What A Difference A Year Makes

 

What a difference a year makes.

     Father John Misty started his show last week trying to explain a twitter comment and photo chronicling his previous wild night in Chicago and apologizing for not really knowing if we were really all there or merely a figment of his imagination. He swept back his curls, sauntered across the stage and launched into “Funtimes in Babylon” ---
     “I would like to abuse my lungs/smoke everything in sight with every girl     I’ve ever loved and ride around the wreckage on a horse knee deep in blood

Lookout Hollywood, here I come.”

      These verses came from the mouth of the same guy that only one year ago was singing about the bucolic beauty of orchards and romantic love  when I saw him perform as a member of the group Fleet Foxes. “If I had an orchard, I'd work till I'm raw-

If I had an orchard, I'd work till I'm sore- And you would wait tables and soon run the store”

     It’s true that he did not write Fleet Foxes’ “Helplessness Blues,” but with each verse from his new solo album, I began to wonder just what he might have been dreaming about in the back of their tour bus last year.

     His creative arc from the four part harmony, love and peace vibe of the Crosby Stills Nash and Young inspired music of Fleet Foxes to the darker William S Burroughs tinged lyrics of “I’m Writing a Novel” has got me mesmerized: 
         “I ran down the road, pants down to my knees screaming,  “please come help me, that Canadian shaman gave a little too much to me!”
    He may have played through the whole album last week ( I was only familiar with three songs at the time) but his set was over too quickly. He rocked hard on his most well known tune, "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings" - strobe lights, rippin'  guitar solo and at one point I couldn't see all of him but I think he was writhing around on the stage. Apparently he used up all his energy by then and did not have it in him for an encore. He apologized and waved goodnight. He was the second opening act for a group I was unfamiliar with called Youth Lagoon.  My trusty concert companion (daughter) and I decided to stay for the headliner, watch the crowd, talk about electronic drone music and frat bros, and wait for the merch guy to return to the table so we could buy a copy of "Fear Fun."

     I am curious about Josh Tillman's journey and wonder what direction he will take his music and writing next. The mom in me wants to make sure he'll be  alright after he travels down this darker road.

    I'm looking forward to next July.

    

    

Father John Misty - "Hollywood Cemetery Sings"

(What's April doing here?)

Fleet Foxes "Helplessness Blues"

Now Appearing!: Dirty Dancing Girl and the Amazing Beanie Brothers

     Dirty Dancing Girl showed up at the wrong concert last week. Apparently she thought her ticket said "Prince" instead of "Dawes" and believe me nothing says bump and grind more than Taylor Goldsmith's wonderfully sentimental lyrics:

"like the memory from your mother's house from before you got too old

like the feeling from a photograph before its meaning all got told."

Yow! Get down!

      I felt a little sorry for Dirty Dancing Girl's boyfriend as he helplessly looked around while she made her moves. If he had asked for my Whack ol' Lady relationship advice I would have told him to find someone who shared his interest in Dawes. She really should have hooked up with the Beanie Brothers up front  because their girlfriends were equally confounded by their thrashing and fist pumping more likely to be seen at Husker Du. The Beanie Brothers were having a good time and I'm not sure I would have taken such a liking to them if they hadn't been wearing matching hats.

    As with many of the concerts I go to with my daughter, we occasionally get into conversations with other folks there and get a similar response each time. The moms think it is so sweet that the two of us  go out together and often wistfully wish their own children would allow them to do the same. I try my best to keep a low profile and limit the embarrassing movements and clothing choices. Occasionally when I tell others I write a blog about music I either get a blank stare and a kind of "what the f*ck are you talking about look" or  the person's eyes light up and there is more of a "where have you been--you are my new best friend" look.  Some of the younger folks kind of chuckle and secretly wonder how I  even know about blogging.

   Someday my daughter won't want to go out with me anymore or our musical tastes will diverge but it's a good ride right now and I'll go along until we hit a bump.

With a Little Help from my Friends

     Whack ol' Ladies have a persistent problem- finding other WOL willing to stay up late enough to go out and hear live music.  It is a recurring dilemma- drag an unwilling companion or go alone and run the risk of looking silly and the avoidance of looking silly is one of the major tenets of the Whack ol' Lady credo.

     This WOL  recently took along her not so  terribly unwilling husband to see Dawes. Normally not one to go out to a music venue late at night, Dawes' gentle, 1970's Southern California sound was enough of an enticement to get him out the door.  It helped that my WOL friend had her husband in tow as well. Now, as mentioned before, certain WOL concerts have better WOL/young folk ratios than others.  There was a lot of gray hair and denim in the Dawes crowd. Some of the criticism I have read about Dawes' musical style centers on their seemingly recycled 1970's, Jackson Brown era sound. This trait is precisely why many gray hairs were out in force.  It's a new twist on a familiar sound.  Given that  many of the Dawes fans at First Avenue that night were over 40, there really were no outrageously inebriated fans milling about (Drunk-o-Meter rating=1).  We all stood around drinking beer and behaving ourselves.  Whack ol' Ladies do like to sit down every once and a while and a good chair is hard to come by at most venues. We like our balconies and those with chairs are extra rare.  While waiting for the band to take the stage I was stretching my back  while leaning on the second floor railing. A kind First Ave employee mistook my stretching for feeling queasy and was a little worried I was going to hurl off the top balcony into the stairwell below.  I would have liked to have overheard that employee training session .."and keep your eyes open for patrons who lean over the railings..it could get messy."

   Although I never did barf in public when I was young enough for that tendency, I did help a few friends who weren't so lucky.  The barf test is a sign of true friendship.  I was unwillingly dragged along to an REO Speedwagon concert with my best friend Marilyn because her boyfriend bought a bunch of tickets and she begged me not to abandon her. Although I don't remember how she got drunk, I was definitely the one sitting next to her in the car on the way home. Not only did I have to get her quietly into her house, I somehow needed to clean myself off before my parents  caught a whiff of me when I got home.  Marilyn died from cancer 2 years ago and this is one of the many memories I cherish of her- barf and all.

   

"Hope I Die Before I Get Old!"

      I imagine that strangers harass Roger Daltry on a daily basis with this line and it must take a bit of restraint on his part not to haul out and punch someone.  He was in town recently singing the rock opera "Tommy" and it got me to thinking about when rock musicians make that final decision to stop touring. I didn't have a driving desire to see Roger  this time although I remember a very fine Clash/Who concert in Philadelphia in the early 80's when I thought the Who were ready to retire and it was going to be my last chance to see these rock legends. I guess I was wrong about it being their last concert but after watching their Super Bowl performance a couple of years ago, I think I made the right decision to stop at the 80's. I did get a chance to see Wanda Jackson recently when she opened for Adele, though. Wanda is older than Roger and even though she admitted to having a "senior moment" when she couldn't remember what song she was about to sing, she was strutting around like  it was 1957 or something. Maybe recording a song with Jack White and touring with Adele has kept her feeling spry. Miss Wanda was inspirational.
     X was coming to town this month and I was really conflicted about going to see them. They are my absolute favorite punk band from the 80's and I couldn't decide whether to keep them in a time capsule in my mind or hear them again. The geezer 60's rocker image has been around awhile but I just wasn't sure how aging punk rockers held up. The list of aging musicians is long, but I hadn't revisited any that I had seen in the 80's yet. X was the first. I almost didn't go at all because none of my whack ol' lady friends liked X as much as I had. 2 hours before the doors opened my not so old but possibly slightly whack friend Michelle decided she could leave her 4 kids at home with her husband and venture out. 

   Instead of an opening band, they started the night with a documentary film about X. Now I am not sure that a music venue with a limited number of chairs is the best place to show a movie to a bunch of 40-ish year olds but the diehard fans stood the whole time. We needed to sit for a spell and watched half of the movie from the balcony (a favorite spot for WOL). The ratio of youngins' to WOL was the inverse of Soundset and except for the 40-ish year old couple wildly making out at the bar, I would say we all acted our age. 

     The band took to the stage with little fanfare, said hello, told us all they were going to play the whole "Los Angeles" album from start to finish and jumped right in. Billy Zoom used all the same moves he had 29 year ago. He stood perfectly still with a glazed look on his face and smiled. That was his schtick and he was sticking to it. When they launched into "Nausea" I wasn't sure how that song was going to hold up..."Today you're gonna be sick so sick. You'll prop your forehead on the sink. Say oh Christ oh Jesus  Christ. My head's gonna break like a bank." Instead of singing the "Christ oh Jesus Christ,"part Exene sang "Oh no, Oh no, Oh no" and it just didn't pack the same wallop. 
  We stayed until the last encore, Billy Zoom took some photos of the audience and we all went home. I don't know what I expected- more flailing less contentment?  There were a few people getting tossed around in a makeshift mosh pit and one angry, drunk dude who kept hitting on all the women in the front row and then flipping them off after they moved away from him. 
  "This must be the new world.."

Summer Music Festivals

    Summer is slipping away and the Whack ol Ladies will try to squeeze in one more show before all the music has to move indoors. Outdoor concerts can be a big, fun party especially if there is a solid line up of WOL favorites.   Now Woodstock is the gold standard of outdoor music festivals but even this Whack ol Lady is too young to have hung out at Yasgur's farm with Jimi Hendrix and a whole lot of mud.

   The Whack ol Ladies began the summer music festival season at  Soundset - the hip hop/rap extravaganza in late May. The ratio of youngsters to WOL was so much that we were simply invisible. Our invisibility may have been enhanced by their glassy eyed inebriation. However-if there had been a "name that tune" contest while the DJ's did their  music sampling we would have crushed our younger opponents since most of the music sampled was from before all them were born.

    Rock The Garden had a much better youngster to WOL ratio. It may have been influenced by the fact that the tickets sold out to public radio and Walker Museum members first. The rainy weather may have helped to keep the weak ones away. There was a little bit of mud but no one was ripping of their clothes and rolling around in it. Everyone was having a good time, getting a little wet, drinking a few beers and visiting.  In the past I plunked my blanket down and hung out with my friends. This year since the ground was so wet, I decided to take it all in from the stage area.It was like one big backyard party with thousands of your closet buddies. 

     Although most of the shows at the Minnesota Zoo seemed to target older and less whack musical tastes (The Monkees, Dave Mason), we did get out to see hometown favorites Jeremy Messersmith and Rogue Valley.  The snow monkeys were happy to have a few late night visitors and we all could have listened to the bands play on into the night. I have seen Jeremy Messersmith sing 3 times this year and by far the zoo concert was the most enjoyable by WOL standards: no drunken hecklers, lots of fans and a diversity of ages. Rupert the random dancing man helped to get even the stiffest grandpa to smile.

   I am not sure that the Whack ol Ladies want to venture out to Bonnaroo or Coachella in the near future but the line ups are always so tempting. We may have to think about packing a tent for next year.

Peace man.

The Drunk-O-Meter Rating System

Tonight after an annoying drunk almost ruined a perfectly lovely concert by Fleet Foxes, I've decided to start a "drunk-o-meter" rating system for the concerts attended by the Whack ol' Ladies.  The drunkenness of other concert goers has been a recurring theme for the Whack ol' Ladies. We don't go out very often and when we do, we would much rather listen to the musicians than some drunken smart ass shouting one liners at the band. I'm not really sure what makes someone feel that an entire concert hall wants to hear his insights, but an abundance of alcohol seems to always be a contributing factor. I have thought of suggesting to the music venues that there should be some sort of "fan test" before people are allowed in- "can you sing more than one song by the artist or are you only here only to drink the beer?"
     In the WOL drunk-o-meter rating system, a 1 is a concert that is enjoyable and not affected by the intoxication of others. A concert with a 5 rating is completely ruined by the drunks. 
Fleet Foxes is at 4, since the shouting drunks really bummed out the band and they didn't really feel like talking for awhile. I thought at one point they were just going to walk off stage. Whack ol' Ladies get very motherly at these moments and want to march right over to the offending jerks and give them a piece of their minds.

A brief drunk-o-meter rating for the last year:

Spoon-2 (annoying guy moved on)

Cloud Cult,Mason Jennings, Peter Wolf Crier-3 (barfing brothers)

Cloud Cult at First Avenue-1 (CD release party brought out the fans)

Andrew Bird-1 (maybe the violin kept the drunks away)

Dessa-1 (MPR was filming)

Kings Go Forth-2 (beer dropped on my feet)

Les Nubiens-1(everyone having fun)

Pert Near Sandstone-2 (harmless guys in baseball hats)

Raphael Saadiq-2 (dancing drunken guy waving arms and blocking view)

Soundset-5 (maybe I won't go next year-plethora of the impaired)

Rock the Garden-1 ( Tickets sold out to MPR and Walker Art Center members first- and it was raining)
Jeremey Messersmith at the Varsity -5 (drunken hecklers galore)
Jeremey Messersmith, Chan Polling etc at the Fitzgerald-1 (MPR event)

School of Rock

    The Whack ol Ladies have been busy being moms and trying to get out to shows whenever possible. Blogging about all that has fallen by the wayside of late but since I have a few minutes to myself with no one breathing down my neck begging to use the computer I'll take a little time to ruminate.
    It's no secret that I like to talk about music but I have absolutely no background in music theory or  even the history of music. It's just  a nerdy fascination akin to collecting stamps . I don't pretend to know anything about the technical aspects of music making, either - I just know what I like to listen to.
      My oldest daughter and I share a very similar taste in music and it has been fun to watch her musical interests evolve over time.  I didn't want to be didactic and only play classical music  because I thought it would increase her brain capacity.  When she was fussy,  we listened to Arlo Guthrie, Jonathan Richman, Bob Dylan, The Beatles or Simon and Garfunkel.  All of my old Jonathan Richman records made perfect kid music. All 3 of my kids think that every child knows the words to "Dodge Vegematic" and "Abominable Snowman in the Market." In the early days of musical child rearing I only refused to listen to or buy any of the "Wee Sing"  or "Barney" recordings. As a matter of fact we were a Barney -free household even though all the other moms kept telling me how their children were mesmerized by the purple fellow. I just couldn't go there. We danced around to David Bowie instead.
     As my oldest daughter grew, she began to have an opinion about what she wanted to hear. If there was a long car ride in our future, we could travel a long way with recordings from old Disney movies or Danny Kaye's "Hans Christian Anderson." After I got tired of Disney we moved into the recordings from kid friendly Broadway tunes.

 

      I would like to take this opportunity to thank Baz Luhrmann for his vision in the movie, Moulin Rouge. That movie helped introduce another generation to David Bowie and Elton John.  My girls were surprised to find out that most of the songs in the movie were actually "old!" I guess the Shrek movies and Gossip Girl have helped to educate another generation in the oldies from the 1980's too.
    Now my big girl and I go out to hear music together and talk all nerdy about it.