Review: Thurston Moore at Larimer Lounge, 6/29/12

Tom Murphy

Hush Arbors at Larimer Lounge

Earlier in the night, the show started off with the duo of Hush Arbors. Keith Woods' guitar sounded like there had to be reverb on while he played, but it may have been the on board variety and tastefully subtle. His expert falsetto gave him a sound reminiscent of Neil Young, as did some of his countrified melodies. John Moloney kept mostly simple rhythms, but when he ventured into the more complex, he accented well Woods' own rhythms. Midset, there were shades of Codeine's introspective shimmer. Woods' ability to finger pick rhythms and leads at once looked easy in his hands, but the intricate guitar work somehow also sounded spare and lonely.

Tom Murphy

Anne Waldman

Anne Waldman, the renowned performance poet and cultural treasure, went on second to treat us to a rare opportunity to see her perform live. She began with the amusingly pointed "Did Not Serve," in which she outlined a number of the warhawks in American politics, who, in fact, did not serve but seem to have no problem sending Americans off to war. In the end, she also pointed out how she didn't serve either. For the second half of her set, Waldman brought on Hush Arbors who sat in with her keyboard player who also played guitar at the end.

Of course the material was political, but Waldman has never been one to shirk her responsibility as an artist in troubled times nor has she been one to point the finger. In her usual fashion, she moved about and gestured broadly in perfect illustration of the movement of emotion as expressed through the body. After "Prisons of Egypt," about the Egyptian Spring and how it inspired the Occupy movement, someone cried out, "You're terrible." And there were others who had other uncharitable comments.

Thurston Moore's praise of Waldman later was a good way of putting her in context for people who don't know who she is, but that moment made it embarrassing to be from here. And yet, Waldman handled it with the poise of years of hearing such unimaginative criticism and far worse and said nothing but kept the show going, finishing with the poem "Oracle Eros," which she dedicated to Moore.

Thurston Moore
Larimer Lounge - Denver, CO
6/19/12

01. Orchard Street
02. Pretty Bad
03. Ono Soul
04. Cindy
05. Mina Loy
06. Circulation
07. Burroughs
08. Frank O'Hara Hot
09. Groovy & Linda
10. [Empires of Time - ?]
11. Psychic Hearts

ENCORE

12. See-Through Playmate
13. Staring Statues

Bias: I've been a fan of Thurston Moore's guitar work and songwriting since the '80s and Anne Waldman's poetry and performances since the '90s.

Random Detail: Ran into Janet Feder at the show.

By the Way: I was visiting with Noah Van Sciver at a used book store today, and Thurston Moore walked in. I didn't want to bother a guy while he's just looking for books, even if his band is one of the main bands that woke me up from being into entirely conventional music.

Location Info

Venue

Map

Larimer Lounge

2721 Larimer St., Denver, CO

Category: Music

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