Yes, that’s right — tonight is the opening of the concert photography group show that I’m proud to be a part of: 120 dB, curated by Maryanne Ventrice. Alongside some other totally amazing lady concert photogs and friends like Abbey Braden and Diana Wong, I’ll be exhibiting five of my favorite concert photos from the archives, from 2002-2011.

If you haven’t read any of the awesome buzz we’ve already gotten from Brooklyn Vegan, NYC Taper, Prefix Mag, or Bumpershine, here are the details:

Please join us at Fort Useless on January 27th from 6-10 pm for our opening reception — FREE

RSVP on our Facebook page

Fort Useless
36 Ditmars Street, Brooklyn

Map:

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Hope to see you there!

This Christmas I didn’t go anywhere on vacation, but rather participated in a NYC-based “staycation.” I basically spent a week stuffing my face with some of my favorite foods:

Chicken Pad See Ew from Pongsri (Chinatown, Bayard Street location)

The Greenpointer with prosciutto from Paulie Gee’s in Greenpoint, Brooklyn

A journey to Flushing, Queens to try out Nan Xiang Dumpling House. Tried the cucumber and garlic, beef scallion pancake (with hoisin sauce), and of course, the pork and crab soup dumplings.

Although Nan Xiang was good, found the dumplings a bit too delicate and the scallion pancake too greasy. Had to remedy the soup dumpling craving by hitting up Manhattan fave, Nice Green Bo in Chinatown (with an order of scallion pancake — nice and light, and chicken pan fried noodles — a little too greasy).

The food tour also included a stop at Nitehawk Cinemas in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to get an order of that delicious Nitehawk queso — a dish that will force you into gluttony.

Not a bad way to spend the end of 2011, eh?

Who loves Ryan Adams? I do! I do!

As you may have already figured out from my tweets, just as I was lucky a few months ago when Coldplay was in town, I was again blessed enough to sit in on Ry Ry’s intimate performance at the Ed Sullivan Theater for Live on Letterman.

According to Ryan, for this tour he is doing all solo sets (yup, no Cardinals) because… he is. But he still has the classic crazy Ryan Adams between song banter — this time hypothesizing what would happen if you came to a Live on Letterman taping and KISS was performing, the “real” pyrotechnic show that is usually on display during “Lucky Now”, and an in-depth rant on the failings of the fourth season of “Moonlighting.”

Vocally, Ry Ry has never sounded better. Clear, crisp, and in control, I thought his voice was beautiful during the whole performance. He did an understated version of “New York, New York” on the piano — after which the guy a row in front of me shouted, “We still love you too, Ryan!” Another song of note was a cover of Bob Mould’s “Black Sheets of Rain.”

It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen Ryan perform (was at the last time the 2008 Cafe Select show????), so I was delighted when he played some older hits — especially “English Girls Approximately” — as soon as he hit the chorus of the song I was reminded how MUCH I love that song. (The playing of “Love Is Hell” will be occurring all day today.)

More classic Adams details included Ry dressed in a black tee with red design, jeans, brown workbooks — but most importantly, one impossibly expensive looking black leather jacket with an homage to Iron Maiden painted along the entire back. (Of course!!)

Can’t wait to see him tonight at the big Carnegie Hall show!

Setlist via the Ryan Adams Archive:

Oh My Sweet Carolina
Ashes & Fire
If I Am A Stranger
Dirty Rain
New York, New York (piano)
Do I Wait
Lucky Now
Jacksonville Skyline
Black Sheets of Rain (Bob Mould cover)
English Girls Approximately
16 Days

You can re-watch the stream of the performance right here:

Day 3 of CMJ was an all-day affair at the I Guess I’m Floating/ Tell All Your Friends PR showcase at Pianos.

The lineup

My personal music marathon started out with the Seattle-based upstarts, Beat Connection, who were fresh off the red-eye from the Left Coast. Their set started off with a bit of a bumpy start — with the laptop not cooperating just a couple songs in. While the band waited for the Mac to kick back in, they explained that they were super excited to be at CMJ, because it was their first time ever at the festival (as performers or attendees). Awww!

The next band I was excited to see was Guards, the brainchild of Richie Follin (brother of Cults singer Madeline Follin). Like Cults, Guards has the obligatory waifish, winsome girl with long dark hair paired with a tall skinny dude with equally long locks (Follin), but in Guards case, it’s the dude who does the lead vocals.

The band kind of sounds like the slightly more psychedelic-rock lovin’ brother of Cults mixed in with a bit of Beatles Revolver era and MGMT. They even did a pretty rockin’ cover of M.I.A.’s “Born Free.”

Recommended.

The other main act of interest at the showcase was Grimes, aka – Claire Boucher. The blonde Montrealer has an ethreal, child-like voice which is laid on top of sometimes “grimey,” beats and synths. Onstage Boucher mans all the machines and instruments, volleying back and forth between her keyboard and table set up with her effects consoles, cradling the microphone between her ear and shoulder.

Musically some of the songs can be a bit repetitive, but there is no doubt, there is something compelling about Boucher — She’s like a beautiful synth pop alty-ragamuffin, with a mismatched outfit of a skirt with a pullover, paired with some field hockey-style striped athletic socks and slightly gothic necklaces and rings. On top of all of that, girlfriend was wearing an elastic headband with her hair pulled into a bun by a black scrunchie. Yes, a scrunchie. (See aforementioned note about her being an alty-ragamuffin.)

There is something sexy, yet sweet about her. In the setups between songs, her stage banter is punctuated by girly giggling and smiles, clearly winning over the majority of the Dude Central-type crowd (which included members of the NYC music wunderkid band, Oberhofer). If this girl is able to produce a couple of hotly produced tracks, she will definitely be going places. Total star in the making.

Some other bands I managed to catch, below:

Caveman

Like the Tapes ‘n Tapes before them, Caveman is music for dudes who like music written by dudes for dudes but slightly more Tom Petty-ish. They informed the crowd that they were stoked to be playing at Pianos since the venue gave them a chance to play a lot of shows there, making it where they first really got started as a band, and then commenting that their up-coming three sets of shows there was also what was going to kill them.

Doldrums

Hands

The Rapture, but from LA.

Day two of CMJ turned out to be a free form day. A few weeks ago my friend Kathryn got us tickets to the new Karen O psycho rock opera at St. Ann’s Warehouse, Stop the Virgens, with me totally not realizing it was smack dab in the middle of CMJ. Whoopsies!

After the show, I decided to push it and headed over to Williamsburg to try to catch King Krule at Glasslands, but by the time I got there they were no longer letting badges in. As I was standing there, I heard someone call my name, and low-and-behold it was Scott Stereogum, who then invited to come into the ‘Gum showcase next door at 285 Kent.

Before heading in, Scott warned me that it was extremely hot indoors and sure enough, it was in fact a “hipster sauna” inside. So who were the kids all waiting to see? Strong Island (seriously???) buzz band, Twin Sister. Dreamy disco music, with a lead singer who looks like an Olsen, it’s not hard to understand why the room was 75% Sausage Fest.

But more on Stop the Virgens… A lot of folks have been asking me how the show was, and the one-line way I’ve come up with describing the experience is the following: “I’m not sure what I saw, but I’m pretty sure it was awesome.”

The performance is an “opera” in the sense that there is no talking — only singing throughout the entire show. The music is fantastic — and need I mention it’s backed by an incredible all-star band (Brian Chase and Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Patrick Keeler and Jack “Little Jack” Lawrence of the Raconteurs/ Greenhornes, and Money Mark)? Amazing out of this world costumes by Christian Joy.

* SPOILER ALERT (Skip this paragraph if you don’t want to know anything about the show) *
From what I can surmise, Karen O is this kind of lost woman, who comes upon this world of nymphish “virgens.” The virgens are playful but mischievous, and sometimes cruel, and they taunt and tease Karen O’s character. Then eventually everyone dies, but then they are brought back to life by a ghostly/heavenly looking Karen O.

The show is so weird and crazy, but definitely a fantastic experience. Tonight is the last performance at St. Ann’s, so check it out if you can!

Scenes from tonight:

Day 1 of CMJ was a great start. Caught NYC via Australia band Young Magic‘s killer set at Public Assembly in Williamsburg. Dreamy, and dead sexy songs.

Also managed to catch a few songs by Boston band Quilt at the Mexican Summer showcase in the back room at PA. Some solid sonic noodling.

Quickly, some recommendations for this year’s CMJ:

These shows are bound to be completely packed. Attend if you dare: Zola Jesus (Knitting Factory on Tues; LPR on Wed); Wild Flag (Bowery Ballroom on Tues)

My picks: Young Magic at Public Assembly at 10pm on Tuesday. If you can stay up late, check out Dent May. Last year I caught Class Actress, who is ending the night at 1am, when she showcased at Cameo Gallery, but sadly was unimpressed. Maybe her live show as gotten better since then?

Other bands I’m hot to check out: Guards, Grimes, Boy and Bear, Active Child, and my (and seemingly everyone else’s) new favorite band, Purity Ring

Would love to check out Bleached and King Krule, but the scheduling gods seem at conflict.. but you never know…

I just came back from the James Blake show in Williamsburg. I now know what the sound of a room full of ovaries exploding sounds like: basically faint squeals of ecstasy for about 1 hour non-stop.

Master of the subtle, slow build, James Blake has you wrapped around his youthful, tiny little British finger without you even realizing it.

Oh don't mind me, I'm just blowing your MIND right now

As I Rock, I Roll so aptly described it: “James Blake shows are like being masterfully seduced by the most unassuming hot guy ever. SAHWOOON”

Swoon indeed! In addition to creating some of the sexiest music created in a long time, this dude is clearly a hit with the ladies. I swear, I could actually hear hearts breaking as he crooned. One girl screamed, “I LOVE YOUR HAIR!” about five times throughout the show. Another gave James a bouquet of flowers at the end of the initial set.

Are flowers the way to James Blake's heart?

I nearly DIED when I realized that for the encore he was doing a cover of “Case of You” — probably one of my most favorite Joni Mitchell songs EVER. UUuuuggghhh! Absolutely brilliant. Well played, James Blake, WELL PLAYED.

If you listen carefully, I think you can hear my brain exploding in this video:

There’s really only one way to describe James Blake: an extremely attractive musical angel sent down from heaven to remind us that God really does still exist.

Note the heavenly glow

LOL! Not sure why it wasn’t until now that I saw this Azzaro “Decible” perfume commercial starring Mr. Julian Casablancas. Thanks Product Shop NYC!

Also watch the making of the song, “I Like The Night”:

Longtime readers of this site will already be accustomed to my undying, uncool devotion to the British “rock” band Coldplay.
But it is due to this broadcasting of affection that people end up being so generous whenever the band rolls into town.

Waiting to head into the Ed Sullivan Theater

Thanks to the unbelievable kindness of Product Shop NYC, last night I was lucky enough to attend Coldplay’s Live on Letterman webcast taping at the Ed Sullivan Theater right here in NYC.

It was basically 50 minutes of pure joy for me. The band played a handful of new songs off their upcoming album Mylo Xyloto — “Major Minus,” “Hurts Like Heaven,” “Charlie Brown,” and my personal favorite, “Paradise” — as well as all the greatest hits (“Yellow,” “The Scientist,” “Viva la Vida,” “Fix You,” etc.).

As always, Chris, Jonny, Will, and Guy were the consummate professionals, pounding out song after song with an unfaltering level of energy and passion.

Performing “Us Against The World”

There were two encores, both new songs. For the very last song, “Us Against The World,” the mic setup was not working for Chris’s guitar so with some urging from a dude in the crowd, he went acoustic, singing the first quarter of the song sitting on a stool, by himself in the center of the stage, with the rest of the guys quietly creeping behind to then join him in the song.

Fan video of “Us Against the World”:

After I got out of the show I read a text from my mom saying that she saw me on the webcast. MY MOM STILL LOVES COLDPLAY!

OH HAI, CHRIS MARTIN!

You can read an excellent summary of the night over at the CP Roadie Blog.

Songs played, according to my mom’s email:

Yellow
In My Place
Major Minus
Paradise
Viva La Vida
Charlie Brown
The Scientist
Clocks
Fix Me
Every Tear Is A Waterfall
Us Against The World

Printed setlist