live shows Archive
05 Jun 2015
McQueen’s Pop Culture Mix of Music, Comedy and Multimedia
“Is it comedy?” asks McQueen rhetorically. “Is it music? Is it the weird hybrid cousin of both who is 32 and still sits at the kids’ table during holidays?” The […]
02 Jun 2015
David Torn: The Audience is Here (Part 2)
Continued from Part One… “So,” continues guitarist-composer David Torn, “I don’t intend to recreate any of the pieces on only sky in live performance. However, I can accurately recreate the […]
01 Jun 2015
David Torn: The Audience is Here (Part 1)
As I would discover within the first moments of our conversation, it’s inaccurate to describe the music made by David Torn as “avant garde.” Which is fine, really, because as […]
07 Apr 2015
Festival Review: Big Ears Festival 2015, Part 2
Continued from Part One… Next, it was drone time. The minimalist work of the duo A Winged Victory for the Sullen (joined by three additional musicians) was delivered in the […]
06 Apr 2015
Festival Review: Big Ears Festival 2015, Part 1
Typically, I don’t make a point of attending “kickoff events” at the start of music festivals. My thinking is that they’re generally an opportunity to spotlight the event sponsors and […]
19 Feb 2015
Concert Photography in a Local Light: “Front Row Focus”
In 2015, nearly every concertgoer carries a smart phone with a built-in camera, so snapshots of the onstage performers aren’t exactly a rare commodity. But there’s a long and proud […]
12 Feb 2015
Musical Parody Gets Into a “Grey” Area: 50 Shades! The Musical Parody
Ever since its 2011 printing, E.L. James‘ erotic romance novel 50 Shades of Grey has been an inescapable presence in pop culture. Though as literature – five hundred pages of […]
24 Dec 2014
Best of 2014: Concerts
One of the many pleasures associated with living in the small mountain city of Asheville NC is access to great live music. I grew up in the 70s and 80s […]
23 Dec 2014
Interview: Aaron “Woody” Wood
Though it’s in many ways an informal affair, Warren Haynes Presents Christmas Jam has been growing in a deliberate fashion. Thanks both to concertgoer demand and the long line of […]
09 Dec 2014
Morelouderfastermore: The “Cacaphony” of GWAR
Anyone who’s ever viewed the 1982 film classic This is Spinal Tap will recall the famous “eleven” dialogue between filmmaker Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) and Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest). Tufnel […]