On Tue, Feb 24, 2004 at 07:00:55PM -0600, ripleyjames@comcast.net wrote:
I thought some people might be interested here in this over-cranky write up for tonight's Hemophiliac appearance in San Francisco.
I went to the show with a friend. I am a pretty big Zorn fan; I own probably 15-20 albums by him, but I've never seen him live. I'm normally not into his more free improv/noise projects, like some of the Naked City stuff, so I wasn't really expecting to like the show. I was thinking it'd be this wall of noise and I'd be terrified and run out of the club or something :-) :-). I hadn't heard of Mike Patton. Ikue Mori I've seen in concert once before with the Rova Saxophone Quartet. But I was determined to go to see John 'cause I don't think he gets out here too often. It was amazing, it was one of my favorite concerts I've ever been to. I've seen this in the past, where music on an album can totally rebuff me, but seeing it live changes everything. And that was definitely the case. If I'd just heard last night's performance on a CD I'd probably say "SUCK". Mike Patton was really amazing. I gather from the list traffic that he's a member of a band called Faith No More -- I have a vague memory of that band, I think they were popular when I was in college, But his work last night was brilliant, and his energy level was awe inspiring. Ikue Mori was similarly key to the sound of the night. I usually can't get her work; I even bought her CD on Tzadik to try to understand it, but for the most part it just sounds like masturbatory sound loops of stuff breaking. Doesn't do anything for me. But tonight, she was a total member of the trio and filled it out beautifully. And Zorn. Wow, he is everything I'd hoped to see. His mastery on the sax was obvious, and the fact that he can just ignore all that shit and make the most amazing sounds come out of it, and keep up with and react to Mike and Ikue to go where the music was going. I don't really know what to say -- I had a brilliant time. It was clear that they were having a blast on stage. The show was sold out, the place was packed. Everyone I heard talking was awestruck at the end of the show. Yeah, it was a wall of noise. And yeah, it was louder than shit - you could feel your clothes vibrating, and the opening act was even louder if that's possible - but I loved every second of it. The show opened at 8pm, the opening act (Mike Hill? I'm afraid I'm getting that wrong :( ) was a drummer who played a set for maybe thirty minutes, and then John, Mike, and Ikue came up and performed for an hour or an hour and a half. It was a perfect amount of music. My favorite reaction is after the first two or three songs play, and there's this one song where John has these long, low breathy sounds on the sax as background for Mike and Ikue, and I turned to my friend and said, "$45 for the CD? I'd pay that." (the article from the SF Guardian was complaining about how the 2002 CD cost $45 and was lame). There weren't any CDs or anything of Hemophiliac for sale at the show. If they're performing anywhere near you, go see them. Jason