Little Dragon at the Independent 4.13.10

Update 2015-03-17: I had a witty little paragraph here about how Little Dragon was "on fire" at the show, and the fire alarm even went off three times and the fire department showed up... but the text got corrupted in the post editor and now it's lost forever. Sadness.

It was a sold out show and the Independent was packed-I managed to get head and shoulders above the crowd somehow. Little Dragon is a pretty kooky act- Yukimi Nagano has a great, nuanced voice, and she danced all over the stage and struck some really great poses (seriously). Also some very strong work with the tambourine.

It was a great show- would have been even better if someone could have taken my extra ticket... just to have some company. And now I've just had to sell my extra ticket to the (also sold out) Miike Snow show on Friday. I'm reminded again that I have no music friends out here- kinda feel like maybe I should tape a sign on my back saying "Will you be my music friend?" when I go to shows...

Banjo for Beginners

I have acquired the use of an excellent banjo, borrowed from a coworker. So far with the help of Youtube I've managed to tune it, and establish that it is definitely harder than it looks to play- I think I'll be able to get the fingerpicking eventually, and it will be time well spent because it will improve my guitar fingerpicking skills too, which are nascent at best. Every time I try to learn a new sequence (or pattern, or roll, I'm not sure what it's called on the guitar) I can feel the brain cells shifting and straining, kind of like learning to speak a new language.

The banjo's got a great sound- it's kind of rowdy and the definition of twang, and it somehow sounds more aggressive (in a country kind of way) than the guitar when it really gets going. I'm short one or two picks (it seems that people generally wear a whole knuckle sandwich full of finger picks when playing the banjo.) Maybe I'll find one on the floor of the Little Dragon show next week, although I doubt Little Dragon has a banjo in their lineup...

The Low Anthem at GAMH 03.26.10

I stole that picture of Jocie Adams of The Low Anthem from the SF Chronicle... I was there too, but with no camera. More Chronicle pictures here.

The Low Anthem put on a great show- their style is hard to describe. They played a set of slow sort of atmospheric tunes like Charlie Darwin and To Ohio, with soft ethereal harmonies... and then the guy on standup bass (Jeff) starts playing a pretty intense solo, and the rest of the band busts out with Don't Let Nobody Turn You 'Round, and the singers are howling and the drums are banging... They played about 2/3 soft and 1/3 loud overall. I really enjoyed it, but I think my friends were a bit dismayed at the dichotomy (I took pity on their jetlag and we ended up leaving after the first song of the encore). The band members switched instruments every few songs- they all sang, I think they all took a turn on the drums, the guitar, the WWI organ, and the ringing bowed xylophone bell thingy. Also involved- the standup bass, clarinets, tenor saxophones, and a saw. Yep, a saw. I really love the "all hands on deck" multi-instrumentalist approach- it's something I aspire to. I'd love to be able to play drums, guitar, bass, banjo, violin and whatever else comes to mind at a passable level- and then just jump in wherever.