Archive for the stuff we saw category
April 23rd, 2009
last night, we ’secretly’ opened for Vampire Weekend at the John M. Greene Hall, Smith College. a bit of a last-minute booking, and we could not promote it because of our big upcoming benefit show this saturday, april 25th at memorial hall in shelburne falls. nevertheless, the hall was packed and the kids enjoyed the set. VW were really good, energetic and unpretentious, and there was a very positive vibe to the whole evening.
we played more of a ‘rock’ set and had much fun doing it, leaving off the super-fragile numbers in favor of more sparkle and soar. it was pouring rain out. here are some pictures of this evening:
a fan picture of our set. we were well-lit. my legs look skinny.
after the show, the Folding of the Vampire Weekend signature image. a sacred moment, done in silence.
a panoramic shot of the VW show in full effect, from the balcony.
a panoramic of the green room/winterpills pre-show mealtime in full effect.
testing the lights at soundcheck.
the view from my head during soundcheck.
the banner.
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last saturday the 18th, we played at the amazing Bell House in Brooklyn, with our dear pals KaiserCartel and new friends Lucinda Black Bear. his venue is not to be missed for it ambience, sound, and general incredible friendliness to an audience and artist. somebody got this place right.
it was the first of three shows that we are playing with Dave Chalfant playing electric guitar in place of Dennis, who severely burned his hand doing a Mark Bittman recipe last week (no fault of Bittman’s). Dave C played great, as usual, and the show was wonderful all around. KC and LBB’s sets blew our minds. a great night.
THe next day we made it out to Williamsburg with Benjamin Cartel to eat Bahn Mi at Silent H. Here are some pictures of the weekend:
Ben waits for his grilled pork Bahn Mi sandwich, patiently, with a touch of anger perhaps.
the violinist and cellist of Lucinda Black Bear.
during soundcheck: a view of the Bell House.
April 1st, 2009
Less said the better. Very nice to meet/hear Leah Lue, the opener; the rest of it was one of those shows that kind of hurt all over. Except for the nice fan who drove from Pittsburgh and the other gent named Dan and his friend, and Mike the owner who was very nice. Instead of long existential ruminations on the last show of the tour here are some pictures of Cleveland.
March 31st, 2009
A turning point show on the tour, though there is only one show left. It can never come too late.
Cincinnati is a cool city: architecture, neighborhoods, chili, Vietnamese food, the great art deco train station, churches. Club was on the edge of a funky neighborhood, a bit remote but not too far. We arrived at 6:30 for load in, as told to, only to find that no one would be there till 8, the promoter had quit weeks ago, and there wasn’t usually music on Mondays. This did not bode well for a succesful show.
We almost left, but 4 minutes before our ‘deadline’ the club opened. So we planned to play a show for our friends the Fervor quickly, then they would too, and then we would leave and get a drink somewhere. We weren’t expecting anyone.
But our conscience won out and the sound guy Dwight was great and some fans showed up and before we knew it we had played a show we felt good about to a small bit appreciative crowd. We stayed in the moment and the moment blossomed for us and us for it.
The owner at the end was very generous and it was nice to meet fan Keeh and Wussy bandmates Lisa and Chuck… and the manhattan was delicious.
March 28th, 2009
Due to absurd fatigue this post may be short. Summit City was an oasis on a somewhat trying tour: lovely wooden floors, art, free good food, really cool nice lovely promoters who were generous and friendly, good sound, buil- in audience, great drinks, free wifi…and the show was energized and loose and well-accepted. Phew.
If there was any drawback it was only that whitesburg is hours on winding weavy roads up into the heart if Kentucky Appalachia. Beautiful, poverty-stricken, a bit scary. The town itself is a true oasis, which included a filmmaking institute. The ride out the next day was truly amazing and terrifying.
Some pics.
March 27th, 2009
Birdies: another cavernous rock club. The band members were all carded upon load-in. No drink deal. Owners do not like musicians.
Vess Ruhtenberg (lemonheads) opened with rough-hewn, nihilistic charm on a scrappy acoustic. The friendly crowd cheered him on and welcomed us next.
Our set started rough but settled in a few songs. I was rushing, but still got lost in a soary ‘laughing’, and when Ben and Courtney joined us for ‘folded cloth’ a new height had ben scaled. We made some friends.
KaiserCartel had a charming set as usual made more lively by this show basically being a hometown gig — Courtney grew up here.
Fervor played perhaps the best show of the tour, filling the room with their swoony druglike sound.
March 22nd, 2009
Ah sxsw where does one begin? How do you tell the tale of a love that fills and depletes, fills and depletes with such rapidity and tragedy?
We played 4 showcases. The four of them were all good, some better than others. We peaked early with the Septembergurl/Organic Entertainment party at Threadgills on weds. Ended up doing two shows with buddies KaiserCartel and doing a good bit of singing on ‘okay’. Weds night brought to the Velveeta Room at 1 am and a modest but vibrant crowd. The other two shows were Friday; at the first one at Mother Egans (sig sounds/red house part). I came out from a dizzy low-blood sugar moment to witness both our keyboards collapse and hit the ground hard onstage from the high energy foot stomping of the first performer (name withheld for tactful reasons — more the fault of the wobbly stage setup). We carried on with broken keyboards as we shall for the rest of the tour.
Last show was the GreenRoom Booking Cashmoneyapolis show, which was good in a unique way, though sparse. Then we were free to wander.
Third time here and so many bands and I’m always amazed how little music I end up seeing. 4 solid days and here is the meager list: Devo, Tricky, Bus Driver, Blitzen Trapper, The Silos, Japan Nite (two bands), and then some very good comedians. And of course KaiserCartel and bands we shared bills with but couldn’t focus on their sets because of pre-show preparation mode. Sprinkled in are a few ‘glimpses’ of unknown bands; heads stuck in club doors, heard over outdoor venue walls, etc.
Fold in: tons of free beer, drinks and food, miles of walking, amazing Mexican, amazing BBQ. No sleep.
Here are some pictures.
March 19th, 2009
Who needs words? Here’s some pictures.
March 16th, 2009
Our first show in Memphis TN ever was marked by dreams: 100 cats in a store window, a dream of a walk to Ardent studios (where one of the best albums ever recorded happened: Big Star’s ‘radio city/#1 record’) that never happened; a dream of an expensive visit to Graceland that never happened; and the dream of a packed house at the Young Ave Deli. That didn’t really happen either, but that’s ok.
Room itself was huge and boomy but charming and funky. See below some photos of the décor. Hank the soundman’s childhood tale of walking with his dad to go fishing in mornings and stopping to buy fresh baked bread and chocolate milk and dipping the bread in the milk and then fishing stood out.
There were about 10 people in the room the whole night, not counting the steady traffic in front of the stage of waitresses serving people outside and others walking past on their way to the restrooms or whatever. Love that, we do.
Fervor played first and sounded great. We were on second and after a couple of songs that felt like flying an airplane blindfolded with no arms, we found our bearings. The set flew by and as usual when playing to a huge almost empty room it’s a battle with self-consciousness and trying to get lost in the moment. For me this finally happened during ‘gentleman farmer’ when a feeling of ‘we are what we are and that’s wonderful’ came over me. Caring/not caring. The song rolled over me like a heavy wave. Flora and I sang ‘I don’t have to make you see/ I don’t have to show you anything’ with pride and openness. By the end, the songs won. But it was a hard one. Harder still when the acoustic guitar was squealing feedback all night because the sound guy gave up on trying to tame it.
KaiserCartel closed and as usual delighted. We were excited to jump up and sing/play on two songs.
Overall it was what it was. I bought a postcard of maureen stapleon for our baby collection on the ceiling of the van. Today we met with the KC at brand-new memphis Target for supplies and ended up wandering around for about an hour marvelling at the newness of it all. Dennis and Ben Cartel wrote a song on the keyboards in the music section (video to come). Brian bought a neck pillow. Today we roll down to new Orleans.
We are content with our lot.
October 5th, 2008
this is the ceiling of the Pier 6 Pavilion in Baltimore, during CAKE’s set. they had a single mirrorball they used in every show — that was the entire light show. we liked that. our show here was, as all of them were, varied and, as rated by us, really good. we had a long set here (an hour) and got to really stretch out, and the crowd seemed very into what we were doing (i think at most of the shows there was a sense at the beginning of each show of… what is this wispy sweet-sounding band? why are they opening for the joyously ironic and funked-up CAKE? but by the end we had won some hearts.). there was a melancholy to the evening that we couldn’t place until we realized it was coming off the staff — this was the last night of the season and people were saying goodbye right and left. anyway, as usual, we were treated like princes and princesses by CAKE and everyone else, and the water sparkled right next to the stage and the big Domino Sugar sign reflected in the water and the brisk autumn air came in as we played and then we had to drive 12 hours to Maine.
March 20th, 2008
well, we went the whole tour without posting anything. this seems to be the norm. it was partly due to the lack of reliable internet connections around the country, but more than that due to being so busy and lazy. or busy and tired.
internet access around america kind of feels like, we imagine, phone service was say, during the depression. big cities, you were pretty well covered. out in nowheresville, it was sketchy.
flora and i whizzed back across america in the silver streak, which is full of all our gear. middle america is a bleak and foreboding landscape, but no more so than texas. or Arizona or new mexico. or parts of California. its very very beautiful. the rest of the band flew home a few days ago.
i’ll start with the last show first, because its freshest in my memory.
SEATTLE
Tractor in Seattle was definitely when all the wheels were turning the best for both the bands: winterpills and for the as yet unnamed kris delmhorst experience. (kris and the band of delmhorsts, the delmhorst whisperers. leading a delmhorst to water.)
full house and the room sounded great think i lost my favorite t-shirt at the show: if anyone finds a black “Janus Films” t-shirt in seattle, please send it back to me. this pic is the empty stage after the last show. sadness and pain, mixed with joy.
before the show we snacked on a cheese plate and some fine wines at a wine bar right next door. seattle was left largely un-explored, but we loved the small taste of it we got, which was all in the Ballard district. i was happy to see my old college pal Lori Goldston, who does her own project with the Black Cat Orchestra and plays often with Mirah. also sweetly spotted was Max’s sister Lucinda.
as Kris’s ‘keyboardist’, i have to say i felt like this was the first night of the whole tour where the parts were coming together, i wasn’t overplaying, and my ghastly mistakes were kept to a minimum.
the last evening was bittersweetly topped off by all of us drinking a bottle of lovely small-batch brandy that Kris gave to us as a gift. though great with child, Kris took a sip. her doctor said it was ok.
PORTLAND
a double-header in a tiny sold-out venue, Mississippi Studios. very intimate and both shows wet over well. of course for us it was 4 shows, so by the end of the night we absolutely exhausted. promoter Jess Beyer left us with a nice bottle of spanish wine. the green room, which doubled a recording studio, has an impressive collection of paint-by-numbers artwork. this one was my favorite.
hmm, maybe i lost my t-shirt at this venue. please call.
EUGENE
WOW Hall is a big place. we did not fill it at all. but the crowd was very attentive and the sound was great, and the monitor engineer was very sweet and gave Flora a sprig of lavender.
this was our first sampling of the famous northwest beer phenom. it was very strong. i played our set rather tipsy from one beer.
Kris noted during the set that we seemed to have entered a certain technical malfunction vortex once getting into oregon. things were just not quite working right. cables were lost, little boxes did not function, strings were un-tunable. we adjusted. also, kris finally made a special announcement (see photo). bold girl.
SAN FRANCISCO
Cafe du Nord. packed and boisterous, this place has a great old-fashioned salon-type feel. saw many old friends. time in SF was way too short.
part 3 to come. we head south, backwards in time.
