I probably could've stayed in New York another week, but there was no way I was going to miss Two Gallants' return to the Casbah. Though it was technically their official tour kickoff, Tyson and Adam said they'd played in Merced the night before. Either way, there was a huge crowd to see the San Francisco boys rock the stage. It was a night of singalongs and some new material, too. When I told Tyson I'd be emailing him to get new song titles, he said they hadn't really settled on titles yet, so hopefully when they update I can update the videos, but in the meantime, here are the videos from Sunday night.
I do have a couple comments...first is that my digital cameras don't read LED lights very well, so I'm gonna have to get used to working with the new Casbah lights. I also want to say that I was shooting video with one hand while taking photos with the other, so when the girl next to me talked shit to me for not clapping for the encore...well, along with helping promote the show and then shooting it, I don't feel like I hadn't done my part. The Mumlers opened the show and I tried shooting video but they had a song where the singer seemed unhappy with the confused drum rhythm, so I decided not to post it because it was slightly awkward. All in all they were great, though, so I'll definitely catch them next time they're in town.
I have limited wi-fi in NYC, but I fully intend to pound it in your heads that you need to be at the Casbah on Sunday for Two Gallants. Honestly, I don't have my return flight booked but I'm looking to come home Saturday night on a red eye just so I can be at the Casbah for their first show here in over two years. I love Tyson and I love Adam and while their solo records both hit me in very special ways, it is when Two Gallants are together that they crush my soul in the best possible way. I can honestly say this is one of my all time favorite bands and I can also tell you that because their tour is so limited stateside before their European tour, you have to be there. Here are some videos from 2007 of "Steady Rollin" and "Seems Like Home To Me".
It's no secret I'm a HUGE fan of Two Gallants. In fact, I think I discovered them right around the same time I found Rocky Votolato's music and have been a fan ever since. I've been in touch with Tyson Vogel recently (trying to get a house/gallery show the week before SXSW if anyone has a space for his solo project, Devotionals. Park Gallery has not returned emails) and I'm also a huge fan of Adam H Stephens and the solo project he released last year. That's why when I saw the email below popup, I stopped what I was doing to open it. Though I'm in the midst of trying to figure out how the hell I'm getting to SXSW and how to afford it all, I have to say a road trip to San Francisco might be in order after reading this.
Dear dear old friends, fans, family. It has been too long. We are writing to announce that after over two years apart, we, two gallants, are once again one. Not that we were ever not one. But we have strayed quite a distance from the comforting light of the home fires. We have walked the dim lit alleys each with its requisite border of silhouetted doors. Watched the illusory trail of e-missives sent into the night. Necks in a permanent crick from askance browsings of online dating site profiles. But oh the hollow feeling to wake with the scent of a stranger upon the lips and the ineffable sense of longing for the way things used to be.
Two years ago we had become so caught up in the motions of it all that we no longer knew quite what we were doing and why we were doing it. Cogs in the machine. Dust in the wind. But there's nothing like a well earned absence to make the heart grow fond of itself once more. We hope that you can find it in your hearts to understand. We know that some of you have been asking when we'd be back at it again. If you didn't receive a reply from us its only because we didn't have one. Until now.
Please join us if you can in our dearly beloved hometown of San Francisco on April 23rd, 2011 at the Bottom of the Hill. You can get advance tickets starting Saturday Feb 26, 2011 here. Your presence will be extremely welcomed. For those of you who have been with us for a while and those of you who intend to, we appreciate your patience and your continued interest in the music we make.
Tonight I took a little mini-roadtrip with Jeff up to Upland, California to see Rocky Votolato and Adam Stephens. Yes, I'll be seeing them again on Sunday at the Casbah, but Jeff offered and I'm not one to turn down a Rocky show, ever, and the opportunity to see him in a super-small all ages venue seemed like a good idea. I love the Casbah, but as Rocky has gained popularity in San Diego, the crowds are bigger and sometimes more boisterous. There's definitely a difference with seeing a performer in an all-ages space versus one where the alcohol is consumed liberally.
The weather wasn't commuter friendly, with rains on and off as we made our way north on the 15, but we had snacks (shrimp cocktail and Humboldt Fog and crackers from Whole Foods) and good music (Musee Mecanique, Rocky's new CD True Devotion, and Dawes) and Jeff had planned on dinner at an Italian restaurant on the same block as the show, so we took off early in the afternoon and despite minor traffic through Ontario and Corona, we made it in pretty good time.
The show was at a venue in Upland called The Wire, which is a relatively new space judging by the congratulations to the owners by the performers, and might be compared to Lestat's, Hotel Cafe or Tin Can Ale House, because it is long and narrow, though it had a deeper stage than any of them, and no seating. This was a benefit in my eyes, as we were able to secure spots up in front without any problems. The sound was great and they had great lighting (though a bit trigger happy on the fading in and out of said lighting.)
There was a local opener and I'll just fast forward past that band because I like to keep it positive. Adam H Stephens took the stage with a band that consisted of him on guitar, a female on bass (and cello for one song), a keyboardist, and a drummer. I love Two Gallants, and Adam's new material is very different than his old band. It's really good, and his songwriting is still great, but with a summer release, it would've been nice to be a little more familiar with the new material since I'm so used to the epic sing-alongs that came with Two Gallants music. Still, if you're planning on coming to the Casbah show, don't miss Adam. Actually, don't miss Correatown, either, because you'll get to see buds Angela Correa and Joanie Mendenhall share the stage. Plus, there's that alcohol thing...
The videos for Adam will take a while, but here's the setlist (as written):
Cities SouthernLi.. Heights California Elder Wood New Song 2nd Mind I Found A Lov W/ Vengeance
No songs from Two Gallants as it seems Adam is distancing himself, perhaps? Or maybe it's an agreement with Tyson as they both pursue new projects not to go there? I don't know. Maybe I'll get the chance to ask him on Sunday, but he was particularly annoyed by the happy lighting finger so I didn't want to bug him. I hate admitting so, but I was pretty wasted last time I talked to him, so I'd rather pretend we've never met anyway.
Since Rocky performed solo, there wasn't a huge space of time for his setup, though he commented about how quiet the crowd got even for his soundcheck. Apparently the night before at the Troubadour was quite the opposite, so he appreciated the silence, though it could probably also be unnerving, too, especially since his latest release and subsequent interviews have been so deeply personal about depression and dramatic highs and lows that his life has seen in the last few years. I think the sing-alongs helped him to know that the crowd was on his side and just wanted to take in every note of every song.
I didn't get Rocky's setlist, as he's notorious for keeping it in a little pocket notepad that someone else had the brains to ask for, but I think I recorded every song he played, which would make the setlist something like this:
Sunlight (a new unrecorded song) Instrument (True Devotion) Alabaster (Suicide Medicine) What Waited For Me (True Devotion) Portland Is Leaving (Makers) Father And Son (Cat Stevens Cover) Sparklers (True Devotion) Tinfoil Hats (Makers) Lucky Clover Coin (True Devotion) Eyes Like Static (True Devotion) Fragments (True Devotion) Sun Devil (True Devotion) Goldfield (Makers) Suicide Medicine (Suicide Medicine) Montana (Suicide Medicine)
Note that there were no songs played from The Brag & Cuss or Burning My Travels Clean...so maybe he'll throw some in on Sunday's set. I should also mention that I had the chance to say hi to Rocky and his wife April before the show and they both are such sweet people, and genuinely grateful that we made the trip up from San Diego. Hopefully they get some sunshine while they're in town since it sounded like the rain has been chasing them around the state thus far.
If my gushing about Rocky here and on SoundDiego isn't enough, here are a few of the videos I shot of the show. I think we might be getting Rocky on Tim Pyles FTP show for a quick interview, too, so be sure to tune in and then catch him at the Casbah.
The rest are still uploading, so I'll insert them as a playlist later. See you at the 'Bah.
We have some catching up to do, don't we? I've got plenty to write about. So much, in fact, that I'm committing my night to catching up here and skipping out on the couple shows I thought I'd hit tonight.
I already posted video from Two Gallants and Blitzen Trapper, but I also took several pics that night. I got at the Casbah earlier than I usually do because I wanted to see all three bands and also wanted to make sure my ticket winners were covered at the door. Andrea happened to arrive when I did, so we were set to hang for the night.
Songs for Moms started off the night. They're a three piece all female band out of Oakland. With a sound very similar to Two Gallants, it was easy to see how they fit on the tour.
This picture was actually taken after their set because I loved the drummer's hair (center) and since I'm getting a cut tomorrow, it was 'research'. Too bad that look wouldn't work for me.
Andrea and I watched the first half of Songs For Moms' set, but I was searching for someone, so we listened to the rest of the set from the smoking patio. We met Marty and Eric from Blitzen Trapper and talked to them until they had to load their stuff onstage. By this time the venue was filling up, and we got a chance to talk to Adam from Two Gallants for a bit, too.
I mentioned that the last time I saw Blitzen Trapper was kinda rushing around and didn't get to really take them in but this time I got the chance to really actively listen. I love their album "Wild Mountain Nation" but seeing the band perform the songs is really something. The band is high energy throughout their whole set. Their indie/country sound kinda reminds me of Brothers and Sisters and the music is upbeat. Natalie, Andrea, Malinda and I were up front having a blast.
Before Two Gallants started, I made sure to get right up front and center. I don't know if the show was a sellout, but it felt like it was. I was really surprised by the people in the crowd. I'd estimate that 80% of the crowd was guys and the whole show was one extended sing along. I've seen Two Gallants several times in the past, but this time they seemed to be looser. In the past, Adam has usually been in a hat while Tyson usually plays wearing a black hoodie, hair in front of his face. This time they seemed more comfortable, more open, less hidden, and it shone through in the performance of the music, playing songs from the new self-titled album, but throwing in a good selection of crowd favorites from "What the Tell Tolls" and "The Throes". Like I said, we were up front, but the crowd loved 2GS and had arms outstretched waving drinks in the air for almost the entire set.
After the show we hung in the patio for a while with the Blitzen Trapper guys who allowed me to go camera crazy.
It was a wonderfully fun night with incredibly talented musicians. I couldn't have asked for a better night.
I have so much to write about tonight, but it's definitely not gonna happen now (it's 6:18 am and I'm still awake) but I have to post this because to me, it just represents how amazing the night was.....(and I can stop apologizing for my video by now, right? There's low light but to me it sounds great.) Anyway, when the crowd is almost all guys and they're all singing along to the shit that I take 'therapy drives' to, the shit that makes me cry and sing and be happy and sad all at the same time, well, it just makes me feel less alone in this world.
Two Gallants- "Seems Like Home To Me" (I decided to record about a minute into the intro, sorry I didn't capture that)
Two Gallants segued (is that the right spelling?) seamlessly from "Seems Like Home To Me" into "Steady Rollin", so here's the other piece of that.
Let me tell you how hard it was not to belt out and be part of the singalong but I wanted the video, because if not one other person enjoys it, I know it's something I'll go back to and watch and listen to over and over again. Sometimes a chick needs a good cry, and for me, Two Gallants are the band to stir that shit up inside and sometimes I'll be totally happy belting that stuff out to myself and sometimes, it's just what I need to stir up a good cry. How amazing is this music that it can have both effects on me?
Tonight is the night. Two Gallants and Blitzen Trapper are playing the Casbah. I wouldn't miss this show for anything, not even for "The Craft" with Black Francis. See you there.
Click here for an mp3 of "Seems Like Home To Me" from the latest EP (on Stereogum)
On occasion, I get press info and stuff from record labels and PR companies for bands. Not often, but I tend to shy away much of the time, because if a band isn't touring through San Diego, I feel like covering them isn't really valuable to the goal of this particular website.
On other occasions, however, I get these releases and want to do somersaults through my living room because they are from a band that I already adore and the labels/PR people want me (little ol' me!) to spread the word that they are coming to town.
In this case, the band is Two Gallants. I've seen them a handful of times over the last few years, and they are faithful to San Diego, always including us on their tours. In fact, if you were lucky enough to be there, they were the headliners last year when everyone was wowed by a little opening band called Cold War Kids.
The band is made up of two members, but if you listen to their music you might not believe it. Their aggressive folk takes you to another place- perhaps imagery of a hobo jumping trains with a stick over his shoulder holding a bundle of his possessions, meeting heartbreak and disappointment along the way.
They have not only been touring like madmen, but in just a few years have put out albums and EPs, including The Throes (2004) and What The Toll Tells (2006), and are touring in support of their latest efforts, an EP called The Scenery of Farewell and a self-titled album released on Saddle Creek just last week.
The band will be at the Casbah on October 17th. Blitzen Trapper is their tour support, and if you caught them with the Hold Steady at Cane's, you know they're amazing as well. Tickets are only $12 (click here for the Casbah), but through the magic of the Internets, I have TWO PAIR of tickets to give away. But you gotta work for them (just a little).
Answer the following two questions and I will randomly select and notify the winners on Friday.
1. Where are Two Gallants from?
2. There was a scuffle between Tyson and some cops at a show last fall. Where did the incident take place? (name the club and city)
Send answers to the email in my profile (include first and last name, and a contact phone number to confirm the tickets). In the meantime, do yourself a favor and buy the new albums.
Click here for clues and for an mp3 of "Seems Like Home To Me" from the latest EP (on Stereogum)
