Recording: Nordic Nomadic

Artist: Nordic Nomadic

Song: A Child's Eyes

Recorded at The Great Hall, May 13, 2011.

Nordic Nomadic - A Child's Eyes

My notes for this set can be found here.

Gig: One Hundred Dollars

One Hundred Dollars (Nordic Nomadic)

The Great Hall. Friday, May 13, 2011.

"If you're going to tape a step backwards turn around first," read the fine print on the ticket. A typical sort of sentiment from the night's headliners, even if on this night they'd made a big step forward, debuting their new album in the Great Hall. A big step up from the sort of dank beer dens that might be considered the band's natural environment, but they put the space to good use with some simple but dramatic flourishes.

Up first, though, Nordic Nomadic looked a bit less monumental in these surroundings — two guys on the big stage playing to a spare early crowd. Chad Ross (ex-Deadly Snakes, now also of Quest For Fire) presented some tunes that tucked themselves right into the environment. Backed by Paul Vernon on drums, "unrushed" would be an apt descriptor here — the first song was five minutes, about three of that slowly-unfurling instrumental buildup, and it's no surprise that one of the project's calling cards is a song called "The World's Slowest Man".

The best element is how Ross can pull off the music's creeping cadences without falling into either lethargy or noodling — spaciousness takes a certain skill level. Musically, this wasn't unlike the sort of thing he's doing in Quest for Fire, but here it's without the band's sludgy velocity. That said, the live incarnation of Nordic Nomadic seemed less acoustic-leaning than his two albums of recorded output. There were a half-dozen songs in the set's half-hour, and I found it pleasingly tuneful and admirably understated, but I could imagine that for some people there might not be enough there there.

Listen to a song from this set here.

It didn't take long during the between-set break for it to get rather packed-in down on the floor. It was a hootin', hollerin', good-time sort of crowd that greeted the five-piece backing band that took the stage to start a long intro to "Black Gold", playing on their own for a couple minutes. It'd been a while since I'd seen a full-band performance from One Hundred Dollars and I quickly remembered the punch that the band can muster on stage.

Putting the focus on the Simone Schmidt's words, the band often plays as a duo (alongside guitarist Ian Russell) or trio (with pedal steel guitarist Stew Crookes added to the mix). But add lead guitarist Paul Mortimer and the rhythm section of Dave Clarke and Kyle Porter and this band can bring it roadhouse tough. But still not so flashy as to upstage Schmidt, who garnered her own burst of applause as she took the stage.

That slick entrance was just one smart idea in what would turn out to be a very well-constructed show, with a lot of elements to enhance the songs. There were some nice visuals adding to the vivid lyrical imagery, like a single spotlight on the curtain behind the band, representing the full moon during "Where The Sparrows Drop". There were also some new instrumental flourishes, such as Schmidt pulling out a harmonica on "Brother", and Russell switching over to electric guitar for "Waiting on Another". That one evinced the band's more "mature" sound that's hinted at on the Songs of Man album, which still has a country feel, but also crosscuts it with as much of a soft rock/West Coast vibe — it wouldn't take much to reconfigure this as a Fleetwood Mac tune.

Besides the material from the new album came "If Not For the Carnations" (which I guess didn't fit the album's concept¹) as well as "Ashes By Now", a Rodney Crowell cover.

And then suddenly, Schmidt appeared up on the balcony, bathed in a spotlight for a solo turn, playing the affecting "Aaron's Song", a moving biographical sketch of one of the clients that Schmidt met while working as as a speech facilitator: "she lent me words / I lent her soul". The room was totally quiet during this, as if she were holding the crowd in her hands.²

That was followed by an instrumental from the band as Schmidt made her way back down to the stage — and meanwhile photocopied American one hundred dollar bills were scattered from the balcony to the crowd below. And in one final flourish, at the end of "Ties that Bind", sparklers were passed up to the stage to dramatically flare away before fizzling out in a cloud of smoke.

And then the main set ended somewhat unceremoniously, the band just walking off sans announcement after "Fires of Regret", but they quickly returned for a full encore with a mix of the relatively obscure (b-side "The Digger"), some covers (including "Mama Tried") and even one brand-new one (about children being apprehended by social services, the chorus began "Calm and Collected").

That might have seemed like the end, but they were called back for a two-song second encore — and after covering Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings earlier on, they showed (as they have in the past) that they're not afraid to play the kind of country music that hasn't been embraced by, well, hipsters as they closed out the night with Garth Brooks' "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)". All told, the set went past ninety minutes taking in a full two dozen songs for a worthy celebration of the band's accomplishments.

Listen to a song from this set here.

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Additional media: Colin Medly has posted some lovely-looking videos from this show.

¹ The title of Songs of Man can be taken quite literally, as all of them are written by Schmidt as told from a man's point of view. And though there's a lot of range to explore within that, the most prominent secondary trait in the songs is Schmidt's appreciation for old-fashioned bottom-line materialism, a constant nagging worry in songs like "Everybody Wins" and "Work" about "who gets by and who gets broke".

² It's worth noting that Schmidt — a non-musician when the band began — accompanied herself quite ably on guitar. I wasn't as surprised by this as some might have been having seen her progress a few months previously.

Gig: The Blue Fog Revue

The Blue Fog Revue (Feat. Rick White, Eiyn Sof, Wyrd Visions, Andre Ethier, Nordic Nomadic, Castlemusic, $100)

Lee's Palace. Saturday, May 14, 2010.

A couple inneresting-looking gigs on this night to choose from, but I decided to go with this showcase of acts on local record label Blue Fog. Well, "record label" in the loosest sense, anyways, inasmuch as they put do put out albums. But in terms of structure and ambition, it seems that Blue Fog has no desire to operate within established music industry rules, just to create a space for friends to make music for each other. And, on a night like this one, to combine forces and play some music together.

Heading into Lee's, Gram and Emmylou were singing to each other over the sound system and the stage — normally a literal "black box" — was covered in silvery foil. Add to that a thematically correct fog machine and blue spotlight shining up from the foot of the stage.

Starting things off, Rick White came out to greet the crowd and play one solo song — "You're a Deep, Dark Hole", the first track off the first Blue Fog release. "It's hash, too, so breathe deeply," White commented, looking at the fog unfurling over the stage. "It's not, really." [beat] "I think there's LSD in it though." [inhales] "Oh yeah, there is!"

And then, a quick taste from Eiyn Sof, Melissa Boraski's electric rockin' band. Playing just a quick pair of rootsy songs, "Weight of the World" was especially catchy. I'd been meaning to catch Boraski playing in a band format ever since seeing her playing a solo acoustic show last summer, and the taste here indeed indicated that a full set would be worth looking for.

Listen to one of Eiyn Sof's tracks from this set here.

Seeing Wyrd Visions on the bill at this show was definitely a selling point, given how I've been impressed by Colin Bergh's rigourously-structured folk rambles in the past, but I had been worried about how his intensely inward-looking music would go over in this kind of crowd. And indeed as he began playing, there was no shortage of chatter — though thankfully, at least, not very much right around me near the stage.

"Can I get less light and more fog?" asked Bergh, playing his double-necked guitar while seated on a stool. His music provides exactly that. And then things got even more interesting a few minutes into "Bog Lord", his second song, when he was joined by the first set's house band — composed mainly of members of Steamboat — who unobtrusively started adding extra colour to the song. There was some keybs, guitar from Andre Ethier and subtle sax from Joseph Shabason. This gave a bit of volume to cover over the chatterers, though it wasn't all blasting or anything. But it definitely added an extra dimension.

All of which was just prelude to a full-length set from Andre Ethier, whose last couple albums have been released by Blue Fog.¹ With acoustic rumination lately superseding the garage rock frenzy he had worked in his old band, the Deadly Snakes, it was good to see him quickly setting up with the full band behind him for this set. And indeed, his Dylan-ish lyrical sensibility was very well complemented by Steamboat's musical muscle, and nicely goosed by some some smoky saxophone from Shabason.

Ethier, not bogged down by any sort of music industry obligations (his main gig is currently his work as a visual artist), gave a notion of what's he's been up to since his last album in 2008, playing some new songs ("English for Flamingos", "Wax Candle") and a cover of Donovan's "Get Thy Bearings". The set started off on the softer/more melodic side, but gained energy as it went on, really hitting hard on the garage-ier stuff like "Nothing is Written in Stone" and "Cop Killer".² I suppose I would describe myself as a fairly casual devotee of Ethier, but this set served as about the most potent argument for his merits possible.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Chad Ross of Quest for Fire, who records for Blue Fog as Nordic Nomadic, came out to play some guit and sang lead on a song. Then, a couple more from Ethier. All told, that was an hour and forty minutes worth of music — and that was just the first half of the show.

Starting off the second set in quiet fashion was Castlemusic, with Jennifer Castle accompanied by some basic percussion as she spun out her real folk-blues. Just sort of taking the stage and launching into it, Castle, like Wyrd Visions before her, plays music that unspools in its own dreamy manner, so a pair of songs was no quick hit'n'run set. Crowd noise was again a problem, but the performance was top notch. Transitioning into the heart of the night's second half, she was joined on stage by Simone Fornow, and they did an a capella duet of what sounded like an old folk song.³

The band took the stage while that was going on, and $100 launched right into their set, leading off, with what I think is a new one (the refrain was "if you got no ties that bind you")⁴ that was followed by a superb version of "Fourteenth Floor". Indeed, the full band sounded excellent, playing what sounded like definitive versions of several songs, including "Black Gold". One of our best local acts, $100 are a delight in any configuration, but it was a real treat to hear the robust, full band arrangements, with Stew Crookes' pedal steel and Jonathan Adjemian's keybs rounding out the sound.

Jennifer Castle came back out to join the band for a pretty run through Neil Young's "Old Country Waltz"⁵ and the main part of $100's set climaxed with "No Great Leap", before segueing into the next part of the night with the Rick White-penned "Pain" — the gateway to a several numbers of a subset of $100 backing Rick White.

It's always neat to see a group of musicians suddenly flip over into suddenly playing a different sound, and backing White the band was now much heavier and more psychedelic. And rather excellent, to boot. Admittedly, I'd fallen off from regularly picking up White's albums, but this was a kick-in-the-pants reminder how good he is when he's on his game.⁶ Quite a thing.

Listen to a song from this set by $100 on their own here, and one with them backing Rick White here.

The second set was just shy of ninety minutes, so by the time it wrapped up it was about quarter to two, and unsurprisingly, the crowd had thinned out quite a lot. And it looked like that was going to be it. A lot of people were getting ready to split, though a few were still applauding, and the music started over the sound system. I started to pack up, when, at Rick White's invocation, the band came back out. With some friends on stage, they played "Forest of Tears". A welcome closer, though by this time I was feeling pretty wiped. Overall, a fine celebration for Blue Fog.

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¹ Indeed, they are rather descriptively entitled On Blue Fog and Born of Blue Fog.

² An Ethier original, and not an Ice-T cover.

³ I couldn't place it, but the refrain was "nobody's fault but my own".

⁴ New material on the night also included "If It Weren't For the Carnations" and "Meet Me Where the Sparrows Drop".

⁵ It's worth noting that while $100 almost always play a cover during their sets, they almost never play the same one twice. It'd be interesting to see what would be by now a rather extensive list of all the ones they've tackled in concert.

⁶ The last couple times I'd seen him live were solo acoustic sets, which were less riveting than hearing him blasting it out with the band.