30th December 2009

Photo with 4 notes

(I need to actually start taking pictures at these shows, because stealing photos off the internet is really pretty lame.)

tUnE-yArDs at The Stone - 12/23/09

Last week I went down to the Stone in the East Village to check out Merril Garbus - tUnE-yArDs.  You might remember the write-up I did of her a while back, and if you don’t, just know that I thought her recent record, BiRd-BrAiNs, was awesome.

First, the Stone is pretty hip.  As soon as I walked in, I felt like I might have been too much of a thug to really hang, but then again, I guess I was wearing as much flannel as required, so I think I passed.  The place was small, apparently a capacity of about 80 people, and it seemed pretty much like it was just some rich dude’s basement.  So, that was cool.  There were chairs lined up, and the stage was at floor-level, and people seemed pretty well-behaved.  Though at first I thought I might’ve been uncomfortable there, I think I really got into it, because it was really just set up for people to be able to focus on the show, with no distractions.

I did a bit of research (I went to their website), and found out some interesting info about the venue as well.  First, the artistic director is John Zorn.  That’s fucking cool.  Next, read this:

The Stone is a not-for-profit performance space dedicated to the EXPERIMENTAL and AVANT-GARDE.

All expenses are paid for by the MUSIC itself - through the online sale of special Limited Edition CDs released yearly on the Tzadik label. Each month a different musician is responsible for curating the programs with 100% of the nightly revenue going directly to the musicians.

It’s always cool to find a group of people who are into music.  Too much of the scene is about selling shirts, drinks, or being cool.  The Stone is different.  So, thumbs up there.

Before tUnE-yArDs went on, her sister, Ruth Garbus, performed.  Thanks to Metro-North, I arrived late, a bit of the way into her set.  But that’s alright, because what I saw was still good.  In contrast to her sister, Ruth Garbus has more of a straightforward, indie-folk style in her music.  Solo, clean, finger-picked electric guitar, with a floating, dreamy feel to it.  Her voice sounds almost identical to her sister’s, but with a more whispered approach.  Not usually my thing, but in a darkened space like the Stone, with all sorts of curtains hanging on the walls, it ended up creating a really cool effect, like we were all hiding in a fort made out of chairs and blankets, holding up a flashlight to the performer.

After Ruth Garbus finished, I noticed something perhaps unique to the Stone: the bathroom is basically on stage.  The performers set up in between two doors; one is the “backstage” area, and the other is the restroom.  So, once Ruth finished, a line developed, because everyone had to wait until the set was over, so as not to make it obvious and uncomfortable that they were standing four feet away from the performer, staring at them, because they had to pee.  Or poop.

Even more attention was drawn to this when Merrill came out to much applause, only to announce that she was actually going to the bathroom.  When she came out, she joked that if she’d made a smelly, we’d all know about it.  My friend Adam and I were more concerned about what would’ve happened if she spent like, a half hour in there.  Or if she had a stroke, like Elvis.  Awkward…

But finally, on to her performance.  She spent her set-up time kind of pottering around, making whale noises.  I got the idea that she was just slightly strange.  In a good way.

Though I’d seen some videos of her performing, I’d wondered if she would be able to really recreate the wide array of sounds found on her record in person, using only a couple of drums, a ukulele, her voice, and some looping pedals. Much of BiRd-BrAiNs includes found audio - things like power-tools, conversations with children - things that would be hard to capture in a live performance.

While she did noticeably steer clear of certain tracks from the record, she did much stranger stuff.  She included stream-of-consciousness poetry, Native American chanting, and some of her uke stuff was downright Voidoidsy.  If you’ve listened to her record, most of the songs from the record were quite faithful to the recordings … or, rather, the recordings were quite faithful to the original performance … but some of the more bass-heavy cuts, like Real Live Flesh and Sunlight were left out, I believe both because the guy who plays bass with her was absent, and because they might not have been strange enough.  I would’ve loved to see those performed, but I suppose I can’t complain about what I imagined to be her reasoning for leaving them out.

She was a captivating performer, and throughout much of the set, she’d have an intense look in her eyes.  And while much of her music can be intense, it really has the effect of creating a good mood, while so much other music of the same intensity can come off as just scary to a lot of people.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever grow tired of seeing her create the effect of an entire band using just a couple of microphones, a couple of drums, a ukulele, and loop pedal.  It’s really fascinating.

Tagged: getting into a serious thing