Posts
Monday, November 2, 2009
LIVE REVIEW - Chuck Ragan's Revival Tour @ Berbati's Pan 11/1/09
-- A Taste from TheInkFlowsLikeWine.com
Last night I pulled myself together after two nights of halloween parties and headed to Berbati's Pan to check out the Portland stop on the Revival Tour, which this year featured a ton of amazing musicians. Throughout the tour, musicians seemed to jump on for a few shows, and jump back off. I would have loved to see Stephen Brodsky do a little folk, a huge departure from Cave In, but instead we got a line up of Chuck Ragan, Frank Turner, Austin Lucas, Jim Ward, Audra Mae, Water Tower Bucket Boys, Jon Gaut, and Digger Barnes.
This whole tour is Chuck's doing, his record company Ten Four Records put this together last year for the first time, and it got such a response that he decided to do it again. The entire show is run much differently than most, in that it's almost completely collaborative, and there's barely any dead air between sets. The sets would be one after another, with no breaks, which made it basically 3 plus hours of nonstop music. Best $15 I've spent in awhile.
The venue itself was a bit dingy and dark, but I expected nothing less with the type of clientele they attracted and booked. There's a sort of distinctive venue for punk and harder edged music, and since everyone on stage was a veteran of that scene in some way, it made a lot of sense for them to hit all those venues.
I'll jump right into the show, as it was quite long and I admit I didn't even stay till the last note because it went so long. At 9ish the entire lineup hit the stage, somehow cramming everyone on at their respective microphones and they launched into Chuck's song "Bloody Shells" from his split album with Austin Lucas, who stood right beside him, clapping his ass off and belting it out. The entire line up, sans Jim Ward who was grabbing a beer before he made it up to the stage during the song, was singing the chorus, and the crowd was stomping and clapping along wholeheartedly. It seemed everyone there knew exactly what they were in for that night, and it was going to be a barnburner.
After a song from each of the acts with everyone accompanying, from Frank Turner, to Austin, to Audra, and finally Jim, the majority left the stage, setting up to condenser mics for the Water Tower Bucket Boys to do their set. They had been in the back row behind the main acts throughout the opening set, providing accompaniment. They jumped right in with their bluegrass and floor stomping style of folk, singing about whiskey stills and Tennessee, pretty standard faire for such an act. Apparently several of them were locals, which got a lot of hollering from the crowd. They held everyone's attention until a slow one, where people started to wander, but they pulled everyone back when Chuck jumped up to accompany them on a song the banjo player wrote about getting stoned and walking in the woods. They then closed their set with "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and everyone sang along.
As they finished, they immediately introduced Austin Lucas, who came straight-out and jumped into his set. Austin's got a very unique voice and I didn't know what to expect when I saw him from hearing his work with Chuck. He was quite the poet, as Audra Mae would say right after his set, and he was very intense during certain songs. But he would joke frequently throughout with the crowd, he was having a great time since it was his last night on the tour. His father had actually been on the tour until the night before in Seattle, so he dedicated a song to him. Later in his set, he dedicated a song to his friend that had been stabbed, which was on the Bristle Ridge record. He shushed the audience, whom had been talking rather loud, and told them this was the most important song he'd ever written. Chuck joined him on stage for the chorus, and he seemed to be touched by Austin's emotion during the song.
After Austin came Audra Mae, with her unique take on folk. She seemed to be a mix of several musicians I'd seen before, taking her female perspective on relationships and blending a bit of folk and country at times into her songs. Some of the crowd loved it, some did not, and took her appearance as a cue to talk. I thought some of her stuff was quite good, though not very memorable. At one point she complained about the noise, but said she was too polite to tell everyone to shut the fuck up. Jim Ward, who was checking his gear on the side of the stage happened to notice the noise too, and came up while she mentioned it and said "Shut the fuck up. Is that better? Coming from a more authoritative voice?" and everyone seemed to chill a bit, until the next song began, and it resumed. She ended the song singing "Shut the fuck up" but no one seemed to care. She left the stage shortly after to make way for Jim.
Jim came on and jumped into a song without much of a word. Audra came right back on to play tambourine and sing back up for his opener. People seemed to pay a lot more attention to Jim, probably based on his time with At the Drive In and Sparta. Jim's an interesting case in music, I loved ATDI, though I know he was way more focused on keeping the band together when it obviously wasn't working for Omar and Cedric. I loved the first Sparta record and some of the second, the third was crap. I don't honestly know much of his work with Sleepercar, but I didn't really know what to expect last night with his folk solo stuff. And I have to say, after seeing him be quite standoffish in the opening set with everyone else, barely even cracking a smile, he did bring it for his solo set. The songs were interested in deep, much more indie tinged than anyone else. He even played a Sparta, "Breaking the Broken," one of their best ones actually, and dedicated it to his old bandmate from ATDI and Sparta, Paul, the co-writer that is now in Mars Volta, whom apparently lives in Portland.
And then, something happened that I never expected and made me like Jim Ward all over again. He pulled out a banjo, said it was the third time he'd played it live, brought out Audra with her tambourine, and played the fucking "Rainbow Connection." I was blown away. Never in my life did I expect to see this guy, the guy who was a complete prick at the Sparta show I saw in Tempe several years back, where it was their last show on tour so they didn't give a fuck, to pull out a banjo and sing like Kermit the Frog. Not only did it show his sense of humor, it showed that maybe the majority of the music press is wrong about this guy altogether.
Shortly after one more song from Jim, Chuck came on to join him for a last song, and then Jim left the stage to Chuck and his band, Jon Gaut, who killed it on fiddle, and Digger Barnes on the upright. There's something about Chuck that anyone whom encounters him immediately loves, and he commands a room's attention like no one else. I assume it comes from years and years of touring nonstop with Hot Water Music, and people every where sincerely love that band. Many didn't know what would happened when Chuck announced his desire to go solo, pretty much ending Hot Water for the known future. While the band has done some reunion shows (I've seen two now), it seems that they'll be relegated to such shows until Chuck maybe loses interest in his new found love for folk. But honestly, that's okay with me, because not only has his solo work been quite a pleasant surprise, it's yielded some of my favorite songs in the past couple years.
Chuck's first album, "Feast or Famine" was one of my favorites for awhile, the songs are just so anthemic, much like his old band's. I guess he brought that feeling to a lot of Hot Water's songwriting, and it works almost better on his solo work at times. When Chuck came onstage and launched into his first song, "Do You Pray" a hugely popular song with the crowd, people just immediately started singing along and stomping their feet. It was a huge paradigm shift from Jim, who mostly had hushed the audience with his intricate songs. The place was jumping, and the more people hollered, the more Chuck got into it, belting it out while he strummed like a mad man.
At the end of the song, Audra ran onstage with a cake and Chuck immediately got embarrassed as everyone in attendance sang him happy birthday. I was pleasantly surprised, as I had no idea, and laughed along with everyone as he explained his love for red velvet cake and told a story of his mother's persistence in getting him to love it. He then launched into his song dedicated to his mother, "Geraldine" with Austin singing backup, and got a bit teary-eyed at the end after everyone sang along. He then ran through "Rotterdam," dedicated to his wife at home, from his new album "Gold Country." While I liked his second album and his split with Austin, "Bristle Ridge," it doesn't quite touch the perfection of his first. But there's still a lot to love on it.
After dedicating "The Boat" to the audience, a crowd favorite and personal favorite, he ended the set with "California Burritos," a big singalong song. Everyone was amped and loving it, and Chuck then brought on Frank Turner, the Englishman, to play his set. His songs were a bit more indie and had lots of lyrics. In fact he sang almost nonstop throughout each song. Some were pretty catchy though, I'll have to check out his albums.
After a few songs, we realized it was after midnight and poor Jenny had a huge test in the morning, so we had to bail. Most likely they whole crew came back on stage for a song or two at the end, but it has already been over 3 hours of non-stop tunes, so I didn't feel too bad about missing it. The show overall was amazing, and Chuck is still the man through and through. I saw all the acts wandering the floor, talking to people throughout the show, which was great to see. It was a truly collaborative atmosphere, one that you never see at shows most of the time, and I give Chuck a ton of credit for pulling it together. I guess old punks don't retire, they just go folk.
