Brand New (with live mp3s!)

Brand New
With Thrice and mewithoutYou
The NorVa, 30 Nov 2007

     I saw the King at the NorVa last Friday, I swear. No, not the Burger King, but Elvis. Really, that Elvis, the decadent rock n' roll pioneer from back in the era when my dad was riding tricycles with kids that looked like Theodore "Leave it to Beaver" Cleaver. Elvis was cleverly disguised as the much younger Jesse Lacey, singer of Brand New. He thought he fooled everyone. That is, everyone who didn't notice him sing the line, "No matter what they say, I am still the King". See, I wasn't fooled!

     On stage, Jesse did act like he was the King. It is true that the band and he are talented, but he maintained an air of superiority that a Hollywood celebrity would have. Understandably, the band has been touring for years and has built a significant, non-corporate fan-base. Relentless touring is stressful for a band to the point that performing loses its charm. Their performance on Friday was evident of this stress in that the performance, while physically energetic, seemed hollow at times.
     The performance focused mainly on their recent album The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me. With the songs on this album, Jesse and the band are caught in a midlife crisis of sorts. Without getting too far into a tangential album review, their latest material departs entirely from the raw angst of Your Favorite Weapon and elaborately expands the range of imagery in Déjà Entendu.  The Devil... is complex and mature. While this progression to maturity with the past three albums is logical and demonstrates the diversity and creativity of the band, it also shows their limit. It is difficult to try to be complex and profound while avoiding theatrical arrangements and pretentious lyrics. Brand New began as a raw punk band that is now seeking to achieve timelessness. Jesse probably wonders now if he will truly be great, like Neil Young, Robert Smith, or Morrissey.

     Great lead singers are arrogant but they have earned the right to be. Jesse is still not badass enough to get away with ending the concert with looped variations on an untitled track from their most recent album. It was an anti-climatic ending. I would have rather extended mewithoutYou's short 25-minute set and skipped the Brand New encore.
     Even though Jesse Lacey won't ever be this generation's Bruce Springsteen, the concert was loads of fun. I was two-steppin' the whole time. For those that missed out on the concert as well as those who want to relive the magical moments, here are some highlights from Brand New's set. It was recorded and carefully edited by an anonymous friend of mine. Thanks again, anonymous friend!

- Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't
- Sic Transit Gloria
- Millstone
- You Won't Know

And two random studio Brand New Songs:
- Mixtape
- Fork And Knife

The two opening bands mewithYou and Thrice put on better shows than Brand New's. I will post highlights from their sets as soon as I get the files.

Sufjan Stevens at the Kennedy Center

It was awesome, I was lucky enough to get tickets near the front to the performance of...

Sufjan Stevens
Kennedy Center, 05 Feb 2007

      The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC celebrated the tenth anniversary of their Millennium Stage concert series yesterday evening. The celebration consisted of a set of four free engagements, concluding with an exclusive show featuring the folksinger Sufjan Stevens supported by members of the Opera House Orchestra. Judging from the people who camped out in the ticket line for up to eighteen hours last week, Sufjan’s performance was the most popular of the four.

      While waiting for the show to begin, the “urban-casual” Sufjan crowd mingled in the enormous Grand Foyer merging with attendees of the previous performances who were often wearing suits or evening gowns. A good deal of the crowd ambled upstairs to the terrace level, where the atmosphere was especially festive with an abundance of free desserts and two chocolate fountains all sponsored by a national retail chain.
      At 8:30, the concert staff opened the doors to the Opera House auditorium. Inside, while it contained seating for 2,300 people, the auditorium was not overwhelmingly expansive or opulent; rather, it seemed more intimate, with its sloped floor ideal for experiencing a live performance. Above the room, a Lobmeyr crystal chandelier from Austria hung from the domed ceiling. At the front, a distinctive red and gold silk curtain hung on the stage.
      After a greeting from Michael Kaiser, the president of the Kennedy Center, the curtain lifted from the stage to reveal conductor Rob Moose and orchestra seated to the left, and a grand piano and Sufjan Steven’s other supporting musicians to the right. Stevens entered the stage and abruptly bowed to the cheering crowd. Then, he sat down in front of the piano.     

      He began to play the first track from his well-known album Illinois “Concerning the UFO Sighting at Highland” a trembling piano and voice composition. This song fittingly blended into an instrumental piece with the orchestra called “The Black Hawk War…” the second track from Illinois [buy].
      Having finished the medley, the band stopped. Sufjan sipped some water and stood to speak for a minute, welcoming the crowd to the show. He proceeded to mention his home state Michigan to introduce the next song from his 2003 album about his home state Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lake State [buy]
      Suddenly, the vibrant song “Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head” filled the hall with its energetic arrangement and forceful rhythm that almost could have awakened the home of Motown from its economic hibernation. In the middle of this invigorating arrangement, the saxophonist Hideaki Aomori performed an impressive solo to further the awakening call.
      Having fully awakened the attending audience at least, Sufjan backed by Annie Clark's vocals soothed everyone’s mesmerized eardrums with the bittersweet acoustic-folk of “Casmir Pulaski Day”. The punctuated beat of “Dear Mr. Supercomputer” from the Avalanche [buy] followed, showcasing percussionist James Mcalister’s impressive ability on the drums. The live version was instrumental except for when Sufjan managed to sing over the accompaniment “1-2-3-4-5-6-7/All computers go to heaven” alluding to a line from the Beatles’ “You Never Give Me Your Money”.
      Immediately after the cacophonous conclusion of “Dear Mr. Supercomputer”, Sufjan segued into the guitar chords of “Predatory Wasp of Palisades”, and began singing its haunting melody. The orchestra soon joined in with delicate dissonance in an arrangement that was alternately calming and uplifting. This contrast was surprisingly surpassed by the breathtaking "Seven Swans" from the album with the same name, Seven Swans [buy]. The song began as a hushed mournful ballad which crescendoed to a dramatic chorus accompanied by James Mcalister's crashing cymbals, Sufjan's fiery piano chords, and Rob Moose's orchestra at a forte. Annie Clark passionately played along on the bass guitar to complete this dazzling soundscape impossible to reproduce on any artificial sound system.

      The finale "Majesty Snowbird" was equally astounding. It was a new, unreleased song that sounded far better as a live performance than as a bland bootleg recording. It climaxed triumphantly, with the instruments resounding all throughout the hall. The piano began to shake from the force of Sufjan's chords, and the floor itself began to shake from the colossal wall of sound.
      Disappointedly, "Majesty Snowbird" was the final song with no encore performance that could have been one of Sufjan's other outstanding songs like "Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts", "They Are Night Zombies..." or "No Man's Land". Even without an encore, the concert was still unforgettable. Backed by a score of talented musicians, Sufjan performed the songs he did proficiently both instrumentally and vocally--even his live falsetto was strong.

      Towards the end of the set, Sufjan made a fitting comment that was easy for people to make music about the money, forgetting that music should be a gift for everyone to hear and experience. Accomplished musicians like Sufjan, who transcend the commercial music business by seeing music as an end in and of itself, are the ones that truly deserve the support of loyal fans.

Imogen Heap (concert review)

Imogen Heap
NorVa, 15 Nov 2006

     Last night, I went to the NorVa to see British singer-songwriter Imogen Heap perform. Now, I apologize for the hyperboles that will follow: Perhaps my perspective of her is skewed because I am a heterosexual male, but I was stunned by her performance. Her voice was far more magnificent live than canned in a studio, and her stage presence was charming and kinetic with a hint of endearing shyness.

     The opening act was Kid Beyond. A talented beat-boxer from the San Francisco Bay Area, he is beginning to receive recognition both from touring with artists like Keane and Sage Francis and having video clips of his performances circulate around the internet.
     For his show last night, he used loop sequencing software Ableton Live on a laptop controlled by a foot pedal. With this setup, he created complex arrangements assembled from diverse beat and effect loops with only his mouth to accompany his singing voice. The original compositions he performed like "Cathedral" sounded much like Thievery Corporation and Chemical Brothers. But clearly his best performance was on two cover songs he did, Nine Inch Nails's "Closer to God" and acclaimed British trip-hop group Portishead's "Wandering Star".

     Following a brief intermission, the lovely Imogen Heap appeared on the stage to enthusiastic cheers from the audience. In bohemian-chic rock style, her hair was chaotic as usual and she wore a leather corset/vest that defiantly contrasted with a soft fur scarf and a long silky skirt sporting lavender flowers trimmed with lace. She merged alluringly with the sensual lavender and rose colors of the stage backed by four circular screens that projected live video and film-school-esque dynamic artwork to complement the songs.

     Throughout her set, her verve was electrifying. It was evident she loved her music and loved to perform it in spite of her relentless touring this year in support of Speak For Yourself. She energetically scurried about the stage, from the keyboard to the loop sampler controller to the drum kit to the mbira (an instrument made of long, flat metal bars suspended over a small wooden resonator box). Whenever she got the chance, she spun around and danced to the music somehow not getting too breathless to sing.
     She sang sometimes solo, sometimes accompanied by equally enthusiastic musicians playing the upright bass, guitar, and drums. Either way, the songs were fascinating to watch and hear, whether just quiet piano and voice, or a full ensemble filling the club with lush climaxes. For the most part, the song arrangements coincided with their album counterparts, apart from subtle but fresh variations. Other songs had noticeable differences like "Closing In" which had an extended introduction that coalesced into an almost avant-garde classical soundscape of dissonant chords. Her best performance was on a gripping a cappella rendition of "Just For Now". Throughout the song, she looped live vocals to accompany the melody that was pleading, wistful and heartrending.
     Most of the other songs were from her latest album, but she did perform an acoustic version of her Frou Frou song "Let Go" accompanying herself on the piano. Towards the middle of the set, she announced she was about to play a song from her first album I Megaphone. She was surprised that some of us cheered. She folded her arms in mock disapproval, "I can't believe any of you have heard that album. It has been out of print for five or six years. There's no way you all got it legally." She added, "But, in fact, we just re-released it yesterday." With that announcement, she began to play "Candlelight" but stopped to the disappointment of the few people that recognized it. Instead, she decided to play the seductive "Come Here Boy" from the same album.

     She ended the set with an encore that extended to three songs. After the first, which was "Hide And Seek", she performed the lively "Daylight Robbery" supported by the full band again. The third and final song was "The Moment I Said It". Her voice and the piano drifted mysteriously above the silent audience until the sounds finally faded away along with the stage lights.

     One possibly could complain that Imogen's latest album has lost its exclusivity, whored to various television shows for background music and abducted by fashion-conscious sorority girls that could care less about her earlier projects. But one must see her live to realize first-hand that Imogen is still truthfully expressing herself through the music she plays. She deserves any fame or recognition she is getting, that is, as long as she declines any hypothetical offer from the greedy music television networks to star in some atrocious reality show.

     As a graying concert-goer exclaimed to me exiting the venue with his daughter, "This is like the pop music we had twenty years ago. She's actually talented."