Karen Ponzio Photos
Kevin MF King
Wednesday night Holberton School on James Street was once again the place to find live music, as the District Arts and Education series that began last fall continued with New Haven-based musician Kevin MF King, livestreamed through the organization’s Facebook page.
The series thus far in 2021 has showcased two other local solo musicians live — Paul Belbusti, a.k.a. Mercy Choir, and Seth Adam, both in January — and two weeks ago presented a previously recorded set by Ceschi originally performed back in December.
Executive director A.M. Bhatt opened the show by welcoming King to the stage and discussing DAE’s plans for 2021.
“The world continues to be full of lots of problems and people continue to be doing their part,” Bhatt said, before he introduced DAE’s own new way to do its part. Through its Learn/Build programs, DAE hopes to help participants develop foundational skills in digital and human technology. It will provide education to the community year-round, according to Bhatt, and will be offered with no fees for New Haven County residents. Three information sessions will be available in February, with the program itself beginning in March. Bhatt said he hoped it would help people “facing the impact of the past year.”
The show then proceeded with King solo, armed only with his electric guitar and an hour’s worth of songs that included singles released in 2020 as well as selections from his four-song EP Riots Plague Tolls, also released in 2020, and his 2018 album Description of An Orange Being Peeled, which was remastered and released last year.
King opened with his most recent single, “Electric Eye,” a bluesy, almost confessional poetic admonition of one’s faults. King sang of being “vague again, emaciated thin, fill my cup with sin,” following up with “Lonely Landlord,” where an eye, and insight, gives rise to revelation, this time in the context of “only one eye wept for what I’ve seen.” King excels at conveying maximal impact both lyrically and musically in a minimal amount of time, and often lets his guitar do more of the talking, as with the short almost meditative instrumental piece that followed these two songs.
He added another instrumental, this one more in the blues vein again, after the fourth song called “Did You Ever Hear the One About The Ghost and The Idiot.” That song, with the lyrics “lonely secrets come undone,” felt as if King was coaxing a confession from himself and possibly all of us as well.
He followed that with two selections from Description of an Orange Being Peeled: “Plague Doctor” and “Bat Man Hasil,” the former another meditative and hypnotic piece ending with the line “you’ll see him in first place last,” and the latter, beginning with the line “driving down the road feeling like I’ve had enough” building in intensity both lyrically and musically and giving one the same sensation as if they were in a classic car listening to it on an old beloved cassette player.
King played four more originals, including “Blue Shudder,” which he said was “about the beach”; “Calabasas,” from Description; and a song called “Tulsa,” which he said was an “oldie.”
“I never play this one,” he added. “It’s too happy.” Then he added: “I just realized the first line is about killing someone, so it’s not happy but it’s in a happy chord.”
He followed those originals with a short set of covers, including one by John Frusciante (formerly of the Red Hot Chili Peppers) and the song “Outer Space” by Ben Erickson, who King said was a Milford songwriter but “any New Haven people will know him.”
His final song — a cover of “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory,” by Johnny Thunders of the New York Dolls — seemed an apt way to end the evening, bringing to mind the memory of watching your favorite singer-songwriter in a dark bar and hanging out afterward to have a beer and chat with them about their set. King made it feel as if that could and would happen once again very soon.
The next live music show streamed from Holberton is scheduled for March 3 and will feature Mike Coppola and Kriss Santala. More information about that event and other programs can be found on the DAE Facebook page. All live shows are also recorded and available the following day on the DAE Facebook page.
