This Week in Live Music: Avett Brothers, The Breeders, and More

This Week in Live Music: Avett Brothers, The Breeders, and More

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The post-Labor Day lull is in the rearview. The fall live music influx is nigh. Clear your schedule. 


Wednesday: Maya Beiser at Yoshi's

Intimidated by classical music? Now’s your chance to make nice with the fancified, never-more-accessible genre! Beiser makes classical familiar and exotic to nubes by covering acts such as Janis Joplin, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin and other pop culture icons. She’s also one of the best in the cello biz, pound-for-pound. The SF Chronicle calls her "The virtuosic queen of the post-minimalist cello." Be brave, young ‘uns. Someday, classical will be the only thing that brings joy to your life! 

Thursday: Slow Magic at The Independent

Don’t stress about the mystery surrounding Slow Magic (the anonymous producer’s only publicity language is this: “Slow Magic is music by your imaginary friend.”) Focus on the riveting soundscapes, the careful attention to production odds and ends, and a seemingly boundless imagination for electronic sonic permutations. Like he/she/it said to Vice Magazine, staying anonymous is “a way for me to keep the focus on the music and art surrounding the music, instead of on a person or place.” Assuming Slow Magic isn’t a robot, that’s a comforting perspective.

Friday: Owen Pallett at Great American Music Hall

Owen Pallett certainly does not avoid challenging music — his compositions regularly incorporate myriad instrumentation and uber-complex arrangements, often traversing multiple genres within a song (electro, baroque pop, rock, classical, etc.). Pallett also embraces challenging ideas — on his latest album, In Conflict, the multi-instrumentalist producer tackles the idea that unsavory states of being should not be looked upon in pity. "The record is meant to approach 'insanity' in a positive way," Palett said in a press release. "Depression, addiction, gender trouble, and the creative state are presented as positive, lovable, empathetic ways of being. Not preferable, per se, but all as equal, valid positions that we experience, which make us human."

Saturday: The Breeders at The Fillmore

If you’ve been waiting 20-plus years to see The Breeders, you’re not alone. The recently reunited band took a 20-year hiatus, much to the devastation of mid-’90s alt-rock diehards. The band is now touring with original players from Last Splash: guitarist Kim Deal, sister Kelley Deal, bassist Josephine Wiggs and drummer Jim Macpherson. It’s Cannonball time.

Saturday: The Avett Brothers at Greek Theatre

False advertising alert! (well, kinda) The Avett Brothers are no longer just a trio of brothers playing stripped-down acoustic shows. The band has evolved into a seven-piece mini-orchestra, and old songs have proven amenable to layering and depth and jam-band hootenany. Bassist Bob Crawford recently told Boulder Weekly as much: "What we found when we hit the stage a few nights in a row (recently) was that we are kind of sitting on top of a powder keg as far as sound. And we can take these songs that were originally recorded with three instruments and work them to seven, really expand them, create a lot of depth, a lot of new harmonies." 

Follow @ChrisTrenchard on Twitter for more words like these.

 

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