PopWars

We went to “The Human Touch” opening on the later side in order to still be downtown when Nod took the stage at Abilene around midnight. The Memorial Art Gallery’s new show features part of the collection of RCB Wealth Management, whatever that is. Their website says “The Human Touch reflects the rich diversity of our clients, employees and the people who make up our everyday lives.” And that it does, but the effort to be diverse became the show rather than the selection of art. I only went to their website after seeing the show so now I’m wondering. Did the diversity effort look so obvious on the wall because all other shows are so insular? I don’t know. I only hoped to see some good art and I did see some.

Robert Longo, Chuck Close, Elizabeth Peyton, Nan Goldin, Kehinde Wiley, Carrie Mae Weems, John Baldesari were all represented but I was more intrigued by Willie Birch’s black and white acrylic and charcoal on paper drawing of two women, Till Freiwald’s large watercolor on paper studies of a live model for even larger (8 feet tall watercolors) and Luis Gispert’s giant, Spanish tinged, animated photo, “Living Room” from his Urban Myths series.

Nod was fantastic, more energetic than ever in their twenty-fifth year. They are the perfect trio. Each part is internal to their sound. Joe’s guitar playing is unique as hell, one of a kind. And although you can hardly ever hear what he is singing you can always hear the sweetness the melody he adds to his angular guitar playing. Tim Poland is a really melodic bass player and he propels the band with his lines while keeping the train on he tracks. Brian is rock solid on drums, never ruffled by Joe’s adventurous turns, he can fill up a song with fills without getting in the way. Nod’s sound gets under you skin and goes to your whole body. If no one breaks the ice you are left dancing in your head.

Took a tour of the earth this afternoon, up through the arboretum and fruticetum in the park where everything is popping, and I came back with this picture. We plan to celebrate Earth Day later on at the Little Theatre Café. Pete LaBonne will be joining Margaret Explosion on the grand piano. If you’re not familiar with Pete’s work there is no better place to start than Chris Schepp’s review of Pete’s 20 cd compilation, “Gigunda.”

The Bop Shop used to host a musty old record show twice a year in the Village Gate atrium. The clientele got older and older and consequently dwindled as record sales plummeted. The Chesterfield Kings drummer, the first and best one, was always there. He passed away years ago and the Bop Shop was unveiling his collection yesterday on Record Store Day. We never made it over there. Those record fairs were fun for a while but they were pretty depressing on a nice day. Everything is different now. I have never seen more people at Record Archive. They even stationed Frank DeBlase at the door for some added muscle.

We didn’t get going until after noon so I missed the Captain Beefheart vinyl, “Rough, Raw & Amazing,” the House of Guitars was allowed. And I never saw the Bernard Herrmann, “Psycho” 7-inch. I found the Beefheart package at Archive but hesitated when I read the Joh Peel’s liner notes… “Although it takes intense listening in the early part of of the show owing to the recording quality …” It sounds like the microphone was in someone’s pocket while he was standing outside De Montfort Hall in Leicester while the Magic Band played inside. Songs are mislabeled. Beefheart’s pictured on the cover paying sax and plays it on four cuts yet he is only credited with sax and vocals but I’m still happy with my purchase.

I saw Beefheart on four different tours, in Cincinnati (with the Hampton Grease Band and the Screamin’ Gypsy Bandits) on the Trout Mask tour, Columbus, Ohio on the ‘Decals” tour, the Dome Area here in Rochester when he did that bone-headed project with Zappa and then at the Red Creek in 1977. I brought my little mono cassette recorder to Red Creek and placed it on the table in front of Brad Fox (listen for him). My recording (below) is infinitely better than the 180 gram yellow vinyl, gatefold, double lp. As they say. “For diehard fans only.”

One hundred and fifty years ago a train carrying Lincoln’s body stopped in Rochester on its way to his final resting place in Illinois. Thousands of mourners gathered at the train station to pay their respects. In our age of Clinton and Bush dynasties and ObamaHate the very idea of the presidency has changed. I’m thinking about a train rolling into town with Claire Underwood’s body on it.

The husband and wife team responsible for the House of Cards soundtrack met at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester and they are back in town for a free concert of film music on Sunday night at Kodak Hall. They promise a half hour suite of House of Cards themes. He also scored Ed Harris’s dramatic creation/painting scenes in the “Pollock” movie. Jeff Beal’s brilliant theme, used behind the open credits, just sweeps you away with its dramatic subwoofer percussion and dark foreboding melody.

We made sure we had seats down front for Stephan Crump when he played with Vjay Iyer at Kilburn last year. We had heard him with his Rosetta Trio at the Bop Shop and were blown away. He is an amazing bass player. Incredibly sensitive, melodic and solid. He would sound great with anyone. As you can see in this picture he plays every inch of his instrument. In this duo setting, a project called “Secret Keepers,” he and Mary Halverson would start and finish each other’s phrases, odd phrases in odd songs because Mary Halverson is a most unusual guitar player. Seated and working one pedal with each foot she would clip and chew on notes as she picked them. She says her influences are horn players, Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane and Miles Davis, artists she first heard on her dad’s records. This was something else.

I liked “Rubber Soul” but I loved “Out Of Our Heads.” One blew away the other and the partisan divide began for me.

Rolling Stones incite near-riot in ’65

When the curtain went up the night of Nov. 1, 1965, there were 120 officers, War Memorial security, and ushers — the largest such show of crowd-control force in the venue’s history — ready to keep the crowd under control. Maybe they needed a few more. That Rochester show before an estimated crowd of 4,000 was perhaps the shortest Rolling Stones concert of all time, shut down by police slightly after 9 p.m. after only six songs. It was only their second-ever tour of the United States, in support of the album Out of Our Heads.

“The ones down front — particularly the girls — caused most of the trouble,” Rochester Police Chief William Lombard was quoted in the Times-Union. “They really started to get worked up when one Rolling Stone took off his jacket.” But what actually shut down the show was the promise — and the threat — of even more skin. “I knew when this one fellow took off his jacket and waved it at the girls while wiggling around that the next number would be the last,” Lombard said. “That’s the one where he strips to his undershirt.” The story did not indicate which of the British Invasion louts Lombard was referring to. One can only wonder if the police chief in hindsight regretted that move, as audience members reportedly threw popcorn, candy boxes, shoes and other items at the stage and chanted “We want the Stones!” Detective Lt. Andrew J. Sparacino was hit in the left eye and was taken to Genesee Hospital. As the Times-Union reported, “Lombard said he thought someone swung a bag of caramels at Sparacino.” And the photo accompanying the T-U story shows a glum looking Sparacino with a patch over one eye. Years later, he told a reporter he remembered talking to Stones lead vocalist Mick Jagger about being careful because of the crowd and the rock and roller responding “with some of the foulest language I’ve ever heard.”

Sparacino wasn’t the only victim of the night’s wildness. One 16-year-old Rochester fan was taken to Highland Hospital with a leg injury. And police removed “several youths” from the building for disorderly conduct. Who’s to blame? Lombard told media the crowd was noisy but for the most part civilized. “I appealed to them once to help them enjoy the show,” he was quoted as saying. “But when some of them really started to get worked up and began charging the stage, I thought someone would get hurt.”

After the show, guitarist and backing vocalist Keith Richards reportedly trash talked Rochester to the police, saying “This is a hick town. They were twice as wild in Montreal. They won’t get hurt. You were too hard with them.” The Rolling Stones reportedly flew out of town that night, presumably on their way to Providence, Rhode Island, and the next stop on their tour.
– MDANEMAN@DemocratandChronicle.com