Fine Line Music Café, April 15, 2008
I know, I know, it seems like I'm always at the
Fine Line. Shut up.
Tax Day 2008 turned out to be very pleasant weather-wise. Mostly sunny skies and temperatures hovering around 60. This is why there was a tinge of regret in my soul as we headed downtown to catch an early show featuring the rising
Sara Bareilles. But all was well, because we grabbed sone
Panchero's beforehand and ate while waiting outside for the doors to open.
Six o'clock, and the opener comes out. I've had pretty awful luck with opening acts since the
Mandy Moore show back in like September, and tonight was no different: an atrocious chick-quartet called
Raining Jane came out and channeled the Indigo Girls, dashing my hope of them being a Saving Jane clone. We suffered through about six of their songs; the highlights of their set were 1) a cello solo, 2) the surprise reveal that
Rachael Yamagata was on the bill, and 3) when they left the stage. Oh, and in case you wanted to hear what the dumpy girls who didn't get asked to prom have been doing since you graduated high school, check out their album!
One bad thing about early weekday shows is that every act feels crammed in and constrained. Rachael came out about 15 minutes after the lesbians had torn down their equipment and wasted no time getting underway. She has a new record due soon, and is apparently using this tour as a vehicle for trying some of her new material out. Her performance was good but unremarkabkle, but was highlighted by an a cappella song that managed to silence even the activity in the smoking alley adjacent to the building.
Shortly before 8:00, Sara Bareilles came out. Touring in support of her major-label debut,
Little Voice, she also had new material to show off. Honestly, I went into the concert expecting a Colbie Cailat-style experience, with unenthusiastic, by-the-book performances that were essentially the album played live, but Bareilles proved to be much more than that. She was engaging, had non-album stuff to play, and actually seemed to enjoy playing and mixing it up a bit. The last two songs she played were "Love Song" and, as an encore, a tune by Bonnie Raitt, and finished just a shade before nine.
Overall, the Bareilles/Yamagata show was a good time. One thing I didn't enjoy was one of the things that bugged me about the Cailat show: the crowd. Listen, I know it's an all-ages show, but really, if you have no idea how to act at a show, go to a free one to learn or stay the fuck home. And if you act like an ass at a show, don't get pissed if I mock you.
Coming next week: The ES.com Primer on Being a Good Concert-Goer
Labels: local, music, personal, review
Fine Line Music Café, October 7, 2007
I think that by now I've seen the
Pat McGee Band somewhere around four billion times. The greatest thing though is that it's never the same show.
PMB has toured semi-nationally since signing to
Warner Bros Records in 2000, and this tour with co-headliner
Josh Kelley and support act
The Kin marked their eighth headlining visit to the Twin Cities, third gig at the Fine Line and the first since the untimely passing of drummer Chris Williams.
Due to a previous commitment (supposedly a gig singing at a friend's wedding) Kelley was unable to make it to the Cities, so The Kin were moved to the middle of the lineup and opening duties were awarded to local nu-funk specialists
Roster McCabe who performed quite admirably. We arrived halfway through their set but were able to catch the impressive "See You Soon" and see this energetic sextet jam with abandon, setting the tone for the night as a free-for-all talent showcase.
McGee and the boys, with Chris Bashista on drums, hit the stage shortly after 9:30, leading off with "Guess We Were" from the new album These Days and diving into a pleasant mix of new material, older songs from the Revel/Shine era and the usual spate of covers. Most songs, with the exception of a couple of tracks from Save Me, received the extended treatment, with The Kind and parts of Kelley's band joining PMB on stage, notably for "Lost" and "Girl from Athens." Brian Fechino also had a chance to show off his chops, with some pretty sick riffs on "Elizabeth" and "Maybe It's Time." The band ended their incredible 100-minute set with a pretty stellar cover of Jackson Browne's "Runnin' On Empty," employing the six PMB'ers, the three members of The Kin and the four players from Kelley's band.
I've been to a lot of shows, and I've seen a lot of dudes perform. No matter how many times I go to a Pat McGee Band show though, I always find something new that makes me think, "Man, that really blew me away." I don't know if it's the same on the East Coast, where the band is much more popular, but I think the small but dedicated crowds here in the Cities really help to bring out the best in them. And that's why I will continue to see them. A
PS: The Kin, as a standalone act, blew a goat. That is all.
Labels: local, music, personal, review
Fine Line Music Café, September 27, 2007
I've been to a few live shows in my day. I had never been to one put on by a former pop princess though, and I'm not used to entering a venue before 6:00 on a weeknight. But there were a couple of extenuating circumstances here: first, I am a
Mandy Moore devotee, and secondly I haven't yet seen a show at the
Fine Line that disappointed me. Luckily, the fan in me won out over reason, and I made it out to see the show.
The official support act for the Midwest spate of shows was
Ben Lee, a Twin Cities fave who will be headlining at the Varsity in mid-November. Equipped with only a tiny acoustic guitar and a keyboard player, he proceeded to wow the eclectic all-ages crowd with a mix of tunes from his new album
Ripe and standards from his back catalog. Specific winners in his set were the light, whimsical "American Television," the frank "Sex Without Love" and his biggest U.S. hit "Catch My Disease."
Mandy appeared on stage for her set shortly before 8:00 and jumped right into "Slummin' in Paradise," wasting no time in getting into the music:
.... and so the set continued. The short-by-my-standards 50-minute set was made up mostly of songs from her new album
Wild Hope, though she mixed in a couple of covers (the buzzed-about sendup of Rihanna's "Umbrella" and Cat Stevens' "Moonshadow" which she recorded for
Coverage) and closed her set with the bubblegum anthem "Candy."
Overall, I was impressed with the show, though the forgettable Chris Stills could have easily been left off the bill, and while Mandy's set was short, the bonus of 45 minutes of Ben Lee made this show worth the price of admission.
B+Labels: local, music, personal, review
