Casiotone For The Painfully Alone

I had the pleasant opportunity of checking out Casiotone For The Painfully Alone live last night down at Emo's. My Father-in-Law is in town so I brought him with. I mean, how do you explain Casiotone to your Father-in-Law? Fortunately, he's a good sport and actually enjoyed the show after my lengthy "this guy is kind of like some cracked loon that you see on a street corner but a word or a phrase catches you as you pass by, then the bummedness of it all sucks you in a little deeper and suddenly you've gone from thinking 'this guy is a cracked loon' to 'this guy is a genius'".

They (he constantly referred to 'the band' in the plural, which I loved, even though it was just him) were relatively awkward live. The utter anti-thesis of your cliche David Lee Roth-era Van Halen supershow. Rather, here was a guy (well, 'them') with glasses off (and you could tell), hunching over his machinery, microphone occasionally over shoulder while he tinkered with the knobs, busy delivering his tunes with more impact than you can find on the recordings. From the opening notes of "Cold White Christmas" through to his set-ending Springsteen cover of "The Streets of Philadelphia" (which you'd swear was a Casitone song if you heard it live), he was sometimes charming, sometimes painfully shy, mixing cleverness and bummedness in a seamless stew.

If you are new to this, dig deep. Casiotone come highly recommended. Enjoy.

CFTPA - "Toby, Take a Bow".
CFTPA - "Calloused Fingers Won't Make You Strong, Edith Wong".
CFTPA - "Jeanette, If You're Ever In Portland (Live Daytrotter Session)".
CFTPA - "Tonight Was A Disaster (Live Daytrotter Session)".

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