show review: el olio wolof, rademacher, admiral radley

saturday night we were able to attend our 2nd love the captive show. this time it would be at the star palace, a place both monticore & i have been to something or other at (we think) but we couldn't remember exactly what (maybe some fpu event?).

the doors were supposed to open at 8, and el olio wolof was supposed to go on at 9. we showed up a little before 9, and there were still people waiting outside. this wasn't just some stragglers that were having a smoke, this was everybody. and, at the time i didn't see anyone i knew, so it was unclear what was going on. all we knew is that doors hadn't opened yet.

so, we wondered around a little, and eventually a friend had showed up and had run into conlan from ltc. it was explained that there were some sound issues and that the doors would open soon. well, soon is a pretty relative term, and the doors did eventually open. here's my thought on the issue: put a sign up on the door explaining the issue & keep it updated as frequently as possible with times. not everyone is an extrovert that is going to ask anyone near the door what is going on. i'm fairly outgoing but still won't do that. btw, thanks to conlan for putting up with my jokes about this throughout the night.

once inside, i made a b-line over to the bar. i wanted to see drink prices and such, and they weren't bad. $5 may be a little high for a bottled beer, but it's not terrible. and, the cocktail prices were decent enough as well. the two guys tending bar were personable enough, and it was a decent fit for the night.

el olio wolof was on first, and due to set up were on the floor, rather than the stage. i'm a big fan of el olio, and i thought they played a very good set. sadly, it was shortened due to the late start, but we understood. i mean, i still shouted for another song or two, but udnerstood when r.c. shut that down. here's el olio wolof performing their song "red witch of my dreams,":



rademacher was up second, and they were also on the floor level. if you've ever read this blog before you know i'm a rademacher fanboy, so i won't take up a lot of space gushing about them here. i thought they played a nice (also time shortened) set. here they are with their song, "roll,":



this brings us to our headliner, admiral radley. i should've spent some time last week listening to ad/rad. shoot, ltc sent out links to where i could've listened for free last week. i figured that since i enjoy earlimart and enjoyed grandaddy that it would be some seamless transition for my ears and enjoyment. sadly, it wasn't as smooth as hoped. they weren't bad, i just didn't quite get into them, and unfortunately we had to check out early so i didn't get to see their whole set. so, i can't really give a qualified review of the biggest part of the show. here they are playing:



finally, let's have some overall reflections on the night:
-venue: i like star palace. it's got the cool, black & white checkerboard floor. it's got huge windows that you can peer out of onto fulton & spy on people. i also imagine that for jam packed shows these windows will be a real enticement as people see from the street how packed it is, how alive downtown can be. i also liked the silhouettes of celebs on the walls, they give the feel of something different than most fresno venues.
-bar: as i said earlier, it was decently good. a little more diversity in beers would be good, and maybe a slightly larger plastic cup on the mixed drinks could be given, but these are small suggestions. i wasn't there for the bar, i was there for the show.
-sound: something that i noticed, and i don't have an answer for, was the fact that both of the opening acts only had one microphone, and it seemed that it was one borrowed from the headliners. venues need to provide quality equipment, and in enough numbers. both rademacher and el olio do quite a bit of off mic singing as well as backing vocals, something that was lost with only one mic.
-crowd: i thought the crowd that was there was rather good. they seemed pretty into the bands, cheered after songs, and some sung along when appropriate. the drawback to the crowd was that it wasn't big enough. my estimate was that there were 70-80 people there (maybe i'm underestimating, i don't know). if you were in the front (& not looking back) or just at the back of the crowd, it was a good crowd. if you were 30' back, or at the back windows, you realized how many more people could, and should, have been there. it's going to take time for ltc & their shows to grow and attract consistent numbers, so i'm not criticizing them at all, i just wish that more had been there on saturday night.

anyway, good night overall, and i am interested to see more shows at star palace, frank's place, or wherever else love the captive books a show.

surprise show review

yesterday i received a text and also saw a facebook post that rademacher was doing a surprise show at tokyo garden with the band mad happy. i'd never heard of mad happy, but thought i'd go because it would be rademacher's first show back as a four piece. that's right, last show they were a new three piece featuring r.c. on bass, and now they're a four piece with r.c. on bass, eli on drums, johnathan hadden (back from n.y. & in the band) on rhythm guitar and malcalm sosa on lead guitar and vocals.

i knew it would be a small show, and did my best to spread the word a little via text and twitter. two friends decided to join me and i headed off to the show.

so, as mad happy sound checking, one of my friends was saying how he bought their cd the last time they were in town. he admitted he was a little "influenced" at the time, and we were giving him a hard time about his purchase. by the end of their set i was considering a cd myself, although i abstained. but here are some thoughts i jotted down last night:

- secret surprise show = no people
- strange band fresno people don't know = no people

seriously, mad happy had one fan there. there was me & my two friends. there was one guy sitting at the bar. three other people came in later. seven people for two bands.

- mad happy was a little too demanding during sound check. i know, you want your monitors right, but they guy just seemed a little primadonna-ish

- bring your own fans. really, we wondered after the show when it was planned. mad happy basically drives around the country in a car with their baby and their dog. so, i'm sure they get in touch with people and set up shows, but they've got to have some network of fans.

- very fun stage presence. they're a two piece, and the guy is just dancing and flying all around the stage. the girl might've been more animated, but she had her baby in a frontpack.

- that's right, there was a baby. on stage. with headphones. the baby with headphones was a pretty funny touch, especially when we called them earmuffs during a song that was littered with f bombs.

- since most everyone was city at the bar, the band made a joke that we were at an anti-bar-mitzveh. a mitzveh being a blessing, a barmitzveh being a party to celebrate, i guess he didn't feel we were having enough fun. but we were.

- music was cool. it had a jewish feel, with hip hop harmonies. really, the vocal interplay of the two was dope.

- the said they would trade green for a cd. not green paper, but green. they also said they'd trade green paper for cd's as well.

- i never would have expected that i was coming to a jewish hippy hip hop show when i left the house tonight.


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- rock-a-macher showed up tonight.

- the sound was very tight. reintroduction of john hadden wasn't a problem at all, even with just 1 practice as a four piece.

- mike on lead guitar = good!

check out the song i bootlegged that inspired the previous comment. it's called charles.

- r.c. on backing/shouted vocals is super nice

- sounding the best i've heard in quite some time

- when jonathan was in the band before he was the only one playing guitar, and i think this limited him. with mike on guitar as well, hadden was able to play with more flare tonight and it was cool.

- the show ended up being basically a trial run/band practice for rademacher's upcoming weekend shows (cellar door in visalia, the smell in los angeles)

have another bootlegged song if you got some magic.

hey, i had a good time last night. it was only $3, and it felt like a private show.

post art hop show review

so, i tried to write up a review of the post art hop show on friday, but blogger was down and i was unable to get it done. now, as the weekend comes to a close, i've got a chance to reflect and write a little about the show.

i didn't feel like driving, and neither did the other person i was sure that was going to the show, so i pitched the idea of walking. we're two strapping young(ish) men and spend a lot of time walking in our neighborhood. however, tokyo isn't quite in our 'hood, but it's not really that far away. i mean, i've walked it in the daytime, and i've ridden my bicycle down there once at night, but i hadn't walked it. it's funny how your mind tricks you on somethings, i almost completely forgot an entire block in the walk. so, by the time we reached tokyo, we were a little warm despite the chill in the air.

since we walked, we arrived around 9:45 and the first act was already on. it was scheduled to be local punk group it'll grow back, but instead it was just their frontman, josh tehee on an acoustic guitar. i had a bit of a difficult time getting into josh's set because it seemed they were still working out the sound system, and proper micing of the guitar. even though i didn't get into the music, i had a good time chatting with josh after his set. he's a funny dude, and i tweeted, "Josh tehee is the poop. funny, talented and an all around nice guy."

after josh was done, it'll grow back came on stage and started to sound check. the first note was so crazy loud that we decided to step outside for a bit. we actually listened to most of their set out there, and it was still pretty loud. for the last few songs we went back in and i made ear plugs out of paper towel to cut a bit off the top. my ears thanked me the next day. i'll be honest, i'm a bit unsure about trumpet solo. they are obviously talented and enjoy what they're doing. but the metal doesn't quite do it for me, and i have a bit of trouble getting into/deciphering the lyrics.

next on stage was the band spider problem, up from the l.a. area. they had a sort of low fi, garage punk sound. i had asked eli from rademacher about them the night before and he said they were good, and that the lead singer was usually rolling around on stage or half naked. there was no half naked, but definitely a lot of stage antics like climbing on stuff, jumping into things, smacking other members of the band. whatever, i was really into the music. it was loud and fast, but very enjoyable. (and yes, i did fashion another set of earplugs from a paper towel for their set as well.) i tweeted about digging the show, and i saw several others from the show had done similar things. i even plunked down the $5 for a cd.

last on the night was our hometown heroes, rademacher. this was my first chance to see them playing with r.c. of el olio wolof on bass. here's my tweets from the show, "holy isht. #rademacher is super dope with radioactive cauliflower on bass. and I'm going 2b deaf tomorrow from all these bands." "if youve ever seen rademacher you need to see rademacher again." "rc reminds me of shel Silverstein. I think it's the beard." the funny thing about the last tweet is that r.c. is a big silverstein fan, and when i mentioned to him he seemed rather happy, and rattled of some silverstein poetry. it was a great cap to the night. seriously, rademacher is as musically tight as i've seen them in a long time. r.c.'s skill on bass is easily observed, and it was great to have malcolm back playing guitar. the songs popped, although there were a few slip ups along the way. but hey, new line ups take a little time to iron out all the creases.

a cab ride later, i was back in my neighborhood and home.

concert review el olio wolof + sholi + castanets

well, the show was billed as starting @ 8, which seemed freakishly early for a show. of course, when i got there @ 8:05, the show was not starting...for another hour and a half. okay, whatever. not a big deal. we got to hang out and chat.

the castanets went on first, and there were parts of the show i enjoyed. they were an odd duo, and i'm not quite sure how to describe their set accurately. i dug many of the guitar parts. at times, you could really feel a sort of alt-country tinge. but, the whole set was kind of a big musical blob. and, a really didn't care for the vocals. not the sound of the vocals, just the delivery.

sholi was up next. they hail from the bay area, which really isn't that important for the description of the set. it was very good, and reminded me of radiohead @ times, brazzaville @ other times, and their own mix of it all. i was rather impressed with the way many of the songs incorporated two sets of drums. the did a song called hejrat which was originally done by a iranian singer named googoosh. this was a beautiful number, and it may have been the highlight of the show for me. i was also stoked that they were selling a 7" vinyl that had it, which i bought.

el olio, well what haven't i said about them before? to me, they are often like the music of a dream. @ other points, they continue to remind me of a tim burtonesque carnival. songs about dragons, brontisauri, tree climbers/shakers and more weave together to make a fabulous musical tapestry. i continue to be blown away by the bouncing bass lines. and r.c., that guy is nimble on his feet, as well as being a great musician and vocalist.

so, i enjoyed the night. there is just something about seeing live music performed that makes my pulse jump.