Rae's live music appreciation thread

[Rae]

Holy fuck last night was a blistering rock & roll show. I almost have the urge to break this post out of my lil' live appreesh thread ghetto because I think that the seeds were sown for something you guys will be hearing about. Maybe I'll wait until I pick up the record. Anyway, Vampire Hands headlined a ridiculous lineup of Minneapolis' finest noise/punk/whatever bands in a tiny tiny venue to kick off their impending tour and celebrate the release of their new full-length Virgin Dust, American Lips. At least three of the bands on the bill could've filled up a larger venue than the 200's-pushing-it Big V's Saloon on St. Paul's Midway. Daughters of the Sun were the relative newcomers and played first. Very cool, trance-y, acid-damaged vibe along the lines of Acid Mothers Temple or bands of that ilk. Gay Beast filled the second slot and basically destroyed-- they've now incorporated tenor sax into their live show, and the sax/guitar interplay really snapped some necks. STNNNG played third and were also absolutely devastating. They closed their set with a new cover of a Signal to Trust song that blew me away. Vampire Hands were the dark orchestraters of the evening and ruled supreme over pretty much everyone. After three incredible opening sets, they raised the bar even further. You guys will know them (by their trail of... you'll know them). Psychedelic drugs are back in the midwest and this is their soundtrack. Awesome.

Spaces: Vampire Hands STNNNG Gay Beast DotS oh man.

[nobody]

I'm listening to the Vampire Hands MySpace stuff right now...interesting. These guys got any actual CDs out yet?

Psychedelics, huh? Not sure I wanna drop acid anymore...maybe a little mushrooms.

[Rae]

I'm listening to the Vampire Hands MySpace stuff right now...interesting. These guys got any actual CDs out yet?

Yeah, 2 EPs and then the new full-length.

~Rae

[Rae]

This show came at the perfect time, considering I've probably listened to every one of Loudon's albums several times through in the last month in preparation for the comps I was putting together.

The opening act for this tour is Loudon's daughter with Suzy Roche, Lucy Wainwright Roche (a heretofore unknown musical Wainwright, to me!). She had an awkward charm-- evidently she quit her job as a second-grade teacher last year to pursue her music career, and at times, it seemed like she was interacting with the audience as if they were a classroom-- and a pretty, slightly airy voice. Her short set was enjoyable, although she has yet to follow in the footsteps of her half-siblings and create a fully-realized sound of her own.

Loudon played a set of decent length that was heavy on material from his new Strange Weirdos (music written for the film Knocked Up with Joe Henry). Most of it sounded good and it was interesting to hear the songs without full production or a backing band, especially the Henry-penned numbers. The catalog stuff was mostly his crowd-pleasing later work (lots of goofily humorous meditations on mortality and growing old). Highlights for me included "White Winos" (sans the intro that he did last time that seemed to make some pretty creepy insinuations about his own son), "Half Fist", and an impromptu honored request of "The Picture". Lucy joined him for a few songs (even singing some Kate McGarrigle parts, which I can only imagine is a weird arrangement for Loudon).

Overall, a very good show. I went with my father, which heightened both our appreciations of the concert, since a lot of Loudon's songs are about family relationships. If you're on the last leg of this tour, I'd recommend checking it out.

~Rae

[Rae]

The show was all right. Much mellower and over earlier than I had expected. I was knocked out by the contact high.

~Rae

[Rae]

Ohh, Jens. This show had such high expectations after the last time that he came through and it satisfied so completely. It wasn't quite the same all-Swedish all-girl backing band, but he did have horns (and strings!) and the set list was just about perfect. "A Postcard to Nina", "Maple Leaves", and "A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill" were pure giddiness, and the night ended with a cover of Paul Simon's "Call Me Al" (sans chorus- Jens explained "this is a silly song but the chorus is just too silly and I hate it") and a hypnotic, crowd-supported version of "Pocketful of Money" with a hundred or so people channelling Calvin Johnson over and over for what felt like ten minutes. So good!

~Rae

[jonnyhambone]

^ Glad it was a good show! I was about to go see Jens but got sidetracked by wine, movies, and hangin' mellow...plus I knew I was going to see Richard Buckner at the Turf Club this Tues. I'll try to remember to post feedback on him...