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Oh, God...Dunja. So so sorry to hear about Boris. What a terrible loss. I'll of course be thinking about you and your family during this awful time. All I can think to say is try to remember all of the good times that you guys had and don't dwell on the tragedy of his untimely passing.

Three days later I'm still amazed by how great they were. I was worried I was going in with expectations that were too high, but they really impressed me. I'm coming out for a few of the Midwest shows then heading up to Montreal (my first time in Canada!) to catch their show with Scarnella. Nels and Carla play together so rarely anymore that I don't want to miss them.

Thanks a lot for the review, Three dollars and 63 cents! Sounds like it was a great night. I like the Jazz Standard as a venue and the food is pretty stellar as well. I'm looking forward to a couple of the Singers gigs in June, although I *really* wish that I could make it up to Montreal for Scarnella. Some other time, for sure.

By the way, I got an e-mail from Jenny Scheinman (she is awesome) a couple of days ago and noticed this line at the bottom, among her upcoming gigs:

-October 28 through Nov 2 at The Village Vanguard with Jason Moran (piano), Rudy Royston (drums) and Nels Cline (guitar)

Now that will be an absolutely killer band!

P.S. WaronWar, I know Nels was highly bummed about the Martyr's gig being 21+, but I guess it was out of his control this time because of the people that booked the tour.

Meant to post this earlier, but I was wondering if anyone made the Nels Cline Singers show(s) last night or is going to see the Scott Amendola Band and the Singers tonight. I'd love to hear reports.

Unfortunately I could only make it to the first night of Crypto week, on Wednesday, which was great. The first set featured the Jeff Gauthier Goatette. The five-piece band played a couple songs off their upcoming record, House of Return, which will be released in June. Gauthier on violin and David Witham on piano and keyboards gives this group an interesting sound, plus you have the incomparable Alex Cline on percussion. One tune they played was Nels' rather rocking composition, Satellites and Sideburns, off the new one. And then they took it down for a contemplative rendition of Bill Evans' Time Remembered, before closing with the opening cut, Ahfufat, off the last Goatette record.

Then Nels and Alex, in a rare duo performance, came back to play the second set. Nels said they didn't really know what they were going to do, but they wound up doing a few improvised pieces that really allowed Alex to shine behind the drum kit with Nels adding some electronic touches. They closed the set with a version of Paul Motian's Inspiration From a Vietnamese Lullaby (or at least as much of it as Nels said he could remember).

Anyway, it was a great night to kick off what I'm sure will be another great week at the Jazz Standard. I hear Charlie Hunter is sitting in with the Scott Amendola Band tonight in the early set in case that helps motivate anyone to get down there in the next 90 minutes or so.

Someone posted on Brooklyn Vegan about AEG forgetting to allot 1000 tickets to the box office or something, so it might not exactly be sold out once they sort that out. I'd be kinda surprised if it sold out that quick.

50 states my ass. When Wilco hits Hawaii on their way out to Guam, Saipan, and Midway, I'll be there for all of those shows.

Speaking of which, when was the Wyoming show? Can't seem to find a Wyoming date on Wilcobase. I'm almost sure there hasn't been one this decade, so maybe during the epic Being There days?

I fully endorse the 50-state plan, though. I know for sure there's at least one Wilco fan in Hawaii...

The point of not having online ticket sales is so that it is more likely that fans, and not scalpers, will get the tickets because they will be willing to go wait at the box office. This is how it was done in the olden days, and how Wilco did it for their Warsaw show last summer. It does put fans who are not close to the venue at a disadvantage, but it gives that advantage to local residents. This is the first time Wilco has played Delaware, and my guess is that they will not be back for some time. Shouldn't locals, who otherwise have to drive to Philly or DC to see the band, get those tickets?

You're assuming that scalpers or those working for scalpers wouldn't be among those waiting in line at the box office. Even in the old days, when you had to line up at Ticketmaster outlets, I've seen scalpers hire homeless dudes to wait in line and buy tickets for them. So not having online sales (or limited online sales) doesn't always solve that problem.

I'm all for local residents having priority for tickets, but if that was the promoter's goal, then why have phone sales at all? Why not just sell all tickets at the box office? (A rhetorical question. I know the promoter's only goal is to sell all the tickets and if there's enough demand to do that with just in-person and box office sales, then obviously there isn't a need for online sales. It is quite a rare thing these days, though, to have almost no online sales. That's all I'm saying.)

I could be wrong, but I thought there were some tickets sold online for Warsaw last summer. I went to the box office at Irving Plaza, but I know some out-of-town people got tickets somehow. Maybe that was through the Wilcoworld presale, though.

The kind of place that doesn't really need it.

 

The Grand has had, in my memory, two shows with this kind of demand. They were able to distribute all available tickets (probably under 1,000 after the presale) in under an hour. How would an online mechanism improve this for them to justify the cost? They could have used TicketMaster but then people would have slammed them for that too.

Obviously you know the place pretty well, and I'm not disagreeing with you. But if they intend to put on more of these "high demand" shows, which it sounded like based on some of the stuff I read in the local paper, then they ought to have more than just a couple of people sitting in a box office manning the phones. Just seems a little quaint, that's all. I consider myself fairly knowledgable about concert venues around the country and I can't think of more than a couple that have no online purchasing option whatsoever. Even symphony sorts of places that wouldn't ordinarily have "high demand" type of events...

I've got to say, by way of observation...What kind of a place, in the year 2008, doesn't have some sort of system for selling tickets online?

PS: Also awesome was when Paul pointed out a Thank You to a VCer in the new Evangelista LP

Yeah, Maud (cough, cough)...I need to get the story behind that!

You should be able to view/download a detailed seating chart here:

Tanglewood seating chart

Yay! Thanks Kyle.

Awwww...I was so hoping someone got a good picture of that! Way to go, Maudie!

Didn't Jeff throw up his hands and say something like, "I'm done. I can't follow that!" Even though he graciously did...

It's all right, I forgive you.

Kristen McNemany

McMenamy, right? But yeah.

Yeah, I tried to switch it back to the umlaut...but it won't let me.

If that could be fixed, I'd appreciate it!

the best eating experience I had at the party, was Dick's meat crust soaked in Jeff's cheek juice.

daniel's balls with sooz's bacon wrapped around them was pretty tasty as well.

Don't know to much about them, but not that excited.

I just did a quick Google search and it looks like it's a side project of Alan Sparhawk from Low. Their MySpace says they're from Duluth, Minnesota, so that seems right. I don't know too much about their actual music, but if it's possible, I bet Nels will probably sit in for a song or two like he did when another of Alan's side projects, The Black-Eyed Snakes, opened for Wilco a couple years back.

oh shit! A bit of "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" from Radiohead, "11 o'clock tick tock" from u2, and "The Number of the Beast" from Iron Maiden. I think I did my song "A New Word" as well.

You did do "A New Word," and I even had it in the old notebook but somehow forgot to include it on the post-show jam setlist. I've since amended my error, as well as noting various song fragments by you and Dave. Let me know if anything else comes to mind. Accuracy is a virtue, in my book!

P.S. Great photos, y'all! I saw many cameras at the show, so I hope we get to see more!

PS - that track of mine is called "Heckuva Day", Paul xoxo

Gotcha, Mart. Great tune, and certainly quite fitting! (Now that was a tough setlist to keep! You did a couple fragments at the very end too-not sure if you even remember. It was something I forgot to jot down, and then a verse of a Radiohead song or something like that.)

Anyway, loved getting to hear a couple of songs off the next record as well as a couple off Dave's new one. Oh, and Jeff was pretty good as well.

Thought I'd take this opportuniy to post the setlist I cobbled together for the "headliners" at last night's show. I always look forward to the post-show campfire that's become sort of a tradition, and it was once again a splendid time! Since there was only one guitar, our very own Martin Rivas (Twisted Acres) and Dave Mirabella (MeDave) traded off doing mini-sets of both covers and originals that went on late into the night...

Mart

-Be Thankful For What You Got [William DeVaughn]

-Spirits in the Material World [The Police]

-Heckuva Day

-My Best Friend

Dave, you're the best! Hope your drive back is a safe one and see you again soon hopefully!

i like how evonne has drinks in both hands.

one of 'em's probably a coffee.

where's the guy with the setlist?

 

this was such a lovely and incredible evening... and i heard the song i've been wanting to hear forever

sorry, sorry!

so glad you finally got your song, alison! it was indeed another wonderful and unique evening, and thanks to jeff and susan (and everyone who contributed to the kickass potluck and, heck, to everyone who was there) for being a part of it!

the setlist, which doesn't come close to doing justice to the show itself, went like this:

-I'm Into Something Good [Herman's Hermits]

-ELT

-Simple Twist of Fate [bob Dylan] (aborted)

-Hotel Arizona

-Be Not So Fearful [bill Fay]

-Henry and the H-Bombs [Mott the Hoople]

-Let's Not Get Carried Away

-Summer Teeth

-Build Me Up Buttercup [The Foundations]

-John Wesley Harding [bob Dylan]

-The Unwelcome Guest (w/Martin Rivas on background vocals and Dave Mirabella on guitar) [i wish there was a "sublime" emoticon]

-Dreaming [blondie]

-Thirteen [big Star]

--------------------pee break-----------------------

-Simple Twist of Fate [bob Dylan; alternate lyrics]

-Airline to Heaven (w/Eddie O'Connor on guitar)

-The Rainbow Connection [Paul Williams] (fragment)

-Outta Mind (Outta Sight)

-More Like The Moon

-Wait Up

-Laminated Cat

-Kamera

-A Magazine Called Sunset

-The Ruling Class

-Love and Mercy [brian Wilson]

-In A Future Age

-(happy birthday to Jerry)-

-The Lonely 1

-The Thanks I Get

-The Long Cut (w/Dave Mirabella on guitar)

-Dash 7

-Hummingbird

-Sir Duke [stevie Wonder] (Martin Rivas on guitar and vocals; Jeff watching)

-No More Poetry

-Chinese Apple

-I'm Always in Love (dedicated to Natalie Jacobs "Saint Genevieve")

-Pecan Pie

-Far, Far Away

-California Stars

-Waiting On the World to Change [John Mayer] (fragment)

-Can't Keep From Talking

-Gun

-Candyfloss

It's been waaaay too long, Mart. And I will make it to an all-original show soon. Embarrassed to say I've missed so many of those (May at Rockwood is looking strong, though.) Hope your pipes are feeling better and see you soon. Actually, really soon!

Awesome, T! Glad you got to see them, and I definitely love their version of "Don't Bring Me Down." Someday you've got to catch a show when Dan is with them as well. That adds, ahem, another element to the proceedings!

Looking forward to seeing a show from this tour in a couple days, both the NPs and Okkervil with Charles.