Great Lake Swimmers @ The Troubadour (5.18.12)

Went to the Troubadour tonight to see the Great Lake Swimmers and was able to get right down front. This allowed me to get shots like this:


and this:


It's usually a crapshoot if you can bring a DSLR into the Troubadour so I was pleasantly surprised when they said "yes."

As expected the band started off the night mellow and heavy on songs from their latest album. While good, I am not a big fan of the new sound as it takes away some of what makes them unique. Too much electric, not enough banjo in this humble author's opinion.


Tony Dekker is a true singer songwriter, giving descriptions of what songs are about, and even admitting that one of the songs he played during his solo set had slowly started to change it's meaning.


I found myself expecting to hear a bunch of their upbeat songs going in. For the most part they all came in the second half during which they really started to pick up steam and rock out. While trading solos at the end I think the fiddle player really showed off her till then hidden skills. For a live show they really need to have that energy throughout, but then I suppose the audience's ears wouldn't get a chance to "bleed tears" as their very enthusiastic announcer said during the introduction.

The night concluded with an odd encore. The full band came back and played two songs. After that, the band unceremoniously walked off stage and Dekker played one more song (one of my favorites). It was kind of anti-climactic to hear it as just guitar and vox, as opposed to with the full band especially right after they walked off. It would have been better to have them all walk off and do a second encore with him alone like that. Even though it's a band built around Dekker, it would have been nice to make it seem like they all mattered.


I guess if I were to sum it up, the band really needs to think a bit on it's live show. Not so much how they play or even song choice, but more how to mix it up better. You don't want to peak too soon, but you really dont want it to be constant low with an exponential ramp at the end. It should rise and fall all the way to the climax at the end, where the audience is left wanting for more. I would suggest they take a page from high fidelity about how to make mix tapes.

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Authors Note:

Both times I have seen Badly Drawn Boy at the Troubadour he has bitched about the sound. Namely the low end. When Great Lake Swimmers took the stage, the bass was overpowering everything else, not just on the stage, but in the crowd as well. The banjo/ guitar player spent the first 10-15 minutes fighting with the sound guy to explain what the heck was wrong. Pointing and pantomiming really seems to have had little effect. It took one of the guys coming down on the stage and talking to him to understand what was wrong.


I guess BDB was vindicated, but in true Canadian style the GLS were polite about it rather than throwing a hissy fit.

Rodrigo y Gabriela @ The Hollywood Palladium (4.7.12)

Orange Whip? Orange Whip? One night only lake wazza-Palladium! Rodrigo y Gabriela and their latin and C.U.B.A review!

Possibly the best introduction to a band one can have is driving through the sparse Mohave at sunset while a friend shuffles through his iPod. The scene was framed and I have been in love with these guys ever since. When I was tipped off that RodyGab were going to play the Palladium I jumped at the chance and was first in line. I was even ahead of the ticket bots that grab up all the good seats at shows and bump you to the back of the que because "none are available" (fix your shit Ticketmaster).

It was quite interesting to see the two play close up. I am still not 100% certain but it would appear Rodrigo is playing with a pick most of the time. Gabriela has certainly one of the more unique techniques. It is very percussive (it reminds me of Kaki King), but there are clearly a number of other influences in there. Take for example the hand percussion that she plays. When she is hitting the strings it seems her own style (flamenco-esk), but when she uses her thumb and pinky to hit lower on the base it reminds me of how irish bodhrán players play. In fact there was many a night when I saw a guitar player in the pubs flip over his guitar and play the back as a bodhrán. They did a spell in ireland so its no a completely crazy theory.

They played a strong section of the show with a band backing them. This lead to a much more bela fleck style show, with extended jams and segments in the show dedicated to solos. It became evident very quickly that they had hand selected some fantastic musicians, but they had done a poor job of arranging the music. The thing that RodyGab have going for them is that they are very organic and natural. Adding the band made them very straight and ... I think my biggest issue was the keyboard player. His tone was always just the right flavor of wrong (despite playing a programmable electric keyboard). His technique felt like old people jazz and I really like jazz... Their bass player was great. He was like a Victor Wooten in training... Not quite there, but still pretty damn good. The horn players were both great, but again they needed to get a little more dirty and a little less "straight."

Eventually the got to the middle of the show which featured each of them solo, but also just the two of them which is what many had come for.



They are at their best when they are just the two of them playing off each other. They put together a sound that is full enough that they don't need a band behind them. Absolutely loved the energy that Gabriele had and the intensity of the leads that Rodrigo had. It's clear that these two are doing what they love. A lot of times you see bands and they are just so burned out. These two are going strong. If you can catch a show without cuba, I highly recommend it!

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Side Note:

At some point the drummer from White Zombie made a guest appearance. I had some concerns he was playing at the wrong gig for a while. Wait... wait... I'm not playing moderately hard rock? This is latin? Whaaa? He did eventually lock in, but it took him a bit to change gears. I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt and say it was a stage monitor issue...

Guster @ The Largo (3.16.12)

Ok, so I have seen Guster 5 or 6 times now, but Guster @ the Largo was by far THE BEST GUSTER SHOW EVER!!!

I know I wrote up their last show on this blog, but this one was so different it's worth hearing about. First of all, the venue was at most 300 seats and the entire band was seated so it had a very relaxed intimate feel. As this is their acoustic tour, they had a string section with them as well. The stage setup they all were unplugged and just had mic's around them. Whenever they played solos they just picked up their instruments to the mic and belted it out blugrass style. Given that was the case they got a pretty amazing ballance and sound on the stage.

The band played a really long set for the second show compared to the first (based on when the first show started and the second show started, twice as long). They hit so many songs that I love it's hard to list them all, but a few of the more fun moments were their 80's covers of Come on Eileen and 500 Miles. It really seemed they were just making up the parts as they went. They of course hit a few songs on the new record, like an aweseome string backed version of how it feels to have a broken heart, but they kept the selection fairly wide from all their albums. They even hit some of the old songs from their first albums like Window, Rocket Ship and The Airport Song (for the obligatory pingpong ball throw).

Sometimes you go to a show and there's a wall between you and the band. In this case, throughout the entire night they were talking to individuals, taking request, and at one point they even serenaded one of their fans with an impromptu completely acoustic version of "window." As Ryan put it "if I have to play that song again I am going to play it for you right in front of you.



An amazing moment, for one lucky fan.

At one point during the show, someone started yelling "more cowbell!" Even though they were about to play a ballad they had him come up later for a quick cover of "don't fear the reaper." The guy enthusiastically jumped on stage, did a truffle shuffle and danced around until Ryan got a bit scared the show would be stolen and finished the song. This is what I love about these guys, not only do the love their fans and have fun, they roll with what happens and embrace the crazy rather than ignoring it.

Another spontaneous moment was towards the end of the show when Ryan decided to have a bit of story time. The band slowly figured out what was going on and started "story time music." Apparently he had met Ke$sha out one day in LA and had somehow convinced her to make an appearance. Yeah, I have little clue who she is aside from knowing of her existence, but sufficed to say, she's a big poppy deal right now. In any case, he had hoped she would show up, and was looking around periodically during the show. Suddenly, he stopped the story and went to get his phone back stage (band still playing all the time). She had texted him "still in studio." He then proceeded to have the entire crowd leave her a message (singing then shouting)... Its almost more funny that she didn't show.

The entire night felt like a bunch of guys just hanging having a few beers singing some songs and making each other laugh... Much like my crew of friends do when we get together. After the show we ran into Brian and were able to talk with him for a bit. We then ended up at the local hole in the wall and lo and behold they were there! As a result I was able to meet the entire band! Brian even came back and chatted with my gregarious concert co-conspirator and I for a while. There are few people and groups that I consider to have had a heavy influence on my music growing up, but I have to say these guys are one. Having finally gotten to meet them it was amazing!

Noah and the Whale @ HOB Anaheim (11.23.11)

The Noah and the Whale show at the HOB Anaheim was packed! The place was bursting at the seams for a little British band I was starting to wonder if anyone else in SoCal had heard of.

Overall a decent show. Finally got to see the band that introduced me to a whole crew of great British musicians. I will make a bit of a confession though. I really dug the sound of their first album more so than the others. Mainly its instrumentation. Now that's not to say I like the layered Sgt Peppers sound on some of their songs, more I just dig the acoustic blended sound. This was not the sound they had this evening however, opting to be a bit more electric.

They hit the songs I was expecting, although I was kinda supprised they played 5 Years Time given the prominence of Laura Marling on it. Met up with an old friend from college at the show and we both agreed that there was some strange Springsteen connection in the bands sound that evening.

I was glad to see they did an upbeat show. With a pause in the middle for some "romantic time" music, of course. As always, I worry about mellow bands when they're live. These guys were full of energy and Charlie Fink was dancing around the stage "like Mick Jagger" as a fellow concert goer put it.

I have already gone on ad nauseum about Noah and the Whale, so I will keep all my ramblings about the band, who's not in it any more, and all that to a minimum. Good show... Good show...

Anamanaguchi @ The Troubadour (10.28.11)

For all you peeps thinking I just go see folk bands and listen to old sad bastard music, I have one reply, ANAMANAGUCHI. What's that you say? You too only listen to old sad bastard music from Norway and Scotland? Anamanaguchi is an 8bit chiptune band. Essentially they compose songs using the synth (modeled or extracted) from an NES system (the original none of this SNES BS).

Having heard a few assorted tracks I was curious how these guys were going to pull it off live. Hear that guitar in the background? Yeah that was what was live at the show. The synths were all presequenced, but it doesn't really matter it was still an awsome show!

They started the evening tossing a box full of glowsticks into the crowd and then all hell broke loose. The photo above is the only one I managed to snap off before the troubadour turned into a pit as I was barely able to hold onto the camera. After that the night was a blur of lights, synths, guitars and bodies flying around. I am writing this a bit belatedly, so unfortunately I can't say much more than that. I highly recommend checking them out.

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Authors Note: Over the last few years I have become a bit perterbed with how teritorial CA concert goers are. From people blocking large areas in front of the stage for missing friends coming back to rail whores etc... On this particular night there was a girl leaning against the wall in the back. I walked up and was standing about 2-3 meters in front... "Hey man, you're in my way" to which I responded "It's a concert." Considering where the evening went that comment is even more amusing.

Gomez @ HOB Anahiem (10.4.11)

GOMEZ GOMEZ GOMEZ GOMEZ! Finally!

Gomez has always been a strong influence for me. Hearing their songs complilated from great tracks from their first album to their most recent hits made me realize just how much of what I play and sing has its roots in this band.

One of the highlights of the evening was "Make No Sound." The cellist from the Kopecky Family Band joined them (to fill in the missing line) and it was just so perfect. Reminds me of another time and another place in my life with lots of warm hazy memories. They also did a great version of "How We Operate." At the onset I found myself wondering how they would cover the banjo part. Interestingly they just left it out and it made for a very interesting vox only intro to the song. The band really got excited at points and really got into the song. I was shocked how many people knew "Airstream Driver" and "Options" relative to all of their other songs. I just didn't expect them to be a band du jour at this point in their careers.

For a good chunk of the show, the kick drum was super hot in the mix and was overwhelming everything else on the stage. When the Olly played anything but the kick everything sounded great. Bad recording engineer... Bad... This is what it sounded like. Granted in this case its clipping the mic, but you get the idea...


What I found particularly of interest was Ben's performance for the evening. All night his vocals were tight. At times he was brilliant on the guitar, playing amazing solos, improvising on set parts and really seemed to be enjoying himself. At other points he seemed to forget what he was playing and his fingers that were lightening fast a few seconds before were made of jello. It was a bit like watching a dog try to use chopsticks. At first I thought it might be he was having a hard time remembering old stuff, but a few of the newer songs he had issues on too. By the end of the set he had recovered and was really tearing into some of his lead parts.

So a conspiracy theory I have been working on is that the band is in their wrapping things up phase. This theory is based on the most recent album's lyrics with songs like



the fact that Ian Ball has been releasing solo albums, and the fact that the band does not all live in the same country. That and their last two albums have been meh and every album before that was top notch. What I found really strange was when Ian walked off stage for half of "Sweet Virginia." This was the only time any of them left the stage. Halfway through he came back (just in time) to add an extra guitar layer to the song. This could all be me reinforcing a crazy conspiracy theory of course. Just glad I got to see them before anything goes down.

Just to appease the rabble (namely a few drunk chicks yelling "Tijuana Lady") they added a shortened version to their encore. I will leave you with that.



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Side note: Ian and Tom both broke strings... Here's a cool picture of one.


Being the showmen they are they kept going like nothing happened. In fact Ian got stuck with a section that featured him and you wouldn't have known it unless you could see it...

Laura Marling @ The Troubadour (9.20.11)

Finally! I have been to a show at the Troubadour without drama! Laura Marling and Alessi's Ark were both polite, happy to be there, an appreciative of their audience. Either that or they were just British. In any case a thoroughly enjoyable show.



Miss Marling is a performer that has interested me ever since I heard her singing backup on Noah and the Whale's first album. When you hear a voice like her's singing backup it just feels like a crime. Fortunately she also does her own music.



Personality wise I would say she is soft spoken, kinda perma-high and floats around on the ether around her. This kind of toasty chill puts the audience at ease. She speaks very little directly to the audience, but it is enough to keep them engaged.

One interesting concept is that Laura Marling does not do encores on principal.



When I was her age I decided I no longer needed to write with punctuation etc so every message I sent to my genius, cute, hippy (and most important patient) girlfriend at the time read like a bad ee cummings stream of consciousness. Eventually I got over it and accepted the need for proper punctuation. In any case, that she is doing things like that means that she is a) running the show and b) experimenting. I have really been rooting for her to find herself, because the raw talent is behind her, but she has been molded too much by others around her/ dating her.



Some of her new songs were very riffy and more jazz like than folk. While its not something that appealed to me as much, it means that she is really starting to find her own way. The issue with riffy was that it kinda didn't feel like the riffs went anywhere or that they had any relevance to the song. Instead they were distracting from the song.

Other than that she had some great material that she played. The full band setup included cello, uke, upright bass, guitars of all sorts, drums, banjo, mando, keys, and what I am going to guess was a tenor horn. Almost all of those were active at the same time which lead to a nice full sound.