Blitzen Trapper, Alela Diane @ Bug Jar

"This is our first time in Rochester...EVER." And later, "We like this place." So said Blitzen Trapper. Never been here, thanks for your support, hey, this place ain't too shabby...it's a common theme among bands I've seen here recently. I'm starting to think it might be backhanded, like, hey, this place isn't the shitstorm we expected, whoa.

I think I read too many music blogs. Because if you read what I read than you might think that Blitzen Trapper is HUGE. I thought the Bug Jar would be too small for them. It was sold out, but it didn't sell out until that day, and it really wasn't all that crowded, comfortably crowded at least where I was.

And then they went and got outplayed by their opener. No fault of their own, the opener, Alela Diane, was superb. She and her band, which included a backup singer, bass player, drummer, and father (on guitar & mando), wove musical tapestries, bereft of strong melodies, but oozing in simple complex beauty. Each sound built intertwined with every other sound into a tight blanket of sound that just sounded perfect together, like it was coming from one thing altogether. It's a folksy twangy acoustic sound, electrified, literally and figuratively. Other than Alela's heavenly voice, the drumming really stood out to me. This type of music doesn't usually lend itself to noticeably great drumming, which just made it all the more noticable. Heavy reliance on mallets, and minimal use of cymbals created a nice low softness for many of the songs, and given the loose atypical song structure the beat was given more room to flourish and develop and experiment outside the boundaries of the beat. Really sounded good. Speaking of sounding good, the sound was as good as I have ever heard in that room. Very well-mixed and at a perfect volume.

Then Blitzen Trapper came on and mucked it all up, in a good way. Loud (LOUD) and fuzzy. I did enjoy Alela's set more, but saying she outplayed Blitzen Trapper is just not true. I did not expect their music to warrant 3 keyboards on stage, but there they were. Guess those help when your music spans the large gap connecting Bob Dylan and Pink Floyd. These guys, beautiful three-part harmonies and all, can mix it up with the best of them. Which is something I seek out in my music, and appreciate to no end, but for some reason, it was somewhat jarring the way they presented their variety. They seem to be the type of band that once you "get it" your like for them begets your love for them on repeated and repeated listenings. In other words, I am not super familiar with their music, but I have a feeling the more I knew their music the more I would enjoy their show, the variety would make more sense and not feel all over the place. Here's to hoping they really did enjoy their time in Rochester and will be coming back soon, after I've had more time to absorb their music.



BTW, they may just have the greatest taping policy ever.

The band wanted me to let you know that BT is officially trade-friendly, and would love to encourage people to share their live recordings. The band would prefer that all tapings include a mix of board and crowd. Thanks!

Unfortunately it's a policy that is getting sorely underused with only 2 shows up at LMA. There was a taper there so hopefully a recording surfaces at some point. I will link to it here if/when I find it.

UPDATE: Recording has surfaced on LMA. Download here.

Sadies, Jerry Teel @ Bug Jar

You always feel like you are in some sort of time warp twilight zone when you step into the Bug Jar with its retro studio apartment hanging from the ceiling. But when you were also drowned in the sounds of The Sadies and Jerry Teel and the Big City Stompers it hits you even harder. Jerry Teel kicked things off with his "classic" rock, and I mean "classic" as in before classic rock was classic rock. They didn't play rock music, they played music that rocked and rolled. It wasn't new, it wasn't original, but it was great.

Then The Sadies took over and brought us some more of that rock and/or roll music. The original influencers of rock music were all evident and out in the open, not mashed up and lost and reworked. You had blues, gospel, country, surf... Sometimes all together, sometimes separated, but fairly clear and unfiltered. Was it retro or so post that it flipped back to pre? They fired off tunes one after the other, some lasting less than a minute, I think, unless they were playing multi-movement epics, but that's not likely. The Bug Jar owns my ears again tonight for Blitzen Trapper and Alela Diane.

Derek Trucks Band @ Water Street Music Hall

God I needed to see some live music. A month-long drought was just too much to take. But things seem to be picking up around here and hopefully with the weather turning, and the days lengthening, my motivation will increase. Lucky for me, one of my all-time favorite performers, Mr. Derek Trucks, brought his band to town last Friday night. They played to a sold-out crowd at the Water Street Music Hall. When they sell it out, they pack em in. It was jam packed all the way into the back of the hall, and the Club side was opened up and looked quite jammed as well.

After arriving purposefully late as to miss the opener, I squeezed my way into the front few rows. Maybe I am just shorter than I think I am, but I always seem to be stuck amongst the trees, neck craning. From experience I knew the crowd would thin a bit as the music finally got going, and would continue throughout the set, which thankfully it did.

The worst part about the set was the fact that someone from the venue came on to "psych up" the crowd before the band came on and let us in on this "secret" that the band was dying to play a long show and asked for no curfew. It was the worst because it could not have been further from the truth. They played a fairly standard, if it wasn't even shorter than usual, 100m set, with a short one song encore. I was fine with the length of the show, though the lying beforehand is just plain obnoxious and unnecessary.

The best part of the show was these 3 minutes of glory inside the My Favorite Things. This was the type of playing I missed during his set with Susan from this summer. They busted it out a little to early in the set though.



I am guessing the reason they did though was because Chuck Campbell came out about an hour into the set and sat in with the band for the rest of the show. This was the second best part of the show. On the flip side, it was also the second worst part of the show because he was too low in the mix and I would have liked to have seen more interplay between him and Derek. He was little underused.

Anyway, great show overall. Good to hear a lot of the new songs from their great new album, Already Free. I am not all too familiar with them but they sounded great live.

After the show, I headed over to Abilene. Wanted to check out this place for a while, and it was very close to the venue, much closer than I thought (finally starting to connect the dots in this small city.) Local act Walri was playing and I also have wanted to check them out, so it worked out nicely. Walked in as they were finishing up Hey Pockey Way. Then from there they busted into a David Bowie mini set, which included versions of Changes, Ziggy Stardust, and an exceptional Fame played with the perfect amount of funk and attitude. Closed the set with Big Boss Man and then took a break, so, tired, I did too. I wish I could have seen some of their original material, but that will have to wait until next time.