Reflections of Darkness - Music Magazine - Adam Green

Details: Written by: Sebastian Huhn; Published: 14 April 2008

Live-Music-Hall, Cologne, Germany
13th April 2008
Adam Green, Turner Cody

ADAM GREEN is back in Germany. In the land that loves him the most and which celebrates every new release. The newest one is called ‘Sixes and Sevens’ and was released in March 2008 and it was clear that he would visit Germany. The first stop was at the Live-Music-Hall in Cologne and it should become a memorable night for everyone.

Turner Cody

TURNER CODY is a Brooklyn based singer-songwriter. Since 1999, when he moved to New York, he recorded eight albums (some of them independently). He has toured Europe with Ish Marquez and as the opener/bass player for Herman Dune, with whom he has worked closely since 2003. He also self-released a book of poetry called ‘The Return of the High Priestess and other Poems’ and contributed a track to the ‘Anti Folk Vol.1’ compilation, released by Rough Trade in 2002. http://www.myspace.com/misterturnercody

Music & Performance
A lonesome man with a guitar was what you saw at first sight, but a closer look revealed the uncut truth: This guy seemed to be totally drunk - I do not want to judge about this fact, but this was not only my impression. Then he started to play his songs, which are basically about the small things in life, because like he told us “It’s all about the small things”, while philosophizing about how anyone can figure out how old the Cologne cathedral is, but not, where the Black Death came from. He made some funny moves with his guitar, though I was afraid, that he would fall. The songs had some well-sounding names like ‘Slippery Slope’ and ‘Waiting for the rain to fall’. While playing the last chords of his last song he slowly disappeared into the background of the stage. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any exit back there and so he had to come back to use the “ordinary” exit.

Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 5
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 6

Adam Green

The music of this New York based musician is considered as one of the main influences on the musical subgenre Anti-Folk together with KIMYA DAWSON with whom he founded the band THE MOLDY PEACHES which remains inactive at the moment because both Kimya and Adam are focussing on their solo careers. Adam started his solo career in 2002. His uncommon style had only minor success in the early days, but at least in Europe and particularly in Germany, he already made his breakthrough. All of his five albums strangely had been released on the 22nd of a month, except his newest work ‘Sixes and Sevens’ which has been released on 18th March 2008. Live Line-Up: Adam Green (vocals, acoustic guitar), Nathan Brown (organ, keys), Parker Kindred (drums), Steven Mertens (bass) and Josh Hager (guitar) plus two female backup singers. http://www.adamgreen.net/ / http://www.myspace.com/adamgreen1

Music & Performance
Like his companion TURNER CODY, Adam makes, what is called Anti-Folk takes the earnestness of politically charged 1960s music and subverts it into something else. It is still highly debated what exactly the defining characteristics of this subgenre are, as they vary from one artist to the next. In the case of ADAM GREEN I’d say it’s a little bit of pop and good and good old rock music, mixed with some acoustics and ‘challenging’ lyrics. A little accident happened, while the band entered the stage and one of them stumbled across a cable or something. Adam wasn’t among all those people, which also included two backing vocalists, possibly from a gospel choir. They had really good voices in any case. At that time I had still hopes for Adam being at least sober, but my hopes were ruthlessly destroyed, when I saw him entering the stage: You could instantly see it on his face, but there was another small thing, catching my attention...

This stage outfit was strange and totally crazy. He wore white pants, never staying at their usual place, what was caused by a missing belt like Adam told us later. It just disappeared in a discussion about his pants on which he had spilled wine. Luckily he had an alternative one. It would have been more helpful if he had used it the right way instead of putting it in one or two loops, but his sequin shirt with the big ‘A’ surely was the biggest eye catcher. I still can’t believe he actually wore such a thing. Adam displayed a very uncommon style of dancing. A specific term for that crossed my mind ‘Drunken Master’. Sorry, I just couldn’t resist. In fact he was faltering through the gig, but it was funny. He even played some tricks with the microphone, I was really surprised by.

The audience in the meanwhile well-crowded Live-Music-Hall was instantly infected by what happening on stage and very delighted to finally see their hero. People were clapping, dancing screaming and of course singing. They all seemed to know the lyrics very well and every song was accompanied by a loud applause. The setlist of the evening included various songs song from different episodes of Adam’s career, but first and foremost from his new album ‘Sixes and Sevens’. Despite Adam playing with a complete band on stage, he also played some tracks alone and purely acoustic. Did I already mention that, besides all that freaky, mad and funny stuff, he really has a good voice? That is unquestionable.

Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 6
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 6.5