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The Black Keys, Girl is on My Mind, Live at the Fillmore in Detroit from Keith Wikle on Vimeo

Let this video stand as tribute to drunk college girls everywhere. And let this quote stand for all time, “21 year old girls should be allowed to drink, they should also be allowed to attend rock concerts, but not at the same time.”

You can hear the drunken caterwauling all the way through the video. This girl took her life in her own hands by going up in the balcony. All of us were ready to throw her off!

On a more relevant note. I am not sure what was going on with the stage props. A giant dreamcatcher and an olmec head? What exactly is that saying about the Black Keys, olmec heads, or dreamcatchers?

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The Edge Shows us his guitars

Bono once said that watching U2 make music was like watching the sausages being made, you would be happier not knowing what went into it. Of course, those of us who are compulsive U2 fans want to see the chicken bones and the baby toenails that go into the voodoo, here it is.

These videos of U2′s the Edge on the BBC are fairly enlightening. His guitar tech Dallas (Blonde guy who flits in and out of the video) seems to know almost as much as the Edge does about the tunings and the makes and models. The Edge seems to be able to make a lot of beautiful noise out of very little, which is pretty cool. It’s also very interesting to hear him talk about the different types of guitarists. The gunslinger archetypes, and the sideman archetype. He sees himself as the latter. Many would disagree with him and call him the zen master of gunslingers. The Zen Master does exactly what is necessary without moving his arms. I am definitely not a fan of the five minute ear-bleeding guitar solo, so I know what he means.

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Fleet Foxes Live at the Ladies Literary Club

Laura and I visited the Ladies Literary club of Calvin College to see what Pitchfork has called the baroque folk rock band Fleet Foxes. The five piece played a succinct but moving one hour set in downtown Grand Rapids Michigan.

The venue is a beautiful Victorian building with a small stage. It seats around 250 people. It was great to be so close. After the Sigur Ros show I was frustrated because I was always trying to get somewhere where I could see.

The band played through most of their small (so far catalog) one full length album and one EP. The harmonies were dead on throughout the set. It was great to hear a band focusing so much on vocals and harmonies. They seemed very comfortable and chatted amiably with the crowd. They asked if it seemed funny to be sitting. I remembered Kevin Drew’s comments at the Broken Social Scene show from earlier this year. The band should have just told everybody to just stand up.

The video of Drops in the River included, *sigh* does not do the sound justice. I’d recommend checking out My Brightest Diamond in this venue. I have prior commitments, but the setting would be ideal.

Fleet Foxes, Drops in the River Live Grand Rapids 10.09.2008 from keith wikle on Vimeo.

This may be the last live show we see for a while. We’ve seen quite a bit of live music this year.

Sigur Ros
Wolf Parade
Okkervil River and the New Pornographers, and the National
Tyler Ramsey and Band of Horses
And of course Broken Social Scene
We also saw Mason Jennings

It’s been a good year for live music!!!

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Sigur Ros Live at the Detroit Fillmore Theatre

I’ve been fortunate to see Sigur Ros live three times now. Each time was a little different. This go round, Sigur Ros performed as a four piece, which they have not done the other two times I saw them. Amina their string quartet companions and collaborators stayed home, due to Kjartan and Maria getting pregnant. I was a little bummed at first, but then realized it would make this performance different than the other two I’ve seen.

The band seemed to have more space, less clutter in the arrangement. I’m not saying it was better, just different. When they played Hoppipolla where there are usually tons of strings you sort of felt how the song was probably created at Allafloss for Takk. Having heard it the other way live it wasn’t painful or underwhelming. It was unusually upbeat and poppy. This message was reinforced when they played inní mér syngur vitleysingur from their latest album, and to my astonishment and ever lasting surprise I found myself doing something I never thought I would do at a Sigur Ros show, dancing. I looked around everyone else was too.

I am a sucker for bombastic, emotive-grandeur in music, anyone can tell from my taste that this is what I gravitate towards. U2, Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, Sigur Ros, Bonnie Prince Billy. I enjoy the largess, the go big or go home vibe of these bands. Sigur Ros certainly has a reputation for being sour bastards, but for this show, it was all very upbeat, they had a confetti cannon for pity’s sake. It was a nice change from the tour for the () album which seemed like a bag of misery. But was excellent live.

Laura took this video of Glosoli. (My favorite tune). One of these days I will not have to apologize for quality of a video. But for now, watch at your own risk.

Sigur Ros Live-Glosoli-Detroit Sept 23rd 2008 from keith wikle on Vimeo.

Set List
Svefn-G-Englar
Glósóli
Ny Batteri
E-bow
Fljótavík
Við Spilum Endalaust
Hoppípolla –>
Meo Blódnasir
Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur
Festival
Svo Hljótt
Heysátan
Sæglópur
Hafsól
Gobbledigook
—
Popplagid

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Broken Social Scene Jams Churches under the Stairs

Brian Eno in the Lanois film, Here is What is, talked about where music came from. He said that most people assume that great music, or art comes out of thin air when as Bono always puts it, when God walks through the room.

Eno said most people would be surprised that great things come out of shit. And it is really a ton of work to make anything worthwhile. The finishing remark he made was that if most people knew that they had the capability to create something beautiful out of even their crappiest ideas, we might have a lot more good art/music.

Having listened to the finished product of Broken Social Scene’s albums one may not necessarily assume that there were many false starts or failed attempts at tunes that got reworked, and made into something worthwhile. I liked his egalitarian, humanist approach to creativity, where the playing field is leveled so that art school, and a bunch of credentials really has nothing to do with it.

Keeping this in mind, this jam of what would become the Brendan Canning tune is really fun to watch especially with Kevin Drew singing. Or it could be that I will listen to just about anything Broken Social Scene puts out. Based on my earlier review of their live show, perhaps this is true.

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We’ve been fortunate to have a series of good live shows come through the Detroit area in the suburb of Pontiac over the last few months. My parents still live in Clarkston, so we manage to coordinate a visit and seeing a show in the same weekend. I’d been waiting to take both kids to an outdoor show somewhere like Pine Knob or Meadowbrook where they could stretch their legs and wander off within a greater margin of safety, but these shows don’t seem to happen. So I made the call to let Gabriel our eleven year old come to these two shows.

Last month we saw The New Pornographers and Okkervil River at the Crofoot Ballroom. And this weekend we saw the National. Both shows were excellent, but for the first time we decided to take our eleven year old son to the shows. The Crofoot is not a kid friendly venue. It is a nightclub. Plain and simple. Smoky, crowded and with a full bar.

My parenting instincts were plainly in conflict with one another through the whole experience. The two sides of parenting, are protect/expose. And this is a constant battle from the day you have a child. Gabriel, our eleven year old son has been curious about music since he was small. He is now playing the saxophone at school and keeps talking about starting a band, (which I would encourage).

I keep imagining myself at his age, and wishing I could have seen some of the bands that were coming to Detroit in the early 1980s. I mean how cool would it have been to see U2 in a club when you were eleven years old? Or maybe the Clash, Elvis Costello, or the Smiths? Granted I saw some pretty out of control shows when I was in High School and College, Fugazi, Skinny Puppy, Ministry, The Jesus Lizard, that I don’t think I would take Gabriel to see any of those shows considering the content, or the danger of the crowd.

All three of these bands were of the fairly tame and upbeat variety, but still very good music with a very low probability of riot or crowd dissent. (Nevermind that I witnessed a fistfight at a Camera Obscura show in Kalamazoo). The club is pretty new and is pretty low occupancy. Gabriel was pretty typical as a kid, he came in, explored, got bored for a bit, when the music starts he stays focused for a bit, then becomes unfocused, then refocuses. And then it’s time to go. People are smoking, using inappropriate language, drinking, and generally having a good time. But it is not meant for kids really. Except that my kid knows who the bands are and can sing along to the music.

Certainly I don’t think my son is going to become a drug addled rock star because I took him to see a punk rock band twice when he was eleven. Nor do I think he will become a musical genius just from seeing a few shows. I also don’t believe I will become the cool dad for taking him to a show. Trust me when I am coercing him to stick nearby in a crowded club he is rolling his eyes at me already.

But I do hope he will see that his parents who aren’t going out and getting loaded at the show, are getting excited about music, are engaged, and present in the moment. That just because you’re old, (34 is old to an eleven year old), doesn’t mean you shrivel up and die.

I’ve noticed some fellow parents give me an odd look when we tell them we took our kid to a New Pornographers show. Granted they had never heard of them before, and assumed it was naked women with guitars. I guess I am not sure what the right decision is either. I certainly felt on edge at both shows, and I had to make sure Gabe was nearby before I could really feel I was having a good time. And I had to keep watching him to make sure he was sticking with the show. And for the most part he did. He also seemed to take cues from me. When the National played Abel, (my favorite tune by The National) I sang along, clapped and hooted, and Gabriel seeing my enthusiasm, cut loose a little too.

Gabe had a unique opportunity to meet Okkervil River due to our position sidestage. The band as a support act had to load their own equipment. Gabriel being eleven walked right up and started talking to the band without fear of being uncool, or their rejection, and luckily the band, not used to seeing an eleven year old at a show warmed to him. The drummer gave him a drumstick and had his photograph taken with him. He still has the drumstick and he whips it out as a cool factor whenever he feels cheeky. Also Neko Case winked at Gabe during the show!

Okkervil River and The New Pornographers were really excellent, good tight live shows. The National was a really awesome show, great sound, great band. They played nonstop for almost two hours. They dedicated another fan favorite to Barack Obama, Mr. November

I have tickets to see Wolf Parade at the beginning of July. That show may be less tame than the last two, and I may have to make a judgment call that Gabriel won’t like. But it may be what is right for him now.

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The snow hit Kalamazoo wet and heavy yesterday. Just as Laura and I were planning to leave for Ann Arbor to see Vampire Weekend. I got stuck twice in a snow bank. As I was digging myself out of a snowbank for the second time at 10 to seven I realized we weren’t going to make the show. Laura also informed me that 94 eastbound was closed between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. It’s hard to be a punk rocker in the snow I think.

To add the witches of MacBeth to the mix I got this as my horoscope yesterday.

bq. Whatever events you might have been scheduled to attend might be temporarily postponed. This might leave you feeling at somewhat of a loss, because you’ve planned to be away right now and you won’t know what to do with yourself in the meantime. Be your usual ingenious self and you’ll find something! Go to it!

We went out for dinner at Cosmo’s and got Isabella home early.
For a flavor of Vampire Weekend check this video out.

To top it all off I had this wild dream that Hulk Hogan and Rambo were hunting me down to kill me. But somehow I convinced Hulk Hogan to give me his flame thrower. Dude! Hulk Hogan gave me his flame thrower! That has to mean something right!

Look out Rambo.

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“Tyler Ramsey”:http://tylerramsey.com opened for Band of Horses when Laura and I saw them in Pontiac this year. He is also one of the guitarists for the Band of Horses. His solo album is out now and available online from “newburycomics.com”:http://www.newburycomics.com/rel/v2_viewupc.php?storenr=103&upc=103-1021770N

Twelve tracks featuring Tyler’s song writing except for one cover of Jackson Browne’s These Days.

So far the title track is living up to the hype….

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I was reading an interview on “Pitchfork”:http://pitchforkmedia.com (sorry Alex I can’t help myself, some folks read People Magazine, I read Pitchfork)- where in an interview with “PJ Harvey”:http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/46455-interview-pj-harvey the interviewer said that music didn’t mean as much to him now as it did when he was 17. I actually paused on that one. I felt worried for a moment that this might be true for me. Then I realized, naaa, my tastes might have changed subtly, but I probably depend on music more now than I did when I was 17. Like a lot of 17 year old disaffected youth, I *might* have used music as part of my identity. I am this sort of person because I listen to this type of music. Or was I that sort of person because I liked that sort of music? It’s really a semantic or theologic question. Was there light and then god, or was there light because of god?

Back then the question was how punk rock could you be? How many obscure 7″ singles could you own from bands that were together for less than a year. In some cases those bands are still really cool, and the music is really good. But I have to say I’ve gotten out my Beatles Revolver, my Johnny Cash, my U2 albums a lot more often than Slint’s Spiderland LP. This is not a knock against Slint, but more to say that obscurity for the sake of obscurity is for me becoming more and more irrelevant. I listen to music almost all day now at work, (headphones are on as we speak) and music serves so many purposes I couldn’t even list all of them.

Having been through the dark times when getting a babysitter was hard, money was tight, and life generally prevented us from going out very often, we’ve only now started to squeak back out a bit. This week was unusual in that we saw two concerts in one week. I haven’t done that since college. I used to go see some punk band in somebody’s basement twice a week in college. But now it’s unheard of to be entertained so much in one week. Broken Social Scene and Band of Horses in one week made me feel 20 again. Unfortunately there were some 20 year olds next to me to keep it real. I am balder, crankier, and smarter than most twenty year olds.

“Tyler Ramsey”:http://www.tylerramsey.com/ the guitarist for Band of Horses opened the show. He had a delicate finger picking style of guitar playing, and some nice songs. His voice was delicate and sort of hovered between singing full out and speaking which was pretty complimentary to what he was playing. He has an album coming out in January of 2008, _A Long Dream About Swimming Across the Sea_.

The Drones from Australia played next. This four piece walked out, turned everything up to eleven and started wailing. Their songs had that type of quiet loud quiet loud dynamic, with a bit of the swamp rock, death loving, I’ll screw your sister when you’re not looking type of mojo going on. Some of the songs were over the eight minute mark, and their singer really gave it his all. It was fun to watch. Gabriel would have enjoyed it I think.

Band of Horses came last. Their first song, _Monsters_ from Everything all the Time minus the banjos was belted out with style. I love the following lines from Monsters,

??a tree for all these problems
they can find us for the moment
then for all past efforts
there buried deep beneath
our hearts and somewhere in our stomachs
and hey, transform all others
when awful people they surround you
well hey, they just like monsters
they come to feed on us
giant little animals for us??

The next couple of songs were also from the debut album, but were plagued by feedback from the vocal microphone. Everything seemed sorted out by the time the band played _Is There a Ghost_ . The full band sound behind this short, but full on driving number had the crowd on its feet. The drumming was solid and forceful backed by a three guitars bass and organ lineup.

_The General Specific_ an upbeat southern church stomper of a tune was dead on, if not better than the albun backed by the crowd clapping, and good piano. I’ve unfortunately been seen all over town clapping along to the downbeat of this song, and keening along in my poor falsetto while running. While this is my new favorite tune, if you see me in Kalamazoo singing along to this in running tights at night, do not film me.

??If your trials end, are really getting you down
We had a close call, I didn’t even see it, then another one, I hardly believed it at all.
What the writers say, it means shit to me now.
Plants and animals, we’re on a bender when it’s 80 degrees, the end of December was coming on,
Only for you and me.
When the showing up ends, going back to the south, where hungry necks that I know, and runnin’
A blender in a lightning storm, disguised as a blessing I’m sure.
Knowing up here, there comes a fork in the road, pants have gotta go, we’re on an island on
The fourth of July, looks like the tide is going home.
In time I’d find a little way to your heart, down to the general store for nothing specific,
Gonna wash my bones in the Atlantic shore – only for you and me??

My dead center front row spot in the crowd began to be challenged by a group of twenty-somethings who talked through all the songs, used blackberry’s and whoo-hooed at bizarre moments. I was ready to throttle them by the end of the next few songs. One of them tried to cut in between me and the stage with drinks in her hand in the middle of a song and I politely stepped in front of her so she had to go behind me. She promptly started talking again, and then whipped out her blackberry to text someone. She paid her ticket price too. I suppose she had the right to e-mail, talk, and whoo hoo her way through the show, but lord how I wanted to tell her to shut the f#$k up, snatch her blackberry out of her hand, crush it under my heel. I think it’s official, I’ve gotten to be that cranky old-fart at the concert that wants to parent the twenty-somethings rather than date them.

By the time the band got to Funeral, the twenty-somethings had thankfully either left or gotten with the program. Funeral is probably the signature tune from Band of Horses, and they nailed it, the sound was full, with the whole band digging in, making it bigger and more dramatic than the record.

Having listened to this song for over a year on long runs, I was waiting with eager anticipation to see if they would play this tune. I had my rough period in 2005 with four funerals of people I knew well, my cousin Scott Lussier, Grandma Field, Jason Wagner, and my Grandma Reimer, the song for whatever it means about death, gave me something. I don’t think it needs to be said, much like the “white dog in the snow post”:http://gokayaknow.com/textpattern/index.php?event=article&step=edit&ID=39 This is what music does best. Perhaps art in general does this too. The expression of something we know inherently, but is never spoken.

For what little material reward there is in making art the spiritual rewards seem tangible to me. Americans I think sometimes are too focused on practical matters. We appreciate the things that sustain life, but give very little value to things that enhance life. We take little time for good food, poetry, music, thoughtful films, novels, or any sort of visual art because these things unfortunately take some thought to process. And we, as a society can’t be bothered to think about our entertainment. As sure as the day is long without these things, music, novels, poetry, painting, I would never have made it out of the eleventh grade, and I certainly would never have made it to 2007. Each day is brighter because of things like music. There is always plenty to mope about, and I am sure darker times might be ahead. But this week because of these two shows was an upswing back towards happier times.