Live Music Log, March 2018

It occurs to me that any new readers might not know anything at all about me.  So, here's a lil recap. After a bad divorce, I crawled home from Arizona and lived in a cave for about a year.  Then it occurred to me that I could go see live music again, and I did, and then I did again, and again.  I reactivated my ancient emo blog to keep track of who I see.  I have managed to make some good friends, in and out of the bands, along the way.

3 2 18 Corn Fed Girls #3  Kalamazoo Valley Museum, Kalamazoo

       Olivia Mainville & The Aquatic Troupe #18 Final Gravity Brewing, Kalamazoo  This CFG show was the official kickoff for the Fretboard Festival, mostly held the next day, a smorgasbord of different musical performances, workshops, and stringed instrument petting zoos.  This show was in the large vestibule outside the planetarium. Darcy was droll.  John Campos was gnomishly hilarious.  Mike Fuerst was earnestly virtuosic.  Phil and Sarah were thunderbolty.  Everyone was effortlessly skillful.  This is the biggest band of ringers in town.  This is the '42 Yankees, the '84 Tigers of Kalamazoo folk music.  And then, because Kalamazoo is magic, this early show gave me time to walk literally feet to Final Gravity for everyone’s favorite smiley goth chick, Olivia Mainville. The Troupe this time was missing Bleu, so no trombone, but Libby DeCamp was here for some banjo and harmony, along with the Wonka-ishly entertaining Schreiber brothers.  Since I first saw her, she’s become so much more professional, but…maybe a little less hungry?  I am very much looking forward to new recordings on the horizon.  She’s just getting started.  Remember her name.

3 3 18 KALAMAZOO FRETBOARD FESTIVAL: Thunderbolt & Lightfoot #5/Mark Lavengood Band #2/May Erlewine #9
Kaitlin Rose #4/Brian Koenigsknecht #10/Steve Leaf & The Ex Pats #3 Old Dog Tavern, Kalamazoo The festival started at noon, on two sites at the downtown campus of Kalamazoo Valley Community College, but I couldn’t get there till 3, so I only caught three acts out of about a dozen that played throughout the day. Phil Barry and Sarah Fuerst, operating as Thunderbolt and Lightfoot ( a wholly owned subsidiary of CFG Inc.), have the kind of effortlessly blending harmonies that either come from being siblings or working together a long, long time. This is the second kind. With just guitar and occasional ukulele, a spell was spun in an overly sunny college classroom. Mark Lavengood is good time knees up slap yer fanny bluegrass, with some rock n roll energy and a set of epic beards. In Transit, recorded before his exit from the Flatbellys, is a favorite of mine. I caught just two songs from Channing and Quinn, but I really need to get to a whole show: utterly charming and unique, complete with tap dancing. May Erlewine was the main event, always a celebratory occasion and a community happening. I’ve made the unlikely comparison to Dolly Parton: both women make you feel like you matter, like you’re part of their world. These songs of healing and compassion, of dark thoughts and distant solutions, are mother’s milk to a troubled mind. I may have shouted along to Never One Thing too loudly, judging by some looks I got. I Do Not Care.

3 4 18 EMILEE PETERSMARK/Brian Koenigsknecht #11/Nicholas James Thomasma #3 Creston Brewery, Grand Rapids This one I had to take off work for. Entry…five?...in Nick Thomasma’s excellent Songtellers Series, where artists play in the round and talk about their process. Nick continues to impress the hell out of me with his introspective side, I really need to get that Long Story Short album. Brian was on the cusp of releasing his fifth full length, Roswell, and many songs from it were featured, with collaborations from the other two on stage. And Emilee…after 41 Wives shows, a couple years of friendship, this was the first time I had ever seen her do more than one song solo. And it was spine tingling. Every single thing she played is completely unavailable, either really old or really new. My ears were not big enough to absorb all the life giving new music. I filmed the whole thing for absent friends on Facebook Live, but I ruined it, bad, with my own talking and singing, gawd I cannot bear to hear it but I must, because of that treasure trove of unique performances. That was an out of body experience. Someone tune that thing up while I’m gone, would ya?

3 9 18 Matthew Borr #8/Carrie McFerrin #16 Final Gravity Brewing, Kalamazoo A New Year’s resolution of mine was to try to see new and different acts as much as possible this year. I am failing at that because I have friends now, and they often make good music. I was going to pop in here, have some laffs, and pop out to see some other thing, I can’t remember what any more, but the cider was good, the tunes were great, and the company was sparkling, pun intended, so I never left. Some really nifty new songs in the mix: Dreamed A River, Kathleen, and Pick A Flower. (“Thank you for deflowering my song,” sez Carrie to the audience.)

3 10 18 "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC 20 Monroe Live, Grand Rapids Such a great idea for a tour: The Ill Advised Self Indulgent Vanity Tour! Pulling out none of the stops! No parodies, all originals! I was excited for this, but in the end, bets were hedged. Emo Philips opened with a set of breathtakingly misanthropic comedy: I didn’t remember him being quite this vicious. Excellent. Then Al: seated, accordion in lap, no costumes, no video screens, just music. Same band for thirty years, all crackerjack players. Jackson Park Express. One More Minute. Dare To Be Stupid played Grateful Dead style. Biggest Ball of Twine….so long and boring, I’m afraid. Thrilling cover of the Kinks’ All Day and All Of The Night. Medley of parodies, making the night’s concept wobbly. Encore: The Saga Begins….long and boring. And 75 minutes in, it was all over. Al is in possibly the finest shape and voice of his life, his relevancy is clear, his artistry is without question…but the brevity of the show, and the absence of his masterpiece Albuquerque, left me with some buyer’s remorse. With my hours being cut at work, I need to stick more to local acts charging $5 to $10 for a while.

3 14 18 The Crane Wives #42 (Kate and Emilee--acoustic) Grand Armory, Grand Haven Another Must Take Off Work Or Else show. Only the second duo gig I’ve been to, and the first was where I officially met them. The Grand Armory curse had me and friends sitting off to the side, causing neck craning issues, and a number of patrons Did Not Care, but enough did to call it a success. I definitely saw other people singing along. Newer songs in an acoustic setting sounded wonderful. A rare performance of New Discovery was a highlight as well. The folk roots of the Crane Wives are much more evident here than in contemporary performances, which skew more indie rock. (The CW Spotify station is full of folk music, except when they themselves are on.) An awkward group photo was taken.

3 16 18 MARK STUART/Darcy Wilkin #10 Kal-Tone Instrument Co., Kalamazoo Not really a house show, but not really a ticketed venue either…an industrial show? This is a workspace where artisans build guitars, called the Sand Room (from when it was a foundry), about the same size as my room at home. We got about thirty people in there, and I finally got to hear Darcy play to SILENCE. No fighting to be heard with quiet voice and strum over drunken maroons. It was glorious. The Steven Wright of music: so morose yet so hilarious. Pavilion Estates is a new character study song. Mark Stuart is a longtime member of Steve Earle’s backing band (and his brother in law) who also writes and sings some fine songs, often with his wife. He looks like a face meld between the two cousins on Perfect Strangers, swear to God. His songs are good, often insightful, but they are a delivery system for his dexterous, fluid guitar playing. He is the best guitarist I have been in a room with since I last saw Guided By Voices in 2002, and Mark was literally eight feet away. I lost my notes with a change of phones, so I don’t have titles, but the overall impression was extreme journeyman competence and pleasure in a job well done. A mob of us went to dinner after the show, and he came along. Great guy.

3 17 18 They Might Be Giants #2 Vic Theatre, Chicago I was introduced to this band, a geek-male favorite, by the prettiest girl I ever went out with, so there’s defiance of stereotypes right there from the beginning. A self-serious comedy band, a fringe act that rocks harder than anything now on the radio, a duo and a five piece. I hate the Vic Theater: no free water, attendants in the fetid restrooms, chewing tobacco ads everywhere, but if that’s where they play that’s where you go. An incredibly obnoxious dudebro tried his best to kill my fun—he was literally keening like Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber for a while--but I edged away and he finally fell down drunk. The new album, I Like Fun, is an astonishing work for a thirty year band, a mordantly funny meditation on mortality in its multifarious forms, and it was liberally represented in the set list. Touring trumpeter Curt Ramm is a force of nature, and got several deserved spotlights, including A Self Called Nowhere to my great delight. He elevated Istanbul (Not Constantinople) to a religious experience for the sweaty, heaving mob. Ana Ng melted faces. When Will You Die and Your Racist Friend melted brains. Birdhouse In Your Soul melted hearts. With so much great music right here, I’m reluctant to roadtrip these days, but this was so worth it, even in Loner Guy mode.

3 18 18 Dan Rickabus #5 Chaffee Planetarium, Grand Rapids Is this drugs? Is this what drugs feel like? Trippy visual effects projected on the big dome while Rickabusiness shows em how it’s done? So very good. I like the record. I like the ukulele performances. But I flat out love the Dan Big Band: all three other Wives, Seth Bernard, Steve Leaf, Alex and Doug Smith, Chesney on the sampler. “I want to die in a burst of enthusiasm” is the key lyric here: for this show, for this project, for Mr. Dan Rickabus. Too often, this kind of head trip music relies heavily on synthesizers; there is a keyboard here (played by Emilee!) but the emphasis is on the interplay between guitars, drums, and bass. Your basic rock ingredients reblended and served up as a Tangerine Dream-whip. I don’t think I stopped grinning. Chesney gave me his frankly indecipherable set list. So happy.

3 23 18 DEDE AND THE DREAM/Seth Bernard #4/MISTY LYN/FRIENDS WITH THE WEATHER First Congregational Church, Kalamazoo Should have been a sign above the door: Cynicism Shall Not Pass. There was accomplished music here, but all of the quiet, folky, EARNEST variety. This show was to raise awareness for Seth’s Clean Water Campaign for Michigan, featuring poetry readings by Sarah Drumm between sets. This beautiful church is acoustically perfect and highly liberal (currently providing sanctuary to a potential deportee). Dede and the Dream is a husband and wife duo, sometimes joined by others but not this time, with a marimba and a violin. Dede Alder is a writer of quirky, wry little odes to small joys and bigger concerns. Seth played some conscious numbers and some fun tunes on his battered acoustic. Misty Lyn reminded me some of Joan Baez with a better sense of humor, and a lot of songs about death. Friends With The Weather is three salt and pepper dudes out of Ann Arbor and Toledo, led by a pastor, who sing (and play, impressively) ditties about the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees, and also admonitions to keep life manageable, simple, easy and happy as possible: be the song.

3 24 18 The Crane Wives #43 Pigeon Hill Brewing, Muskegon As I’ve said before, possibly unfairly, Pigeon Hill is roost to all the white mofos who wouldn’t have been caught dead downtown Muskegon five years ago. Jesse Ray and the Carolina Catfish, who opened with their high energy rockabilly, got a bigger reception to be sure (I missed all but two songs), but the Wives were not received tepidly or unkindly: the crowd was there for them, even if the sound guy was not. Show was in a tent in the street attached right to the front of the building, so people could pass in and out through the big garage doors seamlessly. Carlton and I hovered in a corner and inhaled the amazing sounds. Kate’s new one, which I am titling Ghost Of Me until I hear different, is wonderful and we don’t quite deserve it yet. Volta is a primal roar of hope. The woman behind me, who looked like Eva Mendes’ bratty little sister, was vocally unimpressed. She was wrong. But I fear that she and her ilk are going to drive this life giving band, and all the others out there, off the road and into day jobs just to survive. Please, please, go to shows, pay attention, spend money, make sure the venue knows you’re there to see the band. This is a golden era for live music in West Michigan, let’s not let it get smothered in the crib by the kind of dudebros and dudettes who take up the eight-top right in front of the stage and then get annoyed when the music makes their conversations difficult.

3 31 18 MATT GROSS/Brian Koenigsknecht #12/Darcy Wilkin #11 Brian's house, Kalamazoo This might be the only way said golden era survives: by going underground. This house show was absolutely packed to the gills, with people who wanted to hear every note they were gifted with. I may have cracked a few too many jokes during the show, but I felt among friends. Spur of the moment collaborations between these three were frequent and welcome. Darcy is playing more originals than covers now, her confidence is growing thanks to sweet shows like this. Brian has a new record coming out, heart on sleeve troubadouring to do, and here at this home game he shone with his intense baritone. And Matt Gross…could kill by singing the phone book, but fortunately his songs are funny, heartfelt, or both. The longtime lead singer of Knee Deep Shag, a band I saw a lot in a past life, he’s been beavering away at a solo project for the better part of a decade, and we lucky few got to hear what he’s been working on. Watch out for him: completely off the social media grid, but that may change when he has something to share with us all at last. The most pristine high tenor in Kalamazoo (that’s right, Graham Parsons, I SAID IT). “Grief is love without a place to go”: a phrase untethered in my notes, I think it was from a Matt Gross song. I also seem to remember Darcy riffing on service kids, like service dogs for the childless, but I could be wrong. I had a lot of fun and a lot of cheese. Inside joke: sorry Lana!