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Mar 26, 2022 16:26:56 GMT -6 monasterymonochrome said:

Mar 26, 2022 15:07:11 GMT -6 Tweet said:

Saw Nick Cave and Warren Ellis last Sunday last minute. Nick Cave was good and Warren was having fun and the rest of their band was enjoying the moment. Nice to hear "I Need You" which might be my favorite NCTBS song.

Alabaster dePlume played an hour long set at sleeping village and I drank a lot of Vallejo. Was a nice time. Pretty sure it was a wholly improvised set based on the band though it clearly had some song structure. He was selling his new album that comes out officially in ~3 weeks so you better believe I picked it up. Monastery and I will be the only ones who like it this year.

I was also at the Ratboys/Retirement Party show. Shame that Retirement Party is, uh, retiring, because they were really good. Glad I got to catch them at least once since I still dig Runaway Dog. I thought Ratboys were good too- we were right by the Notre Dame radio station that drove to Thalia for the show and I'm pretty sure they knew every single song. There was also a dancing person in a rabbit suit on stage which was weird to watch only because the head kept almost falling off and I was not on copious amounts of marijuana.

Seeing Alabaster tomorrow and can’t wait! Excited by this description - will keep an eye out for that record too.

The international anthem guy had maybe 10 copies of it not sure if just cause Chicago show or what

[teekoh]

Really enjoyed the Bright Eyes show. It was great to see/hear Mike Mogis.

Crowds are weird man.

[isyourbedmade]

Yeah, that Bright Eyes crowd was very bizarre. There was a guy in the very first row, who had his hand up the entire show. I think he had a question to ask Connor or something. Then there was a lady who was just causing problems the whole time, who had to be physically lifted up from a seat and escorted out. Pretty good show otherwise though.

[monasterymonochrome]

Big Ears Day Three! Big Ears, Full Heart, Can’t Lose:

- William Tyler & Mary Lattimore present Electric Appalachia: duet set to silent film footage of the Tennessee Valley, centered around the creation of the Tennessee River dam and its effect on the natural landscape and lifestyle of the Valley residents. First two sections center on the mountains/rivers then people. People farming. People exploring. People living. Incredibly moving accompaniments w/ Tyler playing both pastoral acoustic melodies and atmospheric textures. Lattimore is all over the place on harp and sounds wonderful. Scene shifts to post-dam life, switch to Kraftwerk like synths, while gleaming 50s footage of modern life plays. Tyler injects some discomfort into the mix with some tones that are a little *off* Something is lurking. Can we control nature? To what end? But this isn’t all cynical, there’s nostalgia in his playing as well. Or maybe it’s mournful? Either way, this time too, has passed. Tyler is a master of gorgeous, understated guitar melodies. It’s why Modern Country is one of the best albums of the last decade, and while I’ll always jump to see him live. I hope this set / these songs are released in some form.

- Myra Melford’s Snowy Egret: Went into this with no real prior knowledge other than it was a jazz quartet, and I was once again blown away. Songs generally started with a playful, avant garde intro section - bassist playing with a beer can, drummer bending his ride cymbal nearly in half while striking it with a mallet, you know, the usual. Then the sparse soundscapes would coalesce into a harmonic whole - often with a tight, off-kilter groove and wicked bop-like trumpet and piano solos. Awesome stuff. Myra on piano was doing a lot of solo with her elbows and I loved hearing her sing the notes outloud (I was on the rail). Bassist (rocking bare feet in crocs!) was also doing some vocal percussion that sounded cool. Really fun set! Makes me wanna check out their records.

- Krewe de Karnaval: Mardi Gras style parade through Old City Knoxville. Pretty fun! Loved the Dolly Parton dolls and seeing everyone’s papier-mâché animals - raccoons, bears, possums were my faves. Cool drumming - coulda used more crowd energy tho.

- Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah: “If you prefer pejorative or belittling terms, you can call it jazz. We prefer to call it stretch music.” This set is wonderful. You can see and hear the love in this band. Second song was an absolute heater - cannot believe some of these piano solos in this and the next one (Diaspora?). “It’s a song that’s rooted in affective communication… if you listen better, you can learn more.” Intro into Guinevere. Intro solo was gorgeous on a Rhodes. Ooof this one killed. Incredibly moving solo, with perfect rhythm section pulling and pushing the song whenever needed. The bassist especially crushes this one. Her tension builds absolutely explode the releases in the piano solo. What an incredible group of musicians - I wanna see these guys again ASAP. Could also just listen to Christian talk about music all day. Actually, maybe not when he’s on a timed festival slot. Dude just spent like 6 minutes introducing the band. On piano: Lawrence Fields. On bass: Amina Scott. On hand drums: Weedie Braimah.

- Saul Williams: Never been to a poetry reading before but this was a hell of a way to start. I was familiar with his music a bit which prepared me for how lyrical his reading style is, but it was super cool to hear unaccompanied. He was going super fast, word after word after word, incredible phrasing and never really missing a single word or enunciation. Some highlights below via quick notes I took during the performance: “Coltan as Cotton” - a poem about how the digital is rooted in analog exploitstion; next one - rooted in “What if” statements about self actualization via capitalism: “what time is it; who set the clock?”; In between poems he said: “I feel like these poems might give the impression that I’m upset or something.” Someone from the crowd asked: “Are you?” “Of course I’m upset.” One of the best of the show, titled: “I for one am happy they keep casting white actors in Old Testament flicks.” Later he ended a poem on this note: “Beliefs are the police of the mind. Which is to say, fuck the police.”

- Nubya Garcia: Rolled straight from the soundcheck into the show which was awesome. House lights stayed up for the first five minutes of the first piece. Such a cool, powerful sax tone - also these songs MOVE. Impossible to listen to this and not move your feet. Great piano solo on “Inner Game” with Nubya dancing along. Love how much echo is on the drums - practically sounds like something out of a dub track. Lame-ass Ryan Gosling from La La Land would’ve hated this shit. Fuck that guy. Piano solo on Demerara and Caura - after cities in Guyana - was crazy climactic. Got that feeling of the jam band peak when dude was going HAM on the high end of the keys. I’ve been very lucky to see some amazing piano playing today. Best song was a new untitled one. Opened with pianist (first name Jahari, didn’t catch last) doing a beautiful, flurried solo a la Keith Jarrett. Then Nubya took control over an uptempo damn near disco beat. Loved it. Sad to see the crowd was pretty thin when I headed out tho. Oh well. I guess the arty folks were at Meredith Monk and the older jazz heads were at the various Zorn shows. Both worthy choices but I hope more people get their ears tuned to Nubya soon.

- Joseph Allred: Quick drop-in at the Pilot Light, a dive bar with maybe a 40-50 person cap that smelled like sweat and beer and was hosting shows all weekend. A vibe. Joseph is one of the more enigmatic figures in the modern weird Americana / finger-style guitar scene. Saw him do three songs, two with an accordion box - I forget what it’s actually called - and very sincere, high register singing like if Daniel Johnston stayed more consistently on pitch. In between those he took a gorgeous 15-minute finger-style “excursion” on a 12-string guitar. Wildly lush and engaging. Maybe more like a raga than not? Very neat.

- Moses Sumney: I feel at a loss for words. I’ve been dying to see Moses for YEARS - like, since Aroromanticism at least, but fate always conspired against me. So I was pretty hype going in - especially since græ is one of the best LPs of this decade so far. I got to the Theatre tonight 45 mins early, enough to land me a spot in the front row (everyone always ignores the far stage left seats for some reason), and I was treated to probably my favorite performance of the weekend (as always, the best ~so far~}. Moses played through his tracks on the Live from Blackallachia album, mostly from his last two LPs, and he was stellar, no, interstellar. Can’t remember the last time I saw someone with so much stage presence, so much gravitas. Dude was plunging to the ground, bouncing back up, crab-walking, and generally OWNING the stage with the intensity of, like, a Beyoncé backup dancer. Not to mention his outfit. Not to mention is INCREDIBLE voice. I’ve said for a few years that Moses Sumney is the best active singer and today steel-reinforced that take. His control was impeccable. His falsetto would’ve filled an opera house. God. Everything was just perfect. The energy in the room was reaching fever pitch during some of the fireworks moments, i.e. the first falsetto bust out of Virile; the climaxes of both Cut Me and Bless Me; his tender solo rendition of Plastic. His props were minimal - only a small rotating platform that he used only for Bystander, but his shear magnetism held the audience rapt. The penultimate track was a Bjork cover, during which he went into the crowd and handed out roses from a bouquet. He then belted the rest of the song from the aisles. The show closed with a symphonic reading of Doomed. The closest comparison in the moment - as the violin, saxophone, trombone, oboe, and bass swelled around his angelic vocals - was the feeling I got during Sufjan’s Blue Bucket of Gold set closer during the Carrie and Lowell tour. I’ve written a small novel now, so I’ll stop, but this was unquestionably one of my favorite live moments in years. A clear standout from a weekend full of standouts.

- Circuit des Yeux: *soundchecks with a wordless vocal yodel* “You should hear me do the dishes.” I hope everyone who lives in Chicago has been to at least one CDY show, it is such a treat. Haley Fohr is - like Moses Sumney - another unforgettable voice, tho on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Her low notes defy logic, this is my fourth time seeing her sing (thrice with CDY, once solo at the Art Institute) and she always blows me away. This time is was Black Fly - where her vocal acrobatic at the song’s conclusion practically earned a standing ovation from the crowd. I caught about 45 mins of their set tonight, very thankful for the folding chairs at the venue. Time to recharge for another - hopefully - three shows!

- John Zorn’s Hermetic Organ: Got my Dead beanie on and some dude in a death metal shirt whisper/growled “Steal your faaaacceee” at me while we passed each other leaving the bathroom. So this show’s off to a good start already. The idea of this show is Zorn plays a church pipe organ - sort of like he’s alone in some abandoned chapel at 3:00am. He’s done this in a few different churches and they sound pretty cool. It’s all improvised tho, so there are real hits and real slow moments where he’s searching for something. Hits here made the church sound like a train rumbling up from hell, with a heavy bass literally reverberating the building. I was real tired so I wasn’t super into the first 10 minutes or so, but the next 20 featured frequent extremely cool to transcendent sounding moments. Not my favorite of the Hermetic Organ performances I’ve heard, but very cool to hear it in person.

- Joshua Abrams Natural Information Society: Tried to go to Angel Bat Dawid at but her show was delayed 30 minutes so I thought I’d check out the NIS instead, who I was planning on seeing last (they were scheduled for like 90 minutes). But! Turns out they were delayed 30 minutes too and I’m beat so I decided to just stay here and see the NIS, rather than schlep back to ABD for the doubleheader. This is another of those bands for the freaks. A masterclass in tapestries of interlocking sound, they start with a drone, then build up layer upon layer of melody lines - bass, bari sax, harmonium, percussion. Then before you know it they’ve locked into a fiendishly danceable groove, the sun of which far exceeds its parts. If you’re feeling it, like I was, 20-25 minutes will pass in a blink, and a simple backbeat thrown in by the drummer sets off a round a hoots and hollers on the dance floor. If this were the 70s, they’d have had a home on ZE records. This is mutant disco. Postscript: after I wrote this I went to the bathroom and some dude was snorting coke in the stall. Long live the 70s. Love live NIS.

[monasterymonochrome]

Last day of Big Ears writeups!

Sunday

- Alabaster dePlume: Starting off today with the artist in residence at the fest, which basically means he’s been hanging out at the fest HQ / merch room all weekend playing sax and chatting with passerby. Said hi to him the other day, probably one of the more sincere people in this world. That comes across without question in his live show, which couples his unmistakably lyrical sax tone with spoken/sung/shouted lyrics that veer between self-motivation mantras and radically empathetic calls to arms. In the wrong hands, this would be unbearable. But his personality is so strong and he has such genuine feeling behind his words and music, that he sticks the landing. Accompanied by Jaimie Branch and Fly or Die - they made a perfect team. I wish all the best for Alabaster. As he says, “Thank you for living; it is tricky.”

- Andy Shauf: Went over to Tennessee Theatre to catch Andy, whose record The Neon Skyline was a balm to me during the early weeks of the covid lockdown. I was surprised to see him on this lineup, as his style is pretty straightforward, but hearing all his songs again at the show, the hook - obviously - lies in his song-craft. You don’t need to be familiar with the material beforehand to be sucked into the stories he tells, the small moments that he drops you into. It’s kinda like that Seinfeld episode where they’re pitching the TV show. “What did you do tonight?” “Found out my ex was in town.” Or, “Overheard a TMI conversation about parenthood.” Or just “My friend and I talked about tabloids at the bar.” Boom. There’s your song.

- Hanif Abdurraqib: I did not go to his reading but I did go to his book signing, grabbed a copy of Little Devil in America, and chatted for a minute about Ohio. Cool guy!

- Bill Frisell Trio: Probably my first actual disappointment of the fest? Which is an incredible run, considering this was my 28th concert over 4 days. Idk, @zircona can attest, this just wasn’t popping they way I thought it would. Frisell’s own stuff is pretty mellow (tho check out his work in Naked City if you want to see what he’s capable of), but is still often sublime at its best. This show just wasn’t hitting that for me. First song was 15 minutes long and pretty standard blues jazz riffing. Something I would think was really boppin’ if I were 70 and thought Coltrane tanked once he left the Miles Davis Band. Again, this isn’t what Frisell is as a musician, but this track was boring and a full 1/4 of his set. The next piece was much more abstract and interesting, but it still wasn’t moving the needle enough for me to stick around. Maybe there was more subtle stuff going on that the Real Heads could appreciate. But it is what it is for me. Maybe next time!

- Even Ziporyn: So I bounced and went to this guy’s set, a master clarinetist who builds layers on layers of swirling lines into his recorded work. However, this set also fell flat for me. He was reinterpreting pop songs as multitracked clarinet pieces - except loads of what he played was pre-recorded accompaniment. And not like he was building it live with loopers, but pre-tracked harmonies and stuff. He was obviously skilled and sounded great and the whole thing was cool. But often he would just be playing the melody line. After hearing him do three songs - two by Earth Wind and Fire - I bailed.

- Immanuel Wilkins / Odeon Pope: And ended up here which was unquestionably the place for me. Immanuel is a rising figure, whose debut is coming out on Blue Note this year, and Odean is a veteran in his 80s who played a bunch with Max Roach and made a bunch of Saxophone Orchestra records with like 9-sax deep ensembles. This was basically dueling saxophones, one would play a wailing lead, another would add color to the mix, and the drummer, a Norwegian guy whose name I missed, would paint all over the scene. Sounded like Pharoah and Coltrane sometimes. Sounded like cacophony then sounded like bliss. This was 100% my shit and probably the freest jazz I heard all weekend. Immanuel is a star, and this show has me excited to see him again. Dude could sustain flurries of notes forever - maybe he was circular breathing? Or maybe he’s just that good? And he could channel the tension/release quotient perfectly enough to satisfy even the most jaded jam band alumnus. After a particular peak the crowd was going nuts and Odean egged us on going “One more time for Immanuel Wilkins! I can’t hear you!” at least four times in a row. Pretty sure I lost my voice cheering lol. Absolutely loved it.

- Sudan Archives: This was rad but I was stuck for a few songs in the most cursed crowd section of the weekend. Two dudes who wouldn’t stfu or stop laughing during the songs even after I yelled at them. Someone next to me clapping aggressively out of rhythm, despite no one else in the crowd clapping. And some dude with hair and a beard straight out of The Hobbit taking off this *gigantic* hopefully faux fur coat extremely dramatically and blocking my view for half a minute. Remarkable stuff, really. Only truly blessed thing there was a dude legit in his 80s vibing and dancing to SA from the VIP section. A King in a sea of Pawns. The actual show rocked. She performed entirely solo, either to a booming instrumental track or performing her own violin parts. Her energy was infectious, and the new songs were like rocket fuel. This album is gonna fucking kill. Wish I coulda stayed longer, but I left after about 35 minutes to get to the next act, since I might not have made capacity if I stayed to the end of the SA set.

- John Zorn’s New Masada Quartet: What the fuck did I just watch. Probably the most impressive display for virtuosity I’ve ever seen. Zorn is the undisputed master of schizophrenic stop/start bursts of carefully scripted free jazz compositions. He was skronking away on sax, directing the band with one hand - pointing for solos, signaling sudden pauses, or just showing love to his band mates. Zorn also delighted in dancing around the stage, and even gave the drummer a bear hug at one point mid-song. Dude was having himself a great time. Not to mention his actual playing being a marvel to behold. Cascading notes piercing through the furious rhythm and disappearing just as quickly. And every single member of the quartet was next level talented. Most famously, Julian Lage, lived up to his reputation as a guitar wunderkind made good. Dude’s solo lines were absurd. Zorn is known for pitting jazz with metal, pairing klezmer melodies with punishing riffs. This wasn’t as ~out there~ as he can go, but it went further than 99.9% of musicians will ever dare to approach. Did it move me emotionally as much as other performances this weekend? Objectively, probably not. But it was so obviously special - that it was absolutely a highlight of the whole festival.

- GEORGE: Debut performance of a new quartet featuring Anna Weber (whose most recent LP - bandcamp only - was rad), Aurora Nealand, and John Hollenbeck. Nothing like revolutionary in their sound, but it’s real good music. Lots of cool dueling solos with like tenor sax / soprano sax or flute and alto sax. Deep electronic pulses throughout too and Hollenbeck - a drumming wizard - dropping the occasional Dilla-style beat. Third song was a Nealand vocal showcase. Song melody was almost like one of those morose swaggering Nick Cave Murder ballads, both with a swarm of stuttered consonants, drawn out syllables, and Yoko-esque outbursts. Yooo that was a Sonny Bono cover, as Hollenbeck said: “Sonny Bono: accomplished songwriter. Not such an accomplished skier.” Actually, now that I’m halfway through the set, I think it’s Nealand’s spastic vocal performances set against kaleidoscopic musical backdrop that may set this group apart. Oooh Ambrose Akinmusire guested on trumpet for a few tracks! One of which was a sailor’s ballad and you know I love that shit. Fun set - be sure to check out their album whenever it drops.

- Yves Tumor: Last show of the festival! I’d heard their live show was banging, and I heard right. The energy was through the roof, smoke filling the room, strobes pulsating through the din. And Yves (idk their name, so I’m just rolling with this) was in total control of the audience. Belting out the songs while bounding around the stage, feeding perfectly into the spectacle of the stage dressing. I’m not a huge Yves Tumor fan per se, I liked but didn’t love their last LP. But damn that show ripped. Zircona called it a mix of Prince and hair metal - peep the finger tapping guitarist with the blown out hair! - and I think that pretty aptly summed up the show.

And that’s it! I caught 34 shows over four days - and it was one of my favorite festival weekends ever. Hopefully I can make this something of an annual pilgrimage!

Also, shouts out to Zircona for hanging with me for parts of all four days and being a generally cool dude. Great to meet ya!

Doing these write-ups was fun, and I hope they were fun-ish for at least one of you to read. Later!

[mookie]

Saturday I went to see Pip Blom at Beat Kitchen. Almost talked myself out of it, but it turned out to be a really good set, and they were a pretty fun band live. The Wet Leg fans out there should definitely give the band a chance.

The big surprise for me was the 3rd band on the bill, Catcher. They are from Brooklyn, but kind of sounded like an American response to the current wave of British post-punk bands (Fontaines, Shame, Squid, etc.). Lead singer had great stage presence too, and recovered nicely when he accidentally kicked one of the big stage monitors off the stage. Luckily no one was standing right in front of him at that point, or their feet would have gotten crushed. Definitely worth seeing though.

First opener, Red Scarves, was good, could hear some Wilco and The Band influences, and each band member got to sing their own songs, so that was interesting. Second band, Modern Nun, was not very good, but thankfully they had a bunch of friends and family at the show that helped fill the room a bit, otherwise it would have been fairly empty.

[oshoney]

Mar 28, 2022 6:36:40 GMT -6 monasterymonochrome said:

And that’s it! I caught 34 shows over four days - and it was one of my favorite festival weekends ever. Hopefully I can make this something of an annual pilgrimage!

Also, shouts out to Zircona for hanging with me for parts of all four days and being a generally cool dude. Great to meet ya!

I wish I had been paying attention to the board over the weekend, I would have tried to meet up too! Sounds like we were at a ton of the same shows throughout the weekend. Luckily I ran into Zircona a couple times but I didn't know any other boarders were there. 

Also, agreed with everything you said about that Moses set. That was my most anticipated set of the weekend and it surpassed my already sky high expectations. That, Christian Scott and L'Rain were my favorite sets of the whole fest. 

I'm also so glad you loved it, I hope you do make it an annual thing! It's been my favorite weekend of the year since I first went in 2010. 

[teekoh]

Reading all the reviews I'm kinda bummed I didn't make more of an attempt to go. Sounds really fun.

[monasterymonochrome]

Mar 28, 2022 13:50:02 GMT -6 oshoney said:

Mar 28, 2022 6:36:40 GMT -6 monasterymonochrome said:

And that’s it! I caught 34 shows over four days - and it was one of my favorite festival weekends ever. Hopefully I can make this something of an annual pilgrimage!

Also, shouts out to Zircona for hanging with me for parts of all four days and being a generally cool dude. Great to meet ya!

I wish I had been paying attention to the board over the weekend, I would have tried to meet up too! Sounds like we were at a ton of the same shows throughout the weekend. Luckily I ran into Zircona a couple times but I didn't know any other boarders were there. 

Also, agreed with everything you said about that Moses set. That was my most anticipated set of the weekend and it surpassed my already sky high expectations. That, Christian Scott and L'Rain were my favorite sets of the whole fest. 

I'm also so glad you loved it, I hope you do make it an annual thing! It's been my favorite weekend of the year since I first went in 2010. 

Amazing! - I hope to be at Big Ears 2023 for sure! Truly a special festival that it was a joy to be a part of.

[scoots]

Went to Spirit of the Beehive and Deeper last night. Deeper was a pleasant surprise since I hadn't listened to any of their stuff going in - lead singer sounds a bit like Robert Smith and some of the basslines are very Joy Division-ish. It didn't work on all of their songs, but the back half of their set was really great.

Spirit of the Beehive sounded terrific but lost all momentum song to song due to the main dude insisting on noodling around on his keyboard to play some pre-recorded audio after each song. Rest of the band stood on stage looking bored waiting for him to signal the next song. I hope they eventually start playing a more tight set.

Look at me, I went to a late Monday night set and I'm not destroyed the following day.

[ten15]

Deeper definitely has a Peter Hook feel to them. At some point, someone must have told the singer he sounds like Robert Smith, because the vocals changed on the second album to play up the similarity.

I have not seen them, and of course they are in Chicago tomorrow but I will be in NY.

[nanatod]

I think they played the same street fest as either bush tetras or martin rev, unless that was the same pre-pandemic chicago street festival. the trapper keeper doesn't have the same cache it did before covid 19.

[nanatod]

it was the fest with martin rev in 2018; the fest with the bush tetras was a different fest.

[zircona1]

To echo monasterymonochrome and oshoney , I had a really good time at Big Ears. The crowd skewed older, most of the sets were indoors and seated, bars at most of them as well, everyone was respectful, basically the opposite of Lolla. Favorite sets of the weekend were:

Sparks - Yes, 'No. 1 Song in Heaven' was a total dance party, I wish they had done 'Amateur Hour' but I guess they've retired it for now.
Patti Smith - When I saw her at Riot Fest years ago, she didn't do 'Gloria', but she did it here and it was fiery.
75 Dollar Bill
Claire Rousay - I wasn't sure how she was going to do her material live, but it worked and I was totally intrigued.
John Zorn New Masada Quartet - Wow, virtuosic performances on display from everyone, just incredible.
Dead Rider
Alabaster Deplume - Decided to check this out on a whim, dude is totally charming and the music was better than I expected.

Great to meet monastery and watch a few shows together, and to hang out with oshoney a bit. 

Hope to do it again next year!

[chvrchbarrel]

I didn't even know a band like the airborne toxic event was capable of delivering such an emotionally stirring performance - an almost out-of-body experience that reminded me that music can be vulnerable, raw, and nearly - nay - wholly religious, and still be rock and fucking roll!

[neader]

Perfume Genius was good tonight but there is a like five song stretch that is a total lull

[nanatod]

you came all the way from south of the mason dixon line to go to pilsen and thalia hall for perfume genius??

[concertgoer]

Perfume Genius was fantastic tonight. He has a six piece band now. Such a massive sound now.

[neader]

I moved to Chicago October of 2020.

[nanatod]

belated congratulations on the move, neader!

[perdhapley]

If you're going to Lolla or he does an after show, make sure to check out Genesis Owusu. Such a fun and engaging performer, great night. Played an 1hr 15 minutes too which is pretty impressive considering he doesn't have much out

[mookie]

Yeah, Perfume Genius was fantastic once again last night. Seeing them do Otherside any time is always a highlight of a concert year.

Good to hear about Genesis Owusu, I knew there was another show I was forgetting about last night, besides Yard Act

[dij22]

Yard Act was super fun last night at Sleeping Village. They reminded me of Foxygen, in that when I saw them for the first time I thought "there's a chance this band is headlining festivals in a few years and a chance they break up immediately".

The lead singer was very funny and very drunk. Has a solid foundation for being a genuinely great frontman.

[Kamera]

Yard Act was a great show last night. For a sold out show, it wasn’t crowded at all. The band’s banter and stage presence was better than I expected.

[concertgoer]

Oh yeah Perfume Genius was sold out as well, but it definitely didn't feel as crowded as pre- pandemic shows at Thalia

[oshoney]

I wasn’t sure what to expect from an Anna Meredith live show but I had a blast seeing her tonight in Brooklyn. The 5 piece band did a great job of replicating the sounds on her albums, and she closed with a cover medley that included a bit of Call Me Maybe. Great show.

[mookie]

Yves Tumor was pretty great again last night, but man I have underestimated how big his fan base is right now, and how nuts people are over them. The Metro was VERY sold out last night, and people were really shoving to get up close right when they started. Set was very good, the crowd really went ape shit for one song, I think it was off of Heaven to a Tortured Mind, because that's the album I really did not care about much. I have to call in our tik tok experts to find out if they have a hit on there or something, because it was weird to see that crowd reaction to that song.

But yeah, the new Metro sound system is still pretty good. Doss was a good opener, and the bass sounded pretty great during her set, so that was good news.

[concertgoer]

Yves was great. Glad I resisted the urge to lasagna.

[fiveiron83321]

Nation of Language was great last night at Thalia. didn't sell it out, but maybe 3/4 full. I assume they were prolly aiming for LH if it wasn't booked. But i feel like these guys are ready to keep getting bigger

Ducks Ltd. were a solid opener as well. if you like rolling blackouts CF, you'll like their stuff

[alady]

Ducks are doing an instore at Tone Deaf on Monday too.