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Concert Review
Forget all the cult of dubstep schisms, purity debates, and heresy hunts. Call him post-dubstep (already?) if you get off on taxonomy. Whatever. But James Blake has an old-fashioned secret — he gets over on his voice.
The lone sign of organic life in a soundscape of programmed, layered, vocodered, synthesized, and looped machines, Blake’s voice is shockingly sensual in live performance, with a clear falsetto and lower register that garnered screams of delight from the audience. It even had a visible Sade effect, as couples throughout the floor decided that the sold out TLA wasn’t already hot enough.
This is not to entirely detach him from his EDM roots. On the second half of “Digital Lion” and on songs like “Voyeur,” he vibed out to his own stuff as the crowd went from bass led head bob to move your ass rave. And drummer Ben Assiter is wonderful at giving percussive force to Blake’s downtempo cuts.
But it’s the voice that sticks, makes the ladies swoon and guys shake their head in appreciation, leaves you cooing the hummed refrain of “Retrograde” four hours later at 3 a.m. in your friend’s living room. By the time he encored with “The Wilhelm Scream” I was thinking, alienated neo-soul nothing. Babies might be conceived to this.
Duly noted singer-songwriter street cred — Blake finished his encore alone on keyboard with a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You.” “Go to him, stay with him if you can, but be prepared to bleed.”
View galleryA couple of songs into his set, Danny Brown — Sideshow Bob afro already dripping from sweat and bottled water — stood center stage and declared in his inimitable voice, “This is not a rap show. If you came to hear rap, you can put your backpack on and go to the coffee shop to hear some rap music.” The crowd screamed its approval and laughed. They get his jokes, and he’s funny as shit. Funnier actually, since the scatological has its limits. So he does one better and goes for broke by matching the eschatological (personal of course) and hedonistic, becoming about as funny and smart as any music can be.
Were The Breeders your favorite band of the ’90s? Well, maybe they should've been. In town to play their 1993 classic album Last Splash from start to finish, Kim Deal and co. reminded everybody they've got more gears than most of their old alt-rock (did I just write that?) peers. Fast, slow, loud, soft, pretty, brutal, precise, chaotic — these songs are an emotional tilt-a-whirl. In fact, while it was a solid thrill to hear "Cannonball" live once more, "Divine Hammer" and "I Just Wanna Get Along" rocked the crowd most thoroughly. The prettiest moment was surely "Do You Love Me Now" — just gorgeous as all hell.
Atta boy, Mike
It’s fair to wonder what a solo show from Michael Nesmith – the most enigmatic of former Monkees – would be like. Is there loping country-rock? Is there conceptualizing befitting the music video and cult film (he helped produce Repo Man, you know) pioneer? Does he wear a wool hat?
In short: Yes, yes and definitely no.
First off I've got to say that the cheapest beer at Johnny Brenda's is a three dollar Kenzinger which I'm going to have to imagine is not nearly cheap enough for L.A. skate punk shredders FIDLAR (ICYMI - fuck it, dog - life's a risk).They opened with a sick set complete with stage diving cameos from Wavves' Nathan Williams and a Descendents cover.
Though the mood of Wavves' latest Afraid of Heights is considerably less beachy than say, King of the Beach, their set was all about good times and summertime vibes in a hot and sweaty Johnny Brenda's. Oh and that Sonic Youth 100% was kind of the best thing ever.
These huge arts festivals can be overwhelming — how to figure out what's worth seeing? CP's sending someone to nearly every event PIFA's putting on over the next month to help you decide, so check back with Critical Mass all month long for comprehensive, ongoing reviews.
(Full disclosure: CP arts editor Emily Guendelsberger is a member of Mendelssohn Club and sang in this concert; the writer of this review was not aware of this.)
SHOW: The Fall of the Berlin Wall: Beethoven’s 9th Symphony
GENRE: Music
GROUP: The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia / Mendelssohn Club
ATTENDED: Sun., April 7, 2:30 p.m., Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Journey to a historic moment in time with a program that commemorates the demolition of the Berlin Wall in 1989, leading to Germany’s reunification.
WE THINK: “Strange bedfellows” is how conductor Ignat Solzhenitsyn described his pairing of Scorpions’1991 hit “Wind of Change” with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. As symbolic and beloved as the song is, it’s a kitschy rock ballad, and orchestrating it along with tenor Adam Frandsen performing vocals and two projection screens displaying the Berlin photography of James Abbott only emphasized how overwrought the anthem is.
After that opener, Solzhenitsyn (whose father is indeed that Solzhenitsyn, author of The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, who was mistreated, imprisoned and eventually deported by the Soviet Union for his human-rights activism) spoke at length about his own memories of the fall of the eastern bloc. Then the concert truly began.
First was Smirnov’s ominous Epitaph for the Victims of Communism, which trickled away on plucked strings so subtly one hardly even knew it has just passed — a penetrating evocation of how thousands of people passed into silence, unacknowledged.
Finally, the 9th — and for all of us philistines whose collective memory had reduced it to nothing but the famous choral fourth movement, the first two movements came on like a force of nature, each shift in tempo and variation in theme containing a thrilling suddenness. And to hear hints of the famous “Ode to Joy” theme in the second movement was to be surprised by it all over again.
Still, the fourth movement was ecstatic, with the choir on their feet and bobbing, the four soloists soaring, the orchestra obviously animated in their playing and Solzhenitsyn with a forward lean in his body, hands conjuring both choir and orchestra. The last note had hardly sounded before the audience was on its feet in sonorous applause, where it stayed for several minutes.
PREVIOUSLY IN PIFA: A… postmodern flamenco gynecologist? It’s cool, it made sense at the time.
These huge arts festivals can be overwhelming — how to figure out what's worth seeing? CP's sending someone to nearly every event PIFA's putting on over the next month to help you decide, so check back with Critical Mass all month long for comprehensive, ongoing reviews.
SHOW: Britten: A Boy Was Born
GENRE: Music
GROUP: The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
ATTENDED: Sat., April 6, 7 p.m., Kimmel Center
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Benjamin Britten was undoubtedly one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century, with a diverse catalogue of works still garnering international recognition. … On November 22, 1913, the Feast of St. Cecilia, a boy was born whose music we continue to celebrate in the centenary year of his birth.
WE THINK: The Choir of King’s College overcame any potential expectations of churchiness from a choral program of mostly sacred music with clear voices and a resonant organ. The range of voices expressed a range of human struggles, faults and joys through the spiritual experience. Higher voices encouraged optimism, as lower voices warned of doom. The intricate network of sounds from the choir caused the organ solo on “Prelude and Fugue on a Theme of Vittoria” to sound stark and plain.
The choir dispelled any idea of sweet, watery hymns met for pleasant and thoughtless listening. Even when singing the most life-affirming and love-focused lyrics, the deeper range of choristers had an authoritative and unnerving low spectrum that could make even the most confident atheist ponder the concept of an immortal soul. “Rejoice in the Lamb” in particular showcased the articulate force of the lower vocal ranges. Together with the organ, the choir created an unnerving but engaging sound.
—Elizabeth Gunto
These huge arts festivals can be overwhelming — how to figure out what's worth seeing? CP's sending someone to nearly every event PIFA's putting on over the next month to help you decide, so check back with Critical Mass all month long for comprehensive, ongoing reviews.
SHOW: The Arc of Curiosity
GENRE: Music
GROUP: Network for New Music
ATTENDED: 8 p.m. April 5, Rose Recital Hall
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Follow that path of the arc of a composer’s curiosity, and discover the many ways that electronic sound can join traditional instruments to become part of our own musical landscape.
WE THINK: The full event description brings up ENIAC (the first all-purpose computer) and how combining electronic music with traditional instruments can lead to a "third space" that extends the human imagination, so you might expect electronics to have a central role in the music. However, with these works technology mostly plays second fiddle to standard chamber music instruments. The combined sounds are of studious process-oriented design, more intellectual than emotional; the exception being James Primosh's Chamber Concerto, which features expressive clarinet solos and hints of jazz swing music.
And what of the "third space" to extend our imagination? Well, that's in the ear of the beholder. I noticed lots of folks listening with their eyes closed to more clearly focus on the sonics: A sign of minds letting the music take you away to private places, though I found these works to be too punctilious to be so moved myself.
PREVIOUSLY IN PIFA: Lady history in books.
These huge arts festivals can be overwhelming — how to figure out what's worth seeing? CP's sending someone to nearly every event PIFA's putting on over the next month to help you decide, so check back with Critical Mass all month long for comprehensive, ongoing reviews.
SHOW: Last Call at the Downbeat
GENRE: Theater/music
GROUP: Jazz Bridge
ATTENDED: Fri., April 5, 8 p.m.,, Society Hill Playhouse
CLOSES: April 13
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: In November, 1942, 25-year-old trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie is in Philadelphia leading his own quartet at the Downbeat Club… he’s anxious to play you a little and tell you a lot about Philadelphia jazz — back in the day.
WE THINK: The voice of Dizzy Gillespie is divided between two performers in Suzanne Cloud’s new play: the energetic actor Erin Fleming portrays the legendary trumpeter as a gregarious 25-year-old sharing his life story, while Duane Eubanks blows some pre-bop trumpet, fronting a quartet standing in for the one that Gillespie led seventy years earlier at Philly’s Downbeat Club.
As the director and co-founder of Jazz Bridge, Suzanne Cloud has long been a staunch advocate for Philly jazz as well as an educator and a performer in her own right. All of those aspects come together in her first play, which is equal parts biographical sketch, history lesson and musical demonstration.
Drawn from Gillespie’s memoir, To Be Or Not To Bop, the show captures the soon-to-be innovator at a key moment. He’s at a low point, just fired from the bands of Cab Calloway and Lucky Millinder, but on the verge of changing the direction of jazz forever with the “new way,” bebop.
A monologue with extensive musical interludes, Last Call at the Downbeat teeters between drama and lecture, at times overstuffed with names and dates. But despite some opening-night stumbles, Fleming is engaging enough to temper the show’s more didactic tendencies, and Eubanks’ band keeps the music center stage.
PREVIOUSLY IN PIFA: Evolution vs. …not.
The last time I caught The World/Inferno Friendship Society live, either some prankster pulled the fire alarm midway through their set or the dancing quantity on the floor reached its legal threshold. I’d like to believe the latter. It’s only fitting that World/Inferno would step up from the First Unitarian Church to the Union Transfer’s much larger dance floor — their fans are fervent, rabid even, to the point where safety becomes a pretty big concern when booking this psycho klezmer gang.
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