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May Day The National at the Anthem DC

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The National is excellent in concert.  Fun show with Romey, Emily, and Lisa.  One of these years we’ll figure out how to get seats.

Soccer Mommy opened in a muddy opener.

But then…

Once Upon a Poolside

 

The band played the entirety of the new album which has lots more energy live.

 

New Order Tee Shirt

 

Your Mind is Not Your Friend

And there were some excellent deep cuts from the past.

Bloodbuzz Ohio

This song was a new one on me played for the Resners’ mom.

 

Light Years

Fake Empire for the win.  Pretend I wasn’t singing.  Video in video.

Yes please more.

Andrew Bird in RVA

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The Andrew Bird show in Richmond was excellent.  Go see the Inside Problems tour if you get the chance.

 

Florence and the Machine: In Manchester with Shoes

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There is a back story of sorts.  Way back in the summer of 2022 in Virginia, we decided it would be fun to see Roxy Music and also Florence and the Machine when we could.  Happily, we managed to do both, but only with some doing.

The plan for the Florence show was to get to the UK on business in November, skip American “dead turkey day,” meet up with our best British friends, and catch the show in Manchester.  But somehow Florence broke her foot in London (while we were there) the day before the Manchester show.

We vowed to return.

Here are some bits from the show, an emotional powerhouse led by a charismatic master of the stage.  What a show.

The AO arena is a great place to see a show, mostly because the crowd is fantastic.  But the best reason to see a show there is because Noelie and Lisa are excellent hosts and are really fun to hang out with.

The crowd gathers.

We don’t even remember who the opener was.

Then, it was showtime!

Heaven is Here was the first song of the night.  Florence had shoes on.

 

Ship to Wreck

 

Free

Dog Days Are Over.  This is my favorite Florence song, and I was psyched it made the setlist.  The fucking phone diatribe was captured in bits.  Here it is in all its glory.

Of course the real Florence fan (and the reason we were all here) is Romey.  She knew all the words to all the songs and had a huge smile on her face.

Romey dances.

 

Morning Elvis

My Love

You’ve Got the Love is Romey’s favorite Florence song.  She was super psyched that it made the setlist.

The encore song Never Let Me Go had 20,000 people singing along.

Never Let Me Go, performed for the first time in a decade.

 

 

Shake it Out

Roxy Music in Washington

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The Roxy Music show in DC was excellent and fun.  St Vincent opened up (and not many of the audience members knew her stuff). We rocked out.  Here are some bits.

We parked at the arena (though it cost some $$$ it was way worth it as we drove directly out in under 2 minutes).  We arrived early enough to buy a very bad gin and tonic from the sports betting center on the corner before the show.

We were in the venue about 30 minutes before the show.  Row 12!

St Vincent played lots of material from her new album.

New York

Only mother fucker in the city…

Slow disco.

 

The stage change took about 25 minutes.  And it was worth the wait.

ROXY MUSIC in the house!

The show began with Avalon interstitial into Re-Make/Re-Model.

 

A guitar solo by Phil Manzanera.

Bryan Ferry was full of energy during this show.

 

Andy Mackay on woodwinds.

The guitar gets wild

While My Heart is Still Beating

Roxy gets psychedelic.

As does Romey!  You go girl.

Many of the interludes were beautiful in just the right Roxy way.

One of our all time favorites To Turn You On


The Main Thing

The crowd was into it. And the visuals were just as much of the experience at the music.  One guy in front of us knew every word of every song.

An all time favorite (though honestly I would rather play this than listen to it), More Than This.

Romey captures some bits.

And a very much great version of Avalon (though, don’t be the asshole who talks over this song).

The Warhol set was awesome

Jealous Guy

Congrats on 50 years of being a band, Roxy Music!  You guys still rock.

 

 

 

Making music Near Biella (Miagliano)

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What happens when you convene an eclectic group of artists with a vague plan to “make something” involving music, dance, drawing, and possibly opera?  Well who knows.  We haven’t been able to find out yet as one of the dancers came to Italy with COVID (everyone tested on arrival) and spread it to two others in our group before proper quarantine set in.  The biggest impact involved our fearless leader and chief convener Shooka taking to her bed.

The upshot on Sunday about three hours after landing in Italy was a hastily constructed spettacolo involving Bach, improvisational movement art to unplanned spontaneous music, and Where’s Aubrey in Miagliano, Italy. Amazingly, the people who came to see us actually enjoyed themselves.

We fittingly call ourselves, Into the Unknown.

Instruments fly from Germany

 

Giant guitar case travels well

 

Sogol plays Bach to open the show

 

The audience mostly avoided the actual amphitheater seats, instead opting for the shade

We shifted the “stage” to face the shade loving audience.

 

“Backstage” with a dobro

By far the most interesting part of the show was when the musicians played whatever occurred to them (us?) as the dancers moved to the improvisational music and the artist drew what she heard and saw.  We divided that piece into eight parts defined by the artist.  We also asked the audience to participate by drawing as well.

Movement art

 

Sogol and Dani and April

 

Where’s Aubrey performs with a kluged up sound system

 

Paparazzi

 

Sure

Ultimately, we all had a good time at our first performance (one of three planned so far). Benvenuto in Italia.

More about the show can be found on Rhine’s blog.

 

Nancy Griffith memorial

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During the 28th annual Oopstock, we spontaneously performed this version of Nanci Griffith’s song “Love at the Five and Dime” as a memorial.  Nanci died the day before we performed this song.

Thanks for the music, Nanci.

 

 

Eighth Blackbird at the National Gallery of Art

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National Gallery of Art

What a place to see one of my all time favorite contemporary music groups. Eighth Blackbird played the National Gallery 2.16.20, and the show was free. As always, the group featured brand new music from living composers, including: Nina Shekhar, Fjóla Evans, Andy Akiho, Holly Harrison, David Lang, Viet Cuong, Jonathan Bailey Holland, and Julius Eastman. This show included some ringers in for violin, flute, and clarinet.

Lisa Kaplan, fearless leader and director of eighth blackbird

My favorite set was the second, and my favorite piece was Viet Cuoug’s Electric Aroma (2017),

The most precious thing in the museum was Cora, of course.

Cora does contemporary

The setting (no pictures or recording during the show)

After the concert, there were a few minutes for art.

Then it was out and on the metro for cocktails and dinner at Baba.

Sundown on the mall

Smithsonian sculpture

Wholly Emily

Baba’s bar

john doe krisin hersh grant-lee phillips pittsburgh

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There were three of them. The setting was intimate at Club Cafe.  Negronis were available. Seating was not.

Ye olde van carpool crew

 

 

Krisin opened up with an interesting guitar song that involved intentionally bending chords on an acoustic.  After that song, all bets were off WRT tuning.  Who needs tuning for an intimate acoustic set?  EVERYONE. EVERYONE MUST TUNE.

(please tune)

 

Grant-lee joined in and tuning became mandatory.  This also allowed for some breathing.  Grant-lee is charismatic and fun to watch but about as deep as a puddle.

Duo to go

 

 

 

 

Picture picture for Em

John Doe was fantastic. Thank the stars for a poet singer like him.

John Doe

 

 

 

Hells yes on a great Pittsburgh Sunday night.  So good to see Alisa and Greg!!

Grace Potter at the Anthem: Rock and Roll, Baby

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Great show. Lots of dancing and joy.

 

 

Though this was the second encore, the solo version of Release was the most powerful song of the set.  Yes please.  Need some of this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rock and roll ending.

 

 

Summer Solstice 2019: Bodacious Bonfire

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First a story of the lighting through the photography of Amy Barley.

Prepare to Burn

Burn

Light it Up

Fire Maiden

And that is how you turn the sun.

Things looked pretty much like this before we started

Then there were several undocumented hours in the river with the special beer float courtesy of Aubrey. We’re still not sure where he is.

The most popular guest of all was baby Cora. (Yes, that is the three McGraw brothers in kilts.)

Panorama by jackie

Idyllic

A video of the lighting.

 

This shot by my brother walt (at his first solstice) is one of my favorites.

From the bridge

Spectacular

When the fire burned down enough to get within 100 feet, we started the music.

Burning pile

Joel Winstead created some great sketches in real time.

Music by firelight

The fire

Gary and Gina

The the thunderstorm moved in around 11pm and we shifted the music to the barn. We played until 4am. What a joy.

Gary and Gina in the barn

Allen behind his hat

There are a few more pictures on the evite page. Thanks to all who came to the 2019 summer solstice fire!

Thanks for coming to the summer solstice!

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