This was a great show. A very moving, slightly rearranged "Reddish Moon" was a nice introduction for the uninitiated, Brad's vocal was very strong and he had a little extra fun with the outchorus. Particularly appropriate kickoff for me as I live in the south (see lyrics). There were nice Brad vocal inflections and different phrasing approaches at times throughout the 60 minuteish set. I like the way they kick into the vocals on "Rats" now, with Marc and Andrew stopping for a second. Is that how it is on the video game??
"Suffocation" was not as sparse as others I've seen, it had a majestic quality reminiscent of Radiohead - Brad walked across the front of the stage during one instrumental on that one which served to "bring people in" in this lovely sounding but large theater. Marc played guitar on "Suffocation." Nice Dylan Thomas shoutout in the new Airplane song (my first time hearing) and "Soft Machine" melted some young college hotties, they were gushing!! Yeah boyzzzzzz, way to go!! "Paper Birds" was mesmerizing, hands down the best version I've ever seen. Finally, "Children of December" was simply phenomenal. Toward the end Andrew and Marc WENT OFF while Brad sent off some sweetly aggressive rhythms with little embellishements thrown in as he precariously monitor-hopped. Vintage Slippage. They were all great versions despite the fact that the time limit prevented them from exploring as much as we might have liked.
My only criticism would be that the vocals were a bit muffled, most frustrating when I was trying to pick up the lyrics of the Airplane song. This may not have been helped by the fact that I was seated on the right side of the room, just in front of the magnificent youngbro drummer.
I thought JFJO played a solid set, Reed Mathis even shed his bass for guitar for the last two or three songs (two if the multisectioned final piece was all one song). However, as much as I have been into The Duo in the past, and as great as they were with the Vermonters last summer - I was for the most part disappointed by their set. There were a couple of nice tunes, like "Memphis" which features Russo on guitar and another one that started with a busy signal-like sound and then went off into very interesting spaces, but they are not as interesting to me as they once were. Perhaps it was cuz they were following one of my favorite bands, and that they didn't invite any members of said band to play with them, I dunno.
I was most pleased at the fact that the room had the mostpeople in it during The Slip's set and that they "held the crowd" best of the three.
I was most upset by the booking genius who put Cecil Taylor in another campus theater the same night, thus compromising the draw for BOTH shows.
So nice to see El Slippo again as I am mired in the south where Slip shows are rare - they sound viciously strong right now and I was riveted every second of the ohtoobrief set!
I heard some people bitching that they didn't play any old stuff, but it was a 60 minute or so set performed in front of mostly young people many of whom were seeing them for the first time.
HEY FOLKS - THE NEW MATERIAL IS VERY STRONG, THE RECORD IS FINALLY COMING OUT GET INTO IT!! LET'S CELEBRATE!!!!!!!!!!!
And once they get on tour I'm sure they will sprinkle in some ol' nugs too!!