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Zena Alkayat & Nina Cosford–Virginia Woolf (2015)

August 18, 2015 by Paul Debraski

woolfSOUNDTRACK: SHAMIR-Tiny Desk Concert #458 (July 31, 2015).

shamirShamir has an amazing voice–a high countertenor that is unsettling and pretty at the same time. He usually creates dance music, but in this Tiny Desk it’s just him and his guitar (on a stool).

The notes say that they asked the interns and staff to sit around him like at a campfire since he looked so alone up there by himself (and after the first song he says he is quite nervous).

He sings three songs. I don’t know the originals (I only know the one dance song from his record “On the Regular” which he doesn’t play here). But these versions are so different from that one that it’s quite shocking.

“In for the Kill” has a lot of intensity in his delivery and the chord structure (even if he plays he guitar rather softly).

The story of his writing “Demons” is very funny.  He was at work at Ross’ and he ran to the changing room when this melody came to him to write it down.  So he was hiding tin the dressing room plinking out notes and humming to himself while trying to get it down before he forgot.  I really like the twist in a song about demons: “If I’m a demon, you’re the beast that made me.”

I’m not sure I’d ever get his record, but I enjoyed hearing this acoustic version of such a dancey singer.

[READ: June 4, 2015] Virginia Woolf

This book comes from a series called Life Portraits.

This is a very brief (128 pages, but mostly one sentence per page) biography of Virginia Woolf.  But the real “selling” point of the book are the beautiful illustrations/paintings by Nina Cosford.  They are lovely watercolors that do a great job illustrating whatever detail is listed on the page.

Although the biography is short it is still quite comprehensive–skimming over many details in her life to get to the heart of the matter.

We get basic birth details–born Virginia Stephen on 25th January 1882.  We learn about her parents (ferociously intellectual father and philanthropic mother).  There’s even an illustrated family tree.

Then we learn that death followed her everywhere.  Her mother died when Virginia was young.  And that a few years later her half-sister and her father also died.  She remained with her sister Vanessa and her brother Thoby as companions. Continue Reading »

Posted in Biography, Books about writers, E.M. Forster, Katherine Mansfield, Nina Cosford, Shamir, T.S. Eliot, Tiny Desk Concert, Virginia Woolf, War, Zena Alkayat | Leave a Comment »

Maile Meloy–Devotion: A Rat Story (2015)

August 17, 2015 by Paul Debraski

devotionSOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Upstairs Cabaret, Victoria, BC (October 26, 2004).

upThis is the final show of 2004 that I’ll be doing.  (The Rheostaticslive site recently add ten shows in a row from a run in Toronto, but I’ll be coming back to that another time).

This show is the first show in Victoria for about three years for the band.  And they do not disappoint.  Although, much like the previous show, there are massive technical problems during the recording.  The recorder (Lucky) says that his DAT recorder turned into a brick that night so he had to borrow a friend’s MP3 recorder, which was low on batteries.  It’s unclear how much of the show he missed (and did he really run out to the car during the show to retrieve the machine?).  He mentions being blown away by “Marginalized” and “The Tarleks” (neither one appears here) and that the batteries run out during “Satan is the Whistler” which he says was amazing.

Nevertheless, the show is great and the sound quality (aside from a few weird moments (in an early song for a few minutes you can only hear drums)) is superb.

They dedicate “Power Ballad” to the Buttless Chaps and sing “I wish I was a buttless chap.”

“Legal Age Life” has BC native Mark Atkinson as a guest.  They tell him to come up and rock out–he’s been doing too much of that acoustic stuff.

It’s also the first time we’ve heard the new song “Shack in the Cornfields.”  They have some fun in the middle of the song by making a “hick” joke about Captain Kirk and a variation of his name “Shat’n’er”  It’s vulgar.  I have to say that the 9 minutes of “Shack” coupled with the 8 minutes of “Here Comes the Image” is some pretty mellow chilled out Rheos.  I might have been a little bored since these are both new songs.  They say that “Mike” plays the keyboards.  And that they will have to start calling him “the Wiz.”  He says he would like a cape.  (I’m not sure if this is MPW or someone else).

Then Morgan from The Buttless Chaps comes out (they toured with the Rheos on the entire West Coast) to add some trippiness to the end of a great “Stolen Car.”

Theree’s a quiet rendition of “Little Bird” and then, when Dave is unready they play a bunch of nonsense called “Tarzan Boy in China” which is pretty hilarious.  “Mumbletypeg” is great with some “I Fought the Law” thrown in.  And then we get just the beginning of “Satan is the Whistler” which has a new intro section.  Before the song someone the audience coordinates with others to shout “Lordy” and Dave seems very confused: “What does that mean?  Why would you shout that?”  “Are you Christians?”  It is unresolved as the batteries have died.

[READ: June 13, 2015] Devotion: A Rat Story

This book is tiny!  It’s only 11 cm high.  I’m not really sure why publishers release books like this.  Sure it’s cool looking, but….  So it’s 100 pages, but it’s really just a short story and can be read in no time at all.

But that’s not my concern.  I enjoyed stuffing it in my pocket while I carried it around with me this weekend.

Meloy has written a pretty broad variety of books over her career from realistic family stories to fantasy teen stories.  To this group she adds this story which is a bit of a realistic psychological thriller (with some grossness included).

The story is about Eleanor.  She had a baby without the father’s assistance (her parents are supportive, but smothering and wanted her to sue the father… among other options).  But rather, she ignored the father and raised the baby in her parents’ house.

Now, four years later, Eleanor is ready to move out of her parents’ house with her daughter Hattie. Continue Reading »

Posted in Maile Meloy, Mark Atkinson, Parenting, Rats, Rheostatics, Small Books, The Buttless Chaps | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

Haruki Murakami–The Strange Library (2014)

August 16, 2015 by Paul Debraski

murakamiSOUNDTRACK:  RHEOSTATICS–The Media Club, Vancouver, BC, (October 23, 2004).

media clubEvery year, the Rheostatics would perform what they called Green Sprouts Week in Toronto.  In 2004 they did a West Coast version. Five nights in a row at The Media Club (with each show being crazier than the last).  There aren’t always recording available for these shows, but on this leg there are recordings from the third, fourth and fifth nights.

This recording is the best of the 3 available shows.  Although in the notes, Tyson reveals that he had technical difficulties and was only able to record about an hour of the show.  In addition to the songs he missed for technical difficulties, there were also some quieter acoustic songs “Don’t Say Goodnight and “Joey” which he couldn’t get.

And yet, this is an amazing set of music–outstanding by any barometer, with great sound quality (aside from a few drop outs) and an amazing collection of songs. The final night of a run is usually really long, so it’s fun to imagine how much more they would have thrown into this set.

The 7 songs included are “Shaved Head” which is slow and amazing.  A raw and raging “Feed Yourself” with a dash of The Jam’s “Eton Rifles” and The Tragically Hip’s “Bobcaygeon” thown in.  “Saskatchewan” is broody but also great.  “Horses” is intense and goofy at the same time, with someone on the voice modulator doing a computerized “Play that funky music, white boy” recitation.

Torben Wilson from the Buttless Chaps plays drums on “Claire.”  “A Midwinter Night’s Dream” is one of those rare songs that the band throws out once in a while, and it sounds great here.  They invited the crowd on stage to sit around campfire style.

And “Fan Letter to Michael Jackson” is great here too.

It’s a fantastic collection of songs, leading me to think the entire show must have been amazing.

[READ: May 11, 2015] The Strange Library

I saw this book when we were in a bookstore in Denver.  I mentioned it to Sarah and she clearly bought it then and gave it to me for my birthday.

It wasn’t exactly risky because it is by Murakami with art direction and design by Chip Kidd (how could you go wrong?) but the book was shrink wrapped in the store, so you couldn’t flip through it.

Imagine my surprise when the slipcase proved to be not a slipcase at all, but a double flip cover that does not get removed but opens up like a secret document.  And every (or every other) page is chock full of art from Kidd.  My guess is that all of the art is found (rather than created) by Kidd as it appears to be old Japanese pictures and designs.  And they reflect (more or less) the action of the story.

The story itself is one of Murakami’s more surreal ones. Continue Reading »

Posted in Chip Kidd, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Haruki Murakami, Library Related, Mark Z. Danielewski, Rheostatics, Short Story, Ted Goossen, The Buttless Chaps, The Jam, The Tragically Hip, Translation | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

Aziz Ansari–Modern Romance (2015)

August 15, 2015 by Paul Debraski

modernSOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-The Media Club, Vancouver, BC (October 22, 2004).

media clubEvery year, the Rheostatics would perform what they called Green Sprouts Week in Toronto.  In 2004 they did a West Coast version. Five nights in a row at The Media Club.  This recording is from the fourth night.

Once again, the recording quality isn’t great (although it’s better than the previous night’s).  And once again the show is edited down (it’s barely 90 minutes–just long enough for a cassette).

It feels like perhaps Martin’s voice was hurting by this night.  As an introduction he says, “I’m going to try to sing a song called ‘P.I.N.'”  Even though most of the banter has been removed, there is a funny part with Dave talking via the cymbals (being very silly indeed).

They play the first version I’ve heard of “Here Comes the Image” with a very long synth solo.

They cover XTC’s “Radios in Motion” with vocals by local musician Paul Myers.  They also play The Clash’s “London Calling” and while Myers vocals are great, Tim can’t seem to get the notes on the bass right.

Strangely, for an edited show, it accidentally repeats “Aliens” twice and leaves off “Fan Letter.”

The intro to “Stolen Car” gives Dave a chance to throw in an “obligatory Beatles reference” when he starts singing the words to “Norwegian Wood.”  And the end is scorchingly good.

The final song is a fun version of “Legal Age Life.”  It starts with him asking someone to blow into his beer bottle for notes.  The song ends with a twist contest.  And the prize is the new Sting CD, which they love mocking.  They even joke that Sting has a song called “Stolen Car” but it has a parenthetical “(Take Me Dancing)” which makes it an entirely different song.

It’s another great fun night of Rheos music

[READ: July 14, 2015] Modern Romance

I was really excited to see this book in the bookstore.  Although I like to keep up with new books, I had no idea Aziz had a book out.  And since he is hilarious and other recent Parks and Rec folks have had hilarious books out I was prepared for a lot of laughing.

Well, it turns out that this book isn’t exactly funny. I mean it’s funny because Aziz wrote it, but it’s actually a sociological book about modern romance.  Really.  He has enlisted the help of NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg and they have compiled and studied all sorts of data.  They have sponsored panels and had discussions and really tried to discover how romance has changed in the last 50 or so years.

It sounds like it might be dry, but again, Aziz throws his snark and wit all over it so just as you get a little tired of statistics, there’s a funny joke about a rapper or some such. I mean any book that opens with “OH Shit!  Thanks for buying my book!” has got to be funny right? (especially if you imagine Aziz saying it). Continue Reading »

Posted in Aziz Ansari, Eric Klinenberg, Paul Myers, Rheostatics, Sting, Technology, The Clash, XTC | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

Salman Rushdie–“The Duniazát” (New Yorker, June 1, 2015)

August 14, 2015 by Paul Debraski

june1SOUNDTRACK:  RHEOSTATICS–The Media Club, Vancouver, BC, (October 21, 2004).

media clubEvery year, the Rheostatics would perform what they called Green Sprouts Week in Toronto.  In 2004 they did a West Coast version. Five nights in a row at The Media Club (with each show being crazier than the last).  There aren’t always recording available for these shows, but on this leg there are recordings from the third, fourth and fifth nights.

This recording is about 90 minutes and I assume is edited (most of their GSMW shows are quite long and there’s no banter).  There’s also crazy static on a certain instrument, which mars the quality somewhat.

The band has added keyboards, although I’m not sure who is playing them.  Morgan from The Buttless Chaps guests on a nice rendition of “Claire.”  They play a great version of “Jesus Was Once a teenager Too” with a folky breakdown in the middle.  “Take Me in Your Hand” is slow but really good.

There’s goofing on “Song of Flight” with them ending the song quickly and booing and yelling “stinky” I wonder what happened).  “Marginalized” is blistering and “Record Body Count” is a little goofy.  Perhaps the highlight of the night is “Horses” which is an amazing rendition and ends with a few lines and acoustic guitars from “When Winter Comes”

The encore starts with “Pornography” a song later recorded by Bidiniband.  Then there’s some great harmonies on “Dope Fiends and Boozehounds.”

They do a rocking version of Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime” which is musically spot on, even though no one really knows the words.  The last few songs are more covers.  A very fast version of Jane Siberry’s “One More Colour,” and then a perfect version of “Takin’ Care of Business” (the guitar and vocals sound right on) which segues into a sloppy/fun “My Generation.”

The Green Sprouts shows often allow the band to mess around a bit which is great for fans.

[READ: July 21, 2015] “The Duniazát”

I generally like Rushdie’s work.  This story is told in the style of a 1001 Arabian Nights tale and consequently I didn’t enjoy it that much.  Although I was interested to find out some details about those stories.  There was originally a Persian book called “One Thousand Stories” which had been translated into Arabic.  In the Arabic version there were fewer than a thousand stories but the action was spread over a thousand nights, or, because round numbers are considered ugly, a thousand nights and one night more.  Huh.

The stories featured a beautiful storyteller knows as Sheherazade, who told her tales to a murderous husband in order to keep him from executing her.

Anyone, in this story, Rushdie tells a similar type tale.

Set in the year 1195, the great philosopher Ibn Rushd (I enjoyed the play on his own name there) was a physician to the Caliph.  But when he started espousing liberal views, he was discredited (sound familiar?).  He wound up living in a village where Jews were forced to convert to Islam and could not speak of Judaism.  So he felt right at home as an outcast. Continue Reading »

Posted in Bachman Turner Overdrive, Bidiniband, Jane Siberry, Marriage Trouble, Myths, New Yorker, Old Age, Religion, Rheostatics, Salman Rushdie, Short Story, Talking Heads, The Buttless Chaps, The Who, WNYE 91.5--Radio, New York | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

Dorthe Nors—“The Freezer Chest” (New Yorker, May 25, 2015)

August 13, 2015 by Paul Debraski

nymay156SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Evolve Festival Antigonish, NS (August 28, 2004).

evolveBestThe Rheostatics do a lot of festivals, and they always seem to have a good time.  But it also means a shorter set.  Unlike yesterday’s Nova Scotia show, this one doesn’t focus on new music too much (although they mention that 2067 is coming out Oct 5).

The sound quality isn’t great in this show either–there’s a lot of rumbling which sounds like winds, but who knows.

But they are even more charming in this setting.  Dave compliments someone one on their excellent sign and says that the sign demographic has let everyone down for this show–so her request will be honored.

The show starts with a cool jam from the Whale Music soundtrack (mostly “Song of Flight”).  When they play “Four Little Songs” one of the verses is a verse from Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain.”

Later they play a great version of “Saskatchewan” and perennial festival mates Chris Brown and Kate Fenner are there to help.  During “Stolen Car” they sing a few lines from “Another Brick in the Wall Pt 2.”

There’s great versions of “California Dreamline” and “Claire.”  The show ends with the new song “Power Ballad for Ozzy Osbourne” and there’s a breakdown during the song (no way to know what happened, but they have a laugh about it).

You can see photos from the day here (although none of the Rheostatics).

[READ: July 21, 2015] “The Freezer Chest”

I found Nors’ previous story to be a little odd.  And so I find this one.  There’s something about the way it was written (or translated) that I found it very stiff to read.  It is also told in a flashback which is later revealed to be a very-long-ago flashback.

What is particularly strange about the story is that the “action” of the freezer chest is all of about three paragraphs.  And while the story isn’t long overall, it takes a circuitous route to get to that part.

The narrator is a young girl, Mette.  She is on a boat with her classmates and their English teacher. Mark is also part of the group and he has made it clear that he does not like the narrator (that happened in a previous instance).  The crux is that Mark claimed to be an amazing guitarist.  And he is trying to get the narrator to respond to this information.  She genuinely does not care although she says she believes him. Continue Reading »

Posted in Canadian Music, Chris Brown, Dorthe Nors, Gordon Lightfoot, Huh?, Kate Fenner, Misha Hoekstra, New Yorker, Pink Floyd, Rheostatics, Short Story, Translation | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

Justin Taylor–“So You’re Just What, Gone?” (New Yorker, May 18, 2015)

August 12, 2015 by Paul Debraski

ny15SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Halifax, NS (August 27, 2004).

haliRheostatics are reuniting for 3 shows at the Art Gallery of Ontario in a few weeks.  And I am going to see them!

So it’s time to listen to a few shows from eleven years ago.  This show doesn’t even mention a club, but that’s ok.  It’s a fun gig in Nova Scotia.  The quality of the recording is not great–it was recorded in the audience and you can hear a lot of audience chatter (and consequently the band is not as clear as could be).

Their final album 2067 is out in just a few months from this show, and they play a few songs from it: “Marginalized” and “The Tarleks.”  Later, Martin describes “Aliens” as “The Tarleks Part 1.” They also play “I Dig Music” a fun jazzy number.  There’s a drum break in the middle and drummer MPW says that he was trying to play the intro from Rush’s “Lakeside Park.”

There’s a wild middle section in “Satan is the Whistler.”

This show has lots of banter, and there’s a discussion about an audience member mocking The Headpins.  And later when a fan says his friend was kicked out, Dave gets mad at the bouncers and seems genuinely concerned for the friend and offers to go get him.

After they play “My First Rock Show” they ask MPW about his first rock show.  The discussion devolves into a discussion of John Cage’s smell (Old man vegan smell).

For “Take Me in Your hand” a fellow named Reid does guest vocals.

During the encore they play a version of happy birthday to someone whose birthday it is which is followed by a scorching version of “Rock Death America.”

As the encore winds down Dave says “dim the lights, chill the ham,” which I assume is a nod to fellow Canadians Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet and their 1991 album. Martin (I assume) also starts playing around with a voice modulator as the song ends.

If the audio was better this would be an amazing show.

[READ: July 20, 2015] “So You’re Just What, Gone?”

I’ve enjoyed most of Taylor’s stories, even though his protagonists tend to be unpleasant.  But this story felt entirely too insubstantial for me to get beyond the grossness of it.

Charity is a high school student.  She is flying with her mother to visit her grandmother.  She doesn’t want to go and doesn’t want to be with her mom.  She’s pleased when she and her mom are separated on the plane (five plus hours of freedom!).

She winds up sitting next to a guy who tries to be chatty with her.  She wants none of it, but when she wakes up mid-flight to find that she has been sleeping on the guy’s shoulder, she feels a little bad and actually talks to him.  When Mark asks her if she gets bored and then says she is pretty, you know things are creepy.

When Mark he grabs her inner thigh and squeezes it and then gives her his business card, well, you just know the guy is a shit. Continue Reading »

Posted in Art Gallery of Ontario, Canadian Music, John Cage, Justin Taylor, New Yorker, Rheostatics, Rush, Sex, Sexting, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, Short Story, The Headpins, Travel, Yuck! | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

Nell Zink–The Wallcreeper (2014)

August 11, 2015 by Paul Debraski

zinkSOUNDTRACK: PAUL WELLER-Tiny Desk Concert #457 (July 28, 2015).

wellerPaul Weller is a highly regarded and well respected elder statesman of rock.  Some of his songs with The Jam are my favorite songs from the 80s.  Weller hops from genre to genre quite a lot, and I did not care for The Style Council at all.  So even though he’s been making music forever, I haven’t really paid him much attention.  In this tiny Desk, he brings a fairly large band (6 people (4 guitars!)) to sing an acoustic collection of songs. There’s a drums (just a snare) and a percussionist too. And everyone sings.

His voice sounds fantastic—older but still really strong.

They play four songs. Three are from his new album Saturns Pattern.  Like “Dusk Til Dawn” which is a delightful folk song.  The band sounds really loud, or not loud but big, like there are really 6 people out there.   This is especially true on “I’m Where I Should Be” which also has some great harmony vocals and percussive guitar techniques.  I love how much the harmonies contribute to the song and the general song structure is great.

“Out of the Sinking” goes back to Weller’s most popular album Stanley Road (which I don’t know). It’s a wonderful song.  It showcases Weller’s gruffer vocals and nice finger picking. There’s some more great harmonies from the bongo player.  And the song has a real nice campfire song feel (it reminds me a bit of Van Morrison’s folkier songs).

For “Going My Way” Weller switches to piano. It’s a simple song with some great backing vocals and harmonies, (and hand claps), although I prefer the middle two songs.

I hadn’t really given much thought to Weller in the last few decades, but this set was really enjoyable.

[READ: August 7, 2015] The Wallcreeper

This is Nell Zink’s first published novel (she has another novel, 1998’s Sailing Towards the Sunset by Avner Shats) which I read about that I would love to find, but I don’t think it has ever been published).

I really enjoyed Zink’s Mislaid and wanted to see what her earlier work was about.  There was an article in the New Yorker which gave an interesting background to this story which involved a long correspondence with Jonathan Franzen and resulted in a book that I would suggest is not completely unlike something he might create–expect that it is way shorter and slightly more erratic.

Zink does not follow conventional story structure exactly.  This is not to say that the story is weird or avant garde, not at all.  She just doesn’t like to set things up conventionally.  For instance, the first sentence of the story is: “I was looking at the map when Stephen swerved, hit the rock, and occasioned the miscarriage.” Continue Reading »

Posted in Birds, Environmentalism, Jonathan Franzen, Nell Zink, Paul Weller, Sex, Short Books, Tiny Desk Concert | Leave a Comment »

Nell Zink–Mislaid (2015)

August 10, 2015 by Paul Debraski

mislaidSOUNDTRACK: AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS-Euphoria (2014).

euphoriaI found out about Around the World in 80 Days when they started following me on Instagram.  I’m not sure which photo it was that interested them, or if they just follow lots of people, but I was intrigued that they are a post-rock band from Yekaterinburg, Russia.  They formed in 2009 and have a few releases out (EPs, mostly).  You can hear all of them on their soundcloud page (and other places).  This was their first full length album.

Their bio says

Around the World in 80 Days is a three-piece band formed in 2009. It’s impossible to compare their music with anything. The guys just play whatever they want and don’t care about genres, styles and cliches.

I appreciate the sentiment, but it’s not impossible to compare them.  They have elements of Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky in their swirling post-rock instrumentals.  But they definitely add elements that those bands don’t.  There’s some heavy metal riffs in “Racing the Light” and some more poppy elements in “Inside Me.”

 I typically try to listen to an album a few more times before I post about it, but I was so interested in this band that i wanted to get the word out right away.  I’ll certainly be listening more intently to their output over the next few days.

[READ: May 24, 2015] “Mislaid”

I read an excerpt from this book in Harper’s a few months ago.  And then I found the full book at work.  Huzzah!

I had said that I didn’t know how long this novel could be because the excerpt seemed so complete.  And in a sense I was right.  Except that the book went so much further than the excerpt led me to imagine.

The excerpt was about Peggy Vaillancourt.  She was born in 1948 in Virginia.  A transformative event leads her to believe she must be a lesbian (something unspoken of at the time).

She winds up going to Stillwater College, a female-only school in the middle of nowhere Virginia.  She loves poetry and wants to be a writer.  She meets the poet-in-residence Lee Fleming.  Fleming was a local boy with wealthy parents.  His father believed himself to be as “queer as a three dollar bill.”  It was his father who put him in a cottage on the family’s property across the lake from Stillwater College.  Everyone in town also assumed he was gay, and there was much talk and consternation about it, although everyone assumed he was fine while he was by himself in that cottage.

The college asked Fleming to be a teacher (he canoed to work every day).  Instead of a salary he asked them to create a literary magazine called Stillwater Review, which became a success.  Many other famous New York poets came to Stillwater to be charmed by the idyllic Stillwater (and all the young girls). Continue Reading »

Posted in Around the World in 80 Days, Funny (ha ha), Harper's, Jean-Paul Sartre, Joe Jackson, LGBTQ, Poetry, Poets, Poverty, Racism, Set at School, Sex | Leave a Comment »

The Flaming Lips (Live at Musikfest, Sands Steel Stage at PNC Plaza, Bethlehem, PA August 7, 2015)

August 9, 2015 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: August 7, 2015] The Flaming Lips

2015-08-07 20.46.40I have been a fan of the Flaming Lips for a pretty long time.  I saw them in 2000 on The Soft Bulletin tour and it was one of the most exciting concerts I had been to.  Wayne Coyne was a stellar frontman, and he spoke of love and happiness and togetherness and it was an amazingly positive experience.  So, when they broke out “She Don’t Use Jelly,” their goofy novelty hit from 1993 (which I was surprised by), and they released hundred of balloons into Irving Plaza, the whole atmosphere was filled with joy.

For that show, it was Wayne on vocals and gong (he played the gong a lot), Michael Ivins on bass and Steven Drozd on everything else.  For a drummer they used a video feed (of I believe Steven).  It was weird but it worked really well.  And even fifteen years later I remember it very fondly.

Well, in fifteen years, the Lips have gotten bigger, technology has gotten cheaper and more portable and Coyne’s ambitions have gotten more psychedelic.  And this was the most fun I have ever had at a concert when the set list was no where near one that I would have put together myself (more on that later).

So for this show, there were giant costumed characters on stage, there was a gigantic wall of video screens, there were confetti guns (mounted as well as hand held) and there were balloons (much bigger balloons than last time).  And yes, Wayne crawled out in the hamster ball. Continue Reading »

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, CHAPPO, Musikfest, The Flaming Lips | Leave a Comment »

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