Elvis Costello and the Imposters ripped through almost 30 songs in their two-plus hour set last night at the LC Pavilion, with a little help from audience members who helped construct the night's play list via a giant spinning wheel with 40 song titles on it.

It's a gimmick Elvis employed 25 years ago on the first 'spinning song book' tour, and he's resurrected the concept this spring, first with a few dates in major markets and then an expanded tour throughout June and July. I feel fortunate that the tour, now called "The Revolver Tour", touched down in Columbus last night, as I missed the original spinning song book tour, lo those many years ago.

Elvis relished his master-of-ceremonies role, as he plucked members of the audience and brought them on stage to spin the wheel. The lucky fans then got to sit in the "Society Lounge", a small bar next to a go-go dancing stand, while they enjoyed their selection. The free-spirited fans among the selected soon joined the dancer in the go-go cage.

Costello's voice showed signs of wear during slower balads like "Long Honeymoon" and "God Give Me Strength". He compensated by giving up-close-and-personal deliveries of the song, as he wandered through the crowd with a cordless mic. To call the vibe at the front of the stage a love-fest would be an understatement.

Elvis played several different guitars with abandon throughout the set. It's a guitar geek's dream watching these instruments come out over the course of the evening. While he's derisively referred to his guitar playing prowess as "little hands of concrete", I've always felt that Costello knows his limitations yet still adds effective solos to match the more frenetic numbers in his repertoire.

The Imposters were in top-notch form as usual. Pete Thomas (drums) and Davey Faragher (bass) made the rhythm seem effortless all night long. Keyboardist Steve Nieve switched from piano, to organ, to theremin, adding clever fills to some songs. The one I remember the most was "If I Only Had a Brain" from The Wizard of Oz, creeping into the end of the finale, "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love and Understanding". A smile broke out on Nieve's face as he played the tune and glanced at his bandmates, and I thought that this must be how one must keep it fresh after playing the same songs night after night.

But it's not the same songs, at least not the same songs in the same order, thanks to the serendipity of the spinning wheel.

The best thing about the show was the reactions of the folks chosen to come on stage to spin the wheel. Elvis picked a number of youngsters, maybe between 13 and 17 years-old, throughout the night. One boy welled-up on stage and gave Elvis a big hug. Another girl had The Singing Dictionary with her and opened it up to the song she wanted him to sing. Elvis looked at it, muttered something and then asked the girl's friend to spin the wheel. It landed on "God Give Me Strength". When it was done, the guitar tech handed Elvis a battered, red Stratocaster, and he launched into the song that the girl had requested from her songbook, "Less Than Zero". She started tearing-up as he played it, and gave him a hug and a peck on the cheek before being ushered off stage. She couldn't have been more than 16. It does my heart good to know that his music still resonates with young folks.

One clever son got his father and himself on stage with a hand-made sign that read "Mr Dynamite, please choose my dad on Father's Day." The boy's dad was ecstatic when the wheel landed on "Chelsea", and he danced in the go-go booth with a big grin on his face. Elvis took a short break after that tune and then came back out to sing "My Three Sons" in honor of Father's Day.

Near the end of the show, Elvis cheated (not the first time) to get the wheel to land on "Alison". Other highlights included a sing-along on "Everyday I Write the Book" and a cover of the Beatles' "And Your Bird Can Sing". "This is the Revolver Tour, after all," Elvis said, before starting the tune.

If you are a fan of 1977-86 era Elvis Costello, this tour will not disappoint, especially if you can get the wheel to land on "Happy" for Get Happy!!. See the play list (linked below) and you'll know what I mean.

Set list (from setlist.fm)

Okay, I know it was a week ago and I should probably be writing about the parking lot blow-out instead, but here's some pictures and video clips from Comfest.



Matt Wagner holding up the "bass solo" t-shirt during the Lindsay's set on Sunday. Thanks to Casserole for this wonderful shot.



Lydia Loveless singing "I Always Lose" on Friday. Thanks, orlosperry.



Despite the poor sound quality, this gives you an idea of how the Kyle Sowashes rock out, even with the physical impairments. Thanks, corggirl.

I thought I'd post these before they became a distant memory. A week ago Saturday was the Surly Girl parking lot blow out. It was a benefit for the Columbus Music Co-op. I volunteered from 2-6 p.m. and took some pictures.

First, during a break in the action, I ran down to Little Brother's and bought a t-shirt from Dan Dougan. These shirts were at Comfest, but they were out of my size by the end of the night. After picking out my shirt, I said to Dan, "I'm gonna miss this place, man."

"You're not the only one," he grumbled.

I took the opportunity to take a few snaps while I was there. I wanted to make sure I got a picture of dead Elvis with the bunny slippers on. This was a picture I looked at every time I came to a show at Little Brother's.



And then it was back to the parking lot:

Terribly Empty Pockets


The Exceptionals


Sweatheart, from Philadelphia


Good Company


Some little guys having fun with Good Comapny's trampoline


Earwig


The Patsys


Jess holding up a young Preston Furman fan as she introduces her favorite band


Preston Furman


I stayed for the Lindsay's set, but I think the pics I took at Comfest are better. Maybe I'll upload and post those before Christmas. I left just as they were putting all the skulls on the stage for Buffalo Corpse. To get an idea of what they and the final band, The Means, are like, check out this collection of youtube videos.

Okay...the big excitement this week in the Columbus music scene was the reunion of Scrawl, as part of the bittersweet 10th birthday party for Little Brothers. More info on Scrawl's future plans are in this Columbus Alive story.

I'm just here today to tell you that Scrawl totally rocked the house. No moss growing here. The latest drummer, Jovan Karcic, is skilled, keeping a steady, propulsive beat. If you're lucky enough to live in Columbus ( wow...never thought I'd utter that phrase ), see them if they play again in July or August, as they are hinting at in the article.

Despite some problems with a guitar amp early in the set that triggered an impromptu version of "Love's Insectside" while members of Earwig scrambled to set up another amp, Scrawl rocked out. See the set list below. The final song, a searing run-through of "Breaker, Breaker" left us all wanting more.

The Lindsay and Earwig played also. I liked both sets. The Lindsay have that big guitar and drum, sort of psychedelic sound that sounds better on disc than it did through the muddy mix last night. Earwig were tight as hell, great pop rock. I'm going to have to pick up their latest. It's on sale at Meijer. You hear me. Meijer.

Iskabibble closed out the night's festivities, but the crowd was significantly lighter and it seemed a completely different sort of folks were gathered close to the stage for that one.

And now for my sloppy pictures. Dear girl with the video camera who shot most of Earwig and Scrawl, please read this and please contact me and tell me that you've posted your stuff somewhere on the interweb. You disappeared before I could give you a card.

The Lindsay


Earwig


Marcy singing the Tom Petty part of "Stop Dragging My Heart Around" with Earwig


Marcy


Sue


Jovan, wearing a warm-up jacket with very reflective strips on the sleeves, apparently.


The set list. I like Marcy's notes to retune after certain numbers.

I went to the Peter, Bjorn and John show at the Wexner Center this evening. It was a good time. Two other bands warmed up: All-female synth-pop trio from Brooklyn, Au Revoir Simone and Fujiya and Myagi, who are neither Japanese nor a duo. F&M are another trio of musicians from England. Au Revoir Simone was well received, and group member Annie even commented on how attentive we all were. I've said it before and I'll say it again. The audience is attentive at the Wenxer because they don't sell booze. Just takes a few assholes to have a few too many, and then they decide they need to be a part of the show.

Annie was working the merch table on my way out, so I gave her a pat radio card and let her know I enjoyed their set and that their discs are in my rotation. She seemed happy to hear that. She was polite, anyway, and thanked me for coming out to the show.

Fujiya and Myagi got the crowd moving a bit more, thanks to funky bass and guitar work. "Collarbone" was probably the highlight of their set. Both openers clocked in at around 30 minutes.

Peter, Bjorn and...the guy on drums took the stage about 20 minutes after Fujiya and Myagi finished up. I had wondered earlier in the day why John didn't make it to the on-air Big Room performance at CD-101, and then, as it turned out, I got to the show tonight too early and had time to go to the autograph session ( Which NO ONE must have known about), and there were only Peter and Bjorn. An acquaintance told me he heard that John stayed back in Sweden, where he's apparently in high demand as a sessions drummer.

Whoever it was on drums filled in ably. Funny bunch of fellows, particularly bassist Bjorn. They played some numbers off their earlier album, Falling Out, as well as most of the higlights from Writer's Block. They brought Doug, the driver for Au Revoir Simone - and insiders tell me, a member of NYC band Dirty On Purpose, up to play bongos on "Young Folks", and Heather of Au Revoir Simone helped out with the female vocals on the tune that everyone came to hear. "Up Against the Wall" closed the set in rollicking fashion, and unfortunately, because of the curfew at the Wexner, the band could only come back for one encor. Their set list, which I grabbed, had two other songs listed.

Here's some pics. I was seated in the balcony. I used a flash until an usher told me I was not allowed. So the first batch of pictures are sharper, but I had to boost the brightness. The others suffer from blurred motion. Heather is all blurry in my shot of "Young Folks", but that's the best of the lot during that song.

So...do PB&J suck live? I would say absolutely not. Listen to all the songs on Young Folks, get a feel for what this band is really all about, and don't come expecting a note-for-note perfect rendition of their super smash hit.

Au Revoir Simone


Fujiya & Miyagi



Peter, Bjorn and John

Casper and the Cookies and The Apples in Stereo rocked Little Brother's last Thursday night and I'm just now getting around to uploading the pictures. Apologies to the Proper Nouns. I didn't get there early enough for their set. I'd write a review of the show, but everything I was going to say was said already by my friend Harry. Read his review here.

The Pictures:

Check out mog.com/patradio for text about these shows.

Thunderbirds are Now!




Oxford Collapse







Pony Up!

Available on my mog: http://mog.com/patradio

...last Friday night. I'll try to document my memories before they become a week-old.

First of all, here's some pics of Colin Meloy and Jenny Conlee from the show. These pictures come courtesy of H-Bomb over at ThaBombShelter. He has more pictures there and a pretty thorough review. He was a bit closer to the stage and apparently surrounded by more drunk assholes than I was. The behavior he describes in his post is pretty much par for the course of any Columbus show at which buckets of Bud Light are for sale. Also, it turns out H-Bomb and I know each other in real life, but that's a story for another time perhaps.






Colin and co. pretty much served up the latest record, The Crane Wife, and older tunes were few and far between. I didn't mind so much as the new tunes are pretty good. The first highlight of the evening was the disco-inspired "Perfect Crime 2", during which Colin divided the crowd on the floor into three groups. One group was supposed to mosh, the other disco-dance, and the third African folk-dance. "You're sewing the seed," Meloy told the third group. Colin also slipped a couple lines from the Smiths' "The Queen Is Dead", which fit perfectly into the song and were completely lost on the 20-somethings surrounding me.

Later Meloy grabbed a cell phone from the crowd and sang a verse of "The Culling of the Fold" into someone's voicemail. Then there was the "La-dee-dah-dee-dah-dee-do-dee-dah-dee-dah" contest during "Sixteen Military Wives", and they ended the show with "A Cautionary Song", which featured Chris Funk, John Moen, and multi-instrumentalist / back-up singer Lisa Molinaro (of the Portland duo Talkdemonic) entering the crowd with a drum and percussion instruments. When they reached the center of the pit, not far from where I was standing, Meloy directed us to make room for them as they selected members of the audience to help them re-enact the battle of Gallipolis. It was a kooky bit, but at least they didn't retread the whole whale bit that they did for "The Mariner's Revenge Song" on their '05 tour.

I just read a couple recent online reviews of the Decemberists shows in Chicago and New York. Both critics disparaged these antics as rock-show grand-standing, that the serious subject matter of the songs demanded a more serious demeanor from Meloy. Whatever. The band was tight and the audience had fun. What more could one ask for?

It was also "bag on Death Cab" night, as Meloy made several disparaging comments about the band that was due to play the LC pavillion three nights after them. "How many of you have bought tickets for that show? It's too late now. They've got your money and they're laughing all the way to the bank." Meloy later admitted that they love "the boys from Bellingham", and they ought to, as Chris Walla of DCFC co-produced The Crane Wife.

And for the record, I liked hearing "July, July" and "Red Right Ankle", two songs which were left off of their set when they played last in Columbus. The crowd didn't piss me off that much, even with the people who barge by you and insist, "I just have to get back to my friends up there. Sorry." Bullshit. Just admit that you're rushing the stage at the last minute and inconveniencing the people who have paid their dues and stood here for two hours already. I could have done without the guy who kept yelling "Capital records, yeah!" Like it was some sort of "you're a bunch of sell-outs" commentary or something. And to the drunk dipwads who tried starting up the "OH-IO" chant during a lull in the set, do you people ever quit with that shit? Evar???

Even though I'd seen a 90 minute set by Elvis and Allen Toussaint at Bonnaroo, I have to see him when he comes through Columbus. For years he didn't come through here. 13 years, to be exact. ('89-'02) I should know. I lived through them all. Now he's here every summer with some other music legend, mining songs of the past as well his own back catalog. Last summer it was Emmylou Harris and the Graham Parsons songbook. This time around it's Allen Toussaint and Soul and R&B from the Big Easy.

But I'm straying from my original point...I'll get to the music in a minute. I couldn't justify paying whatever it was, I think $30, for a lawn seat, when I'd just seen him two weeks before. "But this is the whole show; not the Bonnaroo Digest Condensed Version," said the voice in my head. "He's coming through your backyard, practically. What's wrong with you?" So I did what every cheap bastard does. I tried to win tickets.

First time I was caller number #2. "Try again." Damnit! Next time I'm in the car driving to work with my carpool buddy and the morning deejay says it's going to be a trivia contest. No sweat, I think. I've got this. Nobody beats me at music trivia. Especially nobody beats me Elvis Costello music trivia. So like a good little boy, I actually wait until the deejay asks the question instead of just dialing and getting the ring until he picks up. He finally gets done blathering and asks, "What do Elvis Costello and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith have in common?' Simple. I punch the send button and wait while the phone rings and rings. Someone who dialed in before the question sniped me, goddamn it. Oh...by the way, Elvis and Tyler both banged Bebe Buell. Read her tell-all book if you're extremely bored.

Later in the day my lovely wife IMs me and says that once again she was caller #2 for the last pair of tickets they were going to give away. I got out of work early and my wife got home a couple hours afterwards. She suggested an early start on the Thurman Cafe for dinner. ( the place is always packed ) So we pile the family into the car and head down to German Village. We're there early enough and get seated. I'm enjoying my huge-ass, artery-clogging sandwich, when son number #1 answers the "Dad's enjoying his dinner too much" alarm in his brain and insists on going to the restroom again.

After spending a fortnight in the restroom waiting for my son to finish washing his hands and playing with the automatic hand dryer, I returned to our booth. My wife slides a ticket across the table to me. "I so got your back, man." I about flipped my lid. Someone came into the bar while we were in the john with three tickets to give away.

So she dropped me off at the "LC Pavilion" and I took a cab home after the show. I promise I'll talk a little bit about the show, but first let me do the annoying rant about staying sober at a show when people are getting steadily and purposefully drunk all around you. It's not like I've never gotten wasted at a concert before, but by and large concerts are like sacred events for me. I bring paper and a pen, keep a set list ( or try to -- It's really unnecessary in this internet age...I can always count on some obsessive in the crowd to be taking the set list down and having it posted somewhere on the 'net by the next morning. Oh...and here it is.) I make notes of things to remember, and try to block out distractions and study what is happening on stage.

There weren’t a lot of drunks on the lawn; really a tame crowd in comparison to other shows I've been to at the Pavilion. It's just remarkable to see the same people trotting across the grass with, I can't even call them glasses, tubs of beer...and then going back for rounds two, three, and four. I just think...damn, if you just want to drink beer and chat with your friends, save yourself the $30 and stay at home. Crank up This Year's Model and open your living room windows. 50% of the folks on the lawn are all about "Watching the Detectives", "Alison", and "Pump It Up" and pretty much yammered through all the new stuff. I was happy Elvis dispensed with "PIU" relatively early, and then did "Alison" early in his first encore. I think it thinned the crowd out a bit. He motioned for folks to come up closer to the stage during his encore. And people did, to the best of their ability. The lawn was barricaded from the reserve seats this time around. Still, I felt like for the last 20 minutes, Elvis had the crowd, maybe the nearer third of the crowd, completely in the palm of his hand, as he performed mostly songs that weren't his. It was a New Orleans love fest with an incredibly tight, smokin' band. I wrote last week about Big Sam Williams, the trombonist. He stole the show again.

Musical highlights: Great horn arrangement on "Chelsea". Elvis jammed, as best he can, on guitar during "Dust". "Detectives" featured a trumpet and trombone solo as well as reverbed vocals whenever Elvis sang "heart" at the end of the chorus. Steve Nieve finally got his chance to shine on a fantastic arrangement of "Clubland" during the encore. Elvis capped the show with a sing-along to "Sharpest Thorn". 15 minutes shy of three hours. Worth every penny.

Note: I have hi-res copies of the pictures below, plus plenty others if you're interested in them. Drop me a note via the request form.

Wow! Bonnaroo 2006 has come and gone. I'm exhausted and sifting through all of my memories, trying to decide if I will do it again next year or some time down the road. The line-up of headliners will have to be as good as this year for me to consider it. The heat, the crowds, the standing for six hours straight; it takes its toll, and we even stayed in a hotel. God only knows what shape I would be in if we had camped all weekend. But enough whining. Let me tell you about the music. On Friday we got on the grounds with enough time to get the lay of the land. I heard the first few songs of World Party's set. The band was Karl, with another guitarist and a violinist. Of the songs I recognized, I heard "Put the Message In the Box" and "She's the One".



I hurried over to one of the tents to hear Andrew Bird and Martin Dosh play. They put on a good show. Bird seemed to have changed his delivery to suit the situation, with volume, dynamics and showmanship befitting an audience of 1,000 fans. And they were all fans. I had no idea he would be that big of a draw. So...like I said, the vibe was different than the intimate show I caught last November at the Wexner Center, but it was still great. I joined my friend Tom under a tree during Bird's last song and commented on Bird's whistling. A woman next to us said, "That's him whistling?" I replied yes. It's really a surprise the first time you hear it. I also learned on Sunday that Bird sat in on My Morning Jacket's set, but we missed that.

   

After Bird we went to the "Which Stage" for Ben Folds' set. It was probably the least enjoyable of the shows I was prepared to see, though it was no fault of Ben's. We were just too far away from the stage and surrounded by people gabbing or singing along, badly, with the music. Also Folds did a lot of the same sing-a-long gimmicks he's been using for years on the road. He brought out some guy named "Hi-Hat Man" from Murfreesboro, TN, who played the hi-hat cymbals during "Zak and Sara". He didn't play "My Philosophy", which I was hoping to hear. A crazed run-through of "One Angry Dwarf" ended the show, with Folds beating his piano with his piano stool.



At that point, I had a decision to make. I was thinking about checking out G. Love and Special Sauce, even though I really am not all that familiar with them. I decided instead to stay at "That Tent" and watch Nicklecreek. I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not a fan of bluegrass music in the slightest, but I couldn't have had a better introduction to it then Nicklecreek. I don't suppose they are considered Bluegrass purists, judging from the nutty cover version they do, but they have the skill and talent to hold their own in that field, I'm sure. The mandolin player in particular was incredible. I was slowly won over by them over the course of their set. The aforesaid covers were the following: "Toxic" by Britney Spears, "Short People" by Randy Newman, Radiohead's "Nice Dream", a knod to the headliners of Bonnaroo, and The Band's "The Weight".

   

Another factor in seeing Nicklecreek was that Cat Power was appearing on the same stage right afterwards. I had already made my first hard decision of the weekend. Cat Power won over Death Cab for Cutie. I’m confident I can catch Death Cab somewhere else. But I wasn’t so sure with Cat Power. She had the Memphis Rhythm Band in tow, who back her up on her latest album. I had heard varying opinions of Cat Power’s live show, that she’s sometime great, sometimes awful, sometimes doesn’t even make it through the set. But a friend had told me she had sobered-up. It might have been the “health reasons” she cited for canceling her Spring North American tour. Indeed she announced near the end of her set that she was sober, that it was a better way to live and also gave her a clearer head for dealing with the men in her life. She followed that with a cover of “Hit The Road, Jack.” She also did a cover of the Everly Brother’s “Dream”. I didn’t keep a set list, but I believe she did another cover. For me, the best parts of the show were the songs from The Greatest. The Memphis Rhythm Band had horns, stings, two back-up singers. A great sound.

   

To call Chan Marshall a tad flakey would be an understatement. I found her dancing strange and she often said things during songs that were completely distracting. At one point she was trying to signal her crew for something during a song and finally blurted out in the middle of a verse, “Can I get some water?” It was breaks like these that kept me from completely enjoying her set.

I grabbed some quick dinner after Cat Power and then Tom and I headed into the “What Stage” for the first time to watch Tom Petty. Wowl That’s one big field! We had to settle for seats way back. We could still hear just fine. Petty came on a half-hour late. It was fun listening to tunes I hadn’t heard in years. I was a Petty fan in high-school. He played “Handle Me With Care”, a Traveling Wilburys song. Stevie Nicks joined him on stage a couple of times. They performed “Stop Dragging My Heart Around” and “The Insider”. Nicks also did the vocals on “I Need To Know”. Petty did the Yardbirds' "I'm a Man", Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well”, and Them’s “Gloria”. All in all, not a bad set.

We milled around a bit afterwards and caught a few minutes of My Morning Jacket’s late-night set before calling it a night. On our way to the car, we found a kid passed-out in the day-parking field. He was in a prime run-me-over location. We alerted the staffer who was “guarding” the exit, and he said, “Oh man, I can’t leave my post and I don’t have a radio. Can you drag one of those orange barells over to him or walk back to one of the Pods to let them know?” Erm…no. We don’t care that much. Tom woke the kid up, who said he needed to get to “purple 7” – The area is marked with large, floating colored and numbered baloons. So he wasn’t far from his campsite, but he kept falling down.

This is as good a place as any to editorialize about the clueless staffers and volunteers at Bonnaroo. First of all, I’ll say that they obviously do an incredible job of keeping basic services and safety in-check. An event of the magnitude could easily degenerate into anarchy if the organizers did not have a tight lid on things. That said, Tom and I learned pretty quickly that a question posed to any volunteer at Bonnaroo would be answered with “I don’t know.” The capper was this morning. (As I write this I am sitting in the Nashville airport on my way home.) I had purchased an airport shuttle pass yesterday from a girl who had an extra. We confirmed last night before leaving the site where the pick-up location was for the shuttle and the time that the shuttles began. This morning we were stopped at the west tollbooth and told that no cars would be allowed into the site until 7 a.m. We explained that I needed to get to an airport shuttle. For at least the second time, we were met with total ignorance on the part of Bonnaroo staff that there was even such a thing. I understand that the shuttle service was run by another company and not under the control of Bonnaroo, but I would at least expect that the right hand would know that the left-hand existed even if it didn’t know what the left-hand was up to. The supervisor at the tollbooth sent us to antother entrance that was closer to the pick-up point, saving us a mile walk across the compound, but again we were stopped by another staffer who said we could not enter the site at this entrance without staff wrist-bands. This guy had also never heard of the airport shuttle service, but low and behold, as we were “discussing” the situation with him, two coach buses lummered past the entrance to pick up the first group fo folks going to the airport. The supervisor finally relanted and let us walk in the entrance and, literally, about 400 yards to the pick-up point.
So again you’re thinking, “Pat, shut-up. You didn’t get hurt or sick. You didn’t get anything stolen. Quit whining and get back to the set reviews.” And I shall.

Saturday was the grueling twelve-hour stint at the What Stage. Three of the acts there were on my must-see list, so I again made the decision to skip other acts, namely Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, in order to stake-out good digs at the What Stage. In order to do so, we had to wait at the barricade to the stage for 90 minutes. Then there was a mad stampede to ge the best seats. We did well, eventually being about seven bodies deep from the stage. Almost dead center. I got great pictures of all the bands until the sun went down.
First up where the Neville Brothers. Again, I’m not a fan, but they were really good, and it was great music to listen to on a beautiful almost-summer day. We were surrounded by kids who were camped-out for Radiohead and/or Beck and who seemingly couldn’t be bothered with the Nevilles or Elvis Costello. What a shame. Both acts were great and I think any serious music fan could appreciate something about them.

   

Anyone who listens to the mixtape on a regular basis knows I am a long-time fan of Elvis Costello. He performed with his band, along with Allen Toussaint and the Crescent City Horns. The horn section was phenomenal, particularly the trombonist, who blew punchy, rippling notes from his horn that almost bowled Elvis over. Allen Toussaint provided beautiful piano and organ accompaniment and sang vocals on his old hit, “A Certain Girl”. The New Orleans touch allowed Elvis to revisit old tunes with flare, particularly “Clown Strike”, “I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down” and “High Fidelity”. If you’re an E.C. fan and his tour comes through your town, don’t miss this one.
Every show was videotaped, and there were huge video screens at the What Stage. Elvis picked up a George Bush bobble-head with the word “KNOB” written across its forhead. He held it up to the camera while he sang the final verse of the Dave Bartholemew song “That’s How You Got Killed Before.” E.C. made clear his feelings about the current administration and its bungled response to Katrina.

   



Beck kids started to bear down on us during Elvis’s encores, and a quick trip to the restroom was perilous between sets. Afterwards, I knew I wasn’t going anywhere until the show was over. Beck put on a hillarious show, complete with band members in bear suits who wrestled and did hip hop moves during one of the encores. He also did a bit what I guess he has done before in which, mid-set, he plays some songs on acoustic guitar and harmonica while his band is served “dinner”. They were all seated around what looked like a coffee table, with water goblets and plates of fruit and vegetables. The band eventually started using the plates, cutlery and glasses to provide Beck percussion. the guitarist even ran his finger around the lip of his wine glass to get it to sing.



What made the show truly amusing was a set of marionettes, each modelled after a band member, who mimicked the actions of the band members on a small stage that resembled the larger set. Beck’s own camera crew were situated in front of the puppet stage and filmed the puppet performance. They patched it into the big-screens. I gather that the folks further up the lawn were confused by the puppets on the screen until they could figure out that the action was taking place on the stage. Coumpounding this craziness from time to time was a “puppet cam” puppet, which one of the puppeteers had skittering acorss the stage, creating some really interesting views on the big screen.



Speaking of the big screen, my niece, who was also at Bonnaroo, text-messaged me during Beck to say that she had just seen me on the big screen. She finally realized why I wasn't going anywhere between sets.
Two last notes about the puppets: Between the set and encores, they showed a short film of the puppets walking around Bonnaroo, making fun of the hippie vibe. It was hysterical. If I can find it online, I’ll post a link to it here. They followed that with the puppets lip-syncing to “loser”, a clever way of getting away with not having to perform that one.

   

There was a male percussionist / dancer in Beck’s troupe as well. His manic dancing added to “Black Tambourine” and “Where It’s At”. On the later, he kept bringing out one boom-box after another, each bigger than the last, until he finally donned a construction hat and used two of those orange flashlights you see guys on airport runways use to direct planes, as a larger-than-live mural of a boom box was wheeled on stage. A highly entertaining show, setting the stage for the mind-blower from Radiohead.



Radiohead wowed the crowd with great sound and an impressive light show. It was a really intense experience, that close to the stage. Every fan of "rawk music" needs to hear "Paranoid Android" performed live by Radiohead. That was easily the highlight of the show for me. When that one ended, Tom and I just looked at each other and said "Whoa!". For me, other bright spots were tunes I knew well from "The Bends" and "OK Computer". I admit I haven't followed Radiohead too closely, and probably should have given "Hail to the Thief" a few more listens prior to the show, as they drew a lot from it. I liked "Exit Music", "Idioteque", "Fake Plastic Trees" ( I'm so glad they played that one. ), and Kharma Police, which turned into a sing-along, with thousands of fans chanting, "For a minute there, I lost myself. I lost myself." Glow sticks were distributed prior to the start of the show, and they were immediately tossed about. We turned back to look at the crowd at one point and it looked like a fireworks display, with hundreds of glow sticks flying everywhere. Thom Yorke launched a few of them into the crowd during the encores and then had to dodge some as they were hurled at him. He seemed to be enjoying himself throughout the show. I think I heard him say, early on in the show, as he looked out at us, "This is mental."
Note for RH fans who like their Radiohead with healthy doses of guitar: Fear not. The new songs previewed at the show live up to that expectation, particularly one called "Body Snatchers".
My son was texting me updates on game six of the Stanley Cup as it happened. Ironicallly, Johnny Greenwood, who in addition to playing keyboards, synthesizer, and guitar, also "plays" the FM radio. He's got some sort of portable radio from which he can sample real-time speech and sound. He must have had it tuned to a sports radio station, as I heard the announcer say "I'm watching a hockey game", and another voice said, "How is Carolina doing?" (By the way, I'm bummed that Carolina won the cup, but the better team really did win, and that's the way it's supposed to work.)
After Radiohead was done, Tom and I walked over the "sea of plastic" as I called it. Literally every other foot step landed on some piece of plastic trash. The "clean vibe" team kept making announcements all weekend that we needed to clean up after ourselves, or we might not be allowed to do this again. Yeah, right. A radio announcer said on Monday that the event brought an estimated $22M into the local economy. I think we'll be allowed back for Bonnaroo '07 next year. Tom and I grabbed some food and drinks and set up the folding chairs outside the That Tent for the late-night Dr. John set. Once again, an artist I'm not familar with, but a great way to unwind after an exhausting day.

Sunday was a tad anti-climactic for me. I stayed all day at the "indie rock" tent, and I think that was probably a mistake in retrospect. If I go again, I'm going to do what Tom did. He'd sample a little bit here, a little bit there, and got to experience a broader range of music. Also I'm going to control the compulsion to be close to the stage and snap pictures. The Bonnaroo staff did a much better job anyway. Check out the pictures from the event at bonnaroo.com.
So I saw Be Your Own PET first on Sunday. Lead singer Jemina Pearl seemed pissed about something. Maybe it was that they were only given 35 minutes to perform. Maybe it was performing for "hippies", as she branded us all near the beginning of the show. Or maybe she was just doing the punk rock thing. The bass player also made some sort of anti-drug statement that I couldn't quite make out. Something about if you're a young person and someone older offers you drugs, don't do it. Yeah, man. Don't trust anyone over 30. But they rocked out, and the lead guitarist even tried to surf the crowd at the end. Their record is a lot of fun. I recommend it.

   

Next up was Deadboy and the Elephantmen, easily the dumbest name of any band I saw that weekend. I'd never heard of them before, but there were rabid Deadboy fans all around me. One guy behind me insisited that the band leader, Dex?, had "the greatest voice ever." I wasn't significantly moved. They did a couple of rocking songs and the thing that impressed me the most was their final song, a decent cover of the Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation".

   

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks were up next. The Jicks looked to be the same line-up from last Summer with the exception of John Moen (drums), who is probably off somewhere with the Decemberists making more money. Malkmus seemed to be in good spirits, excited to be opening for Sonic Youth, and ready to rock out. He drew heavily from Face the Truth. "Baby C'Mon" and "It Kills" were especially good, with lots of guitar rawk jammin'. He played "Animal Midnight" and maybe one older song. He also played a new song that didn't do much for me. He closed with a sizzling version of "No More Shoes".

   

Finally, the last full set I caught at Bonnaroo: Sonic Youth. Thurston Moore is the only member of the band who can still pass for a youth. The others are definitely sonically middle-aged. Prior to the show there was much ooo-ing and ahh-ing over the collection of guitars brought on stage by the guitar tech. The guitar tech himself was the subject of much respect, as one kid said, "See that guy with the beard and glasses? He used to be Kurt Cobain's guitar tech." A second bass player took the stage with them, to numerous WTF?s from long-time fans around me. He appeared to be playing bass even when Kim Gordon was, and I couldn't tell if they were playing different parts. It's a good thing I was familiar with the latest record, Rather Ripped, as that was pretty much what they served up. They sounded great, crisp playing --- they're still the best at what they do. I noticed a cheat sheet of lyrics for the song "Rats" prior to the set, taped to guitar rack. Sure enough, before the song the guitar tech taped the lyrics down in front of Lee, who made no bones about reading driectly off the sheet.


   

I finally reached my breaking point about 50 minutes into their set, as they started dragging their guitars across their amps for the third time, and I thought that pulling up a piece of grass and having a sit-down would be awfully nice. I sat through the last couple songs and encores, and started to walk away when they brought Malkmus out for the final song. I couldn't tell what it was they were playing, but Stephen was singing. Then more squalling feedback. Bye bye. See ya next time.

I caught up with Tom and we caught the last two songs of Bonnie Raitt's set. She did a cover of Robert Palmer's "Bad Case of Loving You." She ended her show by saying, "Don't lose heart. We can change the world." It's nice to hear optimism like that every now and then. These hippies ain't all bad.

The title of this entry comes from a found voice, sampled in The Books' song "Be Good To Them Always". I got to see the Books Monday night at the Wexner Center for the Arts.

The Books are Nick Zammuto (guitars, vocals) and Paul de Jong (bass, cello). They're based in North Adams, MA. and create what could be called multimedia chamber music. Videos accompany most of their songs, many of them collages of found film and home video. Found sounds and voices figure prominently in their music as well.

Images of long-dead Mormon men taking their hats on and off, pictures of the planet Saturn taken by the Cassini-Huygens mission, and home video of Zammuto's younger brother Mikey filled the screen as Nick and Paul plucked and sawed, sometimes plaintively, often frenetically on their instruments. While most of the time, the images on screen complimented the music, there were occasions when the video evoked laughter from the audience and created a strange juxtaposition to the serious tone of the music.

The highlight of the show for me, the point where sight and sound came together most effectively, was during “An Owl With Knees”. This song features fast interplay between Zammuto’s guitar and de Jong’s cello. The screen was split into three sections horizontally and the same high-speed video clips were shown in each of the sections, only each was several frames off from the other, creating a dizzying, panicked effect that went well with the music.

The Books also featured a song from an upcoming documentary they are scoring about the Biosphere project. They capped their show with a cover of Nick Drake’s “Cello Song”. I’m not familiar with the original but their bouncy rendition of it seemed to be a good pick. Then the roadie came out and told some strange story about blowing money from the merch table on greyhound racing, while Zammuto blew smoke rings from a contraption made out of a gramophone horn and a toilet plunger.

Only major disappointment: They didn’t play “An Animated Description of Mr. Maps”. Maybe next time.

Opening the show was singer / songwriter / guitarist Joel Thibodeau, who calls himself Death Vessel. Thibodeau sings in a high register and is a skilled guitarist. I enjoyed his half-hour long set, which included a beautiful song, which I think is entitled “Don’t Laugh”. I didn’t find it on his one lp which was for sale after the show. I suppose I could have asked him what the song was called, as he was standing right there. Maybe next time.