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Straight to Video
Rock Art Rock
The Decemberists
September 19, 2009
Terminal 5, New York, NY
By Amanda Hatfield "The Decemberists played a special one night 'lottery show,' where the songs played were picked at random by a master of ceremonies, played by John Wesley Harding..."
Ra Ra Riot
April 4, 2009
Webster Hall, New York City, NY
By Amanda Hatfield "This show was, at the time, the biggest one Ra Ra Riot had sold out as headliners, and it was clear to me after watching it that the band is destined for even bigger and better things..."
Florence and the Machine
October 28, 2009
Bowery Ballroom, New York City, NY
By Amanda Hatfield "Florence Welsh and her backing band delighted and mesmerized a sold-out crowd at Bowery in her first official NY headlining show..."
Dirty Projectors
July 19, 2009
Williamsburg Waterfront (Brooklyn, NY)
By Amanda Hatfield "I was skeptical about how well Dirty Projectors' gorgeous, complex vocal harmonies would carry over outdoors, standing under hot sunshine..."
See more in the Rock Art Rock gallery.
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Search results for: avett brothers
The Horrors: May 21st at Glass House, Pomona, CA and A Place to Bury Strangers: May 22nd at Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn
The Horrors
May 21st at Glass House, Pomona, CA
Alright, I will admit it. Like many long-time Horrors fans, I was quite disappointed when I heard the band wouldn’t be playing any material from their debut release, Strange House, on this tour. Sure, I want to be behind them in their efforts to progress and let their new musical chapter, Primary Colours, shine on stage, but I wanted that same visceral energy I saw the band perform with last time. I longed for more of that driving, pulsing feeling and those spontaneous stage outbursts that their previous work lent itself to so perfectly. That’s not to say I entered Pomona’s Glass House on Thursday night with low expectations—I was still very interested and excited to see what the group of rail-thin Englishmen would do with their new material. But I wasn’t expecting the onstage antics or unpredictability of previous years, guessing that those had been left at the door along with their alter egos—Rotter, Spider, Furse, Von Grimm, and Coffin Joe.
But among a crowd of mostly entranced, and some slightly puzzled, audience members, I was surprised to find myself hit with a feeling of equal intensity as that of before… only this time it came from a completely different, more deliberate form of emotion and energy. Instead of the short, sharp shock of their previous shows, the band produced a rich, passion-driven set of heavy, synthed-up sounds that lingered and built on each other. There was a jubilant spirit about the tapestry of music they were creating: Former bassist Tom Cowan brought his Entwistle-esque calm to the synthesizer, and combined with the buzz of Joshua Hayward’s guitar, the two filled the smoky air with texture and brightness that was further suspended above the crowd by the rhythmic basslines of Rhys Webb and held in place by the solid drumming of Joseph Spurgeon.
dredg: May 19th at Great American Music Hall, SF
dredg
May 19th at Great American Music Hall, San Francisco
As someone who grew up in the Bay Area and began listening to dredg in 2002, there is really no excuse for me not seeing one of the roughly 2,463 shows they’ve played in San Francisco over the last seven years. Though I only lived in the area for about three of those years, with their incessant national touring and my continual fandom (and summers spent in SF), you would’ve thought that I’d caught them at least once. Alas, every time I would be set to see the quartet, some dastardly, unforeseen circumstances intervened and my hopes would be dashed, leaving me in a seemingly perpetual state of dredg concert virginity.
Avett Brothers: May 16th at the Fillmore, SF and Little Boots: May 18th at Le Poisson Rouge, NY
Avett Brothers
May 16th at the Fillmore, San Francisco
As the concluding notes of “Go to Sleep” faded away and the harsh house lights cruelly bathed a sold-out Fillmore, I could palpably feel the whole crowd exhale. It was the kind of deep, collective breath that is only let out when a large group of people have been enthralled by the same thing. You can feel it at the end of close sporting events, the conclusion of gripping films, and following very special pieces of live performance art.
The group, led by the undeniable energy and spirit of vocalist/banjo player Scott and singer/guitarist Seth Avett, succeeded in captivating the audience by blasting through a 20-song set that spanned most of their nine-year career. Rounded out by bass player Bob Crawford and cellist Joe Kwon (who played on roughly half of the band’s songs), the Avetts kept the audience engaged and participating with passionate, rollicking numbers expertly mixed with pensive ballads. Early in the set, the quartet opted for the direct approach, opening with an as yet-untitled, fast-paced new song, which will be released on their new, Rick Rubin-produced album, I and Love and You, due out on August 11th. From there, they rolled through the sing along-inducing “Die Die Die” and the poignant, Seth Avett-led “Living of Love.” Throughout the show, they were able to strike an effective balance by playing upbeat, energy-sapping songs like “Nothing Short of Thankful” and “Walking for You” directly next to ballads like “When I Drink” and “I and Love and You.” This kept the audience bouncing and enthralled during the fast songs, while allowing them time to rest and not blow their load, so to speak, until the end.
Paleface
Paleface
The Show Is on the Road
(Ramseur, 2009)
Being a highly influential artist is no guarantee of fame and fortune. Take Paleface for example. He hung out with Beck back in the days when they were both starving young artists, but the Beck connection has never translated into any kind of mainstream recognition. He was also one of the first anti-folk artists signed to a major label, but his brush with the popular music machine left him in an alcohol-induced muddle. In 1998, he cleaned up and started issuing his music on lo-fi CDs on his own label but failed to rise above the underground. So, despite being legendary in some circles, most folks had never heard of him.
A few years back, the Avett Brothers, who are more pro-folk than anti-, discovered him and invited him to help out on their Four Thieves Gone album. They included one of his tunes, “Dancin’ Daze”, on the final release. Perhaps the good influence of the Avetts rubbed off on our hero and his partner-in-crime, drummer Monica “Mo” Samalot, because the music on The Show Is on the Road is actually music, a bit folky and a bit pop, with an uplifting feel that replaces the abrasive in-yer-face attitude of his earlier work.
King of Rock ‘n’ Soul: Solomon Burke Gets Deep
“Liberace was soulful. In fact, you couldn’t get any more soulful than Liberace,” laughs Solomon Burke, only he’s not joking.
Ever since 1964, when an enthusiastic DJ crowned Burke the King of Rock ‘n’ Soul, he’s taken his title seriously. Plus his added credential as a minister born into the House of God of All People means when you ask him a question like, “What is soul?,” he’s going to go deep.
“Kennedy was soulful. Him and Robert together were two soulful brothers, doing their thing, you know, releasing their energies. They could say a few words and boom, you felt it. It made a difference.”
Powder Ridge: The Festival That Could Be Stopped
Having spent the first 15 years of my life there, I can say with some authority that Connecticut is a state generally populated by fuddy-duds, buzzkills, and sticks-in-the-mud. No one there over the age of 35 wants anyone under the age of 25 to have any fun at all. I could cite countless examples from my youth, including the time my mom threw away the totally real pair of nunchucks I found outside our apartment complex or the winter we weren’t allowed to have snowball fights because some geezer in the neighborhood was convinced one of us children would lose an eye. The greatest example of the Nutmeg State’s penchant for getting all “heavy” on “the kids,” though, is the 1970 Powder Ridge Rock Festival, better known as the Three Days of Groovy and Righteous Music Old People Totally Pissed All Over.
Scheduled from July 30 to August 2 of 1970, Powder Ridge would have been New England’s answer to Woodstock. Eric Burdon and War, Sly and the Family Stone, Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor, Joe Cocker, the Allman Brothers, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Mountain, Janis Joplin, Grand Funk Railroad, and even Bloodrock were all lined up to perform at what was normally a ski retreat for uptight WASPs and their mistresses. At least one rumor suggests Led Zeppelin may have at one point been seriously considering the idea of thinking about discussing the possibility of making an appearance at Powder Ridge (no such gossip exists concerning the presence of that hippie favorite Sha Na Na). Truly, it would have been a monumental exposition of stuffed crotches, inane stage patter, and endless guitar solos. Unfortunately, the citizens of sleepy little Middlefield, where the Powder Ridge resort is located, were just not having it. Fearing complete annihilation at the hands of shirtless, grubby youth types, townies banded together, visited a Middlefield Superior Court, and received a temporary injunction against the Powder Ridge Rock Festival and its promoters on July 28, a mere two days before the proposed start of the concert.
Animal Collective: May 26th at the Fox Theater, Oakland, CA
by: Angela Zimmerman
May 26th at the Fox Theater, Oakland, CA
The white cloth-covered tables behind which members of Animals Collective stood hummed and pulsed in various ambient colors while psychedelic imagery and trippy visuals danced their way across a giant white orb erected above the stage. The images and thumping hues were transient and fleeting, yet the music emanating from the speakers was ghostly and seemingly endless, sounds looping through sounds, laced with vocals that soothed and melted, or drove lyrics into songs. This was Animal Collective at the Fox Theater in Oakland on Tuesday night, a spectacle of light, music, and mood.
I’m a big fan of Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion (besides being a hometown venue where I spent countless nights of my life) will no doubt have a place in my Top 10 list of 2009, and Panda Bear’s solo effort Person Pitch was number five on my top of ‘07 list. I love the hypnotic rhythms of their music, I love how they discreetly weave beautiful melodic threads through the dense fabrics of their compositions, and I love the haunted, experimental edge they brought to their live show. That said, I also expected more on Tuesday night. Part of my, eh, discontent, could be in part to the spotty sound at the Fox. While it’s no doubt a gorgeous, grand place, it was only when I stood right behind the sound board that the layers of music didn’t get swallowed up by the echo of the vast ceiling; the sound to the right or left of the stage was downright atrocious for a band like Animal Collective that’s reliant on pristine layering. The band spun through a nine-song set, material from records old (2003’s “Chocolate Girl” kicked off the show, “Fireworks” from 2007’s Strawberry Jam was there) and new (besides playing the yet-to-be-recorded song “What Would I Want Sky”, they did, of course, play music from MPP, among them “Summertime Clothes” and “Guys Eyes”), before breaking for an encore, during which the chatty crowd willed them back with applause and whistles. They ended the evening with “Banshee Beat” from 2005’s Feels, and then the crowd-pleasers “My Girls” and “Brother Sport” from MPP, during which, from my vantage, I could peer into the packed sea of fans down front, over which a crowd surfer made a mildly successful attempt to, well, surf. The hypnotic buzz of the show and the melting atmospherics of the visuals, strobing sounds, and grandiose environment in which it was all brewed and served left me with a pure and pleasant feeling. I just wasn’t ecstatically enthralled like I had expected to be (and I was sorely missing a personal song favorite, “In the Flowers”). If I had to choose, I’d take my Animal Collective on album; still, it was a damn fine show.
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by: Angela Zimmerman
published: May 29, 2009 in column: It Shows
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