Pink Nasty at SXSW 2006(Photo by
Matthias A. Ingimarsson)Pink Nasty - 2006 September 22Spaceland, Los Angeles, CA01: Is This It? (The Strokes cover)02: Mold the Gold03: I Don't Know04: BTK Blues05: Trenchcoat Blues06: Golden Smoke07: Take it Back08: Away Message09: Hot Pink House10: May It Always Be (Bonnie "Prince" Billy cover)11: Burn (Usher cover)Recording quality: A- (digital audience recording)Gig rating: 7.3/10
See below to downloadPink Nasty - 2006 September 23The Cinema Bar, Los Angeles, CA01: May It Always Be (Bonnie "Prince" Billy cover)02: BTK Blues03: Sssnake04: Golden Smoke05: Mold the Gold06: Six Feet Deep in Love07: Away Message08: Hot Pink House09: Take it Back10: What the Fuck11: Early Grave12: I Don't Know (false start)13: I Don't Know14: Burn (Usher cover)Recording quality: A- (digital audience recording)Gig rating: 7.5/10
See below to downloadI had the good fortune of seeing
Pink Nasty (aka, Sara Beck) at two of her three LA shows over the weekend. Beck's stage presence is outstanding, her singing and songwriting inspired, and her backing band incredibly tight. Playing from both of her
two albums, Beck also appropriated three cover songs: a brilliant stripped-down interpretation of
The Strokes "Is This It?," a demure folk-twist of
Usher's "Burn," and "May It Always Be" which she so owns that I forget it's a
Bonnie "Prince" Billy tune. Her strongest songs, however, are "I Don't Know" (on which you could swear Alison Krauss is singing), "Golden Smoke" and the title cut to her new album (which features Bonnie "Prince" Billy on the closing track) "Mold the Gold."Having missed her first gig at
The Mint, I was really looking forward the
Spaceland show. I had first heard Beck on Bonnie "Prince" Billy's
Summer in the Southeast album, liked her singing on "May It Always Be" immensely, and wanted to say so in person. But by the time I got to the venue I'd gotten my bands bassackwards and found myself insisting how great her playing was with
Magnolia Electric Co.'s Jason Molina. I hoping I was just slightly less of a dolt than the bloke who
interviewed her at
SXSW, but I'm not holding my breath. Despite the foot in my mouth, Beck let me take the setlist from the show (though it had little to do with what actually ended up getting played).
The Cinema Bar show was a much more intimate affair with the seating being something like that of a wedding: on the "bride's side" were friends of the band, and on the groom's a bevy of red-nosed boozers. Guess where I sat? Just the same, I happened to meet a friend of Beck's now living in LA who had dated her brother,
Black Nasty ... and whose panties Beck is referring to in the lead-in to "Sssnake" ;)If you're able, be sure to check out Pink Nasty on one of the
remaining tour dates. Also, for those not familiar with Beck's other band affiliations - Black Nasty and The Kevins - you might give them a listen too. The filth-core rap stylings of
Black Nasty (NSFW) is not for the faint of heart and requires a well developed sense of humor, but it's a hoot (and
AMG likes it too). But possibly the only thing more unlikely than than a singer/songwriter's involvement in her brother's rap career is her involvement in her other brothers' pop-romance band,
The Kevins (SFW).PS: Special thanks to
Matthias Ingimarsson for permission to reproduce Beck's photo from SXSW.
Download the gigs:
mp3 format of the 22 Sept gig (personal listening only)
mp3 format of the 23 Sept gig (personal listening only)
CD-quality flac format of the 22 Sept gig (for
trading / seeding)
CD-quality flac format of the 23 Sept gig (for
trading / seeding)
Buy Pink Nasty recordings:
... from the horse's mouthNote: This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License.
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