I saw Arthur open for 1000 impatient Wilco fans..
Joseph and his....tape machine.
What I'm saying is, I can't tell if you're being
ironic, or not.
I'm as serious as chronic renal failure.
First off, this isn't your parent's Joseph Arthur. Completely
different package now; perhaps one of the most startling artistic
revamps i've ever witnessed. It brought to mind the sea change that
took place with Joe Henry when he went from an alt-country journeyman
to a post-modern noir specialist, but even more dramatic. Arthur
should change his name to avoid further confusion.
There's no more Jeff Buckley-ish, neo-folktronica, one-man-show stuff
-- Arthur is now working with a proper rock band. And what a fucking
band they are. Two chicks and two dudes are now backing him up on this
new tour in support of the brand new "Nuclear Daydream" album:
Jennifer Bryant (really really great guitarist), Sibil Buck, Greg
"Wiz," and my homeboy, Kraig Jarret Johnson on keys, gtrs, and bg vox.
For a "new" band, their command of the material is already pretty
startling. They're all first-rate musicians, the vocal arrangements
(they all sing) are super-cool, and they all look like a million
bucks.
The new album (not cut with the new band, btw) doesn't really give
many hints that at a major sonic departure from Arthur's extensive
back catalog is waiting in concert. A good chunk of "Nuclear Daydream"
-- expertly produced and fussed over, almost slick -- is
introspective and dreamy, which makes the transformation from the
studio to the stage even more arresting; live, many of the new songs
are almost unrecognizable from their studio counterparts. The live
versions are, without exception, grungier, much rawer, more
adventurous. More importantly, the live show rocks in a variety of
ways that are largely absent on the album. Even the "non-rock" new
songs were much better live -- for instance, the polite arrangement of
the album-closing title song was transformed into a stripped down
reading featuring not much more than Arthur's croaking voice and a
spare guitar motif, the end result displaying levels of sadness that
the studio gloss almost managed to eliminate.
Last week in Mpls, the band blasted through the album in sequence with
a confidence that was totally compelling, only breaking stride a few
times to insert even newer songs (one of those, a killer rocker,
"Cocaine Fit," is one of the best drug songs Johnny Thunders never
wrote) and an impromptu cover of "TV Eye," likely inspired by Mr.
Johnson (who's covered it with his band, The Program and played it
live at First Ave. last year with Mike Watt). Arthur's voice in
particular was amazing -- what is often oh-so-pretty and measured in
the studio turns into a growling mess on stage one minute, a soaring
over-the-top falsetto the next.
Just a few random reference points that entered my mind during the
breathtakingly good two hour show at the Fine Line:
* Johnny Thunders, specifically Heartbreakers era
* Richard Hell
* Richard Ashcroft
* Leonard Cohen
* "classic era" acoustic Neil Young
* Iggy the crooner
* Iggy the punk
* Iggy the stage monkey
* Kraig Jarret Johnson
* Nixon-era Modern Lovers
* the piercing falsetto of Prince
* Only Ones / Peter Perrett (esp. the expert use of the chick singers)
* the epic sweep of early Springsteen & early Waterboys
* the zany theatrical gimmicks of the Flaming Lips (leaf blower +
toilet paper = silly fun)
* Tony Montana (Joseph and Kraig both had the scruffy vagabond/street
chic/open shirt w/medallion thing going on; the combined cool factor
was off the scale)
Enough rockcrit blabber. I was utterly mesmerized by this show and am
now musically smitten in a way that has been largely missing from my
life over the last, musically mediocre IMO, year.
As proof that there is a God (I almost forgot, Joseph often sings
about spiritual stuff -- one of the highlights of the night was a song
called "Don't Tell Your Eyes," which featured guest Gary Louris, and
was introduced thus: "and hey, it don't matter if you're Christian, or
Muslim, or Jewish, or whatever -- you can sing about Jesus. He was a
prophet and he was awesome. So fuck it"), Arthur is recording the
shows on this tour and offering them up through the miracle of that
"instant live show" technology thing. So i can can now relive this
wonderful show as many times as i want to. Oh yeah, a telling factoid:
about 50 of the 500 people at the Fine Line waited up to 45 minutes
after the show to get their live CDs -- i wasn't the only one who
drank the kool aid.
Go check this band out, even if you're not impressed with the new
album and/or the "old" Joseph Arthur. And warm up the Tivos and VCRs
for Letterman tonight.
