18 | Campus Circle
[DEC. 17 - DEC. 23 ’08]
live show reviews
Natashia Desianto
music
Iran’s “King” Raam of Hypernova wails “Viva la Resistance.”
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Hypernova
Dec. 2 @ Henry Fonda Theater Do you like rock music? Would you put your life on the line for it? Imagine you had to use an onstage pseudonym, not to sound cool, but to avoid persecution. For Iran’s Hypernova, this is the reality in their homeland. Such bold passion comes across in their brooding, New York-tinged indie rock. Singer “King” Raam begins the set as an automaton, somewhat reminiscent of a beat poet as his comrades slam around him like anxious, circling vultures. But as the tension builds to the climax of their set, he joins in on guitar, throwing himself more and more into the infectious momentum that spreads like wildfire to the enthusiastic crowd. “Viva la Resistance” is particularly powerful, Raam wailing in his baritone “I will not bow down to your god, this is not who I am.” Mike Ness is a flawless performer. Scandalous, considering the context. They close out the night with the catchy and punctuated “Fairytales,” a grim anthem of phoniness or irony. about jailbait lust that culminates in a Before we could cry out for a Social D ferocious and chaotic finale, members song, he gave in and ended on “Down Here careening about the stage in one final frenetic (With the Rest of Us)” and returned for an outburst. encore session, throwing on that hat and —Natasha Desianto completing the night with “I Fought the Law.” —China Bialos China Bialos
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Social Distortion. But then, it’s a detour from the punk rock that’s carried his career, the opportunity to be an all-American figure, singing outlaw love songs. Even this detour draws Los Angeles’ few rockabilly kids and greasers out from hiding, though, and prompts fights just as well as it’ll draw a circle pit while a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice” is playing. Forty-six-year-old Ness is a flawless performer, his best performances mimicking some of his best recordings – for two, “Crime Don’t Pay” and “The Devil in Miss Jones,” off 1999’s Cheating at Solitaire. These days he’s shunning drugs and praising Obama; he’s also slick as his hair and speaks and moves with finesse, posing with his Les Paul the way it’s meant to be held, playing with the authenticity and heart you’d hope for from such a man. Even in his cowboy hat he squinted with a fury lacking the slightest bit
Mike Ness Dec. 4 @ The El Rey It’s sort of curious that Mike Ness would tour as a solo artist these days, seeing as he’s now the only original remaining member of
music dvd | review The Who At Kilburn: 1977 (Image Entertainment) This double DVD set is a must-have for any fan of the Who. Disc one is their 1977 Gaumont State Theatre concert recorded in Kilburn, North London for Jeff Stein’s The Kids Are Alight documentary, while disc two contains footage from a 1969 London Coliseum show. Although the band hadn’t played live in about a year, the Kilburn show captured
Over the Rhine Dec. 6 @ The Troubadour Over the Rhine, a husband-and-wife duo from the Cincinnati neighborhood that is the
them at their best. Roger Daltrey in an itty bitty shirt and bell bottom jeans swings his mic cord; Pete Townshend jumps, kicks, leaps, slides around the stage; John Entwistle always seems to be cool, calm and collected as his fingers move at lightning speed over his bass; Keith Moon – in one of his final performances – twirls his drumsticks as eyes are drawn to his bedazzled satiny outfit. The energetic set includes “Baba O’Reilly,” “Summertime Blues” and “Behind Blue Eyes.” Grade: A—Yuri Shimoda At Kilburn: 1977 is currently available.
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band’s namesake, blew audiences away, performing songs from their 20-year recording career, including songs from the newly released The Trumpet Child. With startlingly good compositions in hautehonky “Don’t Wait for Tom” (a taunting, bluesy lil’ ditty which may or may not be an homage to Mr. Waits), the swanky, swingin’ “I’m On a Roll,” a country-jazz hotel lobby standard in “I Don’t Wanna Waste Your Time,” the bossanova-tinged “Nothing Is Innocent,” the New Orleans-steeped “Who’m I Kiddin’ But Me” and the title track, a selfdescribed meeting point between the white American hymnal and the black American jazz waltz, the album is a welcome page in the great songbook of Americana. Starting out as a quartet, Linford Detweiler – who, with his foppish hair, indie glasses and long-drawn, Ohio-paced storytelling musical interludes – evokes a soulful, literary Garrison Keillor for the hipster masses (well, those hipster masses with a penchant for ragtime, anyway) and Karin Bergquist, a sex kitten with the pipes – sounding a mix of Joni Mitchell, Patsy Cline, Emmylou Harris and Suzanne Vega – to back it up, have got 17 albums under their belt, toured as members of the Cowboy Junkies, opened for Bob Dylan, were named as one of Paste magazine’s top 100 songwriters of all time and are not afraid to record Christmas holiday albums. They blend all the best America has to offer – folk, jazz, gospel, ragtime, R&B, country, blues – with respect, dignity, love and talent ... and about each and every instrument under the sun. The lingering effect is one of vintage tunes that manage to be just refreshing enough to wake us from our 21st century stupor. —Rayhané S. Sanders