Dr. John - Turner Hall

I wish I had blogged the last 20 concerts or so. It has been a slow summer season--but the whole point was to put a few words down about each show and then read about it in 50 years.

Anyway,

Usual cast: Sepp and Me.

Band guitarist had an opening solo set. Loved it. Polished session guitarist with southern blues comps.

Dr. John: polished New Orleans blues act. Not as funky as I expected. Several moments of voodoo trans during the show. Nothing too flashy from the band, but enjoyable. Slower tempo but fun group groove at time. Dr. John has excellent stage presence and overall it was a fun show. It would be nice to see a younger generation bring more energy to the style, but I enjoyed it.

Kings go Forth Turner Hall

Very good rhythm section. Some decent R&B comps. They need to drop the lead singer, front left guitar, and they don't need the tambourine/singer on the right. Bring in a hot chick lead and keep the rhythm guitarist. You don't actually need a horn section until you're booking fancy gigs, so why pay those guys. You may want to find a better bass player, but this guy is passable. I'll give them a C+. Not sure why they get so much pub on local radio. XMU hasn't heard of you yet...and there is a reason for that.

Ok Go! 4/16/2010

I originally gave them an F but the reality was that I drank too much whiskey and shouldn't really judge. Sepp gave them a 'C', so I'll go with his assessment. I remember a lot of band chatter between songs and lame comps. I also remember saying a lot about how this band won't be making any money within 2 years.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club 3/26

Very Loud. Simple power chord rock comps. Peter Hayes switched with another guitarist/bass on songs. Few harmonies, but good when they surfaced. Total rock chick drummer that looked more like a 12 year old kid.

Not much to say. I actually had a ridiculously hot date that night...which is a rarity. Suffice to say, Smashy stole the show that night, but BRMC was good too.

Cowboy Junkies Turner Hall 3/25

Very drunk post:

Falsetto voice complimented with an exceptional band. They muddy the drums and meld the melodies together so they don't interfere with the voice. I don't know what they sang about. We missed 1/2 the set and got super drunk post show. Lots of fun.

Dan Hicks 3/11 Turner Hall

I can't remember the name of the opener. I only heard 2 songs from each band. I won free tickets and couldn't find a date in time. I ended up catching as much of the set as possible and then going out to play hockey.

This is what I saw:

Hicks and and the Hot Licks are a country swing outfit from San Fran. The arrangements include Hicks on guitar, plucking rhythm guitar soloist, fiddle, upright bass and 2 doo wop singers. It had a western vaudeville feel and mixed it with a Deadwood aesthetic. I didn't stay for the whole concert, but enjoyed the songs. I'd see it again.

Magnetic Fields w/ Laura Barrett 3/4/2010 Pabst Theater

Laura Barrett: Very interesting melodies. She played some sort of bass instrument with her feat to compliment a kalimba. I didn't know anything about this act (didn't even know there would be an opener) but was impressed with her compositions. She exchanged vocal harmonies with another female voice (forget the instrument) while a banjo player syncopated the melodies. All original compositions--I remember one song about a robot pony--a few others delved into sexual innuendo. Very good performance on the whole.

Magnetic Fields: I tried to bone up on this group before the show by listening to all 69 Love songs. The performance met my expectations. However, I was surprised to see that the lead Stephin Merritt didn't dominate every song. In fact, he played a ukulele and only sang on 1/2 the songs. The 2 female vocalists, Claudia Gonson (keyboard) and another female on (can't remember name of instrument) did most of the singing. Merritt has a wonderful bass voice. It clashed a bit (in volume) with the other 2 singers--but just a unique and original sound. I loved it.

This isn't my cup of tea as far as style. nevertheless this was an unbelievably creative musical performance. They sang songs about vampires and sex and porno starlets. I lost myself in the cello drones. And the (non Claudia) female vocalist held my attention on each song. The magnetic fields kept it interesting for me. I don't know what genre to put this music because it's not rock, it's not pop and it's not folk. It's original however and I really enjoyed it.

Other Shows I forgot to blog about...

February 20th 2010

Sound Opinions

Live radio broadcast of two Chicago Rock critic nerds discussing about 10 rock films. I listen to a lot of radio and criticize anything that isn't on Howard Stern's level, but this was interesting. The Rolling Stones video with the Hells Angels guard stabbing a fan was flat out shocking. Julie and I had fun. I'd watch it again.

February 12th 2010

357 String Band

Turner Hall

This was a TON of fun--this is what I wrote shortly after the show on Facebook...

Friday Feb 12 11:57PM

.357 string band. Apparently Milwaukee has a local band with 357 inch cocks and they know how to put their thing down. Few of my spaceface friends can actually read this, but if this bluegrass act hits your city, don't waste your time watching TV nonsense when you can enjoy some bluegrass pickin and whiskey. **side note, this is not a carnegie hall act--I'm just too wasted to post my review on my music blog.

http://www.avclub.com/milwaukee/events/357-string-band-pupy-costello-and-his-bigcity-honk,152628/

February 4th 2010

Dark Star Orchestra

The Pabst Theater

This is sort of a gimmicky act that replicates an actual Grateful Dead Performance. I believe this was a remake an early 70s show from Tampa Fl. I left the show wondering if this was actually a better cover band then the Wailers. The fans of this band absolutely defiled the Pabst with all the weed smoking. I wish people would treat the theater with more respect. This isn't the Rave.

http://www.avclub.com/milwaukee/events/dark-star-orchestra,152613/

Jan 29, 2010

The Danglers, Lovanova, The 45s plus a bonus Admirals game review

Club Garibaldi

The Danglers: Very amateur jazz outfit. I was too tired to sit through the whole show.

Lovanova: Very Amateur blues outfit. They spent more time dressing up than polishing the act.

The 45s: Interesting 2 piece. It's the singer from that wedding band The 5 Card Studs and a keyboard player. They seemed to be working out material. Singer has a wonderful baritone voice. I probably didn't need to tell him how crappy the other bands were that night. I like to run my mouth after about 4 shots of Powers.

Admirals game: Fun. We sat upstairs with Carl and Franz Backus. This was my 1st chance to see BU phenom Colin Wilson play since the NCAA Championship last March in D.C. This kid is a fantastic hockey player with a bright future.

http://www.avclub.com/milwaukee/events/danglers-lovanova-and-the-45s,149439/

Jan 15, 2010

Fight Night

Turner Hall

I don't know ANYTHING about boxing so it's difficult to comment. It did seem that they cut the fights short...probably to protect the fighters. I can't imagine that this was a high stakes prize fight. But it was very professional and live boxing is absolutely riveting. This was the 1st event I've seen in Milwaukee where the audience was mostly black people.

http://www.avclub.com/milwaukee/events/turner-hall-fight-night,153461/

Older Events from Last Fall:

November 27, 2009

Mondo Lucha Holiday Show

Turner Hall

These are fun. It's a Mexican Wrestling, burlesque, variety show--this is the 3rd edition. The music act included local performers The Scarring party; an interesting Irving Berlin/punk outfit from Riverwest.

http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/article-9040-mondo-lucha-holiday-show-a-turner-hall-ballroom.html

October 5, 2009

David Cross

Riverside Theatre

It's been a few months since the show. I read his book about a month before the event. I only recall him using a few jokes from the book. All original and good material. Although he did show a promo clip for some Canadian TV show which I thought was lazy. He also didn't give me the impression that he enjoyed being there--even though he had a warm / sold out audience. He made an ironic racist joke about black people that really stunned the crowd (can't remember the joke)...fun night.

http://www.avclub.com/milwaukee/articles/david-cross-at-riverside-theater,33674/

Trey Anastasio Band 2/19/09 Pabst Theatre

Trey Anastasio was fantastic, but lets not kid ourselves here. This was a serious exercise in nerdery. The 9:1 dude to girl ratio illustrates my point. While Phish is awesome...and I love Trey. Face it, hardcore Phish fans provide a roadmap for anyone eager to repel pussy.

The bass, drum, keyboard section was the best rhythm section I've seen since last summer. Thankfully, this wasn't a showcase for Trey to jizz his load on his compositions and guitar playing ability--this was really a showcase of the current NY based music scene. And this is the result when you allow an art community to flourish. NYC attracts and produces more talent than any other city on the planet. Quite frankly, the backing band out shined the star of the show. While they lacked the charisma of a pop act, this performance fit perfectly into Trey's style of music--because with him it's more of a study of sound and style than an expression of any sort of deep narrative. Shit, I've heard many of these songs hundreds of times, and I still can't tell you what they mean.

That being said...Colin Malloy -- while you are certainly a tremendous talent...you can go f-yourself. You obviously don't get it.

-to tired to comment: Sultans of swing. He didn't play the '

in between' notes in the 1st section (bummer)...but he surprised us by having his horn section play the big Mark Knopfler riff.

http://www.avclub.com/milwaukee/articles/trey-anastasio-at-pabst-theater,38409/

Spoon NYE Riverside

I should probably post something when I'm less tired and drunk. Thank you Mikey for the Champagne Flip Cup. I'm definitely not too old for those types of Shenanigans. But Spoon was boring. I would give the show a C+ as a generous grade. This is a professional outfit with original material. But the compositions were dull. They had no vocal arrangements. The lead had a strong voice, but the tunes were just boring. If this had been a $12 show, I would have been blown away. Thankfully, I only spent $25 (1/2 price). But I expect more from a rock band with this much critical acclaim. Spoon is just another Emo band. Maybe they have a super compelling message (I wouldn't know), but the music is not remarkable.