04th May2012

Live Reviews: Jon Benjamin Has A Tour @ Neumos, 4/28/12

by Adam Finley

H. Jon Benjamin: Writer, prankster, voice actor and, if his onstage wardrobe is any indication, part-time hobo.

Even if you don’t know the guy, you know him. It might be  from Home Movies, where he voiced two of the main characters and a good percentage of the supporting cast, or as the talking can of vegetables in Wet Hot American Summer. If you’re a bit younger, but still of the Adult Swim set, you may know him from Assy McGee or Lucy, Daughter of the Devil. Or as the title character on both Archer and Bob’s Burgers. Benjamin has guested on everything from Aqua Teen Hunger Force to Important Things With Demetri Martin to Human Giant to a Super Bowl commercial with Conan O’Brien. And his prank show, Jon Benjamin Has A Van, just got canceled by Comedy Central.

The important thing is, you know him from somewhere. And you should know that he’s on tour with a traveling carnival of dry, dark humor and guests– Jon Benjamin Has A Van alums Nathan Fielder and Leopold Allen at the Seattle stop, and Brendon Small (of Home Movies and Metalocalypse) in L.A. The Seattle show was a combination of stand-up comedy, improv, music, magic (well, one magic trick) and multimedia pieces including a Powerpoint presentation on the proper way to give ecstasy to a child.

The show isn’t particularly well put together, of course, and I think a broader audience wouldn’t have been entertained. But watching Benjamin work is such a joy for his fans that I never once felt bored. You know how some people could listen to Morgan Freeman read a cereal box and be moved to tears? I could listen to Benjamin read the Emancipation Proclamation or bridge graffiti all day, and it would be hilarious. Plus, he called my girlfriend on stage, so that was pretty cool.

It’s the Christopher Walken principle applied to a guy who is personified by his deadpan self-loathing and utter lack of giving a shit (par exemple: his phone rang mid-performance and he checked to see who was calling before shoving it back in his pocket to continue the show.) That, and his ability to make people say this, as I heard twice outside the venue: “That went to a dark place really fast”.

I’m a fan of comedians like Patton Oswalt and Louie C.K. and Brian Posehn– comedians who specialize in dark material and witty turns of phrase. But Benjamin may be the dark horse for Darkiest Comedian of the Century. Case in point, standing in Seattle’s Capitol Hill with a gigantic poster that says “GOD IS ANNOYED BY FAGS” – Benjamin’s attempt to “tone down” the message of the Westboro Baptist Church. The awkward, shocked laughter that rippled through the room exemplifies Benjamin’s appeal: he’s not the comedian who “isn’t afraid to go there”. He’s the comedian who doesn’t give a good god damn where he’s going, or whether you want to go there with him.

There’s not many more tour dates, kids, and there’s not likely to be another tour like this. Catch it while you can, before Benjamin gets bored and wanders off to do something else hilarious and incredible.

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09th Feb2012

Live Reviews: Giraffage, Some Ember, and Shortcircles @ Noise Pop Up Shop (2/8)

by nickwan

Last night was my first Noise Pop 2012 show of this season. Although these aren’t necessarily the Noise Pop 2012 shows scheduled throughout the week of Noise Pop (2/21 – 2/26) this would be what some would call the pre-parties to the official Noise Pop week. With that being said, the amount and quality of events and shows going down at The Noise Pop Up Shop, on Page and Franklin, are immense. If last night was any indication of what is going to happen this month… the Bay is about to get insanely awesome.

The show last night featured some old faces in new places. Shortcircles (Matt Tammariello), a self-proclaimed bliss-hop artist, debuted his live show with the help from what he described as “my friends”. Those friends are none other than the members of James & Evander, who helped fill out the quartet of keys, strings, and some vocals here and there. Hard to really describe the live presence of what I witnessed as I strolled into the show, but it was something electric. A strong sense of shoegazing with the spine of drum and bass. The night was prefaced to me as “dream pop done right,” and rightfully so. For his first performance, it was pretty special and spot-on. On the sideboard, a guy was controlling a hefty amount of visuals that were projected behind the acts, making the feel of the Shop something really… familiar, in a sense. Part house show, part venue, part dance club, part bar. It was very appropriate that this show, containing such an array of new music, was in a place that was not easily definable in feel.

Latest tracks by shortcircles

In terms of Shortcircles’ weaknesses, I can only imagine throwing a visual artist into every live set is a must… so I’m hoping next time I cross Mr. Tammariello’s path, the visuals won’t be just some dude jamming visually in the corner, but something more tight. The music itself is very tight, well-groomed, rich in layers, and delicious. An accompanying visual array would do this act the most justice. Check out shortcircle’s SoundCloud page here.

Latest tracks by Some Ember

Some Ember was next up, featuring Dylan Travis from Man/Miracle. This group continued what Shortcircles started, featuring a heavy dose of electronic components met with a big presence of vocals, with some accenting features from guitars and an acoustic drum set. The drummer was my favorite part to watch during the set, as he was playing double duty between his sample drum pad and the drum kit. At times, the set sounded like a dance party possessed. At other times, the ethereal electric feeling took the feelings of smiling emotions into moods of self-reflection. The contrasts between this massive electronic sound and this minimalist, drone style creates for something you would see at a space-rock or shoegaze show. You can check out Some Ember’s SoundCloud page here.

Giraffage (Charlie Yin) ended the night with an extremely dreamy set. There isn’t much to say here, in terms of performance or showmanship. Yin’s command of his controller seemed surgical at times. Maybe what was lacking at this show was more people. I believe the place had about 50 people show up, spread between the front room, a back room, an upstairs room, a bar room, and a food room. If that place, especially the front room where all the acts were playing, had around 100 people I think the reception for Giraffage would have been exponentially better. The smaller turn out, plus the more dark sets from Some Ember and Shortcircles, had Giraffage’s more happy tunes falling on deaf ears. I’m usually not a fan of artists like Giraffage, but I believe his style was the sharpest out of all three acts. I mean, in reality… he is controlling everything with his fingers whereas the two other groups had multiple members as well as other instrumental components other than keys and Akai controllers, so he should sound the cleanest. But it was something more to it than that. Maybe it was the lack of an airy drone under his songs? Maybe it was more of a DJ vibe? Whatever the case, I’d like to see Giraffage again — hopefully with a more packed house. You can check out Giraffage’s Bandcamp page here.

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02nd Nov2011

Live Reviews: Matt Pond PA @ Neumos

by Adam Finley

There are two ways to be heard by friends at a concert: 1) get close, 2) get loud. Decent, respectful people realize that getting close is the better choice as it doesn’t distract the performer or get on the tits of the people around you.

Unfortunately, not all people are decent or respectful.

The Rocky Votolato/Matt Pond PA/Third Band whose name I won’t mention for reasons I’ll explain later began with said Third Band and all 8 of its members filling the not-quite-big-enough stage with a variety of instruments (tuba, upright bass, keyboards, violin, etc.). Except there were 7 of them at first; Upright Bass showed up halfway through the set, like he had better things to do with his time. The band sounded alright. They would pass the “how to pretend you’re Beirut” class with a C-.

Matt Pond took the stage soon after to a healthy crowd and lots of applause and began playing… right as three young women directly behind us, and no farther than 15 feet from the stage, started very loudly talking about the Facebook messages they received that day (no joke, literally showing each other Facebook messages on their smart phones). I ignored them for the first song (an incredible “Closest (Look Out)”), and then during the applause break casually turned to look at them.

I wish I could paint you a picture, or film a recreation in slo-mo, but if you’ll indulge me for a moment, my thought process went something like this: “Okay turn around slowly see who these bitches are alright they look college-age the blonde is kind of cute jesus christ they are loud who is that guy with them the tall guy in the blueish sweater– oh my fuck is that the guy from the first band?”

I am 98% certain that it was. That it was Upright Bass. That the dude who showed up late to his own show also brought this pack of inconsiderate jackals and didn’t shush them when a far better act took the stage. I wanted to light his hair on fire and mail it to his mother. I wanted to kick the trashcan over so that their shoes would be soggy with old Red Stripe and vomit for the rest of the show. And I shouldn’t slander all three women; the one on the far right caught my eye and looked apologetic, as though to say “I know this chick is loud, but she’s the alpha female and she knows I cheated on my boyfriend once so I can’t really say anything but please enjoy ‘New Hampshire’, MPPA just started playing it and it’s a really great song”. Which it is. But that’s not the point. The point is that for a musician to allow people to be so rude to fellow musicians– the musicians who gave you the crowd you played to, no less– is incomprehensible.

But I suppose that in my live review of Matt Pond PA I should mention the show. You guys, it was INCREDIBLE. The band was on fire start to finish. MPPA even had a busted leg and hobbled onto/off the stage with crutches and sat in a chair with his leg stuck out in a straight line, and he still rocked the house. He blasted through probably 15 songs with a slight bias toward older material from Emblems and Several Arrows Later, but making plenty of room for new crowd pleasers like “Love To Get Used”. If I had a list of 10 songs I wanted to hear him play that night, he hit every single one. No one could ruin his set; not even some disrespectful jackals with a possible upright bass player in tow.

And that is why I won’t say the band’s name or call this guy out personally because there is a 2% chance that it was someone else. But if that was you, dude, you should be ashamed of yourself. And just so you jackals know: saying “We aren’t that loud” when people give you dirty looks at a show is about as meaningful as Amy Winehouse looking at her bodyguard before bed and saying “I’m not that drunk.”

And no. It is not too soon.

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18th Oct2011

Bright Eyes @ The Paramount Theater (9/28/11)

by Adam Finley

Bright Eyes is winding down. Conor Oberst is retiring the moniker and a small piece of everyone in my age bracket’s adolescence is dying with it. I very clearly remember the day I first heard Lifted; it was a gateway drug into the twisted boy genius world of Bright Eyes that has resulted in a decade of fandom. In that time I’ve seen Conor live three times, once as part of Monsters of Folk and (now) twice as Bright Eyes. The MoF show and the first Bright Eyes show (2004 and 2005 respectively if I’m not mistaken) were good in their own way, but neither of them prepared me for the 2011 incarnation of Bright Eyes live.

One thing I can say for certain is that Conor is a consummate performer. He’s continually improving, and the difference between a Digital Ash-era Bright Eyes show and the one I saw a couple weeks ago is striking. The set was tight, driven, and sounded amazing beginning to end, despite some exceptionally shitty sound engineering during opener “Four Winds”. The pacing was perfect; Conor blasted through 22 or so songs in a 140 minute set that didn’t feel half as long as any of the ~90 minute shows I’ve seen this year. The breadth of material was staggering too, pulling from the Cartoon Blues EP, that 2004 split with Neva Dinova, and every album between Fevers & Mirrors and The People’s Key with a striking bias away from that newest release. They only dipped into The People’s Key three times, two of which (“Shell Games” and “Approximate Sunlight”) came back to back and were followed by “Something Vague”, an 11-year old song that I haven’t even thought about in half that time but remember every word to. It was a reminder of what this tour really was– a goodbye to a significant part of his career, not an attempt to move a new record.

Conor looked the part of the retiree, spinning triumphantly, smiling regularly, climbing into the audience, calling out Rick Rubin and Dr. Dre during the encore, and hamming it up in a way that both shocked and pleased me. My other two live experiences were of a distinctly different nature– an awkward man standing center stage angrily whispering acoustic songs– and I’ll take the self-confident man with the childish grin and custom Mike Mogis t-shirt any day.

I can see, though, why he’s retiring the moniker. That persona worked, and that music worked best, when he was fully invested in the character of Bright Eyes– the sulking, self-loathing, uncertain kid who obsessively scribbled dark poetry and felt weird in public places. But watching Conor strut around the stage, downright cocky, it’s clear that he’s outgrown Bright Eyes. He’s taken that train to the end of line, and he summed it up perfectly with an extra tidbit thrown into closer “Road To Joy”: “My mind races with all my longings/but can’t keep up with what I’ve got”. He let those words hang in the air for just a second and then, with a grin, added “which is so fucking much it’s ridiculous”.

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12th Aug2011

Live Reviews: My Morning Jacket @ Stage AE

by Ryan

 This is my second visit to the relatively new Stage AE in Pittsburgh, and the venue itself is nothing special. Since it is in a great location in a highly populated city, this place reels in mostly large-scale acts. The special thing about said venue is that concerts may be scheduled indoors or outdoors; this event being the latter. Following a performing stage, there is a drop off into a concrete standing area that is all one level. For the vertically challenged like myself, this can be a problem. Further back, there is a lawn area that is decently sized, considering that the whole premises lies enclosed by a fence in the middle of a parking lot.

My most recent (and first) experience at Stage AE was a little tough on my sight. I witnessed a fantastic show, but it was difficult to catch what was shaking onstage. If anyone within ten feet in front of you is taller, expect some trouble when trying to see action. Luckily, for the benefit of myself and my ability to review their performance, I managed to get a spot right up front at the divider, near the left side of the stage. I may not have been considered official press, but damn it, I set up camp (and took the sick Jim James picture above) as if I was.

Now for the brass tacks. I am a huge My Morning Jacket fan, and I cannot be blamed, given that their past three albums have all blown the minds of anyone who appreciates good music. Being more than intrigued by this concert, I took the liberty of checking the setlists of their previous shows. As shown by my research, the band opened up as they had been for the entire stretch of their tour so far. The badass opener to their newest album Circuital, “Victory Dance,” became the badass opener to the following two-and-a-half hours I was to be a part of.

Jim James is without a doubt one of my new musical idols. The man loves to play guitar, and when he takes a solo, well… see the above picture. He also loves to sing, and when he has a song to do nothing but that, he belts it! What a wide register he has, too. James explores pitch harder than a kindergartner explores his nose. Jumping in on any part of the show, you may think you’re hearing Robin Pecknold (“Slow Slow Tune”), or Prince (“Wordless Chorus”), depending on the time.

Carl Broemel, the lead guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, put on a clinic for the entire show. After melting everyone’s faces with his licks, Broemel put down the strings nearly seven minutes into “Dondante” and traded them for a saxophone. He proceeded to put Kenny G to shame for a solid ten more minutes.

The highlights of the show were many. I was ecstatic to see the group play an old, old favorite “Honest Man.” Opening act Neko Case came out during the encore to join Jim James for a fantastic duet of “Islands In The Stream,” in true Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers fashion. Like almost every show, they closed with “One Big Holiday,” but the absolute grandest moment of the night was when they rocked out to “Holdin’ On To Black Metal.” This is my favorite track off the new album, and the audience received their performance with great excitement. We were turned into a wave of Satan-worshipping children, much like the ones in the song, as we filled in every “oh woah woah woahhhhhhh yeah yeah yeahhhhhh ohhhh” vigorously.

As for Stage AE, the venue is no gem. This was no matter. My Morning Jacket could have been playing from the top of a mountain and the magic would have been just as strong. The band was so into giving a good show, and they delivered for a good long time. If they drop nearby your town, get a ticket. You wanna freak out? Come on!

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01st Aug2011

Battles @ Captiol Hill Block Party (7/24/11)

by Adam Finley

Maybe I’m just getting old and out of touch, but I wasn’t excited about the lineup for this year’s Capitol Hill Block Party. The event isn’t big enough (yet) to draw any mega-ulatra-superstars, but last year Atmosphere, The Dead Weather, and MGMT headlined; that’s not bad as far as neighborhood festivals go. It’s not a good sign when a whole festival day goes by– damn near 30 bands– and I’m most excited to see Battles. It’s an even worse sign that it was the most disappointing show I’ve seen in a while.

In fairness, it wasn’t all Battles’ fault. The veterans of mainstream-flirting experimental rock couldn’t control the fact that the festival organizers had apparently never heard their music and didn’t know how to schedule them for maximum effect. Battles is a band suited perfectly to a mid-sized, dungeon-like club where the mix of body heat, throbbing bass, and crazy light displays combine with the music to create a seamless, intense experience. Had they played Showbox Sodo at 10:00pm that night instead of the Block Party main stage at 5:00pm, this review would be very different. The Block Party main stage is literally the intersection of Pike & Broadway, two of the busiest roads on the hill, with a flimsy black shade above to keep the performers from roasting. That’s it. The bands basically play to the sky, and in the middle of the afternoon that’s just not going to fly for some acts.

Battles took the stage just before 5:00pm on the kind of bright Seattle summer day where it feels like noon until the sun goes down around 9:30pm, and they came ready to rock with two giant LED screens which might as well have been Lite-Brites for all the depth they added to the show.  The whole performance just fizzled in the afternoon sun to a thoroughly not-warmed-up crowd. Look, Block Party organizers, that kind of music DOESN’T WORK in that kind of setting. It’s like asking Mickey Avalon to play an eight year old’s birthday party.

That was the half of the disappointment that Battles couldn’t control. The rest of the train wreck was the band’s fault. Battles relies on a specific atmosphere, one which they create through repetitive, slow rhythms that build and grow until finally exploding in a frantic crash of groovy dance rock. But when you’re playing a 50 minute set in the afternoon to disinterested hipsters, you gotta speed that process up. 10 minutes into the set and Battles still hadn’t reached their first climax; they were still building, and building, and building, to the point where beer garden patrons began turning away to begin conversations about Pocky or water guns because they were far more interesting than the show. In a 75 minute set in a dark club with trippy lights, it might have made sense to connect two short songs with seven minutes of plunking guitar. It might have ruled. But on a bright day, playing to the sky, it might as well has been someone tapping on an empty keg with a ball peen hammer for close to an hour, stopping every once in a while to scream.

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26th May2011

Live Reviews: Fitz and the Tantrums @ The Blank Club

by Blake

Fitz and the Tantrums are a groove-town band from LA. I had the privilege of seeing them tonight at the Blank Club in San Jose. They have been around for a little while, but picked up a lot of heat from their single “Moneygrabber”. It is the catchiest tune in the West.

Moneygrabber:

The Blank Club might be my new favorite venue. I have a problem with San Francisco shows. Sure, I go to them, but I don’t really enjoy stepping outside of the venue afterward. Finding parking in the city is a pain in the ass and you are always looking over your shoulder. It doesn’t help that the streets are painted with bum semen and guys are shitting on the side of the road. I know, my views sound jaded about the city, but it’s how I feel. Downtown San Jose was a new venture into a city I was unfamiliar with. I had never seen a show in San Jose’s club scene and didn’t even know they had a club scene.
What I love about The Blank Club is the ease of entry. Parking was right in front of the door. The meters didn’t need to be fed and I could walk to my car to drop off a sweater, sanitize my hands, or listen to that new David Bazan album (joking o_O). But really, we (Alex and I) were right in front of the club doors and walking in was extremely easy. The street were clean, no sketchy bums or addicts, and the people were more energetic than ANY show I have been to in the city. Believe that.

Also, these guys know how to pour a Guinness out of the draft. This was about +10 points to the night. It has been a while since a bar in the Bay Area has taken their time making sure the pour is right. It was absolutely delicious.

Fitz and the Tantrums came on stage and absolutely tore the place to pieces. They have this soulful, Motown sound that just slaps you across the face. The lead singer looks like a lanky David Bowie and his sidekick is a wonderful black woman who harmonized like an absolute master. Tambourines, keys, brass, and drums – this band isn’t filled with drugstore cowboys. These cats knew how to jam and were seasoned pros at the many instruments they played.

From their set they pulled out a cover of “Steady As She Goes” and “Sweet Dreams”, but even the tracks off of their debut LP were absolutely electric in the disco sense. Michael Fitzpatrick (lead singer) pulls off the Bowie look well and dances around like the most coordinated coke addict you have ever seen. He is a halfbreed of Space Oddity and revivalist preacher. His voice shudders like a madman when speaking to the audience and booms when he sings. It was boiling in that room, but he didn’t remove his sports jacket for a second. He kept that bitch on and rode the set out like a champ. There was not a single moment when he wasn’t giving 100% to the audience, and the other members of the band did the same. You can tell by the way a crowd reacts to a band based upon their genre and the sort of energy they are trying to pull out of their audience. In the case of Fitz and the Tantrums, they had the crowd roaring like hungry lions for more tunes. It was the most ravenous display of necessity I have seen a crowd exercise. There weren’t any shoe-gazers, and if you were, you would get a stern “Stand up, motherfucker!” from the band.

This is what the LA scene is all about, and I was happy to have such an amazing band come around to San Jose and kick the shit out of any other live band I have seen this year (exception made for Middle Brother). By the time they got to their single “Moneygrabber”, they had the audience in the palm of their hand – making everyone crouch down and break out into a rage for the final play-through. These cats know how to have a great time, and their music is absolutely masterful for the genre. A guy told me once, “If you make music, remember one thing, and one thing only: keep it sex…always.” Oh, they have plenty of rowdiness in them, and sensuality to boot.

You know how you feel when you see a really good soul band play in one of your favorite films? It was like that, but with all of the cheese removed. Seeing this band live was an absolute overdose on adrenaline and eargasms. You have a band, touring the US, who brought out one of the best shows I have ever experienced, and they did all of this in a small club in San Jose. If they swing by your neck of the woods, have a drink and enjoy the ride with Fitz and the Tantrums. They are up and comers who have the dynamics to make waves in the music industry, and unlike so many other bands, have the skill to make a really great album sound like a lo-fi mix after their live performance.

I don’t know what your plans are, or where you live, but do yourself a favor and have an electric parade. Jump aboard this soul train and I can guarantee you a show you will never forget.

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Watch live streaming video from theknitreno at livestream.com
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14th Mar2011

Josh Ritter @ Showbox Sodo (2/22/11)

by Adam Finley

On occasion I have produced a graph for my reviews, and if I wasn’t chronically behind on my writing I would have made one for this show. It would be a standard bell curve, and it would demonstrate that the amount to which a band plans out their performance is directly related to how enjoyable the show is to watch. When a band is completely unprepared it’s a nightmare, but it’s possible to go the other way; if a band is too prepared the show can appear stiff and staged. Boring. The perfect show comes with a good amount of preparation but a willingness to remain flexible and engage with the audience.

Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit opened Josh Ritter’s show from a few weeks back (I told you– chronically behind!) and he was in fine form, hopping and strumming and carousing his way around the stage. In a perfectly long 40 minute set Hutchison managed to play roughly 10 songs, including a cover and an old FR track, take requests, duet with his brother Grant, tell stories, and make the audience laugh at every turn. Scott was loose, funny, relaxed, and self deprecating– it was everything missing from the last Frightened Rabbit show that I attended.

Much like that video, the set was clearly not overly rehearsed and Hutchison messed up more than once. On the graph that I didn’t make he would have fallen a bit to the left of the curve, but if Charlie Sheen has taught us anything it’s that we love a little unpredictability in our public performances.

If Hutchison fell a little to the left of that curve, Ritter fell just as far to the right. Check out “To The Dogs Or Whoever” live on Letterman.

Josh Ritter is a born performer. Whether finger picking and gently whispering “Thin Blue Flame” or cupping hands around his mouth to bellow “Rattling Locks”, he has his performance style down pat. Plenty of comparisons are made between Ritter and Bob Dylan, and it’s more than just the style of music they share. It’s the carefully cultivated live experience: the backing band of older men, the overly formal outfits, the pencil thin mustache, the bass guitar set so loud so that the lead/rhythm guitars are only audible during solos. I can’t believe that any of those touches in Ritter’s show are accidental, and especially for the first few songs it felt a little too planned to be really organic or fun.

Fortunately, Ritter was eventually able to relax. Banter with the audience. Improvise. Deviate from the script enough that it became a shared experience– he gave a shout out to the protesters in Egypt; he brought the brothers Hutchison on stage; he made fun of Eastern Washington’s penchant for tacky decorations and bad coffee. He had fun, and that is the overwhelming impression that I took from this show: Ritter’s unabashed joy. For as staged as everything else was, that smile could not have been faked. It was infectious, and by the end of the show Ritter had the crowd enveloped in his sweet folksy haze. It was a nice counterpoint to Hutchison’s boozy, self-deprecating aura, and the two worked perfectly together as tour mates. Does anyone else smell a potentially awesome collaboration in the air?

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11th Feb2011

William Elliott Whitmore @ El Corazon (2/4/11)

by Adam Finley

I have proselytized for William Elliott Whitmore since I saw him open for Rocky Votolato and Murder By Death at a dank little club in San Diego sometime around 2006. William’s a curious fellow: an Iowa farmer born and raised near the Mississippi river (where he still lives) that looks like a late-90s Southern California skate punk and writes dusty hymns of hard work and morality in a voice eerily soulful and gritty for someone so young. Think Tom Waits on sizzurp.

Check out Hell or High Water, live on KEXP

When I saw William way back when I was blown away by his obvious connection to his music and his audience. He embodies the writerly maxim of ‘throw what you know’ and swings within his wheelhouse with deadly precision. Armed with nothing more than a banjo and a stompboard, William converts crowds one dank little club at a time. I mentally pegged him to be wealthy within 5 years– land a song on Weeds, write the soundtrack to a breakthrough Western, play Letterman, and start playing bigger venues.

Five years and two albums later, and this hasn’t quite happened yet. William is still playing dank little clubs, most recently El Corazon, a grime-slicked building by the freeway that looks abandoned from the outside but has a surprisingly good bar and a decent venue for someone like WEW.

I missed the first opener, and the first half of the next guy– a dude best described by my girlfriend as ‘a beefy Greg Laswell’ who stood too close to the microphone and mumbled folkishly. If it weren’t for his merch table (aka one t-shirt presided over by a salty-looking dude in a jean jacket with the sleeves torn off) I wouldn’t even know that he is the lead singer from local acoustic folkcore act Jefferson Death Star.

Then Willliam took the stage, and I was glad too see the fire hasn’t left his live show one bit. William still has the intense connection with the crowd that I remember. Between songs he shakes hands with those in the front row, tips his cap, smiles sheepishly, wipes his brow with a pocket handkerchief, drinks whiskey from the bottle (except in Seattle where alcohol is not allowed on stage) and talks to people he recognizes from other shows. He asks questions and seems truly interested in the answers. There’s a genuine vibe to him that I don’t think I’ve seen another artist top live. And because of this, William has attracted a varied following, from hipster to hippies to grandparents preparing for Armageddon. El Corazon most often hosts metal shows, but a good percentage of the audience was 40+ years old and clearly not coming back in a few days for Three Inches of Blood.

There’s nothing bad I can say about William live. He is the quintessential performer: no gimmicks, no bullshit, no excuses. The TSA broke his damn banjo yet he soldiered on completely unfazed. There aren’t many performers who can show up with a broken banjo and an acoustic guitar, borrow a kick drum, and get 150 people to sing along to every song. He knows his audience– “Johnny Law” from Animals In The Dark is one of my least favorite WEW songs on record, but played with conviction to a city that’s had more than its share of problems with police recently, it was a cathartic high point in the show. William paces his shows perfectly– 16 songs, two covers, two new songs– then he tips his cap and leaves the stage. No encores. No bullshit. Just William. And William is fucking amazing.

The first week of February just ended and I may already have the seen the best show I will see all year. That should be depressing, but it actually feels pretty good.

One more for the road– Old Devils

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