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Jason Anderson (Boot and Saddle, Philadelphia, PA, December 4, 2016) [STRAND OF OAKS Winter Classic II, Night 3]

Posted in Boot & Saddle, Jason Anderson, Philadelphia, PA, Sarah McLachlan, Strand of Oaks, Tim Showalter on December 4, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 4, 2016] Jason Anderson

I thought that this show started at 8, but parking wasn’t very friendly near the Boot & Saddle so I wound up getting in the place at 8:15.  I didn’t know who Jason Anderson was, but I always try to see the opening act.  Well, I was pleasantly surprised to discover he wasn’t going on until 8:30.

So I was standing there waiting for him to come up on stage, when the stage lights went out and a light above me turned on.  I thought they were just putzing with the lights, but then a guy with a guitar grabbed a chair and stood on it right behind me up against the side wall.

This was Jason Anderson.  He had opened for Strand of Oaks all three nights at the sold out shows at Boot & Saddle.  He said that he had told the crowd the last night that he would play an electric set, but it felt right to do this acoustic set right there.

The room was dim (so dim that I couldn’t even get a picture of him–this one is of him playing with Strand of Oaks (I didn’t realize he was going to do that)).  He had someone holding up a lyric book as he told us he was going to sing a couple of songs that he had just written.

And what came next was an incredible half an hour.

From the start, Anderson was passionate and personable and won everyone over as he described what each song was about. He was honest and emotive and was really earnest about how pleased he was that we were all there and how we needed to really appreciate where we were at the moment.

And it sounds kind of cheesy to write it, and it felt a little cheesy at first, but Anderson was able to break through the hard exterior of everyone in the place and allows us all to give into the moment.

The first song was called something like “Sometimes Windows, Sometimes Walls.”  He said it was about those times when we scroll through Facebook over and over in case you missed something.  After he sang the chorus, he asked us to sing along with it.  And we did.  And we sang louder when he asked and quieter when he asked.  The Boot & Saddle is so small (the show was sold out at 150 tickets) that it sounded amazing.  And we all fed off the energy.

Each of his six songs had a story (usually funny, but not always).  He often interrupted the song to comment or fill us in on something else.  And then he continued, talking about how great the vibe was in the room.  And it really was.

His second song was a bout a toll booth worker in New Hampshire (he’s from New Hampshire).  The song was full of wonderful details. He told us that his friend loved the song and that his chorus “I remember you.  You remember me” was totally Sarah McLachlan-and he sang a line of her song too.

Anderson continually asked everyone to step closer, making it ever more intimate as more people came in.  He said that he doesn’t go to church but his spirituality comes from music and events like this where all different people–friends and lovers and relatives ans strangers–all gather together and live in one moment as it happens.

For one of the songs he asked us to echo the first line of the chorus, which we did.  And when we echoed the second line, he stopped us and said that he didn’t think it worked.  he confirmed it with us and then said we should only do that first line.  We laughed and agreed and continued.

He thanked Tim Showalter (the heart of Strand of Oaks) for letting him play like this and then he said “This song is for Tim, it’s “For Mike.”” And we laughed and he said he didn’t realize how strange that would sound.  This was a touching song written for a friend whose wife had recently died.

The final song was “All My Love For You.”  He had the lights turned down even further (almost dark) and taught us the chorus.  As the song was moving along he jumped off of the chair and walked to the middle of the room and told everyone to take two steps closer.  He was surrounded as he sang.  And he encouraged us to close our eyes as we sang along.  As we sang, he told a story between our lines.  Eventually we opened out eyes and ended the song and it was over.

I have never been in an environment quite like that.  It was really amazing–warm and comfortable and strangely powerful.

The only bummer thing about it was how quickly the vibe dissipated after his set was over.

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My Morning Jacket (Beacon Theater, New York, NY, November 28, 2015)

Posted in Beacon Theatre, Craig Finn, Eagles of Death Metal, Jim James, My Morning Jacket, Strand of Oaks on November 29, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 28, 2015] My Morning Jacket

2015-11-28 23.28.16After seeing My Morning Jacket this summer, I was definitely psyched to see them again.  My friend Jay is a fan who had never seen them before.  So we jumped at the chance to see them at the Beacon.  I bought tickets for the fourth of four nights (I would have picked the earlier night had I realized that Strand of Oaks was opening, but that was the night before Thanksgiving, which is not exactly a good going out night for some of us).

We decided to blow off the opener, Craig Finn, but unfortunately because of a delay on the 1 train, we missed the first ten minutes of MMJ as well.  This proved to suck hard because we missed “Victory Dance” and most of “Compound Fracture.”  It sucked even more because the rest of this first set had a very mellow feel to it and Jay and I were looking to rock out.

2015-11-28 21.57.23So this brings me to a pretty weird sensation at a show.  Can you say that you totally enjoyed something but were somehow disappointed at the same time?  And then retroactively realize that what you saw was pretty amazing, but you didn’t realize it in the moment?  Because I think we both felt that way.  The band was in top form, the music sounded great. The audience was totally into it.  And the songs themselves were good, we just wanted different songs.

It turns out that the four nights at the Beacon Theater were designed as a cool package–each night they’d play different songs and dip into some rare tracks.  I had no idea that that’s what they were planning.  I was just psyched to get tickets.  What this meant is that they had played a lot of the big songs earlier in the week (of course, they saved some great ones for our show as well).  So when Jay and I looked at each other after the first set and thought, huh I expected to hear more songs that I knew, well, now we realized why we didn’t.

It turned out to be an awesome show for old time fans who had seen them a lot. (more…)

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Matthew Diffee–Hand Drawn Jokes for Smart Attractive People (2015)

Posted in Comic Strips, John Congleton, Matthew Diffee, New Yorker, Strand of Oaks, Timothy Showalter, Tiny Desk Concert on July 24, 2015| Leave a Comment »

handdrawnSOUNDTRACK: STRAND OF OAKS–Tiny Desk Concert #449 (June 15, 2015).

soaI didn’t know anything about Strand of Oaks when I first heard them last year.  I assumed from the bio info that I’d heard that he, Timothy Showalter, had been in a a band and that this was his solo project.  But no.  His history is actually far more interesting.

The Wikipedia summary is pretty simple and shocking:

While Showalter was on tour, his wife had an affair. Escaping his detrimental relationship, he moved back to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in 2003. A couple of months later, he came home to find his house burned down.  [WHAT??].  Showalter spent his nights in hotels and on park benches with a borrowed guitar while working at an orthodox Jewish day school. Despite the turmoil, he was able to find inspiration to continue writing music that would later be released.

He released three self-produced albums and then made Heal.  Which ALSO has a shocking tale attached to it:  On Christmas Day in 2013, Showalter and Sue were driving back to Philadelphia from Indiana when they hit a patch of ice and crashed into two semi trucks. Showalter suffered a concussion and broke every rib on his right side. The near-death experience gave Showalter a boldness during mixing sessions while creating HEAL with John Congleton, just days after the crash.

Yipes.  I don’t know his earlier records, but I really like Heal.  It’s got an interesting sound, with some great guitar work.

For the Tiny Desk, he plays three songs.  The first is the single from his album, “Goshen ’97”.  This version is just him on his black electric guitar with lots of echo.  It’s very slow and kind of broody.  I prefer the original, but this is a very interesting version.  And his voice sounds really good in this stripped down style.

After the first song he says how nice it feels to play this gig–just what he imagined it would be like. He says he could play there a long time and when someone says “Ok” he say they’d get sick of him: “Oh that bearded guy is still here.”

“Plymouth” has even more echo on the guitar–this one a hollow bodied steel string guitar.  It sounds lovely and since I don’t know the original as well, I like this slower more meditative version.

“JM” is for Jason Molina and for this track, he switches its back to the black electric.  I love the album version of this song a lot, as the soloing is just fantastic.  This version is quite different.  Again, it’s slow and broody, and really good. I still like the album version (because of the solos) but this is good too.

I’m fascinated by Showalter now, and plan to see what his earlier albums sound like.

[READ: June 15, 2015] Hand Drawn Jokes for Smart Attractive People

Although I was unfamiliar with Diffee’s name, I was familiar with his cartoons from the New Yorker.  Diffee has three other books out (under the Rejection Collection moniker–he’s great with book titles).  I certainly loved the title of this book.

There are 16 chapters in the book–each is devoted to a particular topic and has a rather amusing introduction in which Diffee goes off on that subject: Medical Professionals, Lumberjacks, Relationships, Pet Owners, Old People, Utensils, Real Jobs, Indians and Eskimos, Food, Sex, Prison, Religion, Wealth, Children, Sports and Tattoos.

What I really enjoyed was that the cartoons that fill the introductory sections look very different from his more “official” style (which I recognized immediately from the magazine).  It’s cool that he has a distinctive style but is not pigeonholed into that style.

matthewOccasional cartoons have an accompanying silhouette (presumably himself) with an extra bonus joke tangentially related to the topic.  Sometimes these are funnier than the original cartoon.  (Does a polygamist refer to his wives as his “better eighths?”).

It’s hard to mention favorite cartoons without describing the cartoon, which is never funny, but there are few punchlines that work with out a visual, like:

“Therapist: “These feelings of inadequacy are common among the inadequate.”

Waitress: “Sorry, we don’t serve the Lumberjack breakfast to accountants.”

Drug sniffing dog: “I’m starting to really like the smell of cocaine.”

And this one which is not from the New Yorker: “Wade Greenberg, wearing his hemp blazer, inadvertently became the life of the party when he stood too close to the menorah.”

He also really loves to hate sporks: (50% spoon, 50% fork, 85% useless).

All of these are funnier with the accompanying cartoon of course, and I really like his drawing style.

By the way, the section on tattoos was capped off by “knuckle tats you’ll never see” like FLAU TIST or ALAN ALDA.

I enjoyed this book a lot and will certainly look for his previous collections.

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