that 1 guy, art of the jam

listen, kids: billy wilson's taste is the gold standard of wreck room roadshows. the ones he's booked over the years -- mark growden, sleepytime gorilla museum, extreme elvis and the extra action marching band, stan ridgway, and now that 1 guy -- are the ones more people remember and talk about than any others. that 1 guy hisself, a classically-trained bassist from san francisco, is the one-man band to end all one-man bands (a genre of which the fort has seen plenty, from nathan brown to professional juice, who opened the show attired in a superhero costume that was reminiscent of the one fred "sonic" smith from the mc5 usedta don on occasion, except that sonic didn't wear an old-man mask with his). dug the way that 1 guy's thang mixes cutting-edge high-tech with wandering-minstrel folklorica, stunning musicianship with self-deprecating stage patter and pantomime, his "magic pipe" a harry partch-like junkyard/home depot contraption that combines one-string bass and tenor instruments with pedal-triggered percussion, a snare drum, and loads of samples, sequences, and f/x, all manipulated by that 1 guy (a.k.a. mike silverman) while singing waitsian/beefheartian songs with titles like "weasel potpie" and "it's raining meat." not just an awe-inspahring conceptualist, he's also an engaging performer. talking with billy 'n' my sweetie later, he was somewhat bemused at ending a tour in the middle of the country, but planned on taking a meandering route back home before embarking on yet another tour in april, visiting orstralia and the u.s. west coast. hope he makes it back to the fort at some point -- billy? the verdict of more than one listener: "this is the coolest shit i ever heard here."

the impulse of will jamcats got a late start, following some equipment dramarama (jam-meister lee allen's long-suffering li'l amp blew a fuse -- who _ever_ does that with a solid state combo?!?!?), but got off the ground with some hot trio action from young firebrand josh clark (who's reviving his early-wednesday-evening soirees at fonky fred's starting next week), the jam-meister, and yr humble chronicler o' events. started out with a bass groove lee spun out, inspahrd by that 1 guy, before continuing with an abbreviated "daylight" for mike gunby (who's leaving the fort for key west this sunday), meters "cissy strut," and a version of sly stone's "if you want me to stay" that veered in 'n' out of reggae one-drop. then john shook (back from playing sxsw with lucas martin and busily prepping for barber mack's beatles revolver show) got called up to play gtr on jaco's "teen town." the jam-meister's li'l bro lance was in town for a music therapy conference, so he and original jamcat rob marruffo were up next, lance taking over the six-string axe to lay down some feelthy jimmy nolen (or, uh, red hot chili peppers)-style chank, while rob sat on the edge of the li'l stage to share lead voxxx 'n' harmonize with lee. ron "the velvet hammer" geida was up next, tearing it up on chick corea's "la fiesta" and fz's "sexual harassment in the workplace" (with lee-boy scat-singing the lyrics from funkadelic's "maggot brain" during his own solo on the latter toon). lucas white had been onstage playing some percussion during the corea toon, and he finished out the night behind the traps with his ex-solomonic/keith wingate trio bandmate chuck brown on bass 'n' yr humble chronicler o' events back on gtr for an amorphous blooze. regrets: i was only 50% complete in my ongoing crusade to get all possible gtrists up on stage, since eric harris (ex-yeti) declined the offer and tyrel choate (addnerim) just got forgotten -- my bad, bro; next time. also, ex-five leaves left chanteuse cynthia foster was primed 'n' ready to rawk "helter skelter," but the opportune moment didn't present itself. feh. next week, fer sure...