Calexico
The Bowery Ballroom in New York City, New York
December 7th, 2004
Reviewed by Brighid Mooney
Calexico, the Arizona-based band named after a California-Mexico border town, hit the stage at New York's famed Bowery Ballroom, a venue thousands of miles from their western namesake, bringing everything their homeland has to offer, and then some. As their name might suggest, Calexico is a band steeped in old western tradition, but they continue to complement that base with experimental and instrumental music that blends together everything from pop to jazz to traditional Mexican-style mariachi music. The core of the band is multi-instrumentalist Joey Burns and drummer John Convertino, who took the stage alone for the first song of the set, "Convict Pool." After that spirited opening, they were joined onstage by the rest of the mariachi band, including Paul Niehaus, Volker Zander, Martin Wenk, and Jacob Valenzuela playing a mean trumpet.
After a couple of songs from earlier in the Calexico canon, the band played a few of their more experimental numbers from their last album, 2003's Feast of Wire, including "Across the Wire," "Sunken Waltz," "Not Even Stevie Nicks" and "Black Heart." In between, Calexico would reach back to older, more traditional numbers, making excellent use of the plethora of instruments and the full-blown mariachi band on stage with them. A crowd favorite was their spunky, playful take on the recent elections in the song "Everybody (Got to Move into the Red, from the Blue States)."
Throughout the show the band was energetic and in high spirits, and though rarely stopping to talk to the audience, they maintained a short distance with the crowd, who danced and bobbed to the eclectic Southwestern sounds bouncing off the walls of the Bowery Ballroom. Calexico are storytellers, weaving epic tales like Western film noirs placed in the sparse and lonely Mexi-Cali deserts, and taking their musical cues from the region. Pulling bits of country, flamenco, jazz and traditional mariachi music, and applying them to stories full of mystery and intrigue, Calexico is able to blend these elements into something excitingly unique. Their set at the Bowery Ballroom showcased a band at the height of its talents, and their wonderfully weird and wild sound of deserts and cacti was never once taken for granted by a crowd bred of taxis and skyscrapers, proving that Calexico's true talent lies not just in creating something entirely new out of seemingly disparate styles, but also in bringing the alluring sounds of the Southwest to the rest of the world.
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Keane
Kay Arena in Seattle, Washington
January 4th, 2005
Reviewed by Melissa Peterman
The Manchester, England based band Keane is constantly compared to Coldplay and Travis, and it's not surprising as their original lyrics and melodic piano do ring a "Coldplay" bell.
Keane formed in 1997 when its members attended university together. At one time they included guitarist Dominic Scott, who left the band frustrated that record labels were not catching on to the band. The rest of the band continued on, practicing and playing gigs where they primarily played covers. They were finally signed by the Fierce Panda record label in 2002, with Somewhere Only We Know as their first mainstream release. They then signed with Island in 2003 following two more singles, “This is the Last Time,” and “Everything's Changing.” Their "Coldplay sound" description is wearing thin as Keane have created a name for themselves and are becoming widely known throughout the world.
When I heard Keane would be playing at Key Arena, Seattle's hollow basketball stadium, I winced at the emptiness it would bring to the lead singer's clear vocals. The Key Arena holds 17,000 people with a 145 foot high ceiling. As the performance began, I thought to myself that Keane is more of a band to watch sitting in a smaller venue - but then lead singer Tom Chaplin opened his mouth. Suddenly, the vastness of the stadium couldn't be big enough for this voice as it filled every empty crack from floor to ceiling. Keane grabbed our attention by opening with “Can't Stop Now,” a song which has a peppier tempo than some of the other songs from their debut album, Hopes and Fears.
The stage felt strangely naked as the Tom Chaplin stood alone, far away from the piano and the drum set behind him. No one said out loud what we were all thinking. “Where is the guitarist?” The voice was the only other instrument they needed. Tom Chaplin, the tall lead singer, has the sweet face of someone's younger brother and looks as if everyone was watching him walk into a small doorway; hunched at the shoulders and cautious. Pianist Tim Rice-Oxley's fingers were connected to his piano although the rest of his body wasn't. His long arms whipped up widely with every strike of his keys, and his large feet slapped the floor in time to the deep tones. The drummer, Richard Hughes, although hidden from view was the percussive glue for the trio. The connection that Chaplin and Rice-Oxley have together is the band's strongest point, as they continue to feed off one another, each note perfectly building onto the next.
Some musicians engage the audience with stories or quick one-liners. But Tom Chaplin simply said before singing 'Everyone's Changing,' "If you know the words, open your arms wide and just sing it!" As they played each song I thought, “Oh, this is the one I like – no, this is the one I like.” I was right every time.
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X
Slim's in San Fransisco, California
January 14th, 2005
Reviewed by Steven Marra
X’s show at Slim’s in San Francisco was a good time right from the start. Ample free parking was available on the street, the will call line was short and the attentive audience behaved in a reasonable punk manner. In a punk environment, there is a huge difference between people pushing toward the stage simply to get closer and people getting a running start and slamming into each other at velocity. The former I can handle, the latter and I’m out of there. A tactic I’ve learned from being up close to a punk stage is to make eye contact and smile at the people immediately surrounding you. A bond of mutual territory defense is quickly established. But enough about punk rock crowd dynamics.
X has been around since the late 1970s and consists of John Doe on bass and vocals, Billy Zoom on guitar, DJ Bonebrake on drums, and Exene Cervenka (aka Cervenkova) doing vocals. Unlike the White Stripes, the relationship between Doe and Cervenkova is well established: married, divorced and still on stage together. X has a different sound and feel from other punk bands. Their sound is melodic and at times close to being downright “happy.” You can even hear hints of country (especially from Billy Zoom) and an almost folksy sound to their music. For me, this sound is best described as Cow Poke Punk and I like it, yes I do. I liked X enough that night that I went back for their second show.
X’s first album was recorded in 1980 and titled Los Angeles. Interestingly, it was backed by Ray Manzarek of The Doors. During the following years, X broke up, reformed, added new musicians here and there and is now back to the original crew doing twenty or so concerts per year. Their concert set list consists almost exclusively of songs from their first four albums. John Doe has said that these four albums are really the core of their punk sound and that it is what the audience wants to hear. I can confirm this as I was in the first row and was able to take home with me part of the taped down setlist that I was able to liberate at the end of the show. How many bands play what the audience wants to hear anymore? Some bands seem to make a special effort to not play their well known pieces. X has a very comfortable and easygoing relationship with their audience, posing for photos, shaking hands and obviously enjoying themselves.
This band shows that playing together for many years results in a well crafted and focused music that is fun to listen to and simply be around. I liked this band. What would I change? Cervenkova’s voice is a tad too mellow for my punk ears. A pretty voice, but just maybe a little too folk sounding. I kept wondering what Joan Jett or Patti Smith would sound like with this band, then I added Jack White to round things out. But this train of thought is speculative imagination. My conclusion: if X comes to your town, go see them. Get close to the stage, smile at the people next to you and rock out.
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Zunior.com Showcase
The Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
December 22th, 2004
Reviewed by Adam M. Anklewicz
The Mountainside Band 
The Kelele Brothers
The Scribbled Out Man
The Dinner Is Ruined
Mike O'Neill
Zunior.com is a label founded by former Inbreds drummer, Dave Ulrich. Ulrich had an idea for a better way to sell music. Make it cheap, make it easily accessible, and make all the money (less a PayPal fee) go to the artists.
Zunior.com’s songs are 88¢ Canadian each and the files have no copy protection to limit how you listen; they trust you, so don’t steal their music. The label has a large catalogue of music featuring many exclusive albums, including Mike O’Neill’s new album The Owl. The show was a chance to expose the smaller bands on the label to a larger audience and sell physical CDs.
Starting off the show was The Mountainside Band, featuring Dave Clark (guitar), Josh Finlayson (bass), Richard Gregory (guitar) and Blake Howard (drums). The Mountainside Band was full of energy and would have put on a great show if the songs had been good. You can tell that the crowd isn’t into a band when two people scream “woo” when the band says, “This is a song about getting high.” There were a couple of highlights including a song called “Long Ride Home,” which was fun. The best that can be said about this performance is that they are fun to watch.
The Kelele Brothers, a side project of Ron Sexsmith’s touring band, took the stage a bit earlier than planned. Sexsmith was supposed to be playing a few doors down at the Rivoli but was convinced to do both shows. Playing all acoustic, my first thought after a few bars was “holy shit this is good.” The Kelele Brothers played a handful of covers, including The Who’s “Blue, Red & Grey” and Charlie Rich’s “Philadelphia Baby” as well as a few originals. The vocals and musical skills were astounding.
The Scribbled Out Man is Paul Linklater (guitar) and Don Kerr (drums) who played as a duo for this performance that they called a “musical tribute to The Inbreds,” who were a bass and drum duo. Linklater was running around the stage seeming to have the time of his life, and his energy spread through the audience. Linklater has a stage presence and attitude reminiscent of Ben Gunning of the Local Rabbits. All the songs were great and a lot of fun. His musicianship was not up to the standards of the previous bands, but the songs were excellent and they put on a terrific show.
Dinner Is Ruined was the low point of the evening. They were off-key and sounded like a group of twelve-year-olds singing into a cassette recorder. Screaming into the mic and playing sloppy guitar was Dale Morningstar while Dave Clark provided solid drum work and Dr. Pee did a great job playing bass. I couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be funny or not, but it seemed the rest of the audience was unsure as well.
The headliner was Mike O’Neill, who was once the bass player in The Inbreds. In 1999, O’Neill released his first solo album called What Happens Now? Now, five years later, O’Neill has his follow up album The Owl on Zunior.com. Playing mostly songs from the new album, the band was in top form with only a few minor goofs. O’Neill knows how to entertain the audience; he’s a storyteller, and even when his stories don’t go anywhere, he can keep the audience entertained between songs. Playing a set with a lot of slow poppy songs to start, O’Neill slowly merged into more energetic songs like “We Live Happily,” during which he led the audience into a sing-a-long of a great new song rivalling any of his older material. Closing the set was “Alsatian,” the opening track from his first solo album. “Alsatian” is the perfect rock song to leave a crowd on a high. Unfortunately when the tempo dropped, O’Neill didn’t join the rest of the band fast enough. The encore was a bit of a let down. Seeing as this was a Christmas event O’Neill felt he should perform “What A Wonderful World,” a song he thought of as a Christmas song. Louis Armstrong’s deep timbre is forever associated with the song and O’Neill’s high voice was just a reminder how different it is from the classic performance engraved in the public consciousness. The only other disappointment was that with Dave Ulrich in the room, to not do an Inbreds reunion is a sin. Not only did Ulrich not join O’Neill on stage, O’Neill did not play any Inbreds songs.
Overall a great show, the $6 cover could have been upped to $16 and no one would’ve complained.
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