Statler, slightly Worldoff
Nov. 12th, 2005 08:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogAn awesome night out among the stars and, I do hope, stars-to-be. Performancewise, anyway. Logisticalwise, I'm not so sure. When the featured performer comes out an hour late and greets you by saying how nice it is to be playing on the Titanic, you wonder how their day's been going.
It did not affect the music, though. Not one little bit.
Move along if you're not into this concertspammy stuff, but just to prove we were actually there....
I'm not sure who booked this show into the Statler. Whoever it is, apparently has Rusted Root set up for a show later in the month. There are also many small-venue shows being booked into the Towne Ballroom (formerly Sphere, before that UB's Pfeiffer Theatre, before that the original Studio Arena). All this because our traditional venue for such shows, the Tralf, has been mismanaged out of all its licenses by a 21-year old impresario named Skippy, so we're having to make do without some of the usual concert amenities.
Chairs, for instance. Lotus positions all over the floor when we got there.
Plus, this show was not in the main-floor ballroom I remember from Bar functions early in my career here, but in a little side room a half-flight down. Still beautiful, and we in the back "row" (against the back railing, more like it) were as close to Dar as my garage is to me, but it's clear they had some serious snafuing going on.
We got there late, or so we thought, and I'd feared we'd missed the opener altogether. No worries, our neighboring fans assured us. The threesome didn't take the stage till well past 8, and Dar was still going when we had to carry out a sleeping teenager at around 10:30. This was Girlyman's first gig here, and Dar hasn't been much previously if at all, so I hope this experience doesn't piss them off into non-returning the way some of our promoters have done over the years.
You need to hear this band.
They were introduced as being from Brooklyn, but my geography fails me. I recall a Bay Ridge section of the borough, but not a Blue Ridge one. Yet that is the part that forms the heart of their music. Nothing but the three of them on slightly amplified string instruments until the finale, when Dar and her drummer joined them for a kickass version of "Son of a Preacher Man." Gorgeous harmonies, soulful interpretations, and general loads of fun.
We talked with them after their set, and learned that Tylan's father (who I think is also their record producer) is a bluegrass musician who introduced her to the style. They claim not to have the patience for practicing called for by actual bluegrass music, but you'd never know it.
The almost-hour set included "Speechless," "Young James Dean" and "This is Me," all appearing on their newer CD seen above in sparkly autographed unjewely box. I suspect pieces of this will be falling onto the internets in the next few days, but for free unadulterated samples, you can go here:
http://www.girlyman.com/themusic/soundclips.html
Next thing we knew, a young woman with a guitar was standing onstage alone, singing Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb." She had to open with that, she explained, because ani sang backup on it with her on her latest album and this is ani's town, yo. She also cleared up any confusion about why she chose to cover that particular tune. She was putting together her last album right around the time of the 2004 election, she said, and it just seemed right as a reflection of how our red-stated electorate was making her feel.
After that, though, she brought up the band for a set going most of the way back into her catalog, emphasizing the last two, perhaps, and with the usual amount of Darbanter between most of the songs.
A by-no-means complete set list after the opener: Teen for God, Close to My Heart, Spring Street, I'll Miss You Till I Meet You, Echoes, Another Mystery, Beauty of the Rain.
Then she and the band cranked it up for "Empire," closest they got going all night to a real jam. Our night with Dar ended with just her and her keyboardist, which is much closer than "Empire" is to the singer and writer we love.
She dedicated "O Canada Girls" to Gail, maintainer of the darwilliams.net site who'd snuck over from Canuckistan for the evening show (while the Sabres were kicking Leaf ass several acres to the southeast, incidentally;)
Then The One Who Knows, a tribute song to her Cause DuJour, Buffalo's Compass House, which helps teens in need from all over this area. If we'd had the time and the 25 dollar pledge, you'd be looking at a picture of me and Dar at the afterparty. I'll probably donate to them anyway on her recommendation.
The band came back up after that for what, for us, was the end of the night- Two Sides of a River. By then, the sleepy teenager on the floor had become a sleeping one and it was time to carry her out.
All in all, a happy night. Always good to make new musical friends:)
It did not affect the music, though. Not one little bit.
Move along if you're not into this concertspammy stuff, but just to prove we were actually there....
I'm not sure who booked this show into the Statler. Whoever it is, apparently has Rusted Root set up for a show later in the month. There are also many small-venue shows being booked into the Towne Ballroom (formerly Sphere, before that UB's Pfeiffer Theatre, before that the original Studio Arena). All this because our traditional venue for such shows, the Tralf, has been mismanaged out of all its licenses by a 21-year old impresario named Skippy, so we're having to make do without some of the usual concert amenities.
Chairs, for instance. Lotus positions all over the floor when we got there.
Plus, this show was not in the main-floor ballroom I remember from Bar functions early in my career here, but in a little side room a half-flight down. Still beautiful, and we in the back "row" (against the back railing, more like it) were as close to Dar as my garage is to me, but it's clear they had some serious snafuing going on.
We got there late, or so we thought, and I'd feared we'd missed the opener altogether. No worries, our neighboring fans assured us. The threesome didn't take the stage till well past 8, and Dar was still going when we had to carry out a sleeping teenager at around 10:30. This was Girlyman's first gig here, and Dar hasn't been much previously if at all, so I hope this experience doesn't piss them off into non-returning the way some of our promoters have done over the years.
You need to hear this band.
They were introduced as being from Brooklyn, but my geography fails me. I recall a Bay Ridge section of the borough, but not a Blue Ridge one. Yet that is the part that forms the heart of their music. Nothing but the three of them on slightly amplified string instruments until the finale, when Dar and her drummer joined them for a kickass version of "Son of a Preacher Man." Gorgeous harmonies, soulful interpretations, and general loads of fun.
We talked with them after their set, and learned that Tylan's father (who I think is also their record producer) is a bluegrass musician who introduced her to the style. They claim not to have the patience for practicing called for by actual bluegrass music, but you'd never know it.
The almost-hour set included "Speechless," "Young James Dean" and "This is Me," all appearing on their newer CD seen above in sparkly autographed unjewely box. I suspect pieces of this will be falling onto the internets in the next few days, but for free unadulterated samples, you can go here:
http://www.girlyman.com/themusic/soundclips.html
Next thing we knew, a young woman with a guitar was standing onstage alone, singing Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb." She had to open with that, she explained, because ani sang backup on it with her on her latest album and this is ani's town, yo. She also cleared up any confusion about why she chose to cover that particular tune. She was putting together her last album right around the time of the 2004 election, she said, and it just seemed right as a reflection of how our red-stated electorate was making her feel.
After that, though, she brought up the band for a set going most of the way back into her catalog, emphasizing the last two, perhaps, and with the usual amount of Darbanter between most of the songs.
A by-no-means complete set list after the opener: Teen for God, Close to My Heart, Spring Street, I'll Miss You Till I Meet You, Echoes, Another Mystery, Beauty of the Rain.
Then she and the band cranked it up for "Empire," closest they got going all night to a real jam. Our night with Dar ended with just her and her keyboardist, which is much closer than "Empire" is to the singer and writer we love.
She dedicated "O Canada Girls" to Gail, maintainer of the darwilliams.net site who'd snuck over from Canuckistan for the evening show (while the Sabres were kicking Leaf ass several acres to the southeast, incidentally;)
Then The One Who Knows, a tribute song to her Cause DuJour, Buffalo's Compass House, which helps teens in need from all over this area. If we'd had the time and the 25 dollar pledge, you'd be looking at a picture of me and Dar at the afterparty. I'll probably donate to them anyway on her recommendation.
The band came back up after that for what, for us, was the end of the night- Two Sides of a River. By then, the sleepy teenager on the floor had become a sleeping one and it was time to carry her out.
All in all, a happy night. Always good to make new musical friends:)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-11-12 05:55 pm (UTC)Told you so? ;)
:: (while the Sabres were kicking Leaf ass several acres to the southeast, incidentally;)
I'm sorry, all I saw of that was "Leaf ass" and I got a little excited for a moment there....
THANK YOU for ze calls!
no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 08:15 pm (UTC):choke: and back again!
For shame! For shame!
Ah, but then The Laff's redeem themselves and beat their long-time rivals, The Canadiens :)
Yayayayayayayayay!
no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 11:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-14 01:08 am (UTC)