Neko Case and John Doe, the Court & Spark, Virgil Shaw and Paula Frazer

Old school punk rockers wearing cowboy hats and cowboy boot-clad hipsters lined up outside the Great American Music Hall last Friday night. It was indie country night in the city and everyone that was there didn't quite know what to expect.
Paula Frazer opened the floor with some mellow and soulful folk. She strummed her guitar and was accompanied by a piano, the only percussion present, while she chirped Joan Baez style vocals and pacified the room. Unfortunately, she was only able to play about four songs since the show got off to a late start.
Virgil Shaw, a five-piece classic rock / country project, made things a little more upbeat when they hit the stage. Their singer had a trademark - a well-placed shreek that usually started the choruses, and strangely enough, the drummer was able to play a trumpet and the drums at the same time. After about an hour set, they marched off the stage.
The Court and Spark, San Francisco's most prolific alt-country band, grabbed everyone's full attention as they began to play. Their ensemble was more complex than it had ever been that night since their original five-piece band had become a ten-piece band, complete with pedal steel, brass section, organ, drums and guitars. Their dark and moody, mostly slow-paced music complemented vocalist M.C. Taylor's voice perfectly. There was definitely a country sound going on in their music, but not the boring and shallow country I had been used to. It was like comparing Johnny Cash to Travis Tritt. There were elements of rock and even some gospel sounds in their music.
John Doe, the frontman of the old-school punk rock band, X, seemed like a very strange addition to Neko Case's Canadian style country / folk sound. Would you put someone like Reba on stage with Sid Vicious? John and Neko would prove to not be too far above the unattractive sound of their comparison. They sat next to each other on stage. Neko was playing a tenor, four-stringed acoustic guitar and John played the six string. A guitar prodigy sat next to them and improvised amazing blues and flamenco style solos to their slow paced, simple rhythms. Neko sang a song and then John sang, each one singing back up vocals for one another, respectively, and between each song, they talked to the crowd about utter nonsense while they tuned their guitars for what seemed like ten minutes each time. One of John's old fans finally yelled out, "Just shut the fuck up and play some music, dammit!" John's unmistakable punk rockness was fully exposed thereafter when he yelled back with wild eyes flaring, "Why don't you come up here and say that to my face you motherfucker!" To say the least, their performance was very unprepared, and the only thing that saved this special project's ass was the fact that they were being backed up by someone who actually knew how to play the guitar. In my opinion, Paula Frazer and the Court & Spark stole the show.
- Jason Hicks

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