Blogs

Chris Hardy

Ailyn Pérez as Violetta Valéry

Better than: Sex (work).

It figures, doesn't it, that it was Rhett Butler -- that manliest of men -- who opined that reputation is something people with courage can do without.  Change "people" to "men," add italics for emphasis, and you'd have the take-away lesson from Verdi's La Traviata.  (That, and young soprano Ailyn Pérez is brilliant -- more on that shortly.)  Its heroine -- one of the more fully realized female roles in traditional opera -- is hardly lacking in courage. But when reputation is reducible to sexual purity, and that purity or its lack determines your place in the world, reputation suddenly seems tyrannical rather than dispensable.

The plot, as my date for the evening observed, falls into the time-honored camp of "let's kick this [lady] around for three acts and then watch her die." Violetta Valéry, a Paris courtesan with one hell of a bad cough, accepts the romantic advances of upper-crusty Alfredo Germont, and all is dandy until papa Giorgio Germont shows up to remind Violetta that she is -- how to put this politely -- a whore. Angst and noble self-effacing gestures ensue, the cough gets worse, and by the time Germont père comes round to the notion that whores are, like, people too, Violetta's on her deathbed. Uplifting stuff.

Joseph Schell

Deer Tick

July 1, 2009

The Independent

Better Than: Karaoke.

Last night, Deer Tick started its mellow set with a slow crescendo that climaxed in a stage dive. "We're doing things a little differently tonight," declared handlebar mustachioed lead singer John McCauley, before launching into the first song.

The Providence, Rhode Island-based band opened its nearly two-hour long set with a few songs from its latest album, Born on Flag Day, which is in its first month of release. The audience bobbed--and some even sang--along to the new songs, but when the band hit "Ashamed" from Deer Tick's previous record, War Elephant, the fans went a little crazy. Nearly everyone sang along. Clearly this was a crowd of veteran Deer Tick listeners.

Although the group played plenty of old and new material, its set was at least fifty percent covers, including songs by George Thoroughgood, Hank Williams, John Mellencamp, and a creative, almost a cappella rendition of the Rolling Stones', "Dead Flowers," during which the four band members gathered around the mic in a cozy circle. In addition to these homages, Deer Tick also played a host of teaser covers between songs, which included sound bites from Mariah Carey, Dave Matthews, and Nirvana. To be fair, McCauley acknowledged the band might be overdoing it on other people's material. Luckily Deer Tick had enough stamina to play MTV's greatest hits and get the most of its own songs in there as well.

Anna McCarthy

Beardo Weirdo shreds an air solo.

The US Air Guitar Championships

Sat, June 27, 2009
The Independent
Better Than: The Real Guitar Awards.

David Byrne, the cerebral, witty art rocker who has explored many areas of music and performance since his beginnings as part of the Talking Heads in the 70s, entranced a capacity crowd at Berkeley's Greek Theatre with a show entitled Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno. Eno and Byrne first collaborated on the Talking Head's second album, More Songs About Buildings and Food, in 1978, and continued through two more Talking Heads albums and the 1981 Byrne/Eno album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. After thirty years, they rejoined to make Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.

Byrne, all in white, to match his now-white hair, joined onstage by four musicians, three singers, and (eventually) three dancers, also all in white, greeted a crowd already amped and amused by a lively set from globally-inspired musical gypsies DeVotchKa. Referencing the stately setting, he said "We'll be doing some Greek tragedies -- Euripides," almost but not quite quoting the vaudeville stalwart "Euripides? Eumenides!" by continuing "No, not my pants...We're going to do some Brian Eno stuff, and other things that he and I did back in the day -- and break the rule book and do some other stuff, too."

Whereupon the group launched into a seamless celebration, beginning with Strange Overtones from the new album, and continuing through fourteen more songs, including much of Everything that Happens, but also many more. Shifting lights in primary colors and Byrne's playful interaction with the dancers (choreographed in arty-yet-artless, rather gymnastic modern-dance style by Noemie Lafrance, Annie-B Parson, and robbinschilds), as well as a constant re-configuring of the musicians, kept things more than fresh.

Michael Jackson R.I.Party
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Alamo Square
Better than: Hiding from the cops in the woods on nights when Michael Jackson didn't die.

There are times when you really appreciate living in a city--because it means there's an instant crowd willing to gather for any momentous occasion. Like the night when Obama got elected (Drinking to Hope!). Or the night when a pop music legend is found dead (Drinking to Lost Youth). Those are the times when you need to be together with your random San Francisco brothers and sisters and raise a can (of something cheap) to the occasion...and in the case of the dead music icon, getting down to a selection of greatest hits.

Last night some very special San Francisco DJs pulled their act together real quick to throw a wake for Michael Jackson in Alamo Square that went all....well, it went until the cops parked it at the top of the park, where we were all hidden in plain sight in a grove of trees and layers of misty fog. But those party promoters and their mobile generator got a good three hours of King of Pop tributes on the turntables, from "Wanna Be Startin Something" to "Rock With You" and lots of other goodies in between.

Elvis Costello and Jim Lauderdale
Monday, June 22, 2009
Amoeba Music

Better than: Concerts you have to pay for.

Sure, it's finally feeling like summer in San Francisco today, but a good couple hundred people skipped work this morning for more reasons than just working on their tan. The line that stretched down to the McDonald's from Amoeba's doorway around 9:30 a.m. told of another rare visitor in the city today besides the sun: Elvis Costello was in town. Not only that, but he was here to play a free noontime show at the Haight St. record store. The concert was part of his one-day California tour (he plays the Hollywood Amoeba this evening), and we got to hear him first--before both Southern California and the hordes of autograph seekers got to him.

Despite the non-rock n roll hour and the bright retail lighting, Costello took the stage in high spirits. He joked to the crowd that his father once told him, "Someday son, your name could be in lights. You may even play the Amoeba store." Even with the quip, though, Costello's performance came off as a show, not shilling--although he was quite obviously there to help sell a new record. He offered a full 40 minutes of acoustic material off his latest, Secret, Profane, and Sugarcane. The new release is Costello's current stab at old timey/country music, and to help bring that point home, he had with him on stage a mandolin player (Mike Compton, in denim overalls) and accordion player Austin de Lone, as well as his main cohort, Jim Lauderdale on backing vocals and guitar.

Peter Arensdorf

Grizzly Bear and Here We Go Magic
June 21, 2009
The Fillmore
Better Than: Seeing a unicorn.

Vagabond Opera
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Amnesia

Last night was the closest I'd ever been to both a theremin and a musical saw. The musical saw was played by a beautiful young blonde woman, attired in black and red lace ruffles. She was performing with a multicultural modern vaudeville act called Vagabond Opera.

The theremin was employed to great effect by another young woman who played with the opening act, Dan Cantrell. She was also festively if less theatrically clad. It was quite a night.

When told that Vagabond Opera combined elements of opera with burlesque, gypsy music, and time-travel to 1920s Paris with Josephine Baker, an evening of their music at Amnesia  proved irresistible.

We arrived shortly after 9 p.m. and caught the tail end of the sound check, which seemed theatrical enough to us, but we were assured by a young devotee (as events would prove, "camp follower" would be an accurate term) that Vagabond Opera would return in costumes and makeup.

Sleepy Sun
Friday, June 19, 2009
Great American Music Hall
Better than: Black Mountain + Brightblack Morning Light + Black Sabbath

The members of Sleepy Sun had barely taken the stage last night, and the dudes behind me were already stoked. "Oh my God," one of them started repeating to his friend. "Oh my God." The guy sounded like he was peaking, and he still had a good hour of Sleepy Sun's light show, face paint, stage smoke, and orgiastic wails to experience. But then, maybe he was just letting everyone within earshot know a little early that this performance was gonna be an all sensory event.

And really, it was the sort of concert where you felt kinda high just being there--despite the fact that the band's parents and white-haired relatives were lining Great American's balcony, when they weren't slow dancing on the floor to the lullaby ballads. When Sleepy Sun is on stage, they mellow out their their stoned soul and desert blues to what I'd call an "underwater headbanging" pace, stretching out the heavy riffs far as they'll go; quieting the stage cacophony down to a bare, aching vocal multiple times within a song; and otherwise filtering their repertoire through a haze of sludgy melodies and chilling harmonies that are also peaking all over the place.

The legendary Puerto Rican pianist and bandleader Eddie Palmieri, 73, began his first set of a four-day run at Yoshi's in San Francisco by introducing the five other musicians who made up the group of Eddie Palmieri All-Stars: Carlos Henriquez, 30, on bass; Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, 45, on drums; David Sanchez, 40, on tenor sax; Brian Lynch, 53, on trumpet; and Giovanni Hidalgo, 46, on congas. Like Art Blakey before him, Eddie Palmieri, who's been leading salsa and jazz orchestras for over 50 years, likes to play with the hottest young guys. And his set last night was hot indeed.

The ad hoc group, also known as "The Pan-Carribean Summit," (members hail from Cuba as well as Puerto Rico -- and the Bronx and Urbana, Illinois!), didn't waste a second of their time on stage, swinging into irresistible propulsive action that instantly connected with the full house, who responded vocally.