While the glitz and glamour of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival heralded the closing of State St. in front of the historic Arlington Theater for the mob of fans awaiting an appearance by Ben Affleck, making his pre-Oscar push for "Argo", it was a different story across the way. Through a parking lot entrance and up the stairs, nestled above a maze of shops sits Soho. On this night, it was only the faithful that came out for an appearance by power pop savant Ken Stringfellow, known for his affiliation with The Posies, and maker of a few fine solo records in his own right, including 2012's one man White Album Danzig In The Moonlight. As has been noted before, attendance at the Soho shows runs very hot and cold, and the audience, when it does appear, can be chatty...but this should in no way cast a pall on the extraordinary efforts of the club and bookers. As long as they build it, I will go. It was amazing to see Stringfellow bring these songs to life, alone on keyboards or guitar, save one duet spot. High points of the set were: a passionate take on "Shittalkers!", and a blinding electric guitar version of "Even The Forgers Are Fingering The Fakes". It's always difficult to watch someone pour their hearts out in an empty bar, especially without a full band to camouflage the atmosphere, and to his credit, he gamely stuck to it, no matter how squirm-inducing the songs were. A heroic performance...
Seattle's Maldives were a revelation. While tuning up, I overhead them say, (after observing the underwhelming audience), "Just treat it like a practice". Started out with banjo-fed folk, then moved into Crazy Horse territory, and proceeded to burn the place down. Ferocious country rock of the highest order, bringing to mind nothing less than late-period Uncle Tupelo. Caught me out like a whack on the side of the head. See them.
Cold War Kids hit Soho in Santa Barbara to close out a quick small club tour with Superhumanoids to road test material for their forthcoming LP Dear Miss Lonelyhearts, and a European jaunt in late April. Their homecoming LA show at the Fonda Theater in May is already sold out. Superhumanoids led off the night adding a good dose of live spunk to their ethereal sound, and their infectious stage presence made for an entertaining set. They likened the last night of this show to leaving summer camp, and the audience didn't seem to mind their generous set time. After a brief break, they'll be heading across the U.S. with Local Natives.
Long Beach based Cold War Kids were in fine form, with Dann Gallucci stepping in for founding member Jonnie Russell. They were tight and wired, regardless of new or old song, bringing this brief flurry of California shows to a rousing conclusion.
In the middle night of a sold-out three night run at the Wiltern Theater in LA's Koreatown district, Seattle's 90's guitar colossus Soundgarden pulled one out of their hat and gave back to the faithful for a solid set running two hours and change. Kicking things off with "Nothing To Say" from the Screaming Life EP was a clear signal, and it wasn't until the sixth song in that they moved beyond 1991, and there didn't seem to be a complaint to be heard. Lead singer Chris Cornell was in fine form, both vocally and verbally, as evidenced by his intro to "Outshined", noting that, (paraphrased), 'most of the shows they played in LA were full of industry people, and now that the industy was dead, it was good to see the fans again.' Not necessarily the nicest way to thank people who worked hard to make one's career, but if you've ever been in the middle of a blase industry crowd chattering in the good seats and otherwise sucking all the oxygen out of the room, you could see where he was going with his point.
Once they broke the ice with "By Crooked Steps" from last year's King Animal, their first salvo since 1996, they were more than generous with new songs, seeding in just over half of the new LP into a set that contained only two songs apiece from what was considered their commercial heyday, Superunknown and Down On The Upside. The rest of the set was weighted heavily to Louder Than Love, Ultramega OK, and of course, the mighty Badmotorfinger, from which was pulled nearly as many songs as the new LP.
A nice surprise towards the end of the set found the band bringing out drummer Matt Cameron's son to take over guitar on the Cameron penned "Eyelids Mouth", after Cornell offered a modest assessment of his own guitar skills. Cameron the younger held his own, and the band reached back for "Loud Love", before finishing off the main set with the new "Rowing".
The crowd turned into a thrashing mess by the end, an encore that offered up "Searching With My Good Eye Closed", and a ferocious "Rusty Cage", before ending with Ultramega OK's "Beyond The Wheel", culminating in drummer Matt Cameron and Chris Cornell exiting the stage, leaving bassist Ben Sheperd and guitarist Kim Thayil to create a mini-My Bloody Valentine feedback coda to end the evening on the sweetest of noisy notes.
For a look at some super photos courtesy of Mike Rosati/The Owl Mag from the mid-week show at the Fox Theater, Oakland: click here
It's early days in 2013, but already making a run in the value-for-dollar department was the billing of El Ten Eleven, Races, and Cayucas at Santa Barbara's Velvet Jones. It was a great sampler of divergent sounds from Los Angeles based bands, and all held up their end of the bargain, churning out a satisfying evening. Cayucas opened the evening introducing it's forthcoming debut LP, Bigfoot, due out 30 April on Secretly Canadian, leading off with their impeccably catchy 7" "Cayucos". Next up were Races, who are certainly not an unknown quantity in these pages. The roadwork they've done supporting 2012's Year Of The Witch, (Frenchkiss), has paid off, and they thoroughly owned the tiny Velvet Jones stage. The mighty LA duo of Kristian Dunn and Tim Fogarty, known as El Ten Eleven, finished off the night with a commanding set of instrumental math rock that didn't skimp on the groove. Transitions is their most recent LP, and as good a place as any to get your feet wet, if you've yet to come to grips with their sound.
