SO - I let one piece of me spiral and then it all goes downhill. I don't understand people who have coping skills. I have none. I only know how to ride it out and wait for the clouds to break. Which is what I did, which is kinda what happened. I had a good idea that seeing someone I had seen perform in the past that I knew gave me the shivers would certainly help... I have recently "discovered" (because I'm a little slow on the uptake people) that you can track bands and shows on reverbnation by creating a fan page and basically stalking favorite bands' shows. My show calendar is now out the yinyang with shows by bands like Gray Young, Birds & Arrows, and the band I knew would give me that last little push to get me out of the rubbish bin... Stella Lively.
I first saw Ashley C Carter performing with Jeff Crawford at this year's Love Hangover and it was pretty much a love at first trill situation with me. I am smitten with her voice. It's as if, in my mind, I sound just like that when I sing but i know I don't because she is so good and I am dog food, comparatively. Ashley has some pipes, man. She ranks really, really high on my WHY NOT ME-o-meter. It's a kind of Stevie Nicks/Nina Simone/Patti Smith/PJ Harvey/Bonnie Raitt hybrid, but better, if that's possible. Definite soul, definite pain, definitely a lot of living and pain and love behind that voice. It's one of those things where you have to have lived it to see it. Maybe like the Pestrals in Harry Potter; you can only see them if you've seen death. You can only hear what I hear in Ashley's voice if you've lived that kinda of hurt. (PS I just nerded it up.)
This performance, a part of the Rebuilding Raleigh benefit for the tornado victims, started early. But I was on time, by God. I wasn't going to miss my girl! I was there at 7:30 and made it in plenty of time for this set. Ashley and Dave played about 45 minutes of an incredible acoustic set. Several songs I hadn't heard before that I loved indiscriminately and instantly. Then ending on the song that sold me the first time around, PJ Harvey's "Rid of Me" ... a song I would never dare to try and cover because I know I don't have the chops, but again, She killed it. I was so excited that I just had to make a video.
After their set, I made sure to tell Ashley how much I loved it, and I truly did. It was pretty incredible for a set played to a handful of people in a virtually empty venue in broad daylight, but the power and perfection of her voice and Dave's wailing guitar more than filled the space with enough energy to make up for any insufficiency of ears or ambiance. I was charmed and riled and I can't wait to see the whole band play at next week's Local Beer/Local Band! I am telling you all now, do me a solid and come to Tir na Nog next week to see them play. It's a free show and may be one of the best new things you've seen in a while.
Next up was a band called Bitter Resolve. Not really my style, but i kinda liked it. Sounded like, the Deftones song "Change" underwater. Psychedelic metal. New to me and I love new to me. Anything new and different is almost always good. I told Tomlin that the guy's voice was scary but sorta fascinating and he said one of the best things ever which was, "and it can all be yours for $60!" and I said why and he said that was probably how much the pedal he was using costs. hah. I also really liked the tiny lesbian (only assuming here, looks like a duck walks like a duck, etc.) but because she reminded me so much of my friend Brandy, but mostly because she had that heavy succinctly defined drumming style like John Stanier from Helmet. And you'd never think it, but i reeeeeeally like Helmet. "Betty" stays in pretty consistent rotation with me. Bitter Resolve I would give a thumbs up to, I would probably see them again if they were around, but I'd have to be in the right mood. Which would be in the mood to raaaawk.
Next up was Appetite for Destruction, a Raleigh staple, the self proclaimed "Ultimate Tribute to Guns n Roses." I can't tell you how long these guys have been around (website says circa 2000,) but they have been around a while. they are a Guns n Roses coverband by the way. Roo (with James and Brandy in tow,) messaged me about 2 songs in and asked "how is the musics?" to which i replied: "OMG SO GOOD RAGING (if u like guns n roses)." which was the case, exactly. Now people, I was never a huge Guns n Roses fan, but i did grow up in an age where MTV actually played music videos and quasi-decently produced music still got radio play. My brother was really into GnR while I was still in a deep RnB haze, singing in my middle school gospel choir. So while I never had my own cassettes and spent hours reading liner notes of albums, I knew all the songs. It was time, everyone knew the words. Everyone for about a year there had Welcome to the Jungle stuck in their heads. This whole set was like a time machine to a place where I still believed the best in music and everything got a chance. i wasn't such a snob and I didn't really question who Mr Brownstone was and I just rocked out a little.
Probably everyone in Raleigh has seen Appetite for Destruction at this point, and as many times and I had meant to, it never happened until now. I aligned myself with the superfans (mostly the best friends and siblings of the band members) up front and threw it down. One of those situations where i didn't realize i knew so many songs until i realized i knew every song. I was in a text frenzy with my brother berating him for not being there (texting him things like, "SHANANANANA KNEES KNEES" over and over.) and making him swear to me that we would go see them next time they play. So there aren't a lot of straight Cover Bands that I've gone to see, other than the one b52s cover band I was in for a hot second and IWTDI's U2 show. And there is a certain level of obsessive perfectionism that goes into recreating someone else's stage show. AFD nailed it. "Axl" never broke character and sounded exactly like him. LOOKED exactly like him (pre-plastic surgery and cornrows). Slash looked like Slash, Izzy looked like Izzy - these guys love doing this show and it shows. (Personal aside, Izzy unwigged was the cutest thing I've seen in town for a long time and I wanted to kiss his face off. I gave his sister my card and told her to get him in touch with me so that i might, therefore, kiss his face off. I will definitely go see these guys again and i will drag my brother with me and he will rage and then i will kiss "izzy"'s face off.)
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| see that dude kicking? oh yes, that is your superfan. |
this show was a perfect funk-killer. it was after Appetite that I somehow wound up outside running into my Jayseph and being talked into a quick walk to Neptune's for a barefoot throwdown dance party. And so it was. And so it was probably always be.
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| ew you guys, ew. |
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