Josephine Foster, Redbeard, Mountain Movers, Cherry Blossoms at Cafe 9

Friday, June 02, 2006

Redbeard, The Cherry Blossoms, The Mountain Movers, Josephine Foster

I had never heard of any of these people before seeing them. I went on the recommendation that Josephine Foster might be worth seeing.
Redbeard was a pleasant surprise. The vocals were very nice and the guitar work was haunting. It was just two people, singer w/acoustic guitar and another guitar player mostly playing electric. It was folky, bluesish. I'm worried, though, that their studio work might sound too much like Sarah McLachlan.
I guess maybe I just didn't get the Cherry Blossoms. It was an elderly couple and the man didn't seem to know that he was performing on stage. He wouldn't sing into the vocal microphone and his guitar kept hitting the other mic. The woman was better, but she made a bunch of political comments that didn't make any sense. I guess it was "outsider" music. I'll stick to Daniel Johnston. They did one song with her playing a thumb piano and it was pretty good, but they saw that it got a good reaction so they did a couple more songs with they thumb piano and they were not good.
The Mountain Movers were doomed, in my eyes, from the beginning. I don't like bands with horns. Theirs was the sort of neo-americana we've been seeing a lot more these last few years. Musically, they were fine, if mostly uninteresting. Lyrically, everything seemed pretty cliched. All their songs were about death, but they seemed happy about it. They were the only band of the night with a drummer.
Josephine Foster made the night worthwhile. She has a voice like old movies. I kept thinking about the old Disney Alice in Wonderland cartoon, for some reason. She played her first song on a harp and the place was entirely silent. Literally, nobody spoke. It was incredible. She performed solo the whole time. First on harp, then acoustic and electric guitars. I've never seen somebody so vocally compelling perform in person. Unfortunately, because the other bands took too long, she didn't get on stage until quarter past midnight and they closed the place down at 1 o'clock. Because she wanted to do a couple of songs with the Cherry Blossoms, they continued the show outside on the sidewalk afterward. They did a few songs together, then had the singer from Redbeard do a couple of songs. I don't feel comfortable applying my cricital faculties to the performance outside. It was too intimate. It would be like evaluating a conversation between friends. It was a special moment that doesn't deserve dissection.


http://www.myspace.com/redbeardband
(no website for the Cherry Blossoms)
http://www.myspace.com/themountainmovers
http://www.myspace.com/theantiquatedearth


I took pictures:
http://flickr.com/photos/oldangelmidnight/sets/72157594152630081/
and video:
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=oldangelmidnight