Exit, Stage Right

To say the Cardinal Sons had a whirlwind weekend would be nothing short on an understatement. The band as a whole played three times in two days and Joe and David managed to squeeze in a few off shoot sits in’s as well. One of these off shoots was with Maggie Koerner on the Lagniappe Stage. The same day Maggie and the guys played an evening show at One Eyed Jacks. The show was “family” style and included David Shaw of the Revivalists as well as a few guests along the way. The evening started off with a shot set by the Cardinal Sons. Maggie came out and played some material she had recorded with John. The guys left and Maggie played a few more and brought out David Shaw. The evening was a yo-yo type of show as people came and went depending on who was singing at that particular time. The last song of the evening brought everyone to the stage. Buffalo Springfield’s “For What it’s Worth” was the icing on the evening’s cake. The nearly eight minute jam session showcased practically everyone on stage. You can see an extended set of pictures here: http://jalbum.net/a/1618419

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HswtU54TJoI&feature=youtu.be

Saturday was the Cardinal Sons time to shine on the Lagniappe Stage at Jazz Fest. The stage itself is a bit off the beaten path, but well worth hunting out. The brothers felt perfectly at home on the cozy stage. The audience loved the passion and energy they brought and were treated to a brand new song right off the bat and two amazing covers. The set [http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/cardinal-sons/2015/fair-grounds-race-course-new-orleans-la-13c82d35.html] wrapped up with a PC version of “Drummer,” but only a well-seasoned Sons fan would have caught the change. You can see an extended gallery here: http://stevenlhatley.jalbum.net/Jazz%20Fest%205-2-15/Jazz%20Fest%20-%20Cardinal%20Sons%20-%205-2-15/index.html

The guys weren’t able to hang out much at Jazz Fest as they had a 6PM load in at Gasa Gasa, for the show they were doing with Lost Bayou Ramblers. In true rock star and New Orleans fashion, the show didn’t exactly go off as planed as LBR had another engagement at D.B.A. they had to get to. So the band did a sandwich show, with Cardinal Sons playing a short first set, then the Lost Bayou Ramblers playing a full middle set, and finally the Sons came back to play a finishing set. The Cardinal Sons first set [http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/cardinal-sons/2015/gasa-gasa-new-orleans-la-bc82d2a.html] was a quick and energetic five song romp. Ryan Andrieu Daigle of Mariine sat in on both sets, but was featured more in the first set as he added extra texture to TV on the Radio’s “Wolf Like Me” and the Son’s anthem “Monsta.” The set served as a great lead in to the Ramblers and also gave the audience an excellent taste of things to come. After a quick turnaround, the Lost Bayou Ramblers took to the intimate stage.

The coziness of the stage only bolstered the music at hand. The band seemed to move together in an odd union that heavily mirrored by the Cajon melodies they were producing. Along the way in their career, LBR have managed to redefine the Cajon music genre, but still lean heavily on its roots. The Michot brothers, Louis (fiddle and vocals) and Andre (Cajon accordion and lap steel) have crafted a unique sound. Coincidently, the band recorded a live album exactly one year ago on the same date and ended the night at DBA too. The end of the Ramblers set was highlighted by the addition of Taylor Guarisco of the GIVERS on bass.

After yet another quick turn, the Cardinal Sons took to the stage to finish off the night. In a toughen in cheek kind of moment, they opened up their second set with a cover of Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets” of which they had previously played at One Eyed Jacks and boldly at Jazz Fest. The set also included a fun version of Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl.” To add an extra oomph to the second set, the Shirley brothers enlisted Alexis Marceaux of Sweet Crude and Alexis and the Samurai to join them on three songs. The set ended with a rousing version of another Sons anthem, “Drummer.” The band seemed to be spent, but managed to muster out one more song. “Solo” isn’t your typical show ender, but on this night it just seemed to fit. You can see an extended gallery of the show here: http://jalbum.net/a/1619000

The Cardinal Sons had one fun and exhausting two days and still managed to be as personable as ever. If you missed them opening for Lord Huron at the Civic on Friday, you can see them at the Ogden Museum for Ogden After Dark on June 4th and Gasa Gasa on the 6th.

Peter Murphy, aka the godfather of Goth, has never really loved the term or for that matter embraced it.  But had it not been for his pioneering efforts in Bauhaus over 35 years ago, bands like Kitchens of Distinction, Coil, Sisters of Mercy as well as modern acts like Nine Inch Nails and Interpol wouldn’t even exist or at best be pale comparisons of themselves.  Murphy has managed to build quite an extensive catalogue post Bauhaus, and with this year’s release of Lion, his tenth solo effort.

Peter Murphy is nearing the end of his Lion tour and stopped One Eyed Jacks with supporting act My Jerusalem.  Created three years ago in New Orleans, Austin based My Jerusalem took the opening act slot with a great deal of energy and enjoyed every moment on and off stage.  They served as the perfect warm up for the night’s main event.

Peter Murphy and band took to the stage and launched straight into “Hang Up,” one of four tracks from Lion that were played.  The set was plagued from the beginning as Peter couldn’t hear himself on stage due to the fact his inner ear monitors were broken.  He took every opportunity to let the audience know.  The funny thing is, from my stand point, it didn’t really matter.  The medium sized room and loud sound system did more than enough to compensate for his lack of hearing.  The remainder of the abbreviated set was composed of tracks from Deep, Ninth, Holy Smoke, and The Secret Bees of Ninth as well as one Bauhaus track “She’s in Parties.”

The evening ended rater abruptly with two tracks off Ninth “Velocity Bird” and “The Prince & Old Lady Shade.”  Peter didn’t even leave the audience with a hint of an encore as he left the stage in an extreme rush, not even looking back. 

I realize if you’ve toured for over 35 years, you want things to be a certain way.  And for that I’m not mad, but more disappointed that anything.  Ironically in some ways, one of the tracks in the encore that wasn’t played was “Lion.”

  SETLIST

Hang Up

Low Room

Low Tar Stars

Memory Go

Peace to Each

Deep Ocean Vast Sea

Gaslit

Eliza

Holy Clown

She's in Parties

Velocity Bird

The Prince & Old Lady Shade

A couple months ago I was fortunate enough to see an amazing up and coming band open for The Mowgli's at the Parsih. I will admit I was there for the main act, but by the end of the evening, MisterWives had held their own and I the  could have easily been reversed.

Pinning down a sound for the band is a bit hard and the band really doesn't mind that. I saw a brief artist spotlight on Last Call that convayed that very idea just a week earlier. Their live set is enerjetic to say the least and magnifies all the songs on their debut EP, Reflections. It's odd to say, but at times they don't sound like themselves, if you have the EP and seen them live you'll know what I mean.

Post show, the band was way personable, taking the time to talk to evey fan that approached them. I see grand things down the lines for these guys and gal, and look forward to the full lenght. Here's the setlist and some photos.

Setlist:

Kings and Queens

Twisted Tongue Box

Around the Sun

Oceans

Coffins

Girls Just Want To Have Fun (Cyndi Lauper cover)

Reflections

Imagination Infatuation

Vagabond

The Swedish trip-hop, neo soul, electronic band Little Dragon brought their imaginative tunes and stage show to the stage of the Republic.  The full house was entertained by material chiefly from this year’s Nabuma Rubberband as well as the first three albums. Lawrence Rothman, a somewhat darker electronic band had the duties of opening and warming up the crowd.  The set was quick but did the job at hand.

After a quick turnaround, Little Dragons took to a dark stage and played their slowest song of the evening, “Mirrors.”  The rest of the evening was a step up in tempo, but still held true to classic soul vibes that could have been tossed out by the like of Sade. Yukimi Nagano, the bands charismatic lead singer has nothing but fun while performing on stage.  If she was standing still it was only because a song had ended and she was catching her breath.  The audience was fully engaged all evening and really got excited when the band ripped into “Ritual Union” and continued the enthusiasm into “Klapp Klapp.”

After a short break, the band came back for an encore which included the title track off the latest album.  All in all, the mellow soul electronic sounds and vibrant visuals together paid off.

SETLIST

Mirror, Please Turn, My Step, Underbart, Pretty Girls ,Crystalfilm, Summertearz, Shuffle a Dream, Paris, Ritual Union, Klapp Klapp, Killing Me, Cat Rider, Only One

ENCORE

Nabuma Rubberband, Runabout, Twice

  Lawrence Rothman - The Republic

Industrial powerhouses and pioneers My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult brought their chaotic beauty to the stage of One Eyed Jacks.  The full house loved every minute of the nearly two hour set.  The band is currently on its Spooky Tricks tour in support of this year’s album of the same name.  As expected the set was mostly comprised of that material with a splattering of old gems throughout.  The new material mixes well with the old.  If this was your first time hearing them, you probably couldn’t really distinguish the newer verses the older material, a sign that the band has honed its talents through the years.  Much to the crowd’s surprise, they didn’t end up playing their anthem form The Crow, but when you’ve been around for so long, you pretty well do what the hell you want to.  Amazing show overall.  Props to New Orleans based industrial band SPEx for talking on the opening slot.  Their mixture of industrial beats and vibrant vocals was the right starting point for the evening.

SETLIST

Room on the Moon

Do You Fear (For Your Child)?

Neon Diva

A Continental Touch

Spooky Tricks

Lucifer's Flowers

The Way We Live Now

Burning Dirt

The Days of Swine and Roses

A Daisy Chain 4 Satan

Monti Karlo

Delicate Terror

First Cut

  ENCORE

Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness

Death Threat

Chemical Cop-Out

Hot Blood Rising

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult

If you grew up in Ft. Worth Texas in the early 90s and loved the local music scene as I did, you couldn’t helped be wrapped up in the mystique of the Toadies.  Questions always ran rampant as to if they were ever going to release a full album or not.  From 1989 to 1994 the band was a huge enigma.  All questions were eventually answered in 1994, with the release of Rubberneck.  It was north Texas’ answer to the Seattle’s grunge scene, but unlike grunge albums at hand, Rubberneck didn’t really follow a formula.  Fast forward twenty years and the band are touring the twentieth anniversary of that album.  One can debate if the album has stood the test of time or not, I for one believe so, but then again I might be a bit jaded being I was at the original release party at Mad Hatters in Ft. Worth, way back in 1994.

Tipitina’s was the venue of choice for the anniversary tour and the band brought along the Supersuckers as support.  The Seattle based garage band (think Rev. Horton Heat meets Motorhead) took to the stage in support of their latest effort Get the Hell and raced through roughly a dozen or so songs.  Along the way and a bit tongue in cheek, the group proclaimed themselves “the best band in the world” and it was true because “they said it.” If that weren’t enough, like true salesmen, they took every opportunity to hawk their latest album, which is a solid release by the way. 

The Toadies took to the stage and launched right into the intro instrumental track “Mexican Hairless.”   From there, there was no turning back; the band continued its assault on the Rubberneck album, only breaking to catch their breath.  The Rubberneck portion of the evening concluded with the bands anthem “I Burn,” with two additional drummers. Audience interaction for the rest of the show was little at best, but humorous and informative when it did happen.  The rest of the set included an energetic cover of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” and material off Hell Below/Stars Above, No Deliverance, Pleather, and Play.Rock.Music. 

The encore was a short three song set that included a cover of Pylon’s “Stop It,” which is now available as a bonus track to the re-mastered twentieth anniversary edition of Rubberneck.  The new edition also includes four other non-album tracks from those recording sessions.  One thing for certain, if you left Tipitina’s not feeling that your ass had just been rocked off, you’d be highly delusional, amazing show, over twenty years in the making and still going strong.

To say Pink Martini is eclectic would be a drastic understatement.  The band got its humble beginning in Portland, OR in 1994 by pianist Thomas Lauderdale.  His “little orchestra” is a mix of several different styles of music; pop, classical, Latin, jazz, and French baroque are easily identified in almost all the arrangements. The lead vocalist and principal songwriter for the band is China Forbs.

2013-14 has marked and incredible transition for the band, recording an album of their own in 13, Get Happy and  a collaborative effort with the Von Trapp’s, Dream a Little Dream this year. Dream A Little Dream is out now on Heinz Records.  Dream A Little Dream is the first major international release by Sofia, Melanie, Amanda and August von Trapp, the actual great-grandchildren of Captain and Maria von Trapp.

Pink Martini’s Civic show was an intimate affair, which played out like a glorified VH1 Storytellers evening.  China Forbs was introduced after the group’s initial instrumental tracks.  She took the stage with grace and throughout the evening had many roles, percussionist and background vocals as well as an all-around cheerleader for the evening. 

For the most part Pink Martini, for lack of a better term, is a cover band, but by no means are the covers on a standard list.  Thomas and company took the time to give history on the lineage of the tunes they were playing and gushed as he introduced the Von Trapp’s.  Before the youngest von Trapp child began to sing one of the originals off the, Dream a Little Dream album, China proclaimed August as the “impossible love child of Simon and Garfunkel.”  One listen to “Friend” and it really does make since.

The set was broke up with and intermission and a roaring encore.  The first set finished with “The Flying Squirrel,” a rambunctious swing track that let the band members showcase their instruments.  The audience was extremely happy with the set that unfolded, spanning the bands entire career.  Highlights included “Hey Eugene” and the original Swedish version of “Fernando.”  The beauty of the set and Martin’s music for that matter is one really can’t distinguish between the covers and the original material, a mark of a well-oiled machine.  The encore was composed of two songs, “Lonely Goatheard,” the only Sound of Music tune and “Brazil,” the bands signature track. The Civic was the perfect venue to showcase the talents of Pink Martini. 

  SETLIST

SET 1

Malagueña

Let's Never Stop Falling In Love

Sympathique

Ich Dich Liebe

Omide Zendegani

Donde Estas, Yolanda?

Die Dorfmusik

In Stiller Nacht

Kuroneko No Tango

Hushabye Mountain

Thunder

The Flying Squirrel

SET 2

Amado Mio

Hang On Little Tomato

Lilly

She Was Too Good to Me

Andalucia

Friend

Dream A Little Dream Of Me

Storm

Zundoko-bushi

Hey Eugene

Fernando

Get Happy / Happy Days

  ENCORE

Lonely Goatherd

To say Pink Martini is eclectic would be a drastic understatement.  The band got its humble beginning in Portland, OR in 1994 by pianist Thomas Lauderdale.  His “little orchestra” is a mix of several different styles of music; pop, classical, Latin, jazz, and French baroque are easily identified in almost all the arrangements. The lead vocalist and principal songwriter for the band is China Forbes. While recovering from vocal surgery, during the 2010-11 seasons, Storm Large came in to take over vocal duties.  Currently Forbs and Large are sharing the duties.

2013-14 has marked and incredible transition for the band, recording an album of their own in 13, Get Happy and  a collaborative effort with the Von Trapp’s, Dream a Little Dream this year. Dream A Little Dream is out now on Heinz Records. In celebration of the release, People.com recently premiered a new video, “Schnitzel with The von Trapps,” asserting, “It makes us smile every time we watch it.” Dream A Little Dream is the first major international release by Sofia, Melanie, Amanda and August von Trapp—the actual great-grandchildren of Captain and Maria von Trapp. Additionally, the album features special guests Wayne Newton, Jack Hanna, The Chieftains and Charmian Carr (the original Liesl in the film version of The Sound of Music). Pink Martini and The von Trapps are currently in the midst of a worldwide tour. See below for complete details. Recorded at Portland’s acclaimed Kung Fu Bakery Studios, the 15-track album was engineered by Dave Friedlander and produced by Friedlander, Robert Taylor, Pink Martini bandleader Thomas Lauderdale and the four von Trapps. In addition to renditions of several beloved classic songs (“Dream a Little Dream,” “Fernando,” “Lonely Goatherd,” “Edelweiss,” etc.), the album features three original compositions from August von Trapp—“Friend,” “Storm,” and “Thunder.” The record also includes songs from Sweden, Rwanda, China, Japan and Bavaria.

No matter how you slice it, Pink Martin’s worldly vibes are beyond infectious and are brought to life even more live on stage.  So do yourself a favor and check them out.