Last Thursday night I braved the remnants of Hurricane Gustov here in Chicago to go catch Mike Gordon at Park West. The show was promoted as a variety show, which to me denotes multiple performers from different genres and maybe a comedian or two. To say the least, I was way off. What we all saw at Park West that rainy Thursday night can only be described as a poor-man’s Cirque du Soleil with Mike Gordon playing the background music.
Acrobats, stripping hula-hoopers and an ongoing faux cell-phone conversation between Mike and his wife Sally while Mike was out on the road were the things that stood out from the variety show. When the music actually got going it was great, Mike had his bass working real well and the backing band was great in constructing jams around that center piece. The problem was there were too many breaks in action which made it impossible to really get a feel for the show in its entirety. Follow the jump for highlights and an array of photos from the night — probably the only real way to convey the atmosphere and weirdness. READ MORE
Tonight is the unofficial beginning of a serious run of concerts for me and I couldn’t be more excited for this evening’s show. Mike Gordon is stopping by Park West in Chicago. The last time I caught Gordon was with The Duo and the show was off the charts. Tonight is already lined up to be a special night. On Mike’s website it says that tonight’s date is going to be a variety show and he hinted at “all kinds of possibilities,” in a recent interview on JamBase. A Mike Gordon variety show? Sounds awesome. Photos and review to follow next week. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Tea Leaf Green
June 3, 2006
Park West
Chicago, IL
Man…Tea Leaf Green can really kill it. They came into Chicago and simply delivered their A+ game—for the third time in a row that I’ve seen them. That’s 3 / 3 for times I’ve seen them and times they’ve left me humming their tunes for days following their show.
It’d be impossible for them to screw this up at this point. Let’s wish them well now, catch them in a small club while there’s still time (much like the Secret Machines’, Wolfmothers, and Umphrey’s Mcgees of the world…), and look out for the future of Tea Leaf Green. It should be something special to watch, and what’s more, I’m happy to say that I feel that the Live Music Blog has gotten to take part in that (albeit if only minor). Very cool…very cool, indeed…
More photos below and story below…
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