Dead Weather vs CR AveryRound 3The Motown/Steeltown Showdown2009-07-24 & 2009-07-29

Jack White in Detroit...something so right. Unfortunately the Tigers were playing a double-header at Comerica Park, across the street from The Fillmore, so we had to get in town early to find a parking spot.

Turned out it was no problem at all as we found a spot near a bar and the venue. We're accompanied tonight by two friends who we've shared many a Dylan show with. They cross-over too.

We catch a break at the door when we line up with the early entry Vault winners. A very kind usher, realizing we belong in the back of the long line that wraps the venue, also notes that it's a bit of a challenge for one of our party to be out and about at a rock concert and instructs us to just sit still and he'd get us in after the VIP's. I've been to the State, now the Fillmore, before. Each visit I'm amazed at the courteous service we get from the staff. It's a fan-friendly environment.

Dead Weather's set is the same. Only better. Every night they're getting tighter. Alison is exploding. She's found the sweet spot in most of her solo songs. Because the band has more confidence, Jack is stepping out a bit. We got a little impromptu talk from him this evening. While it made little sense, it was fun to hear: "Saw two guys in a park today. One of them said "Don't look at me bitch"... fifteen feet away the other guy said "Can you, yeah, but can you spell 'bitch'? My God!" He said "My God.... can you spell 'bitch'? The other guy said 'I AM GOD!'. "

Another 64 minutes. Tonight's top ticket price was $52.00 + fees.

The show can be broken down into three distinct segments: Her songs, His songs, Their songs.

Her songs:

60 ft Tall: Great opener, she throws down the gauntlet from the outset. Each show she tries to find a spot high on the monitors to deliver the first refrain.

Bone House: Not only can she take it, she can dish it as well. Stalker-rock from the distaff side.

Hang You From the Heavens: Maybe her best song. Must be seen to be properly experienced.

So Far From Your Weapon: Takes a little longer to build momentum and never explodes in the same manner as the other songs but it's a nice moody breather in mid-set.

No Hassle Night: This one's not working for me yet.

Forever My Queen: This is starting to grow on me but still not as accessible as her strong songs.

Treat Me Like Your Mother: Another wonderful stage performance, improving every night.

New Pony: She just slays this Dylan tune. Wish they'd add the extra verse and fill out some of those lines instead of truncating them but I do dig the refrain.

His Songs:

You Just Can't Win: The fans aren't quite getting this yet. The part at the beginning, when Fertita is noodling and Jack is posing, standing, at the drum kit, IS PART OF THE SONG....PAY ATTENTION. There's only a couple quiet parts in the show and both of them end with Jack being center stage. It's the foreplay beforet he sonic mind-fuck. Half the song is done at the mic, with no instrument, before he returns back to the kit for the explosive finish. Great spotlight on singer and song.

I Cut Like A Buffalo: I'm giving this one to Jack 'cause I don't think it's fair to blame Alison for it.

Their Songs:

Child of A Few Hours: Can you say 'weird'?

Rocking Horse: Getting better every night. Didn't take too much to this song at first but now I'm loving the interplay.

Will There Be Enough Water?: What can be said about the epic album tune? It's simple and simply over-the-top all at once. Must be seen to be appreciated, like lots of Jack's stuff. The image of the two singers, face to face, lip to lip, behind the lead vocal mic reminds me of those silhouettes we used to cut out in crafts. They are like twins. Jack's guitar blow-out is vintage Jack and crumbs for the audience all at the same time.


Here's the set list and a few mp3's.

Track 01 Intro
Track 02 60 ft Tall
Track 03 Bone House
Track 04 Hang You From The Heavens
Track 05 You Just Can't Win (Van Morrison)
Track 06 Band Intro/Bitch Talk
Track 07 So Far From Your Weapon
Track 08 I Cut Like A Buffalo
Track 09 Child of a Few Hours
Track 10 Rocking Horse
Track 11 No Hassle Night
Track 12 Will There Be Enough Water?
Track 13 audience/encore
Track 14 Forever My Queen
Track 15 Treat Me Like Your Mother
Track 16 New Pony (Bob Dylan)



Finally, the end of a gruelling 14 days with 8 concerts in 5 cities as CR Avery pulls me out of my stupor with a lengthy set at Hamilton's This Ain't Hollywood. Not as gruelling as it's been for this band of gypsies as they've criss-crossed Southern Ontario in search of festivals and stages the past few weeks.

Tonight there's no ticket at the door, I think the band is playing for drinks. The crowd is sparse early in the evening but by showtime we have a decent, if boisterous, gathering. This bar is in the process of changing it's identity...very early in that process, so not everyone here tonight was expecting live music. Sometimes the artist challenges the audience, sometimes it's the other way around.

We have a replacement for Serena Eades in the Legal Tender String Quartet, sister Laura Bates,if I heard right. This fusion of strings and hip-hop has been enjoyable. Meredeth Bates on lead violin has gained in confidence and her sound adds a unique quality to all the songs, from the moody swirls in The Ballad of Charlie Parker and Patsy Cline to the chops in Folk Singer and the swing in Bigger Fish To Fry. On bass and cello Evan Bates holds the beat, which isn't as easy as it sounds when you consider CR is wont to ramble and improvise. Drummer Matthew Rogers doubles as 'strings arranger' and his job was mostly completed before this collective hit the stage...what we are reaping are the rewards of his labour.

Was hoping for 2 sets tonight but the bar found a last-minute fill in for the opening slot. Gord Lewis, of Teenage Head fame, supported on guitar. Don't know if that's 'nuff said but that's all I'm going to say.

For the first time since September 2005 I'm not taping a show in stealth. Got a soundboard patch. Wish I didn't as the guy manning the board neglected to turn on my output until about 57 minutes into the show. No matter, I got to applaud, laugh, sing and get up to take a piss, instead of playing the human mic stand for two hours.

CR had to work this crowd. The beauty of his shows is that you don't really know what you're going to get. Tonight he came into the audience for 3 songs in an attempt to win the attention of the chatters. I've seen this work to perfection, where he mesmerizes the crowd and you can hear a pin drop beneath his unamplified vocals. You coulda heard one tonight but it would have had to have been a bowling pin, followed by 9 others crashing against the back wall. But for those in close we got a great rendition of Bigger Fish to Fry and Midnight Gold Mining. Earlier in the evening he came out to finish Parker/Cline. While CR is taper friendly, he's not taper easy. If he has to work, then everyone has to work for their stuff.


Don't have a complete set list tonight...due to the aformentioned technical difficulties, but here's a few samples of what did come out.

From the soundcheck

Hank William's Lost Highway

Town To Town

From the main set

Channeling Frustrated Energy

Midnight Gold Mining

Folk Singer (fast version)



Get off the couch and support your local artists!

And if you can't get off the couch roll over a little, pull out your wallet and buy CR Avery's Magic Hour Sailor songs at CD Baby

Dead Weather vs CR AveryRound 2The Tango in Toronto2009-07-22 & 2009-07-23

CR definitely has the advantage this round as his show is in the comfy confines of The Rivoli while the Dead Weather are housed in what's become a more and more uncontrolled club environment at the KOOL HAUS. This place is like an asshole magnet...which is probably why I find myself here a half-dozen times a year when I've grown to not enjoy the venue.


The thing about the Dead Weather is...not much variance in the set list. If they were a real 'new band' we'd probably see them experimenting with songs and styles and taking some chances. Instead we have them here, virtual stage-virgins, pushing polished product. It's not like the Stripes where you know you're getting something different. In that way they are not as exciting to see again-and-again-and-again. There's a couple slots in the set list where there's a chance for some variety...the cover slots, but even those are rather static. Combined with their excessive promotions (I get about 5 emails a week from Third Man Records/Dead Weather/Raconteurs/White Stripes), it's this rather blatant commercialism that turns me off these 'experiments'. With the demise of the record companies you gotta find a new path...but does everything from access to music have to be for sale? I'm out here for one reason: Jack White is rock deity. Opportunities to witness him practising his art will be few and far between. Anytime you can catch him, you should.

On the other hand the band is getting progressively more comfortable with each other and this show was the most rollicking, rocking and sweaty of the few I've seen so far. The volume, as always, was set to 11. Alison prowls the stage, like a tigress on the hunt, perched on monitors or stage wings, doing her petulant "no smoking rules don't apply to me 'cause I'm cool" schtick. Jack's two forays to front-stage are becoming more choreographed as he stands from his kit and meanders slowly, teasingly, towards the mic. His guitar spot on "Will There Be Enough Water?" was through the roof as the audience response seemed to elicit a more energetic solo.

Unfortunately the songs remain the same so I find myself looking forward to Hang You From the Heavens, Jack's vocals on You Just Can't Win, the duet and Jack's guitar on Will There Be Enough Water? and the final song, a cover of Dylan's New Pony. They are worth the price of admission on their own.

Here's the set list and a few mp3 samples:

Track 01 Intro
Track 02 60 ft Tall
Track 03 Bone House
Track 04 Hang You From The Heavens
Track 05 You Can't Win (Van Morrison)
Track 06 So Far From Your Weapon
Track 07 I Cut Like A Buffalo
Track 08 Child of a Few Hours
Track 09 Rocking Horse
Track 10 No Hassle Night

Track 11 Will There Be Enough Water?
Track 12 audience/encore
Track 13 Forever My Queen
Track 14 Treat Me Like Your Mother
Track 15 New Pony (Bob Dylan)


At the CR show we have the added pleasure of promoting my son's DVD capture of his February set at The Rivoli. You can check out some video samples at his youtube page

No Sojourners tonight but we have the CR Avery Band and the strings are still with us.

The trouble with CR Avery's press/bio clippings is that everyone calls him a 'hip-hop' or 'beat-box' artist. Not that there's anything wrong with that! Except it's like saying water is wet. It barely begins to describe the properties. Water is also calm, turgid, hot, cold, and rushing. It's also ice and steam. CR is soulful, melodic, bluesy, pop-punk and a kick-ass rocker. He can change his properties as easily.

He's an unconscious wordsmith. I've seen my share of songwriters over the years but not many as nimble of lip and mind as this guy.

He's a sponge, reminiscent of a pasty faced kid who left the midwest for the bright lights of NYC in 1961. He transtextualizes with the best of them. If you think that's cheating, try it.

At the Rivoli he has his friends from Vancouver, The Legal String Quartet and Noah Walker on guitar. This show was promoted locally by The Undesireables, who usually hold court at The Cameron House. You'll be hearing about them in the next month or so.

CR laid them to waist tonight. Massive set...1 hour and 50 minutes of pure joy. A handful of new songs for me Midight Gold Mining, Dear Colonel, Lemon Meringue Pie, Channeling Frustrated Energy and Work To Be Done) plus two radically different version of familiar songs (a subdued (?) Motel: 50 Miles Out of Town and a sped up version of Folk Singer).

I can't even begin to break down the subtle variances in his rap, or the dramatic changes in the songs because I actually have a day-job and it would take a good 10 hours to point out the changes we get night-to-night. Suffice it to say you gotta see this guy.

And if you're thinking: Who the fuck is CR Avery? Well, just lift up your head and look...his name is written in the stars. Check out The Ballad of Charlie Parker and Patsy Cline. If that don't do the trick, you're free to leave.

Here's the set list and a few samples:

Track 01 Intro
Track 02 ??Big In Japan
Track 03 Rain Falls On Eternity
Track 04 talk
Track 05 ??Push the Envelope (Dear Colonel)
Track 06 Songs From The Underground/Trudeau Rap
Track 07 The Ballad of Charlie Parker and Patsy Cline
Track 08 Door By The River
Track 09 talk
Track 10 Boxer Who Just Returned From London
Track 11 Lemon Meringue Pie
Track 12 talk
Track 13 Motel: 50 Miles Out of Town
Track 14 ??Lover's Tattoo

Disc 2

Track 01 Midnight Gold Mining
Track 02 talk
Track 03 Channeling Frustrated Energy
Track 04 encore break/talk
Track 05 ??Work to Be Done
**Track 06 ??
Track 07 Folk Singer

filler aud. soundcheck

Track 08 ??Push the Envelope (Dear Colonel)
Track 09 Folk Singer

CR Avery vs Dead WeatherRound 1Perth FolkFest/Ottawa BluesFest2009-07-18 & 2009-07-19

On the surface it may look like a mismatch but on any given weekend anyone can win.

Helping his cause CR Avery has Legal Tender String Quartet & The Sojourners backing him up so it's not just him and his piano against Jack White's screaming banshee band. They are both playing the Bluesfest (19th) except the schedule has them opposite each other. Much as I love CR, I'm hoping to see Jack more often than I've seen Dylan and I'm lagging about a hundred shows behind at the moment.

This should be a fair opening round, both artists are on outside stages, competing against the 'festival' atmosphere and the natural surroundings. CR has the advantage of a nighttime set opening for Melanie Doane at the Perth Restaurant in the evening.

Which is why we find ourselves in the lovely town of Perth, ON., at a free concert in Stewart Park. We were on the road early out of Toronto to make CR's 12 NOON set time. Unfortunately we have a little rain. Truth be told it's much preferable to blazing sunshine. Nobody ever stroked out 'cause of too much rain. Umbrella's and folding chairs are in order.

The Sojourners and CR Avery were first paired up on CBC Radio's "The Fuse". That radio show brought together Canadian artists from disparate genres to see what would ensue. That is such a great idea that the show has been canned, effective September of this year. Leave it to the corporations to fuck up a good thing. You can catch an audio replay of their collaboration HERE.


CR's afternoon and evening set were pretty much the same, the biggest difference coming in the improvisational verses thrown in to make this show a little more Perth-cific. oh, and it didn't rain inside the restuarant.

Disc 1

Track 01 Clean Up (Canton Spirtuals)
Track 02 Rain Falls
Track 03 Children, Go Where I Send Thee (trad. Jean Ritchie)
Track 04 The Ballad of Charlie Parker & Patsy Cline
Track 05 ?Ain't No Use Nobody Try To Turn Me Around
Track 06 Motel: 50 Miles Out of Town
Track 07 talk
Track 08 People Get Ready (Curtis Mayfield)
Track 09 Eating Pussy on A Hot August Night
Track 10 Farther Along

Disc 2

Track 01 Hymns from the Underground
Track 02 Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix)
Track 03 Door By the River

First saw the Dead Weather at their impromptu Horseshoe gig last month. It was, ummm, dense. Today we start in the light. The release this week of the album is going to help me recognize the songs much easier...maybe even like more of them.

They are further aided by some much improved sound. Without the low ceiling and narrow space of the Horseshoe the mix was superior, almost excellent.

Pretty well the same set list. I'm not expecting a lot of variety on this tour. We did get an 'extra' Jack song when he stepped forward to cover Van Morrison's You Can't Win, and a song or two I couldn't identify.

I could watch that duet on Water in a loop, coupled with New Pony, great stuff.

Track 01 Intro
Track 02 60 ft Tall
Track 03 Bone House
Track 04 Hang You From The Heavens
Track 05 So Far From Your Weapon
Track 06 You Can't Win (Van Morrison)
Track 07 I Cut Like A Buffalo
Track 08 ??They Like To Watch Fire
Track 09 Rocking Horse
Track 10 No Hassle Night
Track 11 Will There Be Enough Water?
Track 12 audience/encore
Track 13 ??
Track 14 Treat Me Like Your Mother
Track 15 New Pony (Bob Dylan)

As for the versus part of this blog...who the f*ck am I to judge these artists? I'm grateful I'm going to see them 3 times each in the next couple weeks. But for your consideration here's a couple songs from the weekend.

I've got two versions, each distinct, of CR Avery's Motel: 50 Miles Out of Town.

No need to be shy, we're going to pit that against Jack's monster song, Will There Be Enough Water.

You choose.

If you're smart, you'll choose both.

Motel...afternoon version

Motel...evening version

Will There Be Enough Water?

Green DayCopps ColiseumHamilton ON2009-07-16

"do you have the time
to listen to me whine
about nothing and everything
all at once?"

Much like The Offspring, I first saw Green Day in the company of my pre-teen son back in '95. That show was at the cozy Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto (back when they played shows with the original three-man contingent). This one's a little less intimate and not so close to home. For reasons unknown they've passed on the big city this time through Canada. Been awhile since they've been about too but they've never dissappointed.

Bad news heading out of Toronto (usually an hour away from Hamilton), as the 403 going in the other direction was completely shut down since 2 pm for an accident with loss of life. Ironically this didn't affect our drive until we were about 200 yards from our highway exit...where we sat, for 20 minutes, without moving forward.

WTF?

Taking a chance I opt to enter the city from another highway exit a couple kilometers further along. This is a risk because I have no maps and Hamilton is an upside-down-one-way-street-mofo to get around in. Happens that accident forced all westbound traffic into the city...all day long. By 7 pm it was one massive grid-lock. We finally make our way to the general vicinity of the arena where I make my next error. I don't park on King St, but on Bay St. This will add 45 minutes to my egress at the end of the show.

The Bravery in the opening slot, was a bonus. Too bad we missed about a third of their set as we had to meander through a 30 minute line up to gain entrance with the 'forced will call' policy in place.

With Green Day having been away so long they had ample time to build a show...and that they did. Big screen videos, pyrotechnics and too many opportunities for audience participation. Nobody just does a concert anymore.

The set comes in at a staggering 2 hours and 15 minutes, long by any account. Back in the day this band would have played around 60 songs in that time period. 'Course, I also remember when Green Day was a 3-man outfit. Tonight we get 23 songs or so, depending on how you count the intro and the medley. About a half hour of that time was filled with Billy Joe exhorting the audience to chant in variance cadences...mostly the old fall back "Aaaaa, Ooooo". Twenty-five call outs to "Hamilton" and "Canada" filled another half dozen minutes. Three trips to the stage for kids under 10 to participate in various ways with the show took up 17 minutes. "Guest" singers filled about 3 and a half minutes. Don't forget the t-shirt toss. When you boil it all down you're still left with an awesome 70 minute set.

There were highlights, low lights, and things in between.


The definite low was the aforementioned incessant chant mongering.

The encore was a distinct highlight as it was delivered with little unneccesary interuption. The kid pulled out of the audience to play lead guitar on Jesus of Suburbia was great. Had me smiling as I watched him cavort around the stage trying to interact with Mike on bass. He was having nothing of it. I mean as big as you are when you're Green Day, it's gotta be weird to see a kid from Sect 5 Row B Seat 12 play your songs as good as you could.

The medley was terrific too. Billy Joe started out doing his best imitation of Carla from Cheers with the opening segment of Shout, which was explosive. The band then laid on the stage for the middle section of ballads/slow songs before springing back to life for the reprise of Shout. Great use of the horns which were around for a couple of songs from the new record.

In between was Longview, sung by two tone-deaf kids out of the audience. On the upside there's no mistaking what a great experience this must have been, to be belting out this song with Green Day backing you. Both the young girl and boy who took part relished the chance and played it to the hilt. Sent goosebumps up my arm. Technically, though, they murdered the song, sent a chill down my spine. Even-Steven.

This tour is really the 21st Century Breakdown Opus with a light smattering of thematically related songs from American Idiot. The other hits were rather random, or expected, and the band really didn't pay them as much heed as I'd have liked.

I spent half the night thinking, "I don't get it, what is this shit?" Each time the chants threatened to get repetitive or the special guests made the show drag. In the end it wasn't shit...I just didn't get it, at first. This is a band of modest talent and big heart. As Billy Joe said during one of his rants, it's NOW that we have to enjoy, so get off your ass, put down your computer, your cell phones or your ritalin and find your groove. He seemed pleased to see the kids sharing the spotlight and really sees his job as head cheerleader for anyone who wants to let loose. That might be incongruous with the epic (for Green Day anything over 4 minutes is epic), political songs they're flogging and maybe it's that dichotomy that made this show strange.


Here's the set list and a few mp3 samples.

Song of the Century
21st Century Breakdown
Know Your Enemy
East Jesus Nowhere
Holiday
The Static Age
Before the Lobotomy
Are We the Waiting
St. Jimmy
Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
Hitchin' A Ride
Brain Stew
Jaded
Longview
Basket Case
She
King For A Day
Shout/Earth Angel, I'll Be There, and Stand By Me snippets (The Isley Brothers cover)
21 Guns
American Eulogy

Encore:

American Idiot
Jesus Of Suburbia (Sam from Toronto on lead guitar)
Minority
Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)

The OffspringMolson AmphitheatreToronto ON2009-07-02Shit Is Fucked Up Tour

It's been awhile since I've seen these guys...they seem shy about playing North American dates; first time through here since 2005. Perhaps that retro-stuff goes over better on the Continent. First time I saw The Offspring I was sitting on the rail at the KOOL HAUS with my pre-teen kids. It hasn't gotten better than that... 'course it hasn't gotten much different either.

We have the distinct pleasure of having Pennywise open the show, their only appearance on the tour. We won't be lacking any Orange County feel tonight.

They better bring it though, they are playing in a cavern, not the Cavern Club.

Caught a break during the day as it rained almost non-stop. Ontario Place is open now and if it's sunny and warm parking can be a problem. I'm late getting out of a downtown meeting, had to rush home to feed the family (or at least arrange for them to be fed), then rush back down to the lakefront for what promises to be a night of power-pop-punk that should release all the pent up frustrations.

Luckily I wasn't looking at my ticket of the 6:30 pm doors would have had me even more concerned as I left home at quarter past the hour. We end up inside the venue at 7...just in time to miss Frank Turner's opening song. This was a pleasant surprise. Very much in the Billy Bragg mold with a young man's anger still present.

It's a band like Pennywise that makes a band like The Offspring necessary...and possible. That's no diss. They embody the spirit and soul of Second Wave punk movement that spawned rock-gods Green Day and the Princes' of Power Punk, The Offspring. They are not as accessible as those bands and it appears they have no desire to change that. As noted from the stage: "We've been a thorn in their (Offspring's) side for 20 years." That alludes to the grief The Offspring used to take in the press about being punk-lite. That's a press thing though. Dexter was Fan #1 sitting along side-stage for the complete set.

Nothing lite about the Pennywise set as they joked going into their 3rd song; "Here's another slow one for you."

Lots of jawing with the audience. They wouldn't start their set until everyone in the Amphitheatre stood. The instant mosh-pit set the tone for the evening...it was gonna be raucous. We got a couple covers via the "t-shirt" request method...a Misfits shirt was spotted...don't know why we got the Beastie Boys cover but it was cool.

Sample Track: You've Got To Fight For Your Right To Party/Pennywise

The sun goes down and Dexter is finally touring his 2008, prescient record, Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace.

If only those guys at the Fed were listening to Stuff Is Messed Up last summer...when there might have still been time to avoid the panic. Ya, right, as they say.

We get a generous helping of tunes from Americana, Ixnay and three from Smash so the old-goat's happy with the set list. The new record, first in five years, is more to the familiar formula we all came to love.

With this band it's not about the flash, though their backing screen was filled with images most of the evening and the lights were intense. They are definitely a case where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Even with the serious subjects they tackle they remain a 'feel-good' band...there's just something about the way they do it that makes you want to smile.

Here are some samples and the set list.

The Offspring
Molson Amphitheatre
Toronto ON
2009-07-02


Track 01 Stuff Is Messed Up (Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace)
Track 02 Bad Habit (Smash)
Track 03 You're Gonna Go Far Kid (Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace)
Track 04 Come Out And Play (Smash)
Track 05 The Meaning of Life (Ixnay on the Hombre)
Track 06 Have You Ever (Americana)
Track 07 Staring At The Sun (Americana)
Track 08 Dexter's Amazing Piano Solo
Track 09 Gone Away (Ixnay on the Hombre)(Dexter on piano)
Track 10 Kristy, Are You Doing OK? (Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace)

Track 10a Gotta Get Away
Track 11 Half-Truism (Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace)
Track 12 Get A Job (Americana)
Track 13 Intermission (Ixnay on the Hombre)
Track 14 Americana (Americana)
Track 15 All I Want (Ixnay on the Hombre)
Track 16 Noodle's Talks Beavers
Track 17 Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) (Americana)
Track 18 (Can't Get My) Head Around You (Splinter)
Track 19 The Kids Aren't All Right (Americana)
Track 20 (encore break)
Track 21 Hammerhead (Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace)
Track 22 Want You Bad (Conspiracy of One)
Track 23 Self Esteem (Smash)

The Hank and Lily Show NXPO Stage (NXNE)2009-06-19

Just missed seeing Hank and Lily when their start time at the Silver Dollar was moved from 8 pm to 10 pm last week. What can I say? It was a week night and I'm getting old. Today, however, I had the good fortune of having a few free hours in the middle of the day when they were playing a free showcase at the NXNE headquarters in the Hyatt Regency.

Cozy little set up, about 30 chairs in front of a small stage. It's crowded as Hank and Lily have a big band today with an added bass player and three wigged (and wigged out) backup singers. Add a couple clowns and a dancing girl...well, it's easy to see the circus is in town.

Short set, under 40 minutes. Most tracks come from their North America project. Always great to see Lily with the saw, the show opens with the wonderfully spooky, Don't Be Afraid. We get the twins, We Can Take You Apart and the ode to Toronto, We Can Build You. Long Black Snake Moan is a muddy trip into voodoo territory. The show closes with a nicely rounded out, courtesy of the back up singers, Someone Out There For You.

Here's the full set list and some mp3 samples.

Track 01 Intro
Track 02 Don't Be Afraid
Track 03 We Can Take You Apart
Track 04 We Can Build You
Track 05 North America
Track 06 Xanadu
Track 07 Long Black Snake Moan
Track 08 A-P-O-C-A-L-Y-P-S-E
Track 09 Someone Out There For You

Dead WeatherThe Legendary Horseshoe Tavern2009-06-13

Having already booked 3 Dead Weather shows for July I was happy to receive an email from silverjetz notifying me there was a surprise show at the 'Shoe. And it fell on a night off.


'Course they're not making it easy on us. I'm in line outside the Horseshoe at 8:00 am. Except for the guy sleeping on the bench, and I think he's not here for the show, I'm alone. Hard to gauge the hype around this band. These small-venue warmup shows are being announced a day in advance, but they are no great secret if you turn on an electric appliance with a receiver or log onto the web. Driving into downtown Toronto, along Richmond St, I'm horrified to see thousands of kids in queue along the curbs. Good news is they are there for the Much Music Video Awards and the Jonas Brothers. A couple blocks away there is no one waiting on Jack White.

Proof, if you needed it, that this world is fucked up beyond comprehension.

The line starts to fill in but by 1 pm, when the wristbands are handed out, it still looks like everyone who showed up is going to get in. The excruciating part in lining up with those wristbands, waiting for the lottery that determines who gets in first, and hoping the confusion that ensues doesn't affect you're getting in. I've got wristband #1. The only thing that guarantees is I'm unlikely to be first in. The random lottery started at #230 up to the capacity of 460. Ironically, though these people got to pay ahead of us the venue was not open, only the bar. Many had to back out of the club and wait for actual doors...thereby rejoining the line up outside. When our number was called we waltzed in at the exact moment they opened access to the venue and I found myself where I'd hoped to end up...20 feet from the right stacks.

Just prior to joining that line I was out back watching the tour buses with a handful of fans. Didn't seem like nothing was happening so I made my way through the alley towards the front when I was cut-off by a white panel van. Out piles Allison, followed by Little Jack and then the frizzy-headed Jack White stumbles out. He makes a slight detour to shake hands, chat inanities and take a picture with a cutie who'd been waiting about. It took 20 seconds but he was smiling and friendly.
LittleWhiteGhost from the fansite "The Little Room" got a good 15 seconds of that sunshine.

Opener tonight is Hollorado, hand-picked from myspace auditions by Jack his'elf. They did well. High energy. A few of the songs were very promising.

Back behind the drums, for the first time since his stint in Goober and the Peas, is Jack White. Weird don't begin to describe that. He's brought along a couple friends from his Raconteur days; Jack Lawrence on bass and Dean Fertita, tour keyboardist, is taking the lead guitar role. Manning the mic, she-devil from The Kills, the sultry and slightly bitchy, Alison Mosshart.

I haven't listened to a single tune, figuring I'd get a handful of opportunities to check out Jack's new project live. They are not nearly as instantly accessible as The Raconteurs. The whole sonic feel is one of a muddy-slightly-distorted booze joint on the banks of the lower Mississippi. It's not an accident. The mics and pickups are set to reverb. The volume is set to 11. It made for a dicey night inside the 'Shoe as we were blasted with feedback about 4 times through the evening. Three times I'm sure it wasn't planned. Not so sure about what Dean was doing with the keyboard at one point.

It'll take a while to find the comfort zone with this band. Perhaps after I've had time to digest the record. Some members of tonights audience didn't seem to want to wait that long as there was a steady stream of couples leaving the pit at about the half-hour mark muttering; "I liked the old Jack better." I figure if somebody doesn't walk out of your show you aren't challenging the audience enough.

On first look it appears Jack is the star.

Little Jack, that is.

He's relentless as the rain, playing the bass like it was a lead instrument.

The OTHER Jack's drumming is concussive and less than intricate though by shows end he was playing some mighty fine runs.

Dean's guitar work was excellent but the keyboard seemed like an annoyance most times he went to it.

As for Alison, well, she's got something going on. At times it's hypnotic and totally in synch with the show. At other times it seems like petulant posing. While her attempted sexual liason with the mic stand on the opening number was tantalizing in a 'suicide girls' kinda way, her chain-smoking blues persona seemed less a sign of independence from the cultural norms and more a case of self-centered entitlement.

Here's the set list and some mp3 samples.

Dead Weather
The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern
Toronto ON
2009-06-13

Track 01 60 ft Tall
Track 02 Treat Me Like Your Mother
Track03 Bone House
Track04 You Just Can't Win (Van Morrison cover)
Track 05 So Far From Your Weapon
Track 06 Child of a Few Hours
Track 07 Rocking Horse
Track 08 I Cut Like A Buffalo
Track 09 No Hassle Night
Track 10 Will There Be Enough Water?

Track 11 encore--audience

Track 12 Forever My Queen (The Pentagram cover)
Track 13 Hang You From The Heavens
Track 14 New Pony

Here's a link to another blog with a review of Horehound.
Horehound Review from The Forty-Nine Percenter

Nine Inch Nails & Jane's AddictionMolson AmphitheatreToronto ON2009-06-02

I wasn't going to see NIN in 2009, having caught them 4 or 5 times over the past few years. Then Trent starts thinking outside the box and books Jane's Addiction to headline his show as he prepares for a hiatus. Toss in Tommy Morello's new project, Street Sweeper Social Club, and that makes the NINJA Tour all the rage.

The Amphitheatre is a struggle even when the weather's warm. Exposed to the wind that whips in off the lake it's often colder than you'd like. Nestled inside Ontario Place there's nowhere to go and limited locales for pre-show meets. Parking's exhorbitant and traffic's a bitch. Seats wide in the bowl have terrible sight/sound lines. Security at the doors is as stringent as any venue in the city...it's a close personal check you go through. If the sun is out it sets in your eyes and guarantees you'll have a sunburn on the left side of your face, neck and arms. Other than that, it's a joy.

SSSC takes no prisoners during it's energetic 30 minute warm up set. Tommy Morello was the best guitar player onstage tonight and this new incarnation is much more palatable than Rage...who are a little intense for my tastes. MIA's Paper Planes gets a runthrough.

What can you say about Trent? He deserves a rest...hopefully not another 5 years though. This show is not as complex as the 'light' show he toured last year (shame we're not getting a DVD of that tour) and there's no new record so there's some opportunity to mix up the songs a little, and that's what we get. "New" songs in the rotation are Heresy, Metal, I'm Afraid of Americans, The Becoming, I Do Not Want This, The Way Out Is Through and Mr Self Destruct. Not one to miss a trick Trent has trotted out his Lolla '91 intro to start the set.

Perry Farrel's place in the rock pantheon is secure...if difficult to define. Gotta love his attitude. He was through town with Satellite Party last year and treated us to a couple of Porno's tunes. This go round it's all nostalgia, all Jane's all the time.


Street Sweeper Social Club

01 Intro
02 Fight! Smash! Win!
03 Somewhere In The World It's Midnight
04 Paper Planes#
05 The Oath
06 100 Little Curses
07 Promenade
08 Tom Morello talks
09 Nobody Moves (Til We Say Go)


NIN

Disc 1

01 Now I'm Nothing (Lollapalooza '91 Intro)
02 Terrible Lie (Pretty Hate Machine)
03 1,000,000 (The Slip)
04 Heresy (The Downward Spiral)
05 March of the Pigs (The Downward Spiral)
06 Metal (Gary Numan cover)
07 The Becoming (The Downward Spiral)
08 I'm Afraid Of Americans (David Bowie cover)
09 Burn (Natural Born Killers Soundtrack)
10 Gave Up (Broken)
11 I Do Not Want This (The Downward Spiral)

Disc 2

01 The Fragile (The Fragile)
02 The Way Out Is Through (The Fragile)
03 Wish (Broken)
04 Survivalism (Year Zero)
05 Mr. Self Destruct (The Downward Spiral)
06 The Hand That Feeds (With Teeth)
07 Head Like A Hole (Pretty Hate Machine)
Encore:
08 Hurt

Jane's Addiction

Disc 1

01 Intro
02 Three Days (Ritual De Lo Habitual)
03 Whores (Jane's Addiction)
04 Ain't No Right (Ritual De Lo Habitual)
05 Pigs in Zen (Jane's Addiction)
06 Then She Did (Ritual De Lo Habitual)
07 Up the Beach (Nothing's Shocking)
08 Mountain Song (Nothing's Shocking)
Disc 2

01 Been Caught Stealing (Ritual De Lo Habitual)
02 Had a Dad (Nothing's Shocking)
03 Ted, Just Admit It (Nothing's Shocking)
04 Ocean Size (Nothing's Shocking)
------------
05 Summertime Rolls (Nothing's Shocking)
06 Stop! (Ritual De Lo Habitual)
07 Jane Says (Jane's Addiction)

Leonard Cohen Copps Coliseum Hamilton ON2009-05-19

This whole Leonard Cohen revival is really getting a little old...or is it?

After a 15 year hiatus from the road 2008 found Leonard back out there with a wonderful career retrospective and a crack band. This leg of the North American Tour 2009 finds him passing the 1 year mark with a summer tour in Europe still to come. While the set list remains rather static he has added 5 new songs to the rotation and we're still waiting on Joan of Arc.

The whole 'religulous' experience around the event is somewhat subdued in the arena settings we find ourselves in this year. Still, the reverence heaped upon Leonard is palpable; the crowd is music-hall respectful and attentive.

Having had the pleasure of three concerts last spring, all in proper, cozy auditoriums, I was reluctant to pay the big bucks to see the show this time around. Actually chose not to when I saw the top ticket price for Hamilton was $589. That was through Ticketbastard, not a broker. F*ck that shit. I might spend that to fly to NY to see an act but not to sit on the expressway out of Toronto, ending up in Hamilton.

Finally broke down and decided to look for the cheapest seat in the building...got two tickets for $50 ea., high in the back corner of the lower bowl. Glad I did. Our seats were about 30 feet from the entrance...which made for a quick exit at shows end, beating the traffic out of the city.

The sound was great. The site lines were decent, aided by two giant screens. Got 5 songs I didn't hear in the previous three shows. Leonard was more playful, less talkative. The Webb sisters do a somersault to Cohen's "white girls dancing" refrain in The Future. Sharon Robinson solo's on Boogie Street. Only two band introductions, at the end of each set. Monster-never-ending-encore. Leonard's voice is not as strong as it was a year ago, noticeable only on the songs that require the voice of God, like Hallelujah. It's still marvelous and he's using some nice phrasing tricks to make up for what little has dropped off.

For two years running: The Best Show on the Road.

Here's the set list and some listenable, if less than stellar, mp3's.

Dance Me to the End of Love
The Future
Ain't No Cure
Bird on the Wire
Everybody Knows
In My Secret Life
Who By Fire
Chelsea Hotel
Waiting for the Miracle
Anthem
-intermission-
Tower of Song
Suzanne
Sisters of Mercy
The Partisan
Boogie Street - Sharon Robinson
Hallelujah
I'm Your Man
1,000 kisses recitation
Take this Waltz
-small bow=
So Long Marianne
Manhattan/Berlin
-small bow-
Famous Blue Raincoat
If it Be Your Will - Webb sisters
Closing Time
-small bow-
I Tried to Leave You
Whither Thou Goest (with crew)

The Tragically HipMassey Hall2009-05-12

A fixture on the Canadian rock scene for years running, The Tragically Hip now have a monstrous catalogue to their credit and a 6 night stand provides ample opportunity to explore it. Each night has a handful of hits and rarities. With New Orleans Is Sinking, Nautical Disaster and Little Bones I got the ones I wanted.

The show was LOUD.

Like Foo Fighters loud.

Gords onstage antics are somewhat subdued, if no less spasmodic. Still his movements are a performance piece, akin to interpretive dance, within the show.


Here are some samples and the set list:

01: The Last Recluse
02: Family Band
03: Gift Shop
04: Now The Struggle Has A Name
05: Puttin’ Down
06: New Orleans Is Sinking
07: Throwing Off Glass
08: Bobcaygeon
09: Honey, Please
10: The Lonely End Of The Rink
11: The Depression Suite

Intermission
12: Are We Family? (Acoustic)
13: Thompson Girl (Acoustic)
14: Wheat Kings (Acoustic)
15: Nautical Disaster
16: Gus: The Polar Bear from Central Park
17: Coffee Girl
18: Love Is A First
19: Springtime In Vienna
20: Morning Moon
21: Grace, Too
22: Frozen In My Tracks
23:Music At Work

Encore
24: The Dark Canuck

Arlo GuthrieThe Grand TheatreKingston ON2009-05-10Or: you can get anything you want BUT alice's restaurant

I don't need many reasons to get out to a show but when you have a certain convergence of events it can make it a sweet experience. Arlo Guthrie, a pop-culture icon (if by attrition), a lovely resort on the banks of the St. Lawrence (Dewars Inn On The River ), and a 30th anniversary to celebrate. Nothing can rain on this parade.

Well, except rain, of course.

No matter, the Inn is idyllic. We had the pleasure of some company one day and some time to meander about the country roads on another day. Sunday night finds us at the elegant, recently refurbished Grand Theatre, Kingston, to bask in a little hippy-nostalgia.

We got way more than that...a history lesson or two, a walk through the American songbook and an excellent show. Arlo has brought a full band with him; led by the understated brilliance of Bobby Sweet's guitar, aided by the dulcimer sounds of the Burns Sisters of Ithaca NY on backing vocals, supported by Arlo's son Abe on the Yamaha synth and carried on the rhythms of ?? Landreau on bass and Terry Oliveri on drums.

The show was a sonic trip in time, sometimes evoking early-Dylan, or Donovan. His forays into blues-roots songs was great. Best live version of St James Infirmary I've heard to date, and that includes one or two screamo-versions from Jack White. The stage patter covered everything from the unfortunate historical accident of being a songwriter when Dylan was plying his trade to memories of standing at the knees of Leadbelly. The Woody talk was precious 'cause our links to these times are fast fading.

Nostalgia is for the rocking chair, though. This show is here today even if it looks back once in awhile. A good helping of original tracks and a healthy dose of covers...just the recipe required.

He tours almost constantly. Don't miss it if it comes by your door.


Set 1

Track 01 Chilling of the Evening
Track 02 Shade of the Old Apple Tree
Track 03 talk - downstream from Dylan
Track 04 Darkest Hour
Track 05 Band Intro/talk - I Tune By Sight
Track 06 St James Infirmary

Track 07 talk - Old Songs
Track 08 Cornbread, Peas and Black Molasses
Track 09 talk - In A Pickle
Track 10 The Motorcycle Song
Track 11 talk - Dangerous Friends
Track 12 Dangerous Friends Instrumental
Track 13 talk - Woodstock
Track 14 Coming Into Los Angeles

Track 15 talk - Woody
Track 16 Pretty Boy Floyd

Track 17 talk - Leadbelly's Grave
Track 18 Alabama Bound
Track 19 talk - Pete Seeger
Track 20 Deep Blue Sea

Set 2

Track 01 talk - Hoyt Axton
Track 02 Evangelina
Track 03 My Old Friend
Track 04 talk - Okemah OK Festival
Track 05 When A Soldier Makes It Home

Track 06 talk - Disaster TV
Track 07 In Times Like These
Track 08 Days Are Short
Track 09 City of New Orleans

Track 10 talk - Steve Goodman and others who have passed
Track 11 ??Compassion, Forgiveness and Love
Track 12 This Land Is Your Land (Canadian Dub)
Track 13 talk - Show's Over...more Woody
Track 14 My Peace

The Kills Phoenix Concert Theatre2009-05-07

The Kills first came on my radar when news of Jack White's new project, The Dead Weather, broke last month. It's ironic because the tag of 'the NEXT White Stripes' is what kept me away. We already HAD the White Stripes, or did. Since The Dead Weather will not likely grace our shores until the summer I thought it would be worthwhile to see the lead singer in her current incarnation.

We have two other emerging bands filling out the bill tonight; The Magic Wands (careful when you google that) and The Horrors (that's 2 syllables), so it promises to be a night of minimalist garage-rock. Of course we all know what promises are made for. Two unremarkable sets, the second slightly better than the first. The sound was muddy but I suspect that was on purpose and therein lies the problem...I got no idea what to make of that.

The Kills were a step up. So was their sound mix. A couple enjoyable covers; Crazy (no, not that one, the OLD one) and I Put A Spell On You. The drum machine is a little disconcerting. Live music should be, well, live. The guitar work was very good and Alison's schtick is going to fit in well with Jack's new project.

Track 01. U.R.A. Fever
Track 02. Pull A U
Track 03. Sour Cherry
Track 04. Tape Song
Track 05. No Wow
Track 06. Alphabet Pony
Track 07. Last Day Of Magic
Track 08. Kissy Kissy
Track 09. Black Balloon
Track 10. Hook and Line
Track 11. Crazy (Patsy Cline)
Track 12. Getting Down
Track 13. Cheap and Cheerful
Track 14. Fried My Little Brains
Track 15. audience/encore break
Track 16. ??
Track 17. Wait
Track 18. I Put a Spell On You (Screamin' Jay Hawkins-cover)

Gavin RossdaleDanforth Music Hall2009-04-25

OK the only reason I'm at the Gavin Rossdale show is to treat my 25 year old daughter and her cousin. We had a blast at the NKOTB show last fall so it's worth another kick at their nostalgia can. First time we saw Gavin was back in the mid-90's and we were lucky to get a seat against the back wall of Maple Leaf Gardens. Not so much demand this time around. The Danforth Music Hall is one of the two best venues in Toronto. Go there if you get a chance.

Opening tonight is Suzie McNeil, quarter finalist in that INXS replacement reality show. That alone was enough to keep me away but my daughter insisted she could rock and, at the very least, was eye-candy. Right on both counts. Her 35 minute opening set was a lively display of a young woman who can kick it. Great pacing and a stage-presence beyond her years. It's always a bonus when the opener doesn't have you rushing for the beer queue.

Gavin's still bringing it too. A much smaller stage but no less commitment to the show than when he was riding the wave of popularity in the late-90's. The new songs, from Wanderlust, have as much punch as his early material, a slightly more worldly, less angry, version of his young self.

He does a great job of balancing the new with the old, not making the audience wait too long for their nostalgia fix as he rolls out a thunderous Machinehead in the third slot. Even when he slows it down, for an acoustic portion, his cover of Fleetwood Mac's Landslide demands attention, perhaps the vocal highlight of the evening.

A bit of a treat in the encore with a solo-electric version of Glycerine.

Here's the full set list and some samples.



Disc 1

T01 Can't Stop the World
T02 Frontline
T03 Machinehead
T04 Boom Box
T05 Everything Zen
T06 Trouble I'm In
T07 Forever May You Run
T08 Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)
T09 Love Remains the Same
T10 Fugitive
T11 Adrenaline
T12 The People That We Love
T13 audience/talk

Disc 2
(encore)
T01 Bullet-Proof Skin
T02 This Is Happiness
T03 Glycerine
T04 Come Down

The Handsome FamilyEl Mocambo2009-04-21

The Handsome Family come recommended by a Stateside friend. Now, truth be told, I got only about a 50% success rate with bands that have been recommended to me over the years. I don't pay much heed to 'fan appreciation' though I type ceaselessly in my quest to convert others. Still, there's too much to discover on your own so once in awhile it pays to take direction.

On the surface it looks like a no-brainer. Accolades from the likes of Greil Marcus. A band that mines the darkness of American roots music and blends it with an indie-ethos; which apparently makes them 'alt-country' in the places where pigeon-holes are required. Two people in the band. And a rock-bottom, fan-friendly ticket price for a show in an intimate history steeped bar, The ElMo, where Maggie Trudeau spent a lost weekend with Mick Jagger and broke our Prime Ministers heart.

Opening tonight is Marissa Nadler who brings her banjo and a handful of new songs to the stage. She lists her influences as artists as varied as Elizabeth Cotton to Joy Division and The Beatles, so there's no telling what it's going to sound like. When you get there, though, it sounds like Kate Bush with no passion...but that's just me, I'm not a big fan of the female voice in the high range, it took me over 40 years to take a shine to Joan Baez.

The Sparks family, er, Handsome Family, have some musical support on drums and guitar in the guise of Jason Todd and Steven Duraki(?). Kevin Hearns, of Barenaked Ladies and Lou Reed fame, sits in for three songs on the accordion. If only he'd plugged the damn thing in properly as his brief stint results in three brutal static blasts from the PA system.

The alt-country tag is not quite appropriate. While they are sonically like Crash Test Dummies, their lyrics, and subject matter, elevate this music beyond the narrow constrictions of 'country'.

Here's the set list and some samples:

T01 Arlene
T02 So Much Wine
T03 My Sister's Tiny Hands
T04 The Loneliness of Magnets
T05 The Giant of Illinois
T06 Darling, My Darling
T07 Through the Trees (*PA static @ 27 sec)
T08 Linger, Let Me Linger(*PA static, false start)
T09 Linger, Let Me Linger
T10 After We Shot the Grizzly
T11 band intro
T12 Little Sparrows
T13 All the Time In Airports
T14 The Forgotten Lake
T15 The Bottomless Hole
T16 talk
T17 My Friend
T18 crowd/encore
T19 A Thousand Diamond Rings
T20 talk
T21 Wild Wood
T22 Don't Be Scared

English Beatfeaturing David WakelingLee's Palace2009-04-17

First time I saw the Beat was back in 1981. Got pretty well the same set list the other night. Wakeling's 30th Anniversay Tour brings everything but Ranking Roger. His spot as toastmaster is admirably filled by Antonee First Class , a protegé of sorts, he's suitably energetic and humbled. All he wants to do is make you dance...and he breaks the fuckin' silence once in awhile when the Toronto crowd lapses into a trance.

There was no lack of hits as they just kept coming. Unfortunately I had an equipment malfunction and was only able to capture the first hour and change of a two-hour set. Save It For Later had a great Pearl Jam piece thrown in, sorry I missed that one. Antonee's representation of Ranking Full Stop was terrific. The sing-a-long Mirror in the Bathroom was what you'd expect for a sing-a-long.

T01 Intro
T02 Whine and Grine/
T03 Stand Down Margaret
T04 Twist and Crawl
T05 Hands Off, She's Mine
T06 Can't Get Used To Losing You
T07 Best Friend
T08 Doors of My Heart
T09 Tears of A Clown
T10 crowd chant with Antonee First Class
T11 I'll Take You There
T12 I Confess
T13 talk-Break the Silence/National Front
T14 Two Swords
T15 Rough Rider (incomplete)

____________________________
(missing)
????????
????????
Save It For Later
Ranking Full Stop
Mirror in the Bathroom

(encore)

Jackpot
Tenderness
End of the Party

Marianne Faithfull City Winery New York City2009-03-28

Marianne Faithfull doesn't tour near enough and she tours this side of the ocean even less. Back in ought-six she was on what was purported to be a North American tour. It launched with the annoucement of a few dates on the west coast; Vancouver and maybe, Calgary, and a lone date, a few weeks later, in NYC. I assumed the Toronto shows would be announced at anytime. Except they weren't and it was so long, Marianne.

It's not that she hasn't kept busy with book writin' and movie makin' but it's the music that draws me. The 2008 Tour was cancelled due to health reasons so another opportunity was missed. When I saw this City Winery show I became a walking 52 year old version of The Demics punk classic, crying, "I wanna go to New York City!"

So we found ourselves last Friday landing at Newark, hopping the monorail to the NJTransit train link which finally deliverd us into Penn Station. At this point we were half-way to our destination. OK, maybe a little more but did anybody notice how big that place was?

There was a Friday night show at the Winery but Cece and I chose to use the two days we had to cover a lot of ground in Greenwich Village and SoHo. Then, when we were done, we covered it again. A leisurely weekend of walking in the sunshine, watching the park artists or the kids at the 4th Street Courts. Passed most of the Dylan signposts; the MacDougal Ave condo, the Village Gate, the apartment at 161 4th street, saw the place where the bricks fell on Grand St and more than one or two vacant lots.

Saturday found us in the company of a friend from just outside the city who we convinced to venture in for a little cabaret-style evening of entertainment.

The pre-show music was well selected, most notably the Dylan tunes. Not just the run of the mill hits either as we got cuts from Planet Waves and Hard Rain.

Marianne's story is one of innocence, coming-of-age, falling-from-grace, picking up all the pieces and kicking some serious ass when it comes to beating back the obstacles life will toss at you. She's a survivor;a survivor first of her time, then her weakness, her demons and finally random acts of unkindness that befall some more than others. And the songs she picks...well, they run the gamut too.

Easy Come, Easy Go (see link below for songs/lyrics) is the new album and tonight is it's showcase. The first half of the show is heavily weighted to the new material with the odd sprinkling of songs from her impressively vast repertoire.

Marianne walks onstage, adorned in a blue double-breasted Sgt Pepper jacket that stays on only for a song. She's looking great

She opens with an apropos tune; Times Square. Thought it was If Not For You, as it shares a similar chord progression, but I guess it's time to drop the Dylan stuff for the night. Marianne jumps right into the boozy-bluesy feel we're going to get this evening.

"If alcohol could take me there/I'd take a shot a minute/And be there by the hour/Take a walk around Times Square/With a pistol in my suitcase/And my eyes on the TV"

Backed by a crack-band of local musicians we are already being treated to more than a night with a songstress. Throughout the evening the intricate interplay of the big band is as impressive as Marianne's strong performance. The lead guitar work is blistering.

Down From Dover may have been played too early in the evening to get its proper due...from the audience. We were still settling in, cracking open our first bottle of wine after the glass full that came with dinner. Marianne, fortunately, wasted no time finding her groove as she delivers a heart-wrenching tale of love-lost twice. This was jaw-dropping good. One thing about that Dolly Parton chick, she can write a song.

The set continues with a generous helping of the varied and eclectic songs that make up the new record. From the folksy Decemberists tune, The Crane Wife 3, to the jazzy Ellington tune, Solitude. There's an almost 7 minutes version of The Espers Children of Stone and a terrific, salacious, interpretation of Bessie Smith's Easy Come, Easy Go. The old-new balance is kept with the inclusion of Neko Case's Hold On, Hold On, parenthetically, 'the devil I love', which kind of takes the place of Marianne's own Vagabond Ways in the set list. Kimbie was eerily reminiscent of Dylan's Alberta, and probably 20 other songs floating around in the back of my head. The yin of that song is balanced by the yang of Black Rebel Motorcycle Clubs Salvation.

The band kicks into a hard version of Broken English, a song even more appropriate today to the current geo-political mess we find ourselves in than it was in the early '80's, when it would merely have been prescient. "What are we fighting for?" she asks, and refutes the sophomoric, inevitable, knee-jerk answer, even before it's offered, with the next line, "It's not my security."

"it's just an old war/not even a cold war/don't say it in Russian/don't say it in German/ say it in broken english"

Marianne does a nice little trick in this song. She submerges the last syllable of the title so when she sings, 'broken english', what we get is 'broken eng...'. It's almost like an aural representation of the written word...it's broken.

A lovely rendition of the melody from Mack the Knife preludes Randy Newman's cabaret-style In Germany Before the War. You can see that Marianne was born to sing songs in this style. She's a performer, more than a rock artist, and her phrasing, while not bombastically obvious, gives each song a gut-level poignancy that makes them her own creation. She follows with an original composition, Crazy Love and then is soon into introducing her wonderful band.

As good as it's been so far, the closing segment of this show is powerful. It starts with Shel Silverstein's Ballad of Lucy Jordan. A song from the point-of-view of an isolated suburban woman whose life is filled with 'mother' and 'wife' but lacks a certain "me" component. Marianne, who has a polyannish quality to her thinking, has been interviewed on the content of this song and she refuses to see it as a suicide resolution. Her interpretation is a positive one, the lady in question is led to her car by a benevolent sole, past the crowd, to enjoy her moment in the Paris springtime. Of course, it's only a song and the best usually have different meanings for different people. The conflict, in the case of this song, rests on the listener's interpretation of the last verse.

"The evening sun touched gently on the eyes of Lucy Jordan/On the rooftop where she'd climbed when all the laughter grew too loud/And she bowed and curtsied to the man,/ who reached and offered her his hand/And led her down to the long white car that waited past the crowd/At the age of 37, she knew she'd found forever as they rode along through Paris/With the warm wind in her hair"

Shel left out whether they took the stairs.

Marianne left nothing out as she infuses the song with all the emotions attendant in the words...and more. When the "kids are off to school" and the "husband is off to work", it's not the part of the day where Mom gets a little time to herself. She is, rather, abandoned, resulting in an ennui that saps her ability to do anything constructive. The minutiae of 'rearranging flowers' or 'clean(ing)...for hours' is well juxtaposed against the Janovian release of 'run(ning) naked, through the shady streets, screaming all the way.' Though her voice is a little raw from last nights effort, she shows some emotion in the delivery and you can SEE, not only hear, her desperation.

The stage patter throughout the evening has been delicious. She has a wonderfully self-deprecating sense of her place in pop-culture and she hits, briefly, not incessantly, on those signposts of her life that revolve around her being 'Mick's chick'. Someone passes her a hat from the audience and she relates that in 1966 she was deemed the preeminent 'hat wearer' by a hat producing company for their own self-promotion. She lightheartedly reports that she didn't get paid for that...no one did in those days, but there she was; "I'm sellin' fuckin' 'ats".

Following Lucy Jordan she comments on the 'hit' stature of her songs. "Oh, ya, all the hits now, you know. We are all laughing ironically about that. You do know they weren't hits...or you've forgotten" she says, and after a brief chuckle follows with the truism; "I don't care anyway...they're hits to me." Me too, Marianne.

Nearing the end of the show she talks about her limited musical ability. "All I do is sing, that's all I can do," but closes with the new mantra for those who've been given a second chance at evaluating what's real and what is not; "I'm going to keep singing till my boots fall off." While that may be a mixed, or confused metaphor, her desire to die a Tommy Cooper death leaves little doubt about her ambition to keep on keepin' on.

Sister Morphine comes out of the '60's to warn us all off things that make us feel too good. Again her phrasing is powerful as she spits out the lyrics, emphasis falling on the front or back of lines depending on if she wants to hit you coming in or leave something lingering. Her disdain for the power of drugs is evident in the way she introduces 'cousin Cocaine'. The visual, standing on stage with a combative look on her face, added even more ooomph. My bet is Marianne treasures putting this one out there, just to remind the demons who is in charge now.

The next song is like no other in the rock pantheon. Written from a males point of view, it's about taking a tongue-lashing from your woman...and not the good kind. Infidelity from her POV. It's harsh. It's expletive filled. It could be considered obscene in Boston and south of the Mason-Dixon line. The album version has the angriest guitar you've ever heard. This live version is not as caustic as the musical mood is somewhat tempered by strings and keyboard, though Marc Ridot's lead is impressive. The vocals, however, are still a sharp kick to the balls. "Why'd You Do It?" is a big fan favourite as the audience unleashes a wave of approving hoots when the opening chords start up and raucous applause at the end.

Marianne allows herself one pat on the back tonight when she observes: "I must say, that was kinda perfect."

Now that we've gotten that out of our system...the show closes with three wonderfully melodic tunes; her own hit, a Jagger/Richards composition, As Tears Go By, Merle Haggard's Sing Me Back Home and a traditional folk song Marianne recorded with The Chieftains, Love Is Teasing (Love Is Pleasing).

Having finished our second bottle of wine we sit at our tables sharing some conversation as the roadies break the stage down around us. As they close the place we stumble out into the NYC nights with a Beaujolais glow, confirmation this was a trip well worth taking.

Marianne Faithfull
City Winery
New York City

2009-03-28
keyboard & accordian Rob Burnslead
guitar Marc Ribot
drums Joey Baron
sax Lenny Pickett
horns Marty Allen
bass musical director Greg Cohen
guitar Ryan Scott
violin Christina Cotta (costa?)
cello Christopher Hoffman

Disc 1

Track 01 Intro/chat
Track 02 Times Square (M.Faithfull) http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/daiwm7
Track 03 Down From Dover (D.Parton) http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/xhna5l
Track 04 Children of Stone (The Espers)
Track 05 The Crane Wife 3 (Decemberists/C. Meloy)
Track 06 Solitude (D.Ellington)http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/10rcuj
Track 07 Hold On, Hold On(Neko Case)
Track 08 Easy Come, Easy Go (Bessie Smith/W. Jackson & E. Brown) http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/7vbvfi
Track 09 Broken English (M. Faithfull)http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/zp62wh
Track 10 Mack the knife/In Germany Before the War (R. Newman)
Track 11 Crazy Love(M.Faithfull)
Track 12 Kimbie (J.C.Frank)
Track 13 Band Intro
Track 14 Salvation (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club,Hayes, Turner & Jago)

Disc 2

Track 01 Ballad of Lucy Jordan (S. Silverstein)http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/6wkzzd
Track 02 Sister Morphine (Jagger/Richards)http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/vs74q5
Track 03 Why'd Ya Do It? (H. Williams)http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/exdwwu
Track 04 As Tears Go By (Jagger/Richards)http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/68e33t
Track 05 talk
Track 06 Sing Me Back Home (M.Haggard)http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/uehzyd
Track 07 audience
Track 08 Love Is Teasing (trad.,The Chieftains)

Easy Come, Easy Go Lyrics

Paul James and FriendsHoney's Beestro2009-03-13

Is this guy Bob Dylan's next lead guitarist?

We can only hope so.

What a great place to see an artist. Honey's Beestro ain't that big. It has no stage. The artist sets up in a small corner. Our table was about 2 feet from Paul and his accompaniament. Makes the stealth taping thing a little precarious.

Had a chance to talk to Paul throughout the evening and I was prodding him for news about the upcoming Dylan tour. Is he is, or is he ain't, onboard? Well, if he is, and he knows, he's not telling me.

I threw everything I had at him too. Opened with a question about Jeff Rosen (Bob's manager). He seemed surprised to be talking about the Dylan camp from that angle. Told him if he IS onboard he must pass along a message to Tony Garnier; Robert Gordon says he's doing well and how are you Tony? He expressed his joy at just being in a position where this gig could fall to him. What he had to say about the Nags Head gig is public knowledge. Time spent around Mink DeVille in the '80's was high on his list of fond memories. He's a really grounded guy who seems to get a kick out of just playing.

Paul James has played with the likes of Dylan, Mink, Bo Diddley and John Hammond. He's a quiet legend in Canada; respected in the music-making industry, way under appreciated by the music-selling industry.

The past few weeks he's been playing impromptu gigs all around the area...warming up, I hope, for the call that should come any day now. This was supposed to be a solo gig but I believe he needed to get some lead-chops down so he's squeezed in a keyboard and snare drum to help keep the beat while he creates his intricate guitar runs.

Highlights of the night:

From A Buic 6! I've seen over a hundred Dylan shows and have never heard this done live. Of course, not many have. Bob's only played it twice, back in 1965.

Muddy Waters Blow Wind Blow was a treat, so too Dust My Broom, as was Sweet Virginia.

Paul's own original compositions stand up well against these monster songs. Last Clean Shirt kicks. When Love Walks Out should be a monster hit.


Set 1

T01 Bull Calf Blues (trad. Paul James)
T02 All I Have To Do Is Dream (Everley Bros)
T03 Carol (Chuck Berry)
T04 Cathy's Clown (Everley Bros)
T05 The Last Clean Shirt (Paul James)
T06 Crazy Little Baby (Paul James)
T07 Diddley Daddy/Hey Bo Diddley
T08 Dust My Broom (trad. Elmore James/Robert Johnson)
T09 Nadine (Chuck Berry)
T10 Outro Shuffle (Paul James)


Set 2

T01 When Love Walks Out, The Blues Walk In (Paul James)
T02 Bye Bye Love (Everley Bros)
T03 Suzette (Paul James)
T04 Around and Around (Chuck Berry)
T05 Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat (Bob Dylan)
T06 Mojo Boogie (JB Lenoir)
T07 From A Buic 6 (Bob Dylan)
T08 Blow Wind Blow (Muddy Waters)
T09 Sweet Virginia (Jagger/Richards)
T10 Little Girl (Paul James)

Set 3

T01 Bird Dog (Everley Bros)
T02 'Till I Kissed You (Everley Bros)
T03 Love's Made A Fool Of You (Buddy Holly)
T04 I'm Going Fishin' (trad. Paul James)
T05 Cadillac Walk (Mink DeVille)
T06 It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (Bob Dylan)
T07 Highway 61 (Bob Dylan)
T08 false start/All Shook Up (Blackwell/Presley)
T09 Who Do You Love? (Bo Diddley)

CR Avery and Friends The RivoliToronto ON2009-02-24

CR Avery passed through town for a quick hit at The Rivoli last week. He's on his way to France for a tour-by-train in the month of March before he graces Toronto with his prescence again on April 25th, appearing at Hugh's Room.

He was joined onstage by a gaggle of friends, some poets, others musical acts, all artistes.

The show opens with a couple poems from the host of the Toronto Poetry Slam United Brotherhood of Kiwanis B'rith. Or maybe just the moderator of the Thin Book Club; Dave Silverberg. In his 'break the ice' role he left us with a haiku. Gotta respect the haiku as an art form. Less is more.

(Let me digress here and insert my favorite haiku, penned by the Bard of Salford his'self, John Cooper Clarke:
"TO-CON-VEY ONE'S MOOD
IN SEV-EN-TEEN SYLL-ABLE-S
IS VE-RY DIF-FIC " )

The sweet sounds and slinky red dress of Christina Maria followed. Paired down to just the two girls they dropped three well-received songs on the crowd and made way for Gypsy Eyes, who threw down a beauty that might have been called 'Lost & Unshed Tears', hard to tell, both readings were virgin.

The Undesirables have a more extensive opening set. These road warriors put back an outgoing flight for the pleasure of sharing a bill with CR. For his part CR sat in the first row, fully involved, and didn't miss a minute of their set. It seems the respect is mutual. Nice roots sound to this two-man ensemble. Highlight of their set was a lively version of an original tune, "The Credit River."

White Noise Machine (Mike Smith) closes the first set with a couple new poems...and he only stumbled once.

After a short break Tomy Bewick takes the stage to welcome the crowd to Set 2. The Diseased Disciple his'elf brings a new piece to the mic; the introspective, reflective, Broken Mirrors.
After a brief call out for water he's into his second poem, dedicated to his newborn daughter...or more precisely, the two minutes it took her to come into the world; trepidation, panic, and relief. He nails the moment; "purple, limp..." a roller-coaster ride to purpose.

Soon enough, CR Avery is onstage and warming up with what seems to be a traditional opener, Leadbelly's harmonica driven "Sylvie". A little water indeed.

He follows quickly with a melodious song that might have been called "Like A Train in the Snow."

All worthwhile artists try to push you a little. The interesting one's jerk your chain a bit by calling you in close before they rattle your walls. Jack White's great at this...he'll have you marvelling at his 'by the book' rendition of an old blues tune then take his guitar on a face-clawing solo. CR Avery pulls this off with a soulful version of Lucinda Williams' "Bus To Baton Rouge". It moves effortlessly between a sombre, nostalgic musing and a primal-scream about getting back home.

The sonic level subsides for a spoken-word piece about the coolest cat you'd ever want to meet. No, not Gene Vincent. A smokin' pussy cat.

Still having fun with the audience, CR relates a tale about Anne Murray's lost years, caught in a sapphic fog in East Van, recording a lost album that contained the acerbic "Folk Singer." This song plays like Dylan's "Desolation Row" did the first few times it was heard live. Each verse has you waiting for the closing rhyme, each rhyme leads to laughter. By songs end a good portion of the audience are echoing the chorus.

Toronto rhymestress, Truth Is, steps to the mic for a couple funky, beat driven poems, accompanied on one by CR's street-beat.

The second 'set' opens with a song that would fit into Corky and the Juice Pigs repertoire; it could have been called "Small Town", a tale of growing up in an alternative-lifestyle universe where there is no underground where you can fly your freak-flag.

Tonight's version of "Door By the River" is a 9 minute, audience driven, gospel sing-a-long as CR leaves the stage to whip up the gathered multitude. He's aided by an unknown friend who wails away on the chorus like a Baptist preacher at a New Orleans funeral. CR takes a moment to give a tip of the hat to one of the openers as he drops in this impromptu lyric change: "I'm just a guy in the front row/smilin' ear to ear/ listenin' to the undesirables".

"The Birdcage" is stripped down raw, not what I expected, which, by this point, is what I expected.

The show closes with an ensemble collaboration on "When I'm Gone."

Coulda used another 10 songs but that's just the greedy-ass fan in me talking.

Don't miss this guy when he comes your way.

He respects the art of the show.


Here's the complete set list from the evening...with a few guesses at song/poem titles and some mp3 samples.

Disc 1
Dave Silverberg
T01 Intro
T02 CPR (poem by Derek Brown)
T03 talk - haiku - band intro

Christina Maria
T04 Travel Back In Time
T05 She Will Melt Your Heart(?)
T06 BreakMaker
Gyspy Eyes
T07 Loss & Unshed Tears(?)
T08 That Journey? (Lateef? covered by FatBoy Slim)
The Undesireables
T09 Intro
T10 A Rain Song(?)
T11 The Night Train
T12 talk - jealous rivers
T13 Credit River (fade,edit)
T14 (fade in, incomplete) 2 Days on the 2 Lane(?) (fade,edit)
T15 The Bus Stop Walk
T16 talk
T17 This Town
White Noise Machine
T18 Intro
T19 What If
T20 Job Interview(?)
Set 2
Tomy Bewick
T21 Broken Mirrors
T22 The Longest 2 Minutes/CR Avery Intro

Disc 2
CR Avery
T01 Sylvie (Leadbelly)
T02 Like A Train in the Snow(?)
T03 Bus to Baton Rouge (Lucinda Williams)
T04 We Look Like Our Pets(?)
T05 Folk Singer
Truth Is
T06 Unwritten Love Poem(?)
T07 Questions(?)
CR Avery
T08 Small Town(?)
T09 talk
T10 Door By The River
T11 The Birdcage
T12 talk-heckle East Van Kills
T13 When I'm Gone

Paul JamesValentines Day PartySilver Dollar RoomToronto ON2009-02-14

For two nights last fall Paul James was a guest guitarist on Bob Dylan's NeverEnding Tour. He's been onstage with Bob before...usually for a one-song appearance on a few occasions, though he did do 4 songs in Buffalo in 1999. This time he replaced a guitarist from Dylan's Cowboy Band for 5 songs. Those were the 10 most enjoyable songs I've heard from Bob's stage since Freddy Koella left the tour in 2004. He absolutely lit a spark under the band.



Too bad that experiment ended.



On the upside, James graces the stage at the Silver Dollar Room on a regular basis. This past weekend he held a party for all the ladies and my better-half and I were treated to an enjoyable evening of blues and rock.



He's a Canadian blues icon...which is not unlike being the best hockey player in Argentina...it doesn't get you a lot of press. He's backed the likes of Willie DeVille and Bo Diddley, garnered the respect of John Hammond and Bob Dylan, so ain't no one here going to question his credentials.



Had a moment to chat with him before the show and during the break in sets. He seemed genuinely humbled by my observations of his effect on Dylan's band. Extra interested in the Freddy Koella note as he asked if I knew what he was up to these days. Seems he worked with him at Montreaux in 1992. Small blue world, I guess.



James brings a lot of energy to the stage. He has a preferred move of playing the guitar behind his head while doing a dervish across the stage. Had he done this just once during the fall Dylan stand he'd be a legend in that online community.



During a 9 minute version of Nadine he ventured into the crowd, made his way to the bar, drank a beer while playing with one hand and closed with a bottle-neck slide exhibition. (It was while performing this stunt at the Nag's Head Tavern in 1986 that he found himself beside Bob Dylan...who joined him onstage. ) A crowd pleaser. Can't be a much higher accolade for a musician.

Here's the set list and some mp3 samples:

Disc 1

Track 01 Mean and Evil (Elmore James)
Track 02 Pickin' the Blues (Inst, Elmore James)
Track 03 Gotta Gimme Me Some Of It (Paul James)
Track 04 The Last Clean Shirt (Leiber/Stoller)
Track 05 Up On The Roof (Goffin/King)
Track 06 Good Old Rock N Roll (Paul James)
Track 07 The Blues Walk In (Paul James)
Track 08 Oh ! Pretty Woman (Roy Orbison)
Track 09 Around and Around (Chuck Berry)
Track 10 Lost in the Blues (Paul James)
Ben E King Medley
Track 11 Stand By Me (Leiber/Stoller)/Save the Last Dance (Pomus/Shuman)/Under the Boardwalk (Young/Resnick)
Track 12 Little Girl (Paul James)
Track 13 Nadine (Chuck Berry)
Track 14 Instr Outro/Band Intro


Disc 2

Track 01 Suzette (Paul James)
Track 02 Carol (Chuck Berry)
Everley Bros Medley w/ guest backing vocals from Sweet Sue(T3,4,5)
Track 03 All I Have To Do Is Dream (Bryant/Bryant)
Track 04 Bye Bye Love (Bryant/Bryant)
Track 05 Cathy's Clown (Everley Bros)
Track 06 Sweet Virginia (Jagger/Richards)
Track 07 It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (Dylan)
Track 08 Crazy Little Baby (Paul James)
Track 09 talk- Bo Diddley
Track 10 Ugliest Girl In Town/Bo Diddley (Bo Diddley/Paul James)
Track 11 Red Hot Mamma (Paul James)
Track 12 Be Bop A Lulu (Gene Vincent)
Track 13 Bye Bye Johnny/Outro (Chuck Berry)