From: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org (trajectory-digest) To: trajectory-digest@smoe.org Subject: trajectory-digest V5 #34 Reply-To: trajectory@smoe.org Sender: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk trajectory-digest Monday, June 18 2001 Volume 05 : Number 034 Today's Subjects: ----------------- California shows [meredith ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 14:28:53 -0400 From: meredith Subject: California shows Hi, I had the chance to see Veda perform twice last week, in Santa Cruz and Berkeley, CA. Both were incredible shows. On Saturday, June 9 Veda was part of EctoFestWest in Santa Cruz. A lot of people on this list are on the ecto list and so know what that's all about, but for those who aren't, it was an event 100% produced by ecto list members as an excuse to get Happy Rhodes to do her first ever show on the West Coast. The other people on the bill were Jill Tracy, a neo-cabaret singer from San Francisco, Cyoakha Grace, a tribal-trance fusion musician (who is also an ectophile), and Veda. Based on what I saw and heard people say afterwards, Veda totally stole the show. She came on right after intermission, before Happy's set, and started off with "INSTRUCTIONS", then moved to the beautiful Yamaha grand piano and did a bunch of songs from _Field Study_ ("Plants", "Yukon Ho!", "Evolver", "One Inch of Lichen"), as well as the loosest version of "Driven" I've ever heard. She also did "Birdsong", "Song for Snake", and "Slumber Queen", as well as a different Brecht/Eisler song than the one that's on the album. Veda was obviously relaxed and enjoying herself -- she said during the show that she wanted to take that piano with her and play it every night for the rest of her life. The joy she was taking in playing that instrument really came through. With each song the applause grew louder, until at the end of her set she got the first standing ovation of the night. She came back for an encore, and did "Tuktoyaktuk Hymn", which was simply gorgeous. In a room full of a couple hundred people who had come in some cases from very long distances to see Happy perform for the first time, Veda completely made it her night. You couldn't get anywhere near the merchandise area after she was done, and there was an incredible buzz about her in the audience afterwards. I took a bunch of photos of the entire night, which are at http://www.smoe.org/meth/gallery. Select your preferred viewing options and click on "enter the gallery", and you'll see all the thumbnails there. If you click on a thumbnail you can then navigate through the rest of the larger photos. On the following Tuesday evening Veda played a house concert in Berkeley, at the Rose Street House Of Music series. The evening started off with the series producers' a cappella group, Making Waves (I got the feeling the concert series exists in large part to provide free publicity for this group, though I can't hold much against anyone who will put on an average of one concert a week - yow). Next came Sini Anderson, a local queer poet who is part of a group of queer poets called Sister Spit. She did a reading of some of her poetry, and it was very intense. Veda had warned me that she's very in-your-face and take-no-prisoners, and she wasn't kidding. Sini's work is very disturbing, and makes you think about stuff you'd really rather not think about, which is a good thing. Everybody needs that once in a while. To start off her portion of the night, Veda showed us a brand-new short film she did called "Happyland". It was done as part of a project called "Crazy 8's", in which those selected to participate were given $800, a Super-8 tape, and 8 days in which to conceive, script, shoot, and edit an 8-minute short film. The film is very cute -- it involves Veda narrating musings about an old amusement park she'd heard of that used to be in Vancouver called "Happyland", and what that concept means to various people. It stars her collection of stuffed and mechanical toys. :) After that, she went to the piano and began a set that once again concentrated on _Field Study_, with a few forays into the past ("Meeting The Group of 7", "Bellyfish", "With No Caring"). She told some really great stories about many of the _Field Study_ songs, too, and answered occasional questions from the audience. It was a very relaxed, informal performance, and everyone who was there looked like they enjoyed it quite a bit. There were several people there who had obviously never heard her before, and she definitely made new fans out of them. Veda and Sini Anderson were talking about putting together a more formal, multimedia show in the Bay Area later on this year, so those in the area should keep an eye out for that. Sini's got some video and sound that she uses to accompany her pieces, and Veda's got a video that she uses to accompany the _Field Study_ song cycles, which she plans to roll out at The Knitting Factory in NYC on the 25th. (She's also going to show "Happyland" here at our place on the 30th.) I wasn't able to take more than a couple photos at the house concert due to low light (I refuse to use a flash at a performance), but I'll put them up in the gallery soon. Did anyone catch her shows in the LA area? How about Washington State? ======================================= Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth "things are more beautiful when they're obscure" -- veda hille ======================================= Live At The House O'Muzak House Concert Series http://www.smoe.org/meth/muzak.html ------------------------------ End of trajectory-digest V5 #34 *******************************