Concrete Frequency - A work in progress for LA Phil programmers

The Los Angeles Philharmonic presented “Concrete Frequency” on Tuesday, January 8, at the beautiful Walt Disney Hall in downtown. The event was a musical experimentation that showcased about 12 musicians who performed songs somehow influenced or reflective of city life. The stage was tres cool –designed like a hip living room – and all the musicians relaxed on mismatched chairs and couches in the softly lit background while one by one singers performed up front.

Some of the performers got it right. The group “Biirdie” started things off. The folksy foursome had a retro quality and smooth harmonies reminiscent of the Mommas and Pappas. Their song “Life in a box” was very apropos to the theme as it told the story of apartment dwelling. Although their performance was pleasant, they opened the night for what I would call a sea of mostly whiny folk rockers – men with high voices who sing from the back of their throats rather than from their gut.

There were a few glaring exceptions – performers who really had something special – such as Michigan native Annie Stela, a tougher millenium response to the frail 90's Fiona Apple. I liked the way Stela delivered her words - in the vein of Nellie McKay – somewhere between singing and speaking – happy and angry – which fit her metal city bite of an accent very well.

The evening was full of performers who could play and sing, but couldn’t speak worth a lick. Case in point – Angeleno native Money Mark, once keyboardist for the Beastie Boys, came quietly on stage, and if he even said his name, I certainly didn't hear him. But all bets were off when he started to sing. I was particularly blown away by his second number, “Color of my blues”, which for me, was the highlight of the evening. It had a self-described New Orleans feel - especially since he played on the piano - and reminded me somewhat of early Billy Joel but more current and relevant for today's generation.

The other standout of the evening was Norwegian Sondre Lerche who had all the physical components of a rock star. His silver glittery guitar strap, rock and roll coiffed hair and charismatic banter could really make any teenage girl swoon and want to learn Norwegian. I later looked him up and found that despite his young age, he not only penned the entire soundtrack for the film "Dan in Real Life", but already has numerous albums under his belt.

Most of the performers that night had a similar look - the men were in tight jeans and prepped out in button-downs or blazers or farmboy shirts, and the women looked extra-feminine, especially Zooey Deschannel – who wasn’t even able to introduce herself coherently and sang two songs that weren't connected to the urban experience (they were also not written by her).

Although it was a good try by the programmers of the series, I would recommend a better attempt in the future to create some sort of coherence between the performers so that the musical journey better follows the theme of the evening.

The addition of visuals could also be used to better evoke the theme of city-inspired tunes. I would also invite fewer performers, and allow musicians to bring out more accompaniment – the redundancy of solo performances - alone with their guitars, or on the piano – was a little much.

Musician sites:

http://www.myspace.com/biirdie
http://anniestela.com/
http://moneymark.com
http://sondrelerche.com