The Live Music Thread

[Aura]

OK Go!

[postjack]

Saw Arcade Fire at The Gorge last weekend. Third time seeing Arcade Fire, first time at The Gorge.

 

The Gorge is indescribable. The most breathtaking venue I've ever seen. Show was awesome too.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Waiting to see Crack the Sky.

[Dusty Chalk]

EDIT:  they were awesome -- they have a couple songs that are >50% instrumental, so I think they can be counted as a "jam band".  Might've been my favourite rendition of Ice yet -- during the middle portion, two of the guitarists just froze while the keyboard played for a couple minutes, and slowly all the guitarists started playing.  It was kind of postrocky.  And they played a couple songs I hadn't heard live before (Robots for Ronnie, A Night on the Town (with Snow White), Long Nights, A Sea Epic).  I realize they don't play very far from Baltimore any more, but highly recommended.

[tom_hankins]

The #1 band I want to see is Arcade Fire!!!!

The best I have seen in the last two years have been Rodrigo Y gabriela (twice), Joe Bonamassa, and Dead can dance.

[postjack]

The #1 band I want to see is Arcade Fire!!!!

The best I have seen in the last two years have been Rodrigo Y gabriela (twice), Joe Bonamassa, and Dead can dance.

Arcade Fire are fantastic live. The first time I saw them I wasn't a big fan of their studio material, so I went into the show skeptical, but came out a huge fan. They are gracious, appreciative of their fans, and a hell of a lot of fun.

And "Wake Up" is amazing every time.

[Dusty Chalk]

Now that I'm back on wireless, will go into more length on the King Crimson show yesterday -- it was similar to the Albany show that was reviewed in Rolling Stone in terms of setlist, (if not exactly the same -- I'm actually not familiar with any of the post 1990 work enough to recognize it) and it was outstanding -- I'm not really sure what the drummers were trying to do with Red, but I didn't like it, otherwise the drummers were fantastic.  They were the real stars, so it was really cool that they were front and center, and everyone else was back a level.  

 

Tony rocked, also (he always does, in my book -- hope he's making good bank on this tour, I heard when he tours Stickmen, they share a van and sometimes even have to sleep in it).  

 

Fripp remained in the shadows as always (if not more so than ever).  He sure likes his toys, it was like a captain's console on a spaceship over there.  

 

Jakko ain't no Greg Lake, but just buy into that early, you'll save yourself some heartache.  He actually enunciated Starless more clearly than I've ever heard it before, I think I'll be able to decipher the lyrics now.  He certainly did excellently on Letters.

 

And Mel Collins was Mel Collins.

[ironbut]

Back from the Monterey Jazz Festival. It was one of the best years yet (been going since 1997).

Real standouts for me:

Cecile McLorin Salvant (with Aaron Diehl on piano) was the first act on the main stage. She totally blew everyone away! Don't miss her if she's in your neighborhood. Great voice and amazing musicianship!

Billy Childs Laura Nyro tribute album. Just pure emotion! Probably not for everyone but it sure was for me.

Jon Batiste & Stay Human performed a sort of a New Orleans styled collage Sunday afternoon that was too joyous to put into words. Put a smile on everyones faces!

Brian Blade Fellowship Band. Some great conceptual stuff and there's something about the way that Blade hits the beats that really drives a piece. Need to look a little deeper into that.

Blade and Eric Harland were drumming all over the place with different acts but speaking of Harland,..

Eric Harland Voyager was the last group to play in one of the smaller venues. I guess I shoulda known that I was in for something special when a bunch of the other "cutting edge" player/composers started showing up (Jason Moran was right in front of me, Gregory Clayton was standing in the wings etc.).

Aside from downright scary musicianship, that band took us into unknown territory (hence the name?).

It was nice to see Moran hooting as loud as I was when it all ended.

[Voltron]

Sounds absolutely fantastic Steve!  I just saw Brian Blade Fellowship Band at the small space at SF Jazz last week and it was amazing (even though I was personally in a shitty mood).  Very much looking forward to Eric Harland and Voyager in January at SF Jazz.  Two of the best drummers drumming, or ever.

[ironbut]

I'm sure it'll blow your socks off Al!

Julian Lage was the guitarist and he stunned us all!

[Voltron]

This week at SF Jazz, we saw some jazzy classical and some classy classical jazz.

On Wednesday we saw the Calder Quartet with Christian McBride, performing Bartok's quartet nos. 1 and 4. The quartet played #1 themselves and it sounded amazing in Miner Auditorium. Then Christian McBride came out and improvised for awhile on his own, which was good as always even if a little incongruous for the program. All five came out for the second half of the show, which featured quartet #4. There are five movements, which were played just by the Calders, but in between each movement the Calders and/or Christian would play an interlude. They were some short early pieces by Bartok called Microcosmos, something by another composer I am spacing, and some improvisations as well. Finally, they all played Bartok' Romanian Dance together. All in all, a really nice program.

Last night, we saw The Cookers, and it is hard to imagine another group with this much jazz history on one stage today: Billy Hart (drums), Cecil McBee (bass), Eddie Henderson (trumpet), David Weiss (trumpet), Billy Harper (tenor sax), Donald Harrison (alto sax), and George Cables (piano). They were on fire from rehearsal (according to SF Jazz folks) through their two sets that totaled almost 2.5 hours. They are playing 11 cities in 14 days to promote their new album, which they pulled from for the second set. The first set had amazing renditions of Cecil McBee's Peace Maker, Billy Harper's Croquet Ballet (originally recorded with Lee Morgan), and a Freddie Hubbard tune. Powerful stuff that had some old timers in the audience fleeing due to high decibel levels and the blast of the trumpets and saxes. I was in the fourth row and leaned in most of the time. As an indication that this was a special night, Bobby Hutcherson was in attendance and stayed and clapped with his oxygen canula in place all the way through the incredible encore, Billy Harper's Priestess (with amazing bass intro by Cecil McBee and drum solo by Billy Hart). Seriously good stuff.

Edited September 27, 2014 by Voltron

[acidbasement]

Just saw Eluveitie, Tyr, and Metsatoll. All three were excellent, and my headbanging and fist-pumping muscles are going to be sore tomorrow.

[Absorbine_Sr]

Waiting to see the Adrian Belew Power Trio.

[Absorbine_Sr]

Double post. Thanks Obama.

Edited November 2, 2014 by Absorbine_Sr

[Voltron]

Adrian Belew is awesome anytime, so jealous of that show.

We just saw Diego el Cigala and he was amazing

[Dusty Chalk]

Fuck yeah.  The closest Belew came to me was Pennsylvania, and I almost went up for that, but I wasn't feeling completely well yet.  (I do now, as of last Tuesday.)

[skullguise]

Glad you're feeling better - finally! - Dusty.

 

Echo the Belew enthusiasm.....

 

Me: wife and son joined me for dinner at this new-ish restaurant in the next town.  Small stage there, and this pretty young lady comes and sets up with a wooden-body electric guitar.  Thinking another folkie, going to sing about relationships or her dog or something.

 

She belts out an awesome blues song as her first, and goes to 60's rock/soul after that.  Some good classic rock sound.

 

We could only stay for ~5 songs, but I am now a fan of MB Padfield

[Dusty Chalk]

Hiromi -- my first time seeing her, she was fantastic.  Anthony Jackson and Steve Smith (Vital Information) in support, and they were both fantastic.  No earplugs -- perfect volume.  The performances were on, there was absolutely nothing to complain about...well...as much as I love synthesizers, I actually thought the one piece with the Nord was a little out of place, which is funny because I loved it in the Sonicbloom context.  I think they basically played the new album and that's it.  Opened with Warrior and Player, spoke (she so cute!  That little girl voice comes out of her, and she's such an energetic player...), then went into Dreamer...couple tracks I didn't know, Firefly and Alive, and one more I didn't know.  Good crowd, too -- very enthusiastic, yet polite.  (They went quiet almost synchronously.)  Great, joyous fun.  I need more like this in my life.

 

Don't know what that monstrosity Anthony Jackson was playing (6 string bass, electric, but obviously hollowbody, single cut out all the way at the top fret).

[Voltron]

They are an awesome trio. Anthony's crazy facial expressions and her bouncing around like a teeny bopper are such a contrast while they both play the shit out of their instruments. Great stuff.

[postjack]

I'm going to see fucking Primus tomorrow. So stoked. This tour they are doing Set I Primus songs, Set II they are covering Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, then encore with some more Primus stuff. I've been listening to a lot of Primus and getting excited.

 

Next weekend I'll be in Atlanta for Slayer/Suicidal Tendencies/Exodus.

[Dusty Chalk]

Somehow I didn't post on Electric Citizen/Budos Band -- they were awesome.  Not much more to say than that.  Looked around at the audience -- mah people!  Bunch of stoners.  Electric Wizard -- in an alternate universe, Black Sabbath hired a female lead singer -- this is them.  She's got the same sort of on stage magnetism (less the pissing into a firehose...I assume...), feathered 70s hair, guitarist and the rest of the band are Iommi and company incarnate -- dude even plays an SG.  I only wish I had heard of them sooner.  Any fans of Black Sabbath must check them out.  Not a tribute band -- they played all originals.

 

Budos Band were awesome.  I thought there were three horns, but there are only two -- a trumpet and some baritone something -- basically, the cello equivalent of brass.  Drummer, percussionist, guitarist (whose birthday it was), bassist who plays with the fretboard facing the front row of the audience constantly (to avoid carpal tunnel?) and keyboardist.  Just superb music.  Also heavily Black Sabbath influenced, except instead of Ozzy, they got two horns and a percussionist.  And a keyboardist.  I kind of got the impression there were various levels of 'alpha' in the band, but that for the most part, they were too stoned to care.

[acidbasement]

I saw Spirit of the West in Regina on Friday.  They've been around for 30+ years, and are very influential on the Canadian folk-rock scene.  I've been listening to them on and off for 20 years, and they're one of Eleanor's favourites.  

 

This song is a pub and social staple, and we Canucks consider it the undisputed national anthem of partying:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPJD3qcIL7s

 

It was an amazing concert, super-energetic.  A bunch of us who were stuck in the cheap seats ended up rushing the stage, so there were about 150-200 of us dancing in front of a mostly-seated room.

 

John Mann, their lead singer, went public a couple of months ago that he has early onset Alzheimer's disease after battling cancer.  He's 51 years old.  He's still performing and even writing songs, but he doesn't play the guitar anymore and he uses an iPad through the entire show to help him remember the lyrics.  It's really sad to see that happen to anyone, let alone such a talented musician who otherwise would probably have another 20 years of playing left in him, but it's really inspiring that his band is supporting him and helping him keep doing what he wants to do.  His voice is still amazing, and his performance is still really passionate.  I hope I get to see them at least one more time before he can't do it anymore.

[postjack]

Slayer/Suicidal Tendencies/Exodus in Atlanta

 

I'm not super familiar with Exodus but know a lot of the old metal bands love those guys. They put on a great opening set, high energy, obviously happy to be playing music live.

 

I've been listening to ST since I was a kid but have never seen them live. Happy to report Cyco Miko is still an animal, and the rest of the band are kick ass as well. A fast, solid, intense set. Muir actually had a lot of strangely inspirational banter, of the "you can do anything if you put your mind to it" variety but with a lot more profanity and anger, it was pretty great.

 

Slayer of course killed it. Super clean stage setup, in fact one of the cleanest I've ever seen. Could hardly see any wires anywere, just neat rows of Marshall amps. Super loud, super fast, super intense. A drink got thrown at Tom Araya during the first song which clearly pissed him off, but he calmly told the crowd "thank you for the drink, but I don't drink when I play". During the Angel of Death closer, big Hanneman/Heineken banner dropped down, with "Angel of Death" and "Still Reigning" written above and below his name. Pretty spectacular moment.

 

As an aside, we got a great rate at the Ritz Carlton a few blocks from the venue, so why the hell not stay there? When we arrived to check in, also checking in was the Cleveland Browns and their entire organization, who were met by a crowd of screaming Browns fans in town for the game. I've never shared a hotel with an NFL team.

[Voltron]

On Sunday, we saw McCoy Tyner, Kenny Barron, and Geri Allen play seriatim in reverse order along with McCoy's drummer and bass player.  They are going to tour together this summer, and this was a kind of warm-up.  The sad part was that they wanted McCoy to come out and "say a few words" before each of the other's short set.  He shuffled out very slowly and didn't seem to notice Geri Allen was walking out behind him after the intro by SF Jazz artistic director Randall Kline.  McCoy's initial comments were cryptic and he mainly said he was going to do the best he can and hoped we would enjoy his music.  He did not mention Geri Allen or Kenny Barron, and then he started walking over to the piano.  Randall Kline came back out to grab McCoy and re-direct him backstage.  Geri Allen graciously went to the mic while this was happening and said how proud she was to be able to play with and honor him.  The same thing happened when they brought out Kenny Baron and McCoy together, and this time McCoy seemed to think Kenny was introducing him to play.  Sad that he seems a bit confused because he is only 76 years old, but they did not do a good job of directing him.

 

Geri Allen is an amazing pianist and I love listening to her play.  She took the McCoy Tyner tribute seriously and played three of his pieces beautifully.

 

Kenny Barron is a player I like but do not love.  He said his first song was an original composition of his that was inspired by McCoy, then a Eubie Blake song, and then another original composition of his that was "inspired by Charlie Parker . . . and McCoy Tyner."  didn't quite fit the mold of the show but he plays well and was entertaining.

 

Gladly, McCoy can still play.  He still has a nice touch and a strong left hand, and he seems incredibly happy while playing, which was not always the case in prior shows I have seen.  He played Peresina, a song I really like, and three others, one of which was a quick solo.  If you have never seen him play and want to add him to your list of greats then go see him this summer or whenever he shows up.  It doesn't seem like he will be on the road forever from this experience.

[ironbut]

Tyner has always been one of my favorites.

I had the same sort of experience when I saw Oscar Peterson.

Sad in a way but you gotta hand it to some of the old guard. Still out there fighting for a living.