Jenny Owen Youngs & Emily Wells Live @ City Winery NYC

She saw you, Levi...and she knows you Whooed.

I found out about this show via Jenny Owen Youngs' Tumblr blog as she was invited, eleventh-hour-style, to join Emily Wells performing at City Winery. Now, I'd never been to City Winery before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Lemme fill you in so that, if you should happen to go there at some point (say, for instance, to see Beth Orton perform on 17th January), you will know what to expect. City Winery is, in fact a winery - well, they sell wine anyway. Unlike, say, The Knitting Factory which may have at some point been a knitting factory, but is currently not a factory of any kind. More than that, it is a winery/restaurant with a biggish stage on the back wall. It is beautifully lit, well-appointed, and has lots of tables and chairs that are not moved or rearranged in any way when there is a performance on the afore mentioned biggish stage. Seating is "cozy", so get to know your neighbors because if the place is packed with Jenny Owens Youngs and/or Emily Wells fans (as it just so happened to be on this particular evening), you will all be pretty much sitting in eachother's laps for the duration of the evening. Cozy. The wine is lovely. The food is nothing to write home about, but the accoustics are tremendous; so sit back with your wine and enjoy the show!

After some dramatic red velvet curtain parting, Jenny & Co. took to the stage and promptly commenced to tune their instruments...because, as Jenny told us, "...I care about you and I want the very best for you..." Soon thereafter, she kicked off the evening with If I Didn't Know. She seemed to be still finding her footing a bit with Led To The Sea, but finally hit her stride with the crowd pleaser, Drinking Song. Jenny then asked if there were any babies in the audience. After a few claps and shouts from the crowd, she concluded that there weren't any babies in the audience because, "...babies don't have the ability to clap like that." She seemed mostly concerned about babies in attendance because she thought that she might "...swear a lot accidentally...and then later, on purpose." Nice to know that Jenny's lookin' out for our best interests. Warm fuzzies. Thanks Jenny! All this while switching from electric to acoustic guitar ("Whoa! This is a totally different guitar! That's some Houdini-ass sh*t...") This little exchange was followed by Nighty Night (which, by the way, babies would have loved had there been any in the audience). Secrets was up next and was so kick-ass that i was a little saddened that my cozy seating situation wasn't a standing room only situation. It's definitely a get on your feet and sing along kind of a song. There was much singing along in the room, at any rate. See for yourself!

Jenny Owen Youngs performing Secrets live at City Winery NYC

Next up was no more words...and really, when you listen to the lyrics "I'm in the business of loving you 'til you choke," do you really need more words to describe Jenny's awesome lyrical genius? The answer to that is "No". You're welcome. Check it out.

Jenny Owen Youngs performing No More Words live at City Winery NYC

The highlight of the Jenny's set (well, one of many) was an as yet unheard rendition of Clean Break. Spec-f*cking-tacular!!! It was bigger and louder and ballsier than I've ever heard it performed before. Fun breaks, big guitar flourishes, well-timed drum solos, and fat bass slaps...This version needs to be mp3'd and put up on iTunes immediately! Jenny, can you hear me?!?! This new version of awesomeness from her current release, Transmitter Failure, could only be followed by the debut album awesomeness of F*ck Was I. So, um, that's what Jenny followed it with. Next up was the super fun of Last Person...if you've not yet seen the superfun official music video, you can check it out here. What makes this song so much fun live (well, everything with Jenny involved is fun live...) was that Jenny was joined only by drummer Elliott Jacobson and bassist Chris Kuffner, so when the chorus came around, it was pretty frickin' sweeeet that a big chunk of audience joined in to fill out the call-and-response parts. Hugs, everybody. That was nice.

Jenny slowed things down a bit next with Voice On Tape, where she switched it up a little and played the accompanying bass while Chris worked it out on guitar and backing vocal. ("Oh my God! Did we just trade instruments? I didn't even notice...ha!"...oh, Jenny!) Transmitter Failure, my personal favorite off the album of the same name, came next and definitely did not disappoint. Jenny really let loose and again I wished we were in a standing sort of venue instead of a seating-with-eating sort of venue (though Jenny threw out an "Enjoy the veal, everybody!" once or twice to some well-received laughter). Jenny closed out her set with the closing track from the album, Start + Stop. The song kicked ass. Jenny thoroughly kicked ass and a good time was had by all.

By this time, we were all well-prepared for Emily Wells to work her magic (Jenny Owen Youngs warned us that we may not be prepared for how hard we would be rocked, and how melted off our faces would be..."So that'll be fun..."). Emily began by...well, by having a bunch of guys move her table of magical musical delights and other things that plug in to the front of the stage. But right after that, Emily began with an a capella version of Patti LaBelle's If You Love Me...which was great for me because I grew up on that stuff, but I got the feeling that nobody else really got it. The lingering awkwardness in the air was immediately dissipated, however, when Emily busted out her violin and started McGyvering together sound loops to create her Symphony No. 1 In The Barrel Of A Gun (to raucous applause and great joy at the front table, I might add). For those already familiar with Emily's music, this was exactly what we had been waiting for. For the uninitiated, however, it was a new experience altogether. I loved looking around and watching the faces of people who either hadn't heard Emily before or hadn't seen her perform the music live as they realised they were watching her build each symphony one instrument at a time ("Oh shit! Is that a kid's toy microphone?!"). Equally as impressive as the sheer number of instruments and gadgets laid out on her table was that, apart from being just novel, some were simply unidentifiable. There are musical geniuses, and then there are musical geniuses. And then there is Emily Wells. Emily is on some other sh*t. Period.

But moving along...Symphony No. 1 was followed with Symphony No. 4 (America's Mercy War). Next up was something I was very excited about and a few people had no idea was coming. Emily Wells does a cover of Juicy by the late, great Notorious B.I.G. that is unlike anything you've ever heard. Admittedly, pretty much everything Emily does is unlike anything you've ever, but this is even more different than all of that...which says quite a bit, I think. She even dedicated the song to Lil' Kim...See for yourself!

Emily Wells performing Juicy (cover) live at City Winery in NYC

Symphony No. 6 (Fair Thee Well & The Requiem Mix) came up next. Fans in the crowd immediately recognised the beat and Emily encouraged them to get up and shake their asses...which they did. Good times! Next she started McGyvering for Symphony No. 9 & The Sunshine...apart from a small technical snafu, it was pretty awesome.

Emily Wells performing Symphony No. 9 & The Sunshine live at City Winery NYC

The high point of Emily's set came a few songs later, however, when she performed a new song: Give Ya Everything. Described by Emily as "...probably the closest I've ever gotten to writing a gospel song - I think my mom likes it 'cause I talk about God a little." It was a bit of a departure from the songs on her current album and very warmly received. With an artist like Emily, and a live show like the one she puts on, it's very rare that you get to see her really let loose. I mean, how could she when there are innumerable music cues to attend to and pressing the wrong button at the wrong time could derail an entire evening, not to mention a single song. But Give Ya Everything was that rare moment of her live show where it actually seemed she'd forgotten about the audience for a second and was just doing whatever felt right at the time. It was a breathtaking, put ya hands up, and say Amen kinda moment. The evening came to an end with Take It Easy New York, and an audience wishing that both Jenny and Emily would play just a little bit longer.

Luckily, neither performer was too shy to hang out post-show and rub elbows with us common folk. Jenny was nice enough to chit-chat for a minute and take pics with both yours truly and my new friend Levi. Shweeeet! And just as we were getting ready to leave, I managed to catch Emily's attention, and she was also nice enough to pose for a photo. So here are those...uh hem, I've edited myself out of the photos because, despite being the only one who wasn't drinking that night, I somehow managed to be sleepy-eyed and drunk-looking in every single one. Whatever! See you at the next show!

Jenny Owen Youngs @ Bowery Ballroom NYC

I came to see Jenny Owen Youngs, but the other bands kicked a lot of ass in their own rights. The show opened with a band called These United States. 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.

Here's a clip of Jenny performing "If I Didn't Know" live at the show.



And here's Jenny performing "F*ck Was I" live at the show...enjoy!

See you at the next show...

Thao Nguyen with The Get Down, Stay Down @ Bowery Ballroom NYC

Having seen Thao Nguyen once already on the Hotel Cafe Tour with Rachael Yamagata, I was pretty excited to hear she'd be headlining a show of her own in NYC. She is one of the most fun people to watch perform. I was even more excited when I arrived at the Bowery Ballroom and realised that Samantha Crain would be one of the opening acts. I'd seen Samantha and her band on the Hotel Cafe Tour as well and she is full of adorable, wise cracking, blue-grassing fun.

Samantha Crain & The Midnight Shivers opened the show with their special blend of blues, blue grass, and folk rock. Their set was full of energy and Samantha's unmistakable charm. At one point, she asked if there were any famous people in the audience and had the house lights put up so that she could take a look. Specifically, she asked if America Ferrera was in the audience. Samantha invites America Ferrera to all of her shows in the hope that they will be able to take a picture together and pretend to be sisters...I'm sure she was only half joking when she said this. I mean, if you saw the two of them together, you would totally think they were related...

Next up was Sister Suvi. This band of three was made all the more amusing by the fact that its lead singer played a child's toy guitar with an amp lead taped on for the majority of the set (she also played bass on a couple of numbers). Sister Suvi's indie rock-ness made sense as a show filler on this tour, but it was definitely more in the vein of thrashing guitars and shouting/screaming than Samantha and Thao's skillful guitar plucking and thoughtful lyrics and singing. The biggest hinderance to Sister Suvi's cause was actually the very same toy guitar that made them so endearing. Being a tiny toy thing without a strap, it was necessary for the band's frontwoman to play the instrument while resting it on her chest; but since the toy was already mic'd, its close proximity to the vocal mic gave it twice the volume, drowning out the singer for the better part of the set. The overkill on the twangy toy guitar made Sister Suvi an awkward stage filler to follow Samantha Crain, but also served to make Thao Nguyen's appearance all the more welcome.

When Thao finally took to the stage at 11pm-ish, the room went electric with the energy of the crowd. She was exuberant and amazing to watch as she played guitar and navigated her way about the stage. This is a girl bursting at the seams with talent (all self-taught, by the way). Her stage presence gives off more energy than cold fusion. She was matched word for word by the fans on nearly every song she sang during the evening. She opened Bag of Hammers with a surprise a capella beatbox before the guitar riff kicked in. Skills. Mad skills. At one point, she even pulled out a fat magic marker and used that to strum the guitar strings while she sang. I'm not sure how she can pluck guitar strings with such precision and dance, jitter, and vibrate all at the same time without missing a beat or mangling a chord. Seriously, if she were a little more depressing, I think her guitar skills would draw a lot of comparisons to golden boy, John Mayer. But her songs are so infectiously upbeat (even the ones about loser boyfriends who may be just keeping you around for sex - Body) and so damned catchy that one can't help but sing along after hearing the hook just once. The truth is, Thao is a blues guitarist wrapped up in a pop singing, girlie dress wearing, dancing whirligig of a package. Even in the songs about love and loss, Thao doesn't make you want to cry. She makes you want to shout out and sing along at the top of your lungs. Oh, and she also happens to be mad cool. She even posed for a photo with me after the show...Shweeeeeet!!! Bottom line: Thao Nguyen is one to watch. Don't miss out on her live show if she comes to your area.

Here's a snippet of Thao performing 'Bag of Hammers' live at Bowery Ballroom...Please go see her live show. And BUY HER RECORDS!!!



Thao performing 'Body In Your Bed' live at Bowery Ballroom...run by her MySpace and show her some love y'all.

Janelle Monae @ Hudson Hotel NYC for Charity Water Benefit

My first glimpse of Janelle was back in 2006 when Outkast dropped their video for Morris Brown off the Idlewild soundtrack. In a video filled with singing walls, Coney Island-style amusement park hijinks, and a fuschia colored talking dog, one question kept repeating itself over and over in my mind: Who is that girl?! A year or so later, I got hooked on a singer named Janelle Monae when I heard her song Lettin' Go on internet radio. Fast forward to the summer of 2008 and I begin to connect the dots, and my question is finally answered. The Many Moons video/mini-movie event flickered across my screen and I jumped up, pointing to the monitor. That's who she is! That's that girl from that Outkast video! That's Janelle Monae!

To celebrate the opening of Private Park, Hudson Luxury Hotel's outdoor event space, the hotel teamed up with GIANT STEP and Charity Water (a non-profit organisation that brings clean drinking water and digs wells in 14 of the poorest countries on the planet) to present an intimate performance by Janelle Monae. The crowd was atwitter with excitement, and tingling from an open bar, a very attentive wait staff, and music on the ones and two's by DJ Ge-Ology. Almost everyone I spoke with had never seen Janelle perform live before, but they'd all seemed to have heard great tales about what to expect. When Miss Monae finally took to the stage in a pompadour hairdo and her signature saddle shoes for a set that was all of twenty minutes long, her adoring public thought that they were more than ready for it. The truth is there is nothing that can prepare you for the Janelle Monae experience.





Accompanied on the tiny stage by drummer Young Pete and guitarist Kellindo (yes, that dude from the Many Moons video that looks like the love child of Kat Williams and Andre 3000 is real and his guitar skills are even realer), Janelle opened the set with Violet Stars Happy Hunting and wasted no time in whipping the crowd (and herself) into a frenzy. After about 30 seconds, you really do start to believe that she may actually be that "alien from outerspace" that she sings about on her EP, Metropolis: The Chase Suite. Following up with her smash single, Many Moons, the artist jittered, twitched, and danced on and around the stage like some kind of hyperkinetic energy source from the future; all the while interacting with the sea of rabid fans and cameras aimed in her direction from the foot of the stage. There was a brief pause while Janelle gathered herself, and Kellindo did his thang, his skills giving the impression that you can style yourself however you want as long as you can do that on a guitar! When she returned to the stage a few moments later, Janelle climbed atop a 3-foot tall stool and calmly, serenely sang her rendition of the 1936 Charlie Chaplin composition, Smile, to a hushed and riveted audience. Though songs like Many Moons and Sincerely Jane are often the performances that are most talked about the next day, Smile is that segment of the evening where Janelle Monae's sheer vocal skill and purity of tone are showcased to perfection. Following up with Sincerely Jane and a punk-style explosion of guitar riffs, Janelle used the heads of two fans (one of which was yours truly) to launch herself out into the crowd. She was very happily passed overhead around the space and redeposited onstage where she did some riffing of her own. And then, as quickly and suddenly as it all began, the show had come to an all to soon end. The audience held their positions, awed into a silent shock and disbelief until the evening's promoter took to the mic and announced, "No, really. It's over. Good night. No, really. Good night."

The conclusion, Metropolis is not enough songs. Janelle needs to put out a full length album so that her fans can have a full length show.

Here's Janelle's performance of Many Moons recorded on my crappy cell phone camera...Enjoy!


See you at the next show...

Adele @ Orpheum Theatre - Boston

Okay, first a little about the venue. The Orpheum is a lovely old Boston stand-by. Built in 1852, it still encompasses all of the old world charm and coziness (a bit too cozy...a little leg room wouldn't hurt) of its myriad ornate architectural details. Larger than smaller, standing room only venues (say Webster Hall or Bowery Ballroom, for example), but smaller than so many of the larger arenas (think Madison Square Garden or Fleet Center), it’s one of those theatres that makes you feel like you’re a part of the show even when you’re in the last row of the balcony. And to have all those old wooden timbers vibrating with the sound of Adele’s stunning voice, a voice that belies her tender years, and still be able to see the facial expressions of the angel that emits such heavenly tones, is simply soul stirring.

To say that Adele Adkins is incredibly talented would be an understatement. It would also be doing the nearly 21 year old songstress (her birthday is this coming Tuesday) a bit of a disservice. To say that she is a great talent completely brushes aside the tremendous amount of skill this young woman possesses. The live recording portion of her debut album, 19, almost does her justice...but not quite. From the opening notes of her first song of the evening, Adele’s voice reaches out and pulls your heart right into your throat. If you were chatting with your neighbor, you’d have fallen silent. If you were sending out that last minute text message, you’d have dropped your i-phone at your feet. If you were breathing, you’d have held your breath if she didn’t already take it straight away already.

The opening act was a "boy band" (an actual band, mind you. they all played instruments and sang) called The Script. The music was the kind of upbeat, hopeful pop that can only be created in the UK. The kind of song you might hear on television shows like The Hills or Ghost Whisperer (in fact, that's probably where you already have heard their music). Not really my thing, but they are Irish which goes a long way with a Boston crowd. They were exuberant, cursing adorably with their Irish accents. However, I'm not sure how I feel about them opening for Adele, as the two artists' musical styles don't really seem to have much to do with one another. But enough of this. On to the show...

Adele took the stage in a pair of fitted black jeans, a loose black knit top, a flowing black cardigan, and black ballet flats (are you seeing a theme here?). She apologised saying that she was going to wear a cute little dress and have her hair done and all of that...but she just didn't feel like it. By her own admission, Adele spent most of her day "smokin' like a chimney", and followed that on-stage with drinking Coke, which, she said, made her throat burn and her voice a bit "croaky"...so she asked the audience to bear with her. It was an unnecessary disclaimer. Her performance was unmistakably on-point. The young lady with the golden voice brought a down-to-earth charm and effortlessness to what could have been diva-esque turn after four Grammy nominations and two wins. Between songs, she chatted to the audience about how ridiculously expensive Whole Foods is ("I'm not doin' too bad for money these days, but that one would send me bankrupt! I hear Americans call it Whole Paycheck! Ha!") and about perfoming My Same for the first time on this leg of the tour because it was written about her best friend who is no longer her best friend ("Who wants to sing a song about somebody they hate?!"). She also broke into a spontaneous chorus of Since You've Been Gone when she heard that Kelly Clarkson was in the audience. She even stopped for a moment to give a fan a hug after he presented her with her first birthday gift ("I'm not supposed to open it 'til Tuesday..."), and brought up the house lights so she could take a photo fo the attending crowd. Positively adorable, affable, unforgettable.

This between belting out songs like First Love and Melt My Heart To Stone, and covers of Sam Cooke's That's It, I Quit, I'm Movin' On and a beautifully rendered version of Bob Dylan's Make You Feel My Love. All this and she's only just nearly 21 years old!! Let's all just close our eyes and imagine what the future holds...and hope that includes more recordings for Adele, and more of Adele's concerts for all of us.

Oh wait! Nearly forgot! After the show, as I'm walking out the Orpheum entrance past the row of ginormous tour buses parked all in a row, and lo, what should I see before me but a small crowd formed around a very generous and jovial Adele signign autographs and taking photos with every fan who asked (Yeah, I got my ticket signed, too! What?!). Adorable. Affable. Unforgettable. Adele.

See you at the next show...