Ryan Adams & The Cardinals on tour… standing on the shoulders of giants.
You know, by all accounts, it’s been a different Ryan Adams that has posted on Foggy lately. Having been on tour with Oasis for the last while, it seems like Ryan’s… well… maturing. And healthier than he’s been in a while. And I don’t mean that at all in a condescending way; I mean it in the most awe-inspiring, respectful way. But it’s true… and from the tunes I’ve been hearing, this time with Oasis has only done good for Ryan and the Cards; in all honesty, some of the recordings I’ve heard of this tour are some of the best stuff I’ve heard from the Cardinals in ages.
Which brings me to the main point of this post… I’ve been scanning archive.org regularly for new material that’s been posted from the show, and I came across this set from only three days ago, when Ryan Adams and the Cardinals performed at the Bank of America Pavilion. And man, some of the new songs you hear there are, quite simply, awesome, and bode well for the Cardinal’s next release. Here’s a sample of those new tunes… the outstanding “Cobwebs” (which most of us would have already been exposed to by a post on Foggy), “Fix It” (god, how about that refrain?), and then the brand-new (to me, at least), tunes of “Sinking Ship” and “The Colour of Pain“. All in all, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals are still titans, ladies and gentlemen. An island, a solid place to stand, in a swirling mass of uncertainty. And here’s some evidence of why they remain my favourite band. Here’s to more of this boys.
And, thanks to the always spiffy archive.org, I’m now able to embed the entire playlist on this blog, below. Listen to the whole set, and if you’d like to download the whole thing, head here.
Seriously. It’s like the first time I heard Ryan Adams all over again, and I’m loving it.
Unfortunately, and in keeping with the general lack of time around these parts lately, this post might need to be a bit short. But on Friday night, I saw one of my top 5 shows that I’ve ever seen at the Tivoli… Death Cab for Cutie. And what a set it was.
An Horse kicked off the night…
The night was started off by Brisbane band, An Horse, who I’m surprised that I hadn’t heard before. Suffice to say, this duo (Kate Cooper and Damon Cox) opened up the night in cracking form, and the crowd was very receptive to them. Although their music often comes across as a sheer wall of sound, after a while the intricacies of their tunes begins to dawn on you. And, just a personal observation here, but Damon was possibly one of the tightest drummers I’ve ever seen perform at The Tivoli. No shit.
Anyway, the main takeaway from these guys show? If you get a chance to see them play live, grab it with both hands. It was impressive to say the least.
I’ve included one of their tunes below, as a taster… their cracking tune, “Warm Hands“, which drew some major applause from the audience. You can tell from this track why these guys have opened for such bands as Tegan and Sara, and… of course… Death Cab.
Death Cab came onto the stage to thunderous applause…
When Death Cab for Cutie came on the stage, at around 9.30pm, the atmosphere was electric. The Tiv was pumping, and, on a side note, was containing easily the most amount of “OC fanbois and girls” that I’ve ever seen in one single point. The place was a literal sea of Seths and Summers.
Finally, the lights dimmed, and Gibbard et al entered the stage… and launched into, what else… but Bixby Canyon Bridge. From the first note, you could tell that the show was going to be special. Chris Walla was simply incendiary from the get-go, and Ben was bubbling with energy. Thanks to Gary taking along his new camera, we actually have quite a bit of footage from the night, and I’ve included the “Bixby Canyon Bridge” performance below.
Death Cab for Cutie opening the night at the Tivoli, with “Bixby Canyon Bridge”
Despite some early teething problems with the sound levels (as can be seen at times in the above video), Death Cab were the ever-consummate professionals, giving everything in their performance… and soon the problems were sorted out.
Death Cab wowing the crowd at the Tiv…
I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that – although this tour was ostensibly in support of their “Narrow Stairs” release – the set list that night consisted of songs from a number of their past releases, and wasn’t too heavily focused on their latest album. I have to admit, I blissed out a bit at one point (as I am wont to do at gigs), so instead of a breakdown of each song’s performance, here’s the band’s set-list from the night (with the track’s album included in parenthesis):
Death Cab for Cutie, live at the Tivoli in Brisbane, 22 August 2008 Setlist
1. Bixby Canyon Bridge (Narrow Stairs)
2. The New Year (Transatlanticism)
3. Why You’d Want to Live Here (The Photo Album)
4. Crooked Teeth (Plans)
5. Long Division (Narrow Stairs)
6. Grapevine Fires (Narrow Stairs)
7. A Movie Script Ending (The Photo Album)
8. Company Calls (We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes)
9. Title Track (We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes)
10. Soul Meets Body (Plans)
11. I Will Follow You Into the Dark (Plans)
12. I Will Possess Your Heart (Narrow Stairs)
13. Cath… (Narrow Stairs)
14. No Sunlight (Narrow Stairs)
15. Sound Of Settling (Transatlanticism)
16. Marching Bands of Manhattan (Plans)
Encore
17. Your Bruise (Something About Airplanes)
18. Title and Registration (Transatlanticism)
19. 405 (We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes version)
20. Your Heart is an Empty Room (Plans)
21. Transatlanticism (Transatlanticism)
Highlights of the night, for me? Well, apart from the cop-out answer of “Everything!”, I’d have to say that I went into the night hoping to hear 3 songs; “Cath…“, “I Will Follow You Into The Dark“, and “405“… and each of those songs were simply amazing. Particularly the tender “I Will Follow You Into The Dark”, which was dedicated to opening band “An Horse”, and had the entire crowd singing along with each and every syllable.
Death Cab for Cutie performing “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” live at the Tivoli.
Following that? The closing number of “Transatlanticism”. To be honest, it’s never been one of my favourite tunes, but the performance that night was simply electric. The energy and passion of the band was, quite simply, astounding. When Ben started plaintively crying “I need you so much closer!“, there truly was a feeling that something special was happening there that night… and we were carried away in a wave of emotion, riding Death Cab’s anger, pain, love and passion all in one movement. It’s a song that I’ll remember for a while, of that I have no doubt. Here it is, below.
Death Cab closing the night at the Tiv with a killer performance of “Transatlanticism”
Anyway… sorry there isn’t more detail in this post, but the problem with seeing a show on Friday, and then not posting until Monday due to being away from the computer is that you forget the small details. All that is left is that overwhelming, all-consuming feeling that you witnessed something special that night, and that – no matter how hard you try – you won’t be able to communicate just how it felt to someone else, unless they’d been there.
Yeah. That pretty much sums it up quite nicely, actually.
Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here on Burgo’s Blog. For today’s show, I’ve decided to post one of the most requested sets from my readers: Radiohead, performing live at the BBC Radio Theatre, on April 1, 2008.
Long-time readers of this blog might remember that when Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” finally arrived, I was… well, slightly ambivalent about the album. There was something there that didn’t connect with me, as in their past albums. But, despite that, I had the feeling that the album was one which would grow in time.
And, for me at least… I was right.
This set, of Radiohead performing live at the BBC Radio Theatre took place on April 1, 2008, and was largely in support of that “In Rainbows” album. That said, there’s also a smattering of songs from other albums, including “Airbag“, “The Tourist” and “Lucky” (from the album “OK Computer“), and “Everything in its right place” from “Kid A“.
It’s a great live set, and certainly one for all Radiohead fans… not only the completists. The highlight for me comes in the three songs “House of Cards”, followed by “Weird Fishes” – the two strongest songs on the “In Rainbows” album, in my opinion – followed up by a wonderful rendition of “Lucky”. Without a doubt… Radiohead are still one of the most important bands of our time.
Listen. Love. Support.
Radiohead, live at the BBC Radio Theatre, April 1, 2008
Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here at Burgo’s Blog. For today’s post – and largely due to the fact that I’ve just watched “August Rush” again – I thought I would post something slightly different; a 2004 show, where guitar virtuoso Kaki King performed, lived at the Ironhorse.
Now, I’m pretty sure this show isn’t going to appeal to everyone. It’s not always “easy listening” music. But, especially if you’re a guitarist, I implore you to listen to this show.
Kaki King is one of those rare musicians who comes along, and you just know there’s something otherworldly there. There’s an emotion, and an intelligence behind her compositions that is few and far between in current music. With a sound that involves fret-tapping, slap bass, percussive guitars and – lately – sound layering and looping, Kaki King is reminscent of Michael Hedges, Preston Reed and Andy McKee. In short… that’s bloody heady company.
In the last 2 years, particularly, Kaki has been getting some major mainstream exposure; not only is her music featured in the film “August Rush” – in fact, she was actually Freddy Highmore’s “action hands” – but she also contributed tunes to the, quite frankly, brilliant “Into the Wild” soundtrack. Add into that mix some major support from the Foo Fighters, and in particular Dave Grohl, and you can see this girl’s ready to hit it large.
While in the last few years, Kaki King has made an obvious effort to step back from the “solo instrumental artist” label that was beginning to attach itself to her – take one listen to her new single, “Pull Me Out Alive“, from her new album, “Dreaming Of Revenge“, and you’ll see what I mean – this show from 2004 was more in her original style. There’s minimal vocals, acoustic guitar… and it remains one of my favourites.
If nothing else, make sure that you listen to the track, “Lies”. It’s pure poetry.
Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here at Burgo’s Blog. For this week’s post, I decided to revisit a past Live Music Friday post, from April, where I featured The National live on the Radio Inter Black Sessions. In that post, I mentioned that they had followed up from that show with another show in 2007 for the same radio station… and here it is… The National White Sessions.
As mentioned when I wrote about their Black Sessions show in that previous post, the Black Sessions are “broadcast on the French radio station France Inter, and recorded in front of a live audience“. The White Sessions put out by the station are pretty much the same thing, but without the live audience included.
There are positives and negatives with this; a negative is that, without the murmur of an appreciative audience in the background, the show somewhat loses some of its intimacy. That said, however, the sound quality of this live performance far more than makes up for this.
This show took place on May 7, 2007, and was in support of The National‘s then upcoming release, “Boxer“, and the majority of songs (9 of the 11) are from that album. It really is that when you listen to this band live, that you truly can appreciate their artistry. And Matt Berninger’s hypnotic voice comes across as if he was putting on a private show in your kitchen. Essential “must hear” stuff for any National fans. Highlights for me? Either “Slow Show”, “Racing Like A Pro”, or the simply beautiful “About Today”… but make your own minds up.
Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here at Burgo’s Blog. Thanks to all the regular readers who were patient while I took my week off from posting… it was much needed, and I think it did me a world of good. For this week’s Live Music Friday, I decided to post a show from 2005, when Alex Dezen and Dave Chernis of The Damnwells played on World Cafe Live.
There are a few reasons that I chose to post an Alex Dezen post today. The first is that I’ve noticed a lot of you are finding my blog searching for Alex Dezen, and in particular the song “Tonight and Forever”… I’m guessing this is as a result of The Damnwells getting a lot of exposure lately, thanks to no less than five of their songs – “Tonight and Forever” included – appearing on the new Ryan Reynolds flick, “Chaos Theory“. That’s really encouraging for a supporter to see, and, in a weird way, I’m really proud and happy for the band. So if you’re one of those people just getting turned onto the group, then I’d really suggest you check out some of my past posts on the band: particularly my post about The Damnwells documentary, Golden Days, which shows the movie’s trailer; my post The Damnwells – A new release and some old love; and a previous Live Music Friday, showcasing Alex Dezen and Angela Dezen performing live at the Hotel Cafe. And finally, there is of course this post, which features a live version of the song, “Tonight and Forever”.
The second reason is that, during my week off from posting, I returned to my roots somewhat, in order to recharge my batteries. This included copious amounts of Ryan Adams listening, and… you guessed it… Alex Dezen and The Damnwells.
The third reason? It’s, quite frankly, a freakishly beautiful set, featuring both Alex and Dave Chernis, with Dave playing some of the most atmospheric lap steel that I’ve ever heard from him. There’s a bit of nostalgia for me there as well, as in recent times, there have been questions about who exactly The Damnwells are. Whereas it used to have all the band members listed on the group’s Myspace as permanent members, eagle-eyed fans noticed that earlier this year the band’s members section changed to “Alex Dezen – vocal/guitar… often with…“. And going by Alex’s myspace blog, it seems to be that their much rumoured new release might be more of a solo project. As he wrote:
“Back to the record. People have been asking, “Is this a Damnwells record or an Alex solo record?” The answer is: I’m not sure. The Damnwells has always been about my songs with extremely talented musicians and producers collaborating. The personnel have changed, but the essence—one of this week’s vocabulary words for the 7th graders I teach—remains the same. That was always the idea Ted and I had for this band, that it would be a kind of collective, a collaborative vehicle for artists and friends. Dave, Ted, and Steve were the in the shit with me for 7 years. Now they’ve got other things going on, more important things. Are we still friends? Some of us. Will we ever play together again? Does the pope wear a funny hat? Even if some of us aren’t in communication right now, I know we wish we were. So are the Damnwells finished? I think I just answered that question. If you’re still unsure, come down to the Double-Decker fest in Oxford, Mississippi on the 26th, or the Workplay Theater in Birmingham, Alabama on the 27th and see for yourself. Just remember to bring some earplugs and a broken heart. On the stage for this limited engagement will be Ole Dick Dick, Ratty, Jay, and myself. There are some plans in the works for more shows this summer, though who knows if that will happen.”
And really, a large part of my love for this set is that it features both Alex and Dave. Don’t get me wrong; I know that The Damnwells is more than just certain members. As Alex has always said, The Damnwells is more of a collective. But, to me… I’ll always look at the musical connection that Alex and Dave have with much fondness, regardless of whether they play together again or not.
Alex Dezen in 2000, before forming The Damnwells (image credit: Heather Conley)
Apart from questions about the band line-up, if we add onto that the fact that Alex has another dream – writing – and it becomes clear that he has a lot going on in his life right now. Back in the above post, he wrote:
“Trekking back in time now just to confuse you, while in Oxford I got a phone call from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. I had driven myself crazy for the past six months applying to grad schools for fiction writing. I took the GRE, filled out 15 applications, and worked day and night polishing my writing samples. A couple nervous breakdowns later, it was all done, all applications were submitted, albeit a few with missing transcripts.
“We’re gonna be accepting you to the program,” Connie Brothers said, “and you left the box that indicates your preference for assistantship blank. I need to fill it in so you’ll be considered for funding.”
After assuring me this was not a practical joke, I thanked her and called my wife, who subsequently cried with equal parts joy and fear at the prospect of living in Iowa City for the next two years. It was one degree there a few weeks ago. Just one. So, if there are any Damnwells fans in Iowa City, drop me a line. I’ll be teaching Rhetoric (whatever the hell that is) to freshmen and writing the great American novel.”
All in all… Alex Dezen is – to put it mildly – a multifaceted person; husband, writer, teacher, musician. But that’s the way I like ’em.
And perhaps, for all of those Damnwells fans who are worried that this much feted new album will never come out, or worry about the future of the band itself, I might quote one more passage from Alex’s blog (really, this is just an excuse for me to post more of his writings.. I just love his way with words):
“It’s been a long time, he said. She didn’t answer but looked right back at him unflinching, even though she desperately wanted to turn away. Sorry I haven’t been in touch, he said. She was mad, but that was okay because it was better than being sad. It’s okay now, she said. There was so much more to say. It was tied in a knot somewhere inside her, refusing to unfurl. I’ve been making a record, he explained. There’s been some complications, as always, he said, laughing quietly. But it’s almost done. She laughed with him, pretending to understand. It sounds really great, he said. I think this is the best one I’ve ever made. That’s great, she said. When will I get to hear it? I’d love to play it for you. He was always saying that. Another promise unfulfilled. She heard another language, though—a language of broken promises to her. When can I hear it? she asked. Soon. It’s that good, huh? she said, turning her head to the side and smiling with licked lips.
Yeah, he said, and kissed her.”
The fact is, that in the last few years, Alex Dezen has become one of my favourite artists. Without a doubt. And this set on World Cafe Live perfectly showcases that. Alex’s achingly beautiful way with words, his tales of love and heartbreak… and hope; and his voice that completely sucks you in. Add in the perfect complements of Dave Chernis, and you’re in for one of my favourite sets of The Damnwells.
Anyway, I’ve jabbered on enough about the band. If you’ve stuck with me this long, then you really deserve this set. So let’s just get to the show, shall we?
Listen. Love. Support.
Alex Dezen and Dave Chernis of The Damnwells, live on World Cafe Live, 22 November, 2005
Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here at Burgo’s Blog. Today, we’ll be featuring someone a little closer to my (adoptive) home… Australian musician, Xavier Rudd.
One of my favourite shows of 2007 was an Xavier Rudd gig on the Gold Coast… in fact, I even put up a post about it, although that post was more about his opening act, Jeremy Fisher. Nevertheless, that night with Xavier was one of the most powerful shows I’ve been to in recent memory. There is an energy and passion in Xavier Rudd’s music that you would be hard pressed to find in most other artists.
Although Xavier Rudd sometimes gets mixed in with the rest of the surfer-folkie crowd (ala Jack Johnson, Donovan Frankenreiter & Tim Curran), I’d probably place his music more in that slightly harder mix of Ben Harper & Co., with a more activist view present in his music. Not only does Rudd display a strong connection with the aboriginal people of the world through his music, he’s also a leading light for environmentally-conscious musicians.
Finally, anyone who has seen Xavier Rudd perform before will know what an inventive musician he is live; often performing as a one-man-band, Rudd masters percussion, the slide guitar, and… of course… his well known ability on the didgeridoo. In fact, in my mind, he’s one of the top dij players in Australia, point blank. Here’s a video to show his versatility…
Anyway, enough background, and on to the show at hand. The set I’ve posted below is Xavier Rudd performing live at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in 2007, right around the time that he released his stunning album, White Moth.
It’s a great set, and one that finds him performing personal favourites, “Messages“, “Message Stick“, “Famine“, “Come Let Go” and “Gift Of The Trees“. It’s everything that is right with great live recordings, and makes you feel as if you’re in the tent with Xavier himself… thanks go to the original recorder.
Listen. Love. Support.
Xavier Rudd, live at Bonnaroo Music Festival on June 16, 2007
” release – the set list that night consisted of songs from a number of their past releases, and wasn’t too heavily focused on their latest album. I have to admit, I blissed out a bit at one point (as I am wont to do at gigs), so instead of a breakdown of each song’s performance, here’s the band’s set-list from the night (with the track’s album included in parenthesis):
)
)
)
)
)
” finally arrived, I was… well, 
“), and “Everything in its right place” from “
“.
” again – I thought I would post something slightly different; a 2004 show, where guitar virtuoso Kaki King performed, lived at the Ironhorse.
” soundtrack. Add into that mix some major support from the Foo Fighters, and in particular Dave Grohl, and you can see this girl’s ready to hit it large.
.