Present Joys

Monday night (3 feb 2014), I saw the Hold Steady play a show at A&R Music Bar. It was a very wild, loud, energetic show—just exactly what I expected. Craig Finn went guitar-less most of the evening (“I made a new year’s resolution to stop fake-playing-guitar so much”) and repeatedly attempted to imitate Paul Stanley’s stage banter. There were many good songs. I was particularly happy to hear Rock Problems and Stuck Between Stations. Besides the great music, I had a chance to meet up with Blair, the dude who ridiculed me online a few years ago and since then has become a good internet friend, as well as a bunch of other random Columbus music-scene folks. Tons of fun.

I saw Dan Bejar play a solo Destroyer show at the Wexner Center last thursday night (21 nov 2013). It was austere: one guitar, hardly any banter. Presumably because of this, he only played two songs from Kaputt. Most of the set was old songs I wasn’t familiar with. But it was a trip to see Bejar in real life—he is such a weird, intriguing dude. It was a nice musical diversion from life’s present insanity.

I had the pleasure of seeing Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas play a show this afternoon (10 nov 2013) at Via Vecchia Winery in the brewery district, put on by City Music. I saw these two february 2012 in the same venue and they were great then; the show today was—dare I say—even better. I was once again struck by the freshness and vibrancy of this music. They played a bunch of new tunes from their forthcoming album and it was so exciting to hear new, great things in the Scottish folk idiom presented so fantastically. I wouldn’t complain if these two came to Columbus once a month.

Last night (1 nov 2013) at the A&R Music Bar, I saw John Vanderslice play a great show. Right now he’s just touring with Jason Slota, who plays drums and Moog, often simultaneously. The show consisted of a few songs from Dagger Beach and Pixel Revolt, lots of songs from Emerald City, a few Bowie covers, and lots of other good stuff mixed in. The best parts: “Kookaburra”, where JV switched from acoustic to electric guitar halfway through in order to play a rockin’ solo; also “Underneath the Leaves”, a personal favorite, complete with pedal-fired synth sample!

Last night (19 oct 2013), my brother and I went to see Neko Case at the Newport Music Hall. Despite it being game day, we managed to get there with plenty of time to spare and snag front row, leaning-on-the-security-barrier spots. Observations:

• Neko is really scary (in a friendly, cool, way, but still scary). I took this photo at the very beginning of the show, just seconds before she called everyone out for having their phones out. Phew.
• She had a super-cool roadie (stage manager?) with her who’d tune all her instruments during the show and have them ready at the precise moment. He was wearing a three-piece suit and looked like an interesting guy.
• Speaking of guitars: those funky tenor guitars are so cool to see in real life. They are beautiful.
• Kelly Hogan is a national treasure and I want her to sing on all musical things I produce. The whole band was great, really; I was really glad to see Eric Bachmann too! And the dude playing bass was rock’n’rolling all the time.
• It was a fun crowd! I spotted lots of interesting people I didn’t expect to see. I love you, Columbus. Thanks for being here, Neko.