8/1/09 - Nervous Curtains, Silk Stocking, True Widow

after a long dry spell (going on vacation, answering various booty calls and what-not (kidding!!)), i headed to hailey's for another gutterth show. was joined by Cherry Pie, who graciously agreed to accompany me so I wouldn't be the oldest person in the place. :)

True Widow started things out. I'd been looking forward to hearing them, what with all the good press they've received lately, but oh my gawd, was i disappointed. "Plodding" was the word that kept coming to my mind. CP's much-more-colorful description was "Molasses". Very one-note, repetitive, dreary, retro - a bit like Low on steroids. I guess that's what "slow-core" is supposed to be, but damn, i'd call it "bore-core" (nyuck). Kept waiting for the next song to impress me, or at least be different, but it never happened. Not sure what i'm missing...
Silk Stocking was up next. Not sure what happened here, either - saw them a while ago and really dug it, but i could swear their entire sound has been revamped. I couldn't take it - seemed like there was a concerted effort to make every song as difficult to listen to as possible. Mercifully, it was a short set.
thanks be to gawd that Nervous Curtains was there to save the evening, along with my music-picking reputation in CP's eyes. Sean, Ian and Robert once again impressed with their amazing combination of piano, synths, and drums. Absolutely loved the new one, All Yesterday's Parties (now playing on their myspace page), which Sean described as "Scott Walker meets Phil Spector", while CP insisted it was a tango. Once again - really loved Robert's drumwork. Sean says their CD will be coming out in 6 months or so - can't wait for that. really hope it gets the kind of attention it deserves. anyways - a great set, as usual.
yea, The Great Tyrant was up after that, but the approximately 20 seconds i heard of their set a few months ago was enough to last me a lifetime, so we split.

8/28/08 - Sean Kirkpatrick Trio, Jack with One Eye, Silk Stocking

headed down to club dada on thursday night to catch sean kirkpatrick. 'twas pretty strange - i didn't recognize any of the staff in the whole joint. hmmpf. not like the good ol' days.

first up was silk stocking (my second time to see 'em, my first time to remember it). loved it. two-man band - Liz on keys and vocals, and Shawn on drums, guitar, and tambourine. really dug what i heard - Liz's howling, gut-wrenching vocals on top of a bluesy, dirge-like mixture of piano and guitar. very unique, very talented. look forward to hearing them again.

next up was jack with one eye. 3-man band - guitars, keys, drums. some pretty good psychedelic-infused shoegaze. vocals an afterthought (or maybe they were just mixed down too low). kept firin off some pre-recorded voice tracks spouting political rhetoric, but i hate to tell 'em - you couldn't really hear/understand much of it. i heard "war in iraq", that's about it. anyways, 'twas an enjoyable set.

last up was the incomparable sean kirkpatrick, with a full band backing him (and by "full band", i mean Ian on synth, and Robert on drums). been a while since i've seen the trio. you know from my previous posts how much i've fallen in love with the solo stuff i've heard over the past few months, including the new stuff on the crazy jeff show podcast, but i have to say - having the full band backing sean added a fantastic new dimension to the music. i cannot wait for him to hit the studio (probably this winter, according to sean) and record his new stuff - it is incredibly good.

10/25/07 - Parata, Sean Kirkpatrick (updated)

Went to RGRS to see Sean K and Parata.

i apologize in advance - this report will not be up to the usual standards (hah!), due to a few factors, mainly related to the firewater (no, not the club).

New Science Projects - one man in army jacket and WWII helmet, with acoustic blues (?) guitar and tambourine on the floor, upon which he would stomp now and again. couldn't tell if he was special needs or trippin massively, at one point held up a piece of paper and said, see - my friend made me a picture drawn in his own blood! so is this performance art, i wondered? during one song, he started wandering around the crowd, shout-singing in peoples faces. dude had talent, could play the geetar, but there was a lot of violent shouting going on. but then he would stop down and play a nice acoustic song with pretty vocals and some nice picking.
very interesting, i'll say that.

gutterth guys in back screaming after every song - yeaaaaaahhh!! annoying.

Silk Stocking - gal on keybd, dude on guitar - bluesy tunes, howling vocals (i'm sorry, it's around this point that my memory starts getting fuzzy).

sean kirkpatrick - was really looking forward to this, based on what i'd heard on the interweb. sean on keybds, another dude on keybds, drum. all i remember is that it sounded like what you'd expect, based on the myspace page. not exactly hard-rockin, what with just two keyboards and all, but that's what his stuff is. i still plan on gettin his cd.

christened the bathroom.

last was Parata, who i'd seen before and really dug. dono what it was, but i didn't really get into it this time. can't splain why.

60 degrees outside, and the damn ceiling fans were on full blast, freezin my ass off.

four bands to play, and they start at 10?? ridiculous. didn't finish til 1:30-ish, on a weeknight, with a half-hour drive home. couldn't they at least start at 9?