Upcoming/Recent Shows

I've been meaning to share this on here.

A couple of weekends ago I went to the Cross The Tracks festival in Brixton (the first gig I have been to since early last year). It was a fantastic day of live music, plenty of food and drink, and incredible weather. Its the second festival they have had and the first was equally fantastic. The second was understandably pushed back because of the pandemic but was well worth the wait.

I tried to see as much as I could and ended up seeing Nubya Garcia, Jordan Rakei, Yussef Dayes (with a surprise appearance from Shabaka Hutchings), Sister Sledge and Lianne La Havas (with a surprise appearance from Nubya Garcia). Really fantastic day, here are a couple of photos (not great but I was too caught up in the moment!).

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Had a great time at the Holocene on Sunday catching Kelly Lee Owens! Well worth the $19.38 and the night.

Survival Skills

Interesting sounding opener. Just a single guy with a laptop, drum machine, a microphone (couldn't make out any vocals) and a visual from behind him. The tunes bore a timbre similar to Boards of Canada/Simian Mobile Disco but not quite as spacey or extraterrestrial. Set duration was just under half an hour.

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Kelly Lee Owens

She began the set with her "Weird Fishes" cover playing overhead, before even appearing out of the curtain near a pair of steps to the cramped, small stage. She was wearing a black hoodie/jumpsuit serving as her camouflage to stage entry. A simple black and white visual of spheres moving in sinusoidal fashion increased in luminous intensity until a faint dim plateau was reached.

The setlist became progressively more intense: the dreamier/ambient techno tracks adorned the first half ("Keep Walking," "Lucid," "L.I.N.E.," etc.) with calm, oceanlike graphics in the back. The transition to the wonderful "Bird" midway through the setlist marked a change to the harder, pounding, beat-driven cuts ("Jeanette," "Melt!," "Evolution," etc.) and finishing with the raver "Kingsize."

After finishing the aforementioned "Kingsize" on an energized high note, she left the stage in anticipation for an encore from the sold out audience. She did return...but not for an encore. Instead, she thanked us all for coming and that while she "couldn't follow that one up," she would love to be back soon.

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Post-show

Minutes after the lights returned to normal luminescence, I exchanged phone numbers with one of the concert goers I shared pleasantries with while waiting for doors to open. After we bumped elbows and fared each other well for the night, I caught the attention of one of (I think) Kelly's equipment people. I made a request for the S/T and Inner Song jackets I brought to the show to get signed, accompanied with the usual Sharpie I tuck away in the small zippered pocket of my shoulder strap bag. He obliged, took my offered belongings and scurried to the curtains from behind where Kelly left the stage. Not even fifteen seconds later, he returned to ask for the spelling of my name per Kelly's request; I provided that and he again jogged back to behind the curtains. I received the jackets back quickly with each bearing similar personalization, but without a pen. Viewing them side by side, the signatures appear to lead from one into the other, a nice touch! I thanked the equipment team member, and he relayed a message to me from Kelly to say thank you for coming tonight and "lots of love!". 🥰
Waited and walked around the venue for about five minutes to see if she would appear from behind the curtains or if I might stumble across some friends that also happened to attend this show. After neither of these happened and it became apparent that she would not be talking with concertgoers, I made a beeline for the exit. Was rather surprised to see that there was no merch table during or after the event.
Another concert success. ✔️

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The Black Crowes with special guest Dirty Honey
Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, VA, September 22, 2021

My boss actually invited me to this pretty last minute. I've never listened to much of The Black Crowes (I know some of Dirty Honey's recent hits though). Still, I had a great time! Some solid rock and roll for my fucking soul. Both great bands, definitely worth checking out!
 
Russ I said:
Waiting for Andy Shauf

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Figured I’d follow up on this. I was surprised Andy was alone, but very far from disappointed with his set. He played a full range of his stuff from at least four albums I’m familiar with and probably more than that. Several songs from his album released today (Wild). He’s a great acoustic guitarist and the sound was fantastic. He played for about an hour and he had the small crowd in the palm of his hand. Not a lot of banter, just beautiful acoustic music. Nice to be to a live show, even if a bit weird to be in a crowd.
 
I saw Nat Birchall live at Cafe Oto in Dalston, London last night.

It was a hell of a show and Nat had an incredible set of side-men, honestly one of the best groups I have been. I was lucky enough to have front row seats (Cafe Oto is tiny anyway) and was able to have a long chat with Nat (about lockdown life and how he has been writing and recording to keep himself busy) and he even signed a few records for me.

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Blessed once again. A fantastic set from Arooj Aftab (and her band) plus the wonderful Sheers, a harpist from Portland!

Sheers

Lily Breshears, or Sheers, performed a set consisted of tracks from past records with a few teasers from her upcoming EP set to release in early November. She even added in an a cappella track near the end of her setlist with looped harmonies. Some amusing stories shared from her traveling experiences with TSA and getting high, both of which are the topic of one of her songs, lol. Lovely ~40min set overall.

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Arooj Aftab

Arooj and her band took stage about five minutes early. The musicians were a guitarist (classical and electric) on the left, a harpist on the right, and a bassist/moog synthesizer musician subtly behind Arooj. There was a weird buzzing sound from the guitarist's amplifier that took about a minute to resolve before commencing the set.

The setlist was the entirety of the tranquil, luscious, yet beguiling Vulture Prince. All of the songs except "Saans Lo" were extended for solos to empower the talents of the individual musicians.

Gosh, this set made me well up a bit near the end. The album's message comes even more striking and harrowing knowing that this album was dedicated to both one of her late brothers and friends.

No encore, as expected. It would have been a special treat to hear her cover of Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" of course. Maybe next time. 🙂

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Post-show

It may not be clear from the photos from the sets above, but I was sitting on one of a line of stools nearest the left side the cramped stage room at Holocene, which I sat through for the entirety of both sets. I took a few minutes to relax and absorb everything that I my ears indulged in for the night...it was an impactful "washing over" spell, if you will. After using the time to collect myself, I wandered around rather awkwardly (as I do) to see if there was anyone I knew that went to Holocene for this breathtaking show. Course not, so then I ambled over to the merch table to learn that there is STILL no vinyl available 😭 but there were $20 CDs. I thought about it at first...but declined. I then saw that the band members were appearing from behind the curtains and they began conversing with some other concertgoers straight away. Arooj appeared later shortly after and headed over to near the bar area to talk/hug/sign merch with some folks. Seeing this, I quickly headed to that area and, after waiting for five parties in line, spoke with her for a minute simply to say thank you for the concert and for including a Portland date for the tour, and to hope that she visit again whenever she puts on another US tour. Shoulda requested a photo with her UGHHHHH.....damn my nervousness.
No signed merch this time, yet all the while memorable. I'll go to my grave in believing that Vulture Prince is one of this year's best. As our resident Uncle D says: live music is better.
 
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Spent the weekend at Ohana Fest and had a great time! Caught Eddie Vedder solo twice with a great band featuring Glen Hansard, Pino Palladino, Josh Klinghoffer and Chad Smith. Also caught Spoon, who i have been wanting to see for years but it just never worked out for some reason. My Morning Jacket was great, guitar jams as good as always expected. Others were caught were Black Pumas, Caamp, Maggie Rogers, Glen Hansard solo, Cold War Kids, Brandi Carlile, Sharon Van Etten.

Oh yeah, and Pearl Jam! Was a little disappointed in their set, as I thought Eddie’s solo sets were much better. But i was happy to finally catch them after missing them 29 years ago at Lolla, may have had an incident and missed the whole fest 😳

Great times this weekend, and good to finally get out. Cali is weird with not a lot of masks. Glad their positive rate was pretty low, and tried to give myself distance from people at most times.

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I finally caught my first show since the pre-COVID days last weekend. Bob Mould at Webster Hall. 27 songs in 90 minutes, just as loud. fast and energizing as I'd hoped it would be. I was only ever a casual fan of Husker Du, Sugar, and his solo stuff but for a brief time I felt transported back to First Ave in Minneapolis circa 1994 when I had more hair and fewer responsibilities and for me, at least, it was transcendent.


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Matt M said:
Spent the weekend at Ohana Fest and had a great time! Caught Eddie Vedder solo twice with a great band featuring Glen Hansard, Pino Palladino, Josh Klinghoffer and Chad Smith. Also caught Spoon, who i have been wanting to see for years but it just never worked out for some reason. My Morning Jacket was great, guitar jams as good as always expected. Others were caught were Black Pumas, Caamp, Maggie Rogers, Glen Hansard solo, Cold War Kids, Brandi Carlile, Sharon Van Etten.

Oh yeah, and Pearl Jam! Was a little disappointed in their set, as I thought Eddie’s solo sets were much better. But i was happy to finally catch them after missing them 29 years ago at Lolla, may have had an incident and missed the whole fest 😳

Great times this weekend, and good to finally get out. Cali is weird with not a lot of masks. Glad their positive rate was pretty low, and tried to give myself distance from people at most times.
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I went Saturday / Sunday. Really enjoyed the undercards both days. Jade Bird --> Yola --> Sharon Van Etten --> Brandi Carlile was probably the best sequence of the weekend. And Celisse coming out on guitar for both Yola and Brandi was spectacular. Both the latin acts surprised me too, Combo Chimbita and Mon Lafuerte were totally off my radar, but caught my attention. Really loved the energy of Combo Chimbita in particular. Oh, and while Mac Demarco's set fell flat for me for the most part, I did love his between song banter and the Frank Sinatra karaoke bit.

Agreed that PJ seemed a little off, I think coming out of the gate with 4 new songs in a row felt a little forced, and then it being a (mostly) greatest hits show - but I'll never get tired of watching Mike McCready play guitar. Plus it being the last set on a very long weekend didn't help.

The lack of masks was surprising for sure - a couple of folks in my group were definitely uncomfortable. We spent most of our time back by the soundboard which didn't get too crowded till the headliner. But the rate is low, vaccine rates are high, and the fact that they were cross checking vaccine cards / tests w/ picture ID made me feel fairly safe being there. I've been to other shows where they just check the card w/out the ID and that was definitely concerning.

I'll be back next Saturday for encore weekend. Looking forward to seeing PJ and Brandi again, plus Sleater-Kinney and Margo Price.
 
Went to my first gig in over a year and a half last night (Big Thief) and it was very decent. I was worried being a glasses wearer that without my glasses I'd be unable to see well. I never wear my glasses with a mask because they fog up too much and I haven't bothered learning how to deal with that because I don't need to wear a mask throughout the day for my job. Plus my eyesight isn't that terrible without it, I am nearsighted so it was going to be difficult to see depending on how far from the stage I stood.
 
wokeupnew said:
Went to my first gig in over a year and a half last night (Big Thief) and it was very decent. I was worried being a glasses wearer that without my glasses I'd be unable to see well. I never wear my glasses with a mask because they fog up too much and I haven't bothered learning how to deal with that because I don't need to wear a mask throughout the day for my job. Plus my eyesight isn't that terrible without it, I am nearsighted so it was going to be difficult to see depending on how far from the stage I stood.
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A strip of masking tape across the top of the mask/bridge of your nose helps pretty hugely with the fogging situation. Had to use that one at my old job until I got contacts again after nearly 20 years without.
 
avecigrec said:
A strip of masking tape across the top of the mask/bridge of your nose helps pretty hugely with the fogging situation. Had to use that one at my old job until I got contacts again after nearly 20 years without.
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yeah! I have seen some people do that, I've also seen that washing your glasses with dish soap helps too. However, I was pulling down my mask whenever I was sipping my beer, so idk if that would have completely worked.
 
After doing probably 8-10 shows over the course of the summer, mask culture at concerns is fascinating to me in how much it follows our cultural impressions of masking. I would say the Julien Baker (indoor) and Phoebe Bridgers (outdoor) shows were somewhere between 90%-95% masked without much in terms of enforcement. These were part of the rules but only a handful of times did I see a security member give the "masks up" motion to anyone. Conversely, shows with crowds that may skew more vaccine-averse and that didn't have the vaccination/negative test requirement were almost like pre-COVID days. Masks were very hard to find even at the same venues that were heavily masked just a bit later. It's probably not too surprising for a Pitbull or Machine Gun Kelly show, but it still kind of surprised me that in an area where people usually masked well that a 6-10k crowd in a tight area were okay throwing caution to the wind.

I supposed it just reinforces the power of groupthink in this experience and it's informed the show types I'll be going to for the forseeable future.
 
wokeupnew said:
Went to my first gig in over a year and a half last night (Big Thief) and it was very decent. I was worried being a glasses wearer that without my glasses I'd be unable to see well. I never wear my glasses with a mask because they fog up too much and I haven't bothered learning how to deal with that because I don't need to wear a mask throughout the day for my job. Plus my eyesight isn't that terrible without it, I am nearsighted so it was going to be difficult to see depending on how far from the stage I stood.
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I'm completely blind without my glasses.

Me:
 
imtheocean said:
Agreed that PJ seemed a little off, I think coming out of the gate with 4 new songs in a row felt a little forced, and then it being a (mostly) greatest hits show - but I'll never get tired of watching Mike McCready play guitar. Plus it being the last set on a very long weekend didn't help.

I'll be back next Saturday for encore weekend. Looking forward to seeing PJ and Brandi again, plus Sleater-Kinney and Margo Price.
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We saw PJ at Sea Hear Now and I must say, it was not the greatest performance I've seen. Ed seemed 'out of shape' between songs, needed to talk more to catch his breath. Yes, they have a new record that covid prevented them from supporting, but the setlist was weird, especially for their first show back. I love seeing song debuts, but some of them did not translate well to a live performance. That said, even a lesser PJ show is still great and I was ecstatic to see them again.

Also, we seriously debated going to Ohana when Spoon & The Frames were announced in the lineup. Sadly, it's said that visa issues were the reason that the rest of the Frames were unable to play, but I think that's not entirely true. I was devastated when their Webster Hall show was postponed and then canceled this year. Have been a fan of Glen / The Frames since their live album Setlist was released in 2003 (first saw them as support for Damien Rice) and have desperately wanted a proper gig from the full band for years now.

Have tix to see Spoon again in Jersey City next month. They always put on a great show.
 
threesunrises said:
We saw PJ at Sea Hear Now and I must say, it was not the greatest performance I've seen. Ed seemed 'out of shape' between songs, needed to talk more to catch his breath. Yes, they have a new record that covid prevented them from supporting, but the setlist was weird, especially for their first show back. I love seeing song debuts, but some of them did not translate well to a live performance. That said, even a lesser PJ show is still great and I was ecstatic to see them again.

Also, we seriously debated going to Ohana when Spoon & The Frames were announced in the lineup. Sadly, it's said that visa issues were the reason that the rest of the Frames were unable to play, but I think that's not entirely true. I was devastated when their Webster Hall show was postponed and then canceled this year. Have been a fan of Glen / The Frames since their live album Setlist was released in 2003 (first saw them as support for Damien Rice) and have desperately wanted a proper gig from the full band for years now.

Have tix to see Spoon again in Jersey City next month. They always put on a great show.
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When they hit the stage at SHN my first thought was “oh shit Eddie looks fat.” He is definitely out of shape (relatively speaking - I would absolutely sign up to being in his shape when I‘m 56). He definitely filibustered even more than usual - they posted the original set list and they did three fewer songs than planned - and was noticeably short of breath while he was doing it.
 
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