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Event
Steve Gunn w/ Jason Simon
This is an intimate living room performance in a private residence. Full details on the location will be provided at the end of ticket purchase.
TICKETS:
No paper tickets will be sent.
ADMISSION:
Print and bring your confirmation which will include the address and other details. Please don't share this info with anyone! In addition, your name will be on a list at the door. No additional tickets will be sold at the door. You must buy tickets here to get into this show.
DATE:
1/18/20
SHOWTIME:
8:00PM
SEATING:
This show will be general admission floor seating. Feel free to bring a pillow or cushion to sit more comfortably on the floor.
ALL SALES ARE FINAL. SORRY, NO REFUNDS:
Due to the limited number of tickets please make sure you can attend before you make your purchase. If you can no longer attend a show you can give or sell (at face value) the tickets to a friend. Contact us (livingroomshowlbc@gmail.com) before the show to transfer your tickets. We'll cancel any tickets resold for higher than original price.
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STEVE GUNN
For over a decade, guitarist/vocalist Steve Gunn has been one the American musics most pivotal figures - conjuring immersive and psychedelic sonic landscapes both live and on record, releasing revered solo albums ranking high on in-the-know end of year lists, alongside exploratory collaborations with artists as diverse as Mike Cooper, Kurt Vile, and Michael Chapman (whose most recent studio album he produced). Gunn is known for telling other peoples stories, but on his breakthrough fourth album, The Unseen In Between, he explores his own emotional landscapes with his most complex, fully realized songs to date. The lyrics evoke voyages, tempests (actual and emotional), and a rich cast of characters met along the waythe work of an artist finding a place of calm in the midst of a storm. Produced by frequent collaborator James Elkington and engineered by Daniel Schlett, the immaculately recorded Unseen forces a reassessment of Gunns standing in the pantheon of the eras great songwriters.
Getting to The Unseen In Between itself was not easy for Gunn. In the summer of 2016, Gunn released Eyes On The Lines, his winning and elliptical debut for Matador. It should have been a triumphant moment, but exactly two weeks later, Gunns father and namesake died following a two-year struggle with cancer. During his sickness, he and his son had connected as never before, listening to one anothers experiences and understanding one anothers perspectives; they became not father and son but real friends.
This experience yielded the emotional centerpiece of the album. Stonehurst Cowboy is a duet for Gunns raw acoustic guitar and spare basslines by Bob Dylans musical director Tony Garnier, whose featured throughout the album. The song distills the lessons Gunn learned from his father and it is a solemn but tender remembrance, a tribute to his fathers reputation as a tough, wise, and witty guy from far west Philadelphia.
A sense of musical renewal and emotional complexity fits the new songs perfectly; Luciano seems to be about the chemistry between a bodega owner and his cat, an unspoken romance of gentle obedience and quiet gestures. But Gunn peers below the relationships surface and wonders about the owners lonely future once the cat is gone, a devastating meditation wrapped in soft strings. And then theres Vagabond, Gunns graceful attempt to humanize a rich cast of characters whose lives have gone astray, wanderers who live outside of societys modern safety net, who pursue a crooked dream in spite of what the world expects. Supported by the perfect harmonies of Meg Baird, Gunn finds something lovely in the unloved.
Inspired by contemporary artist Walter De Marias Dia Art Foundation-affiliated installation of 400 stainless steel poles atop the high desert of New Mexico, Lightning Field considers what we get out of art when it doesnt work, when lightning does not light up the night for visitors. Opener New Moon may begin in the mode of a deep track from Astral Weeks or Fred Neil, with its upright bass and sparse tremolo guitar. But during the songs final minutes, strings double the melody, and then the guitar rushes headlong, pulling ahead in a wave of ecstatic deliverance. It is a brief but liberating solo, an instant release of tension from the fraught scene Gunn has built, complemented by one of his most arresting vocal performances.
In a final contrast, Morning is Mended is an acoustic beauty so resplendent it ranks alongside Sandy Denny or Jackson C. Frank. Buoyed by a melody that sparkles like sunlight on still water, Gunn acknowledges the hardships around him, the feeling of being a nothing sky, and then moves forward into the world, walking tall into the fresh morning. The song is an apt encapsulation of The Unseen In Between, a gorgeously empathetic record that attempts to recognize the worries of the world and offer some timely assurance. It is a revelatory and redemptive set, offering the balm of understanding at a time when that seems in very short supply.
JASON SIMON
Jason Simon is best known known for his work as the guitarist and singer for the seminal heavy psych band Dead Meadow, On his solo outings he brings together the haunting strains of old American folk with Cosmic Psychedelia for songs of droning banjo strangeness and warm warbling guitar. Solo releases have included 2010s Jason Simon on TeePee records and 2016s Familiar
Haunts on Tekeli-li records and CardinalFuzz. He also led a 2014 project entitled Old Testa-
ment celebrating a unique interpretation of the old and the weird in American folk and featuring
current and past members of The Black Angels and The Black Lips. 2018 saw the release of a
cross genre and multigenerational project with the name of Old Mexico with a sound falling
somewhere between the spiritual jazz of Pharaoh Sanders and the low key grooves of JJ Cale.
Hes currently at work on a new solo LP entitled A Venerable Wreck due out in 2020.
https://jasonsimon.bandcamp.com/
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LocationTo Be Announced (Long Beach, CA)
Displayed After Purchase
Long Beach, CA 90814
United States
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