Alpha Schoolmarm Orchestra

Friend of the program and all-around good egg Dave Flomberg was kind enough to let me come shoot his band the Alpha Schoolmarm Orchestra last night at the Mercury Cafe.  If you like ska music -- and really, if you don't you should -- check these guys out.  They're incredibly talented and about as fun as it gets.

Who says you have to wait for the headliner to start taking pictures?  Something about the guitarist for the opening reggae band mesmerized me.  Probably the combination of his blue guitar and the blue stage lights.

Who says you have to wait for the headliner to start playing to start taking pictures?  You just don't see someone in a cowboy hat tuning a cello every day.  At least, I don't.

I sadly couldn't get a shot that did my man Dave justice.  Why do you stick an instrument with a slide in the back anyway?  Someone could get hurt, especially when you've got 15 musicians crammed on a small stage.

Conductor Chad Aman also took a couple of amazing turns on the keys, but kept his baton handy.

Trumpet player Britt Alstad laying low during a number.

What's better than one trombone?  Two, of course!  And bowler hats.

Aman scans the crowd.

You can't listen to ska music and not feel happy.  Glad to see leading a ska orchestra can have the same effect.

Apparently playing cello in one does, too.

ASO did nothing to disprove my theory that every song sounds better as a ska cover, moving effortlessly from Lady Gaga to Wings to Michael Jackson to Nirvana.  Anxiously awaiting the CD release party!

Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Facebook's ad targeting is really well targeted. Like, creepily stalkerish so.  The Mighty Mighty Bosstones played a free concert at Breckenridge this past Saturday, and Facebook was showing me an ad for it probably a month ago.

Of course, I was there with camera in hand.

Only in Colorado do you have to carry your saxophone across a ski slope for a gig.

Bosstone Ben Carr still looks like he's actually enjoying himself on stage.  God bless him.

Lead singer Dicky Barrett's guttural growl hasn't diminished with age.

With the stage set up on a slope I could barely see the heads of the guys in the horn section and couldn't see drummer Joe Sirois at all.  Fortunately, trombonist Chris Rhodes visited the front of the stage on occasion.

Dicky making the universal concert sign for "I can't hear you."

My first Bosstones show?  UMASS Amherst Pond Concert, spring of 1992.  We bounced straight up and down like this then, too.

Another classic concert trope: "Now you sing!"

Guitarist Lawrence Katz makes one of his infrequent forays to the front of the stage for a solo.

So this is what it feels like to sing 10,000 feet above sea level...

Ben dismissing Dicky's assertion that the Bosstone is "the nicest man he's ever met."

A solid 90-minute set with a terrific mix of old school stuff and more recent material.  An energetic and appreciative crowd, and the 40% chance of rain in the forecast never materialized.

I also discovered that in 2013, saying that the pictures you're shooting are for "your blog" is not impressive enough to get you in front of the ropes.  Lesson learned.

Fishbone in Frisco

When you're unemployed, the words "free concert" sound really good. Frankly, the words "free concert" always sound good. They sound even better when they're coupled with great food like at the Colorado Barbecue Challenge.  And they sound best of all when the band playing is one of the finest on the planet, the incomparable Fishbone.

My friend, former Examiner.com colleague and fellow photographer Kevin Staunton mainly shoots concerts, and he knows I mainly shoot landscapes and wildlife.  He took his family to Great Sand Dunes National Park for the weekend and brought his camera along, and said he'd be disappointed if I didn't bring mine to the concert.

Smart fellow, that Kevin Staunton.  I should heed his advice more often.

Fishbone was scheduled to take the stage at 6:00, so I was carefully positioned at 5:45.  Not in front of the barrier since I can't even make the argument that this blog entitles me to media access.  But right up against it.

Two hours of live music have never gone by so fast.

Frontman Angelo Moore shares a laugh with a member of the crowd as the final preparations are made.

Jay Armant, Angelo and Dre Gipson are just Rub a Dub Soldiers.

The only founding members currently touring -- Angelo, "Dirty Walt" Kibby and John Norwood Fisher.

Norwood.

Dirty Walt and Norwood.

Angelo was somewhat constrained after some recent knee surgery, but still got out on the stacks a couple of times.  Guitarist Rocky George plays in the background.

Gipson had no such constraints, and took a trip into the mosh pit.

Dirty Walt.

Norwood.

Angelo looks dubious about something.

Norwood playing the funky bass.

Does anyone else think Angelo looks a bit like The Grinch?  Just me?

Dirty Walt.

Angelo hides behind an audience member's glasses, which he returned after the song.

The favorite instrument of Angelo's Dr. Madd Vibe persona is undoubtedly the theramin.

After more than 30 years, Angelo still brings it.  One of the best frontmen ever.

If you are at all a fan of the band or just enjoy music history, I highly recommend checking out the Everyday Sunshine documentary.  It explains a lot about where the band came from, how they ended up where they are today and why the mainstream success their counterparts like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and bands they influenced like No Doubt enjoyed never quite came Fishbone's way.

Fishbone definitely rocked the party!

But Could It Make "We Built This City" Sound Good?

The Internet can be quite a double-edged sword sometimes. Anyone who thinks of something clever or interesting can share it with the rest of the world as long as they have a computer and an internet connection. Blogs are the trendiest manifestation of that. On the other hand, once you have that clever/interesting thought a quick online search will often reveal that the thought is far from original. Other people have already had it, researched it more thoroughly, articulated it better and turned it into a t-shirt.

Such was the case with the topic I wanted to blog about tonight -- my belief that nearly every ska cover version of a song sounds better than the original. I've still got a CD I burned with a bunch of such tunes that I got off of Napster back before Metallica decided we couldn't do that sort of thing. But before I started my post I did a quick Google search and had all the air taken out of my balloon -- some other guy named Timothy Sexton had done a post on the EXACT same topic on Associated Content almost a year and a half ago.

Here's where it becomes good not to jump to conclusions. I read his piece and found that while his reasoning why ska covers are typically so good is similar enough to mine that I'm just going to link to it for you to read what he had to say and not re-invent that wheel, his list only had two songs that I intended to put on my own list.

So, we'll just take this as an example of what academic types might call the internet's power to facilitate non-real-time collaboration that mutually benefits all contributors in a symbiotic fashion, and move on to MY list in no particular order:

Tears of a Clown - The English Beat
My vote for the best ska cover ever, the song exemplifies ska's remarkable ability to make ANY subject matter sound happy. Dave Wakeling still puts on a good show, even if he's put on a few pounds over the years and he's the only original member still touring.

99 Red Balloons - Goldfinger
Ska purists (if such a thing exists) might argue this inclusion since Goldfinger is considered more of a punk band by many. They've never had a horn section to my knowledge, but since a lot of their songs emphasive the offbeat rather than the downbeat I've always considered them ska-ish. Whatever you call it, this cover has the sort of naked aggression you'd expect from a song about nuclear armageddon.

Hold Back the Rain - Buck-O-Nine
I never understood why these guys weren't as popular as some of their third wave counterparts. This is a pretty straightforward effort on a fairly obscure Duran Duran song. Well, straightforward until you get to the call-and-response section reminiscent of Cab Calloway. Those rascals even cuss in the middle! Ska bands can get away with anything...

I Think I Love You - Less Than Jake
One of my agreements with Sexton's list. Less Than Jake loves them some covers -- I've heard them do White Lion's Wait live and they have THREE on their 1995 Losers, Kings, and Things We Don't Understand CD (Tommy Tutone's 867-5309 and the theme songs from Dukes of Hazzard and Laverne and Shirley). This Partridge Family remake shows off the versatility of the band's horn section from the ominous opening to the Vaudeville-esque bridge.

The Freshman - Mustard Plug
The Verve Pipe original sounds like something the kids who smoked cloves and read Kafka in college would listen to. Mustard Plug's version starts similarly, but in typical ska fashion soon builds in volume and tempo to the sort of tune the rest of us who drank cheap beer and read the Sunday comics could better relate to.

Brown Eyed Girl - Reel Big Fish
Sexton had Reel Big Fish on his list, but chose to go with their version of The Cure's Boys Don't Cry. I prefer their take on the Van Morrison classic. Another bait-and-switch slow opening followed by two minutes of upbeat skanking goodness. They also do a great rendition of A-Ha's Take on Me.

Come On Eileen - Save Ferris
Almost TOO perfect -- the prominent horns, the jangly guitar, the wacky video. The other song Sexton and I agree on, though I really considered going with their edgier version of Build Me Up Buttercup instead. In the end, Come On Eileen was just too darn fun to leave off.

Charlie Brown - Voodoo Glow Skulls
This great cover takes the opposite approach of some of the others on the list, with a manic first minute that then slows down with a rocksteady interlude in the middle. I saw these guys open up for the Mighty Mighty Bosstones back in the mid-'90s and what I remember most about them is that they had a big bald dude for a lead singer who was completely nuts.

It's Not Unusual - Five Iron Frenzy
A gem from a little-known Christian ska band from right here in Denver, and quite possibly the only band in that particular musical niche ever. I saw these guys back in 1998 on the Ska Against Racism tour with The Toasters and the aforementioned Less Than Jake and Mustard Plug, and I thought they were tremendous. This tune is on their live 1999 Proof That The Youth Are Revolting CD. It's fairly true to the original, retaining the requisite campiness while really emphasizing the horns.

Even if you're not a ska fan, I encourage you to check these out. Guaranteed to get your toes tapping, or I'll refund your full subscription price to this blog!