More Reviews Of Shows I Didn't Attend

Earlier in the month, I was lamenting that I would be missing Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins at Trinity St. Paul's Church here in Toronto. I was in New York seeing Grey Gardens at the time so I'm only complaining a little bit.

I lent my poor student niece my camera and so she took some nice shots not only of Jenny but then of The Killers when they were at MuchMusic and some videos of Regina Spektor. Somewhere in there, she also went to see The New Pornographers. WTF man.

Fun Fact: Jenny is short.

Funner Fact: She put on a great show.

Funnest fact: Jenny and the band did a procession down the aisle to Jenny's accapella song Run Devil Run to open the show. How perfect.

Why here's Jenny now!

Click to enlarge.

All apologies to Skincarver in advance for yet another chick rock blog post. I swear I always start out writing about Nine Inch Nails and something happens.

A Matter of Timing

After I watched The Proposition and wondered why Nick Cave had not been more heavily represented in my music collection, Holly suggested I give Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus a listen.

I bought the mp3 version of the album and loaded it onto the old music player and went to bed. The next morning, I set out on my early morning zombie autowalk to the train. I hit play. 6 seconds into GET READY FOR LOVE and I was. The urgency and force of the song got me all the way down the street to where the last beat of the song coincided with my first step onto the train platform. By that time, it no longer felt like 6:20 a.m. in the pouring rain.

I was able to hear most of the rest of the album on the way to work and fit the rest in at lunch time, happy to trade Nick in for the usual background boredom sounds. The album is filled with an intriguing mix of ferocity and simplicity that finds footing in several genres but mainly just sounds alive. The lyrics while beautiful are also often raw and unpolished to the point of undeniable weight. There's beauty in a well written line but sometimes the greater art is in the honesty.

With a little prompting, I recalled that I had seen Nick and the Bad Seeds perform in Wings of Desire and had also heard a few of his songs (Red Right Hand and Clean Hands, Dirty Hands) previously. I have a feeling I'm going to be hearing a lot more of you Nick.

Skincarver? I may need your help setting up that altar after all!