John Vanderslice

at Iota, 4/29/2006

I got behind and haven't posted about any shows for a while... I'm not going to take the time to go back and catch up... we'll just have to deal with the gap in coverage.

John Vanderslice and his fabulous band played to a packed house at Iota. Damn his band is good. He's a very engaging performer, clearly very comfortable on stage, and immediately likeable. He conducts the performance as though we're all longtime friends and actually pulls it off. Of course it helps that the music is solid - and beautifully performed. Did I mention that his band is awesome? They are.

They've been on the road for a while, and it shows (in a good way). Everything sounded tight, but there was still enough room for all of the players to mix up some details and keep things fresh. At one point, Vanderslice stopped the show to listen to a change the keyboard player made to a delay setting, that changed the rhythm of a small accompaniment figure - this was followed by a demonstration so we all knew what he was talking about, and the drummer reluctantly gave a quick lesson in hemiola (and the drummer added a little triplet lick at the end of the following song to put it in context).

Basically, every song sounded lovely. They played for a good long while, and still didn't have time for a few favorites (no "dear sara shu" or "bill gates must die" or "speedlab" for example) but they delivered many of my personal favorites (i.e. "me and my 424," "angela," "time travel is lonely" and many others).

I splurged and bought a vinyl copy of his latest album, Pixel Revolt. It's pressed on two 180 gram discs that run at 45rpm -- and the sound quality is really spectacular (to be expected from an artist who's known as much for being a studio dork as he is a songwriter and performer). So much better than hearing the album as mp3's. But if you want to hear some mp3's, he's got loads of them on his site, including a few tracks from Pixel Revolt. Start here, but it's worth browsing the site for some older stuff too. (and I mean "studio dork" in the most respectful and affectionate way)

Page France opened. Stupid Pitchfork retains the well-deserved "stupid" prefix with this review. (although they did get a high score) I'm not sure why the review is so caught up in their music being "Christian." Certainly most of the songs deal with themes such as faith and love, served up with generous helpings of biblical imagery - but does that mean someone like Leonard Cohen was writing Christian music?