da kobe
"too many people in the acoustic genre want to live in the past. tradition is necessary to learn from, definitely, but it seems a lot of these 'purists' tend to forget that tradition was something new once, before it became acceptable. hell, any genre, for that matter."
that's darrin kobetich talking, and he should know. the forward-thinking gtrist -- who spent his early yrs on lawn guyland, noo yawk, before moving with his family to weatherford at the ass-end of the '70s (altho you'd never guess it from listening to him tawwwk) -- is gifted with a restless, probing musical intelligence that's led him down some deep rabbit holes indeed over the yrs. darrin's musical tastes 'n' influences run the gamut from country bluesmen to solo acoustic pioneers to old-school '70s hard-rock bands to obscuro metal outfits (of which he's played in a couple his own self: hammer witch and amillion pounds). these days, he keeps a _very_ busy gig calendar, weaving webs of acoustic wonderment -- replete with dropped tunings, drones, lightning-fast modal runs 'n' octaves that plumb a deep well of emotion, and an unbelievably dextrous 'n' powerful right hand -- on his own, and pickin' bluegrass and mountain string music on dobro and mandolin as well as gtr in the electric mountain rotten apple gang with his brother, graphic artist adam kobetich. whew!
last night, big d. played his last friday night happy hour at the wreck room after two yrs of holding down the gig. besides several solid sets of solo-gtr pyrotechnics, there was some hot jam action that put me in mind of some of the "acid-folk" noise (really an amalgam of free jazz 'n' psychedelic rawk influences with lotsa chanting 'n' drumming) i've been listening to at la casa lately. after a nice mellow country-blues turn by darrin's pal kavin allenson, backed by darrin and sleeplab snare drummer michael preble, some uncooperative equipment resulted in a drum circle of gtrists (darrin, a-hummin' acoustical acupuncture's daniel katsuk, sally majestic's scott vernon, me) beating on bongos and a djembe while a weatherford gal whose name i didn't catch strummed 'n' sang and lee allen (another inveterate jammer whose playing always includes trace elements of metal) held down the harmonic / melodic underpinnings on bass. absolute high point of the evening, musically-wise: blind harpman vinny, who walked in off the street to blow some little walter-sounding shuffles 'n' jump toons over the drum circle and lee allen's blues walk. i asked him if he'd come back and do it again some wednesday night. we live in hope.
after awhile i took a walk around and heard some of pleasant grove and centro-matic (regrettably, i was on the li'l stage while stumptone was up on the bigun; gotta catch 'em another time) while wading thru the _thousands of ppl_ who came out to hear 'em. proof positive (as if anymore were needed) that i'd be the world's shittiest a&r man: none of the sounds i heard emanating from the big room moved me nearly as much as those i'd heard ('n' briefly been a participant in) over in "wreck west." this thought occurred to me around last-call time, watching darrin 'n' daniel katsuk throwin' down on gtr and drum, two cats imbued with the spirit o' the jam, riding tidal waves of sound that originated from their very own heads / hands / hearts.
darrin's upcoming gigs include the texas tea house in dallas, fred's, hip pocket theatre, and panther city coffee house here in the fort. a-hummin' acoustical acupuncture and sally majestic be at the li'l wreck room on saturday, february 4th. y'all come, hokay?
that's darrin kobetich talking, and he should know. the forward-thinking gtrist -- who spent his early yrs on lawn guyland, noo yawk, before moving with his family to weatherford at the ass-end of the '70s (altho you'd never guess it from listening to him tawwwk) -- is gifted with a restless, probing musical intelligence that's led him down some deep rabbit holes indeed over the yrs. darrin's musical tastes 'n' influences run the gamut from country bluesmen to solo acoustic pioneers to old-school '70s hard-rock bands to obscuro metal outfits (of which he's played in a couple his own self: hammer witch and amillion pounds). these days, he keeps a _very_ busy gig calendar, weaving webs of acoustic wonderment -- replete with dropped tunings, drones, lightning-fast modal runs 'n' octaves that plumb a deep well of emotion, and an unbelievably dextrous 'n' powerful right hand -- on his own, and pickin' bluegrass and mountain string music on dobro and mandolin as well as gtr in the electric mountain rotten apple gang with his brother, graphic artist adam kobetich. whew!
last night, big d. played his last friday night happy hour at the wreck room after two yrs of holding down the gig. besides several solid sets of solo-gtr pyrotechnics, there was some hot jam action that put me in mind of some of the "acid-folk" noise (really an amalgam of free jazz 'n' psychedelic rawk influences with lotsa chanting 'n' drumming) i've been listening to at la casa lately. after a nice mellow country-blues turn by darrin's pal kavin allenson, backed by darrin and sleeplab snare drummer michael preble, some uncooperative equipment resulted in a drum circle of gtrists (darrin, a-hummin' acoustical acupuncture's daniel katsuk, sally majestic's scott vernon, me) beating on bongos and a djembe while a weatherford gal whose name i didn't catch strummed 'n' sang and lee allen (another inveterate jammer whose playing always includes trace elements of metal) held down the harmonic / melodic underpinnings on bass. absolute high point of the evening, musically-wise: blind harpman vinny, who walked in off the street to blow some little walter-sounding shuffles 'n' jump toons over the drum circle and lee allen's blues walk. i asked him if he'd come back and do it again some wednesday night. we live in hope.
after awhile i took a walk around and heard some of pleasant grove and centro-matic (regrettably, i was on the li'l stage while stumptone was up on the bigun; gotta catch 'em another time) while wading thru the _thousands of ppl_ who came out to hear 'em. proof positive (as if anymore were needed) that i'd be the world's shittiest a&r man: none of the sounds i heard emanating from the big room moved me nearly as much as those i'd heard ('n' briefly been a participant in) over in "wreck west." this thought occurred to me around last-call time, watching darrin 'n' daniel katsuk throwin' down on gtr and drum, two cats imbued with the spirit o' the jam, riding tidal waves of sound that originated from their very own heads / hands / hearts.
darrin's upcoming gigs include the texas tea house in dallas, fred's, hip pocket theatre, and panther city coffee house here in the fort. a-hummin' acoustical acupuncture and sally majestic be at the li'l wreck room on saturday, february 4th. y'all come, hokay?
posted by stashdauber at 10:47 AM
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