Last time Dave Bazan (formerly of Pedro the Lion) came and played a house show for me, it was a piercing, thoughtful, riveting evening. I compared it to my very first house show I saw with Joe Pug, and how the intimacy was borderline overwhelming. I wrote:
“I still feel this way about house shows, and now even moreso after seeing David Bazan lay bare everyone and everything in that room with just his voice and guitar. As I sat there listening to his songs that he often performed with his eyes clenched shut, there was a keeling unsteadiness within me, so acutely he probed. I was absorbed into his fierce and sometimes sardonic, regretful humor, his unflinching engagement with all the super-hard questions that crouch in corners.
I was wearing a hoodie and sitting directly to his right, facing much of the crowd. I kept finding myself ferociously wanting privacy, wanting to pull my hood up and disappear inside of it as I listened. I felt like all my stories were being written in black ink in public, scrawled across my face as I listened to him. He has a way of making the listener feel suddenly small, suddenly mortal. A speck hurtling along. A cascade of failings and hopes, trying to make sense of it all, thinking about the promises we keep.”
In addition to Band of Horses tonight, Coloradans are blessed this week with a rash of fantastic shows. But this is a rash that you actually want — on Tuesday and Wednesday night, Gillian Welch is bringing her awe-inducing musical talents to Boulder and Arvada (holy heck have you heard that new album?), while David Bazan (of Pedro The Lion) is coming back through for another one of those incredible house shows, this time in Fort Collins and not leaving emotional carnage strewn about my living room.
I have a pair of tickets to give away both to Gillian Welch on Wednesday night at the Arvada Center and to David Bazan on Wednesday at a house in Fort Collins. Both will slay you, so pick just one.
WIN WITH WORDS: Today I am reeling from lack of sleep in lieu of many words shared for many hours last night, so let’s do a wordy type contest here. Sit and think a spell, then in the comments you tell me which pair of tickets you would like to enter for, and then pick your favorite lyrics from that artist and tell me about them, and why they are your favorites.
Last month David Bazan stopped in at my house on a quiet weeknight, during his tour of shows in people’s living rooms and gathering spaces. The former frontman for Pedro The Lion showed up sniffly in a red hooded sweatshirt, carrying his guitar case to my front step. I offered him some Gypsy Cold Care tea and we sat to chat as the (largely 20-something male) crowd began to make their way up the walk, assorted microbrews in hand.
After the very first house show I ever attended, I wrote that: “I was startled by the intimacy, as I think many of us were. I am used to (and prefer) my shows small and earnest, but often the artificial barrier between performer and audience is hedged cleanly by the drop-off of the stage to the sticky floors below. As eager as I was, it felt almost too intimate at times, especially given the songs he performs – sharper at excising things from my heart than any scalpel. It would be akin to kissing a stranger at a loud, smoky nightclub or kissing them on a quiet Sunday morning at the sun-drenched kitchen table. In such close quarters, there is nowhere to hide.”
I still feel this way about house shows, and now even moreso after seeing David Bazan lay bare everyone and everything in that room with just his voice and guitar. As I sat there listening to his songs that he often performed with his eyes clenched shut, there was a keeling unsteadiness within me, so acutely he probed. I was absorbed into his fierce and sometimes sardonic, regretful humor, his unflinching engagement with all the super-hard questions that crouch in corners.
I was wearing a hoodie and sitting directly to his right, facing much of the crowd. I kept finding myself ferociously wanting privacy, wanting to pull my hood up and disappear inside of it as I listened. I felt like all my stories were being written in black ink in public, scrawled across my face as I listened to him. He has a way of making the listener feel suddenly small, suddenly mortal. A speck hurtling along. A cascade of failings and hopes, trying to make sense of it all, thinking about the promises we keep.
Bazan would stop every two or three songs and very humbly ask the audience, “So… is there anything you guys would like to talk about at this point in the show?” At first the questions trickled back to him, but as we all grew to understand this hybrid concert/communal interview concept, they began to torrent. Someone asked him, in writing songs, how much is about him and how much is someone else? He replied, “Fiction can often represent your truest self better than non-fiction, because you’re not bound by reality.” With Pedro the Lion songs, he said 90% of them were fictional, as compared to his last album, the deeply personal Curse Your Branches, where 90% are autobiographical.
When asked about his process for writing songs, Bazan said that he’s found that “one line of a song has to emerge fully formed, and in the DNA of that lyric, the rest of the song lies encoded, if you dig for it.” We chatted about both the Black Album (“I have been listening to ’99 Problems’ on repeat in the van, that is just an amazing, amazing song”) and The White Album, in relation to what we pay for music (“If it cost $1000, I’d find a way to save up my money and buy it”). Bazan is extremely intelligent, and said things I liked immensely, such as “buying records is a good way for a culture to stay healthy.” It was fascinating hearing what all the fans in the audience wanted to ask him. There was no boundary –none– between musician and listener, and that felt quietly revolutionary.
Another thing you need to know is that Bazan has crazy-committed fans. A kid that looked all of seventeen had driven from Wyoming with his girlfriend to sit there in what can best be described as rapt reverence. I found myself watching the audience as much as I watched Bazan — watching them whisper along every lyric, watching the tough-looking Hispanic guy start to cry as he pumped his fist along to the words “The poison makes its way through my body slowly, into the pleasure centers of my brain / If you were here, I would admit that I’m an asshole, but now it’s over and I can’t stay sober — though it isn’t like I try…” When I encounter fans like these (reference: Wilco), I know I need to pay close attention, and that I will be rewarded like I was that night with Bazan. I think we all left completely sated, but with so much on our minds. I had trouble sleeping after.
Dave’s new album Strange Negotiations is out on May 24th on Barsuk Records. He played the record over the house stereo after his set ended, much to the delight of the audience that lingered over beers, then packed the CD up with him when he left the next morning (but not before he and I had one of the nicest morning coffee hours at my kitchen table that I’ve ever had – endlessly fascinating, that man).
Below is the first track released from the new album, along with a few particularly incisive older ones.
Go to: DAVID BAZAN’S SPRING TOUR * w/ Cotton Jones
# w/ S. Carey
& w/ Rocky Votolato
May
04 – PORTLAND, OR – Crystal Ballroom
June
01 – SALT KAKE CITY, UT – Kilby Court *
02 – DENVER, CO – Hi-Dive *
03 – KANSAS CITY, MO – Record Bar *
04 – COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA – West Fair Amphitheatre (w/ Bright Eyes, Jenny and Johnny) 06 – ST. PAUL, MN – Turf Club *
07 – Madison, WI – Annex
08 – CHICAGO, IL – Lincoln Hall *
10 – ST. LOUIS, MO – Old Rock House *
11 – COLUMBUS, OH – Basement *
12 – AKRON, OH – Musica
13 – PONTIAC, MI – Pike Room
14 – TORONTO, CANADA – Lee’s Palace
15 – OTTAWA, CANADA – Mavericks
17 – ITHACA, NY – Haunt
18 – HAMDEN, CT – Space w/ Via Audio
19 – CAMBRIDGE, MA – T. T. The Bear’s #
22 – NEW YORK, NY – Bowery Ballroom #
23 – PHILADELPHIA, PA – Johnny Brenda’s #
24 – WASHINGTON, DC – Black Cat #
25 – CHAPEL HILL, NC – Local 506(w/ Centro-matic, Sarah Jaffee) 27 – ORLANDO, FL – Social #
28 – ATLANTA, GA – Earl #
29 – BIRMINGHAM, AL – Bottle Tree #
30 – NEW ORLEANS, LA – One Eyed Jacks #
July
01 – BATON ROUGE, LA – Spanish Moon #
02 – HOUSTON, TX – Fitzgerald’s &
03 – DENTON, TX – Dan’s Silverleaf &
05 – AUSTIN, TX – ACL Presents: Satellite Sets
07 – TEMPE, AZ – Sail Inn &
08 – SAN DIEGO, CA – Casbah &
09 – LONG BEACH, CA – Alex’s Bar &
10 – LOS ANGELES, CA – Troubadour &
12 – VISALIA, CA – Cellar Door &
13 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Independent &
16 – SEATTLE, WA – Showbox at the Market &
There was a very nice feature in The Denver Post this weekend about the house shows we’ve been putting on here in Colorado, with some words also from David Bazan who will be playing for us on Wednesday night. I was in Austin and didn’t see the article, but my awesome dad texted me a photo, after warning me, “give me fifteen minutes” when I asked him to. It takes a while, this technology.
I am having so much fun with these house shows. In addition to a new one I got going on March 12th with The Head and The Heart (plus Kelli Schaefer, The Moondoggies, and Ravenna Woods), I am extremely excited to have just confirmed another house show with David Bazan on March 23rd! Bazan is one of the most talented songwriters I know of, from his time with Pedro the Lion through his solo career. He’ll be playing to just 50 of us on that Wednesday night.
Ticketing for my show is here, and other dates can be found below. Some still have tickets left – get them here if he is coming to your neck of the woods!
That mini-documentary from 2009′s Curse Your Branches tour will give you some sense of what we’re in for, just in condensed, undiluted living-room form.
DAVID BAZAN LIVING ROOM TOUR 2011
Fri 3/18 – Spokane WA
Sat 3/19 – Missoula MT
Sun 3/20 – Bozeman MT
Tue 3/22 – Ft Collins CO
Wed 3/23 – Colorado Springs CO
Thu 3/24 – Omaha NE
Fri 3/25 – Iowa City IA
Sat 3/26 – Minneapolis MN – SOLD OUT
Sun 3/27 – Milwaukee WI
Tue 3/29 – Chicago IL – SOLD OUT
Wed 3/30 – Grand Rapids MI – SOLD OUT
Thu 3/31 – Cleveland OH
Fri 4/1 – Rochester NY – SOLD OUT
Sat 4/2 – Montpelier VT
Sun 4/3 – Allston MA – SOLD OUT
Tue 4/5 – Brooklyn NY – SOLD OUT
Wed 4/6 – Mechanicsburg PA
Thu 4/7 – Arlington VA – SOLD OUT
Fri 4/8 – Virginia Beach VA – SOLD OUT
Sat 4/9 – Alpharetta GA – SOLD OUT
Sun 4/10 – Nashville TN – SOLD OUT
Tue 4/12 – Birmingham AL
Wed 4/13 – New Orleans LA
Thu 4/14 – Baton Rouge LA
Fri 4/15 – Houston TX – SOLD OUT
Sat 4/16 – Denton TX – SOLD OUT
Sun 4/17 – Austin TX – SOLD OUT
Tue 4/19 – Tucson AZ
Wed 4/20 – Phoenix AZ
Thu 4/21 – San Diego CA – SOLD OUT
Fri 4/22 – Los Angeles CA
Sat 4/23 – Visalia CA
Sun 4/24 – Fremont CA – SOLD OUT
Tue 4/26 – Eureka CA
Wed 4/27 – Corvallis OR
Thu 4/28 – Portland OR
Former Pedro The Lion frontman and chronic literate deep thinker David Bazan is heading on the road soon, and a short documentary has just been released by J. Wakeford Francis and the folks at Feltheart Filmworks. This three part video series follows Bazan on his recent tour supporting his 2009 release Curse Your Branches (Barsuk Records), an album that scratches deep at life and spiritual truths until the scabs come off.
Interspersed with live tour footage, this mini-documentary traces Bazan’s reasons for going solo, how he’s working on interpreting the Christianity he grew up with, songwriting on long van drives while touring, and religion’s role in being “a decent human being.”
In it, Bazan muses: “It was said by some that I threw away my chance when I killed Pedro The Lion, that you really only get one kinda go at it. And I thought, if that’s true I still gotta do this, you know…”
DAVID BAZAN FALL 2010 TOUR
Sept 10 – Doug Fir/MusicFest NW – Portland, OR
Sept 10 – Neurolux – Boise, ID
Sept 11 – Urban Lounge – Salt Lake City, UT %
Sept 12 – Larimer Lounge – Denver, CO %
Sept 14 – Waiting Room – Omaha, NE %
Sept 15 – Mojo’s – Columbia, MO %
Sept 16 – Lincoln Hall – Chicago, IL ^
Sept 17 – Magic Stick – Detroit, MI ^
Sept 18 – Lee’s Palace – Toronto, Canada ^
Sept 19 – Il Motore – Montreal, Canada ^
Sept 21 – Club Metronome – Burlington, VT ^
Sept 22 – TT The Bear’s – Cambridge, MA ^
Sept 24 – Brooklyn Bowl – Brooklyn, NY ^
Sept 25 – Black Cat – Washington, DC ^
Sept 26 – Southern – Charlottesville, VA ^
Sept 27 – Cat’s Cradle – Carrboro, NC ^
Sept 28 – Earl – Atlanta, GA ^
Oct 1 – Jack Rabbit – Jacksonville, FL ^
Oct 2 – Social – Orlando, FL ^
Oct 3 – Engine Room – Tallahassee, FL ^
Oct 5 – Bottle Tree – Birmingham, AL ^
Oct 6 – One Eyed Jack’s – New Orleans, LA ^
Oct 8 – The Korova – San Antonio, TX #
Oct 10 – Austin City Limits Festival, Austin, TX
Oct 11 – Foundation – Lubbock, TX #
Oct 12 – Launchpad – Albuquerque, NM #
Oct 13 – Club Congress – Tucson, AZ #
Oct 15 – Spaceland – Los Angeles, CA #
Oct 16 – Casbah – San Diego, CA #
Oct 17 – Downtown Brew – San Luis Obispo, CA #
Oct 18 – The Independent – San Francisco, CA #
Nov 27 – The Showbox – Seattle, WA *
Name: Heather Browne Location: Colorado, originally by way of California Giving context to the torrent since 2005.
"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel." —Hunter S. Thompson
Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.
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WIN WITH WORDS: Today I am reeling from lack of sleep in lieu of many words shared for many hours last night, so let’s do a wordy type contest here. Sit and think a spell, then in the comments you tell me which pair of tickets you would like to enter for, and then pick your favorite lyrics from that artist and tell me about them, and why they are your favorites.
Dave’s new album 
Name: Heather Browne
