Yellow Red Sparks, Ronnie and the Reagans and Starlings Murmurations @ Gramma's House (8/9/13)

I'd heard of Gramma's House but never actually seen a show there.  This show caught my attention for that reason.  It also caught my attention because it was a collaboration between Evil Wine/Wes Malvini and Heather Roberts, who's started promoting shows under the name Ten Gallon Cat.

I counted thirty people when I got to Gramma's House.  The place turned out to be across the street from my old high school.  Walked by it for half my life.  Who knew?  Anyway, Wes Malvini put the final headcount at around forty.  Not bad at all.

Starlings Murmurations opened the show.  Kirsty Scott played without her iPad recordings this night, which she said she found a bit strange (so did playing without a monitor, she added).  She did fine, though, since she still had one of the most gorgeous voices in the Boise music scene.  Stretched out a bit more with it too.  The darkness added an appropriately intimate feel as well (though Malvini did set up a light behind Scott midway through her set).

Ronnie and the Reagans played next.  This Idaho Falls group impressed me when I caught them at the Crux back in April.  With their funky beats, fluid basslines and lyrical guitar solos, their expanded lineup impressed me just as much.  It's just too bad I probably won't see it again; Franklin Tillo said that this was the band's second-to-last show as a quintet.

The things you get to see at house shows.

Last up was Los Angeles band Yellow Red Sparks.  It's always nice when a folky band doesn't lay on the cornpone too thick.  Indeed, the lovelorn lyrics, winsome melodies and smooth, swinging beat won me over so thoroughly that when the group invited the audience to sing along to an excerpt from Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love," I did (also, I just love that song).  Most of the crowd didn't, but they did give the band some good whoops and cheers.  The handful of numbers that Yellow Red Sparks played unplugged and without mics added to the set's intimacy.

You can find info on these acts, Evil Wine and Ten Gallon Cat on Facebook and elsewhere online.

Boise Weekly Review: Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk, Holly Johnson Loves You, Starlings Murmurations and Kevin Schlereth @ Neurolux (7/25/13)

photo by Tyler Carney

“You guys can join us up here if you want,” Lauren Mann told the 15-person crowd at Neurolux near the start of her set.

No one moved. However, the song that followed the Calgary musician’s invitation earned a round of loud applause.

In spite of a meager turnout, Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk delivered a polished, enthusiastic performance on Thursday, July 25. The audience responded by whooping, whistling and clapping to the beat.

***

To read the rest of this review, go to the Boise Weekly's Cobweb blog.  Special thanks to Tyler Carney for his photos.

Garage Voice, Wellspring and Honor and Starlings Murmurations @ Neurolux (6/30/13)

With their alt-gospel sound, Garage Voice was one of the most interesting bands that I saw last year.  When I saw that they'd be coming back, I jumped at the chance to see them again.  As an added bonus, the bill included Wellspring and Honor, a group I hadn't seen in well over a year, and Starlings Mumurations, whom I could probably stand to see a couple dozen more times.

I counted about fifteen people when I got to Neurolux.  When Garage Voice played, I counted about twenty-five.  So it goes on a Sunday.

Starlings Murmurations opened the show.  Kristy Scott seemed even more confident this time around.  She played while standing, and her singing had an extra ease, depth and nuance to it.  Her guitar playing felt stronger and steadier as well.  All of this gave her music added power; at times, she even reminded me a little of Sera Cahoone.

Wellspring and Honor played next.  This group sounded much more together than they did at Grainey's Basement fourteen months ago.  Slashing riffs met with curling basslines and rumbling drums.  They still didn't quite seem to hit at the same time at points, and Marco Montero didn't seem to have the pipes or the conditioning to belt and stretch out like he wanted.  However, that didn't detract much from the appeal of their well-crafted songs.  Put them at eighty-five or ninety percent of the way there.

Garage Voice sounded a little different than I remembered.  Not that they sounded bad--their music just seemed to have a much stronger soul/R&B feel here.  Stax and Motown devotee that I am, this didn't bother me at all.  Tommy Paginot's clean vocals and fiery guitar blended with Bruce Pearson's spooky, jolting organ and Patrick Toney's tight, swinging drum work.  I worried for a while that no one else was paying attention, but I noticed a few people going up to talk with the band afterwards.  Hopefully, there'll be more next time.

You can find info on these acts on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to Wes Malvini and Evil Wine.  If you like what you've read and would like to help keep it going, click the yellow "Give" button and donate.  Even $5 would help.

Nick Jaina, Manzanita Falls and Starlings Murmurations @ Neurolux (4/30/13)

This Radio Boise Tuesday had pretty much everything I could want.  It had a Treefort act I'd missed (Nick Jaina), it had a band I'd never seen before (Manzanita Falls) and it had a local act I'd recently become smitten with (Starlings Murmurations).  It didn't take me long, then, to mark this show down on the calendar.

Not many others did.  I counted about fifteen people when I got down to Neurolux.  The crowd would peak at around thirty over the course of the night.  So it goes.

Starlings Murmurations opened the show.  Although I wished that she could've played more songs (especially the one about John Keats), I liked Kristy Scott's set here as much as her set at the Crux if not more.  The extra breathing room that Neurolux afforded her bright, chugging guitar helped, as did the extra little oomph that she put into her singing.  As becoming as I found her increased forcefulness, however, what struck me most was the Robert Bresson-like restraint of Scott's music.  Her lyrics convey enormous feeling by trying to hold feelings at bay ("Well, they say you've lost your mind./ I guess I'm pretty sure they're right this time.").  Her melodies have a certain spare beauty; they're like the trees you see around town when the leaves are just starting to bud.  Her clear, high vocals show such careful poise that every ache and flutter resonates more than most other singers' flights up and down the scales.

It's amazing: I've only seen her twice, and Starlings Murmurations is already one of my favorite acts in town.

Manzanita Falls played next.  This Santa Rosa band cites Wilco and the National as influences on their Facebook page, and you could definitely hear traces of those groups in their yearning, folk-ish tunes, lithely steady drumbeats, rumbling bass and chiming, twangy guitar.  However, they had a bite all their own thanks to Jeremy Mccarten's gently tough-minded vocals and no-bullsh*t lyrics ("Talk is cheap and you're wasting my time./ You're a one-trick pony with a one-track mind.").  Most welcome as well were Stuart Markham's stinging solos.

Portland musician Nick Jaina closed out the night.  The sweetness of his tunes, the tenderness of his breathy croon and the spikiness of his lyrics ("I've been losing sleep over goddamn expense reports...") balanced each other out quite nicely: while the former two helped the latter go down, the latter helped keep the former two from turning insipid.  Both ends met the middle in Jaina's sharp, fluid guitar work.  Throughout, Jaina received sensitive support from Thomas Paul's bass and Louis McFarland's drums.  Indeed, the rapport between the three musicians was so strong that I'd have thought that they'd played together for years if I didn't know better (and actually, I don't know better).  The modest crowd gave this set some well-deserved applause.

You can find info on these acts on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to Eric Gilbert and Radio Boise.  If you like what you've read and would like to help keep it going, click the yellow "Give" button and donate whatever you can.  Even $5 can go a long way.

Ronnie and the Reagans, Matt Stone and Starlings Mumurations @ the Crux; RevoltRevolt and Cusses @ the Red Room (4/19/13)

There were so many promising shows this night that it was a little ridiculous.  In addition to New Transit and the Blaqk Family Band at the Knitting Factory and Method Man and Redman at the Revolution Concert House (don't give me that look--Method Man is a smart dude), there were the Mowgli's and A Seasonal Disguise at Neurolux and Cusses, RevoltRevolt and Lucid Aisle at the Red Room.  In the end, however, I chose this show set up by Sun Blood Stories' Ben Kirby at the Crux.  For one thing, the price was right ($2 donation).  For another, it featured three Idaho acts who were all relatively new to me.

I counted about twenty-five people when I arrived at the Crux, including Ben Kirby, Amber Pollard and her daughter and Andy Rayborn (Brett Hawkins would show up later on).  There would only be fifteen in the crowd when Ronnie and the Reagans played.  Oh well.

Starlings Murmurations opened the show.  Show me someone who can nail a PJ Harvey cover and I'll show you someone who knows the way to my heart.  Even more than PJ Harvey, however, Kristy Scott's pristine, lonely voice, gorgeous melodies and cryptic, evocative lyrics made me think of Neil Young at his tersest and most haunting ("Helpless," "The Needle and the Damage Done," "Don't Let It Bring You Down").  Her gently jolting electric guitar gave the music some edge, but her eerie harmony tracks and atmospheric recordings of rain, flowing water and wind chimes were even more inspired touches.  And not only did she have great taste in literature--she played songs inspired by John Keats, Virginia Woolf and Emily Dickinson--she showed it off without sounding stuffy or precious.  Breathtaking.

Matt Stone played next.  I already liked this guy plenty from his work in Fountains, Lakefriend and Deaf Kid, but this was something else entirely.  His catchy folk/country tunes, pleasantly crinkled tenor and detailed, witty, self-deprecating lyrics called to mind John Prine.  Then he busted out a cover of "Far From Me."  Sang it better than Prine too.  Very, very promising.

Ronnie and the Reagans from Idaho Falls closed out the show.  I caught a little bit of their set at the High Note Cafe back in February and thought that they sounded pretty good.  Happily, the full meal proved as satisfying as the bite size.  Franklin Tillo's fine-grained croon, Jean Caulfield's sweet growl and Zach Sherwood's agreeably rough shout rode atop lyrical, Clapton-esque guitar solos, soothing keyboard and swift, rumbling drums.  They shifted between swaggering funk, full-throttle hard rock and slow-burn soul with impressive ease.  Their menacing take on Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" rounded out this show's series of sharp covers.  My only complaint--and really, it's more an observation than a complaint--is that I thought they sounded just a little tame here.  That probably stemmed from the fact that they knew almost everyone in the modest crowd personally.  Give 'em a sizable audience to win over and I'll bet they could really rip it up.  Hopefully, they'll get that chance soon.

After Ronnie and the Reagans finished, I headed over to the Red Room.  Pete Thomas from Hopeless Jack and the Handsome Devil had recommended Cusses to me, so I wanted to see if I could catch at least some of their set.

I counted about thirty-five people at the Red Room.  A far cry from the 400-plus crowds that, according to Pete Thomas, Cusses draws in New York and L.A., but I guess that's how it goes when you're breaking into a new market.

The two songs that I caught by Cusses made me wish that I'd gotten to hear more.  Angel Bond belted out the tunes in a high, strong snarl.  She bounced, headbanged and strutted around so much that it was hard to get a picture of her where she didn't just look like a tornado.  Bryan Harder's gargantuan riffs and Brian Lackey's booming drums backed her up every step of the way.  A gentleman I spoke with at the bar compared this Georgia trio's decadent hard rawk to Motley Crue, and he had a point.  I'll add, though, that they sounded like they could eat Vince Neil and company for breakfast.  If they got up early enough for breakfast, anyway.  Definitely worth further investigation.

Local group RevoltRevolt closed out the night.  This set didn't surprise me as much as Matt Stone's did, but it came close.  They sounded three times better than they did when I saw them back in July, and I don't think it was just because I was a little out of it that night.  The sharp groove formed by Ben Wieland's rapid-fire drums and Jacob Frederickson's snaking basslines gave Chris Bock's tuneful drones and howling wah-wah noise liftoff.  Also, while I found Bock's shouted vocals a little irritating before, they proved very agreeable here in a D. Boon or Lee Ranaldo sort of way.  It's just a shame that the crowd thinned out significantly during this set.  Oh well.  At least Reggie Townley showed up with a couple of girls in tow to give his compatriots moral support.

You can find info on these acts on Facebook and elsewhere online.  If you like what you've read and would like to help keep it going, click the yellow "Give" button in the upper right-hand corner and donate whatever you can.  Even $5 can go a long way.