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Thurston Moore at Hideout!


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Music for Tomorrow's World: A Dedication to Sun Ra Starring Thurston Moore / Jim Baker / Rollo Radford / Avreeyal Ra Quartet and My Barbarian with Intergalactic Myth-Science DJ sets

 

Friday, Nov 10, 2006 9:00 PM CST

at Hideout

 

Thurston Moore will join Jim Baker (ARP synthesizer), Rollo Radford (electric bass) and Avreeyal Ra (drums) for a special concert held in conjunction with the exhibitions and symposium.

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Wow...these are the kinds of booking I usually look at carefully on the Hideout website and I totally missed that Thurston Moore was part of this booking. Needless to say I am interested with or without him. Anyone want to go? Avreeyl Ra is a fantastic drummer percussionist and Jim Baker (not the evangelist) is an incredible and strange (personally and artistically) keyboard player. He reminds me a bit of a far out combination of Bill Evans and Glenn Gould.

 

(I am off work that day so I can start early......)

 

LouieB

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Lou - Jen and I are both off work this weekend. We are definitely coming up Saturday for The Decemberists, but after seeing Robyn Hitchcock Thursday in Detroit, we have the rest of the weekend free. Maybe we'll come up early. I'll talk to Jen.

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Fuck it, fly in....PBRs on me...

 

LouieB

I would seriously consider it if I didn't have newborn :dancing to look after.

 

Oh well... in a couple of months she should be a little bit more portable. I need to find a rock tourism nanny!

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Lou - Jen and I are both off work this weekend. We are definitely coming up Saturday for The Decemberists, but after seeing Robyn Hitchcock Thursday in Detroit, we have the rest of the weekend free. Maybe we'll come up early. I'll talk to Jen.
Cool. I am seeing Robyn on Wednesday and have all day Friday off (although I may go to work for a couple hours....its Vets day). I had not planned to see the Decemberists, just too much of a hassle I guess after Robyn, but this show could be kind of fun. Let me know. PBRs on me.....

 

LouieB

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I would seriously consider it if I didn't have newborn :dancing to look after.

 

Oh well... in a couple of months she should be a little bit more portable. I need to find a rock tourism nanny!

 

Well, if you ever need a sitter in Chicago - look no further! :) I never have enough money to go to shows and I love to dote on the youngins!!! :dancing

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Damn! Lou,you'll have to be my ears for that.I'll look forward to a review,ok?
You got it.

 

I got my ticket and have all of Friday off for Vets day so will be there bright and early. Can I bitch about the online ticketing where I had to pay $3.50 when I would rather go to the club and get a paper ticket?

 

Meanwhile this is pretty cool. It will be nice to see a real amalgam of Chicago inprov talent with some out of towners in one big show.

 

I was lucky enough to see Sun Ra twice in my life, once with the entire Arkestra, dancers and all at jazzfest and once solo at a Jazz Showcase show honoring Walter Dyett. Fantastic.

 

LouieB

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I was lucky enough to see Sun Ra twice in my life, once with the entire Arkestra, dancers and all at jazzfest and once solo at a Jazz Showcase show honoring Walter Dyett. Fantastic.

 

LouieB

 

damn, that is lucky. I saw the Arkestra a few years ago at the Andy Warhol Museum. it was pretty mindblowing.

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I believe I will see you guys at the Hideout this Friday.
Cool....should be fun. What time?

 

I am there for sure, but missing Bobby Bare Jr and Centro-matic at Double Door. Maybe we can catch BBJ after Hideout!
As usual Chicago is an embarrassment of riches in the musical department. Not only are you (we) missing this show, we are also missing Lloyd Cole, Bettye Lavette and Robert Pollard. That is only scratching the surface of shows throughout the city tonight.

 

Okay so what is the deal with the New York Dolls this Wednesday in Merrionette Park....strange...

 

LouieB

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Wow, what a great time. The Hideout was packed and the improv was mindblowing. The opener was some spacey California group called My Barbarian in white linen clothes doing 60s inspired lyrics, which were inane at worse and somewhat entertaining at best. They were way too earnest and the crowd enjoyed them I guess, but maybe not in the way they expected.

 

Thurston, Jim and Avryeel did two long improvs, one was loud and fast the other slower and softer. The first was about 45 minutes long with all kinds of crazy guitar and keyboard stuff (as well as some synth) and a good solid drumming base. The second was more reflective and calm, with Avryeel playing finger harp and Jim Baker on piano. This one lasted about 20-25 minutes.

 

Below is the article from the Trib this morning for another persepective. It was certainly a once in a lifetime kind of show. It was so great to see some of Chicago's finest (no not the cops who came in at the end to meet Thurston) musicians jamming with a rock star. Nels showed up as well, but didn't play.

 

LouieB

 

Sun Ra tribute delightful journey

 

By Althea Legaspi

Special to the Tribune

 

November 13, 2006

 

Thurston Moore once mused in a magazine article, "No matter how you listen to it, jazz is ostensibly about freedom ... and, like music, it is an abstract. . . . Freedom is not just another word for nothing left to lose. We know this from messages beamed from the space-lantern of his cosmic highness Sun Ra!"

 

In a one-of-a-kind event Friday night, Moore, synth/pianist Jim Baker and drummer Avreeayl Ra joined forces at the Hideout to pay tribute to the wildly imaginative and innovative Sun Ra, who died in 1993 but left a legacy that continues to inspire.

 

And the trio is an apt ensemble for a homage to Sun Ra. Baker is a celebrated staple in the vibrant local music scene. Though Moore is best known for his Sonic Youth material, the band is rooted in the kind of limitless experimentation Sun Ra celebrated. Chicagoan Ra was a member of Sun Ra's Arkestra.

 

Launched in Chicago in the '50s, the Arkestra developed improvisational jazz that explored different cultural elements such as Egyptian mythology, along with the otherworldly (Sun Ra claimed to hail from Saturn). It is in the spirit of this very non-traditional tradition that the performance took shape, with free-form jazz evoking a sort of cosmic experience in the cozy confines of a sold-out Hideout.

 

Sun Ra was the first in jazz to employ electronic keyboards and wide-scale band improv, forging avant-garde jazz before there was a term for the genre. Like Sun Ra's approach, the trio's space jam was a boundless exploration of texture, sound and color.

 

Moore spent the majority of time with his eyes closed, as if tuned to some cosmic force.

 

Baker's electric piano whirled about Ra's simmering beats. Angular forms took shape 15 minutes into the opening song, as Ra rode a tribal-tinged beat and a sort of controlled chaos built. Baker's hands seemed independent of his body, an intense balance of rapid dexterity and astonishing control. He switched to the synth, the dark tone contrasted to Moore's guitar, which pleaded and protested against it. Dissonant, strange and beguiling, the song seamlessly shifted in meter and tone before concluding 40 minutes later.

 

The finale featured Ra's mesmerizing rhythms, delivered via thumb piano, as urgent, yearning guitar and keyboard tones flirted around its anchor. It was gorgeous. Sun Ra believed "the world deserves some beauty and pleasure, it has been bathed in blood too long." For an hour at the Hideout, at least, his hope was realized.

Copyright

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:D Lou, I got the feeling that the "earnest" thing was just part of the first band's schtick. Anyway, it was an excellent night. Thanks for posting that Trib article.
Oh yea, big time schtick for sure. For those who weren't there, think of Donovan's song about Atlantis and stretch it out into an entire set with costumes, painted on eyes on the forehead and an entire band with drums, guitar and keyboards. I think this kind of think probably goes over pretty well in California, but at a fairly downhome divebar like the Hideout, where all sorts of less theatrical music is played, it was fairly out of place. None the less they did what they did well I suppose.

 

While these guys played at being from another planet, Thurston and Jim Baker appeared to BE on another planet.

 

LouieB

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While these guys played at being from another planet, Thurston and Jim Baker appeared to BE on another planet.

 

LouieB

:lol After seeing Thurston before,I would venture a guess that he IS from another planet! Thanks Lou.Looks like I missed another one that would be right up my alley.Oh well...that's what happens when you're in 'a 3-hour away town'. :P

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:lol After seeing Thurston before,I would venture a guess that he IS from another planet! Thanks Lou.Looks like I missed another one that would be right up my alley.Oh well...that's what happens when you're in 'a 3-hour away town'.
Yea, it was definitely up your alley. I spoke to other VCers about it and they figured it wasn't up theirs. I spoke today by email with Tim from the Hideout and he said (as I pretty much knew), that what was played was strictly improvisational, no planning whatsoever. I can't stress enough that it was sure a kick to see Chicago's world class improv guys hold their own with Thurston, the rock star. Anyone who has never seen Jim Baker play, you are missing out on something special; the guy is a trip and Avreeayl Ra is a totally nice guy who was clearly thrilled to be part of this event. I told him how much I like his new disk called Frequency with Nikki Mitchell, Ed Wilkerson and Harrison Bankhead. In fact I highly recommend it period.

 

LouieB

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