Andrew Bird has spent much of the year supporting his newest album, My Finest Work Yet, and Tuesday night at Kings Theatre was no different. The band played the entire new album nearly straight through in the first leg of the show. At one point, Andrew even confessed to the audience how much he loved playing this particular set of songs together live.
Opening the night was Chicano Batman, behind their excellent EP Black Lipstick, from earlier this summer. Their blend of of psychedelic, Latin funk was a wonderful complement to Andrew Bird. The lively grooves and melodies bounced around the cavernous Kings Theatre with ease.
Kings Theatre is a unique piece of Brooklyn history. First opening in 1929 the theater hosted movies, shows and vaudeville. After sitting closed for decades and a five year renovation, the theater reopened in 2015 as a modern concert venue. Once past security, the space transports you back in time with gorgeous velvet decor and intricate carvings throughout.
The band sounded particularly sharp inside Kings Theatre. Andrew’s whistling echoed around the room, mixing seamlessly in and out of the lush strings and vocals from the rest of the band. A tall, projected backdrop framed the band and made them seem as large as the theater itself.
Since opening, Three Heads Brewing has been a bit of a temple for Rochester local music. It could be argued that no venue in town has supported the scene better. The centerpiece has been the Rochester Residency, which is rounding the turn on its second year of giving a local musician carte blanche every Thursday for a full month. So it came as a surprise when on the second Thursday of September, John Medeski’s Mad Skillet was listed to play its stage. But it was true, and truth be told, it was awesome.
Mad Skillet was born in 2015 at a New Orleans Jazz Fest jam session, but released their debut album and toured together for the first time in 2018. Medeski is joined by Will Bernard on guitar, Kirk Joseph on sousaphone and Terrance Higgins (who was replaced on this night by the talented Joe Dyson) on drums.
Musically, they explored the American landscape of sound. Medeski’s East Coast avant-garde meets Bernard’s West Coast jazz groove meets Joseph and Dyson’s deep-South NOLA brass. It’s more of a melting pot than a skillet to be honest. Covers of Eddie Harris’ “1974 Blues” and MMW’s “Wiggly’s Way” mixed well with their originals like “Tuna in a Can,” featuring a wild drum and guitar jam and the rocking “Little Miss Piggy” which spun out into a long reggae groove. They also traveled the spaceways with their version of Sun Ra’s “Golden Lady” and dashes of alien sounds thrown in throughout the night.
Medeski’s B3 stood like a museum piece, its back encased in glass exposing its intricate innards. The music was the art, however. And like all great works, there was no wrong way to enjoy and find meaning in it. You could mindlessly lose yourself in the groove or pick it apart piece by piece, figuring how it all fits together. You could move your body to a sweaty mass or stand motionless, absorbing the mastery being laid down. As individual musicians tearing through a solo or as a singular group of four creating a swell of sound, Mad Skillet never disappointed.
As it turns out, it was a Thursday night and this was technically a part of the Rochester Residency, or a bit of a preview of what’s to come next month. October’s resident is Kyle Vock, bassist for The Mighty High and Dry, The Rita Collective and probably about half of all the great tribute shows that have gone down at Three Heads and elsewhere over the past two years. Instead of showcasing himself, he will be curating a month of shows from some great nationally touring acts. Starting October 3 with the can’t-miss talent of guitarist William Tyler, followed by Levon’s talented singer-songwriter daughter Amy Helm on the 10th, and Futurebirds, a great indie rock band out of Athens, GA on the 17th. After displaying his excellent taste in music, Vock will close out his month with a couple of shows of his own, bringing The Rita Collective on the 24th and paying tribute to The Doors’ Strange Days on Halloween. Is it October yet?!
A full 48-piece orchestra filled the Fenway Park stage on September 13 to back up and showcase a long list of Who tunes, many of which were from the band’s two great blockbuster albums – Quadrophenia and Tommy. The latter helped coin the term “rock opera.” The Who celebrated its 50th anniversary in May of this year. This evening, they paid tribute to Eddie Money who died that day at age 70 after he had been diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer. The show was dedicated to Eddie
One can only imagine this show must be the vision that Townshend had for these albums over four decades ago as the pieces that would push The Who beyond its previous pop-rock limitations and into an area far more radical, which features the 74-year-old artist windmill-strumming his six-string surrounded by violins, french horns, bassoon, and timpani.
This huge 31-date tour has been labeled the “Moving On!” tour and promotes the band’s eponymous new album that has a release date in November of this year simply titled Who, its first since 2006. But this two-hour set was a celebration of the band’s past penchant for an over the top performance, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for enduring fans to witness the songs performed as they were meant to be showcased. Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey deserve much respect for constantly finding new ways to extend this final tour, allowing fans to continue to want to see them and not see the same old show.
The thought of a full symphony orchestra and a rock band duking it out to be heard would be tough at even the most acoustically perfect venues. And Fenway Park is not known for the best acoustics, however, congratulations to the sound team on this one. The rock band was sharp and crystal clear, and conductor Keith Levenson’s orchestra cut through with precision rarely heard in situations like this.
Jon Button, Zak Starkey, Roger Daltrey, and Pete Townshend of the Who performs at Fenway Park in Boston on Friday, September 13, 2019
As with a standard symphonic piece, the concert was sectioned into three movements: first, a Tommy-centered medley with the orchestra at full strength; then a cluster of early-career odds and ends without the symphonic outfit; and finally a Quadrophenia-focused segment that concluded as most Who shows have in recent memory, with the grandiose “Baba O’Riley.”TheTommy block ran through seven of the albums 24 tracks, from the elaborate “Overture” to “Sparks,” which allowed Townshend to shred with a blur of arms and fingers, proving at 74 that he is still one of rock’s most virtuosic guitar men. The favorites “Who Are You” and “Eminence Front” were also placed in this section and boomed raucously.
Pete Townshend
The orchestra left the stage after almost an hour of music and the core band — now merely a seven-piece — ran through a handful of “golden oldies, just like we are,” as Daltrey put it. Here fans heard an animated “I Can See For Miles” —the band’s only Top 10 single in the U.S. — and a folksy rendition of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” featuring only the duo of Daltrey and Townshend.
A cellist and a violinist soon returned to the stage to add background to “Behind Blue Eyes,” a song whose exceeding vocal demands Daltrey continues to manage. At 75, Daltrey is among the most seasoned singers left performing at the arena level, and considering he underwent throat surgery earlier this decade his vocal abilities have held up amazingly well. He was unbeatable during the third act’s larger-than-life rendition of “Love, Reign O’er Me,” which began with a piano interlude and reached its peak during Daltrey’s wails. While the rest of the performance was exciting and bright, these moments brought on the emotions and made the fans feel goosebumps.
Daltrey has suggested this tour could feasibly be the band’s last. “I’m just being realistic about going through the 75th year of my life,” he told Rolling Stone in January. If that were to happen, and The Who never get to showcase whatever new material is coming, this would be a fantastic send-off: tracks from its most respected projects, revamped by a magnificent orchestra and unleashed in a way that showcases one of the greatest bands to ever rock.September 13, 2019, Fenway Park, MassachusettsWith orchestra: “Overture”, “1921”, “Amazing Journey”, “Sparks”, “Pinball Wizard”, “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, “Who Are You”, “Eminence Front”, “Imagine a Man”, “Hero Ground Zero” Without Orchestra: “Substitute”, “I Can See For Miles”, “You Better You Bet”, “Won’t Get Fooled Again”(acoustic), “Behind Blue Eyes” (with orchestra string section accompaniment) With orchestra: “Ball and Chain”, “The Real Me”, “I’m One”, “5:15”, “The Rock”, “Love, Reign O’er Me”, Baba O’Riley
Hot Chip brought their electronic-infused indie rock to Brooklyn Steel on September 4 in support of their new album, A Bath Full of Ecstasy. This was the middle of a three-night sold out run. Holy Fuck opened the night which featured a guest vocal/sample appearance from Alexis Taylor. [Update: Holy Fuck have released this single featuring Alexis Taylor, “Luxe.” Listen here].
The night began with the opening track from their last full length album Why Make Sense? “Huarache Lights,” followed by the title track from 2010’s One Life Stand. The band then played two sequential tracks from In Our Heads, “Night & Day” and “Flutes.” It was not until the halfway point of the set where we heard the first new song, “Hungry Child.”
The stage was built to resemble classic bandshell stages, with projection towers in a crescent shape behind the band projecting various color palettes throughout the show. A dramatic laser show came and went throughout the night, an effect well received by the fans in the room.
The second half of the set saw a very frenetic rendition of the Beastie Boys’ classic “Sabotage” before two more tracks from A Bath Full of Ecstasy, “Melody of Love” and “Positive.”
The tour is just getting underway. The band tours North America throughout the fall, followed by shows in Japan, Europe and South America into December.
MT Ed’s production of the musical American Idiot (director Tina Crandall-Gommel, vocal director Heather Lonardo, music director David Curry) was performed at the Multi-use Community Cultural Center on September 14 as part of Rochester’s Fringe Festival. Inside of a house-turned-community-center, the local teenagers cast in the production sang their hearts out to the familiar tune of Green Day’s politically charged discography.
For a musical named after a song released over 15 years ago now and featuring the messages of a band formed in 1986, the content expressed in American Idiot seems to have ever-increasing political relevance. The show gave the spotlight to sensitive, nuanced, and often overlooked and taboo subjects such as patriotism, sex, drug use, teenage pregnancy, and loss. In a generation where existence is inherently political, the subversive messages in American Idiot presented themselves as a sense of relief from modern society to both the audience and the young performers.
It’s difficult to express one continual, overarching plot line using bits and pieces of a scattered discography. However, the direction of this musical managed to create substance in a challenging adaptation. Each scene felt like a moving, breathing snapshot of a story; each story stitched together like a quilt. The choreography was visually captivating and often reflected the compositions seen in Renaissance paintings. The music was well executed by a 5-piece band seated high atop a balcony that almost reached the ceiling. The stripped down production featured a set and props which accomplished much despite their minimalism. The lighting was also simple. Using mostly just a red, white, or blue wash, it sarcastically referenced the musical’s titular themes of American patriotism. Throughout the show, American Idiot consistently proved itself to be a worthwhile and entertaining experience for Green Day fans.
For more information about MT Ed and upcoming performances of American Idiot and other shows visit their website.
King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard is one of the most prolific rock bands currently out there. Starting with their debut album 12 Bar Bruise in 2012, the boys from Melbourne have released almost 2 albums per year since then, pushing it to 5 full length releases in 2017 alone! With a quick break in 2018, King Gizzard is back with a headline show at Summerstage in Central Park.
Fishing for Fishies, released in April of 2019, showed the band
embracing a boogie-sound and mixing this groove into their blend of psych/heavy
rock. Then, King Gizzard began to tease what sounded like a new thrash-metal
album, delivering the incredible Infest
the Rat’s Nest this past August. This album is a true homage to the genre
with their signature style mixed in seamlessly.
It’s no surprise that the audience was intrigued as to how King Gizzard would fill the set at Central Park Summerstage on August 28. The band kicked things off with fierce renditions of Infest the Rat’s Nest tracks “Self-Immolate” and “Perihelion.” The show itself was well organized as the band tended to group tracks from the same album together, allowing them to dig deep into the style of each album: three tracks in a row from Polygondwanaland early on, with three straight tracks from Murder of the Universe later in the set.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard at Central Park Summerstage – 8/28/2019
A last-minute addition of “Planet B” to the setlist paved the way for the final leg of the show. The band ditched the outdated tradition of leaving the stage and resurfacing for an encore, but instead powered through using every last minute of the early show to play for the fully engaged audience. The band was sure not to let up one minute before curfew. A constant stream of crowd surfers, full throat singing, and mosh pits all over the Rumsey Playfield made for a very high intensity show.
King Gizzard embarks on a fall tour of Europe in October and November, with a final show at the Maho Rasop Festival in Bangkok, Thailand in mid-November. Does that leave enough time for one more full-length release in 2019?
Setlist: Self-Immolate, Preihelion, The Great Chain of Being, Plastic Boogie, Inner Cell, Loyalty, Horology, Boogieman Sam, Evil Death Roll, Digital Black, Vomit Coffin, Murder of the Universe, This Thing, The Bird Song, Planet B, Mars for the Rich, Cyboogie, Am I in Heaven?
Their identities may be under wraps but Here Come the Mummies are the high power funk band you didn’t know you needed in your life. Playing to a crowd at Albany’s Skyloft, most didn’t know what to expect but found themselves moving to the consistently energizing funk.
This 11-piece group is anonymous, supposedly cursed after deflowering a great Pharaohâs daughter, or perhaps they are reincarnated Grammy-Winning studio musicians. Either way, the performance from a Mummies show is second to none and more visits to the Empire State are in order.
Over the course of their two hour set full of originals, many with suggestive lyrics, had the audience cracking up while they’re getting down. “Pants,” “Shag Carpet” and “Freak Flag” all had their own elements of kink and double entendre, while “Bring that (Bootie) Down” and “Ra Ra Ra” filled in with big band funk that is a rare find these days.
The attentive ear could even catch riffs of Wreckx-N-Effect “Rump Shaker” that beckoned for the crowd to get down. An encore of “Dirty Minds” summed up the band’s style in both sound and lyrics, and kept the audience waiting for more. Here Come the Mummies will surely rise again in the Capital District.
It has been eight years since Of Monsters and Men released their mega-hit song “Little Talks” from their debut album My Head is an Animal. This past July they released their third full-length project, Fever Dream, and have now embarked on a North American tour in support.
The second stop on the tour found the band playing a sold out show at New York’s famous Radio City Music Hall with support from Lower Dens. The hall quickly filled with a crowd of truly all ages and backgrounds, from teenagers to adults, with many different foreign languages represented. Of Monsters and Men have a reach that is truly worldwide and fans in NYC could not wait for their chance to see them.
Photo by: Buscar Photo (www.buscarphoto.com)
The show kicked off with the opening track from Fever Dream, “Alligator.” The band ended up playing nearly 3/4 of the new album throughout the show. It was not until the second to last song of the main set where OMAM finally gave in and played “Little Talks” to a crowd shouting the entire song.
Photo by: Buscar Photo (www.buscarphoto.com)
The band continues their run of US shows until the end of September, with one Vancouver show on September 28. They wrap up the tour with a triumphant hometown festival appearance in Reykjavik, Iceland at Iceland Airwaves 2019 on November 6-9.
The Stone Temple Pilots have been playing since the late 80’s, and even with a new face on the mic, they don’t seem to be slowing down. Droves of fans packed the wide room of Upstate Concert Hall in Clifton Park, NY on Tuesday September 10th. The crowd was a sea of late 40’s dads and also a young crowd that will keep these memories alive.
The quartet came out to a massive roar as they took the stage. They started off strong, working through “Coma,” “Wicked Garden” and “Vasoline.” After a few classics they moved into their newer songs. They did an incredible job weaving through their repertoire, at one point playing two of their most memorable songs sandwiching their newest singles.
You can catch STP on the last leg of their tour coming up on September 19 and 22 in Philadelphia and New York City. Check out the setlist and photos from Zatchmo Lives Media below.
Setlist: Coma, Wicked Garden, Vasoline, Crackerman, Lounge Fly, Big Bang Baby, Glide, Big Empty, Plush, Meadow, Interstate Love Song, Roll Me Under, Dead and Bloated, Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart.
Banks brought her energetic live show to Brooklyn Steel on September 10 in support of her fantastic new LP, III. This was a second night added due to the first night on September 8 selling out so quickly.
Kevin Garrett opened the night with a soulful, beat-backed set of ballads. The crowd was full of Kevin Garrett fans as they willed him on by, singing and dancing along. His new album Hoax, released back in March of this year, was a nice complement to the evening, setting a warm tone but not stealing away any energy from Banks.
As the stage hands removed the opening band’s instruments, it was immediately clear that she would be dancing from one end of the stage to the other. With a keyboard set-up far stage left and a drum kit far stage right, the entire Brooklyn Steel stage was turned into Banks’ and Co. personal dance floor – and they sure used every inch.
The audience was in full-throat for every song – belting out all the lyrics and trying to mimic Banks’ dance moves on the packed GA floor. Some of the more adventurous dancers drifted to the back of the room and the balcony where there was ample space to dance.
