I think the sound turned out really well, thanks to Smurph, KZSU’s live sound engineer, and Alexi and the Botticellis. I’ve heard a lot of live sets at KZSU and none of them have sounded quite like this. I think it turned out pretty well.
The new tunes sounded great, especially the lead off tune, “I Feel Betrayed”, which I’ll be looking forward to hearing a studio version of.
On Tuesday I saw the Morning Benders play an in-store Virgin Megastore. They put on a solid set as always including many from their new album. People even danced (after a little encouragement from Chris).
I’d seen Liam before, at the same venue, in fact. The set was quite similar, as was my reaction: I liked some of his loop-heavy songs and disliked others and many of my favorites were his more straight-forward songs.
One notable new happening: he ended one song with a solo on an odd instrument. After the song he announced his new “toy”, a Stylophone. To a fan’s cry for “more Stylophone!”, he said “ok”. His next song, his last of the night, was completely improvised and built around various loops of Stylophone along with drums and vocals. It was pretty impressive.
Veirs came out with just her guitar. It was just her, that guitar and looping pedals all night (with one exception, see below). She started with “Pink Light”, one of my favorites of hers. After that first song, the appreciation from the crowd was obvious–this was a very receptive crowd. She even noted it: “Wow, it’s nice to hear that, especially on a Monday night”.
The talented Ms. Veirs continued the entire evening, playing a great selection of songs from her “five good albums” (the last one is “bad”) skillfully. Additionally, she played two traditional songs that influenced her greatly, like Mississippi John Hurt’s “Spike Driver’s Blues”
She brought out the banjo for one song, Cluck Old Hen. She played it deftly in clawhammer style. Here’s a teaching version of that song, first slow and then full speed.
I was in San Diego for the weekend visiting an old friend. When I was glancing through Two Sheds’ (myspace) tour schedule, I saw a date down there for the weekend that I was going. As anyone who knows me or reads my blog can attest, I’m basically evangelical about the band–I think they’re great–so I decided to go to that show and drag my old friend and Natalie along for good measure.
Bar Pink Elephant has that classy-old-school vibe to it, like it might have been the place to go in the 50s. From when I got there it rapidly filled with a crowd of people, most of whom just seemed to be there just to be at a bar, not for the band. The stage area was off in one corner, a scant 6″ rise above the rest of the floor. They ran the drums and amps un-miced, with only the vocals (and the vibes, in the case of the opener) mic-ed. One of the speaker out in the crowd was pointed back toward the stage slightly and I guess that was the monitor too. Despite the limitations, the sound was pretty decent.
The opener started out alright, but with each further song, I felt the word “emo” was more apt a description–and not in the sort of warm-feeling college nostalgia way.
Two Sheds went on just before midnight. They put on a good set with solid versions of “Mama” and “Undertow” in there. They played “It’s Hard” after I’d shouted it out during one of their on-stage band conferences. After their set ended there were shouts for “one more song” so they decided to play one, to the awkward realization that their drummer had gone to the restroom.
After a couple minute break they went into an off-the-cuff version of “Psycho Killer” (which you can hear if you buy their album) accompanied by Caitlin saying “I don’t remember the chords”, (figuring them out,) and “I got it now!”. The band had obviously not rehearsed it and it teetered on the edge of falling apart, but they kept it together and the spontaneity was refreshing. They went into slow breakdown near the end led by their drummer that was pure improvisation (and pure brilliance). It just put a smile on my face.
Two Sheds has an iTunes EP out tomorrow May 6. I’m going to snap that bad boy up in record time. Also, be sure to tune in at 9pm on May 21st when I host the band on the air.
I’m from Barcelona is a giant band–a collective, I think you could call it–consisting of upwards of 29 people at times. I didn’t how many filed onto the medium-sized Independent stage but I could believe it was 29. The stage was packed. Guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, saxophone, clarinet and a variety of other instruments were scattered around. There were perhaps a half a dozen or more people just singing/ dancing/ playing miscellaneous instruments.
There set started out with my favorite of theirs, “Treehouse”. The stage was alive. Balloons and confetti were flying. Elaborate choreographed hand movements were in action. Within seconds the crowd seemed to go from staid to joyous, from subdued to exuberant.
The show continued in this vein for its entirety. Some songs clicked better than others (”Oversleeping”, “We’re from Barcelona” and “Jenny” stick out), but the band–and quite-possibly-extroverted front man Emanuel Lundgren–kept the energy up and the crowd hopping, singing along, hitting balloons, and throwing confetti.
The comparisons to another large and happy choral band seem obvious. I’ve walked out of PS with an insatiable feeling that I’d been somehow drugged by joy, a feeling I couldn’t shake for days. I’m from Barcelona’s show was great, a lot of fun and a joyous experience but–perhaps I’m old and jaded–but didn’t quite leave me with the same feeling. I’d still recommend catching them live if you have a chance.
There are some obvious similarities between the two. Each artist has past involving various bands and has recorded solo. Each could be (somewhat broadly) described by the following terms: folk, rock, melancholy, acoustic. Both would be staples of the sub-genre sadcore if anyone still used that term. It the end, the show ended up being two great and distinctive performances.
Bazan
David Bazan came on a few minutes after they flashed the lights in the lobby. I’veseenhimsomanytimesbynow that it’s hard to say something different about his shows. But the thing is this: I’ve seen him so many times because:
he’s touring all the time
he always puts on a good show
So why not see him every time through town? I do… This show was good as always. The music was mostly new songs that “will be on the new album unless [he writes] better songs before then” but he did have a few from the last EP, like “Cold Beer and Cigarettes” and “Fewer Moving Pieces”. The new songs (many of which I also heard at his SxSW set at Jovita’s). There are a few that I’m looking forward to hearing the studio versions of. You can hear some of these new live songs at It’s Hard to Find a Friend. One of my favorites is “Please Baby Please” and if you know Bazan’s borderline satirical lyrical style, you know that that’s not going to be an average love song.
He’s got a pretty awkward stage presence in quite an endearing way. At one point he was talking about usually when he meets new people or plays in front of an audience of people that might not know his stuff he assumes they think he’s a douche bag. But recently he’s been going into these situations assuming the opposite. Then he added “and now of course I’m a douche bag for saying that….”
Kozelek
After an intermission Mark Kozelek came on with another former Red House Painter Phil Carney, both playing guitar with Mark Kozelek front and center on the mic as well.
His set of songs included some from all throughout his musical career. He played one of my favorites “Rock N Roll Singer” (AC/DC cover) and at least two Modest Mouse songs (”Tiny Cities”, “Four Fingered Fisherman”) and a number of originals. With his fluid fingerpicking and reverb-heavy vocals and Phil’s equally fluid guitar playing, it was soon a very hypnotic set of music.
At one point he started a song and someone let out a cheer. Mark stopped the song and said “You don’t know what song that is. I mean, it could be any of my songs” and then proceeded to play the same fingerpicked set of chords while starting some of songs like “Glenn Tipton” and two more.
Besides the music there were some noteworthy and amusing intersong banter. With three guitars (nylon string, steel string and 12 string) and a different (non-standard, for the most part) tuning for each song, there was a lot of time spent tuning. During one of these pauses, he asked for questions. He’d just mentioned coming from Ohio and someone yelled out:
audience member 1: Where in Ohio are you from?
Kozelek: I’m not going to tell you that. Look it up on my wikipedia page or something.
[and it continued]
audience member 2: Where do you live?
Kozelek: I’m not going to tell you that either.
After a few more questions, Kozelek got a little frustrated with the line of questioning:
Kozelek: Alright. Enough questions.
[long silence]
audience member 3: Are you coming out for an encore?
[everyone laughs]
Kozelek: I don’t know. There’s a very comfortable chair back there. Once I sit down, I may not want to get up.
The other themes of the stage banter were about how he was uncomfortable because people seemed so far away and about how all his friends have been moving to Portland or Brooklyn.
All in all, it was an excellent show with consistently good sets from both artists.
Two Sheds has impressed me a lot lately both with their album and their split 7″ with Dame Satan . They were really great when I saw them at SxSW and I was hoping for a repeat. Last time I didn’t know what to expect and this time the expectations were a lot higher, but they still put on a great set. They even played my favorite song of theirs, “It’s Hard”, which they didn’t play in Austin, even after a request [1].
b&w because the lighting was so green for the Elf Power set.
Elf Power was the headliner of the night and I was surprised that the place wasn’t packed for them. I guess they haven’t been a bigger name for a few years, but the Bottom of the Hill was only about 2/3 full for them.
There have been a few changes since I last saw them: Laura Carter wasn’t playing with the band this time and Bryan Poole aka the Late B.P. Helium is no longer the bass player. Their new bass player is really solid, quite a talented guy, but there did seem to be a bit of a gap where Laura once was.
Overall their set was good, not great. The band played well. I enjoyed the old songs I knew, but the new ones lacked that familiarity.
[1] Incidentally, I highly recommend against requesting “It’s Hard” because–as it turns out–that’s an awkward thing to yell in a crowded space that might be filled with people who don’t know the band’s songs. Just trying to save you some embarrassment here.
First up when I got there was the Catholic Comb. They were a bit hit-and-miss if a bit more misses than hits.
Then the the Ian Fays went on. The crowd was a small mix of fans, friends, bloggers, and people that might have just been there to check them out.
This show was a CD release for the Ian Fays’ Dylan’s Lost Days. I got the the preview EP to this album a couple months ago and I’ve been liking those tunes. Their live show was full of nice versions of tunes from that EP and enjoyable tunes I wasn’t as familiar. It was tight and lot of fun. I’d recommend checking out their live show sometime.
Be sure to tune in to KZSU on May 28 at 9pm PST when I host the Ian Fays for a (possibly stripped down) live set on the air.
the Dodos performing at the Cafe du Nord March 29, 2007
It’s been a hair over a year since I first heardthe Dodos (myspace). That show was what first inspired me to create the Local and I’m Listening series and their sound left me obsessed for months. (I may have caught on early but I was certainlynot the first[1].) I liked them enough to bring a bunch of people to see the Dodos, again as an opening act five days later. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an opening band cold and wanted to see them again five days later, but I did. I’ve since been song obsessed, hosted them at KZSU and seen them yet again. This was all before Visiter came out and they gotallthatattention.
What I’ve set myself up for here is the perfect indie snob I-knew-them-way-back-when-but-now-they’re-crap moment. As much as I hate that sort of stuff, there’s a little part of me that’s yearning to take advantage of it. But here’s the thing: there’s no need. They’re still great. I’ve been listening to it a ton and I’ve been song obsessed again. There’s no need for any sort backlash here; the Dodos still have it.
One of the reasons I love their first album, Beware of the Maniacs, is because it has topnotch songwriting across the board. I can put that album on shuffle and basically always hit a song I love. I love their live show a ton because of all the energy, but Visiter (and Beware) doesn’t quite capture that. Where the live show succeeds on account of its energy, Visiter succeeds on subtly great melodies, meticulous production and layering and its willingness to put on some of the experimentation they do live.
The beginning of the album is impressive: the first four songs make a great introduction to the album and, for new listeners, a great introduction to the Dodos. “Walking” is a pretty atypical Dodos song. It’s got banjo and female vocals and Meric’s singing in a sweeter tone that usual. It’s a nice melody and the banjo works really well.
“Red and Purple” picks up the pace and introduces an intense world-referencing beat (reminding me of “The Obvious Child”’s beat). The chorus has one of those subtle melodies that I was talking about and the toy piano just adds an extra little hook for part of the song.
If you’ve heard of the Dodos, you’ve probably heard or seen the video for the single “Fools.” It’s still a great song–I’m not glossing over that at all–but you probably know it already. Follow “Fools”, “Winter” is another solid song with particularly interesting production (mandolin, reverbed clapping, brass).
“Paint the Rust” comes close to capturing the intensity of their live performances. The song builds to a point with frantic finger-picking and spastic drums. But here’s where the Dodos do what may become a signature element for them, a thing other bands don’t do: instead of building to a frantic climax and stopping, they breakdown the song and slow it down until it effectively segues into “Park Song.” That song and the song after it, the second single “Jody”, feature more of those subtle and beautiful melodies, sneaked into the choruses and surrounded by more agitated and experimental parts. “Jody” is a great song all around. It has intensity, great guitar parts and nice melodies.
In the last bit of the album you’ll find “Ashley” and “Undeclared”. These two songs took a little bit to sink but sank in nicely. The album ends with the almost seven minute long “God?”, which is a great way to end the album: interesting percussion and production, both softer and intense parts, and even a little of their experimental sides.
So, to recap: Visiter is great. The Dodos are great. There’s a lot of press about them and it’s warranted.
You can buy Visiter at insound or at Amoeba or Aquarius (last I checked they both had it in stock).
A still better idea is to check them out live and buy it at the show. They’ve got three dates coming up in SF, all either with great bands or free. Can’t lose, can you?
4/27 Les Savy Fav, the Dodos @ Great American
5/14 the Dodos @ Amoeba, FREE
7/19 the Dodos, The Oh Sees, Dreamdate @ the Independent
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Other local and I’m listening posts (newest-to-oldest):
There was a small, but growing, crowd when Geographer when on. They’d turned into a three-piece (from a four-piece) since I last saw them a couple months ago. Front man Mike Deni now handles all the vocals, plays keys and guitar. Nate covers the cello and Brian’s on drums. Some of their keyboards are now sequenced and either Nate or Brian starts those, depending on the song.
Geographer played well again. The band was tight and the music was engaging. Mike’s a funny front man and for once I found myself thinking that a front man could talk more. The sound for their set was great (which was probably helped by bringing their own sound engineer) and they sounded expansive, if not as much as when they were at Great American.
Their set was fun and that was probably helped by having a handful of superfans in the front row, dancing crazy.
Also of note: Geographer’s next scheduled performance is when I host them on KZSU on April 30. Stay tuned for more details.
It had also been a couple months since I saw Love is Chemicals. They put on a good set. They’re solid musicians and they played a tight set. Unfortunately, the venue sound wasn’t as good as Geographer and that’s when I realized that Geographer’s sound guy was probably pretty good. Theirs is a more pensive music, I feel, and I think I could use some more time for it to sink in.
In full disclosure, I was on Geographer’s guest list and someone from Love is Chemicals let me have one of their drink tickets. I don’t believe these things effected on my judgement about the show.
I was exhausted, but the cold wind woke me up as I zipped through the streets of the Mission on my bike. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go and I was a little burnt out from going to so many shows recently, but I decided a bike ride would be good for me and what better place to ride than the Rickshaw Stop where locals Here Here (unrelated wikipedia entry) and Winterbirds (myspace) and Portland band Musee Mechanique (named after one of my favorite SF institutions) were on the bill.
The first band to break through the chattering crowd was the Winterbirds. They started with a guy and a girl, two vocals, fingerpicked guitar and electronic piano and during the next song, they added in drums and bass. It took a few minutes but I realized that the vocals, their sound and the harmonies reminded me a lot of Low, while the chord progressions reminded me, as clarified by Burton of the Botticellis, of Pedro the Lion. All in all, they have a pretty solid slowcore thing going. I liked their set.
I didn’t buy their (homemade?) EP that night, but I now I’m kicking myself, especially after listening through some of their myspace songs again. I tried getting in contact with them to get it, but to no avail. Winterbirds, please sell me your record! (Contact info here.)
During the set break, I noticed most of the Morning Benders were there. We chatted. Nice guys. Apparently they were there to see Here Here.
I’d come to see Musee Mechanique, though I didn’t know a lot about them other than their myspace songs. They had a good sound with keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and a few people taking turns at lead and background vocals. The songs themselves were a bit hit and miss–well, I should clarify, there were some songs that I really liked and some that didn’t quite do it for me. Overall a nice set.
Here Here came up and immediately reminded me of the Arcade Fire: not only did their set up have accordion, trumpet, violin, keys, guitars, drums, bass, etc, but some of their song structures did the swirling beginning that solidifies before the vocals enter and then the rest of the band enters later thing that the Arcade Fire does quite a bit. And some of the vocal interjections were similar as well. I’m not saying a band can’t be reminiscent of another band, but I found this similarity distracting.
After a half dozen songs, I decided to head out, back onto my bike, speeding through the still brisker air and more deserted streets.
I’d seen him a week and change prior at SxSW, but I’d bought these tickets months ago and I was really glad I went. The SxSW Mohawk set was good but this “solo”–I keep using quotes because, in fact, he played with a bongo player, perhaps named Tanya–in a small venue was a lot more intimate and malleable than that set.
Si, Claro was up on stage when I got there. It was one guitar and a voice. It was pretty dark/ emotional stuff that didn’t seem to fit with the band that most people had come for.
Jens came on wearing a white shirt with a flowery design on it and put on his archtop guitar. He made what he referred to as a “silly” request, that people didn’t take videos of that night’s performance. People sort of laughed at this and he said he figured that would be the reaction and that he wanted to keep this night special.
Special, the night was. From the get go, it was clear that Jens was in top form. He played and sang well. In addition to that, though, he’s become an excellent showman; he had the audience in the palm of his hand the whole time. We were following each detail of his stories, each demonstrative hand movement and gesture, each exaggerated facial expression.
Even in his most solo moments in the few times I’d seen him before, he’d always played with his samples at least (save the time I saw him play a song standing on a coffee table at the Rickshaw Stop with just ukulele and vocals.) On Sunday, he played entirely without samples until “I’m Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You”, which was just a couple from the end of his regular set (and he played the encore without samples).
Here are some of the highlights:
“Black Cab” sans sample–I’d always heard this song with the sample along with it. He played that part on guitar and it gave the song a whole new feel.
the storyteller version for “Postcard for Nina”–lately his live version of this song is accompanied by a long story of how the song came about and is acted out on stage to quite an extent by Jens
Rollicking singalong of “Sweet Summer’s Night on Hammer Hill”–everyone sang “bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom!” while Jens mimed his heart beating.
Arthur Russell song (”A Little Lost”) on kalimba–I love when Jen’s plays his gorgeous sounding kalimba and this was no different. It wasn’t as heartbreakingly gorgeous as the version of “the Cold Swedish Winter” I heard him do on the instrument a few yeas back, but it was pretty nice
“Julie” w/ reggaeton beat–Jens said that when he was first in SF (spring of ‘05 for a Cafe du Nord show) he said the same song was coming out of all of the car stereos and then sang the generic reggaeton beat, which the bongo player picked up and then they did a really odd and awesome version of “Julie” on top of it.
Opposite of Hallelujah->Just a Little More Time (Chairman of the Board)->Opposite of Hallelujah–Jens did a great version of long-time favorite of mine, “Opposite of Hallelujah” (with samples) but then segued into the 70s tune “Just a Little More Time” (during which he mostly danced and sang away from the mic) before coming back to his song, which ended with him miming the bell part in the air (see photo below) Jens Lekman - Opposite of Hallelujah (mp3)
his story telling in general–between songs and even mid-song he’d break out quirky and funny little stories
Jens playing the air bells along with the “Opposite of Hallelujah” sample
I’d seen Sea Wolf a week ago at SxSW (as I mentioned) and they played a fairly similar setlist this time. While I liked their previous set, I feel like this show worked a lot better. It was tighter and sounded better (probably due to the fact that they had a chance to sound check). I expected that the front rows would be Nada Surf diehards that were just waiting for their band to come on and to be somewhat indifferent to the opener, but as it was there were a lot of people who knew the songs and were shouting out requests. I was a bit surprised.
I guess I don’t have a lot else to say about Sea Wolf. They played well. It was a fun set. I’m not sad that I saw them again.
the view through the wide-angle mirrors that were set up stage rear
Nada Surf came on after a short break. I’d seen them twice before but this was, in fact, the first time I’d see them play as a full rock band–the previous two were acoustic and stripped down and informal for a benefit. During the break I noticed a lot of young adults, so to speak, at the front. As I mentioned yesterday, I love it when I see an all ages crowd at an all ages show.
The band played pretty well, rocking their new songs and old ones as well, much to the crowd’s enjoyment.
Matthew also turns out to be super nice. Between two songs, the kid right in front of me said quite quietly “I’m really thirsty, Matthew” and during the next set break he said a little louder “Matthew, do you have any extra water?” and Matthew handed him a bottle of water. Nice guy!
Thinking about the show, I’m realizing I don’t have a ton to say about it. It was a really great show and I was really happy I went. Explosions played their songs really well and with a lot of energy. There weren’t a lot of breaks between songs–one song would wind down to a ringing sustain and the next one would start up immediately. The whole thing felt like one hour and a half long song. People who sometimes squeeze in a quick round of applause during that sustain; other times there wasn’t applause. There was more applause in general at the beginning of songs that were the more popular or recognizable Explosions songs, e.g. “Your Hand in Mine”.
Here’s one thing I can definitely say, though: when they turn on the house lights at the Great American, the show is over, the band is not coming back. The lights come on and people make their way to the back. That’s how it works. Well, this is first show that I’ve been to there that the audience refused to accept this and kept clapping and yelling anyway. Eventually guitarist Munaf had to come back on stage and said they had nothing else to play.
I take it some people like 21+ shows because they don’t have to deal with teens. I hate 21+ shows when I was younger, but these days I just tend not to notice, unless, of course, there’s a significant contingent of under age kids at a show, like there was Friday. (Thinking about it often makes sense that Explosions were a big draw with teens–accessible but dark and somewhat disaffected music seems like it fits with the high school experience for many people.) They’re often so eager and happy to be there that’s it’s refreshing. San Francisco isn’t a particularly jaded music town, but the older concert goers, myself included, often have a distance from the band, the music and the experience. In addition, I love when younger people are into good music. It gives me hope about the industry.
One interesting thing in the evening is that at this point I’ve seen most of my post-rock favorites (Rachel’s, Godspeed!, A Silver Mt Zion, Mogwai), but so many times before I enjoyed the show and the bands played well (or even amazingly, as A Silver Mt. Zion) but I wasn’t really in the mood for post-rock on each particular evening. Post-rock is definitely more of a mood-dependent music for me than many other genres. I was definitely a lot more welcoming mood-wise of Explosions in the Sky than of previous post-rock bands. I don’t know if Friday’s show just happened to fall when I was in the mood for it or if the Explosions’ welcoming sound got me in the mood.
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Posted in SF bay area, live, mp3s, photos, radio, tour dates by adrian at 2:36 pm
