April 20, 2012 in 10, 11, 12, 2, 2010, 25, 2b, 3, 30, 50, 9, a, ACL, after, age, all, am, American, an, and, another, Are, as, at, away, ban, band, bands, Bass, big, black, bouncing, Bridge, Burn, but, by, ca, can, cat, cc, center, chords, chris, color, COMPLETE, console, Crowd, dance, dancing, down, Drums, effects, electric, en, Encore, end, Eve, fall, fee, fi, finish, First, Fog, FOR, Free, From, front, gag, gain, game, get, gin, give, golden, great, Groove, ground, hampton, hi, high, How, in, into, is, IT, IX, jam, Jams, King, Labor, las, Last, late, Led, let, life, light, lights, Like, live, live music, log, long, lot, MA, Made, MI, mix, Music, My, name, Nat, nate, nc, New, News, NH, night, no, NV, ny, of, on, one, op, out, PA, Part, Phish, photos, Piano, play, Pop, Pot, pro, producer, Pt, rain, rev, Road, rock, room, row, rs, SC, second, set, show, Shows, smooth, So, solo, solos, song, Soul, sound, SPAC, St, Stab, stage, start, storm, studio, tab, That, the, theater, Thunder, times, to, tour, two, uic, us, velvet, venue, view, vocal, WA, Way, we, Ween, with, words, You, Your |
Words by: Annelise Poda | Images by: Julie Logan
Miike Snow :: 04.12.12 :: Fox Theater :: Oakland, CA
Photo gallery below review!
 Miike Snow by Julie Logan |
A sold out crowd braved the elements to see Swedish synth rockers Miike Snow last week, crowding into Oaklands Fox Theater to escape a very active lightning storm that lit up the Bay Area night. Once inside, people were lulled into a false sense of security after escaping the torrential rainy weather, but this sense of calm was quickly shattered as Miike Snow appeared and started up an indoor electrical storm of their own. Peoples excited conversations were immediately cut short as pulsing strobe lights kicked in to illuminate fronts of thick, vision-clouding fog. A thunderous, ground shaking bass note echoed through the venue, and the crowd was swept away by the flowing music that began to cascade down from the front of the room.
For initial clarification, Miike Snow is the collective name of the band and not one of the actual musicians on stage. The group started as an side project collaboration between two established Swedish producers and an American songwriter when they met between jobs. Their colorful, synth-laden songs on their eponymous 2010 debut album became a surprise hit and propelled the band to a lengthy, successful world tour right from the start of their existence. They just released their second album, Happy to You, last month, and Miike Snow is back on the road performing their highly danceable, rhythm heavy tunes, complemented by a remarkably visually engaging stage show.
 Miike Snow by Julie Logan |
When the band first appeared, they were clad in the attention-grabbing getup of matching golden masks and black jackets. Lead singer Andrew Wyatt presided over his table of effects pedals, which he manipulated to ring in the booming elongated bass line of Enter the Jokers Lair. It started off slow, but then bandmates Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg jumped in the mix to add their own bobbing and floating notes that fleshed out the song into a melodic, dynamic piece, complete with floating xylophone solos. Everyone on stage was constantly in motion, toggling new settings on their illuminated center console of knobs, tapping out piano notes, or even strumming thumb piano chords to create beautifully layered songs. A skillful drummer hit out intricate rhythms to keep everything in line, and Karlsson and Winnberg would periodically bang out some beats on the floor tom drums that were scattered about the stage. All of these elements melded together to create the signature Miike Snow sound of catchy rhythm-centric synthesized and layered progressions that kept the audience dancing through the entire set.
So many of Miike Snows songs are instant hits, and almost every one they played got a great response from the audience. Wyatt is a very charismatic frontman, and my favorite part of the night was when he skipped to the side of the stage during the grooving instrumental bridge of their new single Paddling Out to bust out some fluid and carefree dance moves. Nobody could avoid the happy vibes he was emanating, and the crowd joined in to cast their inhibitions to the wind and surrender to the music. Another great moment was during Burial, which had the entire crowd singing along. Bright white spotlights lit up Wyatt as he soulfully sang into the mic, illuminating his long hair and beard and giving him an uncanny Jesus-like appearance.
 Miike Snow by Julie Logan |
I was surprised at how well all of these songs translated to a live performance, as the uber-smooth melodies and velvety vocals on Miike Snows albums give the impression that a lot of studio magic was involved in their creation. Instead of their music falling flat, the band kicked it up a notch and turned many of their basic riffs and hooks into rocking instrumental jams with a larger than life sound. Seeing everyone on stage lock into the collective groove to craft this myriad of sounds was great, and it was obvious that someone who knew what they were doing had planned out the accompanying lighting design. The visuals really fit with the music, and the rotating spotlights that cut through the thick layer of fog sometimes made me feel like I was in the middle of a deep-sea submarine game of flashlight tag. A projector added an additional visual spectacle, as complex geometric shapes unfolded on the back wall behind the band.
The band finished up their set with the piano heavy Devils Work, but promptly came back out for an encore and ended the night with a bass-centric rendition of their biggest hit Animal. The songs bouncing hook was given a gritty new bass feel, and people let out their last bursts of dancing energy while jumping up and singing along to an expanded version of the popular song. It was a perfect way to end the night.
Miike Snow definitely lived up to the hype surrounding them, and their live show demonstrated why theyve gained such immediate popularity. The band is headed down to Coachella after this performance, and then continues on another ambitious tour with many dates across the world. Check their upcoming schedule and try to grab tickets early if they come to your town!
4/12/12 – Miike Snow @ Fox Theater (Oakland, CA) View Photos
Miike Snow Tour Dates :: Miike Snow News
JamBase | Paddling Out
Go See Live Music!
Tags: cat, dance, finish, Music, nat, pro, producer, rain, spac, start, ween
April 7, 2012 in 09, 10, 11, 12, 17, 2, 25, 3, 4th, 50, 9, a, acoustic, after, Again, age, all, Also, am, American, an, and, another, Are, around, as, at, audio, awareness, away, Bad, ban, band, bands, Banjo, Bass, big, brother, brothers, Burn, but, by, ca, can, Carolina, cat, cc, center, chris, close, Crowd, dancing, Day, Day., does, en, end, Enjoy, eq, Eve, fail, fall, Famous, Fat, fee, fi, First, Fog, FOR, four, Friend, From, gain, get, Ghost, gin, give, glow, Good, grace, great, ground, Guitar, guitarist, hall, hampton, hi, high, home, Hope, How, ice, in, into, is, IT, IX, jam, John, Joy, June, key, Keys, King, know, las, late, Led, let, life, light, Like, LITTLE, live, live music, long, love, MA, Made, Main, maine, MI, mix, Music, My, Nat, nate, nc, Neil, New, News, NH, night, NJ, no, North, ny, of, on, one, op, Open, opener, opening, out, PA, Part, Phish, play, pro, Pt, quartet, rad, rain, rant, rare, rev, Road, rock, room, row, rs, santa, SC, sci, set, shooting, show, Shows, So, Something, song, Soul, sound, SPAC, St, Stab, start, state, step, stick, storm, style, tab, Taste, That, the, times, to, Too, tour, track, Train, two, uic, underground, us, va, van, velvet, venue, view, vocal, WA, Walk, war, water, waves, Way, ways, we, with, years, You, Young, Your |
By: Dennis Cook
Megafaun with Field Report :: 04.04.12 :: The Crepe Place :: Santa Cruz, CA
Megafaun and Field Report continue their tour tonight, April 6, in Tempe, AZ and roam together through April 14th in Saxapahaw, NC. Megafaun then plays a few opening dates with the Drive-By Truckers in April. Full tour schedule here.
 Megafaun |
Early in Megafaun‘s set I had a powerful urge to slip off my shoes and shuffle around dreamily and carelessly, eyes closed, smile broad. An undulating spirit inhabits the music of this North Carolina quartet, a friendly, slightly-holy ghost that embraces the soul dancing beneath our skin. While I remained shod, clinging to civilized restraint, it was apparent that this evening was more happening than gig, the band shepherding us towards breeze stroked green fields aglow with burnished light, a chance to dangle our toes in cooling waters, a respite from our rut delivered by realists with wide eyes and big, beating hearts.
The feeling one was present at an unexpectedly special gathering began soon after opener Field Report started to weave their spell, which overtook the room like a fragrant fog, surrounding and gently confounding. This is Field Reports first national touring outside of their Wisconsin home base, and a more copacetic pairing with the headliner one could hardly imagine. With judiciously picked guitars, atmospheric keys, insistent, patient rhythms and bright peels of pedal steel, Field Report created a slow cooked sound, all the more flavorful for the control and sparseness of their touch and seasoning, a chefly appreciation of what the careful mingling of ingredients can achieve. Something about this band inspires metaphorical description, one wary of coming at what they do too directly and defusing its delicate, intricate magic. But make no mistake, these are conjurers true, bringing together appealing bits of raw edged Americana with a more benevolent Velvet Underground-y approach, where the mood and message are inextricably tied up in one another, a quiet wrestling match of emotions and deep sounds that occasionally exploded into dissonant shards the contrasts in their music arriving with an off-hand deftness that speaks to long hours spent honing their vision to a fine point.
 Field Report w/ Megafauns Brad Cook on bass |
Bandleader-songwriter-guitarist Chris Porterfield – a former bandmate of the Megafaun guys in DeYarmond Edison with famous chum Justin Vernon – is one of those beautifully dented lightning rods that pulls dishwater tears and crippling joy from the human condition and transmutes them into songs that burrow tenaciously, his wounded, life-saturated voice the center of their storm. The whole band played with tuned-in awareness in Santa Cruz, serving the songs and pouring their own honest emotion into the mix. They remind one a bit of under-sung contemporaries Richmond Fontaine, 13ghosts and Will Johnson (Centro-matic, South San Gabriel), where the sticky, complicated things of life are what draws their attention – scabs picked at and examined, the footsteps leading up to each stumble and leap retraced with insightful honesty. As first impressions go, Ive rarely had a better one, and Im anxious as hell to hear their full-length debut album (arriving this June but yall can get a taste of two tracks here).
Just before Megafaun entered the performance area – everyone stands on equal footing at The Crepe Place – I flashed back five years to the time Id seen the core trio of brothers Phil (keys, banjo, guitar, vocals) and Brad Cook (guitars, vocals) and Joe Westerlund (percussion, vocals) perform at this venue as part of an expanded lineup of Akron/Family, the culmination of a week where I got to know these special, special, special musicians (for a glimpse of that time check out this review). The inner zeitgeist of Megafauns music was just forming, a wilder, rangier thing than what it quickly grew into, the trio showing increasing compositional flair and sophistication with each progressive release that their early shooting-arrows-into-the-cosmos style only hinted at. And here they were again, the main event now, and grown to a four-piece with live bassist Nick Sanborn. Even more clearly today, this is a band of unique talents offering uncompromising yet ever-more appealing music with each successive year, something opener Real Slow encapsulated well with a tactile fullness one felt they could trust-fall into. Right away, there was harmony and richness, a welcoming come-hither that only grew and grew in this intimate setting, a healthy handful of people clustered around the band, drawn more directly and actively into the experience with each selection.
 Megafaun |
Show me no resistance
Understate your case
Time behind your only saving grace
Stalwart disposition hard to penetrate
All you’re looking for is a little space
Several times, Megafaun evoked After The Gold Rush-era Neil Young, particularly on tarnished country-rock shuffle State/Meant, which was full of ache and good intentions, a combination that made ones muscles relax a little. What they do is hopeful but not hollow, the grind of days not forgotten in their verses but something better and brighter peeking in at the edges. Positive musical sentiments can often feel forced or just plain comic in the face of reality, so its especially impressive to me when a band can stimulate faith and good vibes, and not many pull this off as well as Megafaun. Even if our fate is uncertain, our hands shaky and voice hesitant, Megafaun engenders the feeling that it may all work out anyway while never dismissing doubt or fear, understanding that these are components of a truly examined life.
A trio of off-mic acoustic numbers with the band immersed in the center of the crowd may have been the highlight of the diverse-yet-effortlessly-flowing set, with Westerlund reminding us on the first selection that we are the light of the Lord which is a wonderful thing to sing in public even if one has their own internal doubts as accordion moaned and hands reached for the rafters. Afterwards, Brad remarked, Im sensing a nice sense of un-self-consciousness. Were going to take advantage of that. During the audience bolstered take on The Longest Day it hit me that this is a band one could enjoy to the exclusion of other music and always be satisfied, nurtured, challenged, and tickled in fresh ways. Its never great to monomaniacally focused on one thing but its powerful when a band can get one thinking along these lines. Its hardly what such open-minded musical omnivores would want for their fans, but in the moment, fully plugged into what theyre doing as some, present company included, were at this show – it seems a splendid idea to love them and their creations with the same degree of love they pour into them and the experience of sharing them with others.
 Megafaun |
Waves crash on a vacant pier
Boats rock on a sea of fear
The tide is high, your hope still floats
Pull the anchor, cut the ropes
Ride the rails and sing the songs
In the pine’s where we belong
The proximity of the ocean and forests to where we stood in Santa Cruz made the closing, exploratory, jam-dappled Where We Belong especially poignant. Unless one is a rare exception these days, the world does seem at least to a degree rocked by fear. Its often used as a cudgel to control and dupe us into bad decisions by those in power, but theres also legitimate instability most of us are grappling with every day. To be reminded that hope still floats has real force when delivered by messengers like Megafaun. With all the obvious failings and shortcomings out there its amazing to see goodness and caring given incarnation in this way. What they do is easy enough to enjoy at arms length, but if one let them in opened up to that ghost we discussed earlier then one surely left this show warmer, fuller and quietly happier than when they walked in.
Megafaun Tour Dates :: Megafaun News
JamBase | Illuminated
Go See Live Music!
Tags: dancing, Guitar, jam, John, mix, News, night, quartet, santa-cruz, venue, young
March 20, 2012 in 06, 11, 12, 17, 1997, 1999, 2, 2b, 3, 50, 9, 99, a, Again, age, all, Alpharetta, Alpine, Also, am, amphitheatre, an, and, Arc, Are, as, at, ATLANTIC, atlantic city, ban, band, benefit, Burn, by, ca, can, center, champlain, City, close, community, concert, creek, dave, David, Day, deer, en, Encore, Encore Park, end, expo, FEAT, fee, fi, First, fish, fishman, flood, FOR, gain, get, hampton, hi, hurricane, in, is, IT, jam, jon, Jon Fishman, July, June, late, live, long, MA, MI, monday, Nat, nate, nc, New, News, night, no, of, on, op, out, PA, page, Park, Phish, Pt, read, recovery, reunion, rock, rs, run, sara, saratoga, So, SPAC, spring, St, Stab, Summer, Summer Tour, tab, That, the, theatre, to, tour, union, us, va, Valley, van, verizon, vermont, view, vt, WA, water, Way, we, wireless, with, worcester |
AUCTION INCLUDES JON FISHMAN’S “HURRICANE DRESS”
WORN DURING VT FLOOD RECOVERY BENEFIT
Jon Fishman @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre @
Encore Park 06.14.11 by Dave Vann |
Phish‘s WaterWheel Foundation and the Mimi Fishman Foundation have teamed together once again with an on-line charity auction featuring ticket packages for the first leg of the Phish 2012 Summer tour.
Phish kicks off their 2012 Summer Tour on June 7 in Worcester and concludes the leg on July 8 in Saratoga Springs. Stops along the way include Deer Creek, Alpine Valley, and more, as well as a 3-night run in Atlantic City.
The auction also includes the “Hurricane Dress” that Phish drummer Jon Fishman wore during the VT Flood Recovery Benefit concert at the Champlain Valley Expo. The dress is signed by Jon as well. The funds raised for the dress will go to the WaterWheel Vermont Flood Recovery Fund at the VT Community Foundation.
In addition the auction features a very special Strangefolk reunion package. The items featured in the package were donated in honor of Patrick Gallagher and will benefit the Adirondack ASPCA and the Humane Society of Chittenden County.
The WaterWheel Foundation was created by Phish in 1997 to oversee the band’s various charitable activities. The Mimi Fishman Foundation was established in 1999 by Miriam “Mimi” Fishman (the late mother of Phish drummer Jon Fishman) and David Shulman and was created as a vehicle to raise funds for various charities important to Mimi.
The on-line auction is currently live with the bidding coming to close on Monday, March 26.
To view and/or bid on the auction, as well as read about the charities the auction supports, please visit the Mimi Fishman Foundation Auction Page.
Tags: 1999, benefit, champlain, dress, Encore, nat, read, spac, spring, vermont