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Archive for the ‘Venues’ Category

Barenaked Ladies (Sands Bethlehem Event Center, Bethlehem, PA, October 18, 2013)

Posted in Barenaked Ladies, Bethlehem, PA, Daft Punk, Led Zeppelin, Luke Doucet, Melissa McClelland, Sands Bethlehem Event Center, Styx, The Animals, Violent Femmes, Whitehorse on October 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 18, 2013] Barenaked Ladies

Sarah and I saw BNL this summer with our friend Megan, and the show was great.  That marked the fourth or fifth time that I’d seen them.  When we found out that they were coming through again (to the close to us and cool Bethlehem Sands) we thought it might be fun to see them again.  Especially with our friends Matt and Marisa who like them but had never seen them.  So we met up and had a very fun time.  We ate at Emeril’s Burgers and More.  The burger was good (although it took an incredibly long time for it to arrive).  The strange thing about the burger was that it was very crispy on the outside (which was good) but rather and odd shade of  pink on the inside (which may have been the lighting, but it was certainly pinker than usual for medium), but it was not juicy/bloody—how is something pink but not juicy?  It was weird.  But still rather tasty.

But back to the show.  Our seats were in Row 20, which was much better than our seats this summer. The pictures here are mine taken with my phone—they’re blurrier than I’d like, but not terrible.

And this show was a ton of fun and full of surprises.  They started with “Limits” an unexpected song from their new album.  And then they jumped into “Never is Enough” a surprise old song.  Ed always does an introductory rap (which no one ever includes in the setlists online for some reason).  This one, while not as good as the PNC Bank Center one was enjoyable.  Ed explained that he ran a half marathon that day on the Sands grounds.  Well, actually he ran a block but did cross the finish line (the band played along with Da Don’t Run Run).  It was very funny.  “Pinch Me” is the new crowd favorite.  Whereas they used to throw Mac and Cheese during $1,000,000, now they throw underwear.  And much hilarity ensues. (more…)

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Whitehorse (Sands Bethlehem Event Center, Bethlehem, PA, October 18, 2013) [BARENAKED LADIES]

Posted in Barenaked Ladies, Bethlehem, PA, Luke Doucet, Melissa McClelland, Rock duo, Sands Bethlehem Event Center, Whitehorse on October 26, 2013| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 18, 2013] Whitehorse

Whitehorse opened for Barenaked Ladies at the Bethlehem Sands (our new favorite slightly larger venue–even if the acoustics aren’t great, the seating is good and the prices reasonable–we were in the 20th row for this set, which was really perfect).

I had never heard of Whitehorse, so when I saw that they were opening for Barenaked Ladies, I wanted to see what they were all about.  I found a concert from Mountain Stage which was enjoyable but which I felt pigeonholed the band as a kind of country folk duo.  They weren’t exactly what I imagined when I thought of an opening band for BNL.  I actually wondered if BNL’s show would be more mellow in general, too.

Well, Whitehorse absolutely blew me away on stage.

They opened as I expected, with Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland (who were solo performers and recently got married) playing guitars and singing into one microphone (that last part I didn’t expect).  They sounded great together.  And the song (“No Glamour in the Hammer”) was very nice—mellow folk with a hint of country.  And then things got really interesting.  They each moved to a different microphone.  McClelland switched to a bass, Doucet switched to an electric guitar.  And then they started playing some percussion—Doucet played a bass drum with his foot while playing the guitar.  Then he picked up some random percussion objects—small drums, maracas, even pots and pans—and hit them a few times.  And that’s when I realized they were looping the percussion and building the rest of the song from that.  McClelland played some keyboard and, at one point, she began singing into a distorted microphone to create some cool vocals which she also looped.  A video camera closeup revealed that the “microphone” was actually an old-fashioned telephone.  The first song went on for a pretty long time, building and growing and expanding  And by the end of the song the crowd was hooked.

What was completely evident was just how much fun they were having.  Both of them were smiling all the way through the set, in between singing of course.  They looked at each other and shared moments, thanked us and BNL and told good stories to lead up to the songs.  (more…)

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Richard Thompson (McCarter Theatre, October 4, 2013)

Posted in Concert, Fairport Convention, Frank Loesser, Jonathan Franzen, Linda Thompson, McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, Set in New Jersey!, Teddy Thompson on October 8, 2013| 1 Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 4, 2013] Richard Thompson at the McCarter Theatre

Back again for the (semi) annual Richard Thompson show at the McCarter Theatre.  RT himself said this was his 15th year playing there more or less every year.  And it seems like quite a lot of the concertgoers were multi-year attendees.

This time, Richard Thompson’s son Teddy opened.  About fifteen years ago I saw Teddy open for Richard in Boston.  That set was really enjoyable and I bought Teddy’s debut album.  But I haven’t thought all that much about him since (he has released a number of albums since 2000).

I spent some time at this show thinking about how strange it must be to tour with your father if he is a guitar wizard.  Teddy is not a guitar wizard and doesn’t try to be one.  [There’s an article that I’m going to be posting about in a few days by Jonathan Franzen which  deals with coping with successful fathers, so it was on my mind].  Indeed, in an article from a few years ago, Teddy said that at first he never listened to his parents music because it was folkie and he like rock.  But after a while: “I started to be more aware of how much people loved [my parents],” he said. “When I started doing (music) for a living, I felt, ‘I’m not as good a guitar player as my dad. My voice isn’t as good as my mother’s.'”  His mother is Linda Thompson who does have an amazing voice.  So it must be intimidating to be on with a guy that is so good and so beloved.

But Teddy has a great voice as well (more powerful than Richard’s), he sounds a bit like Neil Finn from Crowded House.  Teddy played about a dozen songs.  I actually didn’t recognize any of them, but I enjoyed them all.   As I said his voice is strong–and is really the selling point, because while the melodies are very good, they are also rather simple.  I don’t know that anything was as catchy as the songs by his dad, but of course plays a very different style of music–a kind of country folk with an occasional hard edge (both Thompsons only played acoustic guitar for this show).

I don’t know what their relationship is like (I always assume that famous (relatively) people’s children hate them.  But it was clear that Richard was proud of his son when he came out.  (more…)

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“Weird Al” Yankovic (Sands Bethlehem Event Center, Bethlehem, PA, June 4, 2013)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Bethlehem, PA, Sands Bethlehem Event Center on June 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 4, 2103] “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC-Live at the Sands Bethlehem Event Center

I’ve seen “Weird Al” live four times now and I have never been disappointed by the show.  The first year my friend Matt and I waited out by the bus and got the bands’ (minus Al’s) autograph.  The second time we waited even longer and Al had an autograph (and picture taking) session in the theater after the show (how cool is that?).  Two years ago Sarah and I went together (her first Al experience) and now for this show, Matt and his wife and son and Sarah and Clark and I all went together.  And we had 8th row seats.  Matt and his family hung around afterwards and got to meet him, but we took off (with a tired youngster).  But next time… we’ll wait the extra 30 minutes.

I was marveling that when Sarah and I saw him in 2011, he had just started this tour (Alpocalypse had not yet come out).  Here he is over two years later still touring this album.  And, good for him.  He changed the set list around a little bit (I’ve never understood how bands could play the exact same songs night after night) but the biggies are all there.

Comparing the sets, it’s cool to see how many different older songs he threw in the mix, and of course the great cover of “Radio Radio” (Elvis Costello).  This was a totally faithful cover of the song and I just learned from Wikipedia that he plays this as a tribute to Costello’s 1977 appearance on Saturday Night Live (it’s a long but fairly interesting story).  It turns out that whenever Al has a computer malfunction he says, “I’m sorry ladies and gentlemen there’s no reason to do this song here.  “Radio Radio” (watch the Elvis video here). (more…)

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Cirque Zuma Zuma (RVCC Arts, Branchburg NJ, May 3, 2013)

Posted in Acrobats, Big Apple Circus, Branchburg, NJ, C., Cirque Zuma Zuma, Futurama, Peking Acrobats, RVCC Arts, Set in New Jersey!, T. on May 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 3, 2013] Cirque Zuma Zuma

zumaCirque Zuma Zuma was the final theater show of our 2012-2013 season.  When I bought tickets for this I didn’t realize that it was designed as an all ages show (hint, shows that start at 7PM are for families, shows that start at 7:30 are for adults only).  So I felt a little bad that the kids didn’t come as there were so many kids there.  And they would have enjoyed this, although it’s probably just as well that they had a nice night with their grandma.

So Cirque Zuma Zuma is an African-based show of dance and acrobatics.  There was a large banner that said that Cirque Zuma Zuma had been on America’s Got Talent.  Now, I don’t quite understand this as the announcer of the show seemed to say that the performers were from countries in Africa.  How could they be on America’s Got Talent if they are not American?  I don’t get it.

zuma2Anyway, the show got off to a rousing start with drumming.  Lots of drumming.  There was a man with two drums (big bass drum sounding drums) and then two drummers who were playing what I thought of as an African bongo but which I believe is called a Djembe.  And, man, they pounded the hell out of these things.  It was amazing how musical three (or four) drums can sound.  They played lead drum parts while the bass drum kept a steady rhythm.  And then the dancers came out.  Two women and a man dressed in what I assume is a traditional outfit.  And they danced.  Ecstatically.  Nonstop.  For about eight minutes.  And what frenetic and crazy dances they were.  They moved with such force and power.  It was really amazing and it looked exhausting.

Then came the acrobatics.  And was surprised at just how many of the acrobatic pieces were the same as ones done by the Chinese acrobats.  It strikes me as odd that two very distinct cultures would do the same kinds of things.  Are these just standard feats that contemporary performers learn?

The first was the climbing of and doing handstands on a stack of chairs.  The big difference here was that these chairs were very large (as opposed to the many tiny ones the Chinese acrobats use).  It was still impressive, and the chairs looked quite wobbly, but it was weird to open with a show stopper from another Cirque.

Other things that they did which we had already seen were jumping through hoops, spinning hula hoops, foot juggling and hat juggling.  It was very strange to see these same things.  The big difference was the music, which was African as opposed to Asian. (more…)

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MOMIX: Botanica (McCartre Theater, Princeton, NJ, April 25, 2013)

Posted in Dance, McCarter Theatre, Momix, Moses Pendelton, Princeton, NJ, Set in New Jersey! on April 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 25, 2013] MOMIX Botancia

momixb

I didn’t realize that we attended a Momix show almost exactly one year ago.  But that’s when it was.  That show was called Remix, and it was a collection of great bits from Momix shows.  This year’s show, Botanica, is an older show and there were bits of it in Remix.  This gave me the most unique (for me) experience of seeing a dance troupe perform things that I had already seen!  What was fun was that the dancers were (I believe) different and, it felt like perhaps the pieces were performed a little bit differently too.

One of the fun things about the show was how the pieces segued into one another–most routines didn’t end so much as meld into the next one (and you can see how picking pieces out for a Greatest Hits might require some restructuring).

We saw this show at the McCarter Theatre, where, once again we had the $20 seats (knocked down to $18 with a AAA discount!).  For this show the seats were a bit of a hindrance because Momix is definitely about spectacle, and there were a few pieces where the spectacle was lost from our angle (which was a little below the stage and off to the right).  On the plus side, being able to see the dancers up close (we were literally three rows from the stage) brought a new level of experience to the show that you don’t get when the performers are interchangeable (hey, that’s the sweaty guy, that’s the blonde lady, that’s the guy with the amazing muscles).

The show opened with a waving sheet which looked like snow.  As the sheet began rippling dancers revealed themselves underneath and starting popping up, like flowers or dolphins or gravity defying skiers.  It was very cool.   Then a giant flower-like item came out on stage and women danced around it.  There followed a wonderful sequence with black light paint as three performers with neon arms and legs made wonderful shapes–animals, faces, bodies–using their limbs.  Our cheap seats hindered this piece somewhat. (more…)

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Śląsk [McCartre Theater, Princeton, NJ, March 21, 2013]

Posted in Le Mysterè des Voix Bulgares, McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, Translation, Śląsk on March 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 21, 2013] Śląsk

slask1Pronounced “shlahnsk” according the announcer, Śląsk is the national Polish folk song and dance troupe.  They are named after the Silesia (“Śląsk”) region. Śląsk originally focused on the folk traditions of Upper Silesia and has since expanded to include all Polish regions.

When I saw the listing at McCarter I was really curious.  I had literally no idea what to expect from the show.  In theory I was celebrating my heritage, but it was completely alien to me and could have easily just been a bunch of guys on stage with accordions.  Thankfully that proved to not be the case.

The ensemble consists of 80 members, including a choir and dancers dressed in stunning and intricately decorated traditional costumes.  And boy, were the costumes spectacular.  Pictures could never do justice to the beauty of these clothes.  slask2I can honestly say I have never seen blues as rich as these or violets as powerful as these.  And the intricacy of the design work (all hand-made) was stunning.  Most of the dancing consisted of the women spinning (a lot).  And their dresses were designed in such a way that the final six inches or so would face down while the rest billowed out.  Even Sarah, no slouch in the seamstress department, couldn’t understand how it worked.

We had cheap seats (really cheap–$20–and these two were the only $20 seats to be had I don’t quite understand why).  We were on the left side of the stage, practically below the stage and right in front of the minimal orchestra (about six people on stage, although I couldn’t see them all).  The crazy thing is that people just one row ahead or even two seats over paid a much higher price, so I guess our seats couldn’t have been that bad.  The major downside to sitting where we did is that you couldn’t see the overall patterns of ten or twelve women spinning around as well as you could from the balcony.  Indeed, center balcony seats would be amazing.  The advantage to our seats was that we were very close to the stage (six rows away) and could see the clothes very closely, and I believe the colors may have even been more vibrant. (more…)

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C!rca: Wunderkammer (RVCC Arts, Branchburg NJ, March 16, 2013)

Posted in Acrobats, Barry Adamson, Branchburg, NJ, C!rca: Wunderkammer, DJ Yoda, Einstürzende Neubauten, Jeri Southern, Kate Bush, Laibach, RVCC Arts, Set in New Jersey!, Susanna And The Magical Orchestra on March 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 16, 2013] C!rca: Wunderkammer

circa1 As part of our theater-going experience, I bought Sarah and I tickets to C!rca’s Wonderkammer show.  I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect (but we’ve has such good luck with shows that we didn’t know anything about that  I wasn’t worried).  The blurb about C!rca reads:

In this exquisite cabaret of the senses, a diva melts into a rope, balloons and bubble wrap discover their artistic souls while bodies twist and fly.  Seven performers of unbelievable ability bend the very fabric of reality.  Sexy, funny and explosive, Circa presents a breathless cocktail of new circus, cabaret and vaudeville.  Control and abandon, skill and humour, lyricism and anarchy all meld into a sinuous fugue of profound beauty.

So, you sort of think you know what you’re going to get, but in many ways that descriptions is kind of meaningless.  It may help to say that C!rca are from Australia (meaning it’s unconventional).  But really nothing prepared me for what we saw. (more…)

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The Golden Dragon Acrobats present Cirque Ziva (RVCC Arts, Branchburg NJ, March 3, 2013)

Posted in Acrobats, Branchburg, NJ, C., Golden Dragon Acrobats, RVCC Arts, Set in New Jersey!, T. on March 4, 2013| 1 Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 3, 2013] Cirque Ziva

zivaIt’s Chinese Acrobat time again!  One year ago we saw the Peking Acrobats at RVCC and this year it’s time for the Golden Dragon Acrobats!

The Golden Dragon Acrobats performed a series of exciting and amazing feats on stage.  It was not quite the spectacle of last year’s Peking Acrobats, although there were many similar elements.  The Peking Acrobats were completely over the top.  Cirque Ziva felt a little smaller but with more flash in costumery and sets.

ziva1It opened with a series of…wheels?  Round cage-like apparatus that you climb in and roll around–C. and I actually saw these in a Jackie Chan film recently–they seemed to be a part of Chinese military training (somehow).  But the Golden Dragon Acrobats did much more than Jackie did with them.  With different sizes and numbers of participants they used these wheels to wondrous effect–spinning and rolling and climbing on and off.  It was mesmerizing.

And then it was time for the women to show off.  The first item was called “Thousand Hands.”  Six identically dressed women (with super long golden nails) stood one behind the other and then their arms spread out in a wild and wonderful array.  They worked in beautiful synchronicity and it looked amazing.  For Peking we were upstairs in the balcony, and being able to see all six women from the top spoiled the effect somewhat, it was much more impressive here.  Then they moved onto more, amazing contortions (see the poster above which I don’t even understand even though I saw her do it).  They did both group formations and an individual performance (and we all agreed the woman was mind blowing and a little gross). (more…)

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A John Waters Christmas (RVCC Arts, Branchburg, NJ, December 9, 2012)

Posted in Advice, Branchburg, NJ, Consumerism, Culture Shock, David Schickler, David Sedaris, Funny (ha ha), Holidays, Language, LGBTQ, RVCC Arts, Set in New Jersey!, Sex, Yuck! on December 25, 2012| 1 Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 9, 2012] A John Waters Christmas

watersSarah and I were pretty excited to go see John Waters: gay icon, movie provocateur and all around oddball.  We had no idea what to expect from this show (his Christmas shows have apparently been around a long time although I have no idea how much it changes per year), but we knew it would be peculiar (and damned funny).

What we got was John Waters in a beautiful sparkly suit talking about seemingly whatever came into his mind (although I know from others that  the routine has the same elements in every show, so I it is not extemporaneous).  He had a podium and a bottle of water, but he used neither.  Instead, he walked around the stage, telling stories, telling jokes and being as filthy as he could.

Since this is a Christmas show, he talks a lot about the holiday (he really likes it, mostly because people give him presents), he talks a lot about sex (the more deviant the better), and he talks about himself.

We were surprised by the age range in the audience   Aside from a few young people (in punk garb), we were the youngest by far.  And while that certainly makes it seem like the older folks of the Branchburg area are much hipper (and dirtier) than I realized, it also makes some sense.  Waters definitely reached his most prolific peak quite some time ago.  And those earlier film were much raunchier than his more recently releases.  By now, Waters has settled in as kind of an outre celebrity but one who is more than happy taking part in pop culture (The Simpsons for instance–quite a long way from Divine eating poop).  We wondered if half of them knew what they were in for–but I didn’t hear any gasps, so I guess they did.  The older attendees could no doubt also appreciate a number of cultural references that were just too old for me. (more…)

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