Filed under: TC Daily Planet
(Originally posted in TC Daily Planey and archived here)
THEATER REVIEW | BareBones serves up Metamorphosoup at Hidden Falls | Twin Cities Daily Planet//
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BareBones has been producing Halloween extravaganzas for 21 years. The themes embrace the time and space between two worlds brought on by the intersection of those worlds around Halloween. There’s always a look at the worst of humanity and glimmer of the best. The program outlines this year’s theme in greater detail:
Metamorphosoup is an emotional investigation of the process of loss–loss of community through conflict, love of loved one by death and loss of oneself as we flow through the grieving.
The show is performed outdoors at Hidden Falls, tucked away behind the former Ford Plant in the secret pocket of Highland Park. It’s dark, it’s near the River, though you might not know it in the dark except that there’s a watery chill in the air. The trees are old and it feels remote–even to someone like me who grew up nearby and once knew the park well. There are some 250 volunteers, actors, musicians, artists in the show and hundreds more come to see it–especially on an unseasonably warm evening like Sunday night.
The audience sits on hay bales–or on the ground close to the stage, which is really just a clearing. In past years, the show has moved between acts. This year we stayed in one location, which I loved since we had perfect seats up front! There is a camaraderie in the crowd. Lots of kids asking “what’s happening?” Lots of parents bluffing answers. In cold weather lots of stranger getting closer to keep warm.
The shows are conceptual and I go with the hope that I’ll understand the night more like a poem than a story. This year’s poem had some amazing lines and imagery! Including…
- A volcano erupts when humans rustling under burlap present like a blister or volcano. The rustling bursts and out runs a stream of children in blood red costumes flailing fiery flags behind them.
- The sea scrolls over the audience in the form of a large blue tarp draped like a parachute across the clearing. This is when sitting in front really matters! You have the feeling of being towed under.
- My favorite image is the electric fish floating around the stage – prawns, jellyfish, crabs and more. It felt like an underwater world; the glowing creatures against the night sky with just a sliver moon were mesmerizing.
The show also included aerialists, fire dancers, other-worldly singing and music, fighting dinosaurs (which involved the metamorphous of the former White Bear Pedal Pub from the Ice Shanties event last year) and group singing. Something for everyone. I always enjoy the BareBones production—this year even more so than usual. It’s on over Halloween weekend. You should make time to go!
Filed under: TC Daily Planet
(Originally posted in TC Daily Planey and archived here)
MUSIC REVIEW | Love over Gold, The Icicles, Erik Koskinen and the Real Phonic Radio Band at the Hill Library | Twin Cities Daily Planet//
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Mayor Chris Coleman welcomed the crowd to Real Phonic Radio at the James J Hill Reference Library Thursday, October 16. And I have to say, our Mayor is a good sport, reading in the usual iireverant appraoch of regular spokesman, Thom MIddlebrook. He astutely observed that while we had enough entertainment for three shows in Minneapolis, it was all hitting one stage in St Paul—as it does every third Thursday.
Headlining the night was Love Over Gold, which is the combined talents of Pieta Brown, from Iowa and Lucie Thorne, originally from Tasmania, Australia. Both are singers, song writers and guitar players. Upon quick brush they seem alike—both attractive women with pretty voices who sing with a folksy Americana twang. (Maybe the Americana genre has a different name in Australia?) But at closer inspection they have very different styles. Thome has a whispery, almost husky voice. She seems to dance with her guitar to increase the vibration of sound. (An observation made by my 10 year old date.) Brown has a more subdued style and clearer, higher voice. The voices complement each other so well, adding a seemingly thoughtful dimension to their sound.
Thome writes songs about exotic places, such as Bimbaya, South Wales (population 4); while Brown writes about local haunts, such as a song about St Paul written about the time the 35W Bridge went down. Again a nice juxtaposition of stories from places as different as their voices—and yet with a similar tone and tune. To be fair, Thome also had a song about a National Park in Illinois, but framed through an Australian lens as someplace exotic. That was our favorite song as it borrowed from a Violent Femmes song we both love.
Leading up to Love Over Gold, The Icicles played; the band includes Minnesota musical stalwarts and gems—Jake Hanson, Jeremy Hanson and Jimmy Anton. They play sultry surf music. It’s like Los Straightjackets played at half speed. They have the groovy, wavy strong and by the third song the drums started to take front seat with a faster beach beat. There was something frustratingly controlled (in a good way) about their playing. Too cool for someone like me who would let loose in full speed—but again in a good way and great fit for the time and place.
Like last month, the poetry interlude was brought to us by Thom Middlebrook who read a surprisingly sad short story about a the power of a pen, found by a daughter, shared with a father representing the voice of a lost mother. The interesting question raised by the story: how dead was the mother really if her voice was still accessible to/through the daughter in the form of a quill pen.
The night began as it always does with Erik Koskinen and the Real Phonic Band, consisting last night of Paul Bergen, Frankie Lee and Jeremy Johnson. Koskinen allowed that he had just returned from a 22-hour drive home from Texas. It made for some interesting remixes of songs such as slower, darker version of Devil’s Blues.
Filed under: TC Daily Planet
(Originally posted in TC Daily Planet and archived here)
Last night I went to a revival meeting. It was unusual because there wasn’t a lot of praying and there wasn’t a lot of God but there was so much joy and music and dancing. That joy emanated from JJ Grey and Mofro as they played the Varsity Theater.
Grey is the preacher who drives the service through a range of emotions, who tells the tales of “Orange Blossoms”, “Sweetest Thing” (for his daughter) and leads us to “Brighter Days” after we survive “99 Shades of Crazy”. His voice is a little gravelly and very southern; sometimes soulful sometimes southern rock. There’s something churchy about a southern accent to me; Grey hails from Jacksonville, Florida. He plays jubilant instruments such as the tambourine as well as guitar and he is surrounded by musicians who appear to love what they do.
I see a lot of music that’s straight up loud. These guys had a sneaky loudness that comes from having so many people on stage – all so good at what they do. Throughout the night each musician got an opportunity to shine and they all did.
There’s a very cool horn/woodwind section with a trumpet and a saxophone. They brought exaltation to the sound. The Waterboys have line about “your love feels like trumpets sound”; I think they wrote it after hearing Mofro. The drummer was as much fun to watch and to hear – just the expressions and the content that shone through as he riffed with the bass player and Grey. The bass player held the same smile throughout the show. His playing was understated; he rose to the occasion when necessary otherwise he quietly kept the flow going. Of course the organ brought me right back to the church feel, although to a much cooler church than I have ever attended because it was more Hammond organ than pipe organ. The guitar player looked and sounded a little bit like he could step right on stage with Southern Culture on the Skids – which means more psychobilly and is high praise in my book.
They have a Southern sound – but swampy, not desert. I’ve spent very little time in that part of the world but Grey paints a picture of Southern life in his songs that makes you feel like you understand or at least you’d testify!
Filed under: TC Daily Planet
(Originally posted in TC Daily Planet and archived here)
Lily Allen is pop. I guess I wasn’t quite ready to admit that until I saw her live at the Skyway Theatre on Wednesday night because her lyrics are clever and her music hold hints of deeper roots but the staging, costumes and audience all scream pop.
Lily Allen is also cute as button and has a voice that curls up at the corner like a smile. And you know how a smile just makes someone that much more attractive, well the curl in her voice makes her strong and clear tones that much more interesting.
But back to the pop. The stage was set up like a big Target-Center-type show with giant plastic baby bottles everywhere, a nod to Allen’s reason for staying home for a few years. Her chatter between songs spoke nearly as much to her children and her husband (who she is meeting on Thursday after a two weeks apart) as her music. It added a quirky, family dimension to the poppiness that countered Allen’s raunchies comments and British flare for swearing. (I’m a fan of British cussing!) Allen had a few costume changes – from sequenced shorts and leathery bra to a neon orange and yellow cat suit including ears and tail, which she claimed she bought in a stripper shop for $24.99.
Not just everybody puts on a skin tight cat-suit after a maternity hiatus – and few could pull it off as well. The ridiculousness of the outfit punctuated her humorous side. She has a team of dancers who are throwbacks to In Living Color’s Fly Girls. They came out for the encore wearing dog masks for “Hard out Here” (for a Bitch). The humor was over the top and subtle as the same time. The best moment for me was when the mic stand wouldn’t work and she observed with a squeaky-cute voice that she couldn’t work it, her hands were sweaty and shouted for the man who works the mic stand. She’s not afraid on stage or in her music to be clever at the risk being mistaken for taking herself too seriously.
She played a wide range of songs, starting with “Sheesuz” and reaching back to “Not Fair;” she played favorites such as “The Fear” and “Fuck You.” The crowd loved her in an everyone-in-the-room-has-a-crush way. Lots of “I love you” or “I have those shorts” from the audience. Although aside from a love of Lily the audience was pretty all over the place – lots of young people, plenty of older people. Men and women. The horrifically inebriated, the sober. (Saw one girl do a header down the stairs on my way in; I don’t think she’ll remember it, but she’s going feel it!)
Overall I enjoyed the show; I’m not going to sign up for a dozen more pop shows anytime soon but I’d see her again.
(Originally posted in TC Daily Planet and archived here)
The Replacements at Midway Stadium – that’s a classic combination!
The band came on stage in matching suits; they look weathered but good. They sounded great. The audience was also a little weathered and the audience wasn’t quite in tune but that didn’t stop everyone from singing every song. And to be fair to the audience, Westerberg doesn’t sing ‘em the same way every time. He pulled at our heart strings when we said, “Sorry it took us so long,” and brought us back to reality when added, “that’s a bold-faced lie.”
The started with “You’re My Favorite Thing” and they didn’t pause much over the next two hours. Not a lot of chit chat just a lot of fast guitars! About halfway into the show I got a little nervous that we were seeing the grand finale when they played “Maybelline.” It was hard rocking, old school and timeless –like fireworks. Luckily for us, they were just getting started. They played a few covers – “I Want You Back” the Jackson Five and Sham 69’s Borstal Breakout.
Every Minnesotan of a certain age has their favorite ‘Mats’ songs and I suspect how you felt about the show really depends on your favorite songs. If you were there for “Here Comes a Regular” or “Answering Machine,” you were out of luck. But in those two hours they were able to play a lot of songs. During the encore, Westerberg sang “Skyway”; it was a change of tempo that folks seemed to like. A special request of “Merry Go Round” went out to Mary (I assume Mary Lucia–Westerberg’s sister). They ended with “Unsatisfied,” which won me a bet with my brother. A strange note for another other band to leave on – but it made sense for them.
The Hold Steady also looked at home in the Midway Stadium–except lead singer Craig Finn welcomed Minneapolis! I decide not to take that personally because I once heard Finn say that as a kid St Paul scared him a little. Mayor Chris Coleman corrected the error when we came on stage to welcome everyone to St Paul and officially proclaim September 13 to be The Replacements Day.
It’s fun to watch Finn on stage–he’s the rock star lead singer and over-enthusiastic guy in the corner rolled into one. But like The Replacements, he’s such a good storyteller. “You’re Little Hoodrat Friend” was a crowd pleaser. There were a few people who fought their way up in front to see The Hold Steady and happily stepped back when they finished. I’d move up for both bands!
Filed under: TC Daily Planet
(Originally posted in the TC Daily Planet now archived here)
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MN Music On-A-Stick on Saturday, Aug. 30was a celebration of the great variety and quality of local music we have in Minnesota. Hosted by The Current, one of the most astute observations came from Mark Wheat when he noted that all but one of these bands (Bob Mould) has emerged since The Current went on air in 2005. The Current has been a force to promote local bands–from Americana to Hip Hop and we saw it all on stage.
Cactus Blossoms started the show. The crowd was still drifting in but there were dedicated music fans sitting and waiting under the stage for the show to start. There’s not much I can say about a band I saw two days earlier. They started with Stoplight Kissing, the played the Buffalo Song and they do a nice job with compelling song introductions. I enjoy their music and I like to see the Bluegrass, Americana sound getting a larger audience.
Best surprise of the night came when Lizzo played with Harmar Superstar. That was a match made in musical heaven. They both have powerful voices and even more powerful personalities on stage. They played off each other well. Baby You Shot me was a crowd pleaser. It was fun to see folks hear his music for the first time, with songs like DUI and Don’t Make Me Hit You. The disappointment of the night? Harmar kept his pants on!
Cloud Cult was up next. They play music that gives you goose bumps – whether you know their sad stories or not. (Losing a child and I learned last night a history of ALS.) Craig Minowa’s voice ranges from electronica sounding to soulful. The violin, the French horn, the keyboards–so many instruments that sound so crystal and pure. Going to see them is like seeing a play–from the highs of a song like Good Friend to the bittersweet sound of Pretty Voice. They have a following like no other band I’ve seen. Audience members in tears and a reverent silence usually reserved for sleeping babies or hometown free throws.
Bob Mould took the stage and played a couple of Husker Du songs – and I was there with high school friends. We would have heard I Apologize on a good Saturday night back in the day. That made my night! He just kicked it. There were touches of the fast strings and hard dancing. He has aged so well–and he drew in old folks like me and the younger crowd who were really there to see Doomtree and Brother Ali.
Doomtree Collective stormed the stage with intensity and a crazy amount of energy. I am a fan of Dessa – as much for her astute interviewing as her music; otherwise I hadn’t heard a lot of Doomtree. I like Hip Hop when I hear it but I don’t pursue it. When I hear a song like Little Mercy and I wonder why I don’t. One thing that really struck me was how well Doomtree interacts with the audience in the social media/smartphone era. The jumping, the posing, working all corners of the stage gets everyone excited and produces some great Instagram moments.
Brother Ali brought his Muslim hip hop dancers with him. I saw them first at a Lowertown Line show; they impressed me then but I think their moves are even better now. I enjoy Brother Ali as much for his interest in politics and religion as for the music. It seems odd to say I like a song like Murder, Murder, Murder, Kill, Kill, Kill but I do. I l like the heavy beats. He’s found a powerful way to bring his message to a new audience.
All in all a great night–worth standing on asphalt for seven hours!
Filed under: Minneapolis
Got any plans for your summer? We plan to get out to see the street art in the Twin Cities – one street or neighborhood at a time. I’m a fan of street art; I’ve been lucky enough to see Banksy in New York, murals in Belfast and Blu in Berlin. This summer, I’ll be staying home but I figured there must be some sights to see in my home town too with. So my plan for the summer is long walks with a camera.
We started with Lake Street – from the Lake Street Bridge to Lake Calhoun. We started there because my favorite street art is hidden under the Lake Street Bridge on the St Paul side. It honors a soldier; I remember when it went up two years ago around Memorial weekend. My hope this summer it to find more hidden gems like it. (If you know of any art I should check out please let me know atreacy@treacyinfo.com.)
Under the Lake Street Bridge
The street art in Lake Street is primarily paintings and murals. Some are clearly commercial, some are community-focused and a few might have been unsanctioned. Heading from St Paul, the art starts rolling with the Longfellow Artists in Lake Street (LoLA). They are sponsoring lots of opportunities for artists, such as the utility boxes along Lake Street. (The Minneapolis Public Arts Administration issues permits and supports “wrapped and painted utility boxes” around the city. )
Lake Street Utility Box: Gordon Coons
As we strolled down the avenue we found that street art increases as languages in the shop windows increase. There were a lot of scenes celebrating different ethnicities Mexican, Native American, African and Scandinavian. Some of these seemed commercial; some seemed like community projects. We saw quite a few between the train station on Minnehaha until S 1st Avenue.
Lake Street near 15th
There were some store fronts that seemed to sponsor or promote street art such as Urban Ventures, Safari Restaurant and the former Resource Center of the Americas.
Urban Ventures
There were also a lot of art that was clever or good or otherwise struck us. We were surprised at the dearth of street art on Lake Street in Uptown. Perhaps that’s because for this trip we stayed on Lake Street. We learned that sometimes the most interesting work happens off the main drag; we’re hoping to get to more of that later.
Lyndale and Lake
Originally I thought we might spend a day or two traipsing the city to uncover gems but we’ve learned you’ve really got to be walking to get the flavor of a community and it’s going to take all summer to get a decent start. If you see us out in your street, please tell us the story of your local art. (Or feel free to post a comment.)
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- Under the Lake Street Bridge
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- Lake Street Utility Box: Mary Ila Funtemann
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- Lake Street Utility Box: Gordon Coons
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- By Deals & Discounts on Lake Street
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- By Deals & Discounts on Lake Street
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- The Hub on Lake & Minnhaha
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- Mosaic Cafe
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- Under the Train Station at Lake Street
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- Across from the Lake St Cemetery: “FInd the gold bugs”
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- Los Gallos on Lake Street
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- Lake Srteet and 28th
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- Lake Street & 17th
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- Ingebretson’s on Lake Street
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- Lake Street near 15th
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- Lake and 15th
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- Heart of the Beast
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- Lake near 13th
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- Lyndale and Lake
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- Lyndale and Lake
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- Lyndale and Lake
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- Lyndale and Lake
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- Jungle Theater
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- Fujiya
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- Urban Ventures
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- Safari Restaurant
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- Ultimo mandatory de neustro venerable senor cuauhtemoc
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- Don’s Towing
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- Urban Ventures
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- Urban Ventures
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- Urban Ventures
Filed under: Belfast
Aine and I decided to take a day trip to Belfast. That way our family teenagers could enjoy a night at friends unhindered and we get out and see something fun. Belfast is about 2.5 hours away from Dublin by bus (add an extra hour to get from Cabinteely to town) so it’s a jaunt but a fun one. And the super luxury of visiting a place like Belfast again is that we didn’t feel like we had to see any of the big sights. We mostly went to have lunch with a friend and check out the Belfast Children’s Festival.
I was excited to see a special event at the festival – performers from Catalonia (past home of mine) were there doing fancy hair stuff. I know that Catalonia knows how to put on a show. And when we got to their performance I was not disappointed – there where doing hairstyles that would make Dr Seuss proud. Much to our delight – Aine was selected to be a model. So that made the event even more fun.
Also it was fun to catch up with an old friend and to hear how things in Belfast were going. I think they may be experiencing some growing pains as different cultures (and some not-so-new) cultures learn to coexist.
Filed under: Dublin
The girls and I finally had a day in Dublin to do anything we wanted. (OK anything I wanted.) We started with the Fail Better exhibit at the Science Gallery. It was a collection of failed experiments. Here are explanations from my favorite two failed experiments…
- In 1965, George and Charlotte Blonsky, a married couple living in New York City, were granted US patent #3216423 for an “Apparatus for Facilitating the Birth of a Child by Centrifugal Force”. When a woman is ready to deliver her child, she lies on her back on a circular table. She is strapped down. The table is then rotated at high speed. The baby comes flying out. This is intended to “assist the under-equipped woman by creating a gentle, evenly distributed, properly directed, precision-controlled force, that acts in unison with and supplements her own efforts”.
- It was trumpeted as “the building with more up top”, a swollen pint glass of a tower that bulges out as it rises to pack in more offices at the lucrative higher levels—all topped with a Babylonian sky-garden. What the developer of 20 Fenchurch Street in the City of London had not bargained for was, that like every Bond baddie lair, the Walkie-Talkie building would also come with its own lethal death ray. In the summer of 2013, the concave south-facing facade of the 34-storey tower was found to channel the rays of the sun into a concentrated beam down on to the street below, so hot it melted the bumper of a car, scorched shop carpets and bubbled their paintwork. One passer-by even managed to fry an egg in its heat.
After that we trekked around town visit lots of shops and checking out favorite places like George’s Market. Aine and I checked out the Maker Shop, where she got to solder a homemade flashlight and we got a few minutes with the National Gallery. The older girls got in a little shopping – or maybe just hung out at a coffee shop, we’re not really sure. But everyone had a nice break from bubble wrap and each other!
So after the funeral we spent a lot of time packing up Patrick’s mom’s house with the Australian contingency. We threw out things like a broken crib in the attic that had to be 40 years old and bubble wrapped about 1000 plates and knick knacks. So my plan when I get home is to break all of the plates I own and we’ll be eating off paper for the rest of my days. To be fair, I’m not really one for knick knacks anyways but man bubble wrapping will curb any saver tendencies. The girls can just fight over the mostly modern art on the walls and the backlog of laptops from days gone by.
Between the packing we did get in a few walking trips and visits.
We went into town for the markets and cupcakes, we went to Howth to see the seals, we went to Dun Laoghaire to walk the pier, Aine and I walked from Bray to Greystones and finally we found ourselves in Powerscourt and Glendalough – where the terrible St Kevin pushed the beautiful Kathleen into the lake. Uncle Michael had a car – a car for us in Dublin is a very rare treat. It was fun to be able to get to places so easily.
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