~ Live Show Review ~ ... with MP3 and RealAudio accompaniment. Click the "R" after each underlined word or song title to stream the RealAudio as you read, or click the "M" to hear the digital quality MP3. The MP3s sound better but are larger files; the RA files are smaller but have poorer sound quality. So pick your pony, Cowchick. Fortunately, the recently released Real Player G2 plays both formats, is available for Mac or PC, and is absolutely FREE. Download it here. And be sure to integrate it into your browser so that it opens automatically when you click on a file. Or get your kid to do it for you.
Live at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Santa Cruz, California, 3/12/99, produced by Snazzy Productions. Reviewed by Jane Doe by special permission of the Federal Witness Protection Program.(Editor's Note: In Snazzy parlance, "weasels" refers to that select group of freeloaders, americana addicts and web site staff who get in for free but are forbidden to occupy a paying seat .)
As luck would have it, my first assignment for this web site fell on a No Panties Friday. Standing in the back with that extra tingle, waiting for the show to start, I felt, well, elevated -- I'd discovered a higher form of weaseling. Leaning on the counter, shifting my weight from one leg to the other, I knew I was special. I glanced at my fellow weasels, thinking to share my discovery: there was Dave hovering over his sound equipment; Tim the Doorman took his position with a set of brass knuckles clearly outlined in his back pocket. And then Simmons flew by, mumbling god-knows-what subversion to his kid.
Nah. I'll keep this secret to myself. What we women do with our pleasures is our own damn business.
Which brings me to these three women. Mollie O'Brien, Nina Gerber, Kristina Olsen. What little I knew of them did not suggest that they belong together onstage. What's the secret pleasure here?
First Mollie and Nina took the stage. Nina, silent and shy except for her graceful hands, and Mollie serene and beautiful. They began with Randy Newman's "Rollin'", a subtle song full of attitude. My senses heightened (or shifted focus anyway). Nina cracked a sly smile as steam went rollin' off her guitar. As if she knew she had just captured me! By the time Mollie flowed into Lucinda Williams' "Big Red Sun"(R//M), I had forgotten all about my situation and was totally seduced by the music. Between jokes about her bass player, Chris Engleman, being a Geographist -- Geographer?-- and her own catholic school upbringing (nuns don't teach geography 'cause they don't want you to go anywhere), Mollie sang sweetly and powerfully. She made "Eleezah and her Two Robber Lovers"(R//M) sound like a church hymn, of all things. Mollie's voice -- warm, clear, and so strong -- with Nina's powerful and focused guitar work now seemed a perfect match, a natural pleasure. Now I know that Mollie will have many "Girlish Days" (which was one of my favorites), especially if she keeps belting out these magical songs that take our thoughts to americana days and campfire nights.
After a short break, Nina and an obviously excited Kristina Olsen took the stage. I thought this woman too serious for me, with her deep throaty voice, her facial motion pictures, and her ballads. Nina just smiled her MonaLisa smile, as if she knew better. I listened closely and heard how "Dangerous" was "masculinity having a shine that doesn't quit"; a song with a serious message that will rock your pants off. So to speak. I laughed while Kristina riffed on Santa Cruz' cool co-ed bathrooms, each with its own delightfully enigmatic man-slash-woman symbol. I had to wonder where she was going with this -- perhaps another message? But then came a sudden turn, an instrumental called "Phoebe's Iceberg"(R//M) in tribute to her agent's dying child. She played this mournful slide piece on her National steel guitar and melted guitar and iceberg alike. I of course was still feeling warm as she shifted gears again, launching into an analysis of the similarities between sex shops and backpack shops, as a lead-in to her next number, "Big O!"(R//M). Lots of sweet innuendo here; if this didn't get you then you belong at the backpack shop. Nina Gerber, by the way, accompanied Kristina with more fire than I've seen in some time. She was just rockin' on this night and you could see she was totally into it. Kristina finished her set with "I'm Straight", a snappy little gay number, and I realized that I'd had a great musical evening.
Driving home in the soft echo that follows a great live show, I was one happy weasel.
(Excerpted material recorded at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center on 3/12/99. Mix by Julie Rix. Recorded by Dave Nielsen of Technica Gratia Artes.)
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