Z3 4/19/16 Pacific Standard Tavern

The good thing about the short, sweet set at Cafe 9 by the Boogarins, it allowed time to catch the end of Z3 at PST. Z3 is the trio of Tim Palmieri on guitar, Bill Carbone on drums, and Beau Sasser on keys, playing the music of Frank Zappa in a  hippie-electronica style. Entered the venue to the strains of Stinkfoot, some tunes I couldn't place ( which is something for a self-professed Zappa-Phile). The show ended with an exrendo jam of Wet Tshirt Thang. Tim is a New Haven troubadour, who also plays solo and in Kung Fu. I'm sure he could play the phone book, but don't tell him or next outing might be complete with The Phone Book Improv Project.

Boogarins 4/19/16 Cafe 9

Short but sweet set from Brazilian psychedelic purveyors, Boogarins. Two guitars, bass, and drums were augmented by a flurry of echo, delay, fuzz, wah, and occasional feedback. Think of Os Mutantes crossed with San Francisco's Wooden Shjips and you are in the Boogarin's ballpark. Songs were sung in Portugese, but most had guitar flourished psychedelia freakouts as a jump off point. One guitarist had such a Hendrix complex, he even had the trademark hair. Boogarins are like a Brazilian Tame Impala, and will do well if they stay in the US for some festivals.

Los Cafeteras w/ Jose Oyola 4/14/16 Cafe 9

Entered to local hero Jose Oyola on guitar, vocals, and hair on stage with flautist Dylan (I think I made this kid's day by telling him he sounded like Gil Scot-Heron's flautist Brian Jackson). Jose, from Puerto Rico sings heartfelt original tunes and is usually backed by the Astronauts, a large group of local musicians. Jose has signature hair, a multi-hued large tangle of controlled frazzle-ness that adds effect to his stage presence.
I saw Los Cafeteras a year or two ago at Wesleyan. The show was intended for an outdoor setting but moved to Crowell Hall due to threat of rain. I remember thinking that this band would be better served outside or in a smaller club. The set list hadn't changed much, but the band member count was the same. Two female vocalist/percussionists, two male guitarro-ists who sang and rapped, two other guitarro-ists, and drummer. From Mexico via East LA, this group brings a ton of energy. Cumbia,Ring of Fire, This Land is Your Land (with rap intro). Highlighting call and response and audience participation, LC gives a little Latin to a mostly white audience. At one point, they called people on stage to ask "what would they do if elected president?" Show highlight was the rap socially conscious anthem listing a snapshot of minority citizens who have inexplicably died at the hands of law enforcement: I'm  Michael Brown I didn't DO nothing wrong, I'm Eric Garner I didn't DO nothing wrong, I'm Sandra Bland I didn't DO nothing wrong, chilling lyrics from this woe-fully under-recorded band. Spoke with rapper Daniel who said a recording will be out late summer. Guitarro army indeed.

OGJB Quartet 4/8/16 Firehouse 12

OGJB is a jazz quartet helmed by sax titan Oliver Lake. At 74, Lake is one of the rare free blowing players connected to the birth of modern jazz. Graham Haynes, son of Roy, played cornet and ngoni (an unusual African stringed instrument that resembled a gourd attached to a clothesline pole). Joe Fonda played standup bass, bowing and plucking with his face in a constant state of smelling something foul. Barry Altschul played drums, a standard kit that put down the backdrop for the others. The set started with some spoken word from Lake, who is an accomplished poet. I have seen Haynes at this venue before, his jazz, Afro-futuristic forays into hiphop with Steve Coleman in the 90s were great. On this evening, Haynes with graying beard and hair, looked as if he just came off the set from a Frederick Douglass biopic. Lake and Haynes traded sqiuggles and blasts summoning the spirits of Ayler and Pharoah Sanders.

Robyn Hitchcock w/ Emma Swift 3/25/16 Cafe 9

A few months ago, I told everyone with an ear to mark their calendars and buy advance tickets for Robyn Hitchcock. I was shocked when the show was listed as "sold out", a few days later, leaving me on the outside for a show I hyped. One friend bought a ticket, and was listed on will call. We decided to try to weasel entry for two. At the door, we tried our best "who's on first", and were told to wait while the purchase was verified. After a few minutes of blending into the crowd, success. (I'm chalking this up to a karma balance against the unscrupulous but somewhat hapless promoter who has been known to rip off local legends and opener for the Rolling Stones, Sons of Bob, but that's a story for another time). I am certainly glad I gained entry, for RH is a brit folkie psychedelic force of nature. The evening started with Emma Swift, a young Aussie who now resides in Nashville. Her twangy folk songs were nicely delivered, even covering a Lucinda Williams tune. She stepped off and made way for RH. Setlist included "She Was Vibrating", "I Often Dream of Trains", and the beautiful "Ghost in You". While the music was fantastic, the inter-song banter was amazing. Think of Syd Robin Williams Barrett and you're close. At one point, RH launched in to his own radio show program using both mics for different voices. He told the sound man to make him sound like he was playing "two 12 strings....with a delay". At one point, some British mad hatter in the crowd leaned over to point out the RH tour t-shirt depicting a polka-dotted pyramid dreaming of a crab. The evening highlight came when he launched in to "The Cheese Alarm", one of my faves complete with Indian-inflected open tuning raga guitar solo. Another song intro dealt with his fascination with the Clint movie Magnum Force, in which the denouement included a scene where Clint looks at the camera and says "everyone's got to know their limitations, Briggs", which turned out to be the song's refrain. Emma came back on for some duets including an awesome Bowie cover "Sound and Vision", they ended with an expertly delivered "Queen Elvis".

Oneida 3/16/16 Bar

The Wednesday night shows at Bar are free, which is a good and a weird thing. Oneida is billed as krautnoise, implying the trippy virtuosity of German psych-noodlers Can crossed with industrial noise onslaught. Oneida is helmed by crazed drummer Kid Millions, two guitars, one lambchopped keyboard/knob twiddler, and another keyboard player who "sang" and looked like he was in a perpetual state of epileptic seizure. The drum-centric groove ebbed and swelled and was sprinkled with some usually unintelligible lyrics. The loud washes of sound were great and I assume are mostly played for a paying (intended) audience. Now the weird part, being free, you are never sure who is going to wander/stumble into the room. On this evening, it was a gaggle of tipsy bachelorettes, who wiggled and selfied themselves in front of the band. Let me say that Oneida is in unfamiliar territory when it comes to soundtracking a batchelorette party, and (a)cid seizure was not pleased at their lack of reverence. While inarticulately trying to say that "free" should not equate to a lack of respect, he decided to sing the ladies a little krautnoise ditty instead. The song started slow then high-geared it in to a frenzy with epilepsy-boy spitting the chorus "putyourfuckinphonesaway", the girls had no idea he was poking fun at them.

Lucinda Williams w/ Buick 6 3/12/16 College Street Music Hall

Good crowd at CSMH for Lucinda. Entered to the instrumental rock jams of Buick 6, which turned out to be Lucinda's backing band. Seasoned session rockers consisting of guitar, bass (standup and electric), and drums gave a sufficient kick to talented singer songwriter LW. Known for her classic release "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road", LW has a full catalog of melancholy slow burn and southern rockers. Set list included: Pineola, Lake Charles, Car Wheels, Essence, Blue, Joy, Blessed, Dust (from a poem written by her father), new song Ghosts of Highway 20. LW is a music lover and I always  appreciate her choice of cover songs to close the show. Tonight was no exception, doing a heartfelt "Change is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke. She sang "I Ain't Got No Home in this World" by Woody Guthrie complete with a recently uncovered lyric referencing  "old man Trump" , apparently the Donald's father was the landlord that evicted Woody from his Brooklyn apartment. LW closed with Neil Young's "Rockin in the Free World", the fist pumping anthem riled the crowd as if to rip the song from any connection to Trump's announcement spectacle and return it to it's rightful owner ( a nasally long haired peace-nik from our neighbor to the north).