NaBloPoMo

Night Comes Out

The Raveonettes – Night Comes Out

I’ve stayed up too late the last couple of nights and somehow it’s already Sunday and I need to go to bed. I miss being able to stay up to two in the morning and not pay for it the next day.

Calling All Angels

Jane Siberry and k.d. Lang – Calling All Angels

This song, yet another from the Until the End of the World soundtrack, is on my memorial service playlist. I’m not a religious person but the solemnity of it and the idea of asking someone to walk us through this world, to bolster people in their time of need and uncertainty, is one that I find especially appropriate.

I am shaken by the events in Paris, at the concert hall especially. Music has always been the thing that makes me feel the most alive and that gives me hope and restores my faith in humanity.

Sometimes I have felt like this business of spending my time going to concerts and writing about music is so inconsequential in a world that faces so many problems. But I always come back to the belief that music is uplifting and has the power to bring people together and transcend differences. If I can’t fix the problems, perhaps I can at least highlight something that lightens the load or provides solace. It helps my heavy heart at times like this.

Oh Bondage! Up Yours!

X-ray Spex – Oh Bondage! Up Yours!

This was among the songs played at the Beacon the other night while people were milling about and we waited for things to get under way.

I think “up yours!” is such a great expression and it’s time for it to make a comeback. It does lose a little something without the British accent but I think it’s worth dusting off and giving it a try. So the next time someone pulls a douchey move in traffic, I think I’ll shout, “up yours!” as I sit fuming in my car alone. I expect I’ll be able to master it quickly and in no time it will roll right off my tongue.

Gloria

Patti Smith – Gloria (live at the Beacon Theatre 11/10/15)

Last night. I really can’t write a concert review. I think you can probably find one out there if you want to read one, though, or troll around YouTube looking for clips like I did to find this one. I am still too wrapped up in it to say much.

Here’s what I can say. Patti Smith is a badass and her gray hair is the only thing that would lead you to believe she’s 68 years old. Her voice was strong, her performance was captivating, the band was tight, and joy filled the theater. In between songs she was funny and sweet. Both of her kids were there as well and it made me wonder what it must be like to have Patti Smith as your mom. The crowd was, older. True, as a 40th anniversary show that’s not a surprise but for example, the woman next to me looked way older than my mother who is 78. I am not used to being on the younger end of things but it did not have the effect of making me feel younger.

If you saw my Instagram shots then you also know that Michael Stipe opened up the show. I knew he had done that last year and I figured he would make an appearance at some point but not necessarily play a set. He came back out to sing back up on “People Have the Power” while Jesse and Jackson Smith joined the band. I looked on YouTube and someone has uploaded it so take a look. We were a few rows up from the gum-chewing security dude you can see facing the audience so you know my view of things.

With that, I’m going to bed. Back to normal life tomorrow.

My Generation

Patti Smith – My Generation (by The Who)

Tonight I’m going to see Patti Smith for the 40th anniversary of Horses show at the Beacon Theatre in New York. For years she’s been performing a run of concerts at the end of the year, including her birthday on December 30th and then New Year’s Eve, at the Bowery Ballroom or Webster Hall. Those shows always seemed to me to be for the insiders. Very intimate affairs that I’m sure were great shows, I’ve seen plenty of videos from those nights, but I felt like I should leave those to her hardcore fans. I didn’t feel like that was the right concert for a first-timer. So when I heard about this show at the Beacon, I felt the time was right. After all, it’s a bigger venue and while this is a special event, it feels more like an open invitation.

Patti Smith was a huge influence on so many of the musicians who influenced me. It’s well documented that Peter Buck and Michael Stipe met at the Wuxtry record store in Athens, GA, talking about Patti Smith. And if you listened to yesterday’s post and this one, you will hear that influence. That was enough of an endorsement for me. Yesterday marked an unbelievable 29 years since my first R.E.M. concert and I think it’s safe to say that I am who I am today because of that night and everything that followed. Even if it’s indirectly, I owe much to Patti Smith.

But it has taken this long for things to come together for me to finally see her live. I am excited and nervous. I am hopping the local trains and meeting up with my best friend, who was with me 29 years ago, and the symbolism is just about to do me in.

Just a Touch

R.E.M. – Just a Touch

Only rarely can you point to something, a song, a book, a speech, an album, a concert, and say, that was it. That was the moment things changed.

Maybe that doesn’t happen for everyone. Or maybe it comes in varying degrees of intensity so for some people, it represents a blip-like pinging in your consciousness while for others, it’s nothing short of an epiphany.

Flesh Without Blood

Grimes – Flesh Without Blood

New release Friday (still not used to that). Though this track was released about two weeks ahead of the album, Art Angels came out today. I have made peace with my streaming app for the car, after all it lets me listen to things like the newest releases on my way to work on a Friday morning and I’m paying $10 a month so I might as well use it.

I don’t think I could ever be a music critic because I need more time with albums before I can deliver an opinion and even then I’m more inclined to think my views are just mine, extremely subjective, and I don’t feel I have the musical knowledge to deconstruct songs the way reviewers always seem to.

I do know that this song sounded great in the car driving home in the dark this evening. Really loud. It made me want to drive much faster than is both legal and safe. In lieu of that, after everyone else went upstairs, I had a dance party by myself in the dining room. Come on over.

Sometimes I marvel at how people who are young can be so self-assured. When I think about what I was doing and how I felt about myself and my place in the world when I was the age Claire Boucher is now … well, I’d rather not. There are plenty of days where I still feel like I’m going to get caught impersonating an adult. Not that I feel childish but wasn’t there supposed to be some watershed moment that marked my passage from youth to full-fledged grown-up? You’d think marriage or having kids would have flipped that switch but in fact I think having kids just exacerbated my feeling like an impostor. I’m somebody’s mom?! Shit! I know how it happened but, how did that happen?

Is the kind of vision and will that Grimes has innate or did her parents have some really incredible skills and traits that they passed down to her? Even if her music isn’t your thing, you have to acknowledge that she’s managed to carve out a chunk of the music world and put her stamp on it. What’s the secret?

She Will

Savages – She Will

The concert season is starting to ramp up again. I have decided not to go to a show this weekend as I’ve got one next week and then a possible show about a week later. I’ve got a ticket for a show in December and a few more on the horizon that I’ll decide about closer to the night in question.

But I already have my ticket for Savages in April. That seems so far away but I’m sure it will sell out and I didn’t want to miss them a second time. Plus I can have that carrot dangling there when I need something to get through winter.

I don’t care if they sound like a cross between Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, Bauhaus and whatever other bands the detractors are tossing into the comments section, I think they kick ass. Each one of them is just pouring it all into every song and I fully expect the live show to be a blistering full-on assault on all of my senses. I can’t wait. Not to mention they look cool as fuck. I better start looking around now for something appropriate to wear.