Lake Street Dive – Rachael Price (lead vocals), Mike “McDuck” Olson (trumpet, guitar), Bridget Kearney (upright bass), Mike Calabrese (drums) and Akie Bermiss (keyboards) – played a sold out show at Showbox at the Market. They’re on the road supporting their latest release, Free Yourself Up. Catch them back in Seattle in September, headlining at Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery. New York-based harpist Mikaela Davis opened.
Lake Street Dive
Mikaela Davis
Tom Jones w/ Into The Ark @ the Paramount – 6/1/18
Show Review & Photos by Dagmar
Tom Jones
There doesn’t seem to be any music genre singer Tom Jones cannot capture. On Friday evening in Seattle, the Welsh superstar performed a two-hour set that focused on R&B, gospel, rock, country, jazz and several of his enormously famous tracks. Those especially famous? I’m talking “Delilah,” “It’s Not Unusual,” “Kiss,” “Sex Bomb,” plus one of my extra special favorites, “What’s New Pussycat?”. And he can rap (this should not surprise me), as shown in a fantastic live version of “If I Only Knew.” And he sings those traditional gospel and R&B songs with deep respect for their American origins. Two of the show’s songs, “Didn’t It Rain” and “Strange Things Happening Every Day” were by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, an underappreciated – and pioneering – female African American guitarist and songwriter.
And Jones’ covers really do have their own spin. The show’s arrangement were unique; I’m particularly thinking of the band arrangement of “Talk to Me Baby,” which was fantastic ensemble work. It’s not all about Jones, and it’s refreshing that someone of such fame can share a stage with other talented musicians – even showcase them. The group, including horn players/backup singers; drummer; keyboard and piano players; a bassist and two guitarists, was an important accompaniment to Jones. The horn section had synchronized moves to the music. Hey, I love that kind of thing. As for Jones’ voice, it was deep and beautiful in the Paramount, displaying a strength all its own. I heard a lot of passion and zero error. There’s no one else with a voice like that.
My introduction to Tom Jones came via two soundtrack songs: “What’s New Pussycat?” from the film “What’s New Pussycat?” (one of my favorite movies; I recommend it) and “Thunderball,” from the James Bond movie, Thunderball. Other people have their own introductions, of course; for me, it was all about the pussycat and the dramatic lyrics of Thunderball: Any woman he wants, he’ll get. He will break any heart without regret. I’m convinced Jones can sing anything with earnest sorrow, lust. . . or fun, and you can feel it. You can smell it.
As you’d hope for and expect from any Tom Jones show, there was loads of colorful lighting and visuals to go along with the songs. Lips covered the screen during Jones’ smashing cover of Prince’s “Kiss,” yet a bit of a surprise for me was the selection of spiritual songs. This is a man who reflects on his life and soul, and communicates that faith artistically. One of his first hits, “Green, Green Grass of Home,” displayed how this has always been something he’s taken seriously, and that song acted as a true and coherent bridge to his more recent works. There’s definitely the fun-loving Tom Jones, but there’s always an artist, one choosing songs to share with fans, at work. Many of the evening’s songs came from recent albums, Long Lost Suitcase, Spirit in the Room and Praise & Blame; this is understandable, as the tracks were lovely, but also at thirty nine albums, he must be a wee bit interested in sharing newer renditions. “What a Wonderful World” was gorgeous.
Very dapper in blue, Jones talked to the audience frequently, telling stories about his life. He mentioned working as an apprentice glove maker in a Welsh factory, and how they kept the radio on all the time at the factory. They did that, he said, “to keep us happy.” And those songs did keep him happy: he can remember hearing Little Willie John’s “Take My Love (I Want to Give It All to You)” for the first time there. He also told us about meeting a girl (they were both teenagers) at a dance club one night. That girl became his wife!
Into the Ark, an impressive Welsh duo (trio for the tour) opened. The band was discovered by Jones on the show The Voice UK, on which Jones is one of the judges. In addition to their opening set, they performed with Jones for “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” and “Ring of Fire.” I would see them on their own for sure. When they were onstage with him, Jones talked about all the UK areas, and how the males in England, Ireland, Scotland are called men. In Wales? They’re Welsh boys. And that’s fine with Jones, who says he doesn’t want to grow up. I get it. I also got it when, several times during his set, he held his arms out in a stage embrace and said, “Oh yeah.”
Oh yeah, for sure.
Tom Jones
Into The Ark
Tom Jones Atmosphere
Setlist:
Burning Hell – Praise & Blame (John Lee Hooker cover)
Run On – Praise & Blame (folk song cover)
Mama Told Me Not to Come – Decade in the Sun: Best of Stereophonics (Randy Newman song)
Didn’t It Rain – Praise & Blame (Sister Rosetta Tharpe cover)
Raise a Ruckus – Long Lost Suitcase (gospel song cover)
Did Trouble Me – Praise & Blame (Susan Werner song)
Sex Bomb – Reload
Take My Love (I Want to Give It All to You) – Long Lost Suitcase (Little Willie John cover)
Talk to Me Baby/I Can’t Hold Out (Willie Dixon cover)
(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay – When I Fall In Love (Otis Redding cover)
Ring of Fire – Green, Green Grass of Home (June Carter/Kilgore)
Delilah – Delilah (Reed/Mason/Whittingham song)
Soul of a Man – Spirit in the Room (Blind Willie Johnson cover)
Tower of Song – Spirit in the Room (Leonard Cohen cover)
Green, Green Grass of Home – Green, Green Grass of Home (Putman song)
What’s New Pussycat? – What’s New Pussycat? (Bacharach/David song)
It’s Not Unusual – It’s Not Unusual (Reed/Mills song)
You Can Leave Your Hat On – The Full Monty Soundtrack (Randy Newman cover)
If I Only Knew – The Lead and How To Swing It
I Wish You Would – Long Lost Suitcase (Billy Boy Arnold cover)
Encore:
What a Wonderful World (Thiele/Weiss song)
Kiss – The Best of the Art of Noise (Prince cover)
Strange Things Happening Everyday – Praise & Blame (Sister Rosetta Tharpe cover)
Tricky w/ Young Magic @ Neumos -5/12/18
Show Review & Photos by Lisa Hagen Glynn
Tricky
It was lights out at Tricky’s sold-out May 12th show at Neumos. After the band was situated onstage, Tricky himself provided the stage lighting, illuminating himself and his three bandmates using a flashlight commandeered from stage staff. Despite audience pleas of, “You’re beautiful. We want to see you,” the venue remained darkened for the duration of the two-hour set, broken only by the occasional flash of a rogue cell-phone camera. This set a contemplative mood appropriate to Tricky’s 1990s trip-hop origins.
The set was characteristically unconventional. Tricky’s physical presence was pleasantly quirky, from his tremulous leg while singing intensely, to his casual inching up of his shirt to reveal his abdominal tattoo. As stage staff scurried to untangle his dual microphones and right spilled water bottles, Tricky lit a hand-rolled cigarette onstage.
Twice, the musicians exited the stage. The audience turned to coordinated stomping and clapping to coax them back, and eventually the band reappeared – the second time without Tricky. Polish vocalist Marta Zakowska performed the background vocals for “Hell is Round the Corner,” left spare without Tricky’s iconic rapping. The crowd still roared.
The performance combined tunes from Tricky’s 2017 release Ununiform with classics from his 12 earlier albums. Death and loss were pervasive themes. Particularly compelling was the lyric, “So, where do I go, where do I go/I don’t die young, not like Michael,” repeated mantra-like in an extended and hypnotic visitation of “When We Die.” Through faces of twisted anguish, pumping microphones, screams and whispers, and raucous offstage laughter, Tricky offered an emotional and memorable performance.
Brooklyn-based group Young Magic (http://carparkrecords.com/artists/young-magic/) opened with a half-hour set. The trio performed electronic music that skillfully combined multinational influences.
Tricky
Young Magic
Tricky
Spanish indie rock band Hinds – Carlotta Cosials (guitar, vox), Ana Perrote (guitar, vox), Ade Martin (bass, vox) and Amber Grimbergen (drums) – headlined at the Crocodile Café. The Madrid-based group is on the road in support of their recently released second studio album, I Don’t Run. Goodbye Honolulu opened and joined Hinds for one song near the end of their set.
(L-R) Ade Martin, Carlotta Cosials, Amber Grimbergen, Ana Perrote
Hinds
Goodbye Honolulu
David Byrne w/ Benjamin Clementine @ the Paramount – 5/24/18
Show Review & Photos by Peter Dervin
David Byrne
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, David Byrne, formerly of Talking Heads, has made a career of bringing different types of music to the masses. Byrne is currently on tour to support his latest album, American Utopia, and the sold-out Paramount Theatre was enthralled by this performance.
Opening the evening was London-based musician Benjamin Clementine, who sang from his piano and held the audience in complete fascination. His music was really quite captivating and moving. An American Flag -draped mannequin stood center stage, and you had a sense that the music symbolized the current state of affairs, both nationally and globally. Clementine’s performance was fantastic and I will be looking forward to his next visit to Seattle.
As the theatre lights dimmed for the arrival of David Byrne, the stage was transformed into a giant space, no formal instrumental set up, just a table, a chair and an exposed brain as the centerpiece. As the lights were raised, there was David Byrne, sitting at the table with the brain in hand.
Byrne opened with a song entitled “Here,” from his new album “American Utopia” where “Here is many sounds for your brain to comprehend,” inviting us to “Here the sound, it’s organized into things that make some sense.”
From there, the band began to appear from the shadows of the curtains that made up the walls of the open space; each musician had instruments in hand, in marching band fashion and as the band kicked into the song “Lazy” from Grown Backwards, the tempo of the evening picked up with their synchronized dance movements and playing.
“I Zimbra,” from Talking Heads album Fear Of Music exploded with the rhythmic beats and fusion, then right into “Slippery People” from Speaking In Tongues. . .WOW, everyone was out of their seats and groovin’ to the tunes. Throughout the evening David Byrne played a variety of Talking Heads favorites from the Remain In Light album, such as “Once In A Lifetime” and “Born Under Punches.”. Also some songs from Speaking in Tongues, including “ “This Must Be The Place (Native Melody)’ and “Burning Down The House.”
In between the Talking Heads tunes, Byrne inserted a wide selection of songs from his assorted collaborations like “I Should Watch TV” from his album Love This Giant with St. Vincent, and “Toe Jam” with The BPA (that was also one of the greatest videos ever!).
The evening closed out with encores from Byrne’s recent theater production of Here Lies Love, with the song “Dancing Together” (which was performed by the late Sharon Jones on the album) and my all-time favorite Talking Heads tune, “The Great Curve,” with its pulsating world beats and sonic explosiveness.
I have been very fortunate over the years to catch David Byrne at different stages of his musical journey. In the past few years, his interest in civic action has been at the forefront. During the course of the evening he brought attention to the folks who were registering voters, as he emphasized the importance of participating in local elections. Striving to build upon our American Utopia.
David Byrne
Benjamin Clementine
David Byrne