Category: Music

The Brooklyn Philharmonic shared the stage with The Bell Orchestre and Clogs to create a unique dialogue of classical music. Each band took turns playing their compositions and at times together. It was definitely a night of musical collaboration even including special guests Sufjan Stevens and Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond.  They performed original works as well as masterpieces from composers such as Mahler, Piazzolla, and John Adams. Overall a very rewarding night of music.

Unfortunately I only caught the tail end of Benjy Ferree’s set but what I heard was pretty good and I’ll have to catch him the next time he’s in town.

Clearly sick with the flu, Tim Fite still came out to play his quirky set of music and performance art. I always enjoy seeing Tim play his music live as you can really feel his creative spirit on stage. His songs are engaging and quickly jump from genre to genre. To protect the crowd from getting sick he passed out surgical masks and threw out cough drops. Although the crowd thinned out after Benjy Ferree, those that remained clearly enjoyed the show.

Some pictures.

http://timfite.com/ (currently giving away a pretty good EP there)

There is no question that Beirut composes some very amazing and addictive songs, unfortunately they are spread out over multiple albums with lots of filler in between. The musical genius of  Zach Condon didn’t explode tonight and didn’t live up to what I’ve seen in the past. The songs were slowed down and the entire evening seemed to be underwater. The most interesting part of the evening was when Björk spilled some beer on Tara which almost prompted a heated throw-down. Zach has a bright and long future ahead of him, I just hope he starts pushing his recordings and live performances some more.

http://www.beirutband.com/

Although it was freezing outside, inside St. Nick’s Pub the temperature was high with musical energy. In a tiny cramped corner 10 musicians including Abdoulaye Alhassane played body shaking African music that never tired. Starting at midnight and going well past 3 AM, the night proved to be a memorable music experience and one of those inexplicable New York moments.

http://www.stnicksjazzpub.net/pages/africanNight.html

I now regret giving up my tickets for the Ida Maria show at Mercury Lounge. Seems that she gave a killer performance the night before causing her to lose her voice. Coming from Norway she still exhibited pure energy and it’s obvious that she pours her heart out for every song. As the show went on she physically and musically deteriorated onstage but still pushed forward. I felt sorry for her as her voice continued to crack and screech on every song and then breaking strings on her guitar. Despite the poor music set you can still taste the intensity she put out. It was obvious that she was exhausted and her voice was spent but the crowd got her to play “Stella” for the encore. I think we’ll be hearing about her in 2009.

MusicSnobbery was at the Mercury show. Good writeup & pics here.
And you should check out her video for “Oh My God”

http://www.myspace.com/idamaria