Corinne Bailey Rae Live @ Hiro Ballroom NYC

When I found out that Corinne Bailey Rae would be performing at Joe's Pub in NYC, I waited in front of my laptop continuously clicking the refresh button at 1:59pm until tickets would go on sale the very next minute. Then the very next minute came...and the tickets were ALREADY SOLD OUT!!!! WTF?! I tried and tried and tried some more, but nothing was "available". I figured there must have been some overload on the ticket site, so I rang the box office. There were only about 20 or so tickets on sale, and they were already sold out. I was gutted! Positively crushed. Then, in a freak twist of fate, I checked my e-mail and found a Giant Step invite to another Corinne show at Hiro Ballroom - on sale that very minute, so naturally, I clicked away on that only to find those tickets sold out as well. After scouring the internet for other possibly soon tour dates to no avail (oh, and working at my job....I did that too for a bit that day as I recall), I felt compelled to click the Giant Step link one more time. AND LO! What should appear, but a payment verification screen...SCORE!!! Yay me! And yay YOU! 'Cause you get to read this blog and soak up some of Corinne's awesomeness (albeit vicariously) for yourself! Cheers!

So, Hiro Ballroom...for all you NYC peeps (or my loyal bloglodytes...) you already know what it's like. For the unannointed among you, Hiro Ballroom is located in Chelsea on 9th Avenue between 16th and 17th Streets, tucked away (almost hidden) below the Maritime Hotel and its environs. The space is decked out with dark woods and lots of pretty authentic and Fauxriental (Faux+Oriental) ornamentation, lanterns, dim lights, stage one foot off the floor....which is why I got there plenty early. Wouldn't want you kids to get stuck out in the cold with no photos from the show. That would just be wrong. I couldn't do that to you...you're too cute to disappoint...squeeeeeeeeeee...

Here's some happy news for those not lucky enough to be in attendance Monday night, the entire thing was filmed for broadcast on The Artists' Den. It's a PBS series that is now also broadcast on Hulu. YAY some more! But in the meantime, I have this whole blog thing, so let's see how that all shakes out, shall we?



So, Corinne Bailey Rae....deeeeeeeeeeeeeelightful, as you may have already guessed. After much camera adjusting and guitar tuning (there was one guy in a Spice Girls World Tour 2008 t-shirt tuning all the guitars, and I swear it seemed as if the guitars were multiplying whenever we looked away...so many, many guitars to tune before the show. *sigh*), the band finally filed onto the diminutive stage and were soon joined by the lady herself (to riotous applause, I might add). Corinne, just as sweet as she wanna be, came out in a royal blue jumpsuit with loose, drapey side pockets, gold ballet flats, and twice as much hair as the last time you saw her. She said her salutations to the audience ("New York, how're you doin' tonight?!"), and wasted no time in getting the show on the road. She opened with the dancetastic Are You Here and followed it up with Paris Nights/New York Mornings. Corinne accompanied herself on acoustic and electric guitar, and both songs were a departure from the easy-breezy sound of her eponymous debut album. And then she slowed things down with Love's On It's Way, and the old school soul feel of Closer. Seriously, I had an Earth Wind & Fire moment during that last one, and believe me when I say that you have never seen or heard Corinne let loose like the end of this song. Phillip Bailey-level goodness!

Corinne Bailey Rae - Closer (live) @ Hiro Ballroom NYC

Paper Dolls opens with a beat reminiscent of The Supremes' My World Is Empty Without You, Babe, and to be honest, it's adorable how much fun Corinne seems to be having with that tambourine! Corinne told of how she co-wrote the song with her friend and former Helen bandmate who is joining her on this tour. She explained their first band, Helen ("Maybe some of you have heard of it...probably very few. It's one of those things where you just had to be there...It was part of a very localized scene. We were pretty big in our scene..." and giggles all around). In anticipation of this show, I've been devouring reviews and photos from other appearances Corinne's been making lately, and they all seemed to be going out of their way to point out how her voice seems to have taken on a deeper tone and a more melancholic air since the very untimely passing of her husband, musician Jason Rae, in March of 2008. The fact that she has written and recorded an entire album full of new songs to release and is performing them live internationally less than two years later blows my mind and is a testament to the woman's own inner strength. That being said, I think a lot of those reviewers were projecting their own emotions onto what they were hearing. I didn't find her voice to be very melancholic at all. In fact, during I'd Do It All Again (and doesn't the title just say it all?), her voice soared and she had an enormous smile across her face nearly the entire song.

Corinne Bailey Rae - I'd Do It All Again (live) @Hiro Ballroom NYC

When she followed it with her debut single, Like A Star, however, it was definitely an emotional moment for the room. Juxtaposing two songs that could seem (at least, to an outsider) to be very much of a before and an after struck a chord with everyone in the room. The crowd sang along word for word (most notably the annoying guy standing behind my cousin and myself who insisted on bumping us with his arms and hands, practically resting his camera on my cousin's head to get a shot, and had no compunction about leaning all of his baggage against our legs for convenience - it should be no great surprise that he sang so loudly and so directly into our ears it seemed he was holding out the misguided hope that if he just sang out enough, Corinne would take notice and they'd be BFF's 4-eva...some people just have no sense of intimate concert decorum. Though I longed to hear more songs from her debut album, it made me grateful that the majority of the performance was songs from the forthcoming The Sea so that he could not sing the entire show slightly off key and directly into the back of my head. And if you're reading this, Sir...yes, I mean you. But I digress...). Like A Star was succeeded by Blackest Lily, which I would like to tell you about, but can't remember because her cover of Jimi Hendrix's Little Wing came next and was off the chain! Corinne and her band began with some a capella cooing in the sweetest, liltingest harmony that you didn't see coming. Have a gander of this one on the video. It is (as ever) taken with my camera phone, but the sound quality is great and you are guaranteed some warm-fuzzies of your very own.

Corinne Bailey Rae - Little Wing (live) @Hiro Ballroom NYC

Diving For Hearts and the haunting I Would Like To Call It Beauty came on its heels. She closed out the set ("...well, maybe you'll be able to get us back out for a few more songs; but this is the official last song..." ;-]) with the title track, The Sea. Before she could begin, an eager fan thrust a gift towards the stage - a framed bit of something with a card attached ("Should I read it? I'm gonna read it...I won't read it out. Talk amongst yourselves for a minute"). It was the closest to shedding a tear that I saw her come the whole evening. She thanked the fan and set the frame down to sing the show's "official" closing number. Accompanying herself on autoharp, Corinne sang like a woman scanning the horizon for a husband lost at sea. All echoing tones and dark lyrics. When she departed the stage, the band just sort of stood around looking awkward awaiting her return for the inevitable (and already promised) encore...luckily, Corinne didn't keep us - or them - waiting more than a few moments. When the opening chords of Put Your Records On rang out, the crowd jump up and down and clapped and sang along en masse (one in particular directly into my ear...uh hemm). Being that the show was mainly new songs, I think the audience had been dying for a grasp at the more familiar...something we could all sing along to and feel a proper part of. We were not disappointed. The shows real close was with an updated version of Til It Happens To You. The guitar riffs were darker, funkier, and bluesier, as was Corinne's voice. At one point the beat switched up and got even deeper, and she let it all hang out. Like love on ya eardrum, people! It left us all wanting more, but after a performance like that, what else could there be to give? *sigh*

Corinne Bailey Rae - Til It Happens To You (live) partial @Hiro Ballroom NYC

She did mention, by the way, that she'd be back touring again in NYC in January and April, so keep your eyes open for tickets...and don't say I didn't warn you when you're five minutes late to ticket sales and find they're all sold out! Until next time, see you at the next show...

Staceyann Chin @ Barnes & Noble Union Sq. NYC

This past week, I was fortunate enough to have yet another opportunity to see world renown poet/spoken word artist/writer/activist Staceyann Chin. This time was a little different though. This time, instead of performing her volatile mix of powerfully stirring activist poetry and inwardly conscious and very personal spoken word (okay, okay...there was still a little bit of that, too), Staceyann was reading excerpts from her newly published memoir, "The Other Side Of Paradise", about growing up parentless, bi-racial, and gay in Jamaica.

book cover photo by Tomas Rodriguez

Staceyann took to the stage and admitted to being a little bewildered at the difference between performing poetry to a poetry-loving audience and reading excerpts from a book that you really hope people will buy. As she mentioned more than once during the evening, it is amazing that Barnes & Noble is celebrating a Black, Asian, lesbian, woman poet with a book reading and signing...and if you want to see more of this type of thing, you need to buy this book and show them that their support is not misplaced. After getting settled, Staceyann opened with a short poem, Haiku On Turning 30: "Look at me. Writing poems. Lobbying to make boobs sexy when they sag." She followed by reading some excerpts from her memoir. One about self discovery that ended a bit tragically and could have taken a very bad turn if not for the poet's winning sense of humor. The other a taste of the heartbreak she felt upon meeting her father for the first time in her teens. She followed with a question and answer session, fielding topics ranging from "What advice do you have for an aspiring writer?" to "What kind of women are you into?" She answered with all the deft aplomb and quick wit that one would expect from a Def Poetry Jam alumnus. After staying to sign books, shake hands, and chat briefly with her admirers, Stacey ajourned to Bar13 for the afterparty which featured some words from Vivette Miller, Gloria Bigelow, and Tiona McClodden among others, as well as Staceyann herself. With music spun by Deejay Reborn on the one's and two's, a good time was definitely had by all.

On the written page (as in her live performance), Staceyann has unique ability to be heartbreakingly, startlingly honest, deeply dramatic and serious, and then turn it all around and laugh at herself in the same sentence. Because she so often lays bare some of the most intimate details of her life on the stage, the idea that there is still enough yet unsaid to fill an entire book may be quite a surprise to some. But for Staceyann and countless others who have grown up with Jamaican sands beneath their feet, being gay is not only frowned upon, it is illegal. It is dangerous. Much too often, it can be deadly. And though this has informed a large part of who Staceyann Chin is as a person and as a poet, she does not let it define her. Not on stage. And not in this memoir. Just as the little girl on the book's cover stands at once defiant and hopeful, so stand the stories told between its leaves. After all, one does not start out life, in any place, as an outspoken lesbian activist and poet. There are a lot of steps that fill the space between the choices made for us in childhood and the choices that we make for ourselves as adults. Staceyann gives us leave to poke our heads through the windows to her past to see what kind of a girl she was, what kind of a life she lived, and what kind of circumstances and happenstances led her to her current vocation (poetry) and her current location (Brooklyn, New York). It may not be all holiday, but it's most definitely a trip that I recommend we all take. If you are a woman. If you are gay. If you were an orphaned child. If you grew up poor. You need to read this book and see a side of yourself that you don't often expose to the light, and rise up and embrace your struggles. If you are none of these things, you need to read this book and try to experience life from someone else's point of view so that you can look upon your fellow human beings as human beings and not just a collective "THEM" over there. As illustrated in the title of Staceyann Chin's memoir, there is another side to paradise...but it is still paradise! So you'll want to check it out!

CSS @ Webster Hall NYC

Let me just preface this by saying that I was shocked to even be able to get tickets the night before the event. After nearly an entire autumn dominated by Rachael Yamagata making the rounds to promote her new album (at B&N Union Square, with the Hotel Cafe Tour, and on her solo tour at Bowery Ballroom), I was thrilled to find that one of the bands that I've been most curious about for the past year, Cansei de Ser Sexy, would be playing in New York. CSS is that band that has a really good look, and a really good story, and really interesting interviews in all the magazines, but I'd never actually listened to much of their stuff before. I'd heard the odd snippet on myspace, but hadn't had a proper sit down to see what they were all about. After the events of Wednesday night, I think it's pretty safe to say that I am a very grateful convert. First off, Webster Hall is one of my favorite venues. I've seen some of my all time favorite shows there: Corinne Bailey Rae, The Gossip, and now CSS...There's no barrier to keep the audience away from the stage (which can be both a good and bad thing at times), and the stage itself is not so high up (if you're over 5'4", you can rest your elbows on the edge quite comfortably until a crowd surfer lands on your head because you were looking at the stage and didn't see him coming...*sigh*).

The show opener was a band called Ssion (pronounce that however you like...). This involved a heavily mustachioed lead singer, a keyboardist/sound engineer, a drummer, and two scantily clad boy back-up dancers. The music was club funky house goodness and with the antics of their lead singer and the dancing boys, there was not a dull moment in their set. And I will say this: their stage set was really quite elaborate for an opening act at such a small venue.

On to the main attraction: CSS at Webster Hall was the most insane show I have attended in my adult life! Lovefoxxx took to the stage wearing a black and white mudcloth printed bodysuit (with matching ankle boots...that, I'm sure, were not easy to find), and a feathered headdress, giving her the appearance of one of Maurice Sendak's famous Wild Things...and in this case, appearances were not deceiving. The action and energy on stage translated into utter madness on the floor. Did I mention the insane amount of crowd surfers using crowd surfing itself to circumvent security and have themselves deposited directly onto the stage? One guy was just plain greedy! I'm sure he was passed over or near my head and onto stage at least four times. And I took more than one unsuspecting foot to the back of the head when I was so focused on the band's antics on stage that I neglected to notice whole human beings hurtling toward my cranium. What could bring even more madness than this? I'll tell you what: Lovefoxxx in the audience, that's what! Aaaaahhhhhhhh!!!! Absolutepandemonium! And we loved it! She came down, not once, but twice...and toward the end of the show, after the "encore" (is it really an encore if you leave stage and we all know that you're coming back? I'm just sayin'...), Ana (keyboardist/guitarist extraordinaire) decided to have at it as well via a little crowd surfing. On her second go, she actually fell down into the audience and yours truly helped her up to her feet (so she wouldn't get trampled by all the people who didn't realise who the skinny girl at their feet was at first) and back on to the stage. Yeah, it was pretty awesome. I freely admit that there were a few times when I actually feared for my life (my life being my camera and her well being), but seeing CSS live at Webster Hall was, without question, one of my most exhilarating experiences in recent history...and I hope it's not too long before I can do it again! Oh, and did I forget to mention that I got a copy of the first cd signed by all the band members for the low low price of $12? Yeah, here's a shot of that, too. Jealous much?

Here's a snippet of what you missed...



Video courtesy of lickyoats on youtube. cheers!

Rachael Yamagata Live In-Store @ Barnes&Noble Union Square- NYC

Okay, so as a little surprise, I was passing through Union Square early this week and noticed that Rachael Yamagata was doing an in-store appearance/performance/cd signing at Barnes&Noble on Thursday. As I am a HUGE Rachael Yamagata fan and had no other social obligations on Thursday evening, I made it a point to turn up to said appearance/performance/cd signing...with my camera of course. As luck would have it, I was moved up to one of the very close-up "Reserved" row seats because some very important losers didn't show up in time. Yay Me! And Yay You...Because you get to see the photos....and stay tuned. I'll also be snapping photos of Rachael at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC on 30th October.
Just at the start....


Sometimes...you can actually see her face!



Just before a song...


Taking questions from the moderator...



Inside the music


All introspective and thinky...

Here's a little live vid of Rachael performing "Sunday Afternoon" at the event.



Video courtesy of JoThere on Youtube.

Aesop Rock at the McCarren Pool in Brooklyn, NY

One lovely summer's morning (okay, afternoon really), I awoke to the excited twitterings of my flatmate who very much wanted to know if I would accompany her to a free show at the McCarren Pool in Brooklyn. "What free show?" I inquired. "AESOP ROCK!!!!" she replied, barely able to contain herself. Needless to say, I quickly dressed, grabbed my camera, and headed out the door with her.


Upon arriving at the McCarren Pool, we were informed by event staff that I could not, in fact, bring my yummy and delicious Mr. Softee rootbeer float into the venue. Mind you, they were not selling McCarren-style rootbeer floats inside, but they wouldn't let me in with mine. You should also be well advised that you'd better find somewhere else to take your bike. It's fantastic to bike through Brooklyn in the summertime, but they won't let you take it inside the venue. This family (so cute with their fun hair and tattoos and cool kid in his bike-child's seat) had to ride around for quite some time looking for a place they felt safe locking up their bikes while they were inside. So, if you go to the McCarren Pool on your bike, don't say I didn't warn you.

I'd never been inside the Pool before. It's run down (obviously, or it would still be an actual swimming pool and not a concert venue...yay for run down!). Somehow, though, like so many parts of Brooklyn, it still manages to make run down look beautiful...especially if you're with good company on a perfect summer day in August. The pool is everything trendy, hipster-ridden Williamsburg is all about. It's shabby, but just enough to still be chic.

The crowd was amazing. Thankfully, not just a bunch of shaggy-haired, striped scarf wearing, Manhattan-transplanted, pretentious, artsy, trendy hipsters...and not just trendy-ass hipster posers either. The people watching was stellar. Some of my favorites: Two Sikh boys in pink turbans (who knew all the words to every song that Aesop Rock'ed! p.s. I kinda have a thing for Sikh boys in turbans), some girls laying down on the bottom of the pretty blue paint chipped pool, a toddler with some music -buffering headphones on (bright pink - more very cool parents need to get these for their kids, btw). When Aesop Rock took the stage with Rob Sonic as his trusty companion and partner in rhyme, the crowd went bananas! The surge of bodies pushing toward the stage actually lifted me up off my feet momentarily. Backed by DJ Big Whiz on the wheels of steel, Aesop took the crowd on a lyrical journey through his musical catalogue. For real, for those that didn't already know, suddenly "Fast Cars, Danger, Fire, and Knives" seemed like the hot new anthem and something to maybe do some research on if you want to get some street cred. Personally, I had to stop taking photos and just stand with my hand to my heart when the beat dropped for "Daylight". I confess, I may have had a little tear in my eye. That was a very moving moment in hip hop for yours truly. Joined throughout the show by the likes of Rob Sonic, El-P, and Yak Ballz, Aesop gave the performance of the summer and made an entire corner of Brooklyn thank God for run down swimming pools and free summer shows.

U People Documentary Fundraiser @ Southpaw in Brooklyn featuring the ladies of Ubiquita and Staceyann Chin

Once upon a late spring's eve, I befriended a phenomenal deejay who goes by the name of DJ Reborn of the much lauded and Village Voice featured Ubiquita collective. When I found out she was spinning again in a neighborhood not too far from my own in Brooklyn, I resolved instantly that I should go. As the date drew nearer, I was receiving more and more information on the event. It would be at Southpaw in Park Slope. It was a co-production between Ubiquita and U People to kick off Pride month in June. It would be a fundraising event for the U People Documentary, a film shot during the filming of Hanifah Walidah's "Make A Move" music video featuring a Brooklyn brownstone filled with 30 women of color - straight, gay, and trans -discussing what it means to be Black and LGBT in America today. You can order the DVD directly from the U People website. (and while you're at it, get on the mailing list because Hanifah and Olive know how to throw a party!) It would be $20 to get in. Featured artists performing would be Shelley Nicole's Blakbushe, Hanifah Walidah featuring Helen Foulard of Les Nubians, and (wait for it....) Staceyann Chin. Let me say that again in case you missed it: STACEYANN CHIN!!!! Staceyann Chin, world renown poet and spoken word artist. Staceyann Chin of Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam fame. Staceyann Muthaf*cking Chin. So, as you might imagine, I was even more excited about the event. The event listing said that it started at 7pm. Now, I wasn't sure if that was 7pm Real World time or 7pm CP time, so I decided to head over from work straightaway (I didn't want to take the chance that Staceyann's busy schedule would have her performing first at a punctual event and I might miss it because I wanted to go home and get even cuter...so i just went with my usual cute...and my camera). In my rush to get to the show on time, I mistakenly forgot my camera battery in the charger at my jobby-job. Thankfully, I realised this before I got on the train and raced back to pick it up before it was too late. Then I dashed back to the subway and headed to Park Slope. The friend that was meeting me had already arrived, but the venue was not quite up and grooving yet (CP time after all), so we went to grab something to eat. I don't want to name names and blacken the reputation of any Park Slope eateries, but the place my friend chose had the slowest service this side of purgatory! And though I love her to pieces, my girl was taking waaaaay too long to eat something that had already taken waaaaay too long to arrive at the table; and I'm like a five-year-old in a bank line with my mum once my attention span stops working. So after over an hour, I had to excuse myself from the table and agree to meet her back at Southpaw when she was finished. I got back to the spot and it looked like things were starting to jump off. A good-size and good looking crowd had begun to form and there were some sounds pumping through the speakers. I scoped out my surroundings with my camera, taking a few test shots here and there to check the lighting, etc. Then I sidled up to the bar and ordered my drink (Shirley Temple. Very red. Four cherries.). Not long after, my friend re-arrived and we took a seat in a little elevated, comfy lounge area to take in the ambiance and feel the vibe of the evening. Now, when I first got there, like I said, Southpaw wasn't really much to look at. A cavernous event space with dim lighting, a dusty floor, a red-lit bar, and a naked performance stage. But by this time, the place was getting pretty packed, and it really did look like a good time about to go off. It never ceases to amaze me how the energy of the people in a space can be so transformative to the space itself. Southpaw was lookin' kinda cute! The first act to take the stage (after a spirited introduction from Ubiquita event coordinator Kim Knox) was Shelley Nicole's Blakbusche. Funk. And then some more funk. Funk like I wanted my Uncle John to come back from the other side just to watch this show with me because I'm not sure if anyone else I know could fully understand this funk. Shelley Nicole killed it. It was soul. It was funk. It was rock and roll. It was some love in your ear is what it was. A good time was had by all. Not a single ass was left unshaken when she departed the stage. Next to take the stage was - DA da da DAAAAHHH - Staceyann Chin! She got up and just started talking sh*t with the audience. A little back and forth about her hope to score a booty call out of tonight's engagement (as it was very low-key and the opening of pride month). She listed some pretty stiff criteria for anyone taking on this challenge. No abbreviated text messaging (wut r u up 2? call me l8r!), and please respect the rules of capitalisation and punctuation. And I can't stress this enough: Grammar. Grammar. Grammar. In short: Spelling, right. Grammar, tight. Staceyann is a force! She's tall and lithe, and takes up every inch of the stage with her presence. At every rise and fall of her voice, every facial expression, every mimed action, she illustrated her words with her body and took the audience along with her on the journey. Even as she stuttered out the last few lines of her last piece and gracefully demurred and bowed out from the stage, the crowd was cheering her on and begging her to continue just a little more...She certainly left them all wanting and waiting to see what she'll come up with next. Last get up and give it to the crowd was Hanifah Walidah (Miss U People herself!). Her set, from top to bottom was not just soulful, but full of spunk and humor. Miss Walidah is most definitely an all around performer. She sang her little face off, and also managed to make time to joke with the back up singers and introduce the world to some incredible musicians as well. On bass was Ganessa James (who also played bass with Shelley Nicole earlier in the evening). This girl is so much fun to watch hiding out in the background! As a bass player, she is pretty much designed to be low-key and in the background, but if you can peak over and around the edge of Hanifah's personality to catch Ganessa in the back, you can see that she is sincerely having the time of her life, slapping out basslines and dancing with her eyes closed. On guitar was a young lady that Hanifah found on MySpace (thank heaven for the internet, right?), Michelle Williams. This sista's skills were completely off the chain! Seriously, she is making me re-think my long-held belief that the bass player is, without fail, always the coolest person in the band. She switched between three different guitars. The last one was some kind of creature I'd never even seen before. It had a double-wide fret and ten or twelve strings and an odd shaped body. I don't know what it was called, but Michelle played the hell outta that thing! The live performances were followed by the ladies of Ubiquita (DeeJays Reborn, Moni, Selly, and SheRock) on the turntables to keep the party going. Up first was DJ Reborn making it do what it do with her own special blend of old school funk and soul mixed with contemporary hip hop and r&b. Next up was SheRock, and this is definitely not a misnomer. SheRock the ones and twos like nobody's business! Kept my body rockin'...Unfortunately, my jobby-job does not involve staying up all night in Brooklyn hot spots and shakin' ass (though I often wish it were...*sigh*), so I had to cut out before Moni and Selly took to the tables. Life is so unfair...Until next time my lovelies!



Check out Hanifah Walidah's music video for her song, 'Make A Move':



Video courtesy of souloperator on youtube