SLCR #359: TEKE::TEKE (March 31, 2022)

The description of TEKE::TEKE from the email announcing the folk festival‘s annual Winterruption concert series was intriguing enough to make me want to go see them, even though I’d never heard of them before.

Except I had. CRZ played them on his radio show, and Mika was disappointed at being scooped by him since she’d had them on her list of bands to request but he beat her to them. I vaguely remember this happening, but had no idea that TEKE::TEKE was the band at the heart of the issue. I think I might be admitting that I haven’t paid enough attention to several people here.

This show was scheduled for January but got bumped out due to covid, which is how we wound up celebrating Winterruption mid-spring. The Artesian has thus far kept all its covid policies in place; namely, mandatory vaccines (it had been so long since I’d gone anywhere that I’d almost forgotten how to use the app) and masks. Plus, let’s say that the attendance allowed for a respectable amount of social distancing. Wasn’t a bad turnout, but there was room for more.

One person who didn’t stay for the show was this dude near us who was talking on his phone, mask down, waiting for the show to start. A volunteer working the show asked him to pull his mask up. The guy said he would when he wasn’t on the phone; the volunteer pointed out that this was not actually a request per se, to which the guy said “why are you having a FUCKING concert if you’re going to be so uptight?” The volunteer, who had the patience of a saint while doing the Lord’s work, asked the guy to leave, which he did, swearing all the way. Bon voyage, dicknose.

Someone else near us sympathized with Swearing Man, grumbling through the whole show, sarcastically berating the emcee for not wearing a mask while talking to the crowd, and pulling his own mask down whenever there were no volunteers around. Too cowardly to have an actual confrontation, too delicate to just wear the god damned mask already. At least Swearing Man stood by his convictions. His stupid, stupid convictions.

Our openers were local band Snake River, playing their first show together since before the pandemic. I’d heard the name but hadn’t seen them before. Country-tinged rock, or maybe vice versa. I quite enjoyed their set, probably more so because it had been so long since I’d been out listening to something like this. The highlight was a cover of the Sadies’ A Good Flying Day in memory of singer and guitarist Dallas Good. Not only did Snake River cite the Sadies as an influence (“every Sadies show was the best show ever”), but the Sadies were actually scheduled to play as part of Winterruption, but their show also got postponed from January and Good passed away in February. This was a really nice – if bittersweet – tribute.

Back to that description of TEKE::TEKE: “Featuring traditional Japanese instruments, flute and trombone alongside raging guitars and a pulsing rhythm section, TEKE::TEKE creates a sound reminiscent of 1960’s and 70’s era psychedelic Japanese soundtracks, with a frenetic, modern twist.” And sure, let’s go with that, it’s better than anything I’d come up with. They also mentioned during the show that they’d begun as a Takeshi Terauchi cover band before moving on to their own originals. As a Philistine, this meant nothing to me but maybe you are more worldly than I.

Anyway, the short version is that this completely ruled. I don’t really know how to describe it – if I did, I wouldn’t be stealing bands’ own descriptions of themselves from their websites in place of using my own words – so I’ll just say that quote above is accurate but undersells just how good they are at it. The energy was great and they were enthralling to watch. Would go again, would recommend to others, have already done so, am recommending to you now.

Based on crowd response, I don’t think I’m alone in my assessment. They got a terrific reaction. As we were leaving, there wasn’t a line for merchandise so much as a swarm. It looked like everyone who was there was buying something on the way out. I’m not sure when I last spent actual paper money, but this showed it still has use; sometimes you need to buy a record and holding up the exact amount in cash (it was $20, they made it easy) is the international sign of “I will get out of your way quickly.” Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy your way home to bed five minutes sooner.

SLCR #358: Glass Tiger (March 10, 2022)

Deserée is bonkers over Glass Tiger. I present this information merely as context; a way of explaining why, exactly, I was at a Glass Tiger show in 2022. She was there to watch the band, and the rest of us were there to watch her watch the band.

I updated the year, but otherwise, that’s how I started my last Glass Tiger review. In my mind, this was maybe 4 years ago, but no, it was more than 7 years ago. As if I need more evidence that the past few years have completely destroyed my sense of time. Is this review late? The calendar suggests so. But as far as I can tell, I was at this concert two days ago and also late last year. I don’t know anymore.

When I got the tickets, it felt like maybe we were coming out of this. Isn’t that quaint? We’d had tickets to see Glass Tiger back in early 2020, but it was one of the first shows that cancelled when the world went to pot. And now they were coming back, Mika and I were heading out to see them, and we were… not excited, really. Kind of anxious. I can handle doing stuff (to some degree), but I think it’ll be a while before I’m really INTO the idea of doing stuff.

This marked my first trip to the casino since all the everything. They’d used the downtime to renovate, so it was a bit disorienting. Looked nice in spots, had weird traffic flows in others. Mika and I both got smacked by this old woman’s bag and she seemed real indignant that we’d dare get in its way. “Old bag’s bag” would have worked better but I’m being kind and showing restraint.

We met up with Dez and Reagan, collected as many free slot play vouchers as we could (I wound up cashing out with $17 in free money) and took our seats. I got us a table up at the front; this was deemed acceptable. A local DJ introduced the show and we were off.

The place was nearly sold out and it was weird being around quite so many people. For the most part, it wasn’t a big deal – the only standing area was off to the side behind these bike rack style barricades. The beleaguered security staff was in charge of keeping the tipsy dancing ladies confined to the designated dancing zones; this proved difficult and eventually a gentleman in a blazer had to be summoned to provide reinforcements.

For the record, if you ever want to meet a whole lot of tipsy dancing ladies who are just slightly older than me, you could do a lot worse than a Glass Tiger concert.

I also saw the guy I always see at casino old-man rock concerts, the guy who looks like Ricky Morton. Truly, nature is healing.

As for the show itself, I could probably copy and paste most of my old review and it would all hold true. I still know more Glass Tiger songs than I realize and they’re still real catchy. They played pretty much all the hits you’d expect. And once again, the sound was a bit too loud for the venue. I can only say that with confidence after reading that I’d felt the same way last time; with no big concerts over the past few years, I couldn’t tell if maybe my judgment was just shot.

They did play a few new-to-me covers – Right Here Right Now and Heroes. The latter was prefaced by Alan Frew saying that “David” was missed, leading to – as I was later told – a conversation about who this mysterious David could possibly be. I’ll let you figure that one out on your own.

The show closer, to no surprise, was Don’t Forget Me When I’m Gone. I haven’t learned where the parentheses go since last time and I’m not about to look it up now. This was the song where the not-particularly-strong-or-real dam of security guards and bike racks gave way and fans rushed up to the stage. At that point, I was pretty pleased with my decision to keep my mask on throughout the show.
Frew led a singalong and was thoroughly disappointed in the crowd’s inability to mimic a slightly longer than normal pause before the “my heart would break” part. I didn’t see what was so difficult about this and I famously can’t sing. Maybe I shouldn’t have spent all my skill points on “accurate pause lengths.” Eventually, he wanted just the men to sing “my heart would break,” at which point a stranger (presumably one of the tipsy dancing ladies, but I can’t keep track of everyone) turned to me and hollered “WE NEED YOU!” It turns out that not only do masks help stop you from getting and giving illnesses, but they also allow people to assume you’re singing when you’re merely miming for their approval. Mika seemed amused by the attention I was getting, saying “See? You’d be fine if I died.” She made me promise to include this part. She didn’t make me promise to explain it, however. Anyway, the women had to sing “my heart would break” next and the stranger was very encouraging to Mika as well. This led to more questions that shall not be answered or, indeed, contemplated here.

After the show, we waited around as the crowd thinned out, allowing Dez to get a picture with Alan Frew and an autograph on her stolen setlist. That worked out nicely for her and the other folks who were late in leaving. Maybe not so much for Frew, who probably just came out to visit with friends, but so it goes. He saw those tipsy dancing ladies, he knew the risks.