One of the 746 things that had me look at everything but Sufjan.

Starting off the show with his timeworn hit “Seven Swans”, Sufjan hit off song by song from “Adz”, clearly engrossed into the performance as the visuals bounced off the voices and instruments, seemingly a live presence that took a lead from the music and played its own game. Sufjan, meanwhile, played eight of the eleven songs off the new album, including the already-infamous 25-minute epic “Impossible Soul”, which felt more as a few distinct songs strung together by a dawdling path of a recurrent melody. Sufjan has evolved in whimsical ways, as well. Vintage, melancholic Sufjan was at the Wiltern in spades, but the sprightly neon-headband-rocking, Auto-Tuned Sufjan has taken over some of the run time. It was a welcome change to his usual persona, not that he isn’t rather likeable either way.

The live translation of the new album veered too treble-heavy at times, but was mostly executed quite well. The constant cheers and bursts of applause from the crowd, as well as the epidemics of laughter to every humorous phrase from Sufjan was not unlike the afternoon’s USC Obama supporters’ rally, and showed that the audience enjoyed the presence of Sufjan as much as his compositions. Roughly in the middle of the concert, Sufjan took a break from the music and told the audience of his experience of discovering the schizophrenic artist Royal Robertson and scrutinizing his art to the point where he became the prevalent inspiration for both the visuals and the sound of the new album.

Singer-songwriter DM Smith was the opener for the night, who was moderately enjoyable and properly acoustic for the super-Sufjan crowd, that even had a woman stridently whisper to B-Sides that she came to the show mostly for him and not this Soof-jahn, and will you please not speak and let us be fully enveloped by the sound. A lot of the crowd was missing during the performance, but hopefully Smith felt a bit better since he was on stage as a band member during Sufjan’s act, as well.

This happens when Sufjan wants you to pay attention.

Sufjan’s aforementioned act came to a close with last-but-not-least “Chicago” was finished off with a reasonably long, wild standing applause, and Sufjan followed it up by encore-ing four songs, most from Sufjan’s preceding full album, “Illinois.” I wanted to hear the booming “Come On! Feel the Illinoise!” and “Jacksonville” in a live, loving-audience-filled setting, but he opted for the slower, gloomier songs, which were nevertheless a worthy ending to the show. “Age of Adz”, both in concert and recording, is a fantastic album; the beats and sound of much of its songs will become a trademark.

Setlist:
Seven Swans
Too Much
Age of Adz
Heirloom
I Walked
Futile Devices
Vesuvius
Now That I’m Older
Get Real Get Right
Enchanting Ghost
Impossible Soul
Chicago

Encore:
Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois
Casimir Pulaski Day
The Dress Looks Nice on You
John Wayne Gacy, Jr.

I thought this was Jay-Z! What are these zero's?!

Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band performed at the Orpheum Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles on the first October evening. Ono, Sean Lennon, and the ‘Plastic’ band performed and hosted acts by numerous guest stars which appeared for a multitude of songs, a-la a hip-hop show with constant “surprise!” guest rappers. Iggy Pop, RZA, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Perry Farrell, Carrie Fisher, The Tune-Yards, Harper Simon, Vincent Gallo, and Haruomi Hosono were the accorded invitees of the show. The concert was broken up into two parts: the Plastic Ono Band in the first act and all of the guest stars after the intermission. In part one, Yoko performed her songs of new and old, Sean Lennon contributed on the piano, bass, and guitar, and the band played melodies ranging from punk-rock to classical. In the second act, each of the guest stars went up to perform an Ono song that the artist and the band agreed upon in varied and distinctive ways. It was an eclectic night, to say the least, both for the audience and the artists themselves.

Ono and John Lennon’s original Plastic Ono Band was founded in 1969, before the breakup of The Beatles, and existed for 6 years afterward. Since then, after a vast solo career with copious albums, a few years ago Ono decided to go back to the “Plastic Ono Band” name, albeit with a new and younger Lennon. The band released “Between My Head and the Sky” in September 2009, which was critically applauded and gave Yoko the groundwork with which to go off on a mini-tour. The band has only performed four times: one each in New York and Oakland in February, and last weekend’s back-to-back spectacles at the Orpheum.

The setlist of Part I; I apologize for the slight blur that's murdering my eyes as well.

The first part of the show began with a 7-to-8-minute video about Ono and John Lennon’s lives together and the couple’s music careers. The video was full of behind-the-scenes glimpses into Ono’s production of music and art, her showing to the camera a painting of a single black dot on a white canvas, nailing it to the ceiling, and asking people in her vicinity – but truly inquiring of the art-o-sphere, “Why should a painting be on a wall?” While certainly curious and insightful, the video went on to list most of her large accomplishments and used the space to respond to the (unwarranted) widespread criticism of you-killed- the-Beatles with “…then why did the coolest guy in the world fall in love with her?”, stating such as the world’s prevalent fact. The video felt a bit self-promotional, “hyping” Ono up as if it was an introduction of a heavyweight boxer before stepping onto the ring.

And pop out she did, saying a few kind words to the audience and breaking into a half-song, half-wail in her signature style that continued throughout most of the first part of the show. After the initial act, the curtains revealed Sean Lennon perched on the piano seat and about six band members, the bassist of whom was guest-appearing on the night as well. Ono’s performance was something that is almost impossible to be impartial to. I have not voluntarily listened to Ono (or much of the Beatles other than a few songs, actually), and this was the first time I’ve heard an extensive arrangement of her music. The show was undoubtedly interesting and in a way respectful, but not enjoyable to my palate. The music is minimally “noddable” to, minimally clearly presented and minimalist in general. The act seemed to leave much open for interpretation. I can deal with that style, and sometimes love it (Animal Collective, Fever Ray), but that’s when there are discernable lyrics and a flow that gives me, as a listener, hints as to the artist’s implication and direction towards the song. Ono’s setlist scarcely changed in style, looking as more of a combined performance than a song-by-song recital.

That is pretty stylish, I'll admit.

Ono mostly walked around the stage and wailed, not unlike a wild animal, in different intonations and pitches. Sometimes she would say a few words mid-song, but most of it was indiscernible because of the loudness and unclearness of her speech. I sound more negative than I intend to be, but these are the recollections that stayed with me, sadly forgetting some of the minute details. Most of the crowd were into it, simply. A lot of the audience were large supporters of Ono and got up and thunderously clapped when she entered the stage. Most of the time I looked around, I saw multiple people head-dancing (the sitting form of dancing) as largely as possible, and ones with room getting up to dance. I felt that the spectators were more appreciative of her as an artist (for the peace movements, songs with Lennon, etc.) than habitual listeners of Yoko. I wasn’t bored or disinterested, but during the act I caught myself veering off on multiple long strings of thought about anything that permeated my head. The music was more conducive to my thinking than my encounters with art usually are. Amid the marching shots of a battalion, Yoko sang about love and harmony and told the crowd to “socialize”, among other verbs. To be fair, much of the peace-love movement is as relevant today as it was in the 60-70’s, of the time of the Vietnam War. There are many lessons to be learned from her poetic arguments as there are about the fact that she and John Lennon were making very similar points just a few decades ago. Ono finished off the first act with “Higa Noboru”, a Japanese song from the latest record with Sean Lennon complimenting her on the piano, and again I could not understand a lick of meaning, but from the barriers of language that time.

The second act opened with actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt engulfed by sensual red lighting as he pranced about the stage and sang a lively opera-like ballad to an unknown recipient, finishing off by taking a bite out of an apple as two Bourbon Street-dressed dancers flailed around him. Next were the Tune-Yards, a moniker for solo musician Merrill Garbus, who was greatly impressive with a sharp bassist to her side, doing a song on the thesis that there isn’t much of a variance between anyone in the world when you look at it in human terms. “There is not much of a difference between Steve Jobs and you” stated Garbus, to the crowd’s laughter (it seems that any crowd is an Apple crowd.)

The Plastic Ono Band valiantly on stage.

Afterward, Sean Lennon told the crowd a story of how his father, before the relationship with Yoko, was impressed with Ono’s writing of a song and offered her to collab with him, but she assertively declined the invitation. Carrie Fisher performed the song in question, followed by Yoko doing her infamous act of moaning in different ways as a video of a fly hovering on different parts of a naked woman’s body was shown to the audience. I will not tell you the ending; what’s a man when he spoils? Sean Lennon and Harper Simon – Paul Simon’s son – performed a song about Ono in the front of the stage, followed by B-Sides favorite RZA and Ono play-acting playing chess as the curtains opened again. RZA performed a dusky rap of a person being conceived and born, as Ono stood by his side and made high-pitched supportive noises as if she was a hype man for a hip-hop artist. Vincent Gallo was next up, drearily sitting and singing to a melancholic French song of which Sean afterward joked to the crowd that he chose Vincent to sing because Vincent has been depressed recently. Perry Farrell, of an Entourage fan’s favorite voice of Jane’s Addiction, was next, singing “The Sun is Down!”, a song Ono created in studio when Sean told her to sing something dark. Iggy Pop was the final individual act, taking his shirt off within seconds of getting on the stage and running around performing with Yoko. The concert finished off with the classic “Give Peace a Chance” sung by all of the performers of the night, and ended with Yoko flashing her light at the audience and receiving many hundreds back in her renowned “I Love You” bit.

I did not fall in love with the music, or the performance in general, as much of it played to nostalgia for “the days of old” from the audience. Yoko Ono is, nevertheless, definitely an act that’s almost required to be seen by musicophiles or any mindful person of the past few generations. It’s not my type of music, but the accomplishments that she has managed to achieve through her music is definitely of my liking.

Dave Longstreth and Angel Deradoorian during "Two Doves"

The Dirty Projectors performed at the Wiltern Theatre over the weekend,  next to the historic neighborhoods of  Beverly Hills and Koreatown. The band, on an ongoing U.S. tour, played the entirety of their critically applauded “Bitte Orca”, a few oldie hits (“Rise Above”, “I Will Truck”), as well as a Bob Dylan cover and a couple of songs from their next record, the name of which was possibly blurted out by front man Dave Longstreth, but I have doubts on the truthiness of his Gatorade-fueled exclaims. The show blasted off with one of their most striking tunes, “F*ked For Life”, but fully hit the crowd’s spot on the second song, “No Intention”, drawing massive eruptions from the adoring audience. The background graphics switched between their signature blue-and-red-circles to a deep-sea blue to a sunset-like orange to merely negligible stage lights for “Two Doves”, which was performed only by Dave and lead female member Angel Deradoorian while the rest of the band hung out backstage, similarly to the Gorillaz’ Coachella performance of “To Binge”, impressively performed by Damon Albarn and Yukimi Nagano (from “Little Dragon”) as their own lovey-dovey duet.

Before the Projectors hit the stage, however, there was the customary opening band, on the night being hip-hop/electro artist Dominique Young Unique, who’s real name is most likely some sort of combination of the three words. (It may be all of them, actually.) With two able keyboardists behind her – one of them greatly Scandinavian-looking – Dominique paced the stage in beat to her hip-hop lyrics mixed with electronic furrows. It was a decent performance, Dominique a bit too loud and harsh on the vocals but having an enjoyable-to-watch pompous flair. She draws much of her influence from Santigold, in both image and music style, but held up a distinct enough sound in her performance. She has some potential to succeed if she can sharpen her lyrics and churn out one catchy beat to be recognized for.

Glare! Party!!

The venue is nice and dark, but changeable, in that it doesn’t feel strictly as a music spot. I could prop up Laurence Fishburne on stage to play Thurgood Marshall and rearrange the seats and I would believe it to be a playhouse. (Well, I couldn’t do any of that.) The place seemed a little bare, but that could be an extension of the event going on, as the next day the Wiltern hosted the first U.S. appearance of X Japan in more than a decade, and that was most likely simply insane.

During the show, they swiched it with 'X Japan Sept. 25th'

Favorite songs: “Useful Chamber”, “Two Doves”, “No Intention”
Least favorite songs: The ones I didn’t know the lyrics to.
Favorite moment: Scrolling text on the TV screen before the band went up: “Happy birthday Angie! Sorry I threw up.” I’m sorry as well.

At the CMJ exhibitor’s booth, I picked up some new Tokidoki friends. They love the Gossip and listen to London’s XFM 104.9. These three tigers have been the best CMJ companions! They’re coming with me to the Temper Trap later!

Hanging out with my new Tokidoki Tiger Friends and Gossiping to Heavy Cross. Mr. Yellow wanted to play Bean Bag Sack race with a XFM sack.

Melanie Eusebio explores the world of Air Guitar with people, who actually win stuff for using their motor skills.