This version of ON the Beat was initially emailed to subscribers on August 24, 2023. To obtain Josef Woodard’s music publication in your inbox every Thursday, join at impartial.com/newsletters.
Regardless of the distracting stimuli of life and music on a weekly foundation, my mind remains to be tickled by the reminiscence of what Father John Misty pulled off at his current Santa Barbara Bowl present. One attention-grabbing impression was venue-related: whereas his 2017 present within the cherished kitsch palace of the Arlington performed up his act’s innate theatricality, the grander out of doors Bowl setting expanded his aura into the room of a micro area performer.
Publish-pandemic, Papa John (a ok a Josh Tillman) has reemerged with new wrinkles — and silky easy patches — combined in with the outdated tough stuff and ironic patina of his persona. Along with his new album Chloë and the Subsequent twentieth Century, his admitted “faux jazz” obsession, shades of Rufus Wainwright and semi-suave textures each thicken and sweeten the Misty plot fairly properly.
On the Bowl, the double-header context with opening act The Head And The Coronary heart proved to be a research in contrasts. The Pop-crafty band from Seattle serves up a savory platter of pop hooks in three-part harmonies, with a normal overlay of easy-to-love emotional sincerity. Their cleverly-designed songs by some means register within the good pop vein of Supertramp.
Misty, too, has an amazing knack for creating alluring melodies with simply sufficient twists to maintain the sound contemporary and stunning, however irony and a few important subversive intuition retains him poking at pop protocols. Take, as an illustration, the showbiz sacred cow-avoiding tactic of shutting off his frontman highlight in the direction of the top of the present. It was an excellent contact, and consistent with his normal iconoclastic perspective. He sometimes drops to his knees, considerably arbitrarily, like a dramatic tent preacher or a Vegas showman with a foul sense of timing. And all of the sudden, he’s straight channeling the spirit of Glen Campbell together with his ode to a deceased pet, “Goodbye Mr. Blue.”
Musically, wild lyrics and mental asides could also be tucked into fairly melodic folds, and he might experiment with radical dynamic shifts, as on his new album’s “The Subsequent twentieth Century,” which opened the present. There, the hip loungey part of his nine-piece band laid out a lush mattress of sound, solely to have loud and punk-noisy guitars trash the place deep into the track. Such are Papa John’s restlessly maverick methods.
Frampton Stays Alive
Talking of “methods” (warning, unhealthy pun forward), Peter Frampton fulfilled expectations and a few implied crowd-pleasing contract by having his method with such defining hits as “Present Me the Manner” and “Child I Love Your Manner” on the Arlington Theatre final Wednesday. However a few of us old style Frampton followers — from earlier than he exploded together with his mega hit and profession plateau album Frampton Comes Alive — made some extent to catch the present for causes past his hit parade.
For one, Frampton is affected by a degenerative situation referred to as inclusion physique myositis (IBM), spelling the potential finish of his performing life. This “By no means Say By no means” summer season tour is a “post-retirement” extension of his supposedly closing tour, after which he discovered that his fingers and can to rock wouldn’t let him go gently away. However extra importantly, Frampton has been one of many under-sung guitar heroes of his rock era, issuing tasty flights of creativeness and dexterity on his electrical guitar.
Today, Frampton walks with a cane and sits down on the live performance job, as do his musicians, in solidarity. But it surely was a sit-down gig with a distinctly stand-up power. His fingers appear to be working as nimbly as ever. He’s additionally a self-effacing kind, who doesn’t take his rock icon standing too critically. At one level, he cleverly manipulated the viewers into giving him a thunderous standing ovation for one of many alternative obscurities within the set.
Come encore time, Frampton cranked up the way in which again machine to tug out a pair of classics by his seminal band Humble Pie, earlier than a poignant finale of “Whereas My Guitar Gently Weeps.” True, that. His guitar weeps and tastefully soars. The post-retiree left the stage on a cautiously upbeat be aware: “I’m gonna hope that this factor that I’ve slows down. The music helps. It retains my fingers going, that’s for positive.”
The Croz Present that Obtained Away
Had life labored out as deliberate, icon David Crosby would have served up a career-toasting feast of a present within the Lobero’s a hundred and fiftieth anniversary 12 months, on February 22, however destiny intervened and the Santa Barbara–bred and primarily based folk-rock legend handed in January. All of the concentrated power and prep-work for what would have been a Lobero present turned tour didn’t go to waste, leading to Sunday evening’s “Stand and Be Counted.”
The three-hour present, assembled by guitarist-singer Steve Postell and Crosby’s son and collaborator James Raymond, become a shifting posthumous tribute to Croz and the CSN/CSNY legacies surrounding the Santa Barbara County bred and primarily based legend’s musical life and imaginative and prescient. A dozen-strong ensemble laid down the muse with particular visitors Shawn Colvin, Colin Hay, Richard Web page, and Chris Stills in effective (and when needed, tough and rocking, type) up entrance.
A couple of highlights to those ears: the swirling, trippy suite of Crosby’s masterful “Déjà Vu,” the resonant four-part harmonies enriching “Helplessly Hoping,” nearly each solo performed by the good American guitarist Dean Parks, whose voluminous session work life has made his sound a part of the material of contemporary music, though he too not often performs reside, Croz’ granddaughter Grace Raymond’s supple lead on “Guinnevere,” and Raymond’s highly effective, poignant authentic “I Received’t Keep for Lengthy,” the final track on the final album by his father, For Free.
To-Doings:
Soulful feminine singers with deep historical past in Santa Barbara are making their method into SOhO this month. Final Saturday evening, a full home packed in a hearty earful of Lois Mahalia, celebrating the discharge of her most interesting recording thus far, the Thom Flowers-produced Chasing the Solar (with valued contributions from quite a few musical events on the town and from Los Angeles, together with ex-Journey man singer Steve Perry). This Monday, August 28, the effective, big-lunged, and heartfelt vocalist Mari Martin, who lent her voice to this and different native haunts earlier than shifting to the East Coast after which Hawaii, makes a uncommon Santa Barbara look.
