Virgin Mobile Free Fest 2009

The future of Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore is in doubt (horse racing ain't what it use to be and everyone is waiting to see if slots save the day). So, Virgin Mobile, which has used Pimlico in past years for it summer music festival, moved to Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD, halfway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Merriweather is a wonderful outdoor summer concert venue, but smaller than Pimlico, so instead of the previous big ticket Virgin Mobile Festival, this year Sir Richard Branson made it a "Free" Fest, scaling back to more modest headliners and giving prior attendees first crack via e-mail. Having gone last year, I got two free tickets. I gave one to my daughter's boyfriend and headed out to Merriweather for the opening of the gates at 11 a.m. on August 30, 2009.

For the end of August in this rainy Maryland summer, the weather could not have been nicer. Sunny 80 degree temperature. There were two stages, the main Pavilion stage where regular concerts are held and a second "West" stage erected for Free Fest in a field far enough away from the Pavilion to avoid the music from one performance interfering with the other. The performances on the West Stage were more appealing to me and started earlier. In addition, the crowd for the Pavilion stage that actually wanted to sit in the enclosed Pavilion had to wait in line for quite a while to get a seat, without any music. Those content to sit or stand on the lawn overlooking the Pavilion stage just settled for the opening act, Mates of State, to come on at 1:30 p.m.

Over on the West stage, the music started at 11:15 a.m. with a group called Sundays Roulette from Bethesda, Maryland. I missed them because I was wandering around the grounds, checking out the exhibit booths and the assorted other attractions that come with a Virgin Mobile Festival, such as Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey, billed as "Baltimore's Award Winning Acrobatic Burlesque Superduo." The outrageous burlesque nouveau couple and their entourage roamed the ground in full attire, posing for pictures with the spectators.

By the time I reached the West stage, the winner of a contest to vote a band onto the schedule, The Birthday Massacre was playing. Based in Toronto, The Birthday Massacre played an energetic, if short set. Dressed in what looked to be Cub Scout uniform shirts sized for adults and Marilyn Mansonesque facials, they seemed pleased to be getting the exposure. Not being a fan of this genre or this band, I cannot rate their performance, but can say that they played well, engaged the crowd and went off after their set to mingle in the "Recharge Area."

Next up was St. Vincent. This is actually a women named Annie Clark who performs with a band as St. Vincent. Paste Magazine reports:

When Annie Clark—the 27-year-old Texan who performs . . . her small frame is nearly hidden from view by her guitar.

True to this report, dressed in black to match her jet black hair, she cradled a large electric guitar. I caught her in mid-set, doing a cover of "I Dig A Pony" by The Beatles, without her band. She started out gently, only to veer into a wild guitar solo in mid-song. When the band came back on, she performed several more songs which featured dissonant arrangements and equally possessed, explosive guitar improvisation from Clark. In all, St. Vincent resembled a cross between Audrey Hepburn and Jimi Hendrix (with a bit of Patti Smith somewhere in the mix), but the music was powerful, intriguing and well worth further exploration.

There followed a set by D.C. hip/hop rapper Wale, who seemed energized to be in front of what he clearly considered a "hometown" crowd. In turn, he energized a large number of fans who gathered to hear him at the West stage. Again, I cannot review Wale's performance critically because I have too little reference. His band was a powerful fusion of rock and rap and his music had strong qualities, but in my humble opinion, Wale could stand to cut some of his talk between songs and stick to the music. That said, the mostly white audience seem to love him, even when he was strutting around repeatedly referring to "DC", saying "F - ing" this and "F- ing" that and throwing water bottles into the crowd.  So, what do I know?

By mid-afternoon I was ready for the band that I really wanted to hear, The Hold Steady, who arrived on the West stage, having performed the night before at the 9:30 Club in Washington. Never having seen them live, I had the impression from their albums that The Hold Steady are a variant of bands like The Counting Crows.
Craig Finn's voice in the studio sounds a little like Adam Duritz, if only a bit more earnest. There are some similarities in the enigmatic songs both bands write and perform, but there is a darker edge to many of their rock anthems, and I am not sure that The Hold Steady will be doing a song on a Shrek soundtrack anytime soon.

Live, however, The Hold Steady unleash themselves from the limitations of the studio.  They are a full-till rock & roll experience.  They are: Craig Finn [vocals], Tad Kubler [Guitar], Galen Polivka [Bass], Bobby Drake, [Drums],  and Franz Nicolay [Keyboard].  Finn is the definitive frontman of the band.  He conveys the dark angst and menace, the confessional twists, and the rollicking joy within the song lyrics.  In pictures, he resembles a sedate accountant or doctor or lawyer.  On stage, he explodes, often pumping a guitar and constantly in motion, leaping back and forth to the microphone, delivery lyrics with animated expressions and body movements that border on spasms.  He clearly enjoys being in front of a crowd.   And, if the crowd knows the songs, he delights and revs it up.  I almost expected him to leap into the crowd, but the gap between the stage and the audience was too far.

Finn may be the focal point, but the band burns behind him. Polivka and Drake lay down a solid, pulsing beat.  Kubler is a classic rock guitarist, who moves effortlessly from power-chords to solos.  Nicolay finishes things off with keyboard runs on piano or organ and accents. The whole band provides backing vocals.  The Hold Steady have been called the best bar band in America and their songs are lyrically rich in characters and detail and color, sometimes calling to mind early Bruce Springsteen, another artist who built his early reputation on phenomenal live performances in bars and clubs.

Touring now to support their powerful new recording, Stay Positive, the band charged through a lively set, including strong new numbers like "Sequestered in Memphis" and "Two Crosses".  No doubt conscious of the abbreviated festival set length, but happily tried to jam as much music as they could into the time that they had.  Most of the songs were drawn from either Stay Positive or Boys & Girls in America.  Finn pumped the crowd to sing along and it responded.  The band kicked up the momentum. Richard Branson wandered up backstage and observed the end of their set.  No doubt this band has had some "Massive Nights", but this was one massive afternoon.  May they have many more massive nights and days.

Check out there newest release, a live recording (with a DVD), A Positive Rage, which is representative of the energy of their performances.  Also check them out on MySpace at The Hold Steady.

After such a fine performance from The Hold Steady, I did not feel like hang out in the heat to catch The National or Weezer. The next day was a work day.  Pretty nice affair. Hope Sir Richard keeps us in mind next year.

Oh, Come All Ye Faithful .... And Charlie Sexton

Bob Dylan announced yesterday that on October 13 he will release as his 47th album Christmas in the Heart. Dylan will donate all of his U.S. royalties in perpetuity to Feeding America. In the announcement on his website,

Bob Dylan commented, “It’s a tragedy that more than 35 million people in this country alone -- 12 million of those children – often go to bed hungry and wake up each morning unsure of where their next meal is coming from. I join the good people of Feeding America in the hope that our efforts can bring some food security to people in need during this holiday season.”

Songs on Christmas in the Heart are to include: “Here Comes Santa Claus,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Little Drummer Boy” and “Must Be Santa.”

Meanwhile, Rolling Stone reports that guitarist Charlie Sexton will re-join Bob's band in Seattle when he continues touring in October. Sexton has recently been working in the Arc Angels with Doyle Bramhill II and Chris Layton. At the RS link there is a nice video clip of Sexton and Dylan performing The Rolling Stone's "Brown Sugar".

November 27, 2009:

Christmas in the Heart is out now, and you can try to figure it out for yourself.  "Must Be Santa" already has a wild video posted on Facebook.  Here is an interesting interview with Dylan about the album by Bill Flanagan in  the North American Street Newspaper Association.  Here and there, amid questions that do not really ask much and do not illicit much in return, Dylan actually reveals a thing or two about his influences in doing a Christmas album.

Summer Concerts III - Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp

THE BOB DYLAN SHOW - July 24, 2009 - Ripken Stadium, Aberdeen, Maryland

Let's start with an important point. This was not solely a Bob Dylan concert. This is The Bob Dylan Show, something that Dylan has been doing in the summer for a number of years now. Dylan gathers two or three other acts and goes out on the road playing ballparks and other venues. The show is as much about the other acts as it is about Dylan, who finishes the night with a tight, ninety minute set.

I saw The Bob Dylan Show in Frederick, Maryland in the summer of 2006 and loved the concept. I particularly liked the exposure for lesser known acts. In Aberdeen, people did not need much introduction to Willie Nelson or John Mellencamp, who drew many of their own fans. The opening act, The Wiyos, however, surely benefited by performing about 45 minutes at the very beginning of the show.

The Wiyos are Joseph deJarnette, Parrish Ellis, Michael Farkas and Teddy (Tetlow) Weber. Their music is loosely described as "Americana." On their Facebook page, they list as influences:

mountains, cities, silent films, street-corner musicians from the last 100 years. stringbands, jugbands, hip-hop, country, washboard swing, beatboxers, ragtime and piedmont blues, We love music that doesn't suck and isn't formulaic boring derivative mediocrity.

The Wiyos performed a wonderfully lively set of traditional songs and their own compositions. As they perform acoustic, they actually had the best sound of the night. In what might be construed as an indirect tip of the hat to Mr. Dylan, they announced that they were going to play a non-original song written after 1940 and proceeded to romp through The Band's "Ophelia." You mayl not hear The Wiyos on a lot of radio stations, but you should check them out if you have the chance.

Willie Nelson came next. Playing to many of his fans, he moved briskly through a relaxed set of his familiar songs and had the crowd engaged. Unfortunately, a thunderstorm rolled in and shortened his set. After announcing that he would have to cut things short, he played a couple more songs and then asked everyone to head for cover. The rain delay lasted about 45 minutes.

John Mellencamp followed with a vibrant set of his classic songs. He and his band played well, but the muddy mix of sound in the stadium took away much of the dynamics of his music, which at times include a violin and an accordion. From the beginning chords of "Little Pink Houses," he had the crowd on his side and clearly many of his fans were there just to see him. He responded with strong performances, filled with familiar songs, and he had the crowd singing along.

By the time Dylan arrived on stage it was dark. With a tight band, Bob started off with new versions of two classics, "Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." (Full set list is at bobdylan.com or at boblinks.com.) Atypical of the Frederick show in 2006, when Dylan never left his keyboard on the side of the stage, he played guitar on these first two songs. He then retired to the keyboards for the rest of the night. His band was blistering hot and Dylan's voice was strong (if throaty and cracking) all night. Dylan has fallen deeper into a blues mode, and most of the songs in the set were from his more recent albums. He did include a spirited rendition of "Highway 61 Revisited," which is a blues-based song to begin with, and finished with "Like a Rolling Stone," "Jolene," and "All Along the Watchtower." As mentioned in my Introduction, however, the sound quality could have been much better. If you wanted to just listen, you probably heard a better set in the parking lot. Still, Bob's performance was tight and his band was white hot. (Bob Dylan - keyboard, guitar, harp; Tony Garnier - bass; George Recile - drums; Stu Kimball - rhythm guitar; Denny Freeman - lead guitar; Donnie Herron - violin, viola, banjo, electric mandolin, pedal steel, lap steel. Courtesy of Bob Links.)

Some important considerations about any Bob Dylan performance:

His voice seems to have been a source of contention all his career, from the very early days of his fame, when he took to reminding interviewers that whatever they thought of his voice, he was hitting all those notes. Without question, Dylan's voice now creaks and cracks at times, but he still hits the notes. He also has incredible knowledge of the musical roots that he is mining.

Yes, his phrasing remains a mystery some times. He persists in changing the way he sings his songs, particularly the classic in his repetiore. This is nothing new, however. I first saw Dylan in 1974, and even then, he was reinventing his own songs, changing their arrangements and changing the way that he sung and phrased the words. Go listen to the live recordings that you can get a hold of. Despite having been released somewhat randomly, these live recordings interestingly illustrate significant points in Dylan's long career. Listen to songs on "Before the Flood" with the Band. Then go and listen to the same songs on At Budokan or The Basement Tapes. Dylan is always changing things. As he says in "Maggie's Farm":

Well, I try my best
To be just like I am,
But everybody wants you
To be just like them.

Don't expect Bob to engage the audience. Except for the early days, when he joked and kidded with the audience (Live 1964 at Town Hall in New York), Dylan has moved away from much interaction with his audience and his fans. This is certainly true after he went electric. Listen to Live 1966 in comparison to Live 1964 and watch D.A. Pennebacker's Dont [Don't] Look Back and the end of Martin Scorsese's No Direction Home), which document the tension between Dylan and parts of his audience and the press when he played Newport and tour England in 1965 and 1966. As he played electric, parts of his audience became openly hostile, prompting acidic responses from Dylan. Following his mysterious motorcycle crash in 1966, Dylan stopped touring until 1974, when he decided to go on the road with The Band. By then, when I first saw him, he was not speaking to the audience at all. The Band worked the crown during their own set. (When I saw him 1974, he opened and close the show with the same song, "Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I'll Go Mine)". Perhaps, that was meant as a message too.) So, accept the fact that it will be a rare night when Bob comes out and tells a joke or takes a request. He is going his way now. Take it or leave it.

Finally, many reviewers note that Dylan now plays a lot of newer songs, which pale in comparison to his "classics". I doubt Dylan cares. He keeps writing songs. Dylan may constantly rework the songs we all list as his classics, but he cannot recreate them. Those songs are welded together with the times in which they were written. Many of us cannot be separated them from the greater context those times gave those songs. Times have changed, and Dylan has never been much interested in repeating himself, so he has moved on. We tend to forget that throughout his career he has written songs that are less then great. Comparing his songs is like comparing Shakespeare's plays; there are some unparalleled works, some merely great ones, some lesser works, and some we just pass by.

And Dylan continues to write great songs. The Grammy Awards may being trying to make up having ignored Dylan throughout the 1960s by recognizing Dylan's recent work repeatedly, but Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft, and Modern Times are exceptional recordings. Dylan won an Academy Award in 2000 for "Things Have Changed." (Has anyone done a thesis on how often Dylan deals with time and change in his lyrics?) Dylan keeps on working and changing and the results continue to amaze. Last year's Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989 to 2006 is a good example, revealing how Dylan not only performs different versions of his songs, but records different versions too. And he works on side projects, like film scores and collaborations like the wonderful version of "The Lonesome River" with Ralph Stanley. And when he performs, he puts everything into the songs, old or new, playing full-tilt with a band of excellent musicians. So catch him if you can; it will be well worth it.

August 22, 2009:
From an interview about his new record, Together Through Life, here is Dylan himself talking about his songs and his audience:

There didn’t seem to be any general consensus among my listeners. Some people preferred my first period songs. Some, the second. Some, the Christian period. Some, the post Colombian. Some, the Pre-Raphaelite. Some people prefer my songs from the nineties. I see that my audience now doesn’t particular care what period the songs are from. They feel style and substance in a more visceral way and let it go at that. Images don’t hang anybody up. Like if there’s an astrologer with a criminal record in one of my songs it’s not going to make anybody wonder if the human race is doomed. Images are taken at face value and it kind of freed me up.

Read the entire interview on Dylan's website.

Summer Concerts II - Wilco

WILCO - July 10, 2009 - Frawley Stadium, Wilmington, Delaware
There were some dark clouds, but no rain. (I saw reports on Twitter that the next night in Lowell, Massachusetts Wilco's set was cut short by a thunderstorm.) Conor Oberst and The Mystic River Band opened with an impressive hour long set of a full tilt rock. I am familiar with some of Oberst's gentler work as Bright Eyes, but this performance put a powerfully different sound behind his music. A friend saw Oberst and the The Mystic River Band in Baltimore two nights earlier in a club with a capacity around 200 and was literally blow away.

Wilco followed with a stunning, two hour tour de force. The full set list is available online at Wilcobase. The show included two encore sets. Wilcobase breaks the songs down by album, and the show was fairly evenly drawn from Wilco's four most recent albums, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, A Ghost Is Born, Sky Blue Sky, and Wilco (the Album). Wilco handed out a free "Wilco Summer Tour 2009" program, that was entertaining and included an interview with Jeff Tweedy conducted by his two sons, Sam and Spencer. In a nice baseball touch, the center of the program is a scorecard for fans. Across the top of the grid is a list of every Wilco song, and down the left side is a list of every summer concert. Of course, this resulted in tiny boxes just barely big enough to fit a check mark, and by the time Wilco started playing, it was too dark to see anything anyway, but the concept was entertaining.

Wilco has built a fine repertoire of songs over the years and the current configuration of the band turns out stunning live renditions. I have seen them three times in the last four years or so, and they have become one of the most powerful concert bands performing today. Reports have it that Wilco and Bruce Springsteen turned in the best performances at Bonnaroo this year. Bruce went off afterward on a wild, wonderful, triumphant European tour. (Sorry, I only wish I had a first hand report here, but check out GreasyLake or Blogness on the Edge of Town. I have tickets to see Bruce and the E-Street Band in October in Philadelphia.)

It is also nice to see Wilco share the stage with talent like Conor Oberst. Other acts opening for Wilco on this tour include Okkervil River and Yo La Tengo. In the program interview with his sons, Tweedy also mentions that the band shares the proceeds of concert posters sold at the shows with local charities. Tweedy has developed a wonderful interaction with the fans. For reasons not entirely made clear, the mascot of the Wilmington Blue Rocks appears to be a character named "Mr. Celery." Wilco had sent out an e-mail advising that Mr. Celery would be in the stands, as he was reported to be a Wilco fan, and asking other fans to wish him well. Mr. Celery was indeed walking around before the show with a Wilco t-shirt as a cape and he made an appearance on stage during Wilco's set. Fans down in front of the stage came with stalks of celery that they tossed up to Tweedy and the band from time to time.

The only negative that I have to report about Wilco in Wilmington was the way the general admission tickets were handled. Although Wilco's website clearly stated that your ticket would be good for admission to the stands or the field and there was no selection online to order a specific type of ticket, the tickets delivered were printed "Stands" or "Field." Security personnel at the stadium refused to let people onto the field prior to the show unless their ticket said "Field" or that they had a bracelet that allowed field access. There were many unhappy fans who wanted to get down front sooner.

Wilco's powerful performance probably erased most of that ill-will, as everyone seemed happy after the show, even though they had to wait a long time for the parking lot to clear.