Riviera Paradise: Hauntingly Beautiful

Atlanta somehow managed to mostly ignore Stevie. I had one friend who talked about him, but I only heard a couple of songs, and they didn't do that much for me at the time. Then I moved out to Austin.

The first time I heard "Riviera Paradise" I was driving home from work around midnight. Jay Trachtenberg or one of the other long term icons at KUT or KLRU introduced it by reminiscing that many times at Antone's after a show, when the crowd had mostly gone and only the last few hangers on were around, Stevie would come sit on the edge of the stage with the lights down low and play this. I could see it in my mind's eye, feel the room, smell and taste the air. I was totally there, caught up in the moment with Stevie and his most loyal fans. I have no recollection of the next ten miles of MoPac.

I fell in love with Stevie, hook, line, and sinker.

Years later I finally went to a concert at Antone's. I hung around after Alien Love Child was done just to drink the place in. The techs dimmed the lights and put this song through the sound system. That radio intro came back to mind. I nearly cried. I don't recall leaving or driving home; I just woke up when the alarm went off the next morning, thinking it had to be a dream.

Wish I could have seen Stevie play. Wish I'd known him.

One day.

(This song still sends shivers up my spine.)

[Studio version from In Step]

In Which Musician and Teen Win Over Geek

During an interview on KUT this morning, one of the members of Mother Falcon mentioned that each of them had grown up having "a different relationship with Radiohead's OK Computer album".

My geeky side immediately froke out. "You can't have a relationship with an album, for crying out loud!"

My musician, however, just went, "Yes!"

They immediately got into an argument. My inner teen joined up with the musician; the geek eventually gave up and wandered off in search of an algorithm or chemistry set, irritated but knowing deep in his heart the other two were right.

I think he gave up was when he remembered the night last weekend when they were all three in concert (in every way possible) on djembe with two other people , one playing cello, and one playing melodic percussion on guitar with chopsticks. Each of us was in one sense doing our own thing, yet we were all working together. It was pretty phenomenal.

 

I remember having relationships with albums growing up. It still happens, though seldom as intensely as when I was a teenager. It's been a while since I sat with my ear plastered to a stereo, so completely lost in a new song or album that the house could have burned down around me and I might never have noticed.

But it sometimes happens when I'm making music. I'll take that.

 

Mother Falcon seems to be in that space in between the worlds where all things are possible. I think they still have their relationships with OK Computer as well as with their (string and voice versions) of the songs. Yes, strings.

They're going to perform the entire album on cello, violin and so forth (there might be horns and stuff, too). And vocals, of course.

It goes down Saturday, Dec. 29, at the Scottish Rite Theater in Austin (Lavaca and 17th). I can't be there due to a prior engagement. But I bet it's awesome, and if you go, you should definitely have a relationship with the music. I bet it's a long and happy one.