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Great American Music Hall June 6, 2001 Review by Squid If it weren't for the applause, we might not have even noticed that Howe Gelb had hit the stage. He's that stealth. Crossing the barely lit stage, he flipped thru a stack of cds and chose Miles Davis for the lone Discman in his sparse set-up. Turning his chair toward the audience, he leaned in and beamed expectantly. Several beats of silence followed. Nervous giggles bubbled up from a few fans in the front row. Then, jazz backdrop in place, Gelb simply started addressing the audience like some offbeat cross between Ken Nordine and Spalding Gray. He fielded questions about various issues, missing a beat only when one enthusiastic fan momentarily blinded him with a camera flash. Thus it went for a good fifteen minutes...or it was it an hour? Honestly, Gelb's voice, which hypnotically slides across the spectrum between Leonard Cohen and Lou Reed, could've carried on with no objection from the audience. Known to most as the founder of Giant Sand, Gelb is a grassroots philosopher with a beautifully expansive vocabulary and wit to spare. (Attributes severely scarce in the pop music community with the exception of say David Berman or John Darnielle.) Several turns of topic in, environmental consciousness moved to the forefront of conversation. Here Gelb shared his theory that the ozone layer was most certainly being depleted by the amount of new music hovering in the atmosphere. "There are too many original songs out there already", he whispered conspiratorially, "it's time to recycle". This was the lead-in to what he described as a rock opera, actually a ring of cover songs that will apparently be released some time in the near future. We're not well versed enough in the Howe oeuvre to name each of his choices, but the three that we caught were Neil Young's, 'Out on the Weekend', (which made Daz happy), Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man', (which made Squid happy), and Kris Kristofferson's 'The Pilgrim: Chapter 33', (which made Brad insane, because he wasn't there to hear it). It was clear that this seemingly off-the-cuff performance was in fact a clever mix of elements both planned and extemporary. This became comically obvious at one point when Gelb appeared to be intently tuning a guitar by playing scales. He put the guitar down and turned to the piano, but the scales continued. Daz, Lauren and Squid were seated at the back of the room and had a great view of the joke slowly spreading from table to table until the entire place was cracking up. "I wish there we had couches to sit on", mused Lauren, "this is so intimate". Indeed, this show, which had a smaller than expected turnout due to the sold-out Tortoise gig over at the Fillmore, felt more like someone’s living room than The GAMH. This has everything to do with the fact that Gelb isn’t solely a musician; he is a performer in total. Only a storyteller of his ability could command an audience for two hours with a loose script, a cd player, a piano, and a guitar. (There may have been a DAT up there, too, but you get the point.) Someone asked Squid about this show the other day, and without even thinking about it, she instantly replied, "Easily one of the top five shows of the year." For a little of what you missed, pick up Gelb’s solo effort "Confluence". Also available on Gelb’s website is "Down Home 2000", a rare collection of songs that didn’t make it onto the album. This noisy, abstract compilation sounds like a young Chris Knox stranded in the Arizona desert. Intellectual southwestern cacophony at it’s finest, that’s Howe Gelb. We’ve seen John Vanderslice a few times, most recently at Noise Pop. Squid knew she needed to listen closely coz her pal MC Taylor from The Court and Spark has been raving about his new album night and day. The former MK Ultra guitarist played selections from his upcoming album "Time Travel Is Lonely" including the lovely ‘My Old Flame’. The thing that caught our attention most was the crazy headless "bass" that one member of his band was playing. Okay, maybe it just looked like a bass; coz the guy was playing chords with both hands on opposite ends of the thing. Trippy. Vanderslice, it should be noted, is a bit of a recording renaissance man as he also operates Tiny Telephone Recording in the Mission. Check out his MP3s when you have a moment. Daz first saw M. Ward with his band Rodriguez at a Devil in the Woods showcase. She bought their album, "Swing Like a Metronome" which was produced by Jason Lytle, and really dug it. Coincidentally the first time Squid heard of Rodriguez was when Grandaddy covered Ward’s beautiful 'Fishing Boat Song'. Unfortunately, the GAMH arbitrarily started the show early, and we completely missed his set. It was pretty ridiculous. We can do no better, then, to encourage you to pick up his "Duet for Guitars #2". Ward has a sweet, beautiful voice that you really need to hear. |