Damo Suzuki’s Live Midnight Express
Tune in on March 12th at 11:59 pm as the Berkestir presents a special two-hour Midnight Express: A Tribute to Damo Suzuki. The program will feature all live performances by Damo Suzuki with CAN, Damo Suzuki’s Network, the Omar Rodriguez-Lopez group and Mugstar.
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Sarah Jarosz at The Chapel: Show Review
Review and Photos by Jeremy Becker.
As a huge fan of folk and folk-pop, I was really excited to see Sarah Jarosz live. In anticipation of the show I listened to a couple of her songs and watched some of her live performances on Youtube. I really enjoyed her studio work but was absolutely blown away by this show. I arrived at The Chapel, one of my favorite venues in San Francisco, at about 8 o’clock, right in time for the opening performance; they were a duo called Ballroom Thieves composed of Martin Earley on guitar and Calin Peters on cello. They intertwined beautiful harmonies to create beautiful almost lullaby-esque folk compositions.
Sarah Jarosz took the stage with her four piece band consisting of a guitarist, bassist, and drummer; she is currently on tour for her new album Polaroid Lovers. She mostly played songs off her newer albums including tracks from her album Blue Heron Suite; she talked about what this album meant to her and how she had written it for her mother who had gone through breast cancer and thankfully recovered. This was a touching moment where she gave the audience a more intimate glimpse into the inspiration behind the record.
She has won four Grammys and her musicality and songwriting chops reflect that well. I was awestruck by her skill on not only the octave mandolin but also the guitar and the banjo. When she brought out the banjo the audience cheered and she jokingly said, “It’s banjo time” and made a reference to a Beyoncé song where banjo was featured. I definitely noticed a lot of bluegrass and even southern rock influence in her music, especially when her whole band was jamming and her guitarist and bassist got into some pretty intricate soloing. I don’t know exactly how I would classify her music because it seemed to alternate between folk, bluegrass, rock, pop and roots but the throughline was Sarah Jarosz’s excellent lyricism and overall songwriting. She is a fantastic songwriter and was able to convey so much emotion and articulate a plethora of different stories over the course of the show. I didn’t expect so many instrumental solos but was really impressed; I heard a little Doc Watson, Dicky Betts, Jerry Garcia and David Grisman in the more jammy parts of her songs.
The entire band was absolutely locked in for the entire show and they didn’t missa beat. They alternated between their heavier rock adjacent songs and their softer folky songs with ease. The guitar tech was definitely working hard! It seemed like every couple of songs the tech was switching out Sarah Jarosz’s octave mandolin for an acoustic guitar or banjo and the lead guitarist’s acoustic for an electric and vice versa. Sarah Jarosz came on for an encore at the end of the show and performed the Bob Dylan song Ring Them Bells. It was a beautiful rendition of the song and a great ending to an absolutely superb performance.
Christina’s Trip on KALX Live!
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A Conversation & Concert with Mustard Service (just around the corner)
Review and photos by Shannon Cheng.
Just a hop, skip, and jump away from the UC Berkeley campus is Cornerstone, where Mustard Service and The Frights performed on the evening of February 25, 2024. It was so close by that I quite literally hopped, skipped, and jumped on over as it was a rare fair day by the Bay. The usual gloom and doom were far away, and luck so happened to be on my side as I was able to do a sporadic and casual interview with the band members from Mustard Service after their soundcheck, just outside the venue.
The Mustard Service is an indie-rock band consisting of “a group of five boys from Miami, Florida just looking for a good time,” as their website biography states. An age-old question floats to the surface: What’s in a name? This peculiar band name has peculiar origins as it was generated by a random band name generator where the members inputted things they liked and the output was Mustard Service. “Johnny Trashcan” was also a runner-up for the title.
If they have a particular affinity for mustard, is it their condiment of choice? Though they enjoy mustard, there was also a consensus among the members that they enjoy any mayonnaise-based sauce, such as the Pink Sauce. I asked if there would be a rebranding in the future to match this love for mayonnaise; they suggested that “Mayo Service” or “Mayo Prevayo” could be a possibility.
The Mustard Service’s debut album was titled Zest Pop, It also describes their genre as such. As a fruit enthusiast, I had to know the age-old question: what fruit would most accurately describe their music? After some deliberation, a pink and yellow (ombre perhaps?) kiwi would most suit their aura.
Every artist has their muse. When posed this question, lead vocalist and songwriter Marco Rivero instinctively said his muse is his black cat, Smokey. So much so, that one of the songs from their most recent album is a pure song about his adoration for Smokey – which was also one of the songs on their set list later that night!
Their set started a little past 8:30 pm that night. With much anticipation, I stood near the stage as they opened their set with “Pleasantries (With Your Lover),” from their sophomore album C’est la Vie (2020). Rivero’s tenor voice and his guitar welcomed us in the gentle opening of the song, easing us all into the concert. As the music crescendoed, all I could think was that they sounded as good – or even better – than their recordings online. Additionally, there was an unspoken swag that was synchronous with their live performances. Drummer Adam Perez and Keys player Leo Cattani’s energy levels could be seen by the movement of their hair – which was often defying gravity as they dynamically bounced their head to the beat of the song.
The Mustard Service’s music is both so lyrically and melodically beautiful, that it contributed to an active crowd – dancing and clapping along. Rivero has a voice that lingers in your ear, even long after the music is over. The energy they exuded on stage was infectious it was impossible not to! At multiple points during the concert, there were moments where each performer onstage showcased their musicality through the crazy riffs. During the song “Night in Tulum,” the Keyboardist had a solo where his runs added to the aura of the music, transporting me from an intimate venue in Berkeley to underwater snorkeling and seeing a school of fish.
During my conversation with the band, they expressed how they were most excited to perform “The Dominoes,” from their most recent album Variety Pack (2023) which they closed out their set with. They encouraged a mosh pit to end their portion of the concert and the crowd responded! Jumping immediately ensued; the room was filled with an exuberance of youthful and lively spirit.
The Frights, a San Diego-based surf-punk band, performed afterward. As soon as they started performing, the mosh pit grew increasingly spry! Their song “Tungs” intrigued me as it leaned towards more folk than the rest of the metal and bass-heavy music, and that ended up being one of my favorites from them that night.
I ended off my weekend with vibrant music along with technicolor lights that made the whole concert feel like a vivid fever dream. Some artists, you listen to, others you feel; for the Mustard Service, I certainly felt it through their charming tunes! If they are ever in town again (hopefully at the Cornerstone again), I will prance on over again to experience the chillest music from 5 laid-back guys who perform with a beer in their hand!