Category: Music Thoughts


tonight i thought to myself, yes yes yes i should write a Gonzoreview of the Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros concert i went to on Governor’s Island this week. but i’m in no mood to Fool around so i’m gonna give it to you straight(-Ish). Matt and Jill and i slunk down church street to the toy Ferry building, on line Anthony held a sign saying “one Extra ticket”, which corrected both our lack of Entrance and his Company.

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros at Governor's Island - 7/21/10onwards over water and under sunset, with glowing Gorgeous faces building our swarm, toward gates, concrete, Sand, and stage. (geez, i’ve already Lied to you!)

here’s where i tell you about the opening bands… … … and then Miss Kansas grabbed my hands, screaming that she could read Palms. my left Palm was duly presented, but our previously gleeful relationship turned Sour as she gazed at me with terror, whispering “i dont want to read your Future no more”. i asked her if something Horrible was going to happen, and in all serious and uncontrollable meekness she replied Yes. with Giggles and Smiles i said “maybe it has Already happened.” “No,” she said, “it hasn’t.” she kept repeating “i’m so sorry” and stumbled Away.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros are a Tribe out on a desert Plateau Celebrating some secret nighttime happenings that we can only guess at…but the Invitation stands and so do we, arms above shooting out into the sky, Wild dancing, singing, and bodies. Jade is Maniacal and Stewart (the trumpeter) is encouraging the Pandemonium. this Abraxas inspired beach scene ends abruptly – orderly folks Vanquishing their previously Chaotic alter egos for ferry rushing body motion.

but Alex, walking out into a now thinning crowd, beckons us to Sit Down with him. after few respond he says, “tomorrow morning you’re gonna say, man i wish i was One of the Ones who sat down,” as if we had burst into his living room to find him lazing on his Rocking Chair, sipping scotch, and gently offering us the opposing seat…with this Invitation we are all in it together, sitting around him on the concrete, as he weeps out ‘Brother’. he says goodnight but doesn’t leave – it’s his Home and he has offered his Companionship until the come down is complete.

and then we began our own Glazey stretch back to Brooklyn, echoes of Prince and the late night postspectacularglow Revelers teasing my perpetual dance syndrome. bellows of Who Do You Love? (i gotta wide brimmed hat with black wire, i gotta ship full of gas on sun fire…), a late night last call mid ferry ride Partially pathetic rendition of American Pie (with Mike Kern tagging along via voicemail), and then the streets betrayed my saning Mind (don’t worry, it was Mutual.)

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saturdaynight songluck

on saturday i went into the night with a jacket full of song lyrics and a growler full of beer, and headed over to a friend of a friend’s songwriters’ potluck. more of a songluck than anything else. the music was great – ranging from a folksy sci fi song cycle taking place 300 years in the future, to a tune whose words i couldn’t make out but everybody seemed to be singing along to, and one about a bear and an otter in different decades of their married life together. peculier indeed.

Lyrics from The Lion For Real:
There’s a lion lying by herself
Beside our open bedroom door.
She gazed up at me with
Those rheumy yellowed eyes,
I screamed out Lion For Real!
And I rushed out onto the fire escape,
Looking in I noticed it withering away,
And when she coughed and wheezed,
I cried Eat Me Or Die!
But she stood up, roared, and limped away.
If you walk in and find me wasting away,
Will you still hold me in your arms?

i sung two of my new songs – “The Lion For Real” (whose semitheme comes from the eponymous Ginsberg poem) and “We’re All Disappointed”. though i’m not usually one for singing my own songs, i enjoyed the evening thoroughly. i also played an old tune from 1947, “Cigareetes, Whusky, and Wild, Wild Women,” which I had first heard from the Low Anthem.

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