Highland Square’s annual PorchRokr Music and Art Festival transforms the verandas of one of Akron’s most historic and eclectic neighborhoods into one-day art studios and concert venues. Thousands of locals and out-of-towners rock out to some 130 diverse musicians and artists, using both area residences and business establishments as their personal stage. The festival rotates each year among four sections of Highland Square to encourage spontaneous interaction among all its neighbors.
June 9, 2017 – “The angel of illness arrives during the Lady Uno Concert. Her melodies come from whale songs. She says she casts spells and as I grow more nauseous I think she meant that literally. I excuse myself and go throw up. Food poisoning? Criticism should not acknowledge the limits of the critics body, I tell myself. But my body has a different idea. Uno Lady has a small podium with purple lights which she sits behind. The faint outline of a projector outlines the wall behind her.
She’s been doing this for a while, somebody whispers to me.
She describes herself as a “one woman choir” and the description seems apt. Have you ever had a moment when you know you’re watching a star? I don’t mean a celebrity. I mean somebody who pulsates like a light from a very long distance away which may or may not still exist. She loops her voice so tightly there’s almost no room for anything else, which works. The song “Underground,” feels like it could leap into a dance track at any moment but never does. Her lyrical imagery from the natural world combined with a stage presence which relies on skill over affect to compel you to watch join with her commitment to seeing a musical mood to its breaking point. Her material reminds me of a sonic world in between Joanna Newsom and Frank Ocean with a little bit of Joy Division thrown in there, but all happening on Venus. Or maybe just Cleveland in 2017.
I excuse myself, get info from the gallerist about what I’ve seen, and toss and turn under a spell, with a bowl next to my bed just in case it happens again, or I catch some starlight.” Full post here
Uno Lady at Transformer Station June 9, 2017. Photo by Lou Muenz.
Hailed by Rolling Stone as “a genre unto herself,” composer and guitarist Kaki King is a true iconoclast. Over the past 13 years the Brooklyn-based artist has released 8 extraordinarily diverse and distinctive albums, performed with such icons as Foo Fighters, Timbaland, and The Mountain Goats, contributed to a variety of film and TV soundtracks including Golden Globe-nominated work on Sean Penn’s Into The Wild, and played to an increasingly fervent following of music lovers on innumerable world tours.
Her latest work, “The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body,” is Kaki at her visionary best: deconstructing and redefining the role of solo instrumental artist though virtuoso technique, insatiable imagination, and boundless humanity. This groundbreaking new multi-media performance uses projection mapping to present the guitar as an ontological tabula rasa in a creation myth unlike any other, where luminous visions of Genesis and death, textures, and skins, are cast onto her signature Ovation Adamas guitar which has been customized specifically for this production.
In addition to her own solo work, Kaki sometimes performs accompanied by NYC-based string quartet ETHEL. She has also performed at Carnegie Hall, premiering a classical piece commissioned by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang.
Check out the new song, “Swamp Thing” inspired by Grace Frank’s paper mask.
You can hear this song live and see the mask tonight at 3204 Lorain Gallery for Some Nice People Made Some Nice Things! Come see what local artists Grace Frank, Erin Guido and John Paul Costello have been up to. Uno Lady performance at half time #CAVS
You can win the Swamp Thing mask, an Uno Lady record, and other sweet art through the $5 raffle. Details in post below. See you there!
Most of the songs for this set were crafted just for this show. The performance is part of the exhibit “THEM!, a group showcase centered around music and photography. Artists include Melissa Auf der Maur, Tim Davis, Joseph Desler Costa, Jacob Koestler, Darin Mickey and Nick Zinner. Representing large commercial bands such as Hole, Smashing Pumpkins and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Melissa Auf der Maur and Nick Zinner separate their artistic practice, their photography and music functioning as separate entities.”
– Transformer Station
