From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V13 #14 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Sunday, January 21 2007 Volume 13 : Number 014 To unsubscribe: e-mail ecto-digest-request@smoe.org and put the word unsubscribe in the message body. Today's Subjects: ----------------- Today's your birthday, friends... [Mike Matthews ] Re: Lisa Gerrard article [Doug ] Cowboy Junkies at Joe's Pub ["Paul Blair" ] RE: Lisa Gerrard article ["Michael Quinn" ] Re: Lisa Gerrard article ["Paul Blair" ] Re: Lisa Gerrard article ["Kim Justice" ] Re: Cowboy Junkies at Joe's Pub [meredith ] Greta Gertler in CT [meredith ] Re: Cowboy Junkies at Joe's Pub ["Paul Blair" ] Re: Cowboy Junkies at Joe's Pub [meredith ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2007 03:00:03 -0500 (EST) From: Mike Matthews Subject: Today's your birthday, friends... i*i*i*i*i*i i*i*i*i*i*i *************** *****HAPPY********* **************BIRTHDAY********* *************************************************** *************************************************************************** ************* Sarah Noelle Pratt Ferguson (no Email address) ************** ********************* David Beery (dbeery@dbeery.org) ********************* *************************************************************************** -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Sarah Noelle Pratt Ferguson Tue January 20 1970 Seanympf-Aquarius David Beery Tue January 20 1976 drum Terry Partis Sun January 22 1933 Rocker Steve Hughes Thu January 24 1963 Aquarius Sarah McLachlan Sun January 28 1968 Aquarius Ilka Heber Mon February 01 1965 Mermaid Bob Lovejoy Sun February 02 1947 Aquarius Diane Burke Sat February 02 1963 slow children Timothy S. Devine Tue February 03 1970 Aquarius Stephen Thomas Fri February 04 1966 Aquarius Doug Burks Tue February 14 1956 Blank Jim Sturnfield Thu February 18 1954 Aquarius Juha Kannisto Wed February 18 1970 Aquarius Joel Siegfried February 19 Penguin Crossing Linda Saboe Tue February 20 1951 aimless - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2007 11:43:57 -0600 From: Doug Subject: Re: Lisa Gerrard article She almost sounds a little intellectually lazy, with her words about, basically, not even trying if the project doesn't mesh with her muse. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 00:49:25 -0500 From: "Paul Blair" Subject: Cowboy Junkies at Joe's Pub Below is (most of) my post to the Cowboy Junkies message board re the show at Joe's Pub this evening. (Do ectophiles use the word "geese" to describe people who talk over the music at shows? I see it a lot on the CJ forums, but I don't think I've seen it here. It would be a good addition to the ecto vocabulary, particularly since at the Connecticut ectofests one always had to be very careful to avoid the goose poop on the lawn.) ************* Short, stripped-down show ("I kinda like playing for [only] an hour," Margo said toward the end. "You're in, you're on, you're out...") Setlist: Driving Wheel Murder in the Trailer Park I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry Dragging Hooks (Pete & Alan left the stage here) Something More Besides You (acoustic version) Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning To Love is to Bury (Pete & Alan return) A Common Disaster Blue Moon - --- (Paul gives Margo flowers here) encore: Cause Cheap Is How I Feel Margo's voice was in fine form; I didn't hear any trace of sniffles, but then again I wasn't up front. I was feeling a good momentum coming out of "A Common Disaster," but then it was suddenly all over. Another disappointment for me was not hearing any of the new stuff, which I haven't heard anywhere else, either. Looks like I'll have to wait until April. Turns out that part of the reason tickets were so hard to get for this show was that, over and above the normal voracious demand for CJ tickets, there is a convention of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters in town, 4500 strong. A gentleman with the convention told me, "I'm surprised this was open to the public at all." ... Joe's Pub ("Home of the $18 Hamburger") is rapidly becoming one of my least favorite places in the world to see music, so the rest of this is going to be me complaining. Artists often seem to like the intimacy of this place, but as an audience member I like it less and less the more I go there. 1. Three shows a night: There was a 7:00 show before and an 11:30 show afterwards. This meant that CJ had only an hour to play. 2. If the artist is at all popular, the place is going to be full. That means, if you want to make sure you get a seat, you better make dinner reservations--and commit to the aforementioned $18 hamburger or some variation thereof. 3. If you don't get dinner reservations or one of the few unreserved seats, you wind up standing back at the bar, where you may have three or four people standing between you and the stage. Unlike other venues, where this doesn't matter because you're looking up at the stage, here you're looking (or trying to look) down. Maybe this is partly me feeling sorry for myself that when I called for dinner reservations they were no longer available--it was a miracle that I got the ticket at all. But still... When I came in I thought, "Well, at least with a place like this being so focused on the music we won't have to worry about the geese." Hah. I had plunked myself down at one end of the bar where I had room to stand, and when things started and the lights went down I had line of sight to both Margo and Michael. But when "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" started, the latecomers started arriving (lots of them!), and there went the view. There wasn't much that could be done about the bar noise--except for the bartender guffawing loudly once or twice--but little conversations started up around this time, too. I finally realized that I had gotten so focused on all the little annoyances around me that I was paying only perfunctory attention to the music, and that really pissed me off. At least at places like Fez and the Bottom Line, where they used to cram everyone in like sardines, you almost always got a seat. And they didn't have a house policy to the effect of: "If you aren't one of the ones lucky enough to be paying us exorbitant amounts for your dinner, then we make no guarantees about whether you'll actually be able to enjoy the entertainment you paid to see." Grrr. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 00:55:38 -0500 From: "Michael Quinn" Subject: RE: Lisa Gerrard article Actually I find that attitude refreshing compared to so many modern "artists" who will do almost anything and lower themselves to any level if the price is right. - -----Original Message----- From: owner-ecto@smoe.org [mailto:owner-ecto@smoe.org] On Behalf Of Doug Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 12:44 PM Cc: ecto@smoe.org Subject: Re: Lisa Gerrard article She almost sounds a little intellectually lazy, with her words about, basically, not even trying if the project doesn't mesh with her muse. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 01:13:24 -0500 From: "Paul Blair" Subject: Re: Lisa Gerrard article It's all very nice Lisa Gerrard's upholding the virtue of integrity, but is there really that much difference between loyalty to nothing, and loyalty to something that is entirely arbitrary? On 1/21/07, Michael Quinn wrote: > Actually I find that attitude refreshing compared to so many modern > "artists" who will do almost anything and lower themselves to any level if > the price is right. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: <...> Doug > Subject: Re: Lisa Gerrard article > > She almost sounds a little intellectually lazy, with her words about, > basically, not even trying if the project doesn't mesh with her muse. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 00:14:40 -0600 From: "Kim Justice" Subject: Re: Lisa Gerrard article On 1/20/07, Michael Quinn wrote: > Actually I find that attitude refreshing compared to so many modern > "artists" who will do almost anything and lower themselves to any level if > the price is right. Word. - -- Kim Justice justicekw@gmail.com "There can always be new beginnings -- even for people like us." - -- Susan Ivanova ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 01:12:59 -0500 From: meredith Subject: Re: Cowboy Junkies at Joe's Pub Hi, Paul Blair wrote: > (Do ectophiles use the word "geese" to describe people who talk over > the music at shows? I see it a lot on the CJ forums, but I don't think > I've seen it here. I've never heard the term in that context ... I usually just call those types "loud assholes", myself. :} > It would be a good addition to the ecto vocabulary, > particularly since at the Connecticut ectofests one always had to be > very careful to avoid the goose poop on the lawn.) *snort* > Turns out that part of the reason tickets were so hard to get for this > show was that, over and above the normal voracious demand for CJ > tickets, there is a convention of the Association of Performing Arts > Presenters in town, 4500 strong. A gentleman with the convention told > me, "I'm surprised this was open to the public at all." Ahhhh ... I wasn't surprised the show sold out, but I was surprised by *how quickly* it did. (Oh, well -- woj and I saw a great show tonight anyway ... more on that later.) > Joe's Pub ("Home of the $18 Hamburger") is rapidly becoming one of my > least favorite places in the world to see music, so the rest of this > is going to be me complaining. And you have described pretty much exactly why I hate seeing shows there. Though I would also add "sucky lighting" to the list. Regardless, woj and I have tickets to see Erin McKeown there this Wednesday night. (Her Tuesday show sold out before we could get tickets, boo.) I hope they deign to let the audience see what's happening onstage. A tip re the "dinner reservations": for the 9:00 or 11:30 shows, it's actually possible to get away with only getting a drink if you sit down, particularly if you're not in one of the tables right up front by the stage. The waitrons have so many people to serve in such a short time, that often they don't make it to the tables on the upper level by the bar until it's too late to serve someone food before the set is over. Also, if you are lucky enough to grab one of the "sofa seats" in the middle, they don't seem to expect you to order food there, either. You can usually get away with ordering a $7 beer ... which is still criminal, but better than the alternative. - -- =============================================== Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth =============================================== hear at the HOMe House Concert Series http://hom.smoe.org =============================================== ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 01:26:27 -0500 From: meredith Subject: Greta Gertler in CT Hi, woj and I just got back from a highly entertaining evening in a most unexpected place: a tiny hole-in-the-wall coffeehouse called Jitters, in the bustling metropolis of Southington, Connecticut. They host live music on weekends, and tonight featured Jen Clapp, Alice Bierhorst, and Greta Gertler. (Why and how these NY-based artists ended up in Southington, I'm still not entirely clear.) As usual with ectophilic shows in CT, it's a damned good thing woj and I went, otherwise they would've been playing to a basically empty room. *sigh* A couple of our house concert series' regulars were also there, but other than that, it was just the staff. Gotta love when that happens (not). Jen Clapp was on first, and we got there just as she was finishing up her set. There wasn't an opportunity to get much of an impression, but it sounded like perfectly lovely singer/songwriter fare. Then Greta Gertler and Alice Bierhorst took the "stage" (a.k.a. the corner of the room where the PA was set up :), and did an all-too-short set of great stuff. Every ectophile should know who Greta Gertler is -- an Aussie transplanted to Brooklyn, doing really fun keyboard-based angular poppy goodness. All her stuff is good, whether it's with Peccadillo or her band the Extroverts ... go to her MySpace (http://myspace.com/gretagertlermusic) and check it out. Tonight she was playing one of those now-ubiquitous 6-octave cherry-red Nord keyboards (set on "Wurly" :), and Alice Bierhorst accompanied her on backing vox, snare drum and lots of wacky percussion bits. Much fun was had by all. Then after a short break, Alice Bierhorst moved from drum to center stage with guitar, and she was joined by Sandy Bell. They are two/thirds of a group called Rockdove, and they did a few of Alice's compositions and a couple of Sandy's, with Greta jamming on keyboard and Jen Clapp joining in now and then on egg-shaker. It was very good. (I thought Sandy's voice and vocal style was very reminiscent of Willow, and her songs were kind of like Willow's too.) So all in all a surprising evening of incredible music, a scant half-hour from our house. On a night where we literally had a half-dozen things to choose from, I think woj and I picked the winner. NYC-area ectophiles should note that on February 20, Greta, Alice and Noe Venable will be playing together at Caffe Vivaldi in the Village. Seriously, people, this is something to file in the "miss only upon pain of death" category. woj and I look forward to seeing you there. :) - -- =============================================== Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth =============================================== hear at the HOMe House Concert Series http://hom.smoe.org =============================================== ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 01:45:41 -0500 From: "Paul Blair" Subject: Re: Cowboy Junkies at Joe's Pub On 1/21/07, meredith wrote: > > Paul Blair wrote: > > (Do ectophiles use the word "geese" to describe people who talk over > > the music at shows? I see it a lot on the CJ forums, but I don't think > > I've seen it here. > > I've never heard the term in that context ... I usually just call those types "loud > assholes",myself. :} Well, I know it's been used on this list at least once--when I posted here about their 2001 show at Toad's Place in New Haven. I quoted this unforgettable (well, to me anyway) post by "Crazy Ed" off the CJ forums: >When Tim Easton [the opener] staggered off stage disoriented from the geese >onslaught I'm sure The Junkies knew they were up against a tough >crowd. They came out strong but when they let up for a couple quiet >tunes the geese pushed ...and Cowboy Junkies pushed back. With >little finesse and massive sheets of distortion, feedback, and >volume the band dismanteled the geese's eco-system. Manic drum beats >fighting with chest pounding bass as Margo screamed Murder and Jeff >and Linford rattled, shook, and pounded music from whatever was at hand. >Did the geese quiet down? Hell no, but first they were negated then >invited along for the ride, if they could hold on. Something akin to >an aural steroid rage with a viscious edge to it rolled over the >crowd with little concern for collateral damage. It was like seeing >the quiet kid kick the bully's ass. Did I mention that this show >ROCKED? This was the show that I always knew they had in them. It >could have been prettier but it sounded like an open handed slap >across the face of every loudmouth drunk that ever ruined your >favorite Junkies song. I know it's only rock 'n roll but I like it. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 01:49:52 -0500 From: meredith Subject: Re: Cowboy Junkies at Joe's Pub Hi, Paul Blair wrote: > Well, I know it's been used on this list at least once--when I posted > here about their 2001 show at Toad's Place in New Haven. I quoted this > unforgettable (well, to me anyway) post by "Crazy Ed" off the CJ > forums: Ahh ... I don't recall the posting, but damn, do I ever remember that show. :) CJ blew me away, I hardly even noticed those assholes in the back. *g* - -- =============================================== Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth =============================================== hear at the HOMe House Concert Series http://hom.smoe.org =============================================== ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V13 #14 **************************