Miers on Music by Jeff Miers

Z plays Z, absolutely free!

Dweezil Zappa started bringing to Buffalo his Zappa Plays Zappa - a repertory ensemble dedicated to preserving and celebrating the legacy of his late father Frank's immense body of work - immediately after forming the band in 2006. 

A show inside UB's Center for the Arts introduced us to the group, and subsequent gigs at the Town Ballroom and Thursday at the Square deepened the intensity of the relationship. 

Last night's repeat performance at the Square - a make-good of sorts, since last year's show at the venue was cut short due to severe weather - was the feather in the younger Zappa's cap. Simply put, there is no finer collective of rock-based musicians on the planet. The band members made performing this incredibly complex, often beautiful, humorous and irreverent music appear easy and natural. 

Not sure of the complete set list, but here are some highlights. 

Inca Roads (New singer Ben Thomas tore this one up; he's a wonderful addition to the band.) 

Village of the Sun

Echidna's Arf (Of You) 

Cozmik Debris (A jaw-dropping solo from Dweezil.) 

Outside Now (Beautiful vocal harmonies on this one.) 

Peaches en Regalia

Willie the Pimp

If anyone can fill in the blanks, please do! Here's an "Inca Roads" clip from a recent show. 

Todd: god?

Todd Rundgren's third appearance at the Tralf in a less than two-year period may have been the best of the bunch. Nearing the end of the tour supporting the recent "Arena" album, Rundgren and his killer band - keyboardist/guitarist/vocalist Kasim Sulton, guitarist/vocalist Jesse Gress, drummer Prairie Prince, and bassist/vocalist Rachel Haden - appeared to be hitting a new peak during Wednesday's sold-out show.

All the pieces fit together seamlessly, and the musicians really sunk their teeth into the material, be it the "classic" stuff or the newest of the new songs. As ever, Rundgren himself sang beautifully, whether he was caressing the melody of the anthem-like "Just One Victory," or indulging in the near-industrial metallic clangor of the "Arena" song "Strike." 

Here's the set list and a video. If you were at the Tralf, write in with your thoughts on the show. 

Love In Action

Black and White

Black Maria

Trapped

I Saw the Light

Mad

Afraid

Gun

Courage

Weakness

Strike

Today

The Last Bardo

Mountaintop

Panic

Manup

Encore: 

Couldn't I Just Tell You

Just One Victory

 

Hungry like the wolf....

Los Lobos had to cancel its appearance at the Square on Thursday. Lightning, which was making a strong bid to bum-rush the party, was the final arbiter of the decision to pull the plus.

Normally, that would be that, and off we'd go, drenched to the bone, disappointed to be missing the show, and in this particular instance, perhaps pondering the death of the King of Pop.

Los Lobos had other plans, though, so if you stuck it out through the sheets of sideways-blown rain, you might've heard the buzz sweeping through the crowd. "The band's gonna pack it up and run down the street to play at the Lafayette tap Room!" That's just what happened.

For $5, one could squeeze one's way into the wiggling, sweating mass of humanity - I swear, it was far more appealing than it sounds! - and catch East L.A.'s finest laying down a sultry set of songs, up close and persoanl. Los Lobos played plenty of their own impeccably written peices, and some choice covers, revelling in the swaying intensity of the packed house, inviting audience members onstage to dance and sing, and generally behaving like a bunch of school kids awakening to a surprise snow-day. Man, what a cool night for Buffalo.

Check out Charlie Specht's story about the night's events here.

Were you there? Got a story to share?

Hip Artpark run, viewed from the afterglow

The Tragically Hip's four-night run at Artpark kicked off the summer concert season in a big way last week. With the dust settling, and the inevitable deep blue feeling that comes with the afterglow, one is left wondering if anything else that happens this summer will manage to evoke such sustained feelings of elevation. (My money's on Wilco!)

All four shows - three-hour, twin-set events each - were killer, and no two were the same. The whole thing felt like a four-day party with close friends all around, and a house band hitting a new peak in a career that has already had several.

The crowds at Artpark were, generally speaking, adoring, open and receptive to the new "We Are the Same" material, (which the band played a healthy dose of every night) and unreservedly ebullient when the Hip pulled out older songs and kicked them squarely in the pants. (Thursday's "Locked in the Trunk of A Car" and "Fifty Mission Cap," or Saturday's acoustic reworking of "Fireworks," for example.)

The band seemed to be as genuinely thrilled by the whole experience as was the crowd. During a meet-and-greet following Friday's show, drummer Johnny Fay praised Artpark for both its acoustic properties and its relative intimacy, claiming that, of all the places around the world he's played, the Lewiston venue takes the highest honors. That's really saying something.

If you were there for any (or all!) of the shows, share your thoughts on the experience, offer us a few picks for best tunes, or tell me to shut up and stop writing about the Tragically Hip, if that's your pleasure. (Go ahead. I can take it.) Here's some video from Saturday's acoustic mini-set. 
 

Conan kicks it off with Pearl Jam!

Conan O'Brien launched his tenure on The Tonight Show with musical guest Pearl Jam on Monday night. And the band kicked it, hard, with a brand new song from its forthcoming new album. (The album, "Backspacer," comes out in September, and will be the Pearl Jam's first independent release, following the conclusion of its 18-year relationship with Sony.) If this is a hint of what's to come, for both PJ and Conan, the future looks bright. Check it out:

 

Warm up for the DMB!

The summer concert season kicks off on Wednesday evening with the Dave Matthews Band's show inside Darien Lake's PAC.

The band's new album, not out until next week, is dedicated to recently deceased DMB saxophonist Leroi Moore, and it's an emotional, dense, and often heavy (by DMB standards, at least) affair.

It's streaming here, so check it out before making your way to the show.

Getting pumped for The Hip

On Tuesday evening, the Tragically Hip played the second show of a six-night run inside Toronto's fabled Massey Hall.

Earlier that day, a few of your faithful Buffalo News music freaks scurried north to spend the afternoon with Hip vocalist Gord Downie before settling in to watch a marathon, often-sublime twin-set show from the band.

My interview with the delightful, intellectually generous Downie will run in the Spotlight section of The News on May 31st, prior to the Hip's four-night run at Artpark in Lewiston beginning June 2nd.

To help get you psyched for the group's arrival, we've created a slide show of Bill Wippert's photos documenting the Massey Hall show. Check it out, then scroll down for the complete twin-set list from Tuesday's gig.

The Last Recluse
Family Band
Gift Shop
Now The Struggle Has A Name
Puttin’ Down

New Orleans

Is Sinking
Throwing Off Glass
Bobcaygeon
Honey, Please
The Lonely End Of The Rink
The Depression Suite

(Intermission)

Are We Family? (Acoustic)
Thompson Girl (Acoustic)
Wheat Kings (Acoustic)
Nautical Disaster
Gus: The Polar Bear from Central Park
Coffee Girl
Love Is A First
Springtime In

Vienna

Morning Moon
Grace, Too
Frozen In My Tracks
Music At Work

(Encore)

The Dark Canuck
Little Bones

Longwave, at long last

Longwave plays a show inside Mohawk Place tonight at 8 p.m. The gig is a make-up date for the band's scheduled December appearance in that same club, which was cancelled at the last minute due to particularly nasty winter weather. Here's the feature that ran in Gusto prior to the cancelled December show. 

Joe Cocker UB CFA set list

Here's the set list from Joe Cocker's butt-kicking show at the UB Center for the Arts on Tuesday. If you were there, please share your thoughts on the show here. 

Hitchcock Railway

Feelin' Alright

The Letter

When the Night Comes

Up Where We Belong

Shelter Me

You Are So Beautiful

Come Together

Hymn For My Soul

You Can leave Your Hat On

Unchain My Heart

With A Little Help From My Friends

1st encore:

Delta Lady

She Came In through the Bathroom Window

Cry Me A River

2nd encore:

Long As I Can See the Light

Dead at midnight tonight!

The Hamburg Palace Theater (31 Buffalo St., Hamburg) kicks off its "May Midnight Madness" movie series tonight, with a midnight showing of the epic "Grateful Dead Movie." If you've never seen the flick, it's much more than a concert film, but rather, blends animation, performance and documentary aspects into a quite compelling whole.

Find more information on tonight's show, and the rest of the "May Midnight Madness" schedule, here. And here's a bit of the animated bit from the Dead's movie.