|
||||
|
Category: Live music
Live: Windhand – November 07, 2018 – Subterranean – Chicago, IL
A place called “Subterranean” seems like a perfect fit to see doom metal rockers Windhand. A lot of their songs cover subjects like graveyards, tombs, and ancient things best left buried. They played to a happy crowd of metal heads, goths, and music geeks like yours truly in the small club. Unfortunately for me, their opening band, Satan’s Satyrs, were wrapping up their set about the time I was walking up to the door. Yes, I could hear them from outside and even across a busy Chicago street.
Windhand were just as loud, if not louder. I hadn’t seen them since I caught most of their set at Levitation Austin earlier this year, and that was an open-air stage. This would be my first time seeing them in an enclosed space. I’m glad I brought my earplugs.
Emerging to a recording of spooky Halloween / haunted house noises, they opened with, what else, “Old Evil” and immediately unleashed thunder.
Lead singer Dorthia Cottrell was fully warmed up by the time they reached “First to Die,” and following it with “Forest Clouds” and “Grey Garden” had the entire crowd head-banging in unison.
One thing I noticed live that I now can’t believe I missed when listening to their new record, Eternal Return, was how Garrett Morris‘ guitar work often brings in distortion and effects with shoegaze influences. It’s no secret that I love shoegaze music, so this is probably one of the many reasons I like Windhand so much.
Everyone in the crowd was ready for the Grim Reaper to show up by the time Windhand got to “Red Cloud” and “Cossack.” It was a heavy, powerful performance that I needed after a work week that had me dealing with a staggering amount of paperwork until my eyes were sore.
Another breath of fresh air at this show was something you don’t see much of anymore – affordable merchandise. $20 T-shirts, $10 CD’s, cheap stickers, reasonably priced hoodies, and more were available at Windhand and Satan’s Satyrs’ booths.
Catch them before they leave for a bunch of European dates. Heck, go to Europe and see them (where I’m sure they’ll sell out most, if not all, of their shows). Let their power overwhelm you.
Keep your mind open.
[Keep updated on music news and reviews by subscribing.]
Live: Public Image Ltd. – October 22, 2018 – Thalia Hall – Chicago, IL
I last tried to see Public Image Ltd. thirty years ago when a friend of mine in high school won tickets to see them play in Indianapolis. She couldn’t make the show, or just didn’t want to go, and told me she’d give me the tickets once she picked them up from the radio station that held the conotest. She kept avoiding me as the day of the show drew closer. I tracked her down the day of the show and asked about the tickets. She blushed and admitted that she didn’t make it to the station to get them. I was out of luck.
PiL went through many lineup changes and hiatuses and went on many tours that never came close to my neck of the woods since then. I finally got tickets to see them at Chicago’s Thalia Hall…and learned a couple weeks before the show that I was going to have to cancel the trip because a co-worker would still be recovering from surgery. I was, as you can guess, bummed about that.
As fate would have it, however, my co-worker recovered faster than anyone imagined he would and I ended up with the night off…although I still had to work at 6am the next day. I wouldn’t let that stop me, however.
PiL started their set with the low-key “Deeper Water,” and then slowly ramped up the energy from there forward. John Lydon stood like a professor at a podium in front of his microphone and sheet music stand, delivering a lesson on how to own a stage and spit venom (all the while alternating sips of water and straight bourbon from the bottle between songs). He even shimmed and shook a bit on “Bodies.” The crowd was firmly in his hand when they followed it with “Disappointed.”
They were in a great groove when they reached “Death Disco,” “Cruel,” and “I’m Not Satisfied.” The crowd went nuts for “This Is Not a Love Song,” and “Rise” gave me chills after finally getting to hear it live after three decades. Album is one of my favorite records of all time, and getting to hear John Lydon sing even one cut from it was worth the wait.
“Does this look like a fucking cruise ship?” Lydon asked a drunk man in front of the stage as they came back out for the encore. “We don’t do requests.” That guy and his drunk girlfriend were soon removed by security while Lydon waved goodbye to them and he and PiL tore through “Public Image” and “Open Up.”
This was the first show in a long time at which I bought a tour shirt that cost more than twenty dollars. I have a hard time paying more than that for any T-shirt. The official tour shirt was $30.00. I hesitated. My wife said, “Thirty years, man.” She was right. A dollar for every year I waited was a fair price, and completely worth it.
Keep your mind open.
[I’ll be disappointed if you don’t subscribe.]
Live: Simple Minds – Fillmore Theater, Detroit, MI – October 14, 2018
When one of my best pals from high school said he had a free extra ticket to see Simple Minds in Detroit, I jumped at the chance to (1) hang out with him and (2) finally see a band that was a big part of our high school years. I mean, come on. 1985’s Once Upon a Time is one of the best albums of that decade. Plus, the tracks they played from their new record, Walk Between Worlds, aren’t too shabby either.
They started with “The Signal and the Noise” off that new record and then unloaded two sets’ worth of classic hits and new material including “Up on the Catwalk” (which I hadn’t heard in years), the lively “Promised You a Miracle,” “Midnight Walking,” before ending the first set with a cover of “Dirty Old Town.”
“Theme for Great Cities” opened the second set, and they were cruising by then. The title track off the new record was well-received, as were “Someone Somewhere in the Summertime,” “All the Things She Said,” and “Don’t You (Forget about Me)”.
The encore included “Stand by Love,” “Alive and Kicking,” and “Sanctify Yourself.” It was a fun show, with a happy crowd of Gen X’ers and even younger folks. One woman was in happy tears as we were walking out. “So many feels!” she yelled.
Keep your mind open.
[Sanctify your e-mail inbox by subscribing.]
Levitation France 2018 recap
This year was not only the first time my wife and I traveled to France, it was also the first time we traveled to Levitation France in Angers – a mid-size town about one and a half hours by train southwest of Paris. It was the sixth year of the two-day festival and we’d wanted to go ever since we started attending Levitation Austin in 2013. The dates finally worked out this year, so we made the trip.
First, the festival is held in Le Quai – a great performance space venue in Angers along the Maine River. It has at least five performance areas in it, and the festival uses two of them for shows, two for food trucks, one for merchandise, and one for a bar.
That’s the outside of the venue in the main food truck area. Immediately inside that big open door is the main stage (called the “Forum”). We didn’t start there, however. We started in the smaller performance space (“T400”) at the back with French garage rockers Wild Fox.
They were the first band on the first day, and they came to make a statement. They threw down wild energy that whipped up the early crowd, ending by kicking apart their drum set, playing with broken strings, and churning out plenty of good feedback.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about the new album from La Luz, so we checked out their set on the Forum stage. They had a good crowd, and their California sun-drenched psychedelia was a nice match for the sun coming in through the window behind them.
We grabbed a bite from the food trucks (where I scored some tasty Senegalese food), and then headed toward the T400 stage to check out Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs. On the way there, we passed Holy Wave doing their soundcheck on the Forum stage. They were playing Interpol‘s “Untitled,” much to the delight of myself and a woman who came running from the back bar to cheer them.
Pigs x 7 were so loud and heavy that we had to fade back a bit and leave their set early. I think my wife’s head was about to split open from the intensity. We caught Holy Wave‘s set. They’re another band I’ve wanted to see for a while, and they put on a nice set of Texas psych-rock and seemed to be having a great time.
We then zipped back to the T400 stage to catch most of Prettiest Eyes‘ set. It was our favorite of the night. The electro-punk oddballs from Puerto Rico and Mexico put on a great show with crazy beats, boundless energy, and plenty of swagger. My wife picked up a button from their merchandise table afterwards. I need to get their latest album. John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees said at Levitation Austin this year that they’re one of his favorite bands. It’s easy to see why when you see them live.
We headed back to the Forum stage to see the Soft Moon. If you haven’t figured it out by now, the two stages are so close together, and the set times staggered so well, that you can see every band that plays over the course of the two days without trouble (and usually see their full sets). We saw the Soft Moon at our first Levitation Austin festival, back when it was still known as the Austin Psych Fest. It was good to see them again and get a hefty dose of industrial dark wave.
We ended the first night with the Blank Tapes, who my wife was keen on seeing after she checked out one of their videos. They have a nice, mellow sound that blends some folk with their psychedelia. My favorite song during the set was one the lead singer wrote to sing to his house plants (“Not marijuana…Regular plants.”).
On day two, we got to Le Quai in time to see Bryan’s Magic Tears start the show. They played a nice set of psych-pop, but hunger won over on us and we headed to the food trucks for some crepes and a great Senegalese chicken sandwich.
Go! Zilla were on the Forum stage immediately after them, and they provided some nice psychedelic dinner music for us.
The biggest surprise of the day, and possibly the whole festival, was the set by Flamingods. They put on a wild set of Middle Eastern, Afrobeat, and psychedelic music that had the members changing instruments so many times that I couldn’t keep track of whom mainly played what.
We then caught Juniore on the Forum stage. They’re an electro / post-punk three piece from France who put on a quirky, neat set with one of them wearing a silver mask the entire time. My wife said it reminded her of a Sleestak from Land of the Lost.
We were keen on seeing MIEN at the festival since we’d been at their premiere live gig at Levitation Austin earlier this year. They didn’t disappoint and are well in the groove after a lot of touring to support their debut album of dark psychedelia.
Another fun surprise was the set by French electro duo Oktober Lieber. They were heavier than I’d expected and threw down some impressive industrial dance grooves.
The rest of the night was full of electronic music for us. First was French musician Flavien Berger – a one-man show of techno beats, vocal effects, and synth work.
We ended the night, and our first Levitation France festival, with Radar Men from the Moon, who played nothing but synths, keyboards, and sequencers instead of their usual guitars and drums. It was a great, powerful set that made us run for the merchandise room and buy their first record.
We’ll definitely go back, but I’m not sure it will be in the cards for next year. We loved the festival and Angers. Cross it off your bucket list, too.
Keep your mind open.
Keep your mind open.
[Have you subscribed? If so, merci beaucoup.]
Sharon Van Etten announces tour dates for 2019.
|
||||||
|
Live: Garbage and Dream Wife – September 20, 2018 – Paris, France
My wife and I were delighted to learn that Garbage would be playing in Paris while we were on vacation there. I was surprised we managed to score tickets at face value, and even more surprised by the intimacy of the venue – the Bataclan. I expected a much bigger place, but the small size made the show louder, closer, and better.
Openers Dream Wife put down a raucous set of garage punk about subjects like female empowerment and ending gender bias. The people tending their merch table were having a great time all night.
Garbage came out to a lively crowd and were soon tearing through hits from their second album, Garbage 2.0. It was the 20th anniversary tour of the record, so you had to expect it. They played other hits, of course, and lead singer Shirley Manson had the crowd in her hands within moments of the first notes she sang.
They tore through tracks like “Deadwood,” “Wicked Ways” (which included parts of Depeche Mode‘s “Personal Jesus”), and “The World Is Not Enough” – the Bond theme they did from the movie of the same name back in 1999. Other highlights included “Medication,” with Manson telling the story of how she had to deal with health care in the U.S. after nearing dying of flu while on tour, “I Think I’m Paranoid,” “Sleep Together,” “Dumb,” and “Push It.”
They closed with “The Trick Is to Keep Breathing,” a new song called “No Horses” (which Manson said is about an environmental apocalypse), and “Cherry Lips” (which Manson said has become the Garbage concert anthem).
It was a fun show with an appreciative crowd. You can’t ask for much more than that.
Keep your mind open.
[Don’t forget to subscribe.]
Live: Alison Krauss – September 12, 2018 – South Bend, IN
Alison Krauss‘ South Bend stop on her current tour was supposed to be at the Morris Theatre. That was changed, however, when a piece of the ceiling inside the Morris fell to the floor days earlier and the venue was closed for repairs. Her show (like Ringo Starr‘s before her) was moved to South Bend’s Century Center.
My wife and I arrived there with our tickets for “main floor left center” seats in row W, seats 12 and 13. What we found in the ad hoc seating area was chaos. All “main floor” seats were set up in the far rear stage left corner of the room. Five different docents each told us different information on where our seats were located. We were told to sit in the “mezzanine” seats at one point, and then told all “main floor” seats were across the room and to sit wherever we could find a seat. The “main floor” seats were listed by row, however (written in pencil that was hard to see, no less), and row W stopped at seat #10. Seats 12 and 13 didn’t exist. I asked if more chairs were available and was told they had enough seats for all tickets sold. This turned out to be more misinformation, because as more and more people showed up with no idea where to sit, docents started bringing out more chairs. One row of seats moved all their seats to the left by two spots either by suggestion of a docent or just for the hell of it. People were still confused about where to sit within seven minutes of the start of Ms. Krauss’ set.
Ms. Krauss did put on a fine show, so all was well once she took the stage. She and her band, which featured members of Union Station and the Cox Family Singers, performed a lot of spiritual hymns, bluegrass classics, and some of her more popular love songs.
Starting with a cover of Roger Miller‘s “River in the Rain,” Ms. Krauss’ amazing voice immediately filled the room. Her cover of Willie Nelson‘s “I Never Cared for You” was heartbreaking, and “Ghost in This House” was perfect now that pumpkin spice is all the rage and Halloween decorations are going up again.
Her cover of Little Milton‘s “Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson” was a blast and the traditional “Down to the River to Pray” was inspiring. The cover of the Carter Family‘s “Keep on the Sunny Side” was a fun highlight, and the closer of “It Is Well with My Soul” was divine.
Go see her if you can. Goofy seating is worth the headache for the lovely song craft you’ll hear.
Keep your mind open.
[Don’t forget to subscribe before you split.]
Deap Vally announces fall U.S. west coast tour.
Rock goddesses Deap Vally are playing a bunch of west coast tour dates this fall. Don’t miss them. Don’t miss them ever. They embarrass anyone who has to play after them, or before them, or any other time really.
Keep your mind open.
[Get deep by subscribing.]
Protomartyr announces fall North American tour with Preoccupations.
Protomartyr Announce Fall Co-Headline Tour With Preoccupations
|
|