Toes of Valor
Now Playing: The Psychedelic Furs--"Into You Like A Train"
I returned to Ann Arbor yesterday to find an unexpected sirocco blowing through the streets of the town. I don't think it was actually a sirocco, but then I've never been to Algeria. I walked to the Madison for that evening's show feeling like I was in a spaghetti western.

Jim Roll was playing that evening, and I'd been hearing great things about him for a while, with an especially enthusiastic recommendation at DylanFest. I was tired, though. After everything I'd been through that weekend, I was done in, and the weather wasn't helping any.

Sara and I talked for a while about the various abuses our bodies had taken over the years from minor accidents, and I learned that I should probably catch a Wanderjahr show at some point to find what all the fuss is about.

Actual Birds played again (and I ran into him at the library next day, so was finally in a position to introduce myself), with another fun little set of satirical songs about Ann Arbor and elsewhere, this time focusing on the colossal street-gridded turd that is Art Fair. "Ian," who I'd sort of met at the first couple of shows, provided hilarious vocal percussion and commentary. The Great Fiction, who I'd never heard before, played next, and it was a little odd, as they sounded so incredibly polished. I usually expect acts at the Madison to have an appealingly rough-hewn sound (see my post on "The Larry Brown Press Conference" for the reasons why), and these guys sounded like they were actually recording in a studio, double-guitar songs of heartbreak, loss, personal experiences, etc. They were good, don't get me wrong, but for reasons all my own, a little off-putting. The Victrolas, a side-project of Great Lakes Myth Society guitarist Greg McIntosh and the great Mr. Josh Tillinghast, who'd played before, came next and were excellent, delivering miniature ballads and love-stories with a wiry, muscular voice and a badass accordion, closing with a cover of one of my favorite songs, "Just My Imagination," by the Temptations. Jim Roll was magnificent, and I feel doubly guilty for leaving before he finished (as I had to work at six the next morning). Jim's considerably older (something tells me he'd be the first to admit this) than most of the other past performers, and it showed somehow in the experiences he brought to his songs, one of the best being "Gun At Her Side," referencing Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker (and explaining those intriguing Madison concert posters). One of the best stories he had involved his courting a German girl through a series of windows (a long one but a good one).

I tried to get some sleep that night, but the heat and humidity made it difficult.