Pilcrow

Let's toss out another one of these summaries. June 2010 was a very busy month for me, with a big work project finishing up, the KEXP pledge drive and a week of post-drive auditing work for me, Go Play NW, and my friend Doug's visit. So I only went to two shows that month.

The first show, on Saturday the 12th at Neumos, was a Noise for the Needy benefit featuring Kinski, with Baths opening and the Album Leaf headlining. Baths was a solo electronic artist playing room-shaking bass beats with mellow electronic melodies on top; I don't have any notes on how much I enjoyed it, but I expect it was fine. I only recognized two of Kinski's songs, "Hot Stenographer" and 'The Wives of Artie Shaw" (which are identified in my notes as "ba duh duh duh-duh" and "the flute one"—I'm still very bad about remembering the names of their songs), and the rest sounded new to me, but could have been older ones I'm not as familiar with. I took several notes on the Album Leaf, referencing "Do Make Say Think + heavy drum bass beat + some vocals" and "bit [like] Telefon Tel Aviv", before they started a song that sounded familiar. I realized I'd heard it before and seen the backing video, so I checked and found that sure enough, I'd seen them once already just back in February 2010 and I'd already forgotten. Annoyingly, I can't even track down what song it was: my notes mention "breaking out" as lyrics from the chorus, but they don't have a song by that name and I haven't been able to find it by checking lyrics sites or listening to the songs I can find online. So, although they were still pretty good and I enjoyed the set, I'm forced to conclude that they're rather forgettable overall. (Or else my memory is worse than I think, which seems plausible given my problems remembering Kinski's song titles.)

I have a small set of photos of Kinski and the Album Leaf on Flickr.

The second show was on Monday the 21st at the Tractor Tavern and featured Lou Barlow, on tour with a couple other musicians who I believe were the Missingmen (minus Mike Watt). I was never a fan of Dinosaur Jr. or Sebadoh, so I wouldn't have bothered to go to this show on my own. However, not only was Doug visiting at that point, but a couple of his friends from Boston were also in town for Go Play NW, and they knew the show was happening and wanted to go see it. So I went along and did recognize a few of the songs—he did play some songs from his projects Sebadoh and the Folk Implosion in addition to his own solo material—and thought it was fairly enjoyable. But I didn't get nearly as much out of it as Doug (or his friends), who was thrilled that Barlow played all the songs Doug hoped for, and he declared it an amazing performance. I am happy to take his word for it.

I also have a small set of photos of Lou Barlow on Flickr.

Last Sunday I went to my "official" April concert, although I may end up seeing another one or two. At the Tractor Tavern, I saw my old favorite, Tara Jane ONeil, sandwiched between the headliners Ida and opening act Michael Hurley.

I arrived a little way into Michael Hurley's set. I'd never heard of him, and my understanding is that the Tractor tends towards blues, folk, and country, so I was somewhat wary of what he'd be like. He turned out to be a grizzled old folk-blues guitarist. I'm sure he's a fine example of his genre, and I didn't think he was terrible, I just didn't find his music very interesting.

Next came Tara Jane ONeil, and her set was amazing as always. Her girlfriend/wife Kristina played melodica and miscellaneous percussion throughout the set, as well as singing backup vocals. TJO was also joined by various members of Ida on some songs, playing guitar, bass, violin, miscellaneous percussion, harmonium, and singing. TJO herself played electric guitar and made extensive use of a sampler, recording rhythms and then looping them as she played other parts of the song; Kristina also used a sampler for some of her parts.

TJO opened with an instrumental I did not recognize, which was rather in the vein of her early work with The Sonora Pine - though she has continued to do such art/experimental rock type music throughout her career, one reason I love her so much. She played a few songs I recognized, such as "The Poisoned Mine" and "Howl," and I now find another one I hadn't recognized, "Take The Waking," all of which are on her most recent album You Sound, Reflect (yes, I like her that much, I'm pushing her albums through Amazon now). I was smiling throughout the set as I enjoyed the music, but I broke into a huge grin as I recognized the beginning of her last song, "Rungs," from her old band The Sonora Pine. It's truly wonderful to hear those songs live. That was one of the songs for which members of Ida joined her, and the instrumentation included the harmonium, and the violinist playing instead a metal bowl by sliding a pestle around the outer edge.

As for Ida, I ended up enjoying them more than I expected. I'd heard of them before, because they have past connections with TJO, but didn't really know anything about them. Again, I expected them to be more folky, and they did start out with some blues/bluegrass/folk type tunes. But then they moved into more of a progressive pop/rock sound - the only thing I can think of offhand is earlier Fleetwood Mac, and indeed they later played a cover off of Tusk - and I enjoyed that much more. Ida on this tour were a five-piece including guitar(s), bass, drums, violin, keyboard, and also harmonium, and most songs feature harmonized singing from three of the members. I ended up buying a double CD, which turned out to be an "official" live bootleg.

After the show, I got to talk to TJO, and was quite pleased that she recognized me on sight (and no, that does not mean she backed away and called security). She also remembered last year's show in Ballard (where The Tractor is) and how sparsely attended it was; fortunately, this show had a fairly full house. Although it was clear that most of the audience came to see Ida, there definitely were some other people besides myself who came to see TJO, crowding up to the front during her set. I was also pleased that when I came in, one of the bar employees asked who I'd come to see that evening, so they were keeping track and will know that TJO does draw some people.

On Friday I had bought a couple shelves to add to my bookcase, and Sunday I had cleared the shelves and been in the middle of figuring out how to rearrange them when the time to leave for the show rolled around. I was unhappy because I knew I wouldn't be able to finish properly if I went to the show, and I thought about not going as I'd seen TJO before. Once again, she demonstrated why the correct decision always is to go see her, and I was very happy.