Tilly and the Wall at the 400 Bar, Minneapolis, 10/6/12
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Tilly and the Wall are a delightful act to see. They come onto the stage
with a little audience participation: "We say 'Tilly,' you say 'what'
(Tilly! What? Tilly! What?) -- We say 'Oh,' you say 'Fuck!'" You get the
picture. Everyone is yelling from the start. When they started in with
"Love Riot," the single from the album they'd released four days prior
to the show, the bass was intense. Shake your ribcage intense. Intense
enough to blow a fuse and disrupt the show, as it turns out. They
battled electrical issues for the first three songs. See the setlist!
If
you're not familiar with Tilly and the Wall, they often use a
tap-dancer as a percussion instrument. When I saw Tilly in 2010, they
had scaled back Jamie's tap-dancing because she was four months
pregnant, and she wore an awkward dress with a cartoon fetus on the
front. This time, Derek had lost his voice and couldn't sing. That was a
shame in that the songs Derek sings tend to be my favorite, but also in
that I still haven't seen Tilly and the Wall functioning at full
capacity.
Still,
there are few bands more fun to watch than Tilly. Their mood is
infectious, and their music makes even me want to dance when it's played
live. By the time they got to "Night of the Living Dead," I was hoarse
from singing and covered in confetti. "Beat Control" isn't on that
setlist, but they played it, and danced and danced.
I
have more to say in photos and video than I do in words, it seems. Check
out "Sing Songs Along" in video form at the bottom of the page.
Here’s a quick recap of my highlights for the year 2025. January We began the New Year in Omaha and roundtripped home to Knoxville through an ice storm. I learned to make orecchiette by hand. Construction finally began on my long-awaited lab space at work. February I baked a lot of sourdough using the starter that survived our move home from Australia. I stayed inside a lot with the cat on my lap. I saw Adeem the Artist play the Blue Plate Special in Knoxville and went to Nashville to see Christian Lee Hutson play the Blue Room. I gave a seminar in Pittsburgh, which was fun. Construction continued on the lab. My mom had spinal surgery, necessitating a trip to Oklahoma. March In March we protested unsavory actions by our government, including massive threats to science funding. I saw Bright Eyes in Knoxville and in a cavern in Middle Tennessee and Tulsa with Stephanie. I visited some Cherokee historical sites with my folks in NE OK before I drove home to TN. I stopped in Nashville ...
Gogol Bordello, from really far away I went back to the venue Ryan Adams played Friday night to see Modest Mouse last night. I've seen Modest Mouse a handful of times, and I have generally thought their performance can be kind of uneven. Once, they played Norman and they were stumble-drunk and belligerent. Once, they played Sasquatch Fest and I thought it was one of the most incredible shows I've ever seen. I'm glad I went, but I think we got both worlds last night. I confess I missed the first act. Gogol Bordello played second. I had seen them a festival once, and what stuck in my mind about that performance was how absolutely on their frontman is. He didn't disappoint this time, either. The band comes across as incredibly engaged, intentionally quirky, and borderline manic. The frontman is singing, slinging his acoustic guitar around on his back, and waving a bottle of red wine so enthusiastically it's spraying everywhere when it's not being drunk by var...
Everything Now A friend invited me last-minute to see the Arcade Fire on their stadium tour. I had caught them once at a festival and remembered it as a raucous celebration of a show -- in my memory, now, it's more of a bright roar than anything. I thought it sounded fun to revisit, even though I haven't really heard any of their last couple of albums. The gimmick of Everything Now is that the band is sponsored by a bunch of fictional global corporations. The logos cover all the merchandise, the performers' clothing, and scrolled across the scoreboard and banners in the arena. I wasn't sure how I would like this. The pre-show was fascinating and also irritating, by design. Every few minutes a green-screened cowboy would take over the scoreboard and make an announcement in a patently fake accent. Win Butler's visit to our section Just as the band was entering, in a boxing-style procession to the center of the arena, I realized I had lost my wallet. I was...
Tilly and the Wall are a delightful act to see. They come onto the stage
with a little audience participation: "We say 'Tilly,' you say 'what'
(Tilly! What? Tilly! What?) -- We say 'Oh,' you say 'Fuck!'" You get the
picture. Everyone is yelling from the start. When they started in with
"Love Riot," the single from the album they'd released four days prior
to the show, the bass was intense. Shake your ribcage intense. Intense
enough to blow a fuse and disrupt the show, as it turns out. They
battled electrical issues for the first three songs. See the setlist!
If
you're not familiar with Tilly and the Wall, they often use a
tap-dancer as a percussion instrument. When I saw Tilly in 2010, they
had scaled back Jamie's tap-dancing because she was four months
pregnant, and she wore an awkward dress with a cartoon fetus on the
front. This time, Derek had lost his voice and couldn't sing. That was a
shame in that the songs Derek sings tend to be my favorite, but also in
that I still haven't seen Tilly and the Wall functioning at full
capacity.
Still,
there are few bands more fun to watch than Tilly. Their mood is
infectious, and their music makes even me want to dance when it's played
live. By the time they got to "Night of the Living Dead," I was hoarse
from singing and covered in confetti. "Beat Control" isn't on that
setlist, but they played it, and danced and danced.
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