Rock and Roll Week

Not my normal speed, but we caught 4 nights of live music shows last week. Which adds up to awesome.

Night 1

Yo La Tengo 30th Anniversary show at Town Hall.  Antietam opened.  Here they are joined by many of the people they've worked and played with over the years.  Superfab.

Night 2

Second night of Yo La Tengo's anniversary residency.  Here are the Feelies in their opening set.  They all joined YLT as well at various times throughout the evening.  Megafab.

Oh, and these nights gave Cory a good chance to expand her collection of Yo La Tengo and Feelies setlists.  They're filling up the better part of the hearth at this point...

Night 3

Lucius, doing their New York homecoming at Terminal 5.  Not my favorite venue, but one of my current favorite acts.  They came out into the crowd for the encore, as is their wont.

Night 4

Beep opened the show at Music Hall of Williamsburg - they were great, but I didn't get any photos

Cibo Matto - Amazing.

Tune-Yards - Incredible.

So - now we're kind of in recovery mode.  Kind of.  I had a shoot on Sunday (tucked in between Lucius and Tune-Yards, if you're keeping score) and of course we've both been working regular hours this whole while.  Plans every night this week (but mainly mellower plans - that's what makes it recovery mode, I guess) and both days this weekend too.  

Like the man said, you'll sleep when you're dead.

Yo La Town Hall, or, Big Week, part three

Part three would properly be about the Steppenwolf production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? we saw that Friday.  All I'm going to say about that right now is that it was brilliant, and quite a contrast to any Valentiny sentiment that lingered from the previous evening.

But this post is about the Yo La Tengo concert at Town Hall that Saturday.

They were incredible, of course.  They did kind of a Rust Never Sleeps-type show, with a mostly acoustic Side A set, and a louder electric Side B set [including two versions of Ohm, which continues to reveal its versatility layer by layer - on Fade, on the Fallon show, at their bookstore appearance].  Both were fantastic.  Love the new record, loved the show, love these guys and looking forward to seeing them again at Solid Sound in June.

Sadly, that Jimmy Fallon link no longer takes you to an active video of their performance.  So to make up for that, here are two videos YLT have graciously made available on the internets.

First, Ohm:

And this one, for I'll be Around has to be one of my favorite viddies out there right now.

Holiday Festivities

Are you rockin' the Holiday action? I know you are.

Quick rundown of some of what's been going on:

Hanukkah Nights 2 and 7 were spent with Yo La Tengo - great shows, natch. Please send lots of good healing mojo to Ira the K.

Christmas Eve in Dumont with Cory cooking and eating the Feast of the Seven Fishes with Cory's Italian Family. All went well in spite of a small, shall we say, disagreement with a can opener.

Christmas morning I woke up way too early and couldn't fall back asleep for a long time, so I watched the last hour and a half of Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Of course I did.

Later on, after waking up for real and having some steak and eggs (for some reason, I was craving a cowboy's breakfast) I called the folks and the grandfolks and then it was out to Paramus for Christmas presents and dinner with Cory's Extended Italian Family. Jollity ensued.

Boxing Day was chill; bit of running around looking for a place serving brunch food in the 'boken on a day that wasn't technically a weekend day but sure felt like one. Wound up at the diner. Later on, caught War Horse at the cinema up the street from BoHome before going to Maxwell's for dinner and the show.

And now it's back to work. I'll leave you with this holiday message from the world of Pop.



If my eyes and the internets don't deceive me, this is a poster from 1972 wishing "Season's Greetings from Ardent Records" We can only hope it's the real thing.

Yo La Awesome

Yo La Tengo finally took the stage in a blaze of holiday fury. Well, ok, it was more of a good natured shuffle, including commentary on the Menorah (sitting proudly on the piano) which had the wrong candle lit the night before, according to them. Then as they picked up instruments there was a quip that non-earplug portion of the evening had about 3 minutes to go. Which minutes were spent on a loverly version of The Weakest Part, and then, true to their word they launched loudly into a fiery fast version of Big Day Coming.





That photo looks like total crap, but I actually love it because it represents how impossible it was to capture Ira in action on keys, vocals and maraccas on that song. Total action, as Steve would say.


The show was wholly rocking throughout - vintage YLT, with a Velvet Underground cover (Guess I'm Falling in Love), cashmere "hits" (does Yo La Tengo have "hits"? Anyway, they did Autumn Sweater), relative rarities old (Five Cornered Drone) and new (Watch Out for me Ronnie), and collaborations with their guests.

Gotta love that pink sparkly 12-string, right??

They brought it all home with an orgasmic Story of Yo La Tengo and then brought Stephin back up to do some Irving Berlin (Be Careful, It's My Heart - thank you Yo La Blog)

Then came Super Secret Guest #3: Doug Gillard, of the later years of Death of Samantha and some of the highest peak moments of Guided by Voices. They started with George Gershwin's Foggy Day in London Town - this being Hanukkah, a premium was placed on the Jewish American Songbook, to universal acclaim (the universe for the purposes of this discussion consisting of the collected contents of Maxwell's)



The encore set was low-key amazing - more covers, natch. Culminated in "Next Big Thing" which was a perfect lead in for the Super Secretest Guest of them all...

...Ira's mom, who sang "My Little Corner of the World" Fun was had, tears of joy were shed. My understanding is that she comes to sing this at one show every year, but I've never had the fortune to be there before.

Did someone say Hanukkah Miracle? Remember, we were this close to missing not only this show, but the whole series of benefits at Maxwell's (this is a good place to mention that the worthwhile causes for this night's show were Burma Border Projects, and Burmese Refugee Project) Maybe I need to bring a representative of the 12 Tribes to all their shows...

A Hanukkah Miracle!

SO - it won't come as a surprise to most of you that I can be, well, kind of dumb sometimes. That came up recently as I made plans to take Cory to the Big Opening Night of Hanukkah concert by one of my fave bands, Hoboken's own Yo La Tengo (I've written about these shows before. In fact, it occurs to me that word for word, this may well be every bit as much a Yo La Tengo blog as a Dylan blog). Rather, I thought I'd made plans to see the show on the first night of Hanukkah - what I'd actually done was buy tickets for the 3rd night of Hanukkah, and then somehow convince my reliably unreliable memory otherwise to the extent that I made other, unchangeable plans for that same night.

D'oh! YLT would have to go...

Or would they? Out of nowhere, Cory came up with a pair of tickets for the 2nd night of the Legendary Yo La Tengo Hanukkah Benefit Shows at Maxwells, 2008 Version. (well, it seemed like it was out of nowhere... On the other hand, Cory is one of the Chosen People. Coincidence? You tell me.)

So we were off to Maxwell's for what promised to be a night of good rockin'.

And, ladies and gentlemen, that's what we got, with a lot more thrown in for good measure.

The opening band was The Magnetic Fields, rock artistes extraordinaire. Literate, textured, adventurous, funny, sexy, savvy, hip: what more do you want from four people wielding a guitar, a piano (a real piano, people!) a cello and a bouzouki. Think Leonard Cohen meets the Moldy Peaches, but better.



Ok, it's true. These photos were taken with my cell phone. SO - they kind of suck. But I didn't want to be lugging a camera around for this: can you blame me?

Anyway, they were a great way to open the evening. Universal rejoicing.

Next was the comedy portion of the evening, brought to us by everyone's favorite PC, Johnathan Hodgman.

Yes, that's a martini in his hand, and I think it's only fair. He was, after all, the evening's resident Lapsed Catholic, and I daresay he needed some fortification. Later on, he rocked the ukelele for the sultry Santa Baby. This after a diatribe on the tawdry sexuality that you perhaps didn't realize lurked within Christmas Carols. Beyond I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, beyond Earth Kitt growling Santa Baby, beyond Christmas is Coming (the goose is getting fat), beyond the Valley of the Dolls, there's the inescapable nastiness of When Santa Got Stuck Up the Chimney.
Or at least that's Johnathan's story, and he's sticking to it.

That's it for the opening act. The main event comes later.

President Yo La Tengo

Ok, without wanting to go too deep into nose-rubbing territory, I'd like to rewrite for your amusement a missive I sent some friends up in Boston, regarding one of the best shows I've seen in a long time, courtesy of Hoboken's own...

First of all, let me just say that when I offer you guys tickets to a yo show in the 'boken, don't say no. Especially if it's one of the Hanukkah shows! Unless your own band is booked to play the Garden, you are performing on Broadway, or you're getting married that night, change what plans you have and get your ass over to Jersey. It is so worth it I can barely put it into words...

The opening band on Saturday, Dew Claw, was maybe a little on the 'eh' side, but it was still pretty neat that they featured the original YLT bass player, and also the guy who currently does many of the graphics for Tengo's t-shirts and such. And their own shirts-for-sale were designed by that guy's 9-year old daughter. Which is nice. Plus, they wore flannel pyjamas on stage.

Sarah Vowell was the evening's comedy act, and she was superfun indeed; I have to say, though, she was upstaged by Amy Poehler, who came on in the guise of Ira's Aunt Judith to tell us all about the Kabbalah in the light of a broken Menorah.

The set was amazing. Started in mellow, moody mode. I mean, very very good, just chill. Until... they did 'Mr. Tough', which not only completely rocked, but kick-started the rest of the set, which from then on was a non-stop mess-you-up powerhouse. Included a completely incendiary 'Big Day Coming,' (the raucus 'reprise' vesion, of course) and an orgasmic 'Story of Yo La Tengo.'

And then for the encore, out came Alex Chilton. Yup. Among other songs, they did: Hey! Little Child, the Modern Lovers' Government Center, Velvet Underground's Femme Fatale. I am not even kidding.

This was the kind of show that reminds you why you like music.

And I haven't even mentioned last night's show yet... :-)

Hopefully I can get some photos of that gig from Sherin for the next entry. Whew. My ears are ringing in all the right ways.

Music is the best...

...which we've known all along, and which scarcely needs 'proving'.


Nonetheless, I came across a mountain of new evidence to that effect over the last few days.


On Thursday (that day I shut down for a while, but then revived) we did make it to the M.I.A. show at Terminal 5. I refer you to Sherin's Walkalong entry of 10/19 for a good reaction to the event.


Friday was one of the final performances of Till the Break of Dawn, which had its moments. It was part of the Hip Hop Theater Festival, and as such it perhaps led me to expect more music in general. I mean music in performance, not music being talked about. Still, the sound design was one of the show's singular strengths, and the music we did get worked very well.


Then on Saturday, with my friend Frank, who is always a phenomenal resource for music and musical knowledge, I saw Yo La Tengo at the Colony Cafe in Woodstock. Now, it's far from news that Yo La Tengo is one of the bands that has meant the most to me in the last several years, that they are among Hoboken's proudest achievements and that they have the ability to create some of the best music going. But this show outshone even their high standard. It was part of their "Freewheeling Yo La Tengo" tour-let, and it happened at the music capital of hippie nation (yes, yes, I know that the famous festival actually took place in Bethel, and so do the Woodstockians - don't crunch their buzz).

Now I hesitate to admit this, but not only had I not been to the Colony, I had never been to Woodstock before. It's a groovy little town, to be sure. And Frank and I had a great time talking to a local retiree and watching the Red Sox get a good jump on game 6 over dinner at a bar in town. But all that pales beside the glow of the Yo on this particular evening. The Colony is a tiny club/coffee house, and we had 'reserved' seats, which weren't reserved in the proper sense - reserved seats just meant that we got to grab a couple of the maybe 50 chairs that were unfolded on the floor in front of the stage. One of the sometimes annoying but usually charming things about going to events with Frank is that he always insists on being early; in this case that meant we were in the second row.




One of the most intimate and informal shows I've ever been to, it was an unbelievable treat with a band this good. Basically what they did was open with a couple songs from their 'new' album, I am not Afraid of You and I will Beat Your Ass, which is actually more than a year old, and one from ...and then nothing turned itself inside out, and then opened the floor for discussion. People asked questions, made requests and reveled in what they came up with. Their songs, cover songs, stories, jams, and they were standing about 10 feet away. They had super simple instrumentation (James on bass, Georgia's drum 'kit' had a snare, a tom and one cymbal, and Ira was playing a Gibson accoustic with a pickup gaff-taped over the hole in front) but they were still able to mix up the mellow accoustic sound (the sound was great!) with some really rockin' moments. Loved it!

Thank God for music.

And if you're wondering, both Ira and James' favorite Feelies song is 'Raised Eyebrows" :-)

Stay tuned for their Chanukkah shows at Maxwell's...