Live Music

[Janszoon]

Tonight, I saw the band Duster live. To be honest, it's probably one of the worst shows I've even been to, possibly second only to the time I saw Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band 30+ years ago, but that said I do (usually) love live music. What shows have you been to lately? What are some of your favorite live performances? What are your least favorite?

[Lexi Darling]

One of the best shows I've been to was seeing Rush in 2010. I will always cherish that memory, RIP Neil.

[Janszoon]

One of the best shows I've been to was seeing Rush in 2010. I will always cherish that memory, RIP Neil.

That's awesome that you got to see them! I've been listening to them for around 40 years but never had the privelidge

[Guybrush]

In February, I saw The Residents. They played songs from the duck stab album and I was really curious about how they'd arrange and recreate that album on stage. They didn't, really, instead arranging it for a Nord Stage, electronic drum kit, guitar and vocals. In the end, it felt more like a cash grab, but I'm still happy to have seen them.

Before that, I saw a Susanne Sundfør concert. It was a very relaxed affair. She had a yoga instructor who made the audience stand up and do muscle relaxation stuff before she started playing Susanne is a brilliant performer, though. Always sings and plays beautifully with never a half-note out of place. I closed my eyes and just felt tingles down my spine for much of that concert.

The most fun concert I saw last year was at a local festival where we played the last concert. One of the earliest bands to go on was FLTY BRGR GRL. Its like glammy but introspective/ dreamy alternative with a hint of diy-girl punk?

Not sure how to describe them exactly. Anyways, the sun was high, people were mostly sober, they were two people in the band - but despite that they put on an awesome show. The singer was lounging on top of the PA on one side of the stage at some point and the guitarist was out in the audience playing a guitar solo atop a table. They more than made up for in attitude what they might have lacked elsewhere which made me think of certain punk bands.

We were in the same backstage / storage / prepping area and I wanted to congratulate them on a great concert, but didn't quite dare because I felt like an old man and they'd probably just think I was creepy

[Lexi Darling]

One of the best shows I've been to was seeing Rush in 2010. I will always cherish that memory, RIP Neil.

That's awesome that you got to see them! I've been listening to them for around 40 years but never had the privelidge

They were electrifying, you could feel how on point and professional they were. The sound at the venue was amazing too, Geddy's bass tone was right upfront in the mix and it gave me a whole new appreciation for his playing. And the real treat was them playing the entire album of Moving Pictures.

[Guybrush]

2010 is quite late so glad to hear they were good 🙂 a friend of mine saw Yes around that time, or perhaps a bit earlier, and said it was disappointing. Rick Wakeman played cheesy orchestra hits on his synth is the comment I remember most specifically 

[Janszoon]

Obituary
with Immolation, Blood Incantation, and Ingrown

I went to this two nights ago. I had never seen Obituary or Immolation live so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see them both together. I had never heard of the other two bands prior to buying my ticket. Ingrown were first and played a solid, albeit short, set of high-energy metallic hardcore. Blood Incantation were second. Their style is rooted a somewhat psychedelic influenced death metal, and their most recent album isn't metal at all but rather Tangerine Dream-esque atmospheric synth music. At this show, they stuck to the death metal and they were excellent. Then Immolation took the stage and reminded me of why I like them so much. Their performance was tight, complex, and extremely intense. Apparently the drummer, Steve Shalaty, had just recovered from elbow surgery, but you would never know it from his flawless, intricate playing. Extra high marks go to lead guitarist Robert Vigna, who is among the most impressive guitarists I've ever seen live. Not only was his playing perfect, but for someone who didn't say a word, he had an incredible amount of stage presence. Finally, Obituary came on and they were great. Them and Death were my introduction to death metal back around 1989/1990, so it fun to actually see them in person after all these years. My only criticism is that Immolation is a very tough act to follow and I wish the bands had played in the opposite order, but regardless, Obituary were high-energy and highly entertaining. 

[Lexi Darling]

Obituary
with Immolation, Blood Incantation, and Ingrown

I went to this two nights ago. I had never seen Obituary or Immolation live so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see them both together. I had never heard of the other two bands prior to buying my ticket. Ingrown were first and played a solid, albeit short, set of high-energy metallic hardcore. Blood Incantation were second. Their style is rooted a somewhat psychedelic influenced death metal, and their most recent album isn't metal at all but rather Tangerine Dream-esque atmospheric synth music. At this show, they stuck to the death metal and they were excellent. Then Immolation took the stage and reminded me of why I like them so much. Their performance was tight, complex, and extremely intense. Apparently the drummer, Steve Shalaty, had just recovered from elbow surgery, but you would never know it from his flawless, intricate playing. Extra high marks go to lead guitarist Robert Vigna, who is among the most impressive guitarists I've ever seen live. Not only was his playing perfect, but for someone who didn't say a word, he had an incredible amount of stage presence. Finally, Obituary came on and they were great. Them and Death were my introduction to death metal back around 1989/1990, so it fun to actually see them in person after all these years. My only criticism is that Immolation is a very tough act to follow and I wish the bands had played in the opposite order, but regardless, Obituary were high-energy and highly entertaining. 

Nice! I'm not familiar with Blood Incantation, but psychedelic death metal sounds extremely up my alley.

[Janszoon]

Nice! I'm not familiar with Blood Incantation, but psychedelic death metal sounds extremely up my alley.

I think you'd enjoy them! The synth album, Timewave Zero, made me think of you, and what I've listened to of the death metal stuff is very good as well.

[Janszoon]

Jack Schneider
with Ellie Turner

My wife and I recently took a road trip and one of our stops was Nashville, Tennessee. The main drag there is filled with bland country/rock cover bands and annoying drunk people, so we wanted to find somewhere a little away from that area to catch some music. What we found was The Station Inn, which opened in 1974 and looks like it hasn't been redecorated since. It's known for bluegrass, which is why we went, but the artists that were playing the night we went were not bluegrass.

Ellie Turner opened, backed by Jack Schneider on guitar and two other members of Schneider's band on upright bass and harmonica for about half the songs of her set. Her style of music is the kind of spare, melancholic indie-folk that I tend not to like, but I thought she was a solid performer. Her guitar playing was what I expect from this kind of music but her voice was very unique—high, raspy, and almost child-like. Like I said before, this is not music I personally am likely to seek out, but for people who are into this kind of stuff she's well worth a listen.

Jack Schneider's style of music was somewhere between the Bakersfield sound and The Band, so it fit right in in a venue that still looked like 1974. Schneider provided mid range vocals, clean electric lead guitar, and occasional harmonica. He was backed by a drummer, a bassist, a pedal steel guitarist, a fiddle player, an acoustic rhythm guitarist, and a sort of co-frontman who sang the lower parts, handled the more involved harmonica parts, occasionally played guitar, and provided most of the jokey banter between songs. Once again, this was a band playing a style of music I'm not really into, but everyone involved was clearly highly skilled at their craft. I particularly liked the drummer and the pedal steel player. There are a lot of jokes about how boring country drumming can be, but this drummer, Griffin Photoglou, plays like a jazz drummer—makes sense, since I just looked him up and he is, in fact, a jazz drummer. I don't listen to much pedal steel music so I don't have much of a point of reference to talk about it, but I enjoyed watching the pedal steel player and thought he sounded great.

[Janszoon]

Lizzo
with Latto

Another stop on the road trip was Memphis, Tennessee. We didn't go there planning to see Lizzo, but it turned out she was playing walking distance from where we were staying and tickets were available, so we went. The show was at the FedExForum, an arena that's home to the city's pro basketball team, the Grizzlies, among other things. It's a big, modern arena, the kind of place I generally hate seeing music in and avoid at all costs, but maybe because it was in Memphis, we got pretty good seats for not much money.

I had never heard of Latto before. Her music was reasonably good pop hip hop and her signature song heavily sampled Tom Tom Club's  "Genius of Love" like a million other people before her. She performed with just a DJ and a handful of dancers. There was a lot of sexy dancing and her set was over fairly quickly.

Going into this show, I was mostly familiar with Lizzo through a couple of songs that my wife likes to play in the car. I liked what I heard of Lizzo's music, but it's not something I actively listened to on my own. But, holy shit, was she good live! Unlike Latto, she played with a full band: drums, bass, keyboards, guitar, and DJ. All of them were great, but I was especially impressed by the guitarist, an up-and-coming nineteen year old who absolutely shredded during her one solo, and the DJ, who also did a lot of backup rapping and pumping the crowd up. Lizzo herself had such incredible stage presence. Sometimes alone, sometimes surrounded by dancers, she rapped, sang, danced, and occasionally played the flute, all with astonishing intensity, filling the arena with energy. However many thousands of people in that arena were up dancing from beginning to end. It was probably the most positive, uplifting show I've ever been to. I've been very depressed lately, but while I was watching the show, and even after, I felt so much happier. It was an amazing experience, and again, I'm saying this as someone who didn't even know most of the music.

[Lexi Darling]

Oh, that's so awesome, I love Lizzo but have never seen her live performance. I think my sister has, she's a huge fan and most of what I know of Lizzo's music I know through her.

So glad you could get that uplifting feeling from the show! Music and art are so powerful like that.

[Janszoon]

Oh, that's so awesome, I love Lizzo but have never seen her live performance. I think my sister has, she's a huge fan and most of what I know of Lizzo's music I know through her.

So glad you could get that uplifting feeling from the show! Music and art are so powerful like that.

It really is! It's like some sort of magic to me.

[Janszoon]

Nobody's Darling String Band

Our road trip also took us to Asheville, North Carolina. I used to live across the hall from an amazing fiddle player who came from this small Appalachian city and I've always wanted to visit. It took me about twenty years, but I finally went. What I found was a pretty cool place with a lot to do and a bunch of good music spots. One of those spots is Jack of the Woods, a pub known for bluegrass.

Like in Nashville, we didn't see bluegrass at the bluegrass place, but at least we saw something close. The Nobody's Darling String Band play old-time music, the direct ancestor of bluegrass, and they were really great. Just bass, fiddle, two guitars, and the smallest banjo I've ever seen, but everybody in the pub was clapping along. We talked to the banjo player for quite a while after the show and learned her instrument was a Gibson banjo ukulele, an instrument that was popular with Vaudeville acts back in the day. Anyway, since they're a fairly small local band, I figured I'd share a video of them performing:

[Janszoon]

Skinny Puppy
with Lead Into Gold

I went to this show a few days before my roadtrip.

Lead Into Gold is a solo project of Paul Barker, formerly one half of classic-era Ministry, in addition to Revolting Cocks, the Blackouts, and a bunch of other stuff I loved when I was in my teens. I wasn't crazy about what I had heard of Lead Into Gold years ago, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but what I got was sort of Kraftwerkian minimalism wrapped around some of bassiest music I have ever experienced live. My sinuses rattled. My chest vibrated so hard that it made me wonder if these kind of frequencies could actually give me a heart attack. The bass was so physical that it was almost sculptural. Barker isn't much of a frontman—which no doubt made him the perfect foil for Al Jourgensen back in the day—but nevertheless, the music was incredibly powerful live and I came away from his set with a renewed respect for him.

Like with Paul Barker's various projects, I've been a fan of Skinny Puppy since the early nineties. Despite that fact, I had somehow never seen them live before. To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure that I wanted to see them at this stage in their career, but they were great. They had an incredibly precise drummer and guitarist on stage with them and cEvin Key was up on this platform above everything playing keyboards and samples. At first, Ogre was just a shadow behind a screen with another person whose extra limbs made the shadowplay incredibly surreal. After the screen dropped, Ogre was dressed as a black robed specter, with the other person acting as a shadowy doppelgänger who kept look like he was trying to kill him. Then he took off the robes and was an X-Files style alien with glowing eyes, which gave me a sudden appreciation for Skinny Puppy's under-recognized sense of humor. During the encore, he emerged as just an out of costume human and actually spoke a few times. Musically, the show also defied my expectations. They didn't play a series of recognizable songs. The whole show was like a massive remix, folding songs into each other in unexpected ways. It was stunning. Hearing "Fascist Jock Itch" and "Tin Omen" emerging from the chaos of a bunch of other stuff from the same era was one of the most surprising things I've ever heard live. Like with the Lizzo show I talked about previously, I was extremely depressed when I went to this show, and Skinny Puppy, surprisingly for band known for being kind of dark, grabbed me and lifted me up with their music. I wasn't expecting this from a band long past their heyday, but their set was truly transformative and I feel like it made me fall in love with them all over again.