Big Ears Part Two
Mar. 25th, 2019 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ateolfWe're still on Friday and now we're at the one point where Jacques and I diverged in shows for a bit. He wanted to see Spiritualized and I wanted to see Meredith Monk instead. He also wanted to take a break so I went to The Pilot Light to see Tatsuya Nakatani. This place was packed, I mean it's a small space and we were really crammed in there. I got in there a little before it started so I was way in the back (and not too much later they stopped letting people in, at least I made it to all the shows I wanted to see, I didn't get shut out of something, though there was a constant flux of people so even if a show filled up at the beginning, I'm sure it wouldn't be too long before people left and you could get in...for the most part at least). He played drums and did a lot bowing gongs, getting a really deep and heavy drone. And then he attacked the drums with so much energy. It was a great performance (I'm also really excited to see he's playing in town at DKDC in a few weeks!). I got a couple of his cds: Yama Yaki, and Present Presence. Then I had a good bit of time to kill before the next show (this one got out early too) and went and tried a hot dog at Curious Dog. This was fucking phenomenal! Their fries were fresh cut there and very good. The hot dog I got had salami, nacho cheese, fries, and more! on top! It was damn good. That was a very nice eating. Then what? I had time to kill. Walked around. Went to that Phoenix pharmacy and fountain and had, I forget the name, but it had cola and grape and apple and other stuff I think and it was goddamn delicious. It was as nice relaxing time sitting there with my soda. Next I walked around to Market Square and then sat on a park bench for a bit reading. I finished A Friend of Kafka by Isaac Bashevis Singer and it was okay. Then I made my way to the Bijou to wait for Meredith Monk to start. I saw her last time at Big Ears but there was a conflict and I only made it for the last ten minutes or so of her set so it was good to finally see a full performance. She did a piece called Cellular Songs and had a group of some other singers. It was good. It was mostly just vocals but there were some bits with piano and I think one thing with violin. After that it was up to The Mill and Mine to see Jlin. I got to speed walk up the length of Gay Street (something I kinda missed for the most part of riding around in lyfts with Jacques). Jlin's set was really incredible. And she's endearingly very down-to-earth and normal and dorky.
Okay, now we're on Saturday! Halfway through the festival. We're back downtown and we stop by the merch store and I pick up The Art Ensemble of Chicago: And Associated Ensembles box set (this damn thing's massive) as well as an Art Ensemble of Chicago t-shirt. Then we ate at this Japanese place across the street that Jacques saw and wanted to try on impulse. He wanted sushi. It was pretty good, standard American Japanese stuff, I had some noodles. It wasn't as magical as Kaizen but it did that regular ol' thing pretty well. I can't remember the name and I think it's new so I don't see it on the maps (they had a "this location has applied for a beer license" sign on their door so that makes me pretty sure it's new). Then we make our way to the Methodist church to see Kara-Lis Coverdale playing pipe organ. It was fantastic. She made real good use of the organ and the stops and really got the atmosphere. A lot of it was droney, but she did passages that were more active. We talked to someone who was at her regular show the night before and he said both sets were polar opposites. I'm glad I got to see her and I thank Mary Beth for letting me know about her in the first place! The next show was KTL at The Mill and Mine and they're scheduled back-to-back so I thought we'd be a little late, but the show ended a little early and with the lyft we were able to make it even before the other show started! This was a last minute "I have too many gaps today so I need to fill something!" but it was a great choice! It's Stephen O’Malley playing guitar and Peter Rehberg playing modular synth. It was some great heavy fucking drone shit! I mean, and this is getting me even more excited about seeing Sunn O))) next month and I was already up there, he played through four fucking Twin Reverbs and an Ampeg on top of two giant five-to-six-foot speaker cabinets. That guitar was fucking massive. And the modular shit was great too. This was a really good show! Then it was back over to the art gallery to see Carl Stone. He played up in the gallery that had the Roedelius exhibit. He used the same circle of speakers. They had carpets laid out around where he played so we sat on the floor inside the speakers and it was a really cool experience. Also, I was practically right by his butt. I captioned the pictures I took with "Carl Stone's butt." It was a pretty great and unique experience. Oh, and though maybe you could say sitting behind him had its disadvantages, but I could see a little of his laptop screen so that's kinda cool. Then it was back up to The Mill and Mine to wait for This Is Not This Heat!!! It was a little early but we wanted to camp out and be there well in time. And then we get there and they're doing a sound check! So that's another little extra. While they were checking "24 Track Loop" it ended with some casual jamming around which was pretty cool to see. Charlie Z. was there and we talked to him a bit. He said he was going to interview them for Rolling Stone (and I saw today that his Big Ears article is out on Rolling Stone, haven't gotten to read it yet). Oh, I should also say we ran into Linda Heck a whole bunch. We ran into Chris a few times, usually briefly, once was here, we were up front and we see him in front of us with a camera in the press photography strip. When they finally lowered the ropes to let people come up, Jacques had been freaking out about people speeding their way up and getting in front of him so he started sprinting to the stage. He got where he wanted right in front of Charles's drums and I was next to him. A group that was split up around us asked him if they could switch spots and he pissed them off 'cuz he was like "no." It was a really really great set. They had a full hour and a half for it so they played a lot more than they did at Pitchfork. Also, it wasn't outside and it was in a club with good sound and the sound was generally better. It had a nice full and heavy sound. Though actually a few things I remember sounding better at Pitchfork, there was something about the low bass rumble on the organ during "Music Like Escaping Gas" that was even better then (it was still great this time too, of course). Their energy seemed a bit more concentrated this time too, maybe marginally, maybe it was my own projection. It felt a generally a little more "transcendent" this time around. Both were amazing shows and it was great to get to see the differences in them both. I didn't get my beloved "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8" mic check from Charles Hayward this time around so that was something! After that we got a ride down to St. John's Episcopal Cathedral to see Harold Budd with ACME. Since we didn't catch the full set from before, I was happy to get to see him again. They started with the gong (of course?, I guess, of course!). He played a little with them and then left the stage for a good long while. It was a string quartet playing his compositions and it was really good though I think some people were frustrated by the lack of actual Harold Budd on stage. I still thought it was great. After a while he came back and played with them and there was a lot of really good stuff. We finished by getting up to The Pilot Light to see White Gregg. They played here in town some months ago and I was happy to be reminded of how good they are! So yeah, another goddamn awesome day! The day was more packed than anticipated and a few breaks I'd had didn't pan out like expected so I didn't end up eating the whole time (from when the music started). So I was very hungry by the time we got out (and slightly cranky...not at first but the more the following events transpired the moreso!). So we get out of The Pilot Light and our first instinct is to get a lyft back to the car. It wasn't far away, only like two blocks but I think Jacques was too tired at this point to even think of walking that. So we get back to the car and we then start to think about food. So I pull up my phone and find a pizza place that's still open and it turns out it's just around the corner from where we just were. Ooh, looks like I'll continue this exciting food and/or pizza saga in another post! Stay tuned!
Okay, now we're on Saturday! Halfway through the festival. We're back downtown and we stop by the merch store and I pick up The Art Ensemble of Chicago: And Associated Ensembles box set (this damn thing's massive) as well as an Art Ensemble of Chicago t-shirt. Then we ate at this Japanese place across the street that Jacques saw and wanted to try on impulse. He wanted sushi. It was pretty good, standard American Japanese stuff, I had some noodles. It wasn't as magical as Kaizen but it did that regular ol' thing pretty well. I can't remember the name and I think it's new so I don't see it on the maps (they had a "this location has applied for a beer license" sign on their door so that makes me pretty sure it's new). Then we make our way to the Methodist church to see Kara-Lis Coverdale playing pipe organ. It was fantastic. She made real good use of the organ and the stops and really got the atmosphere. A lot of it was droney, but she did passages that were more active. We talked to someone who was at her regular show the night before and he said both sets were polar opposites. I'm glad I got to see her and I thank Mary Beth for letting me know about her in the first place! The next show was KTL at The Mill and Mine and they're scheduled back-to-back so I thought we'd be a little late, but the show ended a little early and with the lyft we were able to make it even before the other show started! This was a last minute "I have too many gaps today so I need to fill something!" but it was a great choice! It's Stephen O’Malley playing guitar and Peter Rehberg playing modular synth. It was some great heavy fucking drone shit! I mean, and this is getting me even more excited about seeing Sunn O))) next month and I was already up there, he played through four fucking Twin Reverbs and an Ampeg on top of two giant five-to-six-foot speaker cabinets. That guitar was fucking massive. And the modular shit was great too. This was a really good show! Then it was back over to the art gallery to see Carl Stone. He played up in the gallery that had the Roedelius exhibit. He used the same circle of speakers. They had carpets laid out around where he played so we sat on the floor inside the speakers and it was a really cool experience. Also, I was practically right by his butt. I captioned the pictures I took with "Carl Stone's butt." It was a pretty great and unique experience. Oh, and though maybe you could say sitting behind him had its disadvantages, but I could see a little of his laptop screen so that's kinda cool. Then it was back up to The Mill and Mine to wait for This Is Not This Heat!!! It was a little early but we wanted to camp out and be there well in time. And then we get there and they're doing a sound check! So that's another little extra. While they were checking "24 Track Loop" it ended with some casual jamming around which was pretty cool to see. Charlie Z. was there and we talked to him a bit. He said he was going to interview them for Rolling Stone (and I saw today that his Big Ears article is out on Rolling Stone, haven't gotten to read it yet). Oh, I should also say we ran into Linda Heck a whole bunch. We ran into Chris a few times, usually briefly, once was here, we were up front and we see him in front of us with a camera in the press photography strip. When they finally lowered the ropes to let people come up, Jacques had been freaking out about people speeding their way up and getting in front of him so he started sprinting to the stage. He got where he wanted right in front of Charles's drums and I was next to him. A group that was split up around us asked him if they could switch spots and he pissed them off 'cuz he was like "no." It was a really really great set. They had a full hour and a half for it so they played a lot more than they did at Pitchfork. Also, it wasn't outside and it was in a club with good sound and the sound was generally better. It had a nice full and heavy sound. Though actually a few things I remember sounding better at Pitchfork, there was something about the low bass rumble on the organ during "Music Like Escaping Gas" that was even better then (it was still great this time too, of course). Their energy seemed a bit more concentrated this time too, maybe marginally, maybe it was my own projection. It felt a generally a little more "transcendent" this time around. Both were amazing shows and it was great to get to see the differences in them both. I didn't get my beloved "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8" mic check from Charles Hayward this time around so that was something! After that we got a ride down to St. John's Episcopal Cathedral to see Harold Budd with ACME. Since we didn't catch the full set from before, I was happy to get to see him again. They started with the gong (of course?, I guess, of course!). He played a little with them and then left the stage for a good long while. It was a string quartet playing his compositions and it was really good though I think some people were frustrated by the lack of actual Harold Budd on stage. I still thought it was great. After a while he came back and played with them and there was a lot of really good stuff. We finished by getting up to The Pilot Light to see White Gregg. They played here in town some months ago and I was happy to be reminded of how good they are! So yeah, another goddamn awesome day! The day was more packed than anticipated and a few breaks I'd had didn't pan out like expected so I didn't end up eating the whole time (from when the music started). So I was very hungry by the time we got out (and slightly cranky...not at first but the more the following events transpired the moreso!). So we get out of The Pilot Light and our first instinct is to get a lyft back to the car. It wasn't far away, only like two blocks but I think Jacques was too tired at this point to even think of walking that. So we get back to the car and we then start to think about food. So I pull up my phone and find a pizza place that's still open and it turns out it's just around the corner from where we just were. Ooh, looks like I'll continue this exciting food and/or pizza saga in another post! Stay tuned!
