-Neko +Okkervil River = pretty good show (New Pornographers @ Riviera 4/20)

This was my second date with A.C. Newman's rock machine, and it wasn't as hot as the first one. And, it actually had nothing to do with the absence of Neko Case (who broke her ankle and had to leave the tour last week.) I just think that after last October's show at the Metro, my hopes were a little too high.

I love watching this band. I love A.C. tight little stomp-and-pivot style of cranking out each song. I love Kathryn Calder's nonchalant posture at the keys. But I like being a little closer to them, and from the balcony at the Riv, they just looked, and most of all sounded a little too far away.

I think the Riviera suffers from some sound issues. This was my third time there, and I don't think I've ever been too impressed with the acoustics. And tonight, during both Okkervil and NPs, there were a lot of issues with feedback, and fuzzy muffled vocals.

I still enjoyed myself though, and it was nice to be more familiar with the new album, (Challengers), than I was at the show in the fall. "Adventures in Solitude" and Myriad Harbor (with Okkervil's Will Sheff filling in for Bejar) her highpoints of the show, as well as, I thought "Sing Me Spanish Techno," which I didn't care for much until recently. But that's funny how sometimes a song takes a year or more of play before it finds the right spot in your ear. They did fine without Neko - all they were missing really were her vocals, her tambourin-ing, and her glow - but that gave us all a chance to focus more on the rest of the band. Who knew the drummer had such a nice falsetto. Kathryn Calder was a little more centerstage this time too, and held her own on all the female vocal lines.

Another highpoint, was their performance of what has to be the perfect cover song for the New Pornographers. One thing this band has mastered are the Ooohs, aaahs, hey-aahs, doo-das, and the like, and during their encore, the busted out a flawless version of ELO's "Don't Bring me Down." I was pretty impressed.


Okkervil River itself was fine. I wish I'd had a chance to see them at Schubas last year... this place ws too big for me to enjoy them for the first time. It was good to hear a handful of familiar tunes off the new album, and I was quite satisfied that they closed with "Westfall," since that was the first of their songs I ever heard, and it remains my favorite.

So, my final word on NP, take two is that while I missed the energy and intimacy of the Metro show, this one was still enjoyable. And I'm still wanting more. I just read on NME that they'll be at Lollapalooza. So far, I haven't heard that rumor anywhere else yet, so I won't hold my breath. But that would make me a very happy gal.

How I Spent My Summer

I know. I'ts not summer yet, but I just wanted to make my summer project official. This started as an idea of a an adventure to go on with another live music afficianado who was possible moving at the end of he summer. Now, he's not moving, so it's no longer time sensitive or linked to him. But, still plan to visit all of the music venues in Chicago that I never have. But, I am going to cheat, because I'm not necessarily including jazz or blues clubs. But, it could happen.

But no I realize, I think I've been to most of them. I'd better make a list. And this is all I came up with:

House of Blues
Congress Theater
Charter One Pavilion*
Reggie's Rock Club
Ronny's
Kinetic Playground
Old Town School (I've only need here for square dancing)
Hideout (I've only been here for live band karaoke)
Double Door
Cobra Lounge
The Wild Hare
Phyllis'

I may have forgotten one or two, so I'll add to them if necessary. BUT, that's like one a week for 3 months, so a totally realistic goal in my opinion.



*Although you'll see a few large venues on this list, I don't plan to extend this to suburban monstrosities, like the Allstate Arena.

Friends with Benefits (Scotland Yard Gospel Choir in residency at Schubas)

Before April gets out of hand (and it's about to, and fast) I thought I'd better share my thoughts on my most recent trip to Schubas. Every monday this month, local band, Scotland Yard Gospel Choir is headlining their hand-crafted showcase of music, chatter, and various sundry features, with proceeds going to a handful of charities with local roots. I went to the first installment, and was treated to the cringe-inducing comedy of Jena Friedman, a too-long, but really funny story on Mayor Daley's speech oddities by WBEZ's Ben "too pretty for radio" Calhoun, and some music.

The opening band was Cabin, a band from Kentucy. They were okay. They played well, but I don't think they've found their own sound yet. SYGC's Elia Einhorn claimed that they were "Sufjan Stevens' new favorite band." I think he made that up.

SYCG itself was a lot of fun. A nerdy hybrid, showing influence of the Pogues, Belle & Sebastian and the like, they seem to have a lot of fun on stage. They're all pretty normal looking folks too. I had heard them at first on a Bloodshot Records sampler on eMusic, and so I was glad that they opened with that very song that had lured me there. "Aspidistra" is obviously one of their more polished tunes.

Their onstage banter is pretty good, and I particularly liked guitarist Mary Ralph's verbal catalog of tha nation's many varieties of generic Dr. Pepper.

A few of the songs are a little TOO referent to Belle & Sebastian in a sorty of gender-ambiguous, hopeless unrequited love sort of way, but pieces like "Aspidistra" and "Everything You Paid for" stand on their own, and I hope the band sticks together long enough to put out another album.

I'm going to plan to go back for their last offering on the 28th, if I'm not too exhausted after next week's music marathon. So, if you're reading this, you should join me. You can even by a nifty poster of a bunny humping a skunk for 5$. I did.

GOOD NIGHT.

F is my favorite letter as you know... (Kathleen Edwards w/ Luke Doucet and the White Falcon @ Metro 4/5)

Night two of female country/rock singer-songwriter weekend was everything I'd hoped for. I hadn't seen Kathleen Edwards live since she played a free show at Schubas to support her first album in 2003. Since then I wore out her first two albums and was well on my way to doing the same with the third. Her repertoire is a good split of sad songs and f-you rock songs (and she dropped quite a few of those f-bombs at the metro Saturday night too.)

She plays the crowd well, her banter isn't completely flawless. She babbled about Wilco, the Cubs, and how much she likes Chicago. She was genuinely happy with the nearly full house and kept telling us. She rocked on older favorites like "Six O'Clock News," and "In State" as well as the new, fun tunes "The Cheapest Key" and, finally, after hearing drunken fans yelling "Marty McSorley!!!" 10 or 12 times, "I Make the Dough..."

And drunken fans there were a plenty. Groups of men in their 30s-50s seem to love this woman more than anyones else, and are not shy about it. She must have psycho-stalker fans at every show. Her husband is in the band, and after on particularly bold solo, she told one of her suitors in the front row "That's guitar for 'stay the fuck away from me.'"

As she says in "The Cheapest Key," she does have a softer side. And it's not just for love songs. Once she got the band to leave the show, and the crowd to stop yelling out random song titles (I swear I heard a "Free Bird" in there. Don't people know that's just not funny anymore?) she was able to play the quiet, "Alicia Ross" and "Scared at Night" from her new album "Asking for Flowers." The former is a haunting first-person re-visioning of the murder of a young Canadian in 2005, and the latter combines her own memories with her fathers' exploring family bonds and life and death - and her voice did this beautifully. I was very happy with this show.

Fellow Canadian Luke Doucet opened. I liked a couple of his songs, and though his Band, The White Falcon was really impressive. I also found myself thinking though, that some of his work falls into my category guitar rock for men. And he had his band of drunken hockey fan followers who had trailed him down from Minneapolis to prove it. But, the were fun to watch, and I would definitely go see them again.

Tift Merritt w/the everybodyfields @ Schubas, 4/4

It was sort of a tradeoff, that a friend would go to Kathleen Edwards with me tonight, and I would go to Tift Merritt with him last night. Similar genre: young female songwriters oft-compared to Lucinda, Emmylou and the likes. Seemed like an even deal.

The everybodyfields were nice. I've been listening to them for a few weeks, and it's good, cry your eyes out, sobbing music. They seem to have that mastered, but I'd like to see what else they can do.

Now, the real thing:

So, although I'd been seeing and Tift Merritt banner ads some time, I'd also been ignoring them, and it wasn't until tickets were in hand for this show that I downloaded her latest album from eMusic.

If you've read any reviews of Another Country, you know they've been pretty lukewarm - identifying a couple good tracks, but mostly saying it was a disappointment follower to her previous work. Well, I'd never heard her other stuff, so I couldn't say that, but initially I didn't like much of it. It had a sound that was a little too perfectly produced. I didn't quite buy it. A few tracks grew on me pretty quickly though: mainly "Broken" and over all, "My Heart is Free." But, I still wasn't convinced, and wasn't sure how this big sound was going to fit in a little place like Schubas.

Well, not too worry, because Tift's tiny, with a comfortably awkward onstage banter, and so instead of being a diva, she kind of seemed more like your best friend putting on the most kick-ass karaoke performance in your favorite bar. She's fine on guitar, but stands out and seems at home when she's playing piano with all of the bounce and groove of Jo Ann Castle or Marcia Ball.

And maybe some of her songs are inspired by elders. Lots of comparisons have been made, but mostly to other female country vocalist. Going back to my favorite song from the album though, I hear Vietnam war-era rock influencing what is obviously a song about the battlefield. But where I'm hearing CCR and Jefferson Airplane, the song itself is about and previous-generation cousin of Merritt's dying in WWI France. An interesting parallel though, for a time when we are facing yet another overseas war.

So, while I went prepared for something nit quite my style, I really enjoyed myself, and would definitely catch her again sometime. Seriously though, watch out. Out of frustration at one point, she pitched a bum harmonica into the audience without quite enough warning. Luckily a very tall man to my right reached up and caught it with his freakishly long arms, or someone could have a nice little scalp lac.