How many times have I been to Largo in the last five years? A lot. Probably getting close to 100. Never before have I stood on the other side of the street and looked at the building from this angle. Sometimes it’s good to see things from a different angle, in a different light. I had previously missed seeing the Coronet Theatre sign that hangs on the corner of the building!
At the start of his monthly show, Jon Brion walked straight up to the center microphone and explained that he had hit his head a few weeks ago on a low door hang in a foreign country and got a concussion. Ouch! He divulged that he had been away from music for four weeks, indicating that this evening might have a greater air of uncertainty to it than usual. Jon then donned a pair of sunglasses and joked that he was going to do the show like José Feliciano. Having a little trouble seeing with the shades on, he walked toward the piano pondering aloud, “How does José do this?”
He began with the piano improvisation or warm-up style he typically starts off his shows with — though this time the opening of the piece was quite slow and steady. As he played, an image of taking a boat out onto a serene lake entered my mind, as I found myself inadvertently daydreaming about summer vacation. Jon changed the season by squeezing in a couple of snippets of “jingle all the way” into the tune. He briefly accelerated into another section before closing the song in a quiet mood.
Further easing his way into the evening, he followed this with another evocative instrumental piece as he played the beautiful “Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind Theme” on piano.
Then, Jon announced he had a friend to come help him, “For my enjoyment and yours, Sebastian Steinberg.” Sebastian took a moment to get his upright bass and microphone arranged the way he wanted it, then stepped to the front of the stage and looked out into the audience, mentioning that he was looking for his friend, Dre. Dre shouted out, “I’m here.” The audience applauded and Jon quipped, “Motherf*ckers forgot about Dre.”
Jon and Sebastian then launched into a jazz improvisation, which felt a little disjointed as they started, like they were playing two different things. After a couple minutes Jon eased into a vamp on piano and Sebastian knocked out a hot bass solo over the top of it, showing off his dexterity and mastery, and so their performances synced up. When they finished Jon said that they were “MJD,” the Modern Jazz Duo.
Jon asked for requests and started playing the bass line to “On Broadway” with Sebastian joining in quickly. It started out fairly straightforward, but took a left turn when Jon began to rhythmically scrape across the strings inside the piano with his fingers. He began playing the bass line on the MicroKorg and Sebastian switched from plucking to bowing. Jon began thumping the inside of the piano with his hand and Sebastian started knocking on the outside of his bass. Eventually Jon knelt next to Sebastian and also began knocking on the bass until the whole song completely transformed to rhythmic drumming on the bass. Sebastian lifted his arms into the air and snapped his fingers twice and the audience took over snapping on the backbeat. Sebastian returned to playing the bass and Jon returned to the high keys of the piano to finish the song. This performance was one of the highlights of the night for me and so I have chosen a lyric from the song (though they never sang it), as the title for this recap. Sebastian then walked off stage for a break and Jon briefly played the piano before changing direction.
Jon decided he was going to “up the danger factor.” “Right now will constitute sensational dead air,” he said while fiddling around with settings on his equipment. Sebastian stepped out briefly and announced over the center stage microphone, “Jon’s having some troubles lately, so I’d like to remind you to be the kind and patient people I know that you are.” I’m not sure the reminder was necessary as that night’s crowd was one of the more subdued Jon Brion crowds I have witnessed, apart from a few vocal regulars. Jon put up on the left screen a black and white video of an older man painting while a man plays accordion and a younger man sings in French and smokes a cigarette. If anyone reading this can identify this clip, please let me know in the comments! Jon released the warbling synth sounds and played on the microKorg. He created an amazingly full sounding version of the Gerschwins’ jazz standard “Love is Here to Stay.” At one point Jon was listening to the man singing in French and echoing the melody back on the piano, before he began to loop the video and modify the song toward its conclusion.
Beginning to head across the stage, Jon noted, “Going that way means; stand up bass,” spoken with a hint of question in his voice as the bass appeared to block his path. An audience member yelled, “Do it!” Jon responded, “Careful what you wish for,” and accepted the challenge. He began by wandering his way around the bass strings, but settled quickly into “Fever.” Sebastian was summoned on stage by the music and picked up a small acoustic guitar from the rack, joining in the fun with some jazzy chord runs. It’s nice seeing their different approaches to the instruments they had each picked up. Jon has a much smoother and lighter attack on the bass than Sebastian does. Sebastian’s guitar playing has a more scrappy style, though he is certainly adept. It was another fun moment of the evening. On concluding, Sebastian made his entrance to the backstage area.
Returning to his original intention, Jon picked up an electric guitar, while commenting (I think partially toward Sebastian), “It’s an instrument, it can be used for good or evil.” He turned on a monster sound, that is good and loud, to power the guitar. Then, he commenced performing a modernized “Tennessee Waltz” as an instrumental that any rock band would be proud to claim as their own mega ballad. It was a very different style for this classic song, but it worked well. I don’t know what guitar he was using but I was fascinated by the way the pickups seemed to shimmer and glitter with what looks like a strip of tiny lights running across the pickup under the strings. It’s the guitar on the far right in the rack with its back to us in the photo above, comment if you know what it is! He finished the song with a massive sustain in which he never strummed, but just slid his left hand up and down the fret board as he periodically hit the body of the guitar with his right hand. I absolutely adored this rendition of the song. This was the other highlight of the night for me.
Jon played his song “Meaningless” next from the album with the same title. I noted this as a being a very plucky version on the guitar during the lyric portion of the song, with a contrasting, extra-slippery-sliding ending. The vocals were plain and unaffected.
After changing the guitar tone to something much cleaner, he invited the audience to singalong with the next song. He introduced it as one of his favorite songs of all time, “Waterloo Sunset” by The Kinks. Only a small portion of the audience actually sang along on this tune, which was strange, because usually it is pretty much the whole crowd. I wish I could love this song as much as Jon does, but it continues to remind me of times in the past that I would like to leave back there.
Finished with the guitars, Jon sat down at the piano again. This time he played and sang his original, unreleased song, “Trial and Error.” Lovely as usual — sweet and unadorned. When will he make this song available for purchase?
Request time came again and Jon decided to tackle Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” He stuck duct tape across the strings inside the piano, remarking that he needed to “build an acoustic synthesizer.” As he tested it out he said, “It needs more envelope,” and added another strip of tape. A few people laughed and Jon responded, “That was for you three.” He turned up the MicroKorg, found a suitable rhythm on his beat machine, and asked for Sebastian to come back out. Then he performed the song as another singalong with the crowd. Most people seemed to get into it, but I just wasn’t in the mood for cheesy pop that night.
Jon announced, “Here’s a song for a certain kind of human character most of you have encountered at some point.” Still on piano, he played and sang his unrecorded song, “Please Stay Away From Me” (if that’s the title).
Sebastian came out to play one more song on guitar. He announced that it was definitely not a singalong and that it would be sad and slow. He was honest with his description as he played a deliberately plodding version of “Just One More” by George Jones. Sebastian started alone and the quietness suited the song, but as he sang, Jon blended in the sound of a theremin played by a man, projected on to the left screen, to handle the solo section of the song. Sebastian never batted an eye at the addition, but I guess when you perform in the House of Jon, you become immune to any odd embellishment that might issue forth from the speakers.
Clearly ready to close out the night, without delay upon the end of the previous song, Jon played the opening bars of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” on piano. He was soon joined by voices in the audience; this time it sounded like the whole audience was singing. The crowd let loose for this song, even though the middle got muddled and the back of the audience was a measure behind the front. It came back together for the ending lines, organization rising out of shambles. If only such a thing would happen to our bureaucratic entities.
Like Jon’s show in March, this one ended at about 11:40pm and the lights came up on the stage shortly after Jon exited. I liked the pacing of this show, with Jon doing his own thing some of the time, but with Sebastian participating intermittently; that seemed like it was helping to sustain Jon’s energy level. I enjoy Jon playing with other musicians and wish he would do it more often for his shows. He seems to draw inspiration from what others are doing that pushes him to greater creativity.
I love Jon’s canon of songs and it is wonderful to hear him perform these pieces live, but it is the moments of ingenuity that are truly thrilling for me as an audience member. Those moments when I am in awe and wonder, when he breaks through the boundaries of what constitutes a song or what we might think of as the traditional recording, and finds the places the original artist left untouched. The genius of Jon is how he looks at things from a different angle and a different light and we are blessed as audience members to witness it.
If you are missing music in your Jon Brion collection, you can:
Hey Rebecca, I’ve been on a transcription binge lately.
Coincidentally, I just uploaded the chords and lyrics for Trial and Error a couple of weeks ago.
I went to my room that night and transcribed Stay Away From Me. I just need the lyrics.
As alway, great seeing you!
Hi Don,
I shall try to get the lyrics next time he performs it. Here are a few of them…
“Another trying day, if you don’t get your way,
…begrudgingly you must admit, cause you’re starting some shit, by throwing a fit
…Please Stay Away From Me.”
“You never feel quite whole when you don’t have control
…I know whose will will be done and that all of God’s creatures are one.
I feel like I found this one somewhere obscure when I searched for it previously, but I can’t find it now.
R