author: Nicole J. LeBoeuf

Woo! Two concerts to report on. Feels like lots and lots more. Here we go.

Trippin Billies, Tuesday night: You know, I think I had more fun listening to this cover band at the Fox than I did at the actual Dave Matthews Band show at Jazz Fest 2005. The Fox was less crowded; I had somewhere to sit; and I was so close to the stage that I kept getting looks from the lead guitarist and from the violinist, as much as to say, "You're really into it, aren't you? Or maybe you're just insane?"

For me, there were two highlights of the evening. Most noticeably there was the violinist's solo. He sampled each riff he played into a repeating loop until by the time he was done he was playing with an entire orchestra of himself. More subtlely, there was the moment when the singer stopped pinching his voice in an attempt to sound more like Dave Matthews his-own-self, and just relaxed and sang like someone with a damn fine singing voice.

It isn't actually that hard to be a Dave Matthews cover band, as long as you can find a versatile saxophonist and a super-human violinist. And it helps if your vocalist has about a three octave range. Nothing to it, if you've got all that. Then you just play the songs, and no one cares whether you're actually the Real Thing or not, because the songs are so very happy-making. Me, I have about three or four songs I absolutely love, and all the rest of the songs I don't know all that well but I still want to just pick them up and hug them. Look, there's enough doom and gloom in the world; we need music that's life-affirming as much as we need cathartic wails and politically aware dirges. The latter has its place, but sometimes you just need to swing-dance, or smile wistfully, or jump up and down and clap your hands and sing.

Dresden Dolls et. al., Wednesday night: Which is to say, Dresden Dolls but also openers Faun Fables and Devotchka, and an unexpected burlesque-style strip tease in between the two opening acts, making the show feel like a classic variety show.

Faun Fables turned out to be a solo act, a lady in "Mediterranean pirate" garb who accompanied herself on guitar or with a complex percussive stomping dance of her high-heeled boots while she sang folk ballads, ancient Greek chants, and compositions of her own. The climax of her set was a melencholy lament during which photographs were lovingly displayed by candlelight, and at last the singer transformed herself into a framed photograph too.

Devotchka were a quartet playing music that sounded like a mix of Slavik and Latin on drum, upright bass or tuba (flugelhorn?) depending on which instrument that musician picked up, guitar, violin, and this weird old-time thing consisting of a miked up wooden speaker box with an antenna sticking up which the guitarist would jiggle to make a sound like a musical saw. Their act had a lot of energy. There'd have been more dancing if people weren't jammed in shoulder to shoulder.

As for the strip tease, what's to say? The music was "Experience Unecessary" and the stripper was wearing purple pasties with blue glitter.

Which brings us to Dresden Dolls. I had never actually heard them before, barring one song that Cate played for John and me. They did in fact play that song, "Coin-Operated Boy," complete with the "record skipping" effect halfway through, which was absolutely amazing to watch. The technical skill involved in that trick is nothing to sneeze at, and that skill was in evidence all through the show.

There was a very Tori Amos element to the lyrics, an emotional rawness unafraid to put itself in semi-shocking terms. A lot of black humor. A lot of cleverness that makes you laugh before you realize you've been handed a grenade. (Note to the audience: You know that song with the verses about sitting by the window in the morning and masturbating? If your only reaction was to fantasize lewdly about the singer, you weren't paying attention.) It was the kind of concert where I was glad to have someone I loved holding me. Some of those songs really hurt. But I'd still go see them all over again tonight and tomorrow and again if I could.

Besides the fantastic "record skipping" thing, there was the sorta-kinda duelling pianos bit (only of course it was one piano versus one set of drums) when she said to him, "It's so hard to take you seriously in that dress." There was "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" peformed by the keyboardist on the drums and the drummer on distorted acoustic guitar. There was the anecdote about how female musicians might respond when male fans yell "I want to have your baby!" (Someone yelled that at Faun Fables, too; she just said, "That would save me a lot of work, wouldn't it?")

And then there was me totally forgetting to pick up any CDs before I left, dangnabit! Guess I have some internet shopping to do.

And of course that's not even to mention the mountain flying cross-country I finally flew yesterday, or the progress on the novel, or how I might have to take a few days off from the novel in order to stay on track with the work-for-hire gig. Meh! More later, therefore.