The Les Claypool show last Tuesday night might be the best one of him seen in any configuration. I don’t know if this was just a good night, or that his new album came out that day, or maybe be the new arrangement of the band. Whatever it was, he was phenomenal. My friend Katie was blown away.
The non-Primus band as I’ve seen him before was drums, percussion, sitar, sax, and of course bass. This time the sitar and sax stayed home and he brought with him a cellist. A cellist!
The sound was really cool. I mean really cool. The guy ran it through effects from time to time and on most of his solos. The interesting thing is that he spent half the show either doubling what Claypool was doing or playing a counter riff to it. So without any specific lead instrument to carry the melody, the show – the better part of it – consisted of 4 rhythm musicians weaving around an understated melody. It was damn impressive.
Speaking of damn impressive, the drum solo was just that. What? Me liking a drum solo? These guys (Paulo Baldi on drums and Mike Dillon on percussion) have been with Les for 5 or 6 years and I’m sure they have gotten to know each other’s instincts really well. This was an example like no other of on stage communication. One would lay down a groove that the other would pick up and add some more rhythms to, then stick with that until one or the other changed things up. A couple times they lost each other but came back quickly. There’re those years of touring together coming into play. I hope to high heaven someone taped the show so you can hear it to. I’m hopeful though not terribly optimistic that a tape will get distributed.
Exception to that vibe, though not an exception to the performance, was a few tunes that Claypool did solo. For those he used either a dobro or a banjo (both of which were strung like a bass) and were all about rhythmic melody. And good. But hey, he can do just about anything a bass. Speaking of, he apparently has a new one. Here’s a pic I bogarted from some other recent gig but I can’t tell if it’s new or not. Is Cleez in the house? The tone was a little different but that doesn’t mean a new instrument.
(new addition: 3-27-09, Cleez is in the house and provided this link (and be sure to check Carl Thompson’s page linked there too)
Aside from that Les played a bunch of stuff from his new album and if the record is like the cd, the songs are tight, well executed, and could easily be music for film noir stuff if a rock band were to do it. A bit of a darker vibe. I’ve always been impressed that his Les Claypool shows have really focused on his (now) 4 albums with only 1 or 2 consistent Primus references. He was a good showman as well, lots of mask and hat changes and changed up his instrument a lot. In addition to his regular bass, he had an electric type upright, the whamola, and the aforementioned banjo bass and dobro bass. Good stuff Maynard.
He had 3 opening acts this time and I was stoked to see 2 of them with some curiosity about the other.
Devotchka played before Claypool and folks who saw Little Miss Sunshine have heard their music (they did the score). From what I gather the folks are all of some Eastern European descent and the songs have that flavor, at one point even breaking out into a full on polka beat. The girl playing bass also used a shiny tuba, and at one point on stage there was that tuba, drums, theremin, guitar, and a zither (traditional instrument). I liked the songs enough to give whatever cd’s the radio station has a listen.
I’ve been looking forward to seeing Saul Williams since Jake caught him at Lollapalooza last year. I’ve kept track of this guy for 10 years or so after hearing his poetry. I dug his set quite a bit and would see him again in spite of his DJ*. Lots of energy and very dynamic. For the most part the crowd didn’t really warm up to him when he was trying to engage them. Folks may not have been ready for someone to lay out a spoken word piece then run right into a very full and heavy and loud music piece. The house sound seemed a little off to, sometimes his voice was too low in the mix and when he broke out his appropriately timed cover of Sunday Bloody Sunday (it was St. Paddy’s day remember) we could hear the clarity of his voice so well in part because the music fell back to karaoke sound levels.
Secret Chiefs 3 played first and it was either a short set or we missed a bunch. What we did see in that short time was awesome. Very heavy music (most would probably call it metal), precise delivery (like it had a message to deliver), and came to me as atmospheric and intense. They also communicated well on stage with the bass player and drummer constantly watching each other and the rest of the players. Point of order: there were 6 or 7 people on stage and I don’t think any of them were the former members of Mr. Bungle. Listen to them do the Theme from Halloween a week or so ago.
Here’s the set list from Claypool’s set.
Highball With The Devil
Amanitas
David Makalaster w/ Southbound Pachyderm tease
Red state Girl
What Would Sir George Martin Do
Calling Kyle
Drums (including brief whamola jam)
Boonville Stomp
Of Whales and Woe
Electric Funeral
Encore:
Iowan Gal
Buzzards
Here’re a few tunes:
A cool version of the C2B3 song Big Eyeball In The Sky with Buckethead and Bernie Worrell guesting.
Les solo with doing American Life & Iowan Gal with what should be a familiar riff at the beginning.
Finally, a version of One Better, one of the best songs from Claypool’s last album. It’s got the sitar, sax, and teases of a couple other tunes in the jam.
Even more final, I just checked lesclaypool.com and there’s a video of the dobro bass and a story of when he auditioned for Metallica!
(addition, 3-27-09, there’s a free song at Amazon from the new album)
*CX Kidtronix produced and helped write some of the songs on Saul’s latest album but I/we know him for being a talent free jack ass the last time we went to South By Southwest in 2007. We thought he was a cool guy called Doujah Raze and left after numerous sound problems and awful production and performance from him. Even tonight, Katie and I both got the impression he wanted to be a front man but not sure that his ability to hit buttons on a sampler would enable him to be in front without looking like Louis & Gilbert in the music number towards the end of Revenge Of The Nerds.