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Post by The Wicker Man on Jul 9, 2004 17:12:21 GMT -5
The Magnetic Fields are going to be playing in San Francisco on July 19th and 20th. As that's Handler's current city of residence and he's played on several of Stephin Merrit's projects I wonder if there's any chance that he'll show up and throw down some mad accordian licks? If anyone's going to one of those shows, be sure to let us know if he makes an appearance. www.ticketmaster.com/artist/774536/
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Post by negativenine on Jul 9, 2004 17:14:01 GMT -5
*holds breath and waits*
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Post by The Wicker Man on Jul 9, 2004 17:16:07 GMT -5
Sorry...my hand slipped and I posted an empty message. D'oh!
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Post by Efogoto on Jul 12, 2004 19:54:00 GMT -5
I tried to get tickets to the July 20th show but none were available.
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Post by negativenine on Jul 12, 2004 20:32:14 GMT -5
Oh no! You HAVE to go! You must buy tickets off someone or somewhere... nooooooo!! Okay, instead of making other people go to MF concerts, I'll just go myself... next time... they come remotely near to Canada.... Too bad about the no-tickets, though. Lauren, Daniel Handler wasn't there at the concert you saw, was he?
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Post by Orangey Snicket on Jul 13, 2004 15:11:47 GMT -5
UGH!
Efogoto, would you be up to just sorta arriving at the place their playing 2 hours or less before and see if you can meet Danny as he's going in or something? Even when you miss him, you have 2 more chances, lol.
Weird request, yes. But that's what I'm doing when Fiction Plane is playing somewhere where I'm underage.
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Post by Efogoto on Jul 15, 2004 12:03:39 GMT -5
I may go and see if someone is trying to dump extra tickets outside the door. Bummer if I don't get in, though.
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Post by Efogoto on Jul 19, 2004 17:15:22 GMT -5
I now have tickets secured and so will report on performance on Wednesday.
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Post by Efogoto on Jul 21, 2004 3:47:25 GMT -5
I am returned only moments ago from the The Magnetic Fields concert earlier this evening. There was no sighting of Daniel handler on-stage. Stephin Merritt sang one song from the "The Carnivorous Carnival" audio tape. A lengthier report follows.
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The venue for this evening's The Magnetic Fields concert was the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, one of the few remaining signs of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. I had coerced an acquaintance of mine, David Exotic, to accompany me.
The entertainment began with a performance by Darren Hanlon, an Australian who had traveled from Stockholm to Oslo to have his wallet stolen before he took flight for San Francisco. He arrived, his luggage did not.
For those who are fans of obscure folk bands of the Pacific Northwest, I can best describe Mr. Hanlon's work as Uncle Bonsai light. All of his songs are humorous, though not hysterical. Occasionally he would find it necessary to drop in an explanatory aside betwixt the lyrics to clarify a reference only an Australian would possibly understand. As he was a solo act, he was forced to sing his own backup lyrics.
My particular favorite pieces were: Punk's Not Dead about sharing a house with a female fan of punk music. "And at night the house is quiet/ You might wonder why / Punk's not dead / She's just gone to bed" Cast of Thousands about post-break-up friendship. "Then I heard about your accident / You fell off a horse / Ha ha ha" The Kickstand Song about the inventor of the kickstand for bicycles and motorbikes. "What joy it'll bring / Piece of metal and a spring" Eli Wallach about the third star (after Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef) of "The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly". The chorus repeats the title twice, as Mr. Hanlon points out, because there's nothing that really rhymes with it. In the final song of the set, Mr. Hanlon opined that there are not enough songs about the game of squash. Enough said. I cannot now recall which song featured Mr. Hanlon strumming guitar whilst performing a vocal banjo solo; I can only say that it was a highlight of the performance.
I found Darren Hanlon to be a charming and disarming opening act. He lacks polish, but as a "found" act, he entertained me.
I thought it odd to have such an opening act until The Magnetic Fields took the stage. I have no idea what the names of the guitarist/banjo player and cellist might be, the pianist was Claudia, and Stephin played ukelele and sang. My friend Mr. Exotic and I agreed that if Mr. Hanlon is Uncle Bonsai light, then The Magnetic Fields are mellow, mild, minimalist Tiger Lilies.
The opening song was that found on the audio tapes of Lemony Snicket's "The Carnivorous Carnival". It may or may not be called Smile, but that word is oft used in the lyrics. Stephin performed this solo, accompanied only by himself on the ukelele. It was the only Lemony Snicket related item in the play list. I rather enjoyed it.
The next song, title not given, was played by the whole band and compared the singer's heart to a chicken with its head cut off, the poor thing running about blind as a bat, falling down and getting up. The tempo was upbeat and the lyrics delightful.
Between some of the songs we were treated to a bit of repartee between Stephin and Claudia. They have a very relaxed stage presence and the humor flowed freely.
The third song was about a clown, rather more sad than anxious, hoping to find a place to live free without stones being thrown in his direction.
Next up was "I Thought You Were My Boyfriend" (title given), an interesting song. Claudia announced that a limited number of discs were available in the lobby with a disco remix of this tune. Unfortunately, all copies were sold before I arrived at the knick-knack stand after the concert.
I might note here that all of the evening's banter occurred between Claudia and Stephin. I cannot tell you why the guitarist/banjo player and the cellist were not included in the badinage.
Here followed my favorite song of the evening which I surmise to have the title "I Wish I Had An Evil Twin" for the actual title was not given. It bordered on the psychotic in a muted, unforced, light-hearted sort of way.
I enjoyed the next song, though I have no idea what the title might be. Claudia sang a rapid patter song accompanied only by the banjo. It was a tender love song.
Stephin followed, accompanied only by ukelele and slide guitar, to sing a song about the Book of Love; how heavy it is, how old it is, how nobody can lift it or read it straight through.
From the soundtrack of the movie "Pieces of April", the band performed "She Don't Believe In His Dreams Any More" (title extracted from the lyrics by your reporter) concerning the hopelessness encountered by a gentleman whose lady friend no longer believes in his dreams.
The following song began with the words "You quote love unquote me" and detailed the relationship of a loved person who does not believe the words spoken by the loving person. This is proved throughout by the repeated lyric "I don't believe you". This was another of the better songs of the evening.
A lovely, slow tune ensued with a title that may have been "Tongue-tied And Useless". This touching ballad, crooned by Mr. Merritt, was a bright spot in the program.
The next tune, "Born On A Train", teetered perilously close to being a Country song - missing only references to rifle racks, pick-up trucks, and hound dogs.
"I Don't Really Love You Any More" (possibly not the actual title of this piece) was a realistic, though not pessimistic, look at faded love and its possible consequences which I rather enjoyed.
"Heather, Heather, / We belong together / Like sex and violence / Like death and silence". Who among us cannot revere the subtle imagery of this moving piece? I favor this one quite strongly.
"Busby Berkeley Dreams" (title surmised) asks the oft-unwondered question "Is it dangerous to have Busby Berkeley Dreams?" For those of you unfamiliar with the work of this early film choreographer, recall the "Be Our Guest" sequence from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast". These sort of dreams may, indeed, be harmful. The song itself was oddly lilting, not really my cup of tea.
"If There's Such A Thing As Love" (title surmised) was notable for being the second song of the concert to rhyme "in it" with "infinite".
The between-song repartee at this time revealed to the audience that Claudia's favorite chord progression is DACG, and that five tires have gone flat when Claudia played the ukelele while Stephin drove the car.
"Smoke And Mirrors" (titel given) was another of The Magnetic Fields jaded songs comparing love to cheap theatrical special effects.
Claudia next sang a song ("Strange Eyes"? Possibly) which contained mention of Picasso's blue period. She sang it well, but I confess it did not appeal to me as strongly as other songs in the set.
"It's Only Time" (title surmised) was another of The Magnetic Fields jaded songs of love.
At the risk of seeming repetitious, "All I Want To Know" (title given) was another of The Magnetic Fields jaded songs of love.
"Papa Was A Rodeo" (title given) with the additional lyric that "Mama was a rock and roll band" was an interesting tune of transitory affection and the intersection of two strangely similar lives. This was the closing song of the concert, a fairly rousing paean to life on the road.
The first tune of the encore set was "All my little words" which contained a certain verbal playfulness that particularly appealed to me. "I could make you go away / But I could never make you stay", "I could make you rue the day / But I could never make you stay", and "I could make you pay and pay / But I could never make you stay". Clever variants adding spice to a lively tune.
The second song of the encore set seemed to be a recent addition to the The Magnetic Fields repetoire, or so I gathered from the remarks of Claudia and Stephin. It was one of the best songs of the evening, and quite entertainingly performed. Claudia and Stephin sang this passionate duet of self-deprecation and mocking agreement.
The final song of the evening was a slow tune titled "I die" (title given). Not my favorite and it markedly paled in contrast to the preceding number. Many of my fellow audience members disagreed with my assessment I believe, given the volume of their applause.
The Magnetic Fields put on a decent show with a lot of songs, which upped the chances I'd find something I liked. There wasn't any song I'd describe as awful and some were delightful, leaving me feeling that I had been given my money's worth in entertainment.
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Post by Amanda on Jul 25, 2004 16:58:36 GMT -5
Does anyoone know if there is any albums with him playing onit and which one?
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Post by The Wicker Man on Jul 27, 2004 15:52:02 GMT -5
Does anyoone know if there is any albums with him playing onit and which one? This is all that I'm aware of... {Stephin Merritt-related appearances www.houseoftomorrow.com/:}1. Magnetic Fields- 69 Love Songs (the photo of Handler in the bunny suit comes from vol. 1, for the song "Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits") 2. The Gothic Archies- "Scream and Run Away" from the Bad Beginning audiobook. Handler may perform in the other Gothic Archies songs done for the Snicket audio books, but this is the only one I'm certain about. He doesn't appear on the Gothic Archies EP, "the New Depair." 3. The Sixths- Hyacinths and Thistles{Non-Stephin Merritt-related:} 4. One Ring Zero- As Smart As We Are (aka "The Author Project...Handler contributed lyrics to the song "Radio") www.oneringzero.com/smart.htmlwww.oneringzero.com/listen.html (mp3 snippet of Handler's song) 5. Moth Wranglers- Never Mind the Context (Merritt was involved but it wasn't his project) www.mothwranglers.com/nevermind.html6. Speed Dial- Kecamwww.motherwest.com/speeddial/home.htmlOh, and it appears that Merritt wrote a song for the Snicket movie but they're not using it. Interesting interview with Merritt where he talks about Handler here: www.dbmagazine.com.au/335/iv-TheMagneticFields.shtml
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Post by Amanda on Jul 28, 2004 17:24:34 GMT -5
Thanks
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