Many things pass over the desk of the recess editor, or would if I had a desk. Most of them end of getting chucked, but some are too weird to pass up. Like this one.
Tight on the heels of Viking Storm, the two-day celebration at the Coffeehouse and the Pinhook to mark the release of Hammer No More the Fingers’ Looking for Bruce, High Master–which bills itself as “Durham’s only Viking power rock band”–is playing at the Pinhook Saturday night with Pink Flag and Rat Jackson.
The band includes our friends Paul Overton and Ken Rumble from Duke Performances, and Saturday night will prove whether they’re any good, or if they should stick to presenting real musicians.
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!?!?!?!?!? Courtesy Film School Rejects.
Seriously, that’s what I’m calling Lost from now on: The Ben Show. Time and again, he has duped us (think Henry Gale and the Hot-Air Balloon… which sounds like an awesome fantastic amalgam of Harry Potter with Harold and the Purple Crayon), thrilled us (well, maybe just me; I find him deliciously diabolical), and pissed us off (especially when threatening Penny’s life), but he has never, ever bored us. And in last night’s episode, he even went as far as to provide us with a few private insights into the dark, dark intricacies of his multifarious soul.
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Bassist Shuhei Yamamoto (front) with his new band. Courtesy Pet Lions.
Shuhei Yamamoto, a founding member of Duke band Stella by Starlight, recently finished Soft Right, the new EP for his Chicago-based project, Pet Lions. For the full story about Pet Lions, read the recess story here. As a special feature for The Playground, readers can listen to tracks from the EP by following the links below. For more information about the band, including all upcoming shows, look to the band’s Myspace here.
1. Roman History
2. Propeller Plane
Bestselling author Augusten Burroughs will be at the Carolina Theatre tonight in support of his latest book A Wolf at the Table, a memoir about his father. He will appear alongside friend and Durham author Haven Kimmel, most recently the author of Iodine: A Novel. Co-sponsored by the Durham County Public Library and Regulator Bookshop, the event begins at 7 p.m. in cinema one of the theatre. Both authors will be available for a signing after the conversation. Books will also be available for purchase.
Bela Fleck on stage at Page Auditorium, 4/7/09. Credit: Chase Olivieri/The Chronicle
Time flies when you’re having fun; when you’re having fun and watching Bela Fleck and friends, fingers fly, too. But while pretty well everyone in the sold-out house was awestruck at the likes of D’Gary, more than one audience member was overheard remarking that they were shocked three hours had passed. It was that kind of show.
It’s one thing to put together a stunning band, and that’s something Fleck has done. Take the world’s greatest banjo player and add: a leading blind Tanzanian singer-instrumentalist and his guitarist, playing blazing marimba lines; Madagascaran guitarist D’Gary (I’ve seen some fast guitarists, from John McLaughlin to Richard Thompson, but I have never seen anyone play a six-string with anywhere near that much speed) and percussionist Mario; South African singer-songwriter Vusi Malhasela; and Fleck’s counterpart on the kora, Toumani Diabate. All of them were part of his new CD and documentary film, both called Throw Down Your Heart. (Also contributing was class A bluegrass fiddler Casey Driessen.)
It’s another thing to turn that into great music, and that’s also something the band did. African music has been perhaps the greatest beneficiary of the world-music boom, and that’s partly because it resonates well with American ears. (Maybe that’s a product of the fact that much American music comes from African roots. One of Malhasela’s songs, written about the brutalities of apartheid and the need for forgiveness, often sounded like a Piedmont blues.) Each set of musicians or musician played a two- or three-song set before being joined by Fleck for another song.
Fleck’s an amazing musician—although I knew his music, I’d missed his frequent tours here and in high school, a mistake I won’t repeat—but being able to see the masters make their music alone was magical (attempting to rank them would be foolish and impossible; attempting to describe each would take far more words than anyone wants to read). And the minisets allowed listeners to get a feel for each style and country, something that the more segmented disc makes impossible. When he did join them, his contributions were judicious and virtuosic. But perhaps my favorite moment was the last song of the first set, when he was joined by D’Gary, Mario and Driessen. With the three other musicians on-stage, Fleck was free to relax and occasionally lay out. Letting the banjo rest for a moment he stood back and watched the other three; the joy on his face was as strong as the joy in the audience, and said everything that needed to be said about the night.
Previously: Throw Down Your Heart album review
