My friend (an always mysterious being) and I go to concerts and listen to music. I write something about it and being objective isn't really my concern.

This is a ezorzi evolution of Catching Elephant, a theme by Andy Taylor

 

Moonface, Saltland - Littlefield, May 5th, 2013

image

I try not to ever miss a Spencer Krug’s show. I saw Wolf Parade on their last tour and last night it was the 4th time I went to see Moonface. I was lucky enough to design a poster for his “Organ Music” Tour a couple of years ago and happy to say what gracious human being he is.

I am fond of small venues and Littlefield is definitely an intimate one: the lack of separation between the stage area and the bar though, did definitely add some unwanted bottle clinking to Saltland’s set. Rebecca Foon’s show was a lyrical journey on cello and voice setting a dreamy and minimalist atmosphere emotionally uplifting. It was a well thought opening performance to Moonface.

At the end of Saltland set, we crowd thickens and we all move a little close to the stage. There’s a grand piano on the side of the stage and, from the way it is placed, it is clear that Moonface won’t be facing us while he plays . Spencer enters the stage with a glass a whiskey and after thanking the audience explains what we are about to listen to: a set of piano songs he wrote that had never played before and nothing more than that. To my pleasant surprise, nobody made a sound of complain at that fact - which is very common to hear, since many of us cherish this and that song and secretly hope to hear it again someday - but having been to other Moonface shows, I know the drill and I instead try to hold on to what is presented in front of me and understand that I might not get a second chance to experience that music live again. From the way me and my men were standing we could see his hands speeding up on keys and, it  was somehow hypnotic and mesmerizing. He talked about himself, confessing memories we all could have shared and yet never fully understand. The songs were nesting melodies driving us to believe we were listening to a different tune and then here he was holding us back where it all started. It was personal and emotional. It was like listening to an old friend telling his secrets and tales after you have not seen him for a long time. 

Animal Collective, Prospect Park, July 12, 2011

image

And with his wide brown eyes, my friend looks at me and says “We made it”. Animal Collective has been our most wanted show in quite a while and because we actually love this band, I believe we did not have very clear or specific expectations about what the show would have been like. I saw Animal Collective for the first time in 2004 in Dublin, where they were the supporting band of múm. At that time I had no idea who they were and what they were doing on stage, but their sound got stuck in my head so that I actually kept following them. I remember them being noisy and kind of scary - which is not exactly what I look for in music - but it was different, challenging and weirdly inspiring. I have this vague memory of one of them wearing a rabbit mask, but don’t trust me on that. This was my first show actually “inside” the Bandshell in Prospect Park - I went listening the National last summer and I’ll have to listen to Bon Iver this year unfortunately - and I must say that the atmosphere was relaxing and very festival-like. My friend and I met there and while grabbing some food, Black Dice started to play. We didn’t pay too much attention and then suddenly, when there was still light in the sky, people started to gather close to the stage and the show was on. They opened with what I believe where two songs by Deakin who, after few years, joined again the Collective. I actually went to see Deakin last December playing at the New Museum and it was such an amazing show. Deakin’s sounds are very much inspired by Indian music and psychedelia and his melodies are very full and tight. What followed were mainly new songs that left some of us extremely happy and others were completely disappointed of not hearing their favorite tunes. But that’s the way it goes with Animal Collective, and they have done it for years: they use their shows as a showcase for the new songs rather than playing what it is expected from them, in other words, their most famous songs. Few weeks ago I was listening to this 2007 Animal Collective show recorded by NPR in which they played almost entirely “Merriweather Post Pavillion” which was then released in 2009. Same goes for Panda Bear, who has played and tried his “Tomboy” for years since he finally released it this June. During their set they also played “Brother sport”, “Summertime Clothes” and “Taste” What do the new songs sound like? As a friend of mine says all the time, they sounded “solid”, from the noise and urban tribal chants of their first years, Animal Collective seem have chosen to experiment more and more within the melodies and the new songs were another step in this evolution. I felt completely lost in their harmonies and, I must admit, I was a little doubting that they would have sounded great live, especially in an outdoor venue. Panda Bear and Avey Tare voices are always on the edge of breaking into a thousand pieces, but they never do and they keep you on your toes each time they open their mouth. Many were disappointed by the absence of their hits from the set, but my friend and I have no regrets. It was like looking at the future, in a year or two when those those songs will be on a record, they will open the memories of that night like the Pandora vase and we will be even more glad of having seen Animal Collective live, again.

Stars - Littlefield, September 26

image

This is the best concert I have ever seen.

Are Stars my favorite band? No. Do I know all of their songs? No. Was it such an amazing musical experience that I will treasure for the rest of my life? Not quite.

Saturday morning I woke up and found a post on Stars facebook page announcing a small show for the next night in Brooklyn. The band previously played a show at Terminal 5 to which I couldn’t go, therefore I bought 2 tickets in a blink of an eye and thought of which gentleman I should have invited to come with me.

Stars and I have a simple and not very deep relationship: I loved them for the sweet and probably cheesy Your ex-lover is dead when I was living in Holland and falling for a Canadian. I started listening to Set yourself on fire which is still the only album that I fairly know of Stars.

So why was it the best concert? I was in front of the stage. So close to them that I they were not your icons, your dream musicians, they were people, with definitely a lot of talent, but people like you and I. Littlefield is a pretty small venue in Park Slope and filled with people who didn’t happened to be there but seemed to really want to be there. There was some sort of feeling of improvisation when Torquil Campbell came out of the stage submerged by our applause and claiming that not yet, but was hoping to be ready in 20 min. There was some king of realism that I usually do not experience in concerts of bands famous or kind of. It is a dream to feel that you are part of the interaction and not only the recipient of the performance.

We waited almost 2 hours for the show, but, in my case, I had a lot of catching up to do with my friend (it involved lyons and elephants and waterfalls) so I personally didn’t mind the wait. And being able to go buy a beer and come back to the exact spot you where before in less than 5 min and without having to do the elbow dance, is a luxury.

I wish I could be more specific and precise in my description of the show, but as I mentioned before, I know only one album and I started listening to their last Five Ghosts only few days before. The sound wasn’t perfect and Campbell’s voice was definitely too low but, again, the size of the venue allowed just to yell “Turn it up!” and voila’. Pretty amazing. Amy Millan’s voice is crystalline and innocent and gorgeous and carries all that female subtle and disarming power that I have been loved in bands like BBS. It’s obviously not a coincidence that Millan and all the other members of Stars are also part of the Broken Social Scene collective. Millan appears on Broken Social Scene and performed as their lead female singer since they released You forgot it in People.

My friend did not know Stars at all, but seemed pretty satisfied with the performance and enjoying their catchy melodies that keep that edginess and crispness which refines their pop. I have to admit that there’s still a couple of songs that I sometimes do not know if it’s theirs of Death Cab for Cuties’.

Campbell is definitely an actor, you can tell from a mile. He’s extremely expressive and the sound of his voice is so perfect it sounds almost calculated. I am not saying it doesn’t sound real, but (having my friend and I a little acting experience of our own) I can tell you there’s a lot of technique in his voice production.

A guy from the audience just couldn’t stop yelling his devotion for the band (reminded me of a very drunk guy I met at the Four Tet show last February, who simply couldn’t stop dancing ON people and yelling ILOVEHIM), I believe he also took off his shirt and discussed his plan to propose to his girlfriend with Campbell.

The band was pretty talkative and thankful and did a different setlist for those who went to see their show at Terminal 5. And many of them came to both show.

They played, for my joy, Your ex-lover is dead and I was happy and a little emotional. What a girl.

My only big regret is not buying the Jason Munn poster of the show. It would have looked so pretty in my new house. Next time.

Stars Setlist
The Night Starts Here
Soft Revolution
The Passengers
We Don’t Want Your Body
Fixed
Going Going Gone
Look Up
What the Snowman Learned about Love
Take Me to the Riot
I Died so I Could Haunt You
Wasted Daylight
The Comeback
Ageless Beauty
Heart
Dead Hearts
Calendar Girl

Encore
Winter Bones
This Charming Man (Smiths cover)
How Much More
Your Ex-Lover Is Dead
Tonight

Broken Social Scene - Rumsey Playfield, September 18, 2010

image

This was the end of the summer. As I started my 2010 summer with the epic journey to Governors Island to the Yeasayer show, I ended it with the BSS in Central Park. I got there unfortunately too late to taste (the) Cake and also to position myself where my height wasn’t the usual issue, but there was the smell of grass combined with a light fall breeze, as if the two seasons where kissing, that kind of made me forget everything. I also guess that the (absolutely unexpected) romantic atmosphere that filled the air - plenty of loving couples whispering “You know it’s time - That we grow old and do some shit - I like it all that way” in each other ears - just got me too. My friend revealed me the existence of a movie called This Movie is Broken, www.thismovieisbroken.com based on an idea by Kevin Drew, a romantic comedy with a lot of BSS going on. Let me put it in this way, I’d rather think of them as the musicians behind the soundtrack for Half Nelson.

Anyway, these guys played for 2 hours including a “fake” encore. “Fake” because, according to Drew, it takes far too long for all of them (10, maybe 12? I don’t even know!)  to get off the stage and come back for the usual ritual, so they just kept playing the entire time. The set list spanned from Broken Social Scene to You Forgot It In People and they played big part of Forgiveness Rock Record. Their last album is of much easier listening than their previous works, nevertheless it stands out as one of the best records of my summer. The sequence Hotel, Romance to the Grave, Guilty Cubicles and Superconnected was absolutely my favorite part of the show, these more intricate and basically instrumental songs define perfectly the band, which I have always admired for the deepness of their melodies and the nonsense of their lyrics. The necessary Lover’s Spit and Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl followed but, in spite of my adoration for Drew’s voice, I think we all like better the Feist version in Bee Hives. Kevin Drew is quite a character, definitely the icon of the band, his voice sounds even better live and his presence is sexy and amusing, he smoked a cigarette on stage discussing the craziness of American anti-tobacco laws and realized he never met before one of the musicians on stage and introduced himself.

The show was the perfect end of my summer and that’s probably the reason why I feel a little nostalgic in writing this post.

Broken Social Scene Set list

KC Accidental
Texico Bitches
Shoreline (7/4)
Fire Eye’d Boy
Forced to Love
All to All
Stars and Sons
Cause=Time
Sweetest Kill
Art House Director
Hotel
Romance to the Grave
Guilty Cubicles
Superconnected
World Sick
Lover’s Spit
Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl
Ungrateful Little Father
Meet Me in the Basement
Looks Just Like the Sun
Water in Hell
Pacific Theme
Chase Scene
Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)