I love, love, love the Bandcamp environment. It’s rife with what I consider the best music happening these days, but there are a few perils. Namely, the fact that multiple agents can be selling the same music. There are cases where the label has their store, while the artist does as well, and that led indirectly to this little problem. Because it was the label who initially contacted me about Yama Uba’s debut album in 2024. They thought I might like to write about it. And how.
I loved that album from the first note! I still listen to it regularly, two years later. I loved it so much that I have bought multiple copies for friends and myself, even thought I had been given a download as promo. Crucially, I bought it from the label, Ratskin Records, who were my initial point of contact. That meant that the label would contact me about new releases…but not the artist.
This had big repercussions lately when I went to Bandcamp and instead of looking up the label, I more logically typed Yama Uba’s name in the search field only to find that they had followed up my favorite album of 2024 with two singles last year, that I did not know about. So thanks to the Bandcamp app on my personal device, I bought them immediately and could play them in my car seconds later.
Bandcamp | US | DL | 2025
Yama Uba: Queen Of Swords – US – DL [2025]
Queen Of Swords 3:59
One single, “Queen Of Swords” was a stripped back burned relationship song with insistent motorik drum programming and rhythm guitar predominating as the synths were minimized on this outing. Vocalist Akiko Sampson’s vocals were right up front with added emphasis via strategic harmonizing with her own backing vocals. Winter Zora’s rhythm guitar was the personification of the distance and isolation in the lyric with a perfect tone for the song. Listen, below, for yourself.
Yama Uba: The Emperor’s New Clothes – US – DL [2025]
The Emperor’s New Clothes 4:55
The other single was another cover version from the band. I had greatly enjoyed their version of The Passions “I’m In Love With A German Film Star” on their album, “Silhouettes,” and this was a take on the great Sinead O’Connor single from her top selling “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” album. It was always a favorite of hers for my ears. How would Yama Uba’s version be?
The drum programming here was deceptively close to the original song’s shuffle beat with bass programming, but the intro here had a gentle swing that worked much better with the song instead of the almost Industrial intro that sounded bolted onto the original. Then huge differences manifested almost immediately. Primarily in Winter Zora’s glorious saxaphone that unfurled with a casual languor over the song as Akiko Sampson’s vocals [often doubled for impact] bit into thte song deeply. I loved how Akiko’s triumphant expression vocals entered into a call-and-response dialogue with the sax in the song’s expansive climax; having the last word as the music bed suddenly dropped out beneath them.
By moving the primary melodic support from the original guitar [of Marco Pirroni on the O’Connor track] to Zora’s sax, the whole character of the song was transformed here into something far more magical than even on the admittedly great original. The glockenspeil was a particularly lovely touch! It takes a bold band to think they can walk away with a Sinead O’Connor song, but Yama Uba have creatively re-imagined the classic tune to the point where I simply cannot play it once and be done with it. This is one for playing on a loop.
Each of these songs are available for “pay what thou wilt” for a CD quality [or less – it’s up to you] track. But here’s a proviso; “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is a benefit single for The Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project for legal support for ICE detainees on the Arizona/Mexico border. So act accordingly. Once you hear it, I suspect that anyone reading this will needYama Uba’s version of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” at the very least! DJs hit that button!
Okay, so I was on vacation in the frozen climes of Akron, Ohio when the new popped that longtime PPM icons Cabaret Voltaire had in fact dropped dates for the first half of a North American tour for their final victory lap before calling it a day. I was hoping that the East Coast dates would be more quickly forthcoming, but we’ll work with what we have here right now.
I know there will be some naysayers over the fact that the late Richard Kirknever would have done this. But the fact remains that Stephen Mallinder was intrinsic to my greater enjoyment of the band, and when he was marginalized off the playing field that was the point where Cab Volt went in one direction, and I went in another. So I cannot stress how exciting it is to think that I might have the chance to see the current version of the band perform live. It was nothing that I ever held any hopes for, but things sometimes change for the better!
When we last posted about the European and UK tours this year, we had snaps from commenter DJShelf, who had moved from the US to Manchester last year in time to catch their alleged “final” fall tour. He was even thoughtful enough to have snagged the amazing Brody design T-shirt for me while at the gig and it had arrived in my mail during the time we were out of town. The mere notion of a Cab Volt t-shirt with the “Micro-Phonies” image on a lush, pure cyan tee would have been enough to push me over the top into Cab Volt bliss, but now there is the North American Tour to really deliver a payload of thrills. Where can they be seen?
CABARET VOLTAIRE | WORLD TOUR | 2026
EUROPE
NORTH AMERICA
UNITED KINGDOM
03/06 | Elevate Festival | Graz, AT
05/04 | Moore Theatre | Seattle, WA
05/06 | Commodore | Vancouver, WA
05/08 | Roseland Theater | Portland, OR
05/10 | Summit | Denver, CO
05/12 | The Bellwether | Los Angeles, CA
05/15 | The Warfield | San Francisco, CA
06/02 | Betonhalle | Berlin, DE
06/05 | Élysée Montmartre | Paris, FR
06/12 | AB | Brussels, BE
06/13 | Paradiso | Amsterdam, NL
06/19 | Docks | Lausanne, CH
10/10 | Town Hall | Birmingham, UK
10/11 | Arts Club | Liverpool, UK
10/13 | Rock City | Nottingham, UK
10/14 | Tramshed | Cardiff, UK
10/15 | Forum | Bath, UK
10/17 | Boiler Shop | Newcastle, UK
10/18 | Barrowland | Glasgow, UK
10/19 | Albert Hall | Manchester, UK
10/21 | De La Warr Pavilion | Bexhill, UK
10/22 | Roundhouse | London, UK
10/25 | Octagon | Sheffield, UK
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
And the best part of this is that against all odds, Cabaret Voltaire have obtained US work visas and I will not have to think I should have sold a kidney to attend a show! As I do when reflecting on the major tours that I have missed in the past. I’m anticipating at the very least a Washington D.C. event; possibly at the 9:30 Club [which would be great!] that was no more than a day’s drive away. Barring that I will definitely go to New York City to see them. And there may even be an Atlanta date for the least amount of travel necessary.
Wherever the East Coast dates will touch down, I am on pins and needles awaiting their announcement. Watch this space.
Or: How I went to Harvest Records last month to buy a single CD and ended up drowning in want list items and obscurities
The store where I saw this was far from washed up!
Knowing that I was going to see Don Was’ band in a week I called my local store Harvest Records to special order their album “Groove In The Face Of Adversity” on January 8th. I was pleasantly surprised when the helpful gent on the phone told me that the shop had already ordered it as a matter of restock…and on the silver disc format as well as LP! It would be in the store the next day. Which would I prefer? I told him and thanked the store for psychically anticipating my needs!
This was, on the face of it, a huge uptick in what I expected from the store. Harvest Records had opened in 2004 and was quickly slotted into “best store in town” status. But as the Great Turning Back To Records occurred, the last decade had seen any joys I personally found at the store severely mitigated. To the point that I had avoided going there in the last few years because what it had become had made me angry.
My tastes and interests were seemingly no longer an economically viable path forward for the store. Floor space was dramatically ceded to the trend for records to the point that the collection of CDs in my house was larger than what the store stocked any more. This, in itself, was not a shocking occurrence. I had seen it happen in every store in town. Some with only a few shoeboxes worth of the silver discs!
And the records for sale there were hugely of the useless-to-me new pressings variety. A mixture of Classic Rock/Jazz and modern Indie Rock. The 40-50 year old eccentric records that I actually would buy were not there. And 12” singles, my favorites records to buy, were almost 100% absent. The store had become repellent to me. If you are me and are repelled by record stores there is obviously something wrong with the world. As if a glance at the headlines didn’t already confirm that.
So these were the diminished terms of my relationship to Harvest Records by 2026. I told the clerk that I would be there on Saturday to buy the Don Was CD. I went to a gym class with my loved one and afterward drive to Harvest to buy the disc that was waiting for me. In a perfunctory gesture, I glanced at the new CDs for sale. I saw the new Cheap Trick album, “All Washed Up” and laughed to myself at the sense of humor the band still had after nearly 50 years. And speaking of half centuries, there was a 50th anniversary version of Patti Smith Band’s crucial “Horses” album. And one or two other new releases of some interest. Which I can’t remember now because I glanced at the used CDs.
And that was where my jaw dropped.
My first inkling that all was not the same-old, same-old at Harvest Records
On the shelf above the used bins there was a high value target like few others: the “Stratoplay” box on Cherry Red by The Revillos! A set I had tried to special order last year at Time Traveler only to find it was out of print. And here it was for $25; below the £24.99 retail cost. And then I noticed that the John Foxx “Virgin Years” box was right next to it!! The only time I’d ever seen a copy of that in a store was in Wales!! I didn’t need one but this was obviously a sign from The Gods that things had changed at Harvest Records as I dove into the used bins in earnest.
And was inundated with a tsunami of highly desirable import CD releases that I had not seen the likes of in a store since the demise of Tower Records over twenty years earlier. I was so dazzled by the Foxx/Revillos pairing that I initially didn’t notice Giorgio Moroder’s “Son Of My Father” album between them! When had I ever seen that??!
something you don’t see every day
Next door was the DLX RM of China Crisis’ “What Price Paradise.” Sure I had a copy but just seeing one was a charge. The third album by Fashiøn; “Twilight Of Idols,” was an album I had (cheaply) on wax but here was the DLX RM on Cherry Red for a not insubstantial $39.99 asking price. I checked Discogs. Including shipping, one could pay from $64-$102 for this title. Harvest was pricing these goods smartly. Not leaving money on the table, yet not gouging unrealistically. Just because someone on Discogs was willing to pay three figures for this didn’t mean that anyone might walk into this store in Western North Carolina and be expected to do the same.
I had the Jona Lewie, but had been waiting for The Rich Kids
More delights with best of for Jona Lewie and The Rich Kids. I owned the former but the latter had been on my want list for many years. Here it was for $25.99. I’d have to see where we ended up this day before deciding.
I didn’t need this but couldn’t help but marvel over it
The Martha And The Muffins anthology “Then Again” was a first sighting after 28 years of nothing. I thrilled to the three Virgin Records 40th anniversary 3xCD compilations “Never Trust A Hippy,” “New Gold Dreams,” and “Methods Of Dance.” Sure, sure. I owned most of the tracks on them but that was not the point. The high degree of curation and availability they represented was. Just like the curation of the store that had acquired these discs.
I had blogged about one of these back when it had been released
I saw a swath of amazing CDs by female artists that I didn’t need, but what tremendous goods were these! The Rubellan Remasters edition of Cristina’s brilliant “Sleep It Off” is nothing I’ve ever seen in a store. I was unfamiliar with the Altered Images best of on view here, but the price was right and anyone should have this kind of access to this Scot band’s music! And Holly + The Italians “The Right To Be Italian” was here, at a great price, epecially for being a Japanese kami sleeve edition of the 1981 work of rock genius!
I had only seen this CD in Toronto…25 years ago
I was flabbergasted to see the Trans-X “Living On Video” CD on the Canadian Unidisc pressing I bought…a quarter century ago, during my last visit to Toronto. It’s possibly more Trans-X than anyone needs, but that’s besides the point! And within spitting distance was a trans of a different kind! The much-maligned Neil Young-Goes-Kraftwerk electrorok opus “Trans!” This puppy had been on my want list forever! The German pressing didn’t grow on trees, and Geffen US has spitefully not ever reissued this title on any physical formats here in The Lower 48!
The reflections of fluorescent lights only enhanced the cover design of “Trans”
The final Icehouse Studio album is the finest cover album ever
I actually saw a copy of the scarce [in North America] final Icehouse album, “The Berlin Tapes!” It was the 2002 OZ edition with different bonus tracks from the superior Japanese edition. With two B-sides from the “Heaven” CD single subbing for the incendiary cover of Eno’s “Blank Frank!”
I’m very glad I bought this in Amoeba right when it came out…used!
I also saw the DLX RM of the always welcome debut album by China Crisis. Which I bought used right after it was released in Amoeba on my 2018 trip out to Los Angeles for $14.99. The 2xCD edition had all of the extended A/B-sides, as well as demo versions on the second disc. One can spend $54-$188 after shipping for it now on Discogs, making this one a steal!
I was not really a fan of Skyhooks, but there were a lot of silver discs here of the Antipodean variety…more than I’ve ever run across outside of high end Los Angeles stores
Skyhooks are often mentioned as a visual progenitor of the sort of visual approach typified by Split Enz in their early, Phil Judd era. Where Skyhooks were tied to Glam while Split Enz were a little bit further down the road in the very next year. I think early Split Enz had more in common musically with Peter Gabriel era Genesis than with any band who would wear stackheel boots.
I finally had the first Zaine Griff album on CD now!
Now stop the presses! I’ve been wanting this 2xCD collection for years. While I own the “FIGVRES” NZ CD, this German omnibus edition with almost every damn thing that the great Zaine Griff recorded during his sojourn in the UK has been on my want list for ages! In fact I’ve given this as a gift to multiple friends, so great was my esteem! Now I finally have the “Ashes + Diamonds” album as well as at least an album and a half of B-sides and unreleased tracks! Zaine Griff is a superb vocalist with excellent songwriting taste who is one of those criminally under-appreciated cult artistes. File next to Peter Godwin. Now onto the later albums!
I’ve never noticed a Duncan Browne CD before in any bins
Speaking of Peter Godwin, his former partner on the debut Metro album had a solo career that some have avidly followed. Particularly in Japan, but I’ve never seen a Duncan Browne album ever in the wilds…until now! I need to sample his wares to see if I need to slavishly follow his finite thread of work [the artist died many years ago] as closely as I do with Mr. Godwin. They certainly meshed well on the first Metro album in 1976.
Oh…this was coming home with me!
As I moved to the end of the alphabet, I was thrilled to see this Sparks 2006 DLX RM, which sported a generous bonus tracks of four single sides and two unreleased cuts! I have been dying to hear “I Bought The Mississippi River” on CD for decades now. But this CD hardly grown on trees! I would have bought it if it were a later straight copy pressing of the album. but getting the ideal copy with those bonus tracks was worth every penny. And at the price it went for, it was a big deal.
Have I ever seen Associates CDs in a store since my last trip to Amoeba?
Almost as big a deal as this rare Associates best of with several unreleased cuts to make the fans buy. I’m so faithful to the cult of Associates, that they are one of the few bands in my dotage that I simply want to buy everything that I see. Just like Revillos/Rezillos and John Foxx. This was part of the 2016 wave of reissues which for one reason or another, I missed back in the day. I think that I was in big savings mode for a vacation and these things happen.
I was also chuffed to see that Harvest Records had doubled the amount of used CDs they were selling above the cheapie $3.00 price point by adding another rack to the floor by the counter that was as large as one of my racks that can hold a thousand discs. Some of the goods I bought were on this extra rack! So for the first time in years, the CD stock on the floor had increased instead of decreasing. This could be a sign that the endless squeeze that the major labels [indies tend not to be priced above $30 for LPs] have put the list prices of new record pressings is having some pushback with younger buyers having to decide that the LP will have to wait this week as they might need a bag of groceries instead. And the same album on a used CD could be had here for as little as three dollars.
The three dollar racks at Harvest Records were stocked with some things I ended up getting this day, and many, many mainstream, popular albums could be found there. It was not just digital chaff. Overall the curation of the used CDs here was state-of-the art. There was excitement every direction I looked in. I could only name one music store I’d seen in the last 20 years, Los Angeles’ Rockaway Records, that had used CD stock as exciting as this. And truth be told, the goods here easily aced even that superb store.
But man does not live by CDs alone. I gave a glance at the 12” records, but there were 99.3% LPs only there, and there are so few LPs I actually want [of titles that don’t exist digitally] I find it hard to remember what title they are. So I looked at the 7” singles and found it to be salted nicely with records of the PPM stripe. Things like “She Loved Like Diamond” by Spandau Ballet. A steal at $3.00! I might have spent three times that much getting my copy 20+ years ago! I liked the Icehouse “We Can Get Together” US picture sleeve 7” that I might not have ever seen, if memory serves. And had I ever seen OZ 7” of Split Enz records outside of Mr. Ware’s Record Lair®??! Certainly not! Check out that “I See Red” single that every home should have!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
So this day I had some hard decisions to make! I was leaving town in a week for a trip to Akron. I normally shop at Time Traveler there, but there were several hundred dollars worth of prime goods taunting me here! So I had to make some hard decisions. The lack of Rich Kids in my Record Cell has taunted me for 45 years so that one had to give. What’s a few more years at this point? The Fashiøn was pricey, but cheap versus the market pricing. But I’m not convinced by the Allan Darby era of the band. Not at all. I much prefer the Like Skyscraper/Dee Harris era. I’ve got “Twilight Of Idols” on LP on my racks and I can’t quite bring myself to give it a spin. It just seem off. So that one was easy to pass up. So here’s the take.
Visage: Dreamer I Know – Blitz Club Records – BZCR013CD – UK – CD-5 – Harvest Records/$3.00
Neil Young: Trans – Geffen – GED02018 – GER – CD – Harvest Records/$6.99
Not forgetting that I went there specifically for the Don Was + The Pan-Detroit Ensemble CD, I ended up spending three figures there on this day. It’s been about a decade since I had that sort of outlay at Harvest Records, but the trip that day seemed very different. It felt like the store management were more tightly curating the stock. Somehow, they had intake of what were only exciting discs to my aged, jaded eyes.
It was almost as if I had died and was buying back my own collection in the afterlife.
For years now trips to Harvest have been utterly superfluous. Frankly, they usually darkened my mood. Not on that day! Could it be that a corner had been turned and now the store was moving in a direction compatible with me once more? We await our next trip to Harvest to find out, because I was similarly excited by my November 2024 trip to Park Ave. CD, only to find the follow up trip two months later was a drastic falloff in quality and quantity. It bears mentioning that everything here today at Harvest was head and shoulders above even that 2024 level. I’d have to go back to the halcyon days of the great Tower Records chain to remember seeing CDs stock, never mind usedCD stock, this thrilling before.
Steven Jones + Fluid Japan: Transmission – US – DL [2026]
Transmission 5:09
Wouldn’t you know it, but I was flying to Cleveland hours after Steven Jones + Fluid Japan dropped their latest stylish opus. I bought it immediately in the Bandcamp app on my personal device, but as I didn’t pack phones, it remained until we returned home from the trip on Wednesday night when I could download the track to my Record Cell and give it a proper listen in the car this morning on the commute. And that’s my loss!
The vibe here had a late 70s throwback with the laidback Fender Rhodes electric piano of Jones coiling throughout the song. The sound seemed to gene-splice the feel of “The Bride Stripped Bare” sent through a wormhole into 1993-1994 with atmospherics that built up the edifice around Steven Jones’ performance taking their cues from the Robin-Trower-In-Deep-Space chilled atmospheres of later Ferry opii such as “Taxi” and “Mamouna.”
The sound perfectly complemented the emotionally numb lyrics from Mr. Jones as he delivered them with a detached elegance that belied the stakes in this song. And the secret weapon on this single was definitely the even more chilled backing vocals by Heather Heimbuch of Fluid Japan that acted as a desolate echo of Mr. Jones.
“Whispers fading on the other side On the other side System failing, the lights go dim No explaining No game to win No game to win
This is my last transmission This is my last transmission If you’re out there If you’re still listening This is my last transmission”
Transmission
Meanwhile the rhythm programming and synth atmospherics of Todd Lewis added further eddies of disquiet to the synth syncopations dancing with the drum programming. A palpable sense of unease that was doubled down on by his coup-de-grace eBow guitar. The rhythms came to a terse halt in the song’s climax, leaving only the atmospheric drones, now brittle and cold while shorn of their surroundings, to bring the void at the center of the song right up to our faces as the song’s death-rattle.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
The second Steven Jones + Fluid Japan single staked out a drastically different style to the first one, and it makes me impatient to hear what other strange delights that they have cooking on the back burner yet to come. Though Mr. Jones is the vocalist, his keyboard stylings also added a daring sense of Funk to this slinky delight. And I hope that Ms. Heimbuch has more to offer on the further material to come as her spectral counterpoint here was perfection.
The track is “you-price-it-you-bought-it” at Bandcamp, but smart shoppers might want to avail themselves to the “all you can eat” musical smorgasbord of all 24 Fluid Japan singles for the insane price of $4.61! And how exactly did they arrive at that number???! Sensible listeners should be aware that all of that music is worth a lot more than the risible asking price! Myself, I’ve invested a few dozen fistfuls more and consider my deal a bargain. DJ hit that button!
Steffanie Chriati’an made sure that “Blues For Allah” really sounded like The Blues
[…continued from last post]
The next part of the evening was a leap into the unknown for me. A complete run through of the “Blues For Allah” album by The Grateful Dead. I’d heard four or five Dead songs on the radio or television in my time and I’d never heard enough to find an affinity within myself. If I had to pick a favorite it would easily be the funky Disco of “Shakedown Street.” A song that I’m guessing was [very] divisive to Deadheads. But I would not be one of those.
I had probably heard more live than studio recordings by the band as it was impossible to listen to college radio in the 90s and to not hear The Grateful Dead. And for the record I consider myself indifferent to the free-form jams that my ears told me made the reputation of the band amongst its devotees. So I was curious as to how this band’s interpretations would greet me this evening.
Truth be told I don’t think that The Grateful Dead ever sounded so good to me before. “Blues For Allah” was a melange of instrumental and vocal songs that gave most members of this large band a chance to deliver some hot solos. Guitarist Wayne Gerard was primary among these with a few solos high up the neck but on one of the songs I enjoyed how the solo careened from the top to the bottom of the neck for a bracing quality of extreme dynamism of the sort that I didn’t expect from The Grateful Dead. And with Ms. Christi’an delivering the vocals these “Blues For Allah” were really steeped in The Blues.
Luis Resto also played electric violin as well as keys this evening
Elsewhere, keyboardist Luis Resto shifted between piano and synths but for one song he picked up an electric violin for something a little more expansive. In a move that I would imagine never happened onstage with The Grateful Dead, the trombonist Vincent Chandler also got a solo during one song where he was playing through what sounded like a Mu-Tron envelope for maximum mindblow.
Vincent Chandler drove his trombone through an envelope for one solo
Vocalist Steffanie Christi’an brought grit and soul to the proceedings. Her leads on “Franklin’s Tower [Roll Away the Dew]” were a full flowering of gospel passion that I couldn’t imagine The Dead actually delivering. As a Grateful Dead virgin this song really stood out as something special here. And her physicality at the mic was magnified by her stage garb. Her fringed pants were a constant flurry of motion as she delivered the songs. Often removing her glasses as she was definitely grooving in the face of adversity!
Dave McMurray doubled on flute and sax this evening
Saxophonist Dave McMurray had an investment as deep as Don Was when it came to the music of The Grateful Dead. He had two volumes of reimaginings of their music in his “Grateful Dedications” series under his belt in the last five years and he was ready to move on this material. The fact that Mr. McMurray had been playing with Was and Resto for almost 50 years had laid an incredible foundation for tonight’s performance as he had a profound body of experience in pushing the boundaries of this music to new vistas with his solos, on both sax and flute.
The audience was a mixture of Deadheads in their tie-dye [even in the freezing weather], Jazz fans, and Was [Not Was] funkateers. The Dead fans were joyously taking selfies with the band behind them onstage. I could hear those fans all around me singing along with certain songs in hearing “Blues For Allah” so closely in the wake of Bob Weir’s death. This was maybe a bigger event for them right now as it was for this long-standing Was [Not Was] fan to be finally hearing their songs that would pepper this set.
When the conclusion of that album happened, there was a soft transition to the rest the show with the inclusion of “Loser,” a Jerry Garcia solo song, before the rest of the program happened. Then Ms. Christi’an took to the mic for “Midnight Marauders,” the single from the “Groove In The Face Of Adversity” album. Giving us some tough Reggae adjacent Funk to chew on as we went for the home stretch.
The smoking cover of Cameo’s “Insane” from their third album was a funky part of the evening’s climax
This was followed by something different. With drums and congas/percussion onstage by Messrs. Jeff Canaday and Mahindi Masai, neither of those players had taken any solos yet in the evening so they got a chance to create their own powerful dialogue with an improvisation that had a strong taste of Salsa as the set list called it simply “Drums And Percussion.” Then the pressure rose for the climax of the set when they next dug into the final track from their album, a cover of Cameo’s “Insane.” The syncopation of the rhythm guitar from Mr. Gerard and the horn section was making us get all sweaty on the dance floor. With torrid soloing by Mr. McMurray they next took things up a few notches further into the red with the peerless classic “Wheel Me Out!” This was a real gift from the gods!
The band delivered “Wheel Me Out;” an uncut Funk bomb from Was [Not Was]
Ms. Christi’an famously deadpanned the pure Dada lyric with foxy panache as trumpeter John Douglas took a fierce solo! I was getting my Was [Not Was] fix in a big way this evening! And then the band played a major hat trick of funk by pivoting back to The Grateful Dead canon [!] with “Shakedown Street!” Possibly the only Dead connective tissue that could follow “Wheel Me Out.” Steffanie Christi’an gave the funky strut of the track all of the bite it needed then managed to take it even further with some athletic high kicks on the song’s distinctive hooks to the astonishment of the crowd who added cathartic interjections of “woooo” to each bold move. Then the trombone had the last word as the band took it home.
Steffanie Christi’an made sure to kick out the hooks on “Shakedown Street”
Now it was time for the capstone to the evening; Don Was introduced the whole band, and told the audience that their final song would be a cover of The Impressions never more relevant song “This Is My Country” from their nearly sixty year old album of the same name. A well-chosen cover from the band’s new album. This band had provided an alchemy this evening that found common ground in Souljazz, Funk, and even Jam Bands this night through the expansive chops that this nine-headed hydra brought to the stage.
Don Was And The Pan-Detroit Ensemble gave way more than your money’s worth in concert
And then the house lights came up. It was two hours later but Don Was admonished one and all to stop by the merch table and say “hi” or if anyone needed a shoulder to cry on regarding Bob Weir, whether you bought something or not. I always buy merch up front and already had the T-shirt, but was more than ready to have a few words with an iconic musician from the Record Cell.
I saw more than a few fans with their copies of Was [Not Was] CDs and records in tow. I almost mentally kicked myself for not thinking to bring a CD along that could have fit in a jacket pocket, but the fact was that my copy of the “Robot Girl” UK 12” number one had been autographed by Was! This night it would be more important just to have a brief chat with the man. I got in the line and awaited my turn.
The well-wishers and grateful Deadheads were getting handshakes and hugs from Don as the line progressed. Then it was my turn as I introduced myself and gave him my card. I mentioned that I was a Cristina superfan who had been invited by editor Ian Birch to contribute a small piece to the “Cristina” book and I thanked him for his production on the incredible “Sleep It Off” album. “Possibly the finest album ever made,” as I put it to him.
I also thanked him for taking this band on the road as I was a Was [Not Was] fan dating back to 1981, who’d never had the pleasure of seeing that band live. I told him that this show had gone a long way in scratching that musical itch as we shook hands and I moved out into the single degree Cleveland night. Cruising home in a warm glow thanks to the magic of Don Was And The Pan-Detroit Ensemble. Take care not to miss this band. Personally, I can’t wait for the next time!
the nine-piece Pan-Detroit Ensemble had more than enough firepower to travel anywhere
So this was all down to my loved one asking me if I’d looked to see the concert calendar in Northeast Ohio before heading up there to visit family this week. I had not but when I did I was electrified to see that a very big catch was awaiting my ears at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland the night we arrived. I bought my ticket within 15 minutes of seeing the gig and a good thing, too since when I arrived at the club early last Saturday night I saw the “sold out” sign on the doors.
Admit it… if you saw this club in your neighborhood you’d want to be there
The cheerful club was delightfully old school in its setting in the Waterloo Arts district; surrounded by other pubs and small businesses. It was probably a 90 year old building, well kept and given some nip and tick under the current management to re-attain some of the vibe it probably had sixty years earlier. I entered the hallway to the showroom and stopped to peruse the merch. As I already had the “Groove In the Face Of Adversity” CD I only needed the T-shirt with that motto emblazoned on its front. I paid the lady, happy to see CDs and LPs in evidence, and made my way into the sold out club.
The Beachland Ballroom had that warm patina that only a well seasoned club attained. The violet lighting and glitterball made the medium sized stage pop and we didn’t have to wait long for the show to get underway. At eight o’clock sharp the band walked onto the stage; the nine members fitting snugly into the space.
Don Was was at the rear of center stage with his double bass and before the show began, he took the time to say a few words to the audience. Significantly, only one day after the tour had begun, Don’s bandmate in The Wolf Brothers, Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead, had died. Was had been asked to join that band on bass by Weir and had risen to the occasion. Playing tours with Weir since the band’s genesis in 2018.
While this tour with the Pan-Detroit Ensemble was centered around playing The Grateful Dead’s “Blues For Allah” album in its entirety to celebrate its 50th anniversary, the mood of the tour had shifted immediately due to Weir’s death. As Was told the audience, the gut punch of learning that Bob had died an hour before their second show on the tour delivered a blow that needed to be surmounted. The first thought was “how can we play?” But the joy of playing music was the way through the pain. Was told the audience how Weir himself had done it when Jerry Garcia had died, and now it was his turn.
“Hello Operator” was a fantastic Was (Not Was) deep cut to send us off
We would all be part of a communal healing process and the many Grateful Dead fans there tonight would be adding their empathy to the circuit we would form together. And with that Don and the band began playing. Be still my beating heart, the first song was the B-side to the Was (Not Was) debut single “Wheel Me Out!” I had been playing “Hello Operator” in my mind on the drive into Cleveland and that was what the band immediately delivered! It was a great pick as the song already had plenty of Jazz DNA in its makeup for this band to run with!
Steffanie Christi’an with Don Was
Singer Steffanie Christi’an was a powerful feminine counterpoint to original singer Sweet Pea Atkinson, with a full bodied voice that called back to Tina Turner minus the AOR tendencies that came later in life. The arrangement here harkened back to how I heard the song on the amazing late 80s live music show Night Music, with the three piece horn section driving the bus.
Next up was a song that was on the band’s “Groove In The Face Of Adversity” album in a live recording from 2024 in Detroit’s Orchestra Hall. “You Asked, I Came” was a pensive instrumental that saw Ms. Christi’an exit the stage while the eight piece combo revisited the song that Don Was had written for the “BackBeat” original soundtrack in 1994.
Don Was spun his tale of Leonard Cohen and Iggy Pop for “Elvis’ Rolls Royce”
She rejoined the band for the next number, a second dip into the Was (Not Was) songbook. But performing “Elvis’ Rolls Royce” had never happened earlier, owing to the lead vocal by Leonard Cohen. On this evening, Don Was himself would take the lead vocal on the song but not before regaling the audience with the incredible backstory of the song and how it came to unite Leonard Cohen and Iggy Pop, who sang backing vocals on it.
Leonard Cohen called Don Was and said, “you’re friends with Iggy Pop, right?” “Yeah, sure,” was Was’ reply. “Well, the next time Iggy’s in L.A. will you bring him over to my house,” asked Cohen. Was responded with “he is in L.A., we’ll come over later.”
They got there and went into the kitchen and Cohen had been constructed a reply to a classified ad in the San Francisco Guardian that had said something like ‘…single female, nice looking (at least I think so), looking for a man with the benign nobility of Leonard Cohen and the raw severity of Iggy Pop.’ And Don was tasked with taking a Polaroid of the two of them, waving, from Leonard’s kitchen table. And that girl got it in the mail.
Then the band lit into the swanky Jazz groove of “Elvis’ Rolls Royce” in a manner not unlike the original album arrangement. With the lead groove being carried by the fluid sax of Dave McMurray and the soulful conga drums of Mahindi Masai. I had to say that Don Was acquitted himself admirably on the lead vocal there. Sure, sure. There’s only one Leonard Cohen, but I was very happy to have the song reach our ears in 2026.
Then came a treat for fans of the “Forever’s A Long, Long Time” album by Orquestra Was. With Steffanie taking the lead vocal in a Sweet Pea-free world we now inhabit. Giving it all the subtle grit and fire common to her predecessor as the band re-inhabited the song which had been an outlier from the post-Was (Not Was) era forward nearly twenty years to the Pan-Detroit Ensemble which was still to come.
I was perusing the schedule of a local performing arts center where I saw that there would be a rare Rock concert there right up my alley. I’m excited to see a concert in Asheville where I wouldn’t have to travel to attend, and it was by a band whom I haven’t seen live since their first big national tour in 1989-1990. Better yet, about a week prior I had just pulled the debut album by the band in question and had enjoyed it with the same pleasure I’ve always had when listening to it.
It was on the third Sire “Just Say…” sampler, “Just Say Mao,” where I had first heard The Ocean Blue. I took an immediate shine to the young whipper-snappers, who had still been in high school in Hershey, Pennsylvania when Seymour Stein came a-calling. Their first single was the glorious “Between Something And Nothing,” a dynamic song that still gives me frissons of pleasure after listening to it for over 35 years.
Their fluid cocktail of melancholy and Romanticism was always a huge win with their accomplished song craft and playing. And now they will be practically on my doorstep. And maybe yours as well!
I had wanted to write about this tour earlier than I ultimately have but the busy personal life takes its toll. Even as I write these words I am actually on vacation in Ohio and I usually eschew writing blogposts unless I am on my lunch hour at work. But I’ve managed to eke out some quiet time right now to get this done.
The Ocean Blue at Egyptian Theatre in Park City, UT
Even so we’ve posted too late to list the full tour date roster. The 16th through the 18th saw the band on a three night residency at The Egyptian Theatre in Park City, UT. From whence the band had posted this stage shot as shown above. But the rest of us still have a chance to hear this band’s gorgeous music.
THE OCEAN BLUE | FRIGID WINTER DAYS 2026 TOUR
Jan. 29 | Diana Wortham Theatre | Asheville, NC
Jan. 30 | Neighborhood Theatre | Charlotte, NC
Feb. 6 | Aggie Theatre | Fort Collins, CO
Feb. 7 | The Fox Theatre | Boulder, CO
Feb. 20 | The Historic Beacon Theatre | Hopewell, VA
Feb. 21 | The Birchmere | Alexandria, VA
Mar. 5 | Center For The Arts Of Homer | Homer, NY
Mar. 6 | The Bull Run | Shirley, MA
Mar. 7 | Daryl’s House | Pawling, NY
Join us a little later when we report back on our findings.
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