Maxïmo Park Powers Through Technical Issues at Gramercy Theatre

Despite a myriad of technical difficulties, Maxïmo Park put on the best show I've seen this year last night at Gramercy Theatre.  While the Newcastle band played a whopping 10 out of the 11 tracks from their latest Too Much Information, they interspersed the tunes with fan favorites from their previous four albums.

I first discovered Maxïmo Park in 2005 as an opening act, so I made a point to check out opener Jeffrey Lewis & the Jrams.  Lewis began with "When You're by Yourself."  His flat vocals coupled with the rudimentary musicianship of the Jrams wasn't really doing it for me, but I paid attention, as I could easily relate to the song's lyrics about dining alone and having to take your backpack to the restroom with you.  "Time Trades" careened into

"Important for Me," the most punk-sounding of Lewis' numbers, which had him shouting over discordant blasts of guitar.  Lewis is also an artist (The merch table was blanketed with issues of his comic books.), so the next song found him flipping through the pages of a homemade storybook, singing the tale of the French Revolution to a rhythm supplied by the Jrams.  His ode to a neighbor with night terrors recalled a sped-up version of Weezer's "Island in the Sun."  He followed that with a poem entitled "WWPRD" (That's "What Would Pussy Riot Do?").  I was amazed at how respectful the crowd was as he delivered the spoken-word piece, especially as the message took a sudden turn into the dangers of selling out.  Lewis squinted a lot as he spoke, and while I'm sure he believes his words, he looked more like he was painfully trying to remember them than profess them with conviction.

Maxïmo Park were supposed to go on a little after 9:30, but the sound techs moving about the stage with confused faces foreshadowed a later start time.  Twenty minutes later, the stage manager signaled with his flashlight, and the room went dark.  The band emerged, starting the set as they do on TMI, with "Give, Get, Take."  Despite Paul Smith revealing afterwards that he had heard the band Chicago in his in-ear monitor during the entire song, it was a great entrance for the band.  They followed with my favorite MP tune "Our Velocity," and it blew the roof off the place.  Duncan Lloyd opened the song up with a guitar solo, and Lukas Wooller garnered cheers with a slightly different keyboard breakdown, not to mention his trademark half-jumping jacks.  After three more uptempo rockers, the moody electronic "Brain Cells" came a little out of left field for much of the crowd.  The Park snatched everyone back up with "Hips & Lips."  Paul Smith's antics as a frontman, which include exuberantly jumping around and acting out the lyrics would be utterly ridiculous if not for the fact that the music is so infectious.  Sort of like how you forgive Mick Jagger for his peacocking because the Stones are so good.  Smith commandeered a megaphone for "The Kids Are Sick Again," the night's only entry from Quicken the Heart, but sadly, the bullhorn malfunctioned at the start.  The propulsive "Leave This Island" was one of the best-received new tunes, so it was a particular shame when the house sound completely shut off halfway through it.  The band played a few more bars, hoping it would fix itself, eventually petering out when they realized it wasn't going to.  "This has never happened before," admitted Paul.  "If we had an acoustic guitar, we would play for you, but we left it in England."  If it came to it, I hoped Jeffrey Lewis would offer up his six-string, so they could finish their set.  I was genuinely worried that that would be the end of the show.  They decided to take an intermission to try to resolve the issue.

Within a few minutes, they got the okay to return.  While "Books from Boxes" is a great song, they probably should've chosen something with a higher octane to reclaim the stage.  The energy in the room faltered for the next couple songs, but "Limassol" got everyone back on the same page.  "This is a punk song.  Even though punk is very much dead," announced Paul prior to "Her Name Was Audre."  Sensing some resistance from the audience, he continued, "It's only dead in kind of a historical way."  "Quit taking the piss!" someone yelled from the crowd.  "Get this man to a toilet forthwith!" Smith shot back.  There were a few dropouts during "Audre," but they were brief one-second pops that the band didn't draw attention to.  "Apply Some Pressure" was the second set highlight, the room shouting back each "Start all over again!"  They wrapped things up with the nocturnal crescendo of "Midnight on the Hill."

The band came back for an encore, beginning with the Phil Spector-inspired "Where We're Going."  Even that wasn't immune to issues, with Smith's mic crackling on the first line.  Although he realized he could've kept it to himself, he also confessed that he could not hear Lloyd's guitar for the whole song.  "This is not just a rock and roll show.  We explain things.  We go behind the mask," Smith informed the crowd, further comparing it to a tour of the Parisian sewer system.  And if you didn't know where they were going, it was "Going Missing," which had the room wildly clapping and singing along to finish the show on a high note.  If so much can go wrong at a concert and it's still that good, the band must be doing something right.

I interviewed Paul Smith before the show for The Next Round, so if you want to find out why he dances so crazily, check back in a few weeks.

JEFFREY LEWIS & THE JRAMS - 05.23.14 - GRAMERCY THEATRE (28 minutes)

SET -

When You're by Yourself / Time Trades > Important for Me* / The French Revolution / Support Tours* / Stop the Torture, Old Man* / WWPRD / Painted Into a Corner

MAXÏMO PARK - 05.23.14 - GRAMERCY THEATRE (1 hour, 24 minutes)

SET I -
Give, Get, Take / Our Velocity / Signal & Sign / The National Health / My Bloody Mind / Brain Cells / Hips & Lips / A Fortnight's Time / The Kids Are Sick Again / Graffiti / Lydia, the Ink Will Never Dry / Leave This Island

SET II -
Books from Boxes / Drinking Martinis / I Recognise the Light / Limassol / The Undercurrents > Girls Who Play Guitars / Her Name Was Audre / Apply Some Pressure / Midnight on the Hill

ENCORE -
Where We're Going / Going Missing

Self Celebrates 20 Years at Gramercy Theatre

Before the word selfie entered the lexicon as a term for a photographed self-portrait, it had a different meaning: an obsessive fan of the Tennessee alternative band Self.  And last night at Gramercy Theatre, the selfies were out in full force.  It was the most crowded I've ever seen the venue; crowded enough that the coat check no longer had room for coats.  You see, it had been ten years since the band performed in the city, and ten more since they'd begun recording their debut album, Subliminal Plastic Motives.  The night was a celebration of SPM, both performed in its entirety and released on vinyl for the first time.

An instrumental version of Prince's "1999" welcomed the band to the stage, and the ageless Matt Mahaffey started singing, modifying the song to "1995" with lines like "The music was all grungy / There were Big Muff pedals everywhere."  After a chorus of two, it was finally time to to party like it was '95, and Self crunched into "Borateen."  Following a swell "Sophomore Jinx," Matt conducted the crowd on a singalong of the compass rose in "Stewardess."  "Where you been?!" yelled a crowdmember after the tune.  Matt responded, "In the words of Woody Harrelson: Drinking... a lot."  The Kingpin reference kicked off an ongoing game of Mahaffey's banter including film quotes from Groundhog Day to Toy Story.  "So Low" and "Marathon Shirt" both gave Chris James the chance to go off on the synthesizer, an essential ingredient to the Self sound.  "You guys are killing it!" shouted a selfie.  "Oh, good," said Mahaffey cheerily.  After "Cannon," he remarked, "You know, you guys are a little rusty too," pointing out that many had botched the last chorus by singing "unnecessary" instead of "unwanted."  "Next time!" he added with a smile.  He singled out a man in the crowd who had been singing along to every song.  "Why don't you come up here and sing this next one?" he asked.  The dude and his date were escorted onto the stage, and Matt handed him the microphone.  The guy revealed that he'd rewritten some of the words.  Something was up.  As he genuflected, we all knew what was coming.  "Will you marry me?" he questioned.  His genuinely confused and embarrassed girlfriend replied, "Uh... yeah," followed by an unamplified "What the fuck?"  She didn't put the ring on her finger though, so hopefully she was just still in shock.  But the show had to go on.  Following "Superstar" and "Mother Nature's Fault," Mahaffey confessed, "New York City, you're unstoppable!  Maybe I'll just have to stay up here all night."  He took the mic out of its stand, and danced around as he sang over the jazzy beat of "Big Important Nothing."  They wrapped up Subliminal Plastic Motives with a feedback-drenched "Lost My Senses," Mahaffey nodding knowingly to the crowd as he left.  "It's obligatory," he explained.

The selfies cheered for over a minute straight before Matt returned alone.  "The guys are going to the bathroom," he smirked.  Whether or not he was joking, he did take the opportunity to treat us to the chorus of the ultra-rare "Brooklyn" before his bandmates reappeared for "Dielya Downtown."  Then the whole group got their chance to tackle a deep cut with "Glued to the Girl."  Taking off his guitar, Mahaffey turned to the omnichord beside him and fired up "Trunk Fulla Amps."  It was the highlight of the night, the crowd taking the reins on each "Mother!"  The band even threw in a tease of "Empire State of Mind" for good measure.  "Meg Ryan" with its Sleepless in Seattle third act-referencing refrain was the obvious closer for an NYC show.

The house lights and music popped on, but I was unconvinced.  Sure enough, within a minute, Jason Rawlings emerged and took a seat the the drums.  As he kicked into the beat, the remaining members returned, along with opening act I Fight Dragons.  The newly enlarged band finished with a jubilant "Titanic," Mahaffey's Pixes/Weezer mashup/parody.  "I swear to you guys it won't be ten more years," Matt declared over the cheers.  There's going to be a lot of disappointed selfies if he doesn't keep his word.

SELF - 01.10.14 - GRAMERCY THEATRE (1 hour, 18 minutes)

SET -
1999 / Borateen / Sophomore Jinx / Stewardess / So Low / Marathon Shirt / Lucid Anne / Cannon / Missed the Friction / Superstar / Mother Nature's Fault / Big Important Nothing / Lost My Senses

ENCORE I -
Brooklyn (tease) / Dielya Downtown / Glued to the Girl / Trunk Fulla Amps > Empire State of Mind (tease) > Trunk Fulla Amps / Meg Ryan

ENCORE II - 
Titanic (feat. I Fight Dragons)

The Main Squeeze Plays to the Worst Crowd Ever

If you saw the Main Squeeze at Gramercy Theater last night and were wearing a plaid button-down, do the world a favor and kill yourself.  Yes, all thirty of you.  I have been to hundreds of concerts in my life, and I can't remember the last time I've been in the same room as such oblivious assholes.  It was like I wasn't even there as they stumbled into me, spilled their drinks, stepped on my feet, and leaned on me for support.  I only heard one person say, "Excuse me," the entire night, and I let him right by.  The weirdest thing was these dudes would push by me without regard just to go over and excitedly hug another bro.  More than half of the audience talked regularly throughout the concert.  Halfway through, I'd had enough and made my way to a seat in the back.  Okay, I'll try to contain my musings to the performance now.

It's too bad the show was wasted on the worst crowd ever because the Main Squeeze gave it their all.  Corey Frye accidentally knocked over the mic stand in "Shake It Off," revealing at its end, "Having a little too much fun up here, y'all."  Frye is a classic case of "you can't judge a book by its cover," as you'd expect a much deeper voice to come from the portly frontman.  Instead, he's been blessed with a beautiful tenor, although if he had more range on the lower side of the scale, it would serve the band even better.  The night's best moments came when his high voice contrasted with the heavier, almost funk metal songs like "Tank X-ing," or when he wasn't singing at all and the band was able to embark on some tasty melodic jams.  The section linking the Grateful Dead's "Shakedown Street" and the Squeeze's "Grow" was especially heady.  The band combined these strengths to great effect on "I'll Take Another," which opened slowly with intergalactic Moog lines from Ben Silverstein before exploding with Frye's shouts of "One more!"

The cover of Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" was a pleasant surprise, but the highlight of the evening was without a doubt, the nearly 23-minute encore.  I even evacuated my seat and returned to the sea of pricks 'cause I had to see it from the floor.  Beginning with "Spines" from First Drops (which you can download for free here), a tease of Outkast's "Spottieottiedopaliscious" accompanied them as they boarded the space shuttle on a colossal Particle-style jam of "2001," touching back to earth briefly with a bit of "The Ants Go Marching."  Jeremiah Hunt, who had spent most of his night tightly laying down the bottom, was now freed to venture up and down the neck of his six-string bass, even going as far to start a call-and-response with the crowd to sing his riffs back to him.  Corey spent the jam in the wings, gleefully watching his bandmates tear shit up.  After such a fantastic finale, I'm not sure why there wasn't someone manning the merch table to sell CDs, but I left $10 on the table and grabbed a disc.  Hopefully the band got it, and not some shitfaced douche in plaid.

THE MAIN SQUEEZE - 06.06.13 - GRAMERCY THEATER (2 hours, 10 minutes)

SET -

Mixed Up / Devil Was an Angel > Mama Told Me / Shake It Off / Pay to Park > Dr. Funk > Tank X-ing / Shakedown Street > Grow / In a Funk / Jungle / I'll Take Another / Ebaneezer / Love Yourself Somebody / Man in the Mirror / Where Do We Go?

ENCORE -

Spines > Spottieottiedopaliscious (tease) > 2001 > The Ants Go Marching (tease) > 2001

Graham Parker & the Rumour Double-Encore for Die-Hards at Gramercy Theatre

Less than a year ago, I was digging through the used LPs at a record store in Greenpoint when I came across a colorful cover that intrigued me.  The album was Stick to Me by Graham Parker & the Rumour.  I bought it, took it home, and listened.  I went back to the shop a week or so later and picked up Heat Treatment.

Graham Parker began as a pub rocker, sort of a British Bruce Springsteen, and before long, his angsty tunes with angular guitars helped to usher in a different sound... new wave.  Though his contemporaries, Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson, became household names, Parker predated them both by a year.  His backing band, the Rumour, accompanied him on five albums, ending with 1980's The Up Escalator.  That is, until last year, when they reunited to record a new LP called Three Chords Good.  The reunion even figured into a subplot in Judd Apatow's This is 40.

I don't usually give so much history on a band, but when I arrived at Gramercy Theatre last night to find myself as one of the only 20-somethings in the room, I figured a little backstory couldn't hurt.

Graham Parker & the Rumour came barreling out the gate with "White Honey" from their debut, Howlin' Wind.  The audience of die-hards roared with approval.  The band moved onto "Fool's Gold," and I smelled something in the room.  Was it weed or mothballs?  Most likely weed that had been kept in mothballs since 1979.  Introducing "Howlin' Wind," Parker admitted, "First album: weather-related songs. All of them.  Because we're English, and we just talk about the weather and how it affects our knees." Parker picked up a pink electric to perform "Coathangers" from Three Chords Good, and pounded out his power chords so passionately that he popped a string.

I saw Toots & the Maytals the previous night at Terminal 5.  Even though he's now 70, Toots Hibbert's voice hasn't changed much since the 1970s.  Time has not been as kind to Mr. Parker, his aged vocals gaining another level of nasality.  Fortunately, his songs don't require a lot of range in that respect, so his cranky lyrics were okay when coming from a cranky, old man.  (The backup vox from the Rumour sounded great, by the way.)  And while his voice may have been limited, he made up for it with boundless energy, executing percussive noises with his mouth, acting out lyrics with his hands, and dancing all over the stage like another GP: Grace Potter.

Graham declared that the '80s were the best era of music, following his statement immediately with "I'll have to stop saying that because no one fucking agrees with me."  Be that as it may, the late '80s sounds of "Get Started. Start a Fire" put smiles on the faces of both the audience and the Rumour, with lead guitarist Brinsley Schwarz having some improvisational fun while keyboardist Bob Andrews plinked out some flourishes.  Parker then relayed a story about playing a song at the Roundhouse in London: "It killed. It stunned.  And we never played it again.  It was slow, and every year we got faster and faster."  The song was "Black Honey," and we were treated to a reprise of the hopeless tune, a nice contrast to "Start a Fire."

The new songs were good too.  Having expanded his songwriting beyond just the atmospheric conditions, Parker tenderly looked back on life with "Long Emotional Ride," vituperated the U.S. to a reggae beat on "Snake Oil Capital of the World," and had a blast delivering a bizarre spoke word section ("I made a lot of white guys very happy.  And it was so easy. #hubris.") in the rockabilly "A Lie Gets Halfway 'Round the World."  And he was visibly happy to be with his band: "You know how it is.  Most bands swing like a eunuch's balls.  But these guys really swing."

And boy, did they swing on the last five songs of the set!  "Discovering Japan" ushered in a string of Squeezing Out Sparks cuts (with a little "Stupefaction" thrown in to get the crowd chanting "hey hey hey"), from the bass-driven fury of "Don't Get Excited" to "Protection," which had everyone in the room dancing.  "Local Girls" was the consummate closer. 

They returned for an encore of "What Do You Like?" from This is 40, with Parker injecting a "Look it up in he dictionary, bitch!" into the lyrics.  They followed it with one of their earliest singles, "Don't Ask Me Questions," the crowd enthusiastically providing the "Hey Lord!"s of the chorus.  The band left the stage once more, and the crowd began to thin.  Those who waited a minute longer got to see one more song from the first album, "Soul Shoes."  Thirty-seven years later, Graham Park & the Rumour still put on a hell of a show.

GRAHAM PARKER & THE RUMOUR - 04.14.13 - GRAMERCY THEATRE

SET -

White Honey / Fool's Gold / Howlin' Wind / Coathangers / Thunder & Rain / Long Emotional Ride / Lady Doctor / Get Started. Start a Fire / Black Honey / Snake Oil Capital of the World / Soul on Ice / A Lie Gets Halfway 'Round the World / Watch the Moon Come Down / Discovering Japan / Don't Get Excited / Protection / Stupefaction / Local Girls

ENCORE I -

What Do You Like? / Don't Ask Me Questions

ENCORE II -
Soul Shoes

Doug Loves Movies: Tig Notaro Loses the Game, But Wins the Crowd

Doug Benson brought his popular podcast Doug Loves Movies to New York's Gramercy Theatre tonight.  The last time he held DLM at the theatre in August, it was a sausagefest, but tonight's show was a total clambake.  Comediennes Amy Schumer, Nikki Glaser, Sarah Silverman, and Tig Notaro joined Doug for an almost two-hour show that included games "Build a Title," "How Much Did This Shit Make," and of course, "The Leonard Maltin Game."

I won't give away the winner, but I will say that this is a must-download when it plops. While her infrequent movie-watching usually makes her a hit-or-miss guest, Tig Notaro was on fire during the show.  After being chided by Doug for not talking enough, Tig began interjecting everyone, adding her dry bits of ignorance at just the right moments to make comedy gold.  When she failed to remember the punchline of a Todd Barry joke, Doug, Sarah, and herself all called Todd's phone simultaneously.  Receiving his voicemail, Tig proceeded to leave a continuous message from each person's phone.  The nametag of the audience member she picked to play for was a Han Solo doll, which she configured to hold her mic cable, swing from it, and drop into a bag of Chipotle chips that served as another nametag.  Sadly, listeners at home won't be able to hear the subtle, nonverbal interplay between her and Silverman, but at least her quest to have the bartenders make her an egg nog will be audible.  

You can download the episode here, and be sure to buy Tig's new album Live (pronounced like the verb), currently being sold for $5 via Louis CK's website. I'm going to right after I post this.