November 27, 2004

Looking for a soulful blast from the past, the freak ventured down to uptown’s Famous Dave’s in uptown for a Paul Metsa hosted multi reunions of the Paul Metsa Group & Cats Under The Stars. First; I’m gonna start out by saying this: In this awkward age of dividers (& division) we find ourselves in, Paul Metsa is a uniter. And, of course, you can quote me on that. The 3 set night was in a sense Paul’s history brought to life with an unbelievable cast of characters. Metsa was on fire & a good example was when he said in trademark tounge in cheeky Paul: “Thanks to everyone in this town for giving me the benefit of the doubt (pause)” [ad libbed]. The Paul Metsa Group (which I used to see very frequently early in my career on Minneapolis’s enriched music scene) rambled thru many old favorites & blasts from the past like “Iko Iko”. Then as Paul opened up the last set with Cats Under The Stars with his signature spacy guitar intro he explained the song to sum up his 25 years of playing music in Minneapolis before careening into “Robots on Death Row”. Other greats worth mentioning are “Jump the Rope”, “59 Coalmines” & toward the bittersweet end Bob Dylan’s “(It’s All Over Now) Baby Blue”. The latter is one of the most impactful tunes on me in my life thus far including my hearing it on 06/27/85 at my first Grateful Dead show ever. For these complex reasons I will never be the same. I wanna thank Paul for inviting me that night to his after party. I truly wish I could have gone. Check out Paul Metsa playing weekly (& freakily) at Famous Dave’s. He is a gem in the rough here in the tamer than ever Twin Cities. Visit: paulmetsa.com.

Cats Under The Stars

Metsa & the Freak

November 26, 2004

Fuelled by the fully activated full moon in Gemini, the freak went with a far flung last minute whim meeting the Zack (from Jack Brass Band, South Side Aces, Zack Lozier Painting, Weekly Freak, etc) for another zany assed funk laced Pleasure Pause down at the freak friendly 101 year old university neighborhood watering hole live hotbed the 5 Corners Saloon. A fantastic time was had by all in attendance I can comfortably assess. And on top of that: it was one ass shaking floor quaking funk flurrious time. Spontaneous come-bust-shun. Pleasure Pause will do it to you every time. Take it from a pro.

November 26, 2004 Full Moon

Full Moon Info: 11.26.04 20:07 Universal Time.

November 21, 2004 (later)

So, here’s another case of not getting eough leading to the freak again finding his funky self down gyrating wildly to Greazy Meal down the street at the Cabooze. Another dance driven night of potent hair raising Greaze graces greasily & easily the entirity of the Cabooze leaving no freak behind (except those in hiding tokers). The essential highpoints at this show ran rampant like a stoner kid at Willie Wonka’s styly pad. Some memorable faves were Zep fave “Good Times, Bad Times” along with an alltime freak personal fave in “I Can’t Wait For Tomorrow”. Another high moment was when Jeremy Ylvisaker sat in on unruly sweet spoken guitar. Super nice vibe & warmth of spirit permeated every corner of this gigs & freaks are already abuzz about just when the Meal might be returning to the (our) stage. Inquiring greazers want to know. Hints & semi-secrets: greazymeal.com.

Greazy Power Domes

November 21, 2004

The freak was unglued to any seat at the (unfortunanetly still sit down. hint hint) cozy crisp sounding Cedar Cultural Center for the David Lindley solo show, which was nicely opened by the talented Adrian Legg. Adrian’s set was genuinely good while packed with his good natured ramblings. Please don’t take this the wrong way: Lindley is a show that should demand that people dance so let’s make that a priority in the future. Let’s collectively do away with the sit down zombie crowds that poison our town’s truly great dancing (yes) live music shows. Freaks shall take back these venues. Do you think anyone was sitting when Jefferson Airplane played the Fillmore Auditorium or the Avalon Ballroom? Back off my stoned horse: David Lindley shined in this solo show (more rare than super duo Twango Bango withWally Ingram) choosing material from a number of sources & songbooks such as Pat McDonald’s “national holiday”, Warren Zevon’s “(beneath the vast) Indifference of Heaven”, JJ Cale’s “Tijuana”, some Danny O’Keefe as well as some of his own stuff like “Catfood Sandwiches” & the infamed “When a guy gets boobs” not to mention “Head Cheese”. Also thrown in for good measure was a twisted up Asian meets Appallachian murder ballad “Little Sadie”, which made a killing with the audience. David is by & far one of the most interesting & knowledgeable charmed wonders of our music scene & his warm personality always encourages positivity & goes fittingly with his sense of humor. He is easily one of the most multitalented (certainly multi instrumentalist) humans going about this planet spreading music & good times everywhere & back. A hero to many, very few revere him as highly as yours truly. Catch my interest if you can. Also visit davidlindley.com for great DL content & even some very entertaining quirky games. Really, I’m serious.

David Lindley & Timmy

November 20, 2004

Another mammothly anticipated freakshow live wire funky good time vibe tribe gathering bringing Greazy Meal together with their loyal almost royal following all feeling the love at the home sweet home town turf the Cabooze. The scene is always revived on these nights to the credit of the planet Greaze & the Boozer love cradle family style freak den. Others might argue it’s more like a living room. Either way I concur. My late arrival saw the band in high octane frenzification adorning the show were greaze factor staples like self styling “High Life”, stony seer sayer sweetened leafy “Urban Herbalist”, “Love One Another”, a beat the clocking “Vitamin U”, decades long local hit “Funkytown” & Curtis Mayfield’s funk opus “Superfly” via the Greaze gang. I hope they will continue to do a handful of shows every year at the Cabooze so as to carry on the Greazy way. All positive & a community of fun & care. All the time. Never sometimes.

November 18, 2004

Tonight was the much acclaimed super live show The Australian Pink Floyd Show at the Orpheum Theater. This was a super production timed to perfection with even orchestrated improvised solos & emotive moments all thru the 2 adventurous momentous sets. The 1st set showcased all material from the generation defining “Dark Side of the Moon” while the 2nd set effectively paid musical homage to most other significant Floyd. I highly recommend this beyond tribute band & also their live DVDs are really cool too.

November 16, 2004

Most all my hopes & dreams on this blessed day go to beautiful Dreamgirl on this her BD. She shines like no other. With that said, I might add: happy happiness to her & to all.

SUNSHINE

November 14, 2004

Freak was seen dreaming out loud at the Fine Line Music Cafe catching long time faves Luna (on their last tour) & openers Brooklyn’s Palomar. Palomar was a dreamy, fast at times & a good fit for this expressive double bill. I was impressed by these young New Yorkers & their lush sexy soundscape. With 3 women on guitar up front & a guy drumming & singing behind is a winning combo here. Luna’s one of the most underrated bands of our time & now they’ve decided to stop touring & essentially hang it up (there’s a bunch of reasons listed on their website: fuzzywuzzy.com). They have truly forged out a unique identity over the years. I feel blessed & fortunate to have seen them all the times I have. So now that they’ve announced their retirement after this tour, the vibe in the room was one of the many local fans thinking this would be their last chance to hear them play. Ouch. That will hurt any music lover. The show was a deeply steeped in their dream pop haze of lilting guitars & soothing voices endowing surreal scenes & some involuntary visuallization. This Luna show blossomed nicely finding them playing playfully many of my faves with the likes of “1995”, “Malibu Lovenest”, “California (all the way)”, “Broken Chair”, “Tiger Lily Girls” (freak personal fave), “Going home”, “Anasthesia”, “Moon Palace”, “Black Postcards”, encores “Tugboat Captain” (a Galaxie 500 song), “23 minutes over Brussels”, “Friendly Advice” [lyric: Say a prayer... Tell me do you miss me?]. The freak too easily gives this high spirited live show 4 **** smoking bongs our absolute highest rating & rantingest recommendation. This is music for full moons just as it is for new moons. You can tune a piano but you cannot Luna wish... Dream on.

November 13, 2004

This one was Hot Tuna at the Cedar Cultural Center in the heart of the beloved freak stomping ground for almost 4 decades the West Bank. Hot Tuna always seems to capture a vibe of deep down American blues laced roots with an enviable dose of not so modern psychedelia. This among other things maintains their fanbase on all the wide spectrum from bikers to suits (& all between). Jorma’s candor & sense of humor always get me going & his off the wall jokes always do well with droves of the crowd like me. Having a proven track record of being pros & always shining thru with their tremendous talent, Tuna ages well & it’s gonna stay Hot for a long while. This is something that I honestly sense. This was their 1st time playing fully electric in a smaller room for about 5 years I was led to believe. What a freaking treat. I was convinced that fate broght me here for more than a good time. Something brought me here to recieve the musing gospel of these pioneering men & share in their musical mission. Here’s some of my experience defining faves of the night’s music: 1st set (acoustic): “Embryonic Journey”, “Genesis” (freak says: now I can die happy until i see it again that is. a true true fave of faves for Timmy), 2nd set (electric): “Water Song”, “Funky #7” (another freak tuna electrified fave). I wanna thank my good friend Paul from rescuing me from my work (read: myself) that night ultimately bringing a joy filled time.

November 8, 2004 (later)

After the stellar Nevilles show it was too clear the party would not end & many were off to the freak fave funk imbibed roadhouse Bunker’s for the legendary Combo aka Dr. Mambo’s Combo. The Combo was hot & we breezed in almost at the same time as Ivan Neville directly from the Fine Line. Ivan soon was invited & jumped up for an insanely funky & synergized groove leading the Combo thru a dank murky yet sexy romp of James Brown’s “The Big Payback” like a 70’s molten street funk meltdown. The rest of the night was really fun as well. These heavies remain my favorite local funkified dance band for all seasons. Check them. Find me there.

Ivan Neville

November 8, 2004

This night found me careening down to the friendly Fine Line Music Cafe for the Neville Brothers show. Minneapolis’s own mesmerizing uppity worldies New Primatives opened up. The New Orleans royal family of Uptown Funk, R&B & sweet soul, the Nevilles pleased the dancing crowd enormously sprinkling in classics (“Yellow Moon” , “Amazing Grace” > “One Love” (Marley)) with Nevilles originals like “Can’t Stop the Funk”, “Junkie Child” & “Kingdom Come”. The Brothers included Art Neville (Papa Funk), Cyril Neville, Charles Neville, Aaron Neville, Ivan Neville (Aaron’s son), Ian Neville (Art’s son), Mean Willie Green (drums), Nick Daniels lll (bass) accented by a positively flabbergasting charasmatic Japanese guitarist (forgot name, sorry). For a good while now, Ivan Neville has been truly on top of his game from big time session work (like recently writing & recording a song with U2’s Bono) to his own homegrown New Orleans sizzling funk band DumpstaFunk. He’s on a huge roll & simply cannot be stopped. I’m not only a huge fan of the man but I consider him a mentor & meaningful role model for musicians everywhere. Clean & sober & leading the charge more than ever I consider Ivan the professor of uptown funk whose inspiring stage presence & growing talent impress more all the time. Here’s a quick relevant freakfact: The very 1st WF volume 1, number 1 printed in the summer of cicada whining 1987 had it’s 1st live review in there: the Neville Brothers at 1st Avenue. That’s a helluva lot of firsts. Let’s bring on some more.

IAN NEVILLE (photo by Ian Campbell)

November 7, 2004

It was the 3rd & final night of Paul Westerberg & the Painkillers run at the prestigeous gorgeous roomy Pantages Theater & I somehow made the scene. Strangely, I was in need of a religious experience & what I got was some latter day Jim Morrison Replacements hazy crazy style. My favorite moment was when Paul launched himself (almost using the mic stand like a pole vault) into the front row with his guitar then piledriving into ’Mats anthem “I Will Dare” & subsequently igniting the lame sleeper crowd spring them to life like a mutant vudu priest. He never lost the crowd after that arguably as he went dark & unpredictable toward the end with macabe suicide stories & a few ruthlessly smashed guitars (nice ones too). Well, I aknowledgedly understand rock & roll guitars sometimes need to be sacrificed to the gawds just like many of us are called to take one for some well meaning team or another. Here I’d like to give props to my friend Tim Fitch for his on stage guitar tech duties namely catching all of PW’s guitars that were flung after each song prompting some quick thinking grabs including some one handed stretchs.


FITCH

November 6, 2004

The scene frequenting freak was found taking in the kind scene when the ultra legendary Jamaican reggae stars Sly & Robbie took the stage at the Cabooze for a horn tinged dance crazed good time for all. Misters Dunbar (Sly) & Shakespeare (Robbie) were in stunning brilliant form & the classic hit strewn hopping dance party is one that will beam in my warm memories for much time to come. I highestly recommend any live version of these iconic cats as well as any recordings they’ve been involved in, which could easily be in the hundreds knowing they possess a long impactful legacy.

November 3, 2004

Quietly dealing with post election blues, the freak found his wary way down to the comforting West Bank catching the nationally praised talented string master Tony Furtado at the 5 Corners Saloon. Tony has always been a hero on the jam scene. Look for his name & shows & recordings. He’s a true blue American music man for the new century. Seek.