Howard Who?

The second program in the Concrete Frequency series was nothing like the first…or perhaps from another perspective, a flipside of the proverbial coin. Those who were there (myself included) were treated to a dozen singer/songwriters who performed two songs a piece. They were encouraged to spend some time to explain their song meanings, which Franklin Bruno compared to a teacher encouraging kids to share in class, and then played their song, which presumably had something to do with the theme of “The City.”

While quite a few Angelenos were among the performers, we also heard from Stevie Jackson of Belle and Sebastian, a Scot, and Sondre Lerche, a Norwegian. The unifying force of the night seemed to be folk/indie rock with a comfortable, living room atmosphere with couches, end tables, and lamps. In front was a carpeted area with all their guitars on guitar stands and a grand piano. Without much pretense or introduction, the musicians got up one by one and did their acts.

Perhaps humble is the right word for it, because many of the musicians were obviously in awe not only of being able to play at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, an icon, but also being included among other talented musicians. And it was humbling as well because many of these artists play in bands but appeared on stage more or less solo. This made for a rather uneven evening with some acts clearly more engaging and musically-capable than others. I’d like to call it the “Paris, Je T’Aime” of concerts, because similarly to that compilation film, even if you didn’t like something, after two songs they’d be gone anyway.

Some highlights were Franklin Bruno’s “Up Up With Upland,” a cheeky suburban satire, Stevie’s Jackson’s “Electric Box,” featuring members of Biirdie in the most full-bodied song of the night, Sondre Lerche’s set, which went on forever due to his funny, rambling monologue but had some excellent songwriting, Zooey Deschanel’s set, which showed off the actress’ nuanced singing, and Money Mark’s set, which featured some very soulful songs on keyboard.

My favorite male singer of the night was definitely Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio, whose enigmatic presence infused his songs with mystery. His voice cracked and wheezed in all the right ways and boomed and whistled in full command. The songs themselves were a bit amorphous, but compelling because of how they allowed his voice to roam.

And my favorite female singer was definitely Inara George, a long time favorite of mine who seems to get better and more ambitious each time out. In fact, this time she was accompanied by pianist/composer/singer Van Dyke Parks, the musical genius behind the Joanna Newsom concert I attended at WDCH two months ago. She was also the best dressed with a ravishing gown down to the ground. During the set, I wondered where Mike Andrews was in all of this, being her producer and also being a very good singer/songwriter himself. Well, as it turns out, he was sitting on the same row as me (and I had the better seats). She sang a new song from an album colloboration with Parks that will feature orchestra, and she sang an old Randy Newman song famously covered by Parks, Vine Street. Check it out!

Vine Street - Inara George & Van Dyke Parks

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 10:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, Pop Music, Howard Who?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.