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Junun (Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, July 11, 2018) [RADIOHEAD]

July 11, 2018 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: July 11, 2018] Junun

I was so excited to get tickets to see Radiohead that I didn’t even consider that there would be an opening band.

I was so excited to get General Admission floor spaces that I didn’t really think about anything else.  I took off from work that day, drove to the City and did not heed the advice of crazy fans who were going to camping out all day.  Rather, I arrived sometime around 5PM.  The line wasn’t that bad, I was able to get a snack and a drink and I had my book with me, so I didn’t mind waiting the 90 minutes until the doors opened.

And when I got in and saw that there weren’t even that many people on the floor, I bought a poster and a water and then I stood in a cluster and waited (with my book).

Eventually the lights dimmed and Junun came on stage.

Even after seeing their performance I didn’t quite understand what was going on with this melding of minds.  So what I’ve learned is that Junun is actually the name of an album.  But the performers and composers go by the unwieldy moniker Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood, and the Rajasthan Express.  So I get why they were called Junun.

I found the creation of the album to be rather interesting: Continue Reading »

Posted in Jonny Greenwood, Junun, Madison Square Garden, New York City, Radiohead, Shye Ben Tzur, The Rajasthan Express | Leave a Comment »

Michael Andreasen–“The King’s Teacup at Rest” (New Yorker, July 11 & 18, 2016)

July 11, 2018 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: ELLIOTT BROOD-Live at Massey Hall (April 8, 2017).

Elliot BROOD formed in 2002 as an alt-country band although their style has been described as “death country” or “frontier rock,” which I rather like.

The more I hear alt-country bands and the more alt-country bands that I like the more I realize what I dislike about country music primarily is the vocalist.  I hate twangy singers.  And most Canadians don’t have a Southern twang, so that solves that for me.  And just to settle it, Elliott Brood rips and rocks and stomps and it is awesome.

They say they always thought it would be amazing to play Massey Hall.  It’s a pinnacle.  They’re really excited–friends and family are coming from all over.  They say they play a lot of places late at night but “we’re not going to edit ourselves for 8 o’clock.”

They open asking “Can we get some claps” for “Without Again.”  After an un, dos… un, dos, tres, quatro, Mark Sasso starts singing lead vocals and playing banjo (and banjo, ukulele, and harmonica).  He has a rough gravelly voice that is instantly appealing to me.  This is a catchy stomping sing along.

“Nothing Left” is a breakup song.  Stephen Pitkin on drums opens the song on keyboards, playing a melody that sounds like toy piano on the sampler.  For a breakup song, it rocks even harder with Sasso switching to acoustic guitar and Casey Laforet playing electric guitar.

Their friend Aaron Goldstein comes out to play pedal steel drums for the next few songs.

He introduces “If I Get Old” by saying it’s been 100 years since Vimy Ridge.  “We’re not a perfect country yet, but we’re pretty lucky to be in this one.”  They wrote a record a few years back about WWI.  We’re lucky to be this age and to not have been in a war.  This song is for the WWI soldiers, it’s called “If I Get Old.”  It is touching and lovely.

“Oh Alberta” is a wonderfully fun song with lots of slide guitar.  The lyrics are playful and funny:

Oh Alberta, don’t you cry, listen to me, it’ll be alright, uh huh oh yeah
Don’t hate Saskatchewan, never meant no harm to anyone
Manitoba, don’t you know you’re out where you won’t make it home
Back to Ontario

And it ends with this funny twist

North Dakota, don’t you that you don’t belong in this song
Where did we go wrong?

“The Banjo Song” is a shorter one that’s “about the life of a banjo.  It’s a hard life they lead.”  Hey “cheap seats, help us out like this,” [clap, clap] “expensive seats too….  We need more handclaps and footstomps if you please.”

The title of their album Work and Love comes from a Constantines song:

work and love will make a man out of you, work and love are the things that will take your childhood away from you.  Your focus changes to your children, you start writing from a different point of view.

“Fingers and Tongues” has a rocking loud sound, it’s a rollicking end to a great show.

[READ: January 9, 2017] “The King’s Teacup at Rest”

I often enjoy stories that are, simply put, odd.  But I like the story to have either some grounding in the familiar or none whatsoever.  It’s the stories that seem like they are part of something I should be familiar with but which are ultimately really divorced from reality that give me a problem.

And this is one of those stories. There are two threads to this story, each one is equally strange.

As it opens we encounter His Royal Highness, the King of Retired Amusements.  He has just purchased? acquired? Liebling’s Sunday Morning Carnival and Midway.  Of course he has a retinue with him–a steward, a scout, and a dancing bear (with a fez and a ruff, balanced n a ball).

They explore the carnival, and the king tells them to find refreshment.  The refreshment proves to be very very old hot dogs “a few bloated green wieners still floating in a steel pond of brine.”  The king insists on eating them despite the steward’s warnings.  The king declares them passable and then goes on the rides.

Pretty weird, but possible. Continue Reading »

Posted in Circus, Constantines, Elliott BROOD, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Huh?, Live at Massey Hall, Michael Andreasen, New Yorker, Roller Coasters | Leave a Comment »

David Wax Museum (Fowler Blast Furnace Room-SteelStacks, Bethlehem, PA, June 10, 2018)

July 10, 2018 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: June 10, 2018] David Wax Museum

Our whole family saw David Wax Museum play at XPNFest a few years ago.  They were great (and were very friendly afterwards).  We knew we wanted to see them again, so when we saw that they were playing this tiny venue at SteelStacks (and that admission was FREE), we couldn’t pass it up.  The fact that it also coincided with the Food Truck Border Brawl (in which food trucks from NJ and PA battle for most popular dish) did not hurt!

The weather sure did though.  It was rainy and a but chilly.  Not ideal food truck weather.  So, rather than making a day of it, we drove down for dinner.  We enjoyed our food truck food and then headed inside for the show.  I think it was supposed to be outside, but they wisely moved this show inside to be incredibly intimate.

It was also fun to have the kids with us for this show (even if Clark chose not to sit with us and we wound up keeping them up and out pretty late–but hey it was almost summer). Continue Reading »

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Darlingside, David Wax Museum, Food Truck Border Brawl, Fowler Blast Furnace Room, Steelstacks | Leave a Comment »

Lee Siegel–“Fletcher Knowles” (Harper’s, November 2006)

July 10, 2018 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: DARLINGSIDE-Pilot Machines (2012).

The first Darlingside EP had no information about the band.  It was almost a blank slate.  This, their first full album at least gives us this:

Darlingside consists of David Senft, vocals and guitar; Harris Paseltiner, cello, guitar and vocals; Auyon Mukharji, mandolin, violin and vocals; Don Mitchell, guitar and vocals; and Sam Kapala, drums and vocals.

Yes, drums.  This is the final Darlingside album with drums and the final Darlingside album with a sound that is not their current sound.  At this time Darlingside was more of an indie folk rock band who sang with great harmonies and had some unusual instruments.  But they still rocked in a fairly conventional way (in fact the drums are often front and center).

“Still” bursts forth with harmonies (ahhhs) and loud drums. They play with a loud/quiet dynamic within the verses.  It sounds like Darlingside if you squint your ears.  The lyrics are pretty funny, (and now a message from our sponsor) and it’s really catchy too.  But those drums really modify everything.

“The Woods” opens with the kind of harmonies that Darlingside would become known for.  But this song has a propulsive drum moves things forward.  It also highlights some great wild violin and a short spaced-out outro with some heavily processed vocals.  “The Woods” and “Ava,” both have really big loud moments.  Ava starts with a thumping bass and picking guitars but it builds nicely with some great tension between the vocals and guitars.

“Drowning Elvis,” has a very spaced-out drum groove, lots of strings and a clean guitar sound.  “The Company We Keep” features mandolin and high voices.  It’s a pretty, folkie song.

“Blow the House Down” is familiar to fans because they have re-recorded it and play it live consistently.  “The Ancestor” was also recorded without the drums for their next album.  This version has a kind of low thrum underneath the song but the drums are just a kick drum.  It sounds pretty close to the familiar version.

I’d actually like to hear this whole album re-recorded in their current style (no disrespect to their drummer), but the rock band format changes the whole sound of the songs and it would be interesting to hear how they differ.

Having said that, this rock band format also makes some great songs.  “Only Echoes” starts as a slower, moodier piece but midway through it dramatically shifts gears and grows really loud with a buzzy bass and distorted guitar and smashing drums.  It’s the most un-Darlingside song I can imagine, but it’s really great.

“When Fortune Comes” and “My Love” are quieter songs.  “Fortune” focuses on their harmonies (there’s no drums).  While “My Love” has shuffling drums and an upright bass.  The lyrics are also a bit rougher than expected: “You weren’t the first to call me….an arrogant son of a bitch but…”

“Terrible Things” opens with snapping drums a rocking staccato guitar line.  The singers do a series of single note “coo” sounds that’s pretty neat.  The vocal harmonies are really cool and a little spooky, too.  It’s a neat song.

“Sweet an Low” has a very smooth sound (and an extra vocalist–Caitlyn Canty).  The final two minute are kind of an extended jam with this little electronic device.

When I first listened to this after falling in love with Darlingside’s current sound, I didn’t like this very much.  But having listened a few times, I really like these songs.  They’re very well crafted with some excellent details.

[READ: February 5, 2018] “Fletcher Knowles”

This excerpt is from a then novel-in-progress and it is a doozy.  It’s very funny and very meta and once again I can’t imagine where the story is going to go from here.

The story begins with the character saying that his name is Fletcher Knowles.  And he is going to tell his story.  He says that he is going to tell everything from memory and that you should never doubt your own memory.  Nor should you trust anyone who says that they doubt their own memory.

So he is going to tell his story exactly as he wants to.  Which means he is not going to: Continue Reading »

Posted in Darlingside, Excerpt, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Harper's, Lee Siegel, Marriage Trouble, Meta, Unreliable narrator | Leave a Comment »

Lauren Groff–“Under the Wave” (New Yorker, July 9 & 16, 2018)

July 9, 2018 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: FRÉDÉRIC YONNET-Tiny Desk Concert (July 9, 2018).

Dave Chappelle introduced his friend Frédéric Yonnet as “an unlikely talent from an unlikely place, Normandy France.  He plays an instrument I didn’t even know I liked.  Fred, give them a sample of how we became friends [plays a glorious harmonica melody].”

Fred has toured with all the greats Stevie Wonder, Prince (and more, see below).  With the Band With No Name welcome Frédéric Yonnet.

The blurb fills in

Harmonicist Frédéric Yonnet has played with Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu, John Mayer, Ed Sheeran … even Prince. But his biggest fan and supporter is Dave Chappelle, who worked with the Normandy native on Dave Chappelle’s Juke Joint, a series of intimate parties featuring Yonnet, his Band With No Name, and an all-star cast of unannounced special guests.

That’s how the comedian came to introduce Yonnet (pronounced YAH-nay) at his Tiny Desk concert. From the moment the NPR staff first heard his pocket-sized harmonica, you could feel the electricity in the room. There are virtually no limitations to this instrument in the hands of Yonnet, who is famous for his ability to play chromatic notes on a diatonic harmonica.

During Chappelle’s introduction, he told the crowd about how Yonnet met Wonder at the Grammys and eventually was asked to hop on the Songs In the Key of Life tour. “He’s so good at playing harmonica that another man good at harmonica [Wonder] hired him,” Chappelle has been known to say.

They play three songs.

Yonnet began the show with a mélange of reggae, hip-hop and New Orleans funk, and his Band With No Name were right in the pocket with original funky numbers “Four20” and “FRéEDlosophy,” both of which will appear on his upcoming album, Reed My Lips.

“Four20” starts with strange harmonica riff and then the band come in with an incredibly funky jam (with Christopher Bynum on drums), Dennis Turner on bass).  Yonnet plays some incredible soloing over this really jam from full mouthed harmonica to incredibly dextrous (or whatever that word is for your mouth) single notes the likes of which I’ve never heard on a harmonica before.   Midway through he slows things down points to saxophonist Matthew Rippetoe and says “solo?” which he proceeds to rip out.

After the sing he introduces Kailen “our mascot.”

“FRéEDlosophy” requires some participation from the audience (which includes Chapelle dancing up a storm).  There’s a great heavy riff that propels the song forward as well as some really rocking guitar.  Yonnet moves pretty much nonstop and his playing is really wonderful.

Chappelle’s desire to hear some of that “Mississippi Delta blues” prompted an improvised tune, “No Smokin’ Blues,” which gave guitarist Robbie McDonald, saxophonist Matthew Rippetoe, trumpet player Joe Herrera and keyboardist Daryl Hunt a chance to shine.

Dave encourages them to “Jam it out a bit” blues.  Start with the blues, you can take it anywhere, play yourself out.  But Dave wants “Mississippi Delta blues… sweltering heat I don’t get paid enough blues.”

Yannet obliges.  He puts down the mic (no idea if it’s the same harmonica) and proceed to play a pretty classic blues.  There’s solos from all of the above (McDonald’s is pretty stormin’)

[READ: July 9, 2018] “Under the Wave”

This is a terrifying story.  Well, the first section is terrifying and the rest is the uncomfortable aftermath.

It’s the complete lack of details that make it so terrifying.  A woman and her husband and son are separated by a wave.  That’s all we know.  It must have been huge.  Earthquake?  Tsunami?  Hurricane?  No details are given.  She is asleep and then she is alone.

She walked to the city center where a warehouse was set up and people were huddled.  Food was given out, cots were prepared.  And she sat, for two days, unloving.  Then she saw a girl, a feral girl, crawling through the warehouse sneaking people’s food.

When the girl got to her, she grabbed the girl’s wrist and held her. Continue Reading »

Posted in Dave Chappelle, New Yorker, Ocean, Parenting, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Vacation | Leave a Comment »

David Sedaris–“Active Shooter” (New Yorker, July 9 & 16, 2018)

July 8, 2018 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: PLANTS & ANIMALS–Live at Massey Hall (December 1, 2016).

This is the start of the fourth season of Live at Massey Hall.

I didn’t really know any of the six artists, but they have recently begun adding new bands about whom I am pretty excited.

Of course, as with many of these shows, it’s the bands I don’t know which blow me away.

I didn’t know Plants and Animals, but I loved their set.

Drummer Matthew Woodley says that he and Warren Spicer (guitars and vocals) met in Halifax and had a series of bands until they moved to Montreal and met Nick Basque (guitars, keyboards).  They started as an instrumental band and then Warren started to craft words and now we’re a normal singing, dancing and playing band.

“We Were One” opens with feedback and some cool mechanical sounds that come from one of their guitars.

Warren sings kind of quietly and plays acoustic guitar.  Mid way through, the song shifts gears with some big guitar sounds from Nick with a great little autocratic guitar run and riff before a big chord ends it all.

“All of the Time” is a cool moody piece with loud pianos from Nick, rumbling guitars and backing vocals from bassist Josh Toal.

During the break, one of them says, “we like an element of danger… if I go to a show and everything is under control it’s still fun if you like the music, but as an experience if you forget about the music,  the feeling it’s just going to play out…   they’ll get two encores and we’ll go home….  But we’d rather feel, “Oh, but this is cool whats going to happen?” The first band they toured with was Wolf Parade and they had a “wow, anything can happen, they might just stop.”  That’s the kind of show we want to pursue–something that feels a little bit dangerous.

“Flowers” opens with some cool falsetto vocals and then a moody middle section.

“So Many Nights” opens with synths and a cool bass line.  It sounds a bit like Air (French band) with some lengthy guitar solos from the acoustic guitar which sounds very cool.  The slows down and slows further and then builds and build and builds and builds further to a noisy crescendo with them chanting “your feet are heavy, carry on.”

“A L’oree Des Bois” opens with pretty, intertwining guitars while Nick talks about making records in his Québécois accent.

Before the final song they bring out a tiny boy (Aaron Spicer) who sings a quiet song in French–to rapturous applause.

“No Worries Gonna Find Us”  Is a great humping song that repeats the title and “no worries gonna be the boss of my mind.”

They say “you guys are gonna get your faces ripped off by Half Moon Run.”  But it was Plants and Animals that really impressed me so far.

[READ: July 8, 2018]  “Active Shooter”

I always like when David Sedaris talks about visiting with his sister(s).

Sedaris and his sister Lisa were driving “in her toy-size car” to her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

She is bemoaning a woman at Starbucks with a tiny monkey on a leash (in a pink dress).  She wanted to yell at woman, “What do you plan on doing with that thing once you lose interest in it?”

I love that this piece is about guns, but he is willing to throw in a bit about pet owners.

Like a lot of pet owner, I know, Lisa is certain that no one can take care of an animal as well as she can.

But as she was saying of  the woman “It’s a monkey, of course she’s going to lose interest in it” they drove past a firing range called ProShots. Continue Reading »

Posted in Air, Canadian Music, David Sedaris, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Guns, Live at Massey Hall, Murder, New Yorker, Plants and Animals, Violence | Leave a Comment »

Foo Fighters (BB&T Pavillion, Camden, NJ, July 7, 2018)

July 7, 2018 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: July 7, 2018] Foo Fighters

I can recall living in Boston when the debut Foo Fighters album came out.  I had heard that it was pretty good and I bought it.  And I enjoyed it quite a lot.

Who would have guessed that the album that Grohl created to excise some demons, a small project in which he played every instrument would turn into a group that would become one of the largest bands on the planet.  This show was sold out at 25,000 people.  Which is a lot of humanity.

Despite this impressive success, Grohl himself seems to be remarkably down to earth and seems to never lose his sense of humor.  No one will ever forget the show that he broke his leg falling off a stage, went to the hospital, and came back to finish the show.  I wanted to see them when they came back to the U.S. on that tour–seeing Dave in his throne would have been super fun.  But it was not to be.

However, when they announced they were coming back again, I jumped at the chance to get tickets and scored some pretty decent seats.

I hadn’t really been to an arena show in a long time.  I can’t remember the last time a band that I’ve seen used the arena size to its capacity.  I’ve seen many a great light show, but except for Kiss, I suppose, there’s been very little in the way of excess.  And I never expected it from the Foo Fighters.

But by God if that’s not what this show was all about. Continue Reading »

Posted in BB&T Pavillion, Foo Fighters, John Lennon, Queen, Ramones, The Strokes, The Struts, Van Halen | Leave a Comment »

The Struts (BB&T Pavillion, Camden, NJ, July 7, 2018) [FOO FIGHTERS]

July 7, 2018 by Paul Debraski

[NOT ATTENDED: July 7, 2018] The Struts

The Struts are another buzz band from England.  Aside from having a band name that is way too close to The Strokes, I don’t actually know all that much about them.

Usually I listen to a warm up band at least a little before going to see them.  But for whatever reason, I never listened to The Struts.

And that’s all for the best, I suppose.  The parking situation outside of BB&T was crazy, bordering on nightmarish.

Sarah and I briskly walked to the stadium, glanced at merch, didn’t even stop to use the bathroom (crazy long lines) and as we got to our seat the lights dimmed for The Foo Fighters.

All I can say is that vocalist Luke Spiller did a decent Freddie Mercury when he came out to sing Under Pressure with the Foo Fighters.

Posted in BB&T Pavillion, Foo Fighters, Queen, The Strokes, The Struts | Leave a Comment »

Alain Mabanckou–“Credit Gone Away” (Harper’s, May 2009)

July 7, 2018 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: HALF MOON RUN-Live at Massey Hall (December 1, 2016).

I hadn’t heard of Half Moon Run before this show.  They are a Canadian band who put out their second album a year or so before this show.

So it’s pretty impressive to have gotten a gig at Massey Hall and to have the crowd be that crazy about you after just two records.

There’s a lot to like about the music–great moody sounds, and spectacular drumming, but there’s also something really “pretty” about the singer that makes me wonder if they are too commercial.  Or if I should even care.

The band consists of four guys and they each play a multitude of instruments.  Devon Portielje is lead vocalist.  He plays guitar and on one particular song a smashing drum. Conner Molander plays keys mostly but also guitar and he sings too.  Dylan Phillips is the drummer but he also plays keys and Isaac Symonds plays percussion as well as mandolin guitar and keys.

I love the old-sounding keyboards of “21 Gun Salute.”  There’s a latter-period Radiohead vibe on this song with the eerie backing vocals and the ringing guitar.  I’m not sure if the guitar solo actually works with the song, though.

“Call Me in the Afternoon” starts with Portielje taking of his shirt (to whoops of course).  He has an undershirt on at least.  Rather than playing the guitar, he plays a small drum and throws the sticks into the audience.  There’s some nice harmonies on this song but again, it’s the drums that are very cool.  I also like the unexpected bass line that runs through the song.

“Everybody Wants” is from the newer album.  It introduces a resonator guitar which brings a whole new sound ( I thought it was a banjo at first).  This is a ballad but it builds slowly over the song with great backing vocals–soaring notes–and then it takes off at the end with some more tremendous drums (I love that one of the drummers (can’t tell them apart) is playing one-handed while paying keys with the other).

“Give Up” is an older song which also has a Radiohead kind of feel in the guitar/piano pattern.  It’s a slower moodier song and the strings come out for this song.  String are provided by Quatuor Esca:  Sarah Martineau, Camille Paquette-Roy, Edith Firzgerald, Amelie Lamontagne.

“Consider Yourself” opens with thumping drums and feedback before shifting to an almost gothy-dancey keyboard melody.  It’s cool and even moodier when the piano is added but the chorus is big and brash with a big noisy ending.  It’s a pretty great song and sounds quite different from their other ones.  It’s on the second album where I guess they diversified their sound more.

“She Wants to Know” opens with staccato note and voices and “Full Circle” has a nice interplay of acoustic guitar and electric lead with more of those thumping drums and the audience is right there to sing the chorus–it was their first single.

It’s interesting that the majority of this show is songs from their first album.  Is that editing or did they just want to play their earlier stuff?

I’m going to have to check out their studio recordings to see what they sound like.

[READ: January 25, 2018] “Credit Gone Away”

This is an excerpt from the novel Broken Glass, translated by Helen Stevenson.

This excerpt is listed as a monologue and it is just that–a full-page and a half of unbroken text.  I found it more than a little confusing because it seems to be a tirade against a bar. And I assume the bar is called Credit Gone Away (at least something is called that–it’s a weird name for a bar).  The Church people opposed the bar right away.  Saying it would be the end of Sunday mass, slippery slope until everyone is gong straight to Hell

Then the weekend and bank holiday cuckolds waded in saying that it was Credit Gone Away’s fault that their wives no longer cooked for them.   And another group of complaints from ex-alcoholics. Continue Reading »

Posted in Alain Mabanckou, Drinking, Half Moon Run, Harper's, Helen Stevenson, Huh?, Live at Massey Hall, Politicians, Quatuor Esca, Radiohead, Religion | Leave a Comment »

Joseph O’Neill–“The First World” (New Yorker, July 2, 2018)

July 6, 2018 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: OWEN PALLETT–Live at Massey Hall (December 1, 2015).

Owen Pallett founded the band Final Fantasy (which was pretty much him anyhow).  Since 2010 he has been recording under his own name.  His music is orchestral and complex, but also distinctly weird.  He loves to explore sounds, but he also knows how to throw in some catchy melodies as well.

He says he has played Massey Hall before but this is the first time as a solo performer. He wants to take advantage of the beautiful-sounding room and comfortable seats.

The songs he plays are a mix of new ones and Final Fantasy songs as well.

On “That’s When the Audience Died” (Final Fantasy), he picks out a complicated pizzicato on the violin and loops it (he mutters, I hope that worked) and then he launches a great melody over the top.  He has a great singing voice as well.  The lyrics are consistently clever and interesting.  The end of the song is amazing with the sounds he ekes out of his violin.

He says he took violin lessons but wasn’t into it because the violin leaves a mark on your neck.  He quit it because it ruined all his “sexual dreams,” and he switched to guitar and piano.  He was always really into composing–he loved Béla Bartók and György Sándor Ligeti–he wanted to make music you’d see in a Stanley Kubrick film.

There’s beautiful looping with the pizzicato as he plays the solos live.

“This Lamb Sells Condos” (Final Fantasy) is really quite funny if you know the story behind it, which I didn’t.  But here it is

This song is a comic interpretation of Brad J. Lamb, a figure in the Canadian real estate business (who used to live in the same building as Owen Pallett’s boyfriend), with allusions to elements of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game:

This snarky look at Lamb:

When he was a young man, he conjured up a firemare
Burnt off both his eyebrows and half a head of hair
And then as an apprentice, he took a drowish mistress
Who bestowed upon his youthfulness a sense of champagne chic
His seduction, his seduction to the world of construction
Now his mind will start to wander when he’s not at his computer
And his massive genitals refuse to cooperate
No amount of therapy can hope to save his marriage

Before he did Final Fantasy he played bad country music in bad country bars–because he had a violin.

“Tryst with Mephistopheles” rocks with a band (Matthew Smith and Robbie Gordon) and even some synths.  The drums really propel the song forward.

When he created Final Fantasy he had a guitar, a violin, a bed and some books.  He borrowed a looping pedal and got good with it.  He wanted to be the best violin looper.

“The Riverbed” is with a string quartet and has a fast ripping opening melody–dark and very cool.

He says now that he’s making a record in which he’s not thinking about how to play it live.  He’s just trying to make sounds–not thinking about performance or how to tour it.

So he’s playing new songs in traditional formal.  He conducts the orchestra and sings “On a Path.”  if t his is the “traditional format,” I’m very curious to hear what the non-traditional way is.  It has a fantastic vocal melody and is incredibly catchy.

The final song is “This is the Dream of Win and Regine” (yes of Arcade Fire).  It’s an older Final Fantasy song and has some great references to Montreal:

Montreal might eat its young, but Montreal wont break us.

There’s some great thumping beats throughout until the great dramatic ending.

Pallett had been on my radar, but I’m sold after seeing this show.

[READ: July 3, 2018] “The First World”

This story is bookended in an interesting way.  It starts with the narrator saying that his marriage had come to an end.  An unexpected consequence was that a series of men confided in him about their marriages past or present–not old friends, they stayed quiet, but people he’d had at arm’s length.  A contractor, the dermatologist etc.  People felt free to say wheat they wanted.

And then it was over, the men disappeared for about a decade during which time the narrator remarried.  And then Arty resurfaced.

Arty ran into him on Ninth Avenue and insisted they grab a drink.   He said there was something he’d like the narrator’s opinion on.

Arty had to talk about Gladys, the former nanny of his two girls. Gladys was is nanny for seven years, gave the girls all kinds of love and then left when the kids were old enough not to need her anymore. She got a new job in Chelsea for a younger child.

It was while working for this new family that Gladys lost her husband, Roy.  He had died while in the hospital and they were billing her for one hundred and ten grand.  She didn’t want to fight it because she was waiting for her green card.

Arty’s wife had cut off ties with Gladys (and didn’t want to talk to Arty either).   Not long after the divorce, Gladys rang him up and asked for $500, explaining what had happened to Roy.

She had agreed to a payment plan for the $110,000, but times had been tough.  She asked Arty for $500.

The bulk of the story is Arty’s impassioned telling of Gladys’ story.  How everything seemed to go wrong for her.  She moved back to Trinidad bit was not welcomed with opened arms.  She tried to find work but was unable.  And so regularly, she asked Arty for another loan, a loan that he knew he would never see.

She has even stayed with Arty when he pays for her ticket to visit her grown up son.

The narrator wants to get out of the conversation, but Arty has bought yet another round. The narrator has an amusing aside about how he lost his wallet and paid for his round with cash from his back pocket.

The story is bookended with the narrator returning home. The way the whole piece ends with him imagining his wallet being returned shows how differently two people can live and ponders what their attitudes have to do with it.

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