When Quentin Tarantino included Dick Dale’s music in“Pulp Fiction,” the director’s 1994 ode to Velvet Elvis culture, it didn’t rebirth the musician’s career. It just reframed it. Born in South Boston to a man of Lebanese descent, Dale (neé Richard Anthony Monsour) fiddled with instruments and appreciated jazz. But a move to Southern California during his late-teenage years spurred the nascent guitarist to fully incorporate the spastic drumming of his jazzbo heroes, folk music he discovered through his family, and a personal interest in electric guitar. Performing at local dances as part and parcel of the surf community, Dale gained enough cachet to eventually book large-scale gigs. His continued connection to surfing and the outdoors in general—he amassed a sizable collection of would-be zoo animals—make songs like “Tidal Wave” seem a bit more sincere than workouts by other surf bands. Listening to Dale’s songs so far removed from the time and place they were construed, it’s easy to focus on a single element to the detriment of the work’s ensemble feel. Sure, his guitar’s the omnipresent focus, but “Tidal Wave” would be a remarkably different song if not for the harmonizing saxophone and backing singers. The other part of Dale’s work frequently overlooked is the tempo that songs like “The Wedge” take on. It’s not quite Ramonesy pacing, but that drumming might serve one of the New Yorker’s slower compositions. Regardless, wide-ranging melodic jumps point back to Dale’s familial interest in Lebanese folk music. After all, that’s where “Misirlou” came from in the first place. Being insinuated into a new generation of vintage-suit wearers by Tarantino’s film has enabled Dale to continue his international touring schedule and has served to point out that the music he created fifty years back is resistant to contemporary mores. (Dave Cantor)
October 7 at Evanston Space, 1245 Chicago, Evanston, (847)492-8860, 8pm. $30-$48.
For “Want” of a Change: A Preview of Rufus Wainwright at Ravinia Park Rufus Wainwright isn’t the first singer-songwriter to reinterpret earlier work through an orchestral lens. And much of Wainwright’s third and fourth albums, “Want One” and “Want Two”—whose twentieth anniversaries are the prompt for this new tour—is fully scored. But when Wainwright hits the Pavilion stage at Ravinia tonight, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will be behind him.
Cooling It: A Preview of Colleen Green at Cole’s Bar When Green strums power chords or chiming notes on top of her backing track, you might think you’re at Ramones karaoke night and Madonna is taking her turn.
Brutal Finesse: A Preview of King Crimson at Ravinia There have been few new compositions from King Crimson these past two decades, but the live arrangements of songs from its catalog are often strikingly different than the recorded versions.
Can’t-Miss Music Events (Fall Arts Preview 2023) This fall we get new albums and tours from iconic acts like Wilco and Kurt Elling, plus a Corrine Bailey Rae project inspired by Theaster Gates' Stony Island Arts Bank.
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