the oh so quiet show

Becky Stark and David Byrne

Thanks to my awesome friend Janet, on Friday night I saw Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond perform a few songs at the NYPL as part of a Miranda July fun fest. The night ended with David Byrne (who interviewed Miranda during the second half of the night) playing guitar with Becky during the song, “Garden Rose” from the latest Lavender Diamond album, Imagine Our Love. It’s perty.

[audio:http://music.diskobox.net/mp3s/lavenderdiamond-gardenrose.mp3]
Lavender Diamond – Garden Rose

Although I knew that I already liked Lavender Diamond, I wasn’t set on seeing them in concert at Maxwell’s this Saturday until seeing Becky perform solo. She is…she is…quite unique. In an awkward way. To the point that I couldn’t tell whether she was really that awkward or if she was being funny for the audience. But does it matter either way? Not really. Because she sings like an angel stuffed with the love of 10000 teddy bears. She spoke softly and lightly with a wide grin on her face most of the time, every so often breaking into a strained giggle, besides the one time she cursed herself for repeating something she had just said. I really wonder what’s going on in her head. Is it just filled with looove and joooy?

“She’s goofy!” remarked a woman sitting behind me. That wasn’t the first adjective to pop into my head—awkwardly hilarious was more like it—but I guess she fits under the category of “goofy”. You forget it all when she starts singing. Her voice rings so clear. Not mature, not immature. Just…I dunno. It’s nice. You know when you have a stuffy nose and it suddenly clears up? Like the mucus has all been whisked away by a magic nose…angel? That moment of clarity is like Becky’s voice. Kinda. I think the audience was hesitant at first, possibly wondering, “What in the…” when she started playing, but I think a little more love was spread after getting us to participate in a sing-a-long (well, I stayed silent for the benefit of everyone’s ears around me).

BECKY STARK, YOU ARE THE QUEEN OF AWESOMETOWN!!!

my leaves…let me show you them

Pelle Carlberg has a bunch of albums, none of which I have listened to. Yet. But I have listened to his band Edson thanks to a friend who gave me their poppy album For Strength some years back and they’re quite peachy. So I assume Pelle in solo form is also peachy. Bursting with juicy…happiness inducing…Swedish…flavors…of some sort…thatIhaven’tidentified…um.

SO HERE IS AN EDSON SONG, FOR YOU:

[audio:http://music.diskobox.net/mp3s/edson-iamtheostrich.mp3]
Edson – I Am the Ostrich

This song is actually kind of depressing. I can bend the lyrics to fit my life’s problems at this very moment, and….JESUS, I’M DOOMED, AWESOME, ok. [sobs in a corner for a while]

Oh, so Pelle is doing a little tour in the US, two dates in NYC, for his latest album In A Nutshell coming out in the US on July 3rd.

May 27 – Luna Lounge, Brooklyn, New York
May 29 – The Supermarket, Toronto, Ontario
May 30 – Small’s, Detroit, Michigan
May 31 – Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, Ohio
Jun 2 – The Delancey, New York, New York

What makes Andrew Bird 100000% cooler than most other musicians? Because he was on Jack’s Big Music Show as Dr. Stringz.

Oh. Jesus. Knowing that I will never be as cool as him makes me want to crawl into a hole…with an oven…and gas myself to death. I don’t think I could even be a competent puppeteer.

Sometimes I forget I have this blog. Other times I acknowledge it, but choose to ignore the “updating” procedure.

waiting

I used to really like concerts. Actually, I still do, but now the things that used to only bother me a little about concerts bother me a lot. Waiting for a long time for things to start is bothersome, for example. When I was younger I think I’d have little problem waiting 4-5 hours from standing by the stage to someone actually going on stage and tooting out a few notes. Now that waiting time fills me with bitter hatred and the desire to kill things, which doesn’t do wonders for my blood pressure.

Ah. Well. What can you do. My friend and I went to see Patrick Wolf on Wednesday night at Bowery Ballroom. Since no opener was listed, I naively thought there wouldn’t be one. But there was. And you know, that would’ve been okay if I had that expectation, but I didn’t. So Patrick didn’t actually come on until 11:05, or possibly later. And you know, maybe that would’ve been okay if I didn’t live in NJ and thus could only stay for about half an hour of his performance before having to catch the last train home.

It wouldn’t be much of a problem if I lived in NYC. And headlining artists starting reallllly late is nothing new. I guess I’m coming to the point where as much as I like music, all the standing around and doing nothing doesn’t make going to concerts seem worth it anymore, unless I love the artist to death.

black wig

I don’t love Patrick Wolf to death, but I like him enough to have wanted to see him live.  He puts on a great show and I was disappointed that I couldn’t stay for more of it. He seems to put every ounce of his being into…everything. With the help of glitter. Buckets of it.

unicorn power

I forgot what song he used the theremin for, but…he did. And that was cool. Because. …You don’t see that very often. And as one of my friends pointed out, he has a unicorn tattoo on his chest. Another thing you don’t see very often.

costume change

He changed his outfit after a few songs into a full bodysuit with red and black stripes. Or squiggles. Or somethings. Maybe it helps soak up the…sweat.

violins

And here are MULTIPLE VIOLINS.

I remember a few songs into the concert some seemingly hardcore fans (although not hardcore enough to actually come earlier) shoved/body slammed their way to the front of the crowd. Haha! Humans. Funny.

This wasn’t a concert review, more just a record of my rambling, which is what all my blogs are for. I still haven’t bought tickets for The Innocence Mission, but I’m pretty sure they’d go on stage earlier than 11 PM.

Sleepy.