Live Music

Dark Star Crashes…

1972-08-27 PosterToday I want to tell you about one of my favorite bits of Grateful Dead music. Some (most) days I will probably tell you that the 1972-08-27 show from Veneta, Oregon is the Best Show Ever. Naturally, that’s just my opinion but it certainly is one of the great ones.

Played in record heat as a benefit for Ken Kesey’s Creamery, this show features notable performances of China > Rider, Playing In The Band, Jack Straw, Bird Song, and The Greatest Story Ever Told. It’s the triple-punch of Dark Star > El Paso followed by Sing Me Back Home that launches this show up into legendary status.

Dark Star opens the third set just as the sun has slipped away and the band and audience find relief from its blistering heat. They begin at a leisurely pace completely dialed in from their long hot day on the stage and hit several peaks before launching into space. Deep space. Out of that space, an astute listener may think they hear Morning Dew beginning to form. I certainly do. But then, in a move that may forever be questioned but ultimately proves decisive and delightful, Wier begins strumming El Paso and Jerry takes off with it. The intergalactic ego-death of Dark Star into the murderous cowboy ballad of El Paso comes off as a powerful mind-fuck if you let it. The song is nailed and then, after only the briefest pause, they slowly enter Merle Haggard’s prison ballad, Sing Me Back Home. This one is a great song given the most powerful of treatments and should forever go down as one of Garcia’s strongest vocal performances. You’ve got to hear it to believe it, so I’ve setup a stream of this epic three song passage below.

If that does the trick for you, I suggest you seek out the entire show. It also floats around in the form of an unreleased concert film entitled, “Sunshine Daydream”. Here’s the Jack Straw from the film:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K1dZOeElIo[/youtube]

Dark Star > El Paso & Sing Me Back Home stream comes from the Live Music Archive at Archive.org.

Keller Williams Electronic Experiment 2010-06-09

Wednesday, Fredericksburg, Virginia’s Otter House played host to a little something new. Announced as K. Lovedub And The Sun, local-boy-made-good, Keller Williams took his recent “Electronic Experiments” to a new level.

The evening began with Magic Hat beer specials and a 90 minute set of roots, dub, and dancehall reggae from DJ One Drop. He got the room ready to party and, as midnight approached, the curtain pulled back and the bass from the stage merged with the bass from the records and the experiment was underway. Onstage with Keller was Scott Sunn, a visual/video artist who has worked with Radiohead, SCI, as well as Keller at many of his festival performances. As Keller laid down bass, midi-guitar and more Sunn mixed video on the screen near the stage and the two appeared to collaborate on selecting and triggering samples via the onstage mixer.

Keller’s longtime sound engineer, Lou Gossain, was mixing in the front-of-house position, of course, and he had the room sounding as good as I’ve ever heard it. This made for a great 90 minutes of dance music that definitely had the room on their feet and dancing well into the night.

[youtube width=”640″ height=”385″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2Rq7OA7K9w[/youtube]

K. Lovedub And The Sun (Keller Williams & Scott Sunn)
The Otter House - Fredericksburg, VA
Dance music > Fire On The Mountain / More Than A Little >
More dance music > Don't touch that button > Freeker * >
More dance music > Freshies > More dance music >
Old School hip hop groove > Cosby "Himself" groove **

Encore:
Celebrate Your Youth

* HR Puff N Stuff on the screens
** with thanks

Watch this post or follow my twitter for updates, including audio links and an improved video.

Pics are here.

http://www.kellerwilliams.net

Scott Sunn/Tracer Visuals

Megafaun 2010-06-08

Megafaun played the Iota Club & Cafe in Arlington, Virginia, last night and, if I could set aside my so-called objectivity for a bit, it was awesome.

Got there nice & early because it’s right across the river from my office and too far to go home first. So I had dinner in the area and rolled into the venue right as the band arrived. I had tweeted my request to tape earlier in the day and gotten an affirmative response so I checked in with the band and chatted with the club owner (whom I had heard was sorta tough on tapers but I found him to be very nice) and secured permission and prime position to setup. As the band loaded in and setup, I secured my mics to a pole about 6 feet from the stage, dead center, and about 7 feet high. I taped soundcheck then hung out and met the band. We chatted about a lot of different things including the Gayngs album (on which they all play and in support of which two of the band members will be touring in the fall. Gotta see that!) and an upcoming project for UNC involving Alan Lomax’s field recordings… Continue reading →

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Reunites

Pardon my giddiness as I blast this info to all media but I’m very psyched to hear, (via Pitchfork) that the media-eschewing, politically charged, Canadian, post-rock collective will be touring in the Winter.

They will first curate and headline All Tomorrow’s Party’s “Nightmare Before Christmas” in Minehead, UK. Then, according to the announcement on their website, they will play a “handful” of UK and EU dates followed by exactly nine US dates.

Here’s a little taste of what they do:

[youtube width=”480″ height=”385″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsf2LoLk3SA[/youtube]