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Archive for the ‘Crooks and Nannies’ Category

[ATTENDED: October 31, 2023] Japanese Breakfast

This was my third time seeing Japanese Breakfast. But more importantly, it was my first time going to a show on Halloween (that’s not true, I saw Skinny Puppy on Halloween in 1988), but this is my first time since I had kids.

I wasn’t sure we could pull it off–my daughter wanted to go trick or treating after all.  And I was willing to not go to this show.  If my daughter wanted us home, I would have happily stayed home.  Although this did promise to be a super fun show.  Costumes, a cool poster and the notification that this would be the last J Brekkie show for at least a year.

Zauner had shared her plans for her second book, mentioning the year-long hiatus she plans to take in Korea.  “I’m moving to Korea December 29th to live for a year and work on my second book where I am going to study the language and document that process,” she told Hsu. “And I think it was such a natural response to writing a book that was so rooted in the past and so much of what was hard about it was like it was so obviously emotional, but also it was hard to remember all of that.”

Our daughter gave us permission to go out and we arrived at the show in time to see the opening act. I could (should?) have waited on line for a poster (the above picture with a foil outline), but I decided against it.

Originally Hop Along was supposed to open but that changed at pretty close to the last minute.  (Well, they had enough time to make posters with the new band, Crooks and Nannies) on it.  I’m not a huge fan of Hop Along, but I do like the and was a little bummed at the loss.  But Crooks and Nannies proved to be weirdly delightful.

After Crooks and Nannies finished (at 8:30) it was a short wait and then a woman in a clown outfit came on.  It was comedian Sarah Sherman who Michelle Zauner said “insisted she come out on stage.” She did her routine which was funny and irritating.  And when she was done, Japanese Breakfast’s crew started setting up for their show.  I was sure that the comedian was  a way to distract us while the crew set up.  But instead, it was just a delaying technique.  J.B. didn’t go on until 9:45.  Good grief.

And indeed, it was Sherman who returned, this time dressed as Gollum, ready to introduce the band.  And when she did, it was revealed that the whole band was dressed like Lord of the Rings characters.  And there were clips from the movie (and cartoons and more) projected behind them for the whole show. (more…)

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[ATTENDED: October 31, 2023] Sarah Sherman

After Crooks and Nannies, we waited a few minutes, honestly hoping that JBrekkie would come on stage soon so we could get home early, when out came a a woman in a clown suit.  It took us a moment to realize that we recognized her from the Adam Sandler film You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.  She was weird and funny.

Turns out she was a special surprise Halloween guest for this show.  Michelle Zauner later said that she didn’t ask to perform, she just came out and insisted on it.  Which is pretty funny.

So Sherman started doing her routine.

I have no idea what her stand up is normally like.  If this was a typical gig for her, just shortened to twenty minutes.  Or if she was trying stuff out or what.  But her stand up is deliberately annoying, I believe.

I was annoyed by the guys behind us who kept saying things like “why would you have a stand up comedian come out between bands.”  I mean, it’s Halloween it’s supposed to be fun, shut up.

She does a lengthy bit about New York “you know what I’m tawkin’ about.”  She repeats that line “you know what I’m tawkin’ about” about forty times.  Funny, not funny, then funny, then not funny then funny again. (more…)

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[ATTENDED: October 31, 2023] Crooks and Nannies

This was my third time seeing Japanese Breakfast.  It was a Halloween show!  And her last show for at least a year.  So I grabbed tickets.

Hop Along was supposed to open. Hop Along is a band that I wish I liked more.   I like their music but there’s something about their songs that just doesn’t work for me.  I think it’s got something to do with the vocals, but again, I don’t really know.

But I was looking forward to seeing them live to see if they could win me over.  And then they were not playing the show and it on their place was Crooks and Nannies, a Philly band that I hadn’t heard of.

Crooks and Nannies is more or less a duo: Max Rafter and Sam Huntington.  For this show (and a tour opening for Lucy Dacus (!)), they were a five-piece.  I am pretty certain that Lucy’s own Jacob Blizard was playing with them on guitar.

Since it was Halloween, it was an opportunity for the band to dress up.  Amusingly, because of the lighting in the first two songs, I didn’t realize that guitarist/singer Saxophonist Max was wearing green face makeup to look like Frankenstein’s monster.  I did  wonder why they were dressed that way–the makeup definitely completed the picture.

Their bassist, Ryan Ficano was wearing a cow costume.  Ficano is also in a fascinatingly off kilter metal(ish) band called Ogre.  Their keyboard player, who I think was Addy Watkins, was wearing a fringed cowboy outfit. (more…)

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