Live Music Log, April 2019

 Hi.  I'm a guy who goes to see a lot of local music and then writes about it.

4 5 19  Gregory Stovetop #2/THE BIG SIRS  Tip Top Deluxe, Grand Rapids  A night of old fashioned sounds, for better or for worse.  The Big Sirs is the same personnel as Diff & Dudley, but with a less explicitly country sound, allowing for more rockabilly, honky tonk, what have you.  Older gents who are still way too prone to pre-Me Too humor, but undeniably skilled on their instruments, with a few really good songs (one dude was in Holland's Mosey 20 years ago, a band whose CD I still play often). Better than a Diff and Dudley set, for sure.  And then Stovetop, a big-bearded golem who is like Andrew W.K. and Bob Seger had a baby. Michigan roots, Brookyn headquartered, he's an Earthwork fellow traveler, a skilled visual artist, and a bringer of the rawk in guitar form.  Wailsharq on bass, Jarad Selner on drums (dude can play literally anything), an unholy racket was made within the cool cat confines of the Tip Top.  My companion, Roo, had a perma-grin. His signature track is "The Good Stuff," and that about sums it up.

4 6 19 Darcy Wilkin #18  Grand Traverse Distillery, Kalamazoo  Various vagaries of life have led to me writing this more than four months after the fact, so any shows where I didn't take notes are a smeary blur of buckshot against the back of my poor memory. I assume I had a good time, because Darcy mixes sad songs and funny stories in the manner of her songwriting heroes, such as John Prine and Townes Van Zandt.  Pretty sure other friends were there.  Positive I had an alcoholic chocolate cream soda. Early afternoon low-key show, which allowed me to move on to the Strand Brewery in Sister Lakes, where I caught an hour worth of Megan Dooley, who I had not seen in way too long.  Her take on "Yakko's Universe" went awry, but all else was right with her eclectic boho sound.  Few people manage to look so tough and sound so sweet at the same time. From there, on to....

4 6 19  Public Access #9  Founders, Grand Rapids   Because of the Dooley visit, I missed the opening act, Wing Vilma, but I caught all of the primary-color-jumpsuited crew's set.  Monolithic slabs of pure melody, generated by a ludicrous number of guitars, saxophone, bass, drums, keys, sampler, no words at all (unless you count Laura Nowe's fake NPR interludes).  Steve Leaf's frankenbeast lurches in preset directions, with a little tiny bit of improvisatory wiggle room for each player. As always, impressed by the sweet/raunchy tones of Alex Atkin, the only guitarist up there I never see in any other context (other than the Rickabus Big Band):  hoping that changes soon.


4 12 19 The Sweet Water Warblers #3  Seven Steps Up, Spring Lake  This was a sweet sweet sound.  It does tend to become the Rachael Davis Show, but luckily she is very good.  Thoughtful songs presented in carefully woven harmonies by three of Michigan's favorite daughters (even if two have flown the coop). And, without notes, that's all I got. From here, because I am insane, I drove to....

4 12 19  Dede And The Dreamers #5/Dan Rickabus #10  Old Dog Tavern, Kalamazoo  Missed opening band Cold Mountain Child because of show hopping, and a little bit of Dan, but it's ok:  the Beanpole of Positivity forgives all. Ukulele set, genially ignored by half the Old Doggers and enjoyed by the rest, with a little Dreamer collaboration thrown in.  And then:  the best Dreamers set I have yet experienced.  Everyone was on, dialed in, virtuosity tied to playful natures, marimba, violin, bass and drums, with Dan joining in on a few tunes. Dede Alder is a slyly grinning mama seraph.

4 13 19  The Crane Wives #66/OLIVIA MILLERSCHIN  The Loft, Lansing  My high school friends Renae and Julie were along for this one, making camaraderie as much the point as the music. But the music was good.  Olivia is like a young nineties throwback:  snarky and self aware, but sentimental and heartfelt at the same time. From the notes, two thumbnail sketches:  Ingrid Michaelson with a better BS detector, or Regina Spektor ironed flatter. And then the Wives were awesome.  Too long ago now to remember details: this will be a common refrain, as I write these in late September.  I spent a LOT of time working on writings for the Earthwork Harvest Gathering (collected here) and fell far, far behind on my hobby.  All worth it for the mind blowing cameraderie of that festival...but in the meantime, the blog I started to aid my memory is gonna have more holes than a fine Swiss cheese.  It was great to see my old friends meet my new friends and hit it off pretty well;  Julie already was a fan, and Renae became one in a hurry.

4 20 19 Eight Belles #2/MJ AND NEGAR/YOU KNOW I KNOW  Factory Coffee, Kalamazoo  Jessi Phillips (who, basically, IS Eight Belles) invited me to this super spiffy secret Sofar Sounds show.  I learned later that their business model (make bank off fake house shows, pay artists a pittance) is reprehensible, but none of that affects the sweet sweet music.  This venue was super cool too, an entire second floor above a backstreet coffee joint.  I was briefly excited about approaching the place to cobill my own shows, till it was pointed out that the "house show" status let Sofar skirt ADA access laws.  (Only reachable by stairs.) So yeah, Jessi's songs were sweetly acerbic, tunefully rueful, and over too quickly. The Right Light was the lovely opener, and there was a Lucinda Williams cover in there.  MJ Epperson, a jazz bassist-around-town who often plays with Sam Cooper, and Negar Afazel, a singer/violinist with a fascinating voice and Iranian heritage, played a duet set of great and delightful eccentricity. Lil bit of eerie Andrew Bird weirdness, and a requiem for the 1979 revolution. You Know I Know was very Sea And Cake:  beachside alt rock with a jazzy edge.  The singer had literally just arrived from a wedding in Tennessee, but her still killed it.  Great song title: Erik Satie Finally Says His Piece. Great line:  don't you dare sing those songs without me.  The ghost of Knee Deep Shag was in that room.

4 20 19 MODERN ADVENTURES/OFTEN HOME  Old Dog Tavern, Kalamazoo  The Sofar show was early enough that I got over to Old Dog for another round of discovery.  Often Home were cheeky power pop youngsters, like a Jimmy Eat World with most of the ennui drained out. Modern Adventures were like a louder version of You Know I Know, chiming alt rock with some great melodies:  aging pop punks with some highly vocal fans in the house.  They played Kings Of Leon's Use Somebody, "because we gotta make you sing along with SOMETHING."

4 21 19 The Go Rounds #5  Salt of the Earth, Fennville  In the reasonably hushed confines of Mark Schrock's farm-to-table restaurant, the Go Rounds were throttled back, but they were not half-assed, for a sold out Easter show.  Dials were at half mast, which made it much more enjoyable to me than some of the outer space excursions of late.  Delicate ballad Texas Desert Rose was perfect, melodic, and weird.  Excellent cover of Talking Heads' Heaven.  Masterful command of the basic tools of a rock band, channeling them into something unique.  And yet only about 20 people stayed for the second set.

4 25 19 The Accidentals #11/Earth Radio #3/Lipstick Jodi #4  Bell's, Kalamazoo  This Thursday hootenanny was worth working a Friday for:  three favorites, all female led, all on the big stage at Bell's.  Lipstick Jodi's lineup behind Karli is all new and weirdly all dude, including Andy from Olivia's old Troupe, but no complaints about the sound:  new stuff is less lesbian Cars and more femme Duran Duran.  Earth Radio is a damn fine fusion of funky soul, free jazz, and pop melody, and it's good to see such a fresh sound catching on in our market.  Left field Erykah Badu cover.  Hannah Laine is a marvel:  like Yoko Ono with perfect note control.  I miss the guitar tho. And then the headliners:  the happy monkeys from 40 months ago have acquired many layers of seasoning on their cast iron sound from relentless touring and inexorable songwriting growth.  I don't know the new ones well yet, but they are darker, funkier, and unlike anything found on the radio. But here, in Michigan, they can still end a show with a big happy singalong on their teenage ode to the mitten and send em off into the night smiling.

4 27 19 Carrie McFerrin #26  Grand Traverse Distillery, Kalamazoo  This was a 2 pm gig:  I think this experiment has already ended, the poorly attended early shows, but I loved em because they let me pack more music into my southward journeys.  Low key, Carrie strumming and singing while cocktails are imbibed, country veneer on a heart of oak.

4 27 19 Olivia & the Aquatic Troupe #25  Old Dog Tavern, Kalamazoo  I saw Olivia as a headliner for the first time here almost exactly three years earlier, and the growth is evident.  Whimsy dialed way down (Dwayne and the Rock Johnsons aside), the dark heart of gypsy-jazz-inflected pop to the fore.  I can't remember if Bleu was at this one, but the horns are deemphasized in favor of spare guitar-bass-drums that add up to something much older than rock n roll.

4 28 19 The Crane Wives #67/THE CONCUSSIONS/The Honeytones #2  Founders, Grand Rapids  An afternoon benefit show for a food pantry charity, John Sinkevics of Local Spins has been organizing these Feedback shows for many years, and playing them with his band the Honeytones, formed around his keys and fellow GR Press refugee Charley Honey on guitar.  Geezer rock, mostly, but several smart curve balls and guest stars galore:  Hank Mowry on harmonica, Andy Willey on a Steve Earle tune, Kate and E, on a New Pornographers number, Tommy Schichtel from the next band on Hey Bulldog, and Hannah Laine wailing away on Sympathy For The Devil.  Best moment:  a 25 year old Sink original called Tunnel, built around strange true life events.  The Concussions are a surf rock band who wear skull masks.  Excellent musicians, but with no vocals it doesn't stick for me.  Notable mainly for superproducer Schichtel's searing guitar leads.  And then the Wives:  two new songs debuted, Nobody (an Em disco stomper about gaslighting that has entered heavy rotation) and Queen Of Nothing (a Kate howl of pain that seems to have moved to her solo set). So great to see them in GR and realize they have rabid fans beyond the half dozen of us who go to see EVERY show.