Lights That Shine in the Evening: John Davis of Title Tracks @ Smithsonian's "Luce Unplugged" Series

I shot the Luce Unplugged December performance yesterday at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. "Luce Unplugged" is a monthly series that has a local musician come play for an hour after chatting about one of the paintings in the area of his/her choice. It's a great idea, one that showcases the two things DC has a lot of: local musicians and free Smithsonian events.

The performer for December was Title Tracks frontman John Davis, who performed some great covers, as well as tracks of his own. My piece for the Washington City Paper is live here, and you can see additional photos from the performance here.

Lights That Flash in the Evening (Err...Day): Nicole Atkins In-Store @ Som Records, Washington, DC (8-7-2011)

Nicole Atkins was in DC over the weekend to play The Birchmere but she came by Som Records for an in-store (or on-sidewalk as it was). Atkins was supposed to be plugged in, but no proper cable could be found, so what we got instead was her lovely voice and an acoustic guitar-I think we made out better in the end. If you don't know her, she's well worth investigating: her songs are observant and witty, with a voice like the blues covered in honey.

I shot Atkins' set for The Vinyl District-DC, which you can check out over here.

Lights That Flash in the Evening: Tommy Stinson @ Iota, Arlington, VA (2-17-2011)

My piece on Tommy Stinson's Iota show last week went live today over at the WCP. I like the coziness of Iota but the lighting there is like shooting in a cave sometimes. Rather, a cave decorated for Christmas. I worked on them in post, but they're still too dark for my liking. You can see the full set of shots here.

One thing I couldn't put in the WCP piece was a set list from the show, so without further ado...

Match
Moment Too Soon
Hey You
Turn It Up
Making of an Asshole
One Man Mutiny (new song I believe)
Without a View
Zero to Stupid
Stupid Us
It's a Drag
Makes Me Happy
Hateful
Now We Come to Hide
Friday Night Is Killing Me
Cmon Get Happy (Partridge Family cover sung, no lie, standing on the Iota bar)

Lights That Flash in the Evening: Grinderman @ 930 Club, Washington, DC (11-16-2010)

I covered Mr. Nick Cave and his side project Grinderman, who played at the 930 Club for the WCP a few days back. My friend, also named Nick, writer and editor for Bloodbeat.com summed up Cave and Grinderman in a brilliant sentence. He said Grinderman was "More about destroying the structure of songs as well as shouting about getting well-laid and breaking hymens world-over with a flexed mustache muscle and laser eyes." Testify, ladies and gentleman, testify (See all of the photos of the show here).

I wasn't an immediate convert to Cave. He was good live, yes, but, I can't explain it, something was still missing for me. If I'm on the edge about band, it's usually their live show that can tip the scales for me, but I was still fence-sitting about Cave, even after Tuesday's show. I liked the intensity and the passion he displayed, but... I was yet to be convinced (in fact, I left before the encore). But then I happened upon the video for "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!" from the 2008 record Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" the next day, and... I finally got it, that weird, inane attraction that so many have for Cave. And I'm not even a fan of vampires!

Lights That Flash in the Evening: Pavement @ Central Park Summerstage (9-22-2010)

Yes, I was one of those damn fools who bought tickets for the Pavement shows at the Central Park Summerstage a year ago. Thought about selling them over the course of the year because it was a Wednesday and required a Bolt Bus ride mid-work week, but in the end, after seeing a few setlists, my friend and I decided there was no way we could miss this.

I tried hard to tweet the setlist but it proved difficult for two reasons: one, I have a hard time remembering Pavement's song titles, primarily because they're usually so far removed from the song's words, and two, it started to sprinkle early on, then pour rain about seven songs in. Pour hard. Like pour a bucket of water/soak through to your bones pouring rain. Shortly thereafter the thunder and streak-lighting started. Nothing like being outside in the middle of a huge open park like Central Park in the middle of a thunder and lightning storm. But it just didn't matter to anyone; we'd waited a year for this and no one was going anywhere.

The show was typically live Pavement: flubbed intros, starting songs over and such. But they sounded strong and solid, and appeared to be having as much fun onstage as we were having in the audience. Bassist Mark Ibold watched the crowd get pelted by rain and not even caring almost in awe, and the band repeatedly said how grateful they were to everyone for sticking it out. The show was stopped about half way through for a good 20 minutes because of the lightning, but upon the return, they ran through the rest pretty rapidly. It really didn't seem that way, but they must have because based on the setlist above, we only missed a couple songs.

The song that had the entire audience pogoing in unison during the chorus and generally losing its collective mind? "Stereo" from Brighten the Corners. It was a white hot version too. Lead singer Stephen Malkmus literally ripped into it; I saw him look up, see the lightning streak across the sky and literally, with his entire body, rip that opening piece with a definite ferocity which kept up the whole song. Almost as if to say, "If this is the last song, it's gonna be badass." And though it took a good 24 hours for my clothing to dry, Wednesday's Pavement show in Central Park most definitely was.

Lights That Flash in the Evening: Hole @ 930 Club, Washington, DC (6-26-2010)

By now, I'm sure you've heard, or read, or thought, "Oh no he didn't," then giggled over the honesty about the cuckoo bananas explosion that was the Hole show here at the 930 Club on Sunday. David Malitz for the Washington Post hit all the bases of crazy that were run that night; it was a rather spectacular meltdown. Hitting the stage almost a full hour past the scheduled start time, something that rarely happens at the 930, Love apologized to the crowd saying, "Sorry, I was hanging with a friend who is a senator and he can't be photographed with me in public..." Then she said something about how if folks were hoping for her Boston set list, they would be disappointed; "You're getting the Bruce Springsteen set, sorry."

Now, Springsteen does rehearsal shows that folks pay a lot to see, and they're fun and different. Springsteen does marathon shows that run 3-hours. In Europe recently, a Hole "Springsteen set" occurred and was a solid and amazing show according to a friend who attended; but Sunday, "Springsteen set" meant "a 3-hour slow-motion rehearsal show for a car crash."

There are various guesses flying around as to why Love was acting so out of it: drink, drugs, brain damage, insanity... And I've also heard a ton of people saying, "Well, how could you go expecting to see anything else, it's Courtney Love." And they might be right. Love is like a walking Murphy's Law in her personal life it seems, a continual reporting of "Hello deep end my old friend."



I initially thought my take on this show would be along the same lines of the many other negative reviews, given the number of times the phrase "train wreck" showed up in my notes. And then I got thinking about what I saw during Hole's set at the SXSW Spin Day Party set this year. At that show, Love was solid. Funny. "There" if you will, mentally. You could see the potential in terms of her band, which is pretty amazing by the way, and between her with her band, because they played so well together; it wasn't them acting as just her backup band, as it seemed on Sunday. She didn't have to have her handler come onstage in Austin to turn up her guitar knobs because she didn't seem capable, nor did her guitar hang as decoration around her neck while her keyboardist tore up the rhythm-guitar parts that I'm pretty sure she was supposed to be playing. When comparing the Austin show to the DC one, the difference was night and day. "Tonight is just...weird," someone with the band told me before I left on Sunday, "They've been really solid up to now, but tonight...I'm not sure what's going on." Had I not seen the set in Austin with my own eyes, I'd probably be questioning his definition of the word "solid" and writing a much harsher review now.



But who knows what Sunday was all about. Say what you will, but the new record, Nobody's Daughter is a good record, and Live Through This is truly a kick ass record. And maybe she didn't write the songs necessarily for LTT, as some proclaim, but words of a song are just words until someone sings them and makes them come alive.



"Violet" is one rage-fueled effing song that wouldn't blow the doors off if it were in the hands of someone else (though this was not so much the case Sunday night as the crowd sang most of the song. By the way, a fun fact she told us about that song: "I was in Chicago; Billy Pumpkin gave me a Vicodin, and I wrote this song." Maybe that explains the sky being made of amethyst?). Love still has a great raspy rock yell that can still make your nervous system go bonkers.


Love's got something that people gravitate towards though...how else could she pull off some of the stuff she's done over the past bunch of years? Sure she's scrappy, but you can't get by on that all of your career necessarily. Nobody's Daughter is the first Hole record in 12 years-for as many times as she turned the mic around for the crowd to sing because she didn't know lyrics (or whatever) Sunday night, there were just as many shouts of "Courtney, I love you!" from the crowd. And just as many people are defending her in the comments of the negative reviews of the show.


Would I want to be friends with her? Hell no (she kinda scares me to be honest). Would I want her as my neighbor? No, nor would I want her to ever sit for my dog, let alone my kids. Was it obnoxious that she put some woman "filming" her with an iPhone onstage-not a proper camcorder or anything but an effing iPhone- which she played to instead of her fans, not to mention making the woman block the view of said fans who paid $45 a ticket? Hell yeah it was...

But that aside, I know what I saw in Austin, which wasn't what I saw on Sunday at the 930. There was one song that that band did, start to finish, on Sunday called "Letter to God" off the new record that was really beautiful. One of the lines goes, "I lie awake conducting this symphony/That You have gifted to me but I can't ever sleep/Don't be mad but I get weak inside/And I start to fall apart 'cause I feel nothing." What was displayed Sunday on the 930's stage was many things, one of which may just have been a very public view into the demons with which Love still struggles. But she's still swinging, she's still trying...Maybe the way she goes about it sometimes isn't the greatest, but I, for one, have to give her props for that.

(See the rest of the photos here)

Lights That Flash in the Evening: The National @ DAR Constitution Hall, Washington, DC (6-6-2010)

Seeing The National live was, for me, a little like my experience with seeing Wilco live: something always seemed to come up. I finally caught both bands separately last year, but The National's show, it just wasn't right...a band like The National should not be first experienced as a 5 pm slot at an outdoor festival like Virgin FreeFest. Lead singer Matt Berninger writes lyrics that describe emotional depths that tend to venture into the dark; as such, The National should be experienced inside somewhere, and at night, not in sunlight next to a truck selling funnel cakes.

I'm happy to say I finally got the experience at DAR Constitution Hall recently. It was simply amazing. Goosebump-giving amazing. The show ran close to two hours and at the end, my cheeks hurt from the never-ending grin I wore the whole time.



Their new record, High Violet, took a little while to move into. Lots was happening and I didn't have a lot of extra brain space to focus; it's not a hard record to focus on, but you need to be in the place to allow your mind to do just that. But once I did, boy, did I fall for it hard.



That's why when I saw the previous night's setlist from Boston, I was sorta bummed out, not knowing if this was a band who changed things up or not, because it seemed to lack some of the new tracks I had on repeat ("Lemonworld," "Runaway," "England," "Anyone's Ghost"). But the DAR show, they included all of these and more...it was like they asked me to make the set list of my favorites (includng "Karen," a song they said they rarely play).




There is a wonderful beauty of the almost orchestral arrangements that each of the new songs contain, but this was something that became much more obvious when I saw them live. Guitarist Bryce Dressner has a background in classical guitar and has worked with the likes of Phillip Glass and the Kronos Quartet, so this isn't a huge surprise. What was a surprise was the intensity with which everyone played. Dressner and his brother Bryce would bend themselves over and tear at the guitar strings, almost in frustration that they couldn't go just a little bit faster, or pull just one more note from their instruments. This was particularly evident in "England," when during its swelling center part, everyone on stage proceeded to play like passionate madmen. Berninger used his vocal instrument in much the same way, emoting lyrical banshee screams while pacing the stage, even knocking his mike stand over at one point.




DAR is not the ideal place for a rock show. It has seats. You can't take beers back inside. In DC though, it's the in-between place for bands too big for the 1200-capacity of the 930, yet too small for the Verizon Center, an arena. DAR isn't tiny, but Berninger was determined to make fans feel like it was. During "Abel," Berninger went out onto the floor, walking/singing up the aisles, then walking atop of seat backs, with fans helping him to glide along. This happened again during the encore when they played "Mr. November" (like they'd not play that in DC, c'mon). This time, he took his audience interaction up into the balcony, scaling the entire right side while singing all the while. I wasn't supposed to shoot photos from my seat, but I plead a delightful insanity, right along with the rest of the crowd. And this was before they even got to the end of encore with a mindblowingly stunning version of "About Today!"

(See the rest of the show photos here)
This show absolutely ranks as one of the best shows I've ever seen. That's some serious gushing there, but it's 100% true. There are some I know who find The National bland, overrated, "the same song over and over." I did once too. But the very lovely part of The National is that it not only appeals to the brain with Berninger's lyrics, to the mind with their powerful and incredible hooks and time changes, but also to the heart in a way that can only be achieved when experiencing passionate beauty. "Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent," said Victor Hugo. Here's being incredibly glad that The National are compelled to make noise.

Lights That Flash in the Evening: Fitz & the Tantrums @ Black Cat, Washington, DC (5-29-2010)

It was great to see the turnout for Fitz & the Tantrums last Saturday at the Cat. Memorial Day Weekend can be tough for any band to play in town, but for a band from out-of-town, you never know. So big ups to DC because they welcomed these out-of-towners with a good showing. Music, as well as a live show this good, is something that should not go unrecognized.

(Go here to see the rest of the show photos)

Lights That Flash in the Evening: The National @ The Bell House,Brooklyn, NY (3-11-10)

The National @ Virgin FreeFest 2009 (8-30-09), originally uploaded by BetweenLoveandLike.

It took me a little while to warm up to The National initially, but once that fuzzy feedback and kicky drum beats got their hooks into me, it was all over. Lead singer Matt Berninger's voice went from being monochromatic to a wave of warm water in which I wanted to swim...

Last night's show at The Bell House in the Gowanus Canal area of Brooklyn, the first of two nights, was a hot ticket, due to the venue's size (small), the promise of new material (certain), and the limited notice of onsale (three days prior).

My "man on the ground," Russ Bleemer, sent me the following...Seems 2010 will be The Year of The National, and all the wine will, indeed, be theirs.

If the debut of the new material last night at the Bell House in Brooklyn is any indication, it's going to be quite a year for the National.

The new songs aren't all easy. But they have a big arena sound, the low-slow opening that swells to a big chorus or rave up instrumental ending that is reminiscent of the way Radiohead does Nirvana, which the Pixies basically pioneered after listening to a lot of classical music in art school.

The band is bigger now, with the keyboard/violinist they have toured with for ages, along with a second keyboard player who played for most of the show. A three-piece horn section was on stage the whole time.

If you are going tonight and have high expectations for the new songs, they will be met. But stop reading now, because there are bunch of spoilers below, though presumably tonight won't be identical. I gave The National new songs ratings below, FWIW....

The show ran exactly 90 minutes, starting at about 10:17. The opening act tonight is different, but last night, it was a sax/acoustic bass/guitar/vocalist that did a jazz set. The vocalist was pretty funny, well schooled in David Johansen's Buster Poindexter monologues, which he inserted into the songs. After a while, they veered slightly to a more Morphine-like sound, but the set remained a full-on jazz sound led by the guitarist's chords...kinda interesting. National lead singer Matt Berninger came out on their last song and sang a duet with the vocalist (which made it sound like a National song).

As for The National set...

1) They opened with "Blood Buzz," a song familiar from shows that circulated last summer. (Rating: 9)
2) New song that had a U2 undercurrent. Big key potential title line was "Didn't Wanna Be Anyone's Ghost." At the end of the song, Berninger said the song was called "Butterscotch Paraphernalia." (Rating: 8)
3) The next song, also new, was called "LIttle Blizzard." You had to be there, but this got a decent laugh. These obviously were not real titles. (Rating: 8)
4) Next song, new, had a big drum opening, then was a mellower voice/piano/bass verse that welled up into a huge full band finish. (Rating: 7)
5) "Start a War"
6) "Secret Meeting"
7) New song, short but full on Pixies soft to furious, might be called "I Am Afraid of Everyone." (Rating: 9)
8) Another new song with a refrain that sounded like "Losing my breath," with a weird funny line that stood out: "I gave my heart to the Army." Difficult to understand as the vocals were mumbly/muted, but again, same dynamics as described on 7. (Rating: 7-8)
9) "Slow Show." Berninger said his wife was really looking forward to the debut of the new songs, but got ugly-sick at the last minute and missed the show and was home, a few blocks away. He thanked her for not having to watch her be sick, and her help with "Slow Show" lyrics. He also credited her lyrics work on the next one which was...
10) "Apartment Story"
11) A new song, paced by a shaker played by the drummer, was a slow one with another hard to understand line/refrain like "I won't run--another thing coming undone." The title might be "Run Along." (Rating: 8)
12) New song called "Conversation 16." Big synth line, more like U2, again, than Nirvana. My fave new song up to this point. (Rating: 9)
13) "Abel." Crowd strangely polite and remained indie aloof.
14) New song with a big violin intro, with the violin underlying the whole song and carying a nice countermelody that soared to another big ending. (Rating: 8)
15) Set ended with "Fake Empire"--an incredible version of it, too.
16) Encore began with a new song that included the line, "I'll explain everything to the kings." Could be a good title. (Rating: 9)
17) "Mr. November." Much of it sang from the middle of the crowd, which finally lost their aloofness and got excited.
18) "Terrible Love," the song that they did on Jimmy Fallon two nights ago. Great ending, and very exciting. My fave new song, probably not surprising as I watched the video from the show repeatedly, so I was well prepared. :-) (Rating: 9)

The venue was perfect, everyone should have a Bell House in their town. Michael Stipe was hanging around...as well as a lot of media-types around us with accents, who felt the need to critique everything. And loudly. But the band? When I first saw these guys I thought they were too arty and indie-weird to make it. But now they sound ready to headline in the big places they are going to this spring, and arena headlining isn't out of the question.

The National release High Violet on 5/11.

The National - 2010 Tour Dates
26-28 MARCH: KNOXVILLE, TN - BIG EARS FESTIVAL 2010 / TENNESSEE THEATRE
22-23 APRIL: RICHMOND, VA @ THE NATIONAL
06 MAY: LONDON, UK @ ROYAL ALBERT HALL
07 MAY: PARIS, FRANCE @ LE ZENITH w/ PAVEMENT
09 MAY: BERLIN, GERMANY @ ASTRA
22 MAY: LOS ANGELES, CA @ THE WILTERN
23 MAY: SAN DIEGO, CA @ SPRECKELS THEATRE
27 MAY: OAKLAND, CA @ FOX THEATRE
02 JUNE: BOSTON, MA @ HOUSE OF BLUES
05 JUNE: PHILADELPHIA, PA @ ELECTRIC FACTORY
06 JUNE: WASHINGTON, DC @ DAR CONSTITUTION HALL
08 JUNE: TORONTO, CANADA @ MASSEY HALL
16 JUNE: NEW YORK, NY @ RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL

Lights That Flash in the Evening: U2, with Muse @ FedEx Field, Upper Marlboro, MD (9-29-09)

U2 is not now nor were they ever my favorite band; in fact, I think the last record of theirs I own might be Zooropa. However, U2 is the reason I am a music dork today.

Up until the 8th grade, I was pretty much listening to "whatever was on the radio.” It wasn’t like fading mill towns in upstate NY were lush with record stores or indie radio stations then (or now for that matter). Up there, you got classic rock (Dylan, Hendrix) and Top 40 (Poison, Tiffany). One day, I was trying to tune in the big Top 40 station in the area and I unknowingly turned the knob a tad too far to the left.

Instead of the Top 40 station, I tuned in a college radio station (91.5, WRPI) and heard a heavy and intense guitar riff, and one hell of an impassioned 'YAHHHHHHHH’...and I felt every single neuron in my body fire all at once.

What I had heard were the opening chords to U2’s "New Year’s Day." It was so raw...so bare...so strong...so...real. I always liked to listen to music but never had a song hit my entire nervous system quite so completely before. It was through that banshee yell that I discovered a whole new world.

The Joshua Tree and U2's explosion into the mainstream was still three years away, so U2 was only being played on college-radio at this point. "New Year's Day" started my music nerd conversion, but it was discovering The Unforgettable Fire shortly thereafter that sealed the deal-what an amazing record. I realized that there was great music being made out there that was an alternative from the mainstream of hair metal, overproduced and plastic sounds, and formulaic lyrics. Music could be smart as well as catchy, and it wasn't all from 1967, it was happening right then. And I wanted to hear it all.

That's why I was so excited at the chance to combine my latest new world, photography, with, ostensibly, the reason that this site even exists today. So I give you photos from Tuesday's U2 show here in Washington, DC at FedEx Field.






(Bono is shorter than a drum cymbal, who knew?)



(Go here for the rest of the photos from this show, and for those of the opening band Muse.)

Lights that Flash in the Evening: The Avett Brothers @ Lisner Auditorium, Washington, DC (6-11-09)

Here are some photos from The Avett Brothers recent show here in DC at George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium....







There's one beautiful consistent about the Avetts that's been proven every time I've seen them...







...and that's how it doesn't matter where they play-it could be someplace big and cavernous like Red Rocks, smaller and outside like Stubbs, or really small and scholarly like the Lisner- they always make it feel as close and snug as if everyone just gathered on your front porch late one warm summer's night.

(See the rest of the photos from the show here)