when it was first announced that todd rundgren would be performing his classic “a wizard a true star” album in its entirety for the first time ever, rundgren fans everywhere began to quiver in anticipation. where would the shows be? (the first rumor was london only.) [...]]]> todd rundgren
the palace of fine arts theater
san francisco, ca  usa
2009-12-01

when it was first announced that todd rundgren would be performing his classic “a wizard a true star” album in its entirety for the first time ever, rundgren fans everywhere began to quiver in anticipation. where would the shows be? (the first rumor was london only.) who will be in the band? (could this be the long-awaited utopia reunion?) what else would be played that night, given the LP is only 50 minutes in length? (a solo set of hits? utopia’s greatest misses? another run through of “arena“?)

as the rumors turned into reality, most of the questions were answered: the shows would happen in the midwest where they’d been orginally conceived by fans (rundgrenradio.com). the band would be rundgren’s usual suspects (some ex-utopia folks, other veterans from todd solo tours, greg hawkes from the cars/new cars, etc.). and that first set? a spin through some utopia chestnuts. all in all, it promised to be a grand thing. and as the reports came in from the september shows in akron, chicago, minneapolis and a few other towns, fans were raving.

then came the announcement that todd would bring AWATS to the west coast. and in SF, it would be the palace of fine arts, the site of rundgren’s live recording of the “2nd wind” album back in the early 90s. could it get any better, we thought? no, it couldn’t. and so we bought tickets dead center orchestra in the first several rows and waited for todd to come to town.

when the evening finally arrived and the lights went down, we were greeted with only four people on stage, dressed in black with minimal instrumentation visible: todd and jesse gress on guitars, kasim sulton on bass, and prairie prince on drums. could this be ‘newtopia’? unfortunately, no. this was the debut of “todd rundgren’s johnson,” a ‘blues’ band covering robert johnson songs exclusively. apparently this was borne out of a contractual obligation with rundgren’s current label to try and eke out publishing money for their roster artists by having people cover each other’s material. not sure who will be covering todd’s stuff, but i can’t imagine this arrangement generates much income. what it did generate this evening was a lot of grumbling from fans who had hoped to hear a set of utopia music as a precursor to the AWATS set.

now, as we all know, nobody tells todd rundgren what to do. and that’s served us fans well for the most part over the course of his illustrious career. this robert johnson set, however, was an unfortunate choice in my opinion, as todd’s vocal and guitar styles are not suited to the blues. add in the fact that the band was ill-prepared and under-rehearsed and you ended up with forty minutes that would have been better spent out in the lobby drinking.

all that said, there were some enjoyable moments; it’s always great to hear todd play electric guitar, of course. but it sure would have been nicer to hear that guitar on a selection of tunes from his vast catalog of amazing songs. if this is any indication, the best part of the set for me was when roger powell responded to a comment from todd (“it’s the blues, you don’t wanna get too tight!”) by yelling out “just like utopia!”

i used to be a ‘todd is godd’ guy. seriously, he was my favorite artist for a while. a lyric from ‘healing, pt. III’ was my senior quote. but todd lost me after “2nd wind” with (in my opinion) misguided and not very interesting career choices at times. for years, his output just didn’t grab me like so much of his past work had. until last year when i saw the “arena” tour at slim’s. and i remembered why i used to commit to rundgren’s music so deeply.

which brings us to the main event of the evening—the second set. it was, quite frankly, amazing. i’ve always loved the AWATS album precisely for what many people think makes it one of his least accessible works—the wild musical schizophrenia of the whole thing. it has some bonafide rundgren classics (“sometimes i don’t know what to feel” and “just one victory”) combined with scratch-your-head aural snippets (“dogfight giggle”) and musical sketches (“just another onionhead”) strung together in one continuous 50-minute (on LP, anyway) cosmic rock and roll suite. great stuff.

live, the music was nothing short of revelatory. todd always manages to put together a crack band (they must do it for love, because i can’t imagine he can pay them much) and tonight was no different. prairie prince, kasim sulton, ralph schuckett, greg hawkes…all brought something unique and personal to an already unique and personal set of music.

highlights for me were an extended “you don’t have to camp around,” a nice long version of the motown medley, a throat- and emotion-wrenching “i don’t want to tie you down,” and a stirring “just one victory” to close. but the entire set was inspired, touching, goofy, fun, rockin’, you name it. after 70 minutes, everyone in the theater had forgotten about the opening set and left buzzing about how todd had managed to pull it off again. still an iconoclast at age 61, rundgren demonstrated why so many of us have been such passionate proselytizers for him over the years. it was a beautiful thing to see. and hopefully this recording will attest to the fact that it was also a beautiful thing to hear.

here’s a sample from that night, “when the shit hits the fan/sunset blvd.” enjoy.

sometimes i look for a show just to fill a gap in the calendar. such was the case when i decided to see Bell X1 (hate the name, btw) after reading the café du nord calendar email recently. not sure what made me click through to read about this band, [...]]]> bell x1
café du nord
san francisco, ca
2008-03-26

sometimes i look for a show just to fill a gap in the calendar. such was the case when i decided to see Bell X1 (hate the name, btw) after reading the café du nord calendar email recently. not sure what made me click through to read about this band, but i did and the blurb was interesting enough for me to click through to the myspace page and listen to a few tracks. i liked what i heard and decided to fill up wednesday night, march 26. oddly, the opening band had a six degrees of separation (more like three) connection to me and my band from back in the day. i was more familiar with the two musicians—blake hazard and jack dragonetti—that comprise the submarines than i was with Bell X1 (really don’t like that name), but unfortunately i didn’t make it in to see anything but the final minute of the submarines’ set. next time.

so, Bell X1. they’re irish. and, of course, any irish band is going to invite comparisons with other irish bands (i don’t know why this is, but it is). but i don’t think i was imagining things when i heard traces of hothouse flowers (the rolling piano licks that drive some of the tunes) and U2 (some anthemic choruses on a bed of shimmering guitar lines) throughout the night. what really struck me on occasion, however, was the similarity of paul noonan’s voice to that of gord downie of the tragically hip. in fact, i didn’t make the connection until just now listening back as i write this. it drove me crazy all night during the show.

other musical reference points are midlake (again, the piano might be the common ground, but there’s a shared overall vibe as well) and oddly, at times, siren-era roxy music. there was even a moment in “flame” where the vocal melody line was aping the talking heads’ “girlfriend is better.” (and noonan had quoted three lines from “once in a lifetime” earlier in the set) and oddly, i found myself thinking of “axe victim”-era be bop deluxe during “white water song.” together, all of these aural reference points, influences or not, make a pretty interesting stew. irish stew, to be precise.

i like this band. there is an earnestness that doesn’t feel calculated or silly—just honest. and though i wholeheartedly recommend and support changing the band name, it isn’t likely given the amount of success they’ve had in ireland and europe (i was reminded of this by bbernardini over on DIME).

here’s the second song of the set, “My First Born for a Song.”

as the subtitle to my blog says, this is a place for ‘live music and liberal rants.’ i’ll be the first to admit that it’s been a little light on the former and heavy on the latter of late. that doesn’t mean that i haven’t been keeping up my usual [...]]]> vampire weekend
the rickshaw stop
san francisco, ca
2008-03-23

as the subtitle to my blog says, this is a place for ‘live music and liberal rants.’ i’ll be the first to admit that it’s been a little light on the former and heavy on the latter of late. that doesn’t mean that i haven’t been keeping up my usual insane schedule of seeing live music. au contraire, mon frere (ou soeur). it just means that in recent months i’ve been particularly aggravated by both republicans and democrats. which is probably why i’m not affiliated officially with any political party. don’t get me wrong… i love a good party. which is why i go to see so much live music.

in the coming days, i’m going to be posting lots of clips from my huge backlog of shows. big microscope will train its lens on recent (and not so recent) appearances by the charlie hunter trio, rickie lee jones, dumpstaphunk, the gourds, explosions in the sky and iron and wine. well, some of those at least.

but today’s clip comes from a show i attended last sunday at the rickshaw stop (a very cool little club, btw) by the relentlessly hyped vampire weekend.

i went into this show expecting unbelievably great things. so that might explain why i was underwhelmed. after reading all of the hype and hearing nothing but raves from folks who had heard the record, i decided a few months ago (when i bought tickets to this show) to keep myself in a bubble and not listen to any VW (studio album or live shows or youtube videos or anything) until this night. i’m glad i did because i think it allowed me to evaluate this band on the criteria that mean the most to me: are they dynamic live performers? are their songs compelling in a stripped-down live setting? is there tonal variety to the overall ‘sound’ of the artist/band?

while i enjoyed the show, i thought the songs all began to sound the same after a while. there was never any variation in the guitar tone (i understand that this is intentional… the african influence is a deliberate ‘signature’ of the band’s sound). but that just made me hunger for another guitar in the mix. the guys were as pleasant as can be in terms of onstage demeanor… no “we’re the next big thing” swagger, which was refreshing. but it also added to the overall feeling that another year of playing columbia frat parties might have been a good thing for them in terms of developing a broader stylistic range.

i think it will be interesting to see what this band sounds like in three years—if they make it that far.

the complete show from the rickshaw stop can be downloaded here if you do the bit torrent thing.

here’s a sample: a new song of theirs, called “little giant” (if missmodernage over at youtube knows what she’s talking about).

i’m talking about the once-in-a-lifetime (okay, twice. there was an early and a late show) event that happened last thursday night here in san francisco. elvis costello played live with the now-defunct band, clover, for the first time ever. why is that significant? [...]]]> but before he did, man did he put on an amazing show.

i’m talking about the once-in-a-lifetime (okay, twice. there was an early and a late show) event that happened last thursday night here in san francisco. elvis costello played live with the now-defunct band, clover, for the first time ever. why is that significant? because clover was his backing band on what is arguably one of the finest debut albums ever made, “my aim is true.” i won’t clutter this post with the details of how that all came to be; it’s documented many places, including here.

for those of us lucky enough to have been in attendance (luck plus $100), the show was nothing short of revelatory. you didn’t even have to be an elvis fan (i am) to have appreciated what was going down that night. elvis was so clearly moved by both the opportunity to rekindle a magical musical relationship after 30 years (30 years!) and to help out a dear friend’s charitable organization (the richard delone special housing project), that he gave what must have been one of the most heartfelt performances of his long and illustrious career.

the first hour was a near-perfect recreation of MAIT by the folks that made it way back when at pathway studios in london (drummer mickey shine couldn’t make the gig, but was ably replaced by longtime attractions/imposters drummer, pete thomas). in between the songs—performed exactly in album order—elvis regaled the audience with hilarious tales of how the songs were written, recorded and not performed. you see, clover was a group of americans without visas in london; performing would have been a breach of local union laws and therefore “elvis and clover” shows never happened. until last thursday.

the second hour was another generous helping of solo elvis (performing songs that didn’t make the record and some even earlier and more obscure tunes), elvis with clover again, elvis with clover and bill kirchen (he of lost planet airmen fame), and everyone previously mentioned with austin delone on organ too. the crowd was justifiably ecstatic at every twist and turn. by the time a beautiful “love has no pride” was sung to a rapt bonnie raitt in the audience, the house was ready for the rousing finale of nick lowe’s “(what’s so funny ‘bout) peace, love and understanding?”

i was expecting something great. i had no idea it would be as wonderful and magical as it was. best of all, the entire event was done to benefit a good cause. austin delone’s 9-year-old son, richard, was born with prader-willi syndrome. austin and his wife leslie have created a foundation to help with housing for children and adults with the syndrome. the proceeds from the night will give this charity a great push in the right direction. you can help too by contacting the delones.

the night had even more relevance for me. i have a very good friend who has a 2-year-old with prader-willi. he flew up for the show from LA and it was a night neither of us will ever forget. to learn more about prader-willi and how to help research, you can visit the foundation for prader-willi research site.

here’s “less than zero” from the late show. enjoy. and please consider supporting one of the charities linked above.

if you don’t already know about the mountain goats, you should. some day i’ll explain why i think john darnielle, who for all intents and purposes is the mountain goats (though he would likely take umbrage at that, graciously sharing the goatness, as he does, with his comrade in [...]]]> and the hits just keep on coming.

if you don’t already know about the mountain goats, you should. some day i’ll explain why i think john darnielle, who for all intents and purposes is the mountain goats (though he would likely take umbrage at that, graciously sharing the goatness, as he does, with his comrade in arms, peter hughes, and to quote the afore-linked website, “...a litany of drummers we stole from our opening bands.”) is a national treasure. but not today, because i’m wary of unleashing more of those run-on, parenthetical, comma-abusing sentences like the one before this one.

instead, i’ll just post a track from their recent show at the independent. a track that, by the way, serves as a fine example of darnielle’s unique style: an amalgam of simple chord progressions, incredibly personal and confessional lyrics, and a vocal delivery that would take some getting used to if the overall package wasn’t so damn compelling. throw in his self-deprecating and amusing intros when he performs live and you just can’t help but love the guy. well, i can’t, anyway. and clearly i can’t help myself from rambling tonight either.

i first discovered the mountain goats via chat threads on the sick-n-tired mailing list from the early 90s. that led to a chance find of “beautiful rat sunset” in a used CD shop in hong kong and i’ve been hooked ever since. fast forward (i can hear you, by the way, muttering “thank god for that”) to march 8th of this year. which provides a nice segue to the first encore from that night, “this year.” the entire show, by the way, can be heard in a nice soundboard version here. for those of you keeping score at home, that’s jon wurster from superchunk (and the comedy duo, scharpling and wurster) on drums.