Sparks
February 14th at Royce Hall, UCLA
Following a string of 21 shows in London last summer over which they performed their entire discography back-to-back, Sparks’ Valentine’s Day homecoming to Los Angeles—a gig at their alma mater, UCLA—proved once again that, even after 39 years of recording, brothers Ron and Russell Mael still make some of the smartest, most compellingly ebullient pop out there.
The program’s first part was a performance of last year’s Exotic Creatures of the Deep, the band’s newest record, performed in an elaborate stage show featuring backup dancers and a picture-frame screen, as well as frames surrounding the members of the backing band, which included Steve McDonald of Redd Kross and members of Mother Superior. Exotic Creatures is not immediately engrossing on record, but in the live setting, it truly clicked—the mustachioed, eternally stolid Ron Mael, the band’s principal songwriter, did an interpretive dance for the swaying verses and chorus of “I Can’t Believe You Would Fall for All the Crap in This Song”, most humorously shaking his head in quiet, smug laughter during the refrain of the song’s title. Meanwhile, for “Photoshop” (chorus: “Photoshop me out of your life!”), he attempted to play a continually tweaked JPEG of a piano on the screen. Throughout the set, Russell bounded about the stage with his characteristic operatic voice and a sparkly energy that belies his age.
Aside from pinwheel-like designs on an animated backdrop, the stage show for the second set, a performance of 1974’s eccentric glam classic Kimono My House, was much simpler. Russell came out dressed in a grey suit, kicking off the set with a rousing “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us”, which he remarked would normally be their set closer. It was difficult to remain seated throughout the set, especially for such buoyant numbers as “Amateur Hour” and “Hasta Mañana, Monsieur”, so head-bobbing and knee-slapping had to suffice through the set’s especially strong closing tracks: “In My Family” was a high-strung, operatic delight, and the strolling “Equator”, with its elaborate layered falsetto outro, was note-for-note until a surprise reprise of its rocking-est passage. The crowd managed to get them out for an extensive, varied encore, for which the crowd was thankfully allowed to move out of their seats and up to the stage. Fans were treated to the LA-appropriate “Mickey Mouse”, disco delight “The Number One Song in Heaven”, an epic rendition of uppity anthem “Dick Around”, and Lil’ Beethoven highlight “Suburban Homeboy” as the closer, which had the entire crowd in sing-along cahoots. Best. Night. Ever! – Michael Harkin
Watch: Sparks [at youtube.com]
Delta Spirit
February 4th at Bottom of the Hill
The crowd was eager, as eager a crowd as I’ve ever seen, for Delta Spirit’s first headlining show in San Francisco. Most of the attendees looked like fellow San Diegans, in hoodies and baseball hats with a collegiate air about them, but they were rambunctious and ready to get started, an attitude that is all too absent in this realm of omnipresent jaded music aficionados. Delta Spirit took the stage, and the first few songs were rusty; the sound was pretty blown out and it took them a few tunes before they were warmed up enough to give their material its signature raucous stomp and fervor. I went out back for a smoke and to give my ears a lil break because I was standing right by the amps, and through the back door I could hear things heating up with audience hand-claps and lots of applauding, so I ditched my cigarette butt and headed back in, instantly discerning a very noticeable shift in band and audience energy. Quite simply, Delta Spirit hit their stride, and they hit it with might, bringing their countrified Americana to a crowd hanging onto their tunes with the kind of adoration and admiration that lifted everyone to their feet and caused a stomping, sing-a-long response from most of us. The material from their full-length debut, Ode to Sunshine, was best received… some of their newer songs didn’t go over so well, but it was clear they were still stretching with it and getting comfortable, and as is always the case, the crowd is never as responsive to the music they aren’t familiar with. Delta Spirit played a long set, with rousing, righteous versions of faves like “People, Turn Around”, “Children”, and “Bleeding Bells”, reaching well past the midnight hour, and I do believe not a soul left the venue until the last ringing notes were laid to rest. – Angela Zimmerman
Watch: Delta Spirit [at youtube.com]
NOFX 25th Anniversary
February 10th at Slim’s
Formed in 1983, NOFX built a legacy around their brand of short, fast, political and/or goofball rants, and has become required listening for any burgeoning snot-nosed punk rocker. The music has always been governed by fun and somewhat sloppy compositions, fueled by booze and grounded with social commentary, both about the world at large and the prevailing inconsistencies that exist within the punk rock world itself. For celebrating 25 years as a band, with the youngest member being 42 years of age (Fat Mike), you wouldn’t have known it by seeing them at Slim’s on this cold and rainy Tuesday night. First indication would be the legions of fans that came out in support of NOFX that were under the age of 21—nonetheless a cigarette smoking, beer drinking, amped-up crowd—the ones that created the huge pit at the front of the stage, the ones that sent more than a few battered, even knocked out bodies to the back of the room for medical attention. The amount of youth in this place functioned as both something that gave way to more unpredictability than I’ve experienced at a show in a long while, and also gave the guys of NOFX something to repeatedly make fun of. In fact, the banter between songs was oftentimes better than the music itself simply because it kept things a little light whereas a lot people there just wanted to drink some beers and kick some ass. They kept making racist jokes throughout the set, only to close out the show by acting out Avenue Q’s “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist”, which was playing over the house speakers and follows with the lyrics, “even you.” Sounds pretty awful, but remember this is NOFX and they’ve made it their job to call attention to such things. The band played a lot of fan favorites like “You’re Wrong”, “Franco Un-American”, “Lori Meyers”, “Don’t Call Me White”, “The Brews”, and “Perfect Government.” They had one eye on the bottle the entire show and messed up a bunch, and even though they have album titles such as I Heard They Suck Live!! and They’ve Actually Gotten Worse Live!, in actuality they really don’t. Happy 25th to NOFX. – Jocelyn Hoppa
Watch: NOFX [at youtube.com]
Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli
February 11th at the Independent
Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli have been collaborators and friends for some years now. The story goes that the two of them met at a party in the late ‘80s, and over time, became collaborators on one another’s individual projects, with Lanegan lending both a studio and live hand with Dulli’s days with the Twilight Singers, and Dulli returning the favor with appearances on Lanegan’s solo project circa 2004 with the album Bubblegum and its subsequent tour. Though they were working together under the guise of the Gutter Twins from 2003 on, it wasn’t really until the dawning days of 2008 with their signing to Sub Pop and the release of their first full-length that the duo really became equated with the moniker. To my surprise, it was not under the Gutter Twins’ brooding, melancholic, and depraved front that the two took the Independent’s stage on Wednesday… rather, it was billed as an “Evening with Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan.” Though they were, in fact, joined by a third guy who was never identified for the audience, Lanegan and Dulli alone traded lead duties, switching back and forth between their own respective solo material, with other tokens of their collaborated work making appearances as well. The three were seated side by side, acoustic instruments in hand (minus Lanegan), with Dulli rocking the keys for some songs too. While their styles are so clearly different—Dulli excitable and a bit over the top, Lanegan stoic and solemn—together they work fluidly, although most in the crowd had their own personal favorite (this reviewer feeling faithful to ol’ Lanegan). Their musical chemistry, their respect and kinship for one another, and their endearing, enduring friendship translated to the crowd through compositions both grave and sublime. Supporting act Happy Chichester is a singer-songwriter who plays earnest, passionate alt-pop songs, which I thought to be an interesting, though not altogether appropriate, choice for supporting act for such dark dudes, until I found out he’s been long associated with Dulli as a friend and musician. – AZ
Watch: Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli [at youtube.com]
Tags: Sparks, Delta Spirit, NOFX, Greg Dulli, Mark Lanegan
Read past installments of It Shows:
Willie Nelson, the Walkmen, the Knitters, Jay Reatard, Tera Melos, John Vanderslice, and more
Mouthfull with Mike Watt, the Botticellis, Girls, and the Devil Makes Three
Will Sheff, Thee Oh Sees, Thievery Corporation, and Sex/Vid
Jay Reatard
Thee Oh Sees
R. Stevie Moore
Say No! To Architecture
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Sparks, Delta Spirit, NOFX, and Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli
by: C!-Team
February 14th at Royce Hall, UCLA
Following a string of 21 shows in London last summer over which they performed their entire discography back-to-back, Sparks’ Valentine’s Day homecoming to Los Angeles—a gig at their alma mater, UCLA—proved once again that, even after 39 years of recording, brothers Ron and Russell Mael still make some of the smartest, most compellingly ebullient pop out there.
The program’s first part was a performance of last year’s Exotic Creatures of the Deep, the band’s newest record, performed in an elaborate stage show featuring backup dancers and a picture-frame screen, as well as frames surrounding the members of the backing band, which included Steve McDonald of Redd Kross and members of Mother Superior. Exotic Creatures is not immediately engrossing on record, but in the live setting, it truly clicked—the mustachioed, eternally stolid Ron Mael, the band’s principal songwriter, did an interpretive dance for the swaying verses and chorus of “I Can’t Believe You Would Fall for All the Crap in This Song”, most humorously shaking his head in quiet, smug laughter during the refrain of the song’s title. Meanwhile, for “Photoshop” (chorus: “Photoshop me out of your life!”), he attempted to play a continually tweaked JPEG of a piano on the screen. Throughout the set, Russell bounded about the stage with his characteristic operatic voice and a sparkly energy that belies his age.
Aside from pinwheel-like designs on an animated backdrop, the stage show for the second set, a performance of 1974’s eccentric glam classic Kimono My House, was much simpler. Russell came out dressed in a grey suit, kicking off the set with a rousing “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us”, which he remarked would normally be their set closer. It was difficult to remain seated throughout the set, especially for such buoyant numbers as “Amateur Hour” and “Hasta Mañana, Monsieur”, so head-bobbing and knee-slapping had to suffice through the set’s especially strong closing tracks: “In My Family” was a high-strung, operatic delight, and the strolling “Equator”, with its elaborate layered falsetto outro, was note-for-note until a surprise reprise of its rocking-est passage. The crowd managed to get them out for an extensive, varied encore, for which the crowd was thankfully allowed to move out of their seats and up to the stage. Fans were treated to the LA-appropriate “Mickey Mouse”, disco delight “The Number One Song in Heaven”, an epic rendition of uppity anthem “Dick Around”, and Lil’ Beethoven highlight “Suburban Homeboy” as the closer, which had the entire crowd in sing-along cahoots. Best. Night. Ever! – Michael Harkin
Watch: Sparks [at youtube.com]
February 4th at Bottom of the Hill
The crowd was eager, as eager a crowd as I’ve ever seen, for Delta Spirit’s first headlining show in San Francisco. Most of the attendees looked like fellow San Diegans, in hoodies and baseball hats with a collegiate air about them, but they were rambunctious and ready to get started, an attitude that is all too absent in this realm of omnipresent jaded music aficionados. Delta Spirit took the stage, and the first few songs were rusty; the sound was pretty blown out and it took them a few tunes before they were warmed up enough to give their material its signature raucous stomp and fervor. I went out back for a smoke and to give my ears a lil break because I was standing right by the amps, and through the back door I could hear things heating up with audience hand-claps and lots of applauding, so I ditched my cigarette butt and headed back in, instantly discerning a very noticeable shift in band and audience energy. Quite simply, Delta Spirit hit their stride, and they hit it with might, bringing their countrified Americana to a crowd hanging onto their tunes with the kind of adoration and admiration that lifted everyone to their feet and caused a stomping, sing-a-long response from most of us. The material from their full-length debut, Ode to Sunshine, was best received… some of their newer songs didn’t go over so well, but it was clear they were still stretching with it and getting comfortable, and as is always the case, the crowd is never as responsive to the music they aren’t familiar with. Delta Spirit played a long set, with rousing, righteous versions of faves like “People, Turn Around”, “Children”, and “Bleeding Bells”, reaching well past the midnight hour, and I do believe not a soul left the venue until the last ringing notes were laid to rest. – Angela Zimmerman
Watch: Delta Spirit [at youtube.com]
February 10th at Slim’s
Formed in 1983, NOFX built a legacy around their brand of short, fast, political and/or goofball rants, and has become required listening for any burgeoning snot-nosed punk rocker. The music has always been governed by fun and somewhat sloppy compositions, fueled by booze and grounded with social commentary, both about the world at large and the prevailing inconsistencies that exist within the punk rock world itself. For celebrating 25 years as a band, with the youngest member being 42 years of age (Fat Mike), you wouldn’t have known it by seeing them at Slim’s on this cold and rainy Tuesday night. First indication would be the legions of fans that came out in support of NOFX that were under the age of 21—nonetheless a cigarette smoking, beer drinking, amped-up crowd—the ones that created the huge pit at the front of the stage, the ones that sent more than a few battered, even knocked out bodies to the back of the room for medical attention. The amount of youth in this place functioned as both something that gave way to more unpredictability than I’ve experienced at a show in a long while, and also gave the guys of NOFX something to repeatedly make fun of. In fact, the banter between songs was oftentimes better than the music itself simply because it kept things a little light whereas a lot people there just wanted to drink some beers and kick some ass. They kept making racist jokes throughout the set, only to close out the show by acting out Avenue Q’s “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist”, which was playing over the house speakers and follows with the lyrics, “even you.” Sounds pretty awful, but remember this is NOFX and they’ve made it their job to call attention to such things. The band played a lot of fan favorites like “You’re Wrong”, “Franco Un-American”, “Lori Meyers”, “Don’t Call Me White”, “The Brews”, and “Perfect Government.” They had one eye on the bottle the entire show and messed up a bunch, and even though they have album titles such as I Heard They Suck Live!! and They’ve Actually Gotten Worse Live!, in actuality they really don’t. Happy 25th to NOFX. – Jocelyn Hoppa
Watch: NOFX [at youtube.com]
February 11th at the Independent
Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli have been collaborators and friends for some years now. The story goes that the two of them met at a party in the late ‘80s, and over time, became collaborators on one another’s individual projects, with Lanegan lending both a studio and live hand with Dulli’s days with the Twilight Singers, and Dulli returning the favor with appearances on Lanegan’s solo project circa 2004 with the album Bubblegum and its subsequent tour. Though they were working together under the guise of the Gutter Twins from 2003 on, it wasn’t really until the dawning days of 2008 with their signing to Sub Pop and the release of their first full-length that the duo really became equated with the moniker. To my surprise, it was not under the Gutter Twins’ brooding, melancholic, and depraved front that the two took the Independent’s stage on Wednesday… rather, it was billed as an “Evening with Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan.” Though they were, in fact, joined by a third guy who was never identified for the audience, Lanegan and Dulli alone traded lead duties, switching back and forth between their own respective solo material, with other tokens of their collaborated work making appearances as well. The three were seated side by side, acoustic instruments in hand (minus Lanegan), with Dulli rocking the keys for some songs too. While their styles are so clearly different—Dulli excitable and a bit over the top, Lanegan stoic and solemn—together they work fluidly, although most in the crowd had their own personal favorite (this reviewer feeling faithful to ol’ Lanegan). Their musical chemistry, their respect and kinship for one another, and their endearing, enduring friendship translated to the crowd through compositions both grave and sublime. Supporting act Happy Chichester is a singer-songwriter who plays earnest, passionate alt-pop songs, which I thought to be an interesting, though not altogether appropriate, choice for supporting act for such dark dudes, until I found out he’s been long associated with Dulli as a friend and musician. – AZ
Watch: Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli [at youtube.com]
Tags: Sparks, Delta Spirit, NOFX, Greg Dulli, Mark Lanegan
Read past installments of It Shows:
Willie Nelson, the Walkmen, the Knitters, Jay Reatard, Tera Melos, John Vanderslice, and more
Mouthfull with Mike Watt, the Botticellis, Girls, and the Devil Makes Three
Will Sheff, Thee Oh Sees, Thievery Corporation, and Sex/Vid
by: C!-Team
published: February 18, 2009 in column: It Shows
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