I'm not going to lie, I could get used to this whole "sitting in a box over the side of the stage" business. Also, you should check out Moon Hooch. Also, you should get Mike's new album. It's really good.
Thanks to Gordon for leaving a comment reminding me about the Icemakers of the Revolution Choice cassingle, and then Jason DuFair who dug up his copy and digitized it over the weekend, my little online archive of the Icemakers' recordings is now complete.
Icemakers of the Revolution - The Choice Song (7.6 MB mp3)
Icemakers of the Revolution - Unwed Fathers (4.4 MB mp3)
Erica and I went to all three days of Lollapalooza this last weekend. Erica is doing some detailed breakdowns, but I just have a few impressions. I had been to the original Lollapalooza tour in 1991 in Indianapolis (Erica saw the 1994 tour in New Orleans) but that was back when it was just a long, eclectic concert on a single stage. It's now a three day festival with eight stages. I'd never been to any of these big festivals before, so I wasn't really sure what to expect.
The biggest thing that stood out right from the start, and held up all through the weekend, was how well-run the whole thing was. Shows started and stopped pretty much on time (and having run a venue, I know how hard it is to get musicians to stick to a schedule), the place was kept incredibly clean, and we rarely had to wait in a food, water, or beer line for more than 2 or 3 minutes.
Given that whole thing was so overall well run, the few bobbles stood out. Like terrible sightlines, and worse, terrible sound at the "Budweiser" stage (the second main stage) had all weekend. Boo.
One of the best parts for me was just hanging out at Perry's stage, which was constant DJs. I love dance music/techno/etc, but it's really hard to get out for a 10 pm show*, let alone a 1 am DJ set. If there wasn't so many other great bands to see, I could have stayed there all day.
Photographic evidence of the weekend.
Erica's posts:
Lollapalooza Post #1
Lollapalooza Day 1
Lollapalooza Day 2
Lollapalooza Day 3
Lollapalooza Final Thoughts
* We actually missed an Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes show earlier this year because we just couldn't get out of the house, which we were kicking ourselves for doubly after their great show at Lolla.
A couple of weeks ago, Erica and I went to the Metro and saw K'naan -- a Somali-Canadian rapper. The show was great, but a particular highlight was when he brought out Kate (aka K8DS) a 13-year-old from Chicago who puts up videos on YouTube of herself playing guitar and singing. Someone had sent K'naan her covers of his songs and so he invited her to come be part of the show. She sang Be Free with the band backing her and then stayed to accompany him on Fatima. It just makes me smile.
Hey lookee—it's a video for JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound's cover of Wilco's "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart". It is, much like their originals, a rocking soul number. You can see, however briefly, some of my photos of the band in the video, likely because they have been in many of the many articles the band has garnered in their short time together. Rock!
Oh, the heady days of 1990. Sometime that year I was inveigled by my friend Lawrence Lee to join his improv group National Velveeta, a move that would CHANGE MY LIFE FOREVER, that fall I was a junior at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, the country was halfway through Bush-41, and the Gulf War had started that summer.
Lawrence was on staff at the Wesley Foundation—the United Methodist Church's Campus Ministry at Purdue. Wesley is located in the heart of Purdue's campus, right across the street from the Purdue Memorial Union and the building has a Great Hall—a large versatile space with a proscenium stage and an ancient but functioning theater lighting setup. There was a resurgent folk-rock scene, at times politically-charged, happening both on and off campus around Greater Lafayette, but there really weren't many places around town to see bands that weren't bars or fraternity houses*. Lawrence put all that together and started the Guru Java as a bi-weekly 'coffeehouse' to provide an all-ages venue and general safe hang-out zone for students.
One of Lawrence's core ideas for the venue was that it wasn't going to be a 'Christian' coffeehouse, the bands were going to be booked based on talent rather than ideology, and there wasn't going to be any preaching from the stage. Right from the start, that was a central tension of the Guru Java's existence. We heard from people who avoided the place because just being in a church-related space was too religious for them. And there were plenty of people, some with their hands on Wesley's purse strings, who were offended by the bands and goings-on at the shows. Lawrence addressed those concerns, on both sides, in his 1991 Guru Java Manifesto. That tension remained for the program it's whole existence.
And of course on top of that sort of drama, there were just the challenges of running a venue on no budget and with an all-volunteer staff. Comparing the posters with a performers list I had compiled in 1995 I see, for example, evenings when both scheduled bands from out-of-town canceled and we had to scrape up local fill-ins or we'd just run an open-mic that evening. And bless his heart, but why we ever let Bill Wossisname talk us into building our own speakers instead of just figuring out how to finance a small sound system—those things were massive. But maybe that was an ingredient to the success of the Guru Java, it wasn't very strongly led and so it was the sort of place that let people come in and figure out their own contribution.
I hesitate to even start naming names of people involved, because it really did become a community and so there were dozens of people over the years who put a lot of effort into running the Guru Java. Lawrence calls out, in the Manifesto, a sort of steering committee of himself, me, Dennis Leas, and Mike Spitzer. By 1992 or so, Liz Thelen and I were mostly running the show (certainly we were doing the booking, though still with important help from Dennis Leas, especially on finding those emergency fill-ins). In 1995, Liz and I thought we were going to move out of town and so we handed off our responsibilities. I know there were many people involved, but I see in my archives that I made business cards for Eric Boeker and Marc Lytle to act as the booking agents.
Egotistically, Liz and I wondered if we should just shut the venue down rather than handing it off, because of course, who could ever be as good at running the thing as we were? As well, the Guru Java was facing some new challenges in those days—the energy of the local music scene was shifting from the folk-rock of the early 90s to a re-resurgence of a punk sound. The Guru Java had tried to reach out to that community, but with mixed results. I found in my archives a letter I'd had to write to the Wesley staff explaining steps were going to take to try and reduce graffiti during Guru Java shows. If we weren't engaging with the all-ages crowds we had set out to serve, then were we just a club for some aging** and dwindling-in-numbers folk music fans? In the end, we pushed off that decision to our successors and the venue lasted until 1999.
Anyway, the reason I got into all this was the posters. I've been carting around for years a stack of Guru Java posters and I've just now finally scanned them all in. The poster for the very first Guru Java was drawn by Daron Henry. Lawrence took the logo/header off of that poster and reproduced it on the top of blank 11x17 pieces of paper which he would distribute at the shows and ask people to draw a poster for the next show. The best one would be reproduced to promote the show and the winner would get free admission to that show. Week after week the best poster was by Jessica Billey and so after a few months we just asked her if she'd be our official poster artist and we started paying her a frightfully nominal amount for her beautiful posters. She did almost every Guru Java poster through 1993.
After that it was a mix of designers including Penny Rodrick, Susie***, and Liz Thelen and myself. I look back in dismay at some of my forays into 'distressed type' but I'm posting them anyway out of historical honesty. I am proud of the one I did for a Squirtgun show—the band liked the design enough that they asked me to make them a version of the squirt-ray-gun that they could put on t-shirts. They had a song on the Mallrats soundtrack, y'all! That's the big time!
Click the thumbnails below to go to a Flickr set of 43 posters from 1990 to 1995:
Related posts:
Guru Java Coffeehouse - the Manifesto
Guru Java Coffeehouse - Performers 1990 to 1995
* Mass Giorgini's Spud Zero all-ages punk club had just closed in '89 or '90.
** Yes, where "aging" = 25 in my case, but you know. It was fraught.
*** I don't know her last name. I have a note on the back of posters she designed that says "Susie (friend of Josette Torres)".
In later years we expanded on this to form a "Mission Statement", perhaps for including in some sort of Wesley Foundation annual report (I don't quite remember). But below is the original, straight out of Lawrence's brain.
Related posts:
Guru Java Coffeehouse - History and Posters
Guru Java Coffeehouse - Performers 1990-1995
The Guru Java Manifesto
by Larry VanVactor Lee, Fall 1991
There is a spectre that haunts this coffeehouse, a question that hangs over our every gathering - Why does Wesley, a Christian organization, sponsor Guru Java, a coffeehouse which, at a glance, doesn’t appear to be “Christian” in any overt way?
This question is generally asked by two groups of people. One is a sect of avowed Christians who are suspicious of our gatherings and find themselves uncomfortable with our distinct lack of altar calls and Bible thumping. The other is those who have been disenfranchised by a Christian organization, as being a ploy to lure the unsuspecting into a situation where they can be pounced on by a certain kind of person mentioned above. This manifesto is to answer both.
Why is Guru Java considered a ministry?
At Wesley we understand “ministry” as beginning at the point of need. As Ghandi said, “To the hungry, God must first come as bread before all else.” The Church, at its best, must respond to the needs of the community and the world about it. Those who began Guru Java saw the community’s need for an alternative entertainment environment, an alternative outlet for the creative element in our community, a place for those not yet 21 to see the bands and acts they’d otherwise have to fake their way into a bar to see, and open forum of artists and concerns. It is our hope that Guru Java meets these needs.
Guru Java is for the disenfranchised.
Sorry, Bible thumpers. The Jesus that we read about ate with those that the prevailing wisdom of the day considered undesirable. In these days of power lunches, the concept of eating with has lost some of its meaning, but people of that time understood exactly what this meant. These people with whom Jesus ate, they were his friends and family, for no one could share a table with one he or she could not forgive. Guru Java is a table open to anyone - male or female, faithful or doubtful, straight or gay, black, white, or whatever.
Why does Guru Java host the artists and speakers that it does?
Guru Java seeks to create an open forum. We are not looking for artists or musicians who conform with a certain religious or political point of view. We do, however,, feel a responsibility for providing a place where those outside the mainstream can make their voices heard. We support, if not fully endorse, the activities of the “counter-culture” for we see Christianity as being inherently “counter-culture.” Christ spoke out against the conventional wisdom and authorities of the day. He sought to defeat them, not through armed rebellion (as many of his followers would have him do)_, but through rejecting their empty morals and forms of authority for a higher call, “to live in the world but not be of the world.” We, likewise, look for eloquent spokespeople for views at odds with the status quo, not to inflame us with rhetoric, but to challenge us with compassion.
What does Wesley get out of this?
If you’re suspicious that Wesley’s making a bundle from this enterprise, rest assured, we’re not. Out of the door take, every week, we take out just enough to cover our immediate costs (coffee, posters, ads, etc.) and of the remaining we take a small percent (usually $5 to $15) to offset the costs of future events, the remainder goes to the featured artists. As was said in the beginning, we see this as a ministry to the Purdue community, not for what we can get out of it, but what we can give to the community. Guru Java gives us a lot of satisfaction because it is doing just what it was designed to do.
Where does Guru Java go from here?
The coffeehouse has been so successful, it’s caught some of us off guard. We’ve expanded into radio, airing every Sunday at 10 p.m. on WBQR 95.7 FM and its sister station WMRS of Monticello, we hope to move to an hourly format eventually. We are continuing to experiment with the coffeehouse itself, trying to produce as engaging and provocative of evening as possible. We receive calls and letters and tapes from artists from al over the state and nation wanting to play the coffeehouse. We have al the ingredients for an amazingly successful project. Except one thing. We need help.
We are severely understaffed. We have several people who have made a commitment to make Guru Java happen, but those few people can barely keep up with al the things that need to happen to keep the coffeehouse going week to week. There are many attractive avenues opening up to us, but we need help to make them happen. If you or an organization with which you’re associated could help us by being here on Fridays at 6 p.m. to set up, sticking around afterwards to clean up, staff the front table or the java table, help out on lights, sound, recording, or whatever, let us know.
If you like what’s happening here, don’t take it for granted. Get involved f you can, let people know about it if you can’t. Support the coffeehouse through your attendance if nothing else, especially for those unknown artists from out of state or out of town, it’s a real bummer to play to a house of twenty or thirty after being on the road for hours.
The bottom line is, we want this to be your coffeehouse, we need your input to make that happen.
Other Questions we’re asked a lot:
Who is Guru Java?
Guru Java is not me, Guru Java is not you, Guru Java is not any one of us, we are all Guru Java together!
Seriously: the picture of the Guru used on our posters is of a nineteenth century French painter who was renown for his stature, who’ll let you figure out the rest!
Who does those fantastic posters?
The header of the poster was designed by Daron Henry. Jessica Billey does the artwork for the weekly performances.
Who’s in charge of this thing, really?
No one person, really. The four people who have given the most input to the running of the coffeehouse over the last year have been Fuzzy Gerdes, Dennis Leas, Mike Spitzer, and Larry VanVactor Lee. That doesn’t mean that it will stay that way.
May I smoke in here?
Sorry, no. We do invite people to smoke outside and come back in.
Is Wesley a Church?
Not exactly, no. Wesley is chartered by the United Methodist Church as the Ministry to the Purdue Campus, our purpose being to proclaim the liberating power of Jesus Christ. We think Guru Java does that in its own way.
What other programs happen here?
Wesley has weekly worship services, every Sunday at 4:30 p.m. generally followed by a meal downstairs, and every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the lounge.
Wesley Players, our drama troupe, produces plays which have included Lovers, Waiting for Godot, A Peasant of El Salvador, Godspell, Agnes of God, Ugly Duckling, and Spoon River Anthology.
Mission Earth, an environmental group, is currently forming.
We have a number of study and prayer groups that meet throughout the week.
The Science & Theology Brown Bag Luncheon meets every Thursday at noon for discussion about current topics of concern led often by faculty or leaders from the religious community.
A number of other groups regularly use our building including the Lafayette Area Peace Coalition, the Chinese Church, numerous bands which practice here, and we share the building with the Episcopal Campus Ministry.
Wesley, as you can see, is a happening place. We invite your participation in any of our activities.
This is a side-bar post to my main one about the Guru Java Coffeehouse and it's a list of performers at the venue that we compiled at the end of 1995. The coffeehouse continued until 1999, but I was rather less involved in those later years. After the jump, a very long list:
Related posts:
Guru Java Coffeehouse - History and Posters
Guru Java Coffeehouse - The Manifesto
Continue reading "Guru Java Coffeehouse - Performers 1990-1995" »
This week's can't stop listening: Through & Through & Through by Joel Plaskett (discovered via K. Beaton). I liked it enough that I bought the whole album. ($9 for a three-disc album! How did you expect me to resist?)
I got out last Thursday and shot JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound's appearance at Metro for Columbia College's Story Week. BT has posted four of the songs on his YouTube account: The Devastator, Get It Together (above), To Love Someone That Don't Love You, and Hold You Back.
Three shows of note for the fellows: Saturday, April 4 they're the house band and MC for the Eccentric Soul Revue at Park West - a night that promises to be an amazing mix of Chicago Soul music from the past and present. Thursday, April 16 they're playing in Brooklyn at Southpaw - all FuzzyCo NY friends should get out and meet the guys (and groove to their rocking sounds). And Saturday, April 25 is the post-tour, CD release party at Martyrs.
You may remember Michael Strening, Jr. from such Team Gerdes related projects as this dance that Erica choreographed or his musical accompaniment of this show from our last run of the Neutrino Project. Michael composes and plays atmospheric piano solos. He's taken some of the most relaxing pieces from his first three albums and added a few new pieces for a new album that's aimed at spas and massage thereapists (but is entirely suitable for anyone who just wants to relax or enjoys good music).
Michael has also started playing with Team Gerdes friend Phil Schuldt (ex-R. Buzzy, remixer of the score to many FuzzyCo projects) in a jazzy trio called SDS. They have a show coming up tomorrow night (Sat., Jan 24) at Raw Bar (3720 N Clark, Chicago).
And look what just landed on my desk! Ben Taylor (sound director for Cinema 2.0, oft-accompanist for Neutrino Project, and tall bald man) has been focussing a lot of his considerable energies and talents on his new band, JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound. They've been tearing it up live in Chicago and regionally and they've finally recorded an album. Beat of Our Own Drum will be officially released Saturday, Feb 28 at the Empty Bottle (1035 N Western Ave, Chicago). Mark your calendars.
And finally, they're not actually making the music here, but it's still delightful. Kerpatty:
If you look carefully, you'll see a banana dancing around occasionally. I guess I should have gotten a little more central. You can see the full episode tonight at 8:30 or tomorrow afternoon at 3:30.
Jase tagged me with a rather simple meme (no "72nd page of the 4th book in your neighbor's house" stuff here): 7 songs that are grooving your summer. Here, I'll give you the original brief:
List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring/summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.
The only problem is that really I haven't been listening to music very intentionally lately -- I've usually got music on all day at work, but it's just a big iTunes library on shuffle. And my iPod is mostly full of podcasts. But I think I can come up with some songs. And heck, I might as throw them in a muxtape while I'm at it.
I'll tag Lawrence, because he actually does this sort of thing, and Erica because she doesn't, and Chris, because I have no idea what he's listening to, and you because you're actually reading this thing. There, that gets us up to five.
A coincidence this week -- a comment on an old post and Noah returning my iMic -- spurred me into action and I digitized the Icemakers of the Revolution's first album, Door #3 (you can start downloading the 55.7 MB zip file before you read any farther).
The album was only ever released on cassette and I don't have the fanciest setup for capturing cassettes -- I go from the headphone jack of a Sony boombox (the same one Erica uses as Cutie Bumblesnatch) to the iMic and record with Griffin's free Final Vinyl recording software. The clean up I do is... none. Oh, and the tape broke at the end of side one (fixing that was a set of skills I haven't had to use in a long time) so I think the volume was just a hair high when I recorded the second half (tracks 8-13), but I'm nervous to keep playing the tape on my not-that-great setup. So, um... Enjoy! (Oh, and I couldn't find the case, so I don't have the artwork. Anyone have the case, still, and want to send me a scan of the cover?)
At one point Jason had intimated that he was working on a digitization of this album, and perhaps the hideous quality of my mp3s will spur him to finish that project and I can replace these. Or maybe their rustic and hissing quality will remind you of listening to the original cassette.
track list:
Previously: All three of the Icemakers' albums for download.
Update! Jason found his copy of the Choice cassingle, so the above-linked archive is complete.
I know you know, but could you tell where we were if you didn't know?
My first Muxtape. Kinda nerdy and Fuzzy-focused.
Mike Doughty's on his The Question Jar Show tour right now -- small venues, set list assembled on the fly from audience shouting, questions answered from a jar -- and he and Andrew were in Chicago last Thursday night. Pictures were taken.
There were many fun moments in the show (you know, that Mike's funny) and gosh darn if Andrew doesn't play a pretty cello, but a personal favorite was we finally got to hear Andrew play Guardame Las Vacas (aka Keeping Watch Over Some Cow aka The Cow Song) in front of an audience:
In a similar vein, I just found (and see that Jase found them three years ago -- I'm slow) these live recordings of Robert Shannon Meitus and the Dorkestra and Carrie Newcomer from 1991, recorded by David Whittemore. I'm sure I was at that Earth Day concert. Sometimes I re-listen to music I thought was great 15 years ago and discover that it's kinda dumb. I'm happy that that's not the case with these songs, and I don't think that's just the nostalgia talking.
And speaking of the West Lafayette, Indiana band the Icemakers of the Revolution, with the permission of band member Stephen John Hartnett, here are their second and third three albums and cassingle*:
Icemakers of the Revolution - Choice**
Icemakers of the Revolution - Door #3 (55.7 MB zip file)
Icemakers of the Revolution - Number of Days (83.7 MB zip file)
Icemakers of the Revolution - Fisheye Frenzy (96.5 MB zip file)
* I'd have to buy a cassette player to digitize the first one I have an imperfect setup for digitizing cassettes (the only format Door #3 was released in), but it works.
** Many thanks to Jason DuFair for finding his copy of this cassette and digitizing it.
One:
After he saw the video of Fuzzy Gerdes is Totally Awesome, my friend Scotto reminded me by IM about a song Joey Adams and I wrote and performed together (Joey, being an actually talented musician, did most of the writing and performing) loosely titled the Ba-ba-ba-ba song (after the chorus). The song was about an epic journey he and I made to Michigan and then Chicago one Spring Break. I learned to drive a stick shift at the start of the trip. Epic! There was a sudden snow storm when he was dropping me off in Chicago (where I was visting my old roommate Enio Rigolin) and his windshield wiper broke. Even more epic! All that and more was in the song. We performed it a few times at the Guru Java and such, but as far as I know, no recording of the song exists.
Two:
The Icemakers of the Revolution were a funky-hippy-political band back in West Lafayette, IN while I was going to school at Purdue. I got to be friends with the band and went on a couple of gig roadtrips with them. On the way back from one such, just a couple hours down the road in Indianapolis, my darling little Datsun 210 got a flat. I was giving some of the band members a ride in my car and the other car, a giant Suburban that easily held all of the band's gear, saw that we had pulled over and got off at the next exit and circled back. So I had the whole band standing around me while I dug through my trunk. I had a spare, and it had plenty of air, but I couldn't find a jack. I was sort of half-living out of my car at that point, so I had plenty of, ahem, junk in my trunk. Eventually I had to give up -- I had no jack. We tried the one off the Suburban, but at its most-collapsed state it was still too tall to fit under the Datsun. In the end, 3 or 4 band members just lifted up the Datsun while I hurriedly changed the tire. Embarassing. And then the Icemakers put a song about it on their third (and last) album, Fisheye Frenzy.
Download the MP3: Icemakers of the Revolution - No Jack (10.3 MB mp3)
Three:
Dogrocket is a beeps-and-loops side-project of R. Buzzy's Phil Schuldt. For some reason (perhaps my awesomeness (see below)) Phil wrote a song about me.
Download the MP3: Dogrocket - Fuzzy (4.1 MB mp3)
Four:
You've watched the video about 300 times already, but I just know that you want to carry Fuzzy Gerdes is Totally Awesome everywhere you go on your iPod. So you can be reminded of how awesome I am. All the time.
Download the MP3: Fuzzy Gerdes - Fuzzy Gerdes is Totally Awesome (4.6 MB mp3)
MC Frontalot was as great as I had hoped. MC Lars had one fun song (If I Had a Time Machine, That Would Be Fresh) but otherwise was as much of a tool as I expected. We were late and missed Optimus Rhyme because of a birthday dinner, and were told they were awesome. (Bought their CD -- awesomeness confirmed.) Ran into Nate Sands, K-Rock, Roger* and Greg, so comforted that we are not the only nerds in Chicago. Took pictures.
* Who disagrees on the toolness of MC Lars. So, hey, maybe I'm wrong. (I'm not.)
How could I have neglected to mention that Christopher and Katie got to see Andrew and the whole band a month before we did?
The October 15, Park West show that we saw is now available from the Internet Archive's Live Music Archive.
While we visiting with Andrew, Erica kept bugging him to play "the Cow song" for me. Eventually, Andrew asked Mike if he could borrow a guitar and played and sang "Keeping Watch Over Some Cow" for us. It's a classical guitar piece from 16th-century Spain, Guardame Las Vacas, with Andrew's original lyrics. (And it sticks in your freaking head -- I've been singing it for days.) Mike made him play it a couple more times, and now Andrew is playing it in the show.
The other guys hung around in New York for the weekend, but we flew back Saturday afternoon so that we could go see Erica's friend Andrew (his "tour name" is Scrap) play bass in the Mike Doughty Band. As in Mike "M" "Soul Coughing" Doughty. It is the cheese!
We couldn't get together with Andrew in the afternoon because he and Mike went and did an in-store at Borders. But post-show (post-awesome show) (dang that Pete McNeal is a great drummer) (I mean, everyone else is great, too) we got to hang out with Andrew for a few hours before they fired up the tour bus and headed off to Indianapolis.
This is now two shows in a row where I've seen the performer before in a smaller venue and noticed the difference. (Kaki King from the Tin Angel to Martyrs' and now Mike Doughty from the Abbey Pub to Park West.) The Park West is a great venue (comfy chairs, cocktail waitresses), but there's definitely a difference -- during the rockity stuff it wasn't as noticeable, but Mike sent the fellows away for a few songs and played quieter stuff and the conversation murmur was evident and distracting.
I took a bunch of pictures during the show. Here's a Flickr set, or you can see which of them Mike liked.
Kaki King at Martyrs, October 1, 2005
On Saturday, Erica and I went to see Kaki King at Martyrs'. We were trying to make it a fancy night out, and so we wanted to go out to a restaurant first and then go to the show, but we were running a little late and we ran into Phil and Monica and chatted for a while and then decided to just head straight for Martyrs'. Which worked out extraordinarily well on several levels. For one, we had an incredible ham and fig pizza. And we had gotten there just in time to get the last front-row seats, which was great for both taking photos and for listening to Kaki's quiet and subtle music. The last time I saw Kaki King was in a smaller place in Philadelphia and the entire audience was nearly completely silent for the whole show. At Martyrs', there was a pretty constant murmur from the back of the room and I think it would have driven me crazy to be farther back and known that I was missing some subtleties.
Some other Kaki links:
Kaki King Live on NPR's Weekend Edition
Kaki King shows at the Live Music Archive
Kaki's (out-of-date) Photoblog
Ask Kaki King
The last time I was at Hothouse was also to see a big band - Antibalas. With Antibalas the energy is "this thing could fly off the rails at any moment" (in a good way). Pink Martini also has twelve people on stage, but the energy (and there's tons of it) always felt 100% under control. In any case, it was an awesome show. Click the picture about for a few more shots from the show.
Does a protest song change anything? Probably not. But it's still, as Miles points out, a voice. TV On The Radio's Dry Drunk Emperor.
This page contains an archive of all entries posted to FuzzyCo in the Music category. They are listed from oldest to newest.
Look Ma, I'm on stage! is the previous category.
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