Bill Frisell - February 6, 2005
I had the pleasure of seeing the 858 Quartet in Portland, Oregon this past Sunday, Feb 6.
There were two shows. A matinee, and an evening show. I went to both. The shows were in the Eliot Hall Chapel at Reed College. What a lovely old building this is. Perhaps the best venue in which I have ever seen Bill play. Right up there with seeing the Quartet at the Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois in 1997. I adore these medium sized chapel rooms for seeing music. There's nothing like it.
The group has evolved. I have heard it said by some that 858 is not the favorite band that Bill has carted out in recent memory. But in all fairness, until this month, they have not yet toured, nor had much of a repertoire beyond the disc and a few common Bill tunes. This tour is featuring some rather fiery solos, as I knew it would, from everyone involved. The band sounds great and roars in ways that the record simply doesn't. It's always a learning curve. And 858's fire has come relatively fast.
Bill is playing his new Fender "relic" Telecaster. This guitar is not the same as the off-yellow Fender early-70's guitar that Bill was playing in 2003. It looks just like it though, from a distance. (Fender throws these guitars around their parking lot, and uses sanders and buffers in strategic places, in order to make them look aged and/or used.)
At the Portland show, Bill had two Fender Deluxe reissues, and the normal delay pedals, but he has gone back to using a Rat distortion! I love the old Rats, but in Bill's hands it sounds just the same as all the others he has used, to my ears. Screamin', that is.
Eyvind and Hank were hot. They both turned in solos that the audience cheered for. Eyvind: one of the 858 numbers. Hank: "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry."
My almost-three-year-old son went to the matinee. So, I, er, ... missed most of it. He was happy for the first 3 or so songs. But then, he got pretty fidgety. The matinee started off with a few tunes that I was not familiar with. (I haven't yet memorized 858 pts 1-8, I'll admit). But I don't think these were on that disc. After the first tune, no one in the audience clapped. It really felt like those moments when you know the second movement of the "chamber work" is coming - so you wait for it. So then, in a wounded tone, Bill said, "you mean you didn't like it?" ... at which point the audience clapped, and then, some guy near the front yelled out something like "wasn't expectin' to hear that thar classical music!" ... or something similar to that. The second "tune" metamorphosized into a free improvisation and then jettisoned into 858-Part-One. At that point, kiddo had had enough, but he was into the beginning. Wandering around the halls of Eliot Hall with him was pretty surreal. I could hear echoes of the group throughout the building.
After the show, my pal said that Bill had played an arrangement of "Lonesome" that had made him cry. And after that, an even better yet, and more emotive, "What's Goin' On."
It was a beautiful show.
[Late show, sans kiddo]
I sat down in a pew behind Gus Van Sant, who was sitting with his friend, Penny Lane. Penny leaned around and started talking to me, trying hard to get me to recognize her as stardom too. She might as well had been talking to Mr. Magoo. I mean, to me, someone like Harry Smith is just about as famous as you can get. I don't even recognize faces in People Magazine, and I really have no use for a former groupie, who was friends with some guy named, what was it, Cameron Crowe? And then a movie was made about their story, or some bullshit? I'm like a visitor from outer space when I meet a celebrity. But Gus was super nice. He is a great guy, but you can have Penny. He told me about how he met Bill – a story I didn't know. Bill played on a Levi's commercial that Gus directed. Wayne Horvitz is on it too. Very weird - very Gus (and very Bill), I suppose. It didn't sink in ‘til later about whom I was really talking to, I was just so freaking pumped for the show. I love meeting down-to-earth-semi-celebrities, even if I don't know how to react or act enthused. Gus should make a movie about me. It could be called "Almost Futile."
The second set started off with more tunes that I didn't recognize. But later, Bill said that they were "You Are My Sunshine," and "Pretty Polly." I felt like an idiot. Of course, Bill! Bill is taking these folk tunes and 858-ing them. I love him for it. But I am going to have to ruminate on this business some more. Don't get me wrong, I love it, and everything about it, the Bill-ness, etc. I'm totally down with throwing an electric guitar into a string quartet. I'm just not sure if hot rod string quartets should be playing modern harmony on folk tunes while reading from music stands. Or, rather, perhaps I just shouldn't be questioning acts of superior music making.
After this, the group played 858 parts 5 – 7. It was tremendous. But the moment that stood out for me was yet another Bill found-event. During one of the sections, probably "6," a radiator in the room started clanking, slowly, and repetitively. "knock .... knock .... knock" Bill held up his hand motioning the group to stop at a cadence in the music, while he listened to the sound, perhaps, not knowing what it was. Then the group came in again. The only concert I've ever been to where the building's plumbing played a solo. It could only happen at a Frisell show.
Following this was an arrangement of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" that in my opinion was the best version of this tune that I have yet heard Bill play. I won't say it was the best performance of it. But I will say that I do like the version, and I have heard them all.
The encore was another performance of "Lonesome," not as emotional (according to my pal) as the first set. It was played faster. Still, quite moving.
Here are the setlists from both shows:
Afternoon Matinee
Hymn For Ginsberg
Pretty Polly >
Improvisation >
858 One
858 Two
858 Three
858 Four
Intro Vamp >
Lonesome
Improvisation >
What's Goin On?
Encore: Subconscious Lee
Evening
You Are My Sunshine >
Pretty Polly >
Improvisation >
858 Five
858 Six
858 Seven
I'm So Lonesome
Subconscious Lee
What The World Needs Now
Encore: Lonesome
About five or ten people rudely exited out of both shows that I saw. The beauty was too much for them. It's like a wise man once said, about how, when our expectations are not being met, then we have lost the lesson, because we are losers. Or something, like that.
There were two shows. A matinee, and an evening show. I went to both. The shows were in the Eliot Hall Chapel at Reed College. What a lovely old building this is. Perhaps the best venue in which I have ever seen Bill play. Right up there with seeing the Quartet at the Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois in 1997. I adore these medium sized chapel rooms for seeing music. There's nothing like it.
The group has evolved. I have heard it said by some that 858 is not the favorite band that Bill has carted out in recent memory. But in all fairness, until this month, they have not yet toured, nor had much of a repertoire beyond the disc and a few common Bill tunes. This tour is featuring some rather fiery solos, as I knew it would, from everyone involved. The band sounds great and roars in ways that the record simply doesn't. It's always a learning curve. And 858's fire has come relatively fast.
Bill is playing his new Fender "relic" Telecaster. This guitar is not the same as the off-yellow Fender early-70's guitar that Bill was playing in 2003. It looks just like it though, from a distance. (Fender throws these guitars around their parking lot, and uses sanders and buffers in strategic places, in order to make them look aged and/or used.)
At the Portland show, Bill had two Fender Deluxe reissues, and the normal delay pedals, but he has gone back to using a Rat distortion! I love the old Rats, but in Bill's hands it sounds just the same as all the others he has used, to my ears. Screamin', that is.
Eyvind and Hank were hot. They both turned in solos that the audience cheered for. Eyvind: one of the 858 numbers. Hank: "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry."
My almost-three-year-old son went to the matinee. So, I, er, ... missed most of it. He was happy for the first 3 or so songs. But then, he got pretty fidgety. The matinee started off with a few tunes that I was not familiar with. (I haven't yet memorized 858 pts 1-8, I'll admit). But I don't think these were on that disc. After the first tune, no one in the audience clapped. It really felt like those moments when you know the second movement of the "chamber work" is coming - so you wait for it. So then, in a wounded tone, Bill said, "you mean you didn't like it?" ... at which point the audience clapped, and then, some guy near the front yelled out something like "wasn't expectin' to hear that thar classical music!" ... or something similar to that. The second "tune" metamorphosized into a free improvisation and then jettisoned into 858-Part-One. At that point, kiddo had had enough, but he was into the beginning. Wandering around the halls of Eliot Hall with him was pretty surreal. I could hear echoes of the group throughout the building.
After the show, my pal said that Bill had played an arrangement of "Lonesome" that had made him cry. And after that, an even better yet, and more emotive, "What's Goin' On."
It was a beautiful show.
[Late show, sans kiddo]
I sat down in a pew behind Gus Van Sant, who was sitting with his friend, Penny Lane. Penny leaned around and started talking to me, trying hard to get me to recognize her as stardom too. She might as well had been talking to Mr. Magoo. I mean, to me, someone like Harry Smith is just about as famous as you can get. I don't even recognize faces in People Magazine, and I really have no use for a former groupie, who was friends with some guy named, what was it, Cameron Crowe? And then a movie was made about their story, or some bullshit? I'm like a visitor from outer space when I meet a celebrity. But Gus was super nice. He is a great guy, but you can have Penny. He told me about how he met Bill – a story I didn't know. Bill played on a Levi's commercial that Gus directed. Wayne Horvitz is on it too. Very weird - very Gus (and very Bill), I suppose. It didn't sink in ‘til later about whom I was really talking to, I was just so freaking pumped for the show. I love meeting down-to-earth-semi-celebrities, even if I don't know how to react or act enthused. Gus should make a movie about me. It could be called "Almost Futile."
The second set started off with more tunes that I didn't recognize. But later, Bill said that they were "You Are My Sunshine," and "Pretty Polly." I felt like an idiot. Of course, Bill! Bill is taking these folk tunes and 858-ing them. I love him for it. But I am going to have to ruminate on this business some more. Don't get me wrong, I love it, and everything about it, the Bill-ness, etc. I'm totally down with throwing an electric guitar into a string quartet. I'm just not sure if hot rod string quartets should be playing modern harmony on folk tunes while reading from music stands. Or, rather, perhaps I just shouldn't be questioning acts of superior music making.
After this, the group played 858 parts 5 – 7. It was tremendous. But the moment that stood out for me was yet another Bill found-event. During one of the sections, probably "6," a radiator in the room started clanking, slowly, and repetitively. "knock .... knock .... knock" Bill held up his hand motioning the group to stop at a cadence in the music, while he listened to the sound, perhaps, not knowing what it was. Then the group came in again. The only concert I've ever been to where the building's plumbing played a solo. It could only happen at a Frisell show.
Following this was an arrangement of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" that in my opinion was the best version of this tune that I have yet heard Bill play. I won't say it was the best performance of it. But I will say that I do like the version, and I have heard them all.
The encore was another performance of "Lonesome," not as emotional (according to my pal) as the first set. It was played faster. Still, quite moving.
Here are the setlists from both shows:
Afternoon Matinee
Hymn For Ginsberg
Pretty Polly >
Improvisation >
858 One
858 Two
858 Three
858 Four
Intro Vamp >
Lonesome
Improvisation >
What's Goin On?
Encore: Subconscious Lee
Evening
You Are My Sunshine >
Pretty Polly >
Improvisation >
858 Five
858 Six
858 Seven
I'm So Lonesome
Subconscious Lee
What The World Needs Now
Encore: Lonesome
About five or ten people rudely exited out of both shows that I saw. The beauty was too much for them. It's like a wise man once said, about how, when our expectations are not being met, then we have lost the lesson, because we are losers. Or something, like that.
Labels: Music Review
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