Hello All and Happy Halloween to the lot of you! On All Hallows' Eve Eve, I tripped over to the Bowery Ballroom
(one of my favorite places in New York City) to see a show I've been holding a ticket to for more than a month...oh, the anticipation has been agony! So if you like the photos, you can click on them to get the full size view. And leave a comment! Let me know how you feel! Okay, before we begin, you should know that over the summer, i went to see She&Him at Terminal 5, and I was super excited (I just
heart Zooey
Deschanel and her voice is so sweet and her songs are so old school cool, right?). BUT, when I got to the door, security wouldn't let me in with my camera because it's too awesome. They said if I had a crappy point-and-shoot, it'd have been fine, but Artemis is just too wicked to get in without a press pass (Yes, my camera has a name...her name is Artemis). And I had no press pass. Can you believe I had to leave my camera in the coat check?!?! Apparently, I wasn't alone in this. The girl at coat check had a special area for everyone's camera gear...that made me a little less nauseous at the thought of leaving my baby with a stranger. All alone. In the dark. Poor Artemis. Poor me! I had a great time at the show, but was beside myself that I couldn't take any photos. Nothing to reminisce over...*sigh* Poor you! No photos of how adorable Zooey looked in her little blue vintage dress with the little satin headband and the giant flower on the side. So cute. But there's no evidence. It may as well have never even happened at all...I was determined that this would never happen to me again. I was determined that I should never again be separated from my camera when something as
wonderful as live music is happening just beyond the large man at the door shaking his head. So, I decided that I would have to make my own press pass. I had no qualms about faking up a press pass (just in case someone working the door at the Hotel Cafe Tour should give me a hard time). I did all the graphics and whatnot at home on my own. Laminated it at Kinko's. Easy, peasy, one-two-threesy! Then, I thought, but what if someone tries to verify my fake sh*t? And this was actually the impetus for this very blog! Okay, there! I said it! I only started this blog as a front for my awesome new homemade press
pass. And you know what? I'm not ashamed! I love my camera. I love live music. Apparently, I also love yammering on and on about whatever comes to mind when I sit down to write about what happens when my camera and the live music come together...I love this blog. I love you for reading it. Warm fuzzies! After all that worrying about keeping it real (or really, making it real, with my press pass), nobody said boo to me about my camera. I think I've gone off on a tangent. Let's get back on track.
Hotel Cafe Tour. Bowery Ballroom. Rachael Yamagata. Meiko. Thao Nguyen. Samantha Crain. Emily Wells. Jenny Owen Youngs. Live music. Me and my camera and my shiny new press pass. Awesomeness. The Hotel Cafe is a little spot in Los Angeles where heaps of people turn up to perform. The tour is an extension of the cafe itself, and it's not just unsigned indies either...Rilo Kylie, Jason Mraz, and John Mayer have all performed on other legs of the Hotel Cafe Tour. This particular tour at this particular point in time, however, is the girls' tour.
All girls. All the time...well, nearly. The backing band members are all boys, but they in their defense, they were all very talented, and lovable, and cute (you know, in that way that only sensitive, musician-type boys can be). The format is like no other show I've ever seen. Mostly in that it seemed to lack format. No opening acts. Every artist on equal footing (performance-wise...as far as notoriety, some were definitely more well-known than others - and by "some" I mean Rachael Yamagata).
Everyone came up and did a few songs, and then left, and then came back and did a few more later, and then came on to back up another performer, and then left off stage again. I kind of liked the no-format format to be honest. It really does put all the artists on equal footing so it never feels like the person you're watching and listening to at the
moment is any less important than the bigger name that follows. No openers. Just headliners. And we'll all headline together! It's a very girly concept, really. Apropos for such a vajayjay-centric kind of tour. So for anyone who showed up after the theoretical 8pm show time (which in concert reality is an 8:30pm show time), they missed some great performances. Luckily, they can check out this blog and look at some pretty pictures, and it'll be just like they were there and didn't miss a thing. Holla!
So, the evening kicked off with some great opening audience banter by Jason Kanakis - who not only hosted the evening, but also backed up the performers on guitar (acoustic and electric) and ukulele, followed by a lovely little lady (seriously, she can't be more than 5 feet tall) by the name of Samantha Crain. Admittedly, the evening was a blur of artists I'd never seen, heard, or even heard of before. That being said, Samantha rendered herself instantly memorable with her soulful voice and her simultaneous guitar and harmonica playing, not to mention her charming in-between chit-chat with the crowd. She sang about a preacher who drowns a churchgoer during a baptism. She talked about this trip's "New York Moment". This one involving her walk earlier that afternoon down Spring St. where they just happened to be filming "Ugly Betty", and someone mistook Samantha for America Ferrerra.
It's not hard to see why...charming and adorable. According to a particularly zealous fan,
THE cutest person in the whole world. Samantha graciously accepted the compliment, but asked in response, "Do you even
know everyone in the whole world?"; and then after a moment's pause, "Is that Angie? [The compliment] doesn't count if it's from my publicist..." Adorable, no? Next to take the stage (well, a very well organised corner of the stage, really) was Emily Wells. For those of you who don't know who she is (and I certainly didn't before this), Emily Wells kicks ass. First of all, she plays violin. She also sings. She also plays guitar and xylophone and metalophone. She does all these things AT THE SAME TIME! Sort of. She has a table set up with a few different record-and-play-back devices, and since she did her entire set solo sans backing musicians, she would, for instance, start out playing a little melody on her violin, record it, loop it, and play it back while she added another sound to the mix and then sang over it all. I was impressed by the sheer organisational prowess involved in such an undertaking. To describe her sound: it's kind of like Break of Reality and Rasputina meets Martha Wainwright. Dark with some bright spots, and completely her own. The highlight of her second set was her cover of Notorious B.I.G.'s "Juicy". Priceless...Though it did feel like I was the only
person in the audience who seemed to know all the words and be singing along. Next, when Samantha Crain came back for another set, she announced that she was doing a cover of "99 Problems". We were all impressed...until she giggled and said, "No, not really...but maybe I'll work on that one for you guys for the next time..." When Thao Nguyen came out, she basically grabbed her guitar, plugged into the amp at center stage and proceeded to take the joint over. I have to say, she was probably the most enthusiastic performer of the whole night, and it was contagious.
She had every person in the room jumping and swaying. Before she had even made it out to the middle of the stage, she'd already garnered several declarations of love and a couple of marriage proposals from points unseen in the audience. She even had her "Willie Nelson and Friends" moment when all of the other performers came out to join her on stage for one number. So adept at moving the crowd while still seemingly only playing for herself and the fun of it, she gave the impression that there are probably very few things she's not good at. Thao was loud and fun. Melodic, stage savvy, and ultimately captivating. Definitely worth a go-see. After waaaaaaaay too much anticipation,
Rachael Yamagata , at long last, sneaked onto stage and sat herself down at the piano. It must be mentioned in a side note, that the piano was far, far stage right, and Rachael's face was mostly hidden behind the microphone. I decided it was time to put my newly obtained press credentials to work, and muscled my way as politely as possible over to the other side of the stage to get us all some decent shots. Yay, us! Cheers, cheers all around for laminates. But I digress...
It hardly needs to be mentioned that Rachael Yamagata is a spectacular musician and author of the soundtrack to your latest break-up. She opened this particular set with the title track off her new double disc release, "Elephants". You could hear a pin drop in the ballroom. No one even sang along, they were all so transfixed by her voice. Raspy, throaty, gravely...call it what you will, but regardless of the inevitable comparisons to other singers like Fiona Apple and Alanis Morissette, Rachael's voice is a creature all its own. Is it wrong to hope that she never quits smoking? Her set was too short, and we had to wait too long to have her back on stage again. Clearly, she had split her performances between piano songs and guitar songs, and this was the piano song set. *sigh*
Meiko's first words upon taking up the microphone were, "Damn, Rachael!" Admittedly, Miss Y. is a pretty tough act to follow. All the more because she really does play to herself moreso than to the crowd. She appreciates and enjoys the applause, but she doesn't really seem to need it. That being said, Meiko picked up her guitar and took us all on a ride through some very cleverly worded musical stylings. It must be noted that she wore the sparkliest emerald green eye shadow...around which revolved a good deal of her back and forth banter with the audience. Someone even yelled out that they liked her blush, which she mis-heard as something else entirely and asked them to repeat it...then spell it. "Ah,
BLUSH...with an L. That L is important...'Cause that would have been awkward..." Lovely and very entertaining. I believe my favorite of her songs that evening was called "Real, Real Sweet" and was about the girlfriend of a friend who was convinced that there was more than just friendship going on between Meiko and her man. Trust me, you wanna run and find that one for your mp3 player. And remember: it's not rude if it's in a song...An unexpected surprise on this leg of the Hotel Cafe Tour was none other than Jenny Owen Youngs.
She'd performed the night before in Philadelphia and wasn't really scheduled for the show at the Bowery, but since New York is her hometown, she came out and gave us a little something. Her banter, not just with the audience, but most notably with Jason Kanakis (who backed her up on mandolin) was hilarious! They discussed skull duggery and skull buggery, among other things.
She was relieved to get a laugh for it in NYC because in Philly when she brought up skull f*cking..."Hmmm...not so much." Take Jenny, a song containing the hook "What the f*ck was I thinking?", add in Jason Kanikis and Jason Kanakis' mustache, and wacky hi-jinks are bound to ensue. Jenny was like Dorothy Parker with a guitar...and I loved it! It cannot go unsaid that Rachael Yamagata's second, guitar song set was awesome. She played a new song and a couple of older ones. All were thoroughly enjoyed and rocked out to by the crowd. It also cannot go without saying that it is extremely difficult to get a good photo of Rachael Yamagata while she is performing. This is mainly attributed to the fact that the lighting could not compete with her hair. Rachael has really great hair.
It's dark and thick, and everything a shampoo commercial could ever hope for. It is cut just so that it almost entirely engulfs her face, bangs hanging down nearly to her nose. In case you're wondering (and I can tell that you are),
this all plays into making it (as I've already said) extremely difficult to get a good photo of her. More to the point, it makes it extremely difficult to get a good photo of her where you can actually see her face. There is one other factor that makes getting a good photo of Rachael so very troublesome. (If you're reading this, Rachael, I apologise, but it's true). The fact is Rachael doesn't perform "pretty". It's part of what makes her so entrancing to watch. She is so into what she's doing, she's not concerned with how she looks while she's doing it. Rachael has "Rock Face".
This is the condition where any kind of emotion conveyed while rocking out (which Rachael does on every song, even the slow ones) causes the face the contort, giving the rocker the look of one who is a) shocked , b) in agonising pain, or c) smelling something completely wretched. It's not her fault. She just rocks so hard, it really can't be helped. She performed a new song from the new double disc, "Faster", and something from her first full length LP, "Worn Me Down". Of course she had Rock Face! You may be wondering now, how it is that I've managed to take such awesome photos of Rachael where you can actually see her face. That answer is easy. I'm the shizzle. Peace out my babies!!! See you at the next show...
Enjoy this snippet of Jenny Owen Youngs performance of her song "F*ck Was I Thinking?".
Side note: I recently discovered that Jenny Owen Youngs mentioned on
her own blog that i mentioned her on my own blog.
These boys are fun Fun FUN!!! they opened their set with some monster guitars and killer bass, and followed immediately with the most kick ass drums I've heard all year on such a modest set-up. The music is kinda bluesy, kinda rock & roll-ish, 100% kick ass with a side of down home goodness and foot stomping. 
Let me put it like this, if the new season of True Blood on HBO opened with These United States playing in a bar on the bayou and followed with vampiric goodness and mayhem, I wouldn't be a bit surprised; and these fellas would not be a bit out of place. Usually, an opening act is pretty good, but you'd much rather be watching/listening to whatever band you really came to see. In this case, when the boys announced their last song, the entire room was all, "Nooooooooooooo!!!...but we do want to see Jenny. But still...Noooooooooooooooo!!!" For those that have only heard them, I must point out that bass player, Mark Charles, is one of the best dressed men in music right now. 
Period. Also, front man, Jesse Elliott, is the sweatingest man in music, and that is a fact. This man sweated more than all the other performers in all the other acts combined. He took one for the team. He was sweating on everyone's behalf. Seriously, I was in the front with my camera praying that he wouldn't shake his head in my direction. Sweat dripping from his guitar! Rounding out the foursome is J. Tom Hnatow who was wicked on the steel guitar and slide, David Strackany who worked it out on electric guitar, and drummer Robby Cosenza (who played nearly the entire set with his eyes closed - love this guy!). But I digress...please find their myspace and show them some love.
Jenny stepped up next. To say that Jenny Owen Youngs is extremely talented would be an understatement at the very least. Of course, when talking about her spectacular new cd, Transmitter Failure, she, herself, would probably be more likely to tell you that "...the packaging is beautiful! The music's okay..." Jenny rocked, rolled, folk'd,and joked her way through a nearly hour-long set, playing mostly new songs with a few solid assists from the first album. The show opener, Voice On Tape (from Jenny's debut, Batten The Hatches), got a huge crowd response...followed by an almost solemn hush as everyone leaned in and listened intently. The live version does not pale in the least to the album version with recorded voicemail snippets from Jenny's old college chum, Regina Spektor. 
Jenny was joined on this leg of the tour by Dan Romer on guitar, Chris Kuffner on bass, Elliott Jacobson on drums, and someone whom Jenny described as "...Destroyer of worlds, breaker of hearts, and my favorite part of the band Tegan & Sara...", Bess Rogers on guitar. Since the new album was just released officially the day before this show, the new songs were a pleasant and very welcome surprise to nearly everyone in the room. The driving force behind newer songs like Led To The Sea, Dissolve, and Clean Break definitely left a stamp of "Mission Accomplished" on Jenny's mission while writing and recording the album, which was to bring a collection of songs that would be more fun to perform live. 
They got the crowd moving, head nodding, dancing to the beat, and singing along to the chorus after not too long. Nods to Batten The Hatches were the afore mentioned Voice On Tape, Drinking Song, and everyone's favorite, F*ck Was I. My personal favorite off the new album performed during the show was the title track, Transmitter Failure which, in my opinion, is 
the most melodically beautiful song Jenny's recorded so far. This is no small feat from a woman who can make you sing the words "What the f*ck was I thinking..." absentmindedly in a room full of small children before you catch yourself and look around to see if anybody heard you (I'm not saying it's happened to me, but I'm not saying it hasn't either...). Catchy melody is clearly her thang! Transmitter Failure (the song and the album) has so many layers. Performed live it is stripped down to its bare 
essentials and it is after the big, thrashy guitar opening comes to an abrupt halt that you have to hold your breath so you don't miss out on Jenny softly singing the verses and chorus. By the time the end of the song comes around and the guitars and drums are going at full force again while Jenny sings serenely over the entire arrangement, 
you're not ready for it all to dissolve into the near silence of the last lone note. It's a breathtaking performance live, and its only improvement on the recorded version is the addition of a string quartet to round out the lushness of the sound. Beautiful. She followed this up with a lovely rendition of Nighty Night, and finished big and raucously loud with Last Person. 
The only thing that could have made this a better show would have been if Jenny closed the show instead of being sandwiched between These United States and Jukebox The Ghost. There's really no room for name chanting and encore songs when another band is waiting to go on stage....*sigh*
If you told me that Jukebox the Ghost was the mastermind behind the vampire puppet opera in the film "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", I would totally believe you. The movie's leading man, Jason Segel, keeps insisting that he actually wrote all of those songs though, so you'll just have to check out Jukebox the Ghost live in concert to see why I'm drawing parallels 
between that film and this music. Pretty much every song they played sounded like something from some gothic puppet opera. This was helped along by the chatty lead-ins to the songs ("This one is about what the world is like if you're coming from underground after the apocalypse and seeing the planet again for the first time..."). The harmonies are sublime. The falsettos are BeeGees-era goodness. This is a live show you don't want to miss.
