Music

It's been a little while since I've updated, I realized. Instead of trying to recapture an entire month (or more, considering the posts have been spotty for some time), I'll just give a little taste...in song form.

We've been making it to a good deal of concerts recently, and really solid ones.

Delta Spirit and The Shins
5/14, 9:30 Club

This comes close to counting as a show that we went to primarily for the opening act, as was the case for The Tallest Man on Earth opening for Bon Iver back in December. I did discover this show by looking through the concert schedule for Delta Spirit, a group I've known about for several months or so, but seeing The Shins on the listing sealed the deal. Closing the deal required scalping tickets, and after a couple hours of trying we got in for basically face-value one song into the opening.

I've been a moderate Shins fan since high school, but mostly stuck with Oh, Inverted World for one reason or another (side note: before Wikipedia corroborated it, while in China, reading what else but my dear friend Nietzsche, I came across the passage in On the Genealogy of Morals from which the album must have gotten its name. It made me blink a couple of times and then respect the band more). So, in my mind, I was more looking forward to the Delta Spirit openers.

Their music is the type that I'd expect to sound even better live, and they didn't disappoint. Great energy and stage presence. I hope that enough people in there knew who they were, or at least that this tour 1) gives them a lot more fans 2) gets them working on a second album.



Then came The Shins, and they were even better live as well. It definitely made me appreciate more of their music than I had before. It was interesting to see them in person too, because they definitely didn't look like the image I had in my head from some picture I had seen once. Good times.



Steve Earle and John Prine
6/5, Wolf Trap

This was a show that Amanda bought tickets to for us and her parents, without letting them know where they were going. Her dad is a big John Prine fan. Wolf Trap is a great location and, despite intermittent rain, lying a blanket down on grass was a perfect way to hear this music.

I knew Steve Earle by name, I think from my Maine days listening to WCLZ. I'm surprised that I didn't know his "Dixieland" song, considering its heavy use of Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine who, as we learned throughout our history classes, basically single-handedly won the Civil War.



The Tallest Man on Earth and John Vanderslice
6/16, Black Cat

I didn't know anything about John Vanderslice, but we weren't about to pass up another opportunity to see the Tallest Man. Last time, he was with Bon Iver, also unknown to us at the time and ending up as a great find. I didn't get around to listening to much John Vanderslice before the concert, but the few songs that I did hear sounded decent enough.

The Tallest Man opened, as he does, with the diehards packed at the front while most people were still trickling in. It was clear that Amanda and I weren't the only ones there mainly for the opener.

He was his excellent self, the consummate performer and picker. I would murder to pick like that. He got in nice and real close like for some of the pictures too, which wasn't hard to do from mere feet away.



Cameras died before John Vanderslice came up, but he was enjoyable. I can't say he's anything that I'm running out to get, but it was good at least for a live show. Then again, music has to be pretty bad not to sound good live.

After the concert, we were able to chat with the Tallest Man a little bit, getting some information on the expected second album tentatively coming out later this year. "King of Spain" will be included. When I asked if "Let's Carmelize" would be on it, he said no, probably not, but took my email address so that he could send me the mp3 when he got back to Sweden. The odds of him 1) not losing the scrap of cardboard and 2) remembering why he took the email address are fairly low, but hey, we'll see.



What's on the musical horizon? Artscape in Baltimore is next weekend, and I know at least that Cake is playing a free show. The last time I heard of them, it was at their free show in Boston in 2005. I wonder if they do anything beside play for free these days.

Additionally, Amanda and I will be heading north for the Newport Folk Festival first weekend in August, celebrating 50 years of raucous folkdom. The lineup is tremendous and vast.

For people as of now I'm especially looking forward to:

1. Arlo Guthrie


2. Billy Bragg


3. David Rawlings Machine (who I know so far just as musical partner of Gillian Welch, who will also be there)


4. The Decemberists (which will make a running total of six times seeing them/Colin Meloy live, jeez)


5. Elvis Perkins in Dearland


6. Fleet Foxes


7. Iron and Wine (second time)


8. Joan Baez


9. The Low Anthem


10. Neko Case


11. Pete Seeger


12. Ramblin' Jack Elliott

That leaves a solid half of the lineup completely or relatively unknown to me. It's going to be a blast.