With their 11/2/07 performance at the Music Hall of Williamsburg—which used to be the hipster haunt Northsix, but was bought by the Bowery crew and transformed into one of the most promising new venues in New York City—Lotus demonstrated yet again their commitment to continued growth and developmen
hy are so many people on the multilingual bus with Gogol Bordello? Because getting into them is as much as layered, depth-creating experience as it is the well-documented hyper-visceral one. That is, the more layers you peel back and the deeper you entrench yourself in what the band's laying down, the richer the experience gets.
But after seeing Van Halen in concert, without all the overdubs and with a "a little space" between the instruments, you are immediately struck by how great they are musically. Eddie Van Halen is still a guitar-wielding behemoth. Beyond the quotes of "Magic Bus" and "Dazed And Confused," you could really hear a wide variety of influences in their sound, in particular the blues and Latin elements. Who knew that a self-described good-time party band had more to them.
Surprises at a show are a mixed bag. Most often they're of the unpleasant sort when the band you go to see doesn't live up to your (often over-hyped) expectation. Every now and then though, there's a good one. On Monday night at Rams Head Live, I got three of them.
For once in my life, I didn’t get exactly what I wanted at a concert and still walked out elated. In lieu of my desired throwback to nonstop ’70s funk from start to finish, Stevie Wonder instead turned in one of those legendary, well-rounded shows we’ll be talking about for decades. Saturday was mastery incarnate.
Rose Hill Drive’s performance set reached a frenzied conclusion, before a dwindling crowd. The threesome enganged in more free-form improvisation than their previous visit to this same venue back in May of this year: recall the instrumental conflagrations of Cream in their heyday, if you would, and relish the self-renewing aspect of great rock and roll.
Lotus demonstrated yet again their commitment to continued growth and development.
Some musical pairings, in the form of openers and headliners, simply shouldn’t happen. Others are matches made for memory. The latter is the case in the current Eric Bachmann/Josh Ritter tour match-up, with the former Archers of Loaf and current Crooked Fingers frontman opening for Ritter and his band.
The Marquee Theater has that effect of making a Friday night seem like a Tuesday for most bands, but Art Brut and The Hold Steady knew they have a job to do. As Finn said at the end of the show, “there is so much joy in doing what we do,” – you almost had to believe him.
Opening a two-night stand at this curious Long Island theater in-the-round, Weir and his crew were in satisfaction delivery mode, going for the familiar—Dylan chestnuts, Bob-sung favorites, a few fuzzy psyche-out moments—without taking too many chances until the end. Their opening run from "Shakedown" on was fun, but cursory; it wouldn't be until a slow-burning, wholly dramatic "Loser" that they'd really lock in. Steve Kimock too, was a colorist up until that point, and only keyboardist Jeff Chimenti—absolutely this band's undersung hero—had really grabbed the limelight, leaning barrelhouse for "Minglewood Blues."
