I know I have been rather lax lately in my posting but summer festivals are right around the corner and what better way to say hello to spring and hope eternal than reminisce about the old times and look forward to the new. Here’s the 14 picture photoset of Canada’s Tokyo Police Club photographed at Lollapalooza in Grant Park, Chicago that I just put up…more photoset links to follow. Hello spring and summer…goodbye dirty snow!
3/8/08
Schubas Tavern in Chicago
This was a fantastic night of music, headed by Seattle’s Grand Archives, a five piece led by Matt Brooke, previously of Band of Horses and Carissa’s Weird. Grand Archives stays truer to form to Carissa’s Weird with more of the darker introspective sense than the overblown rock band I’ve always found Band of Horses to be a little guilty of. Because of that, it’s perhaps easier to connect with on smaller stages and a nice balance between both of these previous efforts. Brooke also seems like a sweet and modest guy, thanking Chicagoans for buying his record (apparently the 2008 Sub Pop release has sold really well in Chicago in particular.) Their set wasn’t incredibly long in length due to the fact that the band’s incarnation is recent but they did play a new song not on the record and ended with a long medley of covers beginning with the famous “I Started a Joke” by the BeeGees.
The Acorn also played a fantastic set. The six piece band out of Ottawa, Canada is clearly animated and showed great dynamics with different band members singing closely with one another at times, creating a great sense of both timing and aesthetics. They mixed their set up well with some real upbeat pop songs helping out some of the slower ones in the live setting to prevent their set from dragging too much. Lead singer Rolf Klausener has a curious stage presence (exactly what you would expect from someone who lists the periodic table, Oedipal complexes, and crippling dread as influences) and vocals that seem reminiscent at times of Bob Dylan.
Beginning the night was the five piece Oregon band The Builders and the Butchers whose post pop franticness were slightly left of center. Their boisterous energy musically was cut by the vocals of the lead singer, who recalled Frank Black’s somewhat nasal but infinitely recognizable style. Though they were the first opener, it was rather easy to find them instantly likable. With the dual drumming, they had an added energy that seemed the most constant than any of the other two sets. Handing out toy instruments to the audience helped drum up support and their appeal. Members of the crowd were all too happy to contribute to the music happening on stage. It’s not too often that you run across songs that click with you rather immediately on the first try and it was clear this band could easily headline a show like this themselves. In any case, the three bands made for about four hours of great songs that was only regrettable in the fact that it had to come to an end.
I’ve got a problem. You see, about five or six years ago, I discovered the fantastically weird world of the Super Furry Animals, led by Gruff Rhys and I can’t get his songs out of my head. It was spring in the year 2000 and everywhere, things were starting to grow again. I found Mwng first while on the streets of NYC. I read in a mag that it was one of the only albums being released completely in Welsh. Intrigued, I picked this up and loved the sweet melodies the likes of I had never heard before. It didn’t sound like anything being created in North America or anywhere else for that matter.
I immediately fell in love and it was deep but it was about to get worse because soon after picking this one up, Rings Around the World (2001) came out. It felt more rock and psych influenced and immediately filled me with happiness. I had picked up the dvd edition so I was able to enjoy all my favorite songs on video like “Juxtapozed with U” where a giant microphone dances around with a video camera. If hostile aliens were about to attack Earth and I could only choose one song to play them in order to convince them to halt, I think I’d probably play this one. I don’t know how anyone could destroy such a place while a person like Gruff was living on it.
Weirdest of all in the video collection was “Receptacle for the Respectable” with it’s twisted and strange animation. It was almost like Wales was its own world the way Gruff thought. Probably the other song that changed me is “It’s Not the End of the World?” It gets stuck in my head at the most random moments and makes me smile sometimes even when that’s the last thing I feel like doing. My love grew again even more while listening to Phantom Power two years later in 2003. Gruff was clearly a man who could rock out with “Golden Retriever” and be gentle again with “Piccolo Snare” as well as “Venus and Serena.”
But nothing in heaven and Earth could prepare me for the intensity of love I’d feel after listening to 2005’s Love Kraft There are some days when I put it on in the morning and can listen to nothing else. I’ve listened to “Zoom!” on repeat for several hours. If time is a landscape, then in the desert of my days, the music has been played loud and has influenced every cell of my body to become a fan of this band as well.
Now, I should mention that I do like the newest one Hey Venus! even if I am not experiencing the same passion with it that I did for Love Kraft. I love the psych rock of “Into the Night” and “Baby Ate my Eightball” especially. But what I really wanted to talk about is Gruff.
Do you know the feeling you get when you just love music so much and you literally fall in love with songs, lyrics, melody lines. It’s like everything in this whole world could be obliterated but as long as the songs were there, you could drift along in the wasteland that was left and play it to the dead rocks and the tainted seas. It’s like, people weren’t born before this music because how could they have survived without it’s creation? Or, on the first through 7th days God created the Earth and all that other stuff but somewhere down the line, he created music and musicians and Gruff Rhys and there was much rejoicing.
Perhaps I’m going a little overboard. I’ve always been slightly over the top and melodramatic. It’s my way. When I love something, I really love it. When I dislike something, I really hate it. That’s simplified but you get the idea. Anyhow, I’m always afraid that the people behind the music are going to be snotty or full of themselves or just aloof. Then, you worry you won’t be able to connect with the music anymore on an emotional level because you’ll be thinking about how bad the interaction went.
But Gruff isn’t any of those things. He’s sweet and charming and even though he’s very much a man, he’s pretty much downright adorable. Nine times out of ten, I would rather take photos of a woman than a man. The tenth time, the man is Gruff.
I’ve always had a theory about concert photographers. There are alot of us and as the years have gone by, I’ve met more and more. They usually vary between fans of the music and people who are just doing this because they are paid to do it. But, my feeling is that if you aren’t connecting with the music, it will show. As for me, with a couple of exceptions, most of the photos I take are for bands I really love. I’ve done a couple of favors here and there but I’d say a huge percentage of the bands I take photos of, I am there on purpose.
That said, I am done with my brief (yes, brief!) autobiography of my love affair with the music of The Super Furry Animals. There are few bands that if I could I would follow around the world. Caribou is one as well as A Silver Mt. Zion. Super Furry Animals is definitely another, because they are one of the best bands of our time and undoubtedly put on one of the most thrilling live performances I’ve ever seen. So, I hope you enjoy these photos and hopefully it shows how much I love the Super Furry Animals.
View the complete photoset on flickr
The official site of The Super Furry Animals
2/16/08
Cabaret Metro in Chicago
I hold these truths to be self evident: 1. The Super Furry Animals are one of the top ten bands of all time. 2. The Super Furry Animals put on one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen. 3. Out of all of the bands putting out music in the world today, the Super Furries are one of the most creative, dynamic, and perhaps just downright weird bands I’ve ever heard or witnessed in the flesh.
Now that you know the biases of mine at play, I will say that Saturday night’s Super Furry Animals show at Cabaret Metro fit in with their best live performances. This was the fourth time I’ve seen them and every time I see they are making the trip from Wales to my city, my heart wells in its own fit of glee. I firmly believe this band has changed the world with its music and will hopefully continue to do so for a very long time to come. When you see them live, it’s just fantastic and brilliant. The songs you’ve grown to love are taken to a whole new level giving them their own altered personalities. Unlike some bands I see now that I’m checking the clock to see how much longer until they finish, I stood there hoping the SFA set will never end.
Their live set this time was slightly more subdued costume wise only (lead singer Gruff Rhys only wore his large helmet for a couple of songs to mark the beginning and end. This performance was also missing the video component they’ve brought with them in the past.) But this could not deter the glory of some of my favorite songs performed with such energy that you couldn’t help thinking of a band of mythological proportions. “Golden Retriever” was a definite highlight with such a drive to it in the guitar playing and such dynamic stage presence that it was difficult not to be in complete awe. “Receptacle for the Respectable” was also flawless with Gruff making live carrot crunching sound effects. They also played my favorite song of their entire catalog, “Zoom!” which filled the club with orchestral pop wonder. Though Hey Venus! has not impacted me as much as Love Kraft, they played my favorite two songs from that including “Into the Night” and “Baby Ate My Eightball.” Their most recent eighth studio album to date definitely shows the band continuing to explore their psych rock roots but with some more ballady numbers tucked between such as “Suckers!” You also have to respect a band that holds up signs asking to avoid phony encores, even if it means that the night of music is over. It’s more real that way and it ends on a perfect high note, this time with the glorious “Cosmic Trigger.”
Click to see the complete photoset including the setlist on flickr
Feb 1st, 2008
Park West in Chicago
Two Men. Eight Turntables. Hundreds of seven inches and musical mayhem. Friday’s night’s sold out Park West show saw the meeting of two great minds: Cut Chemist (aka Lucas MacFadden) and DJ Shadow, otherwise known as Josh Davis. The two have collaborated both with other djs and eachother in the past and demonstrated a fantastic dynamic presence and timing that comes from countless hours of planning and rehearsal. Turntabilism at its best uses the countless influences throughout music and pop culture since vinyl was invented and spins them as if they are all happening at the same time, creating something new from it all. Though they weren’t playing instruments, the coordination of all of these different aspects of songs in a way that makes auditory sense is nothing short of amazing to anyone who loves music.
I’ve been a DJ Shadow fan since his 1996 release Endtroducing which really defined him as not just a hip hop artist but a trip hop one. But the way both artists have combined samples has always impressed me. Cut Chemist, who is also well known for his work with Jurassic 5, has built a solid history in the genre as well as released his own stellar solo work. His latest album, The Audience’s Listening, shows his ability to refine his talent as well. It’s an album that makes the listener infinitely happy and full of energy. I can’t imagine where he finds what seems like millions of different sounds and bizarre old timey speech recordings (“In case of nuclear attack, protection of records is essential.”) I would love to be able to see a set by both of them of their own songs at some later date. The one time I did see Cut Chemist, it was at the Apple Store and he not surprisingly sampled DJ Shadow and provided just as diverse images behind him as samples.
This collaboration, an homage to the seven inch, was also fantastic. I think you can appreciate it from the standpoint of the audience member who tries to pick out every little nook and cranny of sound, identifying it with the album it’s from. Another way to appreciate it is as it’s own collage. There were a couple of down notes in the set-mainly the slowed down version of a full song that I’m not familiar with but features repeatedly the girl’s name “Charlene.” This was warped and probably played at the 33rpm speed and may have made for a great reoccurring 30 second sample in a separate piece but dragged as a main feature. I wasn’t completely thrilled with the mash up between the theme of Gilligan’s Island and Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” either. These were minor slow spots in an otherwise great set, however. I heard some of my favorite eclectic samples from Queen’s “We Will Rock You” to the very shimmery beginning of Simon & Garfunkel’s “El Condor Pasa.” There was also an amusing tribute to both video games and atari with a fun Pac Man sample running through.
As if that weren’t enough, the music was often joined by video clips that felt very retro in their highlight of vinyl. Classic stills of females that could easily have come from 60s mags were displayed with their eyes becoming replaced with seven inches. Throughout the set, when the double screens weren’t focused on following their own record playing, the videos focused on others playing records or just the records themselves in various contexts-sometimes spinning around and sometimes climbing up fences. Both combined made for a really fantastic evening and, as a grand finale, both DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist came to the forefront of the stage wearing their own portable seven inch players!
Click to view the complete photoset with Kid Koala on flickr
(from Chicago)
If I had to put together my top shows of 2008, there would be some I don’t have photos of, like Low at the Metro or The Raveonettes at the Empty Bottle, for example. I’ve been lucky enough to get to see many shows over the course of the last year that I did enjoy, however. Caribou was probably the favorite show I went to this year but perhaps only because PJ Harvey didn’t play in Chicago for the White Chalk tour. Entrance at the bottle was another great show as well as Jamie Lidell at Pitchfork, Blonde Redhead at Lolla, Deerhunter at the Empty Bottle.
I’ve put together a set of over one hundred photos (most recent photos first) from over the course of the year, which involved a careful narrowing down of literally thousands of photos. The set includes everything from Aimee Mann to The Besnard Lakes. Interpol, Yo La Tengo, Stephen Malkmus, The Pipettes, Keren Ann, and MIA are also there amongst others. Above photo is from Juliette Lewis and the Licks at Lolla. All photos are larger when viewed as a set.
Thanks everyone for your support in 2007!
It seems appropriate that I welcome the new year of 2008 with photos of the Stooges. This year should come in like a riot and introduce political change. We have to stop being complacent and demand out governments to be responsible for the lives of its own citizens and what they do in the world. We have to use energy wisely and stop so much wasting. We have to try to make a difference every day instead of letting out lives become a series of meaningless habits. We have to create when it seems like there is nothing. Let us be part of a revolution for change. Quiet is ugly and does not become us. Motion and action are our friends.
12/15/07
Hideout in Chicago
I didn’t know what to expect of Allroh, who flew into Chicago from Berlin just to play the afternoon Shellac show in a very rare North American performance on Saturday. She gleamed in white and carried a piercing look in her eyes as heavy as a suitcase. As she played those first chords on her electric guitar, I felt a chill in the air shimmy up my spine and it wasn’t from the temperature in the room or anything that remotely tangible. Allroh is a visionary, a fully realized woman who delivered one of the most awe inspiring performances I’ve seen all year. Between the delicateness of a José González and the raw untamed passion of a younger Polly Jean Harvey (circa Rid of Me) exists a visionary known as Allroh and make no mistake about this…she is brilliant.
From the moment we wake until the time when we travel to unconsciousness, out lives are filled with moments of quiet solitude as well as a frantic turbulence. It’s the curious balance of these two that help remind us we are alive and it’s this homeostasis that carries us through our days and sometimes into the land of dreams as well. Allroh appears desperately aware of these elements which war constantly inside us. Through some inate talent and ability, she channels them from inside our cells and most private living spaces and they add up to music. Sometimes, the music doesn’t feel like chord progressions at all. It feels like the energy inside of us being shown as finitely as a mirror. It should be no surprise if witnessing Allroh could cause some to gasp out loud. For, some forget this potential and need to be reminded how acutely they are alive. It’s a knife pulling apart our insides just as surely as it’s a comforting lullaby that could rock us to sleep. One thing I am absolutely convinced: There is no one quite like Allroh nor will there ever be if the world exists another thousand years from now.
12/7/07
Logan Square Auditorium
I don’t want to get too personal here but the whole tone of the evening leading up to seeing Balkan Beat Box was replete with the bittersweet. After losing one friend to Seattle, I had to say goodbye to another good friend of mine who is heading west. The way I was feeling, I didn’t even want to take pictures when I entered the large Auditorium. If I hadn’t been with him, I was in the sort of mood to be by myself all alone drinking tea and sulking to Belle and Sebastian. It’s fairly crucial that I mention all of this because it shouldn’t be understated how dramatically Balkan Beat Box lifted my mood that night. I went from despondent to dancing in the geography of about an hour.
This was my very first experience with NYC based Balkan Beat Box and considering the connection of Ori Kaplan being previously part of Gogol Bordello, I felt it might be a rough affair. It was around this same time last year that I had actually witnessed the drum riding spectacle that was Gogol Bordello and thought it rather miraculous that I emerged without a fractured bone or a broken lens. The difference between seeing the two bands despite Ori’s previous history is that at Balkan Beat Box, people were respectful of space. They didn’t ram into you like a bull seeing red but instead danced in their own area. Of course, it wasn’t completely sold out either but there was a definite crowd enjoying the show.
I should also say that even though Balkan Beat Box is technically a duo, there was an entire entourage on stage giving the songs a fun triumphant sound. The dual drumming was filled in with the sounds of guitar, bass, and most notably saxophone. The backing vocals also added an extra kick. And, like the fun dance party they wanted to be, the audience was invited to join them on stage for the last song. It felt rather joyous. Listen to songs on myspace
12/6/7 Cubby Bear in Chicago
It’s always a little surreal to see the actors you’ve watched on screen standing two feet in front of you to begin with. John C. Reilly’s performance heightened this father as an over the top and frequently lewd escapade that left the audience guessing what he might say or do next. Coming off as a southern musician singing throughout the decades, Reilly performed in the character of Dewey Cox. The performance was a promotion for this new film (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story) but Reilly took it to a level of wondering where reality ends and meets with something made up in show.
No doubt this show at the Cubby Bear was very special. Although he has committed to other tour dates and venues, Reilly’s Chicago roots make this stop closer to home. While singing in various styles, sometimes Elvis and Dylan, Reilly proved he had a decent singing voice. The tight backing band filled in whatever gaps were left from his guitar playing. Mainly, Reilly attempted to woo the audience both during and between the songs. As a highlight, Inara George came out and sang with him on one of the songs.
Of course, one always wonder what is acting and what is real. In this case, John C. Reilly fully acted the part of Dewey Cox so much so that he joked, “I heard they’ve got an actor by the name of John C. Reilly to play my part in the movie.” While it’s true that I’m much more of a fan of his dramatic vs comedic roles, especially Magnolia, Reilly played his part adeptly. I started wondering what other bands I’d seen where perhaps the people on stage were merely acting or playing a part vs. striving to create something vital and different….
