Ann Arbor Folk Festival
Jan. 29th, 2011 06:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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mecmom and I went to the first night of the Ann Arbor Folk Festival. I only bought tickets for one night since I'm not as much of a concert-going person as all that - I can only be properly attentive for so long. And Friday had more people I wanted to see. I'm a big fan of Vienna Teng and have seen her before, I'd been wanting to see the Avett Brothers, and I have a number of Susan Werner's CD which I enjoy greatly. Anais Michell and Paper Raincoat were only slightly familiar to me but I figured I'd enjoy hearing more of them. The unfamiliar bands on the bill were Theo Katzman, the Spring Standards, and Citizen Cope.
The show started at 6:30, strangely early, but with so many bands to get through, I guess they needed the time. There were a LOT of instruments arranged onstage. The show was supposed sold out, but the seats were only about half full when the music started, and people continued trickling in throughout the first several acts.
Susan Werner, as MC, opened with a single song, and sang individual songs in between the other acts all evening long, while the stage was being rearranged. She is really an excellent singer, and clever too. It was amazing how much rearranging the stage needed after every band, considering how much stuff was already set up out there when the show started. I also noticed a lot of troubles with the sound and lighting, and there were a lot of scenes where backstage guys had to come out and fix wires and plugs and whatnot. I suppose it is hard to manage that stuff for such a complex show.
The first band was Theo Katzman. I think he must be a new young local act. He sang in a falsetto that reminded me of 1970s disco. His set was very short - I wonder if they only allocated him a shorter time than the others, or if he's still too new to have much material? He tried to do a singalong but since no one knew the song and it was too complicated to teach in 30 seconds, it fell flat, people didn't much sing.
Anais Mitchell was terrific. She did only one song I knew, the first one, which was from Hadestown, "Why We Build The Wall". Very well done. Hadestown is a cool CD which I have had for some time, but I haven't played it often because it's not the kind of thing you split out to tracks - it's a story, and stands as a whole. It's not something that you can play in the background while you do other stuff. But that track worked well in concert.
Paper Raincoat did a great set, and the a capella track "Rewind" was the sort of song that makes a whole night worthwhile. I wanted to buy that CD but the CD sales were cash only and I hadn't brought enough cash.
The Spring Standards were excellent as well - all three of them were excellent vocalists, each with different styles, that complimented each other well. Another CD I would have bought if I'd brought cash.
The last few seats in our section finally got filled during the first part of Vienna Teng's set, and the audience settled in, stopped squirming, and paid attention. It was a good set but I liked seeing her at the Ark, last fall, better. Hill Auditorium is just too large. She rocked the house with "Grandmother's Song". And I was glad to hear her do "City Hall"; it's a favorite of mine.
After the intermission, was a solo artist called Citizen Cope, who was not familiar to me. He performed like he had taken a sedative, his guitar drew too much of his focus for how simple and repetitive his playing was, and he sang like he had a big plug of tobacco in his mouth. The guy behind me knew all the words, though, and lots of people in the audience were real excited. Maybe his studio work is better.
The last act was the Avett Brothers. The first few tracks, the sound was turned up to painful distortion levels, you could hardly make out the songs over the roar. I wondered if someone turned the amps to eleven in hopes of lighting Citizen Catatonic on fire, and then forgot to turn them down again? The later songs were easier to hear. The audience went nuts when they did "Shame", and this time it was justified. They rocked the house. I'd like to see them again sometime, perhaps in a smaller venue where they are the only band and the sound is better done. I have several of their CDs and there are a lot of tracks I'd like to hear live, but the sets last night were just too short for any of them to include much.
Today I went out on Amazon and bought the Spring Standards, Paper Raincoat, and the new Vienna Teng albums. I'd have bought the new Susan Werner CD they were selling at the show last night but it's not available yet. I'll have to keep an eye out for it.
mecmom and I went to the first night of the Ann Arbor Folk Festival. I only bought tickets for one night since I'm not as much of a concert-going person as all that - I can only be properly attentive for so long. And Friday had more people I wanted to see. I'm a big fan of Vienna Teng and have seen her before, I'd been wanting to see the Avett Brothers, and I have a number of Susan Werner's CD which I enjoy greatly. Anais Michell and Paper Raincoat were only slightly familiar to me but I figured I'd enjoy hearing more of them. The unfamiliar bands on the bill were Theo Katzman, the Spring Standards, and Citizen Cope. The show started at 6:30, strangely early, but with so many bands to get through, I guess they needed the time. There were a LOT of instruments arranged onstage. The show was supposed sold out, but the seats were only about half full when the music started, and people continued trickling in throughout the first several acts.
Susan Werner, as MC, opened with a single song, and sang individual songs in between the other acts all evening long, while the stage was being rearranged. She is really an excellent singer, and clever too. It was amazing how much rearranging the stage needed after every band, considering how much stuff was already set up out there when the show started. I also noticed a lot of troubles with the sound and lighting, and there were a lot of scenes where backstage guys had to come out and fix wires and plugs and whatnot. I suppose it is hard to manage that stuff for such a complex show.
The first band was Theo Katzman. I think he must be a new young local act. He sang in a falsetto that reminded me of 1970s disco. His set was very short - I wonder if they only allocated him a shorter time than the others, or if he's still too new to have much material? He tried to do a singalong but since no one knew the song and it was too complicated to teach in 30 seconds, it fell flat, people didn't much sing.
Anais Mitchell was terrific. She did only one song I knew, the first one, which was from Hadestown, "Why We Build The Wall". Very well done. Hadestown is a cool CD which I have had for some time, but I haven't played it often because it's not the kind of thing you split out to tracks - it's a story, and stands as a whole. It's not something that you can play in the background while you do other stuff. But that track worked well in concert.
Paper Raincoat did a great set, and the a capella track "Rewind" was the sort of song that makes a whole night worthwhile. I wanted to buy that CD but the CD sales were cash only and I hadn't brought enough cash.
The Spring Standards were excellent as well - all three of them were excellent vocalists, each with different styles, that complimented each other well. Another CD I would have bought if I'd brought cash.
The last few seats in our section finally got filled during the first part of Vienna Teng's set, and the audience settled in, stopped squirming, and paid attention. It was a good set but I liked seeing her at the Ark, last fall, better. Hill Auditorium is just too large. She rocked the house with "Grandmother's Song". And I was glad to hear her do "City Hall"; it's a favorite of mine.
After the intermission, was a solo artist called Citizen Cope, who was not familiar to me. He performed like he had taken a sedative, his guitar drew too much of his focus for how simple and repetitive his playing was, and he sang like he had a big plug of tobacco in his mouth. The guy behind me knew all the words, though, and lots of people in the audience were real excited. Maybe his studio work is better.
The last act was the Avett Brothers. The first few tracks, the sound was turned up to painful distortion levels, you could hardly make out the songs over the roar. I wondered if someone turned the amps to eleven in hopes of lighting Citizen Catatonic on fire, and then forgot to turn them down again? The later songs were easier to hear. The audience went nuts when they did "Shame", and this time it was justified. They rocked the house. I'd like to see them again sometime, perhaps in a smaller venue where they are the only band and the sound is better done. I have several of their CDs and there are a lot of tracks I'd like to hear live, but the sets last night were just too short for any of them to include much.
Today I went out on Amazon and bought the Spring Standards, Paper Raincoat, and the new Vienna Teng albums. I'd have bought the new Susan Werner CD they were selling at the show last night but it's not available yet. I'll have to keep an eye out for it.
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THANKS
Date: 2011-01-30 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 07:02 pm (UTC)