1 post tagged “state theatre”
As in, I'm catching up on my blog by posting about Neko Case, and her fabulous concert at Ithaca's historic State Theatre last Saturday. She was personable and funny, the glorious voice on her records is no mere studio construction, her band was perfectly unobtrusive, and she played all the songs I wanted to hear. (And has anyone noticed she's gorgeous? Haha!) She also played what looked like a four-string Gibson SG, which didn't sound like a bass; an electric ukulele? No, it's a tenor guitar, 33.3% easier to play than a regular six-string guitar, on account of having 33.3% fewer strings. It sounded fine to me. Here's a 2007 performance of "Hold On, Hold On" from somewhere or other:
Okay, that sounds pretty (alt)country, and I was just ragging on (alt)country, but I think Neko's music is to (alt)country as a good novel is to a joke greeting card. She's the female Scott Walker of (alt)country. And she's coming back to Ithaca soon, with the New Pornographers, whom I dislike on principle: their name sucks, and the fact that it's a music-critic in-joke makes it suck all the more. But Neko Case........
Concert goers who arrived at the 8:00 starting time were punished with a solo set by Eric Bachmann. Mrs. V. and I decided to spend that time in the lobby, which was not enough to fully esacpe the caterwauling but was at least bearable. Not that I have anything against folkish music that is lifeless, repetitive, unimaginative, unmelodic, and tonally harsh; I just don't want to listen to it. Whatever happened to Tal Bachman? Him I liked.
