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Sunday, November 15, 2009
Bored on Sunday night? So is Bus Driver
Knocking around town with pals and apparently itching to get up on stage, indie hop luminary Bus Driver has scheduled a last-minute, free show tonight at midnight at Red 7.
The good folks at Transmission Entertainment sent word a little bit ago trying to spread the word since this all just went down and support acts haven’t even been lined up. Heck, if you’ve got some skills bring your rhyme book and there’s a puncher’s chance you’ll be able to get up on stage for a few verses.
Looking at the club’s booking calendar, Red 7 wasn’t even supposed to be open tonight. God, I love this town.
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Wainwright enjoys success on his timetable
Rufus Wainwright mirrors his enthusiasts’ rabidity. Evidence: The New York City resident, whose new “Milwaukee at Last!” follows 2007’s Grammy-nominated “Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall,” enjoys spotlighting gleeful fan photos on his Web site. “I really appreciate that I’ve had people from Australia and New Jersey come to see me,” Wainwright says. “Maybe if I had a few number one hits, I could sit back and complain more about my public. I’m a real day laborer.”
The 36-year-old songwriter performs Monday and Tuesday at the Paramount Theatre.
American-Statesman: Paste magazine recently named (Wainwright’s 2003 album) ‘Want One’ as one of the decade’s top 20 albums.
Rufus Wainwright: Oh wow! It’s nice to hear that “Want One” is getting the attention it deserved. It always seems that my albums take a few years to settle, and I think “Want One” is just starting to do that.
What did (Austin guitarist) Charlie Sexton bring to that album’s dynamic?
Well, lugubrious stares by me (laughs). He’s so gorgeous! He brought solidity, and an American — without being Americana - sensibility to the record. It was good, like some nice, solid bricks. Charlie has the chops for country and western or folk or rhythm and blues, but he’s not bound by them, either.
Yet nothing from ‘Want One’ made it onto the ‘Milwaukee at Last!’ CD.
There’s a bit of confusion with the live album. It’s really centered around the DVD of the show. That has 30 songs on it, and it’s the whole show. The CD is just a taste. Of course, people thought the DVD was the accompaniment piece. That was sort of my bad. It wasn’t very well done, frankly.
People seem to be surprised that you recorded it in Milwaukee.
I love Milwaukee, but mostly I love the Pabst Theater. It was really about doing something there, and I’m happy that it’s released. Like “Want One,” I think it’ll settle down and take its proper place. I wanted to document the whole show because it was such a high point in my touring career. Everything came together.
That’s a full-band show, but you’re playing solo at the Paramount. Why?
Yes. I’m gearing up for this new record that I’ll be touring. I’m in the studio recording right now, and it’s turning out to be the most difficult thing I’ve ever done, of course. Forget opera, and forget Judy Garland. Just me alone at the piano: That can really make my life complicated!
Will you debut any new material in Austin?
I’m vowing now — and this is the first time I’m vowing it, so I won’t chicken out — that I will be singing some new songs that I may not even get through (laughs). They’re so difficult. So, there’ll definitely be new material to hear, because I have to start playing it. I’m really baring it all, warts and all. One live show is worth a thousand rehearsals.
How will you make each of the two shows here unique?
What you see that day onstage is an extension of the earlier parts (of the day). I don’t really draw the line, I guess, between the stage and the streets. They’re extensions of each other. I suppose one goes through a lot on the street in Austin. I might even walk in with a few bats on me!
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Live review: Son Volt at Antone’s
It’s always been a little difficult to get a bead on Son Volt, the alternative country band formed from the ashes of Uncle Tupelo by Jay Farrar in 1994. Partly that’s because Son Volt’s sound has covered every square inch of the territory of alt-country, from restrained folk ballads to juke joint rockers. And partly that’s because the band has undergone some pretty major shifts, from a six-year hiatus in the early part of this decade to its eventual reformation with an entirely different lineup, Farrar aside.
That quixotic — or, if you were being less generous, schizophrenic — spirit was alive and well at Antone’s Saturday night, as Farrar presented a tale of two Son Volts. One took the stage sounding tight but looking disconnected from its audience, speeding through low-key, often monotonous ballads. The other threw itself into a series of barhouse rockers with a decided energy. Fortunately, by the end of the night the stronger Son Volt had won out and reaffirmed the band’s status as a winning, if inconsistent, act.
The first half of the evening’s set was loaded with several of Son Volt’s slower, more ambling numbers. The band sounded flawless on the slow-paced “Dust of Daylight” but seemed disconnected. On “Pushed Too Far,” an angst-loaded song off this year’s “American Central Dust,” they sounded more studied than engaging. While drummer Dave Bryson pounded out his part with note-perfect energy, Farrar seemed to neglect his role as band linchpin, failing to connect with the audience. For a while — aside from the powerful licks laid down by enthusiastic lead guitarist James Walbourne — it looked like Son Volt might be upstaged by their own opener, the rollicking and very entertaining Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. Even a song about Keith Richards’ drug habits (featuring the immortal line “I snorted my father and I’m still alive”) failed to be as amusing as it should have been.
Fortunately, Farrar and his band mates loosened up as the night wore on, leading to a more enjoyable second half that was heavier on the kind of toe-tapping rock songs that Son Volt excels at. On “No Turning Back” Bryson’s drums grew positively bone-rattling, and “Medication,” with its Indian guitar parts and furious dueling solos, was a highlight of the whole performance. Son Volt also popped on “The Search” and “Afterglow 61,” the memorable single off 2005’s “Okemah and the Melody of Riot.” Even the quieter moments — like “Big Sur,” off a Jack Kerouac-inspired collaborative album by Farrar and Ben Gibbard, of Death Cab for Cutie — took on a greater sense of urgency.
By the close of their four-song encore, Son Volt had overcome an initially underwhelming show. When bassist Andrew Duplantis took advantage of the opportunity of one last moment on stage to propose to his girlfriend (she said yes, incidentally), it felt like he — and the band — had earned their moment of celebration.
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Live review: Mike Birbiglia at the Paramount
When comedian Mike Birbiglia played Austin about two years ago, it was at Antone’s opening for a band nobody had heard of. It was good to see a near sellout crowd at the Paramount Saturday night for the Boston storyteller who’s enjoyed a career spike after regular appearances on NPR’s “This American Life” and, to a lesser extent, the nationally syndicated “Bob and Tom Show.”
His hour and 20 minutes Saturday were built on five or six main stories that branched off into hilarious vignettes. Getting regularly beat up in an all boys Catholic school, arguing with his GPS, throwing up on the Scrambler at the carnival, adventures in sleepwalking and urology, and sticking the finish in gymnastics were just some of the topics that had the crowd roaring. During that latter bit, the pudgy comic rolled on the crowd to imitate a fallen gymnast, saying, “this is the opposite of what I’m trying to do.” He’s got the timing of Tommy Chong circa 1973.
He’s really the closest in style and outlook to Jim Gaffigan, who also doesn’t use profanity. But where food is Gaffigan’s main riff, it’s sleep for Birbiglia, who offered a hilariously rich description of what it’s like to be out and about at 4:30 a.m.
For an encore, Birbiglia came out with a guitar and did two songs from the three-year-old album “Two Drink Mike.” That was lazy. He also took requests for retired material and did “Joey Bag-O-Donuts,” about how he survived a tough job by pretending a beloved former employee was his brother. Also lazy, but very funny.
Birbiglia has altered his act slightly as he’s found success with the NPR crowd. There weren’t any hip-hop references- once a big part of his set- and the routines are longer. But he still makes full use of a rare comedic mind and his delivery elevates. Next time through, he’ll play Bass Concert Hall, going from Antone’s to 3,000-seaters faster than anyone since Los Lonely Boys.
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