William Kentridge "The Refusal Of Time" ICA Boston, 2/22/14

Conceptual artist Kentridge from South Africa has his Refusal of Time installation at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. A five channel video and audio project is very difficult to describe. A 30 minute project takes place in a room with a central "breathing machine", a large wooden metronome that pumps during the installation. All four walls have processional video comprised of black and white clips of dancers, sound comes through megaphones aimed at chairs in various locations in the room. Some video clips have torn paper mosaics arranged by Kentridge that are blown apart in slow motion. The soundtrack is a mixture of horns and tribal songs depicting South Africa. Unlike anything I've ever seen.

Cibo Matto 2/7/14 Spaceland Ballroom

Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori, the asian hiphop duo that are Cibo Matto, are kind of an enigma. A cult classic in the late nineties (Viva! La Woman), multiple name-checks by the Beastie Boys and Handsome Boy Modeling School, odd appearances on tribute albums (KCRWs sounds eclectic, Concert for Tibet et. al.), these ladies are free spirits. I knew I was in for a treat when I found myself standing next to Chris Frantz (Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club drummer). The crowd was appreciative of CMs return to the scene after a decade hiatus. Opening with the classic Sugar Water, playing some material from their new Hotel Valentine release, these musical chameleons are comfortable in hiphop, soul, and pop-punk. I dare you to put on your most sincere (or maybe cheesiest) asian accent and recite their lyric "Obi-wan Kenobi told me in the lobby" from Sci-Fi Wasabi and try not to smile.

Greensky Bluegrass 1/29/14 Toads

Medium turnout for "casual wednesday" show at Toads. It's amazing how many performers name check the Rolling Stones surprise show in 1986. I chuckle, because aside from maybe a bartender or "turban man", I am probably the only one in attendance who was actually at that show. Greensky Bluegrass was made up of banjo, mandolin, bass, guitar, and national steel standup slide guitar. Kind of a Yonder Mountain String Band plus one. These guys were capable, and have been around for 7 or 8 releases. It was a head-scratcher to enter the club at 10pm and be in my car at 11pm after they finished ,including one encore. Bluegrass bands are notorious for longer sets. Nice reggae intro to Mr. Charlie, a hoe down of a Midnight Rider, and a sweet Sittin On Top Of the World were not enough to outweigh the brevity of the set. Even the aging Glimmer Twins played longer and only charged me $3.01 to get in.