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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!!
