Oak Cliff, 10.29.2024

It was a night of happy accidents at The Wild Detectives. Ernesto Monteil had originally booked it as an evening of experimental percussion, with touring artist Will Guthrie and local light Gerard Bendiks (Swirve, Magga Orchestra, Tidbits). But Guthrie asked if there was a guitarist available who'd played with Ronald Shannon Jackson -- an idol and influence on the Australian percussionist (currently based in France) -- and so Gregg Prickett, who'd played in Shannon's Decoding Society on the harmolodic icon's last-ever show at the Kessler Theater, back in 2012, was added to the bill. Coincidentally, Bendiks opted to perform with his Tidbits bandmate, guitarist Kenny Withrow (New Bohemians, Forgotten Space). And so the stage was set for two improvising drum-guitar duos, with rock dynamics.

Gregg Prickett's been playing out a lot this year, but usually in contexts without a drummer, so tonight we got to hear a side of him not heard since the days of Unconscious Collective (with Stefan Gonzalez on drums) -- using a more aggressive and percussive right hand attack than he's employed recently. Guthrie, who's studied gamelan music in Indonesia, demonstrated that he's learned his lessons from Shannon well, playing from the kick drum up in the manner of the master. One could hear echoes of the I.M. Terrell High School drum line and Jacksboro Highway roadhouses in his thunderous polylrhythms. 

The piece they opened with was Shannon's "Mama Plays the Guitar," performed at the Kessler and revived here with the force of a tidal wave. The second piece was equally furious, with Prickett using his octave pedal and some echo effects, while Guthrie was all over the kit, using small instruments as well as sticks to strike the drums. They closed with a more meditative piece, with Prickett providing a pulsing drone (and using a mighty impressive two-octave stretch) while Guthrie used light beaters to dance over cymbals, gongs, and singing bowls. 

Earlier, Withrow and Bendiks showcased a musical telepathy honed over years of playing together, picking up their musical conversation from where it left off four years ago. Withrow demonstrated the proper use of sampling and delay pedals, creating loops of varied textures and tempos which Bendiks responded to deftly. Then the guitarist used his Gretsch and Gibson instruments to fill the sonic space with edgy lines, drenched with distortion, wah, and feedback. Bendiks reminded us that he's a groover as well as a free improviser. 

At one point I heard scratchy guitar while Withrow's hands weren't even touching his instrument and realized that Bendiks had recorded a noise guitar loop before they started and timed it to occur at a random point in the improvisation. At another moment, Withrow recorded a slide guitar loop without intending to, and when he realized what he'd done, he just laid back and let the ghost in the machine play. Before the set began, Bendiks had asked audience members to set their phone alarms for 35 minutes after start time, "and make it LOUD!" The musicians were winding down when the collective alarms sounded. When I asked Bendiks if he'd known what time it was, he attributed it to "a sixth sense." When I see things I don't comprehend but know that they're real, I call it magic.

Tomorrow night, Guthrie will be at Molten Plains at Rubber Gloves in Denton, on a bill with California-based saxophonist-composer Rob Magill and a trio of Dentonites Kristina Smith, Rachel Weaver, and Stephen Lucas. You owe it to yourself.