Stereographic Mix-Up Field On Field

St. Vincent @ Central Park Summerstage 8/1/2010

The Strangers / Save Me From What I Want / Actor Out Of Work / Jesus Saves, I Spend / Just The Same But Brand New / The Neighbors / Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood / The Bed / Black Rainbow / Marrow / Your Lips Are Red // The Party

St. Vincent “Black Rainbow”

Ahhh, the ruthless perfection of St. Vincent. This was a remarkable set — technically astonishing, yet with enough deviations from recorded arrangements and small moments of improvisation to keep things fresh and in the moment. This was a special show. In addition to her usual quintet, she added a three man horn section and a five-piece mini-orchestra, all without ever bogging down the sound. I was most excited for “The Neighbors,” a seldom-performed favorite of mine, but “Black Rainbow” may have been the highlight as the additional players added richness and detail to the sound without doing anything to compromise Clark’s light, delicate melodies.

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Tune-Yards @ Central Park Summerstage 8/31/2010

Do You Wanna Live? / What’s That About? / Powa / My Hood / Fiya / Real Live Flesh / Sunlight / Hatari / Don’t Take My Life Away

Tune-Yards “Real Live Flesh”

The second Tune-Yards album can’t come quickly enough. The existing recordings are very good, but don’t do enough to showcase exactly how jaw-dropping Merrill Garbus has become as a live performer. I would go so far to say that she may be one of the greatest singers in the world today. The raw quality of her voice is phenomenal, but the originality of her style is what gets you — very controlled, but raw, playful, sexy, commanding, masculine, feminine. About half the songs were performed as usual, as either a duo or Garbus by herself, but the rest included a seven-piece band assembled for the occasion. This was incredible, and I can only hope that she does more of this in the future. Maybe she doesn’t need the extra percussion or the guitarist, but oh man, the horn section? Brilliant, perfect, wonderful. If you are on the fence about this band, you need to see them live and you will become a very big fan. It’s that simple.

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Basia Bulat “Run”

Basia Bulat is adorable. She can seem a bit solemn on record — her voice somewhat resembles that of the wholesome, dour Natalie Merchant — but in person, she is very friendly and smiley, which helps put over her performance. It’s just nice to see someone have fun up there, you know? Her set was low-key but dynamic, with several shifts in arrangement — acoustic guitar, mandolin, autoharp — that kept the sound lively and fresh. Her songs are small, gentle things with subtle charms that can flattened a bit in the studio, but in concert they open up and breathe. Loose and casual is the way to go with this music.

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Sonic Youth @ Prospect Park Bandshell 7/31/2010

Candle / Brother James / Catholic Block / Stereo Sanctity / Hey Joni / The Sprawl / Cross The Breeze / The Wonder / Hyperstation / White Cross / Mote / Shaking Hell // Shadow Of A Doubt / Silver Rocket / Expressway To Yr Skull

Sonic Youth “Stereo Sanctity”

Mark Ibold was not available for this performance, and so the band performed a set in which the most recent song was released in 1990. This was very cool, but also sort of odd, in that I feel somewhat uncomfortable with them totally ignoring twenty years of their career in choosing what to play. Granted, songs from A Thousand Leaves on through Sonic Nurse have been cut from the live repertoire for some time now and pretty much everything from NYC Ghosts and Flowers onward is arranged for a quintet, but still. This was a fine show, but it was bogged down a bit by the simple fact that I am still burned out on much of the Daydream Nation material and would’ve much preferred that they played more from Evol and Sister — how about “Schizophrenia,” “Cotton Crown,” and “Tom Violence” instead of “The Wonder”, “Hyperstation”, and “Silver Rocket”? — but that’s my own problem I guess. I’ve seen Sonic Youth so many times now that I’m afraid I take this stuff for granted. It was awesome to finally get to see them do “Stereo Sanctity” though. That was totally awesome. Also, there is no way that I will ever be bored with “Candle,” “Brother James,” “White Cross,” “Shadow of a Doubt” or “Expressway To Yr Skull.”

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