The Dig w/ Communist Daughter 2/22/17 Bar

Communist Daughter were a hipster outfit from the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Lead guitar/ vocals, bass, drums, keys/ multi-instrumentalist, and a female vocalist made up the quintet. Indie pop with nice guy-girl harmony vocals. The multi-instrumentalist had a xylophone that was poorly mic'd so that it appeared like air-xylophone. Chatted with the bassist who said the next gig was The Music Hall of Williamsburg.
Headliner The Dig was a synth pop quartet that reminded me of  a cross between Deer Tick and Hot Chip (maybe Deer Chip and Hot Tick). The front man singer even had the same psychotic gleam in his eye like the Deer Tick singer. Pop songs started slow and ebbed and swelled with dueling falsetto vocals. This band is better appreciated live.

G-nome Project w/ Mushroom Cloud 2/8/17 Bar

Local group Mushroom Cloud is often the pick to open shows for the jammy techno crowd. A trio of guitar, bass, and drums played instrumental funk jams kind of like Eric Krasno's Lettuce or The New Mastersounds. The guitar player had a handle on the tight blaxploitation groove, and the stand in bass player was impressive. Thankfully, they didn't close with an acapella Free Bird.
G-nome Project is billed as a livetronica outfit from Tel Aviv. Funky guitar, nerdy but active bass, high energy propulsive drums, and keys comprised the quartet. It was too much for me to ask for a politically charged, sample based international throwdown. Instead, we viewed a capable house band of rave culture. Good, diverse crowd of dancers and a couple of painters throwing some trippy images to canvas while the music was bumping. Like many international groups, they had a good grasp of dub used to extend some jams. Without vocals, and no inter-song banter, this quartet could have come from Burlington VT, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Marco Benevento w/ Superhuman Happiness 2/7/17 Spaceland Ballroom

Saw the last few tunes of SHH, a regional groove outfit who announced it was their last show. Sad, but I'm sure that these trio of multi -instrumentalists will appear in other forms. Female singer and two guys on keys/synths and some brass.
Marco Benevento has been playing jam keyboards since the early aughts. His early partner as The Duo, was drummer Joe Russo. MB's group on this evening was a trio, with a young female bass player and a drummer.  Jazz, jammy meanderings with MB employing loops and effects to shade the songs. Marco sang on most tunes, comfortable in a voice that was not always used. The young lady played hella bass, muscular riffs that lent a prog bent to the affair. Hard-working drummer played fast and loud on most songs. MB wearing orange neon shades, and a crumpled tophat, looked like the m.c. at electric forest. Good long set of mainly original tunes were well received. A decent LedZep tease, cover of a tune by The Knife, and an amazing bass intro to Jump Into the Fire by Harry Nilsson.

Mates of State 1/25/17 Bar

Caught the last few tunes of the Mates residency at Bar. Like in the old days when I saw Barrence Whitfield and the Savages three times in a month, continued viewing fosters a familiarity that allows a music nerd to compare and contrast delivery, energy, and band cohesiveness. On this outing, the Mates pulled Pencilgrass trumpeter and head-bobber Panos on stage for great effect. After the show, the Mates offloaded boxes of CDs of solo projects in an attempt to keep the local love burning. It made me sad to think of the sad state of monetary compensation for these dedicated artists.

Sound and Vision: Questlove, Kimbra, Yale Symphony Orchestra 1/25/17 Schwarzman Center

The evening's program was the opening of "Blackstar Rising and The Purple Reign. Celebrating the Legacies of David Bowie and Prince". The Schwarzman Center is the soon to be renovated large hall to the right of Woolsey Hall when entering from Grove St. The hall was hot and had poor acoustics that swallowed the sound of the YSO who opened the program. The YSO played student arrangements of selected Bowie and Prince works. For Bowie, Space Oddity, Starman, Heroes, and Modern Love. The Prince selections: Controversy, Darling Nikki, U Got the Look, and When Doves Cry. These songs are difficult to arrange for symphony, but the students did an admirable job.
   After a brief intermission, the stage was cleared for what was termed "a critical deejay session with Questlove and Kimbra in conversation with Professor Daphne Brooks".  Ahmir Questlove Thompson is drummer and co-founder of the hiphop band The Roots, author, dj, producer, and
late night frontman for the bands on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and The Tonight Show. Quest is also a professed Prince-ecologist. Kimbra is a young pop star from New Zealand. Her claim to fame is that she is the female voice heard on Gotye's 2011 pop sensation "Somebody That I Used To Know". Quest handled talk on Prince telling tales of taboo sexuality, career low point (opening for the Rolling Stones early in his career), the originator of the remix (played two mixes of Little Red Corvette) and the notion of boundary pushing R&B star turned rock and roll star turned oversized persona all with a backdrop of an extreme work ethic that fueled greatness. Kimbra, who can't be thirty, spoke of her circuitous entry into the Bowie canon. She started with the African rhythms contained on the album Lodger. Kimbra dissected the layered nursery rhyme chaos that is Ashes to Ashes stating that this type of complex pop song is rare today. Her final choice was Let's Dance which evoked stories of producer Nile Rogers lending his pop and funk magic wand to the record. More events in this celebration include screening and conversation with film-maker D.A. Penne baker of Ziggy Stardust, talks with Sheila E., and an art gallery performance with TV on The Radio.

Mates of State 1/11/17 Bar

Local  husband and wife pop duo Mates of State are setting up a January residency for three consecutive Wednesday nights at Bar. Usually a residency implies workouts of tunes in progress or collaboration with some local musicians. On this evening, MOS played to a group of hardcore fans that head bobbed and sung along to every song. MOS have been at the pop trade since 2000, with some reasonable success. I noticed they have about 50k followers on Spotify. Man on drums and vocals, girl on Korg keys and vocals. Solid songwriting and great layered vocals made for an enjoyable set. It seemed as though these guys were getting back to their roots, feeling some local love, and getting out of the basement to get some feedback on their live material. I have seen these two many times before, at the Vibes, at Bar, and at some small local outdoor fests, they always seem to please.

Woody Pines 1/3/16 Cafe 9

Nashville troubadour Woody Pines made a stop in New Haven. Like a cross between Leon Redbone and Django Reinhardt, WP said he played 220 dates last year. WP on national steel, standup bass, and a reed man who played saxes and clarinet. With a down-homey vocal delivery and excellent support from bass and reeds, WP played a journeyman's set. Hot jazz, Nawlins, Hank Williams, even a great cover of Junco Pardner done in a mambo style. The subtle addition of clarinet or tenor sax bent these tunes to the early 1900s. WP said he is aiming for a corner in Austin during SXSW to see if he could catch a recording break, with his effortless blend of old and new he may be on to something.