WORK+PLAY

Archive for March, 2012|Monthly archive page

New Build @ Mercury Lounge, 3/13/12

In Show Sketches on March 17, 2012 at 6:04 pm

Another night where I walk into Mercury Lounge without the usual sketchbook.

I had set a reminder to buy tickets for this show a month in advance– I should have just bought them right then. By Valentines day, the show was sold out.

I was working on Wednesday night, having surrendered all hope of getting in. But walking back around 11– there were tickets at the door. I went straight to the front of the stage.

Yeah yeah, I love dancing at shows, and my descriptions of bands are all pretty uniformly euphoric. I’ve cried wolf a few too many times. So yeah. I won’t say anything at all. Just smile to myself. It was very good. Stupidly good. I have nothing to say.

Sure, yes, hype. I agree with you. Buzz. LCD Soundsystem Hot Chip yeah yeah. DFA. Next big thing. Lets all call firsties. Whatever.

Whatever. I’m just smiling to myself, here, thinking about this show. And I hate drawing large bands. Im sometimes irked when I’m torn between dancing and drawing. It didn’t make a difference. Al was melting of happiness onstage, which was beautiful to watch. I wish I had gotten a better sketch of the three in the back, something that would have spanned the whole small sketchbook I was using. Agh. Oh well.

 

 

 

Razika w/ Landlady @Glasslands Gallery, 3/12/12

In Popgun Presents, Show Sketches on March 16, 2012 at 5:15 am

Razika

Landlady

Glasslands Gallery

Popgun Booking

 

Fab 5 Freddy w/ Spirit Animal, Fountain Art Fair 3/9/12

In Show Sketches on March 14, 2012 at 6:30 pm

…Well, the fact that I could get a press pass to draw Fab 5 Freddy, yeah, maybe that was involved, maybe?

Spirit Animal were feisty and refreshing– especially “in light” of the cool, fluorescence of the Armory, fully illuminated at 7 pm. The liquor line was long, and people were just starting to come through the show, after a pretty tranquil preview day.

There’s a reason why the Fab 5 Freddy sketches are sort of repetitive. I was dancing a lot.

Fountain Art Fair: Preview Day 3/9/12

In Show Sketches on March 14, 2012 at 6:07 pm

New York’s just finishing up its version of an astronomical syzygy– the Whitney Biennial, New Muesuem Triennial, Armory Show, and about a dozen other art fairs all fell within a few weeks of each other. I decided it’d be fun to cover one of the smaller rapscallions, and at random I chose Fountain Art Fair.

 

 

Twin Sister, Ava Luna and ACLU Benefit @ Silent Barn’s Public Meeting at Gotscheer Hall, 3/2/12

In Show Sketches on March 11, 2012 at 6:58 pm

http://twinsistermusic.com/

http://avalunamusic.com/

http://higrecords.x10hosting.com/aclubenefit.html

 

Show Sketches featured by 3rd Ward!

In news on March 6, 2012 at 2:22 pm

I’m psyched and a little cowed to see my show sketches up on 3rd Ward’s blog– check out the link, and very nice piece of writing here. Thank you John!

3rd Ward is a Brooklyn arts organization that provides coworking space, studios and classes to local talent. They host a regular Wednesday live model Drink and Draw (which I’ve been really really meaning to attend,) and foster both emerging and established, and both craft and conceptual artists.

At Family Business, #2, 3/1/12

In Family Business, Show Sketches on March 5, 2012 at 5:49 am

After sketching at Family Business the week before, I was challenged to do it again– but in a different medium. So I (mostly) switched over from what I drew with as a six year old (crayons) to what I drew with as a twelve year old (microns) and as an eighteen year old (graphite.) It got messy. I liked it. It could get messier. I use crayons because I like the quality of line, the stage-lighty color, and that no one’s blouse gets hurt when I take a crayon up it accidentally. A year ago in Australia, I’d paint with feathers, and use inkwells on bumpy bus rides. I wasn’t afraid of ruining my (or anyone else’s) clothes then, but… well… look out, people.

 

 

Gemma Ray @ Rockwood Music Hall, 2/29/12

In Show Sketches on March 5, 2012 at 5:20 am

A lighter amount of sketches for this show…

Gemma Ray’s music brims with the juiciest kinds of aural camp: doo-wopps, beach guitar,  cinematic orchestration, musical saw.  She was first described to me as a ‘torch singer,’ and I expected a freak-flag, nostalgic-parody type of live show. Not true. In fact, the organ they travel with provided much of the theatricality.

Gemma may look like she just stepped out of a John Waters production, and she sounds like something from a Lynchian dream sequence , but she avoids going completely Disneyland. And when you’re not stuck in toon town, the music’s allowed to be genuinely transportive. I was grateful for the diminished spectacle, and that her playful, nocturnal music was allowed to carry itself.

Javelin w/ Pat Jordache @ Glasslands Gallery, 2/24/12

In Popgun Presents, Show Sketches on March 5, 2012 at 4:00 am

Short of one memorable CMJ showcase, Friday, the 24th of February was by far the most epic night of show sketching I had ever done (I surreally drew in front of Maurizio Cattelan and other fabulously knowledgable-about-art people at Family Business, and had stopped by Ric/Rambo’s Cheap Storage event to draw Night Manager.)

Javelin are incredible weirdos. I love them a lot. I had barely sketched them at Santo’s Party House last December, and was excited to get another chance. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such a hyper crowd at Glasslands either. The energy was magical– in the middle of the show, Javelin passed around the mic for freestyling– and it passed from person to person to person, every one of which was a pretty capable rapper. For the first time in my life, I saw other show sketchers! I was a little visually overstimulated, and didn’t pay attention to the sound as much as I could have… I think it was good!

Pat Jordache opened, with the Pat Jordache band (who I think are his brothers? Or he just dubbed each with his last name?) This was also a pretty amazing set– everyone was a little shocked and unconvinced when they began playing. Pat’s voice has the quality of a bludgeoning tool wrapped in a towel– deep and unspecific. He also brought on a soprano saxophone onto the set. No one knew what to think, especially in light of the Tune Yards connection. And then people got into it. And began dancing. And singing along. I’m not sure if we were won over, or hypnotized– it was probably somewhere in between. But that’s not a bad effect at all.

Night Manager and Woodsman @ Cheap Storage, 2/24/12

In Show Sketches on March 5, 2012 at 3:35 am

Had a brief but wonderful interlude at Cheap Storage off of Graham Ave… thank you to Night Manager for bringing me in to sketch! There’s one sketch in there of Woodsman as well…