{"id":4181,"date":"2010-08-04T16:13:27","date_gmt":"2010-08-04T20:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/?p=4181"},"modified":"2010-08-04T16:23:50","modified_gmt":"2010-08-04T20:23:50","slug":"the-paper-raincoat-at-rockwood-music-hall-stage-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/04\/the-paper-raincoat-at-rockwood-music-hall-stage-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Paper Raincoat at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q: What word describes the following situation? You\u2019re old and exhausted and one of your favorite bands schedules a show at 6pm!<\/p>\n

A: Perfect<\/strong>! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what happened last night. The Paper Raincoat<\/a> played a show at 6pm at Rockwood Music Hall<\/a> Stage 2. The only worry in our minds (possibly in theirs too) was whether people would show up that early<\/em>. No need to worry folks, the place was packed to the teeth with people spilling out the door. Of course, we got there very early and snagged the two seats at center stage.<\/p>\n

I know that most of the people who read this blog know about The Paper Raincoat (TPR) already, but for the Google robot out there, it\u2019s a duo comprised of ambeR Rubarth<\/a> and Alex Wong<\/a>, each tremendous talents in their own right, that prove (yet again) that the whole is often greater than the sum of its parts!<\/p>\n

\"ambeRRubarthAlexWong\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Alex joked a number of times that they were playing the Happy Hour<\/em> show. As Ken Rockwood himself joked back: \u201cEvery hour is Happy Hour at Rockwood!\u201d. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

\"KenRockwood\"<\/a><\/p>\n

They played a nine-song set (not including the encore). If you\u2019re a fan, you\u2019ll know how good a selection it was. Either way, let me assure you that it was extremely well received by the audience.<\/p>\n

\"SetList\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To give you a sense of how unusual the scene was, ambeR lost her place in Sympathetic Vibrations for a second. She always<\/strong> nails that one (though I won\u2019t be able to say always<\/em> any longer) \ud83d\ude09 and she explained that seeing so many people jammed into Rockwood that early distracted her. I don\u2019t doubt that!<\/p>\n

When they started Sympathetic Vibrations, Alex turned to the crowd and said: \u201cYou know your part.\u201d We did. We (everyone, not just Lois and me) clapped our part perfectly, loudly, in unison. ambeR recovered from her momentary lapse by joking that at least we knew our<\/em> part. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

When Alex introduced January, he explained that it should be thought about from the perspective of an older drunk guy. To ensure that we really understood that, three members of the band (I\u2019ll cover each individually shortly) switched places, ensuring that they were no longer superstars on their respective instruments. It was fresh and fun. ambeR played the drums. She\u2019s tweeted that she\u2019s practicing but I didn\u2019t expect to see the result so soon.<\/p>\n

\"ambeRRubarthDrums\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On Right Angles both Alex and ambeR played on the grand piano at the same time:<\/p>\n

\"AlexWongAmbeRRubarthSamePiano\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On It All Depends, they ended with their signature drumming extravaganza. First, they warmed it up by getting the audience to clap in a fast and steady beat. Then Alex joined Kevin with the two of them drumming together, with the audience never missing a beat. Then ambeR joined them with all three drumming on the same drum set (well, to be honest, Alex had a snare a little off to Kevin\u2019s left). It was as awesome as it always is, perhaps a drop more.<\/p>\n

Both Alex and ambeR play a number of instruments. At times, Alex plays multiple ones simultaneously:<\/p>\n

\"AlexWongMultiInstrumentalist\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Closing the show (not the encore) with Rewind, ambeR, Alex and Kevin were awesome. The only thing that differentiates some previous TPR shows is that when Adam Christgau<\/a> does Rewind, he also sings, making it three-part harmony at some points. Kevin doesn\u2019t sing, but the three of them still make live magic every time they perform this song.<\/p>\n

\"KevinRiceAmbeRRubarthAlexWong\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ambeR and Alex returned to thunderous applause for an encore without the band. They played In the Creases, a song they co-wrote before TPR existed. We love the song. Lois felt it was the best rendition she had heard. I loved it, but I doubt I\u2019ll ever experience it like I did at Joe\u2019s Pub<\/a> for ambeR\u2019s CD release party, when Vienna Teng<\/a> sang three-part harmony with them, and Katie Scheele<\/a> played the oboe, and a full band supported them (including Vienna on the grand piano).<\/p>\n

On to the wonderful band:<\/p>\n

Kevin Rice<\/a> on drums. Kevin was the original drummer for TPR, though for the first few shows that we saw them, Adam Christgau was their drummer. Kevin is awesome (as is Adam!) and many of the TPR songs allow great drummers to stretch a bit. The beat is such an integral part of the songs and Kevin never disappoints. For January, Kevin switched to the electric bass. He did a very nice job.<\/p>\n

\"KevinRiceDrums\"<\/a> \"KevinRiceBass\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tony Maceli<\/a> on electric bass. Tony was great all night (as he always is). He\u2019s a lot more understated than a number of the bassists we\u2019ve seen recently, but that\u2019s one of the things that makes him a great match for a lot of groups, his bottom<\/em> is there for them, without Tony (or his riffs) becoming a distraction to their music. For January, Tony took ambeR\u2019s place. He played the electric keyboards with his left hand, and the trumpet with his right! Bravo Tony!<\/p>\n

\"TonyMaceli\"<\/a> \"TonyMaceliTrumpetKeyboards\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Melissa Tong<\/a> on violin. Melissa always delights us and last night was no exception. Many groups add strings to their CD\u2019s without ever using them live. TPR (and ambeR and Alex individually) often have strings on stage, creating the same huge, rich sound that they deliver in studio. While Melissa (and David, up next) were excellent throughout, they were really brought to the forefront in the opening of Right Angles, which is mostly strings for the first 45 seconds. Gorgeous!<\/p>\n

\"MelissaTong\"<\/a><\/p>\n

David Fallo<\/a> on viola. David is wonderful on the viola. In addition to playing on all the numbers that Melissa played on, David also played on one that Melissa sat out. Everything that I said above about Melissa, in particular about Right Angles, applies equally to David!<\/p>\n

\"DavidFallo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"AlexWongMelissaTongDavidFallo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I already mentioned that we grabbed the two seats front and center. Joining us at our table were three very interesting people that we hadn\u2019t met before, but had shared a number of shows together. Getting to know them before the show started made the time fly (another advantage of getting there early) and we look forward to seeing them at many shows in the future!<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s hoping that when we get even older, and NYC kicks us out and forces us to move to Florida, that TPR will show up and play a 3pm show for us while we grab our early-bird dinner special. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q: What word describes the following situation? You\u2019re old and exhausted and one of your favorite bands schedules a show at 6pm! A: Perfect! \ud83d\ude42 That\u2019s exactly what happened last night. The Paper Raincoat played a show at 6pm at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2. The only worry in our minds (possibly in theirs too) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2],"tags":[490,483,482,668,487,583,653,1367,493,395,610,484],"class_list":["post-4181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-2","tag-adam-christgau","tag-alex-wong","tag-amber-rubarth","tag-david-fallo","tag-katie-scheele","tag-kevin-rice","tag-melissa-tong","tag-music","tag-rockwood-music-hall","tag-the-paper-raincoat","tag-tony-maceli","tag-vienna-teng"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4181"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4183,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4181\/revisions\/4183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}