Category: Concert Review

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Concert Review

Ben Sollee played a great show at Casbah on Saturday, February 12

Saturday night, my man and I celebrated Valentine’s Day early with a great show at Casbah in Durham. The only other time I’ve been to Casbah was to see Crooked Still, which was in an intimate seated setting. I was expecting this, but the venue quickly filled to standing room only.

After the first song, it was evident why opening band Humble Tripe was “humble.” The one man band slammed on a travel dulcimer, and chugged out a few repetitive chords on his acoustic guitar while singing cute lyrics about his life. I’ve heard studio recordings of Humble Tripe and described them as “if Bob Dylan and Bon Iver had a baby and then dropped it off in Durham,” but I don’t think those expectations were met. This could be because his recordings usually feature more than just Shawn Luby on guitar. Shawn brought to stage Catherine Edgerton of Midtown Dickens to play the occasional harmonica, tambourine, and of course her signature singing saw. Her bubbly presence took the heat off Shawn for a little while and as a budding saw player, I took notes on her technique. Humble Tripe is a band to listen to while sitting on a blanket at a small music festival feel, not as an opening band for a critically acclaimed artist like Ben Sollee.

Ben Sollee, former member of the Sparrow Quartet, is a dapper young cello player from Kentucky. He started things off with a short vocal performance, bluesy and emotional. He then brought in Phoebe Hunt (of The Belleville Outfit) on violin and Jordan Ellis on drums to do “Something, Somewhere, Sometime” off Dear Companion. This live rendition was a bit different from his version with Daniel Martin Moore, bringing in some rock elements and definitely changing my idea of going to a “slow cello concert.” They continue playing upbeat, jazzy at times, bluesy at times music occasionally featuring a bass guitar, drums, cello, and violin. It was fast paced and well instrumented. I enjoyed the more down-tempo songs, but I can see the newer songs really catching on in the indie rock scene—look out for his upcoming album. Ben’s voice was amazing in every song and so perfectly melded with Phoebe Hunt’s, which was reminiscent of Norah Jones or Regina Spektor at times.

Ben was also a great banter-er; a quality many musicians lack. He told tales of how he came to the ideas of songs—his description of “The Prettiest Tree on the Mountain” was as poetic as the tune itself, and he constantly introduced his friends on violin and percussion. The group definitely had chemistry; probably from their adventures on bike, touring across America. That’s right. On bike, with a cello and a drumset.

The best part of the show, aside from the group dynamic and perfect instrumental choreography, was the first encore “Only A Song.” Ben Sollee explained how this song is off of Dear Companion, an album to raise awareness about mountaintop removal coal mining. He doesn’t want this song to be a protest song, thus its name, but rather to inspire people to think a little harder about their actions in the world.

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Concert Review

Monotonix in Review

So Monotonix played at Kings last Thursday. I had no idea what to expect. I’ve heard that it is a good show and that they are “crazy” but man oh man… my buddies did a horrible job preparing me.

I was sad to leave the battles at Tir Na nOg (we had Shards, RBT, Squall and Thieves) but I could hear Kings beckoning me so I finally departed.  Kings was packed. I grabbed a beer and stood in the middle of the floor, a good spot to watch the band play on stage. But they didn’t play on stage. Monotonix clears a space on the ground and begins. I can’t see a thing and move to sit on the bar where I finally get a look at the insanity.

PBR cans (most with PLENTY of beer left in them) are flying everywhere. The band is crowdsurfing, the audience is crowdsurfing. There is beer in my hair and I’m amazed watching Monotonix literally play ON TOP OF the crowd. A few held up one band member and a few people held up his drum to play. (Did I mention that they are hardly wearing clothes?) I get scared as the band moves in my direction.. the bar. I have to scoot over so they can set up right next to me and a roommate. I’m a bit close for comfort but I was not about to give up my sweet spot. The singer grabs a dollar out of the tip jar, puts it somewhere…. unmentionable… and then throws the dollar down. The band seriously played everywhere but on stage.

(picture from when they played at the old Kings… I didn’t have my camera this night… glad I didn’t.  Who knows what Monotonix would do to it if they got a hold of it???)

Thanks Monotonix.  I had a great time.

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Concert Review

Ellos Me Tengan (The Yo La Tengo Show Recap)

If one were to compile a canon of influential independent artists that have truly shaped the genre,  Yo La Tengo would certainly have a spot on the list. At least that’s what I’ve been told. The New Jersey trio began their debut over twenty-five years ago.  Now that’s something to contend with. I wasn’t even born. Sunday night marked the second night performance for the band at Cats Cradle and although it didn’t officially sell out (like the previous night), I still encountered parking issues and a crowded venue. I’d never seen Yo La Tengo perform, but I had spun their tracks modestly over the air in the past and was somewhat familiar with their discography. Needless to say, I had a lot of expectations.

My first surprise for the evening was the crowd itself. As someone who’s use to seeing Cats packed with a  rowdy youthful bunch for shows of the likes of Caribou or Of Montreal, Tengo’s turnout was a lot more, well, experienced. Not that I’m complaining, but it certainly did speak to the years of influence and fan base the band has acquired. My second surprise of the night was right after frontman Ira Kaplan, drummer and wife of Ira, Gerogia Hubley, and bassist James McNew took the stage. A large game show wheel was carted to the front. Its pie slices were outfitted personally to fit song choices to be played by the band that night. A few selections included songs by their associated acts, Dump and the Condo Fucks. Another pie slice featured songs with people’s names in them. The band finally chose an overly eager man in the front row who convinced us he had been waiting at Cats all week for the show.  His spin lasted a few moments before stopping on the choice for songs that started with the letter ’S’.

DJ Chuck also attended the show and commented that “Yo La Tengo have been around so long, and their catalog is so vast, that it’s hard to know every song of theirs. They did close out the set with a couple I did know however, those songs being the fan-favorite Sugarcube and Sudden Organ."  He continued on to say, ” after a half-hour break, the band came back on for their second, wheel-less set. Running through a barage of songs that ranged from quiet and pretty to loud and full of feedback, the band closed the set with a 20-plus minute song that started out quiet and gradually built it’s way up to a noisy climax, with guitarist Ira Kaplan swinging his guitar around like a madman, inducing all kinds of feedback.“

The band came back out for a short encore consisting of Autumn Sweater, their cover of Daniel Johnston’s Speeding Motorcycle, and another cover which Chuck nor I didn’t catch the name of, but was a quiet, acoustic number.

I was pleasantly happy that Yo La Tengo pulled tracks from their most recent album release from September 2009, Popular Songs. It’s a great album which features the bluesy sexual rock and roll of Here To Fall, beautiful folk with More Stars Than There Are In Heaven and nostalgic instrumental with The Fireside. Yo La Tengo’s show proved to be just as versatile where their age was showing- in a good way. The trio seems to have adapted to the trends of music over the years, but they have never let it label or define them. Their performance had me on Sunday, (Ellos me tengan), and I think I can finally appreciate their role within this eclectic music genre.

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Concert Review

Megafaun Show RECAP!

Saturday, January 22, the second night of the Megafaun weekend, I was lucky enough to get into the sold out show. I got off work at ten thirty and raced over to Kings. Upon entering I found out that I had missed Cloudlines. Super bummed, I reached for a Duck Rabbit Milk Stout. I made my way through the crowd and took a seat at my favorite viewing spot, behind the sound booth. Brad Cook was the first of Megafaun to walk out on stage. The crowd excitedly greeted the rest of the band as they got ready to play. We were greeted back with “What the f*ck did we do to get all of you here tonight,” …or something like that.

After a couple songs, Megafaun talked of the band Megafun and jokingly played one of their super fun, silly, dancy tracks. The show continued, and I stood singing along to my favorite song of theirs, “Volunteers.” I must say it is too good live. Another beer in the show was wrapping up. The audience was still as enthused as when Megafaun first got on stage (some of these guests still enthused since last night’s show).  The show had ended and we clapped ourselves to death until we got our encore. The song would be acoustic. No microphone either. The ENTIRE audience was silent. It was eerie and amazing to have a packed out show fall dead silent to hear what Megafaun was offering us. Following this song Megafaun pulled some extra friends on stage to play other instruments, including a harmonica.

A great show.  This was my first time seeing a full Megafaun show.  Can’t wait to do it again!

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Concert Review

Beggars save night from colossal failure

Kings Barcade hosted the kickoff of the Beggars and Colossus’s 2011 North Carolina statewide tour Thursday, Jan. 13. Fortunately for the audience, the opening act was worth the $6 admission price.

The Beggars, classified as punk/rock/soul on their MySpace page, is a five-piece band from Detroit proper. Almost 700 miles is a long way to come to play for the two dozen or so people milling around Kings at the beginning of the set, but the group didn’t seem to mind. Vocalist Steven Davis swaggered around the stage wearing a red polo, khaki pants and a pair of white wrist sweatbands looking like he could be right at home at a 1980s Sunday afternoon family reunion – until the music started. Davis and his band mates were, in a word, enthusiastic. The singer’s theatrics included frequent jumps into the audience, losing his loafers and socks on more than one occasion, tossing the microphone around, crawling on his knees across the stage, a string of “fuck, yeah!”s in between songs and a backwards somersault from the floor back onto the stage. With all the jumping around, he even split his pants (a fact they specifically requested to be put in this blog). Davis slipped off the stage at the start of the last song, returning with “super limited edition” tour merchandise – a six-song CD and spiffy black tee.

The 45-minute set opened with “Same Costume as Mine,” a quirky song about matching outfits punctuated by the superb saxophone work of Rod “Pool Party” Jones. That got the crowd pumped up and kept them there through “FRK,” “It’s All About Me,” “Gold (My Neck I’ll Hang Around),” “25 Miles,” “Us Dudes (Wee get so Rad),” “Sleepaway Camp” and “Thieves.” Their finale “Stop, Drop, Rock n’ Roll” had the crowd chanting the chorus and pumped for the show’s headliner.

Colossus lead singer Sean Buchanan joined the Beggars on stage for “Stop, Drop, Rock n’ Roll,” which gave the first hint of intoxication. He made it clear he had a few too many when he crashed in to the drum kit in the middle of the second song. After a brief interlude, Buchanan regained his composure and the show continued. When he knocked over another drum, the band called it quits after the fourth song. The lyrics weren’t coherent enough to get any song titles.

Those who saw Colossus before Thursday should choose to remember them from previous performances. For those experiencing the Raleigh rock/metal band for the first time, consider giving them another chance. Colossus really does display “talent like a Viking lets blood on a battlefield as Independent Weekly’s Bryan Reed wrote. While the crowd did grow from the original two dozen, perhaps it was best there were limited witnesses.

The 2011 North Carolina statewide tour continues Friday, Jan. 14 at Pinups in Greensboro and Saturday, Jan. 15 at Reggie’s in Wilmington. The Beggars conclude their trip of the Wolfpack state Sunday, Jan. 16 at the Reservoir in Carrboro. Colossus will play again Saturday, Feb. 5 for the second day of the Bull City Metal Fest at Casbah.

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Concert Review

Organos Brings Complex Pop To Kings

It was a frigid night on Friday, but that didn’t keep people from coming out to a great local bill happening at Kings.

Starting off the night were Soft Company. A local supergroup of sorts, with Missy Thangs of The Love Language serving as bandleader, backed by members of such defunct local acts as Lake Inferior and Violet Vector & The Lovely Lovelies, the band made their way through a set of mid-tempo songs  that brought to mind 70’s AM radio and classic pop. The highlight of the set was a song midway through (that I didn’t catch the name of) that slowly built to an epic couple minutes of wailing guitars and prolonged “oh"s from Thangs.

Taking a break between sets to play some pinball down in Neptunes, I came back up to find a curiously less full Kings. Josh Carpenter, who plays drums in Asheville band Floating Action, brought along his own set of original songs that brought to mind The Old Ceremony on a sugar rush. With a full album recorded and (hopefully) due out soon, he’s definitely one to keep an eye on in the coming year.

Organos finally came on around midnight to perform one of the best sets by a local band I’ve seen in recent memory. Maria Albani, her bass, and a couple pals encircled a table covered in various percussive instruments and a glockenspiel, while Reid Johnson from Schooner and Nathan White from Nathan Oliver played  intertwining guitar runs and Ginger Wagg, of Veelee, provided the back beat. The set ran through all of Organos’ debut, The Limbs EP, as well as several new songs. One of the best aspects of the show was how well the band played together. It’d be easy for the ramshackle songs on the EP to come across messy live, but the band performed them with an effortless grace that further revealed the subtleties and intricacies in the music. As a bonus, Albani’s between-song banter rivaled that of Bradford Cox’s in hilarity, making quips such as "this is our guitarist, Justin Bieber”(referring to White).

Overall, the warm tones found in the night’s music served as the perfect counter to the icy winds blowing outside.

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Concert Review

Minus The Bear packs Lincoln Theatre

On Tuesday, Nov. 30, I had the privilege of going to see Minus The Bear at Lincoln Theatre.  I arrived late but still managed to catch the second half of their opener, Tim Kasher.

The feeling I got from a lot of people around me was that Tim Kasher’s performance was not as good as was expected.  It was a rather low energy performance; although, I thought the sound was good and the his supporting band played tightly.

Excitement for Minus The Bear was palpable.  As soon as their banner was raised at the back of the stage, people began screaming and stomping the floor.  It made the entire theatre seem to pump with energy.  Since the theatre was nearly full, this excitement quickly turned into wildness as a large guy in front of me jumped around and then right into my digital camera (hence the lack of photos for this blog).  It was worth it, though, and as the house lights dimmed and the stage lights went up there was an explosion of cheering.

The performance itself seemed short, but the band played for a little over an hour including the encore. Minus The Bear standards like “The Game Needed Me” were performed as well as some newer songs from their album “Omni.”  The guitarist put on a great show of bravado in the use of his pedal system, and the band as a whole really brought everything they had to the set.  I danced and even forgot for awhile that my camera was broken, but the fun had to end eventually and when it did, the entire crowd seemed to be exhausted.  It would have been nice to have seen a longer set, but I still had a great time and have gained a greater appreciation for Minus The Bear after seeing their live show.

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Concert Review

Swell Kweller

Last night’s (Monday, November 29) Ben Kweller concert at the Cat’s Cradle was opened by Julia Nunes. She played most of her songs on a ukulele, but strummed her few chords so hard that it undermined the charm the instrument is supposed to have. She had the kind of vocal twangs that made “tonight” sound like “toe-night” and “right” like “wrought” – like a less pop/less active Kate Nash. Her music just isn’t my style. I failed to see the talent (which she called her self out on). Regardless, she had a large fan base in attendance of young girls and barely post-pubescent boys. People were really digging her. She talked a lot with an immature kind of humor, but did make me laugh a few times despite my disposition. My favorite song: a cover of “Build Me Up Buttercup.”

Ben Kweller…Ben Kweller is awesome. I made it out to this concert mainly out of nostalgia for how much I used to listen to him. He performed solo because as he said, “I just wanted to get out on the road without promoting a new album (of which he is in the process of finishing up), and play some oldies.” He laughed at “oldies,” and the crowd laughed with him. His performance was delightfully endearing.  He stopped in the middle of his first song (Commerce, TX) as he remembered he forgot to add an old friend to the guest list. He yelled the name into the microphone, and told the doorman to make sure this guy got in free (which he did, Ben saw him, there was a moment).  Ben also stopped talking in between songs when he saw his older son, Dorian.

He got Dorian up on stage, and let him walk around and lay by his feet as he played a heartwarming piano set (including Thirteen, In Other Words, Falling). I had a spot right at the stage, closest to the piano. My eyes may have welled up a little bit when he played “Thirteen.” It’s a beautiful song. He talked about how much he loves playing at Cat’s Cradle, and he mixed similar expressions into his lyrics a few times. He played crowd favorites, requests, and a few lesser-knowns.

Ben’s solo performance exposed his creative guitar play and position as a master pianist. The show was simple. One guy, playing one instrument at a time, could get pretty slow, but Ben pulled it off. Of all the shows I’ve been to at the Cradle, I have never heard/seen a crowd so quiet, attentive, respectful. Expect to see Ben Kweller back in North Carolina again soon after his new album drops. He’ll probably have a supporting crew, and it will be hella’ swell.

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Concert Review

Felix the Drum Machine RECAP

If you attempted to nap before going to Kings on Turkey Day then you most likely didn’t wake up. And you missed a great show. That’s okay. There is always next year.

Here is a recap!

The Revolutionary Sweethearts opened up the night. I was in love at first listen with this band for sure. After their set I immediately headed backstage to meet Brandy. I hope to see them at a Local Beer Local Band next year!

DJ Gonzo played before/inbetween/after sets. I remember he spun my favorite Veelee song, “Amber.” What a lovely listen that was!

As Brian Shaw pointed out, there were a lot of people there that he didn’t know or recognize. A good thing, indeed. Felix the Drum Machine’s annual Thanksgiving shows are evidently gaining a fan base.

Everyone was in costume: Brian C. in the space suit, Zack O. as some animal/superman combo, William C. in a black trench coat, and Brian S. as a Mr. America (or something like that) outfit. They were all super cute!

At the end of the night, I picked up my own cassette tape that Felix the Drum Machine was selling. The artwork completely original and unique. Best investment I’ve made in a while. See you next year!

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Concert Review

Fridays Are For Local Music

This past Friday (November 19) was a great day for local music in Raleigh. Hopefully most of you dropped by after work or class and came out to the Harris Field lawn to check out our November installment of Fridays on the Lawn featuring The Tender Fruit and The Tomahawks.  Despite the chillier weather, we experienced a great turnout as people came out with blankets and snuggies to enjoy the free pizza and music.

The Tender Fruit was represented solely by Christy Smith, an N.C. State graduate in English, who managed to hold her own as she worked the kick drum and strummed her guitar. Smith’s voice is really something to admire. On the band’s recent album, Flotsam & Krill, I was blown away by her vocal dynamics, especially on track “Get Out of the Car.” Performing live, she was equally as powerful and her set proved to be calming but also a pleasant juxtaposition against the grittier headliners, The Tomahawks. This past August, Indy Week covered an interesting story on Smith, her past relationship with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, and how Flotsam& Krill is a response to Vernon’s hit album For Emma, Forever Ago. You can check out the article here.

Although the concert was over before 9 p.m., local music fans were in luck as Future Islands were headlining at Kings Barcade in downtown Raleigh that night as well. Well, that is, if they had bought a ticket in advance as the show was sold out. Although I missed the opener NAPS, I was greeted by the familiar and pleasant sounds of Veelee upon walking into Kings. Matt and Ginger focused their set on their newer songs off their latest album The Future Sight. Veelee recently opened for Merge Record’s powerhouse, Caribou, on Halloween, which is a sign there are bigger and better things awaiting them.

Lonnie Walker was the last band to perform before the headliners came on stage. The bands are well known friends as Walker and Future Islands recently put out a split 7" together. The crowd at this point of the night were getting into a frenzy. The front part of the stage where I had posted myself had become a dance floor. My head was particularly swaying to many of the tracks on Island’s recent album, In Evening Air. The night was everything to be expected of Future Islands: funny antics from lead singer Sam Herring, stage dancing, and great music.