One look at the map and you see why Edward Sharpe &The Magnetic Zeros played Columbia, Missouri — a college town — on a school night. Smack dab between the larger venues in Kansas City and St. Louis, the Mizzou crowd gets some great acts on off nights.
Therein lies the problem for this music guy. I no longer get to set the college apartment record for sleeping until 3 p.m. in the afternoon. I growed up. Now I am up by 5 a.m. See where this is going? I so wanted to see the complete ES&TMZ, but they barely put a dint in the song list before I had to leave. Granted, if my photo pass had not expired after three songs in the pit, that might have convinced me to lose sleep.
And accordingly … I wish Sharpe and co. (singer Alex Ebert and a rotation of musicians) would have launched into some more recognizable stuff early in the show. Best I could tell, the musicians on stage were just kind of jamming and experimenting with sound effects while Ebert tripped around the stage, metaphorically speaking, and climbed the barrier into the crowd … and let a 10-year-old girl play his tambourine … and invited some college girl onstage to play her harmonica during “Mayla” I think it was. (Do most college girls have a harmonica in their pocket? Oh, I guess this is just the tradition at Sharpe shows, since that legendary Bonaroo fan joined in …)
Regardless … so much fun! The streetgoers at the outside show were pretty much in a frenzy as several other photographers and I snapped away. Ha … like I was saying, the first part of the concert kind of ran together. So, I looked at one of the other photographers and asked “has it been three songs yet?” (That was the limit, before our photo passes expired.) The other photography shrugged. He had no idea where one song ended and another began. “Close enough,” he said, as he put his camera away.
So, I didn’t get to hear about a third of the instruments on stage. No baritone, no ukele, and none of several other unusual stringed instruments on stage. I was bummed. No idea if nerdy songbird Jade Castrinos joined singer Ebert on stage for their singsongy, social media marching anthem, the jumprope cadenced “Home.”
Funny. Nine out of nine people I have asked about this concert don’t know the band or their hit … until I play it for them. You can’t not know “Home.” It is everywhere.
The most eventful part of the concert for me was “the old head shrug.” I was on one knee, on the pavement in front of the stage, firing off Nikon non-selfies (what were once known as photos), when Ebert decided to go prowling in the audience. He had climbed down a speaker earlier, but this time had a new route … and luck of the draw, I was right in the way. To his rockstar self, I probably looked like a deer in spotlights. And rightfully so. I sort of paused, not knowing which way this long-haired leaping gnome was about to leap. Ha … so, he gave me the head shrug, or nod, or whatever, as if to say “get over there foo.” I complied, and got a pretty detailed shot of his nose hair from that angle, I am sure.
So, for now, I guess my knowledge of this band will be restricted to my iTunes collection and a few YouTubies from Bonaroo and such. And my favorite band trivia: first concert – The Marfa Film Festival in Marfa, Texas.
But wait … what about the opening band, Crash? Well … the singer Crash is also a member of Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zero crew, as were the guitar players, the drummer, the pianist/horn player … So I have sort of seen the group … a bunch of zeros, but not the sum of the whole.
Crash is a bit of a trip too. He sings in a folksy falsetto style, while wondering around in his own little ethereal world on stage — backed by honky-tonk piano, some hot brass and the two guitarists both having a go at it. Ha … his vocal style? Google the nasally goodness of “Winchester Cathedral” and then watch a video of Prince’s “Kiss” … and give that a good hippie vaudeville mash up in your mind.
Crash was pretty interesting to watch, no doubt due to his understudy of Ebert. He pranced around in a floral ruffled shirt, and funky, faded olive colored trousers from another era … with banjo and muted trumpet in the background. Pretty artsy.
So … I sort of saw an Edward Sharpe concert … and then I sort of remembered my mission in life. So I checked the Wi-Fi as I pouted my way out of the photo pit. Ha … the street sort of had Wi-Fi. Interesting. A public hotspot popped up. But it wouldn’t let me and my iPhone partake. So, I guess this was pretty much a photo outing only. Still … all things considered, lots of fun.
Hats off to The Blue Note, a Columbia institution for 30 years, for bringing The Zeros to town for the annual Ninth Street Summerfest. As a matter of fact, Jeff Tweedy is playing there tonight.
Speaking of Tweedy … here’s our take on Wilco from the road:
Know what I sayin?
