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REVIEW: John Zorn’s Moonchild @ The Moore Theatre / Earshot Jazz (Seattle, WA – – 11/4/07)

6th Nov 07 (Tue) 6 comments

Two statements needed to be made prior to really starting this review… 1) caveat for the non-Moonchild enthusiast: “They’re like an audible Jackson Pollock,” and 2) I feel sorry for the ushers who obviously didn’t know what they were getting into when they signed up for this.

A little background / sidenote… I came into being a John Zorn fan through first being a Mike Patton fan. One of Mike Patton’s (and Trevor Dunn’s) early bands, Mr. Bungle, had a Zorn link early on (JZ produced their Warner debut in 1991). However, I didn’t really start getting into Zorn until about 2-3 years ago when I stumbled on his jazz-klez band Masada. I didn’t know that John Zorn did such melodic work; so Masada totally caught me off guard. Anyway, by that time in my musical meanderings, my interests had started getting into more experimental bands anyway. When I dug deeper into John Zorn’s back catalog I really dug most of his work – whether it be the melodic Masada incarnations, Bar Kohkba, FilmWorks, et cetera or the experimental, harder-edged Naked City, Painkiller, et cetera.

By the time the first mention of the upcoming album Moonchild: Songs Without Words (on his label Tzadik or an email from Downtown Music Gallery), I about flipped… as an experimental/avant-garde trio with Mike Patton (the aforementioned Mr Bungle, Fantômas, Tomahawk, Peeping Tom, Faith No More, many many more), Trevor Dunn (the aforementioned Mr Bungle, Fantômas, Trio Convulsant, many more), and Joey Baron (Masada, Barondown, many more) was right up my alley. After that initial album in early 2006, Moonchild: Songs Without Words, the trio has put out two more albums of John Zorn’s compositions… Astronome (late 2006) and Six Litanies for Heliogabalus (early 2007) which also includes a chorus and other players (Ikue Mori, Jamie Saft, and Zorn himself).

All beautifully packaged and musically brutal, I don’t know where composition from Zorn stops and improvising by the Trio begins, but it can be as breath-taking as it is ear-hurting (remember my line above about it being an “audible Jackson Pollock“…?).

OK, now on to the concert review… note: 6 video snippets and 14 pictures are linked at the bottom of this review.

I took this concert trip alone… While I ease my lovely wife into listening to some of Zorn’s music (like Masada), I know when to not even bother (like Moonchild). I’m sure she’ll check out the video below and think I’m even more crazy than she already thinks I am for all of the cross-country concerting. But I think she’ll at least be thankful that I didn’t try to drag her to it, too… :)

I really had no idea or expectations for this show. I mean, I knew what to expect musically, but I didn’t know what to expect of the venue or the crowd. The venue, the Moore Theatre in downtown Seattle, was um… OK. I’ve been in better places, but I’ve been in worse. I was surprised at how big it was (capacity of 1419) compared to what I was thinking (a small venue, maybe not as small as The Stone, but not much bigger than 100 people). By the time the start time rolled around, the theatre was fairly full (the main floor was sold out, and I know the balcony was also open, too). Great turnout maybe due to the Earshot Jazz Festival or maybe due to the potentially “handful of shows only” nature of this band.

The band came on around 8:15pm… and blistered through around a solid hour of compositions. All three of them had sheet music on stands; so I’m fully aware that it’s somewhat composed music. Again, where the composition stops and the improvisation begins… your guess is as good as mine. Due to the lack of other players (like Saft, Mori, Zorn), and my lack of identifying the Moonchild trio’s “song” names… let’s just say that they stuck to a good mix of Moonchild and Astronome tracks.

Mike Patton was fairly wild for most of the set: jumping, squat-walking, tying himself up in the mic cord, swallowing the mic while screaming into it, spitting and belting out noises that made my throat sore just listening. He left the stage maybe 30-40 minutes in to let Joey Baron and Trevor Dunn have their way with our ears. I’d only previously seen Dunn in Mr. Bungle and Baron in Masada. In this entirely different setting with Moonchild, they really put out a veritable wall of sound. Even without Mike Patton’s screeching and guttural belts, Dunn and Baron were menacing in their own right.

The sound in the room was brutal. Loud, loud, loud. I thank my local music store for Hearos(tm). And, again, bless those poor ushers who didn’t know what they were getting into. I bet they were equally stunned with this “music” and the overwhelming positive crowd response. I wonder what they told their loved ones after going home from this ushering gig. hmmm…

The capper for the show proper was when Joey and Trevor left the stage. Mike Patton ripped into a 12-minute vocal solo which to me had many elements of “Litany IV”… probably the only Six Litanies piece in the set.

After a short break, they all came back for an encore… with the man himself, John Zorn. I had hoped that he was there, but after the main set was half over, I had written that off. He came out and directed them through a rippin’ tune… it could’a been 10 minutes, it could be 20 minutes, it could’a been 2 minutes. All I know was that it was intense, and Mike/Joey/Trevor definitely fed off of his energy on stage with them. My only desire on this one would have been for John Zorn to come out with his alto sax and do some of the call-and-repeat sax vs. voice that he did with Patton on Six Litanies… alas, I’ll have to wait another lifetime, perhaps.

All in all… great show – probably an hour twenty or just shy of an hour thirty of Zorn/Patton/Dunn/Baron. Worth the 8 hour roundtrip from Eugene, Oregon. Worth losing a little bit of sleep and homework time reading accounting valuation doctoral papers (blah blah blah). The Earshot Jazz Festival, or at least the only piece I could attend, was fantastic!! Being one of a potential handful of Moonchild appearances ever, I was happy to be in attendance and happy to document some of it in words above and in {cheap/low quality} video/pictures below.

Enjoy! :)

VIDEO SNIPPETS (6 total – toggle amongst them in lower section of YouTube screen)

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B84E0210411747E9

These are digital camera “movie file” snippets. Low quality? Sure. Posted mainly for “(blurry) fly on the (noisy) wall” add-on to this review. MOONCHILD is Mike Patton (voice), Trevor Dunn (bass), Joey Baron (drums), and John Zorn (director/composer). All music copyright John Zorn, 2006-2007.

PICTURES (14 total – click thumbnail for larger)

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~Dan – np: Hiromi’s Sonicbloom – Time Control

PS– to the guy who was handing out free CDs after the show… I got one… maybe you were trying to give them to Earshot Jazz “bigwigs,” but somehow I got one. I love it!!! Anyone interested in some great instrumental music, The Coma Lilies‘ Memento Mori -EP- is GREAT!! The Coma Lilies‘ MySpace page is HERE. Listen to their stuff, it’s goooood.

PPS– other related MySpace & other Links (some fan sites, some official):

Categories: Jazz & Avant, Metal Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

REVIEW: That 1 Guy and Grynch @ John Henry’s (Eugene, OR – – 9/18/07)

22nd Sep 07 (Sat) 2 comments

Well, I think I’ll start posting concerts reviews here… as my “other outlet” is now not available to me (probably for the best).

On Tuesday night, I had the great opportunity to catch one of my favorite one-man musical freak-shows… That 1 Guy (http://www.that1guy.com/). I’d seen him twice before at the Mad Frog in Cincinnati, Ohio. I moved across country for school with my wife and puppy, and what do you know? T1G was playing here less than 2 weeks after we arrived. Yay!

Anyway, I started the evening with a fantastic meal (gardenburger w/ bleu) and beer choice (a Brother Thelonious Belgian-style ale) at the Eugene City Brew Pub. I walked around the corner to John Henry’s for the early show (it started at 7:30pm). I, luckily, got to catch most of the opening set by local metal band Grynch. They seemed to me to be a good combination of what I like in the Deftones and Fear Factory. They were also fairly tight on stage, and had a very professional sound. A welcome surprise to what you usually end up with local openers.

That1Guy came on around 8:30 perhaps? I don’t know… but it was good to see him set-up the pipe (how does he get it through customs when doing his Aussie gigs?). For those of you who aren’t familiar with That1Guy… well, he plays what most would consider to be plumbing (see picture below). Yet I’ve come to the realization after three shows and many spins of his CDs that he’s not even close to being a novelty act. He makes such well-conceived rhythms and melodies from his triggered-up & strung-up pipe, kick drums, magic saw, and tabla-stylized cowboy boot. His lyrics are usually plays on words and rhyme-y nonsense, but the main draw is his ferocity and skill in wielding that magic pipe to do his bidding. It’s a drum machine and stringed-instrument all in one. Truly a sight to see…

He played songs from his two albums (Songs in the Key of Beotch and the new The Moon is Disgusting)… Bananas, Oranges, the Moon is Disgusting, Buttmachine, Birds, Weasel Potpie… et cetera. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and the crowd seemed uber-into-it as well.


http://www.that1guy.com/
http://www.myspace.com/that1guy

the opener: http://www.myspace.com/grynch

~Dan

Categories: Jazz & Avant, Metal, Rock & Pop Tags: , , , , , , , ,

REVIEW: my crazy music-filled NYC trip in March 2007

17th Mar 07 (Sat) 4 comments

Wow… today is my “first day off” from a show since last Friday (2/9)…

Here’s how NYC “for business” played out on the “for enjoyment” sense of it…

SATURDAY 3/10 I arrived in town at 11:30am. Checked in, and then headed up to “scout out” the Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater as that’s where MASADA was playing that night. While I was there, I got word that there were two free jazz shows going on that afternoon that were sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of U.S. Department of State. It was apparently spreading jazz music to 3rd world countries, and this was the coming home show. I love jazz, and I love how sometimes governmental bodies put good money to use for the arts. It seems weird how we seem to only export bombs lately. Jazz is better than bombs, but less than food and medical aid. I guess I should just be glad that is wasn’t bombs or Christina Aguilera instead of jazz.

Anyway, the Ari Roland Quartet was the free 1pm show. Great quartet, not unlike some quartets that I like… more straight jazz, flashy but not experimental (IMO). Enjoyable, but not mind blowing. “Safe jazz,” if you ask me. Their drummer was pretty good. My favorite song was the one penned by their piano-player. The Cultures of Rhythm was the free 3pm show (both of these free shows were at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Lincoln Center). COR were a bit more interesting. It was a jazz quartet, but “bouncier.” And it featured djembe, drums, hammond organ and a trumpeter. Trumpet usually excites me more than safe saxaphone jazz. Anyway, this band (Culture of Rhythm) had a great vibe. Very enjoyable…

After these free shows, I was pooped… and headed back to my hotel in Chelsea for a nap. The evening show was Masada and Cecil Taylor at Lincoln Jazz Center’s Rose Theater. This was Masada’s last show ever. I drove down to Raleigh, NC, last fall to see tham at Duke. This show, they amazed even more. Masada has many incarnations (as do many of John Zorn’s projects), but the standard acoustic quartet of John Zorn on alto sax, Dave Douglas on trumpet, Greg Cohen on bass, and Joey Baron on drums is the true Masada band. Masada tunes are all written by John Zorn… he’s written upwards of 300 one-page melodic tunes. These one-page 16-bar songs become the framework for jazz improvization. While some of it becomes quite adventurous and “avant-garde,” it still remains very melodic — which can be scarce for John Zorn material. Anyway, the four members of Masada were ON that night. It was truly a beautiful hour+ of music. I’m sad that it’s their last show as this original quartet, but I’m glad that I got to see them twice. I didn’t stick around for Cecil… I had other shows I wanted to fit in…

I took the subway from Columbus Circle (near Central Park) all the way down to the Bowery… walked about a mile to get to the Stone (an avant-garde music space) and made it just in time to see the Joe Morris Trio. It was basically a guy (Joe Morris) noodling on a guitar while another guy (Daniel Levin) was noodling on a cello and another guy (Michael Evans) was noodling on a drumkit. Udon!

I was toying with the idea of heading way the fuck back uptown to Lincoln Center for the 11:30pm show for Kenny Werner‘s Lawn Chair Society. I dig the CD (and it features trumpeter Dave Douglas and saxaphonist Chris Potter), but I didn’t have tickets and thought it’d be sold out, and I knew Dave Douglas wasn’t playing in the band that night (and I had just seen Chris Potter play a few weeks earlier in Cincinnati). It was rainy and I didn’t find the subway stop where I left it last; so I walked about 2 miles to Union Center (my pedometer was upwards of 11 miles walked that 1st day — it got about half that every day afterwards). My sleepy head won out and I crashed back to my hotel in Chelsea eventually…

Oh, speaking of crashing… they had 7th Ave closed from 27th St to 23rd St most of the day on the Saturday and Sunday that I showed up because they were filming chase scenes for the upcoming Borne Ultimatum. I didn’t catch a peek at anyone famous (Matt Damon or anyone), but it was interesting to see how they blocked a major road off for the better part of the weekend. The secondary chase seemed to happen right outside my window (on 25th St)… it’ll be weird to see when that movie comes out if I recognize any of the street stuff…

SUNDAY 3/11 I had a lazy and cheap Sunday… went to the Downtown Music Gallery’s free shows (they do them every Sunday). I spend a lot of coin at DMG for avant-garde jazz; so I figured I’d take in some free stuff. At 6pm, I saw Jason Stein (sax from Chicago) and Mike Pride (percussion from Brooklyn) toy around with some sounds. It was pretty intense, and very much avant-garde. I dug it. Next up (7pm) was Susan Alcorn on lap-steel. It was mesmerizing, entrancing, but uninviting. It really zoned me out for a good 45 minutes. Very much avant-garde lapsteel. At least it wasn’t country, eh? rolleyes.gif

I was gonna catch two shows at the Stone after these free DMG shows, but I was worn out. Susan Alcorn fried my brain, or perhaps it was watching Jesus Camp that afternoon. Scary shit, that movie was…

MONDAY 3/12 Lazy Monday… I think I walked down to WTC and Statue of Liberty this morning, but I forget. That may have been Sunday morning (and then after got a shot of Johnny Walker Red at Elliott Smith‘s XO hangout). I didn’t pay for the ferry to Ellis Island… eh. Monday dinner was delightful. I caught some good thai grub with who law enforcement officers refer to as the “great-hatted bootlegger.” Keith was catching a Steve Earle show with a friend and we met up prior. Good food and conversation. Afterwards, I hussled out to the Jazz Standard (I forget what part of town). Brian Bromberg’s Downright Upright All-Stars were about 20 minutes in to their sold-out show, but the gate keeper let me sneak in to the standing-room-only part of the club. The club wreaked of pork and bbq sauce, but I guess that’s better than pork and bbq sauce and smoke… gotta love the smokin’ bans. Dave Weckl played dums for this band, and I had heard of his name before. Anyway, they played more accessible jazz (not safe, but not avant-garde). Very enjoyable stuff… I picked up their CD on the way out. I then headed to the Village Vanguard, and was gonna try to see the Village Vanguard Orchestra (a big band). They didn’t take credit cards at the door and I didn’t wanna shell out a lot of cash; so I quietly left and went back to my hotel. I was tired anyway…

TUESDAY 3/13 This was a Tonic night. I’m a big Ikue Mori fan… she is a laptop soundscape musician. Very avant-garde (‘cept her Painted Dessert is my favorite and it’s more traditional song structured). Anyway, Ikue Mori was playing a show with Briggan Krauss (on sax) and Jim Black (on percussion). It was quite avant-garde and was led by Briggan mostly. Ikue could have been there or not for all I know/care. Eh. Jim Black’s drumming was fantastic, but not drumming in the stricted sense. He played a lot of scraping movements along the cymbals… he also used a cello bow on the cymbals… he also covered his toms and snare with literally t-shirts to get a really muffled sound. It was weird, but good. The 10pm Tonic show was Ellery Eskelin (on sax), Lisle Ellis (on laptop and upright bass) and Erik Deutsch (on piano). I’ve enjoyed Ellery Eskelin’s guest spots on various jazz CDs I own. The show was good, but too dissonant for me at that point of the night; so I only stuck around for half of their set before heading back to the hotel.

WEDNESDAY 3/14 I opted out of the ambient-metal band ISIS. I love their sound, but just saw ’em a few months ago opening for Tool. I went back to Tonic instead for two bands that became the better choice. I saw Inlets and Edison Woods. Inlets was fantastic. It is fronted by Sebastian Kruger (who has played on My Brightest Diamond CDs). He is a multi-instrumentalist and has some great songs. He also has a dandy falsetto. Both his physical appearance and music sound bring to mind Jude and Sufjan having hot-n-nasty sex in your living room and popping out Sebastian as their “love-child.” So, yeah, in short, Inlets sounds like a man-on-man love-child. He washed up before getting on stage, mind you. Oh, and his EP is available FOR FREE at http://luvsound.org/. For Free. Next up was Edison Woods, which was a band much like Elysian Fields, yet maybe not as sultry. Their main vocalist/pianist didn’t have the best vocals ever, but their background vocalist had some operatic amazingness going. She should have been the lead vocalist. Oh well… the band also had cello and some brass and drums. I dug ’em… not as much as Elysian Fields, though. I’m bummed… Elysian Fields is playing at Joe’s this coming weekend. Keith, you should check Elysian Fields out. They’re Over the Rhine-y-ish…

THURSDAY 3/15 Thursday was one of the shows I was looking forward to the most (outside of the Masada show). Secret Chiefs 3 and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum at the Bowery Ballroom. I got there early enough, as I knew that SC3 was going on first, and they also had some limited edition vinyl singles that were rumored to be going quick on the SC3 board. I snagged my vinyl sets and a t-shirt. Trey Spruance (mastermind behind SC3 and Mr Bungle) was manning the table along with bassist and multi-instrumentalist Jason Schimmel (of SC3, but also in Estradasphere). My vinyl & t-shirt order total came up to a “magical number” per Trey. I just nodded in agreement and said “yeah.” I had no fucking idea what he was talking about… maybe because it was divisible by 9 or something. or maybe his brain is fried. Anyway, the artwork for the SC3 vinyl singles is kewl.

The show was anti-climatic. I mean, when I saw Estradaphere (a brother band of SC3’s) last year in Bloomington, they blew me away. Secret Chiefs 3 should have blown me away. The first three songs were utterly sloppy, though. By the 4th song, they started venturing into “known” territory and it sounded great. By the end, they had it going pretty good, but again, it was weird that it just wasn’t up to the level of tightness and musicianship that Estradasphere showed. I think Trey’s been off the road for too long… he hasn’t toured consistently since the Mr Bungle days. I think it showed. Also, they had two violinists (Anonymous 13 and Timb Harris)… I never knew A13 was a girl… but both she and Timb were good, but not as good as Timb was on the last Estradasphere tour. Other than the drums and basses, SC3 also busted out the Oud, Sas, Sarangi, Esraj, and probably even a Jalebi or two… and Trey doesn’t play any normal guitars… they’re all butchered and tuned oddly to some middle-eastern scale or something. It’s quaint.

Regardless of the seeming sloppiness at the beginning, it was still a fun evening… it was good to see SC3 play some great tunes like “Dolores Strike,” “Personnae: Halloween,” “Bereshith,” “Assassin’s Blade,” “Ship of Fools (Stone of Exile),” and definitely “Renunciation.” I only stuck around for a bit of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum’s set. They don’t do much for me on record (or live). I’d say the “Renunciation” encore and the vinyl singles (money directly into Trey’s hand) were the highlights.

FRIDAY 3/16 I saw a wonderful show at the Bowery Ballroom by Blackfield (Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson and Israeli popstar Aviv Geffen). I’ve posted a review in the blog as well. The opener was Jordan Rudess (of Dream Theater). I feel truly outraged at any elephant that lost its life to make pianos used by Jordan.

I think of any of the bands I saw… my wife (and others who aren’t into the avant-garde stuff) would have liked Masada, the Downright Upright All-Stars, Inlets, and Blackfield. SC3 was a bit too strange, even though she likes some of their recorded stuff.

Time for bed… biggrin.gif

~Dan

Categories: Concert Reviews, Indie Rock, Jazz & Avant, Metal, Rock & Pop, Singer-Songwriter, World Music Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

REVIEW: Estradasphere @ 2nd Story Nightclub (Bloomington, IN – – 10/6/06)

7th Oct 06 (Sat) 2 comments

Estradasphere‘s show last night at the 2nd Story Nightclub in Bloomington, IN was PHENOMENAL.

I arrived in Bloomington and about crap my pants with how crazy the traffic and people in town were… apparently it is a HUGE Lotus World Music Festival this whole weekend… oy… anyway, I grabbed grub at the excellent veggie restaurant ROOTS (mushroom-patty burger, fried tofu cubes with homemade sweet plum sauce, cinnamon-or-ginger-spiced sweet potato fries, and a fresh (I saw him make it) orange and carrot juice). I was too stuffed for dessert. If I ever bring the wife to Bloomington, we’re totally hitting up ROOTS again.

Anyway, I head to the venue by about 9:30pm. The band hasn’t showed up yet. They were supposed to be there at 5pm to set up. Ru’ Ro’. I lie down on the couch in the venue, and by 10pm the band finally shows up.

The 1st opener (Das Trio) starts around 10:20pm. They had some skills (at least the bassist), but they were very muddy as a group… and the songs and vocals were not memorable. I’ve seen worse bands, but I’ve seen better. I apologize if they do a google search for their name and come upon this review. They showed potential, but the songs just seemed generic.

After Das Trio’s set, I walked around town again to kill time. I got what might have been the best double shot of espresso ever. Seriously. It was so flavorful. I totally recommend the Crystal Parrot in Bloomington. Wow. Yummy.

The 2nd opener was playing by the time I got back to the venue. Floating Hand was a three-piece, growly, death-metal slow-grindcore type band. I thought they were fantastic. Unfortunately, since Estradasphere showed up sooo late, E-sphere was setting up behind Floating Hand… which caused some ill-will (to say the least) between the bands later on in the evening (FH heckling loadly during E-sphere’s first few songs — even after E-sphere publically apologized and thanked FH for their music).

Anyway, after Floating Hand, I walked around in the cool air again… came back by 1:10am and Estradasphere was finally getting ready to start. For those who don’t know Estradasphere, they’re a sibling band (shared members) to the Secret Chiefs 3, which is a sibling band to Mr. Bungle. Anyway, they’re middle eastern-influenced progressive, jazzy, gypsy-folk, classical-tinged, insanity-for-compositional structure metal band from the San Francisco Bay area. There are 6 members in this incarnation of the band… Timb Harris on violin, trumpet and good-looks; Kevin Kmetz (aka God of Shamisen) on guitar, keyboards, and most notably the Japanese banjo-like instrument, the shamisen; Jason Schimmel on guitars (electric, acoustic, flamenco), banjo, and keyboards (including melodica); Lee Smith on drums (fast, too); Adam Stacey on accordion, keyboards & synthesizer, rhodes and melodica; and Tim Smolens on contrabass (aka upright bass) and electric bass.

The near-hour long 1st set (again, starting at around 1:10am) was seemingly mostly covers and/or new compositions. They (Estradasphere) have three full-length albums (and 2 live albums with add’l material) prior to their most recent release this year, Palace of Mirrors; yet they didn’t play anything from those albums. Odd choice, but regardless, it was fantastic to see and hear. World music with some pep.

The 2nd set, after a (literal) 2-minute break, was allegedly Palace of Mirrors in its entirety. I say allegedly, because for those tracking time, it was probably close to 2:15am when the first set ended. I had a two+ hour drive ahead of me (didn’t want to stay in a hotel — too busy this weekend to get home later). I left after the halfway mark of the album… basically after the whirlwind, violin & shamisen metal-in-your-face attack(!) of the standout track from Palace of Mirrors, “Smuggled Mutation.” I’m bummed I had to bail, but I think the club (or the police) might have shut them down anyway if they passed “bar closin’ curfew.” Sweet glory… almost an hour and a half of wonderful live music (not including FH’s great opening set).

I strongly recommend Estradasphere to anyone who likes world music, and also likes (or tolerates) harder music… but, really, the harder edge is drastically out of their live show (and album) when compared to their earlier stuff (like on Its Understood or Buck Fever).

http://www.estradasphere.com/
http://www.myspace.com/estradasphere

~Dan

Categories: Jazz & Avant, Metal, Rock & Pop, World Music Tags: , , , , , , , , ,