Choices

Why do things like this happen?  On Sunday, May 7, Brooklyn's San Fermin will be playing Atlanta's Park Tavern for a must-see, must-go show.  Meanwhile, that same evening, San Fransisco's The Family Crest will be playing Aisle 5 for another must-see, must-go show.

I'd say, "go to both," but doors open for both shows at 7:00 pm and the two venues are nowhere near each other.

I've only been to three shows so far all year (maybe four after tonight), and now I have to choose between two shows on a single night.

The Joy Formidable at Park Tavern, Atlanta, September 6, 2015

As a Labor Day weekend treat for those Atlantans not at DragonCon or the Pride Festival this weekend, Park Tavern provided the penultimate performance of their Sunset Series of shows, featuring Wales' The Joy Formidable.  Because of those other festivities this weekend, traffic was a nightmare in and around Piedmont Park, and it took me over a half hour to advance one block past the sold-out parking lot at Park Tavern before I could find a parking space on the street about a half mile away (and yes, I did get a traffic ticket for parking facing the wrong way for the side of the street I was on). The traffic was so frustrating I almost didn't go to the show, and had vowed that if a parking space didn't present itself to me soon I was going to just keep driving and go on back home, but said space did lure me over at that very moment, and since it was a free concert and I didn't pay anything for on-street parking, the cost of the ticket doesn't seem so bad.

Atlanta's Today the Moon Tomorrow the Sun opened.

We've seen TTMTTS several times before, but buoyed by the enthusiastic audience at the Park Tavern, this was the best show we've seen yet by the band.  They were a quartet in the past but played as a trio last night, and it may he the stripped-down sound of the smaller ensemble that gave the songs more urgency or it might have been the energy of the crowd, but you had the feeling during their performance that this was going to be a special night.

The Joy Formidable have been relatively quiet for the past couple of years,  We last saw them almost exactly two years ago today when they were the headliners (or at least final performers) at the 2013 Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle, and had no idea at the time that the show would be the last that we'd hear from them for two whole years.   

The Joy Formidable at Bumbershoot 2013

Last night, Ritzy Bryan announced that the band would be releasing a new album, their third, soon, followed by a "proper" tour (they're here now for a very limited number of dates, mostly festivals, and we're lucky to have them here during this brief visit).  Most of the familiar trappings of Joy Formidable shows past were gone - the Christmas lights strung over the microphone stands, the anthemic music played over the PA before the band took the stage, etc. - but the band has lost none of the firepower of the past. In fact, they look better and more relaxed and confident than ever before, and I'm looking forward to hearing what they're going to come up with next. 

The band clearly appreciated and was feeding off of the energy from the audience, and several times bassist Rhydian Dafydd came to the edge of the stage to rub the head of one particularly enthusiastic fan at the edge of the stage.

At the end of the cacophonous encore, Ritzy handed her guitar to a young woman in the audience standing right in front of me to let her keep strumming and keep the noise going, and then Ritzy and the rest of the band left the stage (roadies quickly got the guitar back from her after the set). 

And that was that.  The end of the Park Tavern's Sunset Series and the end of The Joy Formidable's brief pre-album tour.  All good, and the best part is that with Labor Day tomorrow, we don't have to go to work in the morning (you can thank a liberal for that!).

Post-Script:  Not that I'm counting or that it means anything, but based on that "Bands Seen in 2015" banner over on the right, I jut realized that The Joy Formidable were the 100th band I've seen so far this year. 

The Joy Formidable

The Joy Formidable at MFNW (RIP) 2011

Wales' The Joy Formidable are on a mini-tour of sorts right now, with sets at The Montauk Inn on Long Island, a festival in Kalamazoo, and a free show this Sunday night at The Park Tavern (of all places) in Atlanta.  The good news is that The Joy Formidable's sheer volume should be sufficient to drown out the noisy Park Tavern crowd.

Here's one of the sets I saw them perform at Bumbershoot 2013 (dude, I was there!):

And look at this:  Hunter S. Thompson's old friend, artist Ralph Steadman (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, among other things), designed a new logo for them, and you can buy t-shirts of the logo here, and at the Park Tavern on Sunday, I'm sure.

So what else has the band been up to?  Generally, they've been fairly quiet since their 2013 album, Wolf's Law, but during their hiatus they managed to release a series of singles sung in their native Welch.

Oh, and also, for some reason, last month they covered the song Falling, the theme music from Twin Peaks.

Kishi Bash at Park Tavern, Atlanta. August 23, 2015

As hard to believe as it is, the Park Tavern in Atlanta's Piedmont Park has actually put together a fine series of free Sunday evening shows.  The challenge to belief is based on the shows being free.  Nothing's ever free here in Atlanta.  In any event, earlier this summer we saw Seattle's Ivan & Alyosha in a free show here, and last night, it was Athens' own Kishi Bashi.   

Andre of Book of Colors opened with a solo set.  Frankly, it was difficult to hear him at times over the noise of the crowd, most of whom were seated at tables eating and drinking and seemingly oblivious to the fact that there was a musician on stage.  But Andre managed to stay serene and focused, and in the audience I saw, in addition to the Jeffrey Bützer, the next musician up, Book Club's Robbie and Brock Scott of Little Tybee.  

Bützer took the stage next with his band, The Bicycle Eaters.  Bützer fills an odd but endearing niche in the Atlanta music scene, and is probably most famous for his annual Christmas show at The Earl where he performs Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas.  The rest of the year, he performs his idiosyncratic music at the usual venues, lately utilizing singer Cassi Costoulas, who sings half the songs in French for some reason, including a lovely reworking of Bützer's Theme For A Tailor.

The crowd was still pretty noisy (honestly, this place is worse than Park for talkative audiences) and there's a YouTube clip somebody posted of last night's show that I refuse to even post here 'cause the audience is so loud and disrespectful. 

The area in front of the stage became more crowded and the audience a little more attentive when Kishi Bashi took the stage.  Mr. Ishibashi has been working on a new album, and while that's in progress, he played a small mini-tour of local towns (Macon, Chattanooga, Birmingham, and last night, Atlanta).  He played the usual songs from his two fine albums, 151a and Lighght, opening with Atticus In the Desert and audience favorite Bright Whites, both from 151a, before covering most of the songs from Lighght, and closing with Mr. Steak, Philosophize In It! Chemicalize In It! and It All Began With A Burst.   

For his encore, he did a solo improvisation for a while, and then closed with Manchester. 

Not to complain, but it was a sloppier set than I've seen them play before, with Kishi Bashi having to stop and start several of his loops over during one song or another.  However, this gave the set a more spontaneous and intimate feel, and I don't think anybody was disappointed.  Especially for a free show.

Next week, Park Tavern presents The Secret Sisters, and then, truly incredibly, they close out their so-called Sunset Series with The Joy Formidable.

Ivan & Alyosha at Park Tavern, Atlanta, May 31, 2015

While we've been to Park Tavern before, a) it was years and years ago, and b) the Park Tavern didn't feature national-level touring acts back in the 90s.  Since one of my unofficial jobs seems to be supporting Pacific Northwest bands when they play Atlanta (see The Family Crest and Motopony), I was sufficiently motivated to pass up last night's episode of Game of Thrones to see Seattle's Kris Orlowski and Ivan & Alyosha play the Park Tavern.

The Park Tavern has added a big tent to cover the outdoor diners and the stage since I was there last, but it's still not really set up for live music.  The floor is covered with widely spaced, large tables, each of which had anywhere from 4 to 8 to more people seated, talking, drinking and having fun. While there's certainly nothing wrong with that, many of the people seated had their backs to the stage, and many of the tables were so far back that the people were barely aware there was live music coming from the stage.  Further, there was no bar or anywhere else for a single person who was just there for the music to hang out, other than to stand alone and conspicuously between the stage and the tables.  I bought a beer from inside the tavern and brought it back "outside" (actually, inside the tent), and tried to find a spot against the wall where I could stay out of the way of the busy waiters and busboys as they served the tables.  It was only after the music started that I and a few others ventured out into the area between the tables and the stage. 

The first band was a surprise (they weren't listed on the bill) but a pleasant surprise - Atlanta's own cellist and singer, Takenobu.  He played a lovely, lyrical set accompanied by a violinist, and I think that only I and about a dozen other people even knew he was on the stage.  Pity, most people missed out on a great set.

Next up was Kris Orlowski, a solo, acoustic singer/songwriter who had an even tougher time being heard above the din on the diners.  He took it all well, and made a few small jokes for the benefit of the few of us paying attention, but then he finally took matters into his own hands and stepped off stage to wander among the tables like a mariachi band in a Mexican restaurant, playing unamplified to those near him.

The gambit worked and got Kris a little more attention and respect from the audience, but a lot of the people present were at The Park Tavern to drink and socialize, and again, there's nothing wrong with that, but it's not a great setting for a folk-style singer.

Ivan & Alyosha are a full band, a quintet, and had enough volume to drown out the audience.  Also, as soon as they took the stage, dozens of mostly teenage girls flooded the area in front of the stage, drawn by Ivan & Alyosha's boy-band looks.

Ivan & Alyosha (named for characters in a Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov) play a folk-rock/ indie-pop hybrid.  Frontman Tim Wilson warned us that on one song, a ballad, they "go a little Celine Dion," but their pop tendencies are balanced by guitar-rock rhythms and four-part harmonies.  If you imagine a cross between Local Natives and Paul McCartney, you'd be approaching Ivan & Alyosha's neighborhood.  Here's a sample:

Yesterday was guitarist Tim Kim's birthday, which still doesn't fully explain all of the homoerotic biting ("birthday bites") going on in the video.

Anyhow, with the music amplified and the energy level raised and the stage area filled with clapping and adoring teenage girls, The Park Tavern finally started to resemble a music venue and not just an outdoor restaurant, and suddenly, everything was alright.

For those of you keeping score at home, this is our second time seeing Ivan & Alyosha, whom we previously caught at Bumbershoot 2013. 

Here's the set list from last night. Even though Be Your Man wasn't listed, they closed their set with the song.  There was no encore and as soon as the band left the stage, the house music came on and the audience returned to their tables.

I got back home before 11:00 pm, in time to catch the second airing of Game of Thrones (that Valyrian steel!).  Next Sunday, Milo Greene play The Park Tavern, and later this summer, Kishi Bashi.