LIVE MUSIC NOTES

By Tom Teicholz on June 30, 2008 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Summer is always a great time for seeing live concerts and this summer that seems particularly so, In the last week I caught a number of great shows:

NIKKA COSTA at the EL REY. Great show. Great live performer. An on your feet for the entire show, sweaty audience participation performance. Someone we went with who is a huge fan thought it was mellow for her -- but I find that hard to believe. Costa is a funk master. She inhabits a space somewhere between Lenny Kravitz and Amy Winehouse -- with some Janis thrown in there as well.

Caught SAM PHILLIPS at the newly launched LARGO @ THE CORONET. Phillips has a new album, "Don't Do Anything" and she performed many songs from that accompanied by a few select players and by the Section, a
The old Largo was a bar with table seating and food and very small stage. The New Largo is more akin to a small concert hall -- you sit in assigned seats -- no food and drink (although is a separate bar) and it's more of a concert than a club date. Even so, Phillips low key conversational style, her humor and her irony, made for a wonderful evening immersed in her smart songwriting.

My wife went to TOM PETTY at the BOWL, She said it was great. II passed. Seen him enough for now.

ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS, RISING SAND TOUR. One of the surprise hits of this Spring is the collaboration between Robert Plant and Alsion Krauss, and the Rising Sand Revue delivers Plant doing some interesting versions of Led Zep tunes, Alison Krauss doing some of her own, and T Bone even gets a few of his own. The evening, at the Greek, reminded me of another great evening there, Springsteen and the Seeger sessions -- rock artists rediscovering a treasure of American roots music, this time from Appalachia. It is really is an extraordinary combination of talents that yields a completely unexpected results. We all know that Plant could be on a Zeppellin reunion tour -- even begrudgingly doing so in the memory of Ahmet Ertegun whose death was inspiration for their reunion concert early in the year. But Plant is choosing te pursue this tour. SEE IT IF YOU CAN.

THIEVERY CORPORATION at the Hollywood BOWL with Seu Jorge -- Love Thievery Corporation. They put on a great show last summer (or was it the summer before?) with Os Mutantes. This year they brought their usual assortment fo singers in Portuguese, French, English, from all over the world, including Perry Farrell doing a song. It's great that these two guys who have been around for more than twenty years and started out in DC are still cutting edge.

BEBEL GILBERTO performed at the same show. I had seen her before (also at the Bowl) and despite feeling that she had a great voice, I had not found her to be a great performer. That was then. She has come into her own and she gave a great rousing performance at the bowl.