From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V13 #579 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Wednesday, August 20 2008 Volume 13 : Number 579 To unsubscribe: e-mail ecto-digest-request@smoe.org and put the word unsubscribe in the message body. Today's Subjects: ----------------- Noe at Rockwood, 19th ["Karen Hester" ] Re: Noe at Rockwood, 19th ["Paul Blair" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:46:41 -0400 From: "Karen Hester" Subject: Noe at Rockwood, 19th Don pressed his nose to the glass and peered in at the act before Noe. "I can tell he's not worth listening to without hearing him - he's playing simple major chords." The singer closed his eyes and emoted all over the front row. Eventually it was time for the set-changeover and I grabbed a front row seat with high resolution Performer's Nostril Vision (and subsequently spent much of the set watching Noe's hands and feet). The music was lovely, of course. Backing Noe were Greta on piano/glockenspiel (+ vocals), cello (+male vocals), and flute/saxophone (+ male vocals). Setlist stealer Paul can send full details :) Noe thanked us for welcoming her new songs, newborn and just tottering on their legs. New songs: ''Lives here somewhere', inspired by an [8th?] century Chinese poem about hermits (holy men?) that was about someone searching for hermits and not finding them but the search becoming the purpose. This was a stunner. At first the male vocals with Noe's sounded a bit anachronistic, like Elizabethan song, but then they came together in soaring wordless polyphony and it was oh so lovely. 'Fathering sun' also had gorgeous melding voices and a complex structure of pieces; it was epic. 'Ghazal' was a Sufi poem put to music for a Harvard Divinity class. The song was more straightforward, and though pretty, went on a bit. Noe's songs often end with repetition - she smiles and sways with her eyes shut and sings the same thing over and over, and sometimes it's transporting, and sometimes my mind wanders. Sufi 'Honey of experience' was also lovely, though less lush than it's full band version at the Zipper Factory. All the other stuff was great. The encore request 'Feral' featured amazing sight-reading by the cellist and ad-libbing by the saxophonist, neither of whom knew the song. Ending with 'Boots' and then 'Feral' highlighted for me one thing I miss in Noe's music - the latest album and the new songs don't have the rhythms or sexy bass or any sort of rocking out. Dan pointed out that Noe said they were new and not fully formed, so who knows how they'll end up. Good point. I think too that these spiritual songs are leading her away from certain sounds. 'Lives here somewhere' and 'Fathering sun' are more of the monastry than grimy urban streets like the 'Boots' album. Not ascetic - no shunning the impure and worldly, since she embraces and celebrates so much of nature and art - but spiritual and beautiful rather than dying transvestites and abandoned cars :) K ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:48:49 -0400 From: "Paul Blair" Subject: Re: Noe at Rockwood, 19th Re the act before Noe: It was Joe Whyte, whose country songs were banal little chord progressions with lyrics that were banal little phrases glued together: "Let Me Down Easy," "Devil in the Details," "Out of Tune," "It's About Time," "No More" (that's the one he finished with, that Karen described). I sat through an hour and a quarter of Joe Whyte so that I could be guaranteed a seat to see Noe. I've heard her mention that she's pretty committed to the Rockwood Music Hall, but of venues in NYC, it has to be the uncomfortablest. If you're not one of 15 lucky people you won't get a seat with a back on it, and there are only stools for only ten or so more. Which wouldn't be so bad if there were room to stand, but there isn't much; wherever you are, you're right on top of somebody else. Noe was sublime; we were sublimated. The setlist I swiped wasn't actually followed in the show, so this is my best reconstruction: Midsummer Lives Here Somewhere Sparrow Prayer for Beauty Fathering Sun Into the Wild Ghazal Honey of Experience Boots - --- Feral I'm with Karen's review on pretty much everything. "Lives Here Somewhere" was particularly stunning; while I was listening to it, and also to "Fathering Sun," I got the impression that some big cosmic event was Happening right there in front of me. I was a little frustrated at the end because so many good things had happened by that time that I couldn't remember much about how the earlier songs had sounded. I hope I get to hear them again. Speaking of the Zipper Factory version of "Honey of Experience," has anyone heard anything about the recording of that show? That was an even more brilliant performance (though after what I heard this evening I find myself asking if that's really possible). pb ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V13 #579 ***************************