El Vy- Turner Hall Ballroom, 11/20/15

photo courtesy of Gigshots by Stephen Bloch

Gone was the charcoal gray three piece suit and bottle of red wine, and in its place was a crisply pressed white shirt and matching white slacks when charismatic baritone vocalist Matt Beringer took the stage on Friday night in front of a sold out crowd at Milwaukee's Turner Hall Ballroom.  El Vy, is the collective side project of longtime friends, Matt Beringer (of The National) and Brent Knopf (of Menomena/Ramona Falls).  The duo were joined on stage by drummer Andy Stack (of Wye Oak) and a bass player for an energetic hour-long set which featured performances of all eleven tracks off of the duo's debut release,  Return to the Moon.

El Vy is very much it's own project.  Summed up in one word, El Vy is clever.  Beringer's distinctive low haunting voice and signature crouched stance over the microphone was ever-present, but lyrically and musically, this project is a stark contrast to The National.  The brooding, longing laments of The National are replaced with brighter songs focused on catchy wordplay and electro-pop melodies.  My personal favorite, the title track "Return to the Moon," starts off with the line "I scratched a ticket with the leg of a cricket and I got triple Jesus," an image that just seems to stick in your head.  Pair this with in infectious guitar hook and melody, and you've got yourself one of the best songs released this year (in my opinion).  Many of the songs off of Return to the Moon also translate well live.  "I'm the Man" is perhaps the most musically adventurous number, with a driving bass line and multiple layers of sounds and samples going over it.  In many ways it sounds like a lost track of Beck's from the Odelay era.   Other slower tracks like "It's A Game" and "Silent Ivy Hotel" had their own distinct sway and swagger to them.

photo courtesy of Gigshots by Stephen Bloch

Adding to the performance was a top-tier light show, not something you often see with side-project bands, which often draped Beringer and Knopf in rainbow-like halos during the tracks.  Each song was lit differently adding more depth to the performance.

As an added treat, El Vy covered Fine Young Cannibals's 1989 smash, "She Drives Me Crazy," which was an interesting choice to hear Beringer sing the vocals in a low voice when the song was originally performed in falsetto.

Before their last number, "Need a Friend," El Vy thanked the Pabst Riverside Theater Group for their support, generosity and kindness, and especially called out another Matt Beringer (this time the Matt Beringer who helps manage the theater who has the same namesake as the singer of The National and El Vy who apparently has gotten emails for the National front man in the past).  As a member of the audience, I too have to give major props to Matt Beringer (from the Pabst) and his team for bringing great, interesting acts like El Vy to town.  The only complaint that was felt in the audience is that we wished to hear more of El Vy (even thought they played all of their numbers), as many audience members lingered around after the show wanting to hear more from this eclectic act.

photo courtesy of Gigshots by Stephen Boch

Setlist:
Careless
It's a Game
Sleepin' Light
Sad Case
Happiness, Missouri
Silent Ivy Hotel
Return to the Moon
Paul is Alive
I'm the Man to Be
She Drives Me Crazy* Fine Young Cannibals cover
No Time
Need a Friend

photo courtesy of Gigshots by Stephen Bloch

Nels Cline and Norton Wisdom "Stained Radiance" with Sam Amidon- Collectivo Coffee Back Room, 11/6/15

photo courtesy of Gigshots by Stephen Bloch

"I've painted thousands of paintings in my life and haven't seen to have gotten it right... perhaps one day I will," artist Norton Wisdom exclaimed with a warm smile, wiping his mop of hair off his forehead when I thanked him for the performance on Friday night at the intimate Collectivo Coffee Back Room after his "Stained Radiance" performance with virtuoso experimental guitarist of Wilco fame, Nels Cline.  

photo courtesy of Gigshots by Stephen Bloch

I must say that the "Stained Radiance" performance was like nothing I've ever seen before and like nothing I'll ever see again, even if I attended another show on the same tour with the same artists.   The shows are meant to be one-of-a-kind "happenings" of sorts.  The theoretical artistic concept behind this performance art experience (as I would be remiss to call it a concert) is rooted in Wisdom's artistic philosophy that nothing is ever truly permanent or precious.  To set the stage, Cline and artist Norton Wisdom teamed up to create "Stained Radiance," a performance where Cline uses the guitar and a cornucopia of effects pedals, knobs, and even a mechanism that allows him to manipulate his voice over the strings (never seem that before) to create a musical tapestry of sounds, while Wisdom serves up his art on a large plastic canvas where colors are blended, spritzed with a water bottle to bleed, and squeegeed into one another to take on compositions, shapes and, when coupled seamlessly with Cline's guitar work, stories.  The show was a continual piece, rather than a collection of songs, which spanned the emotional range from disturbing to clever to humorous all within the span of the hour plus performance.  Being seated in the front row, right in front of Wisdom, there was a certain "mad scientist" element going on with Wisdom and Cline.  I'd liken it to Andy Warhol meeting Young Frankenstein, if that makes any sort of sense at all.  Neither Wisdom nor Cline spoke during the performance, and it was rare to even see a grin from either... they just did their thing.  The incredibly engaged audience soaked it in, and this, I think was the purpose of the performance more than anything else... just to take in what was happening at the time, and then to think about it later (if you chose to do so).  

The evening opened with Sam Amidon, a Vermont-based experimental folk artist who I missed at the Eaux Claires festival, but was delighted to see here at the Collectivo Back Room.  Amidon is an incredibly vibrant and clever singer-songwriter whose songs could be best described as traditional ballads layered over experimental sonic pallets, which for this particular evening, were created by Nels Cline.  In fact, barring the first two songs which Amidon played by himself, Cline shared the stage with him for the rest of his set, punctuating his songs with his unique sonic landscapes, which added an entirely complex layer to Amidon's chords and vocals. Unlike the headlining performers, Amidon was quite the verbal storyteller on stage, and spun humorous anecdotes about being in a holistic healing salt water tank and having trouble getting out, before his performance of "Blue Mountains," a track off of his 2014 Lily-O album.  Amidon also fondly recalled a driver's ed lesson where his teacher described the highest level of driving as being "unconsciously safe" which he claimed to experience this week on tour driving in the Midwest in his rental car.  I'll take Amidon's word for it, and from my own experiences driving to northern and western Wisconsin, can somewhat relate.  Rotating between acoustic guitar, banjo, and even violin, Amidon's rich vocals and finger picking were a uniquely fitting contrast to Cline's unique sonic fills.  On paper it would seem strange, but on stage it worked out beautifully.

Put together, Amidon, Cline and Wisdom served a performance that challenged traditional notions of what exactly is a coffee house concert.  A day after the show, I'm still thinking about it, and am grateful that folks like Gary Witt and the Pabst Theater Group are able to provide our community with shows like this, that are extraordinary experiences, even if they only last for one night only. 

photo courtesy of Gigshots by Stephen Bloch