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Friday, May 9, 2008, 1:00pm

Last Saturday, I went to Jaxx in Springfield, VA to see Symphony X, Epica and Into Eternity on the last gig of their current tour. Of these bands I'm mostly a fan of Epica; I used to really like Symphony X but I moved away in large part from the prog-metal type stuff, oh, five or six years ago. Unfortunately, Epica was missing their inimitable frontwoman Simone Simons, who has been ill for some time now. Amanda Somerville, Simons' voice coach (who makes an appearance on the We Will Take You With Us DVD), filled in, and her voice was remarkably similar to Simons' — if not actually a little stronger all around. She seemed comfortable on stage with the band as well, which I suppose makes sense since it was the last gig of the tour. Still, Simons has an unmistakable charisma that I witnessed last year when Epica played this same venue — even though that time I was watching from afar and this time I was right up front — and her presence was definitely missed.

All the bands put on very good performances. The two local openers, Apothys and Tolerance for Tragedy, were solid, and the former band certainly knew their audience when they played a cover of Opeth's "Demon of the Fall." I'm not much of a fan of Into Eternity — singer Stu Block's more high-pitched wailing moments just don't really do it for me, to say the least — but Block is an excellent frontman and Tim Roth is a pretty awesome guitarist. As for Epica, well, they rocked it, although I did wish they would have played more stuff from The Divine Conspiracy. I generally find that album much more compelling than the older stuff, but of their older material they did play the best of it, so I suppose it all evens out in the end. "Sancta Terra" was a highlight for me, all cheesy bombast that's pretty much just sheer awesomeness once you accept the nerdiness factor.

For Symphony X, I retreated to the back of the club and actually ended up leaving early. I just don't find their music all that compelling these days, although admittedly in a live setting they are way heavier and more engaging than on record (Dave Kerman would still call it "panty-waist mallcore/prog-metal b.s." though :). Part of my decision to give up my spot near the front of the pit was that or the last couple songs of Epica's set, some dude who probably weighed 200 pounds more than me decided to shove his way up front and lean his entire weight into me while pumping his fists and screaming. I pretty much had to stop taking photos and brace myself against the stage railing (doing the folks in front of me a favor). After Epica's set, he didn't move, and I decided to find a different spot. Unfortunately, that proved impossible, the crowd was so densely packed. So I retreated to the bar and enjoyed probably half or a bit more of Symphony X from afar.

One final note: the bands were unruly themselves, it being their final show. It was actually kind of hilarious; they were throwing food and other things (silly string, as in the above photo of Into Eternity's guitarist) at each other during the sets, and apparently things got even crazier towards the end of Symphony X's set, after I'd already left. It was cool to see these guys having so much fun, and in front of a very appreciative crowd to boot.

Lots more photos in the full set at Flickr. Of them all, my favorite shot of the night is probably this one, of the singer for Tolerance for Tragedy:

Monday, May 5, 2008, 12:24pm

Okay, sorry for the major delays in updates both in the site proper and this blog. I'm going to try something here. In 2008, I've been focusing a lot on my photography, and doing a lot of live music photography in particular. I've started a photography blog, and will be cross-posting concert reviews, with photography notes, at that blog and this one. So at this blog I'll continue posting my usual ramblings, as well as concert reviews, but the concert reviews will now include more photographs and a few paragraphs of photo-geek stuff that you can safely skip over if you're just in it for the music. We'll see how this works. Not that the photos will usually look better at the photography blog thanks to the black background there. Anyway, here's my first shot at it — a review of a great show I saw last night, Earth and Kayo Dot. Sunday night metal.

"Metal" is stretching it a bit, but both of the touring bands I saw last night at Rock & Roll Hotel, Earth and Kayo Dot, have their roots in it - the former in their classic drone-metal albums of the early 90s, the latter in their evolution out of avant/prog-metal group Maudlin of the Well. Still, this was about as different from Saturday's prog-metal (when I saw Symphony X and Epica, review to come) as it could get. Earth plays glacially slow, crushingly loud instrumental music that, were it not for the volume and subtle drone tendencies, could almost be called doomy country & western. Kayo Dot is pretty much uncategorizable, straddling some invisible line between rock and rigorously composed modern classical music. The opener, Stymphalian Birds, was a solo noise/drone act that was surprisingly quite excellent. Needless to say, there was no symphonic metal bombast going on here, no drunken screaming fans, no call-and-response fist-pumping.

Earth was who I'd come for and they did not disappoint. The touring version of this band is a four-piece of guitar, bass, drums, and keys/trombone (trombone very sparingly used on one song only). They played almost exclusively stuff from the new album, The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull, which was fine by me as I think the album is pretty excellent. Live, their music sounded pretty much identical to the album versions, with one key difference: sheer volume. This stuff, when heard at bone-rattling loudness levels, becomes even more doomy and impactful than on record. Yet it still retains its beauty, with slow, repetitive melodies shining through wonderfully. It was also impressive to watch these guys play so damn slowly - drummer Adrienne Davies (pictured below) especially. I'm sure it takes massive concentration to play these songs, where sometimes there was a full second or even more between individual beats, and they pulled it off easily.

I've never been a huge fan of Kayo Dot (sorry Aaron). I always get the feeling that much of their material is going straight over my head - lots of abstractness and subtlety when I am longing for more intensity. Live, they held my attention better than on record, and it was fun to see just how intricately composed some of the pieces are, with all the musicians either reading from their charts or watching bandleader Toby Driver (below) intently for cues. The majority of the set was very quiet and slow-moving, with a few heavier parts intermingled; calling this band "metal" at this point would be a total misnomer. The pleasant surprise was a stunningly lyrical guitar solo from Driver during the last song - not sure what song it was but it was gorgeous. By that point, it seemed like they had already completely lost some of the audience, though - a couple of the guys in the front row next to me looked noticeably impatient with the whole affair.

Photographically, this was a tough show to get anything exciting, between the mostly static performers and completely static lighting. At least there was enough light (barely), but it was patchy and strongly hued. This weekend, in fact, I had a first: I blew out the blue channel in several of my photos. I'm used to screwing up and blowing out red highlights, but blue is a new one for me. Still managed to get some decent shots, but nothing as dynamic as Saturday night's show - which, all things considered, is hardly surprising. I shot wide open with my rented 17-55 again (boy was I sad to return it this morning), between 1600 and 3200 ISO, shutter speeds as high as 1/160 to preserve blue/red highlights, as low as 1/40 at times to try to get the performers who were standing deeper in shadow.

The nice thing about shooting at Rock & Roll Hotel is that, except at completely sold-out shows, it's relatively easy to move around. I mostly shot from right in front of the stage, but during Earth's set I moved to the side and slightly behind (which I how I got the headline shot of Dylan Carlson haloed by the spotlights up front). No problems like Saturday at Jaxx where I was pinned to one spot and not even in the front row.

One last Earth shot to close out this post... check out the full set at Flickr for more.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008, 11:58pm

I owe a couple more show recaps: first is Dälek at Rock & Roll Hotel, actually just a day after I saw St. Vincent at the same venue (this was a couple weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to writing it up). This show was predictably great; Dälek live is quite literally a punishing experience, and if you don't have earplugs at one of their shows you're doing some serious damage to yourself. This time around they had expanded to a quartet, and as this review of the Philly show amusingly puts it, "Dalek didn't look like any hip hop band I've ever seen - a metalhead bass player, a laptop DJ that look straight out of Death Cab For Cutie, a giant tattooed turntable DJ, and an almost scarily intense MC." (Oops — the "metalhead" plays guitar, not bass.)

I've seen these guys annually for the past three years, and each time they've added a member. In 2006, it was just MC dälek and Oktopus, the producer. I believe their turntablist, Still, had just left the group at that point. Last year, they added the guitarist. This year, they added the dude on laptop and keyboard. Incidentally, I don't remember seeing any laptops at all the last two times I saw them, but this time, Oktopus and the two "new" guys each had their own laptop.

All of this lineup shifting didn't seem to have much of a discernable effect on their sound as far as I could tell. I mean, with Dälek live, you can basically hear three things: dälek rapping, Oktopus' beats thumping, and a shitload of howling noise, not necessarily in that order. I guess my ears aren't quite good enough to figure out exactly what effect the guitarist and laptop guy had on the howling noise. Still, I do have to say that, though this is a statement totally lacking in specifics, these guys sounded good. Noise is at its best when it evokes emotion, and Dälek is masterful at tweaking their sheets of sound to get the emotional response they're looking for.

I was happy with this set as it included some great stuff from Absence ("Culture For Dollars" was totally mindblowing) as well as the expected material from Abandoned Language. As with last year, the closing song was "(Subversive Script)," and what a fantastic way to end it was, seeing as how it is home to one of the group's most lethal beats ever. Also as with last year, I was left wishing their set had been much, much longer. Oh well.

As for the other groups: I left before Russian Circles came on, which was my loss because I understand they are awesome. I didn't much care for Young Widows, who were billed as "noise-rock" but pretty much just sounded like indie-rock with a lot of noise on top, which is really not the same thing. I saw that they recently got signed to Temporary Residence, a label I generally respect, so perhaps I'll have to give them another chance sometime. For more useful takes on these two bands, check out this review.

And, of course, there are photos...

Tuesday, March 11, 2008, 11:57pm

An update to the actual site is coming tomorrow evening, but two quick things tonight:

One: I've been listening to the new Meshuggah all night tonight. It's already my favorite of theirs so far, although admittedly it's been a while since I listened to Destroy Erase Improve.

Two: There is an article at Georgetowner lamenting the state of independent music in DC and hailing "a new indie scene" starting up in Georgetown. Now, if you know anything about Georgetown, you're probably already skeptical. And rightfully so: the Georgetowner's idea of an "indie music" scene involves shows at a venue where there's a jacket and tie dress code, tickets are $60 at the door, and one of the headlining artists boasts on his Myspace page that he is featured in an issue of DC Modern Luxury Magazine.

Some highlights from the article include:

"There are those that dismiss the independent art world as catering to the common people. But let us not forget that some of the most celebrated works of William Shakespeare and Mozart played in the common theatre houses during their lifetimes. At times, their work was not widely accepted by the power elite of their day. It was often viewed as subversive, offensive, and a direct challenge to those in power. It is only years later that we realize their artistic contributions are a preservation of the politics, struggles, and social ideologies of the age. Are we marginalizing the next great commentator of our time?" (emphasis mine, because, just... wow.)

Or even better, "[DC INDIE's founder] realized that DC's power elite were searching for a richer environment than the local night club to while away there [sic] evening hours." Ah yes, because the REAL audience of indie music is obviously DC's power elite! Seriously... these folks are like the bastard children of two of the most annoying types of people in our society: one, the ignoramuses who whine about how "music was so much better when..." while calling anything remotely innovative "just noise." And two, the fucking assholes who sit in their multimillion-dollar homes wondering why all those poor people out there don't just work harder so they, too, can afford two BMWs and a house in Georgetown. I guess it makes sense that they wouldn't want to "while away there evening hours" at a grungy nightclub with the filthy unwashed masses.

Naturally, these clueless folks are getting hammered by anyone who feels like they have a claim to the label "indie music" in DC. Perhaps the most gratifying response is at Brightest Young Things (the picture of the venue is priceless). "In case you forget your collared shirt, Banana Republic is located next door... KICK OUT THE JAMS MOTHER FUCKERS!!" Amusement at the expense of Georgetown aristocratic tools whose idea of cutting-edge "indie music" is fine dining with a generic downtempo electronica artist playing in the background: priceless!

In the end, though, I suppose live and let live: those people can fork out $60 and feel like they are helping out the cause of cutting-edge indie music. I'll keep going to Transparent Productions shows, or Velvet Lounge shows, or whatnot. I can get the same feeling for 15-25% of the price. And without having to put on a fucking jacket and tie.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008, 12:37pm

A brief break in the show reports for a quick list of upcoming 2008 releases I'm interested in. This is as much as reference for me as anything else, as there's enough good stuff coming up that I'm having trouble keeping track in my head. So here we go (I'll continue updating this for the next little while):

• March 3 — Autechre - Quaristice
• March 5 — Pelican - After the Ceiling Cracked (DVD)
• March 11 — Meshuggah - obZen
• March 18 — Bar Kokhba Sextet - Lucifer: Book of Angels Volume 10
• March 18 — John Zorn - The Dreamers
• March 25 — A Silver Mt. Zion - 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons
• March 25 — Spring Heel Jack - Songs and Themes
• April 1 — Nadja - Skin Turns to Glass
• April 8 — Boredoms - Super Roots 9
• April 8 — Nadja - Desire in Uneasiness
• April 14 — Scorch Trio - Brolt
• April 15 — Maja Ratkje - River Mouth Echoes
• April 21 — Magenta - Metamorphosis (yes, I'm curious)
• April 22 — Æthenor - Betimes Black Cloudmasses
• April 22 — The Cinematic Orchestra - Live at the Royal Albert Hall
• April 29 — Boris - Smile
• May 6 — Russian Circles - Station
• June 2 — Opeth - Watershed
• Spring — Secret Chiefs 3 - Xaphan: Book of Angels Volume 9
• Summer — Cryptopsy - The Unspoken King
• Summer — Massive Attack - Weather Underground
• Summer — Zu - Intermediate Spirit Receiver
• Fall — Mogwai - The Hawk is Howling
• 2008 — Bohren und der Club of Gore - Mitleid Lady (EP)
• 2008 — Ephel Duath - Through My Dog's Eyes
• 2008 — The Thing - box set (including The Thing, She Says, a new CD and a DVD!)

Also, recently released are new albums from Guapo and Genghis Tron, both of which are on my want list. I just recently got the new Earth, The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull, featuring Bill Frisell, and it's fabulous. Maybe my favorite one of theirs since Earth 2, even.

Friday, February 29, 2008, 5:53pm

On Tuesday, I saw St. Vincent, an indie-pop group headed up by charismatic frontwoman Annie Clark, who has done stints with The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens. Clark is a tremendous lyricist, vocalist and guitarist, and also has a penchant for great arrangements. St. Vincent's music is a kind of melodic indie-pop that's beautifully orchestrated and a bit off in left field a bit in terms of arrangements, song structures and so on. Their debut album, Marry Me, was a minor hit last year, so I was expecting a decent crowd. Still, her music is just enough out there that I wasn't expecting a totally packed house, but that's what it was. And it didn't take me long to find out why.

As good as Marry Me is, it's got nothing on this group's live show. Live, these songs sound considerably different; most obviously, the band frequently tacked on noodling instrumental intros, but also there was just a lot more guitar in general. Turns out Clark is a hell of a guitarist, and her somewhat unpredictable style was pretty fun to watch and listen to — kind of a scorched-earth electric spazz-out but always with melody just around the corner. In particular, "Your Lips Are Red" featured some blistering instrumental work that just isn't there on the studio version, and a new arrangement of "Paris Is Burning" was a simmering beast of a pop song that exploded into delicious cacophony more than once.

But the quieter, less abstruse (hi Ben) pieces fared just as well too. Chalk this up to Clark's natural charisma as a vocalist — songs that I found just kind of middling on record became somehow beautiful live, especially with a crowd as rapt as this one was. Suffice to say, I came away impressed and a bigger fan than I was before.

This being the indie scene, there are a bunch of nice reviews of this show up in various places:
Black Plastic Bag
Counting Stars On the Ceiling
Baltimore Sun
Washington Post
Club D

Amusingly, two of these reviews mention the small army of amateur photographers at work at this show; naturally, I was one of them. (In fact I'm probably the one referenced in the Baltimore Sun review, as my unassuming, trusty little 50/1.8 lens is exactly the kind of thing that would inspire the photographically unaware to say something like "get a better lens.") I've never been at a show with so many other people taking photos; it was a little disconcerting. I'm happy to report that of the ones I've seen show up online, my own are my favorite. Which is not really all that important to anyone but me, but at least it makes me feel a little less redundant.

Friday, February 29, 2008, 4:30pm

This past Monday the 25th, I saw the first of two 35th anniversary concerts by the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, a trio anchored by Kahil El'Zabar on percussion, drums and thumb piano; currently the other members are Corey Wilkes on trumpet and percussion and Ernest Khabeer Dawkins on reeds and percussion. These guys have played every February in DC for something like the last 10 years at least, but I've never seen them, nor had I heard any of their music before this show. I was not disappointed.

El'Zabar was playing possessed all night, whether on hand drums, drum set or kalimba; throughout the set he was singing along with the tunes, usually wordlessly, sometimes singing actual lyrics (as on the highlight "Mama's House" and especially "There Is a Place," in which he burst out several times with a single a capella line, "can you find a place/where there's peace and happiness" to devastating effect). As one of my concertgoing companions mentioned, in this unique lineup, El'Zabar is the entire rhythm section, so his vocals were a welcome presence, filling in where in other ensembles a bass, piano or other chordal instrument might have.

For the most part, the trio played material that was relatively tame but still high-energy when it mattered. The two above-mentioned pieces were easily the highlights for me; "Mama's House," which closed the second set, played host to a thrilling solo each from Wilkes and Dawkins. Other pieces showcased El'Zabar on thumb piano, which he played while hypnotically and almost maniacally shaking his head from side to side, feeling a rhythm that was mostly implied rather than explicit. At their best, the ensemble was as soulful and expressive as any other I can think of.

From what I've read, though, it sounds like the second night was even better than the first — complete with drum circle before the show and a much more involved audience during the show as well. (At the show I went to, the crowd was small and fairly subdued.)