another jpg onslaught...dial-up users, prepare...
caught calexico @ the Roxy last night, which was a pretty great place to see them, and i got in early enough to stake my claim @ the front of the stage, just right of joey. still, that didn't seem to deter the drunk and obnoxious girl behind me from doing her damnedest to barge past, and when that failed, periodically hitting me from her drunken dancing antics. if i didn't really care about the band, didn't have my camera gear, and had no compunctions about being thrown out, it could have gotten interesting between her, her boyfriend, and me. as it was, a woman behind me to the left of me tapped me on the shoulder, asked if that was my girlfriend, and when i replied no, then asked if it was ok if she hit the dumb bitch over the head w/ her own beer bottle. so it wasn't just me.
anyway, onto the show report, enough about assholes. jason collett obviously has been listening to bob zimmerman for a while, and had the vocal stylings (w/o being quite so nasally) down pretty well, and was a decent songwriter to boot. he had Paso Mino as his backing band, apparently all are from Ontario. hadn't heard his stuff before but it wasn't so bad, and had a couple of sparkers.
calexico's new record _Garden Ruin_ didn't really catch me that much; it sounded to me like he'd spent too much time in the presence of sam beam and gotten way too MOR...however, there are enough interesting songs on the new record to salvage it (the tour/web only _The Book and the Canal_ is probably a stronger release), esp considering "Deep Down" and "All Systems Red". the last one in particular, closing the initial set, was a goddamn scorcher, really one of those moments you hope for when you see live music, a band united in creating and trying to tame a writhing beast of a song. emotionally this was very close to the same impact that Mogwai delivered when they unleashed "Glasgow Mega Snake" at their recent show. had either band opted to not do an encore afterwards, it would have been a fine decision w/ me.
i didn't get a setlist, but they didn't really pull out too many surprises...got the usual "jesus and tequila", "even stevie nicks", "the black heart", "stray", "alone again or" (which is such a great song, and a really great choice for calexico to play...you can tell the band totally loves to play this one), and "picador". i probably missed 3-5 in there. anyway, here are the pictures:
Jason and bass player:
band:
onto the main event.
Joey:
full band shot:
volker:
multi-instrumentalist martin:
pedal steel player paul, here playing regular guitar:
big jam at the end, playing Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody":
unfortunately i didn't get any decent shots of John, who remains one of my all-time favorite drummers to watch and listen to. he was tucked in between joey and paul, and usually obscured by a mic stand or crash cymbal. also, jacob was on the far side of the stage to me, and i screwed up the focus on a lot of nick luca shots. i hope you find these enjoyable anyways.
can someone get joey's ear and tell him to add "glowing heart of the world" or "service and repair" into the setlist? please?
nice pics, all the ones you posted look quite sharp! were you more critical when culling/editing or did your front row place just allow you that much more time to focus?
neaky: Hey you never know....
) i hadn't seen it used widely.
