Black Keys (Special Guest Post)

Last night my sister Sally Kemp got to see the Black Keys in what sounds like an awesome setting. Since I won't be attending any of the literally hundreds of shows around Middle Tennessee this weekend (Bonnaroo, Fanfair) I reckon a review of an out of town event will do the trick. Without further ado, here is her account of the Keys in Indy.

Last night we went to the long awaited Black Keys show at the Lawn at the White River State Park. The park is downtown and in the summer, they set up a stage for shows. It was our first time to see a show there and we were not disappointed!
We arrived to an already full venue and found a spot on the lawn that would later accommodate the 12 of us. The first opener was someone I wasn't familiar with: Nicole Atkins and The Black Sea. While we missed most of her set, what we did hear of her bluesy rock set was surprisingly pleasant and interesting.
The second opening act was none other than Booker T. Jones and again, I wasn't super familiar with his stuff but did recognize a few of his songs and, was glad to listen to the legend's set.
Finally it was time for the headliners and when Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney took the stage, the crowd went wild. For awhile, it was just the two of them rocking through some of their older stuff, including "Thickfreakness",and "Girl Is On My Mind." They covered the Kinks' "Act Nice and Gentle," and then the rest of the band came out and they launched into "Everlasting Light" off of "Brothers." I was really impressed that they made it through six songs before the band came out and they started playing the hits. Both Auerbach and Carney are such good musicians that we didn't even miss hearing the other instruments.
They got through the obvious song choices, "Next Girl," "Howlin' for You," and "Tighten Up," and then played some of my faves from "Brothers" and "Attack and Release." At one point, Booker T came out and joined them on the organ for "Ten Cent Pistol" and "I'll Be Your Man," which was really cool.
When they announced that they were going to play just a few more songs, we were all surprised as it seemed like they were just getting going. They ended the set with "I Got Mine," which I loved hearing since that's Amos' favorite song and we regularly rock out to it in the car!
Thankfully, they gave us an encore, playing "Sinister Kid," (my favorite) and "Your Touch." They left the stage leaving us hungry for more but we knew that they were probably pretty tired after having delivered such a rockin' show. They were good performers, but in the sense that they loved music and love playing their songs together.
Overall, I loved it. They played well and hit every note spot on. It was great being outside on a summer night and I loved seeing them play and loved dancing with our friends.

Old Union 10 Year Anniversary

This weekend was one of celebration. Baby showers, Memorial Day, the Indy 500, and most notably, the two night, star studded pair of shows commemorating the decade of rock from Old Union at Exit In.

Friday night started off with the most recent line up of The Last Straw, sans keyboards and with Jason Graumlich now playing second guitar. I'm just glad their old rhythm section is in tact. The Saturday show was opened by Ballhog, with 50% less Randy as Mr. Boen is out on the high seas for the next few months. It was good to see those guys, it's been a while.

Old Union celebrated their 10 year run with two longs nights of great music and wonderful guests of rock past. Friday night featured a couple of songs sung by the legendary Bonnie Bramlett, some Allman Brothers tunes with The Midnight Riders, along with sightings of Johnny Few, members of the Last Straw, and Chris Bledsoe. Saturday night featured guitar hero Jack Pearson, Jimmy Hall, Randy Russell, and Chris West on sax for most of the night.

The music this weekend was great, as always, but the best part of this celebration was bringing together the community that has formed around this band over the years. Between getting down with everyone in the crowd, and hanging out back stage, the close circle that these guys have created really has become, wait for it, and old union. It makes me think of what it must have been like back in the day when the Who and Zeppelin were buddies or when Cream and The Beatles and Jimi were all running together. I like to think that it was just the same, a bunch of old friends, that happen to be in bands, just hanging out and enjoying the company and the great music together. I'm glad to be a part of this scene and I hope to see another decade out of these boys.

Flaming Lips

After surviving Jeff Beck and Jon Spencer, the third major concert storm hit a couple of nights ago in the form of the Flaming Lips at the Ryman. I have been really excited to see this show. I had seen them before, but this would be my first up close and personal experience. The whispers on the street seemed to convey concern over whether or not the Mother Church would be down with the sort of party the Lips like to throw, but my hopes were swiftly granted, and they went all out. More on that in a bit.

The opening act was none other than Sean Lennon. He came out in a long coated nautical outfit and played a decent set. His songs were cool and he played a pretty mean guitar. I'm just glad they didn't suck. I've been to too many shows where the support bands were underwhelming to say the least. Lennon was entertaining just enough to get the already freaky crowd ready.

The first of many, many cool stand out moments of this show came when the members of the Lips came out themselves and tested their gear in the change over like a bunch of roadies. Derek Brown came out and made sure all his crazy noises were in order and Wayne Coyne himself appeared and delivered a public service announcement style warning about the flashing lights and other shenanigans with which we were about to be bombarded. He was also happy to casually add, "When they ask you if he did the bubble trick, you can say, F yeah he did".

When the show "actually" started, the members of the band came down a ramp one by one in front of the huge screen, leaving Coyne to be inflated into his huge clear bubble ball, and rolled out into the crowd to surf around and pose like a golden god, before hovering back to the stage and busting into "The Fear". It looked a little like (exactly like) this and this. From that point on, we were berated with tons of confetti, streamers, and hundreds of balloons, along with some top notch psychedelic rock. Not being super familiar with a lot of the songs, I definitely enjoyed the ones I did know, the obvious "She Don't Use Jelly" and "Yoshimi", along with "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song". "Laser Hands" was brought to life by actual prop huge hands that shot lasers out of the palms.

This was one of those shows at the Ryman where the intimacy is so intense you just don't know how to describe it, even when you wait a few days before you blog about it. The fact that they stuffed their huge, festival sized stage rig into that room and created the atmosphere that they made, brought an energy to that building that may never have been seen there before. It was one of unadulterated fun and all out rock bliss. Nary an ass in a pew all night, everyone in attendance seemed to know that this would be a show that Nashvillians would be talking about for generations, much like the Stones at Vandy and, well, Pink Floyd at Vandy. It was like a circus, with a great band, at Willy Wonka's house, in Oz, complete with Dorothy and Scarecrow dancers, caterpillar monsters and other assorted characters, mutants, and all out stage-side partiers. There was literally too much going on on stage to take it all in, and you could tell just how much the band was actually enjoying it too. Coyne would constantly amp up the crowd with a quick "C'mon C'mon" as if to say, "We know we're here putting on a great show, let's hear it".

Closing the second encore with "Do You Realize" was the perfect climax for this extravaganza . It was equal parts emotional and spectacle, draining the last of the confetti and streamers, and bidding a fond farewell to the gorgeous Ryman. Filing out into the real world brought everyone back to Earth and left us all wondering if we would ever see anything like that again. Doubt it.

Interpol

Tonight I decided to give something new a try, something I wasn't familiar with or have any opinions about. I noticed that a band called Interpol was playing at the Ryman, and tickets were practically being given away on Craigslist, so I got one and went down there.

The opening band came out and looked terrified and played like it was their first show at Jammin' Java. They never said their name, or anything else for that matter, so I spent the majority of their set thinking of names they could be called. I came up with Follow The Sampler, The Naps, 2 Wimps And A Somber Chick, One Chord Is Enough, Whine And Cheese, and The Statue Makers. By the time they were done, the place was like a library. Their monotone boring songs all sounded the same, and none of them rocked.

Finally, after an eternal changeover, Interpol came out to an ovation from a half full Ryman audience comprised of teenagers, parents with teenagers, excited girlfriends, and bored but hopeful boyfriends. My first impression of this band was something like this: if the Cure cuddled up on a rainy night and watched Grey's Anatomy with half of the members of Arcade Fire, this is what it would sound like. By the 5th or 6th song, (opening band included) I was totally over the way every single song started with ambient guitar noise. This was the recipe for the songs all night. Ambient noise, then basic, predictable chord progression and whiny "The rain is gone, the sun is back" lyrics. It's too bad the 8th grader that seemingly wrote all the bass lines couldn't make it to play this show, but his replacement did a good job of keeping up. The rest of the band were an energy black hole all night, standing and moping around with little to no stage presence. All except for the lead guitarist that is. He looked like he had bogarted all of the coffee back stage. Of course with these guys it was probably more like a soy chai low fat mocha espresso latte. Anyway, this lack of enthusiasm seemed to translate directly to the meager audience, who mostly sat still in the pews. Even the few "wild" ones that stood for the show stood still, maybe throwing a head bob in every now and then.

About hour in, I'd had enough. They started another song with ambient noise and I just couldn't take it anymore. I guess if I had gone to high school and broken up with my lab partner on the day before prom I might have been more into this band. It really did have a strong high school-y feel to it. Parents chaperoning, and little hug parties breaking out in the empty sections of the Church when the boppers would find their particular cliques. On my way out, I came across two guys who might have been, definitely looked like the Black Keys, ironically the last band I walked out on at the Ryman, telling the ticket taker they were "on the list". That was probably the most entertaining moment of my night.

John Spencer Blues Explosion

From one legend to another...

There are nights when I go to a show without a ticket and somehow luck my way in with the attitude of "if I don't get in, I'll just go home". Tonight was one of those shows where I went down, stood in line, and paid full price at the door to make sure that I got to see the show of the year, so far. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion was at Exit In and I have been holding back the excitement pee for over a couple of months to finally get to rock out with this band.

Another great thing about this night was getting to share it with my oldest sister Sally Kemp, and my dad Kenny Kemp. My sister and I went to see JSPX in the mid-to-late nineties at 328 so it was fun to get to see them again all these years later, along with my dad who everyone knows, is too cool. Anyway, we sat at the Gold Rush a little too long and miss the headliner's first song.

Upon arriving amidst the second song from JSBX, we were instantly pumped and sonically pleased. Jon was in pure form, growling and screeching into the distorted mic and incorporating his name into almost every song. I have been listening to these guys on my ipod all week and I still only recognized a couple of songs. "Attack" was fun to sing (scream) along with and "Bell Bottoms" was raucous as pancakes on a school day. Think about that.

All I can say is that Jon Spencer is a superhero of mine and it was great to see/meet him tonight at my favorite club. The Explosion has been around for close to 20 years now and their horseplay intimacy is unmatched. They take turns making up for the lack of bass and the drummer makes tons of noise on his minimalistic set. This was really one of the best shows of the year so far, it's gonna tough to beat.

Jeff Beck

Going into tonight's show, I knew about this much about Jeff Beck: He was in the Yardbirds, he's in the Hall of Fame twice, Pink Floyd was too intimidated to ask him to replace Syd Barrett, and every guitar player I respect has him in their top 3. It was cool to be at the Ryman and watch that many guitar heros watch their hero. Luckily, I had procured my ticket earlier in the week, not wanting to go through this again. There was no way I was going to miss this one.

I got in early enough to catch most of the opener, Tyler Bryan, who I'm pretty sure also opened for Heart. This time he was without his band, alone with just a guitar, and he did alright. He can really play guitar well, but his songwriting seems a little on the weak sauce side. He must have one helluva manager.

Jeff Beck came out and started the show much like a playoff hockey game, as soon as the puck dropped, it was on full force and wasn't letting up. I'm not familiar with his work enough to recognize any of his songs, but each one was unique and rocked with equal force. The band was super tight, featuring former Prince bassist Rhonda Smith, and Narada Michael Walden on drums. This rhythm section was both rowdy and funky, adding great dynamics to the songs, as well as providing the show's only lead vocals on covers "Rollin' and Tumblin'", "Little Wing", and Sly's "Higher". Jason Rebello added another dimension on the keys, providing something for Beck to bounce licks off of. Other moments of note were his personal takes on classic songs like "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and "A Day In The Life". Of course my favorite part came in the encore, when Beck paid tribute to his hero, Les Paul, with the only Strat-free number of the night.

Jeff Beck didn't say much during the show, but he didn't need to. He held a Nashville Ryman crowd, probably full of the harshest, holier than thou guitar players, in the palm of his hand and showed us all how it's done. I knew tonight that I was in the presence of a legend, one of the best guitar players ever. Clapton should be on the side of the stage changing this guys strings and swapping out guitars for him. Anyway, I'm really glad I got to see this show, and I can't wait to dive into the world of Jeff Beck.

Hayseed Dixie

Tonight I went to check out a band I had heard of in the past few years but never caught live. Hayseed Dixie was playing at my favorite venue, Exit In, and a couple hours at the Gold Rush put me in the perfect place for this show.

Hayseed Dixie is billed as a band that plays AC/DC songs in a bluegrass style. They sure did a lot of that, but they also played other hard rock standards, as well as a list of originals from a 10 year run. They started off with "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" and never took their foot off the throttle. They burned through other hits like "Highway To Hell" and "Hells Bells", as well as some all time classic rock greats. They switched from Queen's "Fat Bottom Girls" and "Bohemian Rhapsody", to Zep's "Black Dog", to Black Sabbath's "War Pigs", with even a little "Bad Moon Risin'" thrown in for the boomers.

For every classic cover they nailed perfectly, they had an original that was equal parts clever, smart, and musically capable. There was a song sung in all Dutch, and a few about past relationships, and they were all on par with any other bluegrass band in Nashville. They closed out the show with a rowdy version of "Dueling Banjos", which the banjo player's father allegedly wrote.

These guys were a lot of high energy, mixed with tons of talent. They were appreciative of the crowd response and seemed to love the same things I love, mainly making music and drinking beer. The novelty of this band was a lot of fun, but their overall musical ability blew me away.