Cloaca Melodia

The World, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Benedum Theater, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Brown Theater, Louisville, KY.... Despite being a big Westerberg/Replacements fan (ever since first tracking through the Let It Be album working at the college radio station during Spring Break 1985), I ended up missing much of Westerberg's set. It was a radio convention, and being what they are, I was dining at a restaurant without a car to get me back to the show in time. Once I arrived at the Brown Theater, I made my way inside and opened the door to the theater itself--only to catch Westerberg already onstage. I only saw his blistering version of "Alex Chilton," which concluded with him whipping around, smashing his electric guitar on the amp stack, and striding offstage to thunderous cheers from the stunned audience. That's about all of the factual info I know firsthand (except that when I was heading out to dinner, Westerberg was standing outside the hotel on the South 4th Street sidewalk, talking with a few people and clutching a baseball bat--likely a Louisvi...

on the street in front of the Brown Theatre, Louisville, KY..... This was a showcase performance for a radio convention. The retro-pop duo from Los Angeles performed a busking set outside the Brown Theater prior to the event show . I had met them at dinner that evening shortly before their set, so I had to catch some of their very fun performance.

The Gallery at The Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY..... This was a showcase performance for a radio convention. New Orleans' The Subdudes had split up in 1996 after around a decade making music, but they had reformed a year or two prior their 2004 album Miracle Mule . I had only gotten into their music in 2001 or so through frontman Tommy Malone's solo records, so it was good to see the band live.        

Crystal Ballroom at The Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY..... This was a lunchtime showcase performance for a radio convention.  Jamie Cullum was a complete package. He had enviable musical talent and a winning personality, but the 25 year-old singer (then promoting his album Twentysomething ) seemed like an old hand speaking to a roomful of radio programmers and record label people. He pitched himself as a willing partner to radio in an articulate and self-assured way, something that even many grizzled veteran musicians didn't feel comfortable doing. It all clicked that he was being touted in his native UK as a "Sinatra in sneakers," since he seemed like such an old soul in a hip young guy.    

The Gallery at The Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY..... This was a showcase performance for a radio convention (another difficult-to-make-it breakfast performance at one of these conventions). But I had to see Samite, as he was performing a member appreciation show for WYEP in Pittsburgh a few nights later . Samite, originally from Uganda and living in Ithaca, NY, was promoting his gorgeous new album Tunula Eno .    

Brown Theater, Louisville, KY.... All due respect to all of the artists who played this night (and they were all great), but Zero 7 was utterly amazing to see live.  The band was promoting their second album, When It Falls , which was released that spring. A fine album--even better then their 2001 debut. They pulled out all the stops to promote it, at least for the live shows they did in their brief 2004 U.S. tour in May/June, for which this was their first show.  The band didn't have one vocalist but rotated through multiple singers on their recordings and they were all present, including Mozez, Sia Furler, Tina Dico, and Sophie Barker.  A review of one of their NYC shows from this tour sums up this Louisville gig as well: their music is "full of warm voices, resonant analog synthesizers and satisfying bass." They use "various guitarists, strong players and a handful of singers whose voices can be matched to different songs."  But: "Zero 7 aims for a smoot...

The Gallery at The Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY..... This was a showcase performance for a radio convention. 

The Gallery at The Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY..... This was a showcase performance for a radio convention.  Robinson was promoting his then forthcoming album This Magnificent Distance , so he was playing all new songs. The clearest memory I have of Robinson's performance is his introduction to "If You See California" when he was delighted when some members of the audience got the "if you see kay"-style joke implicit in the song's title.    

Crystal Ballroom at The Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY..... This was a showcase performance for a radio convention.  I always felt bad for the artists who had the misfortune of being booked to do a breakfast gig at a radio conference. Everyone had been out late the night before, and the 8 AM audience was sparse at best and often hung over. I tried to attend whenever I could muster it. Fortunately, convention planners eventually nixed these early slots entirely.

The Gallery at The Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY..... This was a showcase performance for a radio convention. It technically took place on 5/15, as the start time was at midnight. Sun Kil Moon was billed as a performer during this slot, but the band's Mark Kozelek was actually booked to perform a solo set. He was reportedly unhappy that he was being promoted as Sun Kil Moon, so he just skipped town and the gig. Supposedly, Paul Westerberg fell off the wagon while attending this performance, leading to some recriminations the following day .  

The Gallery at The Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY..... This was a showcase performance for a radio convention.  Smith, Starr, and Curtis performed together, in-the-round style, trading off songs and talking about their music as they played. (They were billed as "The Women Of Welk," as they were all signed to labels that were part of the Welk Music Group (footnote: started by Lawrence Welk and still owned by his heirs). Jules, along with Michael Andrews (former member of the band The Origin), had scored a surprise #1 hit in England the December previous covering Tears for Fears' "Mad World." So Jules was improbably making the rounds promoting his then three year old album Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets .

Byham Theater, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

The World, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!      photo from 2007, after I interviewed Barbara and the band on WYEP

Club Cafe, Pittsburgh, PA sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!