Fender Jazzmaster 50th Anniversary Concert

[dontknownuthin]

There was no MC or introductions made between sets at this show. The opener was Edison Glass, a four-piece from Long Island, NY. First time seeing or hearing of them but really enjoyed the set. Loud and catchy. Sounded like a cross between Phoenix and Menomena. Solid.

 

The first headliner was Tom Verlaine who shared the stage with a guest whose name I can't remember. I'm ignorant of any Verlaine music that's not on Marquee Moon and his set was very different in volume and style from that album. The whole set may have one composition: quiet, lots of holes, repeating themes. Played for about 30 minutes.

 

Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo came on stage next. Both started the set in their chairs but quickly unstrapped their guitars to give them room to make the room explode. Never seen these two on stage before, either with Sonic Youth or elsewhere, so I can't say if Moore's ferocity is typical but dude was feeling it.

 

Nels' performed with the artist Norton Wisdom, who I learned perform together regularly as Stained Radiance. Wisdom set up a large plexiglass canvas on stage next to Nels and Nels asked the lights on him to be turned down so that the audience could focus on the canvas and Wisdom. As Nels made his guitar holler and moan, and played with some toys including a circular device that he would lay on top of his guitar strings and scream into with distorted and amplified results, Wisdom wet the canvass and began to paint. I've abandoned three or four attempts at describing Wisdom's performance before deciding to just leave it at this: The guy has skills and was painting some sick scenes with angels and things that could have climbed straight out of Pan's Labyrinth, only to destroy it and use Nels' music to turn it into something new. Found a great clip on YouTube that captures the craziness pretty well.

 

(Also, saw Mikael walk in to the venue shortly before Nels' set started. He hung out in the back of the crowd on the floor during the set, and stayed through the end of the show.)

 

Closing out the night was J. Mascis, performing in a trio with Dave Schools from Widespread Panic on bass. Mascis was in a good mood and got the crowd pogoing right off the bat. Can't name the songs played but they were loud and it felt real good to rock a bit before heading out in the streets shortly after 1 AM.

[mountain bed]

Thanks for the review DKN. This sounds like you had an evening of disturbingly powerful (and powerfully disturbing ) music. Wish I could've been there.

[ms. yvon]

great details, dnk! i've seen nels w/norton as well. it's captivating to watch him paint, shape, then spray the surface down and start again.

[tapmyglass]

Thanks for that video, it was great! Hope I get a chance to see that duo at some point.

[dontknownuthin]

Sure - I couldn't believe this show didn't sell out either. Looking forward to posting more show reviews in the future!

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

A nice review in the Times yesterday. Nice to see "Mr. Cline" get the only quote of the article!

 

I posted my thoughts about the show in the thread in Just a Fan before this thread was started. My pictures are there, too. I have a two-minute video I need to put on YouTube. I'll try to do that tonight.

[MrRain422]

Wow that's a hell of a slate of guitarists for one night.

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

Yeah, it was pretty mind-blowing. I felt lucky to be there.

 

I posted a video of Nels and Norton on Youtube last night. If you can't find it by searching for Stained Radiance, my username over there is writergeek313 (as it is most other places online).