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Weezer (Sands Bethlehem Event Center, Bethlehem, PA, December 3, 2016)

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Hari Konabolu, Kiss, Sands Bethlehem Event Center, The Menzingers, Weezer on December 3, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 3, 2016] Weezer

2016-12-03-21-34-05Comedian Hari Kondabolu has a funny bit called “How Weezer Broke My Heart.”  He says that he was a huge fan in the late 1990s but when he went to the show a few years ago he discovered that their fanbase is still fourteen years old and that he was the creepy old dude–at 28!  But he rejects that and says that Weezer are the creepy old dudes–forty-year old men singing songs that teenagers can relate to is really creepy.

Well, my show was full of college students (and at least one dad who brought his daughter who was either too young to drive or maybe they bond over Weezer–I didn’t ask–but more on them later).  I may have been the creepy old dude, but since Rivers Cuomo and I are basically the same age, we’re both the creepy old dudes.

It was cool to like Weezer for about two years (circa 1996).  But before and after it decidedly wasn’t.  Nevertheless, I’ve always enjoyed them.  I often wish that Rivers Cuomo would write more substantial songs (musically and lyrically since he studied classical composition and graduated with a B.A. in English from Harvard) but it’s hard to deny how much fun his dumb songs are.

I thought about seeing them this summer, but decided against it.  However, when they announced they were playing in Bethlehem, a close venue that I like, I decided it was time to see them.  I’d been checking their recent setlists (to see what albums they were laying songs from–I try to never look at actual songs), and I was bummed to see that they weren’t playing anything from Pinkerton, the cool person’s favorite Weezer album.  In fact it seemed like the sets came mostly from their self titled albums (blue, green, red and white).

But whatever, because even if they weren’t playing my favorite album, I knew that they’d be playing a bunch of songs that I knew and liked, right? (more…)

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The Avett Brothers (Live at Musikfest, Sands Steel Stage at PNC Plaza, Bethlehem, PA, August 14, 2016)

Posted in Amy Schumer, Bethlehem, PA, Bob Dylan, Langhorne Slim, Musikfest, The Avett Brothers, Willie Nelson on August 15, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 14, 2016] The Avett Brothers

2016-08-14 21.01.57Sarah and I were supposed to go see The Avett Brothers but our child care debacle meant that only I could go.  Other people did bring their kids to the show (there were quite a few kids, actually).  Once I showed up, I suggested that she come with the kids but they were settled in for the night by then.  This would have been a much more fun show with Sarah–The Avett Brothers are a fun band meant to be shared with your neighbors.

But at the same time, among a sea of really short people, the two guys right in front of me were gigantic.  And worse yet, they talked to each other throughout the show by leaning in to each other.  I tried to watch the first two songs between their giant heads but they kept leaning in and blocking my entire view.  So I moved to the side of them and the guy next to me asked me to move back to give him more room.  Well, since I had paid for two tickets I was using the space.  So if Sarah had been there, we would have been really tightly packed and one of us would have seen nothing.

When I joked that since Sarah couldn’t come I hoped the show would be terrible so she wouldn’t miss anything, she retorted with a line from the great Amy Schumer Abusive Relationship sketch: “I hope the next time you got to a concert that the band doesn’t play the song you want to hear and instead they just play songs from their NEW ALBUM.”  And that came true when they did not play the couple of songs I really wanted to hear and did in fact play six songs from their new album.  I like a bunch of Avett Brothers songs quite a lot, although I don’t know a lot of their catalog.  I don’t have their first releases and I haven’t gotten their newest album (although I have listened to the new album a few times and did like it).

So if I’m not a huge fan, why go?  Well,I had heard that their live shows were epic–fun and wild with sing alongs and foot stomping and covers and all that good stuff.  So my expectations were high for a good time.  The crowd seemed largely into it–although as I said the people on either side of me were real drags.  It was even weirder when during a couple of slow songs, there was a lot of chatter around me.  I think everyone was distracted by the flashes of lightning that filled the sky in the distance.  Knowing that previous shows were cancelled, those flashes were worrisome.  The lightning stay far away and were actually very cool to see and despite the threats, it never rained on us and nothing was cancelled. (more…)

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Flight of the Conchords sing Flight of the Conchords (Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, June 12, 2016)

Posted in Arj Barker, Flight of the Conchords, Flight of the Conchords, Led Zeppelin, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, Pokemon, Richard Thompson, Tom Waits, Wilco on June 13, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 12, 2016] Flight of the Conchords sing Flight of the Conchords

chipsAfter having gotten a number of concert tickets fort he summer, I had planned a moratorium.  But it was impossible to pass up the opportunity to see Flight of the Conchords.  Especially if they were going to be singing Flight of the Conchords!  I didn’t even realize they toured (clearly they do), and since there were no plans for a new television season and since Jemaine Clement has lent his voice and face to all manner of awesome evil roles, I assumed the FotC was no more.  [Bret McKenzie has also done things but not nearly as much as Jemaine].

Since we loved the show and the music, I jumped on tickets once they were available.  Once again, I thought our seats would be better than they were (I really need to understand seating charts better), but it didn’t matter because they had two giant screens on which they projected the two of them and did many great visual effects as well.  It was easy to forget to look at them on stage since the screens were so compelling, but it’s always important to see what the guys are doing too.

They played 13 songs in total and did a lot of very funny banter in between.  The strange thing is that I didn’t know they had released a second album (how did I miss that?) so a lot of the songs that I thought were “new” were just new to me.  Although there were some brand new songs thrown in as well.

It was also awesome that as soon as Arj Barker left the stage, there was no delay before Flight of the Conchords came out. (more…)

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Arj Barker (Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, June 12, 2016) [FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS]

Posted in Arj Barker, Flight of the Conchords, Flight of the Conchords, Game of Thrones, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, Pokemon, Richard Thompson, Wilco on June 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 12, 2016] Arj Barker

arjArj Barker opened for Flight of the Conchords.  I didn’t know him, although I knew he had been on some episodes of the FotC TV Show.

Much like with my trip to the Mann for Wilco, it took a lot longer to get there than I anticipated–I think we’ll have it all figured out for our next show there later this week.  We wound up arriving a few minutes before 8 and had enough time to get a snack before the show started.  Barker didn’t start exactly at 8 either (how come Richard Thompson was so punctual?)

As we were chowing down, we noticed that later this summer the Mann Center is putting on a symphonic Pokemon event and we knew we had to get tickets for the kids for that.  So I ran out to the box office and spared myself the $13/ticket Ticketmaster surcharge at the expense of missing the beginning of Arj’s set.

We walked in just as he was going on about his girlfriend’s insistence on their new gluten-free diet (I’d guess we missed about ten or fifteen minutes). (more…)

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David Cross (Merriam Theatre, Philadelphia, PA, April 3, 2016)

Posted in Alvin and the Chipmunks, Arrested Development, Cigarettes, Comedy Album, David Cross, Funny (ha ha), Guns, Hitler, Holidays, Merriam Theatre, Mr Show, Murder, Philadelphia, PA, Political Humor, Politicians, Racism, Religion, Yuck! on April 5, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 3, 2016] David Cross

cross I have enjoyed David Cross since the old days of Mr. Show, and the as Tobias on Arrested Development and even in Alvin and the, well, actually I’m just happy for him that he got a lot of money for it.

When he released his previous stand up album, Bigger and Blackerer, Sarah and I listened to it in the car on a long trip and we had tears in our eyes from laughing so hard.

So when I heard he was touring I thought it would be fun to see him live.  And, yes, it was.

But we ran into a few bumps along the way.  We had to leave very late because our babysitter had car trouble.  She arrived just late enough that we weren’t sure if it was worth still driving the hour to Philly.  We decided if traffic was terrible we would just stop somewhere and have dinner instead.  I even called the Theatre to see if there was an opening act (nope) and if the show really started at 7:30 and not 8 (yup, he would start at exactly 7:30).  Traffic was light and the GPS said we’d get to the garage at 7:35.  I missed the turn for the alley that our garage was on, and then we got slightly lost on the walk from garage to theater and as we got there at 7:40… there were still a whole bunch of people milling about in the lobby.  And then they flashed the lights telling us to get to our seats.  We missed nothing!

And we even got to tsk at people who arrived later than us.  Cross even joked that he would wait to start his joke because “it’s not fucking distracting or anything” when people are being seated.  I was frankly shocked that people seemed to still be arriving around 8PM! (more…)

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Scott Feschuk–The Future and Why We Should Avoid It: Killer Robots, The Apocalypse and Other Topics of Mild Concern (2014)

Posted in Aliens, Alternative Medicine, Barack Obama, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Danny Michel, David Cross, Disease, Doctors, Drinking, Erich Korngold, Fears, Film & TV, Funny (ha ha), Hockey, Humiliation, John Southworth, Justin Trudeau, MacLean's, Martin Tielli, Natural Disasters, Political Humor, Propaganda, Ray Kurzweil, Sci-fi, Science, Scott Feschuk, Sex, Smarty Pants, Star Wars, Stephen Harper, Technology, The Art of Time Ensemble, The Future, Travel, TSA, Violence, Yuck! on November 23, 2015| Leave a Comment »

feschukSOUNDTRACK: THE ART OF TIME ENSEMBLE with MARTIN TIELLI–Korngold: Source & Inspiration (Enwave Theatre, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON, January 30, 2009).

aotimeAfter seeing The Art of Time Ensemble yesterday, it was quite serendipitous that I would have a show from them (featuring Martin Tielli) to post about on the following day.

This concert is the third in the Art of Time’s “Source & Inspiration” series. Two years earlier the first concert focused on composer Franz Schubert.  The previous year’s concert focused on Robert Schumann. This time the spotlight was on the 20th century Jewish composer Erich Korngold–a composer of European pedigree who became well known for his wonderful Hollywood film scores.

This concert featured Korngold’s Suite for Two Violins, Cello and Piano as the ‘source’ as well as new songs inspired by this work from Martin Tielli, Danny Michel and John Southworth.

This recording is only 8 minutes long because there’s only two Martin Tielli songs. “Lied Two” (the German word for song is lied (pronounced leed) so Martin called his “Lied Two.” And “Moglich” which translates into “possible.”  Both pieces are played with by the orchestra.  Martins sings.

The more dramatic of the two would be “Moglich” with his loud whispered “Relaxxxxx at the end.”  For more information about the show, you can click on this link.

Full Program & Repertoire:
Suite Op. 23 for 2 Violins, Cello and Piano Left-hand
Erich Korngold
i.Praeludium und Fuge
ii.Walzer
iii.Groteske
iv.Lied
v.Rondo-Finale
INTERMISSION
Athabasca
Adventures of Erich Korngold
—John Southworth
The Sailor Song
Island
—Danny Michel
Lied 2
Moglich
—Martin Tielli

Performers
Andrew Burashko, piano
Danny Michel, singer
Erika Raum, violin
Stephen Sitarski, violin
John Southworth, singer
Martin Tielli, singer
Winona Zelenka, cello

[READ: November 22, 2015] The Future and Why We Should Avoid It

The title of this book made me laugh so I set it aside to read it.  Little did I know that it would be so very funny that I put aside other things so I could finish it.

I hadn’t heard of Feschuk before.  He has written two previous books (How Not to Completely Suck as a New Parent sounds pretty good) and writes mostly for MacLean’s magazine.

As you might guess from the title, this book looks at the future, and Feschuk’s predictions are uncanny.  For instance, I brought the book home and decided to look at it in the bathroom.  And the introduction states quite clearly:

By now, life should be awesome and leisurely and you should be wearing a spacesuit and high-fiving your wisecracking robot sidekick.  Except instead your dishwasher is broken, your god-damn iTunes won’t sync up and right now you’re reading this book on a toilet in your bathroom instead of where you should be reading it–on a toilet in your hover car.

Too right, too right. (more…)

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Jon Haynes and David Woods–The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland (2014)

Posted in Bill Hicks, Built to Spill, David Woods, Jon Haynes, Noises Off, Play (Drama), Psychiatry, Ridiculusmus, Violence on October 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »

SschizoOUNDTRACK: BUILT TO SPILL-There is No Enemy (2009).

330px-There_is_No_Enemy It took only three years for Built to Spill to release this, their seventh full length.  I have mentioned this disc before, and I loved it then.  And I love it now.

“Aisle 13” starts with some echoed sounds and then big echoing chords which quickly resolve into a great BtS song.  And after the lengthy songs of the previous records, it’s amazing to hear a song (or several) tha are under 4 minutes.  The album is also full of some great (if odd) lyrics like: “one day I’ll come home to find you covered with ants because you are so sweet.”

“Hindsight” has two separate great riffs in it (and the great line: “is that grass only greener because its fake”).   “Nowhere Lullaby” is a slow ballad with a great vocal line (and strings).  “Good Ol’ Boredom” is almost a dance song—a fast drums beat and echoey guitar intro (although there’s a signature BtS guitar riff over the top).   I like the slide guitar solo in the middle and the lengthy jam section which trades off guitar solos (this song lasts 6 and a half minutes). “Life’s A Dream” slows things down and even includes a section of “ahhh”s and “la la las” in beautiful harmony.  And then there’s a surprise inclusion of horns.

“Oh Yeah” opens with a slow picked guitar and slowly builds up with more instrumentation, although it never really gets any faster.  But it has some great lyrics:

And if god does exist
I am sure he will forgive
Me for doubting for he’d see
How unlikely he himself seems

“Pat” zooms out off the gates with one of the fastest, most punk songs they’ve ever done (live it was even more so). And at under 3 minutes it’s a nice blast of excitement.  “Done” is a slow song with one of my favorite end soloing sections—tons of echo (once again, this was amazing live).  It seems like it should end the disc, but “Planting Seeds” comes out of that song with a great catchy riff.  And as the bridge comes in there’ an even more catchy riff.  It also has some great lyrics:

when bullies grow up they get meaner
yeah they really get it down

they think that they get it but they always get it wrong
they’ll play your favorite song
just to sell shit to you

I’ve heard that they’ll sell anything and I think they might
I think Bill Hicks was right
about what they should do

and just because you love something doesn’t mean it’s yours to buy
been selling it so long that no one even knows the reason why
you’ve been messing with our minds
gettin’ rich wasting our time

“Things Fall Apart” slows things down and even adds a trumpet solo before unleashing a lengthy guitar solo.  “Tomorrow” ends the disc slowly with keyboards. It seems like a downer ending but this 7 minute song has a lot packed into it. After about 90 second the guitars kick in and the song builds.   At 2 and a half minutes the song takes a sharp turn into a slower, darker section with a great solo. It jumps back and forth and ends with a lengthy solo that fades just as some interesting feedback squalls start to build.

This continues the progression of great Built to Spill records.

[READ: August 30, 2015] The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland

This play was created by a theater group called Ridiculusmus, who I know nothing about.

The premise of this play was quite interesting.

Audience members are seated on either side of a wall.  Act One and Act Three are performed simultaneously on either side of the wall.  So you can watch Act One and hear Act 3 or vice versa.  The Acts overlap and are connected, so it’s not like a nonsensical experience.

Act One is between a mum and her two sons, while Act three is is between a psychiatrist and one of the sons, set some years in the future.  That’s pretty interesting.

But what happens is that after you see Act One/Three, the audience switches sides and you listen to it all over again, this time seeing what you missed last time.  But unlike a farce like Noises Off, where what you see is all the stuff that’s going on behind the scenes, you can hear everything that is being said behind the wall, I don’t think there’s anything new visually that will change the fact that you have just heard all of this dialogue a few minutes ago. It feels terribly redundant to me.

After both of these performances, act two is staged. (more…)

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Naben Ruthnum–“Working Clean” (The Walrus, July/August 2015)

Posted in Canadian Content, Chucky Danger Band, Comedians, Drinking, Hank Fisher, Jill Barber, Led Zeppelin, Naben Ruthnum, Paper Lions, Rheostatics, Short Story, Suzie Vinnick, The Walrus, tagged on September 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »

2015-07 SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Stan Rogers Folk Festival Canso NS (July 2, 2005).

stanBack in 2005, the Rheostatics played two days at the Stan Rogers Folk Festival. The first day’s show was a kind of mash up of the Rheostatics and other bands.  Indeed, the recording includes some other artists along with the Rheos.

The sound quality of the recording is okay, but there are some really loud gusts of wind that seem to mar the sound.

They talk about how they are there to represent the excellence that is Toronto.

The second song is by The Chucky Danger Band (who later changed their name to Paper Lions). It is called “Hola” and is pretty fun (there’s a story about them being in a foreign country and writing a song with these simple words in Spanish.

Then the Rheos come back and they are joined by Suzie Vinick and Jill Barber.

Suzie sings a folky, unusual cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock n Roll.”  Then Jill sings her own “Nothing on Me” a nice folk song.  Then they do a super fun version of “Red Dog Ray” by Hank Fisher.

It’s back to Suzie with her cool song “A 7 minor.”  Then a folky rendition of “Bad Time to Be Poor” with great backing vocals

Suzie gets one more song, this time, her own “Happy Here.”  The last track is a fun rendition of “Claire” with a kazoo solo!  It seems like a perfect folk festival setting.

[READ: September 7, 2015] “Working Clean”

This is the first story I’ve read by Ruthnum.  It went in a direction I totally did not expect.

I enjoyed the way it opened: “I got my break and found my wife on the same day.  The wife part happened by coincidence, but the break–getting in with Jeev–that was a coincidence I made happen.”

So this story is about stand up comics on the comedy set.  The narrator, Ed Brooks, and his friend Richie Hagen are struggling as standups.  In fact, they both got in trouble at work for calling in sick when his boss heard them on the radio.  But Jeev is doing great.  And they agree that they hate him.

Jeev was in town because he needed clean material for his upcoming appearance on The tonight Show.  So he was working in small clubs to prefect his act.   The audience didn’t know who he was, but he still killed.  He was on the same bill as Richie and the narrator, but he seemed oblivious to them. (more…)

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The Organist Season 2 (part 1) [podcast] (2014)

Posted in Alena Smith, Amber Scorah, Andy Kaufman, Big Black, Carrie Brownstein, Daniel Fishkin, David Wain, Dylan Thomas, Edgar Oliver, Ezra Pound, Fiona Apple, Frank, Frank Sidebottom Oh Blimey Big Band, Fred Armisen, George Saunders, Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Greta Gerwig, Harmony Korine, James Franco, James Joyce, Jon Ronson, Judy Blume, Lena Dunham, Magnetic Fields, Mal Sharpe, Meredith Monk, Mike Mills, Neko Case, Nick Antosca, Optiganally Yours, Rachel Dratch, Ross Simonini, Silver Jews, Solex, Sonic Youth, St. Vincent, Stephin Merritt, Sun Foot, Tao Lin, Teenage, The Collectors, The Motherhood Archives, The Organist, The Wire, This American Life, Thomas Lennon, Tig Notaro on August 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: August 2015] The Organist

organistFor the second season of The Organist, they switched formats from the once a month 45-55 minute long amalgam of stories of last year to a one story an episode, once a week format.  The length hovers around 20 minutes now with some shows being much longer and others being much shorter.  It doesn’t make too much of a difference if you listen all at once as I did, but I can see that if you’re listening when they come out that a weekly podcast would be more satisfying.

However, they have also opted to have an “encore” episode every fourth episode in which they take one of the segments from an earlier episode and play it on its own.  How disappointing would it be to tune in and get a repeat?  And why on earth would they repeat things if all of the previous episodes are available online?  It’s very strange and frankly rather disappointing.  I mean, sure, it’s nice to have the new introductions, but it’s not like you’re getting some kind of special version when they repeat it.  It’s exactly the same.  And, boy, they tend to repeat some of my least favorite pieces.

Also the website now gives a pretty detailed summary of the contents of each episode, so you get a good sense of what’s going to happen. (more…)

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The Organist: Season 1 [podcast] (2013)

Posted in Alexis Georgopoulos, Amber Scorah, Andrea Silenzi, Arp, Ben Greenman, Bikini Kill, Brandon Stosuy, Catherine Keener, Chris Stroffolino, Conan O'Brien, David Cross, Dawn of Midi, Devendra Banhart, George Saunders, Glee, Grantland, Greil Marcus, Harmony Korine, Jack White, James Franco, Jesse Eisenberg, Jonathan Coulton, Jonathon Keats, Judy Blume, Kathleen Hanna, Lars Iyer, Lena Dunham, Lillian Hoban, Lonnie Holley, Mac Barnett, Matmos, Max Tundra, Mike Kelley, Mobb Deep, Nick Offerman, Rachel Kushner, Russell Hoban, Sam Lipsyte, Sam McPheeters, Sarah Silverman, Shane Carruth, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Sunset Television, Tao Lin, The Blob, The Julie Ruin, The Organist, The Source Family, Thomas Lennon, Thomas Rogers, Upstream Color on August 7, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: August 2015] The Organist Season 1

organistGiven my love of the McSweeney’s empire, it seems logical that I would have listened to The Organist sooner than this.  But I didn’t.  It has been on for a couple of years, so i assumed I’d never catch up.  But then I saw that there were only 50 episodes and most of them were quite short.  So it was time to see what it was all about.

And, since it is more or less in conjunction with The Believer, it should come as no surprise that it is sort of an aural equivalent to that magazine–longish pieces about esoteric subject, but geared specifically to “radio.”

The Organists first season was done as a monthly podcast starting on Feb 1.  Each episode was about 50 minutes long and covered a variety of subjects with fun guests and other ephemera.

Episode 1: (February 1, 2013)
The inaugural episode kicks off with Nick Offerman spouting some hilarious nonsense about podcasts.  The rest of the show includes an interview with George Saunders talking about the voices of his fiction; Greil Marcus discusses the impact of the first Bikini Kill EP now that it is reissued.  Perhaps the most unusual and interesting piece is when Amber Scorah tells the story of her defection from the Jehovah’s Witnesses while working as a missionary in Shanghai; In short pieces, Brandon Stosuy editor of Pitchfork, presents five five-word record reviews of interesting new guitar rock and then musicians Matmos take a song from their new album apart, piece by piece, revealing its brilliant, pulsating innards.  Basically they used thought control to get people to “create” a song for them.  It’s a really neat process even if the final result doesn’t really sound like the sum of its parts. (more…)

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