Meshell Ndegeocello...

appearing at "Green Apple Festival"

Sun 04/20/08
Chicago, IL
Lincoln Park Zoo

yeah, it's kind of confusing. researching that a few days ago, it seemed that the date was actually on 4/19... but it looks like she's doing 2 dates in chicago on 4/19 and 4/20.

of course, if someone would respond to my emails...

thank you Derek

She's supposed to be at the Kinetic Playground. Link below.

I plan on definitely being there. I can't wait to see her again, hopefully the crowd will be a bit better and won't shout for her to sing old songs like at the HOB!

http://silverwrapper.musictoday.com/SilverWrapperPresents/calendar.aspx

yep, I have both chi-town dates online at both sites. (at least, i thought i did.)

haven't been confirmed yet, but i'm guessing since i haven't been asked to remove them, that's the same thing as confirmation.

i'm going to be at the zoo show, (i'm actually still getting used to the thought of seeing meshell play at 11am!), but i can't make it to the kinetic show as i already have long standing tix to see zakir husain (absolutely amazing tabla player) live for the first time in my life at the chicago symphony orchestra. i was really sad that they were both on the same night, but then i was happily consoled by the zoo show the next day.

btw matthew, your link on the gig page to the kinetic playground show indicates that it's a free show, but it isn't. tix are $25 a pop. the zoo show, however, is free.

i'll try my best to post a review...
peace
deshi

a month or so ago when i posted the link(s), there weren't prices, times, etc.

even though i've asked, i still have not been informed on what time meshell is going to perform. i just put 11am because that's what time the festivities start.

here's the lincoln park zoo site...

http://www.lpzoo.org/events/earthday2008.html

looks as though she is supposed to be performing from 2:30 - 3:15.

Hmm, I think that I'll try and stop through there - but I still want to see the performance on Saturday.

I looked everywhere. Thank you for this info!

Great show last night, of course.

Although she STILL didn't perform "Lovely,Lovely" I throughly enjoyed the performance aside from some chick screaming into my ear the entire performance.

I may try and stop by to see her perform today at the Lincoln Park Zoo. The weather is perfect - why not!

did she start late last night?

Yes - she did!

The site said "doors at 9pm" I got there around 9:15pm (after finally finding a parking space, lol)

She didn't go on until 11:30pm.

People kept looking at their watches, waiting for the show to start...but were all on their feet when she came on stage.

Do you know what the hold-up was?

Thanks Gaia! Here's another really good review from over at okayplayer...


"Meshell Ndegeocello - Kinetic Playground, 4/19 (Chicago)

I nearly missed a really great show last night. I'd gone out on Friday night and everything was telling me to skip Meshell... I didn't want to spend the money, I had to work early the next morning, it just seemed like a really bad idea.

But then I checked out the venue size... 500 people max capacity. I knew I couldn't pass it up. I'm glad I didn't.

There were two negative aspects to the show that I'll get out of the way at the start. First, the doors opened at 9 but she didn't take the stage until 11:30 (they originally said she'd get up there around 10:30). Folks were definitely starting to get a little tired of waiting. Secondly, she played for just over an hour.

But on with the review: she got up there at 11:30 and announced that they'd be playing through mostly new material. She was backed by a bassist, a guitarist and a drummer... the sound that just the four of them put out was huge and really well-rounded.

I was *really* impressed with the new material. On the one hand it sounds completely radical for her, taking some of the rock edge that you hear on "the world has made me the man of my dreams" and fleshing it out even more. The melodies are very limited in their range (as in the scope of a given line) and Meshell seems to be going for a sort of purer vocal tone, slightly distant and fluid. I can't help but make at least one comparison here: it sounds like she's been listening to a lot of Smiths records (and other similar artists), I kept thinking of Morissey throughout the whole show, and I don't mean that in a bad way. I want to say she's been listening to some really good punk, too... several tunes she played were short (as in two minutes short) and thus fell outside a normal verse-chorus-verse-bridge type structure (maybe she's exploring those DC roots via punk???).

But on the other hand, the music is distinctly Meshell. Her trademark shift between sung and spoken vocals (which are so effective live) was present and accounted for. The surprising twists and turns that she's been doing since day one are still there, too... but the difference is that some of those twists took her into *hard* territory, crunching distorted guitar work and really hard-hitting drums.

In short, it was a rock show. A really outstanding rock show. There are still a lot of other influences that come out in the music, for sure, and there was some nice improvisational and instrumental work that reminded me of some loose, out-there jazz.

She played a few tunes from "the world..." - Evolution, Sloganeer and Article 3 (!!!). She got some major cheers for The Sloganeer (I guess that's the decided favorite from the album?). The arrangements were all relatively different from the record (always nice) and all were on point.

A final note: the number of genres Meshell has pretty much conquered in her career is just stunning, and the fact that she sounds so natural in all of them is equally amazing. She seemed perfectly at home in a rock environment as she does in any other musical setting. It's easy to see why some of her fans are so... um, dedicated? She has an engaging and slightly eccentric stage presence that is only upstaged by her talent.

I just wish there would have been more people there.

-thebigfunk"

No idea what the hold up was, but the only other review I've seen online mentioned that... (not the okp one)

what site was the other review on? my s.o and i were looking in the local papers, but couldn't find anything.

it wasn't a review in the press. just someone that went to the show and posted on their blog. essentially, they said she arrived 2 hours late, didn't play the bass much and pretended to play the guitar.

I always love when folks get upset cause they haven't kept up with her music and then say that SHE lost THEM.

There were some folks sitting near me that were wondering aloud if she was going to sing anything from the earlier albums, I had to interject and let them know that she would not be doing that.

Most of the material played would be from the new album and songs that aren't on the album. Some were kinda saddened by that, but whatever...that's life.

I saw the review on OKP - didn't know that there was anyone else from the boards going to show. There isn't too strong of a Meshell presence on the boards. But can one blame them when the last update to her 'artist' page was "Comfort Woman?"

Upon my last look, yesterday, the link takes one to her myspace page, lol.

*smh*

yeah, i'd almost rather just link to her myspace page here at fmh. but i won't do that because you never know when myspace will just shut down the account like they did the last time without notice/reason.

and then you have the revolving door of management that's still in the same 12 year pattern of not telling the person they want updating her website that there are upcoming tourdates. i find out about them when people post on here or on another website, blog, etc.

i mean, i found out about the three nyc arthur & the coopers dates from a google news update. i then spent a good two hours updating both freemyheart and myspace with the tourdate info, putting the picture of the band on myspace, tagging it, trying to find out who the band members were, linking to their myspaces, then after all that... i was asked to take it down because meshell didn't want there to be confusion -- that it wasn't a meshell show. no shit. that's why it says "arthur & the coopers" and why i put "there will be no material played from meshell's catalog" in the myspace info for each date. oh well.

but then again, meshell shows really aren't meshell shows anymore. (arriving 2 hours after the announced start time, and playing for a little over an hour? -- maybe that's part of the whole punk-rock thing -- who knows.) i know i'd personally rather pay $50 for a show that pushed 2 hours... no matter the material that was played.

and no matter how much you attempt to inform folks that she won't be playing material from past albums, you always have some (seeming the same) idiot yelling out "barry farms" at her shows. even after she's played 10 songs in a row that they've never heard... haha.

there isn't really an online presence anywhere for meshell. not here, not okp, even not on myspace even though she has around 51K friends there.

folks that go to her shows, go to other artist's shows and those artists always throw in "purple rain" or "every breath you take." so when they come see meshell, they expect "boyfriend."

i just can't imagine meshell, where she is these days, ever playing "boyfriend" again... and i think i've said this before: i'd rather her not. there are just some songs you can do without hearing again from your favorite artists. (see "purple rain" and "every breath you take.")

I went to Lincoln Park Zoo to see Meshell on Sunday, since I couldn't make the one at the Kinetic Playground on Saturday. There was a fairly sizable crowd in the bandstand area that was set up for the performers, and (finally!) it was a beautiful day to be outside, listening to live music.

Anyway... I think that she and her band started on time and then played for about a half-hour. Meshell gave the names of the other musicians (2 guitarists and a drummer), but the only one I recognized was Deantoni Parks. I thoroughly enjoyed her/their set (although most of the folks in the audience didn't seem to be that engaged in it...). She/they did some material from "The World Has Made Me...", i.e., "Evolution", "Article 3", and "The Sloganeer.", along with other stuff that I didn't recogize (but liked it anyway...). I loved her energy on stage, as well as the band's, and I loved the way she/they fleshed out the material from the latest CD live. They rocked out, and that worked for me...LOL! I'm glad that I went.

As my friend said, I just wished the performance had lasted longer. He hasn't heard Meshell's most recent recordings. So...I am thinking of "surprise gifting" him with the last 2 CD's But, shhh... Don't tell him...LOL!

Cat

ugh! by the time we trudged through traffic and got to the zoo, i heard sloganeer floating through the air and then just as i entered the concert space she was saying her thank yous and goodbyes!

so i missed it...

and yeah, i heard she only played for a half hour.

i gotta say though... after reading about the 2hr wait for the kinetic playground show for a show that only lasted a little over an hour.. i'm really glad i didn't bother trying to catch it after the zakir hussain show ended, because i briefly thought about doing that...

and good god, that zakir hussain show was one of the best concerts i'd been to! i paid $40 for good ass seats at the chicago symphony orchestra and not only did it start on time, but he played for a solid 3 hours! if he's in your city, and you dig indian classical music (and tabla/percussion in particular) you really, really MUST try to see his show... go here: http://www.momentrecords.com/tourinfo.html to see if he's playing in your town. you absolutely will not regret it. it's the kind of music that makes you grin from ear to ear the entire time because it's that good.

something's gotta give with the whole late start thing. it's just wrong to make people wait that long. my girlfriend has a bad back, and the last time we went to see her at hob in chicago, her back was killing her from standing around waiting for so long. as much as we love meshell, that shit just isn't necessary. goign to see a show shouldn't be hazardous to ones health. if they don't want to start until 10:30, then they should just tell folks to come at 10:30, not at 8pm.

i'm still sad i missed the zoo show... it would've been nice to be chillin in good weather listening to some meshell.

peace
deshi