Three More 2020 Concerts
After just shy of four weeks of 2020, I had been to 3 concerts. Four weeks later, I've been to three more. That brings my total to six concerts with eleven bands. None of these have been show of the year candidates yet, but all were fun.
By comparison, I didn't see my first show in 2019 until February 22, so I'm ahead of last year's pace. Even better, the strategic ticket reserve currently has five shows in it, and I'm thinking of buying another ticket today.
4. My friend Grover (formerly jackthebodyless) has been raving about a Brazilian jazz guitarist named Badi Assad for almost as long as I've known him, which frighteningly is getting close to 20 years now. Following my usual rule of "if someone with proven good taste (and Justin has exquisite taste) raves about something, it's probably worth checking out", she was on my list. Unfortunately, she hadn't come to Cleveland in nearly as long, so when a gig was announced at Nighttown on Wednesday, January 29, M, gieves and I had tickets.
Normally at Nighttown they seat you at the start time, you order dinner, your food comes and the show starts. Naturally, this show didn't do that. First off, it was on a newly created back patio that I'd never seen. It's quasi-outside with big propane heaters. Second, the show start promptly at 7, so gieves and I barely made it, and M was a little late. Third, because it started promptly at 7, we were eating dinner during the show. And lastly, because something apparently went wrong with their reservation system we were sitting all the way in the very front despite having ordered tickets ahead of time. And by in the front, I mean that I had to turn 90 degrees to see Badi, and if I had reached out an arm I might have knocked over her guitar stand. Naturally everybody else could see us eat, and as usual the food is good but not memorable.
Those, however, are operational details. How was the music? To be honest, it was fine. She is a good guitarist and has some neat vocal gimmicks, but her material wasn't very strong. In my mind it was kind of like if you went to an open mic night and some ringer showed up - clearly they'd blow away the normally open mic people, but they might not measure up against more experienced people. She told good stories, and I had a good time, but I wasn't really hugely impressed, and probably wouldn't go again. She's not even the best Brazilian jazz guitarist I've seen at Nighttown - Diego Figueiredo claims that prize.
5. My friend Dashon Burton has sang with the Cleveland Orchestra many times, and every time he returns I mark it on the calendar, both because I like Dashon and because any excuse to see the Orchestra is worth taking. He was here again this past weekend, so M and I went to Severance Hall on Friday, February 21.
Michael Tilson Thomas returned to conduct today. In fact, the first piece was the Cleveland premiere (and only second ever performance) of new piece by him titled "Meditations on Rilke". Dashon was one of two vocalist as they worked through six poems. He soloed for three poems and joined Sasha Cooke in a duet for a fourth; she took the other two herself. Poem cycles are not uncommon in the classical world, but although the singing was (to my untrained ear) excellent, only the duet had particularly memorable music. I'm happy to have seen it, but it wasn't my thing. For Rilke inspired work, I preferred Rainer Maria.
This led to an interesting observation. When you're dealing with a group as good as the Cleveland Orchestra, if something doesn't sound good, there's about a 99% chance that it's that the music isn't actually good, because they really don't mess things up.
After intermission, MTT led the Orchestra in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, which you certainly know parts of and was performed to the Orchestra's high standards.
6. Back in 2016, aiela and I and her daughter caught MC Lars opening for MC Chris at Grog Shop. Lars headlined a show at Mahall's on Saturday, February 22 (aka, yesterday), and aiela and theferrett and I caught the show.
First up was Schäffer the Darklord, who would also spend a significant amount of time on stage with Lars later in the night. He told a ton of good stories about his childhood in Iowa (ok, that was mostly during his appearance with Lars) and did some fun raps. With that said, adding his song Yes about enthusiastic consent to most high school sex ed programs or college orientation programs would be a significant improvement to society.
The second opener was a sibling duo from PDX called The Doubleclicks. Most of their songs were about being socially awkward, and I've largely forgotten them already, but their song about a robot who is throwing a party for humans (as of yet untitled and unreleased) was A++ material. I stuck around after to tell them so and to throw some cash in the hat to support them, and when their next album comes out I may have to go see what the final output sounds like.
MC Lars took the stage to close out night. When I saw him in 2016 he and Mega Ran dueted for a big portion of his set; here that role was filled by Schaffer. It was good fun. There was a circle pit during "Hot Topic is Not Punk Rock" and a skanking contest during This Gigantic Robot Kills. He played a song about Hamlet that apparently he hasn't played in a bazillion years (aiela was pumped) and a bunch of other fun stuff.
To be perfectly honest, MC Lars is a bit hit or miss for me. The songs where he hits are great. The other ones are still enjoyable just because he's just a lot of fun to watch, and because his crowd is very friend and having a great time. I don't know that I'd ever go see him without aiela, who is a semi-obsessed fan (she's seeing him in Detroit tonight), but as long as she's up for it I'd probably show up again. He's also an A's fan, so I stayed after the show to talk a little spring training. I also bought the album he did with Mega Ran called "The Dewey Decibel System".
By comparison, I didn't see my first show in 2019 until February 22, so I'm ahead of last year's pace. Even better, the strategic ticket reserve currently has five shows in it, and I'm thinking of buying another ticket today.
4. My friend Grover (formerly jackthebodyless) has been raving about a Brazilian jazz guitarist named Badi Assad for almost as long as I've known him, which frighteningly is getting close to 20 years now. Following my usual rule of "if someone with proven good taste (and Justin has exquisite taste) raves about something, it's probably worth checking out", she was on my list. Unfortunately, she hadn't come to Cleveland in nearly as long, so when a gig was announced at Nighttown on Wednesday, January 29, M, gieves and I had tickets.
Normally at Nighttown they seat you at the start time, you order dinner, your food comes and the show starts. Naturally, this show didn't do that. First off, it was on a newly created back patio that I'd never seen. It's quasi-outside with big propane heaters. Second, the show start promptly at 7, so gieves and I barely made it, and M was a little late. Third, because it started promptly at 7, we were eating dinner during the show. And lastly, because something apparently went wrong with their reservation system we were sitting all the way in the very front despite having ordered tickets ahead of time. And by in the front, I mean that I had to turn 90 degrees to see Badi, and if I had reached out an arm I might have knocked over her guitar stand. Naturally everybody else could see us eat, and as usual the food is good but not memorable.
Those, however, are operational details. How was the music? To be honest, it was fine. She is a good guitarist and has some neat vocal gimmicks, but her material wasn't very strong. In my mind it was kind of like if you went to an open mic night and some ringer showed up - clearly they'd blow away the normally open mic people, but they might not measure up against more experienced people. She told good stories, and I had a good time, but I wasn't really hugely impressed, and probably wouldn't go again. She's not even the best Brazilian jazz guitarist I've seen at Nighttown - Diego Figueiredo claims that prize.
5. My friend Dashon Burton has sang with the Cleveland Orchestra many times, and every time he returns I mark it on the calendar, both because I like Dashon and because any excuse to see the Orchestra is worth taking. He was here again this past weekend, so M and I went to Severance Hall on Friday, February 21.
Michael Tilson Thomas returned to conduct today. In fact, the first piece was the Cleveland premiere (and only second ever performance) of new piece by him titled "Meditations on Rilke". Dashon was one of two vocalist as they worked through six poems. He soloed for three poems and joined Sasha Cooke in a duet for a fourth; she took the other two herself. Poem cycles are not uncommon in the classical world, but although the singing was (to my untrained ear) excellent, only the duet had particularly memorable music. I'm happy to have seen it, but it wasn't my thing. For Rilke inspired work, I preferred Rainer Maria.
This led to an interesting observation. When you're dealing with a group as good as the Cleveland Orchestra, if something doesn't sound good, there's about a 99% chance that it's that the music isn't actually good, because they really don't mess things up.
After intermission, MTT led the Orchestra in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, which you certainly know parts of and was performed to the Orchestra's high standards.
6. Back in 2016, aiela and I and her daughter caught MC Lars opening for MC Chris at Grog Shop. Lars headlined a show at Mahall's on Saturday, February 22 (aka, yesterday), and aiela and theferrett and I caught the show.
First up was Schäffer the Darklord, who would also spend a significant amount of time on stage with Lars later in the night. He told a ton of good stories about his childhood in Iowa (ok, that was mostly during his appearance with Lars) and did some fun raps. With that said, adding his song Yes about enthusiastic consent to most high school sex ed programs or college orientation programs would be a significant improvement to society.
The second opener was a sibling duo from PDX called The Doubleclicks. Most of their songs were about being socially awkward, and I've largely forgotten them already, but their song about a robot who is throwing a party for humans (as of yet untitled and unreleased) was A++ material. I stuck around after to tell them so and to throw some cash in the hat to support them, and when their next album comes out I may have to go see what the final output sounds like.
MC Lars took the stage to close out night. When I saw him in 2016 he and Mega Ran dueted for a big portion of his set; here that role was filled by Schaffer. It was good fun. There was a circle pit during "Hot Topic is Not Punk Rock" and a skanking contest during This Gigantic Robot Kills. He played a song about Hamlet that apparently he hasn't played in a bazillion years (aiela was pumped) and a bunch of other fun stuff.
To be perfectly honest, MC Lars is a bit hit or miss for me. The songs where he hits are great. The other ones are still enjoyable just because he's just a lot of fun to watch, and because his crowd is very friend and having a great time. I don't know that I'd ever go see him without aiela, who is a semi-obsessed fan (she's seeing him in Detroit tonight), but as long as she's up for it I'd probably show up again. He's also an A's fan, so I stayed after the show to talk a little spring training. I also bought the album he did with Mega Ran called "The Dewey Decibel System".