Live Music Log, February 2019
Hi. I'm a guy who goes out to see shows, mostly local music, and then writes about them.
2 1 19 The Crane Wives #61/JOSHUA POWELL & THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY/Max Lockwood #2 Pyramid Scheme, Grand Rapids This was a fun one, despite being Last Date. Max has a second solo album out, and this served as a release party, featuring his fellow Dudees plus two Appleseeds and a Sam Cooper. Mellower than a Dudee record, thoughtful songs, urgent and breezy. Highlights: Overgrown, Light Arrives. A too short set followed by an interminable soundcheck from Joshua Powell, but once launched, he was a fun lil monkey. Light Murrican psychedelia out of Indianapolis: My Mid Afternoon Jacket. Chris said they made her think of Band of Horses. Roo thought the singer looked great in his dress: nice calves... Lots of great sounds, great playing, but the sound in there, argh, not mixed for side-stage tables, the lyrics might as well have been in Hopelandish. Highlight: Telekinesis, which was not about burning witches, apparently. Quoth Roo: points for having played in a Christian heavy metal band, and for not doing it any more. The concluding Wives were a step down in energy, but a step up in clarity, despite Dan's vocals being basically inaudible. Volta got a good hometown roar, and Sowing Seeds too: the rock is not going away, the banjo is not coming back, this is the future of music for adults.
2 8 19 20TH ANNUAL WYCE JAMMIE AWARDS featuring Roosevelt Diggs, Public Access, Last Gasp Collective, Lazy Genius, Molly, Lady Ace Boogie, Michigander, the War and Treaty, Carrie McFerrin, and Earth Radio The Intersection, Grand Rapids ALL THE MUSIC ALL THE TIME AAAAAH. Four stages of goodness, proving the Intersection can be a great place at least once a year. I spent most of my time at the big Showroom stage, but attended one set at each of the other three. Got in early by roadieing for Carrie, who was performing and hosting the small Mint stage and wearing a nightie. (Some people take the "Jammies" literally, despite early February.) Roosevelt Diggs started on time although the doors were late, playing to a nearly empty cavern, with their charmingly snotty alt-country. New album is highly recommended. Public Access was at maybe half strength, but brought the monolithic melody dependably. Last Gasp Collective was missing wonderkid Jordan Hamilton, but the big brassy ensemble went over well, rock instrumentation with a jazz feel and hip hop textures. Would be huge if the music business still existed. Downstairs to the Elevation stage, my favorite in the building: bullpen with balconies, like a roomier P-Scheme, for Lazy Genius, my favorite GR stoner-rock collective. Imprecise shorthand: Beck fronting the Flaming Lips, with Meg White on tambourine. Back upstairs for Molly, late of Vox Vidorra: her single came out a year ago, but a whole lot more new songs are ready and waiting for wider life. Angry, jazzy, defiantly joyous. Lady Ace Boogie is, more or less, THE face of GR rap, and it's a good one: happy but conscious, skilled but humble, live drums enhancing the sound greatly. Michigander is both a dude and a band, much like Alice Cooper, but this is like the contemplative side of Jimmy Eat World. (Also I met the main guy in the stairs literally every time I climbed them, all night.) Immortal line: "I hate this town, but these are the only roads I trust after midnight." The War and Treaty blew into town like a genial hurricane, with a local all star pickup band backing them, hollered their anthems of affirmation, then blew back out on national tour, after winning the big awards. So good, so rousing, so weird I saw them open for the Wives two years ago. Carrie, resplendent in a peignoir (apparently), rode a late breaking wave of support for her six year old album into hosting the Mint stage, and playing a rousing set with the assistance of Matt Borr and Tim McKay. It was wonderful. And then Earth Radio, my musical crush, got weird on the Stache stage to close my night. Every player is a stone cold killer, and prog soul is a glorious hill to die on.
2 9 19 MIDWINTER IN THE CLOUDS: PAIGE GOLD/CARL SWIFNEY/FRUIT PUNCH/Holborn #2/HOW TO LIVE TOGETHER/PERREN House show, Grand Haven An enjoyable evening of musical discovery in the dreampop basement of Jessica and Bryan AKA Cloudlight. Carl Swifney was just a dude who sang songs and played a guitar, and that is all you need sometimes. Excellent inexplicable tune called Radio Killer, great fingerpicking. Rhymed "faze her" with "blazer." Had an ode to Ewoks. Paige Gold was very young, and quite talented: like a baby Fine Frenzy. Watch out for her. It's pretty hilarious that Ben Kolk is a skilled folk guitarist, and I have still only seen him as his electronic alter ego, Holborn. Entertaining skronkage. Fruit Punch was An Experience: flamboyant dude in a red leather jacket rapping about random corners of gay life. He won me over with sheer force of incandescent self-belief. How To Live Together: friendly alien pop. Perren, the only capital R Rock Band of the evening, closed it off with tales of lost wallets and grocery encounters.
2 10 19 Max Lockwood #3 Salt Of The Earth, Fennville Another listen to the new set of tunes Max just put out. Mellower than Big Dudee Roo, possessed of a viewpoint that seems influenced by the Former Earthwork Couple, Seth and May, but with his own definite sound. A pleasure to see a show here, in the fancy restaurant where people listen intently. Great to see Dan and Michele too.
2 14 19 GR LIVE: Emilee Petersmark #5/SHERMAN GEPHERD HOME at the BOB, Grand Rapids Lunchtime with an idol. Emilee's solo songs somehow are quieter yet breathe more fire. There is still a folk balladeer in there under the Rawk. I can never remember the name of the one I think of as Get Right, but it sounds like a damn hit. Sherman Gepherd is a young band of rock dudes that has emerged from the garage fully formed and ready to play your party. Impressively well rehearsed for their age. Will listen to them again.
2 15 19 TIME OUT: An Evening of Songs and Stories with Katie & Sav of the Accidentals (#10) and Kate & Emilee of the Crane Wives (#62) Mendel Center, Lake Michigan College, Benton Harbor In which all the tissues were required, on stage and off. This special show, first of a three night run, was just what it says on the tin, four young women elaborating on what their songs mean to them. It got really real, really fast, to the displeasure of some, to the bleary delight of others. So much candor about anxiety, depression, disease and doubt. And a lot of REALLY GOOD TUNES. Em stuck to mostly unreleased material again, and Kate had a few new ones as well. Katie had a great song, Geminids, about watching a meteor shower with her mom, cancer diagnosis looming over her like a celestial question mark. Sav had one called Marrow, about a sick baby, that had us all bleary eyed. Catharsis: The Tour. A lovely rare outing for Kate's Can't Go Back, a song that kicks my ass every time. "It's time to be more forgiving of yourself, and your sins." Em's Destroy Everything is a gentle but insistent kick in the ass. From my notes, can't remember context: "Lucid nightmares speeding on M-45." Oh lordy have I ever been there. In my top ten shows ever.
2 16 19 AN DRO Grand Traverse Distillery, Kalamazoo A pleasant blur of successfully bastardized world music. I spent too much time socializing, to the point I feel it necessary to apologize in this indirect fashion to the band for being a chattering bozo in the back. Tasty cocktails yo. Carolyn Koebel is a drum master. And everyone else is top of their field too. But it's a little too nice for me. My problem, not theirs.
2 17 19 Darcy Wilkin #17/BRUCE LING/Nicholas James Thomasma #8 Creston Brewery, Grand Rapids I finally got a Sunday night free for another Songtellers show, where Nick gathers up two other songwriters, they sit on stools, and beg the audience to listen. Great to see Darcy, the Emmett Kelly of folk, to escape Kzoo. Pavilion Estates showed her at her most Prine-ish: a weaver of tales of hard luck lives. Bruce Ling had a 1919 mandolin, and a big grin, and a lot of weirdly lusty songs to play near children. Prodigious talent on anything stringed, he leads a family band called Hawks And Owls. Nick has a great new song, Ain't Never, and I hope it brings deserved success. From the No Context Notes: "Copper Suit." Wonder what that meant.
2 21 19 GR LIVE: Stovepipe Stover #2/THE HOLY WARHEADS HOME at the BOB, Grand Rapids A lunchtime funtime with Justin Stover, a newish friend, and his fabulous foot drums. Gruff, avuncular, and frequently supernatural, his tunes are usually either funny or heartbreaking, not much middle ground. The Holy Warheads were a lil baby Tool, nice melodies, a seventies pop sensibility atop a Cudgel of Rhythm. A prime 741 band, now that 741 has stopped existing. (For future readers, 741 was a short lived metal/punk bar on Leonard.)
2 22 19 Kate & Emilee of the Crane Wives #63 Final Gravity Brewing, Kalamazoo This was a happy blur of music and friends and possibly food and beverage. I have a big set of wonderful friends in Kalamazoo, and throwing Kate and Em in there just made it wonderfuler. Long three hour show meant lots of rarely heard tunes, including a spellbinding Margaret. Even more inscrutable than usual, this from the Phone Notes: "Eat in silent shame: Crab Wives." No idea what the hell that was about.
2 23 19 Matthew Borr #14 Grand Traverse Distillery, Kalamazoo
The Crane Wives #64/Mark Lavengood Band #5 Seven Steps Up, Spring Lake Double Saturday, far apart, with time in between to let out the dog. Grand Traverse has been having these 2 PM shows, and I am all in for them, low key friendly outings to sip a cocktail and hear some good stuff. Matt is the Sound of Boozy Brunch. His guitar is so individual as to be hard to describe: you gotta hear what this guy can do. I know I see this one band, the Crane Wives, too much, but I bought this ticket months ago so leave me alone. Good to see them rock out in a room where people are listening intently. Opener Mark sat in on dobro with them (he is a damn master on that thing), and a guest always kicks up the sparks a bit: broader grins, louder guitars, funnier fun.
2 24 19 Best Of Open Mic featuring Patty PerShayla and Sandra Effert Seven Steps Up, Spring Lake The War and Treaty #3 St. Cecelia Music Center, Grand Rapids I very rarely hit the same venue two days in a row, but I never work on my birthday so here I was. "Best Of" meant curated choices from recent open mics, plus the dual headliners, for a varied set of perspectives. Sadie Tucker, an older lady, started out nervous, but built strongly with heartfelt originals, like an undiscovered Melissa Etheridge. Eric Burmeister had a chiming electric guitar, a John Hiatt timbre, and one stunning song, "Ghost." Skylar was a 13 year old girl doing Etta James and alcoholic country: hit the brakes, kid! Really good though. Patty is a death metal pixie who makes her acoustic guitar cry for mercy from the severe pounding it gets. So very entertaining. Sandra is Velma pop, Carole King through a Lilith Fair cheesecloth, and I am here for it. Show was over too fast. I think I went to see a movie.
2 1 19 The Crane Wives #61/JOSHUA POWELL & THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY/Max Lockwood #2 Pyramid Scheme, Grand Rapids This was a fun one, despite being Last Date. Max has a second solo album out, and this served as a release party, featuring his fellow Dudees plus two Appleseeds and a Sam Cooper. Mellower than a Dudee record, thoughtful songs, urgent and breezy. Highlights: Overgrown, Light Arrives. A too short set followed by an interminable soundcheck from Joshua Powell, but once launched, he was a fun lil monkey. Light Murrican psychedelia out of Indianapolis: My Mid Afternoon Jacket. Chris said they made her think of Band of Horses. Roo thought the singer looked great in his dress: nice calves... Lots of great sounds, great playing, but the sound in there, argh, not mixed for side-stage tables, the lyrics might as well have been in Hopelandish. Highlight: Telekinesis, which was not about burning witches, apparently. Quoth Roo: points for having played in a Christian heavy metal band, and for not doing it any more. The concluding Wives were a step down in energy, but a step up in clarity, despite Dan's vocals being basically inaudible. Volta got a good hometown roar, and Sowing Seeds too: the rock is not going away, the banjo is not coming back, this is the future of music for adults.
2 8 19 20TH ANNUAL WYCE JAMMIE AWARDS featuring Roosevelt Diggs, Public Access, Last Gasp Collective, Lazy Genius, Molly, Lady Ace Boogie, Michigander, the War and Treaty, Carrie McFerrin, and Earth Radio The Intersection, Grand Rapids ALL THE MUSIC ALL THE TIME AAAAAH. Four stages of goodness, proving the Intersection can be a great place at least once a year. I spent most of my time at the big Showroom stage, but attended one set at each of the other three. Got in early by roadieing for Carrie, who was performing and hosting the small Mint stage and wearing a nightie. (Some people take the "Jammies" literally, despite early February.) Roosevelt Diggs started on time although the doors were late, playing to a nearly empty cavern, with their charmingly snotty alt-country. New album is highly recommended. Public Access was at maybe half strength, but brought the monolithic melody dependably. Last Gasp Collective was missing wonderkid Jordan Hamilton, but the big brassy ensemble went over well, rock instrumentation with a jazz feel and hip hop textures. Would be huge if the music business still existed. Downstairs to the Elevation stage, my favorite in the building: bullpen with balconies, like a roomier P-Scheme, for Lazy Genius, my favorite GR stoner-rock collective. Imprecise shorthand: Beck fronting the Flaming Lips, with Meg White on tambourine. Back upstairs for Molly, late of Vox Vidorra: her single came out a year ago, but a whole lot more new songs are ready and waiting for wider life. Angry, jazzy, defiantly joyous. Lady Ace Boogie is, more or less, THE face of GR rap, and it's a good one: happy but conscious, skilled but humble, live drums enhancing the sound greatly. Michigander is both a dude and a band, much like Alice Cooper, but this is like the contemplative side of Jimmy Eat World. (Also I met the main guy in the stairs literally every time I climbed them, all night.) Immortal line: "I hate this town, but these are the only roads I trust after midnight." The War and Treaty blew into town like a genial hurricane, with a local all star pickup band backing them, hollered their anthems of affirmation, then blew back out on national tour, after winning the big awards. So good, so rousing, so weird I saw them open for the Wives two years ago. Carrie, resplendent in a peignoir (apparently), rode a late breaking wave of support for her six year old album into hosting the Mint stage, and playing a rousing set with the assistance of Matt Borr and Tim McKay. It was wonderful. And then Earth Radio, my musical crush, got weird on the Stache stage to close my night. Every player is a stone cold killer, and prog soul is a glorious hill to die on.
2 9 19 MIDWINTER IN THE CLOUDS: PAIGE GOLD/CARL SWIFNEY/FRUIT PUNCH/Holborn #2/HOW TO LIVE TOGETHER/PERREN House show, Grand Haven An enjoyable evening of musical discovery in the dreampop basement of Jessica and Bryan AKA Cloudlight. Carl Swifney was just a dude who sang songs and played a guitar, and that is all you need sometimes. Excellent inexplicable tune called Radio Killer, great fingerpicking. Rhymed "faze her" with "blazer." Had an ode to Ewoks. Paige Gold was very young, and quite talented: like a baby Fine Frenzy. Watch out for her. It's pretty hilarious that Ben Kolk is a skilled folk guitarist, and I have still only seen him as his electronic alter ego, Holborn. Entertaining skronkage. Fruit Punch was An Experience: flamboyant dude in a red leather jacket rapping about random corners of gay life. He won me over with sheer force of incandescent self-belief. How To Live Together: friendly alien pop. Perren, the only capital R Rock Band of the evening, closed it off with tales of lost wallets and grocery encounters.
2 10 19 Max Lockwood #3 Salt Of The Earth, Fennville Another listen to the new set of tunes Max just put out. Mellower than Big Dudee Roo, possessed of a viewpoint that seems influenced by the Former Earthwork Couple, Seth and May, but with his own definite sound. A pleasure to see a show here, in the fancy restaurant where people listen intently. Great to see Dan and Michele too.
2 14 19 GR LIVE: Emilee Petersmark #5/SHERMAN GEPHERD HOME at the BOB, Grand Rapids Lunchtime with an idol. Emilee's solo songs somehow are quieter yet breathe more fire. There is still a folk balladeer in there under the Rawk. I can never remember the name of the one I think of as Get Right, but it sounds like a damn hit. Sherman Gepherd is a young band of rock dudes that has emerged from the garage fully formed and ready to play your party. Impressively well rehearsed for their age. Will listen to them again.
2 15 19 TIME OUT: An Evening of Songs and Stories with Katie & Sav of the Accidentals (#10) and Kate & Emilee of the Crane Wives (#62) Mendel Center, Lake Michigan College, Benton Harbor In which all the tissues were required, on stage and off. This special show, first of a three night run, was just what it says on the tin, four young women elaborating on what their songs mean to them. It got really real, really fast, to the displeasure of some, to the bleary delight of others. So much candor about anxiety, depression, disease and doubt. And a lot of REALLY GOOD TUNES. Em stuck to mostly unreleased material again, and Kate had a few new ones as well. Katie had a great song, Geminids, about watching a meteor shower with her mom, cancer diagnosis looming over her like a celestial question mark. Sav had one called Marrow, about a sick baby, that had us all bleary eyed. Catharsis: The Tour. A lovely rare outing for Kate's Can't Go Back, a song that kicks my ass every time. "It's time to be more forgiving of yourself, and your sins." Em's Destroy Everything is a gentle but insistent kick in the ass. From my notes, can't remember context: "Lucid nightmares speeding on M-45." Oh lordy have I ever been there. In my top ten shows ever.
2 16 19 AN DRO Grand Traverse Distillery, Kalamazoo A pleasant blur of successfully bastardized world music. I spent too much time socializing, to the point I feel it necessary to apologize in this indirect fashion to the band for being a chattering bozo in the back. Tasty cocktails yo. Carolyn Koebel is a drum master. And everyone else is top of their field too. But it's a little too nice for me. My problem, not theirs.
2 17 19 Darcy Wilkin #17/BRUCE LING/Nicholas James Thomasma #8 Creston Brewery, Grand Rapids I finally got a Sunday night free for another Songtellers show, where Nick gathers up two other songwriters, they sit on stools, and beg the audience to listen. Great to see Darcy, the Emmett Kelly of folk, to escape Kzoo. Pavilion Estates showed her at her most Prine-ish: a weaver of tales of hard luck lives. Bruce Ling had a 1919 mandolin, and a big grin, and a lot of weirdly lusty songs to play near children. Prodigious talent on anything stringed, he leads a family band called Hawks And Owls. Nick has a great new song, Ain't Never, and I hope it brings deserved success. From the No Context Notes: "Copper Suit." Wonder what that meant.
2 21 19 GR LIVE: Stovepipe Stover #2/THE HOLY WARHEADS HOME at the BOB, Grand Rapids A lunchtime funtime with Justin Stover, a newish friend, and his fabulous foot drums. Gruff, avuncular, and frequently supernatural, his tunes are usually either funny or heartbreaking, not much middle ground. The Holy Warheads were a lil baby Tool, nice melodies, a seventies pop sensibility atop a Cudgel of Rhythm. A prime 741 band, now that 741 has stopped existing. (For future readers, 741 was a short lived metal/punk bar on Leonard.)
2 22 19 Kate & Emilee of the Crane Wives #63 Final Gravity Brewing, Kalamazoo This was a happy blur of music and friends and possibly food and beverage. I have a big set of wonderful friends in Kalamazoo, and throwing Kate and Em in there just made it wonderfuler. Long three hour show meant lots of rarely heard tunes, including a spellbinding Margaret. Even more inscrutable than usual, this from the Phone Notes: "Eat in silent shame: Crab Wives." No idea what the hell that was about.
2 23 19 Matthew Borr #14 Grand Traverse Distillery, Kalamazoo
The Crane Wives #64/Mark Lavengood Band #5 Seven Steps Up, Spring Lake Double Saturday, far apart, with time in between to let out the dog. Grand Traverse has been having these 2 PM shows, and I am all in for them, low key friendly outings to sip a cocktail and hear some good stuff. Matt is the Sound of Boozy Brunch. His guitar is so individual as to be hard to describe: you gotta hear what this guy can do. I know I see this one band, the Crane Wives, too much, but I bought this ticket months ago so leave me alone. Good to see them rock out in a room where people are listening intently. Opener Mark sat in on dobro with them (he is a damn master on that thing), and a guest always kicks up the sparks a bit: broader grins, louder guitars, funnier fun.
2 24 19 Best Of Open Mic featuring Patty PerShayla and Sandra Effert Seven Steps Up, Spring Lake The War and Treaty #3 St. Cecelia Music Center, Grand Rapids I very rarely hit the same venue two days in a row, but I never work on my birthday so here I was. "Best Of" meant curated choices from recent open mics, plus the dual headliners, for a varied set of perspectives. Sadie Tucker, an older lady, started out nervous, but built strongly with heartfelt originals, like an undiscovered Melissa Etheridge. Eric Burmeister had a chiming electric guitar, a John Hiatt timbre, and one stunning song, "Ghost." Skylar was a 13 year old girl doing Etta James and alcoholic country: hit the brakes, kid! Really good though. Patty is a death metal pixie who makes her acoustic guitar cry for mercy from the severe pounding it gets. So very entertaining. Sandra is Velma pop, Carole King through a Lilith Fair cheesecloth, and I am here for it. Show was over too fast. I think I went to see a movie.
Labels: Music Logs
posted by Chad Wedeven | Friday, April 19, 2019
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