Went to see the Shins, Saturday night. The show was in Winston-Salem, a city about two hours from us, so we made a day out it - went up to Mt. Airy, which is Andy Griffith's hometown, and the inspiration for the town of Mayberry on the old Andy Griffith Show. It's a cute little town up in the hills, and the old downtown strip is basically a museum to Andy and the show. We had lunch at one of the many diners. Then we went back to Winston-Salem for the show.

First up, Viva Voce:

It's a husband/wife pair. He sings, plays drums, guitar, keyboard, harmonica and theramin. Often, as in the picture above, he played guitar and sang, while playing drums with his feet. Most impressive. She sang and played guitar - doing these this wicked howling feedback-and-bent-string stoner-rock leads (Neil Young, Jay Mascis, etc) through all the songs. She was just awesome.

For the last song she pulled out this crazy double-necked Danelectro baritone/guitar (you can see it in the rack behind her). Total rock.

Their style seemed to center on a kind of organic, stomping rock: sometimes a little Yo La Tengo noisy sweetness, sometimes a little Zeppelin or 70's-glam-rock bombast. But unlike another popular (former) husband/wife duo, Viva Voce doesn't really do the retro minimalist thing; their songs are much fuller and more complex than anything the White Stripes do. They were excellent.

For Viva Voce, we managed to get right up front. But then, during the intermission, I had to take a leak... and by the time I got back, the crowd had compressed and turned defensive and surly, and I couldn't fight my way back to where Mrs Cleek was standing - I tried, but kept getting deflected. So, I gave up and had to watch the Shins from the outside edge of the crowd. And, therefore, the pictures reeealllly suck...

The Shins were great. I'm not sure why, but I was expecting them to be kind of sloppy and boring to watch and to not quite be able to pull off the songs without all the studio stuff. But, I was completely wrong about that. Not only were they great fun to watch, they sounded fantastic; the singer is really amazing - and it's strange to hear that voice come out of a guy that looks like Kevin Spacey. They made the songs from the first album, which are swimming in effects, with the vocals pushed way down, sound even better. And, best of all, they got me to pay attention to some songs from their newest album that I'd been ignoring. El yay!

I recorded a few songs on the little camera, but they came out pretty poorly - it was really loud so they're all compressed to death. You can probably find it on YouTube anyway - every other person there was taking pictures or movies with cameras and cellphones.

Mrs. Cleek and I went to see Son Volt and Tift Merritt last night, at The Disco Rodeo.

Here's Tift:

She was good, if a bit hoarse. My wife likes her better on record, than live. I like her better live.

Here's Jay Farrar from Son Volt, playing harmonica:

It's a good thing Farrar has interesting lyrics and can write such rocking songs, because the combination of his near monotone delivery and minimal stage presence would sink anyone else - I think I saw him break his blank expression with a smile once the whole night. Nonetheless, I do love me some Son Volt. They have a few songs that rank among my all-time favorites (including their cover of Ron Wood's Mystifies Me).

Interestingly, the lead guitar player, Brad Rice, played for both Tift and Son Volt last night. He played on the latest Son Volt album, and he was playing for Tift when we saw her on Austin City Limits last Saturday night. Busy guy.

Went to the Cat's Cradle last night. Here's the men's room:

We saw the legendary Leon Redbone, the deep-voiced man of mystery who sings tunes that were popular 70 years ago.

He did a set full of standards like My Blue Heaven and Shine On Harvest Moon. And, he whistled one song over a pre-recorded track of someone playing the zither; he's an amazing whistler (not that I've ever seen anyone whistle on stage before) - I had no idea people could make those sounds, or hit notes so accurately, without an instrument of some kind. Most of his songs, though, were him on guitar, a trumpet player and a pianist - all excellent players - funny, too. Good show.

There was an alarming number of middle-aged men in Hawaiian shirts in the crowd.

Saw Lucinda Williams last night, outdoors, at the NC Art Museum. Though I couldn't see her from where we were sitting (damn lawn seats), she sounded great. Part of it was the sound system itself - I don't know that I've ever heard a concert sound so good. But mostly it was her : her voice is much more expressive, live, than it is recorded. I always had the impression that she was just kindof an O.K. singer with a lot of attitude and a strong accent. All those little gravelly bits and rough edges in her voice came through loud and clear, but what surprised me was how strong and controlled her actual singing was, underneath the grit and growl.

I got a couple of recordings from my little camera. Maybe I'll post them someday.