Ben Harper @ Del Mar Racetrack (8.18.12)

The third in my many recent concerts was Ben Harper at the Del Mar Racetrack. It would seem that whomever was in charge of the booking this year really had their act together. Ziggy Marley, Ozomatli, the Offspring, Cake, Ben Harper, but to name a few.

I found myself surprised by the number of people that have only see him play festivals or open for someone else. Ben Harper tends to ramp in his shows, so if you only catch a short set, you tend to miss out on the best bits. It had been a while since I'd had a chance to see him play a full show, so sufficed to say I was quite excited.

Up until now I have only seen Harper with the Innocent Criminals. As he toured with them for so many years there was a certain tightness that formed so when Harper locked in, they locked in. Not so with the Relentless7. They started out with a bit more energy, but didn't really ramp up with Harper. Rather they had a monotonic energy level throughout. That's ok though as Harper's intensity and stage presence made up for it.


Today's show was a bit odd. He gave extended solo time for him and his band mates early in the show (first three songs). Usually that's something you do at the middle/ end of a show, but whatever. Perhaps he was trying to motivate them or bid farewell before his acoustic tour, on which I would assume they are not going. The majority of the show did focus heavily on the Relentless7 material. There are some good songs on those albums, but limiting yourself to two albums when you've got 10 or so makes for a less interesting show. This is of course to be expected, but the man has so much material its a shame to overlook all the other things he's done.

Fortunately he did play a few of the older songs towards the end such as Burn One Down, Diamonds on the Inside, Better Way, and Amen Omen.



Due to a roadie mistuning a 12 string for "Fly One Time" Harper played an impromptu solo fingerstlyle electric version of "When She Believes" which completely blew my mind. Even more so, strangely I did not have the whole of the album it was on so I had never even heard it before.

Additionally to fill time Harper was happily admiring all the things being thrown up on stage at him. There was a wide variety of things from nuts, to shredded wheat, to skittles, to art, hats etc. Some artists just ignore the people in the crowd, but I think he feels they're as much a part of the show as the band itself. A very good attitude to have.

One of the highlights of any Ben Harper show is always his acoustic set. Usually he does a longer one, but I suspect that the earlier 12 string issue ate into the time he had for that. That said he played an awesome rendition of "walk away" followed by "Burn One Down."



He closed out the show with "Better Way." Just completely blew me away the amount of energy and emotion that he put into it eight years on. So much fun seeing him play again. It really makes me want to go check out his "acoustic tour" assuming it comes to town.

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Side Note:

Of course I was also really excited about the fact that on all the acoustic bits he actually played his Ben Harper HM signature model Martin. Which for anyone reading this, if you can get me one without the signature I will take one please! I have played two over the years in my search for the perfect "heirloom" to pass to future generations. Such an amazing sounding guitar, but I just can't justify buying something with someone else's name on it. I think it's just that I play my own music not someone else's. That said, it completely turned me on to the M series body (aka 0000). I've been playing something similar for years but with a bit more depth. Not sure if its all the endangered species woods in it, but damn... me likey!

Phish @ Long Beach Arena (8.15.12)

Can't I live while I'm young? For a very long time I have had Phish on my list of bands to see... I've had this list really since Jerry Garcia died one month before I was to see the Grateful Dead for the first time. I have been kicking myself since 2004 for having missed my chance to see them at their Coventry, VT show, which was subsequently their last before the reunion.

In any case, such a great show! Great people, great music, great vibe. So chill didn't need to bust out the hippy digger and was able to get right down front and snap off a few.


There really were so many different types of people there. Unfortunately, you don't see enough of some of them in Orange County. My friend suggested I start asking all the hippie chicks where they hang out here because clearly it's not in plain sight. I was also surprised to find the standard OC bro's and the default OC girls represented as well.

The sound quality was actually very good at the Long Beach Arena. That's based on the spot I was in for the first set (towards the front dead center). My concert co-conspirator wasn't really feeling the squeezin in up front though so we were at the edge of the stage on the right for the second set, but that's ok because we had more room to dance around and get videos like this:



So many projectiles... You damn kids... Gonna put someones eyes out.

When they played Stash I was a bit surprised by the clapping as I was convinced some of the claps only happened twice instead of 3 times. In the original recording it's more "two-ish" than three. Probably easier for a group clap along to do 3 always though.



For those looking for specific songs, they played Bathtub Gin, Rift, and Down With Disease of course and even a great Zeppelin cover. Their encore Julius was great too. Really though it was just so much fun listening to them jam regardless of songs. I would have taken more detailed notes about what songs they were playing and more photos etc, but I was having too much fun dancing around and watching the people. If you are dying to know though, the set list is here. It was the perfect chance to surround myself with good music, good people and just blow off some steam.

Cake @ Del Mar Racetrack (8.4.12)

Oh I should mention I saw Cake a few weeks ago. It was cool if for no other reason that old time sentiment of finally seeing them after 18 years. Sadly no rock and roll lifestyle songs :/

In any case, the band had lots of energy and played two great sets.



The singer John McCrea really loves the vibraslap for some reason. I'd say he played the thing during at least 10 songs. Just one of those things about cake. BOC has cowbell and I guess they have vibraslap. I originally felt McCrea was acting a bit cocky during the first bit of the show and found it moderately annoying. That said, after spraining his ankle in the first set he still went on to play a full second set (albeit elevating) which gained back much of what was lost for me.

Oh and I got a rad old school transistor receiver Cake shirt. Looks much like one of the receivers I have hooked up to my record player. Very cool design Cake, very cool.

Horse Feathers @ The Echo (5.31.12)

If there is one band that is ever evolving it's Horse Feathers. The moniker much like Bon Iver, Great Lake Swimmers and Badly Drawn Boy is built around one guy, with a cast of rotating characters. For Horse Feathers that guy is Justin Ringle. What is unique about this band is that the additional musicians have a huge impact on the overall sound. When listening to the albums there was little percussion, but having a percussionist at the show resulted in more upbeat versions of songs. Having a talented female vocalist resulted in a lot of thoughtful down home harmonies. Not having a dedicated guitar and banjo player meant that Justin had to pick one of the two on each song. Even with that limitation, the band managed a full engulfing sound that only can be achieved through the pairing of a full string section with Justin's uniquely mornful longing voice.


Before the show, I found myself debating if I really wanted to schlep up to LA. It had been a long day and I was fading pretty quick. I knew that the band had a huge collection of mellow music.



Having just been to a very unnecessarily mellow show (diazepam please), I was worried I would zonk out during. Sufficed to say, I was pleasantly surprised. They hit it hard from the start and kept the energy level up the entire night.

Playing with a modified trap kit allowed for more energetic interpretations of songs. As a result some were even a bit danceable. There were also greater dynamics in the songs (both volume and energy)which can be a bit monotonic on the records. This is exactly what one hopes for out of live show. True artistic expression in performance. Recording is about capturing ideas for a song to it's fullest, but in doing multiple takes you tend to lose a lot of the energy and emotion.



At a few points during the show, the violinists played saws. It was a very cool "how'd they make that sound in the studio" moment. It's nice to see people bring alternative instruments to the stage filling in sounds that are easy to drop when on the road.



Coincidentally their song Cascades is nothing like the Oliver Nelson song Cascades.

Not sure the reason, but Justin seems to have inexplicably been rockin what I would consider snow boots all night. Something even a New Englander wouldn't wear in the summer. My only theory is that he likes the tone for stomping or had some clam diggin planned.



All in all I was very happy I got my ass off the couch and drove up to the show. It's very encouraging as a musician to see bands experimenting with songs long ago recorded creating new and excellent live renditions. My only complaint was that they didn't play a long enough set!

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* Side Note: I had the chance to say hi to Justin and thank him for a great show. At that point I noticed he was drenched to the bone. I had thought the lights were much brighter than when I had seen Those Darlins there. I guess there is a reason why they were lower then. Nothin less sexy for a girl band than to be sweatin like a pig. That said the Echo really needs to find a happy medium between playing in the dark and an Indian sweat lodge.

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!