can you dig it? yes, sir, I can.

Last night, the House of Blues Boston hosted the joint Cyndi Lauper-Dr. John tour, and there was much rejoicing. I went for Dr. John, who is among my favorite musicians, expecting Cyndi Lauper to just be a nice bonus. I was confused about how their sounds went together, but I had faith. And, well. Apparently Cyndi Lauper sings the blues now. And it is pretty fabulous.

Dr. John was the opener, technically, but he and his band were up there for at least an hour, more like an hour and a half, playing the best of cajun rock n roll. As per usual with him, his band was amazing, from the drummer to the trombone player, and it really didn’t seem like they were there as “Dr. John’s band” but as “the band that Dr. John is a part of.” A group of virtuosos.

Dressed to the nines, of course, Dr. John walked and danced stiffly but his fingers still fly. Truly amazing to listen to.

He and Cyndi did a couple of duets at the end of his set, one of which (Wang Dang Doodle) Cyndi didn’t know very well, but it was a fun finale. A pair of powerhouses.

And then Cyndi came back for her set, and wow that woman is a rock star.

I don’t even know where to start. She’s just a straight-up motherfucking rock star. Head-to-toe leather; wild, partially-pink hair; badass attitude. And then she started singing the blues and I was like WHOA.

She never stopped moving, dancing around the stage with more energy than most of the audience, interacting with her band and just full-on rocking out. She sang some upbeat songs, some slow songs, some things I’d never heard and classics like Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads.” She kept coming down to the front row and at one point she scolded someone who was holding a video camera mere inches from her face, telling him he was going miss the show.

The woman just has presence. And talent. You wouldn’t think, listening to her classic hits, that she has such a deep, bluesy range but oh God she does. Some of the notes she hit were jaw-dropping.

Even her own band seemed to be in awe of her, and she introduced some of them as having been with her for decades. They kept shaking their heads and just had looks on their faces like, “damn.” It was kind of touching.

However, while the music was good there was a lot of logistical mis-management, for which I blame the House of Blues. The show was advertised as starting at 7, doors at 6. According to security managing the massive line, the show was in fact “supposed to” start at 8, doors at 7, it had been advertised wrong. “Supposed to,” huh? Even yesterday they were tweeting the “wrong” time. Get it together, HOB.

So everyone was there super-early and kind of cranky by the time we were let inside. Also, I had to stand in line next to a running bus for a while, which smelled awesome let me tell you. But the good Doctor started promptly at 8 and the annoyance quickly evaporated because really you can’t be unhappy listening to that man play.

There were also some sound/mic problems, the most egregious being when they didn’t turn on one of Cyndi’s instruments and she was kneeling by the board trying to figure it out herself. (Which she did. I assume when you’ve been doing this as long as she has, those boards aren’t as much of a mystery as they are to, say, me.) So. I expect better of a venue like the House of Blues. Maybe pay less attention to the flat-screen TVs and more to working the mics properly?

But overall it was a fabulous show. Two stars doing what they do best—rocking our collective face off.

RIP, Mr. Leiber

Jerry Leiber died yesterday at the age of 78.

Let me preface this post by saying I was obsessed with The Coasters when I was a kid. OBSESSED. I had a two-tape compilation of all their songs (including from when some of them were The Robins) that I listened to over and over and over and over. I can still sing most of their greatest and lesser hits word-for-word (and will do so with very little prompting).

And to be obsessed with The Coasters was to be obsessed with the two men behind their music: Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

I can’t even list all of the songs I loved. Yakety Yak, Charlie Brown, Little Egypt (for all the silliness), Searchin’, Along Came Jones, Smokey Joe’s Cafe (for The Robins), Down in Mexico, Poison Ivy. I guess they also arranged Hound Dog for Elvis, which I didn’t actually know until I started reading the obits. All catchy, mostly peppy songs, a beautiful partnership between Stoller’s music and Leiber’s lyrics.

Every time I had a chore to do, I’d bounce along to Yakety Yak. Every day that ended in Y, my brother and I would harmonize on Along Came Jones. (well, he did. I can’t sing.) Leiber and Stoller and the artists they influenced were the sounds of my childhood.

So rest in peace, Mr. Leiber, and thank you for all the happy memories.

Here are a few of my Coasters favorites:

Charlie Brown (I don’t really understand this video but it’s FAB)

Along Came Jones

Poison Ivy (maybe my favorite?)

he lives in New York City

You may remember in a previous post I mentioned Sxip Shirey and my favorite of his songs, lamenting the quality of the video. Well, yesterday he put out a much better video of the song. Hooray!

Evelyn Evelyn was Amazing Amazing

So. You may remember that Amanda Fucking Palmer gave me a ticket (I’m still pretending that it was a personal gift) to the world premiere show of her new project, Evelyn Eveyln. So it only seems fair to repay her kindness by telling you all how AWESOME the show was.

And it was pretty awesome.

(Quick aside: if you don’t know what Evelyn Evelyn is, they are conjoined twins from Kansas who play music. Any resemblance they have to Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley in a big dress is purely coincidental.)

the elusive twins

The show was at Club Oberon in Cambridge, Mass, where I had never been. I really like the venue, though, it’s small and seems casual, though that may have just been the crowd. Since I get most of my musical experiences at the House of Blues, I really liked the coziness of Oberon. And a brief word on the crowd: I have never seen such a diverse band of misfits as I have at that show. It was spectacular. There were young people, old people, fathers and daughters, people in corsets and people in jeans. Two girls came dressed as Evelyn and Evelyn. I’ve never felt so completely at home in a crowd.

Jason Webley opened the show, and he is a fanfuckingtastic performer. He got the crowd going immediately (“I need you to pretend I just did something awesome so I can get you to help me with the next song… good! good!”) and by the end of his short set had the entire crowd spinning in circles with their fingers in the air. I honestly couldn’t tell you whether I liked his music (I think I did) because he is such a good show. Loved it.

And with the crowd ramped up from spinning and singing, Amanda Palmer made her entrance.

Let’s be honest, Evelyn Evelyn wouldn’t be able to go on tour if Amanda Fucking Palmer weren’t Amanda Fucking Palmer. Someone proposed marriage to her as she sat at her piano. I thought about it (hey, we’re in Massachusetts). She’s an amazing human being and an amazing performer and an amazing performance. I always forget that there are people who don’t know who she is, because she is such an important artist in my sphere.

But sometimes I get caught up in the excitement of Amanda Fucking Palmer being Amanda Fucking Palmer, and I forget how truly stunning her voice is. Watching her sing, especially from like 5 feet away, is entrancing. Perhaps she sold her soul to the devil to get that voice—I really don’t know. But I’d be okay with that explanation. And the woman knows how to work a crowd.

AFP was then joined by Jason and the third performer of the evening, a man named Sxip Shirey. (It will be easier if you pretend it’s spelled “skip.”) They played “Electric Blanket” (accompanied by Sxip on some random bell contraption) and then AFP and Jason disappeared and it was time for Sxip to perform.

Sxip Shirey was the surprise of my evening. I’d never heard of him and had no idea what to expect, but now I’m in love. He’s part circus, part musician, part storyteller, part hair, and all awesome. He’s one of those “makes music with random stuff” guys, and his tools included bells, a train whistle, a police siren, a harmonica (on which he appeared to be beatboxing) and some foot-pedal-thing that did strange and amazing things to his microphone.

This is not the greatest video, but it’s my favorite song that he played:

His new CD went on sale yesterday. BUY IT!

So then after a brief break the twins came on.

The twins are pretty amazing.

It’s really kind of difficult to describe the show. It was part story/play (Sxip was the ringmaster-type, blatantly exploiting the twins), part cabaret, part puppet show. Each twin played one half of an instrument—they each played one hand of a piano, or one hand of the guitar, or ukulele, or accordion. (The accordion may have actually been all Jason the Left Twin, I wasn’t at a great angle.) It’s been years since I’ve played music, but that seems really difficult. The music is the sort of oddball thing you would expect from people who are pretending to be conjoined twins a band discovered by Amanda F. Palmer and Jason Webley. Each song is really a different genre, but it all seems to tie together pretty well. And the show is great. It feels very circus-freaky: “come into my tent and see this great freak of nature!”

There were a lot of little things that made the show even more genius. For instance, the “waiting for the show to start” music consisted of lots of songs about sisters (that Eurythmics song) and being close and being apart—and at least one song that was by Evelyn Evelyn. (I only remember Happy Birthday, but I think there might have been more.) It was brilliant.

Some things didn’t go quite so well, of course, since it was the first time this show had ever been performed. Jason seemed to have some trouble remembering some of the Evelyn Evelyn lyrics, and AFP kept almost cracking up, but as she said during her set, “anything that goes wrong tonight we can just call ‘charming.’” (That is a very rough paraphrase.) The show seemed to end slightly too mellow (this was pointed out by a couple of people in the Q&A session at the end) especially because they’d teased us by playing the opening to “Poker Face.” And there were a few tech issues. But everything was just opening-night kinks, which will probably be fixed over the course of the next few performances.

But still.

The entire thing was amazing.

I’m pretty sure the show is sold out, like, everywhere, but I hereby give you permission to find someone with a ticket and murder and/or maim him/her. Sometimes art is worth it.

AND

SHE ANNOUNCED AT THE END

They’re ending their tour HERE in BOSTON in JUNE at my favorite venue the House of Blues! Tickets aren’t on sale yet, but stay tuned. They’ve promised that it will be total extravaganza and that they’ll have perfected the show (possibly making it entirely different) and I am super super excited.

SO

There is my very very long review of the first ever show by Evelyn Evelyn. Thanks again, AFP.

EVELYN EVELYN WOOOOO

HOMG

I never win things. Never ever ever.

But today.

On twitter, Amanda Fucking Palmer held a contest—she’d choose two random people who retweeted her next tweet, and those people would win tickets to the upcoming Evelyn Evelyn concert at Oberon in Harvard Square.

And I entered.

And I won.

I honestly stared at my username for a full minute, slightly dazed, sure I was reading it wrong. But no. I gave AFP my name, and now I’m on the guest list for Monday 12th, and SHE PROMISED TO HUG ME AND I’M HOLDING HER TO IT.

I am so. Fucking. Excited.

(and if you happen to go, say hi! I have red glasses and a leafy tattoo on my back. I will probably be somewhat intoxicated, which means I’ll be your friend instantly.)

Flogging Molly FTW

It’s been a while since I’ve been to the House of Blues, but I think Flogging Molly was a good way to break that sad streak. Absolutely fab show.

I do have one little gripe about the venue (the first time this has ever happened at gracetopia!). Like I said, it’s been a while, but in the interim the HOB has installed about 6-8 LCD screens around the floor and at the bars. I disapprove wholeheartedly. I don’t like being advertised at while I’m waiting for the show to start, and I don’t like the insinuation that if you can’t see the show, these screens are an acceptable alternative. They aren’t. You may as well just stay home and watch the DVD. Now, granted, I spent most of the show close enough to the front that the screens weren’t actually in my view, but STILL. Dislike.

ANYWAY. On to the awesomeness.

The first opener, the Architects, were decent. Not great, but decent. Then the second opener was this guy named Frank Turner, who was fantastic. I totally loved his music, and he is an amazing stage show. Like, he’s one of those people who is doing exactly what he should be doing with his life. Also, I think I’ve seen him before. Really. Strangest sense of dejá vù.

Then Flogging Molly came on stage.

Spectacular. The end.

(N.B. Not only do I write KILLER music reviews (see above!) I let them sit in my “drafts” list for like WEEKS after the show! good job Grace!)

i have no words to describe this

mish-mash muddle

Hi! I’m here! Been busy this past week, what with work craziness and friend awesomeness. So a quick catch-up of my recent activities and ponderings.

So. Bullet points, methinks? Why yes please.

• On Kanye: I’m with O’Bama here, what a jackass. I don’t care if you’re drunk, I don’t care if you haven’t recovered from your mother’s death (I mean I do, but dude take some time off, nobody will blame you, and stop using it as an excuse) but you don’t have to ruin the girl’s moment. On the other hand and also, I’m tired of hearing about it. I’ve enjoyed its week of press, but enough is enough. Move on.
• On Joe Wilson: Okay so maybe I’m an insensitive bigot, but could everyone just chill the fuck out, please? Telling the President he’s a liar is okay. No, really. I personally think O’Bama is the shit, but if we can’t call our politicians out when we think they’re wrong, what’s the point? Sure it’s disrespectful. Wilson didn’t mean to be respectful. He doesn’t like our President. And that’s okay.
  Of course, if he doesn’t like our president because our President is black, as some people are saying, that is not okay. I haven’t really looked into Wilson’s past—he’s a Republican from South Carolina, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. But even if he were a card-carrying member of the KKK, those two words—”you lie”—don’t reflect that at all. They’re just rude and ill-timed and my god people get over it already.
  Devil’s Advocate, that’s me.
• 9: Don’t go see this movie. It does not live up to expectations at ALL, and I was really expecting it to be good. It’s really really pretty, and if you have to see it, definitely see it on the big screen, but ugh plot wtf. It’s taken Harry Potter and Star Wars elements and squished them all together with the apocolypse. Things are not explained, things are weird, dialogue is blah, it’s just a total ugh.
• One of my bffs just moved to New York City and I am sooooo jealous of him. Haha I just called him a bff. I hope he properly appreciates it.
• I would not make a good politician’s wife, because I don’t know how to tie a tie. (Currently watching Brotherhood.)
• 
  RIP, babe. I’ll miss you.

gimme a v-a-c-a-t-i-o-n

I really should be packing now, since I’m flying away to Minnesota tomorrow. But I am not. Instead I am drinking beer and faffing around on facebook and other such productive things. I can’t even say I’m doing laundry, since I think I just heard the washing machine stop. So. Time for a bullet-point post, methinks.

• First and most importantly, if you’re in Boston this weekend you should go see Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead in Cambridge. It’s being put on by Bad Habit Productions and is playing at a YMCA on Mass Ave just off of Central Square. Seriously. It is an amazing production. I love the play, I think I’d rank it at least in my Top 10 plays of all time, if not Top 5, and this production was fantastifabulous. R and G and the Player were all SPOT ON, and the troupe of players (don’t remember what they’re actually called…) were all wonderful as well. I didn’t like the King and Queen so much, but everyone else made up for it. Really, a fantastic show. I was so sad that the audience was so small when I went to see it on Saturday. SO GO SEE IT THIS WEEKEND.
• I sort of accidentally saw Harry Potter last week. I think I’ve now actually seen most of them in theaters, even though I never really want to… seeing as I don’t so much like the books… but my friends were going and I’m nothing if not a follower. So we went, and since all I really remembered was the Big Ending (which I mentioned, thereby spoiling it for one of my friends, but I didn’t think it was a secret anymore? but anyway I’m not going to mention it here.) but yeah I didn’t remember any of the smaller plot points so it was almost like watching a fresh story. I actually enjoyed it. Yanno, for Harry Potter. But I’m not going to recommend it, just on principle.
• So Tuesday morning I woke up and went to my computer and I had a google calendar alert thing informing me that I was going to a concert that night at the House of Blues. The Eagles of Death Metal, who I had never heard of. I checked my stash of tickets and sure enough there it was. This isn’t totally out of the ordinary, I love live music and tend to buy tickets to bands I’ve never heard of if the first one or two things I find on youtube is good. I decided not to remind myself who they were (I figured I’d investigated when I got the ticket and liked them, so I shouldn’t be too worried) so I just went to the concert cold. No idea what to expect.And you may recall my discomfort with the Tracy Chapman crowd? And how old and/or obnoxious and/or generally odd they all were? Well I walked into EoDM and was faced with a sea of mostly men in jeans and dark shirts, covered in tattoos and piercings. “Yessss,” I thought. “This is my crowd. I know what to do with this.”

  The show was great. EoDM isn’t actually a death metal band, which was fine with me. Good solid little rock band. Lots of fun. And they were superb performers. They all—the lead singer especially—treated the audience like it was the greatest audience they had ever performed for. It was so so so much fun.

  Which brings me to my final note of that evening. I went alone, which I usually do, and I was drinking (not excessively, really) and dancing my heart out and just generally having a blast, and apparently people noticed… Not one, no, not one but two different men commented afterwards that I had obviously had an awesome time. One of them accosted me by saying, “Hey Party Girl!” So… yeah. Just call me Party Girl. Apparently my reputation in this town is growing.

• Someone outside my window is really pissed off and yelling…
• I hit myself in the side of the head this morning (don’t ask) and my tragus piercing pushed all the way through the hole and popped out. When I stopped by the piercing place after work (conveniently located within sight of my apartment) the hole was already so healed she had to stretch the hole to get the post in.* WTF, ear. Chill the fuck out.
• It turns out I have a 35-minute layover in Atlanta, so hopefully I catch my second flight tomorrow…
• Which brings me full circle to the packing thing. Okay. Here I go. Don’t expect much bloggyness for the next week or so.

*Do with that phrase what you will…

tracy chapman

So I’m always a little leery of concerts that are not going to involve mosh pits. Even if I have no desire to be in said mosh pit, that’s the kind of music I usually see in concert, so I know how to behave. So I was a bit wary of Tracy Chapman. She didn’t seem like a mosh pit kind of gal. I didn’t really know what to expect.

My arrival did nothing to ease my worries. All of the concert-goers were so fucking annoying. I wanted to kill the 40-something couple in line behind me. There’s a point where you just have to stop being a cutesy couple, and 40-something is well past it. And inside—well, at first glance it was the most diverse crowd I’ve ever seen at the House of Blues. There were old couples, young couples, groups of girls, groups of boys, a large selection of lone men and women, families, and of all colors and nationalities. But they did have something in common: how obnoxious they all were. Maybe it was just because there were so many people there, but everyone was rude and pushy, and people were having loud obnoxious conversations even after Chapman had started playing, and everyone was just generally not someone I would want to go to a concert with at all. I mean, this isn’t totally a uniform statement. There was a trio of boys who were dressed like douchebags and who I would never expect at a Tracy Chapman concert and who I would never talk to in real life, but they were remarkably amusing when I spoke to them at the bar.

That was a long long paragraph of me complaining about my fellow concert-goers. Apologies. On to the show.

Tracy Chapman is basically the shit. She was friendly and chatty between songs—she was kicking off her US tour after being in Europe, and she was so thrilled to be somewhere she could speak with the crowd instead of stretching the bits of every foreign lnaguage she knew. Also she apparently went to Tufts and spent the past two days wandering around my area of Boston, going to the Coop and taking the T at Harvard Square and how did I not see her??? Bah.

And boy can that woman sing. Like, seriously. My God. She has the voice of an angel. She sang all of her big hits (“Fast Car,” that Revolution one, that other one that’s really famous) as well as some new things and it was just overall wonderful. And oh my god she ended with “Proud Mary,” Tina Turner style. There aren’t even words for how amazing that was.

So yeah, overall a good experience, even though I am still confused about the crowd. How can so many Tracy Chapman fans be annoying? She’s so much awesome. It just doesn’t make sense. Oh well. She was cool enough for everyone.