S & C at the Cat's Cradle, last night.

Nikon D90, 50mm

They had a replacement bassist, not sure why. But he did a fine job. I thought, "wow, Eric Claridge sure looks older in person. But he still zips around on the bass!" It wasn't him.

Nikon D90, 50mm

Very light turnout, sadly. There were 13 people when the opener started, and maybe 100 when it was all done. Gave me lots of room to roam around - first Cat's Cradle show where I could leave my front-center spot and return to it, whenever I wanted to.

I actually did hurt my hearing at that Feelies show last month (light, non-stop ringing). So, I had to wear earplugs the whole time last night. That sucked. I may be reaching the end of my small-club show career.

Nikon D90, 50mm

Song selection was mostly from their later five albums, with just a small handful from their first five. In my ideal world, this would be reversed. But, I must say: after hearing it live, I do appreciate the newer stuff more.

Nikon D90, 50mm

Singer Sam Prekop writes all his words on big pieces of heavy paper. I never really thought of it, but yes, he does pack a lot of words into his songs.

Good show. I got to meet a couple of the guys afterwards. Got to tell them how awesome they are, etc.. Dork.

Opener was Matthew Friedberger. He is the songwriting half of Fiery Furnaces.

Nikon D90, 50mm

It was him, a sequencer, a couple of keyboards and, sometimes, a bass. It's hard to say if he did one song or a few songs that ran together; I know nothing about his solo stuff. Mostly, the electronics played their pre-recorded dense, constantly-changing, song parts; and over that he sang/spoke a surreal and disjointed narrative about ... something. Sometimes he'd play a few chords on the keyboard, or a few bars of bass noodling. But mostly he just did his narration. So: just like the Fiery Furnaces, but without his sister singing.

I do not like the Fiery Furnaces. I wish I did. I just don't.

His set made me think of Captain Beefheart (Zappa, too) - that kind of free-spirited, rules-out-the-window, do it exactly like I want approach. But Beefheart had to work in the days before sequencers and samplers could play back every little idea that popped into your head, exactly, without complaint. So he had to find a band that could keep up with his imagination, and I'm sure that limited him in some ways. There are only so many rock musicians out there good enough and daring enough to put themselves in the hands of someone like that. These days, though, anyone can be their own Beefheart: just buy a laptop and get down to it. Still, I was most impressed that he was willing to get up there and essentially narrate his sequencer's performance. Takes something I ain't got.

See also, the interesting, and often very Beefhearty, U Can Unlearn Guitar.