Saturday night I went to see The Ladles at Littlefield’s in Brooklyn. It was the album release show for Everything that Grows. The Ladles were my great COVID-19 discovery. Amazon music thought I’d like them, Amazon was right. They are the trio of Lucia Pontoniere, Katie Martucci, and Caroline Kuhn. The canonical order for me naming band members is left to right the way the most frequently line up on stage. The most notable exception is the Roches who enshrined their canonical order in their song We. The used oldest to youngest. That’s not information available to me for most bands. I have not missed a show of theirs since I first heard them on Amazon Music, but that’s not many shows. Once a year sound about right. Katie and Caroline live in New York, and I have seen them on other projects but Lucia lives in San Francisco so they can’t get together often. I had no idea where she lived until I looked it up just now. Wise Madness is a scholarly endeavor, I do research., I wish I had time to go into things like that on Gord’s Gold but I’d much rather give my precious streaming time to the music than my words, no matter how brilliant, funny, and of course modest I am.
I did not plan my time well. The ticket said that the show was at 7 but I left late, I was preparing Gord’s Gold. I did not leave enough time to eat before the show, or so I thought. I did, 7 was doors. I easily had enough time for a quick bite. That came back to bite me. I was thinking that they’d play for maybe an hour and a half, so I’d eat at 8:30. No, there were two opening acts, the second went on at 8:15. I used the first act to check out the sonic geography of the room. It’s a standing venue, except for some stools along the side, so I went in search of the best combination of sound and sightline. I started up front house left. I could see great, but the sound was poor. I tried moving to the middle in the second row, a little better but still not good. I tried the back, I couldn’t see much and the sound was no better. I ended up center stage up front as at least from there I could see great. That’s where I was for the entire Ladles set.
Despite the fact that I could not always make out the lyrics the show still mesmerized me. According to the Oraculum Illyriae there are seven keys to every person’s soul*, The Ladles are one mine. Do not ask what they other six are, I have not thought this through. Read the note at the end of the essay. They are one of the musical acts that take me to another world and keep me there for the entire show. The reason I’m so hard on musical mediocrity, the nice people playing nice songs nicely, is that I go to a concert for transcendent experience. It’s akin to the disappointment I’d feel if I had my heart set on a Junior’s chocolate cheese cake and had to settle for a twinkie.
They did just what I want and expect from an album release show, they played the entire album in order plus an old favorite for an encore. The Ladles are a band of virtuosi, not poets putting their words to music. There’s nothing wrong with the latter, hell that’s what Dylan does, and nobody is greater than Dylan. It’s just more unusual in the folk world. I once had a very strong disagreement with a musician friend of mine who said that I don’t like any of the “musicians” in the folk world. What he meant by musicians was nice people that played nice songs nicely with technical mastery. He did not require genius and his bar for technical mastery was low. To my mind he meant that their lyrics weren’t that strong enough to carry the song, so they had good backing musicians. The Ladles have both genius and precision Each of them sings exactly the right note to make not just a harmony, but an interesting harmony. Lucia’s violin, Katie’s guitar, and Caroline’s banjo are strong enough to carry the show themselves. They then enhance that with a three piece back up band, bass, guitar, and drums, who are at the top of the game.
I was thirty years older than anyone near me with one exception, the woman right behind me. It turns out that was Caroline’s mother. I might have guessed that from the way she looked. It wasn’t a striking resemblance but obvious once you know their relationship. I like being the oldest one in a crowd. It assures me that I really am open to new music. One of these days when I have no adventures, I’ll go into my gripes against old people with the understanding that this is not about numerical age. It’s just correlated with it.
The show ended at 10:15 and I still had not eaten. Part of me wanted to run out and eat and part of me wanted to do my usual post-show debriefing with the artists. I said hi to Katie and Caroline, who I know as they live in New York, and remained a stranger to Lucia who doesn’t. It was just too hectic to introduce myself in a meaningful way. I then took care of dinner. I decided to splurge, I knew that Dinosaur BBQ was around the corner. I’ve heard good things about them and decided to check them out. Barbecue is my favorite cuisine. They have a great three meat two side special. As I was starved that was just what I needed. I ordered take-out but ate them in the tables outside. That might be my go to place to eat in the neighborhood.
I’m still working unsuccessfully at getting my sleep schedule back on track. Today was up from 5:30AM to 6:30 then slept until 11. That’s not what I want.
*There no such thing as the Oraculum Illyriae. I picked seven because that’s a number that is often given mystical meaning. I don’t even know what a key to the soul would mean.
Wise Madness 