Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Mary Lattimore’ Category

Beach House (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, July 23, 2022)

Posted in Beach House, Mary Lattimore, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on July 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 23, 2022] Beach House

I’ve been a fan of Beach House for a long time. I wasn’t sure if they were a band I wanted to see live, but then it turned out that everyone in my family was enjoying them independently of me.

Both of my kids had been listening to a few of their songs and I knew that S. liked the songs she’d heard too.  So I thought it would be fun for us all to go see them live.

I got us GA tickets because the closest seated tickets were kind of crappy.  I suppose seated would have been fine because the Beach House show was pretty much designed for you to not really see the stage very well.

The lighting was such that it had a presence in the room.  You could practically feel the weight of the colors as they fell from the stage.  The three band members were placed in a row across the stage.  with Alex Scally on the left playing guitar, Victoria Legrand in the center on keys and James Barone on drums on the right.  The band was backlit for the entire show so that they were in shadow and silhouette.  I am fairly certain I never saw any of their three faces all nights.

Whether it was white lights shining down from the ceiling, a wall of stars on a deep blue background, or waving searchlights through dense fog, the atmosphere changed with every song.  The details were different but the overall vibe remained one of a kind of smothering warmth almost like a weighted blanket.  (more…)

Read Full Post »

Mary Lattimore (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, July 23, 2022) [BEACH HOUSE]

Posted in Beach House, Kurt Vile, Mary Lattimore, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on July 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 23, 2022] Mary Lattimore

I’ve been a fan of Beach House for a long time.  When  they announced the opening bands, I was pretty psyched that we were getting Mary Lattimore (I don’t know any of the other artists).

I saw Mary Lattimore open for Parquet Courts about four years ago and I was blown away by her amazing harp playing.

Mary Lattimore is kind of the go-to harpist for rock albums.  She has played on all kinds of albums including two from Philly local Kurt Vile (Smoke Ring For My Halo & Wakin on a Pretty Daze).

The show wasn’t very crowded yet and I told my family that I wanted to get pretty close to the stage for this set.  So I moved in and had a really nice view of Mary’s hands as she played.

Mary’s songs are instrumental and they are beautiful, but also sad and thoughtful.  She had videos projected behind her (they were weird and looping and grainy).

She played about five songs, giving a brief introduction to each one.  She told us that she wrote “For Scott Kelly, Returned to Earth” for astronaut Scott Kelly and even sent him a copy, which he listened to in space, which is pretty wild.

One thing I love about Mary is that she plays all parts of her harp.  She taps the side and makes percussive sounds.  She also has an effects pedal and is able to morph and loop the sounds that she makes.  Plus, she uses all of the notes.  Even the tiny high notes.  And the low low notes (those were remarkably deep).

After several songs she announced a guest.  A young girl named Delphine came out.  She sat at her small harp with incredible form.  Then she and Mary played a duet of Mary’s “Wawa by the Ocean.”  It was lovely and adorable.  And once you got over how adorable it was you realized how good Delphine was.

Then Mary said that Delphine’s father was going to come out and do a song with her.  And Delphine’s father was Kurt Vile!

What a surprise.  I mean, maybe not 100% surprise as Kurt does tend to make a random appearance from time to time, but we never seem to get anything like that at our shows.  So he sat there with his guitar and they played “Ghost Town” the Kurt Vile song.

We had just seen Kurt so this was like a really delayed encore and that was a lot of fun too.

Overall, I feel like the audience could have been a little more respectful of the harp, but whatever, the harp is a hard sell for a rock crowd.

I’m just glad I got to see her again.

(sort of setlist)

  1. The Warm Shoulder
  2. For Scott Kelly, Returned to Earth
  3. Otis Walks Into the Woods
  4. It Feels Like Floating
  5. Wawa by the Ocean (with Delphine Vile)
  6. Ghost Town (with Kurt Vile}

 

Read Full Post »

Mary Lattimore (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, January 31, 2017) [PARQUET COURTS]

Posted in Hop Along, Jarvis Cocker, Jeff Zeigler, Kurt Vile, Mary Lattimore, Parkay Quarts, Parquet Courts, Philadelphia, PA, Quilt, Sharon Van Etten, Thurston Moore, Union Transfer on January 31, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 31, 2017] Mary Lattimore

2017-01-31-20-21-17I wasn’t sure who would be opening for Parquet Courts.  I was surprised and delighted to see that the opening act was going to be a harpist.   I had never heard of Mary Lattimore before, although on looking her up it seems quite likely that I have heard her before–she seems to be a go-to harpist for a lot of bands [a shortened list includes these records: Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts ; Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications ; Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo & Wakin on a Pretty Daze ; Sharon Van Etten – Are We There? ; Quilt – Plaza ; Hop Along – Painted Shut].

When I arrived her harp was onstage–lit up and gorgeous–and I was really excited to hear her show.

She came out while we were waiting and made some final adjustments.  And then a few minutes later she sat down at the harp, quietly thanked us for coming and began playing. (more…)

Read Full Post »