2007 Concerts (Part One)

Time for one of my favorite entries of the year: my review of every single concert that I attended in 2007. I think that this will take three separate entries (lots of shows to talk about) and we’ll start in Missouri and end in Kansas as there is a story in three parts that I need to tell across the span of these entries. Also, just for the record, I define a concert as something that I actively paid to see, which takes out a few bands I saw at various points in the year. But first, some statistics of note…

2007 Totals: Saw 39 concerts consisting of 70 unique artists
2004 through 2007 Totals: Saw 160 concerts consisting of 211 unique artists

Over the past four years, here are the acts that lead in having me stand in front of the stage…
6 Shows: Jon Dee Graham
5 Shows: Carbon Leaf, Rex Hobart and the Misery Boys, Richard Buckner
4 Shows: Jack Ingram, Lyle Lovett (with and without his Large Band), The Gaslights
3 Shows: Alejandro Escovedo, Anders Parker, Ani DiFrano, Cowboy Mouth, Garrison Star, Gomez, Guster, Hank Williams III, Howie Day, Immaculate Machine, Lucinda Williams, Neko Case, Nickel Creek, Old Crow Medicine Show, Robert Earl Keen, Rufus Wainwright, The Brunettes, The Ditty Bops, The Get Up Kids, Vedera, Wilco

Let’s get this party started (Shows that rank in my Top 8 are in bold)…

Record Bar (Kansas City, MO)
1) The Elders (Opening Act: Martin De Cogain): I seem to go to one Elders show every year. Heck, I’ll probably be back at the Record Bar this weekend to see The Elders play. They are KC’s resident rocking Irish band and they are very good for what they are. Every once in a while the Irish side of me wants to get out and listen to the music of my homeland (augmented by copious amounts of Guinness). Of course, once you see the show it’s “well, don’t have to do that again for another year.”

2) The Autumn Defense (Opening Acts: Arthur Dodge and the Horsefeather, Ferraby Lionheart): No one listened to Ferraby, which was an absolute shame. The dude has more talent than his name would imply. Autumn Defense is a side project of Wilco’s John Stirratt. One of my highlights this year was getting to stand next to John at the back of the Record Bar. I had to keep myself from grabbing him and yelling “How can I make my life exactly like yours?” Seriously, the guy played in Uncle Tupelo and now gets to play bass and sing harmony for Wilco. If I did that for a living you couldn’t take the smile off of my face with a jackhammer.

3) Glen Kotche: The far and away winner of the strangest show that I saw all year. It was a solo show by Wilco’s drummer. Yes, it was just the guy drumming. That’s bizarre in and of itself. You’d expect it to be just one long, boring solo but Glen uses so many different percussion instruments and loops that it becomes rather amazing. Then there is “Monkey Chant”, the song that introduced the concept of using crickets as background singers. Thanks to YouTube, I can finally prove that I wasn’t making that up. Here is the Wednesday Night Music Club selection that you have to see.




4) Vedera (Opening Act: Traindodge): For a local act Vedera gets very little love. Of all the local bands, they are the ones with the best shot of making it huge nationally. Kristen May has a killer voice and a great look and they write really good songs. The horrible thing is that they might be 15 years too late. They would have sounded perfect on 120 Minutes but they might not be emo enough to make it in today’s market. How anyone would listen to Paramore over this band is beyond me.

5) The Brunettes (Opening Acts: Anders Parker, Ferraby Lionheart): Part One of the story that I hope doesn’t come back to haunt me. It’s one of those stories. I went to this show the week of my medical misadventure. I sit down in a rather empty bar surviving solely on pain medication. I take a table by myself, which is kind of a jerk move but I didn’t really care. Woman comes over and asks if I was saving the seats. I say no but I could move but she goes no she was trying to get her friends to join me. I never saw her friends but we sat down and talked for a bit, completely ignoring Ferraby’s performance again.

She gets up to leave to talk to her friends and I go “That was odd. I’m not drinking and yet a woman comes up to talk to me.” Literally within five minutes of her leaving another woman walks into the bar, walks straight to me and goes “Are you saving these seats for anyone?” I go no so she joins me at the table where we both realize that we like Anders Parker. And Son Volt. And about three dozen other bands. The night ends with her giving me her email address. You would think this would lead me to not drink in bars more often but sadly that’s not the case.

As for the show, Anders Parker is woefully underappreciated. We were both upset that no one else was listening to him as the guy does a lot of great stuff in the same vein as Jay Farrar. And The Brunettes are my absolute favorite band from New Zealand. I could write a TV show about this band as they seem like a bunch of kids who are just travelling the world and making it up as they go along. In certain songs you’ll have three people playing xylophones. One song features one guy playing banjo, trumpet and xylophone within 90 seconds of each other. Just brilliant fun.

6) The Lemonheads (Opening Acts: Racoon, New Rivals): I reviewed this recently but I’m still amazed that Evan Dando forgot a verse to Into Your Arms. There are only two verses to the song to begin with so it can’t be that difficult. This was also the only show I ever saw without an encore. Evan finished the show and left. Hey, it’s not my fault that you’re playing in a bar in KC on a Sunday night. Least you could do is give us another song.

Uptown Theater (Kansas City, MO)
1) Lindsay Buckingham: This was the most surprising show of the year for me. I went to it because Erik (long time friend of the blog) would constantly harp on me about how awesome Lindsay is as a guitarist. I’m not a big fan of Fleetwood Mac, they’re great but the shows tend to be very scarf heavy, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. His set was just knocked out of the park awesome. Great guitar work going from fingerpicking acoustic to full on sonic blasts. Tusk was turned into acid rock; it was so awesome. Definitely not what I expected.

2) John Prine (Opening Act: Maura O’Connell): John Prine used to be the mailman for my office. Ok, that’s not entirely true. John was a mailman in Maywood and I worked in Maywood but I don’t think the time periods overlapped. That doesn’t change the fact that he was a mailman back when I lived in that part of the city. For those who wonder about the music business, one of the best songwriters you’ll ever find was delivering the mail. Tough to actually review the show as John is John. He’s going to be onstage with a guitar and singing his wonderfully composed songs. Maybe he should add some pyro next time.

3) Damien Rice: I had trepidations going into this show since Lisa Hannigan had left the band a month prior. Given that I’m madly in love with her and her voice I was worried about how the show would progress. Hell, Lisa sings entire verses of the songs. Damien pulled it off and for the most part you didn’t notice what was missing. As always with Damien, incredible emotion and intensity that is enhanced by Vyvienne Long’s cello playing. It creates a sonic landscape that is intimate and powerful at the same time. Was one of those shows where the entire crowd is incredibly silent, straining to hear every last note. Well, except for the drunk middle aged women in the middle of the crowd who just wouldn’t shut up even after we all yelled at them. Kept it from being a perfect show.

4) Weird Al Yankovic: Yeah, I’m worried about someone reading my three part story when it the same post I admit that I went to see Weird Al. I think one of my first rules upon meeting someone is “for the love of God, don’t tell her about the blog.” But so what if I went to see Weird Al? Is it wrong to want to hear a song performed by a guy in a SpongeBob t-shirt? Is it wrong to be impressed by a kick line of stormtroopers? Is it wrong to be amazed that he brought along his own fat suit for “Fat”? Yeah, I guess it probably is wrong. I did realize one important truth in life that night: If you died in a freak accident at a Weird Al concert for the rest of your life you’d be referred to as ‘that guy who died at the Weird Al concert.’” Also, this show had sign language for the hard of hearing. I’m not making that up, two women were signing for the audience. Don’t know if that is awesome or not.

5) Ryan Adams and the Cardinals: First off, I’m just happy that Ryan made it through his set. He had just quit smoking and for a guy who was on everything but skates to give up one of his vices is a dangerous thing. I’m not sure if this show lived up to everything that I hoped it to be. It was great in that I was expecting a train wreck and he actually played competently and brilliantly at times. It’s just that he spent half the set muttering incoherently and having a lot of fun with the band but not much fun with the audience. Plus, I’m such a huge fan of his Whiskeytown stuff that is really what I want to hear. I want that youthfulness as well as Caitlin Cary’s fiddle in the background. Now he seems to be beaten down by life and he’s younger than I am. Oh well, he’s still one of my faves even if he was too dumb to marry Beth Orton when he had the chance.

That’s the first part. More next week.