Boulevard Music Festival, Logan Square, Chicago, Illinois

After dinner in the area, we stumbled upon a small local music festival in Logan Square. With a bit of gentle encouragement from me, the group agreed to venture in for a little while.  Brooklyn-based electronic musician Eliot Lipp was the main onstage when we walked in. His blend of hip hop, electro, house, and dubstep was enough to entice me to encourage everyone to enter. Unfortunately, he only had another song or two in his set. After watching a vaudeville act for a while, we wandered over to the other side to see a fun unnamed Brazilian samba Band. Conga lines and so forth. On the way out, we caught BoomBox, consisting of singer/songwriter Zion Godchaux on guitar/lead vocals and producer/DJ Russ Randolph on sequencers, groove boxes and turn-tables. They pull together an eclectic combination of rock, psychedelic, and house. Certainly not the greatest festival and we didn’t stay that long but it was nice to stumble upon.

Peter Frampton & B.B. King, RiverEdge Park, Aurora, Illinois

B.B. King, the King of the Blues, was another music legend that I had wanted to cross off of my bucket list and considering his advanced age, time was probably running out to do so. While I didn’t enjoy the long, congested drive out to Aurora, a Chicago exurb, the combination of Peter Frampton was a worthwhile bonus. The venue itself was quite nice as well, outdoors with nice views. However, while most of the venue is general admission, the closest GA sections are concrete where you’re expected to sit on your own lawn chair. So if you’re without one, you’re SOL. We were instead a bit back on the lawn, though we could hear quite well and I was able get closer whenever I wanted.


Not long after we arrived, B.B. King’s backing band started off the evening with some blues for 15-20 minutes without him. They then introduced King, who shuffled out and plunked himself in a chair in the middle of the stage in front of the drum kit. With him was of course Lucille, his name for each of his signature black Gibson guitars. She was named following an incident in the winter of 1949. King was playing a dance hall in Arkansas. As was common practice at the time, a barrel half-filled with kerosene was lit. During his set, two men knocked over the barrel in a tussle, sending burning kerosene across the floor and setting the building ablaze. After being evacuated, King realized that he left his guitar in the building. He reentered to retrieve his beloved $30 Gibson guitar. Though he safely rescued his guitar, two people died in the fire. The next day, he learned that the two men were fighting over a woman named Lucille. He then named that guitar Lucille, as well as each one that he has owned since, as a reminder to himself to never do something as stupid as run into a burning building or fight over a woman. His set lasted a little less than an hour, during which he was charming, personable, and flirty with the idea of all the ladies in the venue. He jammed out on Lucille quite a bit and noted that he had just put new strings on her. And when he puts new stings on her, “she gets sassy.” He played a few of his own songs as well as a few covers including the U2 song “When Love Comes to Town” that featured him dueting with Bono (on the record, the man in the sunglasses was unfortunately absent). It was great to see him still on stage knowing that he would be celebrating his 88th birthday in exactly one month. As old as he was, he seemed quite sharp, both in his wit/speak as well as his hands. Peter Frampton joined him on stage for his last song, “The Thrill is Gone.”

BB King Setlist:
Introduction Jam I
Introduction Jam II
[Band Intro by BB King]
Nobody Loves Me but My Mother
Rock Me Baby
You Are My Sunshine (Jimmie Davis cover)
When Love Comes to Town (U2 cover)
How Blue Can You Get
The Thrill Is Gone (with Peter Frampton)


Night had fallen by the time Peter Frampton took the stage, creating a different vibe for his performance as compared to B.B. King’s. I was less excited to see Frampton, but it was certainly a nice bonus. He was a good showman, was clearly having fun on stage, and seemed to genuinely appreciate that he was on tour for B.B. King and that audiences still came out to watch him play. He had several guests during the show including Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick from nearby Rockford, Illinois, as well as Larry Carlton, a less famous solo and session musician, and his son Julian. They pulled in a lot of musical elements – rock, jazz, jam, blues, etc. We didn’t stay the entire show,

leaving midway through “Surrender.” Seeing the setlist later, I kind of wished we would have stayed for the cover of “Black Hole Sun” and his hit, “Baby I Love Your Way.” I was a little surprised that he didn’t play “Do You Feel Like We Do” or “Show me the Way” which became live staples of his, particularly after the release of Frampton Comes Alive (1976), his breakthrough album and one of the top selling live albums of all time.

Peter Frampton Setlist:
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite (First Verse Only)
Magic Moon (Da Da Da Da Da!)
Doobie Wah
Lines On My Face
Show Me the Way
Wind of Change

Double Nickels
RCM (with Larry Carlton)
Friday Night Shuffle (with Larry Carlton)
(I'll Give You) Money
I Want You to Want Me (with Rick Nielsen) (Julian Frampton on Backup Vocals)
Surrender (with Rick Nielsen) (Julian Frampton on Lead Vocals)
Black Hole Sun (Soundgarden cover)
Baby I Love Your Way
Encore:
Off The Hook
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (The Beatles cover) (with Rick Nielsen & Larry Carlton)

Greensky Bluegrass, Lincoln Hall, Chicago, Illinois

Though I had only first heard of them a week ago and still hadn’t heard a single recording, I agreed to go to see Greensky Bluegrass. I correctly assumed that the name said it all. They are a five-piece American bluegrass band from nearby Michigan, consisting of a banjo, guitar, mandolin, small upright bass, and steel guitar. We arrived very early, to such an extent that we were the first people in the venue. When the opener took the stage, it was in the form of a similarly arranged bluegrass band, though with a violin instead of a steel guitar. I wasn’t sure if it was the main act or an opener.

The show was what I expected, fun bluegrass on par with Yonder Mountain String Band, though they had a little more of a jam band than country influence. They did a few extended jams and I noticed that folks around us were wearing Phish and Dead t-shirts. They announced that they would play 2 full sets, also very jam band-like, though we had had our fill by a bit into the second. Certainly a band I would see again if I came upon them.

Post #100!

Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Chicago, Illinois

The Grant Park Symphony Orchestra is a publicly sponsored symphony orchestra that provides free performances as part of the Grant Park Music Festival during the summer months in Millennium Park in Chicago. The Grant Park Chorus, a related organization, often appears with the Orchestra as well as performs on its own. Concerts are held mostly on weekday evenings at Jay Pritzker Pavilion, a bandshell in Millennium Park in the Loop that can host up to 11,000 attendees. The space consists of a seated area close to the stage and a large, sprawling lawn where most attendees sit and lounge. Seats close to the stage are still free, but it’s generally understood that those are reserved for those who are truly interested in the music, while the grass is for those who are more interested in their picnics and conversations. Sitting towards the back of the lawn, we were amongst people that were definitely in that latter category, as was I. It was a beautiful evening and a beautiful space, better than any happy hour venue in the city. Tonight’s performance would consist of two parts, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5.

Everyone knows, German Classical and Romantic composer and pianist Ludwig van Beethoven, amongst the most famous and influential musicians of all time. His Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, op. 15 is well known and regarded in the classical music community, even if not as iconic as some of his other works. It included three movements, with a combined running time of a little over half an hour. The piece was quiet and somewhat hard to hear over the conversations all around me, but certainly added ambience to the overall aesthetic of the space. It was a mixture of delicate high notes and grand bass. Even though it was a piano concerto, and the piano was often the most prominent instrument, there was still a lot else going on in each of the sections. Many sections prominently feature sweeping strings and brass.

Russian-born Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, while not as universally known as Beethoven, is nonetheless a prominent figure in 20th century orchestral music.  I found the back story behind the composition of his fifth symphony quite interesting. Shostakovich wrote the piece after many of his previous pieces were criticized for not conforming to Soviet standards and properly representing the ideals of socialism. It’s kind of hard to think what that may mean, considering its non-vocal symphonic music, so any interpretation of complex messages in the music is for the listener to decide. Nonetheless, after he had been threatened and many of his friends and relatives disappeared to the Gulag, he was under immense pressure to release a satisfactory work. He had to deliver the simple heroic classicism demanded by the authorities, but mock it just subtly enough to stay true to his personal belief without them catching on. Upon release, the piece proved a great success and earned him a spot back in the good graces of Stalin and other Soviet party leaders. However, he said of the work in his memoirs, “I think it is clear to everyone what happens in the [finale of the] Fifth Symphony. The rejoicing is forced, created under threat. It’s as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, ‘Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing,’ and you rise, shaky, and go marching off muttering, ‘Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing.’ What kind of apotheosis is that? You have to be a complete oaf not to hear that.” I’m not sure I heard his interpretation of this rejoicing business, so I guess he would presume me an oaf. Or maybe this is the story he just liked to tell himself to maintain his dignity, at least in his own mind.

His Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47, was first performed on November 21, 1937 in Leningrad. It consists of 4 movements, which combined, last about 45 minutes. The first movement is one of those pieces that I felt like I’ve heard before but couldn’t quite put my finger on where I’ve heard it. It sounded like it could have easily been featured in as part of a thrilling 1930’s noir film, where the hardboiled detective saves the girl and defeats the killer. The second movement was much more pomp, while things slowed down considerably in the third. The fourth marches up the tempo again. At times, the piece was booming and hard to ignore, though most of the people around me were doing a pretty good job. It ends on a particularly grand note with booming drums. The whole evening made me want to pay more attention to some of the great classical music as well as take advantage of any excuse to be outside on a beautiful summer night. 

Phish, FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island, Chicago, Illinois

It had been three years since my last Phish show at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland in Summer 2010. A July evening in Chicago would mark my ninth time seeing them, which I believe to be more than I have seen any other band. Saturday night would be the middle of their three-night run in Chicago.


At Pitchfork the previous night, Björk was only rained out approximately 15-20 minutes before the end of her performance; not a huge loss. Phish on the other hand, had most of their second set rained out the previous night. To compensate fans, they announced they would start promptly at 7pm on Saturday night and play 3 sets. It was an unlucky break for those only attending last night but very lucky for us. There were dozens of phans wandering the parking areas and entrances looking for extra tickets for the evening’s sold out performance and nearly no tickets available for them. I hope there weren’t too many that were only showing up because last night was rained out. Fortunately, I don’t think the Sunday night show ever sold out.

The show started off in an unusual song choice, “Prince Caspian,” which they were only two minutes into the previous night before the rain interrupted. I’m not sure if we heard the rest of that set that they were planning to play Friday night or not. Hard to tell but I bet there’s discussion of it on a couple phan websites. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize how early they would start until we were already en route. With traffic, we arrived later than expected, thus missing the very beginning of the show. We heard their second song, “Twist,” while we were walking up to the venue. We had GA floor tickets and found a good spot on the right side not far from the stage. We were even able to move closer between sets, close enough that my eyes were drawn to the band instead of the screen. It was close enough to notice that even on stage, the members of Phish – Trey, Paige, Mike, and Fishman – appear to be regular, middle-aged guys instead of the rock stars they are.


Their first set was great, perhaps one of the better Phish sets that I’ve seen, including  “Lawn Boy,” “Kill Devil Falls,” and “Cavern.” The second and third sets were also good, though seemed to include a few less of my favorite songs such as “Meatstick,” “Ocelot,” and “Light.” Of the 29 songs that they played that evening, just over half (15) were songs that I had never heard before, a figure I find pretty incredible considering I’ve seen them so many times. Most notable of new songs for me were Phish concert staples such as “Mike’s Song,” “Rift,” the Richard Wright cover “I Didn’t Know,” “Theme From the Bottom,” and a great version of “Slave to the Traffic Light.” In particular, I was happy to hear “Weekapaug Groove,” one of my favorite songs that I had yet to hear. I was also happy to hear them cover the TV on the Radio song “Golden Age.” Of course the longest song of the evening was only about 12 minutes long; it’s been quite a long time since the days of the 30 minute “Tweezer.” A great rendition of “Harry Hood” closed off the original songs of the evening before they closed on a couple more covers, “Good Times, Bad Times” and “Shine a Light.”

Setlist:
Set One:Prince Caspian
Twist
Ha Ha Ha
Possum
Cities (Talking Heads cover)
Lawn Boy
I Didn't Know (Richard Wright cover)
Rift
Destiny Unbound
My Friend, My Friend
Kill Devil Falls
Cavern
David Bowie 
Set Two:Back on the Train
Mike's Song

Theme From the Bottom
Weekapaug Groove
Golden Age  (TV on the Radio cover)
Waves
Piper
Slave to the Traffic Light
Set Three:
Meatstick
Birds of a Feather
Strange Design
Ocelot
Light
Harry Hood
Good Times, Bad Times (Led Zeppelin cover)
Encore: Shine a Light (Rolling Stones cover)

Pitchfork Music Festival, Union Park, Chicago, Illinois

Solo and at the last minute, I found a ticket to Friday night of the Pitchfork Festival. Though it had started earlier in the afternoon on a warm July day, I was only interested in the final two acts of the evening. The first was Joanna Newsom, an avant garde folk artist who plays the harp and the piano. I was surprised that she took the stage by herself, periodically switching between the two instruments. Her voice is child-like and ethereal, and she has a strange style of singing, kind of out of the side of her mouth and periodically jerking her head. Seeing and hearing it done in person is enchanting if a bit strange. I was pleased to see her, but I was pretty far back and lots of people around me were more interested in their conversations than the performance. It’s just not the type of music that lends itself well to a festival. It’s quiet and easily drowned out by a large chattering crowd.

The headliner of the evening was Björk. Though I just saw her at Bonnaroo just over a month before, I was somewhat far away and not completely engaged during her set, so I welcomed the opportunity to see here again, when I could get a little closer to the stage and fully immerse myself in the experience. Björk posted a request before the show that she didn’t want any photos taken during the show. It’s distracting, and she would prefer that attendees focus on enjoying the performance instead of trying to capture the perfect shot. Instead, she made photos available on her website. I hope that means that I can post a few as well, giving credit where credit is due.

Björk took the stage wearing a similarly crazy outfit; though this time she opted for a flowing silvery jumpsuit instead of a bubble dress. She still maintained her dandelion headgear and was again accompanied by a choir of 14 female singers. It reminded me of a Jerry Seinfeld bit, “Anytime I see a movie or a TV show where there are people from the future or another planet, they're all wearing the same outfit. Somehow they all decided, 'All right, that's enough. From now on, this is going to be our outfit: one-piece silver jumpsuit with a V-stripe on the chest and boots. That's it. We're going to start visiting other planets and we want to look like a team.'" Other than the singers, she only had a drummer and a guy with a lap top on stage. There must have also been quite a sizable team behind the scenes running the various videos, lights, and projections that were also an integral part of the performance. The overall show was more or less what I saw at Bonnaroo, as much a performance art piece as it was a concert.

Ten of her songs were the same as the previous show at Bonnaroo and in a mostly similar order, though she did throw in a few others throughout and skipped others. I suspect that the show would have ended with a similar if not identical setlist, but it was cut short after “Mutual Core” due to impending weather. Bjork's response to being told that she would have to exit the stage early was, "It's calm.... I don't know. This wouldn't be much in Iceland, I can tell you that much..." The heavens opened up and it poured rain shortly thereafter. It’s a shame; the downpour would have really added to the performance.

Björk Setlist:
Solar Winds
Cosmogony
Hunter
Thunderbolt
Moon
Crystalline
Hidden Place
Heirloom
One Day
Jóga
Pagan Poetry
Army of Me
Mutual Core

Americanarama Festival (Bob Dylan, Wilco, & My Morning Jacket), Toyota Park, Bridgeview, Illinois

Another music legend off the list

The sun was still fairly high in the sky on the day of my 30th birthday when we arrived at Toyota Park to find Kentucky psychedelic rockers My Morning Jacket already on stage. I was a little surprised that they were the first to take the stage, but I guess that Wilco is a local favorite. The venue was still most empty, but we still took our assigned seats towards the back of the floor, assuming seats would fill up soon. My Morning Jacket’s set was enjoyable and they pulled a lot from their most recent album, Circuital (2011), which I thoroughly enjoy. They performed at least a bit from much of their catalog including a song each from The Tennessee Fire (1999), At Dawn (2001), Z (2005), and Evil Urges (2008) and more heavily from It Still Moves (2003) and Circuital. Frontman Jim James sported his massive beard and was wearing some kind of navy admiral’s cape.

My Morning Jacket Setlist:
The Dark
Circuital
Magheeta
Golden
Slow Slow Tune
Masterplan
I'm Amazed
Victory Dance
Wordless Chorus
Phone Went West
One Big Holliday

Next up were Chicago-based alternative rockers Wilco, another band that I enjoy but probably wouldn’t have paid to see them again on their own. They were another good warm up for Dylan, playing about an hour and fifteen minute set. Like My Morning Jacket, they dug deep into their discography, going back to their debut album A.M. (1995) and continuing through to their recent collaboration with Billy Bragg, Mermaid Avenue Vol. III (2012), in particular from the more recent albums like Sky Blue Sky (2007) and The Whole Love (2011). They were joined on stage by opener Richard Thompson for a few songs and by My Morning Jacket for the Neil Young cover, “Cinnamon Girl.”

Wilco Setlist:
At the Window, Sad and Lonely
When the Roses Bloom Again
What Light
Misunderstood
Poor Places
Art of Almost
Sloth (with Richard Thompson)
California Stars (with Richard Thompson)
That's Not the Issue (with Richard Thompson)
Hummingbird
Impossible Germany
Cinnamon Girl (with My Morning Jacket) (Neil Young cover)
Born Alone
Dawned on Me

Bob Dylan, the main act of the night and artist I was most excited to see, took the stage a bit after 9:30pm. He was joined on stage by five other musicians, all wearing khaki suits compared to Dylan’s all-black threads. His band included a pair of guitars, a bass guitar, an upright bass, and a drummer. Dylan actually played the keyboard the majority of the set.

I had low expectations for the show, because I’ve heard that Bob Dylan’s performances are very hit or miss. Some nights, he puts on a great show for several hours. Other nights, he’s done after a half hour of garbage. We ended up hearing a fairly solid hour and fifteen minutes, so I was pretty pleased. Recently, it appears that he has recently been playing more or less the same setlist every night, which I find a bit odd considering the enormity of his catalog. Nonetheless, the list was pretty diverse, going all the way back to the classic song “A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall” from The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963). Except for a pair of songs from Blood on the Tracks (1975) and three from his most recent, Tempest (2012), he didn’t pull more than one song from any of his albums. Most songs were from the 60’s, 70’s, and 2000’s; fewer were from the 80’s and 90’s.

In preparation for this show, I had recently finished listening to his entire studio catalog. Even though he would sometimes purposefully also change the way he sang from album to album, it’s easy to hear how the natural timber of his voice has changed over the years. However, it really hits you when you hear him sing old his older songs now. It doesn’t’ even sound like the same person, more like a Tom Waits cover of a Bob Dylan song. He has also since changed the arrangements of many of his old songs so drastically that they’re barely recognizable other than using the same lyrics. All and all, I’m glad to have seen the legendary songwriter perform. He’s right up there with Paul McCartney in terms of being a music legend, even if he hasn’t aged so gracefully. 

Bob Dylan Setlist:
Things Have Changed
Love Sick
High Water (For Charley Patton)
Soon after Midnight
Early Roman Kings
Tangled Up in Blue
Duquesne Whistle
She Belongs to Me
Beyond Here Lies Nothin'
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
Blind Willie McTell
Simple Twist of Fate
Thunder on the Mountain
All Along the Watchtower
Encore:
Ballad of a Thin Man