(no subject)
Back to the NYC recap next post, for now we leap ahead into the future of last night.
Went out last night to see the Table of the Elements tour at the Wexner Center, Tony Conrad, Jonathan Kane and Rhys Chatham. I knew Conrad's work, and I knew Chatham had come back to the guitar after a long affair with playing only fuzz trumpet, but the last thing of Kane's I heard were those early Swans records he played on. So I basically expected a lot of delicate, overtone-drenched slow-as-icebox-molasses drone pieces, and I was totally down for that.
Conrad came out, behind a semi-transparent sheet with a light so he projected a huge shadow, and played solo amplified violin improvisations for about half an hour. He leaned heavily on the low string, draining gutteral drones out of it like it was air traffic controlling the swooping, circular high notes. Notes played against each other so they merge in a sweet harmony and notes played against each other so they rub raw. He ripped the romanticism off the violin like a scab and let the wound of sound get some air. I literally had goosebumbs for large parts of his set. And he was amazingly gracious, when the set ended thanking everyone for coming as well as hanging out and mingling with the crowd for the entire rest of the show so it wasn't an ego issue of hiding his face, he just wanted the music to be presented differently.
Next up was Jonathan Kane's February, with Kane on the drums, Ernie Brooks from the Modern Lovers on bass, and four guitars - Igor Cubrilovic who also co-produced the debut album, David Bicknell and Jon Crider formerly of Clara Venus, David Daniell of San Augustin, and Paul Duncan. They come out, kick into the first tune with three guitars playing rhythm and one doing blues leads if you were to take the blues and stretch it like silly putty, and this magma-deep and hot groove and it clicks. It's Saturday night music. It's fun in the way Neu is fun and in the way ZZ Top is fun, and I say that as someone who loves both things. The pieces go for long stretches without any chord changes, though I suspect a couple of guitars were playing the same progression in different tunings, and it sinks into you the way drones are supposed to but at the same time it's so danceable that it reminds you how much of the blues circled around a drone, how James Brown or George Clinton also could keep one chord or even one note going well past the point you'd expect and just get the crowd going crazier. At times their set swerved into MBV-style shoegaze pop and at times cosmic country balladry, but better than instrumental rock has any right to be and maybe the best fusion of rock and "modern music" I've ever heard. And no, I don't consider rock a modern music, at it's best it's fiercely pre-modern and primal. And Kane can still hit like an explosion.
Finally, Rhys Chatham came out adding Chris Brokaw and Bill Brovold on guitar. The first piece Chatham just conducted and it was full of these amazing flights of energy where one second the guitars would sound like a string section and the next a wall of seemingly formless sound you'd start to hear the patterns in only to have it change right out from under you. It was a beautiful thing to see Chatham in a beautifully tailored black suit with his silver hair, making swooping gestures and conducting the group with his whole body like he was going to jump out of his skin. Following this he also strapped on a guitar for a seven-guitar arrangement of his '70s composition "Guitar Trio" making it more of a metal shimmy than the original's spy-movie bounce. You will believe the E-string can make enough racket for a room full of guitars. One of the most enjoyable nights of music I've ever had, that worked on so many levels. I went straight home afterward it ended at 11 because I just didn't want to hear any other music, even a jukebox.
Love to you all.
Went out last night to see the Table of the Elements tour at the Wexner Center, Tony Conrad, Jonathan Kane and Rhys Chatham. I knew Conrad's work, and I knew Chatham had come back to the guitar after a long affair with playing only fuzz trumpet, but the last thing of Kane's I heard were those early Swans records he played on. So I basically expected a lot of delicate, overtone-drenched slow-as-icebox-molasses drone pieces, and I was totally down for that.
Conrad came out, behind a semi-transparent sheet with a light so he projected a huge shadow, and played solo amplified violin improvisations for about half an hour. He leaned heavily on the low string, draining gutteral drones out of it like it was air traffic controlling the swooping, circular high notes. Notes played against each other so they merge in a sweet harmony and notes played against each other so they rub raw. He ripped the romanticism off the violin like a scab and let the wound of sound get some air. I literally had goosebumbs for large parts of his set. And he was amazingly gracious, when the set ended thanking everyone for coming as well as hanging out and mingling with the crowd for the entire rest of the show so it wasn't an ego issue of hiding his face, he just wanted the music to be presented differently.
Next up was Jonathan Kane's February, with Kane on the drums, Ernie Brooks from the Modern Lovers on bass, and four guitars - Igor Cubrilovic who also co-produced the debut album, David Bicknell and Jon Crider formerly of Clara Venus, David Daniell of San Augustin, and Paul Duncan. They come out, kick into the first tune with three guitars playing rhythm and one doing blues leads if you were to take the blues and stretch it like silly putty, and this magma-deep and hot groove and it clicks. It's Saturday night music. It's fun in the way Neu is fun and in the way ZZ Top is fun, and I say that as someone who loves both things. The pieces go for long stretches without any chord changes, though I suspect a couple of guitars were playing the same progression in different tunings, and it sinks into you the way drones are supposed to but at the same time it's so danceable that it reminds you how much of the blues circled around a drone, how James Brown or George Clinton also could keep one chord or even one note going well past the point you'd expect and just get the crowd going crazier. At times their set swerved into MBV-style shoegaze pop and at times cosmic country balladry, but better than instrumental rock has any right to be and maybe the best fusion of rock and "modern music" I've ever heard. And no, I don't consider rock a modern music, at it's best it's fiercely pre-modern and primal. And Kane can still hit like an explosion.
Finally, Rhys Chatham came out adding Chris Brokaw and Bill Brovold on guitar. The first piece Chatham just conducted and it was full of these amazing flights of energy where one second the guitars would sound like a string section and the next a wall of seemingly formless sound you'd start to hear the patterns in only to have it change right out from under you. It was a beautiful thing to see Chatham in a beautifully tailored black suit with his silver hair, making swooping gestures and conducting the group with his whole body like he was going to jump out of his skin. Following this he also strapped on a guitar for a seven-guitar arrangement of his '70s composition "Guitar Trio" making it more of a metal shimmy than the original's spy-movie bounce. You will believe the E-string can make enough racket for a room full of guitars. One of the most enjoyable nights of music I've ever had, that worked on so many levels. I went straight home afterward it ended at 11 because I just didn't want to hear any other music, even a jukebox.
Love to you all.