Welcome Back

I have been horribly negligent to the grumbleblog faithful (Hi, Mom!) and there's no way I can recap all of the books I've read and shows I've attended since (yikes) April. I don't know what the hell's wrong with me--I have no excuses. Well, I do, but I won't go into them here.

I will at least try to list some of the highlights that I can remember. I know I read the excellent Home by Marilynne Robinson and now that I've finished off all of her fictional offerings, I just have to sit back and wait for her to complete another novel. I've read Charles Baxter's The Feast of Love (good, but didn't leave a lasting impression), Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies (excellent stories), Graham Swift's book of essays, Making An Elephant (good enough to make me want to go read some of his novels) and the first volume of War and Peace. I will get back to it eventually--the drawing room scenes can be a bit of a slog, but the battle scenes are pretty amazing literary accomplishments.

The shows are more of a blur. There was the impressive Conor Oberst at the Ottobar and the amazing vocals of Neko Case at the Ramshead as well as a smattering of shows by local bands that I just can't seem to recall right now.

Oh, and this week I read The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick, the story of Philadelphia Eagles fan Pat Peoples' attempt to assimilate back into society after a long stint in a Baltimore mental facility. His comic and heartbreaking return to his parents' house, therapy, a manic depressive new girl friend and Eagles season tickets made for a hilarious read. Highly recommended (especially for Eagles fans).

M. Ward Goes to Temple

M. Ward's saturday night show at the Sixth and I Synagogue started out well enough. The acoustic set that he started the evening with worked well in the cavernous sounding room--Ward's velvety croon resonated up into the balcony. 'Fuel for Fire,' 'Let's Dance,' and the instrumental 'Duet for Guitars, No. 3' were great examples of how one guy and one guitar can be mesmerizing. When the full band came out, the acoustics of the Sixth and I took over. It's probably great to carry the voice of a cantor to the cheap seats, or for one guy and one guitar, but for a full, amplified band it was too much. Some tracks, particularly ones where Ward's voice is on prominent display, pushed through the muck, but many, like 'Magic Trick' and 'Chinese Translation,' suffered. We couldn't help but wonder how this show would have been in a sweaty, beer-smelling, sticky-floored club.

Bill Frisell in the New Yorker

An article about Bill Frisell is in this week's New Yorker and the online edition has a video clip with a bit of an interview and some performance from the night before we saw him. Link to the video is here and a link to the article here.

Frightened Rabbit at the Talking Head 1/20/09

Excellent show at the Talking Head last night for the Scottish band Frightened Rabbit. The Hutchison brothers, Scott and Grant, brought a furious energy to the room--Grant pounding the drums with a ferocious abandon and Scott delivering his emotionally taut, intelligent lyrics with passion and keeping time with a steady, pulsing guitar strum. They covered much of the material from their latest album, The Midnight Organ Fight, as well as a couple of songs from Sing the Greys, including "Behave!"

Scott Hutchison came out on his own after the first set to do an acoustic version of "Poke" sans amplification (it's a pretty small room), casually incorporating the rumbling of the heating unit that kicked on halfway through the song. His impressive guitar work and strong, lilting vocals were the highlight of the show.

Opening bands were Baby Aspirin, featuring strong female vocals and lead guitar work, and Arc in Round, a nice combination of layered guitar and keyboards backed by solid drumming.

(Apologies for the crappy cellphone photo.)

The Weakerthans

I ventured to DC with a crew on Sunday night to check out the Weakerthans at the 930 club once again. I think this is the third time I've seen them and it's been an excellent show each time. They tend to stay close to the studio versions of their songs, but there is enough energy packed into those songs to keep the pace of the show tight. The highlights for me were "Plea From a Cat Named Virtute," "Watermark," and, as always, John Samson on the stage alone doing "One Great City!"