2008 (So Far) Meets the Contrast Podcast

    I don't know about you, but I'm finding 2008 to be a great year for music. Lucky for us, this week the contrast podcast is all about the best of 2008 (so far), and you can hear it here. Next week we're back to the seven deadly sins with "Greed," so if you've always wanted to be a part of the podcast, this would be an excellent opportunity to get in on the action.

    If you are a regular reader you will not be surprised about my choice for best of 2008 (so far). Yep, it's Devotchka. It's going to be hard for any record to surpass A Mad & Faithful Telling as my favorite album of the year. I won't repeat myself and tell you all the reasons I love them and this album, although if you're interested you can read my review of it.

Devotchka--"The Clockwise Witness" mp3 off A Mad & Faithful Telling (buy)

    To be honest, I was a little afraid of being disappointed. I'd looked forward to it for so long and the album is soooo good that I wasn't sure they'd be able to live up to my expectations. Well, I was not let down in any way. They are such wonderful musicians and they played in such a way that even the songs I've heard 18,000 times before sounded fresh and on fire.

    Here's another confession--you all know of my obsession with Nick Urata, lead singer and de-facto face of the band. He tends to get most of the glory, I think, because he is the natural focal point with that voice and his dark, handsome looks. I still admire him greatly, of course, but I have a newfound admiration for the rest of the band, most notably Tom Hagerman, accordion-playing keyboardist and violinist extraordinaire. I never realized how much of what I'd consider their signature sound comes from him.

    We started out the night up on the balcony where we found a couple of stools and that was fine for the first two acts. But I knew that once Devotchka started, I'd have to get down on the floor, which is what we did. I got about four rows back from the front, close enough to see every expression on Nick's face--well, on everyone's face! I even managed to maintain a good sight line, which is hard to do when you're shorter than 75% of the people in the crowd. 

    The crowd was extremely enthusiastic. Everyone was dancing and clapping and cheering, which is kind of unusual for Philadelphia as most of the Philly audiences I've been in have been rather static. In fact, sometimes I wonder why some of them are even there when they don't seem to move a muscle. But this was different. It was the most movement I'd seen on the floor in a long time. 

    Anyway, they played a wide variety of stuff, a lot from AM&FT and lots of oldies, too. For me, the highlight was "We're Leaving," when drummer Shawn King came out front to play trumpet along with another guy named Chris (anyone know his last name?). The whole crowd erupted with hand-claps above our heads in time to the music and that's when it hit me that I was really there, that this was really happening.

    Chris's playing was beautiful, especially on "Along the Way." And the strings--they were outstanding. Phenomenal. They had two members of opener Basia Bulat's band and one other woman in the string section, and they played their hearts out. It was glorious and powerful and moving all at the same time. Jeanie Schroeder, the tuba/bass player, seemed to have a smile on her face nearly the entire time. She has such a lovely presence on stage.

    During the encore, one of the Slavic Sisters came out and oh my god, what an amazing act she did! How she kept her boobies from falling out of her costume while she did her acrobatics on those curtains, I will never know, but it was an impressive feat.

    The only two songs they didn't play that I really wanted to hear were "Blessing in Disguise" and "Last Beat of Your Heart." Other than that I was utterly satisfied. 

tags: contrast podcast  devotchka  

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