Natalie Merchant Central Park SummerStage (August 4) A couple weeks ago, I promised my girlfriend I'd take her to see Natalie Merchant in Central Park. I enjoy her earlier work with 10,000 Maniacs, but was hesitant to go to a festival entitled "Mind, Body & Self." It sounded more like a self-help seminar than a rock show. Begrudgingly, I convinced myself this would be a good time, and went to the show with an open mind, expecting to drink some cheap wine with my girlfriend and groove on the same radio hits everyone else loves.
The first half of Merchant's set was mainly a collection of folk songs she touted as the centerpiece of her tour. One ditty, in the vein of Judy Collins, was about a woman who fell in love with a sailor but married a carpenter. The words had such a lack of fervor that I resorted to flicking paper into the hair of the guy standing in front of me. Toward the end, the band turned it on and Merchant started unloading the songs the people came to hear. The musicians in her band operated as a finely tuned machine and sounded like they had been playing together for years. Merchant's voice had the same aphrodisiacal quality that can be found on her records; nevertheless, all that quality and splendor left me feeling uninspired and bored. When Merchant came out for the encore, she let her hair down and started dancing like a frantic Indian around the fire. It was the most riveting part of the evening, and kept me interested for the duration of a song. The crowd seemed to enjoy this as well, and finally began moving their bodies?I think I even saw a few people shaking their hips. Finally, my girlfriend gave me a tug on the arm, and said: "Let's go home."
d. Stortion
Tight Bro's from Way Back When/Les Savy Flav Brownies (July 31) There's nothing I like more than watching a man shake his ass in a tight pair of Levi's while befriending a microphone. Tight Bro's from Way Back When's singer Jared, known for his previous incarnation Karp, definitely knows how to work it, with his high-energy dance moves, tambourine-playing and vocals reminiscent of AC/DC's "Rocker"?the part when Angus sings, "Got slicked back hair/skin tight jeans/Cadillac car/and a teenage dream... I'm a rock 'n' roll man." While the Tight Bro's feed off heavy rock riffs and a loud rhythm section?think Dead Boys, possibly the MC5?their music remains their own. The Tight Bro's live is all about a good time. If you get it, you get it, if you don't, then get the hell out.
Tonight the crowd definitely got it. The sold-out room was packed with shaggy-hair dudes pounding Budweisers and shaking their lanky bodies the entire set. There were no pretenses, and no too-cool people hanging out in the back talking real loud and sipping on cosmos. A certain respect was due, considering the drummer had recently been pronounced dead after a car wreck, and here he was, already touring. Now that's fulfilling one's obligation to play rock 'n' roll.
Some hunky Tight Bro's fans dropped out before Brooklyn's Les Savy Fav hit the stage. I stayed in hopes of hearing the tune "Who Rocks the Party," with the chorus yelling, "Fuck the champagne/We want gin." Les Savy Fav's songs varied between quirky ditties with odd time signatures and mellower, more sensitive songs. No matter what the song, frontman, vocalist and entertainer, Tim Harrington, frantically moved about the stage like he was interpreting each song's lyrics, often with impromptu props?singing through a plastic jar, wearing a milk crate on his head, or whatever else he found to accompany his schizophrenic vocals?all while wearing his usual unusual all-white getup. "Reformat" ended the night with Harrington repeating, "In Brooklyn we stay home"?a lifestyle Brooklynites are adamant about supporting, unless Les Savy Fav and the Tight Bro's are playing.
Lisa LeeKing