Concert Recap: Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band (Phoenix, August 2012)

On an August weekend in Phoenix, there's generally only one requirement for any activity:

Air conditioning.

But it also helps if you can play and listen to music.

Los Angeles' Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band made the trek out from the coast to play a couple sets at the Children's Museum of Phoenix on August 20, and since I help book the series, I was definitely eager to see 'em play.

One thing CMOP has started to do is put a few of the shows in their large atrium.  What it does is let a lot more people see a show at any particular point in time (that picture there doesn't quite capture the dozens more outside of the frame), or just let the people playing in the 3-story-tall Schuff-Perini Climber (which you can see just a very small portion of at the top left) hear music while they scamper around.  It would be a bad setting for a solo artist playing an acoustic set, but for the more active rock and pop shows, the kinetic and vocal energy helps encourage the kids who are there in front to move around and dance.  I think if artists are willing to accept the less-than-distraction-free environment it can be a fun show.

I'm a big fan of Lucky, of course, and he and wife/co-band member Alisha Gaddis made a fair amount of noise considering it was just a duo.  I was particularly impressed by the kick-suitcase Diaz had fashioned to give his songs a little bit of extra "oomph."

Anyways, here's a clip of the band playing "Lemonade Stand" off their latest album A Potluck.

Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band - "Lemonade Stand" (Live at the Children's Museum of Phoenix) [YouTube]

Concert Recap: Justin Roberts (Getty Center, Los Angeles, August 2012)

I can get so wrapped up in the constant thinking about kids music -- the planning of shows locally here in Phoenix, among other things -- that sometimes it's hard to simply relax and enjoy music. (I do see "adult" artists every now and then, but not as often as I might otherwise if I didn't have, you know, a family.)

So it was oh-so-pleasant to be able to go to Los Angeles' Getty Center last weekend to see a performance from Justin Roberts and the Not Ready for Naptime Players. It was the first of three weekends of concerts in the Getty's annual "Garden Concerts for Kids" series.

I can't think of too many nicer places to see a kids music show, and evidently many Angelos agreed.

There were many -- many -- families wandering around the expansive Getty grounds.  They were in the exhibits, the courtyards, and they were on the lawn that overlooks the Getty garden.  (That picture at the bottom of the page shows the crowd after a number of them had left following Roberts' first set.  Really, the place was packed.)

Before getting into the show itself, a word about the Getty Center as a concert venue for family shows.

The weather was about 75 degrees, the lawn is huge, and they gave out lawn blankets to sit on.  Let me repeat: they gave out lawn blankets to sit on.  What drawbacks were there to the venue?  Hm. Let's see... I suppose that if the sun were blazing, the unshaded portion of the lawn might be a tad uncomfortable.  And, um, the nearby snack cart stopped selling ice cream at 5 PM, before Roberts and the band had even finished the concert.

And that's it.

Seriously, if this were a series that went on through the year (it's only 3 acts over the span of 16 days, primarily to preserve the lawn's health), it would be hard to think of a nicer free concert series anywhere in the country.

But you're probably reading to hear a little bit more about the show itself.  After finding a blanket with Lucky Diaz, wife Alisha Gaddis, and daughter Ella near the stage, we settled down through a long set featuring Roberts' many hits, not to mention a couple new songs from Roberts, one about being a robot, the other about being an alien.  They were fun songs (one had a particularly '80s-synthesizer sound associated with it), and I look forward to hearing them on disk.  (Roberts said after the show he's still recording a few songs for the next "rock" album; the lullaby album should be out this fall.)

The five-piece band is a finely-tuned piece of entertainment machinery at this point, with an excellent sound, interactive hand movements for many songs, and wildly digressive puppet interplay from Tim (drummer Gerald Dowd), Little Dave (multi-instrumentalist Dave Winer), and Willy the Whale (guitarist Liam Davis), who has a fallback career as a Billy Joel cover artist should Justin call it quits.

Aside from getting a kick out of watching Diaz and Gaddis enjoying the show with handclaps and accompanying hand motions (Gaddis and I bemoaned the loss of the "trick-or-trick-or-trick-or-trick-or" hand motions on "Trick or Treat"), a couple of personal memories:

1) Miss Mary Mack singing along with a fair number of the songs.  Just goes to show that even if your kids reach double digits and are out of the target range of kids music, if they've listened to it enough (and it's memorable enough), good kids music can appeal even to the tween set.

2) Little Boy Blue lost a tooth -- that's how hard Justin rocks.  OK, he doesn't really rock that hard, but I'm going to remember for a long time the look on Little Boy Blue's face when finishing up his ice cream bar (one that required a long walk back to the main courtyard) and losing a long-wiggling tooth.

So, your takeaways:

1) Justin Roberts, fun as always in concert.

2) Justin Roberts' new songs -- good stuff based on one listen.

3) The Getty Center Garden Concerts for Kids: don't miss.

Lovely all around.

[Disclosure: Thanks to Sarah W. McCarthy at the Getty Center for extending us a welcome to the Getty.]

Review: Cirque du Soleil KOOZA (June 2012, Phoenix)

It has been awhile since I saw my first (and, 'til now, my only) Cirque du Soleil show -- Mystere, the first Cirque show, if I recall correctly, to set down roots in Las Vegas.  I don't remember much about the show (of course, the web is now a big help in that regard), but I do remember being vaguely stunned as I left the theatre.   The $60 or so per ticket we paid more than a decade ago, which seemed expensive -- hey, it is expensive -- felt like a bargain after watching the show.  Some of the acrobatics of the Montreal-based troupe made the crowd gasp in ways you just don't often hear outside a sporting event.

Fast forward more than a decade, and the Canadian-based Cirque has 21 shows currently (or shortly) in performance all around the world.  This month, their show KOOZA set up their tent in the parking lot of the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale (suburban Phoenix), and my wife and I went to the show's first Phoenix-area performance.

I have no doubt that there are Cirque du Soleil fanatics who have definitive preferences for particular shows, and who rate the stories in each show as part of their overall enjoyment.

I am not that person.  Although I am generally a person who buys into highfalutin descriptions of cultural themes, the themes for Cirque shows seem a little... too much.  I mean, I buy "an adrenaline rush of acrobatics in a zany kingdom" as a tagline.  But stating that "[b]etween strength and fragility, laughter and smiles, turmoil and harmony, KOOZA explores themes of fear, identity, recognition and power" oversells the narrative a bit.  Sure, I think I could identify the sketch that touched on each of those issues.  But that's not why I (or, I suspect, most of the attendees at any given performance) attend.

It's to see the "Wheel of Death" and other feats of acrobatics which will literally take your breath away, if only temporarily.  If you want to see what the "Wheel of Death" is, you can Google for YouTube links which, theoretically, are prohibited by the terms of agreement of seeing a Cirque show.  But I wouldn't do that, not for any legal reason, but because a good part of the joy and excitement of seeing these shows is the not knowing what might happen next.  I wouldn't say it's like people who go to a NASCAR race in the ever-so-slight hope of seeing a big car crash, though watching one of the teeterboard artists fail to nail her landing was an unintentional reminder that these are people doing physical things that might not succeed.

Most of the acrobatics are stunning -- besides the "Wheel of Death," which, trust me, will cause you to gasp several times, audibly, the High Wire, Balancing on Chairs, and the totally-underselling-its-appeal-named Hoops Manipulation acts were my favorites.  To some extent, the show takes classic circus acrobatics and amps up the entertainment value by adding crazy costumes and hair extensions and innovative stage design.  I'm not saying this as a criticism -- I'm saying this to illustrate the fact that Cirque du Soleil has figured out how to improve these forms in each and every way -- both talent-wise and presentation-wise.  It's the difference, frankly, between a $25 ticket and an $80 ticket.

The clowning interludes, while occasionally pretty funny, are less essential to enjoying the show.  There's a pickpocket, an annoying tourist, a king, and a bad dog.  They are funny, occasionally employing a little PG-13 humor, and most of the time, I just wanted them to get off the stage so we could enjoy another acrobatic entertainment.

As for the story, the show "tells the story of The Innocent, a melancholy loner in search of his place in the world."  I am here to tell you that the story is irrelevant to your enjoyment of the show.  I think the Innocent found his place in the world - I just can't tell you where that place is.  And throughout the whole piece there's a six-piece band (and vocalists) playing along.  The music and lyrics are very non-specific in their sound -- it's vaguely Indian "World Music," which no doubt makes it easier to translate the show from country to country.

Should you bring your kids to KOOZA?  Well, we didn't have our kids with us, but there were more than a few slightly older kids there.  While it is no means a slow-moving show, it doesn't move fast enough to consider bringing your preschooler or more antsy young elementary school student.  Kids ages 7 and up will probably ooh and aah over the gymastic/acrobatic portions.  Their mileage for the clowning portions will vary.

As for you, kindly adult reader, KOOZA may be over the top at times, but to a large degree, that's just the point. As long as you're willing to be awed by some incredibly skilled performers, you will, in fact, be awed.  

KOOZA plays in Phoenix through July 15, and continues its tour in Houston, Dallas, and Tampa before heading to the United Kingdom in 2013.  Tickets and more information are available here. Note: My wife and I received complimentary tickets for a performance.  No review was required or expected in return for our attendance.

Dan Zanes Releases, Celebrates Christmas in Concord

Nothing like news of a Dan Zanes Christmas album to make the season bright(er). Word from Brooklyn this week that Zanes will follow up his excellent fall release Little Nut Tree with Christmas in Concord. The 5-song EP will be available on iTunes starting on November 29. [The EP is now available here.]The five tunes (tracklisting below) are traditional Christian Christmas tunes. Zanes notes that those tunes were part of Christmases in his hometown of Concord growing up:

"I moved away from that narrow canon in the years since I left home as a seventeen year old in favor of more varied musical pastures, but this holiday season something pulled me back... I now realize that there were some very moving songs being sung year after year and I’m grateful for the memories of those parties and for the experience of gathering year after year with friends and neighbors to sing, eat, have a few laughs and eat some pickled herring.”

Zanes did indeed travel more broadly, musically (remember his Holiday House Party from 2008?), so this is definitely much more traditional.

In addition to the EP, Zanes is also putting on a Christmas in Concord concert on Saturday afternoon, December 17 at City Winery in New York City. The concert is intended to be a celebration of the Antonsons' annual Christmas party - a seasonal highlight in Concord, NH from 1968 through 1989; sounds like it'll be much different from the House Parties of '08. Zanes promises "special guests! christmas music! songbooks! holiday spirit!," all of which I'd expect from Zanes (including the lowercase spelling). No word on the pickled herring, though.

Sounds like a blast. If we were anywhere near NYC that weekend, we'd be there. EP tracklisting (and possible sneak preview) after the jump.
Christmas In Concord Tracklist
1. Silent Night
2. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
3. Joy to the World
4. Deck the Halls
5. Angels We Have Heard on High

Zanes released a video of him performing "Silent Night" solo in 2010, so we shall see how (or if) he modified it for this release...

Dan Zanes - "Silent Night" [YouTube]

Photo credit: Gala Narezo

Concert Recap: Chuck Cheesman (Phoenix, October 2011)

So, yeah, we had fun last weekend with Chuck Cheesman as part of the series at the Children's Museum of Phoenix.

Chuck's had years of experience playing younguns at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music and around Arizona, so he's really good at getting the preschoolers and young elementary-aged kids up and moving around. The CMOP was no exception.

Here he is playing the title track from his new album Dancing With No Shoes On...

Chuck Cheesman - "Dancing With No Shoes On" (Live) [YouTube]

Chuck's hoping to tour a little bit more for this new album and I'm hopeful he'll be able to charm a few more kids in a few more states in the months to come.

Here he is playing an abbreviated version of "The Seafood Song," which went a little bit over the heads of the young audience...

Chuck Cheesman - "The Seafood Song" (Live) [YouTube]