The Times Union reported today that local bar/restaurant/club and live music venue Jillian’s of Albany will be closing on August 11th, after 13 years of operating on North Pearl Street in Albany. Five years ago, owner Ralph Spillenger purchased Jillian’s from the national chain it had been associated with since it opened.
“I just cant keep supporting it anymore,” said Spillenger “I’ve lost all my customers, people are afraid to come to downtown Albany. It was my Waterloo.” Jillian’s is not the first North Pearl Street club to close this summer as R Bar closed in June.
While the economic downturn is likely to take the brunt of the blame for Jillian’s closing its doors, the summer concert season and warm weather tends to draw customers away from the bar scene of Pearl Street, as well as college students going home for the summer. The music venue played host to numerous bands in recent years, led by local promoter Greg Bell’s shows featuring Hot Buttered Rum, Cornmeal, The McLovins, Deer Tick and local acts Eastbound Jesus, Timbre Coup, Formula 5 and Higher Organix. With the closing of Jillian’s, The Bayou, Red Square and The Barrel Saloon remain the only bar/live music venues in downtown Albany.
Albany’s best kept secret, Eastbound Jesus, started a rainy and windy day playing a free show at Jillians of Albany for a packed house prior to The Avett Brothers taking the stage a few blocks north at The Palace Theater on Sunday April 22nd. The fans that came looking for free music and respite from the rain got both, with the local flavor of EBJ warming the crowd up for two hours with foot tappin’, dancefloor stompin’ and some of the most energetic music that a band can pour onto an audience. Playing Nine Pound Hammer and referring to it as a staple of all bluegrass bands brought a bit of the group’s roots out into the set and reminded some in the audience of the traditional music they continue. A few dancin’ music tunes drew the seated from the audience to the stage and delved into a classic version of Dylan’s Maggie’s Farm. The music and style of EBJ is a little more Greensky Bluegrass and Railroad Earth than more traditional acts, leading to a larger audience in due time. The night was capped off with The Ballad of Eastbound Jesus, a single among many contenders throughout the night. My first Eastbound Jesus reaffirmed all that I had heard, and this band has a great future coming to them.
After dinner and an early show, we walked up to The Palace for The Avett Brothers show. Two first time bands in one night and already I was sold on one. My experience with the Avetts was limited to their albums which I found enjoyable but without hearing them live the jury was out for the time being. The Avetts wound up giving a stand out amazing performance that showed why they are part of the bluegrass renaissance in America. The audience was predominantly made up of post-college and thirty-something women with their boyfriends in tow when a gaggle of girls wasn’t with them. After a few songs I was taken by the energy of the group and the music – it was summer time poolside happy hour music, tailor made for a good time, like Will You Return, which was touching and upbeat and had a great line ‘Why can’t you see yourself as beautiful as I see you?’
Event poster, edition of 100
Scott Avett performs with the intensity of Yonder Mountain String Band’s Jeff Austin and mentioned that they played The Lark (Tavern) on their first tour ten years ago. January Wedding was a sweet soft song off their latest album I and Love and You then the band took a moment to allow Scott a solo, followed by this brother Seth on guitar. Seth spoke about William Kennedy (to loud cheers), as he had been reading Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game and said he had been ‘coming to Albany in my head for quite a while’ and that it was nice to be here. The full band came back to the stage for At the Beach and the crowd sang along with glee to this and many songs. The title track to their latest album I and Love and You was soft but a great start to the album upon another listen after the show. Kick Drum Heart serves to be the band’s signature song, eliciting audience response with clapping and intensity from the musicians. A multi-song encore was capped nicely by Talk on Indolence, another invigorating song with rapid fire lyrics and sing along lyrics.
As bands like The Avett Brothers and Eastbound Jesus continue to play to broad audiences, folk and bluegrass-based bands will continue to break into mainstream music and bring the roots of American music to new life.
All good things must come to an end but all great things deserve an encore. Thursday night, Timbre Coup’s February residency at Jillians of Albany came to an end with their most powerful performance of the month, reeling in dozens of new fans to their rock/techno fusion. The crowd danced and writhed to the jams that developed from songs both new and old, leaving no doubt to the legacy the band is creating through their shows in the Capital District. Guitarist/bassist Dan Gerken said “The residency showed me that not only does acoustic Timbre Coup work, it was one of our strongest sets! You will be seeing more of this completely organic sound of ours very soon. We were happy to be able to experiment with the 4 show run we had.”
For their CD release party ‘Knuckles and Valleys’, the show featured a tracks including March, June, October and a stellar rendition of July to close the show. A sandwich of Arnold Schwarzenegger->Give it to me baby (Rick James)->Arnold Schwarzenegger was unexpected but they nailed it and an appreciative crowd asked for more. Jams out of Watching You and Radio were met with a packed dance floor for both young and old in attendance. This could wind up being a yearly or possibly bi-annual residency and would continue to foster the positive response the band had received in the past two years.
Timbre Coup heads to Syracuse next to play the Westcott Theater on Saturday March 10th with Dirty Paris and Higher Organix, bringing the best of Albany to the Salt City. Dirty Paris and Timbre Coup return the next weekend to co-headline St. Patrick’s Day at Red Square in Albany making for a great Saturday night and continuing their notably worthy presence in their hometown of Albany.
The third album from Timbre Coup, Knuckles and Valleys, following the release of 2010’s Check Out This, will be released on Thursday, February 23rd on the final night of their month-long residency at Jillian’s of Albany.
Twelve tracks for the twelve months of the year, written over the course of 2009, one song each month and gaining the appropriate monthly title as the year progressed. The writing process, as shared by drummer Matt Pickering, “Some songs we tried to capture the mood or feeling of the month in lyrics of music, a couple we just wrote what we were feeling at the time. The mixing on the album reflects how we think the months sound.” The songs have all been played live but for those new to Timbre Coup, they can see how the music portrays the month while existing fans will hear different versions of songs they are already familiar with.
With tracks as easy as these to name in order, a brief description of what to expect from this impressive junior effort:
January – There’s some Tool in here, along with a Middle Eastern jazz infusion and dark vocals, inspired by gritty 90s grunge. Great start to the album/year.
February – A great bass line opens up into a groovy beat, followed by a refrain “This has only just begun” with a mellow sax not unlike “Careless Whisperer.”
March – Instrumental prog-rock goodness; this could be a soundtrack for a boat adrift at sea, encountering storms and finally placid at the end.
April – A musical thunderstorm, great lyrics and wonderful guitar work on a hallmark track.
May – Bass n drums foundation with building guitar licks before a break in the song; the song starts again with more intensity in the second half, growing to great heights. Solid.
June – A homemade electronic feast without missing a beat, strongest track so far, makes for great dancing; lyrics include ‘Keep it pumpin’ till the night is through, it’s a summer rhythm…’
July – Spastic guitar propels the tune forward, the arching solos create the melting rhythms.
August – Another Middle Eastern infusion at the outset, lyrics are celebratory “The day is mine!” as the quartet turn to Mexican influences for an end of summer jam.
September – An airy trance starts off the ninth track, a purely electronic track from four musicians who create a spooky techno song without needing a laptop; pure musical talent in the month of September.
October – Harsh and gritty, machine-gun guitar vs. sweep solo guitar.
November – Indie rock at first, but quickly supplanted by the come-to-expect deep grooves that accent the lyrics and harmony vocals.
December – Industrial beats mark the beginning, rocking and jamming all the way through. A perfect way to cap off a magnificent album.
Good cover bands are hard to come by, as seen by the local acts that fill bars and clubs around the country each weekend, singing the songs of the past. The bigger names – Dark Star Orchestra and The Fab Faux are notable because they accurately recreate the music of the Grateful Dead and The Beatles, respectively, without donning costumes or trying to make the music their own. They have simply learned the music and play it as close to the original as possible and in doing so, fill a void left by the absence of the bands they cover. Some would call them tribute bands, but that distinction is reserved for the groups that take on the style and exact lineup of the original band (i.e. The Fab Faux has five members) and leaves little room for error or interpretation.
For a band as complicated as Pink Floyd, both in terms of music and history, the number of cover bands is akin to The Beatles; there’s The Machine, Australian Pink Floyd, Brit Floyd and the band I was fortunate to see, The Pink Floyd Experience from San Diego, California. Opening up on February 16, 2012 with the entire album ‘Wish You Were Here‘ and nailing all five epic songs (Shine on Your Crazy Diamond I-V, Welcome to the Machine, Have a Cigar, Wish You Were Here, Shine on You Crazy Diamond VI-IX) without skipping a beat. For my favorite album of them all by Floyd, I was impressed.
Then a brief intermission where the lights revealed family night at The Palace Theater. Many fans are older now and brought their kids, mostly teenagers but a few tweens as well. Families were milling about, grabbing concessions and ignoring merchandise with mellow aplomb; surely this is the exact opposite of Floyd when they played Wish You Were Here at venues like this back in the 1970s. But a mixed crowd leads to a new generation or two with the ability to enjoy some of the greatest music ever written. Ranging from the psychedelia of the 60s to the rock anthems of the 70s to the rock opera of The Wall in the 80s and the scraps left over in the 90s when David Gilmour toured and Roger Waters didn’t, Pink Floyd spans 6 decades of music and returns to stadiums this summer (and The Times Union Center June 28th) with The Wall once again. The light show isn’t the same with The Pink Floyd Experience, but they make a great effort to recreate the entire experience, nailing the music and sound but lacking with the lighting.
Set 2 started out with On the Run->Time from Dark Side of the Moon before mellowing out into the spooky vibrations of Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun. An extended sax solo front stage recreated the ‘Careless Whisper’ feeling from 1984, forgetting that the extended sax solo should remain in the 80s. Learning to Fly, the lone 1990s Floyd offering was anthemic and ensured that all eras were covered tonight. The group announced that they would play a song for Syd Barrett but sadly, no Bike but Interstellar Overdrive instead. Money and a short version of Echoes (minus the spaciness) followed, along with another sax solo before a random guy in a jacket adorned with light bulb took the stage for the stormy intro to HeyYou. The surround sound effects were at their best here, getting fans to turn their heads as the sound traversed throughout the audience and segued into ComfortablyNumb. A packed sandwich of Run Like Hell -> Another Brick in the Wall Part Two -> Run Like Hell got the audience singing along with the band while the giant pig took to the space between the audience and the stage, drifting up and down until fans had left the show shortly before 10pm.
The members of The Pink Floyd Experience lauded Albany for providing a great turnout once again. This was a show that is very worth seeing, although I would have liked another 45-60 minutes of some more obscure songs. But I can’t complain, good cover bands are hard to come by.
Dopapod with special guest Timbre Coup
Jillians
Following The Pink Floyd Experience, I headed over the Jillians, where Timbre Coup continued their residency for February, opening up for funk/electronica group Dopapod, another regular in the Capital District. Coup’s electric set for a packed house continues to be one of the highlights of music in the area, cornering the electro/prog-rock market and garnering new fans throughout the month of February. Dopapod followed with strong set of songs from their new album ‘Drawn Onward’ and random and funky dance numbers. Dopapod will be back in a couple short months, potentially opening up for a bigger name in the electronica genre. It’s a big week next week for Timbre Coup, with their CD release party of ‘Knuckles and Valleys’ on 2/23 at Jillians with Higher Organix opening. Don’t miss the final night of their Jillian’s residency!
“I just cant keep supporting it anymore,” said Spillenger “I’ve lost all my customers, people are afraid to come to downtown Albany. It was my Waterloo.” Jillian’s is not the first North Pearl Street club to close this summer as R Bar closed in June.
