Life has meaning again for me. The mantra of the day most days is to live in the moment, but my philosophy is one of enjoying the moment while being excited about what the future holds. For me, having an Akron/Family concert on schedule for the near future is something that propels me through the doldrums of work. The El Rey is big step up for the psychedelic, freak folk indie rock band known as AK. If you have not been to one their epic performance I hope you will take an evening to experience a force of energy unlike any other.

Here is the closer from their last time the TSS crew ventured to see them at the Steve Allen Theater.

Akron Family – “Woody Guthrie’s America” from Capt. AKAK on Vimeo.

I have six tickets. $24 dollars a piece.

1. Capt AKAK
2. Mroyed
3. JP
4. Karen
5. Capt Shabbin
6. KB

Other Peepz:

1. Sean
2. Amanda
3. ALHP
4. Chabs
5. Ebee
6. Amelia
7. J WYA
8. Matt
9. Timstrument
10. Michele I
11. Courtney C.

To buy more tickets go here: Ticketmaster Portal

You might be tired of AK by now, but in case you are not I found this bootleg on another website. Since then I have re-spliced the nodes and created an album cover and tagged the songs appropriately. It is now in mp3 format.

There is a song on here that I have never heard before called “Small Shapes”. Additionally Akron plays a Seth Olinsky song from the Best of Seth album titled “Ali, Ali”.  It is a beautiful love ballad about that moment when you see a young woman across the way and are set in a momentary trance.

“Just so you know; if you buy our records, we can eat. And that is awesome.” — Miles Seaton

Track List:

1. Suchness
2. Moment
3. Running, Returning
4. Small Shapes
5. Blessing Force
6. Ali, Ali
7. Raising the Sparks

You know, it can really hurt but in that good way you know will be so worth it.

At night one of three at the Steve Allen Theater, there were times I thought I’d have to flee. This was the third(ish) time I saw Akron perform. I say (ish) because the first time I hardly remember due to reasons involving awful sound and intense heat. The second time I remember vividly, but it was a tribute show and they played only a few songs, none of which were their own.

Night one grew particularly intense when Miles taped a microphone to a metal folding chair and took drumsticks to it while Seth played some sort of flute and Dana… I don’t even know what he was doing. The combination pierced through my eardrums and picked at my skull until it reached my defenseless brain with its claws out. They did something similar on night two and it ripped my mind, tongue, eyes, everything… out and my body stood there with its innards watching beside it transfixed by sound.

I was nothing but nerves. All my insides exposed. I would have cried if forced to speak. And then they slowed, and softened. They sang about the sun or sadness, something soothing.

With my demons exorcised, they lulled me in with them to that space where I don’t have to think and I was overwhelmed by the feeling that somehow everything was going to be okay.  They broke me down and built me right back up, over and again… no pain, no gain?

But what makes Akron so different from any other live musical experience, because they were/are/will always be, is the following which I will try my best to describe though I know it will only give a suggestion of what I really felt as words are only painfully inadequate symbols of ideas:

I had a moment watching Miles sing when it occurred to me that while nothing about our existence makes sense, the very truth of that allows us to make of this what we want. People, places, time, events are all orbiting around us waiting to be dove into. To be swam around in. Mixed together. Jumped back out of. There are layers we cannot see beneath this one and we can peel it off if we choose to.

And that is what it is about live music for me.

Akron Family – “Woody Guthrie’s America” from Capt. AKAK on Vimeo.

**** I was under the influence of nothing aside from Akron/Family… seriously ****

Akron/Family – Untitled I @ NY Knitting Factory from Capt. AKAK on Vimeo.

It’s official, we are going on tour with Akron!

They will be in Santa Monica on 1 March at McCabes Guitar Shop with BEN HARPER and Howlin Rain.

The Capt. is on the ticket buying as I type, or maybe a little later, i.e. tomorrow.

AKAK: I want to laugh, smile and cry all at the same time. Right now I have two out of the three with this joyous news.

Six Tickets will be at will-call awaiting our arrival.

1. Capt. AKAK
2. ALHP
3. Chabbs
4. Ebee
5. Mroyed
6. JP

Capt: Also according to ALHP the even is going to be from midnight until 11pm so I hope you are ready for 2 hrs of ben harper and howlin rain with 21 hrs of Akron in the cranium. Or maybe it is just a typo……

Okay this is the night we go all out. Everyone there to join in brotherly and harmonious love. Go out and Love, Love, Love everyone.

I have ten tickets which means someone is going to need to bought more. ALHP please bought tickets for you, chabbs,  thecolonel, and anyone/everyone else. Ebee I love you…..get on it.

I decided to make this show manditory so if your name is below you are going…

1. Capt AKAK
2. JP
3. Mroyed
4. Willum
5. Capt Shabbin
6. Serenadypity
7. Shabbin’s chicita
8. George Pants
9. TruFrazyure
10. Baby Drootin

1. Ebee
2. Aaron
3. Black Dresses
4. J WYA (Jody from When You Awake)
5. ALHP
6. Marianne
7. The Chabs

Everyone tell your respective bosses that you might not be in the next day…….

Yes. I have four tickets at 18 dollar a piece. Steak Dinner or Akron show. You decide.

1. Capt AKAK
2. Emily Pho
3. Ebee’s Unkown
4. alhp

Ebee got some tickets as well.

1. Timstrument
2. Ebee

This is not confirmed but I snooped on Leafy Green Booking agency and saw this……

Akron/Family
3/6/09, Hemlock Tavern, San Francisco, CA
3/7/09, Hemlock Tavern, San Francisco, CA
3/8/09, Hemlock Tavern, San Francisco, CA
3/10/09, Steve Allen Theater, Los Angeles, CA
3/11/09, Steve Allen Theater, Los Angeles, CA
3/12/09, Steve Allen Theater, Los Angeles, CA

Also Micheal Gira (aka Angels of Light are coming on March 8th….Jesus Christ 2009 is going to be sooo good.

Sleep is next to impossible now.

These are notes for the brass quartet I found after the show. It was going to be the only description piece for the concert review because it pretty much ties the whole thing together.

Instead I decided to bore you all with about 500 words of what most of you will call hippie bullshit.

11:58 pm: Seth, Miles and Dana (the AKAK themselves) take the 400 sq ft stage along with the breaded tree men of Megafaun and a brass quartet (including a flute-playing midget) The stage is set for the entering of the New Year. There is a heavy smell of freshly smoked grass, but I am just blazing the excitement. A part of me does not really believe that I am where I am. My ponderings of the past year’s experiences are halted by the countdown. Fuck Times Square. Fuck Dick Clark. I cannot believe how many people really thought I would fly to NY for that clown act. I am here: to be capitulated; to be with my people; to share in a moment of beauty; to hear a sound that might remind of a purer time. I have always felt that Akron in some way has connected me back to the land, reminding me of that spirit I felt in a river in Texas, the clarity of a time out by the lake in Montana, or standing atop a mountain in Oregon surrounded by 200 year old pine tree. In this tiny venue on the 74th block of Leonard Street, there is a view of the world seen through the eyes of your own precious moments. I find myself amongst the believers who know the majesty of the musical spirit.

Akron/Family jump starts the festivus with Phenomenon. Miles—who has decided to wear his “Hey man, I want to party with you shirt” again—is trying to convince everyone in the place to yell at the top of their lungs. The song closes with a surprising layered shoegaze moment, leading into their recently-revised live version of Lake Song.

 
Akron/Family : Lake Song – 12.31.08 NY Knitting Factory from Capt. AKAK on Vimeo.

(Ebee and I both agree that the live version is great but might be too Latina. Why fix the original if it is not broke.) Nonetheless, you can obviously get a feel for the raw power.

I first heard Untitled I at a live Akron show at a wine cellar in Visilia. I was about 6 inches from Seth’s guitar. His fingers are little soldiers of God’s army. I had my eyes closed for nearly the whole show. Yes, that is how brightly they radiated. Just close your eyes.

Akron/Family – Untitled I @ NY Knitting Factory from Capt. AKAK on Vimeo.

(Amendment to the orignal post….I have been re-watching this video over and over; sheer exquisiteness. I mean how great is it at minute 3:30.)They have revamped this song since I last saw them. Adding some meat for the new album is my guess. Awesome.

Raise the Sparks makes me want to hug a tree and scalp the white man all in one motion.

Akron/Family – Raise the Sparks – NY Knitting Factory from Capt. AKAK on Vimeo.

This song I just decided to call Primordial Sound. Miles looks as though he is trying to force the darker side of his soul into the microphone. Neat, huh? (Mom don’t watch this)

Akron/Family – Primordial Sound – 12.31.08 @ NY Knitting Factory from Capt. AKAK on Vimeo.

The set closes with the original three side hugging each other, repeatedly singing “Last year was a hard year for such a long time / This year is going to be all ours.” Although in many ways this was not my truth I sang along with everyone. The harmony of a Akron + the crowd family is a sound no one should miss during a lifetime.

Tonight (as well as all other nights) Akron/Family broke through the lines of genre and dogmatic categorization, existing in a vast universe of purple mountains that ring of clarity and sharpness. There style is one of unbridled passion, laced with spontaneity and thickness. They are the reason everyone should be protestant when it comes to music; hear with your own ears. Akron is the broad highway.
As the night closes, I remembered of how their set began with the lyrics of Phenomenon stating /some might not think this is the right sound/; I more fully understand that this is not for everyone but it is for me and that is ok.

I wish anyone who just read this was there with us. John, Ebee, Naia, Laura, guy who only listens to live music and I held down the fort for you though. (Dan I can’t believe you left to caught the train.) We only live once and I would not trade the moments shared with you and them for anything. The forever binding spirit of AKAK.