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Thursday, August 11, 2011

Sidewalk Re-Opens

After a long, long Sidewalk-less summer, that old antifolk birthplace(?)/hub/hangout finally re-opened. Last night's packed show marked its grand re-opening after some serious renovations to the cafe and bar.

The bar now resembles more of its swanky East Village neighbors and the inside of the music room has lost all of the broken guitars, drums, and other musical artifacts that had been hanging on the walls. The stage lighting, sound system, and back line also underwent major upgrading. However, what stayed the same was the quality of the performances. Here are a few highlights from last night's performances:

1. Ben Krieger / Crabs on Banjo - Open mic host and last night's MC, started the night off by improvising a song about "refurbished barn wood" (an audience suggestion from somewhere in the back of the house) with piano accompaniment.

2. Howard Hughes - Filling in for Major Matt Mason and originally from France, this fragile-voiced, Andre Herman Dune sound-alike sang an acoustic pop song that provocatively began with the lyrics "my father shot himself" and, well, was not as depressing and dark as the lyric would suggest. Au contraire.


3. Phoebe Kreutz - A master of acoustic songs full of quirk and hooks, Phoebe somehow made a song about Noah's Ark catchy and un-preachy.


4. Adam Green - Making a surprise, unscheduled appearance, this former Moldy Peach and Sidewalk Cafe legend really needs no introduction or further hyping. He's probably famous enough already.

4b. Adam Green - "Stadium Soul" (Video)


5. Bible Gun - When this New-Jersey-based piano and sax duo hit the stage with their slightly atonal barrage of speed-pop, you can't help but scratch your head and say, "I don't know what that was, but it was awesome." Don't forget to check out the Bible Gun bandcamp.

5b. Bible Gun - ????? (Video)


6. Debe Dalton - Another Sidewalk Cafe legend, Debe began her set with a touching song about her recovery from a recent icy-sidewalk slipping accident and then closed it with a fine cover of a classic (anti?)folk song. There's a reason she has her own plaque now:

(photo hijacked from Ben Krieger's facebook)

6b. Debe Dalton - "Pack Up Your Sorrows" (Richard & Mimi Farina Cover) (Video)



7. Brook Pridemore - This Sidewalk regular's brand of "trash folk" just gets better every time I see him. His cover of Adam Green's "Bluebirds" classic(?) song in the man's presence was followed by someone shouting "suck-up" shout from the audience, but he more than made up for it with an awesome performance of one of his most anthemic originals with piano accompaniment.

7b. Brook Pridemore - "Bluebirds" (Adam Green Cover) (Video)


7c. Brook Pridemore - "I'll Be Here All Night" (Video)


Alas, since it was a weeknight and I had to go shortly after Pridemore's set, I missed the awesomeness that came later. If you have any videos or stories from what came later, please send them over to:

plasticimpossible (at) gmail (dot) com

Monday, July 25, 2011

2 Shows, 1 Post: Real Estate, The Feelies, Julian Lynch & Dent May

So in the past few days, Real Estate, The Feelies, Julian Lynch and Dent May played some awesome shows around Brooklyn. Although I attended both shows of which they were all a part, I can only offer partial coverage of each show due to slacking on my part--and insufficient camera battery-life.

Consequently, I am now combining two shows into this one, normal-sized post. In my own warped blog-logic, two partially covered shows can combine into a single, normal-sized post equivalent to one fully-covered show. Whether or not my blog-logic survives scrutiny (it may not), here goes:

Show #1 Dent May, Julian Lynch, and Alex Bleeker - July 21, 2011 @ Glasslands Gallery

With what seem like loose associations with the New Jersey beach-indie scene, Dent May played a ukulele-less show with Real Estate's current bassist, Alex Bleeker, and ethnomusicologist-and-indie-star, Julian Lynch. As if to only tighten that loose association, all the night's bands used a kick drum with "Real Estate" on the front drumhead (could this instrument possibly be the property of the New Jersey band??? ...or is it just part of Glasslands' backline??? The world may never know.)

Sadly, I failed to record any video of Alex Bleeker's set, but here's what I did record of Dent May and Julian Lynch's sets:














Show #2 - The Feelies, Real Estate, and Times New Viking - July 23, 2011 @ Prospect Park Bandshell

After spending half the day at Far Rockaway Beach this past Saturday, I made it to the Prospect Park Bandshell just in time for Real Estate's "Beach Comber," the last song of their set:




While Real Estate's set was pleasant, I couldn't wait for them to finish. Frankly, I was there to see the 1980s post-punk(?) legends, The Feelies, for the first time. With a nice balance of songs drawing equally from Crazy Rhythms and Time for a Witness with some unexpected covers added in, their set did not disappoint. Their flawless musicianship also brought the sound from the records to life, while seamlessly improvising and extending the songs into awesome new shapes. With a little video-shooting help from fellow blogger, Maria, here are some videos from the show:










In Conclusion

Wow.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Bill Callahan @ Bowery Ballroom

Last night, Bill Callahan and Ed Askew played to a packed house at their sold-out, Bowery Ballroom show.

Ed Askew started things off with a set of songs sung with a raspy-yet-gentle voice over keyboard accompaniment.


Here's a song about a "Brown-Eyed Boy:"





Bill Callahan and his two bandmates took to the stage shortly afterwards.


They went on to play a set drawing heavily from Callahan's most recent post-Smog releases, Apocalypse and Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle album. For example, they played "Too Many Birds" from the latter album:





However, the set also included many golden-oldies from classic Smog albums such as Supper and A River Ain't Too Much Love.




And he ultimately closed the set with another Smog classic: