Duff-Man says...a couple more in the past few days:
Last Thursday I flew to Phoenix and saw Peter Hammill. I hadn't seen him solo since 1990 and even then he had a violinist and bassist with him so it was a real treat to see a true solo show this time. He was fabulous - his voice was in top-notch form, having quit smoking a few years ago after his heart attack. The setlist was a good mix of old and new and he was in good spirits, showing his humour and charm a few times between songs.
On Saturday we went up to Santa Fe for the "QuadStock" show of the Homecoming at the College of Santa Fe - the g/f really likes Devotchka. I had a look beforehand to see who else was playing and found myself intrigued a bit by Rusalki as I like that sort of thing. We got there just as Rusalki were starting - perfect timing - and I quite enjoyed their set so I bought their demo cd that they were selling. After what seemed like forever (actually was about an hour) Devotchka came on. I liked some of the music but I find the singer totally annoying, especially when he swoops up into the mid and high registers of his voice. After about 3 songs it was beyond and annoyance and became almost intolerable for me...brutal. The guy playing violin and accordion was pretty good though as was the girl playing bass and tuba. I just wish they'd let the guy stick to his guitar and theremin (cool!) and add a decent singer to the lineup.....oh yeah!
Last Thursday I flew to Phoenix and saw Peter Hammill. I hadn't seen him solo since 1990 and even then he had a violinist and bassist with him so it was a real treat to see a true solo show this time. He was fabulous - his voice was in top-notch form, having quit smoking a few years ago after his heart attack. The setlist was a good mix of old and new and he was in good spirits, showing his humour and charm a few times between songs.
On Saturday we went up to Santa Fe for the "QuadStock" show of the Homecoming at the College of Santa Fe - the g/f really likes Devotchka. I had a look beforehand to see who else was playing and found myself intrigued a bit by Rusalki as I like that sort of thing. We got there just as Rusalki were starting - perfect timing - and I quite enjoyed their set so I bought their demo cd that they were selling. After what seemed like forever (actually was about an hour) Devotchka came on. I liked some of the music but I find the singer totally annoying, especially when he swoops up into the mid and high registers of his voice. After about 3 songs it was beyond and annoyance and became almost intolerable for me...brutal. The guy playing violin and accordion was pretty good though as was the girl playing bass and tuba. I just wish they'd let the guy stick to his guitar and theremin (cool!) and add a decent singer to the lineup.....oh yeah!
have like 20 bruises on my legs from the pit. A week before that saw Streetlight Manifesto, my favorite ska band, for the encore Tomas Kalnoky came out and did an acoustic medley of one song from each of their albums, then half way through the rest of the band came out and everyone went crazy.
