You may or may not know about Daytrotter.com. And even if you do, you may or may not know that it’s basically a collective of people who run a small recording studio in Rock Island, Illinois, and who then stream the songs recorded there for free on their website (higher quality tunes can be downloaded for a charge). Mainly up and coming independent musical acts perform there on the way through their Midwest tours.
So what does this have to do with Michigan? Well, for the first time Daytrotter brought its Barnstormer tour (its fourth) to our state. Dexter to be exact. Or was it Chelsea? Neither and both, actually. The show took place on a farm on Island Lake Road halfway between the two Washtenaw County cities. The five acts (Keegan Dewitt, Guards, Romany Rye, Hellogoodbye and Sondre Lerche) played inside a cool (literally and figuratively) old barn. SOLD OUT, a Barnstormer first! Truly bringing the good stuff to the people in rural Michigan. Thanks, Daytrotter! Hope to see you again next time!
(Hellogoodbye (my favorite Barnstormer band) will play Michigan again later this summer on the Vans Warped Tour at Comerica Park in Detroit on Friday, July 8.)
The Autumn Defense (http://www.theautumndefense.com/); Acorn Theater (http://www.acorntheater.com/); Three Oaks, Michigan; Saturday, November 6, 2010
Photos by Melanie Hilliard and text by Jason Moritz
“Yeah, Pat and John are cool and everything, and I like their music and all, but can we go now?” Maybe one or both of Jeff Tweedy’s sons said that to Mom and/or Dad about halfway through the Autumn Defense’s set tonight. And maybe Mom and/or Dad gave in because the Tweedys were there by the first song but gone by the last. Or maybe by then they were all backstage? Or maybe they were heading westbound on I-94 back to Chicago? Don’t know. But I do know (all joking aside), IT’S PRETTY F’IN COOL THAT JEFF TWEEDY, HIS WIFE AND SONS CAME ABOUT 75 MILES (ONE-WAY) TO SEE AD’S FIRST SHOW ON THEIR TOUR TO SUPPORT “ONCE AROUND”! Pretty f’in cool.
The show? It was pretty f’in cool too. Mostly new stuff (Melanie’s favorite: the Byrdy “The Swallows of London Town”) with old mixed in too (Jason’s favorite: the R&B wah-wah of “Feel You Now”). I likened some parts of it to my buddy Erik next to me as “Country music minus the suck.” Other parts were more rockin’—Pat can sure play guitar. And keyboard too. John’s no slouch himself on the six-string. For Wilco fans, however, it still’s a bit weird to see the latter playing six rather than four. But a good weird.
Funny too, John. “Chianti down!” he jokes when an empty wine bottle loudly falls off the stage in front of him between songs. And John and Pat can both sing. Their harmonies are especially wonderful. These guys are good. Real good. Great even. Professionals who you can tell play together in another band. Their backing guys were great too— an extra guitarist, bassist and drummer held it down throughout. And they were all five having fun and very appreciative of the expressive (“You’re gonna do great on your tour!” yelled one happy woman between encore songs) capacity crowd of 250 in this former corset (yes, corset) factory. And maybe they didn’t even know that four of this 250, at one point, included the Family Tweedy—they did enter slyly after the lights had just dimmed. There and then gone. Like the Autumn Defense dropping out of the Acorn Theater on a cool November night in Three Oaks, Michigan.
Saturday, October 2, I attended a show at a Laurel Cayon house party. After an unnecessarily long wait for the keg, I ambled inside to catch whatever LA-bred music was happening. What I heard wasn’t exactly great, but it wasn’t exactly bad either. It was a hybrid of the Kings of Leon and something a little more aggressive. The sound couldn’t grab the attention of Bowie, but it could certainly sell records. The production was tight, the boys were fashionable and hot, and, most importantly, the band had conviction. Conviction, I mused whilst slugging a jug of Evan Williams, is what made them watchable. Maybe its a gross statement of the obvious but conviction, bravado, gusto, etc., are what make rock stars rock stars. Would the Stones have existed if Keith and Mick were camera-shy? Would Elton John be Elton John if he weren’t so…Elton John? I think not. To be cool on stage is to believe that you’re cool and own it. And own it these guys did. Despite familiar riffs and solos, their energy and personalities were enough to make me believe I’d stumbled unawares into the premiere underground gig of the week. I imagined seeing the Arcade Fire before they were the Arcade Fire, playing their little souls out to pubs and dives and offering their cultish followers this sense that everyone present was hip to something the public couldn’t touch. Whoever these dudes were in Laurel Canyon, they carried a similar confidence. “You got to see us before the cover of SPIN happened!” they seemed to scream with their hair tossing and thrash-dancing.
By the next day the party had already become a memory I sleep-walked through. My phone’s notepad displayed the word “seaspin” typed into its digital yellow surface but I couldn’t recall why. I Googled the word, expecting a memory cue to appear in the first link. Success! I was immediately brought to a Los Angeles band’s MySpace page – Seaspin. Unfortunately the vocalist for Seaspin is female and the fellow I saw singing was male. Then again, I don’t remember how I got home, nor how I woke up on the floor of our living room. If only I could turn you on to a new group with the same confidence that the party’s band hammered out. Alas, I cannot. But, by the grace of Evan Williams and the internets, I give you Seaspin – a Silversun Pickups-type ensemble that I’ve probably never seen before.
A Place to Bury Strangers @ The Strutt in Kalamazoo, 9/28/10
APTBS came onstage in K’zoo tonite like the nearby Detroit-bound Amtrak derailed and/or a truck on even closer Mich. Ave. crashed into the Strutt. And it pretty much stayed that way all set. Locals Crash City Saints also very good, great even w/ April’s vocals on the last 1. Just add drummer.
APTBS’ drummer? Dude earned his PBR tonite! To sum up & push the transportation similies 2 their utter limits, this 1 burned the ears like the flaming Chicago-bound Megabus I saw on I-94 on the way into the show.
*Hear the Unheard welcomes two new contributors this morning. Jason Moritz & Melanie Hilliard are Michigan residents and real smart people. They know music. They know art. They know a good show when they hear it. Welcome and enjoy!
Bang Ups and Surfer Blood on the Grand River at ArtPrize
9/25/10 Grand Rapids, Michigan
Photos by Melanie Hilliard & Text by Jason Moritz
ArtPrize is the public art contest that takes over downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, in late September until early October. Surfer Blood did the same early Saturday night with a free show on the city’s Rosa Parks Circle. To these Floridians, all the late-summer bugs in their stage lights “looked like snow.” If they only knew. Surfer Bloods’ warm, happy, sometimes Beachy Boy, sometimes Weezery sound charmed and almost readied us Michiganders for a sad, cold winter of the real stuff.
They said it was their “first show” in Grand Rapids and that they enjoyed the “positive response.” They also said they’d never seen anything quite like the ArtPrize and encouraged the crowd to enjoy their “artsy” weekend. Melanie, an ArtPrize artist herself, and I sure did, especially later at Plan B along the Grand River.
Did the Black Keys start out like this? A couple of kids, late one fall Saturday night, along the banks of the Ohio & Erie Canal in Akron, just a drum set and a guitar, performing to 50 or so nodding heads? Maybe. Regardless, that was the scene and the sound later Saturday night at ArtPrize for hometown boys the Bang Ups. Melanie and I caught the last half-hour or so of their set, and they rocked it. Enough said.
