Folk night and metal night

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Friday, April 28 and Saturday, April 29.
Songs from the Sofa with Lisa Lawrence, Krizta Moon and Melissa Mulligan at Books and Company
Lord Fowl, The Vultures and Crooked Hook at Cafe 9.

Over the course of two nights, I had two nearly opposite musical experiences. The first was the acoustic Songs from the Sofa at Books and Company in Hamden. The second was a night of heavy rock at Cafe 9.

Songs from the Sofa is a monthly acoustic night hosted by Frank Critelli. This time there were three female performers. We had a discussion about how it can be hard for a guy to connect with a lot of female songwriters. My contention, though, is that when that connection happens, it can be a very powerful thing. It's like there's a hurdle, but if it's jumped, there's some kind of transcendental connection. There have been a few, like Patti Smith, Kim Deal or Bjork, that really get to me. Unfortunately, none of the performers that night quite did it for me.
Lisa Lawrence played first. She's from Worcester. She had a good voice and she played well. Her songs were average. Apolitical personal stories. Typical folky coffeehouse stuff.
Krizta Moon played next. She was all teeth and hair. She had the arrogant swagger of someone who knows people are paying attention to her. There were moments of lyrical awkwardness, but it wasn't a bad performance. I seem to remember a song about pregnancy and a line about looking out through the birth canal that seemed pretty silly.
Melissa Mulligan played last. She's fairly local and she hosts a bunch of radio shows in the area. Her songs were pretty rockish for acoustic. Frank compared her to the Rolling Stones. She played a feminist/antifeminist song called "Objectify Me" that reminded me of Nirvana's "Rape Me."

The next night at Cafe 9, I saw a couple of bands I hadn't seen before and one I had. It was some kind of benefit show for the Edgewood Skate Park, but thankfully there were no skate-punk bands playing.
Lord Fowl played first. I don't know if their name is meant to indicate that they're somehow the lord of birds or if they intended to call themselves Lord Foul, but screwed up. It was pretty much generic heavy '70s rock. That whole post-Sabbath/Zeppelin thing. They were entertaining, if not enlightening.
The Vultures played next. It seemed like they did more songs with vocals this time around. If you care about music and you pay attention, it's pretty interesting to see them perform. Some of their songs have really weird rhythmic things and are pretty unpredictable. Each member of the band seems to have mastered his instrument and they have a kind of symbiosis that allows them to operate as a coherent unit where others would fall apart or get lost. And it rocks.
Crooked Hook played last and they played for a long time. They are a stoner-metal band, if that means anything. Their songs are extremely heavy, extremely slow and extremely repetitive. Personally, I only really enjoyed the songs during the inevitable breakdown or outro when they would start playing faster and more interesting. It was laborious to watch them play, but I was kept in place by the incredible inertia of the music.


Also, I got a video of Frank Critelli playing at the Daffodil Festival in Meriden.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXBhWTjfzoc
Unfortunately, the audio and video are out of sync. I believe it has something to do with the codecs YouTube uses. I guess I'll need to convert the files before I upload them. I also took some video of the Vultures, but until I figure out the conversion thing, I'll have to hold off on sharing.

Pictures:
http://flickr.com/photos/oldangelmidnight/sets/72057594124813506/
http://flickr.com/photos/oldangelmidnight/sets/72057594124857432/

etc.
http://www.myspace.com/lisalawrence
(Krizta Moon) http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=35525704
http://www.myspace.com/melissamulligan
http://www.myspace.com/frankcritelli
http://www.myspace.com/lordfowl
http://www.myspace.com/thevultures
http://www.myspace.com/crookedhook

I don't know why, but posting links doesn't seem to work anymore.