ph7, barber mack, sleeplab
walked up to the li'l wreck room last night for an evening of reggae 'n' groove. topping the bill was pablo and the hemphill 7, fresh from playing what mighta been their biggest crowd ever at 8.0's during the fweakly music awards thang last sunday. (damien stewart: "nah. the [february 2002 ridglea theater] wailers show was bigger.") supporting ph7 were barber mack, sporting a full percussion section (that'd be confusacat lucas white on traps and josh clark on evathing else) due to a scheduling conflict that didn't eventuate, and sleeplab, without trumpeter brian sharp (who'd joined them for _their_ 8.0's/fweakly set) but with both bassist matt skates and vocalist crystal casey on the same stage. (ah, these crazy kids 'n' their drama-drama.)
got there midway through sleeplab's set, but they sounded impeccably chill and looked damn good as always. i was surprised to hear normally-taciturn bandleader jeffa actually talking to the crowd. ran into me-thinks / stoogeaphilia front dude ray liberio, who was dividing his time between the wreck room and the black dog, where the ear hustlers and mockinbird cartel were holding forth.
got to meet barber mack leader-bassist john shook's mom, and 'splained to her that altho i've known john since he was a teenager (he be's 24 now), i'd always thought he was like 10 yrs older 'cos he's so damned _centered_. his band's set was maybe the best one i've seen 'em do yet (and i've missed a couple). with lucas holding down the loping groove and josh providing all manner of accents 'n' fills for coloration, there was plenty of room for the string players to stretch out 'n' extemporize, which they did with abandon. the contrast between andrew skates' bright, effect-free telecaster and ron geida's darker, treated les paul is always striking, while shook is, i repeat, the best point-to-point bassplayer here in da fort. just ask jam-meister lee allen (who was present, after working the kobetich bros. day o' acoustic jamarama at fonky fred's, attired in his standard outlaw chef tee rather 'n the snazzy mafia suit he had on for graham richardson's wedding the night before) -- he calls shook "jaco," and means it, too. in fact, starting with ernest ranglin's "papa's bag juice" (which ron 'splained "is jamaican for miller high life"), every toon got stratospheric. skates lit some fireworks on the fonked-up version of wayne shorter's "footprints," while geida got the crowd stirred up with his beckoid (jeff, not that guy from cali) flight on the maytals' "funky kingston." shook took the lead 'n' played the head on barber mack's one-drop rendition of coltrane's "mr. p.c." and it seemed muy appropriate that the jesse sierra hernandez rendering of the pic from trane's sunship alb was visible behind the musos. great band; now if they could just do two gigs in a row with the same drummer...
"we love you _long time_," said pablo frontcat joe vano, and his band delivered on da promise, with a 16-song set with encore that transported the crowd (which included a lotta new faces in addition to ph7's "regulars," a positive sign) to that ecstatic place where pablo likes to go.
in between bands, former ph7 bassist marcus lawyer spun vinyl, including his groovy top secret...shhh elpee that a few audience mbrs left clutching copies of. post-marcus, matt hembree's transition into the lineup appears to have been smoove, which makes sense, as he'd previously played with steffin ratliff and justin pate in bindle and still plays with damien stewart in goodwin. matt's the kinda muso who _can't_ play enough; after a two-hour set with pablo, he'll go home 'n' fall asleep playing his bass, and onstage, he projects the pure joy o' playing music like no one else i know. in stoogeaphilia, he's known for shedding his shirt mid-set; this particular night with pablo, he was barefoot, which seemed somehow appropriate. a high point o' the night for me was watching him bouncing up and down during the outro to "the front," then turning back and seeing the whole crowd doing the same thang. with hembree on board, ph7 adds three-part vocal harmonies to their onstage bag o' tricks, and his addition to the stewart-ratliff-pate axis brings new depth to the tuffest / tightest riddim section in town (remember, _every_ instrument is a riddim instrument, including yr voice).
other highspots: steffin's turn as a ska-crazed dick dale on his namesake feature "le razor" (for my fitty cent, mr. ratliff remains the most-underrated axe-slinger in this here metromess); a new cover of "get down moses" from joe strummer's great streetcore album (one of the first gifts i gave my sweetie when we started dating and still a frequent spin at mi casa; josef v. 'n' i share a 'preciation for "it's all in a day" and strummer's take on marley's "redemption song" from the alb, too); and the set closing "rude boy," which remains pablo's finest recorded moment imo and my fave toon of theirs after "freedom." hearing these songs in my living-room-three-miles-from-home is _wish fulfillment at its best_. so dere.
got there midway through sleeplab's set, but they sounded impeccably chill and looked damn good as always. i was surprised to hear normally-taciturn bandleader jeffa actually talking to the crowd. ran into me-thinks / stoogeaphilia front dude ray liberio, who was dividing his time between the wreck room and the black dog, where the ear hustlers and mockinbird cartel were holding forth.
got to meet barber mack leader-bassist john shook's mom, and 'splained to her that altho i've known john since he was a teenager (he be's 24 now), i'd always thought he was like 10 yrs older 'cos he's so damned _centered_. his band's set was maybe the best one i've seen 'em do yet (and i've missed a couple). with lucas holding down the loping groove and josh providing all manner of accents 'n' fills for coloration, there was plenty of room for the string players to stretch out 'n' extemporize, which they did with abandon. the contrast between andrew skates' bright, effect-free telecaster and ron geida's darker, treated les paul is always striking, while shook is, i repeat, the best point-to-point bassplayer here in da fort. just ask jam-meister lee allen (who was present, after working the kobetich bros. day o' acoustic jamarama at fonky fred's, attired in his standard outlaw chef tee rather 'n the snazzy mafia suit he had on for graham richardson's wedding the night before) -- he calls shook "jaco," and means it, too. in fact, starting with ernest ranglin's "papa's bag juice" (which ron 'splained "is jamaican for miller high life"), every toon got stratospheric. skates lit some fireworks on the fonked-up version of wayne shorter's "footprints," while geida got the crowd stirred up with his beckoid (jeff, not that guy from cali) flight on the maytals' "funky kingston." shook took the lead 'n' played the head on barber mack's one-drop rendition of coltrane's "mr. p.c." and it seemed muy appropriate that the jesse sierra hernandez rendering of the pic from trane's sunship alb was visible behind the musos. great band; now if they could just do two gigs in a row with the same drummer...
"we love you _long time_," said pablo frontcat joe vano, and his band delivered on da promise, with a 16-song set with encore that transported the crowd (which included a lotta new faces in addition to ph7's "regulars," a positive sign) to that ecstatic place where pablo likes to go.
in between bands, former ph7 bassist marcus lawyer spun vinyl, including his groovy top secret...shhh elpee that a few audience mbrs left clutching copies of. post-marcus, matt hembree's transition into the lineup appears to have been smoove, which makes sense, as he'd previously played with steffin ratliff and justin pate in bindle and still plays with damien stewart in goodwin. matt's the kinda muso who _can't_ play enough; after a two-hour set with pablo, he'll go home 'n' fall asleep playing his bass, and onstage, he projects the pure joy o' playing music like no one else i know. in stoogeaphilia, he's known for shedding his shirt mid-set; this particular night with pablo, he was barefoot, which seemed somehow appropriate. a high point o' the night for me was watching him bouncing up and down during the outro to "the front," then turning back and seeing the whole crowd doing the same thang. with hembree on board, ph7 adds three-part vocal harmonies to their onstage bag o' tricks, and his addition to the stewart-ratliff-pate axis brings new depth to the tuffest / tightest riddim section in town (remember, _every_ instrument is a riddim instrument, including yr voice).
other highspots: steffin's turn as a ska-crazed dick dale on his namesake feature "le razor" (for my fitty cent, mr. ratliff remains the most-underrated axe-slinger in this here metromess); a new cover of "get down moses" from joe strummer's great streetcore album (one of the first gifts i gave my sweetie when we started dating and still a frequent spin at mi casa; josef v. 'n' i share a 'preciation for "it's all in a day" and strummer's take on marley's "redemption song" from the alb, too); and the set closing "rude boy," which remains pablo's finest recorded moment imo and my fave toon of theirs after "freedom." hearing these songs in my living-room-three-miles-from-home is _wish fulfillment at its best_. so dere.
posted by stashdauber at 10:32 AM
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