I panicked a bit; minutes before I was leaving for the show I read that there would only be 100 tickets for each show (there were 5pm and 8pm shows) and tickets had been on sale already. I hadn’t thought about whether it’d sell out and as of a week ago there hadn’t been any information about tickets on the site. I rushed out the door.

Tickets didn’t end up being a problem, but I saw why they might be when I got to the ATA: it’s pretty small. There were maybe ~80 movie theater chairs total in just a few rows. They started letting people in right around 8pm and Phil went on just a few minutes later with unkempt hair, a flannel jacket, haunting eyes and a nylon-stringed guitar. I sometimes like efficient shows like that: no opener and it starts around the official starting time.

The Microphones/ Mt Eerie were always bands that I liked, but never quite got into or loved (as do other people). On record, the endings to the songs are a bit abrupt and the warble to his voice can be a bit much. The fidelity/ recordings/ sloppiness level are a bit low/ strange/ high sometimes.

But at this concert, the sound was great, the fidelity fine, his warble and abrupt song endings endearing. The audience was reverent in their respect for him and quietness. The room in general was very quiet, just his soft strumming or finger-picking on his guitar, his voice and the occasional added white-noise from the fog machine which Phil had handed controls over to an audience member (and later told him “you were born to fog” and “you found your purpose”).

the Microphones – Great Ghosts (mp3, from Live in Japan, February 19th, 21st, and 22nd, 2003)

He’s a quirky guy. He didn’t say anything except for “thanks” for the first bit of the concert. The first thing he said of substance was “I just ate a burrito really fast.” After someone’s cell phone rang later with a particularly futuristic sounding ring tone he said “The robots are here. Actually it’s not going to be too long before I play a song and from the audience a robot will say something to me sounding just like that: ‘Boop boop beep beep doo doot’. They’ll be among us.”

I’m having trouble describing what was so good about this concert. Just believe me, it was good. I sat stunned for the first half of it. Part of it was the way his face contorted, the way he stared at his feet, the way he shook his head and nodded along to his songs. Part of it was just how little there was (or felt like there was) between the audience (me) and him. Some concerts, you know it’s a concert—the band’s on the stage and you’re hearing the sound from the sound system and seeing them in their rock star persona; this was different; this was like he was sitting in my house playing me some songs for me.

[*] Maybe he’s one of those guys. At least I think he is for me. That in order to like/ get his recordings I need to see him live. Like the Polyphonic Spree whose recordings never quite meant anything to me until they could remind me of their live show.

I’d recommend you check him out live. He’s got a few more dates in this “camping trip, it’s not really a tour”.

You can buy Microphones and Mount Eerie (including, the, I believe, out-of-print and nice Singers) stuff at insound.

Update: I forgot that every post has to mention John Vanderslice. I ran into Ian Bjornstad (JV’s keyboard player) at the show and said hi. He enjoyed the show. I guess he’s going to shows and stuff because John Vanderslice is touring with just Dave Douglas this time. loan advance cash payday 9 paydayloan a securedcheck loan our advance fromloans adverse credit uk1 pay day loans 2 pricepayday 10 loan advance cashloan credit online 100 paydayadvance 11 payday paycheck loanpayday loan 14 advance 20 paydayloan payday 16 cash advance cash

This entry was posted on Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 9:34 am Posted by adrian in SF bay area, live review, mp3s, photos. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.