Tagged: nyc concerts

Still The Biggest Balls in the Business. Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band Live

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Bowery Ballroom, NYC, Sunday, September 16, 2013
Sold Out

Very few people accept the idea that watching Yoko Ono do her thing is entertaining.  It’s interesting how you get universally similar reactions from very different types of people, all very negative. But to paraphrase Bill Murray in Stripes, one day Yoko Ono is going to die and you’re gonna say “I’ve been listening to her for years and I think she’s fabulous.”  Sure enough, Yoko is now 80 years old.  My dad was 81 when he died but he seemed decades older.  She is still an all-out assault on your senses, ululating, sonically reverbulating, the like — but when combined with this particularly heavy crack incarnation of the Plastic Ono Band, the results are BIG.  Head banging music.

This night was Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band’s  only 2013 show, and it featured one Yoko, one Yuka, and one Yuko. They opened up with the show with an hour of Yoko’s films, some dating back to 1966.  Bare 60s asses, and so on.

The band is amazing.  Yuko Araki from a group called mi-gu is a seriously demure powerhouse drummer. They had to set up the fiberglass around her she didn’t blast waif Yoko out into the audience. A big room drummer. Behind the keys was her eminence (based on audience reaction) Yuka Honda from Cibo Matto. Yuka’s husband Nels Cline, feedback-enthusiast and Thurston Moore-gentrifier, most commonly associated with the dinner-party rock group Wilco was impressive on guitar, as he usually is.  If anything, he deferred to the band leader and Yoko.  Cline seemed to be channeling Adrian Belew at times, with an enjoyable 70s Talking Heads groove there for a good chunk of the show. The bandleader, as it were, is Sean Lennon — even though I didn’t realize it until three-quarters of through the show. Pushing 40, Seanboy is a surprisingly musical multi-instrumentalist.  He has so much to work against, the reputation of every Jason Bonham, Ziggy Marley, or Julian Lennon (did I really need to say it?).  He held his own against Nels Cline on guitar and generally guided the direction of the attack. The show featured one surprise guest, utility man Earl Slick from the mid-80s not-so-supergroup “Phantom, Rocker, and Slick” and John and Yoko’s Double Fantasy album. Slick’s pentatonic focus added a bluesier angle to Yoko’s guitar army on the last few songs, including Don’t Worry, Kyoko.

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So, the question is: If Yoko Ono rocks hard live and nobody is there to hear it and nobody believes you because they can’t imagine how anyone could listen to that shit — did it really make a sound? <ululate>YES!</ululate>

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Top photo: James Prochnik

Soul Legend Melvin Davis at Littlefield, Brooklyn

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Some singers never lose their voice.  Everyone can think of a few that have.  Other voices were never great to begin with so it doesn’t matter so much when they start to go downhill.  Melvin Davis has never lost his great voice.  At Littlefield in Gowanus on Saturday, he sounded the same as he did on his great singles from the mid-60s, which I have to admit I wasn’t really familiar with.  It was a real joy to watch this thrilled, deeply gracious 71 year old guy talk about his life in music and sing his never-hits.  Davis has had in hand in so many different a) labels b) instruments in Detroit during its 60s musical hey day.  He recorded for the amazing Fortune label but was also Smokey Robinson’s drummer for two years, on hits like Tears of a Clown, etc.  Think about the thunderous drums on that track.  Maybe it’s because he didn’t only focus on singing that his voice never got shot.

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Melvin Davis never made much money. “My values don’t start with money,” he said humbly with a smile. “Not that that it isn’t on my list.”  Adorable.  This is a big man we’re talking about.  Literally, the dude has gotta be at least 6’5 too. He thanked the popular Northern Soul movement from Blighty for appreciating all his obscure songs that didn’t make him any money at the time but that are in our hearts now.  He showed real gratitude that he could come out and play to excited audiences, because of this renewed interest.

The Brooklyn Rhythm Band backed Melvin with a super-pro vintage sound and authentic playing.  Completely complementary and not the slightest bit distracting,

Humbleness was the overriding theme of the night and it didn’t stop with the star of the show.  Afterwards, I noticed Norton Records co-honcho Billy Miller waiting in line with a crowd of fans who wanted to meet him.  Not only is Billy his personal friend of Melvin Davis — but he’s also reissuing some of his early work on Norton!  See below.  But he patiently waited with other fans get a word because above all Billy and his wife Miriam Linna are themselves big fans.  Also, Norton’s business  was recently savagely humbled by Frankenstorm Sandy, when their entire warehouse in Red Hook got destroyed — but they landed on their feet with the help of legions of fan volunteers.

This great show was brought to us by Brooklyn-based series called Dig Deeper. — and I reckon we should all stay on their list and keep an eye out for what else they have in store.  Barbara Lynn is teed up to play Littlefield in Mid-October

Update: Just saw that Dig Deeper posted a video clip of the first song Melvin Davis did at this show, which I missed.  It’s was Chains of Love, which I just saw The Dirtbombs do earlier in the day and probably their best known song. I did not know Melvin Davis did the original.