Sean Lennon and Vincent Gallo
August 12th at Red Devil Lounge, San Francisco
“Holy Ghost of a Saber Toothed Tiger!” That would have clunked out of your mouth if you too had witnessed the historical magic and entertainment of Sean Lennon’s whimsical jam session with Bob Weir at the Red Devil Lounge. Three-hundred-plus attendees scrunched under the intimate venue’s gothic chandeliers to catch a rare appearance by Vincent Gallo and Sean Lennon on Wednesday night.
After a three-year hiatus from his solo career, Lennon has adopted a new sound, alias, and girlfriend in his nascent project, Ghost of a Saber Toothed Tiger. Answering to the pseudonym of “Amatla,” Lennon and model girlfriend Charlotte Kemp Muhl, aka “Zargifon,” craft downtempo tracks that range from Donovan-esque snippets to India-inspired ballads. “This is the dangerous part of the show,” Lennon warned the audience as he pulled his acoustic guitar onto his lap. “[Charlotte’s] going to attempt to play the piano from a different room.” Beyond the forest of guitar stands, MIDI controllers, and amps that encroached on Lennon’s chair, the venue’s green room was illuminated with peach hue as she opened their set with cascading piano notes while Lennon echoed them on his guitar. And after Lennon and Muhl finished what sounded like a modern take on Twin Peaks’ “Love Theme”, Charlotte trickled onto the stage in a pale negligee and floral cardigan to begin their 45-minute set.
“This is only our third show,” Lennon told the crowd. With a khaki shirt and khaki pants blending into the apparition of a leisure suit, he was all cool while he weaved through the delicate chords of “Song for James.” “We wrote this song for our friend who was unlucky with unrequited love,” he said in his introduction to the adagio track. With Lennon backing Muhl’s soprano vocals and whistling a duet, “Song for James” reminded me of an updated and poetic rendition of the Moldy Peaches’ “Anyone Else But You.” While the acoustic chords Lennon played were relatively simple, their lyrics were anything but. “Going around like a boat with one oar / Washed upon the shore,” Muhl sang sparse snapshots as imaginative and telling as Ezra Pound’s lines to “In a Station of the Metro.” Before finishing their set with an extended, allegro jam, Lennon on electric guitar and Muhl on bass, they powered through a dainty “Jardin Du Luxembourg”, a twanging “India”, and “Lavender Road”, which finished with a breakout solo by Lennon. And as large as Vincent Gallo may have appeared in The Brown Bunny, he hardly measured up to Lennon once on stage.
Stumbling onto the stage in an all-white ensemble with brocade pants and platform boots, Gallo’s diffident demeanor was unwelcome at the Red Devil Lounge. He lost points when he burrowed his face underneath his hair while toying with a chrome Fender. He lost the audience’s respect when he refused to acknowledge them with even one glance. And he lost all credibility when he fuddled with elementary notes on his melodica. After faltering through a mere two songs, Gallo upped and left the stage without as much as a “goodbye” or “thank you”—though, in his defense, the audience’s chatter resonated louder than his pseudo-experimental bullshit.
“We have a special surprise for you in store,” one of the venue’s personnel announced to a restless audience, and on stage came Sean Lennon toting an electric guitar and vintage amp. “We wanted to bring you some local music on stage,” Lennon said while positioning his guitar in a nearby stand. Poking his head out of the green room, the mystery guest greeted the audience, “Hey kids!” And out came trotting the legendary Bob Weir. Situating himself beneath an embellished acoustic guitar, Weir sat down next to Lennon and, without consultation, began strumming soft rhythm and blues. Lennon dipped his head to the body of his guitar and bobbed as he and Weir played rockabilly tunes for the following 30 minutes. With Lennon tuning deep electric wails and Weir picking ornate melodies, the two jammed through cover’s of Buddy Holly’s “Oh, Boy!”, Elvis Presley’s “Big Boss Man”, and the Grateful Dead’s “Peggy-O.” With Weir’s fading vocals and Lennon’s chiming chords the evening came to an end, and each attendee skipped away, still moved by their music.
Listen: Sean Lennon, Various Tracks [at myspace.com]
Tags: Sean Lennon, Vincent Gallo, Ghost of a Saber Toothed Tiger, Bob Weir, live review
Read past installments of It Shows:
Rock the Bells at Shoreline Amphitheatre, San Francisco
Sunn O))) at the Independent, San Francisco
Quintron and Miss Pussycat at the Hemlock, San Francisco
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Sean Lennon and Vincent Gallo at Red Devil Lounge, SF
by: Marissa G. Muller
August 12th at Red Devil Lounge, San Francisco
“Holy Ghost of a Saber Toothed Tiger!” That would have clunked out of your mouth if you too had witnessed the historical magic and entertainment of Sean Lennon’s whimsical jam session with Bob Weir at the Red Devil Lounge. Three-hundred-plus attendees scrunched under the intimate venue’s gothic chandeliers to catch a rare appearance by Vincent Gallo and Sean Lennon on Wednesday night.
After a three-year hiatus from his solo career, Lennon has adopted a new sound, alias, and girlfriend in his nascent project, Ghost of a Saber Toothed Tiger. Answering to the pseudonym of “Amatla,” Lennon and model girlfriend Charlotte Kemp Muhl, aka “Zargifon,” craft downtempo tracks that range from Donovan-esque snippets to India-inspired ballads. “This is the dangerous part of the show,” Lennon warned the audience as he pulled his acoustic guitar onto his lap. “[Charlotte’s] going to attempt to play the piano from a different room.” Beyond the forest of guitar stands, MIDI controllers, and amps that encroached on Lennon’s chair, the venue’s green room was illuminated with peach hue as she opened their set with cascading piano notes while Lennon echoed them on his guitar. And after Lennon and Muhl finished what sounded like a modern take on Twin Peaks’ “Love Theme”, Charlotte trickled onto the stage in a pale negligee and floral cardigan to begin their 45-minute set.
“This is only our third show,” Lennon told the crowd. With a khaki shirt and khaki pants blending into the apparition of a leisure suit, he was all cool while he weaved through the delicate chords of “Song for James.” “We wrote this song for our friend who was unlucky with unrequited love,” he said in his introduction to the adagio track. With Lennon backing Muhl’s soprano vocals and whistling a duet, “Song for James” reminded me of an updated and poetic rendition of the Moldy Peaches’ “Anyone Else But You.” While the acoustic chords Lennon played were relatively simple, their lyrics were anything but. “Going around like a boat with one oar / Washed upon the shore,” Muhl sang sparse snapshots as imaginative and telling as Ezra Pound’s lines to “In a Station of the Metro.” Before finishing their set with an extended, allegro jam, Lennon on electric guitar and Muhl on bass, they powered through a dainty “Jardin Du Luxembourg”, a twanging “India”, and “Lavender Road”, which finished with a breakout solo by Lennon. And as large as Vincent Gallo may have appeared in The Brown Bunny, he hardly measured up to Lennon once on stage.
Stumbling onto the stage in an all-white ensemble with brocade pants and platform boots, Gallo’s diffident demeanor was unwelcome at the Red Devil Lounge. He lost points when he burrowed his face underneath his hair while toying with a chrome Fender. He lost the audience’s respect when he refused to acknowledge them with even one glance. And he lost all credibility when he fuddled with elementary notes on his melodica. After faltering through a mere two songs, Gallo upped and left the stage without as much as a “goodbye” or “thank you”—though, in his defense, the audience’s chatter resonated louder than his pseudo-experimental bullshit.
“We have a special surprise for you in store,” one of the venue’s personnel announced to a restless audience, and on stage came Sean Lennon toting an electric guitar and vintage amp. “We wanted to bring you some local music on stage,” Lennon said while positioning his guitar in a nearby stand. Poking his head out of the green room, the mystery guest greeted the audience, “Hey kids!” And out came trotting the legendary Bob Weir. Situating himself beneath an embellished acoustic guitar, Weir sat down next to Lennon and, without consultation, began strumming soft rhythm and blues. Lennon dipped his head to the body of his guitar and bobbed as he and Weir played rockabilly tunes for the following 30 minutes. With Lennon tuning deep electric wails and Weir picking ornate melodies, the two jammed through cover’s of Buddy Holly’s “Oh, Boy!”, Elvis Presley’s “Big Boss Man”, and the Grateful Dead’s “Peggy-O.” With Weir’s fading vocals and Lennon’s chiming chords the evening came to an end, and each attendee skipped away, still moved by their music.
Listen: Sean Lennon, Various Tracks [at myspace.com]
Tags: Sean Lennon, Vincent Gallo, Ghost of a Saber Toothed Tiger, Bob Weir, live review
Read past installments of It Shows:
Rock the Bells at Shoreline Amphitheatre, San Francisco
Sunn O))) at the Independent, San Francisco
Quintron and Miss Pussycat at the Hemlock, San Francisco
by: Marissa G. Muller
published: August 17, 2009
in column: It Shows
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