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I don’t usually go to shows by myself, but I didn’t really have a choice for this one.  Between a show at Arbor Vitae, a Man The Hunter/Swimsuit show in Detroit, and of course, Bob Dylan at Hill Auditorium, most of my friends had other ideas about how to spend their nights.  And unfortunately so did most of Ann Arbor’s concert-going population.  And it was a Thursday, after all.

Not to say this show was poorly attended, but the crowd was definitely slow to form.  I got to the Blind Pig at 10pm and the opening band had just begun setting up, and there were about twenty people there, which includes staff, roadies, and members of three bands.  Thank god for free popcorn.

Purling Hiss, the opening band, were a power trio with a pretty heavy sound, and they certainly rocked hard but there simply weren’t enough people there to really get excited about it.  For a punk band, I found it surprising how present the guitar was in their music – some solos sounded straight out of 80s hair metal!  What was most impressive, though, was how tight they sounded as a band.  They did a great job of filling the room, which can be difficult for power trios.

There’s something distinctive about the appearance Kurt Vile and his backing band, the violators.  It goes beyond the long, curly head of hair on each member of the band.  I think it might be their noses.  They all have pretty large noses.

Anyway, with three guitars and a drummer, Kurt Vile’s live band wasn’t exactly what I expected.  Their sound was related to his studio sound, but, well, much louder.  Most of the selections were songs from his 2009 album, Childish Prodigy, which happens to be my least favorite album of his.  Drone-y and thick, repetitive and emotional, the set sort of exhausted the listener, but in a good way.  I was happy to have seen and heard this arrangement of his songs, but honestly, I think I would have preferred a show with just him and a guitar.  At one point when an effect pedal ran out of batteries and the band was busy figuring out the issue, he played an older song of his solo and it was a welcome change of pace.  Nonetheless, the cryptic emotions in his songs were preserved, and it gave me chills to see him singing with one eye peering out at the crowd from behind his hair, wincing during the most climactic parts of the songs.

If The Soft Pack sound just a little sloppy on their record, their live show is quite the opposite.  One of the best balanced and rhythmically solid bands I’ve seen live, the raw energy of their pop-rock was astoundingly present at Thursday night’s show.  Between a drummer who played standing up, and a guitarist who made funny concentrated faces as he played, you could tell they were having as much fun as the audience.  Each song was an absolute joy, and a crowd-pleaser in its own way.  Playing songs off their full length, a new tune or two, old songs from when they were called the Muslims, and even a cover, The Soft Pack demanded the crowd’s attention then held it for over an hour.  I actually had to leave early so I could get up for a math exam the following morning (which went really poorly, by the way, thanks for asking).  But by the time I left, the energy in the place was amazing, despite the relatively small crowd which had now grown to fill about 1/3rd of the venue.

So overall I think the only issue with the show was the lack of attendance.  But that’s what you get when you have a show on a Thursday when Bob Dylan is in town.

The theme for this post is do something different.

I’ve spent the majority of this week in pendulum of feeling like I should be doing Halloween activities and justifying why I haven’t been that excited about them.  As a result, I’ve decided to take a step back from the habitual production of Halloween, and go see a production instead, and no, it is not the on stage production of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Instead it is a play along the likes of Aronofsky’s Pi, exploring the nature of infinity and connections among narratives. Produced by Complicite Theater Company, the play is experimental in nature, as you can tell by their website.

UMS and The Michigan Theater will be rebroadcasting Complicite’s A Disappearing Number this Sunday October 31 at 2:00 pm.  Originally premiering in 2007, the highly regarded play will be broadcasted from the National Theater in London in high-definition. While I have never seen a play broadcasted, usually turned away by the thought of theater being ‘broadcasted,’ I find that maybe this will actually add to the play rather than take away from it.  

A Disappearing Number is an exploration of mathematics as well as creativity.  It follows relationships across space, time, and cultures; focusing on the unique collaboration between two very different mathematicians in the 1910’s, a Cambridge professor and a young genius from India.  While the story is interwoven with the present day experiences of an Indian-American women. The play feautures a tableaux of mathematics across the screen which allows for some beautiful intersections of theater, music, film, and numbers.

“A Disappearing Number” Teaser from Sven Ortel on Vimeo.

Student tickets are available from the UMS website and at the ticket office for $12.00. If you want to take a break from Halloween and see something inspiring, this may be just the ticket.

Recap:

Who: Complicite Theater Company’s A Disappearing Number
What: Broadcast from National Theater London
When: Sunday, October 31 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Where: Michigan Theater
Why: Break, Boredom, Inspire, Cultivate…
How: $12 worth of halloween candy made payable to UMS

Until then art spooksters,

Sarah

Yesterday a package showed up on my doorstep from Russia, a small yellow cardboard box with curious writing and shipping labels from foreign lands on it.  It turns out that it was an item I bought on eBay that I didn’t realize had to ship all the way from Russia.  The thing is, the shipping box was almost as interesting than the goods it contained.  My name and my address were written in English, but the handwriting had a strange quality to it that I found fascinating – a confident print, but with slightly misshapen letters and inconsistent capitalization.  I could read it, but something about it was as foreign as the Cyrillic that covered the rest of the box.

This box is a lot like the music of Kurt Vile.  His music is familiar, some songs sounding almost like old American folk standards, and he sings them in such a way that convinces the listener that it should be a well-known melody, with lyrics that will never be forgotten.  However, there is something very strange about the final product.  His songs are affected with large amounts of delay, reverb, and synth noise that might seem unexpected, but fit perfectly.  We’ll see how his backup band, the Violators, form his live sound, which I would expect to be markedly different than his studio work.

Watch this video to learn just about all you need to about The Soft Pack before coming to Thursday’s show.  Formerly known as The Muslims, the music of the Soft Pack is catchy and fun; simple, but heavy.  Get ready for fun, dancing, and if it gets punk enough, moshing.

so – details:

Who: The Soft Pack, Kurt Vile & The Violators

Where: The Blind Pig, 208 S. First St.

When: Thurs, 10/28, doors at 9pm

And?: $10adv/$12 day of. 18+

thatsaboutit

pp

When: Today, 10/23/10, 9:30pm

Where: Yellow Barn, 416 W. Huron St.

How Much: $8, all ages

Have you ever woken up at 1:30 in the afternoon on a Saturday and the first thing that comes into your mind is “I really should support my local music scene”?  If so, tonight will be your lucky night.  All three acts in tonight’s show hail from the murder mitt – Benoit and Man the Hunter are even from Ann Arbor!  Yes, THE Ann Arbor!  If you didn’t wake up at 1:30, I respect that, but come on down to the Yellow Barn anyway.  Unless it’s past your 8pm bedtime or something.

Here’s what’s up: with a number of releases on Moodgadget and Ghostly International, Benoit Pioulard has been making beautiful music that chills harder than chillwave, since before people even called it that.  Word on the street is this will be his last show in the United States before he moves overseas.  So catch him while you still can.  I have no idea who Windy & Carl & Hitoko are, and someone stole the little box that hooks my computer up to my speakers so I can’t listen to their Myspace page right now, but you totally should.  Several kind and patient people have explained to me that they are an influential name in the noise/drone scene, so I’m sure it will be great, right?  Why wouldn’t it be?  Plus, you get Man the Hunter, one of the freshest faces in Ann Arbor’s prom rock scene.  Rumor has it he has some new songs and a new friend.

SEEYATHURR, glwyh! (good luck with your headache)

pp