Bad Weather California, Ike Reilly at the Larimer Lounge

I didn't really know so much about Ike Reilly Assassination before last Thursday, vague memory of a few reviews over the years, and a little listen on the myspace. He had one of his bigger fans playing with him on this night too: Johnny Hickman, who you might recognize as the guy who's been playing with David Lowery over the past number of years in Cracker. Ike Reilly brought in a fair sized crowd for the Larimer Lounge, not too crowded but filled up and enthusiastic. Hickman described Reilly as the "one of the greatest songwriters around these days," but I think I'd concur more with Joe Sampson and describe what I heard as more of "a really good rock n roll band." Definitely good, but not as cutting edge or original as that songwriter claim had me set up for. No undiscovered paths to cut through, but a nice ride down a smooth and familiar highway. But then the Ike Reilly Assassination was following a performance of what I consider to be a singular talent: Bad Weather California.

I can count on one hand the number of bands that I start to miss if I haven't seen them in a while. And I like hearing live music. When it's good, it makes me feel alive. When it's mediocre, it's still better than television most nights. But the bands I itch to see are the few that go above giving a good performance, they affirm that Music Matters. Not that I need convincing, it's just like the faithful going to church, but it feels good.

Bad Weather California is one of those Denver bands that I keep an eye out for when they are playing. They have always made me feel it...that music matters. To hear Chris Adolf sing his songs is to know that this songwriter is for real. This is subjective judgment, yes, but it's one of those things that you know when you see it.

Though Chris has been making music for years, I first heard him only about a year ago. It was at the 2006 Post UMS. He was playing an afternoon solo set at Mutiny Now. The sun was bright shining in the window, it was hot outside and I think Nathaniel Rateliff and Joe Sampson had just finished playing some songs. Chris sat down with a guitar and a handful of papers with lyrics which ended up falling off his lap in the excitement of delivering his songs. It took near to the end of the first song to realize I had been holding my breath. I was so astonished I forgot to breathe. It wasn't long before I got my hands on The Love Letter Band cd. And it's one of my favorites.

Since then I've seen Chris perform with a variety of arrangements, from solo to full bands with a rotating cast of talented friends. You never knew what to expect, except that it has always been good. But lately Bad Weather California looks like it has settled into a regular lineup of Joe Sampson on bass, Adam Baumeister on pedal steel and on drums, agh, I keep forgetting his name [just checked, yes his name is Xandy Whitesel, (sorry Xandy)] and sometimes Nathaniel on guitar too. It sounds very good. Still a textured variety of sounds, xylophones, recorders, rhythms on a loop pedal but with a consistent structure of players to build up from. I, for one, can't hardly wait for the next show.

head like a kite - larimer lounge

One of the amazing things about computers and music is the astonishingly vast realm of sound one person can pull together on their own. But sometimes what makes for a great recording just doesn't translate to the live performance realm. Knowing this, I was a little bit nervous about seeing Head Like a Kite live. I really like Random Portraits of the Home Movie, a lot, and didn't want anything to spoil it. Head Like a Kite is basically a one man creation, (albeit with a stellar contributing guest list) and although I knew that Dave Einmo tours with the talented and likeable Trent Moorman, I wasn't sure how a live performance would actually look and sound. I headed to the Larimer curious and with my fingers crossed. A sigh of relief. Obviously Einmo and Moorman have put a lot of thought into it because in spite of the invisible musician aspect of a laptop and such other devices, which in other situations have left me a little cold and uncomfortable, HLAK put on a warm and dynamic performance that had me appreciating the songs even more, kinda almost dancing. I got a serving of fine musical victuals, just the kind of sustenance that has kept me getting out to shows for decades. Not surprisingly, seeing the performance of songs from Random Portraits with the super 8 footage the songs were inspired from running in the background made a cohesive and more complete impression of the work as a whole. I've seen film running behind the band at a live show before and when thoughtfully done, it can really work out for a spectacular embodiment of the music. HLAK definitely fits that categorization. The few who made it out to the show experienced a treat. Sorry if you missed it, I'll try to spread the word better next time.

Show review: Margot & the Nuclear So and So's

Margot & the Nuclear So and So's / Dirty on Purpose
Category: Music

It was good to be back in town after a Thanksgiving week long trip back to my old Kentucky home. I still had to shed the sensation that I was moving on a train. I did not quite feel like I'd arrived. Not yet. I really wanted to get out to hear a good show and set things right again, so I was super happy to hear that Margot & the Nuclear So and So's were going to be pulling into town in their big black school bus again, stopping at the Larimer Lounge for another Denver show. And although this made the fourth time I've seen them this year, (and the third time at the Larimer) it was nothing old hat. I like this band. Obviously.

On tour with Margot & the Nuclear So and So's is Dirty on Purpose…that name makes me crack up. It is kinda funny in a simple and clever way, and that's fun. But I can't say I had more fun past the name. Listening to them wasn't that bad…they are not incompetent musicians or playing terrible music. But truth is I can't remember a single song. I only remember thinking that it seemed like they had listened to Joy Division or Franz Ferdinand maybe a lot and although I like those bands, this one wasn't making songs inspired by that stuff into anything I could begin to feel good about. Dirty on Purpose, and the first band of the evening whose name I totally forgot, both made me think about how very many bands there are out there, and how many guys have a Fender guitar in their living room and how many people are trying to make songs. And that's all cool with me. Really it is. People need to make stuff and be creative in the ways that move them. I get that. But like background chatter, nothing moving is added to the conversation. And sometimes I just don't want to listen. Yeah, I was tired and waiting for the band I wanted to hear to come on. But still, these openers really didn't make my night.

As I was waiting for Margot to play I thought about how my neice Tina says Margot writes essential break-up songs, you know the stuff your best friend puts on a mix tape to help you get over it all. And she's right, you know, with lyrics like "I miss you less and less every day / it's true the whiskey's had to wash you away / and it's clear to see / you're nothing special / you're a skeleton key." But that's only part of it. Great break up lyrics are not why I like Margot. I like them because they write good songs. I listen to this stuff pretty often, and the eight member band plays them better every time I see them. This past Wednesday they were unfortunately plagued with some mysterious buzzing and crackling from the bass, which tested the limit of singer/songwriter Richard Edwards' patience. He kept his cool… kinda. But just barely. But while the sound guy was trying to fix the problem percussionist Casey (you gotta check the dance moves on this kid) and trumpeter Hubert and the violinist/lap steel player Jesse Lee filled in the down time gaps with some improvisational music and storytelling that showed big time professionalism and kept the technical difficulties from halting the show. Partly they just pushed through it and played over the trouble.

Margot has gotten a lot of good press this year. Although the Larimer Lounge was pretty full, I've seen it much fuller and I thought there'd be more people at the show. I saw them talked about in SXSW, saw them in Harp and Paste magazine (who had their video on their dvd sampler.) Locally I've seen them written up in The Denver Post and there's even more. So with all that big talk you wonder how it'll affect a band. Sometimes it makes pressure that crushes a band to the point where they seem afraid to make a mistake and they come out with some watered down version of what everybody liked in the first place and it's all disapointing. But sometimes a band's beyond that, and for whatever reasons they get better. And I was glad to see evidence of this on Wednesday.

The first time I saw them, just this past January, they only had four songs on a disc and Hubert had told me that they were about to release their full length "The dust of retreat" on Artemis Records. "They're new" he said of their label. In fact at that time J. Mascis was their only label mate. Which I thought was pretty cool. I also learned then that these people all live together in the same house in Indianapolis when they are not touring and although I am amazed that nobody has killed anybody else yet, the togetherness really shows. No, not in a cloying way but in way that they don't seem like they ever stop playing together and work together in a synchronous way. They look like they are playing for fun. The new songs were exciting in that they really seem to be getting even better. That one… I didn't catch the name but I think it is tentatively titled "Payphone" (click here for Denton TX vid by Christie) ...Richard pulled out his Gretsch for it and it blew more than just me away… I can tell you now that people will be wanting to hit the repeat button on that one. Yay. And you know the best part? I finally felt like I'd arrived home.

Currently listening : The Dust of Retreat By Margot & the Nuclear So and So's Release date: 28 March, 2006

show review: Mudhoney & the Geds, 15 September 2006

The Larimer has shiny new bathrooms upstairs. The infamous ones downstairs are now nothing more than empty space. Like any other girl who has had to use the LL facilities, I've dreaded the broken toilets, the door with no hinges and that damn useless curtain. Boys tell me that's nothing compared to the old men's room, um, scent. So no question that the new bathroom is a better place, but still, I kind of miss the old one now that it's gone because it took time for it to be the way it was. Gross, yes, but it also it had character with all those stickers and grit. There was history in there. And since there was no Las Vegas investor to preserve it, I suppose it's exclusive to the memory banks of those who were there.

Seeing Mudhoney felt kinda like that though. And damn if they didn't sound just like Mudhoney. They did! And they played the stuff the aging flannels and fuzzes remember from back in the day: You Got It, Touch Me I'm Sick, Mudride, Need, Chain that Door, and more, topping it all off with a raucous mosh pit pleasing encore of In 'n' Out of Grace and Hate the Police. I haven't spun Superfuzz Bigmuff lately. In fact, I lost my copy of it over a decade ago. Though I might have a tape with that EP on it somewhere. But I was amazed at how these songs have permanently imbedded themselves in my memory. At the first note of each, I realized these are songs where I can recall every word, chord change, break and thump of drum. Mudhoney's music really meant that much when Sub Pop first sent those records out into the world. And here in 2006 they filled the room with gigantic and still relevant sound.

Before the show I was trying to remember if I had seen Mudhoney perform before. I felt like I had to have, but couldn't recall when or where. After Friday's show I'm sure I never actually did see them and that it was a case of photo and and story induced fabricated memory. I would've remembered this. Yes, Mark Arm, Dan Peters, Steve Turner and Matt Lukin (or was that Guy Maddison?) played it like you, the Mudhoney fan that you are, would hope for and imagine. It's hard to think of what to say beyond that, not without getting my shoes caught deep in the swamp of overused to stale adjectives: fuzz, rock, distortion, scream, and all those others that skirt around the old G word. They were fun and loud and…wow.

But that said, here's my griping section that I usually delete before submitting a show review. Old school bands tend to bring out the I-don't-go-to-shows-anymore-but-I-used-to crowd that evidences their status by pulling their faded concert shirts from the late 1980s out of the bottom of their dresser. Which is okay. I guess. And then there's the baseball-capped Bronco-shirted frat boy type kids who are hitting their bi-annual rock show and both times they come out it seems it simply must turn it into an episode of minor alcohol poisioning or it just isn't a rawking night. Fine. Except pushing the monitor speakers into the middle of the stage with their moshing overspill sucks. Sorry, I do not enjoying your idea of a rock star persona. Besides you spilled beer on me and yes that sharp jab of my elbow to your stomach was my way of telling you to keep your damn hands off my back. Next time Scott Campbell decides to increase his bar prices for the night maybe he could give the alcohol prices even more of a jacking up (and let the regular folk drink normally at normal price.) Maybe it would slow down the rate of consumption on amatuer night. Just a suggestion.

Okay, now that the venting is outta the way I can get back to the music. I know this show review is backwards by getting to the opening band last, but that's just the way this one is. On the night I went to Mudhoney, the Geds were the opening band. I had never heard the Geds, and not having musically grown up around these parts, I actually hadn't heard of them until this show. But it didn't take more than a few songs to get an inkling that these three have been around and that they command no small amount of respect from other local talent. This I gathered from my own uninformed senses of observation. I confirmed it later by listening to what other people were saying. I probably should've researched before the show, then I'd have more substatial things to say, like what songs they played. My apologies to those who would've liked to know. But I can say what I do know; they were a great choice to open for Mudhoney, sharing sonic kinship but no mere mimeograph. Fuzz and volume and great songs and fun to see. I hear they don't play out too often, but next time you see they are playing I'd bet you might be glad to take the time to listen to them sans the historic Seattle headliner. I probably will.