After playing a handful of solo shows for the last week or so, Mac McCaughan kicked off what would be his full band leg of his tour on Tuesday night at Williamsburg’s Union Pool. Joined onstage by fellow Superchunk and Portastatic member, bassist/guitarist Jim Wilbur, along with Matt Douglas on keys, synths and saxophone, McCaughan was clearly enthused to be out on the road promoting his just released solo album, The Sound Of Yourself, which dropped last Friday.
The evening started out with an opening set from 75 Dollar Bill, the brainchild of Che Chen and Rick Brown. Upon taking the stage, my first thought was this is going to be a strange pairing of musical styles but 75 Dollar Bill’s rhythmic and percussive music soon not only won myself over but the rest of the room as well. It took almost no time whatsoever for one to notice feet shuffling, legs moving and heads and shoulders swaying to the grooves coming forth from onstage. The first thing that came to mind as I listened to the interplay of Brown’s box drum and Chen’s guitar was the works of Mickey Hart, specifically his work with the Diga Rhythm Band from back in the mid 70’s. The band clearly lost themselves in the vibe being as when Chen asked if they had time for one more, he discovered that Mac was actually scheduled to go on in five minutes…that answered that question.
It didn’t however, take long for McCaughan’s 3 piece band to set up and they managed to kick off with the opener, the title song from the new album, “The Sound Of Yourself,” in almost no time. From there they played another new one, “I Hear A Radio,” from Sound of Yourself before diving a little deeper into his catalog, first with “Your Hologram” from 2015’s Non Believersalbum and then the first of the evening’s Portastatic songs, “The Angel’s Of Sleep.”
At this point in the show, Mac asked the crowd if there were any drummers in attendance? While most of the crowd chuckled, one guy up front aggressively volunteered his friend, Ray, who was then invited up onto the stage to help the band out on the next number. Mac was obviously somewhat suspicious as to Ray’s actual abilities but nonetheless proceeded to give him a quick idea of how the song went. The band then kicked into another new one, “Circling Around” which Ray managed to do a pretty good job holding down the beat to.
Mac McCaughan at Union Pool
The rest of the set was a nice mixed bag of new tunes combined with a smattering of Portastatic songs from days gone by. As a side note to those who may not be aware, Portastatic was McCaughan’s side project during the late 90’s and early to mid 00’s especially when Superchunk went on a bit of a sabbatical. They closed out the set with a cover of fellow Merge recording artists The Magnetic Fields’ “Old Orchard Beach” and what just might be, in my humble opinion, the best song on the new one, “Dawn Bends”.
After a brief respite offstage, they came back for an encore of three songs joined by Rick Brown from 75 Dollar Bill on drums. Pulling out the only Superchunk song of the night, “Driveway To Driveway,” they followed with a cover of The Mekons’ “Hello Cruel World” and lastly the song which might have gotten the loudest gaggle of applause when introduced, “San Andreas,” from Portastatic’s 1995 classic, Slow Note From a Sinking Ship.
Check out this Bandcamp interview with McCaughan on the process of making the album.
Canadian chanteuse, Kathleen Edwards, is a bit of a legend in the Americana niche of the music world. Her 2002 debut, Failer, is considered by many in this little corner of the musical stratosphere to be a desert isle disc. I, for one, have no argument against that kind of thinking. So, when it was announced back in June that she and her band would be passing through New York City in early fall, it didn’t take much for me to jump all over procuring a ticket.
Saturday’s show at LPR was the last show of the tour as drummer, Joel Anderson, had to get back to his home in Toronto for his day job as a teacher (Monday was the first day of classes). Joel was Kathleen’s original drummer on the Failer album but when it came time to touring, he opted out in order to pursue his teaching ambitions; having him on this particular set of shows was quite an added bonus. Another bonus was the presence of both of Kathleen’s long-time collaborators, Colin Cripps on guitars and vocals as well as Jim Bryson on keyboards, guitar and vocals. Bryson was the original guitarist on the Failer album and toured with Kathleen early on but then left to pursue his own solo career. This opened the door for former Blue Rodeo guitarist Cripps to step into the fold.
This tour is the first time the two had played together on the same stage with Kitty and it certainly offered quite a fun dynamic with each trading licks back and forth. Feeding off of the energy which Kitty provided as she bounced from one end of the stage to the other as she traded stares and vibes with whomever’s turn it was to solo.
Kathleen Edwards at LPR
Unfortunately, I arrived late to the show and missed opener Mick Flannery’s set. (I am going to have to get used to the fact that with the indefinite lane closures on the BQE, I can no longer plan to scoot right into Manhattan or North Brooklyn for shows.) Anyhow, as I walked into LPR, Kathleen and band were already on stage about midway into, what I would later find out was the opener for their set, “Options Open.” I was pleasantly surprised to see the room to be pretty much packed.
The evening consisted of roughly a 15 song set (encore included) highlighting a good chunk of material from 2020’s stellar release Total Freedom. There were plenty of older songs sprinkled throughout the evening however. We were treated to “In State,” from the 2005 album Back To Me,and we also got the hit single from Failer, “Six O’Clock News,” as well as the title cut from 2008’s Asking For Flowers.
Kathleen is usually very chatty throughout her shows and Saturday was no exception. There was her ever present self deprecating humor such as her regularly referring to herself as a “woman of a certain age.” She also shared the story about how she had actually quit the music biz and started a coffee shop in Toronto called Quitters. Note: she doesn’t recommend this to anyone, as running a coffee shop “is a LOT of work”.
The peak of the night (for me at least) was another song from Asking For Flowers, “Goodnight California.” As the last song on the album, it was originally recorded with Kathleen’s lilting Suzanne Vega-esque vocals floating over a beautiful cloud like keyboard riff. This is exactly how the band started it out on Saturday night but when the harmonica solo on the studio version would have started, instead Colin Cripps erupted into an extended guitar solo which just seemed to go on and on (to absolutely no one’s dismay). Colin has some amazing chops and he sure showed them off on this number. It was the kind of extended solo that would make Neil Young and Crazy Horse very proud.
After a couple of songs which Kitty performed solo, the band rejoined her for a rollicking and fun version of Supertramp’s hit from the mid 70’s “Logical Song,” before closing out the regular set with “Hard On Everyone,” from Total Freedom. But the night wasn’t over as they came back with a two song encore of “Asking For Flowers,” and scorching rendition of “Back To Me.” All in all, it was a night of pretty fantastic Americana rock and roll.
Scroll down for pics of the show (photos by Ray Rusinak)
Cleveland, Ohio’s indie/punk rock outfit, Cloud Nothings, brought their current midwest/northeast tour to Bushwick (yes, contrary to what you might have heard at the show, Elsewhere is in Bushwick, NOT Ridgewood) on Saturday night and as anyone who follows the band would expect, it was a night filled with loud guitars, pulsating bass and pounding drums.
Led by guitarist and lead vocalist, Dylan Baldi, Cloud Nothings played an hour long set dominated with songs ranging from Attack On Memory’s “Fall In,” “Wasted Days,” and “Stay Useless,” to selections from all three of their pandemic LPs. Yes you read that correctly, THREE releases during pandemic. And that’s not even counting the monthly set of four tracks that the band has been sending out to their Patreon subscribers. Two of the three releases, Life Is Only One Event and Black Hole Understands were Bandcamp exclusives; The third release, The Shadow I Remember, which was released back in February on Carpark Records, is available on Spotify. Not surprisingly the bulk of the set was composed of songs from this latest release, with the band ripping into new songs such as “Oslo,” “Only Light,” and “The Room It Was.” Baldi, lead guitarist Chris Brown, bassist TJ Duke and drummer Jason Gerycz had the crowd moshing and singing along like these were classics that they’ve been rocking out to for years instead of mere months since their release.
And speaking of Jason Gerycz, while Cloud Nothings is clearly Dylan Baldi’s band, I was absolutely fixated throughout the show watching Gerycz and what he was able to accomplish behind his drum kit. While this is not meant as any kind of insult to any of the other band members, but I’m not sure if Cloud Nothings would be the Cloud Nothings without Jason’s incessant pounding of the skins to guide the way.
Jason Gerycz
The band ended up finishing off the night (there was no encore, despite the crowd relentlessly screaming for “ONE MORE” long after the house lights went up) with their show stopping staple, “Wasted Days.” For the finale they brought out the guitarist of opening band, Manus (who I unfortunately missed), to add a little more guitar bravado to what is always an opus to guitar heaviness to begin with. The crowd filled room ate it up to no end with the sea of bodies flowing back and forth like the waves of the ocean during high tide.
I doubt anyone left Elsewhere on Saturday disappointed. Hopefully the band will make their way back to these parts after they conclude this current tour which will take them to the south and west before they head over to Europe early next year.
Scroll down to see more pics from the show (photos by Ray Rusinak)
To quote Monty Python, “and now for something completely different.” We here at FTA like to mix it up sometimes and yes, even cover things outside the punk/indie/rock realm, so we very are happy to feature one of the stalwarts of New Orleans’ music scene, Rebirth Brass Band. Unexpectedly, I had a free Friday night so while perusing what was going on, I happened to see that Rebirth were playing at the newly opened City Winery along Manhattan’s Westside Highway (OK I’m showing my age, since it’s not really called that anymore). What a pleasant surprise!
Fortunately, the monsoon like thunderstorms were finished passing through before I had to head in. I’d never been to this new City Winery so I wasn’t all too sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the new room is a vast improvement of their former space on Varick Street. It is a much more open space, with great sight lines from almost everywhere and none of the annoying support poles blocking your view altogether. That being said, its still a supper club with nothing but tables throughout the room. This of course seemed like less than an ideal arrangement for a band whose (arguably) biggest song is called “Feel Like Funking it Up”
The boys in the band hit the stage totally informally, one at a time, no fanfare, not much of a response from the crowd (many of whom were still eating dinner), and certainly no introduction. But once the first notes of their take on the legendary Fats Domino’s “I’m Walking” started up, the pale which was hanging over the room immediately lifted and people started swaying and bouncing in their chairs. By the time the band got to “We Come To Party,” the crowd was on their feet second stepping right along with the band.
I’ve seen Rebirth more times than I can count over the years and no, this wasn’t the best show I’ve seen from them. One would have to hit The Maple Leaf in New Orleans on any given Tuesday night to experience THAT level of Rebirth majesty. But I’m not going to lie, this was a great show. You go to see Rebirth to feel good, to forget your worries and problems, you go to dance and be happy. To that end Rebirth certainly lived up to their end of the bargain. Now if there was only somewhere in Manhattan to get beignets and cafe au lait in the middle of the night….
Scroll down for pics of the show (photos by Ray Rusinak)
About a month ago, I happened upon a video of a band playing the New Colossus Festival over at 18th Ward Brewing and was immediately hooked. That band was Colatura. I knew as soon as I saw the clip that I needed to keep an eye out for them. Fortunately for myself and another 100 or so other fans, they were having a record release show at The Broadway in late August to celebrate the release of their new single, King Kalm.
The show took place on Wednesday 8/25 and Colatura was everything that I’d hoped for. Hitting the stage at just about 11 PM, the band was clearly stoked to be where they were, doing what they were doing…playing infectious jingle jangly, harmony laden, happy music. With three lead singers, Digo Best on guitar,, Jennica Best on bass, and Merideth Lampe on synths and guitar, you would wonder if there would be enough space in a set to flesh out each of their voices. Fortunately this never seemed to be an issue. Trading vocals back and forth throughout the evening like two grade school kids swapping baseball cards in the school yard, the band fit together like a glove, or maybe more like a mitten, taking five fingers (or in this case four musicians) and making them one.
Their set consisted of mainly new songs which the band has been working on over the course of the pandemic, all of which sounded fantastic and word has it that we can expect a debut full length LP from them sometime this fall. With varying styles which range from synthy post punk new wave to early 60’s girl group vibes, I would say the easiest way to describe Colatura is they’re like sunshine streaming out of an amplifier with its volume set at nine. Closing out the evening with a blistering version of their song “I Don’t Belong Here,” they sent the crowd home shimmering and shaking into the night.
I would be remiss if I failed to mention the two opening bands who did such a great job setting the tone for the evening. First up was OK Cowgirl. Led by singer and main songwriter, Leah Lavigne, the band provided a wonderful set of breezy dream pop which was equal parts Fleetwood Mac and Mazzy Star wrapped up into one.
Following the first set was Forever Honey, another band which had a floating in the clouds sense to them. Lead vocalist, Liv Price’s voice proved to be quite soothing and comforting on the band’s more breezy material, yet on songs such as closer, “Christian,” she and the band proved themselves to be a rock and roll machine stirring the crowd into a kaleidoscope of swirling and dancing bodies.
All in all, The Broadway should be proud of themselves for putting together such a great lineup of bands for our listening pleasures. As for the bands themselves, thanks for a fantastic evening of music. Keep them all on your radar, they are worth the attention.
Scroll down for pics of the show (photos by Ray Rusinak)
