Sufjan Stevens @Bowery Ballroom, Dec. 21st

(Sorry for the delay in getting this out -- the holidays and all that jazz.)

I had been feeling a slight malaise about the upcoming Christmas holiday.  I had yet to pick up gifts for anyone on my list (and boy, do I hate shopping), and visiting with family generally stresses me out.  Bestest Boy was working late on his movie, so I had to psych myself up for seeing Sufjan Stevens' "Seasonal Affective Disorder Yuletide Disaster Pageant On Ice" by lonesome.  Anyway, I think I wore him off Sufjan with all the holiday music play in the car, so perhaps it's best he didn't accompany me.

I got to the venue just before doors and managed to secure a spot front and center about two deep from the stage, which was COVERED with the tackiest and most colorful decorations.  There was a big spinning wheel on the side of the floor with about dozen holiday songs.  The floor filled rather quickly, and excitement was in the air.

(More words and pics after the jump.)

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The National, sort of @High Violet Annex, May 13th

In conjunction with the release of their latest album, The National has set up a 5 day long pop-up store called the High Violet Annex right next to Other Music. For the past few nights, some interesting friends of the band have shown up to DJ or perform, so this afternoon I decided to take a break from feeling bogged down with this head cold, and checked out the Annex since it was free and I don't have to work tomorrow.

After picking up the new album at Other Music (I fell for their marketing ploy!), I got into line relatively easily around 5:30 or so. Just after 6 we were allowed into the tiny space, and lo and behold, I got some prime real estate, front center, and was even able to rest on some equipment cases. For the next 3 hours we were treated to some brief but excellent sets by the psychedelic country-tinged Phosphorescent, the lovely Sharon Van Etten, and the dreamy Antlers, and as an added treat, some music by The National, sort of. Well, the crowd was a-buzz with excitement, as equipment labeled with the band's name appeared on stage, and then one Devendorf, then the other, and then one Dessner, and then the other, climbed on stage to set it up, but alas, no Matt Berninger tonight.

(More words and pics, and a video after the jump.)

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Rosie Thomas @Southpaw, April 11th

Having broken up recently with the Mad Scientist, I was not sure I was in the mood for the mopey musical stylings of Rosie Thomas, but Rebecca convinced me to join her and the girls at Southpaw last night, so I figured what the hell. I had heard of Rosie's name before, but didn't really recall how, so it was not until Music Slut Matt reminded me that she was a F.O.S. -- friend of Sufjan -- did my interest in the music actually gel.

After some pleasant, but somewhat interminable solo acoustic sets by some dude named Lulu(?) Luba Dvorak, and Rosie's bandmate Denison Witmer, and a cute (but c'mon already it's a school night!) standup bit by Rosie's alter-ego, Sheila Saputo, Rosie Thomas finally hit the stage around 11pm, joined by Denison, some other dude, and the Soof.

This also marked my first visit evah to Southpaw (I know! Can you believe it?), and yeah, it's an oddly arranged venue. I guess because the music last night was of the soothing lying in bed on Sunday morning while it's drizzling out and listening to breathy AM radio in the '70s genre, most people were sitting on the floor, and above in the raised areas, with some others, including me, standing by the bar.


While the music itself was melancholy, Rosie & Co. were hysterically cute in between songs. You know how certain musicians have really thick accents, but then when they sing, you would never guess what country they were from? It was kinda like that with Rosie -- when she wasn't singing, she had a little girl voice and told funny nonsensical stories about her friends -- kinda like a elementary school girl with a wild imagination, and then she'd do a 180 and start singing and dip into all this sad beautiful emotion for her songs. Utterly goofy and charming, especially when Sufjan lost his shit during "Paper Doll."


Here's a video of a beautiful song off of Rosie's latest effort, These Friends Of Mine, titled "Much Farther to Go":


And yeah, Soof is dreamy, space shuttle hat notwithstanding...*sigh!*


He wore the same tie as during the last time I saw him at the Revenge of the Book Eaters Benefit last year. They finished around 12:15am with a nicely slowed down cover of "The One I Love" by R.E.M.

Sweet!

Revenge of the Book Eaters @Beacon Theatre, Aug. 23rd

Met up with Fer, Dave and Stacey for Revenge of the Book Eaters, a fund raiser for 826NYC, "a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers to inspire their students to write." A group of fantastic humorists, including Jon Stewart, John Hodgman, Dave Eggers and Sarah Vowell were joined by musicians John Roderick (of The Long Winters), Sufjan Stevens and David Byrne.

I was lucky to land second row center seats the day they went on sale.

John Roderick played a short acoustic set.


Sufjan and a few of his band members played a handful of more recent Illinois(e) cuts.



David Byrne played a longer country set filled with covers and a few Talking Heads tunes, including a countryfied "Big Country."

As an encore, Sufjan joined David on stage for a cover song about Saginaw, Michigan, but not by Sufjan.

The evening reminded me how I used to make time in my life for volunteering, especially tutoring. I think this evening might cause me to explore some possibilities.