Who Wants To Go To Dee's Diner?
Hey anybody in the Midwest (*cough*sandbar*cough*): You're the next stop on Les Claypool's tour and Denver's best band, DeVotchKa (plus Saul Williams), is opening. DeVotchKa is worth seeing on their own; combined with Claypool it's hard to have a recipe for more fun at a concert.
I saw Les Claypool at the Fillmore on Saturday and had a great time. I missed most of the first opening act, but it was a cool-sounding metal band with electric violin and cello, among other things. Next up was Saul Williams, a philosophy-major poet and rapper. I really like his poems, but the disharmonic music when he raps is very discordant with the bands I've seen him open for. When an audience member said "Les does this just to fuck with us," I recalled DJ Shadow saying "I'll play a hip-hop track to piss off the indie rockers and then I'll play a folk song to make the hip-hop fans go 'Huh?' Because if I'm not challenging you then I'm pandering to you, and you're better than that."
Yard Dogs Road Show was the third opening act, featuring circus side show acts (sword swallowing, crazy juggling) and burlesque dance with good old music. As a fan of Ukulele Loki's Folderol Follies it's no surprise I thoroughly enjoyed their show. Claypool's band this time around included cello, vibes, and drums which gave an interesting twist to a few familiar Primus songs and some interesting long pieces I hadn't heard before. And Eenor, the world's only guitar-playing redwood tree joined them for Thela Hun Gijit. All told, the show lasted four and a half hours, which is a mighty fine deal.
I saw Les Claypool at the Fillmore on Saturday and had a great time. I missed most of the first opening act, but it was a cool-sounding metal band with electric violin and cello, among other things. Next up was Saul Williams, a philosophy-major poet and rapper. I really like his poems, but the disharmonic music when he raps is very discordant with the bands I've seen him open for. When an audience member said "Les does this just to fuck with us," I recalled DJ Shadow saying "I'll play a hip-hop track to piss off the indie rockers and then I'll play a folk song to make the hip-hop fans go 'Huh?' Because if I'm not challenging you then I'm pandering to you, and you're better than that."
Yard Dogs Road Show was the third opening act, featuring circus side show acts (sword swallowing, crazy juggling) and burlesque dance with good old music. As a fan of Ukulele Loki's Folderol Follies it's no surprise I thoroughly enjoyed their show. Claypool's band this time around included cello, vibes, and drums which gave an interesting twist to a few familiar Primus songs and some interesting long pieces I hadn't heard before. And Eenor, the world's only guitar-playing redwood tree joined them for Thela Hun Gijit. All told, the show lasted four and a half hours, which is a mighty fine deal.