Review and photos – Emm Gryner at the Park Theatre, Winnipeg, May 2009

– review by eugene osudar/photos by Mike Latschislaw

opening her show
with the song
sung of praises
by Bono

emm gryner’s
Almighty Love
on piano

let
me
explain,

says Bono,
he wishes
this Almighty
Love
that he had
written it,
only if, only if

Bono didn’t

Bono couldn’t

could only this
Almighty Love bird
be flown
from the heart
of a girl
a woman
a poetess
a mistress
of imagination

emm gryner’s
melody and words
behind the keys
nakedly shining
and shimmering
shivering my
rocky spine

our rocky spine
tra(versed)poetically
and climbed
by emm gryner’s
exquisite images
her colorful skies
her girl visions
nighttime whys
wonder sighs
fulfilling wander,
lust,fully
bliss,fully hiking
our rocky spine

Almighty Love,
“You
don’t write back when
You
promise to
the moon
has overdosed
on nighttime
like me on you”

emm’s set list:

Almighty (Love)
Straight (To Hell)
Young
Stereochrome
Serenade
Die Evergreen
Empty Hole
Coffee
Summer Long
Match
Leftover
Top Speed
Idaho

and the encore,
BWB (Blackwinged Bird)

from the sublime
Almighty Love
to the haunting
Clash song,
Straight To Hell
(i’m in heaven)
heavily breathing
rhythmically
surrendering
rendering us
willing prisoners
to naked melody

a perfect opening
one/two Punch Drunk
Almighty Love
to a perfect evening
Straight To Hell
singer/songwriters

JP Hoe
the local hero
who pokes
fun at himself
most every turn
of phrase/of self,praise
whose voice soars
and as soon as he
opened his mouth
to sing
radio friendly melodies
(highlights,
Are You Feeling Better Now,
Until You Weighed,
Start a War,
Sing Me a Song)
“he had me,”
says tammy
“jp hoe rocked
my socks off!”
she writes on
facebook,
and it’s true
tammy had no socks
to speak of!
where did they go?
JP Hoe?
thief of socks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

emm says,

“hello winnipeg. it’s great to be here.
and a big thank you
to JP Hoe. make sure
you go to his fake prom
(in june, at the park theater,
songs from prom movies
and a photographer
to take pics of everyone
decked out in prom
finery, “don’t ever change!”).
i’m playing you
a new song from my
new album
(Goddess). this song
should
have drums and explosions!
you’ll just have to imagine
them in your 204 minds.”

piano and guitar
looping effects
no band
a little help from friends
JP Hoe
on Coffee
(which will be
tighter by the end
of their western swing)
their beautiful voices
not quite in harmony
and on the rollicking
Top Speed
Phil lends purr,fect
guitar
accompaniment

“I was thinking,
why are there bands
around the trees?”

(mistakenly) voices answer,
“the worms, canker worms.”
until another voice says,
“Dutch Elm Disease.”

ah, the answer
to yet another
made in winnipeg
mystery,

last week, rose in joel plaskett’s
band wondered about our
“belted trees”
the line of defense for
winnipeg’s poor
elm trees,
and from this came,
joel’s band name suggestion,
The Belted Trees

Summer Long,
“here comes the end of march
and i’m falling all the time
my love carved his name in me
carefully but full of might
see my head spinning
as surely as the planets
he’d never come to stand it
what is this
this foreign breath i’m lying with”

Serenade,
“dust from a dim southern star
digits flash in double time
san diego just hold on
and never mind
faded again in the lounge
blood and wine
and the water downtown
here winter kicks out the summer
for hanging around”

“this place (The Park Theater)
rocks. i’m glad i found it.
the people who run it are the nicest
people on earth. here’s a song
about the perils
of being a young musician.”

“I choose to go to one country
outside of canada. It’s
ireland (Bono). this is a new song
about an irishman.
there’s no fiddle
but plenty of fiddling about
and i don’t know what that means!
it’s called Die Evergreen.”

Die Evergreen,
“the greatest loves fall so far down
nobody hears what’s left of them”

Empty Hole
has explosions
to be sure
like Beethoven
explodes
from black,hole
nothingness
to heart/pounding
resounding
fullness
of sound and fury
climbing,climbing
subliming

Idaho
is such a devastating
sadly beautiful song
to end a wondrous concert
with
a few songs earlier (yes,yes,yes)
oh, to hear an emm gem
like
Girls Are Murder
because girls are
murder
and i love being
murdered
by serial killer girls
by emm gryner
in song
in voice
in poetry

for the encore
Blackwinged Bird

“Night
can’t come quick enough
my faults shine in the sun
a train bridge of spies
watches all the cars collide
i roll my green sleeves over ruby
i don’t blame you for doing it to me
real girls don’t take aim
like kings do these days
i made my mind up
to be a black,winged,bird”

this is her poetry,
these
her brilliant
night skies songs
colors and flame and sun
ruby and merlot
and girls
songs about girls
what a writer
what a poet,
stunning sunning
moonbeam
brilliance
she’s genius,
her highness
she is the queen
red carpet
(un)rolls before her
for 200 winnipeggers
we could see the carpet,
we could see the queen
in the blackwinged bird
the goddess,

choose

and never lose

sight
of her bird’s
flight