Brazilian Girls
Live at the Avalon in Hollywood, California
July 8, 2005
Reviewed by Ivan Fernandez
It is important to point out that Brazilian Girls are not a foreign, exotic troupe of sultry ladies as many would-be fans have discovered through internet searches. Rather, the New York quartet features a single female member, Sabina Scuibba, who leads a trio of male musicians, namely keyboardist Didi Gutman, bassist Jesse Murphy, and drummer Aaron Johnston in creating a cool, laidback yet danceable atmosphere.
Brazilian Girls brought their mellow musical stylings to the Avalon in Hollywood on July 8, 2005. The show, sponsored by world-famous independent radio station KCRW, attracted an older, intelligent crowd. Thankfully, there were no hipsters who cared more about their hair than about the music to be found.
During the first leg of the tour earlier this year, Sciubba appeared on stage in a white cocoon and would proceed to dance her way out of it throughout the entire concert. However, for this half of the tour, she sprang out from the side of the stage during the group’s opener, “Home,” dressed as a model for a futuristic Maybelline ad. The spotlights reflected off Sciubba’s shimmering silver sci-fi outfit as she greeted and thanked everyone for attending their show.
The crowd pleaser of the night was definitely “Lazy Lover,” one of the group’s first songs. The liquid, Air-like quality of the song amplified the serenity of the night. The song’s sensuality was accentuated by the rows of shimmering ovals set up like a giant board of checkers behind drummer Johnston.
One of the highlights of the night was the performance of the band’s song “Pussy.” Towards the end, Sciubba led different sections of the crowd into singing different choruses. Sections of the crowd yelled out “I need it,” while the others yelled out “I want it.” Never in my life have I heard a woman command such an intense call for female genitalia from an audience of hundreds.
Sciubba worked her vocal chords by singing in an additional two of the five languages she speaks fluently. The group performed the French-vocal track “Siré Nes de la Fête” and Spanish-vocal track “Me Gustas Cuando Callas” with ease and finesse.
Sadly, the group did not perform German-vocal track “Die Gedken Sind Frei (Thoughts Are Free).” I’m sure that some fans were crying on the inside.
The quartet returned for an encore featuring an extended version of “Dance Till the Morning Sun.” Unfortunately, the dancing ended by 10:30 p.m. A one-hour set just doesn’t cut it these days, unless you’re a punk band with a discography full of 30-second three-chord songs.
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Bruce Springsteen
Live at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
July 14, 2005
Reviewed by Adam D. Miller
For an intimate solo-acoustic performance, the Air Canada Centre, home of Toronto's professional basketball and hockey teams, was probably not the best choice of venue. But then again, this was a rare treat for fans of Bruce Springsteen, an artist who practically sold out the Toronto’s Rogers Centre baseball stadium (then known as SkyDome) last time he was in town with the E-Street Band. But thanks to a well- behaved audience and a captivating performance from The Boss, the 2 hour and 10 minute concert was a great success and was effective in letting us forget where we were for its duration.
Dressed in blue jeans and a buttoned-up shirt, Springsteen took to the stage to greet the audience, telling us “I can use as much quiet as I can get tonight; other than that, enjoy yourselves.” It seemed a strange request from the man who had written “Born to Run” and “Badlands,” and a usual supporter of audience participation.
But we did not pay to see the rock ‘n’ roll Springsteen. His most recent album, Devils & Dust, is a largely acoustic affair with sparse instrumental backing. After successful runs through North America and Europe, Toronto’s show was the second in a resumed North American leg that started the night before in Ottawa.
Seeing Springsteen solo and acoustic is a much different experience than seeing him flanked by the incredible E-Street Band. Gone are the drums, the bass, the electric guitars, the keyboards, and the saxophone that defines Springsteen's rock 'n' roll shows. Instead Springsteen stuck primarily to acoustic guitar and harmonica (guitar techs seemed to bring him a different acoustic guitar for each song), occasionally switching to the pump organ, piano, or electric piano.
Unlike recent tours with the E-Street band, the set list was light on the hits, and heavy on music appropriate for an acoustic setting. This included a lot of newer material; seven tracks from Devils & Dust and four from The Rising. Of these songs, "Long Time Comin'" and "Empty Sky" were the most effective, as was the evening's opener, The Rising’s "Into The Fire" arranged for pump organ, which had the audience quiet and captivated. From there he moved into the first of two complete reworkings of Springsteen classics. Nebraska’s “Reason to Believe” was adapted into a foot-stomping, howling harmonica blues number worthy of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.
Springsteen would visit the piano a number of times during the performance, sometimes reaching back to songs from very early in his career. “For You” and especially “Lost In The Flood” were definite highlights. But most of the set was focused on Springsteen with an acoustic guitar strapped on and a harmonica. The Ghost of Tom Joad’s “Highway 29” was stunning, as was one of the few hits of the evening, “Brilliant Disguise.”
The show’s greatest moment for me personally was when Springsteen played a hollow-body electric guitar and delivered a howling interpretation of “State Trooper.” The words of the song had never sounded so desperate.
For the encore, Springsteen returned to the stage with an acoustic guitar to play a rousing rendition of "Darlington County" from Born in the U.S.A. He had the house lights turned on and the audience singing along. This was followed with the crowd-pleasing "Bobby Jean," before dedicating the rarely performed early track "Wild Billy's Circus Story" to someone named Dana. It was during the encore that we also heard the second rearrangement of the night. “The Promised Land” was only recognizable through lyric as it was performed acoustically by The Boss.
The choice of song that closed the encore was a little adventurous. "Dream Baby Dream" is a song nobody in the audience seemed to ever have heard of, but it seemed the perfect closer for a perfect evening, where many of us got to see a different side of Springsteen. Hopefully those expecting a rock 'n' roll show were as pleased as the rest of us.
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Dinosaur Jr.
Live at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
July 17, 2005
Reviewed by Lisa Hood-Anklewicz
Hitting the stage for their eleventh show in eleven days, the recently reunited Dinosaur Jr. started their show in Toronto with “Gargoyle” in front of a packed house. The show started out strong and it looked like it would be a promising evening. The experience was truly like getting a second chance to glimpse the pre-Nirvana roots of the grunge movement, only with an older and (for the most part) more composed crowd.
However, the show quickly lost steam. With awkward gaps between songs and little banter to fill the silence, the momentum kept hitting the brakes while the crowd was forced to wait through the gaps with nothing but continuous tuning of guitars and a number of false starts. The band didn’t seem to hold much in the way of stage presence. J Mascis often wandered off stage out of site while playing. At one point, Lou Barlow made an attempt at some stage banter that fell very flat when he announced that none of the band members have a tattoo. The best they managed to pull together was a birthday toast to Barlow at the start of their encore.
The crowd that packed the venue seemed not to care as long as the songs were heavy, loud and (eventually) kept coming. At every opportunity that arouse the crowd shared their appreciation, like one giant multi-headed creature, at the simple fact that the band was just there.
The sound was cranked much louder than was necessary, though that seemed to be the preference, as Barlow handed out ear plugs to a number of the crowd up front early in the show. If you listened closely, you could still pick out the melodies here and there. After churning out song after song, they left the stage at the end of “Freak Scene” with Mascis’ guitar left in a distortion loop on stage. Upon returning for one last encore, Mascis picked the guitar back up and the whole band picked up where they left off before moving smoothly into “Chuncks” and calling it a night.
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Eels
Live at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.
June 28, 2005
Reviewed by Ceci Norman
Walking into the 9:30 club to see Eels felt like walking into a high school multi-purpose auditorium for a school play. Admittedly, a well rehearsed, top-notch school play, but it was sub par and unexpected from both the 9:30 club and Eels. If that analogy does not work, maybe a slight comparison to Dadaism might work better? It was meaningless and pompous—and Mark “E” Everett, the mastermind behind Eels, let everyone know he had control, and that everyone was to fall for his extremely talented accomplice, Chet. Lucky for him, he pulled it off to whatever degree combining Russian cartoons, plastic chairs, and string instruments can.
The criticism comes from seeing Eels perform over the past couple of years and loving every second of the performances through all of their million encores. So going into it, I knew the ill-suited (has he heard of tailors?) man standing on stage, cockily smoking a cigar at all the right moments, had what it takes to make an awesome venue vibrantly rock out. Instead, his goal was exorcizing the demons from D.C. Rather than gambling on an opening act, he opted for showing an episode of The Adventures of Cheburashka & Friends, a claymation communist cartoon featuring a weird adorable creature, who unites everyone around him by building a “house of friends.” The awkwardness caused by this blatant message to reach out to people almost made the 9:30 club spontaneously combust, since there seem to be unwritten D.C. rules about not even talking to neighbors—let alone sharing a house and being friends. Then having no drums made every Eels song sound as sad as Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, especially when Chet brought out the singing saw. The notes practically rose from it to go out into the night to play Marley with crooked politicians. Unfortunately, I think all the sad souls in the audience absorbed the notes before they could float out and do some haunting. It was all so morose and enrapturing, that no one pushed aside his plastic chair to even rock out 19th century style—as was suggested.
In fact, all of the references to the Victorian era did inspire me to check out more classical music, and the show, although totally non-rocking, was completely up to standards musically and matched all the positive reviews Blinking Lights is receiving. It just was not the Eels that embrace all the spunk and energy life offers despite death, heartbreak, and hard times. This is almost frightening, because if E cannot make the world feel happy in spite of all the shit that goes on, who can? Maybe next tour, he will find his lost drum set, wear a tailored suit, and regain all the positive energy that his audiences rely on. One can only hope…
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Fuck Yeah Fest 2005
Live at various venues in Echo Park, California
July 2, 2005
Reviewed by Ivan Fernandez
Los Angeles County is its own worst enemy. While other counties in Southern California can be categorized by its local music scenes, such as San Diego’s hardcore scene (courtesy of groups like The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower) and the Inland Empire’s indie college scene (boosted by the musicians revolving around the University of California Riverside), the music scene in Los Angeles is splayed out like an octopus with every tentacle stretched out into a different area.
For this reason, nineteen year-old Sean Carlson put together the annual Fuck Yeah Festival. “There is no community in Los Angeles,” explains Carlson. “Everyone is caught up in their own thing, in their own scene and uninterested in branching off. For Fuck Yeah Fest,” he continues, “the idea was to bring independent artists and musicians of all styles and genres into one place for a night of good times.”
The festival, this year in its second incarnation, featured a busload of unsigned bands and local comedians performing in a variety of venues all situated on Sunset Blvd. in the city of Echo Park. There was even an art gallery featuring works by local artists.
We started the day at The Echo where we caught performances by rock groups Division Day and Darker My Love. Division Day’s brand of energetic pop music was a great way to start the festival, and Darker My Love was a big hit with the crowd thanks to their blend of psychedelic, punk and emo.
A stop around the block at the redesigned Rec. Center led us into The Oohlas vocalist who was pimping her band’s upcoming set indoors. However, our stomachs led us to the burrito wagon across the street.
A walk down the street led us to a loft called Island of Joy. Putting aside thoughts of innuendo behind the title, we waltzed up the driveway and into a packed building where louder-than-loud The Navies were performing. Afterwards, The Mojo Filters took the floor and their brand of more funk-less rock conquered all.
“It was so jam-packed with people you almost couldn't tell who was playing and who was watching,” recalls Mojo Filters vocalist George Karambelas. Carlson asked the group to perform at the festival to “play to a crowd that wouldn't normally be exposed to a band like ours.”
Back at The Echo, Beehive and the Barracudas were tearing it up like a coked-out cheese grater at the Land O’ Lakes factory. If I were twenty years older, I would have probably compared them to Black Flag.
We made one more stop to the burrito truck and back inside the Rec. Center to catch Limbeck’s set. We weren’t ready for the switch to the band’s alt. country style, so we drove east to the after party at The Hanging Jury art gallery.
A small hallway led us to an enormous warehouse-sized area where DJs spun as groups set up onstage. Your Enemies Friends started off a night that would lead to early Sunday morning.
While the Fuck Yeah Festival didn’t define a scene for the L.A. area, it gave attendees a chance to catch the area’s musical diversity in one fun-filled night.
For those who missed it, Sean Carlson is already at work on next year‘s installment, among other shows. Catch up on all the details at www.fuckyeahfest.com.
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KCRW’s World Festival: Planet Electronica (feat. Basement Jaxx)
Live at The Hollywood Bowl
July 17, 2005
Reviewed by Ivan Fernandez
The Hollywood Bowl in Southern California is more than just a concert venue. In the 70-plus years since its establishment, the venue has become a cultural landmark, hosting concerts, presidential addresses, symphonies and other events. On Sunday, July 17th, the Bowl played host to Planet Electronica, one of six shows under KCRW’s summer-long World Festival.
In this night’s installment, UK duo Basement Jaxx performed with opening acts Royksopp and Bossacucanova. Luckily for me, the Bowl is a little under a mile away from my apartment. Unluckily for me, my friends who were attending the same concert were stuck in traffic and I had to wait until they showed before we left, thus making us miss Bossacucanova and a bit of Royksopp’s set.
We literally jumped out of our cab and ran inside as Royksopp played “Remind Me,” a track featuring the vocals of Erlend Oye of Kings Of Convenience. I took a few seconds to soak in the atmosphere in the Bowl. The outdoor venue is designed in the shape of a baseball field, if that field were up a hill with the bases serving as the area for the stage.
The orchestra pit contained dining tables for those who wanted wine and steak with their electronica. The rest of the audience was either lounged or dancing on their benches. The night wasn’t even half over and already the crowd was dancing like it was fifteen minutes to closing time.
The next track Royksopp played was “So Easy,” off their latest album The Understanding. The album was released to rave reviews last month and it was easy to hear why. With their latest release, Svein Berge and Torbjorn Brundtland buoyed the dark mood of their previous release, Melody A.M., with pop-laced rhythms and beats.
The group went on to play other tracks from the album, including “Circuit Breaker,” “Alpha Male,” and “Only This Moment.”
We sat through a brief intermission until Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe, a.k.a. Basement Jaxx, walked out on stage and lit up their equipment. “Good Luck” began their Hollywood Bowl debut. Their hour-long set was a collection of hits such as “Romeo,” “Right Here’s The Spot,” “Do Your Thing” and “Red Alert.”
The end of the night came and the pounding bass and screaming vocalist introduced “Where’s Your Head At.” Right then, costumed dancers in monkey outfits danced their way out onto the stage and the now-capacity crowd went wild.
The performers walked off-stage and everyone hoped for an encore. The encore came and the Jaxx duo started playing “Bingo Bango.” Seconds later, the dancing monkeys came out, followed by dancers in Brazilian-style Carnivale costumes. As if that weren’t enough, an entire drum ensemble came out onstage as well.
The groups that performed that night at the Hollywood Bowl are living proof that there is plenty of soul in electronic music.
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The Reels w/ Ruth Minnikin
Live at the Rivoli in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
July 7, 2005
Reviewed by Adam M. Anklewicz
Ruth Minnikin has been a part of Canada’s alt. country scene for a long time, from playing in The Guthries since the late 90s to her recent tour with Kate Maki. The singer-songwriter has a presence on a stage that is rarely matched. With just her vocals and a guitar, she’s able to emit an emotion from the audience that few performers can. With a voice that stands apart from all others, seeing Ruth Minnikin live is quite an experience.
Not hiding from her past, Minnikin played songs from The Guthries as well as newer songs from her solo EP and full-length album. A personal highlight of the performance was “I Will Forget.” Though very different from the Guthries version, Minnikin was able to capture the energy with only her voice and guitar.
Including in her set a cover of the traditional song “Old Blue,” most notably performed by The Byrds, brought her music back to its roots. Fellow Reels members James Cunningham and Craig Buckley joined Minnikin to round out her set.
After a short break, the trio returned to the stage as The Reels. Minnikin took her place on bass, Cunningham on drums, and front man Buckley strapped on a guitar. Their country-influenced psychedelic rock immediately made me see why they referenced both Elevator and The Sadies in their bio… though they don’t sound very much like either. While listening to Elevator seems to invoke an image of psychedelia, and The Sadies will leave you in awe with their country musicianship, The Reels, still playing psychedelic-country, don’t have that spark of originality that sets the other two bands apart.
Their songs were okay, and that’s their biggest problem. While Ruth Minnikin left a feeling of awe from her performance, and The Reels created a good soundtrack for the night, they created no emotional connection.
Though they are great musicians with a good sound, The Reels need to improve in their songwriting if they want to stand apart. They’re definitely a band to watch for in the future; I have a feeling that they are capable of creating something truly special.
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Sloan
Live at the Friendship Festival in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada
July 3, 2005
Reviewed by Adam M. Anklewicz
Sloan knows how to please a festival crowd. Playing a set of nearly all hits, Sloan had the Friendship Festival packed. Their hits were what the crowd were mostly assembled for. Songs like “Underwhelmed,” “Money City Maniacs,” and “People of the Sky” made the day for those there for a free show and beer while lesser-known songs like “Take Good Care of the Poor Boy” and “Suppose They Close the Door” got the fans in the audience excited.
It’s been nearly four years since I last saw Sloan live, touring in support of their worst album and playing in Toronto’s worst venue; I have had a lackadaisical attitude to any shows since. With the low price of a free concert and a free ride to the border town, I figured it was a good way to end a long weekend. And I was right.
Bassist Chris Murphy stole centre stage as usual. Whether licking the microphone, doing kicks or coaxing the crowd to chant “Sloo-oan,” Murphy is a true showman. The crowd enjoyed his antics and sang along at every opportunity. With minimal body surfing, the festival crowd wasn’t as bad as they usually are, and most seemed to be generally interested in the actual music rather than the booze.
However, as always, Sloan has a problem with reproducing their songs in a live atmosphere. The sound was mixed horribly, and that made it only worse. With vocals hidden behind heavy guitar distortion, the songs weren’t very well represented. Murphy frequently couldn’t hit those high notes, and drummer Andrew Scott didn’t seem to remember many of the words to his own songs. Oddly he remembered the words to everyone else’s songs. Though to give Scott credit, he focused on his guitar playing during “Sensory Deprivation,” a song proving that the drummer who plays guitar is not always a bad thing.
Surprising the audience was Jay Ferguson playing “Take Good Care of the Poor Boy,” one of their strongest songs that never became a hit. Patrick Pentland played a drawn out solo before kicking into their ballad “The Other Man.”
Throughout most of the show Murphy was trying to loosely thread the theme of the festival (cross-border unity) to the music. Apparently a song about living the rest of your life in Canada is to be balanced out by “Losing California.” It didn’t work, but it was funny.
While their singles were the focus of the evening, the best part of the show was the interplay among members of the band and the humour they had on stage. I had forgotten how much fun Sloan is live.
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