2007-03 Vital Source Mag – March 2007
South America’s outstanding wine oddities
By Nate Norfolk There is a glut of inexpensive South American wine and just about every other grape-growing region in the world. The best thing about this is that consumers have wider access to inexpensive wine. The down side is that a lot of the inexpensive wine is either just plain bad or redundant and boring. The bulk of South American wine coming in to the U.S. is definitely on the cheap side, but if you are a little adventurous you can find some truly unique bargain wines. Chile and Argentina are good places to find them. Although these two countries are regarded as relative newcomers to our retailers’ shelves, they have been producing wine for hundreds of years. A brief version of a long history The grape vines of Chile and Argentina were planted by missionaries who came from Spain with the conquistadors in the mid-sixteenth century. As the country’s population expanded, wine production moved from the church to European plantation owners. It was so successful by the early 1800s that the North and South American wines imported to Europe began to affect the Spanish wineries. The Spanish government took action to protect the wine industry there. All across Mexico and South America, vineyards were uprooted and heavy taxes were placed on those remaining. This all but destroyed the wine industry in Mexico, but Chile and Argentina continued to produce wines commercially. Argentina Argentina is the fifth largest wine producer in the world, and its star red grape is called Malbec. Originally from southwestern France, it is used in small amounts in the red wines of Bordeaux and as the main component of a rather obscure French wine called Cahors. Although many will argue that Malbec is Argentina’s finest grape varietal, other reds and whites are being successfully introduced, notably Cabernet Sauvignon and the mysteriously floral, yet dry white grape Torrontes. Malbec wines from Argentina taste a lot like Merlot wines made elsewhere, though with the current Merlot backlash that may not be a great selling point. When you taste a Malbec wine for yourself, you will likely encounter a full-bodied wine with a soft mouth feel full of soft silky tannins and dried fruit flavors. There will be plenty of black currant, cassis and red fruit flavors like plums and berries as well as hints of black pepper and other spicy notes. A really good Malbec wine is something to behold. Chile In Chile, almost half the grapes planted are Cabernet Sauvignon, but other reds and whites are grown there, the most important being the red Carmenere. The history of Carmenere wines is similar to that of Malbec. Both were once prominent in France, both were brought to South America in the mid 1800s by the French and both have become a very important part of South American wine-making. They also have both fallen out of favor in their native country of France and are only produced in extremely small quantities anywhere outside of South America. That’s where […]
Mar 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
The Higher
That maddest of alchemists, the music industry, has managed to seamlessly spin the two most popular genres from the two most dominant high school cliques (punks and preps) into SoundScan gold: the Mallpunk Boy Band, personified by fresh-faced and darling (but edgy and badass) kids like Good Charlotte and Fall Out Boy. And now, Epitaph Records has jumped into the game with The Higher, a competent quintet of lads who expertly paint by numbers with their debut, On Fire. This has the makings of a top seller, so I suppose it’s hard to blame Epitaph, formerly home to politically-charged, socially relevant punk rock like Bad Religion, for releasing something this languid and dispassionate. The performances are solid, the production slick, the hooks not out of place on a Justin Timberlake album. The Higher are destined for commercial success, sure to dominate the Warped Tour mid-card for years (and getting close—so close!—to finally headlining over Motion City Soundtrack). And good for them. Having Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump remix one of their tracks (“Pace Yourself” ) won’t hurt, either. It just sounds like a band looking to cash in. With On Fire, one must, at the very least, hope that the kids discovering punk rock through bands like this will take note of the label releasing them, stumble upon Bad Religion and look back at this release with the critical eye of a suddenly more seasoned listener. Perhaps then they will file The Higher away as a band that served their purpose: a junior-high gateway drug to music with substance. Then, in their own special way, The Higher will have mattered. VS
Mar 1st, 2007 by DJ Hostettler
Strong medicine for the healthcare access crisis?
By Ted Bobrow When Governor Jim Doyle laid out his health care proposal during his State of the State address in January, he dramatically transformed the debate about health care in Wisconsin. He summed it up succinctly: “The simple truth is, the time has come for the wealthiest nation in the world to provide access to affordable, comprehensive health insurance for its citizens – and Wisconsin can lead the way.” It’s an attractive scenario and perhaps very timely. Health care in today’s United States is truly Dickensian: the best of worlds and the worst of worlds. For the very wealthy and for people with good health insurance, there is practically no limit to the quality of available care. Double, even quadruple bypass surgeries are routine. Many cancers can be detected early enough to be treated completely. And promising new treatments are in the works for neurological disorders like epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and depression. What a wonderful world we live in, eh? Well, some of us do. In reality, the U.S. is a nation of haves and have-nots, where 47 million people, including 9 million children, have no health insurance. For many in this group, paying out-of-pocket for a routine mammogram or even going to an emergency room at the onset of chest pains is not an option. And the problem is only likely to get worse. With the cost of health care and the insurance to pay for it escalating at twice the rate of inflation and the primary U.S. employment base shifting from large companies to small (less than 100 employees), fewer and fewer employers are able to offer decent health coverage. Early innovations in our own state served as the model for the nation’s current system of unemployment insurance. The time may be right to turn Wisconsin’s progressive tradition towards the problem of the uninsured. The Clinton plan: a costly lesson While access to basic medical care would seem to be a need most appropriately addressed at the federal level, neither the President nor Congress have shown much interest in comprehensive health care reform since Bill and Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated attempt in the early 90s. When President Clinton took office in 1993, he identified health care as the first big challenge of his presidency and he appointed his wife to head a task force to come up with a solution. First Lady Hillary Clinton, now a senator from New York and the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for president in 2008, assembled a group of the nation’s leading thinkers on health care and got to work. The Clinton task force eventually put forth a proposal that sank like a stone. There were many reasons for this failure, but the most instructive of all was that the Clintons did not build adequate support for the proposal among several key stakeholders including, incredibly, Congress and the American people. The Clinton proposal was complicated, and it became an easy target for opponents, most notably health insurance companies and small businesses, who […]
Mar 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
Trouble
By Matt Wild Asked why he decided to dismantle The Pixies, frontman Frank Black once replied that when another bandmate’s lifestyle “starts to irritate you,” it becomes virtually impossible to be in the same room as that person, much less share a stage together. Black was no doubt referring to bassist Kim Deal, whose unexpected mainstream success with The Breeders almost certainly drove him absolutely ape-shit. Likewise, my recent source of irritation – my very own Kim Deal, if you will – has been nothing less than this entire city. I’ve been irritated by the constant closing/opening of restaurants, the conversational shorthand brought on by winter weather, the unspoken disdain of friends and colleagues. I’ve been annoyed with the shoddy state of local weeklies and bored to tears by the meager accomplishments of our hipster elite. I’ve been so desperate for a cure, so anxious for an all-purpose salve that I recently decided to face my fears head-on. Like those episodes of Maury where he cures a guest’s irrational fear of mustard with – you guessed it! – a giant fucking bowl of mustard, I decided to break my anti-Milwaukee funk by attending the single most irritating event I could find: a home-brewed burlesque show. Following a few hours spent at the Nut Factory open house (Kyle Fitzpatrick’s paintings – all the size and texture of burnt-out Buicks – are particular standouts), I’m dropped off at Mad Planet for the Pixel Pussy Ski, Sky and Stage Show. Sponsored by Blam! Blam! – a local publication that provides readers the unique pleasure of seeing full color photographs of their friends and former roommates giving each other head – the scene is pretty much what one would expect: some low-rent fetish gear, a bunch of free lube and condoms (so naughty!), awful music and a $10 cover. No matter, I think, a few stiff drinks and a sharp blow to the skull will be all that’s needed to spice things up. Hell, maybe I’ll even strike up a conversation with the guy wearing a top hat and a strap-on. Notebook and camera in hand, I decide to hang up my coat and dig in for the long haul. It’s then that I see the sign: “Coat Check Begins At $10.” I stare at it dumbly, unable to process a $10 Mad Planet coat check, much less one that begins at $10. In fact, what kind of coat check begins anywhere? Are there better options – sturdier hangers, perhaps – in the $12-$15 range? Complimentary lint-removers? Free pony rides? And what is it about this sign – and now, suddenly, these people, these costumes, these affectations – that seems so horribly wrong, so overwhelmingly depressing? Out of respect for both Mad Planet and my own well-being, I decide to do the only thing a rational person would do after just forking over $10 to get into a local sex show: I leave. Flee, escape, haul ass is more like it, the bitter irritation […]
Mar 1st, 2007 by Matt Wild
Consolidating control of the Titanic
By Donald Kaul Admit it, you were fooled. You listened to that wimpy State of the Union address and you thought President Bush was in full retreat before an angry electorate. Yet again you misunderestimated the man. The retreat was merely tactical. Less than a week after the speech, he returned to the fray, guns blazing. He signed a Presidential directive that, in effect, grants him control over all federal rules and policies developed to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy. The directive, which does not need Congressional approval, requires regulatory agencies to have a policy office run by a political appointee who makes sure proposed regulations don’t cost the regulated industries too much. (And by “too much,” I would imagine, they mean “anything.” ) In the past, such regulations have been the responsibility of career civil servants and scientists. From now on, political hacks will be running the show, preferably ones who don’t believe in abortion, stem cell research or evolution. If you liked Katrina, you’re going to love the next two years. As Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California) said: “The executive order allows the political staff at the White House to dictate decisions on health and safety issues, even if the government’s own impartial experts disagree. This is a terrible way to govern, but great news for special interests.” It occurs to me that what President Bush is doing, in his way, is resurrecting the administration of Richard Nixon. Like Bush, Nixon tried to put his political operatives at key positions in virtually every department of the government, to better exercise power. Like Bush, he wire-tapped his enemies, opened their mail and spied on them. He also had a burglary team working for him and we don’t know whether President Bush has one of those – yet. The genius of Bush, however, is that while Nixon had to resign his Presidency and nearly went to jail for his crimes, Bush commits them openly and no one lays a glove on him. It’s the War on Terror, don’t you know. Everything he does is legal because he’s a war president and he says it’s legal. It’s a terrific hustle and you have to give him credit for pulling it off. So he’s down in the polls a little, so what? The people he’s taking care of now will take care of him down the road. I do worry about our vice president, however. He seems to have gone a little…I don’t know…soft in the head, I guess you’d call it. A couple of weeks ago Mr. Cheney sat down with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and answered critics of the war in Iraq. “Hogwash.” That’s what he called the criticisms. The war, far from being a failure, has been a string of “enormous successes,” he said. We got rid of Saddam, we got rid of his sons, we established a democracy in the Middle East, we gave the Iraqis a constitution. “The world is much safer today because […]
Mar 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Ted Leo might occasionally feel nostalgic – one of his best-known songs, “Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?,” yearns for old-fashioned ska – but he’s not. Better than any other current musician, he understands that punk rock is unfinished business: a promise that needs to be kept. He also understands that punk rock is less a style or an ideology than a commitment, and that understanding suffuses Living With the Living. Leo has never shied away from songwriting variety, but this album might be his most wide-ranging yet, even as it showcases a further tautening of the threads connecting him to Pharmacists bassist Dave Lerner and drummer Chris Wilson. Some of the paths Leo and the Pharmacists take aren’t particularly unexpected. “Bomb.Repeat.Bomb” is a typically blistering, coolly angry attack on attackers, “A Bottle of Buckie” explores friendship via an Irish-American take on the Pogues and “Army Bound” cuts Leo’s razor-barbed guitar riffs across a martial rock beat. But “The Unwanted Things” is a surprisingly fluid, sweet angle on the punk-reggae combination explored so well by Elvis Costello and The Clash, while “La Costa Brava” mixes crunchy pop-rock with a romantic urge to travel to sunnier climes. If Leo weren’t in such good, tuneful voice, these stylistic transformations would be even more surprising than they are. Producer Brendan Canty of Fugazi helps to keep the music lean. Ted Leo’s intelligence and intensity come through quite clearly, each undimmed by the other. Living With the Living keeps the promise. VS
Mar 1st, 2007 by Jon Gilbertson
Cé
By Evan Solochek + Photo By Richard Galling With Milwaukee’s strong Irish heritage, it’s no wonder that traditional Irish music is a fixture in this city. For proof, just check out Irish Fest, the Badger State Feis, the Cream City Feis, the renowned Celtic Irish Studies Program at UWM and the numerous pub sessions that occur on a weekly basis throughout the city. And prominent at each one of these Irish institutions is Milwaukee’s very own Cé. This local trio, made up of Asher Gray (flute, whistle, bouzouki, bodhrán), Randy Gosa (guitar, tenor banjo) and Devin McCabe (fiddle, concertina, whistle), play traditional and contemporary music from Ireland, England and Brittany. And while young, these three multi-instrumentalists have more than 35 years of musical experience between them and bring to this old-world craft a unique modern perspective, not to mention a level of skill often only seen in musicians twice their age. To hear more from Cé, check out myspace.com/cemusic or cemusic.net. 1. How did you three meet? I (Asher) met Devin when I was 14 or 15 and we’ve been playing together in sessions and different bands like Anam Rí and now Cé. Around the time that Anam Rí was coming to an end we started playing tunes with Randy in sessions around Milwaukee. It just seemed right that the three of us start a new group because we all shared a common passion for the music. 2. How would you describe Traditional Irish music to someone who had never heard it before? Traditional Irish music is dance music. It is directly connected to the roots in the dancing that accompanies it. Tunes provide a framework for dancing and for musicians to improvise over. 3. How does your young age affect your reception from either the audience or fellow Irish musicians? People who aren’t familiar with the music are sometimes surprised to see three guys in their 20s playing traditional music. I think it gives a little edge and helps to keep the audience’s attention. Anyone that plays it, though, knows that it’s music for all ages. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an 8 year old playing with an 80 year old. 4. Who would Cé like to collaborate with and why? We have always wanted to work with singers. As an instrumental band, our music yearns for that final element of vocal expression. Recently, Randy has been working with a singer from Boscobel named Andreas Transo, who would be a lovely addition. 5. What are your goals for Cé? We’re focusing on getting more gigs around the country and in Europe. There are so many great festivals and venues all over the world that focus on world and Celtic music. We’re also going to record a new album and hopefully release it this summer. VS
Mar 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
After the party – How to handle the pox
By Lucky Tomaszek In February, I shared with you all my friend Jesi’s successful quest to expose her two children to the chicken pox. The reactions I received from people were wildly varied, with some readers telling me about the chicken pox parties they had when their own children were young and others telling me that they unequivocally believe in the advances brought to us by mandated vaccination. The one common thread, however, was a memory of someone completely covered in pox and how awful it was. Most of the time, chicken pox is a minor illness that causes fairly minor discomfort. This is not always the case, however, as my own family discovered just days before my last column was published. My oldest daughter, Lena, woke up on a Sunday morning with three chicken pox on her belly and one on her scalp. She was running a low-grade fever and had the sniffles. We had exposed her to a young neighbor 23 days before this and I had assumed that it was going to pass her by again, as the incubation period is typically 14 to 21 days. In a rather self-congratulatory way, I picked up some colloidal oatmeal bath packets and Calamine lotion and prepared to spend a day or two comforting her through the worst of it. The typical varicella routine unfolds like this: one to two days of a low grade fever, the sniffles and maybe some coughing before any pox are seen; one to two days with the same symptoms and with pox erupting on the scalp and on the torso; one to two days of getting new pox; a couple final days of the pox crusting over and forming scabs. Pretty straightforward, right? Not this time. By Sunday night Lena’s fever had gone up to 103, where it stayed for four days. Each day, more than a hundred new pox appeared. She was exhausted, listless and had very little appetite. Party favors It didn’t take long to realize that colloidal oatmeal and Calamine lotion were not going to cut it. I turned to parents who had dealt with the pox for advice. One of the first things suggested was making Lena some Jell-o. I don’t usually keep that stuff in the house but my friend was right, Lena needed something. For about two days, it was one of the only things she could eat, and it even tasted good to her. She also recommended using a Burrows solution that you apply directly to the pox as part of a warm compress to help dry them out and promote faster healing. I found some at our local pharmacy. Every couple of hours I made a fresh batch and Lena found these to be very soothing. The colloidal oatmeal baths were also soothing but were made even better by making an oatmeal pouch for her to rub on her itchiest spots by filling a washcloth with oats and tying it off with a rubber band. Since […]
Mar 1st, 2007 by Lucky Tomaszek
Céad mile fáilte
By Catherine McGarry Miller + Photos by Kevin C. Groen Be forewarned; if you toddle over to County Clare on St. Paddy’s day for an Irish Coffee, have your designated driver on deck or cab fare in fist before you take a swig. Oh, there might me a shot or two of coffee in it, but the rest is pure Irish whiskey slathered with whipped cream and a chocolate cookie straw. One sip’ll knock your shamrock off. Roy Huth, kitchen manager of the County Clare Pub and Restaurant, says that natives of the Emerald Isle “feel at home here. Milwaukeeans feel like they’re on vacation.” I fall in the latter category and can aver that this establishment credibly recreates the charm of an Irish inn. Though Irish cookery is not renowned in the gourmet kingdom, I had fabulous food in Ireland and the County Clare made me feel like I was back in the old country. His menu reflects wonderful dining experiences I had there, though probably not the way you would expect. It’s the seafood that takes me back to the sod, not the corned beef or lamb – I don’t remember even seeing them on a carte. What people tend to forget is that Ireland is an island whose inhabitants have always lived off the water. Though not of Irish descent, Huth has a mastery of seafood preparation that goes back to his youth cooking for his family. The Wauwatosa native always enjoyed trying new things and particularly liked smoked fish – not your average kid’s top favorite. His specialty back then was Shrimp Creole. Now he applies his intuitive talents to the likes of smoked salmon with capers and mussels steamed in a buttery tomato broth served with Irish brown bread to sop the delicious juices. The portions, like Irish hospitality, are generous and the flavors fresh as a sea breeze. The whole grained bread (available in small loaves to purchase) is exactly as I remember it in the Irish inns and cafes I frequented. Not surprising, since it’s imported from there. For St. Patrick’s Day, however, the menu will feature the expected Irish fare: Shepherd’s Pie (the Inn’s top seller), Irish Stew and Corned Beef and Cabbage. Huth presents a delicious, colorful plate of thick slices of lean, tender corned beef, al dente cabbage, bright carrot medallions and notably delicious mashed potatoes. Everything but the steak is under $15, so you’ll have plenty of change for your stout. Huth, who just turned 50, learned his craft on the job. His degree from UWM, earned in the early ‘80s, is in painting, drawing and printmaking. His father, a lithographer, planted the seeds of love for the craft. Huth became a successful artist whose works have been exhibited around the city for the past 15 years and at annual shows at Gallery H2O in the Third Ward. In 1999, one of his paintings was juried into the prestigious Wisconsin Artists’ Biennial Exhibit at the Haggerty Museum. Still, art […]
Mar 1st, 2007 by Cate Miller
A Lesson From Aloes
By Russ Bickerstaff Juxtapose three people in a domestic setting and you probably could end up launching a production of just about anything. Milwaukee Camber Theatre uses three actors and a domestic setting to launch a particularly moving bit of drama with Athol Fugard’s A Lesson From Aloes. All appears reasonably peaceful on the set as the lights rise but it’s an illusion. Aloes takes place in the oppressive days of the early 1960s in South Africa. We see the effects of a police state on three distinctly different individuals. It’s an interesting set up that is masterfully executed by three talented actors under the direction of a Milwaukee theatre icon in a lush and detailed set that is tastefully illuminated. A Lesson From Aloes is a compelling evening of drama. As the play opens, Piet Bezuidenhout (Brian Robert Mani) is feverishly studying tiny potted aloes that he had collected. The stage is decorated in great numbers of them and he is talking about them with great passion. It’s easy to get caught up in Piet’s interest as the intensity of Mani’s performance animates Fugard’s subtly poetic bits of dialogue. As preoccupied as Piet and much of the play seems to be with Aloes, we find out later on that it’s only a recently acquired hobby for him. There’s a lot more to him and his life and his relationship with his wife than breathes through the surface. The brilliant thing about Mani’s performance is that, as central a figure as he is onstage, the complexity of his personality comes as something of a surprise as it is slowly revealed. While there is very little direct foreshadowing to this complexity, it doesn’t seem to come out of nowhere when it finally becomes apparent. As the lights come up on that first scene, Piet’s wife Gladys (Tracy Michelle Arnold) is sitting not far from him wearing a big, dark pair of sunglasses. As simple as this seems, she’s a bit of a mystery even in the opening minutes. We’re not even seeing her eyes. The character slowly seems to get more and more comfortable with the third wall as things progress. Fugard slowly coaxes her into greater and greater prominence as the plot navigates its way to the end of the last act. Tracy Michelle Arnold plays it with a style and poise that gazes right into the heart of the character. The role requires much of her expression to be nonverbal. Nowhere is this more apparent than when she is alone at a writing desk in the bedroom. As the audience, we’re seeing the bedroom from a cutout in the wall. It feels very invasive watching Arnold in the bedroom even though she’s actually doing very little. It’s one of the most delicate bits in the entire play and she carries it off remarkably well. Patrick Sims rounds out the cast as Steve Daniels – an old friend of Piet’s. Steve is a black man reluctantly moving to England because […]
Mar 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
Paula Frazer & Tarnation
Not having thoroughly kicked all her baggage to the curb with 2005’s Leave the Sad Things Behind, San Francisco singer-songwriter Paula Frazer follows up with another album about moving on. Her fourth solo release, Now It’s Time, also revives her former band, Tarnation, as support. Frazer soups up alt-country standbys with jangly honky-tonk piano on “Bitter Rose” and flamenco tambourine on “Another Day.” “Pretend” features a childlike yodeling reminiscent of a wooden train whistle. Effectively simple string arrangements flesh out many of the tracks. If Frazer’s lyrics mirrored her eclectic instrumentation, Now It’s Time would be perfection, but she constantly recycles the same stale imagery (the sun, darkness, fire). But while the album would benefit if the storytelling were on par with the songwriting, the lack of lyrical originality is not necessarily detracting to Frazer, whose voice could draw listeners singing about…well…the sun, darkness and fire. Like Joni Mitchell meets Morrissey, Frazer’s soulful voice turns, trills and glides effortlessly from track to track. It’s sunken yet confident, parallel to the music it narrates. Though overtly melancholy, these barbiturate-drenched songs find a way to float. Now It’s Time touches on relationships’ gray areas: when to stay and when to go, when to speak up and when to hold your tongue. Not uncertain, however, is Frazer’s ability to deliver a plush, relistenable disc for fans of the heavier-hyped (and less authentic) Neko Case and Jenny Lewis. VS
Mar 1st, 2007 by Amber Herzog
Van Morrison
By Blaine Schultz Ducks don’t come much odder than Van Morrison. He refers to his biggest hit “Brown Eyed Girl” as “the money shot” when he deigns to play the tune live. Often times it is not on the set list and it is strange that a guy who doesn’t exactly banter with the audience would offer a pornographic backslap to introduce the tune. As the teenage leader of Belfast’s Them, Van wrote the garage-punk anthem “Gloria” and that tune typically gets short shrift as well at his performances. Yet give Morrison utmost credit for being true to his muse over the course of a four decade career. He’s gone from garage R&B to pop hits to the stream of consciousness masterpiece Astral Weeks to albums that veer dangerously close to New Age, but he’s always done it on his own terms. Only Bob Dylan and Neil Young have lead such long and winding careers. For his 1974 appearance at the Montreux jazz festival Morrison’s most recent studio album had been Hard Nose the Highway – a likeable record but not exactly a career marker. For this date he’d left behind his sprawling Caledonia Soul Orchestra and, according to legend, assembled a piano/bass/drums group at Montreux. Very few artists, even in the open minded post-hippie 1974, would be willing to take such a chance with a pickup band of stellar players. Which goes a ways to explain why so few artists fall into a category with Morrison. And true to form, the set list reflects no expected choices and is littered with tunes that would be played rarely over the years. “Twilight Zone” eventually surfaced on the Philosopher’s Stone compilation as a different arrangement featuring an odd falsetto vocal. At Montreux Van acquits himself on acoustic guitar picking out spare bluesy riffs while Jerome Rimson’s upright bass and Pete Wingfield’s piano also take melodic turns. He also takes turns on harmonica (impressive) and saxophone (less so). If the first show is a unique document the second avails its riches with repeated viewings. In 1980 Morrison would again return to the expanded band format, highlighted here by ex-James Brown sax player Pee Wee Ellis’ extended solos. It is evident that Morrison trusts his musicians and gives them reign to tap into the moment while Morrison loses himself as well. “Summertime in England” builds to a Morrison and Ellis call and response near-Evangelical situation verging on hypnosis and as the tune fades the band launches into “Moondance” and Morrison looks like an alarm clock just went off in his head and he’s wondering what he’s doing onstage. This particular segment is a gem; that sense of a Holy Grail moment that players and listeners will tell you justifies an obsession – to paraphrase Van himself – sometimes “it ain’t why, it just is.” The next pair of tunes “Haunts of Ancient Peace” and “Wild Night” offers a similar juxtaposition. The set list is a near-perfect 15 song travelogue moving from trance inducing […]
Mar 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
