Category Archives: Shows

Sea And Cake

Saw the Sea And Cake, last night at the Cat's Cradle. Meg Baird opened for them.

Meg Baird is a women who sings... traditional folk ballads. Just her and her acoustic, very Thistle and Shamrock at times. Thankfully, she's actually really good at it, too. But, wow, what a strange choice to open for a band like the Sea And Cake. The rest of the crowd weren't in the mood and rudely talked over most of her set.

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She sat on her stool, motionless, and sang with her eyes closed, her entire set.

And then, somewhere around 10:45, the Sea And Cake started.

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Sam Prekop, John McEntire, Archer Prewitt

I've seen them before (at the same place), but I was in the middle of the club then, so I heard the PA mix. Last night I was up front so I got to hear the sound from the stage, where the distinction between the two guitars was sharp. I've heard all their records a million times, but I've never really tried to distinguish Archer Prewitt's guitar parts from Sam Prekop's guitar parts: what are they each doing, how do they relate to the other, etc.. When they're right in front of you, though, it's obvious who's playing what; and it's obvious then just how different their two parts can be from each other - often discordant, off time from each other, etc. - and how amazing it is that they work together as well as they do.

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Archer Prewitt, Eric Claridge

One other thing I noticed, after seeing them last night is just how good the bass player, Eric Claridge is. He kindof gets buried on the records, but many of his parts are as complex and interesting as the two guitars are. Something I've known for a long time is how good a drummer John McEntire is, but watching him is something else. His sound on studio records is very clean, very precise, crisp; I've always had this image of him sitting there very cool, calm and in-control. No, that's not him. Not at all. He's totally into it: head, neck and, face included. Looks like he's having a blast.

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Sam Prekop - who looks a little like a younger Bill Maher

They played a few of my favorites (esp. "The Biz" and "Parasol"). They played a few off their new record, which didn't do much for me when I got it; but the songs sounded good live. Overall, they rock a bit more live, than they do on the records, where it all gets polished and smoothed. Live, it's all a bit more raw and in your face. Good show. Since I don't know anyone (except Joe, who introduced me to them) who even knows what the Sea And Cake sound like, let alone anyone who likes them, I wasn't sure what a Sea And Cake crowd would look like. Turns out, it looks exactly like the UNC student body; and I was a little surprised to see a group of college girls crowding the front of the stage, singing along with all the songs no less. That's a nice change from other shows I've been to lately (ex. Belew, Hitchcock), where the dominant demographic is aging hipsters with gray ponytails and Hawaiian shirts.

Speaking of aging... damn. I can't handle getting home at 12:45 and needing to get up for work at 6:45. Pinback's playing there next Wednesday, hope I can talk myself into it.

Andrew Bird

Saw Andrew Bird last night, at the lovely Carolina Theater in Durham.

Augie March opened. They're an Australian band who do a roots-rock thing that reminded me of Ryan Adams: earnest, melodic, folk-based rock, but with an Aussie feel, instead of a southern U.S. feel. They weren't bad, but didn't really grab me.

Then, Bird came out and did a half-dozen songs by himself. Bird constructs his songs on stage by layering looped samples of violin and guitar then singing and playing lead over them. And he also sings those wonderfully clever lyrics with that great voice, whistles with such a strong clear tone that Mrs. Cleek compared it to a theremin, and he plays xylophone- all the while controlling the giant rotating speaker cabinet behind him and working the samplers with his feet to bring the sampled parts in and out at the right time. But, even that doesn't seem to be enough, and he gets his arms and legs into the music, too. Watching him, I got the feeling that even though he's doing six or seven parts by himself, he's still unable to get out all the music he's got going on in his head. And thankfully, instead of being a frantic mess, it's mesmerizing - genius at work. A second guitar player joined Bird for the second half of the set, adding another layer of guitar, or backing vocals, or keyboards here and there.

It was, as he said it would be after the first song, a mellow show. Bird doesn't have a ton of upbeat songs anyway, but he heavily favored the mellow ones last night. Since I generally prefer his livelier stuff, I wish he would've done a couple more of those. But, he did play "Nervous Tick Motion", and that means my life is nearly complete.

We had good seats for watching (except for the tall guy with the excellent posture directly in front of me), but not for picture taking... oh well. The sound was great.

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Adrian Belew

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( more pix )

Saw the legendary Adrian Belew at the Cat's Cradle last night. Wow. Amazing. I'd only seen him live playing acoustic, until last night, so I had no idea how loud and ferocious he was when plugged-in. Yow. I was directly in front of him, enjoying the full shreiking joy of his 4 amps. The ear plugs went in about 2/3s through.

He had a drummer, Eric Slick, and bass player, Julie Slick, with him. They were absolutely amazing. Eric Slick is probably the best drummer I've seen live, and he's only recently turned 20. Simply overflowing with apparently effortless power and precision. Julie Slick, his 21-year-old sister, is a monster bass player; she stands there, baby-faced and barefoot in her blue dress, happily playing parts written by bass giants like Les Claypool and Tony Levin - even duplicating, on her bass, much of Levin's Stick work on Crimson's "Elephant Talk". You'd expect them to be good, to play with someone like Belew (who's pushing 60), but they were gooood - I'll be surprised if they don't end up huge, someday.

They did a lot of long, crazy instrumentals that ended up with the three of them breaking off into different rhythms: very free, but engaging, and never sloppy - when the drummer hit that snare, they were always right back where they needed to be. They did a bunch of new stuff from Sides 1,2&3, a handful of Belew classics (Big Electric Cat, Young Lions, Paint The Road, etc), and a bunch of King Crimson songs at the end (Three Of A Perfect Pair, Thela Hun Ginjeet, Frame By Frame, Elephant Talk). All were great. The guy next to me, who said he's seen Belew "30 or 40 times", says Belew's next record, "Side 4", will be a live recording from this tour - yay! While I like Belew's studio records just fine, the songs were simply amazing when played by this band. Should be great.

Not knowing what to expect from his live electric show, I was half-expecting him to do a bunch of tame versions of his serious, message-heavy songs (Men In Helicopters, Peace On Earth, Lone Rhinoceros, etc) with some guilt-inducing commentary between songs - a VH1 Storytellers kind of thing. But it was nothing like that at all - no messages, no acoustic guitars, and none of his Beatle-esque songs (all of which I like, b.t.w.). Except for a solo atmospheric instrumental piece Belew did in the middle, it was all heavy aggressive screaming progressive rawk. And it was all surprisingly modern - even the old stuff sounded fresh and new; except for the fact that the crowd was chock-full of balding pot-bellied Boomers, you wouldn't think this stuff was coming from a guy whose best-known work was done in the mid 80s. As far as I can tell, there's no good reason this particular band he's put together shouldn't be a giant in the current alt-rock scene.

The only part that sucked was the Tuesday night part - I'm totally whipped this AM.

P.S. Adrian's Blog

Cowboy Junkies

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Saw the Cowboy Junkies Friday night at the Carolina Theater in Durham.

Here's a little free advice: if you're going to a C.J. show, don't eat a big meal right before, and take it easy on the beer, too. Because, when they start their slow-motion version of I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (even slower than their Trinity Session version), the last thing you need is a warm sleepy feeling creeping up on you. And don't think you'll be OK because you'll be "watching" them - only the bass player actually stands, and he doesn't move or interact with the audience. The guitar player sits and looks at the floor the whole show; the mandolin/harmonica player spends most of the show with his back to you; the singer sits in her tall chair, singing lullabys and slow sad love songs from her lonesome dream world. She's interesting, but soothing. So, with all that not going on, you really don't need any additional sedation. Eat a light meal, instead. I didn't. Should have. Had to fight off the sleepies.

Still, it was a good show. They did a lot of stuff from the Trinity Session and those other early albums - all very nice. I think my favorite was their final song of the night, Misguided Angel, with just guitar, harmonica and Margot. They also did a lot of new stuff. I don't have their last couple of records, and so all that stuff was unfamiliar and, frankly, a little harder to get into - they're still unmistakably Cowboy Junkies' songs, but they've got more of that long, slow, feedbacky, noodly jam in them. But, I've been a fan for a long time, and they didn't do anything to change that.

I should probably get those new records - but not from their website, because that's illegal.

Doc Songs

Here are a couple of Doc Watson songs I recorded at Merlefest on one of our cameras:

Windy And Warm - an instrumental. Doc and some other guy trade leads.

Morning Side Of The Mountains - Doc announces it by saying Paul Anka had a hit with it, back in the day. Thanks to Gary in comments for coming up with the title; I couldn't figure it out, and so the mp3 is named and tagged incorrectly.

They aren't very big (600K and 900K, IIRC).

Merlefest 07, Days 3,4

There were a lot more people at Merlefest this year than either of the past two years. Maybe the new corporate sponsorship is giving them a bigger advertising budget (there were Lowes hardware signs everywhere). Who knows... But, it was crowded. Thursday and Friday had a lot of people, but Saturday was mobbed. And they apparently reduced the number of toilets. Awesome.

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But, nonetheless, there were bands to see.

First up for us, The Duhks. We saw them two years ago, when they had a different singer. I wasn't really impressed, then. But this time around, I liked them a lot. The new singer has a great voice, and I don't know if it was the song selection, two more years of experience, or what, but the rest of the band grabbed me too. They did a few Cajun songs, a few French-Canadian songs, a few traditional bluegrass songs, and, they called out John Paul Jones for a pair of songs, including a bluegrass version of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love - which sounds like a terrible idea, and I cringed when they started it, but it worked surprisingly well. The crowd was on their feet the whole time.

After that, Del McCoury:

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As always, they were fast, polished, professional, and still fun. Mrs Cleek's a little put off by Del's voice, but I like it just fine. Plus, they're such amazing players and so polished at what they do - damn. They're like a little bluegrass machine.

After that, Mrs. Cleek and I went back to the campsite for a little nap action. Alison Krauss was up that night, and we needed to recharge. Of course we never made it back to the shows... and ended up listening to it all on the radio. John Paul Jones showed up again to do Whole Lotta Love with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, et al. Oh well.

Everybody else showed up after Alison Krauss' set and then it was time for the all-night jam.

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Sunday, we were all beat and there wasn't anyone playing that we needed to see, so we hung out at the campsite for a bit, then packed it up and left.

Another fine Merlefest.

Merlefest 07, Day #2

Late night, lots of rain. But the weatherman says Friday's going to be dry. Awesome. Lazy morning, big breakfast, mimosas. Then, all aboard the Wilkesboro Fire Department shuttle bus and over to the show.

First up for us, the legendary Doc Watson, father of late Merle Watson, for whom the festival is named and dedicated:

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He's 84, but his voice is still hanging in there, and he's still a better guitar player than I could ever hope to be.

Then, over to the main stage for an all-star jam with Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Tony Rice and a couple of guys whose names I can't recall right now. They did a bunch of Bela Fleck's tunes, plus a few standards. They kept it mostly on the traditional side, not going too far into the jazzy, progressive stuff Bush and Fleck and known to do. All those guys are incredibly fast and they're also ubiquitous at Merlefest - you can catch any of them playing nearly any time of day. I wouldn't mind if the organizers put a limit on the number of times a performer can appear - get some new blood onto the big stages maybe ?

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Then, Uncle Earl played a set of traditional bluegrass.

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After a few songs, they announced that the guy who produced their last album was there, and was going to join them on-stage for a couple of songs. It was John Paul Jones, best-known as the bass player for Led Zeppelin. OMGWTF?

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He did a couple of songs, playing mandolin.

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So, that was a little bewildering.

Then, after a short trip back to the campsite for a recharge, we're back for the day's main event:

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Elvis Costello.

He started with a short solo set of his classics (Every Day I Write the Book, Veronica, Brilliant Mistake, etc.), including a rather disappointing version of Alison, where he jumbled the verses - repeating half of one, skipping another, etc.. Then a bassist and multi-string player came out for a few (hundred) overly-long ballads that few in the audience seemed to know. Applause was polite - nothing like what someone like, say, The Duhks get.

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He seemed to be picking songs from the country side of his catalog, but they weren't his best, and they seemed to drag and blend into one another - at least for a non-fan like me. Maybe it'd be different if I was familiar with his 30 years of history, but I'm not. And the stuff he did play hasn't inspired me to buy any more.

Eventually, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas and Jim Lauderdale came out and they managed to get through a ragged version of Friend Of The Devil.

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That song gave me hope that he'd do some well-known songs that the group could play on. Instead, he told us that they were going to do some songs that they were trying to learn backstage - and if it didn't sound good, "so what?" So, of course the songs were pretty weak, and the guest musicians didn't seem to add much. And after a song or so, Mrs Cleek and I got up and hopped the bus back to the campsite.

The majority opinion of Elvis' show was a) his songs don't really work at a bluegrass festival, b) he chose a lot of weak songs, c) bringing on bluegrass hotshots like Bush, Douglas and Lauderdale and then not using them effectively only showed how out of place he was. One of our party was a fan and thought he did fine. The rest of us weren't convinced. It's a shame - he's a certified legend, with a good number of certified classic songs - and I didn't expect I'd think less of him after seeing him. Oh well.

And that was Friday.

Merlefest 07, Day One

Arrived safely at the Wilkesboro Waste Water Treatment Plant, set up our tents, barely beating a brief rain shower. Then we set ourselves in the right frame of mind... and off to the show!

First up, John Cowan:

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He did a set of rock/soul-tinged new-school bluegrass - so new-school that it was sometimes hard to tell if you should call it bluegrass at all - sounding more like classic rock, or 60's soul. Pretty good though. A good way to get started.

And then the rain started for real.

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Unfortunately for the rest of our party, who arrived later than we did, they got stuck setting up their tents in the rain. The four of us just had to sit in it and watch bands. For example, Cherryholmes:

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Dad's on bass, mom's playing mandolin, the kids handle banjo, guitar, fiddle and vocals. They're a high-energy, all-in-the-family, bluegrass band - great playing, fun to watch, good songs, etc.. Worth sitting in the rain for, thankfully.

And that was all we saw the first day. So it was back to the tents to do some eating and drinking.

Wolfmother

We saw Wolfmother last night, at a little club in Raleigh.

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They were good, sounded almost identical to the record, but much much louder. Or maybe that's because we were standing in front of the right-side speakers. Hard to say. Hard to think straight, with all this ringing in my ears.

The guitar player's got a great heavy guitar sound. Very Sabbathy. Yum. And he sings all the songs exactly the way he does on the record - which always impresses me, since so many singers shortcut or avoid the tough parts in live vocals - sounding like a combination of Ozzy and Jack White. I think they played one new song, and so everything else was extended versions of stuff from their first (and only) record - makes singing along easy.

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I had always thought, based on nothing but my own imagination, that the guitar player was the organ player. That was incorrect; the bass player handles all the organ and effects parts. And now that I know that very important fact, I feel complete.

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The crowd was full of really tall, energetic college kids, and so, there was a mosh pit. I haven't seen one of those in like 15 years. Wolfmother's so retro, dude. We bailed a little early, cause, well, it was a frikkin Tuesday night, and all us oldies gotta get up in the morning - and, frankly, if you've heard an hour of Wolfmother, you've heard everything they have to say already. I like 'em, but they're kindof predictable.