at The Black Cat (backstage), 8/27/2006
(note: this photo is from a show in philly, not the show I'm writing about in DC)
The sound on the backstage at Black Cat is really bad. It's a room that doesn't deal well with loudness. Sad, since most shows in there are pretty damn loud. This worked against Aloha - which is a real shame since they're an excellent band, and their new record sounds fabulous.
Their music is intricately crafted and meticulously executed - but without sounding cold and calculated. They're just a group of damn fine players. Drummer is really excellent (comparisons to Alan White might be deserved?), bass player is totally solid (Stupid Pitchfork compares him to Chris Squire... seriously). Guitarist / keyboardist / singer is good at all three. His voice sounds kind of like David Gray, although music is completely different - I just mean timbre of his voice, and I mean that as a complement. And then there's TJ Lipple playing marimba and keyboard. That's right, marimba. They're a rock band with a marimba. Chew on that for a minute.
So, you may have noticed two mentions comparing them to Yes in the previous paragraph. I think we need to coin a new term: Indie-prock, meaning indie rock infused with the good aspects of prog rock, and eschewing the genre's overblown theatricality and posturing as well as the abundance of lyrics about mythological creatures. I think Aloha would make a shining example of "indie prock." Plenty of odd meters, nifty interlocking patterns, surprsingly complex harmonic and melodic ideas - somehow merged into the framework of totally approachable indie rock (and no lyrics about mythological creatures).
One song borrowed heavily from Phillip Glass, with several interlocking ostinati - and they even switched instruments mid-stream on that one. Several songs were played without a break between them, giving the feel of some kind of large-scale epic (in the grand prog-rock tradition, but with no pretense). Between other songs, some free-from improv filled the gap while singer switched from keyboard to guitar.
This was the last show of their tour - which followed fairly soon on the heels of a longer tour earlier in the summer, and they looked pretty tired. Seemed like a square meal and a good night's sleep would do them all some good, but even though they looked road-weary they put on a great show.
I picked up "Some Echoes" on vinyl at the show. Sounds nice.
Photo by Flickr user marcymakesaparty
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Mary Timony, Garland of Hours
at Fort Reno, 8/17/2006
Show was good. I've heard Garland of Hours several times. Consistently, there are technical problems with the sound equipment. Fort Reno is always a little sketchy in terms of buzz and interference, but somehow Amy Domingues brings the hum and buzz and unintentional noises to any venue. Fortunately, that doesn't seem to get in the way of the music. Amy opened her set with a couple of solo pieces, including a Lungfish song arranged for cello and voice, with some looping. Very nice. Her band this time out included Mary Timony (guitar) and Devin Ocampo (drums) plus a bass player who's name I don't know. The band was solid. Amy's strange mix of rock music oddly colored by early music came together in it's usual fragile way - which is a good thing.
Mary Timony played with a trio: herself on guitar/voice, Devin Ocampo, drums (this was the lineup for the last show I saw) but now they've added a bass player - Chad Molter, who also plays with Devin in the band "Medications." I prefer the trio over the duo lineup - especially with two-thirds of Medications included. They played mostly new material, I think... I only recognized one song from "Ex-Hex" - Backwards and Forwards, with a nifty new intro. The new material asks the question: is prog-rock cool again? And the answer is yes, with certain limitations. Seems like her live shows are sloppier than the records so it's hard to read too much into the new material beyond the obvious. It's following the trajectory of Ex-Hex - but (as you might expect with two-thirds of Medications) nifty shifting patterns bordering on "math rock" appear frequently and to great effect. The last tune, which was the last song of the summer at the park, ended the season with a psychedelic flavor, Chad played synth-organ, and the guitar part was fed through some kind of filter effect - providing a tasty swirly combination.
Photos by Flickr user furcafe.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
X and Rollins Band
at 9:30 club, 8/15/2006
We saw X a few months ago, same club, same "greatest hits revue" style show. The good news: they still sound great. The other news: well, we'd seen it before - and recently.
Rollins band raised some issues for me. Let's start with the easy stuff:
- They totally rocked.
- The band is excellent, Marvin Gibbs (bass) and Chris Haskett (guitar) are terrific - and make for a super heavy combination. I always loved Haskett's approach to guitar lines - he rarely plays chords (fairly unusual for a hardcore / metal type sound, but Gibbs has it covered for him) and his lines are interesting. Sim Cain is a heckuva drummer, although it seemed a little over the top with metal cliches (two china cymbals, two floor toms, double bass pedal - all used exactly as you might expect) but let's not overlook the fact that they are a super-tight well oiled machine and they rocked as they are known to do, which is better than most.
- Rollins performed with incredible intensity.
Now the harder issues to sort through: I guess part of the problem is nostalgia. Much of my motivation for going to this concert was to rectify the fact that I hadn't seen Rollins live before - back when his work was of greater importance to me than it is now. Not that the work is any less relevant; adrenaline fueled songs about hate, anger, deception, and various shades of misanthropy are as timeless as ever. My own appetite for punk / hardcore / metal has diminished over the years, and I'm wondering what that means now?
The opening act, The Riverboat Gamblers, play straight ahead (retro?) punk, but they're young guys. It's as if they are trading only in signifiers: we are punks, we wear skinny jeans and all black, we play kinda sloppy but fast and loud and the singer romps all over the club, climbing up anything he can get his hands or feet on. The music? not much there... So what does this mean? Does "punk rock" not mean anything anymore? Has it been so fully assimilated into mainstream culture that there is no viable way for the music to retain any sort of meaning as cultural criticism? Maybe they were just a bad example?
It was with this preface that Rollins took the stage, playing a rapid fire litany of old songs. Good old songs that I have a special fondness for. And they were played as well as ever, and with the same intensity. But the context is different now, isn't it? Maybe that's the issue... 20 years ago, the 9:30 club was a very different place (literally), and it represented a certain "scene." There was a certain type of music that thrived there, and there was a certain subculture around that. Now it's a much much larger venue with no particular stylistic focus. Any act that can fill the place will play there, whether it's rock, punk, pop, alt-country, hip-hop, reggae, etc. Isn't this also an analogy for a concurrent cultural shift? Is there really any particular subculture around "underground" rock music, or is it just a fashion statement?
I don't have any answers.. haven't really figured out what the questions are either, but the evening left me kind of confused.
Mark Jenkins covered the show for the Washington Post. Click Here for his review.
catching up
missed my chance to keep up with the shows... won't get to writing about:
I.E.D. - Improvised Experimental Diva (Susan Oetgen's Fringe show)
Prufbox (another Fringe show)
The Evens at Fort Reno 7/31
Joe Lally at Warehouse Theater 8/5
"Four Islands" - a vocal recital presented by Stephen Blier and the Wolftrap Opera Company, 8/12. There's an exhaustive review on DCist. My comments aren't so much about the program as about the audience. Maybe I'll get my rant written down at some point.
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