Rock The Garden: 6/21/08

Special thanks to Dr Kyle for sending us pics and a review of last Saturday's Rock The Garden.

If you like your rock and roll full of excess and anarchy, a concert that promises to start promptly at 4:30 p.m. and produce no trash might not sound like the event of the summer. Rock the Garden, a concert in celebration of the Walker Art Garden’s 20^th anniversary and sponsored by local public radio station The Current, was touted by local media just as that.

Eau Claire, Wisconsin’s Bon Iver was the first act. I wasn’t sure his atmospheric folk would translate well to a large outdoor stage. The band got to rock out some in between vocal sections and the set slowly developed towards more up-tempo songs. I heard a few people singing along to “Skinny Love,” a song that has been getting heavy rotation at The Current. Bon Iver would be more suited to a dark, small club but the band admirably pulled off a very good show by understanding the venue and letting loose.

Local band Cloud Cult was next. The band is known for its ecological sensitivity that fit in well with the concept of a zero-waste event. The band usually puts on a tight, emotional show and this was no exception. On-stage artists were painting while songs from the last two albums were mixed in. “Take Your Medicine” continues to sound even better live than it does recorded.

By the time The New Pornographers started the sun had moved behind them --making it difficult to look towards the stage. The sound was muddy at first but did clear up through the set. The band didn’t play particularly well but when a band doesn’t know which members will show up for any particular show you don’t expect a well rehearsed gig. They played favorites from older albums as well as a few songs from their last disk.

Within two minutes of being onstage, Andrew Bird had bowed and plucked the violin, sang, whistled, and played guitar. He used a sampler heavily throughout the concert and with this played his first song solo. A drummer and guitarist joined him on stage for the second song. With the small band some memorable melodies from his recorded work were absent. The frequent sampling made many of the songs sound cold, and technical difficulties ensued later in his set. A new song sounded like Graceland-era Paul Simon with loops. The crowd cheered the song then voiced their displeasure at having the music stopped.

After this slow start, the remainder of the show went very well. Andrew Bird is an amazing whistler and multi-instrumentalist and he was able to overcome the previous problems to connect with the audience. He had one encore and closed the day with violin and whistling to ease people into the summer the night. The concert ended promptly at 10 pm.

For an outdoor concert the sound was quite good and I was amazed that each act started and ended on time. Though the music delivered, the venue didn’t offer the perfect Minnesota summer night.

Other then walking through the Walker or the Sculpture Garden the location could have been any street in Minneapolis or St. Paul. Had they placed the stage at the other end of the street people wouldn’t have been staring into the sun and the background would have been the Basilica and the sky-line instead of condos.

The lines for the bathrooms were about 30 minutes by the time The New Pornographers started and the wait for any food was 45 minutes. People waited two hours for Chipotle burritos. It was easy to spend entire sets waiting in lines. Luckily, there were no lines for beer so many people just kept drinking their Summit on empty stomachs. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see people loot the burrito tent and urinate on sculptures, but nothing that rock-n-roll overtook the masses.

Cloud Cult @ Rock The Garden:

Kiss me one more time

June 12 was just a dream. After spending considerable time figuring out how much bling was blingy enough (decided on gold bambi and grandma's charm bracelet) and applying coat after coat of red lipstick (the permanent kind, which I have found to be both a blessing and a curse), Nick & I drove to the Cabooze for our interview with Eugene Hütz. I had the advert for the Gogol Bordello concert on my bulletin board for over a month, and with a combination of anxiety and excitement, was really really looking forward to sharing the same space with my favorite band from the East.

Greeted by their tour manager, he escorted us through the outdoor stage and put us on their bus. One foot in and we were transported into what I can only describe is as if Wes Anderson wrote and directed Zoolander. Row upon row of traditional instruments and neon clothing layered the seats of the bus, with a handful of beautiful, international musicians warming up for the evening's festivities. They pointed us to a closed door at the back of the bus.

Sergey Ryabtsev, Yuri Lemeshev & Eugene were tucked in the back nook, playing guitar, violin and accordion, when Nick & I unknowingly interrupted them. After a brief hello, Eugene said, "Let's do this." Nick then opened his camera case and suddenly opened a cacophony of "fucks," "motherfuckers" and what I can only imagine to be more colorful curses in Russian. (It was explained to me once that there are much more satisfying words in Slavic languages.) Eugene believed we were doing a print interview, and was upset at the extra time and energy it would take to record it. Bless violinist Sergey, who put out the fire and left Nick & I alone, as Eugene splashed water on his face and put on a fabulous purple jacket and headband. As you can imagine, I was freaking out.

Eugene came back fresh as a daisy and gave us one hell of an interview. Without giving too much away- we talked Brazilian markets, Mehanata, and his appropriated porno business in Kiev. He sang “Soul Warrior,” and making me the happiest girl on the West Bank, kissed me on both cheeks. His mustache tickles. He also apologized profusely for getting upset in the beginning – Gogol Bordello was playing a Tom Waits set with Les Claypool the following day at Bonnaroo – they hadn’t learned any of the songs and we had crashed their first practice! Oops.

Les Claypool & Gogol Bordello at Bonnaroo:

Stay tuned for the interview and concert footage...

Birthday Suits: May 23, 2008

When Birthday Suits took the stage in First Avenue's 7th Street Entry, I wondered, "Wow, what the fuck are they so mad at?" I quickly realized their foes were bordem, complacency. Just see the clairvoyant "Twin City Bridge is Falling Down" -- which was written pre-35W collapse!!!

Cherry Blue, the 16-minute-33-second-long scorcher of an album, unveils a barrage of staccato, nose-thumbing, kick-a-hole-in-the-sky spaz punk.

Two-fifths of defunct raucous ethnic punk outfit Sweet Jap reference influences from Minor Threat to The Mothers of Invention to Weird Al Yankovich and have found a new amalgam of music I find best coined as “tardcore.”

Guitarist Hideo Takashi and Drummer Matthew Kazama share vocals – at times in doo-wop fashion – in a lispy Asian accent so real and expressive that it may at first seem intentional and laughable. Not that they give the tiniest #&*$ what you think.

They keep it real as Hennepin and 7^th Street after bar close live and on the album, and fill a stage so full of life force -- the likes of which I have not seen since the Stooges played Grant Park.

10000 Beats filmed the entire show. Lots of footage coming soon...

Busdriver at Triple Rock 5.16.08

Crass, aggressive and funny - Busdriver held one audience member hostage with his finger gun as he spat quick witty ramblings on subjects not entirely decipherable. The highly anticipated opener provided Minneapolis with a glimpse of true artistry - someone who breathes in his influences and exhales a perspective entirely his own. With two mics, knobs, some switches, and Antimc on guitar and at the helm, the Los Angeles rapper side-swiped the unknowing Minneapolis crowd with his unceasing energy. Plowing through Sunshower and Casting Agents & Cowgirls, his audience reached their peak of excitement when Antimc wove Radiohead's Idioteque into one of his tracks. Towards the end of his set, Busdriver announced that he wanted his musical, ahem, body part, to, you know, with Minneapolis' opposite body part. All I can say, is that myself and hundreds of others emerged satisfied. Thanks Regan.

I took the night off & missed a good show

I decided to take the night off last night - too many nights out in a row. Getting old. Anyway, I guess I missed a great show and my chance to take tequila shots with Jamie & Alison. Thankfully, recently released (hospital not jail) Leif, sent his friends who forgot to take pictures but came back with the set list - in case you were dying to know what they played:

URA Fever
Pull a U
Sour Cherry
Tape Song
No Wow
Alphabet Pony
Wait
Last Day of Magic
Kissy Kissy
What New York Used to Be
Cheap and Cheerful
Fried My Little Brains
Goodnight Bad Morning

Encore:
Love Is a Deserter
Drop Out

Letter to AliRose

I was very pleased to open my email this morning and find this email from a guy we will call "Inappropriate Hugger." Thank you, IH, for your DeVotchKa post. Keep em coming!

Hey –

I know there was a request to send thoughts about the show to My Music at Fox, but since I haven't hugged Fox yet I don't feel comfortable sharing my feelings with it/him/her. Anyways, I did get to the show early because I like being close, but not too close. Strangely that is the same approach I have with women... Anyways, the first act doesn't need commenting, they won a contest which is nice for them, not so nice for me. Second act, Basia, well she was adorable, has decent strange presence and was adorable. Did I say she was adorable? Well, musically the last song or two where the energy was picked up was considerably better than the direction the set was going. Maybe I need to listen to her stuff some more, but she was not nearly as good as My Brightest Diamond (last time's opening act). Before getting to the main act some crowd observations, I saw a lot of couples... I mean A LOT. Next down I would say packs of wild girls or gyrls or grls, usually in packs of 4. Not sure what the significance of that was... And finally, my group, sad looking single guys, looking for a taste of happiness or more sadness in strings and accordion music. I must say for a portion of the main act I felt like I was at the State Fair playing "Whack a Mole". Except in this case it was "Whack a Pot Head Hippy Gyrl." You see there were four ladies in front of me that would scrunch do to take a hit of a joint and pass it to the next who would in turn do the same thing. Not sure if they thought that was more discreet or not. The show itself did not feel as energetic as the last two I have been two. I don't know if it was the new tuba sans Christmas lights or something else. I will admit that I do love "Queen of the Surface Streets" and "How It Ends" and am not apologetic for that. I have most of their releases with the exception of the soundtrack and I enjoy it all, but there is something about those songs. As for the Slavic Sisters, that is what it is. Anyways, I hope you had a good time at the show. I did not seek you out for fear of another hugging episode. I know you sought treatment, but it could make for an uncomfortable situation for those attending the show with you.

Tell your mother you love her,
Inappropriate hugger.

Confessions of a Concert-going Newbie

MMTC friend Vanessa Walrath wandered into the Walker Art Center Sat night and emerged with this to say:

I spent the majority of my life with only corn fields and the occasional 24-hr grocery store for entertainment. Needless to say, the Twin Cities has broadened my horizons. But three years after moving here, I’m still new at this, still the last one to hear about a great new band or the next life-changing show. So if I blindly wander into a venue at which anything phenomenal is happening, it’s sheer luck.

Well, luck struck again on Saturday night, when I found an extra ticket to the sold-out 8pmWorld of Dosh at the Walker (I only specify time because, even though I thought about sliding under a seat so I could catch the 11pm show, I didn’t). Words do little justice to the experience.

For starters, I have this secret love of experimental/ambient/electronica/hip hop and a not so secret love of jazz, so if a band edges toward that end of the spectrum, I’m happy. Euphoria = Dosh and his friends. I felt like a fly on the wall in a practice space jam session – only the most beautiful, intricate, and skillful jam session I’ve ever witnessed. Each of Dosh’s “friends” held their own, and almost played in a world unto themselves - looping sounds from guitar strings, bass, percussion, baby Yamaha keyboards, etc. as Dosh manned his “rig” of keyboard, Fender Rhodes, grand piano, drum kit and a ridiculous amount of pedals and cables. They passed the melody around with ease, sometimes adding a single note or sound to create a perfect whole.

Dosh’s personal simplicity and humility (his only opening line: “Hi, everybody”) was in direct contrast to the complexity of his sound, layering beats, random sounds, chord progressions to such fullness that when his “friends” stepped back and he played 5+ min. on his own, nothing was missing. However, the final numbers, that included Andrew Bird on violin and whistle + 6 friends +Dosh were a modern symphony that left the audience on its feet (and me wishing I could fit into the garbage can and sneak into the next show).

The only thing I regretted about the experience was that I picked the 8pm performance. I felt like, in spite of the slightly unstructured nature of the music, everyone was very time-conscious, and the encore was cut-short b/c they had to get us out of there in time for the 11pm audience. But being the rule-conscious Midwesterner that I am, I respectfully filed out of the room with everyone else, thankful that Fate had once again smiled on me and allowed me to happen upon that show…

Video: Andrew Bird and Dosh May 3, 2008.

Foals @ 7th St Entry

After sleeping through not one, but two bands Monday night, I really, really hoped Foals would hit the Entry hard and give us all a good slap in the face. I went into the show feeling iffy about the band - aren't they Bloc Party with the good luck of an Antibalas horn section? Yes.

Front man Yannis Philippakis - half Christian Siriano, half Colin Ferrell - is a gifted hype man. He started the set by dancing in the crowd and they loved him for it - like Beatle mania love - like Michael Jackson in Japan love. The college students in the front row (including the girl dressed as AliRose) screamed, danced and nearly cried as Foals led them through their dance punk songbook (names of which I don't know and probably never will.) Yannis and bassist Walter Gervers talked to their admiring crowed quite a bit, and proved to be pretty funny - they mentioned a certain local radio personality whose accent they found confusing and called, "Inter-Atlantic" and "from somewhere near Greenland."

In between songs, they played metal (including one short but sweet Slayer cover) - and for the first time in their set, played loose and connected. They put on a show that everyone loved, but with the exception of their hard transitions, it might as well have been "Cassius" over and over again. I hope they get over dance punk and make a good hardcore album - just pray they don't look to The Blood Brothers as they did Bloc Party.

Overheard at the Entry last night

Nick & I went to see Foals last night at 7th St. Two local bands opened for them - Ghost In The Water & North. This is how they made me feel:

This is how Ghost In The Water made others feel:

• Ghost In The Water is like driving through the streets of Tokyo with Mr Monopoly as your driver on ecstasy.
• ...falling into a diabetic coma.
• ...blowing bubbles with Jesus.
• ...spending the weekend in Mario 3.
• ...getting kicked in the nuts by Willy Wonka.
• ...eating your first Starburst.
• ...what it would feel like if Sufijan Stevens braided your hair.
• ...doing (something dirty) with the lead singer of Flock of Seagulls.
  

Hmmm. I don't think Ghost In The Water went over too well with the company I keep. Maybe if they didn't sound like a candy pop cross between The Faint and Go Sailor.

I've only got two words for North: Cold Play.

Check back for more about Foals and Hot Tranny Mess Yannis Philippakis.

-AliRose

Hot Chip's Next Wave Sound Sweeps up Sold Out First Ave

My first roommate in California plastered our dorm room with pictures of Jarvis Cocker. "A Different Class" played on a loop that year, and we took every opportunity to go dancing at a San Francisco disco that played Brit Pop for the underage. We had so much fun those Thursday nights, singing along with the eyelinered cool to the NME-coined "New Wave of New Wave". Nearly 10 years later, I really wished Vivien was with me last Friday at First Avenue.

The evening started with an interview with Felix Martin and dreamy Owen Clarke of Hot Chip. We played "pass the microphone with Leif and AliRose" after their sound check, and talked about sticky weather, wrestling and fitting into a genre. They were super nice. After some Jameson and Pad Thai, I looked forward to their set.

The duo Free Blood from Brooklyn, New York, opened the festivities. Madeline & John had been sitting two tables away from me at a Thai place downtown before the show, and my friends openly mocked John's sweet airbrushed Mexican wrestler sweatshirt. I thought it was awesome, but as I am realizing, Minnesota is slow to the irony. Thankfully, he chose to wear the sweatshirt onstage, which provided enough spectacle to keep me awake. They turned out to be one of those laptop bands that plug in and play a cross between Momus and Cannibal Corpse. The crowd, made up of a quarter aging singles, half American Appareled MCAD students, a quarter frat boys, and one Fox 9 investigator, liked them, but not enough to make the sold out First Avenue full of energy. Al Doyle from Hot Chip, who also plays with LCD Soundsystem, played his guitar on a couple of songs, breaking up the computer music, and leaving me to wonder how they got on the ticket.

The minute Hot Chip appeared onstage, all earlier noise melted away. Opening with "Shake a Fist", the entire club went Hot Chip crazy and for the next two hours, they had me and most everyone in their pocket. In a sharp white suit (half Don Johnson, half Kip Dynamite), Alexis Taylor coolly sang "And I Was a Boy from School", "Ready for the Floor", and "Wrestlers" as the audience mouthed the words and pardon the expression, shook their fists. They managed to sound improvisational with complicated rhythms, a dozen instruments, choreographed lighting and seamless song transitions. Hot Chip were very tight. As the set drew to a close, they gave a nod to First Avenue royalty and played a few bars of "Little Red Corvette" before closing their encore with "Nothing Compares To You", sweeping into their own "Made In The Dark". Hot Chip put on a show I won't forget.

About half way through the performance, I looked around the room and realized I was bopping and singing along with everyone. I guess Hot Chip is the New Wave of the New Wave of New Wave, and in that sweaty crowd, I had flashbacks to Viv and I bounding around PopScene belting out the lyrics to all songs we loved so dear. If I were 18 and an art student once again, I'm sure one if not all five would be pinups on my dorm room wall.

As the house lights went on, I waved to Owen and he smiled and waved back. At least I think he did.

-AliRose

ps - Here is a camera phone video I found on YouTube from the show:

Tapes n' Tapes Put a Hex On It

It was so relieving to see Tapes n' Tapes play First Ave's mainroom last night with a fervor unseen since Lollapalooza 2007.

The local-boys-gone-national seemed road weary and jaded after being thrust to the top of the indie heap after releasing "The Loon."

For those who don't know, it's named after their favorite MPLS bar, and they took the stage like it was Saturday night and Grape Apes were on 2fers.
Unleashing new material from "Walk It Off" intertwined with "Loon" faves, they showed their true mastery of the crescendo - starting soft and subtle, lullling the crowd into a trance before unleasing a melodic assault. Don’t believe me? See “10 Gallon Ascots,” which was a part of the well-played encore.

The promising new material and first-hand knowledge of advancing road aging should keep our hometown heroes in tact through their sophomore trek.

I know this after witnessing them rocket into their first-ever single “Just Drums,” Tapes pounded it out like it was their first show at the Hexagon.

Fare thee well until next time TNT, in the word’s of Dee Snyder: Stay Hungry!

-Leif

The Black Keys Burn Rubber in First Ave's Mainroom

I was in my ’93 Chevy Lumina the first time I heard the hard-chargin’ 1969 Chevelle that is the Black Keys. From the first bending bombast of electric blues that is “Thickfreakness” I was at full attention, staring at my AM/FM-cassette car stereo – daring it to tell me more. 

As the vocals kicked in, I wondered how I’d never heard of these 50-year-old electric bluesmen – and waited for the underpaid college DJ to list off the last few songs he played.

“The Black Keys,” he said. I pushed the pedal in my family sedan to the floor and my obsessive-journalistic side took over. No way would have my ear missed such a stellar sound – and I was right. These cats were brand new – and my age.

These near-23-year-olds bounced up out of Akron, Ohio and polished their road skills on a tiny club tour. Months later, they came to the First Avenue Mainroom stage, which they adorned with a few stacks of used tires – a big up to their “Rubber City” origins.

The few hundred in attendance were treated to an epic, skid mark-leaving torrent that left the keys with “no songs left” to play. So for a third encore, they played The Stooges “No Fun.” Appropriate, as the show was a display of raw power by two young men with old souls – ready to take on all comers.

In the Mainroom appearances since, they had seemed weary and worn. They lacked the torque they displayed in ’03, and showed some rust spots. Six years and endless road miles after that epic show, they returned.

Fresh off a tune-up and tricking-out via uber producer Danger Mouse -- who tweaked their strict guitar-drums sound by adding strings, keys, blips and bloops --  the keys appeared a rebuilt machine.

Their stage featuring a 20-foot inflatable tire, through which the Akronites nodded to their humble beginnings while winking at things to come.

Confidently igniting into their triumphant return with a track off the new “Attack and Release” album, Frontman Dan Auerbach popped a piston – I mean string – on his guitar and went scrambling to tune one of two others leaning on stage while drummer Patrick Carney held the beat down.

Within two minutes the false start was forgiven, and they keys spanned their catalog in classic form, mixing in a few new tracks without the mouse trappings – they even pulled a trick out of the leavin’ trunk with a whiskeyed Captain Beefheart cover.

In the 14-some song showcase, the Black Keys proved that despite the high mileage and pimped-out new sound, they’ve got plenty of gas left in the ride.

-Leif

Vampire Weekend Charm the Room at Triple Rock

When the average indie kid hears Vampire Weekend, they become giddy and codoned, like a girl scout on oxycontin wafers.

The question is…Why? These Columbia-learned Ivy Leaguers aren’t dangerous, threatening, even impolite for that matter.

They don’t play some new amalgam of Ziggy Stardust and the Rolling Stones that you are the first blogger to know about. But they do sound like Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel had a Bowie/Jagger boy party and abandoned their Blue Blood baby in downtown Johannesburg.
So I guess that is a new sound no one knew about but their gently playful fathers – and it’s so amiable and alluring that every club in the U.S. and abroad is inviting them over to their stage.
The Minneapolis mid-level Triple Rock Social Club was lucky enough to get some face time with VW Thursday, and 21-year-old former girl scouts as well as 50-year-old longhairs were swooned by this month’s hottest boys in the band.

Some indie-elitists claim the sound is too derivative of Simon and Gabriel to be pure genius, but by the third song of the set even the most cynical of the tight trousered crowd was gushing. With the audience at their beck and call, the Vamps invited them to “dance a little.” Oblige they did, as the band – in the face of such hype – shrugged off the challenge, not missing a note through the call and response of “One (Blake’s Got a New Face)” to the skanky jitter of “A-Punk.”

The boys tried a taste of danger as they punkily snarled out “Oxford Comma” – but came off absolutely sober and charming.

A great album, a great effort on stage, a great tour – so what can Vampire Weekend possibly do next to win the blogs and minds of indie kids?

“We’re working on a new album, but it’s hard re-recording Tom Petty’s Greatest Hits," quipped frontman Ezra Koenig.

-Leif