2005 Concerts: Part One

It’s the start of the new year and as a result I get to do something that I have been looking forward to for months: my overview of every concert that I attended throughout 2005. Here is my final count: 49 different concerts featuring 91 different acts. Now, I need to do a bit of definition here. I am counting as a concert a show that I a) paid for and b) attended for a reasonable period of time. This eliminates those times when I was simply at a bar where a band was playing for free (mainly because in almost all of those situations the band is not the main reason that I went out) but retains the shows that I left early because either a) I was tired, b) the show sucked or c) I was surrounded by hippies and just couldn’t take it anymore.

Since there are a lot of shows to cover we will be splitting this into three parts. Also, shows that made my personal top 10 list for the year will be shown in bold. To start, let’s look at the shows on the Kansas side of the border.

The Granada (Lawrence, KS)
1) The Get Up Kids (Opening Acts: Veda, Murder by Death): This show was recorded for a live CD, which I now own thus making it the only CD that I am actually on. I’m going to hold off talking about The Get Up Kids for now since their farewell show that I attended was much better. Veda is probably the best local band that I’ve heard recently. Really good hooks for an indie rock band, it sounds like something out of 1994 and I mean that in the best way. Murder by Death had a girl playing an electric cello, which is all that I remember about the band. Mainly because the words cello and Murder by Death just don’t seem to go together.
2) The New Pornographers (Opening Acts: Immaculate Machine, Destroyer): I left this show with such a huge crush on the Immaculate Machine’s Kathryn Calder that it scares even me. But a keyboard playing, backup singing, art student from Canada is pretty much irresistible to me. Their music was pretty cool as well, especially for an opening act. Destroyer had the enigmatic and potentially drunk Dan Bejar leading it, often with a bottle of Heineken in one hand and the microphone in the other with one never knowing which will be going to his mouth at any time. The New Pornographers are one of the best bands out there, just great songs (that can almost be called pop at times) in an alternative package. The fact that Neko Case sings on most of the songs just makes things better.
3) The Frames (Opening Act: Josh Ritter): This show tied for my “Best of the Year” award. I’ll explain the tie on Tuesday when I talk about the other show. Josh Ritter had more fun onstage than anyone I saw this year. You couldn’t get the smile off of his face with a jackhammer, which was amazing given that he was the opening act on a Saturday night somewhere in the middle of Kansas. But it probably had to do with the fact that he got to sing his song “Lawrence, KS” in Lawrence, KS. Pick up his stuff, you won’t be disappointed. The Frames (who opened for my concert of the year last year) continue to show that they are the best live band out there today. These are songs that just dig into your soul; you can’t stand in front of the stage and just be. You have to start bouncing around and screaming along with every chorus. See these guys live and when you leave you want to just go out and climb the nearest mountain. Which is a serious problem when you live in Kansas.

Liberty Hall (Lawrence, KS)
1) The Finn Brothers: For those of you without a great recall of the 80’s pop scene, Neil and Tim Finn were members of bands like Crowded House and Split Enz. No one remembers these bands except for aging hipsters, which accounts for the entire makeup of the crowd. It wasn’t set up as a pure nostalgia show as both these guys still have their chops but there was a definite audience in mind. I was surprised by how much of a good time I had at this show.
2) Ani DiFranco (Opening Act: Andrew Bird): Wow, I am once again admitting that I go to Ani shows. I still don’t think that anyone believes me. Andrew Bird is a talented, if somewhat demented, musician out of Chicago. Anyone who plays violin, xylophone, and whistles in a way that makes you think that he has swallowed a bird makes for an interesting opener. And Ani is Ani, a fun show in which I represent the enemy to a good 80 percent of the audience.
3) Keller Williams: Hippies. Hippies everywhere. They were coming out of the walls man, they were coming out of the friggin walls. It was like game over man, game over. Sorry, just a little bit of a flashback there. Keller is a one man band in which he will loop a dozen of instruments to create his own band in a really cool effect… for the first hour or so. After which everything starts to sound the same and you realize that the guy next to you is wearing a shirt that reads “Jim Morrison: An American Poet” and you realize that your IQ is falling just by standing there.
4) Steve Earle (Opening Act: Allison Moorer): I so wanted to have this be on my top 10 list and it would have been if Steve hadn’t decided that “The Revolution Starts Now” (a song that when I heard him play it made me feel like I could go out and change our government) would be really good for a Chevy commercial. So I’m dinging the show for that. Allison was good and stylish and has since married Steve Earle. One more reason for me to learn how to play guitar.
5) The Shins (Opening Act: The Brunettes): I think the average age of this crowd was 16, which just shows what an appearance on The O.C. can do for your career. The Brunettes were a band out of New Zealand who were just out of this world. Between coming out on stage acting as if they had never seen their instruments before to an impromptu brass section to playing an entire song wearing Olsen Twin masks, they set the standard for enjoyable opening acts. The Shins put on a great set, playing every song that you wanted to hear and having a great time in the process. I’m really looking forward to their next album.
6) Robert Earl Keen (Opening Act: Split Lip Rayfield): For those who don’t know, Split Lip features a guy playing an upright bass made out of a gas tank from a Ford truck. Just thought that people should know that fact. Robert Earl Keen is one of those deans of Texas singer-songwriters. You can always count on hearing something interesting from one of his sets.

The Bottleneck (Lawrence, KS)
1) Crooked Fingers (Opening Acts: OK Jones, Devotchka): Devotchka always seemed to border on venturing into performance art. I mean, they had someone playing a sousaphone decorated with Christmas lights, it was that type of band. Crooked Fingers features the former leader of Archers of Loaf and is an underrated band in the alt-country universe. They are one of those bands you should keep an eye out for, it’s a good show that will come and go without any fanfare.
2) Richard Buckner (Opening Acts: Julia Stephenson, Anders Parker): Ah, my good friend Richard. Who I will always say is one of the nicest people that I’ve ever met off stage. On stage, he is in his own little world. This was the most inventive show that I saw all year. Richard took the stage with two acoustic guitars and from the moment he took the stage to when he completed the encore there was continually music. No breaks between songs, each song was linked or looped into the next as he would switch guitars or take a drink while a loop was running in the background. No stage banter, no song introductions, just music (even when he left the stage before the encore). I’ve never seen anything like it.
3) Old Crow Medicine Show: This is one of my absolute favorite bands right now. They are a bluegrass band crossed with a carnival sideshow and mixed with a punk rock band. Some excellent musicianship tied with really high energy songs and it just works. This is the type of band that five years ago I would never have expected to listen to but I’m glad that my tastes in music have changed over time.
4) Sleater-Kinney (Opening Act: The Gossip): The Gossip, yeah, they were pretty bad. One of those sets that should have a fast forward button attached to it. Sleater-Kinney is one of those critical darling bands that people point to as great underground music. It was an ok set but I just could never get into it. Maybe I’m just too old now, can’t really be a rebellious college kid when you are dealing with lower back pain.

Wakarusa Music Festival (Lawrence, KS)
1) Day One (Acts Seen: The Gourds, Son Volt, Martin Sexton, Calexico, Carbon Leaf): Also known as “The day when EC was too dumb to bring sunscreen to an outdoor festival when there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.” The Gourds were a great opener and did play their cover of Gin and Juice complete with mandolin solo. (I swear that happened, it was the first set so I couldn’t have been drunk that quickly). Son Volt was cool, Martin Sexton was jammy in an annoying sort of way and I only caught a portion of Calexico’s set. That leaves Carbon Leaf who played Uncle Tupelo covers and just had a great time. They play tuneful quality pop music, look like cool college kids and have real talent. All that and I still can’t say if I like them or not.
2) Day Two (Acts Seen: John Butler Trio, Split Lip Rayfield, Neko Case, Wilco): Where my sunburned self suffered through a day of really good music. As much as I love Neko, her set just didn’t work in this environment. She is best in a darkened bar and an afternoon set where her fans were fifty feet away behind a security fence just wasn’t working. She knew it, we knew it, and it made for an awkward time. Wilco was really on, playing a good mix of their newer material along with some of their Guthrie covers and songs from Being There. What can I say, in two days I got to see the heart and soul of Uncle Tupelo on the same stage. Thirty hours apart but it was the same stage.

That’s part one. I’ll try to be a little less wordy on the next one.

The five random CDs for the week:
1) Bruce Robison “Country Sunshine”
2) Alejandro Escovedo “A Man Under the Influence”
3) Kathleen Edwards “Back to Me”
4) Old Crow Medicine Show “O.C.M.S.”
5) U2 “Under a Blood Red Sky”