CONCERT: Vic Chesnutt: Opener Liz Durrett held the crowd’s attention with just a classical guitar a well-used distortion pedal and a lovely expressive voice (which reminded me somehow of both Sarah McLaughlin and Feist). Apparently her album is more fully orchestrated but the sparse setting suits her and the distortion was more than enough to add variety to the arrangements. A good way to set the mood for the evening and another reminder of how absurdly well-behaved Marquee Room crowds are. Honestly the last few shows I’ve seen there you could hear a pin drop.
Even from a wheelchair Chesnutt commands the stage. Actually that feels like the wrong word — he somehow seems too sweet to command anything mostly thanks to his banter (asking where the cowboys were and then scolding the crowd for turning against their own when they laughed reminiscing about staring at Emmylou Harris’s behind when he played the Calgary Folk Music Festival). But musically the Vic Chesnutt Band is a powerhouse. The members of A Silver Mt. Zion have restraint down to a science refusing to add an extraneous note. Then all hell breaks loose with Chesnutt’s distorted acoustic guitar trading blows with Guy Picciotto’s electric which occasionally sounds like a wounded animal. Then another slow bluesy number coasting on an easy groove Chesnutt chatting with the crowd between verses. Both extremes seem entirely unforced.
Chesnutt’s voice has bluesman confidence and world-weariness but he’s not afraid to wink. He dedicates one song to "The often-late Vic Chesnutt." In the encore he plays a song from his first album just him and his guitar. The chorus: "I am not a victim. I am intelligent. I am not a victim. I am an athiest." It’s the closest thing he gets to an anthem powerful even without the muscle of Zion and Picciotto.
THEATRE: TheatreJunction – The Country: Martin Crimp’s script is a tongue-twister looping back on itself interrupting itself repeating phrases and traveling on hairpin tangents. As delivered by Mark Lawes and Fiona Byrne though it’s not much more than two actors getting through their lines as best they can without playing off each other in the slightest. Things improve when Raphaele Thiriet appears adding casual charm flightiness and emotional range to the proceedings but that just makes Lawes’s and Byrne’s performances seem all the more stiff. To be fair Lawes and Byrne are both far better in the second act than the first which makes me suspect Chris Abraham’s direction is to blame but he did a fine job on I Claudia so it’s hard to say. The tension and twists in the script still make it worthwhile on the whole but on the first night’s performance at least it’s not clicking yet.
FILM: Kanchivaram – A Communist Confession (part of the Hidden Gems Film Festival which continues next Fri-Sun): In my top two at the Hidden Gems fest so far (the other being Zero Bridge screening next weekend). The story of a man who sacrifices everything to provide his daughter with a silk sari the film has elements of tragedy but as the opening sequence amply shows it has an energy and style that can only be attributed to the director’s past in Bollywood. Blends the political with the personal encompassing everything from revolutionary fervor to familial obligation with the same confident hand.
GAME: The New Super Mario Bros Wii: Only tried this one briefly… It actually reminds me a lot of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures in that it captures the classic feel of earlier series entries and works as both a competitive and cooperative game. On early levels at least (World 3 I think) the level design is more than balanced enough to handle multiple players simultaniously without feeling overly crowded and even repeated deaths weren’t particularly frustrating though this might change once the levels get more technically demanding and I’ve heard other people complain that it becomes impossible not to accidentally knock other players around. Still seeing Mario return to side-scrolling glory on a console is more than just a nostalgic joy it’s an incentive to revisit all of the classic NES and Super NES versions.
VINYL: The Turtles – Happy Together Again: "Happy Together" is the song that most people know and "Elenore" is reason enough to shell out $20 for a two-LP set but I was still surprised at how good the rest of this two-disc collection is. After the band dissolved the two main Turtles went on to back up T. Rex and work with Zappa which was always an oddity to me. Listening to Happy Together Again it now makes more sense. The songs are pure pop (the band was a reliable source of hits) but pure doesn’t necessarily mean straightforward and the variety of sounds and uniqueness of chord choices sets this collection apart. Even "Happy Together" the only song to get even golden-oldies radio play these days has more going on than I remembered in its lead guitar. A gem.
