12-03-2018, 04:01 PM
That was the first time I've been in SF JAZZ and it's a nice venue. Classy and cool. The show was just Laurie and Fred and their instruments. They jammed together, and then Laurie would spiral off into her captivating storytelling accompanied by Frith's absurd approach to guitar. Watching him is like watching an alien play. It's like that alien discovered a guitar but had never seen it played and had no idea how it should be played. And maybe that alien has tentacle and lobster claws. He rubs the strings with a chalkboard eraser, taps them with a violin bow, brushes them with a paintbrush, even drops a flat metal tin filled with marbles on them. And it works.
Most of Laurie's tales seemed fresh. The mom-clipping-hamster-pix one I'd hear before and there was variations on her don't-tell-me-your-dreams and a few others. She opened with a sort of hypnotism/meditation visualization piece and closed with this hilarious and self-revealing piece on a Buddhist river rafting trip that was supposed to be in silence. It was all very existential, evocative, elusive and entertaining.
At lunch, she said that she was just making up the shows on the morning before the show. I called BS but she convinced me that was part of her process. Obviously, there were a lot of pre-set stuff, but after all, it is jazz.
After the show, the crack-&-peels let us visit for a moment with Laurie while she was packing her gear. There were only 7 of us. The others kind of babbled like fans do. Laurie and I immediately continued our conversation from lunch, which darted back and forth about Tai Chi and PRC.
I messed up on my facebook album settings but just fixed that. More pix to come. I'll forward it all to Scapino when I'm done. Maybe we should all forward them to him. That would be hella funny. It'll take a day or two. It'll finish with my pic of me & Laurie in MOMA.
I kinda wish I went to all five shows now. DRONES was definitely the climax. That was the best show I saw all year, and is jockeying for a position as one of my top dozen or shows ever.
Most of Laurie's tales seemed fresh. The mom-clipping-hamster-pix one I'd hear before and there was variations on her don't-tell-me-your-dreams and a few others. She opened with a sort of hypnotism/meditation visualization piece and closed with this hilarious and self-revealing piece on a Buddhist river rafting trip that was supposed to be in silence. It was all very existential, evocative, elusive and entertaining.
At lunch, she said that she was just making up the shows on the morning before the show. I called BS but she convinced me that was part of her process. Obviously, there were a lot of pre-set stuff, but after all, it is jazz.
After the show, the crack-&-peels let us visit for a moment with Laurie while she was packing her gear. There were only 7 of us. The others kind of babbled like fans do. Laurie and I immediately continued our conversation from lunch, which darted back and forth about Tai Chi and PRC.
I messed up on my facebook album settings but just fixed that. More pix to come. I'll forward it all to Scapino when I'm done. Maybe we should all forward them to him. That would be hella funny. It'll take a day or two. It'll finish with my pic of me & Laurie in MOMA.
I kinda wish I went to all five shows now. DRONES was definitely the climax. That was the best show I saw all year, and is jockeying for a position as one of my top dozen or shows ever.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse