- David Byrne at The Bowery Ballroom - Elizabeth Sweeney
It's a known fact that The Bowery Ballroom in New York City is one of the best places to catch a live show. Last Wednesday, February 3, the venue decided to switch it up a bit with a variety of storytelling, art, and musical performances. The most anticipated part of the evening was David Byrne's ‘Creation in Reverse’, an audio/video lecture about the ways that circumstance and venue develop artistic creation, specifically when writing music.
EchoEcho
Brooklyn based band, EchoEcho kicked off the evening with a weak performance and is hereby declared the worst band to have EVER played The Bowery Ballroom. When a band announces "Welcome to Stories in High Fidelity, featuring...US" you know you're in for it.
Excuse me, but not everyone knows who you are. The guitarist was throwing out solos that didn't quite mesh with the bass player and drummer. Each musician was playing his own song. The lead singers were off-key and made lame attempts to be funny, quirky, and ironic.
Overall, the performance was forced.
Jason Gordon on Broadway Auditions and Eighth-Grade Book Reports
Jason Gordon, founder of Stories in High Fidelity, led the readings with a tale from high school, when his passion for The Who drove him to aimlessly audition for the Broadway musical Tommy. Gordon finished with his own hilarious eighth-grade book report about a current event. He chose a biography about Jim Morrison for the assignment.
Enough said.
Alan Light on Six-Year Olds and Beatlemania
Alan Light, award-winning writer, New York Times contributor, and former Editor-In-Chief of Vibe and Spin Magazines, followed with a “sappy” story about his six-year old son’s “Beatlemania”. Apparently, his son is an encyclopedia of Beatles knowledge, all the way down to bootlegs, obscure set lists, and guitar riffs.
He recently took his son to a live Paul McCartney show, where his son said, “I hope he closes with ‘I’m Down’, like the Beatles did at Shea Stadium in 1965.” As it happens, Sir Paul did close the show that night with ‘I’m Down’.
Dan Kennedy on Journalism Assignments and Metal Band Prayer Circles
Dan Kennedy, author of the national best seller ‘Rock On: An Office Power Ballad’, worked as record store clerk at the age of 41, in the midwest, as part of a journalism assignment. At Kiss the Sky Records, he learned the joys of filing merchandise based on his own system of album cover art and band names like Atomic Bitch Wax.
Then, the audience was in an uproar with his idea of a pre-show Bon Jovi prayer circle, that included asking God to focus on a hitch in merch sales and thanking him for Richie Sambora.
David Byrne, 'Creation in Reverse'
David Byrne, co-founder of the band Talking Heads, visual artist, author, and highlight of the evening, ended the readings with a presentation about writing music as an adaptation process first and an emotional process last. “What’s important is that the emotional input does not come first, but to make a form to fit your environment and the feeling comes after.”
He spoke about CBGB and a similar small, country music venue down south, where intricate melodies and lyrics could always be heard. He focused on various musical trends from African music to New Orléans style jazz bands to Hip-Hop. He explored venue evolution from quiet European cathedrals, speakeasies, and Carnegie Hall to microphones, speakers, and digital music players. He said that music is no longer written based on emotions, but that, “We write formally to fit the venue, whether it be the iPod or the Bowery Ballroom.”
The best part of the evening was Byrne's enthralling comparison of his research to birds and how they adapt their calls to the specific acoustic environments that they find themselves in. This, says Byrne, "is a natural phenomenon across all species and not just humans. Like the birds, we adapt. Creativity is like evolution. Space opens and we find a way to feel it. We enjoy singing just as much as birds do. The end."
Asbury Park's Nicole Atkins
Singer/songwriter, Nicole Atkins, closed the show with an acoustic performance while an artist accompanied her on stage and illustrated his interpretations of her songs. Her voice was electric, haunting, and powerful, and her last song included a surprise appearance by David Byrne.
Stories in High Fidelity, which has been on hiatus for a bit, is a live and Internet-based outlet for bands, record stores, labels, and writers to share their personal memories, opinions, tour diaries, album or live reviews, favorite bands or records, and so much more.
Elizabeth Sweeney - I am an aspiring freelance writer as well as a freelance assistant wardrobe stylist for television, commercials, and music videos. My ...
