Do Make Say Think and Sir Richard Bishop
I am an optimist when it comes to music. Mere weeks after I swore off the Bowery Ballroom, I found myself forced to go there again if I wanted to see Do Make Say Think, who were doing a short US tour. The only stops close to my preferred segment of the Eastern seaboard were in Boston and Philadelphia besides NYC. Since I had no choice due to my infirmities other than to see them in Manhattan, the choice was easy. I surfaced from the thick seaweed of the Sargasso Sea and struck out for the Bowery.
It was a good thing I went. They were excellent. Playing older material with one new song to open the set, they swung like crazy and played such gems as "Classic Noodlanding" and "MinMin", along with a couple of tunes off the recent Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn. In their eclecticism this band never forgets to write a song, and even though the arrangements don't vary much from the records the music remains challenging to play. It's always entertaining (and somewhat daunting) to see them switching instruments in the middle of songs without missing a beat. Not easy switches either, like guitar to keyboard--basses are traded for flugelhorns and guitars are exchanged for saxophones. Even though the Bowery sound was typically inconsistent, their performance overcame any muddle inflicted by the soundman. They added a violin player for this tour, who was fully integrated into their sound and added thick, droning texture to the night's set. Their dense, symphonic music leaves me feeling joyous on a good night...and I'm a grouchy motherfucker. Good sounds and good songs, a good drunk and stoned evening. I missed the Mobius Band, who opened, and didn't like Blame Game, who played second. They reminded me of Polvo in their few good moments and mostly just sounded like a band trying to sound like Polvo. Plus they're one of those two guitar bands that doesn't do much of anything with their two guitars except play the same thing. With two guitars.
The next evening I was witness to the potential of the guitar being fully utilized. An acoustic guitar, for that matter, as the amazing Sir Richard Bishop of the Sun City Girls extracted huge amounts of sound from a mere six-string, a loop station, and an amplifier. It was a blindingly hot night at the Glasshouse Gallery, with a large crowd there to see not only Sir Richard but Double Leopards and Akron/Family. I had subway trouble due to service cuts and missed Double Leopards' set, which pissed me off immensely as I own and enjoy their Halve Maen disc and have never seen them live despite the fact that they play in the NYC/Brooklyn area pretty fucking frequently. I paid my $7 to get in literally as the lights of their amplifiers went out, which combined with the heat made me feel like instantly bailing. I didn't think Bishop was going on until after Akron/Family, who were loudly greeting about one of every third person that squeezed past me, which made me poorly disposed towards them and whatever music they'd be playing that night. Then I noticed an acoustic on the small Glasshouse stage and figured I'd at least see who went on first.
I don't own any of Sir Richard's solo guitar stuff, and have only three of the myriad of Sun City Girl releases, but I saw Sun City Girls back in 2002 when they played their first NYC show in over 10 years at the Knitting Factory and knew that it was going to be an evening of intense playing. I was very impressed with his chops in the band format, and didn't really know what sort of approach he'd take to the solo acoustic thing. It ended up being as eclectic as any Sun City Girls' material, ranging from Django Reinhardt-styled speedy jazz runs to monstrous open-tuned riffs, and it was jaw-droppingly good. I recognized two songs from Torch of the Mystics (Blue Mamba and Cafe Batik, I believe) and was awed by the other material. Fingerpicking, straight flat picking, it didn't matter--he could play any style from folk to jazz to classical, and encompassed a staggering amount of musical influence in his playing. Even though the heat made me feel delirious, it was simple and incredible. The crowd was packed in tightly around the stage (after moving up midway through the set by request of the proprietor) and I swear I've never seen one man produce as much energy as he did with one acoustic guitar. He used his looper sparingly, only on 2 tunes, and refused to wilt in the ugliness of the heat as his guitar began sailing out of tune. The only poor moment of the set came when the guys from Akron/Family began clapping loudly out of time with the rhythm of the song...and despite their poor timing, continued to clap for the first 90 seconds of the song until mercifully stopping. After seeing that, I decided to skip Akron/Family's set.
I headed for the door as soon as Sir Richard finished his encore; it was just too fucking stifling in the Glasshouse that night. I left, deciding against another cheap beer. Probably a poor decision, but I blame it on the heat and the euphoria. My optimism had been generously rewarded with two outstanding shows, and I stumbled home feeling 200 degrees cooler in the evening air...then I noticed that I'd gotten ink from the admission stamp all over my white t-shirt, but I felt too good to care.
It was a good thing I went. They were excellent. Playing older material with one new song to open the set, they swung like crazy and played such gems as "Classic Noodlanding" and "MinMin", along with a couple of tunes off the recent Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn. In their eclecticism this band never forgets to write a song, and even though the arrangements don't vary much from the records the music remains challenging to play. It's always entertaining (and somewhat daunting) to see them switching instruments in the middle of songs without missing a beat. Not easy switches either, like guitar to keyboard--basses are traded for flugelhorns and guitars are exchanged for saxophones. Even though the Bowery sound was typically inconsistent, their performance overcame any muddle inflicted by the soundman. They added a violin player for this tour, who was fully integrated into their sound and added thick, droning texture to the night's set. Their dense, symphonic music leaves me feeling joyous on a good night...and I'm a grouchy motherfucker. Good sounds and good songs, a good drunk and stoned evening. I missed the Mobius Band, who opened, and didn't like Blame Game, who played second. They reminded me of Polvo in their few good moments and mostly just sounded like a band trying to sound like Polvo. Plus they're one of those two guitar bands that doesn't do much of anything with their two guitars except play the same thing. With two guitars.
The next evening I was witness to the potential of the guitar being fully utilized. An acoustic guitar, for that matter, as the amazing Sir Richard Bishop of the Sun City Girls extracted huge amounts of sound from a mere six-string, a loop station, and an amplifier. It was a blindingly hot night at the Glasshouse Gallery, with a large crowd there to see not only Sir Richard but Double Leopards and Akron/Family. I had subway trouble due to service cuts and missed Double Leopards' set, which pissed me off immensely as I own and enjoy their Halve Maen disc and have never seen them live despite the fact that they play in the NYC/Brooklyn area pretty fucking frequently. I paid my $7 to get in literally as the lights of their amplifiers went out, which combined with the heat made me feel like instantly bailing. I didn't think Bishop was going on until after Akron/Family, who were loudly greeting about one of every third person that squeezed past me, which made me poorly disposed towards them and whatever music they'd be playing that night. Then I noticed an acoustic on the small Glasshouse stage and figured I'd at least see who went on first.
I don't own any of Sir Richard's solo guitar stuff, and have only three of the myriad of Sun City Girl releases, but I saw Sun City Girls back in 2002 when they played their first NYC show in over 10 years at the Knitting Factory and knew that it was going to be an evening of intense playing. I was very impressed with his chops in the band format, and didn't really know what sort of approach he'd take to the solo acoustic thing. It ended up being as eclectic as any Sun City Girls' material, ranging from Django Reinhardt-styled speedy jazz runs to monstrous open-tuned riffs, and it was jaw-droppingly good. I recognized two songs from Torch of the Mystics (Blue Mamba and Cafe Batik, I believe) and was awed by the other material. Fingerpicking, straight flat picking, it didn't matter--he could play any style from folk to jazz to classical, and encompassed a staggering amount of musical influence in his playing. Even though the heat made me feel delirious, it was simple and incredible. The crowd was packed in tightly around the stage (after moving up midway through the set by request of the proprietor) and I swear I've never seen one man produce as much energy as he did with one acoustic guitar. He used his looper sparingly, only on 2 tunes, and refused to wilt in the ugliness of the heat as his guitar began sailing out of tune. The only poor moment of the set came when the guys from Akron/Family began clapping loudly out of time with the rhythm of the song...and despite their poor timing, continued to clap for the first 90 seconds of the song until mercifully stopping. After seeing that, I decided to skip Akron/Family's set.
I headed for the door as soon as Sir Richard finished his encore; it was just too fucking stifling in the Glasshouse that night. I left, deciding against another cheap beer. Probably a poor decision, but I blame it on the heat and the euphoria. My optimism had been generously rewarded with two outstanding shows, and I stumbled home feeling 200 degrees cooler in the evening air...then I noticed that I'd gotten ink from the admission stamp all over my white t-shirt, but I felt too good to care.
posted by alyosha mcbain at 7:48 PM
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