Furthur @ The Greek Theatre 9/21

Last night Fischer Trucking of my home town of Petaluma rolled the stage, lights, and band equipment of Grateful Dead legends Bob Weir and Phil Lesh's new ensemble, Furthur, into the comforts of The Greek Theatre in Griffith Park. What does the trucking company that has been hauling the Grateful Dead since the early eighties have to do with the concert? Big and little Mike Fischer are the only reason that the author of this blog was able to attend. The concert didn't seem sold out, but upon arriving to claim the tickets left for myself and the beautiful Adrienne at will call we saw a line of at least a hundred wide-eyed hippies that disappeared up the hill and continued on for lord knows how long. The seats were the best that I've had the pleasure of enjoying at this venue and the show was pretty damn good. Highlights from the first set include opening with "Alligator," and closing with an up tempo "Mason's Children." John Kadlecik was in great form taking on his duties as the "Jerry," character of the group while other "youngsters" Jeff Chimenti on keys and most importantly Joe Russo (STUD) playing both rhythm devils were on fire. The soloing was great, the jams were blatantly well rehearsed form-wise with players actually having sheet music!!! Not the same get stoned and find your way through the mayhem Dead that many of the audience members still revel in. The band has evolved and certainly gone Furthur. Phil sang a number of his tunes throughout the night as well as classics from Bobby and John. The only bad thing I can say (for the entire show) is that Weir's guitar was pretty much inaudible for the majority of the first set. Second set highlights include a complete "Weather Report Suite," which pretty much blew my mind to even be included in the set. The bulk of the second half of one of my favorite pieces of vinyl, "Wake of the Flood." The ensemble played great throughout and the crowd went nuts everytime Weir came back to the mic. Then the set closed with a beautiful rendition of "Morning Dew," sung wonderfully and then shredded to pieces by Kadlecik. This was a real treat for deadheads as Kadlecik's vocal and guitar not only sounded like Garcia, but a young and vigorous Garcia circa 1972. After this lengthy performance I thought the second set was closed, but not before a high energy "Playin' in the Band," which really brought the house down. Phil then returned to the stage to give a quick heartfelt speech about being the recipient of an organ donation. Short and sweet was his touching tribute to the person who saved is life and 6 others and then he announced that they had one more....

He and Shim at the LA Food and Wine Festival

M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel are the duo She and Him. Their two albums "Volume 1," and "Volume 2" are both warm, fuzzy, analogue recordings produced by Ward and tastefully arranged with the help of Mike Mogis and other session cats. Deschanel's voice is one that I can only describe as timeless. It has a quality that when coupled with Ward's production style and smooth backup vocals creates recordings that would be impossible to place on a timeline if heard without prior knowledge or description. Despite the possibility of minor pitch issues- which may have gone unnoticed by this kid's trained ear- I would say that she didn't miss a single note last night and she certainly didn't hold anything back. I have heard both albums, but mostly couldn't wait or barely stand to hear her endearing and passionate renditions of their tunes "Sentimental Heart," and "Change is Hard." Beautiful. The rest of the Food and Wine Festival was also fantastic. We managed to find the LA Times Wine Club booth in the back which was giving out healthy pours of Roblar Sauvignon blanc and various other varietals and stayed in the vicinity. Near by was some delicious free blueberry lemonade for hydration and some free tequila in the form of shots and tequila-cran concoctions. Eventually we filled up and headed over to the stage where Deschanel and Ward played songs from both albums as well as some thoughtfully chosen covers including an acoustic guitar and ukulele duet of "Wouldn't it Be Nice," by the Beach Boys and a raucous encore of "Roll Over Beethoven," from the Chuck Berry catalogue. Zooey's telecaster shaped ukulele was pretty cool to see as well. Great set. Far away pic, but you see the scene. Your welcome LA Times for the free advertising. I know you need it.

Pickathon: Frank Fairfield "Sleeper"

No that's not the name of the tune. That's the name we dubbed Frank. This 23 year old kid was- in a move of shear genius- slotted right before Bonnie 'Prince' Billy at the WoodStage on the Saturday of this year's Pickathon festival at Pendarvis Farm just outside of Portland, Ore. Quickly, let me say Thank You to any and all who helped put on this festival!! What a treat. We are coming back with more numbers and for a longer stay next year. I hope it remains so moderately priced and special for years to come. Alright, back to Frank. So everyone is setting up early to get good seats for Will Oldham and the Cairo Gang (Awesome set by the way, but I stopped filming to further enjoy....) and has no idea who Frank Fairfield is until he drops all jaws and silences the crowd after saying "I'm gonna play some American songs fer ya'." In the first video (follow to youtube) you can here me saying "This kid's a sleeper," and "He's got an old soul my friend," by the end I yelled down to him "God Bless you Frank." My beautiful and always two steps ahead girlfriend Adrienne bought me his LP the following morning and I caught up with Frank near the main stage for a signing of it and a chat about his version of "Deep Elem Blues," not to mention his performing schedule in the Los Angeles area where we both reside.  Frank is currently touring Europe and bringing his renditions of classic tunes undoubtedly to bars, pubs, theatres, and pick-up jams everywhere he goes. We caught him three times at the festival and were really treated to find him, Blind Boy Paxton, and some other unknown members from other Pickathon groups in the Workshop Barn pickin' on our way out. A crowd of three turned into about 25 and Adrienne and I started a twirling stompdance session that really blew the performers away after starting with no audience and just playing for the fun of it. What a festival. Enjoy the footage and I apologize for the laughter and shaking in advance...

Fresh Vinyl (That's New To Me): MMW's Combustication

Just picked up Medeski, Martin, and Wood's arguably most accesible and popular album to date on wax. It was an easy decision to make. Take MMW throw in DJ Logic and press it on vinyl, "Um, yes, thanks. Ring'er up freakish dipshit with the lip-ring and purple mohawk that hasn't been spiked up in weeks." I brought it home and my new Spanish roommate says, "Awwwww yes, you should burn something like this for me because I am needing fresh music." You got it girlfriend! I know some people complain that Medeski is obviously classically taught and not a true jazz cat or that they stick on the same thing for too long and it gets boring, or whatever, but when you see them in Nor Cal and they come out of a super extended spacey trip into the tastiest clav groove you ever heard you just don't care. I have to agree with the old shirt with the BMW logo...."The Ultimate Grooving Machine." The slow warmth of "Everyday People," the instant entertainment of "Sugarcraft," the ridiculous jazz story on "Whatever Happened to Gus..." this ain't bein' me favorite of their albums, but it is good.

This should pain and sadden you.

Live Music Tonight: Parson Red Heads and Fruitbats

So.........I caught the Fruitbats on NPR/KCRW this morning and the set was pretty cool. I had first learned of this band in San Diego covering their tune "When you Love Somebody," with Ernie Garcia and StuntDouble. But, I had never really pursued checking the band out despite really enjoying the simple tune with its ups and downs in dynamics and intensity.....Then, yesterday I heard it on the radio and sure enough the DJ says that they're going to be on Morning Becomes Eclectic today so I gave a lis'. Well, they're in town because they are going to play at the Echoplex tonight and I am trying to roust some heads to go peep it out when I head over to the website to see about ticks and........I see that The Parson Red Heads are playing at the Echo tonight as well in a show promoted by my favorite local blog, Aquarium Drunkard. Well ho-lee-shit....what's a kid to do? I first heard about the Parsons from the Drunkard's Ram on L.A. a tribute to Paul and Linda McCartney's RAM album. The Parson Red Heads did one of the best re-makes on that album, which was awesome in spirit and benefitted charity, but in many cases failed to produce good renditions, in my opinion. Their version of "Ram On," stood out enough for me to remember their name and check out their myspace and eventually become a fan. So......this is a good problem to have if you are interested in going out to see some live music in Silverlake tonight, but it still presents a problem.....Parsons or Fruitbats......more to come on this tomorrow.....

Concert Review: A.A. Bondy @ The Echo

A. A. Bondy just finished up at the Echo in Silverlake. First thing that stood out was his voice. Instantly recognizable as a great folk/pop timbre. Instantly. Nice little trio; drummer doubled on pedal steel and had a synth pad he used to trigger some samples (not too exciting, but noteworthy in terms of the electric sound they had on some tunes)...the pedal steel was quite nice, however. After three songs one might think that they were in for an insanely dynamic performance and they wouldn't be too far off, but for the lull in the center of the set. Somewhere in the middle of this lull the band went into a noise-rock/sound experiment of nob turning and feedback, but it just wasn't convincing. I was actually extremely relieved when they brought the intensity back up for the last couple of tunes because they executed it so much better. This was achieved by not solely raising volume and distortion, but doing so whilst maintaining the integrity of a very slow building 6/8 tumbler which they were able to climax beautifully before ending with a dissonant crash. A.A. also displayed some tasty travis-picking independence and the encore displayed the drummer's musicality and skill with a long set of extremely even and poignant double-stroke rolls within his compound metered groove. All in all this headlining set was very mellow, plenty eclectic, and overall, quite satisfying. Always nice to hear a band sound even better then their records.