Month: April 2009

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Haino and Conrad at Empty Bottle

Last night (April 28) was an evening of extremes at the Empty Bottle. The headliners were two avant-garde legends making a rare appearance in Chicago: Keiji Haino and Tony Conrad. They played for about 90 minutes, taking just one pause. Was that two “songs”? Not exactly. More like one long improvisation with a slight break in the middle. Conrad played violin most of the night, seemingly strangling the instrument at some moments, or at least molesting it in various ways that aren’t taught at Juilliard. Conrad also bowed a plastic disc with a hole in it, and played for a bit on a pedal steel guitar.

Over on the other side of the stage, Haino was bending over into his microphone, screaming and flailing around his long mane of gray hair. Haino also made noises with various unidentified electronic devices, blew into a curvy plastic tube and wailed away on his electric guitar.

How did it all mesh together? At some moments, the ferocity of what Hainu and Conrad were both doing was almost overwhelming. At other times, the performance began to sag a bit, but then the duo would always rally back.

The first act of the night was Bloodyminded, who offered up even more ear-splitting screams over electronic squiggles that were nearly completely atonal, as far as I could tell. Then came avant-garde music of a completely different character, as David Daniell and Doug McCombs played their slow and sublime glacier of guitar chords. The beautiful hum got its pulse from Frank Rosaly’s subtle, jazzy percussion.

Photos of Keiji Haino and Tony Conrad.

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On the radio

I was on Chicago Public Radio WBEZ’s “Eight Forty-Eight” show this morning with a story I reported on the original 1902 stage version of The Wizard of Oz. You can stream it or download it here.

AND I will be back on the radio between 2 and 3 p.m. Wednesday (April 29) — on WBEZ’s sister station, Vocalo, WBEW 89.5 FM or http://vocalo.org/stream. I’ll be taking part in a discussion with other bloggers about Chicago’s local music.

The whole show, “I Love Local Music Event: The state of Local Music,” goes from 1-4 p.m. In the first hour, Keith Jackson, Gary musician and cousin of the Jackson 5, discusses “What happened to live music in Gary, Ind., and what does local music really mean to the community?” From 2-3 p.m., I’ll be part of a panel including bloggers from the Chicago Record Project, the Chicago Independent Music Review and FakeshoreDrive. From 3-4 p.m., the topic is “Where to hear and get heard on line?” with Crown Point’s Asteria, Chris Baum on the local artist’s promo site Fanfound, Rob Lambert of WaxFM.com and social media blogger Keidra Cheney. Vocalo will be Twittering about the show at http://twitter.com/Vocalo and taking calls and comments at (888) 635-1112 and at http://vocalo.org.

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M. Ward at the Vic

On his records, M. Ward can seem pretty mellow, softly strumming and crooning old-timey folk-rock. Performing in concert Sunday night (April 26) at Chicago’s Vic Theatre in support of his new album “Hold Time,” M. Ward brought out the more rocking side of his music, proving once again that he is one of today’s most talented guitarists.

A few years ago, Ward seemed somewhat shy as a live performer. He still comes across as a modest guy who’s hesitant to make the big gestures typical of a rock star, but he was smiling an awful lot Sunday night as he sang and crouched over his guitar.

Like other great guitarists — Jack White comes to mind — Ward makes his fluid solos look effortless. It seems like he could stick his hands anywhere on that instrument and it would sound good. And yet, Ward knows he doesn’t have to overdo it. Rather than playing guitar constantly throughout the show, he often let his backup band play the chords while he sang the verses. Whenever he put his hands back onto the frets, the audience knew it was in for something special, whether it was an electric-guitar lick or acoustic finger-picking.

Ward attracted a young crowd at the Vic, but his music is quite old-fashioned, as indicated by the songs he chose to cover: Buddy Holly’s “Rave On” and the Don Gibson country classic “Oh, Lonesome Me,” both of which appear on “Hold Time.” And Ward’s original songs evoked the past, too. Changing up the arrangement to his 2003 song “Helicopter,” Ward sat down at the grand piano and gave the tune a rollicking feel that sounded like something Bob Dylan and the Band would have played in the mid-’60s.
For his final song before the encores, Ward dipped into the early-rock songbook yet again, playing Chuck Berry’s iconic “Roll Over Beethoven.” Ward even did a little bit of Berry’s trademark duck walk.

During the encores, when Ward went over to the piano again for his great 2005 song “Big Boat” (a bouncy Kinks-style ditty about taking a ferry across the river Styx), he found himself unable to stay sitting down. While Ward doesn’t have quite the same moves as Jerry Lee Lewis, he banged away at the keys and kicked over the piano bench. Mellow? Who said he was mellow?

Photos of M. Ward and opening act the Watson Twins.

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Random weekend scenes

FRIDAY, APRIL 24: Alas, I missed Neko Case at the Chicago Theatre. Well, since I’ve already seen her around 10 times, I suppose it’s not that great of a tragedy to miss her this time. But that new album of hers, Middle Cyclone, has really grown on me. I still think it’s not the equal of her terrific previous CD, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, but it will certainly end up as one of 2009’s best records.

So, instead of luxuriating in Neko’s siren vocals, I went Friday night to see ANVIL: THE STORY OF ANVIL at the Music Box. I really knew nothing about Anvil, a heavy-metal band that briefly seemed to be on the verge of stardom in the 1980s. But knowing about Anvil or being a headbanger is beside the point with this documentary, which is one of the best films ever made about what it’s like to be in a struggling band year after year. As other people have pointed out, Anvil is a bit like a real-life This Is Spinal Tap, but even though you laugh at some of the misadventures of these Canadian rockers, you also feel for them. It’s a surprisingly touching film.

The band Anvil was at Friday night’s screening, answering some audience questions afterward. Guitarist-singer Steve “Lips” Kudlow acknowledged that some people come to see the movie for the laughs (as someone in the crowd said). “Let’s face it,” he said. “There’s no way around it. It’s somewhat of a Trojan horse.” Kudlow said the band gave the director, Sacha Gervasi, unfettered access to their lives because he was already a friend and a fan. That complete access shows in this marvelous and honest rock ‘n’ roll movie.

I stopped by THE HIDEOUT after the movie and caught the first jazz set of the night. The Immediate Sound series, which is normally on Wednesdays, was celebrating its third anniversary with shows on Friday and Saturday. It was a little odd seeing a completely different crowd at the Hideout from the folks I usually see hanging out there. The performance was being recorded, so a “no talking” rule was in effect, and the audience did watch and listen intently as Ken Vandermark and Ab Baars dueted with a variety of wind instruments. At times, they made almost ear-splitting and atonal noise of feverish intensity, but I enjoyed their improvisations most when the tones were more mellow and meditative.

SATURDAY, APRIL 25: This was the final day of an exhibit of EDVARD MUNCH’S paintings and prints at the Art Institute of Chicago. I took a stroll through the galleries before the art disappeared. Munch’s Scream has been practically ruined by kitschy merchandising of the image, but his art remains haunting. The pictures that linger in my mind are those men and women connected or nearly connected by strands of hair. The hair is saying things the people cannot bring themselves to say.

For the first time ever, THROBBING GRISTLE played in Chicago Saturday night. This was yet another show originally scheduled at the Epiphany church then moved to Logan Square Auditorium. Unfortunately, just as the line of ticket holders slowly made its way up the stairs into the venue, a cold downpour drenched the Throbbing Gristle faithful. I had a ticket for the early show, but not the late concert, and in retrospect I should have seen both. The late show featured the band playing various songs. The early show was a live performance of Throbbing Gristle’s soundtrack to the experimental Derek Jarman film In the Shadow of the Sun. The four musicians sat at computers while the movie played (computers that they obviously did not have in the early stages of their career), making loud, pulsating waves of sound — a good match for the abstracted images melting into one another on the screen.

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Yann Tiersen at Logan Square

A couple of things surprised me about the concert Tuesday (April 21) by Yann Tiersen at Logan Square Auditorium. First of all, this show sold out, or came very close to selling out. Pardon me if I’ve been on the wrong planet lately, but where did all these Yann Tiersen fans come from? The guy is best known as the composer of the soundtrack to Amelie, and a certain percentage of the crowd may have been the cult followers of that movie.

Second surprise: I was expecting something like an orchestral rock concert, with the sort of music Tiersen composed for Amelie. Instead, this was a full-on rock show with some moments of wailing feedback along with quieter violin bowing and symphonic touches. A clue to this French rocker’s direction was the T-shirt he wore during the show: My Bloody Valentine. (At first, it had seemed strange that Brooklyn rockers Asobi Seksu were booked as Tiersen’s opening act, but after hearing what kind of music he plays live, that made a lot more sense.) Tiersen put on a good show, and the music showed a lot of power at times, though it probably would have connected more with me if I’d been familiar with the tunes. I can definitively say Tiersen’s a talented composer and performer after seeing this show.

Photos of Yann Tiersen and Asobi Seksu.

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The Handsome Family and Marissa Nadler

The Handsome Family just keep on putting out one good record after another (and sometimes they’re great). I’m just getting familiar with the latest CD, Honey Moon, but it’s safe to say that Brett and Rennie Sparks are still going strong. Married 20 years? Congratulations are in order — and given just how demented and dark Rennie’s lyrics have been over the years, it’s interesting to hear them focus a little bit more than usual on happy love songs this time.

They put on an excellent show of new songs mixed with some of my all-time favorites from throughout their career Sunday (April 19) at Schubas. After spending much of their career playing as a duo with a drum machine, the Handsome Family has been touring lately with an actual drummer and a second guitarist, which adds considerable subtleness to the songs. Brett and Rennie haven’t really changed what they do all that much — it’s still gothic alt-country — but over their last few albums, they’ve recorded more songs with the sophisticated air of jazz standards. They played two great examples of that style Sunday night: “After We Shot the Grizzly” and “I Know You Are There.” And it was cool to hear them doing “Giant of Illinois” again after hearing Andrew Bird do his cover version.

And as always, Brett and Rennie engaged in some weird and very funny stage banter. The running theme of the night was Rennie’s experiments in time travel to acquire kittens from the past.

www.handsomefamily.com
www.myspace.com/thehandsomefamily

Photos of the Handsome Family.

The first act of the night was Barry McCormack, an Irish singer-songwriter who was almost as much of a raconteur as he was a musical act. Some nice songs, with good stories to introduce them. http://www.myspace.com/barrymccormack

The second act, Marissa Nadler, was almost worth the admission herself. I saw her play a couple of years ago on the concrete floor at Ronny’s. Schubas is a way more appropriate venue for this folk singer with a beautiful voice and her ethereal songs. For most of her set, she was joined by the guitarist from the band Tulsa, who added subtle echoes of her own guitar playing that fleshed out the songs. Nadler joked that she also has a band called Death Machine. One audience member remarked that he’d want to hear that. Nadler’s music is fragile, with her voice drenched in reverb. She commanded the audience’s attention as the room fell quiet.

www.marissanadler.com
www.myspace.com/songsoftheend

Photos of Marissa Nadler and Barry McCormack.

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Robyn Hitchcock at Logan Square

It was a bit of a disappointment when I heard that the concert on Saturday (April 18) by Robyn Hitchcock had been moved from Epiphany to Logan Square Auditorium. Am I ever going to get to see a show at Epiphany? We’ll see. The owner of the Empty Bottle, which booked the concert, explained in an e-mail that the venue is working on some “issues” with the city about holding concerts at Epiphany, which also happens to be a church. I hope they work out whatever those issues are for future shows.

Well, as cool as it would have been to see Hitchcock playing inside a church, the show he played at Logan Square was still pretty cool. This is the second time I’ve seen Hitchcock playing with his latest backup band, the Venus 3, which includes R.E.M.’s Peter Buck on guitar, Scott McCaughey of the Minus Five and Young Fresh Fellows on bass, and Bill Rieflin on drums. It’s a great band that fleshes out the quirky pop of Hitchcock’s songs much like the Egyptians used to, and this lineup is particularly strong whenever the songs sprawl out a little bit into drony guitar solos. (It’s interesting to see Buck, whose regular gig is with a more famous band, taking the back seat here to Hitchcock, whose music he clearly admires.)

The set included several songs off the new album Goodnight Oslo, but I was most excited to hear some Hitchcock oldies, including “Brenda’s Iron Sledge,” “I Often Dream of Trains” and “Only the Stones Remain.” Hitchcock has had so many songs over the years (and so many good ones) that it’s impossible for him to play every song in one show that a hardcore fan would want, but he did a good job of drawing tunes from throughout his catalogue Saturday night. And as always, Hitchcock was witty and surreal in his stage banter. Highlights included his offbeat explanation of reincarnation.

Chicago’s Dag Juhlin played a solid opening set of solo acoustic music, peppered with his own humorous banter.

Photos of Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3.

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Record Store Day

To celebrate Record Store Day (Aug. 18) I went by my one of my favorite places in Chicago, Laurie’s Planet of Sound late yesterday morning, and by the time I got there, many of the exclusive records being released by bands ranging from the Flaming Lips to Sonic Youth and Beck had already sold out. I managed to snag a copy of the 7-inch single with a Sonic Youth song on one side and a Jay Reatard track on the flip side.

It was really fun and nostalgic to be inside a record store with so many people. Is this just a once-a-year phenomenon? So many record stores have kicked the bucket in recent years, but a few cool ones are surviving, and Laurie’s seemed very much alive yesterday.

Chicago singer-songwriter Azita played a free in-store show a little after noon, playing a Yamaha piano that was crammed into a back corner of the store. The performance felt somewhat impromptu and a little unvarnished — and was all the better for that sense of spontaneity.

Photos of Azita and Record Store Day at Laurie’s Planet of Sound.

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Catching up on concerts

Due to hacking problems and, well, real life, I fell behind last week on reporting about some concerts I saw in Chicago. Here’s my review in the Southtown Star newspaper of the April 10 concert by Andrew Bird at the Civic Opera House. Yes, as a few people have pointed out, the tone of my review is quite different from what Jim DeRogatis wrote in the Sun-Times about the previous night’s show. I like Bird. DeRo does not.

Photos of Andrew Bird.

The night before, I attended an invite-only show by St. Vincent at the Hideout, where she previewed some of the songs on her new CD. What a talented musician and singer she is — doing looping layers of orchestration (sort of like Andrew Bird) on some tunes, playing solo piano on others. She ended the set by sitting on the lip of the stage with an acoustic guitar, singing without the aid of a microphone. And it sounded perfectly lovely.

Photos of St. Vincent.

And on both of these nights, I happened to see A Hawk and a Hacksaw. The group played the late show at the Hideout on April 9, and then they played a similar set in much grander surroundings the following night, opening for Andrew Bird at the opera. Both sets were lively, with lots of Balkan and Eastern European melodies dancing with lightning speed across the accordion keys and violin frets. Alas, the band failed in its efforts to get people to dance on both night, but it certainly wasn’t the fault of the music.

Photos of a Hawk and a Hacksaw.

On the agenda for this weekend: Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 Saturday at Logan Square Auditorium, and the Handsome Family Sunday at Schubas, plus assorted fun at Record Store Day.

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I’ve been hacked!

In case you noticed anything weird happening at this page, it appears that a Turkish hacker was messing around with it. I hoped it’s fixed now.

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Blind Pilot at Schubas

Blind Pilot was one of the bands I wanted to see at SXSW but missed. I heard several people giving very positive reviews of their sets in Austin, and got the sense Blind Pilot might be getting some buzz. I decided Friday afternoon to buy a ticket to that evening’s show by Blind Pilot at Schubas. Maybe half an hour later, Schubas sent out a Twitter update saying that only five tickets were left for the concert. Of course, it was sold out by the 10 p.m. showtime.

It was a young crowd — a lot of people who looked about 20 — and the crowd clearly knew the songs by Blind Pilot by heart, singing along to many of the lyrics. I wondered if I had missed something. Where did the band get all these fans all of a sudden? However that happened, the band has a pleasant folk-rock sound, with nice male-female vocal harmonies and a mix of trumpet, banjo, dulcimer and stand-up bass. It’s more soothing than rustic, and there’s good songcraft at work. It looks like Blind Pilot is heading toward even bigger popularity.

Photos of Blind Pilot and opening acts Deanna Devore and Death Ships.

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The Love Language at the Hideout

The Love Language, a band from North Carolina, was one of the acts I hoped to catch last month at SXSW after hearing the group’s dandy pop track “Lalita.” I missed these guys when I was in Austin, but got another shot at seeing them last night, when they played at Chicago’s Hideout. It was a good set, and although the room could have accommodated more fans, the ones who were there were pretty enthusiastic. At times, the Love Language reminds me a bit of the Walkmen, but there’s more of a ’60s pop vibe to their songs, although with some Southern touches, naturally due to the band’s North Carolina origins. (Maybe a touch of alt-country, but nothing remotely like stereotypical Southern rock, though.) Singer-guitarist Stuart McLamb is clearly the band’s focal point, though the two female keyboard players helped a lot to liven up the show with their occasional dancing stints on tambourine.

www.myspace.com/thelovelanguage

The opening act was Mazes, a new Chicago band featuring a couple of the fine musicians already making excellent music in another group, the 1900s — Edward Anderson and Caroline Donovan — along with Charles D’Autremont. Mazes play ’60s-style rock, not that far afield from what the 1900s are doing, but less orchestral-sounding.

www.myspace.com/chicagomazes

Photos of the Love Language and Mazes.

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Cardboard Sangria Showcase

I love seeing live music in out-of-the-way places… holes in the wall, warehouses, bars without stages. Of course, as someone who takes concert pictures, I find it frustrating to attempt photography in the dim lighting at some of these places, but I’m always up for a good challenge.

The place to be on Wednesday night was the Burlington, a little bar on Fullerton in the Logan Square neighborhood. I’ve seen it mentioned lately, but this was my first visit. Several of the artists on the Chicago record label Cardboard Sangria were having a free showcase — five artists, each playing about half an hour. A performance by the excellent psychedelic folk-rocker the Singleman Affair was enough reason to draw me in.

Here’s the kind of concert venue this is. You walk from the sidewalk in through the front door and the first thing you notice is that the band is right there, playing next to you. No stage. Virtually no lights, alas. A dark bar in a narrow room, with antlers on the wall at various points, serving its own brew of beer with antlers on the tap.

I came in as the first band, Mean Sea Level, was playing, and enjoyed what I heard. Next came Rock Falls, a.k.a. Annie Reese, who managed to hush the crowd with her quiet songs, including a few played on ukulele. Her voice sounded lovely as she sang plaintive melodies over simple but sometimes quirky strumming.

The third band of the night was Darling, who played scrappy rock songs with some real 1960s “la la” kind of harmonies. The Singleman Affair (which, for this show, was Daniel Schneider on acoustic guitar and vocals plus Toby Summerfield on stand up bass) then played a few old and a few new songs, giving a tantalizing preview of the forthcoming album, the Silhouettes at Dawn. Schneider threw himself into the performance, shaking his hair wildly as he played finger-picked patterns on the guitar with the kind of intensity you’d expect in an electric-guitar solo. The last act of the evening, Poor Lister, was a solo project by Singleman Affair guitarist Gary Pyskacek.

And, yes, it did turn out to be a challenging evening for photography. You can see a lot of grain, blur and shallow focus in my photos. Most of the night, I was shooting at ISO 3200, f stop 1.4 and shutter speed 1/30th or 1/25th of a second. Those of you who know what that means will realize just how dark the Burlington was. But it also seemed like a hip and friendly place.

Photos from the Cardboard Sangria Showcase.