Went to see the Eels at the Park West in Chi-town last night. Last Eels show I saw featured E in an old-fashioned flight uniform complete with goggles, a giant (ok, just a giant super-buff dude) doing calisthenics, whipped cream, and rock and roll delights. The time before that, E wore a three-piece suit, smoked a cigar and had an orchestra onstage. It would be fair to say that I didn’t really know what to expect.

eels rock show-2006

The Park West is tiny, fitting about 700 in what is basically a really big, super swanky Canopy Club, except with chairs all the way up to the stage. Those chairs made me sad, since there was no room for doing anything but sitting. E came out after a first set consisting of a movie about E and his physicist father. He played alone for a few songs, then was joined by E’s main man, “the Chet.” The Chet, like E, can (and did) play every instrument on the stage-guitars, piano, harpsichord(?), drums, and several exotic stringed items.
That was it: the two men played music and people sat there and listened (and the Chet did a couple readings from E’s new book, not yet released in the U.S. but available last nite for about 2 seconds). E played lots of music off of Electro-Shock Blues, the super-sad but totally wonderful album written during an especially difficult time in the Everett family history (so goes the story). Lots of these songs are pretty rockin and upbeat on the album, but last nite they were slower and emptier of adornment but no less beautiful. I really thought about crying-but didn’t. The show felt long and was so intense that it was a surprise when it ended after little more than an hour.

I had a great time, I loved it and thought it was awesome, but it was a kinda strange experience nonetheless. The sound was amazing, the space felt tiny, and the music was kickass, but it was still kinda weird, in a good way. It’s like E said “F*ck it- I know my music is rules no matter how I play it, so I might as well do what I want and people can like it or not.” I was proud of him and lucky to be an Eels fan and get to see such an unusual and heart-stopping show. Thanks E, I’ll see you next time you come around, and every time thereafter…

Ok, so I didn’t actually get tasered, or even threatened with a taser, but pepper spray is kind of a bummer also. What, you say, was I in a riot? No, no, just assembling peacefully to enjoy some local music, and getting a shot of pepper spray on the side. Now, most everyone reading this blog probably knows about the Local Music Awards last night (it is featured right on the website, after all), and those who went are also probably aware of the other free show right next door to the High Dive, at the surprisingly lovely Memphis on Main.
Zmick, Elsinore, Beauty Shop, to name just a few of the six bands that played for free at Memphis on Main last night, in case the free performances at the LMA’s weren’t enough. It was a very fun little evening, with lots of people bouncing back and forth between the two shows, everyone getting their money’s worth of sweet local music (haha). There was an actual feeling of community and mutual enjoyment.
But anyway, back to the pepper spray. So, there we are, a crowd of happy listeners, well sated after a great Elsinore set, awaiting the Beauty Shop, when all of a sudden, the whole bar had to adjourn outside for some fresh air (in order to escape what I believe was a cloud of pepper spray). Oddly, the band was not ushered outside, confirming the fact that bands are hardcore and willing to take abuse in the name of setting up the stage for playing music. What heroes.

Happy Birthday to a C-U institution (at least for those of us who didn’t grow up here). The Canopy Club turns 10 years old this year, cheers to the Canopy!

happy birthday to you
you live in a zoo…

When they opened in 1998, the Canopy was probably (it must have been, right?) the biggest middle-sized place to see a show in town. The Assembly Hall being so huge, and the Champaign downtown spots being either smaller or non-existent, the Canopy helped out those college kids and townies who desired more live music. The Flaming Lips, Bela Fleck, Ghostface Killah, Iggy Pop, Local H, Les Claypool, Smashing Pumpkins, They Might Be Giants, tons and tons of local music…should I go on, cuz I could for a while. So many great shows, many more to come.

sorry, this show already happened

My first Canopy experience was seeing The Eels, a show that took place right after Elliot Smith died. Since the head honcho of The Eels, the crazily talented Mark Oliver Everett (see blog #50-”the best band you (maybe) never heard of”) was a good friend of the unfortunate Mr. Smith, the show ended kind of abruptly, and those of us waiting outside to catch of glimpse of the mastermind were disappointed. Despite this, I enjoyed the Canopy at the time, and have only grown more fond of it as time passes and I see more shows there. Something is in the air at the Canopy, and bands seem honor-bound to play a sweet show. I have seen some of the best Beauty Shop shows ever there, as well as amazing Ween, Keller, Claypool, and more. So party on Canopy, happy birthday, you don’t look a day over 5.

Even the most casual peruser of my blog knows that I was off in the wilco-strastosphere for most of last week. This is not a post about the excellence of the shows (a topic already given ample space). Instead, it is just a little response, of sorts, to all the buzz about wilco as the “new” grateful dead or the new tour phenom. As a person who has been into the dead for a long time, long enough to feel the sting of almost being old enough to have some jerry time before he died, the idea of a new “dead” that had nothing to do with jam bands is especially interesting.
What makes people think or say this about wilco in this day and age? Jeff seems to enjoy cultivating a relationship with the crowd, creating a more intimate feeling of people just hanging out…and maybe you want that hanging out to continue in Nashville, Mobile (tickets still available!), or Tulsa. All the guys kick ass on their (and sometimes other people’s) instruments, innovating and flourishing wherever they please. Although the band doesn’t do extend jamouts, they mix up and play with each song each time, adding something new or taking out something familiar. They definitely play a different show every night, despite the repeats, each with its own motion and feeling. Most of all though, wilco is simply a magical live band. The first wilco show makes you believer, I promise. I don’t know what it is, why or how it works, but they cast a freakin spell on you. I am even more wilcoed out than before the Riviera shows, having gained new appreciation for songs I used to feel so-so about, and extra loving songs I used to just mostly love.
So maybe the whole grateful dead thing comes down to a simple question of magical musical experience (careful, your hippie is showing). But really, you can’t know till it happens to you, and maybe people find it easiest to express that live show magic by invoking the grateful dead. I don’t think jerry would be disappointed with that.

By last night’s last show, I kinda hated the Riviera. It was the fifth night in a row that the show was oversold, guaranteeing a total lack of seats and a total lack of view if one was unwilling to push people in a crush toward the front. Since we spent the night before up close, surrounded by guys singing loudly along with the show and a miasma of vomit stench, we were unwilling to do so again, choosing to hang out closer to the big back bar, where the sightline was nonexistent. Not a little bit blocked, or partial, or only fair; I mean one could not see anything at all except the heads of other people. Why is there a venue where the back part of the room is lower than the middle?
The show itself was good, the music sounded great and Jeff was chatty and cute, there was just one little problem: the glaring lack of some songs, which were never played. Ok, I can accept that every song from the Mermaid Avenue albums, that Wilco/Billy Bragg/Woody Guthrie collaboration, might not get played, but what about “Let’s Not Get Carried Away?” It was just released, and god knows they played everything else off Sky Blue Sky, including “Impossible Germany” an impossibly unnecessary four times. Jeff commented on the missing song situation, being obviously aware of the lack, but that’s information a spectator might want to receive before the last ten minutes of the last show. According to Jeff, it was “the fine print” that B-sides and rarities were not included in the “every recorded song” promise. My boyfriend was pretty much crushed by this development, since LNGCA is his very favorite and most-hoped for song of all. If they hadn’t played so many songs so many times, it wouldn’t sting so much, I’m sure.
Now, I am well aware that I myself just posted about the advantages of not hearing the song you want, in order to increase the excitement for next time. That’s all well and good for me, but some people take that stuff really seriously and get all annoyed. Don’t worry Jeff Tweedy, I still love you, but try not to piss off my boyfriend so much…

Tuesday night Wilco show didn’t seem quite so crowded, but maybe I’m just used to navigating the Riv, so I know where the good spots are now. Last night’s show was recorded and broadcast by a certain Chicago radio station, so the mood onstage was a little more serious and music-minded, not quite so full of silliness and hilarity. “Impossible Germany” made its fourth appearance of the run, so I guess I’ll have to learn to love it sometime. Lots of good music (duh), plenty of repeats (have they been practicing for the radio?), and some isolated gems, (“California Stars,” “Company in my Back”). An awesome “Spiders,” and a “(Was I) In Your Dreams” featuring a raging Mikael Jorgensen on piano. In fact, he was busy last night, kicking musical ass all over the place. Since magical piano time is one of my favorite live-music features, I was a very happy dancer.

let’s rock!

For this former tour-kid, some of the most interesting the showtalk was comments made by Tweedy about Wilco tour and his crowd. He was talking about what a great crowd this was, a hometown crowd, and said “you guys should just come with us…oh wait, lots of you are going to, how scary” (ok, I am paraphrasing, the real Jeff Tweedy is a way better speaker). Going on Wilco tour? In the middle of February? I mean, I’m up for it, and it seems like Tweedy thinks it would be cool, but how the hell to support yourself? There’s no vending, there’s no pre/after show hangout spot to sell food or beer or merch., and gas is pretty expensive if you hadn’t noticed. It was an interesting proposition despite the impracticality of going on tour with your bank account and no way to make extra money-rich guy tour for the over 35 crowd? In fact, Monday night, while introducing the set break, Tweedy mentioned that they were going to break and come back, “just like the Grateful Dead.” Hmmmmm….Might have to mix up the shows a little more if you’re going to be entertaining the same hard-core traveling fans every night. Any way that you interpret these statements, even as a kind of Tweedy joke, it is interesting to see how the band thinks about their fan base and the project of going on tour, with or without traveling tour kids.

Went to the first of three Wilco shows at the Riviera theater last night, and surprise surprise, it was mega-packed. There was literally nowhere to move in the balcony, and after the first few songs they stopped letting people up there, so a spectator had no choice but to stand at the windows on the second floor (where you can’t see a single inch of the stage), or find a spot on the floor, space ranging from semi-plentiful to nonexistent the closer you got to the action. We made it pretty close to the stage during set break, and the kids around us were all quite nice: no one was too pushy or elbowy, although a couple guys were just too tall-can’t they minimize for the show?
They played some amazing music, the second set-opening “Via Chicago” was killer, “I Got You,” with Andrew Bird, the horns and everyone rockin’ out their instruments, “She’s a Jar,” with harmonica almost made me cry, and “The Late Greats,” were just a few of the highlights of the show. In the grand tradition of second sets, this one was more exciting and seemed to please the crowd a little more than set one.
Now, “The Late Greats” has been my most hoped for song from the very beginning, and I was understandably crushed when they played it on Saturday for their second set opener, since I wasn’t there. I was totally excited to hear it last night, but it also got me thinking about the shows so far, and those to come. If you are a dork like me, you have been checking and comparing setlists from the first two, now three, shows, offering opinion or verifying info or hoping not to have seen your song in a setlist you didn’t participate in. You can do that here. This is part of the great excitement of shows for me, thinking about setlists and what you want to hear and accepting the fact that you might have to wait till next time to hear your favorite. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my “late greats” and got down and had a great time, but they just played it, at the same venue, two nights before. When I saw the Flaming Lips twice two summers ago, I was disappointed and a little annoyed that they played the same exact show at Red Rocks that they played at Lollapalooza. In that case, the stage banter was the same, making it not banter but a script, and the set list was the same progression. I have never quite gotten over this experience, and have a little less respect for the flaming boys as a result. (they also played the exact same show almost a year later, so this is clearly a lips issue).
I am in no way expressing similar anger or disappointment at the Wilco show. I had a f*cking awesome time and can’t wait for the next two shows. The music sounded fresh and exciting, the band looked like they were having a great time, I am now officially crazy about Jeff Tweedy (who my boyfriend said looks like an angry alien cat while singing), and I guess I would enjoy hearing some of the same songs again today or tomorrow. In fact, I am secretly hoping that they play a few more of my own favs that they already played. However, it is a strange and slightly sad blow to my extremely high expectations, not musically but in a weird and probably totally idiosyncratic ethical way. I know that they have the chops to play whatever they want, and so I am always hoping for more. I guess not everyone wants to take their time drawing out the music, and instead searches for perfection in the things they love. However, based on comments made by Jeff during the show, I think that he may well have been unaware of the percentage of people who had tickets for all five, or even this week’s three, shows. We’ll just have to see what the next nights bring. Stay tuned, and let me know what you think about show structure, if you think about it at all. Do you want to hear just your favorites, or will you accept a mix in the service of anticipation for next time? (of course, I have 2 more nights to see all I want, so it’s easy for me to take the high road)…

Hooray for the Great Cover Up, in its 17th year at the Highdive in Champaign! Awesome local bands musically disguised as slightly more (ok, sometimes way more) famous bands, with cheesiness, daring and originality all drawing enthusiastic crowd response. Definitely one of the highlights of the local music scene.
So far this year, I have made it to one of the two shows, with attendance possible for the Thursday night show, featuring jigGsaw and elsinore, among others. Since elsinore stole the show last year with their Queen cover performance, it should be worth stopping by on Thursday.
But about last night…

oh, how time flies

Had to work, so I missed Monster Honkey, arriving just as The Chemicals took the stage. They started off a Velvet Underground set with “I’m Waitin’ for the Man,” before moving on to some way obscure covers. I saw the Chemicals earlier this year, and thought that their slightly fuzzy sound was perfect for their Velvet performance-I did miss Nico’s horribley lovely voice though. Terminus Victor played the most weirdly upbeat version of Eliot Smith ever, followed by the Tractor Kings, playing a genuinely upbeat Uncle Tupelo set, which was both danceable and sad. The bass player sang a few of the songs in a surprisingly strong yet youthful voice, reminding at least me of a young mournful Jeff Tweedy. All this music was great, but some in the crowd were missing the costumes and drama sometimes seen at past Cover Ups.
Never fear, the Beauty Shop is here, Read the rest of this entry »

Went to the Emmitt Nershi Band show on Sunday night at the Canopy Club. This is an all-string band with Drew Emmitt from Leftover Salmon and Billy Nershi of String Cheese Incident, as well as uber-banjo player Chris Pandolfi and a bass player whose name I did not catch. They sounded great–very energetic and rockin, and the crowd was loving every minute.
I think I would rather be at a show where I had to throw an elbow or two to discourage over-stimulated dancers than a show where everyone is still. Then again, I have been an over-stimulated dancer at many shows, so this is strictly a personal preference people! It is interesting how many hippies emerge from the woodwork when a good jam show comes to town. I know that Umphreey’s and Keller Williams always draw a killer crowd at the Canopy.
As one of the two people who does Jambana on WPGU, I am certainly biased in my appreciation of jam music, but I think even some of the more indie music listeners would enjoy being at a live show where the crowd is super-pumped and the musicians are astoundingly technically accomplished. (Not that nonjam musicians are not, but to see Chris Pandolfi rage his banjo is an amazing sight.)
I must admit that I am a little apprehensive about this post, since my last live-show related post drew such dramatic response…but this is my blog dammit and I am certainly not out to offend. Can’t we all just get along?

Ok, so I gave in and went to see the GWAR show at the Canopy on Wednesday. I had never actually heard any GWAR music, but I know what the band is all about, blood and costumes and satanic aliens and all that fabulousness, and hey, I didn’t pay for the tickets.

I was expecting to go in, look around, and leave, returning only to pick up my boyfriend after the show. I ended up sitting down and watching with beer in hand, drawn to the disgusting spectacle as some people are to a car crash. There were costumes aplenty, including a leather thong with a giant pig-head dildo worn by the lead singer. I must admit, I have never seen that much strange, exposed male ass in my entire life–I was frightened but strangely unable to look away.

They brought out a fake George W. and decapitated him, and also:

Hitler
Jesus
a priest
Jewish Satan (don’t think he actually exists)
Bam (from Viva la Bam-who they totally dissed like crazy)
a terrorist
a cop
various other weirdos

Each of these characters somehow became injured enough to start squirting blood on the audience, and that was the main attraction. They could squirt it so far, it almost reached the sound guy, and the Canopy had their murals covered in plastic for the festivities. I guess it was kinda like watching some bizarre movie that is both repetitive and shocking. Not something I would ever choose to hear or see again, but worth going just for the sheer gross-out. All I kept thinking was “those guys must have great vocabularies.” I bet they get off stage and have all sorts of intelligent discussions, they just happen to gross people out for a living.