Erin McKeown 6/30/19 mActivity

Final show of the spring concert series at mActivity had singer songwriter McKeown. Haven't seen her in many Newport Folkfests, Erin has made a wide and varied career. In 2018, Erin released the soundtrack to her musical Miss You Like Hell about an undocumented mother reconnecting with her daughter while traveling across the US. The opening tune was an acapella rendering of Mirrors Break Back. Good versions of Aspera, To The Stars, and The Queer Gospel. Erin gave props to being the last day of Pride month, but was quick to point out as a lesbian, every day is pride day. Good version of The Mountain Goats, Jenny. One of my favorites is Blackbirds, a bluesy start stop number that she has been playing for years. Whether on guitar or organ, Erin is a seasoned artist who has honed her talents over the past twenty years.

Bombadil 6/24/19 Cafe 9

Bombadil is a trio of young men from Durham ( one syllable, like Derm). Drums, bass/keys, and guitar was their configuration. The interesting component was that they all sang, all the time, on all songs. While the bass player seemed to sing lead on most tunes, the other guys were capable of taking the helm, contributing to harmonies, and adding nice vocal effects. The sound reminded me of the 70s, not quite the Beach Boys or America, but an old familiar jean jacket of a sound. A perfect cover came in the form of The Left Banke's 70s hit Walk Away Renee. A woman in front of me turned and said " they were adorable". While that wasn't the praise line these three were hoping for, they did have an easy going style that put them in a recent Relix " bands to watch" article.

Tanya Tagaq 6/20/19 College Street Music Hall

One of the few interesting performances associated with the unfortunately emaciated International Festival of Arts and Ideas. Tanya Tagaq is an Inuit avant garde vocal improviser, which must be a lonely category. Joined by drummer ( and pocket trumpeter) Jean Martin, Jesse Zubot on electric violin and synths, and Christine Duncan on vocals, synths and theremin, the group forged an hour of challenging improvised music. Tagaq's performances allege themes of environmentalism, human rights, and post colonial issues of indigenous peoples. I read that she accepted an award while standing in front of a video feed of thousands of  names of women "disappeared" by colonial intruders. Wordless vocalizations took the form of huffing, whinnying, child-like squiggles, and an unnerving exorcist rasp. Tagaq is a true performance artist as she prowled and pantomimed in conjunction with her sounds. In the improvised jazz realm, it seems that interplay, soloing, and return to a common theme is the modus operandi. In this setting, Tagaq was central, and the other musicians had to cue off her sounds. At one point, violin and tribal drumming seemed the perfect backdrop. Tanya must be exhausted at the end of a set due to the continual full body contact of her art. I was interested to see the cue to stop and it turned out to be a sigh ( which was not heard previously), as if she was saying " damn, I made it through another performance!"

Nadah El Shazly, Reduction Plan, Stefan Christenson 6/6/19 State House

The deal with the State House is that the music starts approximately one hour after they list on the website. With this in mind, one can navigate the start times of the main act. On this evening I saw all three performances. Stefan Christenson is a local knob twiddler who is part of the incestuos noise avant rock scene that includes The Mountain Movers, Headroom et. al. A lefty guitarist, SC creates noisy static-laden loops with some kind of an old lo-fi noise box then layers guitar shards over them. Occasional lyrics reminded me of the simplicity of Madcap Laughs-era Syd Barrett.
SC was joined on stage by Alexander ( aka David Shapiro) on guitar and drummer to get noisier and call themselves the Reduction Plan. A power trio of sorts, RP played one extended song sequence that showcased dueling guitars and drums.
Nadah El Shazly is an Egyptian (Cairo to be specific) electronic sound artist. I have seen her posted on some great international festivals like Le Guess Who. She played a modified keyboard with synth board and sang in her native tongue. She was joined by a young man on sax and Shayna Dulberger on standup bass. The sounds were modern and exotic, NES coaxed some middle eastern sounds from the synths. Dulberger was half the size of her instrument but was able to fling it around with ease. The sax man was understated, rhythm sax if you will, but offered good shading to the sounds. NES's 2017 release was produced by Montreal electronic wizard Sam Shalabi. Decent crowd on hand to welcome this globe-trotting artist.

Brian Krock's LIDDLE 5/31/19 Firehouse 12

Final event of the Firehouse spring set had Krock on sax and clarinet, Olli Hirvonen on guitar, Marty Kenney on bass, and Nathan Ellman-Bell on drums.  A full sound with Krock's explorations out front. It was amazing to see the other three move from traditional jazz backing to a churning prog-metal canvas to accept the sax and clarinet work. Hirvonen was great and would be interested to see him in other contexts. The clarinet veered from snake-charmer to bandsaw mode. A couple tunes had titles based on James Joyce references, and Krock told a story about meeting modern classical composer Elliot Carter at his 103rd birthday party. Krock gave a shout out for his other band, Big Heart Machine which alleges to be some sort of prog-metal big band.