Sanchez & Hammer @ Café Racer - Hammer's Guest Blog!

Guest blog! Julian wasn’t able to be at the Sanchez/Hammer Tuesday Night Shindig’s 6th round (the last before a summer hiatus) until the end, so he offered it up to his lovely lady, Anne, and me to submit. I do not know what my co-bloggist will report. I look forward to our friendly collusion.

The 6th round, from an insider’s point of view, was a great way to end the current series and say hello to summer. The sun, or at least the brightness of it, streamed in the corner windows where we arrange the would-be stage. Tom and I arrived at 7pm to set up and settle in. Café Racer has been an accommodating venue for this fledgling series, not the usual haunt a la Ballard’s pubs and clubs. There’s a nice neighborhood vibe, almost Portland-ish, and the walks of life can be a little rougher around the edges. With framed, strange art covering the walls, a shiny mosaic scooter, an impossibly difficult Ms. Pac-Man game, and an adjacent barbershop dubbed “Café Razor”, the funky character of the place is welcoming.

As we set up, Shasta Bree breezed in with a lovely smile on her face, which would later prove to be a perfect complement to her lovely, crystalline voice. Shasta heads up The Scarlett Hearts here in town, a band that this blog’s creator is a member of, with his awesome, red Gibson guitar. Sanchez arrived to help complete set up, lugging in 3 stools to make less lonely the one in the corner. He likes an even-steven height of stools for the shindig, and it’s a quality that speaks to his style as a performer. If you’re going to do it, do it with style. And stools are stylish.

Michael Vermillion was the fourth to roll in. He has spent much of the winter on sabbatical in Austin, and though I don’t know him well, he seemed better for it. Calm and cool like cucumber. The shindig set off into the first long set, which has been the pattern. It was a nice audience in the room, some familiar faces , and a few new ones. It doesn’t take a lot to make the room feel populated, one of the advantages to this intimate affair. Sanchez kicked off the show with a request from the lovely couple who has made it to EVERY shindig thus far! He played the first cut from his Silverhands CD, a tune called “When You Weren’t Drinking.” Vermillion followed with a song I’ll bet has “Moses” in the title. He writes great tunes that are often streaked with a brooding, folk-noir sound, not far from a Tom Waits reference. The first time I heard him, it was live on KEXP, and I imagined an older, wizened man fresh off riding the rods. Which reminds me of a great old union song/poem called The Bum on the Rods.

Shasta Bree and I ended out the round, and Shasta sang a pretty song that reminded me of the sepia-toned sounds of Kate Wolf and Alela Diane. (insert note: it’s hard not to equate voices/styles with recognizable references, and I do so with the understanding that not all musicians like to be corralled into a comparison to identify their sound, at least not all the time. Including myself J ) Shasta’s gentle guitar-picking and mournful tune inspired me to play “Aloysius” which we released on The Starlings 2008 EP “Gravity” and will be including on our summer LP release as well. (this July!)

And so it went. Strong songwriting and distinctive vocal styles all around. The shindig always seems to warm up nicely around the 3^rd and 4^th rounds. More stories and anecdotes and one-liners seep in. Having been part of it for each round, I have to say how refreshing it is to be able to song-swap in a casual, open setting. The line-up is always different, so it creates its own flow each time. It’s never disappointing, and I always learn a lot by watching songwriters sing their own naked tunes. In a very true way, it’s what it all comes down to for me – the singer and the song. It’s the fundamental wellspring from where I started. The head waters.

Highlights for me included Vermillion’s cover of Blaze Foley’s “Clay Pigeons,” which is such a beautiful tune. Sanchez played a song about all the Tom’s he knows (assumed title: “I Once Knew a Fella Named Tom”) that I really hope makes it to an album someday. Such wordplay, such well-done humor, such effective cadence. Shasta’s dusted-off original from the past about that blasted unrequited love stuff. She has a way of hitting what I call “glass notes” that seem made out of, you know, glass. And for me, my personal highlight was my new-old Gibson guitar! It’s the second time I’ve played it at the shindig. It makes me play guitar differently, this late 30’s/early 40’s era acoustic archtop. It’s going to be a main instrument on my solo album that I’ll be tackling this fall, methinks. It compelled me to pull out a newbie song at the end of the evening, one that is slated for the solo record. I knew it would be shaky, most first-time presentations of new songs usually are. But I felt the boldness of the moment. Hopefully subsequent renditions will be doubly strong.

I’ll look forward to re-igniting the shindig this fall, when all summer feet have been re-sheathed, Sanchez returns from his own sabbatical in Espana, The Starlings return from an autumn tour, and the seasonal hunkering down begins.

Shasta Bree http://www.myspace.com/scarletthearts

Michael Vermillion http://www.myspace.com/michaelvermillion

http://www.myspace.com/silverhandsmusic

http://www.myspace.com/thestarlings

Lingo: the controversy continues!

After having a conversation with KT Niehoff and also reading Jeremy M. Barker's thoughtful article on Sunbreak, I realize that my own take on "Glimmer" wasn't much on substance. I think that's alright though, its a young blog yet!

The article is here

This is what I'm posting in the comments :

"Does the dance community deserve better from its reviewers?

I was intrigued by your (Jeremy's) quote from Joan Acocella, the idea that space in the paper is really determined by the "is there any news here?' question. Clearly a lot has changed in 18 years!

Wonderfully, in this case the "news" has been KT herself putting her opinion out there. Admittedly she has had to survive a certain amount of abuse, (where do you buy a thick skin in Seattle?), and it might be difficult to convince her or any other choreographer to speak out because of it, but I loved that she did speak, and that the Stranger printed it. Even the more mean spirited comments are to me an indication that people have an opinion. The dance audience has a reaction to something they read! About dance!

Back to the old idea of space: A print reviewer must build authority, gain some kind of respect, answering "what is this show?" in order to succeed in building an audience and keeping some space to write in. The critic (really this is likely to be the same person eh?) perhaps was trying to place art in a context and thus assign value "Was it any good and why not?"

The flip style of the Stranger (is "quip" the new "flip?") is I think, derived from blogs and emails, the competition that is driving print media out of business. The value of the blog is measured not in space, but in views, hits, and visits. The audience is as varied as the writers; the only required motivation is interest in a topic. The writing is casual, low on Expertise and Authority, high on impressions and thoughts. This kind of writing does not require the same level of education and knowledge about the work that say, a dancer has, or an art historian. Point is - going out and seeing the show has a similar lack of requirements.

Does the dance community deserve better from its reviewers? I say "No." My own review was ignorant, impressionistic and dismissive too. I hear and acknowledge however, that perhaps a reviewer who takes the space, discloses intention and perspective, and does the work of becoming more qualified to speak about the art, will both elevate the discussion and find an audience that craves that."

Note - I am not saying a blog can't be educated and knowledgable :) Still, I wonder what you think...

tinyrage in the morning Embracing the Inevitable in the afternoon

So… continuing the Northwest New Works Festival previews, today was for the Merrill Wright Mainstage Theatre, which seats about 200 more people than the studio. This adds a few problems as well as benefits, some of the intimacy is lost, there are now some people a lot further away, small is even smaller. On the other hand, there is the larger audience, the larger stage, more lights, louder sound, big is a bit bigger.

These are no-tech previews, so if you want to put yourself in place of the artists, imagine walking into a 60 by 40 stage, plugging your i-pod into a boom box, turning to face the 20 or so people (the tech crew, regional programs director Sean Ryan, artistic director, communications director, designer, press, photographers, family and friends perhaps), turn on your thang whatever it is and go. The light is work light. Any multimedia elements are on a TV screen and the boom box. Some of these pieces are being performed for the first time in public at all. It is a strange energy, but energy nonetheless.

Amy O/tiny rage Into the Fray – Amy O Neal leaves her usual appurtenances at home, no video, no live music, no Locust, it’s a solo bit. Her inspiration – ninjas (!) and “thinking about fights with yourself” and the piece will begin with a beat up Amy O, reenacting the fight. The small part of the overall 20 minutes she showed today expressed contained anger, performed in a limited space with a blindfold. She promises to reveal another side of herself as a performer, and I am intrigued to see how this plays out.

Danny Herter & The Invasive Species couloir (trek) – a couloir from the French for “corridor” is a gorge or a deep cleft in a mountain, and Danny’s “all terrain dance force” performs many marching, climbing and trekking movements in unison. There is text (uh oh!) but the dancers are quirky, charming, and funny. There is rap (Oh no!) but it is refreshingly original in its delivery and in the actual content. The use of costume (climbing gear, hooded jackets that zip together, goggles, backpacks) and the outer space references made this one of my favorite pieces.

Josephine’s Echopraxia stifle – Marissa Rae Niederhauser has made a powerful emotional dance, it got to me personally, and that is harder to do than it used to be before I got to be the jaded old bastard I am sometimes. Spencer Moody (Murder City Devils vocalist) has created an effective score, using rock guitars, piano and drums, mostly instrumental but with blues vocals at exactly the right moment. The piece may be inspired by Marissa’s brush with death but when the dancers move from the anguished distress at the beginning of the piece into frenetic unison, this dance is ultimately life affirming.

Mark Haim This Land is Your Land – Mark’s take on a country line dance, features a glorious variety of performers walking repeatedly, runway style up and down stage for nearly the full 20 minute limit for the festival. The transformation of this line over time is brilliant. I did wince when Trace Adkins (yes that badonkadonk song) immediately followed Hank Williams’ Cold Cold Heart but that is nothing to do with the piece, its just everyday sacrilege.

The Offshore Project The Buffoon – This piece features a 5 piece band and is inspired by Edward Gorey’s The Doubtful Guest in which a strange creature invades a home and stays for years, destroying things and brooding. Ezra Dickinson does a fantastic job of being the strange guest and playing with a chair.

Lingo Embracing the inevitable – KT Niehoff and Alia Swersky performed as a duet phrases learned from the other, and then each their own phrase simultaneously. My good friend Scott Colburn will create the music. KT spoke of being an experienced dancer, and how she was embracing the inevitable by accepting that her body is going to move only in the way that she has trained it for so long. Perhaps I’m not saying that well. The movement vocabulary was familiar, and I can see KT’s influence on and relationship with other Seattle dancers (see Amy O above). Nevertheless, we are talking about a great dancer. Perhaps there is a freshness to be found in acceptance, strength in working within perceived limits, both for KT and for those of us watching.

Corrie Befort Cut Chalk – This piece began today with Corrie singing, which was a surprise for her and us! The person who was to perform this part was not available, but it may be serendipitous. There is also rhythmic music performed by clapping and stomping from the dancers and musicians. Acoustic sounds performed by the dancers of in the voms of the theatre work really well, and I look forward to hearing integration with an electronic score from Tom Baker.

Laara Garcia/Pseudopod Interactive Sakura Rising – This is a live enactment of a video game, with multilevel projections, sound effects, martial arts, Kabuki style magic, and some great costumes. We didn’t get to see any of that. The no-tech format means that we really didn’t get to see the piece as it will be, and I hope the tech will give the support needed to the game character style choreography.

The Festival runs June 4-6 and 11-13 2010. The atmosphere is great, the energy and excitement is high, and I highly recommend you go and see it. Yes – I work at OTB. I’ll be running the sound. So I’ll see you there.

Links :

http://seattledances.blogspot.com/2010/05/otb-northwest-new-works-line-up.html