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7.15.2006
Buffalo | Queen City Hipster?
Over the last few years, I've noticed that Buffalo is getting alot more shows featuring acts not named Dave Matthews, Goo Goo Dolls, or Warped Tour. I thought that Buffalo didn't have much of a market for lesser known acts, but the development of some great venues and promoters looking to fill them has led to some great acts coming to Buffalo. Just last Thursday a fantastic lineup of acts were all over the city, as Diplo was with CSS and Bonde do Role, hardcore-punk legends Lifetime and The Bronx, Icy Demons, and Ween were all here on the same night! This summer is no different, as Buffalo has slipped on its skin-tight jeans and ironic t-shirt for some great shows. Here's a list of what's coming up organized in order of my favorite venues in Buffalo.
The Soundlab - Easily my favorite venue, an extremely small place in the basement of the Dunn Building in the heart of the city. Features a small bar, to the right of the stage, and to the left several booths kind of secluded from the show and candles all over the place. Holds about 250.
July 20 - Deadboy & The Elephantmen July 21 - Nick Castro & The Young Elders Aug 3 - Oneida, From Monuments to Masses, Sleeping Kings of Iona Aug 6 - The Red Krayola Aug 20 - Red Sparowes, Daughters, Versoma Aug 29 - Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band Sept 3 - An Albatross, Bare Flames Oct 12 - Okkervil River Oct 16 - Xiu Xiu
Mohawk Place - Another small place but with more of a biker-bar feel. Looks kinda crummy, but always draws a good crowd. Holds around 350.
July 24 - Now It's Overhead July 26 - Karl Blau Aug 2 - The Hold Steady Aug 4 - The Black Heart Procession, Castanets, Devics Sept 2- The Clientele
The Icon - A slightly larger place, The Icon is usually known for punk, emo, and hardcore (it could be said its where Buffalo's new emo boys Cute Is What We Aim For got their start), but has brought a slew of good acts the last few years including Of Montreal, The Mountain Goats, and The Blood Brothers. Holds up to 900.
July 26 - Murder By Death, Langhorn Slim, Aberdeen City July 27 - Tarantula AD, Tim Fite Aug 3 - The Germs Aug 4 - The Format, Steel Train, Streets to Nowhere, Starflyer 59 Aug 26 - The New Deal Sept 22 - The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, Baby Gramps
The Town Ballroom - A great place for a show, recently renovated and has an excellent sound system. Several tiers so you can get a good view from almost anywhere in the place. Holds around 1000.
Aug 24 - Jurrasic 5 Sept 30 - Built to Spill
Kitchen Distribution - I haven't checked this place out yet, but I hear good things. It's supposed to be in some adandoned wearhouse or something.
July 18 - Six Organs of Admittance, Jax Deluca, Pow Wow July 22 - Akimbo, Divine Machine, Michael Bettine's Gontopia Aug 7 - Japanther, This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, Rat Rasturd Aug 10 - The Flying Luttenbachers, Caustic Solution
Let's not forget about Rochester! The Bug Jar has some fantastic shows coming up in the next few months as well:
July 23 - Jens Lekman, Frida Hyvonen, Little Yellow Bird July 25 - Now It's Overhead, Monotonix, Veluxe Aug 2 - Kalpana, Saxon Shore, From Monuments to Masses, Denison Witmer Sept 2 - Joan of Arc, Owen, Our Brother The Native Sept 14 - Magnolia Electric Co., Shearwater Sept 29 - Wolf Eyes Oct 17 - Xiu Xiu
Not to mention as well that the man himself, BOB DYLAN will be hitting Frontier Field on August 30 on his tour of minor league ballparks this summer. His new disc, Modern Times, hits stores just a day before he hits Rochester.
Yo La Tengo's "The Sounds of Sounds of Science" | Shea's, Buffalo
I'm not quite sure what has gotten into Buffalo's greater institutions, but whatever it is I like it. Last year, the Albright Knox Art Gallery went big with their Rockin' at the Knox benefit and brought Wilco and My Morning Jacket for a show nothing short of amazing. They continued this year by brining Blondie and some great local bands, including different weblog favorites, Sleeping Kings of Iona. On Tuesday, three well-respected Buffalo institutions brought an event I never thought would bring its way around here. The Buffalo Museum of Science, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, which I had not heard of until this event, and Shea's Performing Arts Center all collabrated in bringing Yo La Tengo to Buffalo to perform "The Sounds of Sounds of Science" to the films of Jean Painleve.
I was very surprised when I discovered this was at Shea's, because I would have bet large sums of money this wouldn't come close to filling Shea's. Shea's is usually used for off Broadway performances, and occasionally comedians like Seinfeld and Carlin, who sell out the just over 3,000 capacity venue. My prediction was right as the place probably wasn't even 1/4 full, and that's probably being slightly generous.
Despite this, the show was nothing short of fantastic. I had not seen Painleve's films before, and was amazed at the kind of footage he was able to get, considering some of them were made as early as 1929. The films feature underwater footage of sea horses, sea urchins, octopi, shrimp, and other sea-life at microscopic levels. The only drawback to being in the second row was trying to read Painleve's subtitles accompanying his films, which were both informative and witty, when Ira Kaplan or James McNew weren't blocking them.
Yo La Tengo, armed with the usual drums, guitars, and an array of ancient looking keyboards, synths, and effects pedals, beautifullly accompanied the films. The songs come to life when paired with the films, as their performance syncs up wonderfully. Most memorable to me was a scene from "Shrimp Stories" whereupon a shrimp, who had just shed its skin, was attempting to rebalance itself on its legs. Georgia Hubles scattereed, tribal-like drumming perfectly captured the shrimps frantic scrambles to get back on its feet.
As exciting as this was, it's not the last of Yo La Tengo for us here at different weblog. In a few weeks, David, myself and other WRUR crew will hit Chicago for the Pitchfork Music Festival!
Now this wasn't as anticipated an event as most of the shows I've been hitting this summer, as my dad sprung it on me a few weeks ago. I wasn't very familiar with the careers of David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash or Neil Young, or any combination of the four (I'm not exactly proud of that) but Neil Young is a cool cat, so I'd figured I'd go, seeing as I didn't have to pay for anything. I'm always hesitant about old-timer acts because you never know if their motive is the music and the fans or $$$. With ticket prices around the $80-$100 range, and ugly t-shirts going for $40, I questioned if these fellas were part of the corporate greed they sing out against.
Foolishly, I left my camera in the car, because these old dudes (Stills and Crosby are so round they look like they could explode at any minute) put on one heck of a show Monday night. Blending songs from the solo and group careers of all four men, the first hour rocked hard with songs from all four men, including several from Young's new album "Living wih War," seeing as this tour was entitled the "Freedom of Speech Tour '06." The first hour was heavy with blues/country/rock, the guitars raging and sounding most excellent. After a short break, the group came back with a few acoustic favorites, including "Our House," "Deja Vu," and "Teach Your Children." The group then resumed rocking the place for the rest of the three-hour set.
Besides the ticket and t-shirt costs, my only complaint was the general idea of the Freedom of Speech Tour. None of the guys said anything directly about the war, but of course many of the songs were politically charged. Besides the songs from Young's new album (which were accompanied by a desecrated peace sign hangning in the background), about halfway thought the set a video featuring the faces of soldiers who died in Iraq along with a rising count of deaths played while the group performed "Find the Cost of Freedom." Clips of President Bush contradicting himself while the group played Young's "Let's Impeach the President." Anti-war songs and protest seem sort of redudant at this point, as musicians have been doing it for a while now, and most of the country no longer favors the war. It's almost as if CSNY jumped back into the protest scene a few years too late. And the messages did not nearly have the same effect in Toronto as they probably do in the U.S., as the pot smoke drifted around me from every direction, and only receiving a mere, "Please put that out," from the ushers.
Despite this, CSNY still kicked it, with a great version of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth," ending the set with what else but "Rockin' in the Free World," and a one-song encore of "Woodstock."
In a related note, Canada rocks, man. Toronto is such a beautiful city. It's very clean, besides a few bums here and there, but there is always something going on, and the crowds are always so diverse. It kinda stinks that their's almost no exchange rate between Canadian and American cash moneys, but it still is awesome.
Oh, and Neil Young is from Canada. And Neil Young was THE MAN Monday night. The guy dresses like a farmer, but rocks so hard on guitar, I'm very ashamed I'm not more familiar with his work.
I'm a little behind on my posts, as tonight I saw Yo La Tengo perform "The Sounds of Sounds of Science" back in Buffalo. David is seeing it in Brooklyn tomorrow, so you'll hear from one of us about it.
The Weakerthans, The New Amsterdams & Raising the Fawn | Town Ballroom, Buffalo
The Town Ballroom, which usually does a great job of brining acts that will fill out its performance space to capacity, was about only half-filled Sunday night, but the crowd was a devoted one, excited to see their favorite band from Winnipeg.
I came in during Raising the Fawn's set, which was mostly an uninspiring alt-rock set, despite the fact the band features John Crossingham of Broken Social Scene. The band released "The Maginot Line" earlier this year.
The closest I would ever get to seeing The Get Up Kids was when The New Amsterdams took the stage. Led by former GUK frontman Matthew Pryor, the band creates a beautiful blend of emo, folk, and alt-country. At times their performance was a bit mild, sparing a few songs where they picked up the pace, including a great upbeat rendition of "Proceed with Caution." There were some devoted New Ams fans in attendance, but some of the crowd was getting impatient and bored with the bands style. Matt Pryor & Co. could benefit greatly from a smaller, more intimate setting. The band is supporting their latest release, "Story Like a Scar."
John K. Samson took the stage all by himself to start off The Weakerthans set with "One Great City!" and it only got better from there as the band played songs from all three of their albums, but mostly from their last two, "Left and Leaving" and "Reconstruction Site." Besides his guitar solo on a new song, which featured his "guitar solo face," Samson was very still most of the night. But bassist John P. Sutton and the touring guitarist really got the crowd going as the night went on, jumping around and doing some flashy guitar work. The band also debuted several new songs, one about bus drivers, and another about Bigfoot! The bands newer material is more downtempo and more folk, alt-country influenced, as several of the songs are on "Reconstruction Site." "Aside," "Watermark," "Plea from a Cat Named Virtue," "and "Our Retired Explorer" rocked and the band definitely didn't disappoint this devoted crowd.
Tomorrow I will be in Toronto again, rocking it old skool this time with my Pops for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young!
Jamie Lidell & Konono No.1 | Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
Jamie Lidell is clearly the best kept secret in music, and proved furthermore with a fantastic free performance at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto Saturday evening. This shaggily dressed Brit has the best pipes I've ever heard, and are reminiscent of Wilson Pickett, Sly Stone and Stevie Wonder. Also, being one half of the IDM duo Super_Collider, Lidell provides all his own beats, either with synths, laptop or incredibly looping his beat-boxing through all of the equipment he had.
During his live shows, Lidell likes to exeriment with his beats, and when he finds something, he goes with it. This led to many different beats backing some of the tracks from his latest album "Multiply." This included an absolutely sick version of "What's the Use" backed with the beat of Eminem and Dre's "Guilty Conscience," even ridiculously acting out of part of the video.
Halfway through the set, Lidell announced he was bringing out a special guest, who I thought would maybe be Cristian Vogel (the other half of Super_Collider) or one of last nights acts (Juan Maclean, Prefuse 73 or MSTRKRFT) whom I sadly missed. Instead it was Chilly Gonzales, an electro-rap pianist who was playing later in the evening. Gonzalez provided music for the beautiful "Game For Fools," and for the rest of the set.
I could go on about this for hours, but there's no reason Jamie Lidell shouldn't be a star right now. He has the vocals, has a marvelous stage persona (he felt sorry for the crowd because they had to watch him and he got to watch the birds flying over the harbor), and the music had the whole crowd dancing. The only thing holding back is at heart he is clearly an electronic artist, despite the fact he has an amazing voice. Were he ever to throw out the electronics and bring in a backing band, who knows how big he could be.
After Jamie, my friends and I went in search of food, and the crowd filled in and we couldn't get anywhere near Konono No.1. While entertaining for a few minutes, the groups band of tribal music with a dash of electronics (which includes a PA system built from magnets and trash) wasn't anything dazzling, and my friends desired to head home.
Excitingly, this is the first of four days of concerts for me. Tomorrow I will be checking out the Weakerthans and the New Amsterdams back in Buffalo!
Considering Buffalo's major contributions to the music world have been the Goo Goo Dolls, Snapcase, Everytime I Die, 10,000 Maniacs, and as of recently, Cute is What We Aim For, most wouldn't expect a powerful, shoegaze slash ambient slash electronica band to be the next thing to break out of Buffalo, now would they? The Sleeping Kings of Iona are just that, and in my opinion are the best band to ever come out of Buffalo.
I had first heard of SKOI in mid-2004, and got to see them open for a small festival featuring Mogwai and The Rapture. They opened with a cover of The Smiths "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want," and immediately stole my heart. SKOI does a masterful job of creating lush soundscapes, drawing influences from Brian Eno, Bjork, Sigur Ros, and Portishead. In seeing them live, the bands members are constantly playing a game of musical chairs, as every member plays almost every instrument and several members provide vocals, showing off their musical skill.
The only thing holding these guys back from national recognition is their touring schedule. While SKOI has opened for great acts like Mogwai and The Rapture, The Books, Mono, Prefuse 73, Aloha, and a recent performance opening for Blondie at the Albright-Knox Art Museum, they haven't toured very extensively. They've only traveled about as far west as Cleveland, as far south as Pittsburgh, as east as NYC, and as north as Toronto. I believe most of the members still have their day jobs, which prevents them from a national tour that they could benefit from greatly.
Sleeping Kings of Iona have two excellent releases, the "Faith (Our Return)" EP and their newest, "We Found a Love in the Streets but it was not Ours," the bands first full-length. I highly recommend both, and they are available on their website. The band is playing new material at their latest shows, and it sounds even better. They've only got two shows scheduled as of right now, but I'm sure a few more will trickle in by summers end.
