Elias Arts

Live from NY: inc. / Autre Ne Veut

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:20:00 -0400

Downtown Records brought their fest to the Lower East Side over the weekend. As part of this, 4AD’s inc. and Mexican Summer’s Autre Ne Veut played Pianos on Saturday night. Of all the R&B influenced indie over the past few years, these two groups have been responsible for some of the best. It’s so easy for this kind of music to fail, but these two incorporate such precision and due respect to their influences that it works in both cases.

Playing first, Autre Ne Veut’s enthusiasm and excessive movement on stage showed a man unafraid of judgment. He flipped his hat backwards and dove right in, unleashing a thirty minute set mostly focusing on his latest, 2013’s “Anxiety”. To reference one of his songs, he truly seemed “ego-free” which was refreshing in a world of indie-rock where bands often just linger on stage like their feet are duct-taped to one area. The live drummer played along to the recorded synths and a woman contributed vocals that made the sound way stronger whenever she entered. Hearing leader Arthur Ashin talk about Bobby Brown in all those interviews totally makes sense now; he only wants to be perceived as having the energy of New Edition in the ’80s. The indie aspect is introduced with the hints of paranoia and doubt that went lacking in the confident R&B he often rips.

It’s hard to say whether inc.’s music works best recorded or live. One thing I immediately realized is how well the performance complements the album. Watching the two brothers Andrew and Daniel Aged work with a live drummer and keyboardist made me give a greater appreciation to the album, which already ranked as one of my top in 2013. The xx has done it and The Weeknd has done it, but inc. has done it again. Guitarist Andrew Aged blasts his chorus pedal until it can’t possibly moan any more, getting a guitar tone that sounds unique at least held up to their contemporaries. “Desert Rose (War Prayer)” was played first as if they needed to get the festival crowd on their side from the start. The brothers often harmonized on vocals sounding like Sade constrained to a very slim range. It works for them though. The drummer calmed down by the ending, whether due to tiring himself out with all those fills in the first few songs, or because he realized this kind of music doesn’t really lend itself to overplaying. Imagine Buddy Rich going to town over those last two Talk Talk records, it just doesn’t work like that. They played a thirty minute set highlighting most of “No World”, their latest release on 4AD. I was expecting to see the two brothers hunched over synthesizers and drum machines, and instead got a full band set that allowed for the songs to blossom in new arrangements. Either probably would have pleased me, but in a setting where the former is becoming more and more the norm, it’s nice to see a group try a little harder by going back to basics.

Echoed By Erik: Jessie Ware @ Webster Hall

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:01:00 -0400

While in NYC for the third time in six months, Jessie Ware played to another packed house of fans at Webster Hall. Having debuted at The Box late last year, she moved up to Bowery Ballroom in January and quickly sold out two April shows at the once-Ritz and Music Hall of Williamsburg. Ware is on the standard path buzzy musicians take in NY to one day headline Radio City Music Hall. With only one album out, she played the bulk of it along with a couple new tracks and a cover of Brownstone’s “If You Love Me”. She spoke at length between nearly every song but not in a way that broke up the rhythm of the show; it was natural, organic and welcomed by all.

Ware comes off as endearing in how surprised she is by people enjoying her music. Between January and now she has become an assured performer rather than simply a good singer. Her three-piece band has only become tighter and more in tune with her album’s minimal sound. Drummer Dornik Leigh could teach seminars on restraint that most percussionists could stand to hear. Bassist Rocco Palladino’s sound is closer to his father Pino’s work on D’Angelo’s “Voodoo” than Pino’s many tours with The Who. There is a very low-key and effective sound they are aiming for and achieving. Ware’s pop presence up front however has made it feel as much Lisa Lisa as Lisa Stansfield. I’d love to see Ware take it back another decade from Brownstone and cover Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam’s “I Wonder If I Take You Home”. That and Timberlake covering Stevie’s “I Ain’t Gonna Stand For It” are like dreams and I’m not even a sucker for covers.

Ware’s trifecta of “No To Love”, “Wildest Moments”, and “Running” closed out the night, proving she knows which are her best songs. Anything one would desire from music is accomplished in those twelve minutes as emotions are tested and normally stoic bodies begin to move. Dancey enough for the club goers, and calm enough for the too cool types, Ware fits into a nice midsection of pop music. Still, you’d be hard-pressed to call her middle of the road. There are those rare exceptions producing refreshing music while also appealing to most listeners. With music so explosively EDM-centric this last half-decade, it’s nice to see the youth who grew up with that branching out into a world where Jessie Wares can cultivate all the same excitement, albeit down a more subtle avenue.

-Erik Sutch

Depeche Mode, DVA DAMAS

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:00:00 -0400

Last Monday night, Depeche Mode played a nine song set at the Letterman-occupied Ed Sullivan Theater. This was the band’s first public performance in three years and was used to highlight the strength of their new album, “Delta Machine”. Broadcast live online and used as a warmup for their slightly longer (by one song) SXSW performance, this performance showed a band not yet ready for a long tour, but ready to promote their latest work. It takes a lot of confidence in recent material to fill half a set with unheard music and still expect people in the audience to move, and keep the crowd at home tuned in especially with our seemingly unlimited options compared to when the band began and MTV was one of the only places to go for a dual visual/aural stimulation. They pulled it off though and pulled everyone into the “Delta Machine”, their thirteenth record and first since 2009’s “Sounds of the Universe”.

Starting with the live debuts of “Angel” and “Should Be Higher”, fans were excited no matter the sound just at the sight of the band. They were here on time and playing new stuff, and hey it sounds exactly like Depeche Mode should sound. They’ve had a close to flawless track record over the last thirty years by sticking with their niche and not veering too far into territory they might not feel as comfortable in. Comfort is a funny word to describe this band as they were one of the first groups to jam discomfort into the pop world. Coming at a time just in between punk and new wave, Depeche Mode culls from the industrial world Throbbing Gristle founded, while stamping their signature pop sound on it, heading straight into a more accessible field with rhythmic rather than out of time drum patterns and, increasingly over time, soaring vocals. Dave Gahan has become a bit of a rock icon and despite his good looks and crooning call, he has had all the pratfalls to go along with the title. All of these characteristics for better or worse have laid the groundwork for Depeche Mode as they are now. By song three “Walking in My Shoes” from 1993’s “Songs of Faith and Devotion”, the band was all in. The small crowd of a couple hundred was on their feet from the go with the new music, but this familiar favorite really reeled everyone in. Coupled with the first performance in fifteen years of “Barrel of a Gun”, people were sent into a frenzy between dancing and texting their friends letting them know that Depeche Mode is switching up their setlist a bit for the tour to come.

Anton Corbijn’s “Devotional” document of their 1993 tour was an early favorite of mine in terms of how a live show can be captured on film. Corbijn caught all the visuals that appear dated now but are emblematic of an era when ticket prices were rising and set designs were getting more intricate. The way colors reacted along to the music and how Gahan put himself in motion against the towering backdrop proved the point MTV made all through the ’80s: it was never just about the music, and now we have the technology and funds to show you all about that. The performances Depeche Mode are doing this spring have been back to basics in their under an hour sets without detailed lighting plots and wild visuals, but once the arena shows begin, first in Europe and then later in the year in the US, the band will return to teaming their music with the all-out experience everyone deserves out of it. These stripped down shows have given us the chance to live these new songs for the first time on their own, and it’s a testament to the power of their music that is always the backbone of this enterprise.

There’s a new band coming out of California called DVA DAMAS who have appropriated a lot of the same machines as Depeche Mode and put them to use in a less poppy but more snotty way. If both bands had industrial as a template and Depeche Mode went more towards the new wave, DVA DAMAS went headfirst into punk. They rip a too rarely explored section of post-punk along with bands like Richmond’s Lost Tribe and Barcelona’s Belgrado. There was more to pull from than got played, and these three bands are mining for sounds their predecessors may have missed out on. DVA DAMAS’ first 12” is called “Nightshade” and its twenty minutes go by in a blur. A voice that sounds like it is mocking or haunting you the entire time guides you through infinite bliss of synths and programmed drums. They’ve stripped away even more than post-punk revivalists of the late ’00s like Blank Dogs and Cold Cave, and have created something that sounds authentic. The hiss sounds like it belongs where many new punk or noise bands will add an extra layer of noise now just to appear like there is something different when there really isn’t. This really feels isolated yet completely relatable, exactly how punk should be. I’m not these people or anyone else and we’d probably never get along, but there’s something there we latch onto whether we like it or not. DVA DAMAS is minimal perfection that traps you in its short spurts of music and then release you refreshed still believing in punk.

Live from NY: Jessie Ware

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:27:00 -0500

Performing with a three-piece band behind her, Jessie Ware took to Bowery Ballroom on Thursday for her second proper New York show in as many months and convinced all attending that she should play here over and over again. Though her NY premiere came at The Box in December, and she played a short acoustic set Wednesday at an MTV showcase at Highline Ballroom, her set at Bowery felt most like her welcome party. The middle of the show found an adoring fan named Derek showering Ware with flowers and affection. This choked up the singer for the duration of the next song. For someone whose intro track has a chorus of “I need your devotion”, she becomes purely appreciative when the devoted deliver.

Ware still seems skeptical of people enjoying her music. This skepticism is an endearing quality about her that puts her self-consciousness on proud display, humbling both crowd and artist. Though her album was released last summer, it has not yet found distribution over here in the U.S., but in these modern times music finds a way onto our machines without paying a marked up import rate. Most songs were loudly sung along to by people who have not yet even had the opportunity to buy the record. Ware kept a small collection of samplers near and casually triggered the vocal samples that prominently feature on the record. The few times she did fumble even felt rehearsed to drive the point home once again that holy shit, she is so human.

Her voice and act is completely professional and she put in work getting a live band together that could function both as a reflection of her album and as a good group for any fairweather music fan to go see. Rocco Palladino has been playing bass on this tour, and it would not be worth noting who is father is if he didn’t play, look, and move exactly like Pino Palladino. Trained by the man who played most of the bass on D’Angelo’s “Voodoo”, Rocco knows restraint and playing in the pocket like few others, especially in the realm of modern American R&B. The show gradually built upon itself until hitting her three best at the finale and then respectably bowing out without an encore.

Three or four years ago, an act so obviously influenced by Sade and Lisa Stansfield would not have had a home in this world. The rise of R&B in indie rock is not without complications. What becomes of the artists who formed the genesis for what is now popular in a totally different sphere than the one in which it earlier existed? Solange, who played for years to small crowds and is now finding fame in this nu-R&B phase, says “so you can stop acting like it just popped off last year for R&B. Like it just got interesting and experimental.” This is all true, but the one thing this latest model has embraced, Solange’s latest “True” included, is influence from indie rock meshed with a wide scope of soul music. Frank Ocean, The Weeknd, Jessie Ware, The xx all undeniably borrow elements from indie rock records, both musically and in a DIY aspect. So you can say this style of R&B is finding the same fate as indie rock in the late ’90s, as rap in the early ’90s, and as punk in the ’80s. All these styles are largely based in experimentation (what music isn’t?) and certain artists found a way in their specific era to appeal to a new base. They did this by utilizing ingredients from the style that base is most comfortable in. Also by embracing the climate in which we pay for music. The most we can hope for is that in the era of free music, kids will be more willing to seek out the originators, while still enjoying the brilliance being brought to them in the now.

Setlist from 01/17/13

Devotion
Still Love Me
Night Light
If You Love Me
110%
Sweet Talk
Swan Song
Taking In Water
Something Inside
What You Won’t Do For Love
No to Love
Wildest Moments
Running

Live from NY: Solange

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 10:00:00 -0500

When indie rock stopped being interesting however many years ago, some would have been content to let it drift off and die. The torch has been carried in the traditional sense by bands like Real Estate and Wild Nothing who keep it simple, inoffensive, and pleasant enough but don’t really break any ground. Three of the more refreshing indie rock inspired records this year came from artists who had previously dabbled in similar sounds but never attacked at the level they currently do. The first is Chromatics’ “Kill For Love” which stays grounded in the group’s electro roots while pushing ever closer to indie. Their recently released “Cherry” single even borrows lyrics from The Magnetic Fields. The second record came from one-half of the mighty OutKast in Big Boi’s “Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors”, and the third from Solange. Teaming up with Dev Hynes AKA Blood Orange, and FKA Lightspeed Champion, the younger Knowles sis’ has crafted a thirty minute beauty that takes cues as much from The Smiths as it does from Sade. Knowles and Hynes played their first proper show together behind “True” Tuesday night at Bowery Ballroom. Together they push the boundaries of both ’80s R&B and jangly indie-pop creating something that sounds like the future.

Solange’s set consisted of every song from her new EP “True” plus “T.O.N.Y.” and “Sandcastle Disco” from 2008’s “Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams”. Any more than two past tracks would have felt wrong in this setting. Four years has done wonders to her music, and there is nothing she has done before that can hold its own against “True”. On stage no longer than forty-five minutes, this exercise in quality over quantity went over just fine with the crowd, especially one lady who yelled “BEST NIGHT EVER!” as Solange wrapped her main set with “Losing You”. “Bad Girls” and “Locked In Closets” revealed a darkness not as prevalent in her other tracks allowing the set to reach introspection. Set starter “Some Things Never Seem to Fucking Work” and “Lovers in the Parking Lot” had everyone moving and more importantly smiling. In the encore of “Sandcastle Disco” you could see big sis’ Beyoncé getting wild in the balcony singing along and taking pics of Solange with a point-and-shoot camera. It was an endearing moment and somehow this brief appearance by pop’s god wasn’t even the highlight of the show. Solange owned the room with applause drowning out most of her in between song banter. This was Solange’s house and it’s nice Beysus took her shoes off while inside.

“True” is an album that finds Solange at her most comfortable. In the past, she skipped around from sound to sound looking for a direction that really fit her personality, and now she seems to have unearthed an idea that is purely hers. This is the suave Solange we see in public personified for the first time in song. Even when her music wasn’t this cohesive, her fashion always was. This sense remains with her Bowery ensemble consisting of a just barely not matching floral green jacket and pant combination that even caught the eye of this non-fashionista. On stage it would appear the music is just a vehicle to allow her to dance freely in front of 500 people. You can tell she loves dancing, and especially loves the understated and cool as hell routines she has choreographed for herself and her band. She really belts out the songs when it comes to that, and sells everything through beautifully. While her vocals never seem too difficult, they always carry out nice melodies and remain impressive. It’s hard to pick any one of the new songs to single out as a highlight because all are pop gold and will appeal to a wide range of people who have not yet discovered her music.

Solange

Terrible Records

Live from NY: Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:36:00 -0500

Playing a set of standards wouldn’t be Neil Young’s style. At sixty-seven years old, he is pushing into the future quicker than ever. Realizing time is no longer completely on his side, he has regrouped with his longtime backing band Crazy Horse for the first time in eight years to do what he does best and what he seems to have the most fun with. Outside of a three song acoustic break, the four elder grunge-men pummeled away with a sound that seemed even bigger than the prop amps they had on stage behind them could produce. The show began with a quick prerecorded rendition of The Star Spangled Banner, after which the American flag backdrop came soaring down to reveal a Crazy Horse banner. Young may be from Canada, but with Crazy Horse he created one of the great American rock bands. This recent tour backing their latest “Psychedelic Pill” is another high point in a forty year plus career.

Their first song of the night “Love and Only Love” from 1990’s “Ragged Glory” is lyrically a glance back at hippie ideology with its sonic feet firmly planted in the now. Even as grunge has come and gone, Crazy Horse still gives off a feeling that has yet to be cracked by others. Certainly noisier than any of the lesser acts that followed through the ’90s, the band relies on feedback in a way that keeps improving. At a sold out Madison Square Garden, they tore through a two hour set that leaned more on making their guitars squeal and less on melody. Who else could hold an arena crowd’s attention with musical ideas like that for so long? “Walk Like a Giant” from their latest album (which was priced at $80 for the 3LP at the merch booth!) played out even better in a live setting. The verses are slow meditations on regret and the noise that follows each verse mirrors this feeling. Add in the crushing decay as age creeps up on a person and Neil Young has poured his entire emotional being into the sound of his guitar.

The acoustic set was well received but unnecessary in this setting. “The Needle and the Damage Done” was the only stand out of the three songs he played stripped-down. Walking around the stage amongst old ghosts who once stood up there with him, Young played through the “Harvest” track alone and clearly bothered. Still nearly half a century later, you can tell how deep this song flows through his system. “Fuckin’ Up” and “Hey Hey, My My” closed the main set with Buffalo Springfield’s “Mr. Soul” lodged between them. Leading the audience in a chant of “just a fuck up, you’re just a fuck up, he’s just a fuck up” and so on, paralleled the unnerving guitar riff that carries much of “Fuckin’ Up”. Where most of the “guitar gods” play solos that sound confident, Young and his second guitarist Poncho have mastered a sound that comes off as more human, self-aware and self-conscious. This is something I feel a greater affection for and is a big reason why they can still sell out arenas as they approach their seventies. The only real “greatest hit” of the night was “Cinnamon Girl”. They sludged through it at a pace that bands like Sleep and Dead Meadow have admired and taken so much from. Even a track as classic as “Cinnamon Girl” could be updated and improved upon. As long as they stay alive, they’ll remain on top of things and unafraid of moving ahead. Crazy Horse in 2012 has shown themselves to be as relevant as Crazy Horse in the early ’70s.

Setlist 11/27/12

Love and Only Love
Powderfinger
Born in Ontario
Walk Like a Giant
The Needle and the Damage Done
Twisted Road
Singer Without a Song
Ramada Inn
Cinnamon Girl
Fuckin’ Up
Mr. Soul
Hey Hey, My My

ENCORE

Roll Another Number

Live from NY: Bon Iver

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 13:03:00 -0400

The high points of Bon Iver’s show Thursday night at Radio City Music Hall came at the very start and very end of their set. The now nine-piece band started with “Perth” and ended with “Beth/Rest”, also the first and last song of their 2011 Grammy-winning “Bon Iver, Bon Iver”. Both songs carried a similar energy that was toned down through the middle of the show. They highlighted the start to an ending and the absolute end of an ending. This is a band with conclusions without resolution as their foundation, with leader Justin Vernon taking to the woods after a breakup to record songs that would form into “For Emma, Forever Ago”. Before playing “Beach Baby”, Vernon said “this is a song about the beach and divorce”, and the latter of those rings true for every song he has ever touched. That is not to say these are all mopey sad songs. Vernon looks to the realistic side of a separation and creates songs that feel like a healthy breakup should feel. Performed live with a full band, in spite of the cacophony, these songs felt much more controlled than they do on record, and conveyed that Vernon has maintained the grasp on himself that he initially wrote these songs to gain.

“Blood Bank” was played in a new arrangement that fell somewhere between alt-country and krautrock, with downstroke-strummed acoustic guitars and a hyperactive foot on the bass drum. “re: Stacks” was the only song performed solo acoustic by Vernon. Keeping the band intact for most of the show was a perfect choice to fill up the space at Radio City. The encore of “Skinny Love” and “For Emma” felt more like a favor to the crowd than anything the band actually wanted to play, especially with Vernon starting the former with a tongue-in-cheek “singalong if you know it”. “For Emma” came and went as an anticlimatic finale that just kind of lingered for a few minutes and faded. What makes “Beth/Rest” work so well is how the song arcs, and has an ending that feels finite. So many of their older songs seem to meander endlessly, but the newer songs with builds and more complex structuring than just verse-chorus-verse are the ones that play best live. That old Bon Iver feeling of an ending without a strong finish remains, but the gap at least feels like it is closing. He is inching towards personal resolution and using his music as a vessel that can propel him faster than any other way.

Setlist for 9/20 show

Perth
Minnesota, WI
Holocene
Blood Bank
Beach Baby
Hinnom, TX
Wash.
Towers
Creature Fear
re: Stacks
Michicant
Calgary
Lisbon, OH
Beth/Rest

ENCORE

Skinny Love
For Emma

Swans "The Seer"

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 01:34:00 -0400

At the middle of Swans’ two-hour “The Seer” is an instrumental track titled “93 Ave. B Blues”. This song title is in reference to the location of the band’s practice space in the early ’80s, but is one of the few ways this formation of Swans harkens back to the band that was, some thirty years ago. Another constant is obviously leader Michael Gira, whose teeth are featured in the mouth of a fox on the album’s cover. Gira stuck with Swans through most of the ’80s and ’90s, before breaking the band up in ‘97 to concentrate on Angels of Light for the ’00s. The ’10s have brought us the return of Swans, and 2012 has pushed the band to the potential they can reach when all systems are go. After a lackluster comeback album in “My Father Will Guide…”, Swans appear here as a band playing like they still have something to prove, a feeling lacking in “My Father…”. Having gone through countless style and band member shifts, Swans has mostly served as a vessel for Gira wherever he is in his life. Ranging from the prettiness of “Love of Life” to the industrial destruction in “Filth”, Swans are not a wishy-washy band but rather one that pulls up and unleashes the range of emotions all humans express. “The Seer” covers it all, bringing in old favorite Jarboe, as well as Karen O and members of Low, to better convey explicit beauty. Gira can only sound standoffish and downright rude in his vocals as a way to get across the aggression and sense of humor that Swans so perfectly puts together.

“Avatar” begins with a crushing four minutes of percussion and bells before a chord change comes on bass signaling the human element in the song. “Your life is in my hands” Gira repeats as the song begins to feel more like song than score without letting go of the onslaught that carried us to this point. The vocals take us into an ending in which a single piano key is hammered intensely and then the band instantly jumps into a minute-long section more cruel than anything that proceeded it. For all the cacophony on “The Seer”, there are never really any points of ugliness, no real brashness, something the band thrived on in its earliest days. Pulling off a sound like that is no longer interesting as it was in the early ’80s, and recognizing this Gira changed the path accordingly. They are still abrasive where it counts, yet with a sense of restraint and timing that can only come with experience. “The Seer” exists as one of Swans’ best records, if only because it showcases a band who has tried it all, and who remains at the forefront of interesting sounds in punk rock. This is the way Swans has always been going, and Gira couldn’t be pushing them in a better direction.

Young God Records - home to Swans & others.

Live from NY: Chromatics

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 01:01:00 -0400

“Everybody’s got a secret to hide” is the first original lyric of the Chromatics’ 2012 album “Kill For Love”, and for a long time Chromatics were that aforementioned secret kept by far too few electronic enthusiasts. It took a 2007 track reused for 2011’s “Drive” soundtrack to really lunge the band into the deserved spotlight. On Sunday night, the four-piece played a ten song set at a sold-out show with no opener. Given the near perfect circumstances under which they performed, it would have been hard for the band to mess up. They delivered more than was expected, covering every direction of the present-day Chromatics formation and leaving even casual fans talking of “the next time” they will see the band play.

Keyboardist/producer Johnny Jewel, drummer Nat Walker, and guitarist Adam Miller started the set with the instrumental “Tick of the Clock”, their ‘hit’ which appeared on the Ryan Gosling picture mentioned earlier. A great start, but the rest of the set showed why this had to be done first. Once vocalist/guitarist Ruth Radelet took the stage, her melancholy presence commanded the room’s attention. It was partially her apparent ambivalence in receiving that attention that mysteriously made her feel warm and inviting as a stage figure. It was mostly due to her one-part softening, one-part dominant, and ultimately well-produced vocals that manage to capture everything Chromatics is about. Heavy themes delivered with dynamic shifts, each appropriate for whatever moment it is placed in. The song selection had to be vocal-heavy from this point forward and the band next packed the one-two punch of “Lady” and “Kill For Love” that had the room moving like rooms don’t typically move to live performances in New York. Miller’s sole vocal for the night took centerstage on “Kill for Love“‘s lengthy centerpiece, “These Streets Will Never Look the Same”. This track gained more momentum and loudness live than on record. “Streets” seemed somewhat improvised near its scattered finale that ended in mostly noise, recalling the early days of Chromatics before Jewel, Walker, and Radelet were in the band. The feedback immediately moved into one of the group’s most put together and poppy songs, “Back from the Grave”, as if to say “That is who we were, this is who we are; but we can be both things.”

Remaining ever so stoic, it’s almost like Radelet has to train herself to not smile. Her appreciation does not go unrecognized in spite of this; a modest “thank you” followed most songs. The Chromatics’ regard for their audience extends beyond the stage as the four sold their own merch after the show at unheard of prices for a band at this level. ($10 for an LP, 2LP, or 3LP!) This is how you move records. Everybody was buying something after being wowed by the band who were now serving as salespeople to the willing crowd.

Live from Boston: Fiona Apple

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 14:42:00 -0400

Cheers and screams pierced through the crowd at Boston’s Wang Theatre, complementing the on-stage pop puncturing from Fiona Apple and crew. Endless shouts that most often wound up as stuttered versions of “WE LOVE YOU!” were received by the artist Apple with the kindness she knows best: reciprocation through musical genius. Tearing through “Fast As You Can” as an opener, Apple danced around stage with a scarf, hitting each and every note spot-on, both vocally and in terms of immediately introducing her world through performance. She ended the track attacking the piano with the same ferocity her vocal cords endure in the most intense moments of her catalog.

The only downside of the show was that she played less than half of her latest “The Idler Wheel…”, in favor of older “Tidal” and “When the Pawn…” tracks. “Criminal” and “Sleep to Dream” were arranged identical to their album versions, but most of the other older tracks found their way into the updated Apple canon, maturing to the state of her latest works. Of the new tracks played, all four shined through. Singles “Every Single Night” and “Anything We Want” are both radio-ready in melody, yet probably will never reach FM due to the more complex instrumentation choices made by Apple and co-producer Charley Drayton. Drayton also works as her drummer, which would explain the highly percussive nature of this latest LP. The crowd remained silently in awe as the songs played out, and then shook the room at each song’s finish. “Werewolf” and “Daredevil” display Apple’s sense of dynamics, both musically and in lyrical content. Her lyrics (and occasional badass public moment) give the impression she is an extreme personality, and she constructs her music in a way that breathes life into this at all angles.

Hopefully once she comes back around in the fall, she’ll have all of the new material ready for a live environment. What wouldn’t you give to hear “Hot Knife” arranged for concert? “The Idler Wheel…” is another example of an artist taking the time to grow, and not just rushing out any idea that may come to mind. Apple’s discography stands at four albums in sixteen years, but ever so often our patience is rewarded with a monumental release that will surely be near the top of most year-end lists.

Setlist for 06/30/12:

Fast As You Can
On the Bound
Shadowboxer
Paper Bag
Anything We Want
Get Gone
Sleep to Dream
Extraordinary Machine
Werewolf
Tymps
Daredevil
I Know
Every Single Night
Not About Love
Carrion
Criminal
It’s Only Make Believe (Conway Twitty)

Live from NY: Cold Cave

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 09:56:00 -0400

After an April appearance at the Guggenheim, Cold Cave announced they would be taking a short break from shows in New York. Their hiatus took a hiatus of its own for a one-off Thursday night as part of Brooklyn’s Northside Festival. Opening with “Underworld USA”, the live duo of Wes Eisold and Dominick Fernow plowed through a set of the songs they are least sick of playing after a year on tour behind “Cherish the Light Years”, the second Cold Cave LP.

Most of the early songs in the set were from either of their first two LPs. “Icons of Summer” sounded strongest with its pounding synth lines that are sent swirling by the time the chorus hits, in a haze that falls somewhere between early Ministry and a Disney score. The duo played a couple new songs before bringing up Dee Dee from Dum Dum Girls to accompany on the night’s closers “Theme From Tomorrowland” and “Confetti”. On the former, Eisold stuck the mic towards the crowd like he momentarily thought he was on stage with his past American Nightmare. While much of the music was being heard through playback, “Confetti” climbed the walls of the show space with an aggressive bite that could only be captured in the calculated dark of this live setting. The overdramatic lyrical content of their tracks was only expanded upon by Fernow’s constant movement about the stage. Through the duration of Cold Cave so far, I don’t think Fernow has really ever stopped dancing to the music he clearly idolizes and is grateful to be apart of. Both Fernow and Eisold seemed completely in control through their set, and even the occasional collision by both men responding so physically to their music seemed premeditated, but more theatrical than contrived.

After a set of less than ten songs, the band was gone with the crowd in chaos demanding an encore that would never come. A respectable choice, and a common one from an act with roots in punk. Play the set and get out of there; encores are for classical concerts. Few other pop performers can claim attention to set length as a strong suit. Cold Cave’s knack for knowing how long is too long contributes greatly to the band being responsible for some of the best sets I’ve seen over the last four years. It’s a guarantee with them that they won’t top the forty-five minute mark, and you will leave wanting more. Hopefully next time in New York will be behind their third LP, but regardless of the material they’re playing, they’ll be putting on a great show.

The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do.

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 23:28:00 -0400

Potential person of the year, Fiona Apple (neck-and-neck with Lena Dunham at this juncture) now has her album up for streaming at npr. “The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do” is Apple’s first album in over seven years, and comes in the dull early days of summer, at a time when we all need it most.

Listen to “The Idler Wheel…” here and rid yourself of the summertime blues.

Live from NJ: Radiohead

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 01:47:00 -0400

As Radiohead indulges in the least accessible sound of their career, they seem to just be getting more and more popular. Serving both as electronic pop group, and background fodder for corporate clients and frat dudes in hats, Radiohead has nestled into a niche some artists would envy, and others would pity. Regardless of an outsider’s stance on the band, they seem to be doing exactly what they want on records and doing it well. Live is another story, what with playing to arenas with demands to be met from casual fans who might only know their major works.

Radiohead ought to take the high road by completely ignoring their back catalog, making a full-on Animal Collective move, only playing their latest yet unrecognizable songs. The band’s energy reached top levels when playing songs that are not yet released. It’s reassuring that the group’s newest material can still light a fire inside them as the members reach middle age. There’s no reason for them to pull out a “Karma Police” or god forbid a “Creep” if they’re just going to phone it in (no Greenwood on switchboard reference here) like they did to the former last night. Very rarely on anything pre-“In Rainbows” did it seem like they really wanted to play those songs rather than they felt an obligation to cover their bases with the shortest interruption possible. It didn’t take too much away from the main focus, showcasing their latest “The King of Limbs” and some songs expected to find a home on future releases.

“Staircase” and “The Daily Mail” back-to-back brought the show to life early on, with the latter giving the band a chance to turn the guitars up to “The Bends” levels without even having to dip into that material. Two tracks from my favorite Radiohead record “Hail to the Thief”, ”Myxomatosis” and “The Gloaming” came up next. “There There” from this record was played later in the set, and all three “HTTT” tracks felt more restrained than usual. It would be nice to see them try something new on these songs they have been playing for over ten years at this point. It would probably also make it feel like less of a chore for them.

“Supercollider” and “Give Up the Ghost”, in the first and second encores respectively, were two more highlights coming near the close of the show. “Supercollider” with its frantic pacing and paranoia like Radiohead does best, and “Give Up the Ghost” in its stripped-down yet so hungry-sounding state, both showed two sides of the great twenty-sided die that is this band in 2012. When sic’ed on a style, they always prove themselves worthy of working outside of what the suit and tie crowd expects. Seeing Radiohead in 2012 is like going to a professional sporting event; the fanatics are overbearing, the majority of the crowd is seemingly there just to have dull conversation throughout, and people lose their minds for the classics, even when they don’t play as well as they once may have. You are constantly caught trying to convince yourself you have got something so many of these suckers don’t: relevance. Rest assured, you can still enjoy the performance guilt-free as long as you are there more for the music than the camaraderie, and still willing to leave during the mediocre “Reckoner” to catch that good 11pm NJ Transit back home.

Once you play “The National Anthem” with horns, you should never again play it without horns. It sounds worse.

No matter how many times you readjust that faux-radio signal.

SETLIST FOR 05/31/12:

Bloom
15 Step
Bodysnatchers
Staircase
The Daily Mail
Myxomatosis
The Gloaming
Separator
Nude
Morning Mr. Magpie
Identikit
Lotus Flower
There There
Karma Police
Feral
Idioteque

FIRST ENCORE

You and Whose Army?
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Supercollider
Everything In Its Right Place

SECOND ENCORE

Give Up the Ghost
The National Anthem
Reckoner

Live from NY: Zola Jesus

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:14:00 -0400

“SLY CURSE. I’M SPIRALING.”

Backed by string arranger to the stars, J.G. Thirlwell and his Mivos Quartet, Zola Jesus played a concise nine song set Thursday night at Guggenheim. Singular force behind the Christ-like moniker, Nika Danilova, pulled the songs from her last couple years of recording that would most benefit from new arrangements with a string quartet. This was the first collaboration between Danilova and Thirlwell, who has in the past worked with Hollywood types Trent Reznor, Nick Cave, and London’s Nurse With Wound.

The setlist contained mostly songs from 2011’s “Conatus”. This is the album that saw Danilova really break away from her lo-fi fuzz-blasted past. The electronic warmth of “Conatus” translated just fine in this performance with live strings. Thirlwell played conductor as well as laptop engineer, though the electronic elements (drums, synths) of each song were lowered in the mix to cast attention on the strings and Danilova’s vocals. “In Your Nature”, which on record glows with a pristine pop polish, was played in this setting with the drums dialed back, giving the strings space to float in and out against Danilova’s commanding voice. These restrained arrangements helped Danilova find space in her songs that didn’t previously exist in their recorded versions. “Sea Talk” and “Night”, both recorded in her late-2009 “Stridulum” sessions, abandoned all background noise, and came across as legitimate contemporary classical compositions. For an artist who has relied so heavily on experimentation, it’s almost more unexpected of her to forge tradition by simply going for it at this point. It is an expansion that will help her music, regardless of the medium she uses in performing.

Playing in the atrium of Guggenheim with the iconic design of the museum spiraling above, the crew had a ceiling that must have felt like infinity to deal with. The strings’ sustain echoed throughout, but never to the point where it seemed unintentional or obnoxious. Thirlwell had clearly thought of the space before working out the arrangements. This added touch made the sound radiate in ways that made this one-time show feel even more special.

zolajesus.com

Live from NY: Spiritualized

Tue, 08 May 2012 09:45:00 -0400

“POWER MUSIC. ELECTRIC REVIVAL.”

Playing a selection of songs not heavy enough on the new material, Spiritualized came to Terminal 5 on Monday night behind their latest “Sweet Heart Sweet Light”. After a run of shows in the UK last year showcasing the 2012 LP in full, it was disappointing to see the band playing a career-spanning set when they would have won the mostly oblivious crowd over all the same focusing on their recent work. Personal quarrels with the setlist and lame crowd concerns aside, the band alternated between two sides: tight brit-pop ensemble and loose psych-rock outfit. All songs old and new, loud and quiet, towered in the hard-to-conquer Midtown West venue.

“Hey Jane”, the opening track on “Sweet Heart”, started the set off. Spiritualized in its five-piece plus two back-up singers formation played through their songs with guitar and keyboard noise filling in for the missing horns, strings, etc. excessive instrumentation that works on record but would seem inappropriate in this club setting. Allowing for these freak-out moments to takeover at the end of songs more often than not gave the set an added rush of energy. It also left for the back-up singers to fend for themselves as their once synchronized dance moves erupted into something resembling an out-of-body experience. Moments like these allowed the show to reach points of revival, or what I would imagine exaggerated salvation in the church is like.

Sending the disco ball a-spinnin’ came the title track to the group’s definitive record “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space”. It was odd seeing the entire space covered in reflected light from the mirror ball. Business types talking, heads hovered over phones texting, couples cuddling, all treating this show as social event as Jason Pierce and band played on. Often it was unclear who was less interested in the other, the crowd or the notoriously alienating Pierce. Acknowledging the audience but once at the very end, Pierce proves socialization is necessary in captivating an ADD-addled crowd. Those who were willing to give the show their full attention were ultimately rewarded by a complete statement of who Spiritualized both is, and has been.

“I Am What I Am” slammed forward mirroring the equal parts aggression and anguish of its twin “Cop Shoot Cop”, which itself stole the show in the encore. Both songs were co-written with Dr. John fifteen years apart from each other, and both capture that old Delta sound and lyrical content. It was surprising hearing songs so insanely similar both in the setlist, but they wound up serving as a nice complement, with “Cop Shoot Cop” coming as almost an extended reprise of the newer “I Am” at the tail of the set. “So Long You Pretty Thing”, formerly named “Poppy” after his daughter who shares a writing credit on the track, was another stand-out that showed off the vocal work of Pierce and the two female vocalists. The build is where Spiritualized excels, and they pulled this off even at Terminal 5 where layers of feedback often amount to a ball of noise tossed off to radiate in just one corner of the room. “So Long” saw the pinnacle of everything the band can do, soaking all the charm and catharsis possible out of Jason Pierce’s bitter misery. He has dragged this band through break-ups, battles with addiction, extended hospital stays with pneumonia, and now he’s got the art of each era to look back on and think, “man, I’ve been through some shit.”

Setlist for 05/07/12 at Terminal 5, New York, NY

Hey Jane
Lord Let It Rain On Me
Headin’ for the Top Now
She Kissed Me (It Felt Like A Hit)
Lay Back In The Sun
Oh Baby
Rated X
I Am What I Am
Born Never Asked
Electric Mainline
Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
Mary
Stay With Me
So Long You Pretty Thing
Come Together

ENCORE

Cop Shoot Cop

Live from NY: Jack White

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:01:00 -0400

Jack White has played New York in a myriad of bands. Until Friday night at Webster Hall, he hadn’t played a show in the city simply under his own stagename. This solo debut came just days after releasing his latest “Blunderbuss”, also the first LP released under only the Jack White moniker. Performing two sets with two separate bands (one all-female, one all-male), White pulled tracks from all over the place with an obvious focus on his newest record.

For an artist to start a show with a song he released over a decade ago, you’d think it would be a sure sign of lack of confidence in the new material. For White and his crew, it seemed more like they wanted to quickly present what this lineup was capable of when reworking older material. Whether it was a White Stripes track from ‘02, or a prewar Hank Williams number, both bands of White’s took to them in keeping with the stylized full-band feel of “Blunderbuss”. This created an atmosphere that celebrated both White’s career in music and his influences, with “Blunderbuss” always at the center.

“Missing Pieces” and “Hypocritical Kiss” stood out as new tracks that already felt fully fleshed-out. The bands played both with such precision and relaxation that it felt like the middle of a tour, and not a one-off on the eve of beginning a long haul across the world. Others like “Love Interruption” and “Weep Themselves to Sleep” stumbled along sounding like they needed an extra kick to really work in with the performance. While stylized similarly to the rest of the show, sections of these two tracks felt too focused on getting it right and did not play smooth enough to carry out just yet. This slowed down the pace of what otherwise ran like a well organized Vaudeville review, though more coherent maintaining a consistent arc.

It was endearing to watch White revert constantly to his base two-piece state by facing squarely towards the drums during especially noise-heavy sections. It will be fascinating to see where White’s act stands a month from now when they return to the city and play the larger Roseland Ballroom. I suspect they will tighten up the segments that didn’t play as well, and that we just witnessed the start of one of the best tours of the year.

The entire show, minus for whatever reason the closing Leadbelly cover “Goodnight Irene”, had been live streamed, and can now be viewed in full at the link below.

Jack White - Live at Webster Hall, Directed by Gary Oldman

Setlist:

Set one backed by The Peacocks

Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
Missing Pieces
Freedom at 21
Love Interruption
Hotel Yorba
Two Against One
Top Yourself
I’m Slowly Turning Into You
Blue Blood Blues
Take Me With You When You Go

Set two backed by Los Buzzardos

Sixteen Saltines
I Cut Like A Buffalo
Weep Themselves to Sleep
Trash Tongue Talker
You Know That I Know
We’re Going to be Friends
Hypocritical Kiss
Hello Operator
Carolina Drama
Seven Nation Army
Goodnight Irene

Live from NY: Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express, The Man-Machine, and The Mix

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:54:00 -0400

From The Nanny to the Zulu Nation, it seemed like the whole city was craving a cut of Kraftwerk over the electronic quartet’s eight night run at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. After every show sold out instantly, leaving thousands stranded, tickets began toppling the $500 mark on the secondary market. Keeping a close watch on Twitter would have told you just how easy it was to find a way into these Volkswagon-sponsored shows. I was shut out in the initial on-sale and wound up winning three contests to attend the nights of full album runs through “Trans-Europe Express”, “The Man-Machine”, and “The Mix”.

The band’s setlist remained practically unaltered for the last hour of each show, getting through the hits, but it was the first hour that showcased music played live exclusively in MoMA’s series. Playing “Trans-Europe Express” forced the band to confront a trio of tracks not normally performed live: “Europe Endless”, “Hall of Mirrors”, and “Showroom Dummies”. These, like everything they played, were accompanied by 3-D visuals put into action using the glasses handed out upon entering MoMA’s Marron Atrium. Whether it was plates of glass being punched out, with shards sent towards you on “Showroom Dummies”, or a spaceship straight out of “Tron 1” seemingly soaring over the crowd on “Spacelab”, the crowd “oohed” and “aahed” at the more impressive among the graphics. The four players remained tight and focused, keeping with the robotic aesthetic the band has played up since its inception. Still, this allowed for each member to express music-influenced movement (not quite dance) in their own subtle way. Only once were a couple wrong notes hit, proving that the Kraftwerk four are more man than machine, and were certainly playing live instruments.

This marriage of pop music to a home of pop art is one that has been happening more frequently in the city. The ongoing Divine Ricochet series will soon see Cold Cave and Zola Jesus both performing at the Guggenheim, and MoMA last year held shows from St. Vincent to Kanye West in their garden. This Kraftwerk series has been the most ambitious yet and it’s nice to see museums headed this way in terms of what can be done with their funding and bringing bands like this to spaces so fine-tuned to their style. Nowhere else would this kind of performance have been able to happen working as well as it did in MoMA. Performing eight consecutive nights in one city is a bold move for both artist and promoter, but all parties came through in an event that won’t soon be forgotten. The demand was high and the high bar set by hype was met. Not one Kraftwerk track went unplayed and not one showgoer went home unhappy.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Live from NY: Pulp; Black Tambourine, Small Factory, The Lois Plus

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 01:35:00 -0400

UK independent pop is known for churning out some of the most iconic and enigmatic frontpersons in music. From Morrissey to Damon Albarn, Joe Strummer to Ari Up, a stand-out personality is developed over there as a necessary part of the band. Possibly none of these stand out beyond their band more than Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker. By the sixth song in the band’s set at their Radio City show this week, Cocker had scaled the left of the massive venue close to the lowest balcony and led the crowd in a dance intro to “Disco 2000”. By “This Is Hardcore” later in the set, he had gyrated his way into the arms of the right side of the space nearing the balcony yet again. It was clear he was going to find his way around as much of the venue as would be permitted. This rejection of barriers between audience and performer does not come off with Cocker the way it does with punk bands. It seems clumsily forward and adorable, cartoonish and charming. This act runs through the veins of a Pulp live show and sets it all the higher for how enjoyable it is watching him cavort about.

In the US for the first time since the late ’90s, Pulp, in a close-to “Different Class” formation, played a set heavy on that album, only featuring three tracks from “His ‘n’ Hers”, and a pair each from “This Is Hardcore” and “We Love Life”. “F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.” saw the band accompanied by a dance troupe as the show reached its most dynamic moments as the super-quiet verses led into the super-loud choruses of the track. The show was most effective when Jarvis was not restrained by having a guitar strapped on him, and was free to roam about the stage. “Common People” came towards the end and while it didn’t feel anything like I imagine Glastonbury ‘95 feeling, it was nice to hear the old band running through the old hits. They ended the show on “Mis-Shapes”, dedicating the track to the mid-’00s NY dance night that got its name from the song. They tore through the last song of the night like a band that never went away. Before their breakup Pulp had been a band in various lineups for over two decades. Another reunion show in NY this week was headlined by a band that was around for under two years, recorded only a handful of tracks and has even now, played under ten shows.

Black Tambourine was announced as the headliner to seminal punk zine Chickfactor’s twentieth anniversary shows. Vocalist Pam Berry along with Gail O’Hara started the zine in 1992 and the writing quickly took precedence over the music as Black Tambourine called it quits so Berry could focus more on developing Chickfactor. I first heard Black Tambourine in high school while sinking deeper into local bands that had existed decades before in the same subculture I was involved in. They were an elusive band to me, one that I never imagined seeing play, one that I would always hold near to my Montgomery County, MD heart. Then with the onslaught of bands like Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls finding popularity and attributing their sound to Black Tambourine, there came a greater demand for these songs to be heard. The eBay value for their 7”s shot up, and Slumberland pressed up a compilation of all their tracks. A reunion, albeit a short-lived one, was inevitable.

Pam Berry took to the stage at Brooklyn’s Bell House and began the set with a dedication to her writing partner O’Hara saying she was the only one who could convince Berry to perform again. The band sounded loose and unfit for live shows, exactly as they did on record. Layered in noise coming from a small Fender combo amp, a drumset without a bass drum, and a static vocalist, the band played a set that covered just about everything in their catalog. Placing “For Ex-Lovers Only” first on the setlist served as both a gift and a curse since it sent the crowd into a frenzy early on but also gave up the best song first. Suicide cover “Dream Baby Dream” was introduced as a Bruce Springsteen cover since he too has covered the song at some point in the last twenty years of Black Tambourine not being a band. The set chugged along, at some points dragging even though it in total clocked in at under forty minutes. Ballad “Black Car” left some teary eyes, and closer “Throw Aggi Off the Bridge” sent the room bopping about in its relationship revenge fantasy turned pop song that this style of music does so so well.

Also playing night one of the Chickfactor celebration were Small Factory, Versus, and The Lois Plus. Small Factory played the strongest set of the night. Singer and guitarist Alex Kemp (brother to Elias Arts’ composer Chris Kemp) still had the same pop-friendly voice and sensibility that made their records so accessible even outside of the immediate indie-pop world. Drummer Phoebe Summersquash was maybe the only drummer of the night qualified to be playing anything other than indie-pop as she kept consistency and held the band together and tight in their first show in seventeen years. They are one reunited band I could see still writing together and releasing material worth checking out. The chemistry was all still there and maybe it was just because it was their first show in seventeen years, but there I saw zero sign of burnout status. Lois Maffeo and Heavenly guitarist Peter Momtchiloff played a short set at the start of the night as The Lois Plus. Lois played a few tracks from her first band Courtney Love with “Motorcycle Boy” being the highlight. It was a nice run through the Lois years, and its half-hour running time was just enough time to pack in exactly what the crowd wanted.

One of the coolest things about this show was the attentiveness of the crowd throughout the night. Hardly anyone left the room between bands, and all was quiet with no iPhones in sight. It would be even nicer if current bands were attracting this kind of seemingly magical concentration, but baby steps I suppose. I did feel kind of guilty for attending so many reunion shows this week with no shows of active writing bands. It seemed though that most of the audience was there for the present-day enjoyment and not nostalgia as many reunion shows serve to exist for. As long as it’s good now and not just a look back, then it’s still something worth getting excited over. This whole decade-long reunion craze has to be coming to a close. I mean who is even left to comeback, really?

Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light streaming on npr.org

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:23:15 -0400

The best cover art of the year might also be the face of one of 2012’s best records.

Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light

Live from NY: Wild Flag; Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:56:00 -0400

Wild Flag: Year Two is in in effect. It’s been thirteen months since the band played NY for the first time at Brooklyn’s The Rock Shop to a crowd of eighty. They’ve since managed to sell out their three following headlining shows in the city. Webster Hall is a big room but for a band that has played Radio City and outdoor spaces like Williamsburg Waterfront, it seems the proper containment for their sound. I used to call Webster Hall my least favorite show space in New York, but their sound system has vastly improved and their crowds have shut up, at least the few times I’ve been back over the last couple years. Wild Flag at Webster Hall last week showed a band on close to the last leg of their tour behind their self-titled debut, and already you can see the band itching to get back into a studio.

Subtle additions to songs from their 2011 LP made for an interesting turn to songs I’ve now seen played four times. Whether it’s Rebecca Cole’s keys making more prominent and much appreciated appearances in nearly all the “old” songs, or the vocal harmonies they’ve managed to add into a few of their catchy choruses, the band is all for finding new ways to present the songs they’ve been playing for the last eighteen months. Cole incorporates a lot more left-hand keyboard playing, filling in the low-end void left by the band’s conscious decision to not have a bass player. Drummer Janet Weiss is on some songs playing entirely different things. The only other pop drummer playing as interesting and innovative as Weiss is The Roots’ ?uestlove. While both drummers come from completely different schools of learning, their sounds both stand out in an instrument that is often underrated in importance. Particularly the middle of “Glass Tambourine” where Weiss plays a completely interesting drum section that serves as the lead as the song approaches its ending, she is now playing a series of fills that differ greatly from what she played on record, and it still works perfectly.

Even the guitars which stand out as the lead instrument and the band’s most blatant element have found new variations through usage of different pedals or simply new strum patterns. Mary Timony’s fingertapping on “Short Version” has gone from a novelty to a revelation of what can be done with cliché in rock music when played in exactly the right way. Timony and Carrie Brownstein’s dual guitar chemistry is a part of their band that has only grown greater with every show. With so much innovation in electronic music, it’s sometimes hard to get excited about someone seemingly reinventing the wheel with guitar rock, but beneath the surface there’s a lot more going on with Wild Flag, and all these performances are helping to unravel talents of this band that even they were unaware of coming into their newest project. While often coming off as outdated and anachronistic, guitar rock has its place in modern music and when it’s well thought out it can still be riveting. Even older acts breaking in new ideas with their signature Telecasters can make significant records and put on shows rivaling those they had put on decades ago. I am of course talking about Bruce Springsteen and his latest effort “Wrecking Ball”.

Springsteen and an XL E Street Band have been out this year in support of their leader’s latest “Wrecking Ball” LP. With an added horn section in one corner and a couple of vocalists in the other, excess seems to be The Boss’s preferred method of coping. There’s no replacement for the presence that was Clarence Clemons, best friend to Bruce and one of the few who knew how to work a saxophone into rock music. Springsteen’s lyrics leak with instability and insecurity, and Clarence was always there to patch things up, a shoulder to lean on, most popularly and literally on the cover of the band’s “Born To Run”. “Losing Clarence is elemental, it’s like losing the rain” has been one of Bruce’s few quotes on the passing of their bandmate and both figurehead and backbone of The E Street Band. His absence prevailed over the entirety of the three hour show Friday night at Madison Square Garden, and more than ever a Bruce Springsteen show felt like the wake it truly is, rather than the overt celebration some interpret it to be.

The setlist concentrated heavily on “Wrecking Ball”. This record is dark even by Springsteen standards, and looks at the current state of the working class United States and supposes an even grimmer future. Eight of twenty-five songs came from the March release, and all worked better in the live setting than the record did them justice. Of the near dozen Springsteen shows I’ve seen, the 2006 “Seeger Sessions” show stands out as one of the best, and this latest incarnation of The E Street Band playing tracks from “Wrecking Ball” comes closest to that sound as ever before. Not only has he brought back the upbeat folk that made “The Seeger Sessions” so refreshing from a post-9/11 Bruce, but he brought back the lyrical content that made it known that he’s keeping up with the long struggle to get this country back on track after Reagan nearly decimated the whole thing. “Death to My Hometown” and “Shackled and Drawn” are two standouts with this combination, both live and on record with their personal and political battle cries for vengeance after a lifetime of being wronged. Bringing back “American Skin (41 Shots)” as the Trayvon Martin tragedy unravels, and especially playing the song in New York where the original influence of the song Amadou Diallo was murdered by four cops, was another smart move on the political side of Springsteen.

Outside of “Wrecking Ball”, Springsteen put on a performance any fan could be satisfied with. The obvious “Badlands”, “The Rising”, “Born To Run”, “Dancing In The Dark”, and the unbearable bathroom-breaker “Waiting on a Sunny Day” were all played. There’s not a conscious head in that crowd who wouldn’t say “Kitty’s Back” was the best of the night. With the horn section pumping out whatever they had left in them, and a Roy Bittan piano interlude that neared the three-minute mark, this was one of the single best song performances Bruce has graced the Garden with in his storied history with the arena. The last time I saw him there he played “The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle” in its entirety. That setlist is real hard to beat, but the energy on Friday night now sets a new precedent for a future Bruce show to beat. “Nebraska” album cut “Johnny 99” was played in an arrangement similar to the full band setup he normally does, but again with the addition of the horns it turned it up even higher.

Bruce had mentioned how playing at The Apollo earlier in the tour had helped the band find an even greater appreciation for soul. This benefitted the energy of the arrangements, but made the acoustic tracks like “Jack of All Trades” seem even more out of place. If he can find a way to pull off the slower ballads like the soul heroes of The Apollo’s past, then this tour will end up another truly unique Springsteen experience. The soul came out on show ended “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out” where Springsteen crawled around the stage and stormed about the arena. At the line “…and the big man joined the band”, the band pulled off a hard stop while a video of Clarence played out over the Garden’s screens. Springsteen stood in the middle of the crowd, head bowed, arm in the air, acknowledging the monumental presence he’ll never get back. In the midst of this, he seems especially grateful to the audience for being there with him to help his grieving process the only way he knows how. If the band in this setup sounds this good after less than dozen shows, I anticipate seeing them at the end of the summer when they inevitably return for a run at the new MetLife Stadium.