I've been busy!

Since last we spoke, or rather, since last I typed and you read, I've been busy onstage, in front of a camera and for a while writing for a new arts blog: Arts America. Though their regional blog program was short lived, getting paid for my writing was very cool! Please visit my page here to see what I had to say about some theatrical events this past year.

Right now, I am involved in a number of different performing projects which have been keeping me from seeing many live shows. However, I have made time twice this past year to get out and see Saul Williams perform at Triple Rock Social Club. Twice. The first time out, he was here with his band and they tore it up! But the most recent visit was a spoken word event promoting his new book, Chorus: A Literary Mix Tape, and provided a different, but no less compelling, glimpse of the performer.

The show opened with Dessa doing a rare spoken word appearance which was great to see. She was honest, compelling, maybe a little high on recent successes, but present and bringing the truth as she knows it. The road may not have been easy, or brief, but it is clear why her star is on the rise.

Then Saul took the stage, and even though he was without his band, he did not come alone. For this tour he invited spoken word artists who contributed to the book to attend the shows and perform alongside him. His willingness to give stage to lesser known - but stellar - performers speaks volumes. His new book which consists of a series of contributed poems, curated by Saul, with a secondary poem he created from within the whole, is pretty amazing. It is all over the map as far as topics are concerned but definitely worth a read to see where, culturally, America stands today. It's not always a pretty picture, but this chorus of voices rising carries on it hope. Hope that when enough voices join, they will finally be heard.

Back to the show. All the performers for the evening took the stage at the top and remained while the others performed in a kind of invited guest solidarity. It was a mixed bag of topics and performance levels, but on the whole impressive. Midwest, represent! Saul then claimed the stage with his raw and visceral way of performing that lifts one up while it refuses to let them off the hook. It quickly becomes clear that his body and his voice ARE his politics and to be in the room when he's on the mic is to be transformed. 

If you have a chance to experience him, GO!

The Prisoner of Azkaban - July 9, 2011

The Riverview Theater is running a Harry Potter marathon this weekend in honor of the upcoming release of the FINAL film in the series. The first 3 movies played today, the remaining four play tomorrow. Due to the fact that I own all of the Harry Potter films, and have zero need to purchase tickets in order to watch them, I wasn't terribly crushed when it turned out I couldn't make it to the first or second today. However my stepson, Owen, and I are big fans of The Prisoner of Azkaban, so we rushed over and got to the theater just in time for the dinner scene at the top of the movie. We were forced to sit one behind the other as it was rather packed but it turned out to be just as easy to share our popcorn that way and we settled in for the movie.

The crowd was fairly young and vocal. But it has been my experience all along, and you can double check me on this here, that there is an unusually large amount of reverence for Harry Potter amongst the kinds of fans you'll find at a Harry Potter marathon (or midnight showing, for that matter). There was very little not-film-related chatter, but there was applause and laughter throughout. My favorite crowd reaction was for this. They went bonkers. A play might have needed to pause to let things calm down before moving on so people wouldn't miss anything, but really was there anyone present who hadn't seen the film before? Owen didn't think this was terribly polite but I love it when the emotion on screen is matched by the emotion in the theater. Maybe it is the performer in me, but isn't that the goal? Besides, most of the people there grew up with this crew, and who didn't know a bully they wanted to smack, but didn't, at some point? Get on with your bad self, Hermione!

Not sure I'm ready for this to end. At the same time I shiver with anticipation for the final installment. The final midnight opening, July 15th, will probably be the last time I'll feel this mix of adoration and ownership from every member of an audience in a movie theater. That is, unless there is another Firefly movie.

Benefit for Grant Hart, First Ave - March 12, 2011

Grant Hart is a nice guy. You can ask almost anyone in town about him and they'll back me up on this, Grant Hart is nice, and fiercely talented. I may have only met Grant a few times, and those were long ago, but I was as taken with him in 'reality' as I was with his music. Best known for his work as founding member and drummer for band Hüsker Dü, with Bob Mould and Greg Norton, Grant has been a fixture in the Twin Cities music scene for decades. During that time there have been struggles with drugs and health scares that date back to the 80's, so you can imagine my reaction when I saw that First Avenue was hosting a Benefit for Grant Hart! In that way we have of getting possessive of our home town heroes, I jumped right online to find out what was wrong. Grant has had a bad year, first there was a fire in his family home in late January and then his mother died in late February. Grant himself is fine, so I felt could breathe again, though I bet he'd argue I'm rather loosely defining 'fine' at the moment. In any case, wild horses could not have kept me from First Avenue on March 12th. Especially since the line-up promised to be interesting, and interesting line-ups are where history is made. This night was no exception. 

I got to the Ave, which was less full than I had hoped but had a respectable turn out. The age range of attendees was a bit higher than your average First Ave crowd and I got the impression a lot of those in attendance were old school Hüsker Dü fans. I thought it was pretty cool that they came out to give love. 

I found Jesse upstairs and we giggled a bit about how the audience was clumping together here and there throughout the space. To me it looked very high-school-dance-that-has-been-caught-in-a-time-warp. Adding to the high school atmosphere, I walked in on Curtiss A in an argument from the stage, mid-set, with a heckler. I wish I could have seen that develop. It takes some 'nads to go after a 60ish year old rocker at a benefit. I mean, really now.

The evening continued with various bands which I meant to say stuff about, some were good, some were new, blah blah blah, but then Dave Pirner hit the stage and everything around him went a bit fuzzy. At this point I feel I should confess that ever since he spat on a friend of mine while my friend was working at the Ave, I haven't been much of a Pirner fan. But here we both were, supporting good-guy Grant, and I was willing to give him a chance. What followed was an oddly hysterical "Lounge Grunge" act, I dare say the first in recorded history. No other words can encompass what played out before our eyes. First the declaration of love for Grant, well duh, we're with you so far bud. Then the rambling about not knowing what to do with himself for seven WHOLE minutes on a stage he's played dozens of times and where he now stood armed with a guitar. Should he play a song of his? Should he play a song of someone else's? What should he do? What did WE want him to do? I would have thought making that decision before hitting the stage would have been a better idea, but then I don't spit on people either. I kinda wanted to kiss the smart ass who called out "Black Gold" making Pirner curse, but I was too transfixed by the goings on and could not tear myself away. Finally he started to play a song, not one of his, and one he obviously did not much care for which he made clear by stopping every few words to talk about it. At one point he even asked the camera person who was documenting the show from the dance floor, "What are you doing?" Um, I was just about to ask you the same thing, Dave. And when I was sure things could not get any more painful Grant, apparently having the same notion, came walking on stage. He had actually introduced Pirner so was nearby, but I don't think he planned to be performing at this time. In any case, together and led by Grant who was very emotional they played through a bit of music and then Dave told Grant to his face how much he loved him and the whole evening got to feeling like the overly long toast of a drunk best man at a wedding. 

Finally, as Grant was preparing to introduce the final band of the evening, came the the moment that you couldn't help but love. The moment when Dave redeemed himself somewhat. He had realized what he should have done in the first place and sang a song to Grant in memory of Grant's mother. You could have heard a pin drop and I doubt there was an untouched heart in the place. I would love to tell you the name of the song, but unfortunately, with Pirner on stage the whole can't-believe-my-eyes-everything-is-fuzzy-rule still applies. (No, I was not drunk. Not even sort of. Could not risk missing this brilliance.)

During the above happenings, Jesse and I were joined by another gentleman in our discomfort, and together we cringed, laughed and generally mocked the goings on. In that way, it really was like high school. And that would have been enough for an evening's entertainment, but wait! There's more. 

The Alarmists, a group of clean cut frat boy looking guys who can, as it turns out, play took the stage. This fact alone brought much of the crowd back to the dance floor where the lead singer's confusion then became apparent. Looking out at those assembled, he seemed to wonder, "What are all our fans parents doing here?" I looked around at the faces in the crowd and it was a fair question. There was more giggling, some rockin' and a then we were off to a birthday party in a zombie bar. (Too many jokes. Write your own.)

And this, friends, is where we will close for the evening. Wishing Grant Hart better years to come, and much more music to make. <3

A return to high school never looked so good!

Red Pens and Star Trek 2 - June 22, 2011

Well, okay, so I didn't really see either of these things last night. But I tried.

The 6th Annual Cinema & Civics music and film series is taking place Wednesday nights in Steven's Square park right now. And by right now I mean, weather permitting. And by weather permitting I mean, in some other dimension. Because, really? 5.09" of rain so far in June (2" above average according to Paul Douglas on Weather). And, according to me, most of that rain has fallen after dark. What? I'm a trained observer of... stuff. Sh'up.

Back to the part where I tried. Last night around 7pm I hopped in my car and headed over to my friend Jesse's place, for a pre-concert/pre-movie shoot-the-breeze session. En route the light drizzle turned into rain which turned into pouring rain which turned into a very likely, fine obviously since they would have been setting up at that moment but color me optimistic, cancelled event. Dang it! I've been looking forward to seeing the Red Pens live and will now have to wait a bit longer. I hate waiting. But I had not yet entirely given up hope, so when I peeked out the window around 8pm and it seemed to have pulled back to a drizzle I thought, maybe?? I told Jesse we should walk over to the park to check things out. He humored me and grabbed a blanket to sit on, just in case. Unfortunately, other than the lady walking in front of us complaining loudly to herself about the weather (or maybe she was talking to us, come to think of it maybe she was on the phone - stupid bluetooth headsets), things were remarkably quiet around Steven's Square.

Not willing to give up on the night of music completely, Jesse and I made a quick excursion to a nearby liquor store and purchased the most obvious of let down drinks, champagne. We spent the rest of the evening talking and listening to music indoors, away from the elements. I really dug hearing Generation X, Richard Hell and the Voidoids and Patti Smith on vinyl, it has been a long time. But I have to confess, and color me embarassed to admit, that last night was my first encounter with Saul Williams. It will not be the last. Check him out, y'all. Spoken word, singing, performer takin' things in new directions. I look forward to hearing where he goes next.

The Current's 6th Birthday Bash, January 2011

A slightly less rockin' crowd then one might expect filled First Avenue Nightclub for The Current's 6^th Birthday Bash. It was early in the festivities when I arrived. I suppose the fact that tickets sold so incredibly fast, and mostly to MPR members, might account for the amount of Gap and Old Navy I saw, but also the fact that the line-up crossed so many genres and that the party would continue for so many hours must not be discounted. One assumes a crowd changeover or two would occur along the way.

The Current, 89.3 on your dial, has done wonders in their first 6 years of life, reviving a once fading Twin Cities music scene. With their stated focuses of new, roots and local music, they have reminded us of where we've been, shown us where we are and given us a glimpse of what is to come without sticking to any single genre. The Twin Cities have always had a dedicated and talented, if under-rated at times, music scene. With our few breakout bands over the years, Prince being the royalty of the bunch, it seemed that Grunge stars Soul Asylum might have been our last big hurrah. Not so. And no matter how frumpily attired, I have to admit, this crowd got that.

I didn't start my evening with tickets to the party, and so had other plans which could not be ignored (with my Mom, no less), but you'd have to be a rank amateur idiot to turn down the opportunity once offered. (Thank you, Jesse!) And so there I was, able to stay for only an hour or so at the hottest party in town. After narrowly avoiding a fight, with a pair of gentlemen who looked equally out of place amongst the assemblage, but turned out to be the coolest peeps there, we settled into a more or less non-walkway position and took in the show.

One bummer of the night was that Cloud Cult's lead singer was ill, and the band had to cancel. This was marginally made up for when Trampled By Turtles did a Cloud Cult cover, in their own fabulous style, which brought the house down. 

Roma di Luna dropped in with their signature mellow vibe and there was more than a little drool on the faces of the men-folk around me. I, however, started to get antsy about my future plans as RdL were playing so made my way over to the table and collected my free Local Current Vol. 1 CD. Nice! Once I had that in my hot little hands I boogied into the snowy night.

I didn't get to stay for Jeremy Messersmith, Brother Ali or Free Energy, so some might call that a wasted ticket, but I saw 'wasted' as I was leaving and I can assure you, I remember more of my experience than they do. Biggest bummer, though? Missing Brother Ali, I can feel my heartbeat changing rhythm to keep time with his musical underscoring and I don't even know where he's performing at the moment.

Next year, this will be my only plan for the evening. And I suggest you do the same!

Gogol Bordello, April 2010

I caught the second night of Gogol Bordello's two night stand at First Avenue Nightclub. Missing the opening band (DeVotchka, whom I hear lit the place up), I arrived just in time to pick up my drink at the bar and dispose of it en route to the dance floor as the screen started to rise. The energy in the club was frenetic, and surprising for a Sunday night crowd, but the energy onstage was even more astonishing. This band, which tours enough to beg the question, “Why bother keeping a home?” knows just what the audience wants, and gives it to them.

From the wild antics to the pounding rhythm, from the meshing of genres to the confrontational lyrics one thing that really comes through at a Gogol Bordello concert is the joy of performing. Like an electromagnetic coil, Eugene Hutz and band vibrate and generate a heat that is contagious, focused and oddly not alienating. Looking around at the crowd gathered, I see faces from many backgrounds and many generations. There are young, college age, middle age and remnant hippies; punk rock attitudes, suburbanites and cooler than thou scenesters; black, white, asian, latino - all in the same crowd and all deeply invested in the same thing, the music and the message.

Like a drug that leaves no hangover, Gogol Bordello comes on with a buzz, takes you to profound realization highs and leaves you wanting more. Next time they are in town, and there WILL be a next time, this is a concert not to miss.

Accumulating Accomplishments

This may shock some of you, but I have opinions. See below for proof!

OpEd on MPR
Blog for MN Playlist

Future posts will deal with performance: theatrical and rock 'n' roll.
Future posts may, in fact, be historical.
Future posts will be made of awesome.