Performers get creative, quirky for online shows
World-class songwriters wrangling with vacuum cleaners. Cocktail hours with real and fake cocktails. And the infamous Southern ritual of chicken-drop bingo. All are among the delights that occur on a weekly basis as musicians keep making shutdown life more interesting.
While many artists have done online shows as a one-off, quite a few have settled into a weekly routine, including some local favorites. We have, for instance, gotten used to looking forward to Tanya Donelly’s “Sunday Series,” up to six installments so far.
Each week she drops a new cover tune for the occasion (none of which overlaps with the covers album she plans to release when shutdown ends). Highlights so far are Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” with her two daughters harmonizing and a gorgeous “Here Comes Your Man” that may outdo the PIxies’ original. They’re downloadable from her Bandcamp page on a name-your-price basis — but it goes to benefit local music charities, so name a good one.
In fact, great songwriters seem to be making the best use of the live-stream format. The UK cult hero Robyn Hitchcock has been streaming Wednesdays on the StageIt site; having done tribute shows to Bowie and the Beatles, he’s moving on to doing full plays of vintage albums of his own. The one-woman Alabama band Waxtahatchee — which is still set to hit the Paradise in August, but don’t necessarily count on it — is also starting to play each of her albums online in order; the second one, “Cerulean Salt,” gets played Monday at 9 p.m. Streaming every Sunday is Figgs leader Mike Gent — who last week did a mostly request show in honor of Bob Dylan’s birthday, though our request that he learn all 17 minutes of Dylan’s recent “Murder Most Foul” went to naught.
Then there’s Richard Thompson, the English writer/guitarist whose appearances usually get the utmost respect. That changed during his first living-room webcast, when his romantic and sometime musical partner Zara Phillips started vacuuming during an intro (and then joined him for some far prettier harmonies). Always the humblest of master songwriters, Thompson will be back playing from home, probably vacuum-free, this Sunday at 4 p.m.
Perhaps you want some libations to go along with all this music. There are plenty of watering holes who’ve taken their business online — among them the Aeronaut Brewing Co. in Somerville, which has been exploring creative drinking events. That includes a “Virtual Beer Yoga” which happens on Sunday at 10 a.m., and again the following week. Andrea Savino will teach some yoga moves that morning drinkers can manage, and there’s a Zoom beer party afterwards — all free, though the Aeronaut folks wouldn’t mind if you ordered some beer from them beforehand.
If you’re using the shutdown to cut down on your drinking, the Once Ballroom’s regular bartender Scarrie — normally one of the more skilled mixologists in town, and also a teetotaler — hosts a Midday Mocktail recipe every Friday at noon (on the club’s FB page). No simple fruit juice drinks for her — instead she shows you how to boil down herbs to simulate the real thing, like a surprisingly convincing gin-and-tonic using juniper berries. Good to know, and Scarrie’s stylish on-camera presence is a plus.
Now, about those chickens: Alt-country fans will no doubt know Texas maverick Dale Watson from the rip-roaring shows he’s done in recent years at Atwood’s Tavern. But things get a little woollier at home, and his Texas shows have included the chicken drop — a game of chance that involves a numbered bingo board, a chicken and some laxative. He’s easily the first to bring the game to the net, complete with a chance to virtually bet. Check Watson’s Facebook page, because it happens on an irregular basis, whenever he and the chicken feel like it.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2zGzBmM
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