Monday, June 28, 2010
Change of plans
I decided to go a completely different direction with this whole POTMW thing. I realized that there's a lot of live music in this town but no one place to find out what shows are playing when and where. So I'm gonna do it. It'll take some time to design the page, but when it happens I'll let you know. It'll be at www.potmw.com but for now that will just redirect to this blog.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Rockin The Shack
Decided to venture out despite the humidity last night to check out a venue that's been on my list for a while. Sticky Fingerz Rock-n-Roll Chicken Shack had a nice Indie line up that would be the sort of the you might find in Portland. But of course it was in the POTMW.
Sticky Fingerz was a completely different vibe from the other places I've been so far. Half of it is restaurant/patio, and the other half is bar/restaurant/stage. The bar side still had a lot of tables so when I showed up everyone was sitting down which made for an incredibly subdued feeling for an indie rock show. The first band I caught was The Annuals. They took forever to get setup due to some technical difficulties but the drummer passed the time playing along with the overhead music which was actually entertaining to watch. I should clarify. The primary drummer. Because they have an auxiliary drummer with another full kit. And another snare and tom up front. Something tells me we're in store for some funky beats. They put on a thoroughly enjoyable set and are one Zach Braff feature short of popularity. Their music was the most danceable I've seen in a while but inexplicable noone got up from their tables. They would fist pump and yell from their seats, but not stand up. Bizarre. I stood over on the side because I can't stand sitting at a show. That's for old people.
Their music was sort of like if The Arcade Fire and Phish had a love child with Pixies-like transitions. Part of being an indie rock band is that you get to help tear down, and I noticed the Marshall was taped over on their stack which I meant to ask about but totally forgot. They did an admirable job keeping up their energy despite the low energy crowd and are clearly a better band than the reception they got here. They deserve the real Portland. I ducked out back and caught an interview with lead singer Adam:
POTMW: So you have the new EP Sweet Sister coming out. In vein with your previous work or a little departure? What were you guys thinking when you were working on that?
Adam: A little bit of both I guess. Except it's a departure in the sense that there's definitely some different themes in terms of the styles of music that influenced it in particular. Also the step backwards, some would say, into self recording and producing it. Which is a lot of how we just seem to work the best because otherwise it just takes too long. Just working it out, because two of us are already serious producers and we have a hard time somebody just coming in. Because we also do it quite differently. We write in the studio, as opposed to like jamming and like, "oh we have the song done let's record it now." You know? So a lot of producers aren't used to that sort of thing. The second record there was a lot of labels trying to get us to work with certain producers, who are great, and I love them to this day, but they just work in a different way than we do.
POTMW: You've had your own production company for a while now so that's nothing new to you to have your own style and your own way of doing things.
Adam: It's true. It's been really the only way for a while now. Not the only way like, "there's no other way," just the really feasible way. We're all we've got so to speak.
POTMW: Now you said some different influences and things like that musically. What sorts of influences do you mean?
Adam: I can't really put my finger on it because it's just a bunch of world music honestly. It's like, just straight African music, I do a lot of Rhapsody and a lot of just straight downloading live sessions from certain places it's always different musicians playing whatever. Just a whole lot of Latin and African music pushing a lot more lately.
POTMW: Well clearly your music has a strong beat component to it. I mean, you have an auxiliary drummer for Christ's sake.
Adam: Definitely. I've always thought percussion is the most basic form of expression. Ever since, I mean, it was the first instrument that ever was. [hitting the air like a drum] One. Two. Three. Four. On a rock, you know? Then you start singing to it.
POTMW: What's your favorite place you've ever played? Favorite venue? You don't have to say Little Rock.
Adam: I just like them all. I know that's so cheesy to say, but I only classify there's really good shows, there's shows, and then there's fucking shitty shows.Fucking shitty shows are not that often, you remember those the most. I guess my favorite place to play is probably The Empty Bottle in Chicago. I don't know, Chicago's always been really good to us. And The Empty Bottle I've been reading about that venue since I was a little kid because that's the home of Alkaline Trio. A couple of our friends live there so I guess there, but it's not that far off from almost every other city.
Went back inside for The Most Serene Republic who are from Ontario. They also brought more energy than the crowd gave back, but fortunately some people actually got up this time and filled in in front of the stage. Their lead singer has a stage presence that is oddly incongruous with the rest of the band. Everyone else was fairly high energy but he would just sort of sway and sometimes pick up something (mic stand, trombone, whatever) and wave it around while staring on it. I hope for his sake that there are drugs involved. They've been on tour with The Annuals but didn't know them prior to this, they just happened to have the same booking agent who thought, correctly, that their styles were complementary.
As for Sticky Fingerz? For this much quality music for a five buck cover and pints of Sam Adams Summer Ale for two bucks each? Total outlay for the night 13 bucks plus tip? Good thing I can (and did) ride my bike here!
Sticky Fingerz was a completely different vibe from the other places I've been so far. Half of it is restaurant/patio, and the other half is bar/restaurant/stage. The bar side still had a lot of tables so when I showed up everyone was sitting down which made for an incredibly subdued feeling for an indie rock show. The first band I caught was The Annuals. They took forever to get setup due to some technical difficulties but the drummer passed the time playing along with the overhead music which was actually entertaining to watch. I should clarify. The primary drummer. Because they have an auxiliary drummer with another full kit. And another snare and tom up front. Something tells me we're in store for some funky beats. They put on a thoroughly enjoyable set and are one Zach Braff feature short of popularity. Their music was the most danceable I've seen in a while but inexplicable noone got up from their tables. They would fist pump and yell from their seats, but not stand up. Bizarre. I stood over on the side because I can't stand sitting at a show. That's for old people.
Their music was sort of like if The Arcade Fire and Phish had a love child with Pixies-like transitions. Part of being an indie rock band is that you get to help tear down, and I noticed the Marshall was taped over on their stack which I meant to ask about but totally forgot. They did an admirable job keeping up their energy despite the low energy crowd and are clearly a better band than the reception they got here. They deserve the real Portland. I ducked out back and caught an interview with lead singer Adam:
POTMW: So you have the new EP Sweet Sister coming out. In vein with your previous work or a little departure? What were you guys thinking when you were working on that?
Adam: A little bit of both I guess. Except it's a departure in the sense that there's definitely some different themes in terms of the styles of music that influenced it in particular. Also the step backwards, some would say, into self recording and producing it. Which is a lot of how we just seem to work the best because otherwise it just takes too long. Just working it out, because two of us are already serious producers and we have a hard time somebody just coming in. Because we also do it quite differently. We write in the studio, as opposed to like jamming and like, "oh we have the song done let's record it now." You know? So a lot of producers aren't used to that sort of thing. The second record there was a lot of labels trying to get us to work with certain producers, who are great, and I love them to this day, but they just work in a different way than we do.
POTMW: You've had your own production company for a while now so that's nothing new to you to have your own style and your own way of doing things.
Adam: It's true. It's been really the only way for a while now. Not the only way like, "there's no other way," just the really feasible way. We're all we've got so to speak.
POTMW: Now you said some different influences and things like that musically. What sorts of influences do you mean?
Adam: I can't really put my finger on it because it's just a bunch of world music honestly. It's like, just straight African music, I do a lot of Rhapsody and a lot of just straight downloading live sessions from certain places it's always different musicians playing whatever. Just a whole lot of Latin and African music pushing a lot more lately.
POTMW: Well clearly your music has a strong beat component to it. I mean, you have an auxiliary drummer for Christ's sake.
Adam: Definitely. I've always thought percussion is the most basic form of expression. Ever since, I mean, it was the first instrument that ever was. [hitting the air like a drum] One. Two. Three. Four. On a rock, you know? Then you start singing to it.
POTMW: What's your favorite place you've ever played? Favorite venue? You don't have to say Little Rock.
Adam: I just like them all. I know that's so cheesy to say, but I only classify there's really good shows, there's shows, and then there's fucking shitty shows.Fucking shitty shows are not that often, you remember those the most. I guess my favorite place to play is probably The Empty Bottle in Chicago. I don't know, Chicago's always been really good to us. And The Empty Bottle I've been reading about that venue since I was a little kid because that's the home of Alkaline Trio. A couple of our friends live there so I guess there, but it's not that far off from almost every other city.
Went back inside for The Most Serene Republic who are from Ontario. They also brought more energy than the crowd gave back, but fortunately some people actually got up this time and filled in in front of the stage. Their lead singer has a stage presence that is oddly incongruous with the rest of the band. Everyone else was fairly high energy but he would just sort of sway and sometimes pick up something (mic stand, trombone, whatever) and wave it around while staring on it. I hope for his sake that there are drugs involved. They've been on tour with The Annuals but didn't know them prior to this, they just happened to have the same booking agent who thought, correctly, that their styles were complementary.
As for Sticky Fingerz? For this much quality music for a five buck cover and pints of Sam Adams Summer Ale for two bucks each? Total outlay for the night 13 bucks plus tip? Good thing I can (and did) ride my bike here!
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Rockin' the Rock
There are a surprising number of places to go see music here in Little Rock. Well, not that surprising since it's the Portland of the Midwest, but still more than I expected. Not always the biggest names, but a good, diverse mix. I went to The Revolution Room on back-to-back nights to check out the scene.
The first night was Cage the Elephant. I had heard a couple of their songs on the radio and was digging them, so I got a ticket and pedaled the beach cruiser on down. The venue is actually a really decent setup. About the size of the main floor of the Fillmore in SF (where it pains me not to be tomorrow night seeing Frightened Rabbit), but on three tiers so more people can see the stage. A bar at the back had surprisingly cheap beer for a concert ($3.50 for Diamond Bear Pale Ale). The place is decorated with a lot of red, a bunch of Buddha paintings, and hanging red lanterns. It works. Even for a sold out show there was still room to move around a bit toward the back which was nice.
Cage put on a high energy show, and the lead singer worked the crowd well. His dancing style, however, was more reminiscent of an epileptic seizure to the point where I seriously found myself reviewing emergency medicine algorithms in my head. Impressively, he stage dove with a corded microphone twice and didn't miss a beat. His exit involved ditching the mic, stage diving and having the crowd pass him up to the second tier, then the third, and then he ran out the back. Nicely done indeed. They played a fairly short set (about an hour), but as soon as they were done "California Love" came on the speakers. Always puts a smile on my face.
The next night couldn't have been more different. A far from sold out show and a band that peaked in the early/mid 90's, Cracker, brought a very different crowd. At Cage I was at the older end of a crowd of mostly 20somethings. At Cracker I was at the young end of a crowd of mostly 40 year olds. This was a crowd that would nod along with guitar solos, lots of guys hiding air guitar (some hiding it more than others), and a lot of really bad dancing. Really bad dancing. I saw them 8 years ago in Pittsburgh and actually knew most of the songs then, but apparently they keep writing new ones since I only knew about a third of them. They still put on a good show, but the other crowd was much more energetic.
I'll have to check out more venues in town and more shows for sure ... like the upcoming Ludacris, Earth Wind & Fire, Bel Biv Devoe, Steve Miller Band extravaganza known as Riverfest.
The first night was Cage the Elephant. I had heard a couple of their songs on the radio and was digging them, so I got a ticket and pedaled the beach cruiser on down. The venue is actually a really decent setup. About the size of the main floor of the Fillmore in SF (where it pains me not to be tomorrow night seeing Frightened Rabbit), but on three tiers so more people can see the stage. A bar at the back had surprisingly cheap beer for a concert ($3.50 for Diamond Bear Pale Ale). The place is decorated with a lot of red, a bunch of Buddha paintings, and hanging red lanterns. It works. Even for a sold out show there was still room to move around a bit toward the back which was nice.
Cage put on a high energy show, and the lead singer worked the crowd well. His dancing style, however, was more reminiscent of an epileptic seizure to the point where I seriously found myself reviewing emergency medicine algorithms in my head. Impressively, he stage dove with a corded microphone twice and didn't miss a beat. His exit involved ditching the mic, stage diving and having the crowd pass him up to the second tier, then the third, and then he ran out the back. Nicely done indeed. They played a fairly short set (about an hour), but as soon as they were done "California Love" came on the speakers. Always puts a smile on my face.
The next night couldn't have been more different. A far from sold out show and a band that peaked in the early/mid 90's, Cracker, brought a very different crowd. At Cage I was at the older end of a crowd of mostly 20somethings. At Cracker I was at the young end of a crowd of mostly 40 year olds. This was a crowd that would nod along with guitar solos, lots of guys hiding air guitar (some hiding it more than others), and a lot of really bad dancing. Really bad dancing. I saw them 8 years ago in Pittsburgh and actually knew most of the songs then, but apparently they keep writing new ones since I only knew about a third of them. They still put on a good show, but the other crowd was much more energetic.
I'll have to check out more venues in town and more shows for sure ... like the upcoming Ludacris, Earth Wind & Fire, Bel Biv Devoe, Steve Miller Band extravaganza known as Riverfest.
Monday, May 10, 2010
I Only Smoke When I Drink
Which I can do indoors in Arkansas. Growing up in California there were very few years in which I remember answering the "smoking or non-smoking section" question, and in Boston the law changed about six months after I arrived, so most of my life I have not even thought about people smoking indoors. Notable exceptions include Mexico and Europe when I was younger, but apparently even they're now on board with the "smoke outside" laws, not to mention that those places bear so little resemblance to Little Rock that it's not even worth discussing. Suffice it to say, I had planned on discussing more extensively the beers from my most recent bar trip but I found myself making the same note over and over: "Can't tell because of the smoke."
I hit up the Fox and Hound which is a chain bar that imagines itself to be an English Pub. Let's be clear, it's not. It's a sports bar that happens to have some UK beers and is willing to put on a soccer game. That said, it's a damn fine sports bar since it has 9 pool tables, about 20 big screens, 21 taps (mostly standard bar fare), probably a hundred tables to sit at and a helpful bartender willing to throw on whichever game/match you're interested in. Or at least that's the case at 1:45 in the afternoon. Who knows about later.
Their menu is your typical American menu, and the Fish and Chips weren't half bad, though the burger was possibly from the McDonald's nearby. They did have a couple of tasty brews, though, most notably the hometown favorite:
Diamond Bear Pale Ale (Diamond Bear Brewery, Arkansas): deep golden color, possibly a light floral and hop nose (Can't tell because of the smoke). Moderate bitterness for a pale ale, not much hop taste. Probably a 7 out of 10 (but can't tell because of the smoke).
What shocked me was that they have cigars for sale! Cigars for sale at the bar? And decent ones? Macanudo, Gurkha, Cohiba ... not shabby, Little Rock sports bar, not shabby at all. Way to help the "Portland of the Midwest" case.
I hit up the Fox and Hound which is a chain bar that imagines itself to be an English Pub. Let's be clear, it's not. It's a sports bar that happens to have some UK beers and is willing to put on a soccer game. That said, it's a damn fine sports bar since it has 9 pool tables, about 20 big screens, 21 taps (mostly standard bar fare), probably a hundred tables to sit at and a helpful bartender willing to throw on whichever game/match you're interested in. Or at least that's the case at 1:45 in the afternoon. Who knows about later.
Their menu is your typical American menu, and the Fish and Chips weren't half bad, though the burger was possibly from the McDonald's nearby. They did have a couple of tasty brews, though, most notably the hometown favorite:
Diamond Bear Pale Ale (Diamond Bear Brewery, Arkansas): deep golden color, possibly a light floral and hop nose (Can't tell because of the smoke). Moderate bitterness for a pale ale, not much hop taste. Probably a 7 out of 10 (but can't tell because of the smoke).
What shocked me was that they have cigars for sale! Cigars for sale at the bar? And decent ones? Macanudo, Gurkha, Cohiba ... not shabby, Little Rock sports bar, not shabby at all. Way to help the "Portland of the Midwest" case.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Jack Black Did Not Appear
When Little Rock had its finals for the Battle of the Bands, I couldn't help but picture School of Rock. Turns out I ventured out to Vino's Brewpub to find a distinct lack of whimsically talented elementary school kids. Instead it was a fascinating melange of good beer and human drama, and a great start to seeing if Little Rock is the Portland Of The Midwest. By the time I realized that Vino's was hosting and found out where it was, I missed the first couple of bands. Oh well. On to the evening:
I showed up around 9:30 and they have a menu that is pretty much pizza and calzones and about a dozen beers on tap (6 of which were brewed in house). The combination pizza had a tasteless crust and green olives. Seriously? Green olives? Maybe the rest of the menu is better, but the initial impression was underwhelming. The beer, on the other hand, was a step in the right direction.
1) Pinnacle IPA (Vino's Brewpub) - Light brown color, but more of a California pale ale than a true IPA. I might be a little biased toward overly hopped IPA's though being a West Coast native. I'd give it a 7/10, but not much more.
2) Razor Bock (Vino's Brewpub) - Smooth, brown, rich and delicious. I'd drink this again gladly and it's probably around an 8 out of 10 beer. I'd come back just for another pint.
It's a good thing the beer was good, because the first band was painful. "Buddha Stomp" was apparently the local favorite which may have been because they had brought their families. The crowd (at least where I was sitting) was a mix, but heavily featured middle aged people in khakis and earplugs standing next to 8 or 9 year-olds holding their ears and mouthing "can we go home now." Oh, and two guys who each weighed, without exaggeration, about 400 pounds apiece (more on them later). This band was at best mediocre, deafening, and did a metal cover of "Pants On The Ground." Who does a cover at Battle of the Bands? Weak.
"Sound of the Mountain" was from out of town and their fans don't travel. Which was a shame because they were actually musically interesting. Unfortunately they are all instrumental progressive rock and songs without lyrics will only get you so far with a crowd related to the band you just followed.
I was willing to wait for the last band since the beer was tasty, but while the stage was getting set up, I saw the first of the aforementioned large men swaying back and forth with one hand on the other guy's shoulder to stay standing. You know that point of drunk when occasionally the room moves unexpectedly so you step back really quick to keep from falling? Fatty #1 made that move, followed by a lot of spitting. Indoors. Yeah, you know what happens when you're so drunk that you can't even swallow your own spit. Indoors. Well, his brother left the room so he sat down which started a two minute countdown to ... you guessed it ... throwing up. Indoors.
The bouncer was alerted, who weighed maybe 180 pounds, and in a feat reminiscent of a mother lifting a car off of her child, hoisted this 400 pound dead weight of drunk behemoth to his feet and dragged him outside. Impressive. But not enough to keep me around for the third band, so I have no idea who won. And I'm OK with that.
I showed up around 9:30 and they have a menu that is pretty much pizza and calzones and about a dozen beers on tap (6 of which were brewed in house). The combination pizza had a tasteless crust and green olives. Seriously? Green olives? Maybe the rest of the menu is better, but the initial impression was underwhelming. The beer, on the other hand, was a step in the right direction.
1) Pinnacle IPA (Vino's Brewpub) - Light brown color, but more of a California pale ale than a true IPA. I might be a little biased toward overly hopped IPA's though being a West Coast native. I'd give it a 7/10, but not much more.
2) Razor Bock (Vino's Brewpub) - Smooth, brown, rich and delicious. I'd drink this again gladly and it's probably around an 8 out of 10 beer. I'd come back just for another pint.
It's a good thing the beer was good, because the first band was painful. "Buddha Stomp" was apparently the local favorite which may have been because they had brought their families. The crowd (at least where I was sitting) was a mix, but heavily featured middle aged people in khakis and earplugs standing next to 8 or 9 year-olds holding their ears and mouthing "can we go home now." Oh, and two guys who each weighed, without exaggeration, about 400 pounds apiece (more on them later). This band was at best mediocre, deafening, and did a metal cover of "Pants On The Ground." Who does a cover at Battle of the Bands? Weak.
"Sound of the Mountain" was from out of town and their fans don't travel. Which was a shame because they were actually musically interesting. Unfortunately they are all instrumental progressive rock and songs without lyrics will only get you so far with a crowd related to the band you just followed.
I was willing to wait for the last band since the beer was tasty, but while the stage was getting set up, I saw the first of the aforementioned large men swaying back and forth with one hand on the other guy's shoulder to stay standing. You know that point of drunk when occasionally the room moves unexpectedly so you step back really quick to keep from falling? Fatty #1 made that move, followed by a lot of spitting. Indoors. Yeah, you know what happens when you're so drunk that you can't even swallow your own spit. Indoors. Well, his brother left the room so he sat down which started a two minute countdown to ... you guessed it ... throwing up. Indoors.
The bouncer was alerted, who weighed maybe 180 pounds, and in a feat reminiscent of a mother lifting a car off of her child, hoisted this 400 pound dead weight of drunk behemoth to his feet and dragged him outside. Impressive. But not enough to keep me around for the third band, so I have no idea who won. And I'm OK with that.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
To Be Clear
While I clearly refer to Little Rock as "The Portland of the Midwest," I know it is not technically in the Midwest. But "The Portland of the South" is already taken by Austin, and it sounds a lot better than "The Portland of the West South Central States." And when you consider that it's a mere 150 miles from the "official" Midwest, I'm going with it. The rest of this blog will be a hodgepodge of restaurant, bar, music reviews from the Little Rock area, perhaps interspersed with the occasional random anecdote from my time here. We'll see. But let's not nitpick over the "Midwest" moniker, shall we? Thanks.
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