VIENNA TENG!!!!Eelevety!one!!!
musesfool and I went to see Vienna Teng last night at Coda in NYC. If you have never heard Vienna, you need to run right out and d/l off itunes, buy an album, do whatEVER you need to do to get a Vienna Teng song in your hot little hands. Her sound is unique and very enveloping, warm, without sacrificing a strong, clear tone when she sings. She plays keyboard, and the backup band consists of an upright bass and drumset. It's very obvious that she's been classically trained, and she incorporates inventive chord progressions in her songs, and also many styles -- latin, hungarian folk, etc. Last night she also was accompanied by a string quartet; the set was a premeire of the songs on her upcoming album (releasing July 25!) (She jokingly said they were there to "torture" us with new songs. AS IF). Vic has a detailed descriptions of all the songs she sang and a great writeup over here.
When the string quartet came out, I clutched Vic's arm and then proceeded to silently swoon during the numbers they played. It's hard to pick a favorite but I think I most enjoyed the second song, Whatever You Want, because it was an incredible, complex musical composition that spanned jazz, latin, and traditional classical music all in one. One of Teng's greatest strengths is that her songs all sound very different from one another -- she doesn't employ the same formula for each one, so that you never get bored listening to her. Also, her builds are amazing -- you'll be sitting there following along and all of the sudden you realize you've been carried into this long, extended crescendo that crept up out of nowhere until you realize it's been building since the opening chord and by the time you reach the peak, you're there, you're with her, you're transfixed while she's got her head tilted back, eyes closed, mouth open in a perfect O, and all you can do is catch your breath while she sways and moves her body like a dancer behind the keyboard.
As I was telling Vic, it's very hard to describe how she makes me feel when I listen to her, but the closest I can get is that I feel like I'm sliding across clear, smooth glass. Sailing, almost, but without the boat -- you can ride the lyricism of her voice through her songs without being dragged under by the weight, and the sheer control she has over her voice is remarkable, as is the balance she achieves between a soft lure and bold naked power.
That's Vienna. She rocks. Go get her stuff and listen.
Alright, but the story doesn't end there, cause there were opening acts. The first was this really cute husband and wife duo on piano and guitar called Ellerey. She had a nice voice but all their songs sounded the same and their stage presence needed some work. All in all, though, give 'em a few years and I think they'll be okay.
Then there was Adam. Oh, ADAM.
honey, it took you so long to get your hair that disorganized that it hurts my soul.''>
Adam Heldring took the stage with his guitar and his carefully disheveled hair and his v-neck sweater with t-shirt underneath and his precision-slashed jeans and I thought to myself, "oh honey, it took you so long to get your hair that disorganized that it hurts my soul." He and his backup band - they apparently didn't play with him all the time - whom he kept referring to as the Swedes (which I totally thought was a joke until he introduced them and yes, their names sounded Swedish. Vic asked, "Why the hell would he bring over Swedes to play with him? Me: "Cause no one else will".) were all these young guys with carefully segregated personalities so there was something for all. (Laid-back bassist with skull cap. Nerdy pianist wearing a hoodie, and the lone trumpet player in the back who probably serial kills people in his spare time when he's not flying back and forth from Sweden at Adam's beckon call). Anyway, I get ahead of myself.
Adam had a distinct lack of charm from the beginning that only wore more thin as the set progressed. He tried to chat the audience up between every single song and it got so tedious that at one point even the bass player gave him a 'hurryup' hand motion, and now that I think of it, it was totally the RayK 'hurryup' hand motion. At the end of an interminable sound check, Adam goofily chattered to the audience and plugged his MY SPACE account. I looked at Vic with amusement and began what was to be a series of giggle fits.
His first song was, (in)appropriately, about New York. Because as he said, "well, I was coming here to play so I thought I'd sing about New York." BRILLIANT. The song wasn't so bad, the lyrics a bit uninspired, but it gave us a taste of his style.
Halfway through the second song I turned to Vic and air-wrote:
E - M - O.
We giggled.
Thus it continued in this EMO vain, which hey, was fine enough cause we knew what to expect, right? And actually, I will say this: his MUSIC was really original. The compositions had flair and distinct chordal progressions that were pretty unique, I thought, but the problem is that his lyrics were SO. BAD.
Example: "It's so hard to feel like before.... Don't let me go back even if I say so.... This bag I carry on my shoulder is heavy .... I don't want to go home..." etcetc and so forth.
And the other thing is that while the music itself was solid, he wasn't a good enough guitar player to pull it off. With a better guitarist, the songs themselves would have been impressive, I feel, but then he opened his mouth with his overcooked limp green bean voice and seriously, at one point when he wailed "OH THIS BAG IS SO HEAVY" I had to stuff my fist in my mouth to keep from laughing too loudly.
Alright, so we get to what we're hoping are the last couple of songs, and we've heard wailing and moaning about carrying bags and oppressive parents, when he goes, "Okay, and now we're going to slow things down some. I know those other songs were maybe sad, but this is where it gets EMO."
Which is when Vic and I simultaneously busted out with the
o_O
[At one point in the set, he said about a song, "This song is about Tokyo. I do write songs about other continents as well."
Me: "I didn't know Toyko was a continent. Or New York for that matter." Vic gave me a shrug that bespoke, "Suck it up, we're in Adamland now."]
ANYWAY. There's a time and a place for Emo music and while I can handle it in small doses, Adam was doing nothing to save the night with his dosage of the stuff on the unsuspecting masses. Possibly because he kept plugging his MY SPACE account.
The keyboardist had issues with the monitor the ENTIRE TIME, and you could tell he was complaining to Adam about not being able to hear anything, and he had a face that said he was conservatory trained and was sitting there pretty pissed off that he'd spent $80,000 to play a C major chord for some jackhole who probably was going to take more than his share of the door money and leave them paid in like, beer and kleenexes.
The smartest cookie of the night, though, was the bassist, who initially walked onto stage for the set, already swigging a beer. He swigged between songs. He swigged during songs. He swigged when he gave Adam this Look that totally expressed: "SHUT THE FUCK UP AND PLAY GODDAMN YOU. I DIDN'T COME ALL THE WAY FROM SWEDEN TO WATCH YOUR LIPS FLAP." And he swaggered up at the end, downed the last of the bottle, and meandered off stage with his bass slung over his back.
But the BEST PART. Okay, so on the very last song the crowd is getting sort of restless, cause we know it's the last song and seriously, it was pretty clear that the audience had no love lost for Adam and his Swedes, so we were all ready for them to exit the stage. So they're doing their thing, you can tell the song is about to wind down and we're all thinking yay oh god now it's Vienna's turn woohoo, when the trumpet player suddenly put down his trumpet. He raised his hands and seriously, y'all, high up in the air while Adam's screeching about losing his zebra this serial killer trumpeter started a forlorn slow clapping --- clap .... clap ..... clap .... -- and I couldn't hold it in anymore, I totally lost it and put my head down on the table and just bawled laughing, which is when Vic leaned over and said in my ear,
"This is where we need more cowbell."
When the string quartet came out, I clutched Vic's arm and then proceeded to silently swoon during the numbers they played. It's hard to pick a favorite but I think I most enjoyed the second song, Whatever You Want, because it was an incredible, complex musical composition that spanned jazz, latin, and traditional classical music all in one. One of Teng's greatest strengths is that her songs all sound very different from one another -- she doesn't employ the same formula for each one, so that you never get bored listening to her. Also, her builds are amazing -- you'll be sitting there following along and all of the sudden you realize you've been carried into this long, extended crescendo that crept up out of nowhere until you realize it's been building since the opening chord and by the time you reach the peak, you're there, you're with her, you're transfixed while she's got her head tilted back, eyes closed, mouth open in a perfect O, and all you can do is catch your breath while she sways and moves her body like a dancer behind the keyboard.
As I was telling Vic, it's very hard to describe how she makes me feel when I listen to her, but the closest I can get is that I feel like I'm sliding across clear, smooth glass. Sailing, almost, but without the boat -- you can ride the lyricism of her voice through her songs without being dragged under by the weight, and the sheer control she has over her voice is remarkable, as is the balance she achieves between a soft lure and bold naked power.
That's Vienna. She rocks. Go get her stuff and listen.
Alright, but the story doesn't end there, cause there were opening acts. The first was this really cute husband and wife duo on piano and guitar called Ellerey. She had a nice voice but all their songs sounded the same and their stage presence needed some work. All in all, though, give 'em a few years and I think they'll be okay.
Then there was Adam. Oh, ADAM.
honey, it took you so long to get your hair that disorganized that it hurts my soul.''>
Adam Heldring took the stage with his guitar and his carefully disheveled hair and his v-neck sweater with t-shirt underneath and his precision-slashed jeans and I thought to myself, "oh honey, it took you so long to get your hair that disorganized that it hurts my soul." He and his backup band - they apparently didn't play with him all the time - whom he kept referring to as the Swedes (which I totally thought was a joke until he introduced them and yes, their names sounded Swedish. Vic asked, "Why the hell would he bring over Swedes to play with him? Me: "Cause no one else will".) were all these young guys with carefully segregated personalities so there was something for all. (Laid-back bassist with skull cap. Nerdy pianist wearing a hoodie, and the lone trumpet player in the back who probably serial kills people in his spare time when he's not flying back and forth from Sweden at Adam's beckon call). Anyway, I get ahead of myself.
Adam had a distinct lack of charm from the beginning that only wore more thin as the set progressed. He tried to chat the audience up between every single song and it got so tedious that at one point even the bass player gave him a 'hurryup' hand motion, and now that I think of it, it was totally the RayK 'hurryup' hand motion. At the end of an interminable sound check, Adam goofily chattered to the audience and plugged his MY SPACE account. I looked at Vic with amusement and began what was to be a series of giggle fits.
His first song was, (in)appropriately, about New York. Because as he said, "well, I was coming here to play so I thought I'd sing about New York." BRILLIANT. The song wasn't so bad, the lyrics a bit uninspired, but it gave us a taste of his style.
Halfway through the second song I turned to Vic and air-wrote:
E - M - O.
We giggled.
Thus it continued in this EMO vain, which hey, was fine enough cause we knew what to expect, right? And actually, I will say this: his MUSIC was really original. The compositions had flair and distinct chordal progressions that were pretty unique, I thought, but the problem is that his lyrics were SO. BAD.
Example: "It's so hard to feel like before.... Don't let me go back even if I say so.... This bag I carry on my shoulder is heavy .... I don't want to go home..." etcetc and so forth.
And the other thing is that while the music itself was solid, he wasn't a good enough guitar player to pull it off. With a better guitarist, the songs themselves would have been impressive, I feel, but then he opened his mouth with his overcooked limp green bean voice and seriously, at one point when he wailed "OH THIS BAG IS SO HEAVY" I had to stuff my fist in my mouth to keep from laughing too loudly.
Alright, so we get to what we're hoping are the last couple of songs, and we've heard wailing and moaning about carrying bags and oppressive parents, when he goes, "Okay, and now we're going to slow things down some. I know those other songs were maybe sad, but this is where it gets EMO."
Which is when Vic and I simultaneously busted out with the
o_O
[At one point in the set, he said about a song, "This song is about Tokyo. I do write songs about other continents as well."
Me: "I didn't know Toyko was a continent. Or New York for that matter." Vic gave me a shrug that bespoke, "Suck it up, we're in Adamland now."]
ANYWAY. There's a time and a place for Emo music and while I can handle it in small doses, Adam was doing nothing to save the night with his dosage of the stuff on the unsuspecting masses. Possibly because he kept plugging his MY SPACE account.
The keyboardist had issues with the monitor the ENTIRE TIME, and you could tell he was complaining to Adam about not being able to hear anything, and he had a face that said he was conservatory trained and was sitting there pretty pissed off that he'd spent $80,000 to play a C major chord for some jackhole who probably was going to take more than his share of the door money and leave them paid in like, beer and kleenexes.
The smartest cookie of the night, though, was the bassist, who initially walked onto stage for the set, already swigging a beer. He swigged between songs. He swigged during songs. He swigged when he gave Adam this Look that totally expressed: "SHUT THE FUCK UP AND PLAY GODDAMN YOU. I DIDN'T COME ALL THE WAY FROM SWEDEN TO WATCH YOUR LIPS FLAP." And he swaggered up at the end, downed the last of the bottle, and meandered off stage with his bass slung over his back.
But the BEST PART. Okay, so on the very last song the crowd is getting sort of restless, cause we know it's the last song and seriously, it was pretty clear that the audience had no love lost for Adam and his Swedes, so we were all ready for them to exit the stage. So they're doing their thing, you can tell the song is about to wind down and we're all thinking yay oh god now it's Vienna's turn woohoo, when the trumpet player suddenly put down his trumpet. He raised his hands and seriously, y'all, high up in the air while Adam's screeching about losing his zebra this serial killer trumpeter started a forlorn slow clapping --- clap .... clap ..... clap .... -- and I couldn't hold it in anymore, I totally lost it and put my head down on the table and just bawled laughing, which is when Vic leaned over and said in my ear,
"This is where we need more cowbell."