Loudon Wainwright 10/27/22 Wall St. Theater Norwalk

 It’s been a long time since Loudon struck novelty gold with “Dead Skunk In The Middle of the Road”. Just turned 75, and a grandpa for the fourth time, Loudon brought the comic troubadour to this renovated historic venue. I’ve followed his career intently since the release of History in 1992, a near perfect recording by my estimation. The comedy camouflages biting lyricism  as it pertains to family and relationships. A notorious partier and womanizer, Loudon grew up in Westchester, the product of a country club 60s upbringing, in fact he opened with Westchester County. The setlist touched on most of his career but left out some obvious gems. No matter, I was happy to be in the front row for this solo performance. The setlist included Be Careful There’s a Baby in The House, The Swimming Song, The Picture (about his sister), I’d Rather Be Lonely, Four Mirrors, White Winos (about his mom), The Shit Song, High Wide and Handsome (from the Charlie Poole project), My Meds, One Wish, Family Vacation, and Lifetime Achievement. Loudon played acoustic, banjo, and even some ukulele. At one point, he picked up the iPad and read a hilarious description as to his wishes for his memorial service. As with any comedy inflected performance, audience “participation” plays a role. Whether it be heckling, or calling out song titles, you just know it will happen. On this evening, we were seated near the cackler ( not to be confused with her male counterpart, the bloviator). The cackler cackled, chimed in, and apparently knew Loudon. At one point, Loudon had to de-cackle this woman, a good song in the making. Closed with an excellent version of Primrose Hill.

Chris Forsyth Meg Baird w/ Junk Orbit 10/26/22 Cafe 9

 Junk Orbit is a guitar duo with New Haven’s Kryssi Battalene and another guitarist from MA. Happy to say I’ve watched Kryssi come of age as a guitarist. Whether it be the psych noodlings of Mountain Movers, the harder shrapnel of Headroom, or an experimental set as on this evening. Two acoustics, some effects pedals, Kryssi had some sort of a Nintendo box on her lap, gave rise to some long form drone fuzz. The music gave off an eerie documentary film score vibe.

Next up was Meg Baird. She played seated acoustic and keys. Joined onstage by Doug Mccombes (from Tortoise fame), Ryan Jewell ( from Ryley Walker) on drums, and a guitarist. Meg’s vocal style is fragile Celtic or brit-folk, kind of like Jacqui Mcshee (Pentangle), or Annie Haslem ( Renaissance). I have seen her previous ensemble, baroque pop , Espers. She started with a haunting, wordless vocal piece. Capable, but understated drums and bass kept  the music grounded as Meg’s voice floated in the rafters. Chris Forsyth hopped on stage for her final tune giving a two guitar attack.

Chris Forsyth is a seasoned guitarist from Philly. He has played for years as a hired gunslinger in the avant-garde circles in Brooklyn. Lately, Chris has been leaning in to hypnotic rock jams. I’ve read that he was mentored by none other than Richard Lloyd from Television. About a year ago, I saw him grace the stage with Jersey face-melters Garcia Peoples. The set was compact  and pulled heavy from his recent release Evolution Here We Come.

Celebrating Bowie 10/21/22 College Street Music Hall

 The enigma that was David Bowie, is worth celebrating, for so many reasons. Bowie the fashion icon, the white boy funk purveyor, the prog noodler, the Eno compatriot, the theatrical song cycler, is responsible for the soundtrack of many music fan’s youth. Mine included. So I was happy to view  this ragtag cadre of Bowie acolytes plow through 2 hours of hits. The cast of characters was curious; Todd Rundgren on guitar and vocals, Royston Langdon from the 90s indie outfit Spacehog on keys ,guitars, and vocals, Adrian Belew on guitar and vocals, Angelo Moore, lead singer for Fishbone, a non-famous rhythm section with bass, drums, keys/sax, and a bandleader with the unfortunate uni-moniker “Scrote” on guitar. The setlist was epic and expansive: Moonage Daydream, Young Americans, John I’m Only Dancing, Changes, Ziggy Stardust, Space Oddity, The Jean Genie, Rebel Rebel, Fame, Golden Years, Ashes to Ashes, Sound and Vision, Fashion, DJ, Stay, Hallo Spaceboy, I’m Afraid of Americans, Let’s Dance, ended with All The Young Dudes, and encored with Suffragette City and Heroes. I’m sure I’ve missed some, but you get the idea. Todd Rundgren is a fantastic artist who I’ve seen many times back in the day. If this blog started in the 80s, it may well have been named “Just Another Onionhead blog”, or The Sons of 1984. Todd took on the theatrical Bowie, hamming up Space Oddity and going through a variety of costume changes. Langdon sang Ziggy Stardust playing tasteful acoustic. Spacehog carried the glam mantle in the 90s, and Langdon gave off the aura of an aging indie star. Belew is a master on guitar and was the only one on stage with a direct line to Bowie. He played on the under the radar Lodger, from which DJ was the hit. Fishbone is a 90s ska-funk outfit from LA. Frenetic frontman Moore took on the fashion icon Bowie, by wearing a wide variety of garish costumes. He prowled the stage and hopped in to the crowd, looking like some Tasmanian devil poofter with a Bowie delivery. The near capacity crowd sang along, just as they did in the 70s, after popping that new Bowie cassette in their Datsun’s tape deck. Bowie was taken from us too soon, but his fan base remains.

Stick Men 10/12/22 Spaceland Ballroom

 Stick Men is the trio of Tony Levin on Chapman Stick, Pat Mastelloto drums, and Markus Reuter on something called a U-8. Reuter a Berlin based instrument builder/prog nerd concocted the 8 string day-glo axe of sorts. I mean it had 8 strings, hung around his neck, had a guitar neck, but produced a multitude of sounds. The Chapman Stick is a 12-string contraption that looks like a picket fence post. The sinister high and low end stew of progfunk was described by Mastelloto as pianos hanging around their necks. Levin and Mastelloto play (ed?) in the progenitor of prog King Crimson. Levin held down the low end of most of the Peter Gabriel records, netting him credits on over 100 million sold. Mastelloto could not have possibly screwed together the behemoth drum kit he whacked at last year’s KC Westville show (he’d need Spaceland to apply for an addition permit), but still managed to squeeze out a gong solo. Levin is a sight, 76 by my count, he’s chiseled, cue-balled, and a black moustache, he appears like a cross between Mr. Clean and Snidely Whiplash. When he plays the Stick, both hands spider the neck for a wash of sound that normally plays to arena crowds. Reuter seems thirty-ish with a thick German accent, but as an instrument builder, you can see why he’s pals with these guys. The crowd was gray and grizzled, packed house was made even more tight by having it a sit down affair. The fans bobbed in awe to the display. I did not realize the group’s fairly prodigious output, but they had plenty of material to choose from. Mainly warped instrumentals, but Levin actually sang on one tune. Good version of Crimson’s “Red”, with Reuter playing the Fripp part. Another song from Fripp’s excellent Exposure record is making me want to dig through the vinyl stacks and locate that one. Encores with perhaps my favorite King Crimson tune from the modern era, “Sheltering Sky” from Levin’s first toe in the Crimson output, 1981’s Discipline.

Club D’elf 9/23/22 Broad Brook Opera House

 First time at this historic venue, situated in a hidden section of EastWindsor. Built in 1892, this wooden structure has had a recent facelift complete with a sidewall mural depicting rock legends John Lennon, Bob Marley and others. Club D’elf is a loose collective of groove masters that have been wowing audiences with their original blend of Moroccan-dub-electronica-trance-fusion for the past twenty years. I’m pretty sure they are based in Cambridge MA, as I see them listed as the house band of The Lizard Lounge. Constant member Mike Rivard plays bass and Moroccan sintir a 3-string lute was joined onstage by Dave Fiuczynski on double neck electric guitar, Dean Johnson on drums, Paul Schultheis on organ mellotron and clavinet, and a character named Mister Rourke on turntables. The quintet weave their trance improv tunes over computer breaks and beats to produce this unclassifiable music. You know I listen to a lot of music when I was able to spot the drummer’s wordless vocal intro as a cover of Trilok Gurtu’s 1-2 Beaucoup from his excellent The Glimpse release. Club D’elf’s new album, You Never Know is great and pays homage to some influences, notably In A Silent Way/It’s About That Time by Miles Davis and King Kong by Frank Zappa. Unfortunate that more people didn’t attend this show.

Sugar Hill Gang 9/23/22 Harbor Park Middletown

 Rapper’s Delight by the Sugar Hill Gang is arguably the Rosetta Stone for rap and hip hop. Released in 1979, the song has sold over 8 million copies and has birthed countless careers. So it was with glee I trekked to Harbor Park to get a glimpse of history. On this evening, original gang member Master Gee is joined by relative newcomer Hen Dog, another rapper on loan from Grandmaster Flash, and MC T Dynasty on samples and beats. The crew has a fleshed out set that doesn’t disappoint. They play secondary hits like Apache and a great rendition of Grandmaster Flash’ The Message. Master Gee hops into the crowd for some fan karaoke of funk and soul chestnuts from the past, James Brown, The Jackson 5, Public Enemy all had the fans singing. Next up was a tribute to fallen rap heroes with tunes by the likes of Biz Markie. A Prince tribute offered a nice take on Purple Rain. The diverse crowd, in age and ethnicity, erupted when Rapper’s Delight emerged. This concert was a free show put on by Manic Productions and was well attended for an unseasonably chilly evening.  As I was taking in this show, my mind drifted to the polarization in this country. At Harbor Park, there seemed to be no polarization, in fact peace, unity, and tolerance were in full view. Maybe we should swap out our national anthem, it’s boring, unsingable, and dated and replace it with Brick House by the Commodores.

Twiddle 9/15/22 Old State House Hartford

 First off, I want to apologize to Twiddle. I’ve “seen” this band countless times at the Vibes festival over the years. Not sure if it is the jam tapestry they weave or the heady scene associated with the show, but I rarely pay attention to the music being generated. This is by no means a knock on Twiddle, the Vermont based quartet has been steadily growing in popularity over the past decade, with hairy front man Mihali doing some interesting side projects. Whether it be the lack of “hits” (no pun intended), or the front and center jam improv of the group, their shows feel like more of a gathering than a concert, again, not a bad thing. Seems that some in Hartford governance want to make the city hip, and gave the Infinity Hall crew some cash to put on free shows behind the Old State House. A blocked off street with the stage and up front dancing area, food trucks and beer tents, a tree lined green space, and relaxed police presence, made for a comfortable venue to exist, with Twiddle playing in the background. The “Hartford Live” series has hosted Burning Spear and Dinosaur Jr., acts that are very worthy of a no cost viewing. I’d like to say that the next time I see Twiddle, I’ll be up front giving them their undivided attention, but I won’t. I’ll be in the back chatting. If I was in a room and confronted by Twiddle about my inattentiveness, I’d say that I often come to their shows…..for the feeling, which is a good thing.