Kelley Polar - Love Songs of The Hanging Gardens (Environ CD05)

oh wow, that's pretty sweet. the canal room site lists a 10 PM start time so yeah, making both probably won't be too hard...

Rhys Chatham: Performing his original 70s "guitar army" pieces for the first time in two decades, RHYS CHATHAM'S "Die Donnergotter" ensemble features rock legends ERNIE BROOKS (MODERN LOVERS) on bass and JONATHAN KANE (LA MONTE YOUNG, SWANS) on drums; the guitarists include CHRIS BROKAW (CODEINE, COME), BILL BROVOLD (LARVAL), DAVID DANIELL (SAN AGUSTIN), DAVID BICKNELL, JON CRIDER and PAUL DUNCAN (JONATHAN KANE'S FEBRUARY); of course RHYS himself is front and center

!!!!!!

BUMP.

Pulling out records to play while people stand around waiting for the actual show. Some nice New Wave oddities and Italo...unclassics if you will.

Haven't heard more about the schedule for Tonic other then there's a few other acts so I'm assuming Rhys is going on later.

As far as requests, any requests for the Feelies would've been promptly shot down, as I only brought mostly new wave/synth stuff, more slow/atmospheric stuff for the pre-show segment, and then a chunk of my typical new wave/italo/disco dance stuff for my post-show spinning, which was pretty hit-or-miss, but people seemed to like most of it.

I have to say I was 100% sure nobody would stick around, as I'd never seen anyone stick around after a show like that, esp. in the middle of the week, and had a contigency plan of seeing Rhys Chatham. Perhaps because people were expecting Morgan, a few people did stick around, not a ton but a nice enough amount for us to have a little dance party for over an hour, first me then finally Morgan, who spun an amazing set to about 20 lucky people!

As far as the crowd, I was psyched with the turnout, it definately seemed full enough if not sold out. The balcony was packed as well (esp w/ the local dj contigent!). It's always a strange thing, when a kind of dance kind of pop band performs at a place like that. Certainly they put on a show worth watching, but at other times, they were delivering dance music and I was suprised more people weren't dancing. But who knows, if you were dancing you may have missed the space larva creature. But the constant talking at shows, I just never get that. And despite being "loud" dance music, I think the harmonies and strings and vocals were subtle and I was straining to hear over the chatter.

The sound was hit-or-miss. Word behind the curtain is that they had serious problems with the in-ear monitors which could be a certain death for many vocalists. I think they still did great, but that may explain variances in Kelley's volume.

All in all I had a great time and got home at a reasonable hour! What more could I ask for?

And about the musician's not dancing, I think, at least with the vocalists, it was pretty clear they were going for a different thing. They did have some choreography, it was all just very minimal and still. Maybe 2 back-up dancers would've been a nice touch, but the stage was crowded as it was.

So thanks to everyone who came...

and dan selzer and morgan geist were great last night as well! a crackin' dj selection.

and kelley covering hi-NRG classic "i'm so hot 4 you" by bobby o as his last tune -- classic!! and then selzer seamlessly picking up with the original as soon as kelley ended-- double classic!!

The whole performance thing was... well, a lot more *performative* than I expected, almost campy in a way. A really great way. The strings sounded beautiful live. Only real quip with the show itself was his vocal shyness -- you could tell he was struggling with it for a while (though again, chatty people didn't help at all).

rad!!

the corny indie rocker dudes in the audience who weren't dancing and just stood there stone-faced like it was a slint concert could do with some of bobby o's timeless advice: 'how to pick up girls--learn to dance!'

Lesson learned: don't tell people to shut, they'll only talk about how you told them to shut up.

double rad!!

man, the talk of campy outfits &c&c&c makes me so very very happy. would've killed to have been there & dancing.

HOLY CRAP.

I was wondering if you knew if they were gonna play it...or you just had it!!!!

That voice article is funny, obviously Tom missed the first time the space larvae crawled on stage. But for the last time I will mention it's likely some of the quietness of Kelley's voice was due to monitor problems. Anyone who's ever stood on stage behind the speakers with little or no monitors knows how difficult it is to gauge those things.

yeah the 'wanna be your lover' segue was brilliant--i liked that that it told a story: first kelley was 'hot 4 you,' and then you responded with 'wanna be your lover.' aww!

i like tom's blog for the voice, but i'm frankly mystified as to how he thought what kelley polar was doing sounded like kompakt--the beats sounded very different to me. and i don't think that he sounds at all like the postal service, except perhaps on the most topical level. but maybe that's just me.