Thanks to Rob's post in the upcoming gig thread, I learned of the Jandek show in Houston last Friday. It was my first time at the Lawndale Art Center and the show was in the main gallery. The walls where white with nothing on them and various Thelonious Monk tunes were playing on a overhead speaker system.

To the far right was a mixing board and several people manning laptops. There was a stationary video camera set up in the back of the room and a guy with a handheld camera lurking in the balcony.



They descended down a staircase onto the Gallery floor......the bass, drummer and keyboardist took their positions while Jandek, donned in black, looking like a distant cousin of Beaumont's very own, Winters Brothers, sat on a wooden thrown over on the side. The audience applauded after the first "song," but then there was no other clapping until Jandek and the band exited the stage. In between "songs," Jandek would go sit on his chair.



Two guys playing bass and drums and a younger looking female keyboard player. The drummer was doing all sorts of high-hat manipulation. At one point, the drummer separated the high-hat top & bottom as far apart as they would go, playing them with mallets. The bottom of the high-hat was wobbling like an empty bowl. The top half was removed and used to play/make contact with the other cymbals. Last but not least, one piece of the high-hat was turned at an angle and forcefully moved up and down the high-hat pole, the friction producing a very unique sound.



The first half of the show, Jandek walked around holding a clipboard with LED lights attached, reading/reciting and moaning the lyrics in the style of an open mic night as he paced the Gallery floor. At no time did it appear to me that anyone in the audience recognized what was being played.

Oh Thee Seas are fab live. the latest I've see was Dino Jr and the Melvins.

I would go see the Sleaford Mods but they aren't coming anywhere near me.

Saturday night, I took my wife and daughter to see, John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett at the Jefferson here in Beaumont. Just two chairs center stage with a few guitars......they took the stage at 8:05 and played until 10:30. Just two guys and their acoustic guitars. Well, John Hiatt did play some harmonica.

They started with a John Hiatt song and swapped until they ended with a Lyle Lovett song. They accompanied each other (guitar/singing) on about half of the songs......lots of story telling and jokes in between songs. John Hiatt telling about being in the recording studio with Iggy Pop when he recorded Hiatt's, Something Wild. Also, Lyle Lovett had a ton of family and friends who made the drive over from the Klein and Conroe area.

For the second time in 2017, I saw JANDEK in Houston. Last nights performance was at Hamman Hall on the Campus of Rice University.



Sheila was the drummer and twice she and JANDEK switched places......this was the first time for me to see Jandek play drums.
The song structure for the night was as floolws:

Jandek 3
Sheila 2
Jandek 3
Sheila 2
Jandek 3




Two members of Jandeks backing band are in the Houston band, Dollie Barnes. After the Jandek show, I was invited to another Willie's Bar (basement bar in building on Rice campus). The Dollie Barnes were playing and Jandek showed up to watch. Even in normal lighting, Jandek appears just has ghostly as he does on stage.

was that Sheila E.? Sorry, I've never listened to Jandek, but now listening on Youtube, it's not bad at all. One of the comments read "Shit, he tuned his guitar!":-)
he sounds a bit like Bill Callahan / Smog to me so I should listen more

I saw the Flaming Lips last week after thinking I wasn't going to see them and then having stuff just kind of work out.

What was it like? It was glittery and Wayne Coyne rode a unicorn right in front of where my friends and I were standing.

The highlight of the evening for me was "What is the Light?" They did not play "The Gash," and of all the times I've seen them I think they've only done so once. Goddammit. I hate that. It's clearly and obviously one of their best songs.

Great show. Little wild for me at this point. Opening band played some crap garage glam stuff and I went and had a piss.

Glad I went. Short set, really. Good thing since I worked the next morning.

The first time I saw Jandek was around the time he first started playing live shows, so back in like 2005 or 2006. He sat there and literally strummed the same chord for an hour, it put me off seeing him again or checking out his new music for like 10 years. Then a year or two ago I thought I should try again, this time he was billed as playing with a band. It was one of the most upbeat, weird, fun and groovy shows I've been to. It made me feel like an idiot for ignoring him for so long, but also delighted that i got to see something so strange and magical.

Saw Last Train yesterday in Rennes and they rocked!
They're a a regular built unit (2 guitars, 1 bass, 1 drums) from Mulhouse.
They're in their early 20s and they look sure to be promised a future, at least in France, where they've opened for Placebo, and are due to open for Marilyn Manson. Playing before bigger names will draw attention upon them, plus they're not afraid of touring. Got to go see them now before they become too big to play in nice (small) venues.
They've just recorded their first album and are yet able to play an 80 minutes live show.
Impressive, if not innovative.

R. Ring (Kelley Deal and Mike Montgomery) and Split Single on Thursday.

Great show.

Spit Single is Jason Narducy's (former Verbow leader, bass for Bob Mould, occasional bass for Superchunk) newest project. They are two albums in and if you're into Bob Mould's last three records, you'd like Split Single.

R. Ring have released sporadic singles over the last few years and just put out their first lp. I'm enjoying it.

I saw les Wampas yesterday in Saint-Brieuc, at la Citrouille (= the Pumpkin).

The Wampas are a French band brought to life in 1983 near Paris. They belonged to a punkish scene under the influence of the Clash and rather joyous music (La Mano Negra, les Satellites, les Négresses Vertes...).
Unlike most of their pears they didn't disappear. Guitarist-singer Didier Wampas always kept his job working for the French railway systems. He never wanted to quit it all to try to live from his music once he got an audience. Most of his pears did the opposite choice and have vanished.
The gig gathered lots of people for the venue, from about 8 year-olds to guys over 50. Didier Wampas trusts his audience so much it was jawdropping. The mood in the pit was great, people protected the kids from the dancers who seldom came in their area.
And, apart from the texts, which seem to be the main asset of the band (they sang their tune about Manu Chao, one of their pears with La Mano Negra, who rose; the song goes about what they'd do had they had the money Manu Chao'd gotten), they rock too.
They've got a young guitar player among them. He joined in 2014 and he was awesome.
A very good night in a venue that might pull the curtain.

Thee Oh Sees were a disappointment. They play their old songs as if the desire to destroy whatever fine and fluent was in them. It's way too fast and brutal for my tastes.
An exception : The Dream, which had something extra.

I saw Moon Hooch yesterday.
They're a two sax one drums band, and play an instrumental music. They were great, and the audience reaction to their music seemed to please them.

Bertrand, have you ever heard of Oiseaux-Tempête? If you ever have a chance, go see them. That is if you like post-rock like the acts on Constellation Records (Godspeed Yo Black Emperor, etc)
I was in Paris for work a couple of weeks ago, and the meeting was ended way earlier than I had expected, so I checked the internet for what was going on tonight an this band was playing at the Trabendo. All I read from their site was:
1. post-rock
2. G.W. Sok

And that was reason enough for me to try them out. And I'm glad I went, they blew me away. Not continuously, but some songs were truly brilliant. They are a French band, and they don't play that much I guess live, and don't play outside of France that much either. So chances are slim that I may see them soon. But I do hope I will, especially if Mr Sok is joining them again.
Oh and their current lineup features Mondkopf, so the sound is like a mix between Constellation Records and Nine Inch Nails. I guess because I don't really know how NIN sounds. Maybe Ministry then ;-)
And to make it even more special, the band also features two musicians from Beirut on traditional instruments.

Because this was a last moment decision, I didn't bring my recording gear with me, which I now really regret. I still have one of their songs on my head and I don't think it's on any of their albums and it drives me nuts because I want to hear it again.

I did not know them but I'll keep an eye open. Listened to them on Youtube, them bringing in influences from different places makes them worth the while indeed.
Thanks!

Lasti night local bands Sumuru and NOKU with tons of beer. Great stuff.

Sumuru was sort of postpunk/-hardcore-ish melodic noiserock and Noku more heavier straightforward noisy guitar screech.

A la amrep/touch and go.

Neither of them had I heard much before so I was positively surprised.

https://noku.bandcamp.com
https://sumuru.bandcamp.com

I have to brag about a wild party I attended last weekend where Loren Connors performed with poet Steve Dalachinsky, Daniel Carter and Charles Waters performed with Steve and poet Yuko Otomo and Edgar Oliver performed with the Octave Doctors. And thanks to the L train still running I even got home before 12...

Its gonna be awhile before I outdo that one, although if Wet Tuna play with One-Eleven Heavy next month that might do it.

I saw Tool. They were... OK? There weren't really any surprises throughout the show, and it felt like they were just going through the same old routine. They sounded pretty much exactly like their albums--which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when I go to a show I like to see at least a little improvisation and spur-of-the-moment interactions between the band members and the crowd. This felt pretty cold and lifeless and they might as well have just put on a Best Of album and walked off the stage. This might have something to do with them playing in arena, but it's hard to tell.

They're past their prime, I'd say.

Did Maynard Keenan wear dress blues and give a speech about how complainy "snowflakes" are? Cuz that's what he did that a couple weeks ago — around Memorial Day I guess. Really kind of shocked me. I haven't been a Tool fan since high school, but I still thought they had their heads on relatively straight.

Still, I saw them a few times back in the day ('97 and '01 and I think one other time) and they never really disappointed as a live band. But they were also touring behind new albums during those shows, specifically Ænima and Lateralus, so there was at least SOME freshness to what they were performing. I can't imagine what a Tool show would look like in 2017, a decade after their last miserable album. Just playing the same shit, same shit, same shit. No alarms, no surprises.

I saw Oiseaux-Tempête again, already two weeks ago now. This time it was in Brussels at a very nice venue I had never heard of before. The band was on fire again, but this time their two Arabic guest musicians were not there, so the sound was less rich. Don't know how else to explain that.
But Mr Sok was there again and delivered some splendid performances. And the bass player is a joy to watch play live, and the rest of them too btw.

Pretty much. Maynard didn't do much of anything the whole show, just kinda hid in the shadows. Which is his shtick, apparently. I probably would have enjoyed the show more if I was still in high school, or maybe stoned out of my mind, but I've definitely lost my enthusiasm for these guys at this point.

Maybe that's the reason bands like Swans can still stay vital after so many years--they just refuse to play the same old shit.

That, and, Swans is the band that Tool wishes it could be. You look at their whole approach to music, parts of their sound, their image, and they are extremely indebted to Swans in just about every way. Except Swans has, like you said, never settled, not even with their familiar material. It's always shifting and changing. Tool fucking wishes they had the stamina and curiosity of those wonderful old geriatric bastards.

I think I pretty much stopped caring about Tool when I got into Swans because I was like, "Ah, so this is what it's supposed to be like, without the 120 minutes/nu-metal flourishes, and with a thousand times more musical variation and texture."

Tool put on a good show in their prime, surrounded by other bands that wanted to be Swans but probably didn't even realize that's what they wanted at the time... but in the grand scheme of things, they're kinda nothing.

And yeah, Maynard's always been a shadow lurker. At least he had when I've seen them. It's been frustrating. But I've been super stoned every time I've seen them, so I've found plenty to take my mind off the fetal mohawked weirdo wandering around the stage like Golem.

Zeena Parkins (electric harp) Devin Hoff (bass) Michael TA Thompson (drums) August 4

at the Stone, as mindstopping and earnumbing as one would expect with these 3 talents. Thompson is one of my favorite drummers around NYC, but usually I see him with what I would call without irony free jazz ensembles. Devon Hoff I know from his earlier bass work with Nels Cline and that group of LA musicians. Parkins I've seen a bunch of times since the 80's and she just shreds on the electric harp using it make some serious sonic fuckery. I wish I had a good recording of this, about 10 mins into it Hoff created a huge and devastating bassline on his standup that Zeena's harp slipped into and around creating a novel sound that that really excited my ears in a way I haven't experienced in a while - Michael TA smoothly moving the set along with his exquisite percussion, just about as perfect as avant garde could get.

I saw Parkins in 1989. Hated it enough to never investigate again. I'm still convinced that was the right decision. There were certain things I saw at that time that I definitely wasn't ready for, Peter brotzmann among them, but I think I was plenty ready for her. And it wasn't good.

Perhaps I was unfair, because I thought her stage presence was pretty irritating and could have actually Eclipsed whatever she was doing on the harp but I'm comfortable enough not listening to that music anymore. Even if I'm missing out on something good occasionally, there's plenty of other good stuff in the world. And she obviously has an audience.

Tricot in Cardiff on Tuesday.

First band I've seen three times - same venue, same time last year, plus at Arctangent festival a couple of weeks ago and then again this week. Did not disappoint. Loads of energy, so nice to hear some math-tinged guitar music that isn't made by identikit white boys being twee in 7/4. Lead guitarist is outrageously good, possibly the best clean player I've ever seen, worth the price of entry alone, but whole band are tight as fuck. Probably my favourite band at the moment. Vocalist has a Beatles Revolver guitar strap, which shows how they think they sound - proper, classic songwriting, just with modern gear and technique, same craft but without the retro-fetishisation. New album is great too. Check em out.

is this them? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6rxGmvQPLU
You didn't mention that they were A: Japanese and B: mostly female :)
Not really my type of music but I'll keep an eye if they play anywhere near me

It is indeed them, and yes they are Japanese and female and all rather lovely :) I don't normally go for that sort of math rock-y, intricate sort of music either (more of an early Stooges man normally) but I've kind of fallen in love with them, the songs are just too good. Gig was £8, so should be pretty affordable if they do show up nearby!

rafael toral was AMAZING. he played as a duo with drum guru ryan jewell. ryan used to live in town. he uses all kinds of stuff to compliment his drumming like a violin bow and toys. toral is a nice guy. i only had $5 bux on me and he let me buy a cd with my promise to paypal the rest.

there was a duo from florida called 'time'. the more stuff they set up the more baffled i become as to what it would sound like. this weird reflective dome thing, fog machine, laser light show, then they put on big prism helmets. it ended up being electronic dance music. they did these choreographed dance moves for a few minutes, then took the helmets off and did two part harmony. they had this epic song that had a conch shell section.

my friend had the first performance of his new band. it's all improvised. he plays guitar with lots of effects. another dude had a harp into a multi fx box and a synthesizer. and a third dude played with just a tom and cymbal that made a surprising variety of sounds.

great show.

Went to see Nick Cave at the MEN arena. I'd be cautious about how good it could be in a place that big, but honestly, it's one of the best gigs ever. And only the second gig I've ever cried at. Incredible experience

Was it a particular song that elicited tears? Or something else?

It was Jubilee Street. He had gone from From Her To Eternity, to Tupelo, then Jubilee Street and it got a tad overwhelming:D

The build up for Jubilee Street is incredible anyway. Then when it kicked in Nick kept repeating the line "I'm transforming, I'm vibrating, I'm glowing" and it just got to me. He actually took himself off stage for a coupla minutes after it so I wouldn't be surprised if he was the same.

If anyone is curious, the other gig was Bruce #dadrockla'

Saw !!! (chk chk chk) in Houston Saturday. fucking awesome. fucking AWESOME. I ahd been waiting for 17 years for !!! to play anywhere near HOuston. This was their first time. small crowd, but FUCK if the band did not bring it like it was armageddon.\

What was the other one?

he said Bruce, the Boss

Fair play.

Jeez, SL!

I met Zeena Parkins a few years ago, talked to her for about 15 minutes about various bands she'd played in. Real nice person, and also really attractive. She was with Fred Frith and Icky Mori, they're also really nice. I interrupted their lunch and they were nothing but gracious and cool folks.

Rob, is the White Oak Music Hall Lawn a place worth seeing a show?

Went to the Mercury Lounge last night and saw PG Six and Dead Horses.

PG Six, formerly of the legendary Tower Recordings, is playing solo now and he had his huge wooden harp and played about 2/3 of the set on harp and 1/3 on electric guitar, lots of PG Six favorites including Old Man of the Mountain. I first saw Pat play solo in 2000 at Tonic and the growth and confidence of his playing is apparent.
Dead Horses, from Wisconsin, surprised me, they come out of a kind of country and bluegrass influence but aren't genre-bound. The singer has a kind of country twang, but they use a stand up acoustic bass which sounded great, and the guitarist switched from mandolin through guitar was a very strong player, solid drumming carried the songs forward without being overwhelming. Very strong and fully realized songwriting... I picked up a single on the way out...

I think it is. I have NOT seen a show outdoors in the large stage venue. I have seen Dinosaur JR and !!! and several other bands in the "downstairs" area, which is real nice, the sound system is fucking awesome the batrhrooms clean AF and the bartenders were excellent. They even comped me sodas and juice because they are not idiots like the fucks at House of Blues who charge $3.75 for 6 oz of coke in a tiny glass, fuckers.

Boris with Sumac & Endon openers. Boris had their moments, but overall, not as concise as the openers. Sumac had some great moments, Endon had the most magic of the night, iMo.

Yeah, I have seen pics of the interior as well, and that does look like a really cool place to see a show. I was considering coming down next weekend to visit family, and Primus is playing while I would be there. I certainly prefer seeing them indoors as opposed to outdoors though, and was questioning that location. Seeing you mention the sound system specifically does make me a bit more optimistic, considering I would imagine systems of the two stages would be comparable. And if Dinosaur's bass-heavy, loud live assault sounded good with it, I would think Primus's will as well. Appreciated.

I finally got to see Sun Kil Moon live and really liked it.
It was yesterday, in Paris. Mark Kozelek didn't feel too well for the first songs (that's about 45 minutes) and complained about the way the bass was mixed. When it got solved out, he kinda apologized, saying he was 50 and fearing a heart attack with the stage vibrating with the bass, also saying touring meant one-night stays at hotels they had never heard of and in which noone could sleep well...
When his mood improved it felt really good til the end of the show (about 2 hours 30 minutes).
Guitar, bass, piano, drums, and him occasionnally on guitar.
Stuff out of his latest album with Ben Boye (on piano yesterday) and Jim White, and brand new stuff written after a show earlier this month in Warsaw.
This being said, I don't know their output too well (2 albums and that's it).
Many people left during the show, which was strange and super, as I don't like crowds.