Shook Twins, Stone Seed and Grand Falconer @ the Egyptian Theatre (9/20/13)

I'd never seen the Shook Twins before, but I'd been curious about them for a while, especially since Katelyn and Laurie Shook were born and raised in Idaho.  Indeed, I was so interested in them that I pitched a feature on them to the Boise Weekly (which I thought came out rather well overall).  Anyway, I also got a chance to check out this show thanks to my job.

I counted about 130 people when I got to the Egyptian Theatre.  I don't know how many were there when the Shook Twins played.  I don't know how many people went down to Tom Grainey's to wish a happy birthday to To Entertain U's Seth Brown either (happy belated birthday to him, by the way).

Grand Falconer opened the show.  I'd remembered this local band being good, but I didn't remember them being this good.  Their blend of folk and indie-rock sounded sharper and more balanced than it did before.  They complemented their ringing guitar, warm cello and clean three-part harmonies with stomping, syncopated rhythms.  Their playful, self-deprecating banter was most welcome as well.  Guitarist Michael Johnson joked about their being notoriously awkward onstage, but they didn't seem that way to me (or they were comfortable in their awkwardness, at least).  Over half the crowd was on its feet by the set's end, and those who weren't nodded to the beat in their seats.  I'll look forward to this group's new EP, which they said they've been working on these past eight months (thought it had been a while since I'd seen their name around).

Stone Seed played next.  When the Weekly feature on the Shooks got shared around on Facebook, this band tagged me in a comment asking what they needed to do to get mentioned in the article.  A little pissy, perhaps, but they did kinda have a right--I try to make it a point to mention the openers in my articles, but unfortunately, it slipped my mind with this one.  My bad.  Anyway, this roots group's high energy and smooth grooves did a good job of filling the space of the Egyptian.  Idyltime's Beth Mason looked a little stiff on standup bass (she'd only played with the band for a couple of weeks at this point), but Ty Clayton's guitar and Benett Barr's djembe held down the rhythm just fine.  Lindsey Terrell's sultry harmonies meshed nicely with Clayton's gritty baritone drawl, and her elegant violin solos gave the music some extra spark.  People danced off to the sides, in the aisles and in their seats.

The Shook Twins closed out the night.  I imagine that if, at any point in the proceedings, Katelyn and Laurie Shook came across as smug or calculating, I might have found their plaintive folk tunes and pristine harmonies unbearable (not to mention touches like the Lite Brite that read "SHOOK TWINS" that sat at the foot of the stage).  But since they came across as thoughtful, warm, funny and endearing as Katelyn Shook did when I interviewed her, said tunes and harmonies won me over completely.  As did their sprightly beats, skillful beatboxing and subtle looping.  Indeed, between their offhandedly sophisticated musicianship, their smart, slightly off-kilter lyrics and their expansive, generous spirit (an a capella Tears for Fears cover--why not?), I'm halfway tempted to call them the only real 21st century folk band.  But that sounds way too pretentious for this music, so I'll just say that this was easily one of the best shows I've seen this year.

You can find info on these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to the Record Exchange, To Entertain U and Idaho Live.

Aimee Mann and Field Report @ the Egyptian Theatre (10/4/12)

As most people probably did, I discovered Aimee Mann via the Paul Thomas Anderson film Magnolia.  I'd liked her contributions to the soundtrack a lot, and after buying a copy of it, I'd hear about her now and again in various media and come across her albums in various stores.  Beyond that, however, I hadn't really paid her much notice.  So I can't say that this show excited me very much (not as much as, say, Dave Alvin or Toots and the Maytals did), but since I had a bit of discretionary income and heard positive things about her post-Magnolia work, I figured I'd give her a shot.

I will add, though, that I got much more excited when I listened to said post-Magnolia work and found that I liked it as much as "Wise Up" and "Save Me" if not more.  If you haven't heard her song "Freeway" yet, give it a listen.  It's a sharp, catchy little put-down of social climbers in Orange County.

I counted a little over ninety people when I arrived at the Egyptian Theatre, and I'd guess that at least another twenty or so showed up during the opening set.  That made for a better crowd than the one for Peter Murphy, but that still left plenty of space around my seat in row M.  I can't complain too much, however: the modest audience just seemed to make the night's music feel even more intimate.

The Wisconsin-based band Field Report opened.  If the Old 97's or New Transit put out a shoegaze album, it might sound something like this group's music.  With only the steady, driving drums to guide them, leader Chris Porterfield's clean, considerate tenor and yearning melodies wandered through the mist conjured up by the jangly guitars, weepy pedal steel and atmospheric keyboard.  There wasn't anything hazy about Porterfield's lyrics, however.  The tender sardonicism of his well-turned phrases made me think a little of Elvis Costello.  Or, right, Aimee Mann.

A brief intermission followed Field Report's set, and then Aimee Mann and her four-piece band took the stage.  This performance provokes one of my rare disagreements with my critical idol, Robert Christgau, who dubbed her an "ice queen" in one of his reviews.  Mann's songs, I've found, contain plenty of spunk and warmth; they just don't make a big show of it, that's all.  There certainly wasn't anything cold or aloof about Mann's stage presence: she thanked the audience several times throughout the set ("This is a small but mighty crowd."), cracked more than a few jokes and bantered playfully while working through some tuning troubles.  Her murmured vocals made it a little hard to hear the superbly crafted lyrics over the superbly performed music, but the audience seemed to know most of the words anyway.  In its own subdued way, Aimee Mann's performance proved almost as impressive as Dave Alvin's at the VaC.

You can find info on Aimee Mann and Field Report on Facebook and elsewhere online.