Wednesday, June 24, 2020
i'll write you letters and i'll write you songs
I was going to say that "I wasn't expecting to talk about any shows on here," but I suppose it's more accurate to say that before the boredom of sheltering in place set in, I wasn't expecting to talk about anything here.
But even with things opening up a bit, I've still got more time on my hands. And with shows being very low on the list of activities that are going to be permitted anytime soon, a lot of musicians have even more, so there's been no shortage of live streamed performances to take in. Most of them are free, some of them are tipped/pay what you want, but there's also been quite a number of ticketed "concerts" on paid platforms.
The latter's felt weird. And when I think about that, it feels weird for a different reason, because I've always been of the mind that musicians deserve to get paid, so I'm not sure exactly why it's so easy to feel bad about paying for "just a stream."
Katie Crutchfield's been playing through her Waxahatchee catalogue every Monday (starting on the 8th and continuing until July 6th) via NoonChorus. I've grown to love all of her songs so much over the last decade that it was a relatively easy decision to buy tickets to the streams for me. And I'm glad that was the case, because while they're obviously far from an actual in-the-flesh show, they've been both uniformly great and also felt really special.
For obvious reasons, the arrangements have been different than on record, but even as things here in Vancouver open up a bit, it's felt nice to be connected in real time in some way to both an artist and other people who appreciate the same art.
As for the performances themselves, there's been a real VH1 Storytellers vibe, as Katie's been solo for the first three records and has also taken the time to give a bit of backstory on all of the songs.
American Weekend and Cerulean Salt have remained my favourites of her recorded material, but last week's performance of Ivy Tripp sounded so drastically different from the albums, that it was the easy highlight. It also made me even more excited for next Monday's performance of Out in the Storm and the closing performance of Saint Cloud, since those two are also real "full band" recordings too.
If you're a fan, it's also been worth the price of admission just to hear the encores, which have typically been covers and her non-Waxahatchee songs from the time around each record. It's been awesome to hear Katie pay tribute to influences like Lucinda Williams, Elliot Smith, and GBV and also hear her dig back into things like P.S. Elliot.
I touched on it in my first post back, but nostalgia's been hitting extra hard lately and hearing "Tennessee" live again for the first time since flying out to New York for the P.S. Elliot reunion shows 5-years ago really got to me in the best way.
If you're a fan, and you're fortunate enough to be in a position to drop a little money, it's well worth it to check out the last two shows. Also, that money's being split with the people that would've been in her touring band, if they were able to get out on the road to support Saint Cloud and any tips via NoonChorus' platform during the performances have been allocated to different charities for each stream, usually coinciding with the city that is tied most closely with the album being performed. Last week's tips went to BLM New York.
I'm still thinking--almost daily--about when I can cram into some dark bar to see music live again, but until then, this isn't so bad.
now playing: Waxahatchee - Home Game
i'll write you letters and i'll write you songs
I was going to say that "I wasn't expecting to talk about any shows on here," but I suppose it's more accurate to say that before the boredom of sheltering in place set in, I wasn't expecting to talk about anything here.
But even with things opening up a bit, I've still got more time on my hands. And with shows being very low on the list of activities that are going to be permitted anytime soon, a lot of musicians have even more, so there's been no shortage of live streamed performances to take in. Most of them are free, some of them are tipped/pay what you want, but there's also been quite a number of ticketed "concerts" on paid platforms.
The latter's felt weird. And when I think about that, it feels weird for a different reason, because I've always been of the mind that musicians deserve to get paid, so I'm not sure exactly why it's so easy to feel bad about paying for "just a stream."
Katie Crutchfield's been playing through her Waxahatchee catalogue every Monday (starting on the 8th and continuing until July 6th) via NoonChorus. I've grown to love all of her songs so much over the last decade that it was a relatively easy decision to buy tickets to the streams for me. And I'm glad that was the case, because while they're obviously far from an actual in-the-flesh show, they've been both uniformly great and also felt really special.
For obvious reasons, the arrangements have been different than on record, but even as things here in Vancouver open up a bit, it's felt nice to be connected in real time in some way to both an artist and other people who appreciate the same art.
As for the performances themselves, there's been a real VH1 Storytellers vibe, as Katie's been solo for the first three records and has also taken the time to give a bit of backstory on all of the songs.
American Weekend and Cerulean Salt have remained my favourites of her recorded material, but last week's performance of Ivy Tripp sounded so drastically different from the albums, that it was the easy highlight. It also made me even more excited for next Monday's performance of Out in the Storm and the closing performance of Saint Cloud, since those two are also real "full band" recordings too.
If you're a fan, it's also been worth the price of admission just to hear the encores, which have typically been covers and her non-Waxahatchee songs from the time around each record. It's been awesome to hear Katie pay tribute to influences like Lucinda Williams, Elliot Smith, and GBV and also hear her dig back into things like P.S. Elliot.
I touched on it in my first post back, but nostalgia's been hitting extra hard lately and hearing "Tennessee" live again for the first time since flying out to New York for the P.S. Elliot reunion shows 5-years ago really got to me in the best way.
If you're a fan, and you're fortunate enough to be in a position to drop a little money, it's well worth it to check out the last two shows. Also, that money's being split with the people that would've been in her touring band, if they were able to get out on the road to support Saint Cloud and any tips via NoonChorus' platform during the performances have been allocated to different charities for each stream, usually coinciding with the city that is tied most closely with the album being performed. Last week's tips went to BLM New York.
I'm still thinking--almost daily--about when I can cram into some dark bar to see music live again, but until then, this isn't so bad.
now playing: Waxahatchee - Home Game
