Ken Boothe at Littlefield
Ken Boothe is one of the legends of Jamaican music and has been performing for more than fifty years. Of course I was impressed by his singing and showmanship, just as I expected to be. What really surprised me is how high he could jump. I guess performing helps keep you in shape! Perhaps I should have seen it coming, though. His former recording partner (and former neighbor) Stranger Cole gave an energetic performance at a Dig Deeper show just a year and a half ago. Music doesn't fade I guess.
I hadn't realized at first that I had seen the backing band before. Their name is Crazy Baldhead and they are sort of a ska supergroup with members of The Slackers, The Scofflaws, and a bunch of other bands (including Leftöver Crack, yes really). Sure enough, they backed Stranger Cole too. I thought those guys looked familiar!
Posted: 5/4/2013 at 7:13pm Tags: Crazy Baldhead Dig Deeper Ken Boothe Littlefield
A Review Of The Newly Renovated Glasslands Gallery
(Better than before, but with one major flaw)
"In the early days of the Glasslands Gallery the place was constantly changing. Not only would the art installations change every month or two but the place was often literally under construction. Did you know there used to be a ladder behind stage right which you could climb to get to a little loft? They eventually filled that in. Remember the art room in the loft where you could literally go paint on the walls between sets? Those were the older, more experimental days of Glasslands Gallery. Back in the days when warehouse art spaces in that part of town were a new thing. Now there are what, five on that block alone?!"
Disappears at The Knitting Factory
In a previous review I referred to Disappears as a shoegaze band. This is not an entirely accurate description because it misses out on a few things. While some of their music qualifies as the sort of trippy but toothless psych which I at least associate with "shoegaze" they also churn out plenty of actual substantial psychedelic rock, seemingly with an emphasis on the rock. In fact I almost hate to call them "psych" because they seem to be missing the gaudier aspects of psych rock such as atonal bits and extended drones. Yet I think that it is an apt description. Instead of focusing on the darker, heavier, perhaps wannabe-spiritial aspects of the music they focus on the lighter, trippier bits. That's still a sort of psych-rock, right?
At different times Disappears reminded me of many different bands such as the Velvet Underground (especially on tracks like this one), Bauhaus, A Place to Bury Strangers and even Massive Attack (despite the lack of samples or electronica paraphernalia). Yet Disappears always seemed like a lighter version of that music, not quite as "heavy", or perhaps not quite as pessimistic? That's also why I didn't think the hardcore band which opened the show was a good fit to this bill. They were more visceral while Disappears was more heady. Not quite a good match.
Posted: 4/28/2013 at 1:03pm Tags: Disappears The Knitting Factory
Man Forever at The Knitting Factory
I sure hope you like drums. Man Forever has been known to play in many configurations including one with drums plus two keyboards and one with about ten drummers plus one bassist. This time everyone played drums. Aside from that there were some wailing vocals with no lyrics which I could make out. Man Forever may not always be entirely about drums, but this time they sure were.
It is really an odd thing reviewing a band like this along with punk and gospel acts and the like. Those bands pretty much sound the same from show to show. Man Forever can change so much from show to show that it's hard to claim that they are a certain way. At their next show they may have five members, or two, or eleven as they have had in the past. So take what you are about to read with a grain of salt.
At this particular show they played exactly two songs in their half-hour set, or they only took one break between songs, one of those two things. The music wasn't quite catchy or danceable but also wasn't overwhelmingly complex (as it has been in the past). It was more of an evocative thing, like they were telling an epic story. Although they didn't mention an affiliation with any particular tradition I think they were influenced primarily by the drum circle style, with its vaguely Native American and psychedelic roots. The wailing vocals reminded me of a sort of call-and-response where the response never came. Perhaps that epic story is a search for someone who is lost?
Overall this sort of thing is interesting, but very much an art project. It's the sort of thing which I would go to see one time but not on a regular basis. Of course they change lineups so often that the experience may be very different next time... so who knows? I just figure that they're one of those band who I wouldn't mind seeing on a bill, but wouldn't go out of my way to see.
Posted: 4/27/2013 at 11:50am Tags: Man Forever The Knitting Factory
Violent Bullshit at The Knitting Factory
Violent Bullshit sound just as agressive as their name suggests. Their songs are 1-2 minute bursts of pulsing guitars and screamed vocals. Lead singer Jayson Green flew around the stage with a suprising amount of energy. I remember seeing him fronting Cheeseburger in a suit. Is this the same guy? And their guitarist leapt off the drum kit a couple of times too.
Not sure why they were opening for a shoegaze band.
See, if this were a punk show at the Acheron the crowd would have gone nuts. I mean, this is exactly the sort of thing that crowd wants: high-energy insanity, quick break, repeat until bloody. Great band, wrong bill.
Posted: 4/26/2013 at 10:41pm Tags: The Knitting Factory Violent Bullshit
