{"id":22589,"date":"2020-01-29T21:35:50","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T02:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=22589"},"modified":"2020-01-30T16:17:02","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T21:17:02","slug":"review-cory-wong-paradise-rock-club-1-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2020\/01\/29\/review-cory-wong-paradise-rock-club-1-28\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Cory Wong @ Paradise Rock Club 1\/28"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review by Sam Trottenberg<\/em><\/p>\n

Photos by Monica Sucic<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not Cory Wong.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s what I said when a rushed, barely visible figure came onstage at the Paradise Rock Club.\u00a0 I was right, that figure wasn\u2019t Cory Wong, it was some cat named Scott Mulvahill who picked up a stand-up bass and set a tone of musicality for the night; this was gonna be the real deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

For those who don\u2019t know Cory Wong, he\u2019s a wonderful guitar player out of Minneapolis who\u2019s been compared to the likes of Prince and Nile Rodgers.\u00a0 You may know him for his work with Vulfpeck, as he\u2019s been a frequent collaborator with the band for the past few years. Cory himself has released several solo albums, the latest of which, <\/span>Elevator Music for an Elevated Mood<\/span><\/i>, came out just a few weeks ago on January 10th.\u00a0 Cory\u2019s band is just as impressive, featuring Kevin Gastonguay on keyboards, Kevin MacIntire on bass, a wonderful horn section, and the mesmerizing Petar Janjic on drums.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scott Mulvahill\u2019s opening set answered the age old question of can a singer-songwriter get by with just a stand-up bass?\u00a0 The answer is an overwhelming yes, and in a time when a lot of songwriters are starting to blend together, Scott has managed to tell his own story.\u00a0 As much as I loved the opening set, I couldn\u2019t help but wonder when Cory was coming on.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t be long before the man himself took the stage, and he was immediately met by fanfare courtesy of the horn section, before the whole band went into a lightning fast funk groove.\u00a0 This was followed by the classic Cory Wong tune \u201cLunchtime,\u201d along with some other great songs before the show stopper \u201c91\u2019 Maxima,\u201d complete with two inflatable car dealership tubes. Then Cory was joined by the talented Phoebe Katis who had emerged from the merch table to sing \u201cJuke on Jelly\u201d and \u201cStarting Line.\u201d\u00a0 A low volume jam of \u201cCompanion Pass\u201d followed which gave way to the climax of the show: Cory\u2019s inspirational speech.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Given the motivational words that appear on the studio version of the song, I don\u2019t think anyone was surprised to hear Cory grab the mic.\u00a0 He said that according to Instagram and Facebook analytics, 74% of the audience was comprised of \u201ccreatives\u201d or those soon to be. Suddenly hateful YouTube comments appeared on the screen behind Cory as he spoke of the importance of resisting critics.\u00a0 This was the perfect segway into Cory\u2019s sole vocal appearance to date: \u201cToday I\u2019m Gonna Get Myself a Real Job.\u201d The set ended but the band couldn\u2019t resist playing a two song encore which included one of my favorite moments of the night in which Cory was playing so fast that the clapping crowd could no longer keep time.\u00a0 Finally Cory and his band took a bow and stepped off stage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Few modern bands can claim to be as tight and energetic as the group Cory has established.\u00a0 Each member of the septet had a shining moment encouraged by Cory, and that\u2019s the beauty of Cory Wong.\u00a0 While Cory is a painfully impressive guitar player in his own right, his true genius lies in his ability to make those around him better.\u00a0 Throughout the show Cory could be seen walking up to different band members with a huge smile on his face, encouraging them to just do their thing.\u00a0 Perhaps it\u2019s Cory\u2019s focus on rhythm playing that makes him this way, as his goal at all times seems to be what can I do to make the band sound better?\u00a0 Even when Cory does take the occasional guitar solo, half the time it\u2019s just the same iconic \u201c91\u2019 Maxima\u201d riff. Somehow Cory can play the same exact solo in three or four different songs and have it sound fresh every time.\u00a0 That being said, the show\u2019s greatest flaw was in the repetitive nature of the songs. Often tunes will include similar melodies and changes that leaves you wanting more versatility from the band, and they certainly have the technical skill to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, Cory Wong has proven yet again that he is one of the most overlooked yet inspiring names in contemporary music.\u00a0 After hearing his show all I could do was go home and play 9th chords until my hands hurt. So go put on the latest Cory Wong record, and maybe you\u2019ll find some inspiration too.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Cory Wong by Monica Sucic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review by Sam Trottenberg Photos by Monica Sucic \u201cThat\u2019s not Cory Wong.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s what I said when a rushed, barely visible figure came onstage at the Paradise Rock Club.\u00a0 I was right, that figure wasn\u2019t Cory Wong, it was some cat named Scott Mulvahill who picked up a stand-up bass and set a tone of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17168,"featured_media":22600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525,1530],"tags":[517,327,662,774,117,946],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22589"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22636,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22589\/revisions\/22636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}