Category Archives: Concerts

Ethel Fair Launches Lincoln Center Out Of Doors

Posted on July 28, 2010 | 3 comments

Crews were making the final preparations to Damrosh Park on Tuesday night for Wednesday's premiere of the 2010 edition of Lincoln Center Out Of Doors. (Copyright 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

The fabulous Lincoln Center Out of Doors festival starts Wednesday night with a bit of Civil Rights Movement street theater at 6:30 at Barclays Capital Grove (the sponsored name for the plaza between Lincoln Center Theater and Avery Fisher Hall and moves into full-bore music mode at 7:30 in Damrosch Park with Ethel Fair: The Songwriters.

Ethel is Ralph Farris (viola), Mary Rowell (violin), Dorothy Lawson (cello) and Cornelius Dufallo (violin).

Ethel is a string quartet like no other string quartet you’ve seen or heard. These four skilled players, who are quite active together and separately on the international contemporary music scene, have been working in collaborative mode over the past several years. Their latest project, which has its world premiere at the Lincoln Center Out of Doors festival,  features the quartet yoked with songwriters who are quite well known on their own. Pop tunesmith Adam Schlesinger (a member of pop bands Fountains of Wayne and Ivy and composer of Broadway’s “Cry Baby”), assisted by Mike Viola (Candy Butchers), has created a work with Ethel. Other collaborators include folk-blues dynamo Dayna Kurtz, punk-New Wave pioneer Tom Verlaine (Television) and folky Argentine singer-songwriter Juana Molina.

Ethel always pushes boundaries with its work. This collaborative effort appears to reach for a broader, more mainstream appeal than some of the band’s more left-of-center efforts, such as its ongoing TruckStop project, which takes the band on the road to work with and celebrate indigenous cultures. But it’s certain to provide a richly entertaining evening.

No Snakes In This Grass is the title of the theater piece, written by James Magnuson and directed by Mical Whitaker, that kicks off the evening. It’s a comedy set in the Garden of Eden that deals issues of race and the Fall.

This is just the first night of a jam-packed schedule of fabulous free music and performance art that runs through Aug. 15. For the full Lincoln Center Out of Doors schedule, read the press release after the jump. Continue reading →

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Posted in Blues, Classical, Concerts, Contemporary, Contemporary Classical, Country, Dance, Folk, Free, History, Jazz, Music, News, Pop and Rock, Punk, Theater

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Music at the museum: Talujon Percussion Quartet performs at the Noguchi on Sunday

Posted on July 9, 2010 | Leave a comment

Talujon Percussion Quartet at the World Financial Center Winter Garden.

Bang on a Can/Cantaloupe Music and the Noguchi Museum are hosting Second Sundays, an awesome concert series on the second Sunday of each month through September. Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? missed the inaugural gig, a performance by French avant-pop composer and bassist Florent Ghys — catching him instead at the Bang on a Can Marathon later in the month.

The series continues this Sunday, July 11, with a set by the amazing Talujon Percussion Quartet. To get a good sense of this group, check out the sound samples posted here.

Master clarinetist Evan Ziporyn will take the garden stage in August, while one-bit electronics composer Tristan Perich closes the series in September.

Shows are at 3 p.m. on the second Sunday of the month in the garden of the Noguchi at 9-01 33rd Road (at Vernon Boulevard), Long Island City. It’s the former workshop of Japanese-American sculptor and visionary Isamu Noguchi that is now preserves his artistic legacy. The concert is included with museum admission, which is $10 for adults.

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Quest for the grail: Lincoln Center Out of Doors version of A Crimson Grail for 200 electric guitars to be released on Nonesuch

Posted on July 6, 2010 | Leave a comment

It’s been a long time coming. First it was rained out in 2008. Finally, after a great deal of additional planning and with the blessing of the weatherman, Ronen Givony of Wordless Music and Bill Bragin, director of public programming at Lincoln Center, managed to stage the NYC version of Rhys Chatham‘s A Crimson Grail for 200 Electric Guitars (Outdoor Version) at Lincoln Center Out of Doors last season. (Loyal Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? readers will remember our coverage.)

Composer Rhys Chatham conducts his A Crimson Grail at Lincoln Center Out of Doors in 2009. (Copyright 2009, Steven P. Marsh)

On Sept. 14, a recording of that monumental performance is being released by Nonesuch. What a long, strange trip it’s been.

The magnificent, drone-based piece was mind-blowing in performance. Damrosch Park seemed ready to levitate from the amazing sonic pressure from the volunteer guitarists (plus 16 bassists and the sound of one hi-hat cymbal keeping the beat). I’ve heard the recording of the indoor Paris version of the piece, and while it’s amazing, it doesn’t quite do justice to the work. But I have high hopes that Nonesuch’s effort will top that.

Here’s the press release:

Nonesuch Records releases A Crimson Grail—Rhys Chatham’s work for large electric guitar orchestra—on September 14, 2010. Written in 2005 as a commission for the city of Paris, A Crimson Grail premiered at the basilica of Sacré-Coeur. It was created to work with the specific architecture of the basilica, making use of its natural 15-second reverberation time. The musicians surrounded the audience, creating an antiphonal effect with the sound moving around the space from area to area. Scored for as many as four hundred guitarists, an orchestra of approximately 125 musicians performed the premiere, to great acclaim.

The Dallas Observer said of a recording of that concert, “Beautifully intricate and harmonically dense, A Crimson Grail is nearly ambient in tone while pursuing a beauty that never seems beyond its scope.” When Lincoln Center Out of Doors and Wordless Music invited Chatham to mount A Crimson Grail in New York at the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival, the composition had to be completely reworked for the acoustics of an exterior, non-reverberant setting. The Nonesuch recording captures the subsequent 2009 performance, in Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park, with 200 electric guitars, 16 electric basses, 5 conductors, and percussion.

Rhys Chatham is a composer, guitarist, and trumpet player from Manhattan, currently living in Paris. He was the founder of the music program at The Kitchen in downtown Manhattan in 1971 and was its music director between 1971–73 and 1977–80. While at The Kitchen he was responsible for programming more than 250 concerts of living composers including the NEW MUSIC / NEW YORK Festival, which was the prototype upon which the NEW MUSIC AMERICA Festival was later based. Chatham studied under, was influenced by, or has collaborated with Maryanne Amacher, Don Cherry, Tony Conrad, Jon Hassell, Charlemagne Palestine, Eliane Radigue, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Morton Subotnick, Serge Tcherepnin, and La Monte Young, among many others.

Click through to the jump for Givoney’s personal account of the journey from an idea in 2007 to a reality n 2009.

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Posted in Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Music, News, Recordings

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Beirut and WOOM play The Music Hall of Williamsburg

Posted on July 6, 2010 | 1 comment

With his rotary valve flugelhorn (no, it's not a trumpet!) slung jauntily over his shoulder, Beirut frontman Zach Condon is a devil-may-care showman. (Photos copyright 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

If you felt old at last night’s Beirut show at The Music Hall of Williamsburg, there was a reason. Elise, a fan in the crowd at my side pointed this out, saying that she felt like the oldest person in the room, even though she appeared barely older than the band’s 24-year-old frontman Zach Condon.

The boys of Beirut.

The explanation is simple: The first night of the two-night, sold-out stand at Beirut’s home venue was essentially designated youth night. Beirut’s record label, BaDaBing, arranged for Monday night’s show as an 18-and-older gig and a block of tickets was sold at the box office only for the bargain price of $9.99 to give young fans a chance to see what one critic has dubbed “the best indie rock band of the 19th century.”

BaDaBing head Ben Goldberg, explains:

Hey everyone, the first show on July 5th is an 18+ show, the second is 21+. We wanted to make sure all those of you without credit cards of your own or superspeed internet connections are able to potentially get tickets, hence why the $9.99 is only available at the box office and won’t carry any handling fees.

Looking forward to seeing all you pale skins’ post-Independence day sunburns!

–ba da ben

Last night’s show was simply amazing. Beirut played a solid 90-minute set, kicking things off with “Elephant Gun” and romping through a sing-along set of all the band’s best-loved songs. It seemed far too short, but satisfying all the same. (And selling out @MusicHallofWB for two nights in a row seems like quite an accomplishment for a band that hasn’t released a proper album since 2007 and probably won’t have the next one ready until Spring 2011!)

Zach exudes a charm and confidence that belies his age. He appears comfortable onstage and has the swagger of a latter-day Sinatra. He’s not so much electrifying as he is charming and seductive. His warm style and the band’s tightness won a lot of love from the audience.

If I had ever imagined that flugelhorn and trumpet would someday become this hip, I might have thought twice about giving up playing brass after high school. Zach and his bandmates are among a number of influential young musicians who have managed to make the rock world safe for old-school instruments — French horn, trumpet, flugelhorn, accordion, ukulele and trombone.

We didn’t shoot any video last night, but lots of other concertgoers had video cameras. Here’s one of “The Penalty” posted by a fan known on Twitter as @projectnrm. The sound quality doesn’t really do the performance justice, but no matter, the enthusiasm is there:

WOOM is always in motion. The band's scrappy, bare-knuckled sound is irresistible.

Openers WOOM, a silly but joyous husband-and-wife band, charmed the crowd with a nice set of DIY beats coupled with Sara Magenheimer‘s vocals and Eben Portnoy‘s scratchy guitar riffs.

In addition to their usual repertoire, they debuted their version of Elizabeth Cotten‘s folk tune “Freight Train” last night. Though it had some rough edges, it was an intelligent and entertaining deconstruction of a song that’s been covered by many artists over the years, including Joan Baez, the Grateful Dead and even Laura Veirs, with the highly recognizable chorus: “When I die, Lord, bury me deep/Way down on old Chestnut Street/So I can hear old No. 9/As she goes rolling by.”

WOOM’s first full-length album, Muu’s Way, is out today on BaDaBing. It’s available from Amazon.com and other music outlets.

Click through to the jump for more photos from last night’s show. Continue reading →

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Posted in Concerts, Folk, Jazz, Music, News, Pop and Rock, World Music

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Catching up with The Feelies

Posted on July 5, 2010 | Leave a comment
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The Feelies

Since you landed on this post, you’ve probably already checked out the Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? post about The Feelies‘ Fourth of July weekend shows at Maxwell’s.

But if you’ve fallen behind on your Feelies news, here’s a collection of great items on the web about the shows, the band and the NEW ALBUM, for which the band has been writing new songs for a couple of years. Production is supposed to start any day. Read on for more.

Jim Testa‘s known The Feelies since Day One, so his voice in Jersey Beat is authoritative. Click here for his review and his insights about the new album.

Katie Demeski, daughter of Feelies drummer Stanely Demeski, blogs about a number of things, but mostly ruminates on her dad’s band. She posted some videos of her dad practicing here, gives her impressions of The Feelies demos here, talks about the in-the-works Feelies album here and weighs in on Feelies offshoot band Speed the Plough‘s new album here.

And The NJ Underground, a site aimed at younger music fans, did a good piece on The Feelies. Perhaps this accounted for the rather high percentage of young people in the audience at Maxwell’s last weekend.

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Tonight may be your last chance to see The Feelies this year!

Posted on July 4, 2010 | Leave a comment

Glenn Mercer and Bill Million of The Feelies at Maxwell's in Hoboken, N.J., on Saturday, July 3. (Photos copyright 2009, Steven P. Marsh)

As has been the habit of The Feelies since their comeback in 2008, they booked shows around a holiday — in this case the Fourth of July at the band’s musical home, Maxwell’s in Hoboken, N.J.

Glenn Mercer's singing: strong and clear

This year the band booked three shows starting Friday and ending tonight, on the holiday itself. If you love The Feelies and you haven’t seen them yet this year, now’s the time to book. Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? made it to last night’s gig, and we’re glad we did.  The set was much the same as always — The Feelies have typically played the same set, with slight variations, at every show since the reunion. This is a band that likes predictability. But frontman Glenn Mercer‘s singing seemed stronger, clearer and more confident than ever, and the overall sound was crisp and clear —something that has not been a hallmark of many recent shows.

One thing worth noting, though. The band did do quite a few new songs — some of which have been in rotation for awhile, with a couple of other, even newer tunes, one of which remains untitled. It was a real treat to hear new material. It sounds strong and very much in keeping with what fans know and love The Feelies for without sounding like retreads.

Bass player Brenda Sauter played and looked great, and wasn't wearing the wrist brace she usually sports.

We’re hearing that it’s not clear when the band will play again, since no other gigs are booked so far this year. And a member of the band’s team says the quintet is going into the studio after tonight work on a new album.

Doors for tonight’s show are at 8 o’clock at Maxwell’s, 1039 Washington St., Hoboken, N.J. Showtime is 9 p.m. There’s no opening band, so get there by 9 or you’ll miss out. Tickets are $25, and still available here.

If you drive, allow extra time. It’s the Fourth of July, and there will be crowds of people out to watch fireworks. It’ll be hellish getting around, and parking will be extremely difficult, especially if you usually count on parking along Sinatra Drive, which is closed for the weekend. Take public transportation if possible.

Click to the jump for more photos from last night’s show.

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Celebrate the 4th of July with Stew and Dan Zanes

Posted on July 3, 2010 | Leave a comment

Dan Zanes.

Stew, of The Negro Problem and Passing Strange, has a lot on his plate these days, what with a new Shakespeare score being performed in Connecticut right now, a couple of musicals in the pipeline and some concert appearances. All of that is in the news section on the left side of Stew’s homepage.

Heidi Rodewald and Stew. (Copyright 2009, Steven P. Marsh)

For all the Stew completists who read Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone?, tomorrow is the most important upcoming date. Stew is one of the “special guests” at the FREE Dan Zanes Jam & Jubilee, The Battery 4th of July Concert and Family Festival, presented by River To River in Battery Park.

Gates open at 1 p.m., with festivities kicking off an hour later. You can spend the day in Battery Park, dancing to the rhythms of La Cumbiamba eNeYe and singing along to Dan’s brand of Broadway classics! In addition to Stew, guests include spoken word poet Caridad De La Luz (La Bruja) and Joan Osborn.

You can even participate in the fun, as musicians of all ages are invited to perform 76 Trombones in a spectacular 4th of July Parade! You can download the sheet music and get detailed information on the festival website.

It should be a blast!

Victor Williams is Othello in the Shakespeare on the Sound production, with songs and music by Stew and Heidi Rodewald.

Meanwhile, if you haven’t been to Connecticut to see Othello, directed by Joanna Settle with songs and music by Stew and his longtime partner Heidi Rodewald, there’s still time.

Shakespeare on the Sound‘s Othello is performed outdoors at 7:30 nightly (except Monday) through July 11 at Baldwin Park, 100 Arch St., in Greenwich, Conn. While Stew and Heidi don’t perform live, you’ll get the full impact of their work on the recorded backing tracks and live singing by the actors. Last year Stew scored A Midsummer Night’s Dream for SotS, and is was fantastic.

Seating is on the ground around the stage, so be sure to bring blankets or low chairs (nothing that would block the view of people seated behind you) for comfort. Or if you want to go first class, you can fork over a $50 donation for a reserved seat in on of SotS’s chairs.

And why not arrive early and turn it into dinner theater! It’s a great spot for a picnic before the show. There is a concession stand selling decent food and beverages, including wine and beer.

Admission is by donation. You could walk through the gate without paying a dime, but that just wouldn’t be right. Show your support for Stew and Heidi by dropping a donation at the gate. $20 per person is suggested, but more or less is just fine.

nically free, but donations are expected at the gae.

The park is right on the Long Island Sound and within walking distance of the Metro-North station. It’s a beautiful setting, easily accessible from NYC. Click here for transit info.

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Beach Fossils fills in at the last minute at South Street Seaport’s Pier 17

Posted on July 3, 2010 | Leave a comment

Beach Fossils at the Pier 17 Stage at South Street Seaport on Friday night, July 2. (Photos copyright 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

If not for Beach Fossils, Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? would not have made it to South Street Seaport on Friday night. But we are very glad we did.

Dustin Payseur of Beach Fossils.

So the resourceful River To River Festival folks, who presented tonight’s free show at the Seaport, called the suddenly famous Dustin Payseur and his band of merry men — John Pena, Sennott Burke and Tommy Lucasto— to fill the headlining spot. And even though they’re from Brooklyn and not Texas (there’s a Texas On Tour event at the Seaport to which the show was thematically linked), they did a great job.

Beach Fossils kept the audience entranced.

The noisy but melodic young Brooklyn quartet agreed to fill in as headliner at the free show after YellowFever’s Jennifer Moore got stopped at the airport in Houston Friday morning for carrying a chef’s knife onto her NYC-bound airplane. (Her day job is in the kitchen at Rudy’s BBQ in Austin.) Although things were eventually sorted out, and Jennifer was deemed no threat to national security, all that happened too late for her to make another flight that would get her to the show on time.

Beach Fossils.

Beach Fossils played a solid set that lasted just under an hour. That’s when Dustin announced: “This is our last song. We were supposed to play longer, but we don’t have any more songs!”

Talk about truth in advertising. With only one rather new album out, it’s no surprise that the band had nothing else to play, But they left us wanting to know what comes next.

Opener Woven Bones also turned in a solid set for the slight crowd. They seemed much more on than when we saw them last month opening for The Ponys at the Mercury Lounge. Click through to the jump for more photos of Friday night’s sunset gig.

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Liars, Fucked Up, High Places play the Northside Festival in Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Posted on June 30, 2010 | Leave a comment

Liars closed out Saturday night's Northside Festival show. (Photos copyright 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

The Northside Festival in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, seemed an odd affair. The music was presented on a small, chain-link-fence-enclosed patch of blacktop on the waterfront at the apex of Commercial and Dupont streets. It was a very unlikely looking place for a music venue.

Little Liars: Liars singer Angus Andrew's niece and nephew grooved vigorously to the noise rock.

But looks are often deceiving, and this festival, sponsored by L Magazine, proved no exception to that notion. The Saturday night show, only the second rock show ever hosted at the Newtown Barge Terminal Playground, as the site is officially named, featured Liars as headliners with Fucked Up and High Places as openers. It was fantastic.  The only shame was that so few people came out for it. The venue appeared to be at half capacity at best, even if you counted the freeloaders who took in a virtually unobstructed view from just outside the venue’s fence.

The music was great. Although I went to hear Fucked Up, a Toronto band that is one of the most energetic punk units active today, I was pretty impressed by the other acts as well.

Liars kept the crowd entranced for a long set of noise rock with the vocal stylings of Angus Andrew.

Freeloaders: It was easy to see and hear the whole show without paying a dime.

But Fucked Up really blew the place up, with singer Damian Abraham’s crowd-hugging and can-smashing antics in addition to mind-blowingly fast and loud songs.

They say a picture’s worth 1,000 words. With Fucked Up, a picture’s worth twice that. So take in these visuals:

Fucked Up arrives onstage with Damian chewing up and spitting out pages of he Northside Festival program booklet.

Fucked Up on stage.

Damian crushes his first can of the night.

Damian tries a 40.

Click through to the jump for many more amazing photos of Fucked Up and the other opener, High Places.
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Bang on a Can Marathon: 12 hours of free music tomorrow

Posted on June 26, 2010 | 1 comment

The Winter Garden during the 2009 Bang on a Can Marathon. (Copyright 2009, Steven P. Marsh)

The Bang on a Can Marathon, one of the highlights of the New Music scene in New York City, is tomorrow. Don’t miss it.

It’s the perfect way to spend a summer Sunday, sampling new music and taking in the sights and sounds of  Battery Park’s waterfront. You can come and go as you please in the climate-controlled Winter Garden, and you don’t even have to leave for a meal, because many of the Winter Garden restaurants will remain open throughout the performance.

Among the acts featured throughout the day are Vernon Reid, perhaps best known for his involvement in Living Colour, Signal ensemble and the fantastic Burkina Electric. But there’s plenty more to hear, see and do throughout the 12 hours.

  • When: Noon to midnight, Sunday, June 27.

Scroll down or click here for the full schedule and details in a previous Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? post.

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Posted in Concerts, Contemporary, Contemporary Classical, Folk, Free, Music, News, Pop and Rock, Uncategorized

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