I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 27, 2019] Joseph Keckler

When I bought tickets for Sleater-Kinney ages ago, I don’t think they’d announced an opening act.

Then the opening act was supposed to be Shamir whom I’d seen on a Tiny Desk Concert and enjoyed.  His dance music seemed very different from S-K, but the S-K album is pretty different itself.  Then Shamir dropped out and I didn’t hear about the new opener until a few nights ago.

I looked up Joseph Keckler and I kept seeing this review from the New York Times which called him a “major vocal talent” which I thought was a weird phrasing.  As if they didn’t really know what noun to use to describe him.  I looked for a song briefly and found him to be rather operatic, but didn’t really pursue it very much for whatever reason.

So I had no idea what to expect when he came out on stage.  But wow, he blew me away.

I understand why the Times had a hard time finding what noun to use to describe him because his music defies categorization.  The short version is that he has an utterly amazing voice.  It is deep and rich and operatic and I can honestly say I have never been in the presence of someone who could sing like that before.

But he doesn’t sing opera.  Well, he does, sort of.

He came out on stage and didn’t introduce himself.  He asked us how we were doing and then said that he wasn’t doing great.  Then he turned on a laptop and played a musical motif and he began to sing in beautiful Italian.  The video screen behind him projected the translation of the words.  And they were hilarious.

It was a song about going to a party and eating shroom-laced chocolate.  Then walking home and wanting to kill himself until he remembered he had to brush his teeth.  It is called, naturally enough “Shroom Trip Opera.”

Then he started playing a video.  The video is up on you tube (see below).  It is called “Goth Lied” or “Goth Song” and in beautiful deep operatic German he sang about trying to become a Goth again.  He played the video but he sang live and his voice was stunning.

Then he sang a song in English which (according to this You Tube Recording) might be called “Death of a Relationship” or maybe “GPS Song” but which I will think of as “Little Potato.”  It was funny (he actually sang-laughed).  But it was also beautiful.  He really showed off his range–I never expected him to be able to hit some really high notes, too.

The screen went up and he sang a song in English called “City.”  This wasn’t funny and having it in slow operatic English was a little hard to follow the thread of the song.

He ended the night by doing a cover.  He stepped over to the keyboard and played a really great version of “I Put a Spell on You.”  His keyboard playing was really impressive.

When the set ended, he thanked us and walked off, never once saying his name.

The guy behind me said “What the fuck did I just see.  I never knew that I needed to hear someone sing comic opera, but clearly I did.”

It was an amazing performance and I’m so glad they chose him to open.

Evidently S-K picked him because they were so impressed by one of his shows that he inspired  the song “The Future Is Here” on the new album.