245 -- Nada Surf -- Wednesday, January 29, 2020 -- The Black Cat -- DC

So many booked 2020 concerts were canceled, so I’m glad I got this in before Coronavirus hit!

“Looking Through”: I somehow hadn't known the name, but this upbeat barnburner got me pumped!!  Sounds like it should be the closing track in some indie coming-of-age movie.

“Whose Authority”: meh energy.

“Hi-Speed Soul”: immediate improvement -- funk!  Awesome spacey slowdown, sideswipe, and roar in the back half!!

“Thank you for welcoming us back to the Black Cat, and for being choosing us for the night.”

“Friend Hospital”: meh sound.

“The Plan”: ooh, an early song.  Love the darkness and perfect shift to “Killian’s Red”!!

“So Much Love”: a new song -- about the positivity needed to combat bad actors.  Appreciate the lyrics, not the melody.

“Inside of Love”:!!!!  Nothing dark or fancy, just earnest beauty. Reminds of great Idol moments where someone would get up, sing a simple song, and move.

“What Is Your Secret?”: solid.

Matthew Caws’ dad taught at GW and inspired him to write a song “Song For Congress.”

Not sure why the long dreadlocked guitarist has a cigarette/lollipop(?) in his mouth the whole show, lol.  Cool look though.

“Cold to See Clear”: a rare new song that definitively WORKS.  Amp, amp, amp, then smooth ending.  Between that, “Blonde on Blonde,” and the next song, I’m approaching “Hyperspace”!!! Awesome unedited light effect during “Hyperspace.”

“Looking For You”: solid new song. 

“Paper Boats”: supposed to be chill.  Comes too close to still.

“We love what we do, and doing it for you, and we can’t see why we wouldn’t.”  Awww!

“See These Bones”: unexpected burst at the end!

“Something I Should Do”?!?!  It’s a wild, unknown new song.  It feels like an updated, socially-conscious “Popular”.....on meth.

Heh: Nada Surf water bottles go to clean water charities.

“Blizzard of 77”!!  So smooth.

“Always Love” / “The Blankest Year” !!!!!  I’d never heard “Always Love” live, and I wondered if I’d had to buy new shoes after “Blankest Year.”  So…much…jumping. :)

Grade: A

244 -- Wilco -- Tuesday, October 15, 2019 -- The Anthem -- DC

I came into another Wilco concert having had a bad day.  The fact that the people in the front were seated and surprisingly subdued didn’t helped matters.  As they’ve done before, though, Wilco delivered…

“I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” and “War on War” DESTROY “Bright Leaves” and “Before Us.”  So glad they got the new album’s opening tracks out of the way first.  “War on War" remains brilliant!!

The unceasing nursery-rhyme two-step of “One And Half Stars” deserves that many stars... Fortunately, the new album does improve significantly as it goes along.

“If I Ever Was A Child”: apparently a deep cut off Schmilco.  Hope some other hardcore fan enjoyed it.

Omg, I just realize I’m involuntary shaking my hands during “Handshake Drugs”!!!  The brand-new feedback whisper-out Jeff Tweedy added at the end was *perfect.*

“At Least That’s What You Said”!!!!  I hadn’t realized it until now, but it’s probably my favorite down-low Wilco song.  A soul shaking *journey* each time I hear it.

“Hummingbird” remains so smooth. Great lyrics as well.

“There’s a gentleman over here who advises us to Keep On Rocking.  We’ll take your lobbying under consideration.”  

“White Wooden Cross": “This song is not super sad if you don’t listen to the lyrics.  Or listen to them; I don’t give a f---. It’s not so bad to be sad.”  Deceptively deep quote!! What he said about lyrics is hilariously true.  I had actually read the lyrics before I heard the song, and I was shocked by the disconnect.

The thunder claps during live renditions of “Via Chicago” remain frustrating, but the song is much better once each rumble ends.

Haven’t heard “Bull Black Nova” in a while.  I was about to meh it as empty aggression, but they totally reinvent the song!!!  Tweedy makes the blood section into spoken-word menace...and then explodes it.  I will continue to go to Wilco shows until they stop performing. Always something new!!!

HA, they pick perhaps the one memorable song off Star Wars, “Random Name Generator.”  Smart decision.

“Reservations”!!!!  Don’t think I’ve ever heard it live before, it doesn’t stand out on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but that was tender wonder right there.  Held my breath from beginning to end.

The lyrics, dark tone, and chance to hear Nels Cline make “We Were Lucky” a fitting title.  I did say the new album got better as it went along.

“Love Is Everywhere (Beware)” reminds me of The Shins’ “A Comet Appears.”  That’s a good sign.

“Impossible Germany”!!  I swear Nels added so much new stuff.  Lol at Tweedy’s ‘direction’: “That’s exactly how I asked you to do it tonight.”

“Forget The Flowers” and “Box Full of Letters” shows their incredible range.  I’d forgotten they started as alt-country.

Hilarious riff on an audience member reading his book mid show. “There are layers.  It needs to be read multiple times.  That was the intention.”

“Everybody Hides” is the most tight, catchy new one.

Mini reinvention of “Theologians”!!  So enjoyable.

“I’m The Man Who Loves You.”  The happiness continues.

Hahahaha: “We just went off the stage, and now we came back.  What a lovely surprise.  Thank you.”

If it wasn’t so new, people would really like “Hold Me Anyway.”  Smooth, sincere, upbeat: a winner.

“Misunderstood”!!!!  The max rock version with a quieter outro.  Such skills.

“California Stars” felt a bit thin.

“Red-Eyed and Blue”: wow, one from Being There I’ve never heard them play live.  Heeee at the straight bluebird whistling section!

Another ancient one, “I Got You”: super fun, especially the fake out where they keep going!!

“Outtasite”!!!!

Grade: A+

243 -- Katy Perry -- Friday, October 11, 2019 -- The Anthem -- DC

Katy Perry’s performance was part of the Silence the Violence charity event that also featured Jeremy Eliot, Norah Jones, and Mavis Staples.    

Wow, apparently her “Roar” video has been viewed three billion times.  A billion presumably came from the little kids behind us, who were screaming nonstop, lol.

“Chained To The Rhythm” was a bit anticlimactic after Mavis, but I appreciated the way she switched to “DC” halfway though.

“Roar” sounded foreign without the studio elements -- not bad though.

WHOA: it first looked like she kept singing when she had the mic down….Was she lip syncing?! [Update: it turned out she had two choir accompanists.  They helped.]

Katy sang surprisingly few songs during her set, but I was moved by the impact meditation has had on her: “Transcendental Meditation has been the number one thing that has changed my life. At first I thought, ‘20 minutes twice a day? Are you serious?’ Turns out, it gave me more time because I was energized more often.”

I was glad I was able to text Hark a video of the last song, “Firework."  “Firework” was his choice for the last song played at our July 4^th wedding.

Grade: B

242 -- Mavis Staples -- Friday, October 11, 2019 -- The Anthem -- DC

Mavis Staples’s performance was part of the Silence the Violence charity event that also featured Jeremy Eliot, Norah Jones, and Katy Perry.  During Staples’ section, they highlighted a community organization which has used Quiet Time and Transcendental Meditation to help kids and veterans sleep better and have less anger.  

Mavis Staples came on stage with a huge choir – one that the director of the Kennedy Center Honors said is the highlight of his year each year.  He said that Mavis has been the soundtrack of the civil rights movement.  He then added that Martin Luther King had once asked Bob Dylan to marry them?!  HA at his last remark: “Meditation is great, but how about Mavis Staples?!”

Mavis’ audience prompts riled us up: “Say it louder.  Say it clearer.  Things gotta change around here.”  Amen!!!  The gravel in her voice made it that much better.

“This next song is the very first song our father taught us -- in 1949.” Apparently it’s “Will The Circle Be Unbroken.”  It features this indelible line: “Undertaker, please drive slow.”  By far the best part of the song is the way she ends it: with a guttural laugh-note-laugh.  It feels so real. This 80-year-old commands us all.

“Take A Load Off, Annie”: Wilco flashback!!  Lol at some guy who involuntarily shouts, “Damn, Mavis!”

“I Take You There”: she done took us there!!!!  “My family, the Staples family, has been doing there for 70 years.  And I’m not close to done!”  Thank God for that.

Grade: A

241 -- Norah Jones -- Friday, October 11, 2019 -- The Anthem -- DC

Norah Jones’s performance was part of the Silence the Violence charity event that also featured Jeremy Eliot, Mavis Staples, and Katy Perry. 

It was a great event, but unfortunately, for the most part, Norah’s performance did not measure up.  She sang “I’m on fire,” the refrain of "Just A Little Bit," with all the fire of a cigarette lighter.  

Her cover of Neil Young’s “Don’t Be Denied” fared a bit better. This was mostly because it featured no lyrics that called out it’s listlessness...

“I’ve Got To See You Again” had a faint smoky quality that won me over.  The longer it went, the more I liked it.  Would totally work on a film soundtrack!  Or perhaps during an intimate episode of The Walking Dead, considering how much her drummer looks like Norman Reedus.

“Don’t Know Why” she ended with that tribute to Simply Sleep.  The crowd seemed to like it though, so maybe it was just me.

Grade: C

240 -- Silence The Violence: Jeremy Elliot -- Friday, October 11, 2019 -- The Anthem -- DC

Jeremy Elliot’s performance was part of the Silence the Violence charity event that also featured Norah Jones, Mavis Staples, and Katy Perry.  During Jeremy’s section, they highlighted Building Bridges Across the River, a worthy arts organization in Anacostia.  One of its leaders had the crowd meditate in silence for 60 seconds.  This brought me back to Emma Gonzales’ powerful moment during March For Our Lives.  He concluded with these wise words: “A child suffering in Southeast needs to matter as much as a child suffering down the street.”  

I felt bad that Elliot was only on for literally one song, but he sounded good during it.  He reminded me of Bo Bice with shorter hair.  He did all he could with the opportunity.

Grade: B+

239 -- Sonic Castaways -- Friday, October 4, 2019 -- Songbyrd Vinyl Lounge -- DC

All the good things about this Sonic Castaways show were made better because I got to experience them with my 71-year-old mom Nadine.  Don’t know another septuagenarian who’d spend a Friday night at a club in Adams Morgan! 

My Sonic Castaways experience started months before my mom entered the picture, after a Rolling Stones concert when I met the band’s frontman, Alejandro Cortes Ardila.  Alejandro had sprinted 20 minutes from FedEx Field to make the last Metro of the night.  The two of us started talking and ended up being the best conversation I’ve ever had on a Metro.  It led to us talking a bunch of times online after that, and me checking out his band at the Songbyrd.

From the opening song, I was impressed by the enunciation and flair.  They sounded like a flamenco Franz Ferdinand.  I also liked the smoky jam session, how one performer came into the audience, and how two performers were back-to-back -- like Bruce Springsteen and Clarence Clemons.  It was cool that the ladrones/sangre song added another style.  It was both contemplative and propulsive -- shades of The Shins’ “Sleeping Lessons,” especially the second half.

The main thing holding the show back was the fact that I had not been able to hear the songs beforehand.  Bits and pieces came through: “musica vino de Africa,” “en la valla vovaha”? With no album, though, I could not come in with emotional connections or understand a lot of the Spanish lyrics. 

Fortunately, Alejandro said an album is definitely in the works, and I look forward to a second concert.  Joining me at the concert will likely be Danny Ibañez, my awesome friend from Oaxaca, Mexico.  She was part of my host family in Oaxaca and is supposed to be in DC taking English classes soon. Fingers crossed…

Grade: B+/A-