Hooves on the Turf

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McCarren Pool was the busiest I’ve seen, and Feist performed with perfection. I am always saddened by the image of her that has been created by people, though well-intentioned, who only know her through music videos and promo photos, or for that matter, through only studio recordings. She is no goddess, they say, and I say that too, but she saves rock and roll, and she must be watched live to believe this. It was only when she told the story of a Janet Jackson concert attendance at the age of 11 or 12, it struck me that her music, with its clear roots in blues and essentials of rock, is an honest representation of how “rock and roll” has collected, after gushes and falls and transformations and simplifications and complications, into this generation.

Update: more photos added.Â

More after the jump.

As for the rest, there was a new guitar that she asked to be named. Suggestions flew in the form of paper airplanes (and sometimes paper balls or just plain shouts). She seems to have considered seriously, the suggestion “McCarren”. Also of interest was a four-track demo version of “Leisure Suite” that had been recorded right before Let It Die. She recently rediscovered it and had the band learn it, the result of which reveals what determination, excavated now in a feat of archeology, had been buried in it six years ago.

I missed Grizzly Bear, save for two songs, and they were once again sounding pristine. Then there was Kevin Drew, or Broken Social Scene presents. The album has got something to it, and I will be discovering that something in further listens, but the performance itself was pretty alright too (Brendan Canning, by now quite bearded, played a song that is coming up on his own solo piece). Though I must say, it wasn’t quite “Broken Social Scene” and it probably would’ve been if other key members were present, or if just more of them were. Someone requested “Almost Crimes” and Kevin said, “Yeah, I like that song too” though Brendan asserted that this was 2007 and the program had changed. Later, though, we heard “Super Connected” and the faster version of “Major Label Debut,” both of which sounded like a somewhat shrunken version of Broken Social Scene, although Feist came out for the latter and was greeted with a roar.

August 29, 2007