Folking The System
Brad Barr/Hammel On Trial/Dan Bern//Irving Plaza//9/16/06
I don’t remember the exact quote from the Atom & His Package documentary, but Atom was explaining his reasons for starting the solo band—he felt it would be easier to just do the solo thing because he was the one doing all the work in his “regular” band, so why not go solo (as Atom & His Package) and it’ll be the same thing, since he felt like a solo artist anyway.
That’s not the right line, but it makes sense—you’d think operating as a solo artist would be easier than operating within the context/confines (wow, confines—I just noticed I wrote that) of a band, but in a way it’s just as hard. Or probably harder. You have to be an entertainer as well as a performer. Or a performer as well as an entertainer. Whichever it is, I don’t know. It seems that you would have to work twice as hard.
I’ll admit it, I’m not into Bob Dylan at all. Yeah, and I dare to call myself a rock/music fan, but I guess it’s an age thing, because my friends who are in their 50s worship at the altar of Dylan and folk music and the Fillmore East and shit like that. Loudon Wainwright is another, and sometimes when I hear his songs, I’m thinking, You know, you really are a jerk. Then again, at least you can admit it. But he does have some beautiful songs that, to me, exemplify the genre, and what he’s all about. But we can all agree on Dan Bern. Funny.
I first saw Dan when he opened for Ani DiFranco, and I’m not sure exactly what you call his genre—singer/songwriter, anti-folk, folk, or what. I tend to think of anti-folk as Sidewalk Café, amateur nite, open-mic stuff. Moldy Peaches was classified as anti-folk. Part stand-up comedy, part confessional, part therapy.
Anyhoo, it’s strange about Dan. His lyrics blew me away that first time I heard him. Stand-up comedy, confessional, therapy. A guy and his guitar, with songs about how Marilyn Monroe should’ve married Henry Miller and not Arthur Miller and maybe she still would’ve died, but her life would’ve been better. How he’s got big balls, but sometimes he wishes they were as big as the swing of Tiger Woods. That there’s no missing link, aliens came and fucked the monkey. Given lyrics like that, he’s the last guy you’d expect to write a totally poignant song about the Oklahoma City bombing, completely rhyming, and it still gives me the chills. And he told us years ago that true revolutionaries never bomb buildings because it attracts too much attention. Or After The Parade, about a crippled vet at a parade and everyone’s giving him honors, but he wonders who’s going to push his chair after the parade. It came out on the EP he had out when he was at the HOWL festival, with Bush Must Be Defeated, and while that song was obvious and said it all, what was so lasting about After The Parade was not specifically an anti-Iraq War song. It could’ve been Vietnam, it could’ve been Gulf War I. Dan can weave God and Kurt Cobain into lyrics that reduce God to regular-schmo status and Kurt Cobain godlike.
I don’t know what went wrong, or when exactly it did, but something changed over the course of the years since I saw him open for Ani nearly 10 years ago. He became huge, sure, but his live shows were incredibly unpredictable. Maybe part of the charm, the thrill of the live show, but I’m the one paying for the tickets and have been for all that time. Double shows at the Bottom Line and Maxwell’s. A residency at the Fez, and that has a minimum purchase, as does Joe’s Pub. And then there’s the band. I’ve seen him solo—that’s how I started seeing him and I’ve seen him with just his guitar at the Bowery Ballroom and the Bottom Line. But he had a full band, the International Jewish Banking Conspiracy, and maybe that’s where things went wrong. He put out an album in 2001 and there was a big presale and it took months maybe even a year for it to come out and I think that’s how he financed the album. And there wasn’t a Tiger Woods on the Album, or Jerusalem. The Fifth Beatle. And he has a gazillion songs. His website, or maybe a fansite, at one point had a search engine and you could put in a phrase and the lyrics would come up and you’d know what he was talking about, since he’s so off-the-cuff sometimes. And sometimes you’d only hear a song once. Bootlegs abound.
Last time I saw him at the Bottom Line, he did not do one old song. Or maybe just one. Which is fine, I don’t want to hear the same shit show in and show out, but like I said, there’s no Tiger Woods, no Jerusalem, no Estelle. It was off the latest album of that time, Fleeting Days also with the band, and the songs were not up to par. And that was the album he was waiting to make and he knew he had it in him, talking like it was some great album? If they were of the same caliber of his earlier work, fine. And he could barely remember the lyrics to the new songs. Once there was a double bill at Maxwell’s and it was a weeknight and probably like $16 or $18, so we all thought, Well, by the later show he’ll be cooking w/grease so let’s not go to both, just the late show. Not so. He even commented on that, that if you came to the late show because you’d figure he’d be better, that’s not the case. Yeah, we should’ve figured that, considering which band we all met through, that by the late set the musician/band would be more tired/stressed/stoned/drunk/sloppy.
So the last few times he played locally, I skipped it. Once with Ani at Carnegie Hall, and while it was the only local appearance and I haven’t seen Ani in ages, it was like $35. He played a boat gig, and I wasn’t about to spend $35 to be stuck on a boat with him if he was going to be goofing off. It’s not that I’ve turned my back on Dan, not at all. I just knew that he’d come around again, and it would be less $, and I’d go to that one.
Another thing that was always weird about Dan Bern was that his opening acts sucked. I had to wonder if he was afraid that someone would upstage him. Most notable sucky opening act was a band led by some schmo in a blazer who seemed to be drunk out of his mind, hanging all over the mic stand, being all dramatic, and I was like, Stand the fuck up and sing like a normal person. The music was fine, I just couldn’t stand the singer. And it was a double bill @ Maxwell’s and I had a ticket to both shows and I had to be subjected to that crap twice in one night. So imagine my surprise when The National sold out the Merc and the Bowery Ballroom and shit. They tagged along on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah gigs, so I think they’re not-quite-bigtime or it was ride the thunder while it’s striking for them, because sooner or later (most likely sooner) their brand of mope rock ain’t going to be the flavor. Dope-with-guitar-and-glasses Mike Errico, who had a song/story about being at an Ani show, or playing an Ani show or something, which I just assumed the point of which was: A guy who likes Ani! How sensitive! My new fave singer/songwriter! I wanna fuck him! Morley, who proved my theory true that the less talented a woman is, the more naked she is onstage. But she was much better for the second set, so I guess the pot kicked in. This ghastly woman at Fez who was like a wannabe Lisa Loeb, I forgot her name, but she was godawful. Why couldn’t he ever have gotten Mary Prankster to open for him? That would’ve been a match made in heaven. They’re so alike, except she’s a girl.
When Brad Barr came onstage and sat down with his guitar and a tambourine duct-taped to his foot, I was like, whatever. That’s cute, but big deal. The song was pretty good, but nothing that special. He had a few gourds on him that he got at Union Square and after he gave me one, he announced that while it means that summer is over, he was drawn to their grotesque beauty, and he gave the rest out to the people up front. The first time I got a gourd at a show. And then things got weird from there. He had some instro songs and played weird shit he had on the floor, such as I think it was a tape recorder or something and he held it to his guitar, and this weird doll that he plugged in and it had a teeny light bulb for an eye. I’m not explaining it right, but it was pretty cool. He’s also in The Slip, and if The Slip is like that as well, I’d go see them.
I know Hammel On Trial just played a bunch of gigs at the Knit and I’ve heard the name around. So I was in luck for my curiosity would end—and holy crap, it did. Hammel is a guy and his guitar, and he is out of control. Maybe it was all the Red Bull, which he said is like crack. His stage banter is off-the-cuff, whatever shit pops into his mind comes out his mouth (something about having some guy blow him and he felt like a rockstar but the next day, he was like, That was the guy? He said when he opened for Ani in Tennessee {he’s on her Righteous Babe label} he said it was Toby Keith and the joke went over quite well), and I felt my mind exploding/expanding from seeing this guy. A song about his 1930s guitar and his most notable one, about Ann Coulter’s . . . uh . . . about her stinky snatch. (“There’s no douche that’ll fail ya/Unless you’re up against Ann’s genitalia.”) I was cracking the hell up and it was like, I can’t believe this guy is for real but he is and I can’t believe he’s saying this and getting away with it. It was like when I saw Dan Bern for the first time. The weird thing was that there was a batch of people behind me who did not laugh, didn’t even crack a smile. How could you not? If you didn’t have an expression of sheer delight and joy on your face from seeing this guy, there’s something wrong with you. Assassinations—why don’t they happen anymore? Assassins always have 3 names. Let’s give David Lee Roth and Ronnie James Dio an Uzi and we’ll see what happens. He also had some words of advice for fellow singer-songwriters: Just because there’s smoke doesn’t mean it’s good, just because there’s silence doesn’t mean it’s profound, and if they’re not singing about mounting Bush’s head on a stake, they’re ball-less.
Dan had a different band this time around, and I don’t know if he was calling them the IJBC or not. A smaller band, and he did a better mix of his work. The few new songs he did were off his new album, and while they weren’t special, they weren’t bad. Maybe Dan’s trying to grow up, doesn’t want to be known as the guy who claimed to be the messiah or who sings about his balls. Or since I’m just not really that into Dylan, I don’t get it. But as I was looking around, I noticed something weird. The crowd. All normal, stereotypical, average-looking . . . I wouldn’t say prepsters or college kids, but . . . well, boring people. Just stood there. As I was looking around, I thought about the Mischief Brew show and the crowd there and I thought about Defiance, Ohio and the crowd at that show, and as I looked around at the crowd at Dan’s show and I thought, This is what’s wrong with the Democratic Party. This is why John Kerry sucked. I don’t know. It was this weird vibe of, Well, I voted for Kerry and sure, Bush must be defeated, props to Dan for saying/singing that, and, yes, I recycle newspapers and soda cans, but, sigh, I did all I could. We’ll get ‘em next time. I don’t know. The crowd just bothered me. I was like, How did Dan’s crowd become this? Or maybe I just happened to be standing in the whack section.
I don’t remember the exact quote from the Atom & His Package documentary, but Atom was explaining his reasons for starting the solo band—he felt it would be easier to just do the solo thing because he was the one doing all the work in his “regular” band, so why not go solo (as Atom & His Package) and it’ll be the same thing, since he felt like a solo artist anyway.
That’s not the right line, but it makes sense—you’d think operating as a solo artist would be easier than operating within the context/confines (wow, confines—I just noticed I wrote that) of a band, but in a way it’s just as hard. Or probably harder. You have to be an entertainer as well as a performer. Or a performer as well as an entertainer. Whichever it is, I don’t know. It seems that you would have to work twice as hard.
I’ll admit it, I’m not into Bob Dylan at all. Yeah, and I dare to call myself a rock/music fan, but I guess it’s an age thing, because my friends who are in their 50s worship at the altar of Dylan and folk music and the Fillmore East and shit like that. Loudon Wainwright is another, and sometimes when I hear his songs, I’m thinking, You know, you really are a jerk. Then again, at least you can admit it. But he does have some beautiful songs that, to me, exemplify the genre, and what he’s all about. But we can all agree on Dan Bern. Funny.
I first saw Dan when he opened for Ani DiFranco, and I’m not sure exactly what you call his genre—singer/songwriter, anti-folk, folk, or what. I tend to think of anti-folk as Sidewalk Café, amateur nite, open-mic stuff. Moldy Peaches was classified as anti-folk. Part stand-up comedy, part confessional, part therapy.
Anyhoo, it’s strange about Dan. His lyrics blew me away that first time I heard him. Stand-up comedy, confessional, therapy. A guy and his guitar, with songs about how Marilyn Monroe should’ve married Henry Miller and not Arthur Miller and maybe she still would’ve died, but her life would’ve been better. How he’s got big balls, but sometimes he wishes they were as big as the swing of Tiger Woods. That there’s no missing link, aliens came and fucked the monkey. Given lyrics like that, he’s the last guy you’d expect to write a totally poignant song about the Oklahoma City bombing, completely rhyming, and it still gives me the chills. And he told us years ago that true revolutionaries never bomb buildings because it attracts too much attention. Or After The Parade, about a crippled vet at a parade and everyone’s giving him honors, but he wonders who’s going to push his chair after the parade. It came out on the EP he had out when he was at the HOWL festival, with Bush Must Be Defeated, and while that song was obvious and said it all, what was so lasting about After The Parade was not specifically an anti-Iraq War song. It could’ve been Vietnam, it could’ve been Gulf War I. Dan can weave God and Kurt Cobain into lyrics that reduce God to regular-schmo status and Kurt Cobain godlike.
I don’t know what went wrong, or when exactly it did, but something changed over the course of the years since I saw him open for Ani nearly 10 years ago. He became huge, sure, but his live shows were incredibly unpredictable. Maybe part of the charm, the thrill of the live show, but I’m the one paying for the tickets and have been for all that time. Double shows at the Bottom Line and Maxwell’s. A residency at the Fez, and that has a minimum purchase, as does Joe’s Pub. And then there’s the band. I’ve seen him solo—that’s how I started seeing him and I’ve seen him with just his guitar at the Bowery Ballroom and the Bottom Line. But he had a full band, the International Jewish Banking Conspiracy, and maybe that’s where things went wrong. He put out an album in 2001 and there was a big presale and it took months maybe even a year for it to come out and I think that’s how he financed the album. And there wasn’t a Tiger Woods on the Album, or Jerusalem. The Fifth Beatle. And he has a gazillion songs. His website, or maybe a fansite, at one point had a search engine and you could put in a phrase and the lyrics would come up and you’d know what he was talking about, since he’s so off-the-cuff sometimes. And sometimes you’d only hear a song once. Bootlegs abound.
Last time I saw him at the Bottom Line, he did not do one old song. Or maybe just one. Which is fine, I don’t want to hear the same shit show in and show out, but like I said, there’s no Tiger Woods, no Jerusalem, no Estelle. It was off the latest album of that time, Fleeting Days also with the band, and the songs were not up to par. And that was the album he was waiting to make and he knew he had it in him, talking like it was some great album? If they were of the same caliber of his earlier work, fine. And he could barely remember the lyrics to the new songs. Once there was a double bill at Maxwell’s and it was a weeknight and probably like $16 or $18, so we all thought, Well, by the later show he’ll be cooking w/grease so let’s not go to both, just the late show. Not so. He even commented on that, that if you came to the late show because you’d figure he’d be better, that’s not the case. Yeah, we should’ve figured that, considering which band we all met through, that by the late set the musician/band would be more tired/stressed/stoned/drunk/sloppy.
So the last few times he played locally, I skipped it. Once with Ani at Carnegie Hall, and while it was the only local appearance and I haven’t seen Ani in ages, it was like $35. He played a boat gig, and I wasn’t about to spend $35 to be stuck on a boat with him if he was going to be goofing off. It’s not that I’ve turned my back on Dan, not at all. I just knew that he’d come around again, and it would be less $, and I’d go to that one.
Another thing that was always weird about Dan Bern was that his opening acts sucked. I had to wonder if he was afraid that someone would upstage him. Most notable sucky opening act was a band led by some schmo in a blazer who seemed to be drunk out of his mind, hanging all over the mic stand, being all dramatic, and I was like, Stand the fuck up and sing like a normal person. The music was fine, I just couldn’t stand the singer. And it was a double bill @ Maxwell’s and I had a ticket to both shows and I had to be subjected to that crap twice in one night. So imagine my surprise when The National sold out the Merc and the Bowery Ballroom and shit. They tagged along on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah gigs, so I think they’re not-quite-bigtime or it was ride the thunder while it’s striking for them, because sooner or later (most likely sooner) their brand of mope rock ain’t going to be the flavor. Dope-with-guitar-and-glasses Mike Errico, who had a song/story about being at an Ani show, or playing an Ani show or something, which I just assumed the point of which was: A guy who likes Ani! How sensitive! My new fave singer/songwriter! I wanna fuck him! Morley, who proved my theory true that the less talented a woman is, the more naked she is onstage. But she was much better for the second set, so I guess the pot kicked in. This ghastly woman at Fez who was like a wannabe Lisa Loeb, I forgot her name, but she was godawful. Why couldn’t he ever have gotten Mary Prankster to open for him? That would’ve been a match made in heaven. They’re so alike, except she’s a girl.
When Brad Barr came onstage and sat down with his guitar and a tambourine duct-taped to his foot, I was like, whatever. That’s cute, but big deal. The song was pretty good, but nothing that special. He had a few gourds on him that he got at Union Square and after he gave me one, he announced that while it means that summer is over, he was drawn to their grotesque beauty, and he gave the rest out to the people up front. The first time I got a gourd at a show. And then things got weird from there. He had some instro songs and played weird shit he had on the floor, such as I think it was a tape recorder or something and he held it to his guitar, and this weird doll that he plugged in and it had a teeny light bulb for an eye. I’m not explaining it right, but it was pretty cool. He’s also in The Slip, and if The Slip is like that as well, I’d go see them.
I know Hammel On Trial just played a bunch of gigs at the Knit and I’ve heard the name around. So I was in luck for my curiosity would end—and holy crap, it did. Hammel is a guy and his guitar, and he is out of control. Maybe it was all the Red Bull, which he said is like crack. His stage banter is off-the-cuff, whatever shit pops into his mind comes out his mouth (something about having some guy blow him and he felt like a rockstar but the next day, he was like, That was the guy? He said when he opened for Ani in Tennessee {he’s on her Righteous Babe label} he said it was Toby Keith and the joke went over quite well), and I felt my mind exploding/expanding from seeing this guy. A song about his 1930s guitar and his most notable one, about Ann Coulter’s . . . uh . . . about her stinky snatch. (“There’s no douche that’ll fail ya/Unless you’re up against Ann’s genitalia.”) I was cracking the hell up and it was like, I can’t believe this guy is for real but he is and I can’t believe he’s saying this and getting away with it. It was like when I saw Dan Bern for the first time. The weird thing was that there was a batch of people behind me who did not laugh, didn’t even crack a smile. How could you not? If you didn’t have an expression of sheer delight and joy on your face from seeing this guy, there’s something wrong with you. Assassinations—why don’t they happen anymore? Assassins always have 3 names. Let’s give David Lee Roth and Ronnie James Dio an Uzi and we’ll see what happens. He also had some words of advice for fellow singer-songwriters: Just because there’s smoke doesn’t mean it’s good, just because there’s silence doesn’t mean it’s profound, and if they’re not singing about mounting Bush’s head on a stake, they’re ball-less.
Dan had a different band this time around, and I don’t know if he was calling them the IJBC or not. A smaller band, and he did a better mix of his work. The few new songs he did were off his new album, and while they weren’t special, they weren’t bad. Maybe Dan’s trying to grow up, doesn’t want to be known as the guy who claimed to be the messiah or who sings about his balls. Or since I’m just not really that into Dylan, I don’t get it. But as I was looking around, I noticed something weird. The crowd. All normal, stereotypical, average-looking . . . I wouldn’t say prepsters or college kids, but . . . well, boring people. Just stood there. As I was looking around, I thought about the Mischief Brew show and the crowd there and I thought about Defiance, Ohio and the crowd at that show, and as I looked around at the crowd at Dan’s show and I thought, This is what’s wrong with the Democratic Party. This is why John Kerry sucked. I don’t know. It was this weird vibe of, Well, I voted for Kerry and sure, Bush must be defeated, props to Dan for saying/singing that, and, yes, I recycle newspapers and soda cans, but, sigh, I did all I could. We’ll get ‘em next time. I don’t know. The crowd just bothered me. I was like, How did Dan’s crowd become this? Or maybe I just happened to be standing in the whack section.
posted by heather @ 8:31 PM
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