Beck, The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger @ The Pageant

Photo courtesy of John Ottenlips

After a six year album gap, Beck is on tour again. I was fortunate enough to experience the show at The Pageant in St. Louis this past wednesday.

The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger is the creative outlet of Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl. I felt that the opening band sounded a lot like their name. Their songs were psychedelic and heavy, mystical and fierce. Lennon was an unexpectedly good soloist.

Beck and his six-piece band opened with "Devil's Haircut," dancing and smiling around the stage like a little kid who gets to play rockstar. They toured the entire Beck catalog with a stunning twenty-four song set.

It was obvious that the entire band was having even more fun than the audience. I think that's one of the key elements of a great concert. Playing the harmonica on "One Foot in the Grave" to the beat of the audience clapping is another one. And "E-Pro," which had the pit thrashing and pumping their arms, ended with the band members murdering each other while Beck put up crime scene tape across the stage.

The defining characteristic of a Beck concert is the way the genre seems to change seamlessly. The show went from hip hop ("Novacane") to folk ("One Foot in the Grave,") dance ("New Pollution,") country ("Blue Moon,") psychedelic ("Chemtrails,") punk ("Minus,") and even weird soul ("Debra.") Beck shows that good song-writing transcends genre.

Sleepy Kitty - Infinity City

St. Louis local music always surprises me. Sometimes it's hard to believe that such good music can be made by people who live so close to me, people I see on the street or in the audience at concerts.
Infinity City starts out with "Gimme A Chantz!," a rocking song to start out with. Paige Brubeck has a great Nilsson-like way of harmonizing with herself that appears throughout the album.
"Seventeen" is a cover of the Beatles' "When I Saw Her Standing There." At six minutes long, it's not quite like the original. It's an intriguing jam of the classic hit.
"NYC Really Has It All" is a conversation with an old friend about how much their hometown has changed since they were young. This is a perfect anthem for reminiscing about your own childhood.
My favorite track, "Dykula," has vocals that remind me of Karen O. Her basic message in the song is clear: I wish I'd never met you. I also like the retro "shoobop's."
Lastly, the vinyl-only eleventh track, "Greetings From Cherokee St USA," is a simple song of piano and beautiful vocals. At certain points it is filled with street noise, presumably recorded from Cherokee Street. It is a beautifully written song about Sleepy Kitty's neighborhood. Like most vinyl-only tracks, it's only available on the vinyl copy, sadly.
Infinity City is out now on Euclid Records. I bet you can pick it up at a certain record store of the same name.

Sunday - LouFest 2011

Ume rocking very hard

The retro rock of Old Lights started out the day. Their set reminded me of early Elvis Costello, definitely not a bad thing. Although their lead guitarist broke a few strings and experienced other difficulties, there was always another spare and the set continued just fine.
Jumbling Towers had a chaotic, unique keyboard based sound that my friends and I all enjoyed. The drummer was very talented and the singer looked like David Byrne of Talking Heads if you squinted. Definitely one of my favorites from sunday, I was disappointed to find a different sound on the free sampler they gave me. A drum machine? Where's that awesome guy? That said, I look forward to future releases from them.
Ume was the heaviest band of the weekend in my opinion. Their hardcore songs paired with Lauren's sometimes sweet vocals made a great combination. Her outfit was actually a great representation of the band's sound. A little black dress and combat boots. Also, she's the best headbanger I've ever seen.
Next up was the band I was most excited for, Lost In The Trees. Their set did not disappoint. The soft orchestral folk music was a stark contrast to Ume. The audience seemed quiet and respectful of their delicate sound. The set included brand new songs, a skeleton horse puppet being paraded through the audience, and a personal story about delivering pizza to the wealthy while on narcotics. Awesome.
The Low Anthem followed, being the only other folk band on the bill. The singer's voice sounded a whole lot like more recent Bob Dylan tunes.
Das Racist was definitely the wild card of sunday. The three maniac rappers took the stage and played much of the material from their forthcoming album, "Relax." Never taking themselves seriously, they told us how they planned to "do a couple more blues songs, some classic rock songs." They showed a lot of energy and I swear there must have been at least one of them talking at all times. They played Metallica on their laptop, air-guitaring heavily as they walked out.
!!! was one of the most entertaining bands of the weekend. How could you not enjoy watching the singer dance, dance with the audience, dance with a man in a wheelchair, dance on top of the speakers, and knock a row of lights right off the speaker while dancing? It was incredibly entertaining and created a great environment to hold an impromptu dance party with strangers. It started to drizzle a little bit near the end but that didn't stop anyone from grooving.
Cat Power doesn't play many live shows but for St. Louis, an exception. Her vocals sounded just as good, if not better, than they do on the album (which is pretty great.) The entire band experienced some issues with their monitors but it still sounded great from the audience. True to her discography, Cat Power played at least a few covers. In the middle of the set, an amazing sunset and a rainbow appeared. This would have been cool with any of the bands but it was an absolutely perfect visual for Cat Power's stunning set.
TV On The Radio had a noisy and rocking sound that has become their signature. Keeping with the theme of their new album (Nine Types Of Light) they had a great light show to go with the music. In my opinion, they could have mixed the audio a little better. It didn't ruin such a moving set however. I was particularly excited when they played my two favorites, "Repetition" and "Wolf Like Me," in a row. Dealing with the death of their bass player, Gerard Smith, this could be TV On The Radio's last tour. Whatever they do, I'm sure it will be in everyone's best interest. This set was really powerful and loud and a great way to end a great weekend in St. Louis.

Saturday - LouFest 2011

Kings Go Forth

The weekend began with Jon Hardy and the Public. I heard a rumor that they practiced the entire set fifteen times including turning off the AC at Jon Hardy's house to experience the predicted heat. It paid off because they sounded great. Near the end of the set, one of their guitarists had to quickly change clothes and go get ready for a set with his other band, Troubadour Dali.
Troubadour Dali rocked the house (err... lawn) with their psychedelic music. They definitely helped prove that St. Louis does in fact have great local music, something that everyone in this area should recognize.
Sleepy Sun played some of their heavy, long jams. The best way to describe this is 'epic.'
All nine members of Kings Go Forth appeared clad in white uniforms. Their funky soul music was a great contrast to Sleepy Sun, pouring out love and sunshine. It was incredibly danceable, as I quickly found out.
Dom was, although limited, very cool including a special cover of The Cure's "Boys Don't Cry." Not that it matters in the long run, but the singer totally looks like a girl. Girl hair, pants, and voice. It was a little awkward but contributed to the absurdity of their music.
Surfer Blood played a good combination of fun and dark songs including some new tracks that have yet to be released. The frontman needs to learn to not talk quite so much but still a very fun set.
Due to hurricane Irene, The Roots could not make it. However, ?uestlove graced us with his DJ set of awesomeness. Boasting that it covered 85 years worth of music, this was a great big dance party at LouFest.
Deerhunter appeared calm and cool on stage while they played many fan favorites. The bass player looked pretty stoned to me but it certainly didn't prohibit him from playing some amazing bass lines. After announcing to the audience that this would be the last song they played on tour for a long time, the singer realized they still had thirty minutes left in their set. This mistake caused some people to leave that area but didn't take away from a great set.
To end saturday, The Hold Steady took over the blue stage. The sun had gone down at this point, making the stage even more of a focus. Belting out lyrics like a dictator giving a speech, singer Craig Finn was full of energy, frequently repeating lines away from the microphone and moving his limbs around. They played a wonderful set despite last year's departure of their keyboard player. It featured a great combination of old and new material.

Manchester Orchestra @ The Pageant

On May 3rd I attended the Manchester Orchestra concert at the Pageant. While the show did not sell out, the pit was incredibly crowded because the balcony wasn't open. I was in the second row of humans, center stage.

The first of three bands was Harrison Hudson, a three-piece outfit from Nashville. The singer and guitarist, Harrison himself, had the appearance of Buddy Holly meets Arcade Fire. Big glasses and a slightly strange haircut. Between the three members, the songs were well-balanced. No one outshined the rest. They played songs about relationships including a very humorous song about Katy Perry. THe entire set could be summed up in their song "Run My Way." "Love is a waiting game." Very true words.

The second band was Australian rock duo An Horse. They showered us in half-shouted vocals and fast beats. Singer/guitarist Kate Cooper played an orange Fender Mustang that looked as though it had been bought earlier that day. He vocals were very energetic but sometimes difficult to understand. Drummer Damon Cox pulled out some stunning fills that I definitely don't remember from the album. Despite the tease of an acoustic on stage, there were no acoustic songs.

Finally Manchester Orchestra took stage, starting with an older fan favorite, "Shake It Out." Friends, it only takes a few melty crayons to ruin an entire coloring book. When one guy charges his way to the front, it creates a mosh pit. This was a particularly violent one. Three songs in and frontman Andy Hull had taken notice.

"It seems some of us are smiling a little too much about all the pushing and shoving."
"Thank you!," said everyone in the front.
"Yeah, do you see all these people, especially women saying thank you?," said Andy to the moshing guys, "That means you're wrong."

 The set included a few songs from their forthcoming album, Simple Math, but was for the most part very old-heavy. We were treated to a beautifully slow cover of Neutral Milk Hotel's "Holland, 1945." Andy continued to play many of their most popular songs at a much slower tempo than the album. I like to believe that this was to discourage shoving in the pit. Hull played a black Gibson hollow-body the entire show except for one song played on a custom telecaster built by guitarist Robert McDowell.

My favorite thing about Manchester Orchestra is that it seemed as though all five members knew exactly what their songs were about. I could really tell that they were feeling the lyrics as they played the songs. Drummer was smiling like a little kid during the entire show.The band opted to not do an encore and just play one extra long set.

A fantastic concert. A terrible audience. It only takes one, kids. It only takes one...