This month, reviews of Heavy Me/Thistle, Queens of the Stone Age, Dar Williams

Heavy Me/Thistle
September 19, 2003- Marley's Doghouse, Huntington, WV

Welcome to Huntington, WV, where people don't hit the clubs till midnight, and then leave by 1 am. Heavy Me started later than planned, to allow the audience to materialize, and it did. A respectable showing. But by the second act, despite a quicker than usual space between bands, the majority had left. The thinning audience was certainly no reflections on the bands' playing abilities. Quite the contrary. This is just kind of a weird town.

Brian wringing his guitar's neck

Heavy Me under the pshychedelic ceiling.

Russ Fox dedicated Heavy Me's set to Johnny Cash, and had a picture of Cash taped up on his amp. The mood onstage was hardly somber, though. They looked like they were having just too much fun, and it made for a lively and great sounding show. The crowd demanded an encore, so they closed with their standard covers of Sonic Reducer and Blitzkrieg Bop. Before the show, the club owner had set up a psychedic projector that sent bubbly, moving patterns across the ceiling. During his time in the audience, Brian just couldn't resist putting his hands in front of the lens and making shapes.

Rick nailing down the beat for Thistle

"My girlfriend says smaller is better, because it feels more personal." That's how Mike Montgomery, guitarist and vocalist for Thistle, addressed the audience issue. The Cincinnati based band (2/3 of whom are also in Ampline) played a set that not only felt personal, but had big sound. A little bit emo, a little bit shoegazer, the music builds into dense, textural explorations, heavier and noisier than their recordings. "Part II" in particular sounded much richer than on the EP, and was the highlight of the show for me. Mike came out in a ski cap, but that didn't stay on long, as he let his hair down in more ways than one. Drummer Rick McCartey played as steadily and sturdily as ever, and Toby Weiss is one hard working bassist. Thistle put their all into a show. They reach down into dark corners and pull you up into a beautiful light. Jen Grover

Mike early

Mike late

Toby the hard-working bassist

Queens of the Stone Age
October 8, 2003- The Showbox, Seattle WA

If you sell your soul to make a dollar, the consequences can be more than you bargained for. Especially if you sell out to two of the biggest corporate monoliths of our time: big alcohol and big radio. Entercom, the people who brought you KLONE-radio and the infinite repeat, and Anheuser-Busch, the people who brought you inebriating swill called "beer" so you don't notice that you just heard that same Limp Bizkit or No Doubt song 30 minutes ago, combined to bring us Queens of the Stone Age at a "small venue." Now, QOTSA didn't even grace us with their presence on that other corporate entity, Lollapalooza, when it wove its way through our fair region, so it made sense that they would play some Northwest dates on their West Coast tour. Well, they did, but it wasn't open to all fans, only those who "won" tickets by numbing their mind with bad radio or bad beer. The devil's demand for payback didn't stop there, of course. The collective PR genius of KNDD and Budweiser decided to give away about 500 extra tickets than they had room for, leaving tons of fans outside wondering why they couldn't get in even though they won tickets to a show they should have had equal opportunity to buy tickets to. Apparently, you had to show up very early to exchange your winning tickets for tickets that actually worked (although this detail wasn't advertised anywhere). The smart, kind, sensible thing to do would be to give away exactly the number of tickets for a capacity show, then let those that show up and wait in line in for free after giving the no shows a fair amount of time to show up. But when you stand up and count yourself as a part of the record industry hype machine, your fans stand to ultimately lose.

Don't get me wrong, QOTSA deserve to make money. In fact, they're one of the few bands today who truly deserve to get rich playing their music, but rock is littered with bands who broke up because they couldn't stand the business side of the game. In rock business, someone has to win and someone has to lose. Because the record companies fix it so that they always win (kickbacks for airplay, repayable advances to artists, $18.99 per CD, MTV hype selling looks over talent, RIAA goon squads suing 12-year old girls or grandparents for downloading songs, employing Ticketmaster's monopoly to squeeze out competition from talented bands, etc.), the fans usually lose. Sooner or later, this weight becomes too much to bear, and a band must ask themselves whether it's worth it to attract those MTV-numbed Creed or Linkin Park fans at the risk of trampling those that know good music when they hear it and are already fans of bands with musical integrity like QOTSA.

During the show, Nick Oliveri mentioned an incident in the parking lot where someone threw a bunch of free useless tickets in his face. Like it or not, thanks to the RIAA and big business, rock n' roll is becoming an us against them proposition, and bands are forced to take sides, sadly enough against their fans. It's not QOTSA's fault that the giveaway was horribly mismanaged, but they better educate themselves about what's happening to their real fans by the record company promotion machine that represents them.

Happily, a good number of real fans found their way into the show, either by buying tickets outside the venue, or by sneaking in, as I did. Those that got in treated themselves to an excellent show by Millionaire, the Distillers, and QOTSA. Catching only the last few songs in Millionaire's set, I was impressed by their odd vocals and interesting compositions. The Distillers, however were amazing. Not terribly innovative, but talented and intense. Word on the street is that the Distillers' lead singer is Josh's girlfriend, and I must say he has good taste, as she totally rocks. I'll be buying their music.

But I was here to see the kitty petting, baby kissing, corporate rock whores known as Queens of the Stone Age, and see them I did. Nick introduced the band as usual and they jumped right into a lively "First It Giveth." Immediately, I noticed a new chemistry in the band different from the last time I saw them, exactly one year ago at the Showbox. Joey Castillo has really settled in as a drummer and accentuates his rhythms with some of his own fills and a style a bit different from Dave Grohl. Castillo is every bit a monster behind the kit as Grohl, but he's clearly becoming comfortable forging his own identity as he drives the live QOTSA machine with authority. By the same token, Troy Van Leeuwen isn't merely the guy making the goofy noises on the lap steel anymore. His guitar interplay with Josh is becoming more pronounced and it certainly bodes well for the future of the band. For the first time, I really get the impression that the rotating lineup days are over, and we'll be able to see the current five members making QOTSA music long into the future.

A blistering take on "Millionaire" segued into an animated "Do It Again" that saw Josh emphasizing the subtleties of the lyrics with his trademark sideways glances. The show grew heavier as we took a time machine trip back to the time of "If Only" and "Mexicola," the latter featuring that trademark Kyuss-esque heaviness that sent the old fans in the crowd into fits of haze-induced headbanging. A crushing "Quick and to the Pointless" whipped the stoners back to reality before the otherworldly "Sky is Falling" took them back to the Scooby van again. After Nick gave us a nice take on "Gonna Leave You," the familiar, tall silhouette of a cigarette-smoking man strode onto the stage followed by a very tall, very large silhouette of another man. As they moved to the center of the stage, Mark Lanegan started to take the mic, but turned around and proceeded to push a smiling Van Conner back off the stage. It must be second nature for Van to follow Mark onstage or something, but what was really impressive was that Lanegan proved that an irresistible force can move an immovable object.

QOTSA eased into a tripped-out take on "Into the Fade" that allowed Lanegan's powerful voice to carry them toward a bluesy, road-weary groove that I'd yet to hear them take. A nifty Troy/Josh guitar interplay built into "Hanging Tree." Castillo's powerful drumming threatened to take the spotlight from Mr. Lanegan, but experience leading the Trees taught him to hang tight to the mic with his right while bracing the mic stand with his left, as he furiously wrenched out the mournful lyrics. Taking a page from Emeril, QOTSA kicked it up a notch--BAM!--on the phenomenal "Song for the Dead." There are certain songs where a band achieves the perfect groove. Think of Screaming Trees playing "Julie Paradise," the Melvins playing "Amazon," Pearl Jam playing "Rearviewmirror," Soundgarden playing "Searching With My Good Eye Closed," or Phish playing any one of those meandering jams that makes you yell "DUUUUDE!!" in between tokes. That's what Queens of the Stone Age sound like when they play "Song for the Dead." Everything in that song simply explodes into an orgy of drums, guitars, and voice during a live performance. Tonight was no exception, as Josh said, "Alright audience, this song goes exactly like this," before they proceeded to break the necks of everyone in the place with the intense, oddly placed breaks, and vocals that ranged between guttural and majestic. With everyone in the band locked into a groove, with Joey's intricate rhythms thundering around the club, Nick's bass rumbling along in lock step, and Josh and Troy wringing bizarre sounds out of their guitars, Mark practically topped them all in the way he aggressively attacked the lyrics. Luckily, the mic stand withstood his furious singing, as he wrung every bit of emotion out of each verse through the sheer power of his voice before he drifted off in a haze of smoke, almost as mysteriously as he appeared.

How anyone can follow such an intense song puzzles me, but the best way may be to bring back the mellow vibe, and what better way than an understated "Better Living Through Chemistry?" Of course, it built to its own different type of groove, before QOTSA graced the crowd with the hit "Go With the Flow." After the crowd-pleasing number, the time machine was back again, and Joey once again amazed as he accentuated the classic "Avon" with his brand of heavy drumming. An eerie take on the Subhumans' "Wake Up Screaming" masked the reappearance of Lanegan who offered his somber interpretation of "Auto Pilot" along with backing vocals from Nick. "Another Love Song" saw something that I take is a work in progress--Nick and Mark trading off parts in different verses. It adds a new dimension to the song, but it didn't seem as natural as other songs during the set, but was entertaining nonetheless, and bodes well for the future. Lanegan's final number was as one of the parts on "Song for the Deaf." I'm happy to say that the mix of Josh, Nick, and Mark comes across as strong live as it does on record.

A fast, sprightly "No One Knows" finished out the main set and the crowd obligingly cheered for more. Naturally, they came back for an encore that featured an aggressive "Tension Head" followed by a charming run though of "Lost Art," before closing with everyone's favorite ode to altered states, "Feel Good Hit of the Summer." The beauty of that song is its simplicity--no matter what state of mind you're in, you can chant along with feeling.

And so ended the strange Budweiser One Night Stand show. While it was an amazing performance by a band that's at the top of their game, I couldn't help but feel a bit of sadness for those fans that missed it. No one should have to miss their favorite band, especially one as good as Queens of the Stone Age. Hopefully, QOTSA will treat the Northwest to some shows when they hit the road again, as I can't help but think that some of their biggest fans are up here. Maybe next time, they'll leave KLONE radio and bad beer behind.
Drew Hilling

Dar Williams
McCarter Theater, Princeton, New Jersey - October 4, 2003

I went to see this show hoping Dar would put herself on track for me again. I liked the show I saw with her and a band earlier this year, but it wasn't the same as seeing her solo, which is how I know her best. I've seen her solo eight times, starting in little clubs. Over a period of ten years she graduated to mid sized theaters, and McCarter is one of them. She became popular for the right reason, because she is a great singer/songwriter.

Trouble was, I felt that The Green World, her fourth album, from the year 2000, was a mistake. She trashed her wonderful old sound, folk music that really rocked, for a more commercial one. Musically it was too slick and possessed, lyrically the worst written of all her albums. I hated it. So I was relieved when her current album Beauty Of The Rain showed that she was integrating her old style with her new one. Indeed, I've come to feel it's one of the best records of the year for me.

So what would these songs from the World sound like live? They were good with a band, and when I saw her solo in 2001. The real test though, would be here, with her newest album in play.

Her opening act was Francis Dunnery, a British singer/songwriter who is best known for playing guitar for Robert Plant. He was very good live, better than I expected. I'd liked his studio songs in the past, but not enough to listen to a whole album. At the end I did wind up buying one, just to see what it sounded like.

Dar came out wearing a black shirt and jeans, which looked a lot better than the earth tone dresses she used to wear onstage. Her first song was "Fishing In The Morning," from Beauty Of The Rain, one of the best songs on the album, and it sounded much better than the studio version. All of the Rain tracks did, to my delight. Her old pre Green World songs sounded as good as ever, and the World tracks came off the worst. The low point of the show was one from that album, "Calling The Moon," which was as dreadful live as it was on the album, dumb lyrics, and sappy music.

When you go to see Dar, you go for the intros to her songs as much as the songs. They are priceless, funny, sweet and quirky. For example, she dedicated a song to Princeton University because one of her favorite therapists went there. That song was very fitting, it's "When I Was A Boy," from The Honesty Room, her first album, and the lyrics play with gender very therapeutically. It was a great intro, and pure Dar.

All in all, it was a great show, and I left very glad I'd seen her again. She was wonderful, and that made my night.
[www.darwilliams.net] [www.darwilliams.com]
Andrea Weiss