hoby
Sat Oct 09 2004 @ 9:05 AM
Revolution Hall Review

Welcome to another edition of "Hoby rants at length about his latest Slip show". 

This review will be broken into three parts:

1)The setlist
2)Details, highlights, and play-by-play of said setlist
3)General observations

1) The setlist:

Non-Drowsy Formula jam >
Paper Birds
Reddish Moon
Headshot >
Mr. Meowskers
Fear of Falling
Even Rats (working title)
The Suffocation Keep
So Dope
More About Me >
What's So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding

Encore:
Nellie Jean >
AMAZING SPACE >
Soft Machine
Children of December


2) Details, Highlights, Play-by-play

My title for the introductory jam is a nod to Brad's condition on this night. 
I ran into him as I entered the hall and asked him how he was doing. Turns out 
he had a horrible chest/throat/head cold. Slipping immediately into father/older 
brother mode, I asked him if he was taking anything. The answer was no, so I asked 
him if I could get him anything. He asked for any multi-symptom cold relief drug 
"as long as it's non-drowsy". A quick jaunt through the streets of downtown Troy 
and I was back with a couple of packets of NON-DROWSY Tylenol Cold and a couple of 
packs of Halls Honey/Lemon throat lozenges.

Well, that shit must have kicked in pretty quick because that first jam EXPLODED 
out of the gate - super up-tempo with tight chording from Brad and serious propulsion 
from Marc and Andrew.

The transition from jam to Paper Birds featured some great controlled feedback from Marc, 
foreshadowing one of the evening's themes.

This was my first Paper Birds and I enjoyed it immensely, as I do anytime I can see 
BAM doing something new (to me.)

Reddish Moon was also a first for me, introduced by Marc playing an audio toy through his pickups 
(another theme for the evening). Here, Marc created what was basically a Speak'n'Spell harmonica solo. 
As with paper Birds, I have no reference points for this tune yet, but these new tunes do seem to 
carry a darker sort of reflectiveness to them. Unfortunately, the vocal mix in the hall made it difficult 
for me to make out lyrics. (More on this later.)

Next came the Headshot > Meowskers double threat. Extremely powerful on both counts with Andrew ruling 
on the former and Marc stepping up big on the latter. Something new for me in this pair was a short vocal 
section from Brad towards the end of Meowskers.

Fear of Falling was next and this song is really growing on me. Brad broke a string on the Gibson early 
on and had to switch to the Strat. I especially enjoyed Marc's work on this one, ghosting Brad's vocal 
lines with leads played on the Dano six string.

Even Rats (still a working title, according to Brad) was another first for me. It ended with Marc playing 
extensively on his MIDI pedals and Andrew joining him on the chimes/xylophone/glockenspiel thing.

The Suffocation Keep was yet ANOTHER first for me. It featured Andrew on a toy keyboard/organ thing along 
with shakers and Marc on the Uke. I learned from Brad that The Suffocation Keep is the name of a band, 
but the phrase is so cool he had to use it as a title. And it fits.

(I'm sorry that I can't give to much info about what actually went down in these new tunes, but with no 
reference points for them, I was just trying to absorb what I could generally and not noting specifics.)

For the next tune, Brad picked a guy in the front row, asked his name (Steve) and what he wanted to hear. 
Steve had the good sense to pick So Dope and that's what we got. BAM jumped into this one with both feet 
and really worked it out on all fronts, but it was Andrew who has 3 exclamation points after his name in my notes.
The strength and speed with which he plays continues to amaze. At one point, his overturned cymbal, which 
holds his perc toys/shakers, etc., fell off its stand. It was heartening to see the kids in the front row 
pick everything up and return it to its place.

As everyone caught their breath, Brad played a lovely solo introduction that I assumed would lead into a 
Nellie Jean closer, but instead brought us to More About Me, which I don't think I've heard since the 
show at Skidmore College in 2001.

More About Me plunged directly into What's So Funny..., which whipped the kids down front into a frenzy (the likes 
I haven't seen since Mr. Davis destroyed the world with 19th Nervous Breakdown at Savannah's earlier this year. 
A classic rock'n'roll set closer).

A great set to be sure, but the best was yet to come.

After leaving the stage for a few moments, BAM returned to cries of "Nellie Jean" to which Brad replied 
"that's just what we're gonna play".

Nellie was great, as usual. Not as hard-driving as some I've heard recently. More in the vein of earlier 
laid-back versions. But, oh, what happened next.

Towards the end of Nellie, Andrew started playing his trap set with his hands, leading us to a somewhat 
more tribal space. Brad moved to playing long droney volume swells and Marc connected the two of them,
as he always finds a way to do. Andrew activated his Roland drum pad and added some electro-perc groove 
to the rhythm, then started spinning a length of plastic hose to get some didgeridoo outback vibe going. 
Marc moved to his rack and played his Effectron 2 processor to create amazing rhythmic delay patterns 
from single plucked notes. Brad hooked up some small box (dang, I forgot to ask him what that thing was) 
and created a series of haunting insect chirps and bird calls by hovering the box over his pickups. 
Andrew picked up a pair of shakers and used them on his trap kit as well as by themselves. Marc locked 
into those jungle rhythms and found a tremendous Laswell-like 2 or 3 note groove that tied the primal 
rhythms into the funkadelic age. Continuing to explore his electronic toy, brad moved the mystery box 
to his vocal mic, creating soft yet gritty howls. At this point, Marc led them into the one song that
made Brad's vocal chords cringe in terror.

Soft Machine.

Brad's cold and the large number of vocal tunes in the night's set had obviously taken their toll, 
but he gave it his best shot. He also continued the night's fascination with electro-toys, playing 
a children's toy that generated animal sounds into his pickups. He actually played a pretty cool 
extended "one-note" solo with the thing. BAM whipped the crowd into a frenzy for the big finish, 
with Marc doing his best rockstar as he banged out power chords on his Dano. 

After the final crescendo, Andrew kicked in one of his trademark backbeats which he then 
faded out to end the song. And they STILL weren't finished.

After a quick goodbye and thank you, they launched Children of December. The signature opening riff 
was nowhere near as evident as usual. Instead, we got what I'm calling the power chord intro. 
Before the show, I had been telling my friend about how some people were complaining that this tune 
was overplayed. After BAM finished tearing the roof off the place, he said to me "people are 
complaining about THAT?" Indeed.

3) General Observations

·These 3 musicians continue to amaze with their musical honesty and inventiveness.
·6 of the night's tunes were firsts for me and that was great.
·Brad was playing a guitar I've never seen before. A custom axe. I can't remember the luthier's name, 
but the body style is based on an SG and it has a really nice meaty, Gibson-like tone.
·For the first time since I discovered this band, I would have to say that the PA mix was less 
than optimal. Sam was fighting with the room all night to prevent vocal feedback and the vocal 
mix suffered greatly. Apparently, Revolution Hall's sound treatment is set up to deal with a 
traditional band setup with a vocalist in the middle of the stage. This puts him or her under 
a central, flown PA stack, but separated from it by baffling. With BAM having both vocalists 
off to the sides, the hall's room treatment was ineffective. Both Brad and Andrew were out 
from under that protection. Too bad, since I was trying to get a handle on so many new vocal tunes.
·For the first time in my Slip-viewing history, I had to abandon my traditional stage-front location. 
It was bad enough that these 2 guys behind me couldn't stop screaming for Children of December. 
(I finally turned around and said, "They'll get there, don't worry". It didn't help.) 
When the kid next to me started thinking I was part of the dance floor, I had to leave. 
I ended up in the balcony, which turns out to be the best place to be in the Hall. 
One door closes, another opens.
·I've said it before and I'll say it again: Treasure this band. They're not gods, they just play 
like gods. Or more realistically, they very consistently use music to tap into a place where 
they are able to channel some of the universe's connective forces into a common space so that 
we can all experience them if we're open and listening.

So listen.