Photos and Text by Tim Van Schmidt
David Byrne, Red Rocks
David Byrne: American Utopia
The new CD by David Byrne, “American Utopia,” is challenging listening indeed. At the top of the order is an ultimately positive and hopeful view of human existence, but it is a somewhat crooked ladder on the climb up. That isn’t a fault, however, that is the design, one that keeps the listener somewhat off balance and hopefully awake to some of the sonic candy in the production. From spare moments where Byrne’s vocals are laid bare to full throttle walls of sound, the sound of the record goes a lot of places, including plenty of little twists and tweaks along the way. But it is Byrne’s lyrical habit of including sometimes random imagery and phrasing that creates the greatest side steps here. Singing about cash cards and chickens is not the usual fare and he throws a lot of that against the wall. But like the drippings in Jackson Pollock’s art, enough of this rings true to create some kind of vision of living in the 21st Century.
Puddles Pity Party
UK Subs
Jim Messina
Bohemian Nights 2018
Israel 2018
Herzliya Pituach
Jaffa
Apollonia
Caesarea
Northern Coast
Acre
Latrun
Jerusalem
Bethlehem
Dead Sea
Masada
More…
Judas Priest, Saxon, Black Star Riders, Budweiser Events Center, Loveland, April 11, 2018.
Art in Bloom, Milwaukee Art Museum, April 15, 2018.
Boston: Freedom Trail 2018
Fort Collins
March For Our Lives- March 24, Fort Collins
Eric Johnson: Definitive work
Eric Johnson, Lincoln Center, Fort Collins, February 8, 2018.
The trend of touring by featuring the performance of a full album usually marks an artist’s most popular work. In the case of guitarist Eric Johnson, reuniting with original band members drummer Tommy Taylor and bassist Kyle Brock, his “Ah Via Musicom” album tour not only highlights perhaps his most popular work, but also a definitive artistic statement. It’s all there- Johnson’s unique combination of silvery polished tone and swirling execution- and the tunes are carefully measured to highlight different moods. What Johnson poured into this single album covers the breadth and depth of a distinctive and creative guitarist’s work and while Johnson wields much more career material, this music continues to reflect the best of his musical skills and taste. His is ultimately a positive and even uplifting music, but still very much capable of blasting through the night.
Angela Davis: Looking deeper
Black History Month Keynote Speaker, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, February 6, 2018.
Listening to this longtime activist reveals that racism- and sexism and classism- is not one thing, it is many. With each layer that gets peeled back, more layers become obvious- layers of rhetoric, thought, understanding, habits, actions and history. Such is the process of the analytic mind that refuses to stay within accepted boundaries.
Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue: Partying by example
Grand Opening for Washington’s. Fort Collins, February 3, 2018.
It was an energetic romp on stage for Trombone Shorty and band. This is where the stage movement is just as important as the super-funky, horn-punctuated music, the yelps and posturing of the group inciting the same from the seriously partying fans. They were just showing them how to have fun and their style is to just get into the heart-pumping groove and don’t stop. Of course, it helps that the band is capable of stop-on-a-dime musical changes while working on their crazy crowd-rousing moves.
Snowy Range, Wyoming