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| Jessica Knurr with the Swatters |
For the past couple of weeks, I've musically been relying on old standbys -- either bands I know will be good, or at least comprised of people I can count on to be great. The latest incarnation of Fly and the Swatters is a pretty good example of this. As long as I've known Paul "Fly" Lawson (in this particular evening, resplendent as Paulette), there's always been a Swatters lineup somewhere, but for the past dozen or so years it's been on the back burner because he's been in other bands. In fact, the first time I ever saw him play was a Swatters show at the old Gordon Park Pub (later the Stork Club and now it's a restaurant called Nessun Dorma) back in the early 90s. Up until this version, he's been both lead guitarist and frontman/lead singer, but last week was the Swatters debut of Jessica Knurr on vocals. First time I ever saw her was singing was with a band called Skirt, and later on she fronted an outfit called Dyna Flo and Her Roadmasters. In both cases she captured the audience with her country/rockabilly croon and sparkling stage presence, so when I heard she'd be singer for the Swatters I shook my head in agreement as she would be the perfect person to fill that slot. Not that Fly was a bad frontperson, but with that off his plate, he was able to concentrate on filling up on tasty rockabilly licks while Jessica entertained us all with her confidently flirty takes on classics, changing up the lyrics to suit herself. It's the first time she's been on stage for awhile, and afterwards she confessed to us that she might have made a few errors ("I got the first verse on 'Funnel of Love' wrong") but being the pro she is, nobody noticed or cared.
She cared, though. "What if there was a Wanda (Jackson, original singer of that song) person in the audience -- they would have known!" Well, I doubt they would have cared either. This was
Jessica's version, and
her night, and she pulled it off wonderfully. If there were any other errors I sure didn't notice them.
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| Bitch Pudding |
Starting off that night was a set from Bitch Pudding, comprised of two thirds (Vicki and Molly) of sixthstation favorites The Six Wives of Richard. Geez, how many bands are they in? This one, while they did have a few covers, seems to be their "originals" band, and like their other outfits, has those glam-rock underpinnings that I love so well.
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| Voot |
Molly's songs are a little skewed toward Americana (they called it "grunge-a-billy"), but they both have that lovely snark and swagger that we love about the SWOR and Silk Torpedo -- so much so that it took some time to come down from it as
Vicki and Molly did headstands during the Swatters' set.
To make it a full Riverwestian evening, I headed over to the Uptowner to catch Voot Warnings put out a fine two sets of tunes. His current lineup (Vic Demechei on drums and Jacob Muchin on bass) is locked in tight, and is serving both Voot's darker recent songs and his old trashy standards. Frank Chandek, in town for a visit, joined Voot for a few duets, and the Uptowner once again felt with Riverwest's Living Room as old and new friends and neighborhood stalwarts wafted in and out.
A week later, Frank Chandek and Fly were back, this time for a quick Dr Chow (whoops, I mean "Code Purple") set to satisfy the fans before a full Frank Zappa set (this Saturday at Club Garibaldi, featuring Zappa guitarist and vocalist Ike Willis; a not-to-miss show for Zappa enthusiasts). They played the hits: Mary Ann is Insane, Godzilla, Somebody Else.... and pretty much everybody knew them all and sang along. Perhaps in predicting the events of the next day, the band introductions were all Green Bay Packer legends from days past. The band didn't even get started until 10ish -- out of character for the Circle A (which normally wraps up live music by then), but the evening was double booked, and both bookings were sure to bring in the fans.
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| 1913 |
The earlier booking was a act I've been meaning/wanting to get out and see anyway -- 1913, comprised of Victor DeLorenzo on drums and Janet Schiff on cello. The best way to describe them would be atmospheric. While their name (and appearance) suggests the stratosphere of some parlor/salon in that time period, Schiff employs modern technology to lay down bed tracks of cello rhythms, and then plays fetching melodies over them. Those melodies are seasoned with DeLorenzo's imaginative percussion, who squeezes out more sounds than his small kit would seem to be capable of. Their compositions seemed less like songs and more like establishments of moods: which was both a strength and a weakness. Some pieces established a mood and didn't seem to go anywhere with it (in and of itself an ambient statement) while their best moments established a mood and right when you were hypnotized by it, they'd make a left turn and drive down an entirely different path. Or, right when you thought a piece was over (and just revving up an ending), they'd let you know this wasn't the end, only a transition to a new movement. Guest stars, including the always reliable Sigmund Snopek, fit wonderfully into all this. (How Snopek managed to get his alpenhorn into the tiny club without damaging it --or anybody who happened to be in the way-- is nothing short of amazing.) It was a ethereal way to tie a neighborhood together and get a crowd who could appreciate both this and the raucus blues of Dr Chow (whoops, again, that's CODE PURPLE, folks!) ready for the logical conclusion that Zappafest will be this Saturday.
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