art of the jam 43
if i was gonna make a movie about the wreck room, i'd prolly use last night as the model, prolly 'cos it was so atypical. there were knots of sxsw ppl who looked like they were cloned from each other, there were a wide spectrum of interesting inebriates, there was the anxiety-producing appearance of two of fort worth's finest out front near closing time (in response to a call from a garrruuunnnk patron who wound up wearing the silver bracelets and riding in the car her own self -- guh). and oh, yes -- there was the jam. that's lee and carl's invitational jam, for all you uninitiates, relegated to the li'l "wreck west" stage by the first of two weeks of sxsw-related shows.
of course, the french band that was skedded to headline canxed at the last minute, so local crowd-bringers the burning hotels manfully stepped into the closing slot. they'd just played the aardvark the night before, but so loyal is their crowd that attendance was at least decent, especially for a wednesday night. the original jam game plan was to play short sets in between the "real" acts, but inspahrd by the example of hank hankshaw, who played acoustic with a mandolinist and drummer through most of the main-stage activities on monday night, jam-meister lee allen figured he could get away with playing acoustic with darrin kobetich while the main stage was occupied. in the event, the new pickup and fresh strings on his les paul musta been too good to shreddin'-ass mofo darrin, and the proceedings that went on over in wreck west for most of the evening were assuredly electric (in more ways than one).
to begin with, there was so much gtrist detritus onstage that you woulda thought you were in gtr ctr or something; all that was missing was some zitface cycling through the changes to "smells like teen spirit" or "enter sandman." in addition to darrin's imposing pedalboard was one belonging to jam mainstay ron geida (who was onstage on fred's patio with jasper stone last saturday night when flames started shooting out of the cafe's eaves). in front of the stage was fw symphony violinist (and darrin's duet partner; they be opening for sleeplab at el wreck this saturday, march 18th) steve huber's pod thingy, and back by the drums was my more spartan setup. in addition to the aforementioned string-stranglers, "confusajohn" stevens made a brief appearance, and tyrell from addnerim -- yet another of the zoo music posse that also includes ron and four-string theorist john shook, who was in the house but not playin' on this particular night -- essayed some rush toons (to the extreme delight of joe "drumzilla" cruz), and performed his feature "strawberry letter 23," displaying mastery of shuggie otis' signature gtr line on the bridge sans help from ron.
things took awhile to get started, as the acoustic performer who was s'posed to quit at 8:30 ran over..._significantly_ over. things started slow but picked up when darrin arrived. da kobe's an assertive and in-yr-face player, even when he's just warming up, and he brought with him some of the spirit o' the jam from last summer, when things hadn't _defined_ themselves quite yet. thus, after the weekly ritual "war pigs" (minus the contribution of me-thinks mouthpiece ray liberio, who was in dallas with his band boyzzz watching the hellacopters) when the jam-meister was bemoaning the fact that the jamcats don't know more metal toons, darrin simply shrugged, "make something up. let's play some funk," and away we went.
for me, the high point of the night was the last set, after the burning hotels had quit and some of the crowd filtered over to wreck west -- especially a thunderous "tomorrow never knows" with darrin, lee, vikingo, ron, and dave karnes on drums. as his sometime co-conspirator jerko dabelic (sunward, ex-delfi) points out, ron's more than a shredder -- besides having inventive ideas and flawless execution, he's also mastered the art of using f/x to create atmospheres 'n' textures, including an organ-like sound he's been known to break out to good effect on "standing on the verge." (jerko provided vocal support to the jam-meister on "tomorrow never knows" and got a minute amount of axe time at the end of the set; today, the sunward boyzzz are austin-bound for a li'l sxsw action of their own.) also: waking up onstage and realizing that we were playing "mountain song" by jane's addiction.
wreck room wizard o' sound andre edmonson promises he's gonna get a recording setup over in wreck west, so such moments won't go undocumented on those occasions when the jamcats are unable to use the big stage.
of course, the french band that was skedded to headline canxed at the last minute, so local crowd-bringers the burning hotels manfully stepped into the closing slot. they'd just played the aardvark the night before, but so loyal is their crowd that attendance was at least decent, especially for a wednesday night. the original jam game plan was to play short sets in between the "real" acts, but inspahrd by the example of hank hankshaw, who played acoustic with a mandolinist and drummer through most of the main-stage activities on monday night, jam-meister lee allen figured he could get away with playing acoustic with darrin kobetich while the main stage was occupied. in the event, the new pickup and fresh strings on his les paul musta been too good to shreddin'-ass mofo darrin, and the proceedings that went on over in wreck west for most of the evening were assuredly electric (in more ways than one).
to begin with, there was so much gtrist detritus onstage that you woulda thought you were in gtr ctr or something; all that was missing was some zitface cycling through the changes to "smells like teen spirit" or "enter sandman." in addition to darrin's imposing pedalboard was one belonging to jam mainstay ron geida (who was onstage on fred's patio with jasper stone last saturday night when flames started shooting out of the cafe's eaves). in front of the stage was fw symphony violinist (and darrin's duet partner; they be opening for sleeplab at el wreck this saturday, march 18th) steve huber's pod thingy, and back by the drums was my more spartan setup. in addition to the aforementioned string-stranglers, "confusajohn" stevens made a brief appearance, and tyrell from addnerim -- yet another of the zoo music posse that also includes ron and four-string theorist john shook, who was in the house but not playin' on this particular night -- essayed some rush toons (to the extreme delight of joe "drumzilla" cruz), and performed his feature "strawberry letter 23," displaying mastery of shuggie otis' signature gtr line on the bridge sans help from ron.
things took awhile to get started, as the acoustic performer who was s'posed to quit at 8:30 ran over..._significantly_ over. things started slow but picked up when darrin arrived. da kobe's an assertive and in-yr-face player, even when he's just warming up, and he brought with him some of the spirit o' the jam from last summer, when things hadn't _defined_ themselves quite yet. thus, after the weekly ritual "war pigs" (minus the contribution of me-thinks mouthpiece ray liberio, who was in dallas with his band boyzzz watching the hellacopters) when the jam-meister was bemoaning the fact that the jamcats don't know more metal toons, darrin simply shrugged, "make something up. let's play some funk," and away we went.
for me, the high point of the night was the last set, after the burning hotels had quit and some of the crowd filtered over to wreck west -- especially a thunderous "tomorrow never knows" with darrin, lee, vikingo, ron, and dave karnes on drums. as his sometime co-conspirator jerko dabelic (sunward, ex-delfi) points out, ron's more than a shredder -- besides having inventive ideas and flawless execution, he's also mastered the art of using f/x to create atmospheres 'n' textures, including an organ-like sound he's been known to break out to good effect on "standing on the verge." (jerko provided vocal support to the jam-meister on "tomorrow never knows" and got a minute amount of axe time at the end of the set; today, the sunward boyzzz are austin-bound for a li'l sxsw action of their own.) also: waking up onstage and realizing that we were playing "mountain song" by jane's addiction.
wreck room wizard o' sound andre edmonson promises he's gonna get a recording setup over in wreck west, so such moments won't go undocumented on those occasions when the jamcats are unable to use the big stage.
posted by stashdauber at 3:45 PM
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