PHOTOS: MISSION OF BURMA

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Cap’n Jazz apparently had a pretty good local following back in the early 1990s, but I for one heard nothing about them until years later. Here I was, a journalist at a suburban newspaper trying to stay on top of such things, and somehow it escaped my attention that some young guys from Wheeling were making all this noise. This was not the sort of band that sent out press releases to the local paper. Some now point to Cap’n Jazz as one of the groups that influenced all those later “emo” bands. I finally heard about Cap’n Jazz when its lead singer, Tim Kinsella, went on to perform in a series of other, and usually artsier, stranger bands, including Joan of Arc. (For more background, read Jessica Hopper’s interview with Tim Kinsella for the Chicago Reader.)

Reunited, apparently for just a brief tour, Cap’n Jazz is drawing sell-out crowds at clubs. They even landed on the front page of The New York Times’ Arts section.

Saturday night, the fans were rabid with excitement as Kinsella and company thrashed through their songs. “Just to be clear, these songs were written 15 or 17 years ago,” Kinsella remarked at one point. When a fan apparently said something encouraging Kinsella not to go away again, he said, “It’s not like I’ve been hiding, man … If you’d gone to a Joan of Arc show, there’d have been 30 people there.”

Kinsella threw himself out on the crowd a number of times. As the show reached its climax, maybe or dozen or so audience members climbed up onto the stage and dived back into the crowd. With a minute left before the end, security guards finally showed up to see what was going on.


PHOTOS: CAP’N JAZZ

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Tift Merritt at Lincoln Hall

Tift Merritt has one of the most beautiful voices you’ll hear in today’s alt-country and Americana — or whatever you want to call the music she’s released on four albums since 2002, including the new record See You on the Moon. Merritt sounds a little more mainstream and traditional than some of her counterparts, such as Neko Case, but she’s still far, far better than the stuff that gets played on mainstream country radio. (And how many mainstream Nashville artists drop a reference to Mazzy Star in their lyrics or do a song in French?)

Merritt touched on all the aspects of her music during her set Friday night (July 30) at Lincoln Hall in Chicago, from soulful piano ballads and simple acoustic folk songs to louder, more driving Southern rock. The pedal-steel guitar of Eric Heywood (who’s played with Son Volt and other bands) added another lovely voice to the mix, dueting with Merritt’s dulcet vocals on songs such as the title track from 2002’s Bramble Rose. Her band also included longtime players Jay Brown on bass and Zeke Hutchins (her husband) on drums. During the encore, Hutchins stepped up to the mike for lead vocals on an a cappella song about Evel Knievel.

Highlights included the rocker “Engine to Turn” from the new album and a solo piano rendition of “Good Hearted Man,” from her 2004 album Tambourine. (Alas, we did not get to hear the title track, “Tambourine.”) Merritt played both of the cover tunes on her new record: “Live Till You Die” by Emitt Rhodes and “Danny’s Song” by Kenny Loggins. The latter is a song that I did not especially want to hear anyone cover, but Merritt manages to bring out its best qualities.

It’s too bad Lincoln Hall wasn’t more crowded for this fine show — the house seemed to be about half-full. Opening act Dawn Landes was pretty charming and tuneful in her own right, playing roots rock in a similar vein.


PHOTOS: TIFT MERRITT AND DAWN LANDES

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