Thanks to HearYa reader, Vanessa, for providing the pic!
I am too old for this shit. I’m writing this the morning after seeing my third show in three nights.
First up was The Deep Dark Woods from Saskatoon at The Hideout. They drew a solid crowd for a Tuesday night and for a band that is just starting to buildup a fan base here in the States. Those that made it out were treated to a special night of music. The band has added a full time keyboardist which is like adding butterscotch to your hot fudge sundae. You didn’t know it could get any better, but it just did.
The Canucks played for about three hours, combining alt-country with a Grateful Dead vibe, including rousing renditions of Jack A Roe and O Babe It Ain’t No Lie. They also fired up two new tunes that my man-date Jefe said were hands down his favorite tunes of the night. Lucky for you, they are also part of our live session with Deep Dark Woods.
My next show was Deer Tick at a packed Empty Bottle. After sitting through a couple opening acts, McCauley and crew hit the stage at 11:30. Muzzle of Bees, a fantastic blogging counterpart, wrote a great review so I will not reinvent the wheel here. He’s bang-on in his assessment that this isn’t alt-country – its just homegrown rock and roll. They are tremendous live act and do a great job of breathing life into their songs. Also, banged out a nice cover of Petty’s Breakdown.
Last up was Elton and Billy at Wrigley. I will admit that this was met with trepidation on my part as I couldn’t get “We Didn’t Start The Fire” and “I’m Still Standing” out of my head. And, Sweet Jesus, those songs suck. But you kind of forget that there was a time when the two of them were making some unique music. After the cheesy beginning where they were trading verses of their tunes, Elton hit a nice run where he played “Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding,” “Levon” and “Madman Across The Water.” After that it was back to the schmaltzy “Crocodile Rock” and the aforementioned mind-numbing “I’m Still Standing.” Madman was a real nice surprise but I would have liked to hear “Take Me To The Pilot.”
Joel followed and played a couple of his decent tunes including “Angry Young Man,” “Zanzibar” and “Allentown.” The trade off was sitting through “Uptown Girl,” “River of Dreams” and “We Didn’t Start The Fire,” which besides being a blatant rip off of “Its The End of The World” by REM, is just about as bad a song as one man could write.
Then it was back to the dueling piano lounge act with “Piano Man” and “The Bitch Is Back.” While there were some truly awful parts during the show, there were enough very good moments that made it worthwhile, with “Madman Across The Water” leading the way. Its amazing to think that the two of them once wrote truly unique music in the days before MTV came along. After that, they started chasing the four minute hit single.
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