Concert Review: My Brightest Diamond in Birmingham

I'm typically of the opinion that a live show should be more vigorous and dynamic than what one puts down on record. Just because it's desirable though doesn't mean it's an easy transition to acheive. Joanna Newsom's orchestral Ys album was full of potential to fall flat on its face live with only five performers on stage. A dramatic change of instrumentation though allowed that already fresh sounding album to come to life in new and exciting ways.

Shara Worden, though, has turned convention on its ear and managed to make her frequently quiet and subtle albums even more quiet and subtle on stage. Gone are the drums/percussion (save the occasional touch of drum machine), gone are the bass and keyboards. This tour finds Worden and her guitar backed by a trio of violin, viola and cello and the occasional bit of electronics. This lineup is more conducive to material from the new album A Thousand Shark's Teeth than it is to the material on its predecessor Bring Me The Workhorse. That makes sense though as A Thousand Shark's Teeth was conceived as a series of miniatures for string quartet.

When the set opened up with a stripped down version of "Golden Star," I wasn't sure how the rest of the evening was going to turn out. It's not because it wasn't a beautiful rendition, but because there was something "wrong" about the whole thing. It took me a few songs to figure it out, but I finally decided what was wrong...and it wasn't the music. The problem is this that this music is too damn beautiful and intricate to watch while surrounded by people sipping on PBR tallboys. That's not an indictment of the crowd or the venue at all (especially seeing as I'm there all the time and many of my favorite people hang out there.) The venue did all in its power to encourage people to not talk during the show (including posting signs at the entrance) and by and large, the crowd obliged giving the music and musicians due respect. Still, in all honesty, a small recital hall would be the optimal place to see them perform in my opinion.

I couldn't help but wonder throughout the course of the evening how many people know who she's singing about when referencing modernist French composer Pierre Boulez or if the subtleties of the mbira can truly be appreciated in a rock club setting. I must say that the Javanese shadow puppets during the final song were really cool and one can only hope that people will learn a bit more about these often obscure influences that help make her one of a kind performances what they are. She's clearly one of the brightest (no pun intended), most cultured people working the indie rock circuit, but one has to wonder where exactly she'd best fit in, though I doubt fitting in is her goal (and to her credit she is forging her own path.) Her stuff is probably too cultured for widespread acceptance among the rock set, but too peculiar and "too rock and roll" for the fine arts crowd. I do know this though, she deserves every bit of success she gets and probably a whole lot more.

Tour dates:
12/06 - Knoxville, TN - Square Room
12/07 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl
12/09 - Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
12/10 - Charlottesville, VA - Gravity Lounge
12/11 - Washington, DC - Rock n' Roll Hotel
12/12 - Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
12/13 - New York, NY - (Le) Poisson Rouge

My Brightest Diamond - "Inside A Boy" MP3

Concert Review: The King Khan & BBQ Show in Birmingham

King Khan & BBQ at Bottletree in Birmingham

It seems like every time I review a show on this site, the band only has a handful of dates left on their tour. That is once again the case with The King Khan and BBQ Show, who have six more dates in the northeast and Canada before King Khan's other band, The Shrines, play a trio of December shows in London.

The thing that appeals to me about The King Khan & BBQ Show is their visceral nature and urgency. As much as I love acts like Sigur Rós and Sufjan Stevens, sometimes loud, raw guitars and pounding rhythms are what's needed to...well...put the rock and roll back into rock and roll.

What sets The King Khan & BBQ Show apart from the garage rock pack though is their ability to incorporate other, more polished influences into their sound, yet still remain raw and direct (much like their friends, the Black Lips.) In concert, they can take a slow doo-wop song like "Why Don't You Lie" and steer it skillfully into a frenzied wall of sound and fuzz guitars. Other highlights of evening included "Zombies," a song that opens with the line "I don't give a fuck," yet manages to stay remarkably free of sounding cliche. "Fishfight" is the kind of song that you see performed live and think, "How in the hell are they making this much noise with only two guys on stage?"

I guess we're lucky in Birmingham that Khan made it to town intact and able to perform since they played Atlanta the night before. Khan's previous trip to the ATL ended with a busted lip and a trip to the hospital for stitches courtesy of Brent Hinds of Mastodon. You don't see Jens Leckman getting into any rumbles with metal guitarists now do you?

It will be quite some time before it airs, but this show was taped for We Have Signal. I imagine it will appear some time late next year.

Remaining US/Canada tour dates:

11/28 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
11/29 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
11/30 - Manhattan, NY - The Bowery Ballroom
12/01 - Boston, MA - Paradise
12/05 - Toronto, ONT - Lee's Place
12/06 - Ottawa, ONT - Babylone

MP3s (courtesy of the band's German label):

The King Khan & BBQ Show - "Fishfight" mp3
The King Khan & BBQ Show - "Love You So" mp3

We Have Signal

The good folks at Alabama Public Television have recently begun a program called We Have Signal, a series that can perhaps be described as a Birmingham version of Austin City Limits...though with a decidedly more underground feel. Season one features the likes of The Fiery Furnaces, The Dirtbombs, Pelican, Earth, The Dodos, Beach House, The Sword, The Warlocks, Health, The Weakerthans, Bill Frisell, The Black Angels and others including Birmingham area bands. After the performances air on APT, they're available soon afterward to stream on the website linked above. All shows are filmed at the Bottletree Cafe, a venue that's quickly become a favorite of touring bands as well as fans in the region.

Here's an embed of The Fiery Furnaces show, other shows can be streamed here.

Concert Review: Nick Cave in Thessaloniki

(photo courtesy of yavan)
Nick Cave rocking the Moni Lazariston in Thessaloniki, Greece

Note: This is three weeks overdue, so I'm not going to do a full review. I did want to mention it though since he's doing a North American tour soon.

I saw Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in while on vacation in Thessaloniki, Greece on June 6th. It was my first time seeing them live so I can't really compare it to other recent tours based on anything other than live recordings and DVDs I've seen. Compared to the footage I saw from the grandiose Abattoir Blues tour, the Dig Lazarus Dig tour is stripped down and a lot more raw (no doubt under influence from the Grinderman album.)

They played a bunch of material from the new record, opening the show with "Night of the Lotus Eaters." I like that song on record, but it came off a thousand times better live (it was much heavier in concert.) Other stand out performances from the new record included "Midnight Man" (my favorite song on the new album), "Today's Lesson" and "Dig Lazarus Dig." He played a lot of the back catalog stuff you'd want (and expect) to hear like "Weeping Song," "Red Right Hand," "Deanna," "The Mercy Seat," and "Stagger Lee." He was in high spirits that night and even took some requests. He seemed particularly thrilled about the name of the venue: Moni Lazariston...which was certainly appropriate for the new record.

As I mentioned earlier, last year's Grinderman record seems to have greatly influenced this tour. Cave only played piano on one song, opting instead to play a rawer, funkier organ which breathed new life into old classics. I know a bunch of the US dates are already sold out, but hopefully you can secure tickets to a show near you. It was the best show I've been to so far this year and I imagine it's going to be difficult to top.

Concert Review: DeVotchKa in Atlanta

Nick Urata rocking the theremin (photo courtesy of Wes Cummings)


Note: Normally I won't wait nearly a week to publish a concert review, but real life rudely intruded and delayed me considerably in writing it. My faulty memory and the leaving of my notebook in the car contributed greatly to the lack of songs mentioned in this review.


DeVotchKa (with opener Basia Bulat)
13 May 2008
Variety Playhouse
Atlanta, Georgia

Admittedly, I didn't know a lot about DeVotchKa going into this show. I was quite familiar with the Curse Your Little Heart EP and purchased their latest album A Mad and Faithful Telling just days before the show. Besides that my only exposure was having seen the movie Little Miss Sunshine and having heard How It Ends a few times at a friend's house.

I was told I could I have could a free ticket for this show by said friend if I did the driving to Atlanta, an arrangement to which I gladly obliged. All of that goes to say that I was somewhat familiar with their music going in - really digging what I'd heard and well into the process of becoming a fan.

Though their music evokes Spainish, Eastern Europen and a host of other "foreign" sounds, it is also somehow distinctly American. I can't imagine many locales around the world where it would be possible for this music to spring up. At one point singer and multi-instrumentalist Nick Urata was playing guitar and theremin along with a supporting cast of musicians on tuba and drums accompanied by what was essentially a string quartet. To make something simultaneously exotic and familiar is quite a task, but one that appears to be DeVotchKa's hallmark.

Urata effortlessly commanded the crowd's attention with what my friend described a "combination of Morrissey's charisma and George Clooney's quiet confidence." If the four women I attended the show with were any indication, he seemed to have a particularly strong effect on the female portion of the audience.

DeVotchKa managed to leave me thoroughly satisfied at the end of the performance, but still wanting more. Assuming they stick together, this was but the first of many times I will see them in concert. I've been to 23 concerts this year already and this show has a solid grip on the second spot. Other bands will have a tough time unseating them from this position.

As an aside, after seeing this show I decided there needs to be a quadruple bill of DeVotchKa, Beirut, Calexico and Gogol Bordello. That would be an unstoppable tour of genre-bending genius.

Download "Along the Way" via Pitchfork.

DeVotchKa - "Somethin' Stupid" mp3 (Frank Sinatra cover)

Concert Review: Radiohead in Atlanta

Photo courtesy of Maria Carullo

Despite barely being able to see the actual band members from my seat, Radiohead's performance was absolutely enthralling. This was my first time seeing them live since 1997 and I was glad to see they could impress in a 19,000 seat venue like they could in the 1,000 seat venue I saw them perform in 11 years ago. They could've been playing under one bare 40 watt light bulb and blown everyone away, but their light show on this tour was mesmerizing. Long, thin vertical tubes dominated the stage and bathed the band in a variety of spectral colors throughout the evening to match the wide palette of aural colors coming through the speakers. They opened with "All I Need," which has been the opening song for every show of the tour so far. Opening with a slow song like that is against typical rock convention (especially when the new album contains a real rocker like "Bodysnatchers") but Radiohead have never been one for convention.

They played all of In Rainbows except for "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" and even included "Bangers and Mash" from the In Rainbows box set bonus disc. "15 Step," "Nude," and "Videotape" were other standout performances from In Rainbows. "Videotape" included an interesting view of Thom Yorke via a camera mounted on the piano that seemed to find him being semi-playful with the audience. I was happy to hear songs from the tours I missed between OK Computer and In Rainbows like "Pyramid Song," "Idiotheque," "The National Anthem" and "Everything In It's Right Place."

Despite my love of The Bends, "Just" actually struck me as a bit out of place in the setlist. It's a song I adore (and my favorite music video of all time), but something like "Street Spirit" or "Bullet Proof" would've fit the overall mood of the evening a bit better. That being said, they rocked it though. The inclusion of "Paranoid Android" was nice and it made its first appearance on the tour in Atlanta. To their credit, they're a band that has put out so much quality material now that you couldn't possibly hope to hear all that you want to hear. Even the "surely they'll play ______" songs are too numerous to all be performed, so I can forgive them for passing on personal favorites of mine like "Climbing Up the Walls" for something like "Lucky."

My only real complaint about the evening was that the P.A. wasn't loud enough. I could easily hear those around me talking in a normal speaking voice. Maybe it was because I was in the 46th row, but I would've liked a bit more volume. If that's the only complaint one has during a 24 song set though, then you've seen a pretty amazing evening of music.

Setlist
=====
08 June 2008
Lakewood Amphitheatre
Atlanta, Georgia
=====

All I Need
There There
Lucky
15 Step
Where I End and You Begin
Nude
Pyramid Song
Optimistic
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
The National Anthem
Idiotheque
You and Whose Army
Reckoner
Everything in Its Right Place
Bangers and Mash
Bodysnatchers
Videotape

Encore:
The Gloaming
Talk Show Host
Just
Faust Arp
How to Disappear Completely

Encore 2:
Paranoid Android
House of Cards

Concert Review: White Denim at Bottletree in Birmingham, Alabama

Editor's Note:
With this review, extrawack! welcomes Birmingham, AL scenester and new contributor Joel Gamble:


Photo courtesy of hstoutzenberger

There are few joys for a music fan that can compare with discovering a new band in a live setting. It's one thing to peruse mp3 blogs until the sun comes up, but it's quite another to have an unknown entity unleash some fine on-stage rocking into your unsuspecting ears. It's a such a rare opportunity because not many people go see a band having no idea what to expect. That's just what I did though for White Denim's performance at Bottletree in Birmingham, Alabama on April 30th. Perhaps it's an unorthodox approach, but I sometimes like going into a show as a tabula rasa with no expectations and no preconceived notions, especially after a band starts picking up a lot of buzz like they did after SXSW.

The opening chords of the instrumental "Migration Wind" perked my ears up immediately and I knew I was in for a night of music well beyond the typical ho-hum "next big thing" that always seems to be on tour. One thing that struck me immediately was that the band really seemed to be enjoying playing live music. They were occasionally smiling on stage and noticeably devoid of irony. Isn't that some sort of indie rock sin?

White Denim sounds immediately familiar, but not derivative or forced. It sounds as if these guys grew up on equal parts blues, rock and punk. After a driving, energetic and sweat-soaked set that I can't tell you much more about because I didn't know any song titles (and had to ask what the first song was called) I managed to pull guitarist and singer James Petralli aside for a brief chat.

Asked about their approach to music making, Petralli said, "There is an exuberance in what we do. We leave room in the songs for improvisation and input from everyone." He went on to mention that this was their first major tour and though they were playing to bigger crowds opening for Tapes n' Tapes than they would on their own and that crowds had been receptive so far. I certainly felt like I could sense the tide turn in the room when the majority of folks shifted immediately from indifference to nodding along to drummer Josh Block's infectious beats.

The interview nature of our conversation quickly fell away though (I'm such a bad blogger at times) and it wound up being two guys discussing various experiences touring (I used to road manage a band) and talking about everyone from Austin bands like Explosions in the Sky and Stars of the Lid to others like Deerhunter and The Dirty Projectors. We eventually realized we'd been outside talking during the majority of Tapes n Tapes' set and went our separate ways to go watch them. I left with that satisfied feeling of discovering a new band in concert, but quite upset with myself that I didn't bring any cash to buy their records....

http://www.whitedenimmusic.com/

Grab White Denim's "Goldie Locks" and a couple other tracks for free at RCRDLBL.