David Grisman Sextet: Top Drawer

David Grisman Sextet

Freight & Salvage

Berkeley, CA

January 27, 2013

David Grisman Sextet: Top Drawer

Last weekend, the Freight & Salavage in Berkeley hosted a weekend tribute to famed jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt and jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli, including concerts, workshops, panel discussions and an open house for all things string jazz.  The weekend extravaganza ended on Sunday with a performance by the David Grisman sextet, which was appropriate enough since DG had actually performed on many occasions with Stephane Grappelli and even recorded an album with the legendary violinist.  Of course, DGrisman has achieved virtual living-legend status himself.  He is the Yo Yo Ma of the mandolin.  His name is virtually synonymous with the instrument.  And for good reason.  You will simply not be able to find a better, more accomplished mandolinist.

Django Reinhardt is oft times cited by jazz aficionados as one of the greatest guitarists of all time.  He is certainly one of the most influential jazz guitarists of the last generation.  Together with Stephane, he virtually invented acoustic string jazz.  Their style of music is sometimes called ‘hot jazz’ though it at times gives a mis-impression of being rather laidback or languid.  I love it for all the space in the music.  It certainly evocative and reminds me of Parisian cafe life.  It is definitely not a wall of sound like so much pop and rock music.  Django’s style of jazz guitar briefly bubbled into popular consciousness after Sean Penn played a Django-obsessed character in the movie “Sweet and Low Down.”

On Sunday, the David Grisman sextet played a generous set of some of Django and Stephane’s most well known tunes.  For being 68 years old, David Grisman has a lot of energy.  He is also a very generous musician frequently allowing the other members of his sextet to shine.  One annoying thing about listening to a jazz performances today is the incessant insistence of the audience to applaud after every solo which I’m sure the musicians appreciate but also interrupts the song and means that I'm applauding six or seven times for each song.  This is a ridiculous tradition that should die off but probably won't.  Nevertheless, as the night went on, the set got better and better.  It started as a top-drawer performance and, by the end of the night, I was hoping to find a live recording.  That’s a good concert.

Check out the original: Django and Stephane playing here and here.  

Blue: One Song At A Time

Undercover: Joni Mitchell’s Blue

Freight & Salvage

Berkeley, CA

January 21, 2013

Blue: One Song At A Time

Undercover presents a classic album one song at a time, each song performed by a different artist.  It is like 10 one-song concerts in one evening.  Initially, I feared that ping-ponging between different musical styles would lead to a disjointed evening with uncomfortably long breaks as each performer set up.  Last night’s presentation of Joni Mitchell’s Blue included versions of her songs by an Indian singer, an electronic looper, Brazilian tropicalia band, jazz artists and more.   Despite this disparate group, each performance stood on its own and, united by Joni Mitchell’s poetry and lyricism, made for a wonderful evening of inspiring and engaging music- even if each performance was a bit of a band teaser leaving you wanting more.

Blue helped to establish Joni Mitchell as one of the most preeminent and influential singer-songwriters of the 1970s.  Despite her warbling soprano, I think it was always the honest poetry of her lyrics that drew in listeners.  And Blue is no exception.  The songs are filled with poignant longing and beautiful descriptions of Joni’s emotional entanglements, from All I Want to The Last Time I Saw Richard.  Her paean to California perfectly captures the laid back beauty of California and concludes with her painfully bare question, “Will you accept me as I am?”  The album also contains River which is perhaps one of her most popular songs and has been rerecorded by many artists and featured in many movies and TV shows.

The night of Joni opened with KillBossa doing an excellent Brazilian Tropicalia version of All I Want.   This was followed by two of the evening’s highlights.  A stunning version of My Old Man by Bharathi, an Indian singer with an outrageous voice, and Daniel, a jazz bassist, whose spare accompaniment was perfect.  And then Kelly McFarling played Little Green in an Americana Folk style.  Her voice is reminiscent of Zoe Deschanel and was certainly unexpected.  I also loved her use of the banjo as an accompaniment.   The Beth Custer Ensemble played a jazzy version of Carey and Kitka, a caped women’s choir, performed Blue a cappella.

In between the songs, a rather ineffective juggling team performed pranks and were rather annoying.

The second set began with Amy X Neuberg performing an engrossing looped version of California.  The tempo picked up with a couple of funky, jazzy versions of This Flight Tonight and A Case of You sandwiched around a old-timey River.  The show ended with a lovely version of The Last Time I Saw Richard by Katy Stephan and Classical Revolution.

Listening to accomplished musicians reimagine an classic album of touching poetry was inspirational.  A great night.  I will definitely look for more Undercover performances in the future.  

Click here to listen to a sampler.

Trombone Shorty: Knows How to Partay

Trombone Shorty

The Fillmore

San Francisco, CA

December 31, 2012

Trombone Shorty:  Knows How to Partay

It’s been a while since I partayed hot and heavy on a New Year’s Eve.  When you’re a little rusty, it’s good to surround yourself with professionals.  And the crew that journeyed to the Fillmore with me last night were veterans.  They know how to get the job done, glowsticks and all. And the Master of Ceremonies, Trombone Shorty, made sure the job was done well.   Of course, the audience was more than ready to celebrate but TS brought the goods.  A very impressive performance for someone who is still only 26 years old.

Much of the NYE prelims involved discussions regarding transportation logistics - which eventually consisted of two trains and a bus - to get to the Lower Haight where the evening started with some tasty but greasy naan and curry at Indian Oven before a mad scramble to the magic bus that would take us to the show.  When we arrived, Papa Mali was midway through a set of psychedelic hardrock blues, a la Iron Butterfly or Deep Purple.  I felt transported back to the 1960s Fillmore though just about 4 decades after the wave had crashed.  But it was good enough to keep the night on track.

TS took the stage for an hour long set of high energy jams before an intermission.  It was all great fun but I was not anticipating the break.  In retrospect, it seems obvious that they needed time to prepare for the midnight hour.  About 5 minutes before midnight, a small mardi gras parade with TS blowing on his trombone passed though the middle of the crowd to the stage where they counted down to midnight and dropped hundreds of balloons on the excited crowd.  The pros and myself were directly under the drop and were drenched with a downpour of rainbow colored balloons.  TS played  a medley of James Brown licks during “Feel Like Funkin it Up” which followed Auld Lang Syne after midnight.  And also included a fun cover of the Isley Brother’s “Shout” which completed the party.

Trombone Shorty has appeared before on MV&R when I characterized him as kind of a New Orleans jazzy rocking jam band.  That still holds true except he was even more fun last night.  The evening had all the makings of a Good Time and TS delivered.    

Other highlights:  Hurricane Season, Something Beautiful, Shout.

Photo #3 by award-winning JSantel.  Vids from the evening below.

Final Vid tipped from Youtube rb1229.

Matthew Edwards and the Unfortunates: Secret Talent

Matthew Edwards and the Unfortunates

The Catacombs

December 8, 2012

San Francisco, CA

Matthew Edwards and the Unfortunates:  Secret Talent      

        

Sometimes, in San Francisco, I get to feel cooler and hipper than I am.  The city is full of secrets: hidden stairways, alleyway restaurants with unbelievable food, quirky Victorian homes with Shangri-la backyard gardens, there are unexpected vistas around every street corner.  And there are hidden, basement clubs where the cool bands play for 30-40 hipsters in the know.  Last night’s ME&TU show was one of those nights where I happily stumbled across a hidden den of some of the city’s secret musical talent.

Approaching the Catacombs on Capp Street in the Mission makes you wonder if you are in the right place.  It looks like a regular Mission home.  Last night, a piece of paper that said “Unfortunates” was thankfully taped to the door to let me know that I was not lost.  Inside, the Combs feels very much like a converted garage space and there is also an upstairs apartment where people live.  I was told that it was once a recording studio for gospel music in the '60s and '70s and only opens for performances on rare occasions, like last night.

I’ve seen Matthew Edwards and the Unfortunates perform almost half a dozen times in San Francisco but have not included them in a review because each performance has been completely different.  They seemed to be a work in progress, experimenting with new version of songs and playing with different musicians.  Previous shows tended to feature blues-flavored British folk music.  However, last night’s Unfortunates show was much more rocking and was probably their best performance yet.  The Unfortunates played a fantastic upbeat set of intelligent and literate songs.  In barroom banter, Matthew Edwards is frequently compared to Elvis Costello though this comparison was perhaps truer of his previous band, The Music Lovers.  The Music Lovers played some sharply written, fun songs that could easily fit into a set by the Attractions.  However, the rock version of the Unfortunates last night recalled one of my favorite 1970s post-punk bands, The Feelies and, to a lesser extent, the Velvet Underground – both bands that were ahead of their time. 

Opening for The Unfortunates was Sasha Bell, a Brooklyn transplant and former member of Essex Green.  Essex Green released some adventurous, atmospheric but well crafted pop albums from 1999 – 2006 in the Elliot Smith vein.  Sasha is a talented songwriter and played an enjoyable opening set of melodic, midtempo pop music.  She also did double-duty last night playing keyboards with the Unfortunates.  I also can’t neglect to mention another Unfortunates band-member Jefferson Marshall who is a supremely talented bass player.  His recruitment to the band was a sharp move by Edwards.  Jefferson helps take the band to another level.

This blog tends to limit reviews to more established acts at large venues but last night’s show by Matthew Edwards & The Unfortunates, as well as Sasha Bell, demonstrate that the local music scene in SF is populated by exceptionally talented artists and musicians.  Although a larger audience would deprive me of the fun of going to hidden places like the Catacombs, there’s no doubt that their secret talents deserve wider attention.  

Photos by MT.

Angelique Kidjo: Class Act

Angelique Kidjo
Zellerbach Theater

Berkeley, CA

November 17, 2012

Angelique Kidjo: Class Act

There are few better ways to spend a rainy Saturday evening in Berkeley than to see Angelique Kidjo at Zellerbach Theater on the UC campus.  I have lived in Berkeley, CA for almost three years and have failed to properly take advantage of the Cal Performance series at Zellerbach.  Their acts are always of the highest quality and Angelique Kidjo was no exception.  Kidjo has won dozens and dozens of awards; she has been honored in every way by, well, basically, everyone.  She has performed with every major artist and been involved in advocating for many international relief organizations.  And in addition to having a fantastic, powerful voice that was warm and reassuring, AK is also a great performer.

A.Kidjo is a Benin born musician now located in New York and also announced that she is a recent US citizen!  While her music falls squarely in the world music category, blending elements of pop, reggae, blues and jazz with African beats, I think it is much more accessible to American audiences than many world artists that are often little more than tinny pop music in a non-English language.  Of course, the category of world music, inexplicably excludes American music, which is certainly a part of the world.  In any case, AK sings in French, English, Yoruba, Swahili and, at the Zellerbach, also in Hindi. 

 

What surprised me most about her performance was her determination for everyone in the audience to have a good time.   Almost midway through the performance, she jumped off stage and walked through the audience dancing and singing with everyone she came across.  Then, for the last three songs, she invited the audience on to the stage.  The downside to this invitation was that Angelique got buried in a sea of audience members and was no longer visible for the rest of the show until the encore.  I’m sure for the 60-70 people on stage, it was a thrilling experience, for those remaining in their seat, it was less so. 

Nevertheless, Kidjo’s stories of her African childhood and the life lessons she learned while on her way to becoming a world-recognized artist were still relatable for everyone’s daily struggles.  At times, she did talk for, perhaps, too long in between songs but when she was singing and the band was playing, everything was right.  Angelique is a force of nature and her performance is not one that will be forgotten easily or quickly.

Highlighted songs to check out (courtesy JL):  Malaika (Angel) (a Miriam Makeba song); Afirika (the song she sang while touring the audience); and Agolo.    

Gilberto Gil: Brazilian Music Ambassador

Gilberto Gil

Paramount Theater

Oakland, CA

October 25, 2012

Gilberto Gil:  Brazilian Music Ambassador

Contributing Senior Correspondent: Jana L.

There is little doubt that we will all be hearing a lot about Brazilian music in the coming years.  The next World Cup and summer Olympics will be held in Brazil in 2014 and 2016, respectively.  And there is little doubt that Gilberto Gil will be at the forefront of musical ambassadors playing and explaining popular Brazilian music to the world.  Few Brazilian musicians have had a longer, more distinguished career than Gilberto Gil and few are as beloved.  In fact if there was any lull during his performance at the Paramount on October 25, it was when he was too intent to explain the origins of different types of Brazilian music.  As soon as the audience was dancing in the aisles, he felt compelled to stop the show for several minutes to explain ‘forro’ music.  However, Gil is an effective ambassador for the musical roots of the country he loves deeply.

 

Thursday night was the year anniversary of the Occupy Oakland movement and a small march of several hundred people was proceeding down Telegraph Ave in Oakland a block from the Paramount.  There were dozens of police in riot gear staging nearby which is an unsettling sight while on our way to a Tropicalia party.  But, it was all forgotten soon enough once inside the majestic Art Deco triumph that is the Paramount Theater.  I could do an entire blog entry on the stunning design of the Paramount Theater and all the naked art deco.

The Lobby of the Paramount Theater

Gilberto Gil’s performance was open, sincere and joyful and not just limited to his funky-cool street dancing.  His energy and joy for performing was clear, he didn’t seem satisfied unless everyone was dancing.  His younger bandmates seemed unable to keep up with GG’s bubbling energy.  He frequently reached out to the audience from the edge of the stage inviting his fans to join in the party.  At times, it seemed like he was trying to embrace the audience in a big hug.  There was also many expat Brazilians in the audience that became part of the show.  They danced in their seats and in the aisles and sang along with sometimes too much enthusiasm. 

His setlist was a blend of old and new but it was difficult to tell if he was singing a popular song from the 1960's or one he recorded a few days ago. Some of the rhythms were frenetic and the songs blended together when performed back to back. Although the emphasis was on his party tunes, his heartfelt voice sounded best during ballads.  One of the most popular songs was "Esperando Na Janela."  Another crowd favorite was "Ultimo Pau de Arara."  One of the highlights of the nights had to be GG’s excellent Bob Marley covers.  He played great reggae/samba blends of “Three Little Birds” and “No Woman No Cry.”   GG is an old-school performer that believes in giving his all in every performance and that’s what he did at the Paramount.  

Bob and Mark: Hound dog howling

Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler

Greek Theater

October 19, 2012

Berkeley, CA

The untold story of this blog is that the idea of a concert review blog began bubbling through the cobwebs of my addled brain after a friend asked me how was a recent concert I had attended by legend, icon, mythic hero Bob Dylan.  I sent her a short email summary of the show and she replied by saying that the review was poorly written and the reviewer understood nothing about the greatness of Bob Dylan.  Four years later and after over 75 (!) concert reviews, I think I’ve proven that I can consistently post poorly written reviews that understand nothing about the artist performing.  So, here's one more!

 

Mark Knopfler, former lead guitarist of Dire Straits, opened the concert on Friday night at the Greek Theater with a bland set of dazzling guitar work.  MK is one of the best guitarists in rock history but his music sounded rather dated on Friday night.  His opening set also highlighted a perennial dilemma for artists with extensive oeuvres.  Should they play songs that they enjoy, deep cuts that only direhard fans will appreciate, or should they stick to popular songs that they have played thousands of times and are sick of playing.  I think artists need to do a mix.  If they are sick of a popular song, they just need to suck it up!  Not to put too fine a point on it.  MK has had close to a dozen genuinely popular songs with Dire Straits and played none on Friday.  His final song was a smaller Dire Straits hit, “So Far Away From Me,” which, frankly is not enough.

Bob Dylan is an icon and a legend.  He is certainly the best songwriter in American history.  It’s difficult for me to say anything negative about Bob since his music is art and his lyrics are poetry.  He revolutionized popular music.  And he accomplished all this without having much a singing voice.  When young, his voice was nasally, creaking but warm and world-weary.  It invited you into the poetry of his songs and made you feel understood.  Now, his voice is a croaking bullfrog.  It was difficult at times to even identify the songs with his staccato, sing-songy rasping.  It was very difficult to listen to.  On the plus side, he didn't have to worry about singing in the right key.  Bob played Tangled Up in Blue, Highway 61 Revisited, Make You Feel My Love, Desolation Row.  A fantastic set list.  However, I will need to go home and listen to the recordings to remind myself how fantastic these songs are because they were not fantastic at the Greek on Friday night.

First Aid Kit: To Sweden and Beyond

First Aid Kit

Fillmore

October 17, 2012

San Francisco, CA

First Aid Kit: Naiveté of Youth

First Aid Kit is a folk duo comprised of two sisters, Johanna and Klara Soderberg, from Stockholm Sweden, aged 22 and 19.  Though, they look like they are about 18 and 15 years old.  They are part of the growing trend for musicians to kick-start their careers with viral video success.  First Aid Kit first garnered attention with a viral video of their cover of a Fleet Foxes song.  There was something very touching about the beautiful harmonies of two sisters singing in the woods together.  It seemed genuine, two sisters simply enjoying playing music and being with one another, and displayed real talent besides.   The sisters continued to post songs on Youtube, recorded an album, got more attention from indie music enthusiasts and now are on a world tour after releasing their second album.  The haphazard, dumb luck of having a viral video makes me a little uncomfortable about the growing frequency of this pattern of new music success.  But if Youtube is to be the new FM radio, so be it.  There are certainly worse ways to find new music.  

 

I also cannot deny the quality of musicianship and singing in First Aid Kit.  The insistence to harmonize their voices on every song is a bit tiresome as is their insistence on the poignancy of loss in their songs.  However, I remember being 19 when everything was new and profound.  And their performance at Fillmore was a nice reminder of that youthful enthusiasm.  But more importantly, their music, if not their stage presence, demonstrated maturity beyond their years and shows real promise.  They are a couple of sister to watch.

David Byrne and St. Vincent: Giant

David Byrne and St. Vincent

Orpheum Theater

October 15, 2012

San Francisco, CA

On his latest album and tour, David Byrne (nee Talking Heads) has teamed up with indie darling St. Vincent (nee Annie Clark).  The collaboration has divided the SF hipster subculture.  For young urban hipsters, the collaboration is a stab at relevance by DB, a once great, faded musical icon and pop star; and for aging suburban hipsters, it is an attempt by promising, neophyte SV to gain greater exposure.  But for an aging music enthusiast and concert reviewer, it was all good fun. 

DB was last seen on MV&R over three years ago when he brought down the house at the Greek with one of the best shows in recent years in the Bay Area.  Nothing could live up to that show and Monday’s night performance didn’t.  However, DB again demonstrated that he is a man of class and talent.  From his perfect, clean, white, starched jacket to his never aging, refined voice.  His voice can transform despair into comfortable beauty, his robotic dancing transforms awkwardness into fun.  And his lyrics transform the mundane to the poetic.  When he sings, “I’m an ordinary guy, burning down the house.”  It is clear that he is not ordinary and that he is burning down something else.  The song is a celebration of liberation.

However, SV is no slouch either.  First, she’s super cute.  So, she’s got that going for her.  And she’s a damn good singer and songwriter.  Though, perhaps she should refrain from taking dancing cues from DB since she ended up looking a bit like C-3PO from Star Wars jerking across the sparse stage.

Most notable and remarkable about this show was that 8 of the 12 people on stage were playing horns: trombones, trumpets, tuba, flugel horn and saxophones (technically a reed instrument).  Yet they were able to recreate “Burning Down the House,” “This Must be the Place,” and “Road to Nowhere” amongst other hits, with great enthusiasm.   A good start to a long week of fun and music.

Photos by: Award-winning photographer Joe S.

Harmony By the Bay: Old & New

Harmony By the Bay: Old & New
Shoreline Amphitheater

Mountain View, CA

September 29, 2012

Harmony By the Bay Music Festival

HBTB is a kind of neo-hippie, organic music festival with bottled water, kegs of beer in wheelbarrows and sustainable-living eco-tents including an open air market selling rasta knit caps, tie-dye everything, leather minis, hemp shoulder-bags and hand-crafted jewelry all with an environmentally-friendly bent.  Oh, and there was a Yoga tent.  If by 'harmony,' the organizers meant a hodge-podge of Northern California clichés grouped together then yes, that was this music festival.  All oddly enough, with a mostly Indie music orientation.  Mostly, but not entirely.

The Shins: Could Have Been Better

OK, you might say that it is unfair to say that The Shins could have been better when we missed the first few songs while lingering at another stage and also because we left when the band announced their last song.  OK, maybe, they played all my favorite songs before we came or after we left during the encore and it would be fairer to say that the middle could have been better but then someone might think I was talking about my waistline.   In any case, if a band neglects the middle of the show and backloads all their hits, then the show could have been better. 

For all their Indie rock cred, the boys from Alberqueque/Portland sounded very British-lite.  Very Beatles, Oasis, very derivative and a little boring.  Singer James Mercer has a limited range though, granted, he makes the most out of it. But, frankly, he did better with BrokenBells, a side project with producer extraordinaire Danger Mouse.   The band has a nice sound but seems to do better when playing acoustically which they did not do last night.  I think that the performance may have suffered from being in a large venue.  The Shins may have aspirations to fill 20,000 seat amphitheaters but the band and the music seemed smaller, more remote and lost in the open air.

Beats Antique: Old & New

Best representing the harmonic convergence of disparate styles that characterized HBTB was Beats Antique.  Beats Antique is a local fave that combines elements of electronic/dance, middle eastern, African etc. music.  Pretty much a little bit of everything.  They sound a bit like a stripped down version of Thievery Corporation though not quite as much fun.  They certainly stood as the most unique of all the performers at the festival despite their reliance on prerecorded vocals and other tracks which was a disappointment.  The band was accompanied by a bevy of belly-dancers which left some wondering- why can’t all bands have belly-dancers on stage?  I think I get what Beats Antique is trying to do and appreciate the efforts to modernize some old folk and traditional rhythms and bring those to a younger audience but I don’t think they have realized the true potential of this territory.  A for effort, B- for execution.

Jimmy Cliff:  Seasoned

Every festival should have a reggae band.  The music is universal and uplifting and on a warm sunny day in California, nothing could be better than an afternoon of reggae.  And it would be hard to do better than reggae legend Jimmy Cliff.  JC is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and he proved why.  He was the consummate professional and entertainer.  While many of the festival acts seemed self-involved in their own fame and pretentious artistic doodling, JC was simply having a good time and it was infectious.  He played all his hits, The Harder They Come, Many Rivers to Cross, Wild World, I Can See Clearly Now, and more.  Despite being 64 years old, Cliff was the most energetic performer of the day with high kicks and twirls and exultations to the crowd.  It was a lesson in showmanship and performance for the younger bands.

Allison Kraus:  What is she doing here?

Amongst the indie, reggae, electronica, DJ-sets, and the eco-hippie open air markets, Allison Kraus played an old set of excellent bluegrass Americana.  It definitely seemed out of place but her wry sense of humor and the consummate professionalism of the band was undeniable.  And I loved “Man of Constant Sorrow” to close her set.

Tegan and Sara:  Tegan and Sara

My overwhelming impression of Tegan and Sara is that Tegan and Sara only care about Tegan and Sara.  Tegan and Sara’s performance was all about Tegan and Sara.  They really need to get out of the rockstar bubble.  I’ve complained before about stars that keep their bands in the dark behind them which is pretty much what Tegan and Sara did in their own way.  Behind Tegan and Sara on the stage were a couple platforms, fronted by waist-high bars of lights, where the rest of the band remained camped while Tegan and Sara were in front singing on their own.  The songs seemed overly self-indulgent and overly self-aware.  It is a pity because I like their music, to a degree, but their performance pushed me away from them.

Kimbra:  OK Pop

There were other artists before Kimbra but she was the first we saw when we arrived.  Kimbra is now best known for her mega-viral hit with Gotye, Someone that I Used to Know, which was destined to be the hit song of the summer until Call Me Maybe came along.  Both songs have inspired perhaps hundreds of video parodies.  But Kimbra is a decent enough pop songstress and is likely to have a good career.  Time will tell.  Mainly, her performance suffered from excessive volume that quite literally shook my entire body until I had to leave.

Coldplay: Colorful

Coldplay

HP Pavilion

San Jose, CA

April 27, 2012

Coldplay:  Colorful

Literally colorful.  And, honestly, there aren’t many other ways to describe the Coldplay concert in San Jose on Friday night.  At times, I felt I was inside a massive arena-sized kaleidoscope of spinning, twirling, flashing colors.  The band had distributed thousands of multicolored wrist-bands at the entrances which were controlled with a cheap plastic radio signal so when the band took the stage and during various songs throughout the night, the entire audience lit up like a human piñata.  During the opening number, "Hurts Like Heaven," massive plumes of colored confetti rained over the audience.  The arena crowd looked a bit like a multi-layered cake covered with candy sprinkles and the stage looked as if it was painted by a graffiti artist.  The whole spectacle almost created a sensory overload.  In fact, after the first two songs, I thought the band really had nowhere else to go.

I have frequently denigrated Coldplay’s music.  Others have called it ‘weepy chick rock’ or music that forgot the melody (or stole it).  I have called Coldplay ‘excellent background music’ which is a pretty harsh indictment.  Even super-critic OS, after Friday's show, said that lead singer Chris Martin is 'full of himself' (though he is an Arsenal fan so props for football-allegiances).  However, the extravagant lightshow was well-adapted to the big, open cinematic sound and large crescendos that characterize most of CP’s music.  

There were many highlights despite Chris Martin's insincere thanks for braving traffic and high-ticket prices-  What?? Who's responsible for that??  Some highlights included the release of dozens of giant beach balls from the rafters of the arena, "Yellow," the first encore song being played from the back of the arena before the band sprinted back to the stage through the crowd, large tear-shaped psychedelic colored balloons that lit up around the upper level during the song, “Every Tear is a Waterfall.”   Our seats were rather high up in the front row of the upper deck but this also gave us a wonderful, unobstructed vantage point for the entire concert even if we were left out of the beach-ball party.

I would not consider myself a Coldplay-convert after the live experience which I was assured was a religious experience.  But, I can better appreciate why others adore the band after having seen the spectacle.  I still find the music a bit forgettable but the band puts a huge amount of energy and effort into pleasing their audience.  So, I would definitely recommend the concert and for real CP-fans, I am sure that it will be an great, though perhaps not transcendent, experience.

  

Lauryn Hill: Frantic

Lauryn Hill

The Warfield Theater

San Francisco, CA

February 16, 2012

Lauryn Hill: Frantic

Frantic may not be a word generally associated with the mellow hip-hop stylings of Lauryn Hill. Both her much acclaimed album from 1998, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, and her 2002 MTV Unplugged 2.0 offer quiet, atmospheric hip-hop. Man, that would have been

awesome to hear live! Instead, her performance at the Warfield on Thursday night was entirely frantic and desperate to please. The mellow, sparse arrangements were replaced by methamphetamine-amped splurges of blared noisescape. The whole show was definitely a violation of expectations and even more so a violation of acceptable sound. Too many chefs to say the least.

Not only was her performance marred by the amped-up arrangements that made every song sound the same, the sound itself was muddy, distorted and overbearingly loud. That's becoming a common refrain for shows these days. I likes me a good, loud show to add to the excitement but not when the result is a blast of indistinguishable sound-blobs. In addition, few artists can survive a poor bass performance and, for most of the night, LH's bass was little more than a blaring, thumping drone that washed out her vocals and what remained of the melody.

I admire musical artists that want to reinvent their previous work and Lauryn must be getting tired of singing the same songs for the past 14 years (maybe it's time for a new album, hon) but few songs were reinvented for the better. You know that the show was lacking when your primary rumination on the way home is about what might have been.

On the plus side: Very tasty Indian food at Amber India!

Other opinions:

MT: I'm afraid Lauryn Hill was indeed a bit of a train wreck but major fault lay in the mixing board, bass at 15, vocals at 5 and the endless over-rearrangement of songs making them bloody unrecognizable. Pity because she's still got the lungs/ the pitch/ the charisma juice but her bass player was channeling/parroting In Living Color. And in the rare moments when the DJ level was turned down, her backup singers outsang her. Fun night anyway.

JW: I stuck it out until before the encore. The song choices were great with some fun cover songs thrown in [Ed. note: Always love to hear a Bob Marley cover] but I was kinda sorta disappointed at the production quality which did very little to show off Lauryn's vocals. She sang about 2 minutes of pure vocals near the end which was great but made me long for an acoustic set. I really felt like my Dad watching the show last night what with all the noise, I was feeling quite grumpy and old-fashioned in my listening preferences. And it made me feel sweaty just watching Lauryn strut her stuff in a fur coat. What's wrong with the yoof today, don't they know good quality entertainment when an old fogey demands it!!