MESHELL: LIVE in November...

alright folks you've heard the live clips...
(if you haven't, heres a direct link to a FREE downloadable crisp and clear live sample from iTunes)

http://phobos.apple.com/W...i=20017861


so...NOW you've heard the live clips...if you wanna experience stuff like that in person you have 4 chances NEXT WEEK...

here's where Meshell and her band will be playing stateside before they head overseas...


MONDAY Nov12
Detroit, Michigan
Majestic Theatre
7pm


TUESDAY Nov13
Chicago, Illinois <<<< i'm gonna' catch this one myself
House Of Blues
7:30pm


WEDNESDAY Nov14
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Turner Hall,
8pm

THURSDAY Nov15
Minneapolis, Minnesota <<<< i wish i could catch this one too
Fine Line Music Cafe
9pm


go, listen, report back. That is your mission

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[Edited 11/9/07 14:21pm]

justhemusic said:

I'm hoping to go to the Chicago show. My friend and I are "supposed" to get our tickets tonight. I've never seen her live. Heard many boots though. And I will be perfectly content if she plays all new material. I can't get enough of the new CD. My fave of the year.

justhemusic said:

i'll be at these two and if i had the time i'd go to the one in Minneapolis.

To say she brings it live is an understatement. Easily the best show I've seen by anyone in the last 5 years including P. I saw her in SF last march & I'm bummed she's heading overseas. I hope she comes back to the Bay soon.

I'll be there on Monday night, I'm not listening to anything before hand, I like surprises.

Slave2daGroove said:

Have you not heard the new album?!

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

No, I've been waiting for this show for months. Everyone here has been going on about it but the live show is the way I'd prefer to get introduced to an artists' newest efforts. I'm excited as I've never seen her and I love all of the other discs.

Slave2daGroove said:

That's cool you're waiting to hear new material but keep in mind, the live versions and studio versions are too seperate things. But as a fan, I'm sure you'll dig both. I just know some around here were a little disappointed hearing the studio versions after hearing all the live stuff first. I, for one, like both.Though I almost always prefer studio versions. Live is what is says, live. Different beast all together. Great anyway you get it.

Slave2daGroove said:

OMG you are in for a treat!!!!

I was blessed to be able to see the very first show here in LA where she played this new material for the first time and trust me. The audience was like this the whole time

It was off the hook and you are going to LOVE this material live and you are going to love the disc. It is absolutely stellar

Bfunkthe1 said:

well said Bfunkthe1.
It took years but i've finally trained myself to treat her live stuff & studio stuff as different entities altogether. In doing that, i was then able to appreciate the studio versions much more. (I actually did a test on myself, and yeah I was one of those folks who...if i heard her do a song live FIRST before ever hearing the studio version i'd often be SO blown away by the live version, that when i finally DID hear the studio version i tended to not be quite as moved by it)...again, it's a testement to what she can do live, NOT a knock on her studio stuff AT ALL. I mean the studio version of 'Free My Heart', 'Make Me Wanna Holler', 'Fool Of Me', 'Grace', 'jabril', 'Criterion', 'Earth' etc etc etc...are all PERFECT just like they are. Of course i heard the studio versions of those first. But like i said, for songs that i heard LIVE first, I had to train myself to separate the two entities in order to give the studio versions a fair listening ear.

i agree with you also on the new cd too...this latest album is one of her most intriguing records so far...(my only real complaint is that its kinda short timewise...but the funny thing is, it doesn't SEEM short when you are playing it because, if you're really listening to it, it kinda just pulls you into its own space, ya know what i mean? It's an intrigueing special record in many ways ...kinda unfolds itself to the listener...) She is easily one of the most consistent and yet unpredictable artists of the last 15 years. when i think of her track record...her catalogue of work on her own albums and on soundtracks/compilations...it's such an impressive body of work... you can't help but go 'wow'.

That's my girl there i tell ya...there's not another artist (still living) who i'd spend the price of a concert ticket AND a $200+ airline ticket in order to get to a city to see a concert. (Jimi & Ray & Donny Hathaway are some others who i'd have done it for though)...but these days...Meshells been the only one bringing what i'm looking for...

now...i can't wait to hear how she and the band have evolved...here's to a week of great gigs folks!!

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[Edited 11/10/07 4:26am]

Slave2daGroove said:

awww man....I'm psyched that some of these shows will be several folks 'first times' as far as experiencing Meshell 'live'. I'm gonna try not to hype it too much (well, not more than i have already heheh )

but yeah, anybody who is going to be experiencing a meshell gig for the first time i'm very interested in hearing about your perspective on it after you get back, so please, if you can, post about your afterthoughts here at the org (or here at her official website http://www.freemyheart.com or here at her myspace http://www.myspace.com/of...egeocello)

actually i always like to hear ANYones perspectives and impressions (good or bad, first timers or not) so yeah everyone post back. Lets share, good people

by the way...firstimers a few things you should know...

DON'T bring cameras/flashes...for health reasons, NO cameras/flashes at meshell gigs. (if she happens to play with her back to you that's the reason, flashes can actually be very dangerous for her)

DON'T bring expectations...her shows tend to be WIIIIDE open...you may get ALL new stuff that has NEVER been released on any record (i personally LOVE those type of shows)...or you may get some old stuff and new stuff...you may get a lot of Meshell on bass and a little Meshell on the mike...or you may get hardly any Meshell on bass and a whole lot of Meshell on vocals...you may get funk night, a rock night, a jazz night, a reggae dub night, an acoustic night, a spacey soul night, or an 'everything & everybody in the pool' night where its ALL in there!

The point i'm trying to make is...you just never know, so if you go in with no expectations and open to being surprised, and you embrace the unexpected...then I'm willing to guarantee you will enjoy the experience!

a link to a stream of a another live radio performance/interview can be found front and center
here when you enter her site...
v
v
v

http://www.freemyheart.com

and inside that site there are more goodies in the threads (see the polylogue/concerts sections to start with)


.
[Edited 11/10/07 5:12am]

so...tomorrow they start...roll call for this weeks gigs?

I'm definitely going to Chicago (got concert and plane tix in hand, so it's official...)

will post back impressions of that one when i get back...

I can think of about a million more things that I could do with $25 a ticket, including lighting it on fire.

It was like watching a manic depressive run through an average set with total disregard to the people who paid well to see her. I won't be checking out the cd, I won't ever see her again and from the amount of people who walked out before the set was half-way through either will they.

Sharon Jones tomorrow night so that'll help in my recovery from loss of money and time.
[Edited 11/13/07 6:37am]

Slave2daGroove said:

WHAT!!!!! OMG! You had a horrible time?????! Details PLEASE. I have seen her about 6 times and at no time was there anything bordering on a negative experience. And she has always engaged the fans with total respect. What the hell happened????!

Any word on future dates? Is she going to do a formal U.S. tour, or just play a few dates hear and there?

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Yea, I wanna know too

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

OK. So we get there when doors open and wait in line, the few seats available are snatched up so we find a table so my fiancé doesn't have to stand the whole time. We're waiting and about 2.5 hours later they finally come on. They open with some song that sounded like bad punk rock and was 1 minute long. We were like, O.K., then she picks up the bass and starts a rhythm for the band and they pick it up and run with it. The band seemed to be good but not rehearsed. Still feeling each other out and looking intensely for song cues. The song is good but about half way through the beautiful melody stops and it goes back to bad metal and she yells something inaudible but angry and then it goes back the beautiful melody. We were like, alright, odd but we're brand new so maybe this is her thing. Then she makes a comment about wanting to be all famous and then getting mad when people post your picture on-line and goes into All the Critics Love You, at this point I'm thinking, cool, this is going in the direction of the music I've appreciated from her live recordings. Then she says, "We're not interested in what you think about us, this is the first time we've played together so we're just working things out so maybe you could be as open in listening". I thought, O.K., she's in sweats, she's never played with this band before and I just paid $50. Still trying to keep an open mind, she goes into another song ("This is for Kanye's Mom who just past) and it's her beautiful voice with an ethereal vibe and I'm being swept away with it and then all of a sudden, metal guitar and her growling "You're a Cunt when you drink" and then back to the melody. After this song, she's says, "We're just going to run through the set list, see ya next time" and the music is just this same disjointed, no real vibe, kinda of like someone yelling at me once in a while thing. No thanks for coming out, no funk of any kind (except that P cover) and overall no real vibe, just a feeling like it was a practice session at my expense. A third of the people literally left after the first 4 songs, we left after about 10 songs.

It must be said, I have her other albums (sans the new one) and I've heard multiple live recordings that are just amazing. I honestly think this was just a half-assed effort with a new group of guys. Two guitar players, a bass player, a drummer and her occasionally picking up the bass. She also mentioned when someone yelled out a song that she couldn't do that because all she had were 2 guitarists. Everyone is entitled to a bad night and this one just cost me fifty bucks plus a couple of drinks while I waited for 2 1/2 hours. Grasping for the positives; the people watching was great, the few cohesive songs she did were alright, the rhythm section had an almost reggae feel in some of their rhythms which was really cool. One guitar player had a MIDI guitar that he was pulling some cool sounds out of.
[Edited 11/13/07 15:33pm]

Slave2daGroove said:

i caught her last night and i really enjoyed what she was doing, but i'll have to agree with S2TG. the set seemed very sloppy and unrehearsed and in between every song it seems like Me'shell had a discussion with the band about the next song, i don't know what it was about, but it seemed like it was a big fuss.

then her overall vibe was like 'let me hurry up and get this over with' it seems like she could careless about her fans even though she said 'i don't give a fuck if you download my shit just keep coming to my shows', i was you're gonna have to give me more than this for me to show up next time (though i already have tickets for tonight's show in milwaukee ) she probably picked up the bass for 3 milliseconds, though i will say that cat she had with her playing bass was laying it down.

the part i think hurt most is that she barely played in hour! i was expecting a long set sprinkled with some of her old jams along with the new, but it was mainly material i had never heard before and probably at most 3 songs of the latest album. i will say that when i heard 'All The Critics' i got giddy inside.

hopefully, tonight turns out to be a better night for Me'shell.

OK, I think I know what is happening.

YOU GUYS ARE BAD FANS!



I have seen her 6 times, in a variety of settings and with a variety of setlists, some familiar and twice her showcasing new material for the first time. Saw her perform the bitter album 4 months before it came out and saw her perform this most recent material for the first time as well. With the last performance, much of what you are saying sounds familiar as far as the band looking to each other for cues, or to her or her to the band to keep things on track. I actually thought that was kind of cool. Kind of reminded me of the Prince soundchecks.

However, they were cohesive enough as a "new band" that their performance was very off the hook. Does anyone know if she actually changed the band line up since early this year? I didn't hear that she did. And as far as her being kind of angry, I don't know. One show for me was kind of along the lines of what you guys are saying. It was during cookie and you could tell she was stoned off her ass and she didn't seem to be putting herself all the way into the performance like I have seen in all the other shows but it wasn't to the point that I thought I'd never see her again because of how awful it was. It was still great. Maybe she is going through some shit and it's showing. I don't know.

Sounds like she is responding to the Prince shit, being that she declared she don't care about bootlegging and plays Ps All the critics. I don't know, I'm really honestly very very VERY surprised to hear these accounts. She has been nothing short of lovely as far as respecting her fans when I have seen her. I can't make these experiences feel better but Slave2, this record really deserves to be heard.

I still gotta hear that album!!

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

a few quick things (i'm beat, just got off of the flight from the Chicago show)...first i agree with SupaFunky...don't avoid the album just because you had a bad time at the show you went to. I really think you'd be missing out if you did that.

Slave, I wont (and can't) speak for the show you went to...maybe it was indeed just a bad night...but i thought she knocked em dead in Chicago. She did mostly brand spankin new stuff!! (meaning stuff thats not on ANY of her albums, not even the new record. I personally LOVE going to shows where the music is 100% brand new to me, and at least a little new to the band. For me it helps make the experience more unpredictable adventurous. Out of the entire set she played 3 songs from her latest release, everything else was 'new', so i thought that was cool. (my personal preference for live shows IS for it to feel like the band is discovering itself and discovering new things as the play right in front of me. I'd actually rather feel like i'm 'listening in' on a jam session as upposed feeling like someone is performing a pre-arranged show for me. But that's just the type of thing i go for. So Meshell talking and re-directing the band in between songs doesn't bother me at all, it's actually kinda fun to see in some cases. In Chicago she was giving some shall we say 'constructive direction' so some of the band in between a song and there was some bit of push & pull between them....after they all got on the same page, Meshell came to the mike and said to the crowd something along the lines of...'hey, ya'll...see we're just humans too, trying to work it all out'...and then went't into another killing tune. For me, thats exactly what i'm looking for..complete unfiltered honesty and discovery in a performance...the wonderful highs and the gritty lows... )

The new stuff was very well recieved in Chi-town. Honestly before the show started i was a little nervous because i was able to listen to some of the rehearsal before the gig so i knew she was gonna be kicking a heavy dose of guitar punk & rock with dashes of funk and softness sprinkled about...i was wondering if the audience was gonna be open to that. I'm happy to say that they were very open to it. With each track, even the heavy HEAVY guitar punk, shift up tunes that i'm sure no one had heard before, the crowd clapped louder as the night went on. The sound mix was clear and the music was pulsating and energetic.

There were some folks who were still shouting out for 'If Thats Your Boyfriend' 'Outside your door' and other oldies, and Meshell responded in what i thought was the appropriate casual and somewhat humorous tone, something along these lines...

'I know some of ya'll are asking me to play some tunes i wrote when i was like 17 years old, but i'm like 40ish now...and love songs are ok and all, but right now i feel the world out there is just so fucked up and i'm just trying to reflect some of of that in my stuff, so thats where i'm at. So I hope you're open to that...if you are, cool and enjoy the show! if you're not, thats ok too, just buy some drinks and tip the bartenders well..." and then she ripped into another killing explosive tune...

So yeah, the Chicago show was killing. My only complaint about it was the set-length. (it was short by comparision to other Meshell gigs i've attended over the years.) So i'm hoping they play longer and longer sets as the tour moves on, but what they DID play (at least in Chicago) was very VERY powerful stuff!

Again, Slave, i'm not discrediting your experience at all, just giving the lowdown on my Chicago set. And in fact, I talked to someone who went to several of the recent gigs and they did say that Chicago was definitely the best of all three.

Now, again...i strongly suggest that you don't hold your live experience against the album...they are really different entities...trust me on this...
[Edited 11/14/07 23:16pm]

Well I just got back from seeing Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings last night.

While I respect your opinion justthemusic, it was the polar opposite of my Monday night experience and 12 dollars cheaper. Her band was tight, well rehearsed and had the crowd in their pocket before Sharon even hit the stage. The energy was high and the funk and soul vibe was aggressive. In a Soul Review style, the guitarist/MC introduces Sharon Jones and the crowd goes wild.

During the course of her 2 hour set she played soft soulful songs mixed by up-tempo, jump soul. Singing her heart out and dancing like a woman possessed. It was beautiful and impossible to sit for the 150 people that were present. She had the crowd singing back-up in one song, she brought a guy (or 2) out of the audience and sang to him on stage for one of the slower numbers, it was fun, positive and engaging.

The encore had the band come out at full tilt with a groove that had the whole crowd making their funk face and everyone was dancing the whole show. Overall she ran through more new stuff than old but every song was just tight as hell and certain parts were a little more funky than the record. Then after the encore she came out and signed cd's and records and was full of grace and appreciation that we were feeling her and she thanked us in person.

Maybe I'm not as much of a fan of Meshell as I thought I was but in this economy with the state of the world Meshell should have been more respectful to people who were supporting her. That's great if you want to try out new material on an audience but the price should have reflected a rehearsal, not a concert from an artist I respect. I will check out the new disk by trading old cds for new ones because I'm still pissed that I wasted my time and money for that show. It's disrespect for the fans that has me irked more than anything.