One Set - 2 hours long
Broke The Promised Land
All I Saw Was You
Even Rats
You Were The Worst At Predicting The Rain
Portrait of the Scientist As A Young Man
Suffocation Keep
First Panda in Space > Soft Machine
Gaunt Debutante
There's A Lie
Ooh Belle
Airplane/Primitive
Weight of Solomon
Children of December
Encore:
Happy Birthday to some guy in the crowd >
Life In Disguise
Moonlight Mile *
* Rolling Stones
As always, I find myself somewhat daunted by the 5 pages of notes I took at the show and not quite sure how best to get it all down.
Despite feeling pretty crappy all week, I was energized by Wednesday evening and headed down to the hall pretty early. The place was deserted and it was easy for me to make camp at the center table on the balcony in preparation for Ed’s arrival. He did arrive, thankful that it was me and not some stranger hogging the sweet spot. Set-up was non-eventful and in just minutes, those sweet U89s were ready to capture the evening’s magic.
I cruised downstairs to say hi to Brad. He was chatting with some other folks including a couple who presented him with a bunch of photos taken at other gigs. I didn’t stick around.
Ed and I passed the pre-show time chatting about our appreciation of SMMD and our fear of Brad’s affinity for heights during CoD. I mentioned the YouTube vid that Cleantone had pointed out just a few days prior and how nervous it made me. Little did I know…
Openers Wintersleep played a 45 minute set that was greatly appreciated by members of the sparse crowd who were obviously familiar with them. While many of their tunes started out with interesting interlocking figures on guitars and keys, it felt to me like most tunes ended up in the same sludgy one or two chord drone territory. The thick sound in the hall (lots and lots of low end) didn’t help them any. Based on what I heard I wouldn’t go out of my way to see them again, but, like I said, their fans had a great time, so I’m thinking it was a good set for them.
BAM took the stage at 10:35 and things got interesting even before they appeared. The start of the show was signaled by copious amounts of fog. Fog?!?!
The stage was shrouded in the output of a fog machine throughout the entire gig. Now, I’ve seen a fair number of Slip shows since that fateful day in ’99, but I have NEVER seen them with any kind of a light show, let alone a fog machine. And here they are with those LED’s on the stage floor, rotating spots on the floor behind them, a guy running an honest-to-goodness lighting rig, and a real, live Fog-O-Tronic 2000, or whatever it’s called.I gotta tell ya, I’m not sure how I feel about this. In days past, BAM would take the stage and create the atmosphere for the show themselves with an opening introductory piece that would invite us all through a sort of portal and into the musical space that they were inhabiting that night. Yes, you needed to pay attention to realize what was happening and to get there with them, but that was always part of the wonder of it all. On this night, there was an obvious, almost clichéd signpost that “THE SHOW IS STARTING NOW, FOLKS!!”
Here’s the thing, though; some of the folks there really needed the cue, because they were so busy drinking, yelling, and playing with their cell phones that they would have missed the “old style” Slip opening altogether.
It might be interesting to discuss the possible causal relationship (and direction of said causality) between the change in style and the change in audience attention, but it’ll have to wait for another thread.One more word about the lights: I’m afraid I didn’t find them to be very well done. It felt to me like the band spent 90% of the show in silhouette, with blinding spots shining from behind them. The rest of the time, with a couple of exceptions, it was all dark reds and some blues. They were almost never front-lit. You couldn’t see what they were doing!! There were certainly points at which the resulting atmosphere was appropriate, but on the whole, I found it distracting. Don’t get me wrong, I love good eye-candy. (I spent many hundreds of hours entranced by the work of Candace Brightman.) It could be that some of my problem was caused by being up in the balcony and looking down at the stage, but I was left feeling that things could have been better in the visuals department.
Speaking of the stage, it’s worth noting that as part of a recent overhaul, the stage at Rev Hall was raised quite a bit. Whereas it used to be only a foot or two higher than the floor, it is now about 5 feet high. This makes for more of a disconnect between the performers and the crowd. Less a gathering of fellow travelers and more a “rock-n-roll show” vibe. This in and of itself is not good or bad, but on this particular night I think it worked against BAM, because the crowd was really very small. In the old days, we would have all gathered around the stage for an intimate musical adventure. On this evening, the height of the stage made it awkward for just a few folks to be standing right at the lip. It would work just fine for a packed house, but here we ended up with a gulf between the band and the listeners as people hung back.
OK, enough kvetching about infrastructure, on to the music:
Just because the woo-hoo-ers in the house got their obvious “show-is-starting” signal doesn’t mean the rest of us were deprived of our musical invocation. Brad started things off with chorded swells on his acoustic (noted by the woo-hoo girl at the next table who bellowed “ALRIGHT!!! AN ACOUSTIC GUITAR” at the top of her lungs) that he looped into a background upon which Andrew played toy xylophone and Marc danced with his Starfire. Brad added to the background with loops created by playing his faithful dictaphone through the pickup on the acoustic. Andrew let fly with his whirling plastic tube, Marc added some MIDI colors via the keyboard controller, Brad took a turn towards the swamp with his slide, and then Andrew propelled us into Broke the Promised Land. This one is an instant Nathan/Slip classic and this version (my first live) was driven in large part by Andrew’s snare. It was during this tune that I realized how much of the Nathan/Slip affinity has to do with the power of Andrew’s drums. His playing takes Nathan’s already heavy words/thoughts and makes it all MASSIVE. So, this tune is already a favorite and I hope to hear it again.
For the next tune, Brad changed to the black Strat, Marc set up in front of the keys, and Andrew started playing his hi-hat with a shaker. The hard-driving intro could have been a lead-in to Soft Machine, but instead I got to hear the new arrangement of All I Saw Was You. Very different than the quiet, plaintive, almost mournful version we heard at Helsinki last October. After one listen to this new arrangement, what struck me most was the similarity to Soft Machine. I’ll need to listen to it some more to really appreciate it. I did make note of some great playing by Marc high on the neck of the Starfire at the end of the tune. He gets some wonderful chimey stuff going on that instrument (in between the massive bombs.)
Next up was the raging freight train known as Andrew in high-power mode ramping things up while Marc switched to the white Jazz bass and also played synth washes on the keys. Our woo-hoo neighbors had been screaming since the start of the show for their favorite guitar hero track and received their reward as BAM rocked through Even Rats. It wouldn’t be hard to be bored of this one, having seen and heard it so many times, but as my notes read, “Marc and Andrew are NEVER boring.” Even as Brad hits all the familiar marks that he has to when singing “the hit song” Marc and Andrew are finding all sorts of entertaining nuances in a song they’ve played a frillion times.
During the short post-Rats break, someone down on the floor made the observation (quite loudly) that “Marc’s got hair!!” - a reference to what looked like the beginnings of a Mohawk atop Mr. Friedman’s head. This elicited an almost embarrassed smile from Marc.
Brad switched back to his acoustic for Predicting the Rain. Highlights here were the instrumental break during which BAM really dug in and played with restrained intensity (while at the same time dancing around the tune’s rhythmic accents), and the fantastic unison playing from Marc and Brad to close the tune.
Another guitar switch for Brad, this time to the SG “clone”. Marc went back to the Starfire and set up by the keys while Andrew set up the now instantly recognizable hi-hat pattern that signals Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Man. The transition from intro to song proper was signaled by Brad’s crossing the stage and whacking one of Andrew’s cymbals. It seems like BAM are getting really comfortable with this one. Andrew was sprinkling kick drum accents throughout that kept things roiling. The middle break grew to epic proportions and then slid into a quieter section of looped filigrees and smoky red lights. (This is one place where I noted that the lighting worked really well.) I only wrote one word for Marc in this tune: “MASSIVE.”
Brad played the hollow-bodied Dano for the Suffocation Keep that followed, with Marc on the Starfire and MIDI-cello via the keys. Unfortunately the crowd (at least up where I was) was OBNOXIOUS throughout this lovely song, talking and laughing loudly, performing the seemingly mandatory “has anyone validated my existence in the last 5 minutes” cell phone checks, and just generally disrespecting the band. I swear to god, the woo-hoo-ers at the next table were actually doing the “let’s crowd together, make faces, and take our picture with our cell phone” thing.
I would have been laughing at them if I wasn’t so annoyed. I’m sorry to keep harping on this, but I wish people with the attention span of a three-year-old would stay home. (Or at least go out side until they’re interested again. Hey, new slogan: “Talking is the new smoking. Take it outside!”)The next tune was part two of a one-two punch that reminds me of just how STRONG the tunes on Eisenhower are. Andrew announced the First Panda with the trademark rolls back and forth across that shiny new sparkly green kit of his while Brad coaxed everyone’s favorite mutant insect/bird calls from the combination of his Strat pickups and the wired box I still haven’t remembered to ask him about. This was a short Panda which got right to the point, more announcement of Soft Machine than evolution into it. However we get there, Soft Machine has become one of my favorites to hear live. The modulation they make in the chord progression in the intro always feels like a triumphant homecoming to me. Don’t know why. Anyway, Marc played his Dano tictack bass for this one and once again added colors and accents via MIDI keys. Brad wow-ed me big time with a positively Frippish tone from his Dano hollowbody, at least until he broke a string. He then switched to the SG-clone, which he had to tune “in transit.” As is often the case, Andrew drove the ending of this one.
Next came my first Gaunt Debutante, with Brad back on the acoustic and Marc on the Starfire. I not sure if this tune really brings anything new to the table, but I find myself singing it all the time. The great thing about this version was the screaming distorted lead tone Brad pulled out of his acoustic for the solo. Never mind “There’s a Lie”, here’s your Neil Young homage, right here!
Well, I guess that solo must have put Brad in a Neil state of mind, because next up was indeed There’s a Lie. Marc played the black Strat for this one and supplied bass via pedals. The intro to this one featured beautiful ascending trills from Brad. Another wonderful moment was when Brad went over to Marc’s pedals and played bass so that Marc could solo on the Strat. It was great to hear Marc being able to play guitar without his also having to play bass with his feet. It got me thinking that it would be fun to see the Slip with another player who could cover for Marc on bass when he’s playing guitar and also duet with Brad on guitar when Marc is really playing bass (as opposed to tapping pedals with his feet) because I’m a sucker for that 2 guitar interplay.
Another first for me: Ooh Belle. This one had Marc on keys, Andrew on steel drum (!!), and Brad on the La-la’s. Yeah, while strumming his acoustic, Brad sang la-la’s throughout the introduction. I really like this song a lot and this was my first time hearing it live. Interestingly, this was the only song of the evening during which all the lights were fully up and you could clearly see the band. It was kind of weird after it being so dark all night.
Brad strapped on his 175 for the homestretch, Marc went for the black Strat and Andrew opted for the plastic tubing as we launched into Airplane/Primitive. Marc supplied bass with his feet and Andrew supplied those high backing vocals. It seems to me that Andrew doesn’t sing as much as he used to and I miss that. Or maybe I just don’t see the shows where he does sing. <shrug> My notes for this one include “Brad really IS a guitar hero.” This came from the moment when Brad was in the classic legs-spread-power-chord pose with a white spot shining up from directly behind him, throwing him into silhouette, looking every inch the classic rock guitar icon. We’ve come a long way since “Children of Atlantis.”
Marc went back to the Starfire for one of my favorite moments of the night up to that point: the new, this-is-not-your-father’s Weight of Solomon. My only note for this one reads: “Wow!!” – one of those moments where I finally stop analyzing and just get totally lost in the musical moment. I can’t honestly say which version I like better. I’m just happy to hear it.
Remember those woo-hoo girls that were yelling for Even Rats? Well, as soon as the last notes of that one died out they started yelling for Children of December. At some point (I think it was after Ooh Belle) they left. I don’t know if they just went downstairs or left altogether, so I don’t know if they were there to see their “prayers” answered. The nasty, vindictive side of me hopes they missed it
because it was an absolute MONSTER. It started out with power chords from Brad’s 175 being answered by rolls across Andrew’s kit. It sounded just like Townshend and Moon. I think Brad even threw in a small windmill or two. Anyway, it was a fantastic intro that ratcheted things up past the tune’s usual high octane feeling and the whole tune came of as 100% Who-style rock-n-roll. Even Marc got into the act with an Entwhistle-like fuzz solo towards the end. Then came the crazy stuff. Remember my conversation with Ed before the show about how nervous Brad’s climbing makes me? I had even said, “Well, at least there are no stacks here for him to climb on.” So here we are in the big closing repeated chord progression crescendo of CoD, Marc is laying down bombs with authority, Andrew is summoning the rolling thunder, and Brad starts eyeing “the crow’s nest.” Assuming most of you have never been to Revolution Hall, allow me to set the scene: There’s a balcony that runs around three sides of the club (excluding behind the stage.) It’s pretty wide, has tables at the rail all the way around, and is otherwise wide open with lots of standing/dancing room. In the left corner of the balcony (that’s “house left”), across from Brad’s side of the stage, there’s a crow’s nest where the lighting guy sits. (That’s where the sound board used to be before they re-did the place.) There are two ways to access the crow’s nest: from the balcony and via a ladder that runs from the nest straight down to the floor below. It’s maybe a 10-12 foot climb.
<Present tense mode>
So, they’re pounding out that closing chord progression over and over and Brad starts eyeing the ladder!! While still playing, he climbs down off the stage (remember, that’s now a 5 foot drop) and starts moving out across the floor. Matt has made his way over to the stage and is feeding out guitar cable as Brad moves through the crowd. Brad gets to the bottom of the ladder and starts climbing with one hand. He’s got one hand protecting the neck of the precious Gibson 175 and with the other hand he’s hauling himself up this ladder with the guitar cable stretching through the air back to the stage. Ed looks back at me and we just shake our heads. (Try climbing a purely vertical ladder with one hand next time you get a chance. Then try it with a guitar strapped on. Then do it with a really valuable hollow-bodied guitar strapped on. Jeez!!!) Oh, did I mention that at some point in this little adventure Brad broke a string??
So there he is having made it safely up onto the crow’s nest with his cable stretched across the club and a broken high-E string and now he and his earth-bound compatriots REALLY dig in. I’m not even sure they can really see each other, but they are locked in tight and bringing all guns to bear. It was breathtaking. The song finally crashes to a close and the place erupts. All I can do is shake my head and mutter “holy shit.” Musically and “altitudinally” amazing.
</Present tense mode>
Brad unplugged his guitar and wisely opted to exit via the balcony rather than climb back down the ladder. I went over to him as he came out of the crow’s nest and said the only thing I could as a father of a teenage boy: “Bradley Barr, you come down from there this instant before you break your neck!!!” No I didn’t shake my finger at him.
I can’t be 100% sure of what happened next. I’m pretty sure Marc and Andrew left the stage. The two of them came back on and over to Brad’s mic after a very short while and Andrew said something about not knowing where Brad was. Brad answered with a single thump on Droo’s kick drum to announce his return.
The three of them milled around Brad’s mic for a moment before Marc and Andrew returned to their posts. Brad grabbed his acoustic while asking if anyone in the audience was celebrating a birthday that evening. Somebody said they were, so BAM played and sang Happy Birthday to him, mumbling the guy’s name because they didn’t know it. At least that’s how it sounded to me.
This segued right into Life In Disguise with Marc proving keyboards and Andrew playing kick, hi-hat tambourine, and providing a beautiful high, “chime-like” ghosting of the melody all the way through the song on his new guitar (more on that later.) I didn’t write much about this one (I was probably still hyperventilating from the CoD close), but I’m guessing I enjoyed it because I really, really like this song.
But not as much as I like what came next.
My first Slip Moonlight Mile was every bit as magical as I hoped it would be. Brad was on the Dano hollowbody, Marc was on the Starfire (GOD, I LOVE THAT BASS!!!), and Andrew played his kit with soft mallets. This version struck me as deep and heavy. I found out afterwards that Brad had mistakenly tuned down a step, so although he felt it was bit out of his range for vocals, it lent the tune a real solid depth. Sticky Fingers is my favorite Stones album and one of the high points of my Slip career was hearing them play “Sway” in Saratoga (Oh how I wish they’d play that one again so you could all hear it. Glorious!!), so I was truly in heaven for this one. I very quietly got up from the table where Ed was taping, went to the back of the balcony (at this point, Ed and I were the only people up there), and danced around like a fool for a moment or two before returning to my seat and immersing myself in the moment. (Pardon me while I drift in blissful reverie for just a moment.)
And that’s how it ended.
I spoke to Brad only briefly afterwards and never saw Marc or Andrew, but did talk to Matt a little bit. It’s nice to see that Andrew’s kit is now complete with a big new kick drum that matches the rest of that sparkly green set. Even better, he’s got a guitar that matches his kit. It’s one of these:
http://www.waterstoneguitars.com/guit_wwas.shtml
except it’s in green. Apparently, Andrew is now a Waterstone endorsee!
In other equipment news (to me, anyway), Brad had a “fish light” on top of his amp. It’s one of those rectangular boxes where the background scrolls by and the fish are in the foreground.
Finally, creepy astronaut guy was there in all his glory, loving life and giving the folks who took the brown acid something to worry about.
And so, the music and musicianship of the Slip continue to astound and amaze even as how they express themselves continues to evolve. Yes, the scene around them is evolving as well. I recognize that I did a bit more complaining in this review than I normally do, but the bottom line is this: I haven’t been feeling all that great lately and when I left that the show I felt better than I had in days.
These musicians make me happy. They lift me up and out of the everyday world. I feel better coming out of their shows than I do going in. What more can you ask for?
(Besides a track-by-track cover of Sticky Fingers for my birthday? A boy can dream, right?)
hoby
, but i am a girl you know.... quick... stop the presses.... the other dudes don't have an excuse though... though the people heal guitars don't argument is at least based in logic...
