The Live Music Thread

[Genetic]

I didn't realize these guys are still around? Same band from the '70s.. ELP discovered/signed them?

Yes indeed!!!!!

The same band you can see here....(enjoy )

PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI Video: PFM - Live in Japan 2002

Amicalement

[postjack]

Opeth at the HOB in New Orleans, this past Saturday night.

Openers were Baroness, who do what I call a progressive grindcore. I'm not a big grindcore guy, but Baroness impresses me. They are a lot more raw live then studio (their second album, while exceptional, comes across as produced a bit too hygienically for my tastes), and their talent is obvious. They blasted out a quick 30 minute set I believe without any pause inbetween songs, at one point even going into a weird "Space" like place that made me feel like I was at an 80s Grateful Dead show. The lead singer looks like one of the Geico cavemen. Anyway they were awesome, I'm expecting big things from them in the coming years.

High On Fire came next, and put on a great show, but were upstaged by Baroness. Straight ahead three piece sludge thrash, pretty badass but the least focused band of the night.

And then came Opeth. Ohhhhh shit. Wow wow wow. My expectations for this show were very high, and they were met and exceeded. The most outstanding thing about Opeth, and I can't emphasize this enough, is that Akerfeldt just stands very still throughout all his growls and singing. Just very still. See, I'm used to seeing a Phil Alsemo type metal lead singer going apeshit all over the stage. I couldn't help but think of Jay-Z. Because Jay-Z was the first rapper who figured out you didn't have to yell to be a badass, because it was the quiet talking bad guys in the movies who always had the most power. The power and grace emanating from Akerfeldt, throughout all his poise and motionlessness, was just uncanny. His between song banter was dignified and incredibly charming. If you haven't noticed I developed a BIT of a heterosexual mancrush on him.

Another notable thing is that Opeth has no problem playing the old shit. They played more stuff they wrote 5-10 years ago then the new stuff, which the audience really appreciated. Having said that, the audience collectively shit themselves when the humming started for "The Lotus Eater", track three off of Watershed, in what might have been the most badass song of the night.

Focus, discipline, grace, perfection. That was Opeth. GO SEE THIS BAND LIVE!

[bperboy]

I saw Barrage, a multi-violin performance group, at Rose-Hulman a few weeks ago.. as a violinist myself, their performance was quite astounding. The members were jumping around and doing relatively dangerous acrobatics with their instruments.. something I'd never attempt with my violin.

[Knuckledragger]

The first and only time I saw Phish was in in 1990, at the UMASS Student Union Ballroom (holds about 200). I saw Pearl Jam in the same venue the following year.

[Absorbine_Sr]

Saw Bizet's "The Pearl Fishers" at the Lyric Opera tonight.

[Voltron]

JP#s and I saw Archie Shepp tonight at the Herbst Theater as part of the SF Jazz Festival. Really good show by a 79 year old man that can still blow and sings even more clearly than he talks. He played tenor and soprano sax, with piano, bass and drums accompanying. So glad to catch him because he doesn't come here often and he still has it. Political, topical, powerful stuff. See this legend if at all possible.

One odd bit. The drummer seemed into it all night but was a bit too much at times -- mix should have brought him down and the piano/bass up -- and if anything was too anxious to mix it up when he should have dropped it down on occasion. At the end of the announced last number, he immediately took down his cymbals and broke down his hi-hat and was off the stage. Archie fucking Shepp was left standing at the front of the stage while the pianist and bass player looked bewildered and hung back. Archie needed about a second of prompting and went right into another tune without the drummer. It was one of my favorites of the night and finally let the piano and bass shine through more, while Archie's amazing tone and some breathy soft playing was prominently featured. Lemonade from sour lemons. No idea what the deal was with that cat.

[Voltron]

Back to back jazz legends makes for a nice week. Last night, JP#s, clarke68, my wife and I saw Cecil Taylor play solo piano at Grace Cathedral, also part of the SF Jazz fall festival. I knew there was a history of jazz at Grace but learned last night that it goes back to the consecration of the cathedral in 1965 when Duke Ellington wrote a spiritual piece for the occasion. That's a pretty jazzy way to dedicate a Episcopal church. JP and I saw Pharaoh Sanders play there solo in the spring or last fall. The resonance of the walls and high arches and the sheer massiveness of the space make for some amazing musical experiences. Pharaoh practically dueted with himself playing off the walls.

Anyway, the show last night started with a spoken word number by Cecil walking around up near the altar. An elderly lady said in a stage whisper to her son "I thought he was a piano player..." among other gems during the show, such as "This sure doesn't sound like jazz to me!" Anyway again, Cecil's playing was fast and heavy and the first piece was weighted on the low end of the register for several minutes. With all those bass notes reverberating around, it was almost too much. He lightened up as he went along and moved up the register and JP called the pieces more like sound paintings than plain old songs. Not to be outdone on the emo scale, Clarke quite rightly nailed one of Cecil's effects as creating shimmering waves of sound.

However you characterize it, the show was fabulous and lasted about an hour after he started playing, which at the age of 79 and the energy he plays with was pretty great. The guy in front of us had been at Cecil's last performance at Grace in 1991 and said this one was much better, although his wife topped him and said that we should have seen him swing in 1957 in NYC like she did. That would have been sweet. Highly recommend that any jazz fan get out to see this man.

[Sherwood]

I'm pretty sure Castle Rock, CO's Jazz festival would be nothing but David Sanborn cd's played on high school gym's PA system followed by a rousing Nickelback concert, so I'm glad someone is taking advantage of fantastic jazz.

Wish I was out there with you.

I'm betting you can't hold a candle to our bluegrass, though

[Voltron]

I'm pretty sure Castle Rock, CO's Jazz festival would be nothing but David Sanborn cd's played on high school gym's PA system followed by a rousing Nickelback concert, so I'm glad someone is taking advantage of fantastic jazz.

Wish I was out there with you.

I'm betting you can't hold a candle to our bluegrass, though

Come on out next Spring for the SF Jazz Spring Series! Sorry to break it to you, but SF has an incredible bluegrass festival for free 3 blocks from my house. Here is the lineup from earlier this month (I went on Friday and Sunday):

Fri Oct 3 (10:30am - Noon & 2:30pm - 6:45pm)

The morning (10:30 - noon) on Star stage is a special educational program for local schools (and the general public) as part of the Daniel Pearl Foundation Music Days. The afternoon (2:30pm - 6:45pm) features very special guests on the Banjo stage.

Star Stage

* 10:30am Ruby Jane

* 11:30am MC Hammer

Banjo Stage

* 2:30pm Sharon Little

* 3:35pm The Jerry Douglas Band

* 5:15pm Robert Plant and Alison Krauss featuring T Bone Burnett

Sat Oct 4 (10:45am - 7:15pm)

Banjo Stage

* 10:45am Band Joe & the Whyte Laydie

* 11:00am Jimmie Dale Gilmore

* 11:55am Laurie Lewis & Friends

* 12:55pm Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band

* 2:05pm Three Girls & Their Buddy (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)

* 3:25pm Hot Rize

* 4:40pm Odetta

* 6:00pm Steve Earle & The Bluegrass Dukes

Star Stage

* 11:00am Dry Branch Fire Squad

* 12:05pm Waco Brothers

* 1:30pm Richard Thompson

* 2:50pm The Desert Rose Band

* 4:10pm The Del McCoury Band

* 5:40pm Global Drum Project featuring Mickey Hart & Zakir Hussain

Rooster Stage

* 11:15am Carlene Carter

* 12:20pm Guy Clark & Verlon Thompson

* 1:30pm From The Jayhawks: Mark Olson & Gary Louris

* 2:45pm Nick Lowe

* 4:05pm Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women (Christy McWilson, Amy Farris, Laurie Lewis, Sarah Brown, Lisa Pankratz, Nina Gerber, Cindy Cashdollar)

* 5:45pm Robert Earl Keen

Arrow Stage

* 11:00am Tift Merritt

* 12:00pm Los Cenzontles featuring Santiago Jimenez

* 1:05pm Bad Livers

* 2:20pm The Gourds

* 3:45pm Jerry Jeff Walker

* 5:20pm Asleep At The Wheel

Porch Stage

* 11:00am Cyndi Harvell

* 11:50am Sons & Brothers

* 12:35pm Samantha Robichaud

* 1:40pm Mike Farris & the Roseland Rhythm Revue

* 2:40pm Marty Willson-Piper (of the church) & the Mood Maidens

* 3:40pm Joe Purdy

* 4:40pm The Roan Mountain Hilltoppers

* 5:45pm John Jorgenson Quintet

Sun Oct 5 (11am - 7pm)

Banjo Stage

* 11:20am Darrell Scott Band

* 12:20pm Hazel Dickens

* 1:45pm Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys

* 2:55pm Earl Scruggs

* 4:15pm Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder

* 5:45pm Emmylou Harris

Star Stage

* 11:00am Bill Kirchen

* 12:00pm Riders in the Sky

* 1pm Ben Kweller

* 2:30pm Elvis Costello's High Whines & Spirits

* 4:15pm Gogol Bordello

* 5:45pm Heavy Trash

Rooster Stage

* 11:00am Jon Langford's Skull Orchard feat. Sally Timms & the Burlington Welsh Male Chorus

* 11:55am Kevin Welch & Kieran Kane & Fats Kaplin

* 1pm Bonnie "Prince" Billy

* 2:20pm Greg Brown

* 3:25pm Iron & Wine

* 4:40pm Loudon Wainwright III

* 6:00pm Iris DeMent

Arrow Stage

* 11:00am Poor Man's Whiskey

* 12:00pm Moonalice

* 1:05pm Alison Brown Quartet with Joe Craven

* 2:10pm The Infamous Stringdusters

* 3:20pm The Waybacks

* 4:30pm Pegi Young

* 5:50pm Tea Leaf Green

Porch Stage

* 11:00am The Wronglers

* 12:05pm Red Wine

* 1:10pm Heidi Clare & AtaGallop

* 2:15pm Bill Evans String Summit with Megan Lynch

* 3:20pm The Opera Dukes

* 4:40pm Justin Townes Earle

* 5:45pm Maura O'Connell

[Sherwood]

That is indeed a phenomenal bluegrass festival, you are to be congratulated.

Feast your eyes, however, on planet bluegrass. Next year will be Bela Fleck's 28th, and Del McRoury's 33rd consecutive years at Telluride. I played standup bass with Nickel Creek (though not on stage) two years ago. It's an effing event.

Also, MC Hammer?

[Sherwood]

Aw snap! Iron and Wine, Bonnie Prince Billy, Gogol Bordello, Elvis Costello, The Gourds... that really is phenomenal.

[Voltron]

Telluride looks like a great event indeed. Much respek on playing bass with Nickel Creek, although I don't know what you mean by not on stage--was it an informal gig or something?

The lineup for HSBG this year was great and my wife saw local boy MC Hammer and said he was great. 30 dancers and a bunch of school kids in attendance. Your second post actually caught my whole sunday afternoon lineup: Bonnie Prince -> Elvis -> Iron & Wine. Good free stuff!

[Sherwood]

Part of the feel of the Colorado festivals is that the performers stay in camp, and after hours they play old standards really informally. People kinda swap in and out on instruments. There are also instrument clinics with many of the performers.

I'm hardly in the league of nickel creek, so I'd embarass myself on stage, but it was really an honor to sit in with them on a few tunes. That aspect of the planet bluegrass stuff is really a lot of what makes it so monumental -- sitting down and talking with the musicians over a breakfast burrito at 2am...

I'd pay pretty good money to see Bonnie Prince, Elvis, OR Iron&wine. All three for free is something else.

[postjack]

Did Voodoo Fest in New Orleans yesterday. A great time was had by all. We left Mobile Saturday afternoon, so with the two hour drive we only caught the evening acts, but the whole trip was just to see Nine Inch Nails. First up was Thievery Corporation. I could go the rest of my life without having that dreadie dude or that latino chick yelling at me through a sea of their dub lounge bullshit. Summed up real nicely when my friend Meribeth stood up, pointed at the stage and said "I've had about enough of that shit".

Next up was Mars Volta. I'm not a Mars Volta fan, but I haven't written them off either. The only album I've heard of their's is Frances the Mute, which I found immediately appealling and almost as quickly wearisome: the songs lack substance and direction. Come to find out I had a similar reaction to the live show. The first song was like a delicious piece of progressive chocolate cake being crammed down my mouth, then the second song was the same, then the third song more sweet chocolate icing, and on and on, and in the words of my girlfriend "all I want is a glass of milk, not more chocolate cake." So I was happy when they left the stage.

The next was a band called Ghostland Observatory. We were actually setup at the NIN stage at this point, so I wasn't close enough to hear them extremely well (at voodoo each stage is actually two stages facing each other at a distance of maybe a couple hundred yards, so the music never stops and the crowd just moves between stages), but when I went to the bathroom it sounded pretty cool. I might check them out later.

Then was Nine Inch Nails! This was the true reason for the 45 minute walk from our parking space to the entrance of the festival grounds. Trent was home in New Orleans and put on an amazing show. I'd heard about the light show but really had to see it to believe it. Absolutely unreal, easily the best light show I've ever seen at a rock concert, period. I kept a set list but its kind of a mess because I don't know all the titles to the songs, but here is an incomplete list anyway: Discipline, March of the Pigs, Closer, Gave Up, Great Destroyer, Piggy, Pinion > Wish, Terrible Lie, Survivalism, The Hand That Feeds, Head Like a Hole, Hurt.

Highlights include March of the Pigs which came early in the show and was way intense. Great Destroyer was off the industro-glitch chains; I think it is as good as any song Trent has written. Some of you may have seen a picture floating around the internet of a nails show with a blue screen of death behind him. This happened during Great Destroyer, literally only for a second as the screens flashed through a hundred different images. I thought it was cool since we know Trent is an Apple man. Closer was awesome, but its only one of the greatest rock singles ever written so. Pinion > Wish was one of those "oh my god this is so badass the world is about to asplode" moments. Head Like A Hole closed the set before a multiple song encore, and right when the song ends a huge red NIN is up on the screen, it was a moment of pure band worship for me. Trent did a lot of the Ghosts stuff inbetween the regular songs, and it added so much to the show, what with all the beautiful and haunting imagery he had up on the screens during the slower bits. He made his political statement during "The Hand That Feeds", when he put a huge face shot of GWB up on the screen, which ever so subtly morphed into McCain by the songs end.

Trent gave a great speech before the last few songs about how good it was to be home, and about how much he loves the city and how happy he is to see New Orleans coming back. I've considered New Orleans to be the greatest city on the planet since I was a kid so I shared his sentiments. For me I'm happy that Trent has his shit together and didn't become just another lame rock casualty. His live show has proven to me he is an artist of the highest order.

[Voltron]

Nice write-up Jack. Sounds fun even with the mediocre starters, and NIN is not a favorite but I would like to see them live. I agree that NOLA is one of the greatest places around, and a concert there would seem to be a great thing.

[JBLoudG20]

Jack you should snark that.

[Dusty Chalk]

Notwist/Dosh -- Dosh surprised me with how good they were, since I had never heard of them before, and Notwist were as good as the last time I had seen them, which was 'very'.

[Dusty Chalk]

Pfff.

[thrice]

Last night my wife and I went to the Amanda Palmer concert in Raleigh. Great show. As Ian might say, "I Amanda Palmer."

[Dusty Chalk]

Did Zoe Keating open for her there? What kind of music was it (as compared to Dresden Dolls)?

[thrice]

Did Zoe Keating open for her there? What kind of music was it (as compared to Dresden Dolls)?

No, she didn't open.... two other bands opened, Vermillion Lies and The Builders and the Butchers. Both were good enough for me to buy their CDs at the merch table. It's the fist time I've ever purchased an opening act's CD at the show...they were fun acts.

Amanda's music is similar to her work with the Dolls, but heavier on piano, obviously.

[The Monkey]

As mentioned in another thread, the Ravi Coltrane Quartet at the Vanguard with Tyrion. Reminds me that I need to revisit jazz. It was a good show.

[tyrion]

As mentioned in another thread, the Ravi Coltrane Quartet at the Vanguard with Tyrion. Reminds me that I need to revisit jazz. It was a good show.

Definitely a good time last night. It's always great to see a show at the Vanguard. It was great to see you again, Vincent.

Tonight is Michael Franti & Spearhead with Aaron.

[bperboy]

Rockapella at Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech. (my school).

After the requisite cd signing, me and a bunch of friends went to the midnight showing of James Bond, and who shows up but Scott Leonard and John Brown from Rockapella! What an awesome night.. the a-cappella vocals were absolutely stunning!

[tyrion]

Michael Franti & Spearhead at the Nokia Theater.