ACL 2007 and playing keyboards for Particle
Being an eager second year Austin resident, I obviously bought my ACL tickets about six months ago. The lineup seemed lackluster. My buddy Chez stopped going about 3 years ago because in his eyes, it was declining each year. Nevertheless, the fact that there’s an opportunity to in one way or another witness over a hundred bands over 8 Stages for about a buck and a half means its something to consider and if you can afford it and appreciate live music enough to deal with the heat and the other 79,999 people trying to get it on.
So, Friday started with the band that was my favorite of the bunch before the weekend started, based on the last time I saw them live at Bonnaroo I, the Del McCoury band. They were scheduled to play 1:50 to 2:30. They came out into the Austin summer heat wearing full-on suits promptly to get the bluegrass rolling. As expected, every member was fully featured in some sort of playing and/or singing role through the show. As the last 8 minutes remained, Del let us know that they were all warmed up and ready to get it rolling.
Next up was Bela Fleck. Obviously, Victor Wooten kicks ass, but what really knocked me out beyond Bela’s distortion banjo was their drummer that played an improvised guitar with a bunch of jerry-rigged buttons on the neck, allowing him to play drums but look like he was playing guiter. After this, I stopped by Blonde Readhead and was marginally entertained.
I briefly saw some of Manchester Orchestra and JJ Grey/Mofro, but most of the afternoon was spent in the gospel funk tent checking out the likes of the Dynamites and Big Sam’s Funk Nation. During one of those shows, the propane tank caught fire behind the restricted area and there was some hubbub, but nobody got hurt.
Later on, I saw a little Queens of the Stoneage, but for my personal tastes, I get bored quickly with driving hard rock. I also caught a little Spoon, but the highlight of the afternoon was Gotan Project. They were not only very unique (with an accordian player front-man), but also really tight and had an aura of professionalism that you don’t always see. They had their shit together.
The night ended with Bjork. They had a guy playing one of those new-fangled instruments that looked more like a psychedelic chessboard than anything else, but it made some nice electronica sounds and the show was really good. I guess it met my expectations, which weren’t much, having only really heard of Bjork, but not heard her.
Saturday started with some Stephen Marley. I was rather unimpressed. I really liked the other brothers I’ve seen over the years and it was clear to me that Stephen wouldn’t be a star if his last name wasn’t Marley. So next, I went to Andrew Bird. He played his guitar through this really big bad-assed Leslie cabinet. I wondered where I could get one, but realized that it would be a pain to travel with. I wandered more and saw a little Arctic Monkeys, but as I write this, I don’t really remember them much.
As I walked to the car to get picked up and taken home on Saturday, Darren from Particle returned my call and informed me that they needed me to play some keys (and possibly sax) that night at Club 115 with my rig. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity and brought my rig to the club. A band called LCD opened the show with a bunch of Meters covers. The trombonist stuck around and a pair of horn players from Jabarvy came by before the show. I sat with the Particle-minus-Steve-plus-Austinites-band (aka Under Radar) backstage to get the setlist together.
We started the show as a quartet with some Particle tunes which I’d only rehearsed the last time we played. The guys all had a very high degree of communication with me through the show. First off, before the set, I got the “base chords” for the tunes. As remembered at press time, any song changes were noted on the setlist. Then, Darren informed me of his signals. The first consisted of his drumstick under the throat which meant that either I was supposed to cut immediately or else at the next build-up. This was the most helpful signal of all. Knowing when not to play is by far more important in my opinion. Of course, Eric was beside me the whole time letting me know what was up, including re-iterating the chords as well as the changes. He handled anything requiring verbal communication. The other signal that Darren did was of the buildup. He’d start shaking his head “no” when it began, then slowly built it up until his head would eventually start nodding and the buildup would culminate with the last sixteen sixteenth notes on the snare and the house going crazy, either as the song abruptly stopped or went on to the next sound orgasm.
Soon enough, the horn players came out. We played through a really badass Femi Kuti Afrobeat tune that really rocked the place. Those horn players were really awesome and it was clear that they could function well in an Afrobeat orchestra. I held down Fela’s keys as much as I could, and it was the Particle Afrobeat Orchestra. One thing about Darren’s style is that even as a single drummer, he can hold down the solid, pulsating, march-like trance rhythms required by Afrobeat percussionists.
We hung out between sets and discussed the final set. It began with the Stevie classic, Superstition. It was even in Eb, like the original. I played it to the best of my recollection. Chez later noted my initial impression, which was that the song got better as it progressed. This was certainly due to me remembering it as it progressed and of course when the horns came in, though, I was somewhat distracted when the horns came in because I know the horn part as well. Only, I was playing the clav, so it was a challenge not to play the horn part, especially because I was playing horn the last time I played that song, which was with Particle…
The next tune was an open improv whose melody I started. I took the opportunity to rip out some C-blues-pentatonic and simultaneously the guys dismissed the horns so we were left to our own devise. I really love horns and wished they might have stayed a bit longer. Anyway, we jammed out the rest of the night and it was clearly my biggest show to date in terms of the caliber and famousness of the other musicians. It was a great learning experience based on immersion.
After the show (at around 3am), I was ecstatic when I learned that I could leave my gear there and jam again the next night. It was then that my guitarist buddy James and I headed to the Enchanted Forest to find Chez and Cyn. Of course, on the Saturday evening after ACL at 3:14 AM the place was hopping. I never was able to find them, and in the haze of exhaustion of a day of sun, fun, listening to and playing music, I was beat enough to sleep until the next day.
After a very late sleep-in and a lazy early-afternoon watching the Steelers game statistics on nfl.com, my final day at ACL was what could be expected. First off, the reason that I love this type of festival presented itself. A band I’d never heard of rocked my socks off. DeVotchKa ripped into some roaring violins and various instrumentation. After that, beat from the weekend, I wandered around for about an hour between Bloc Party, Lucinda Williams, and whatever else before heading back to my car at the usual improvised-free-parking that is abound during the festival. I had to have some dinner and take a nap before the second of the two-night-Particle-minus-Steve-plus-Austinites band. This show had a turnout that could be expected for a Sunday night after one of America’s biggest music festivals that culminated with the fossil of Bob Dylan presenting itself on stage, but with specific instructions not to photograph Him or show Him on the big-screen tv as He played with His band this evening. Since the students had to catch up on the lost studying and everyone else was had to recover from a weekend of sun, beer, and music before going to work the next day, it was a very intimate setting.
Nevertheless, we delivered. The show was to start with an improv. Before the show, Eric asked Ben in which key it would be. Ben replied, F-sharp-minor. Immediately, a lightbulb went off in my head. I thought of a song that my Cleveland garage band wrote called Onomatopoeia, which was in the same key. I thought that the boogaloo/driving nature of the song would lend itself well to this outfit. So, we discussed the song backstage, which was to begin in F#m. Then, I’d cue Darren to do a build which would then change us to the next key, E major. After another build up, we’d change back to F#m and then go to Bm, then a drum-solo and back to F#m. Well, it sort of worked out that way. In fact, being the only one to play this song before, I was overcome by the collective consciousness to fuck up a lot. It’s really something how the collective consciousness plays itself out in bands. You can play one thing so many times with one group, but try to play it with others and the sound is totally changed. At the same time, I think I definitely over-compensated because I felt this need to lead the song, since it was, in essence, mine. It was a complete reversal of roles. This time, 3 out of 4 guys were totally improvising. However, the ending was as tight as could be expected, perfectly timed out by Darren, putting up four fingers to signifiy that the tune would end with four quarter notes (as opposed to four fingers down which meant four eighth notes).
We continued the set as written, jamming out a couple of Particle tunes until we brought up the keyboard player from the opening band of the evening and I got to whip out my tenor sax. We jammed a Miles Davis tune with which I wasn’t really familiar due to my to-date limited exposure. Nonetheless, as Miles would do, I improvised. At one point, I felt the need the need to give it my all and whipped out some loud, if not precise, tenor sax wailing. This was followed by a cover tune where I hopped off the stage for the first time all weekend. The keyboardist totally nailed it far better than I would have ever imagined. It was humbling.
Afterward, he took off and we finished the set as a quartet again. We were hoping for a return of the horns and there was a rumor of another relatively big-named Austin musician showing up, but it wasn’t to be, Sunday night and all. I still savored it and grooved into the night. Yet another thing I learned in my lifelong quest as a music student is that I need to get some better electronica sounds from my rig. Chez has been telling me for months, but it took this gig and a guy in the crowd at the end of the night telling me that my rig wasn’t big enough, even though it has a vintage Leslie cabinet.
At the setbreak, I managed to finagle a copy of Particle’s LP from a box that was found at Eric’s house. I told them I’d practice their songs for next time. Looks like I found my next car CD.
The second set was more of the same. It was another night of late-night music in Austin. Unfortunately, the final set was not captured in all its soundboard glory. This was due to the fact that James had to split with his girlfriend and left the internal mic on to pick up the conversations of the soundboard guy. I’ll chalk it up as yet another one of life’s lost jams. The night ended with me packing up my rig and giving each of the guys from Particle-minus-Steve a big hug and hoping to see them again.
So, Friday started with the band that was my favorite of the bunch before the weekend started, based on the last time I saw them live at Bonnaroo I, the Del McCoury band. They were scheduled to play 1:50 to 2:30. They came out into the Austin summer heat wearing full-on suits promptly to get the bluegrass rolling. As expected, every member was fully featured in some sort of playing and/or singing role through the show. As the last 8 minutes remained, Del let us know that they were all warmed up and ready to get it rolling.
Next up was Bela Fleck. Obviously, Victor Wooten kicks ass, but what really knocked me out beyond Bela’s distortion banjo was their drummer that played an improvised guitar with a bunch of jerry-rigged buttons on the neck, allowing him to play drums but look like he was playing guiter. After this, I stopped by Blonde Readhead and was marginally entertained.
I briefly saw some of Manchester Orchestra and JJ Grey/Mofro, but most of the afternoon was spent in the gospel funk tent checking out the likes of the Dynamites and Big Sam’s Funk Nation. During one of those shows, the propane tank caught fire behind the restricted area and there was some hubbub, but nobody got hurt.
Later on, I saw a little Queens of the Stoneage, but for my personal tastes, I get bored quickly with driving hard rock. I also caught a little Spoon, but the highlight of the afternoon was Gotan Project. They were not only very unique (with an accordian player front-man), but also really tight and had an aura of professionalism that you don’t always see. They had their shit together.
The night ended with Bjork. They had a guy playing one of those new-fangled instruments that looked more like a psychedelic chessboard than anything else, but it made some nice electronica sounds and the show was really good. I guess it met my expectations, which weren’t much, having only really heard of Bjork, but not heard her.
Saturday started with some Stephen Marley. I was rather unimpressed. I really liked the other brothers I’ve seen over the years and it was clear to me that Stephen wouldn’t be a star if his last name wasn’t Marley. So next, I went to Andrew Bird. He played his guitar through this really big bad-assed Leslie cabinet. I wondered where I could get one, but realized that it would be a pain to travel with. I wandered more and saw a little Arctic Monkeys, but as I write this, I don’t really remember them much.
As I walked to the car to get picked up and taken home on Saturday, Darren from Particle returned my call and informed me that they needed me to play some keys (and possibly sax) that night at Club 115 with my rig. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity and brought my rig to the club. A band called LCD opened the show with a bunch of Meters covers. The trombonist stuck around and a pair of horn players from Jabarvy came by before the show. I sat with the Particle-minus-Steve-plus-Austinites-band (aka Under Radar) backstage to get the setlist together.
We started the show as a quartet with some Particle tunes which I’d only rehearsed the last time we played. The guys all had a very high degree of communication with me through the show. First off, before the set, I got the “base chords” for the tunes. As remembered at press time, any song changes were noted on the setlist. Then, Darren informed me of his signals. The first consisted of his drumstick under the throat which meant that either I was supposed to cut immediately or else at the next build-up. This was the most helpful signal of all. Knowing when not to play is by far more important in my opinion. Of course, Eric was beside me the whole time letting me know what was up, including re-iterating the chords as well as the changes. He handled anything requiring verbal communication. The other signal that Darren did was of the buildup. He’d start shaking his head “no” when it began, then slowly built it up until his head would eventually start nodding and the buildup would culminate with the last sixteen sixteenth notes on the snare and the house going crazy, either as the song abruptly stopped or went on to the next sound orgasm.
Soon enough, the horn players came out. We played through a really badass Femi Kuti Afrobeat tune that really rocked the place. Those horn players were really awesome and it was clear that they could function well in an Afrobeat orchestra. I held down Fela’s keys as much as I could, and it was the Particle Afrobeat Orchestra. One thing about Darren’s style is that even as a single drummer, he can hold down the solid, pulsating, march-like trance rhythms required by Afrobeat percussionists.
We hung out between sets and discussed the final set. It began with the Stevie classic, Superstition. It was even in Eb, like the original. I played it to the best of my recollection. Chez later noted my initial impression, which was that the song got better as it progressed. This was certainly due to me remembering it as it progressed and of course when the horns came in, though, I was somewhat distracted when the horns came in because I know the horn part as well. Only, I was playing the clav, so it was a challenge not to play the horn part, especially because I was playing horn the last time I played that song, which was with Particle…
The next tune was an open improv whose melody I started. I took the opportunity to rip out some C-blues-pentatonic and simultaneously the guys dismissed the horns so we were left to our own devise. I really love horns and wished they might have stayed a bit longer. Anyway, we jammed out the rest of the night and it was clearly my biggest show to date in terms of the caliber and famousness of the other musicians. It was a great learning experience based on immersion.
After the show (at around 3am), I was ecstatic when I learned that I could leave my gear there and jam again the next night. It was then that my guitarist buddy James and I headed to the Enchanted Forest to find Chez and Cyn. Of course, on the Saturday evening after ACL at 3:14 AM the place was hopping. I never was able to find them, and in the haze of exhaustion of a day of sun, fun, listening to and playing music, I was beat enough to sleep until the next day.
After a very late sleep-in and a lazy early-afternoon watching the Steelers game statistics on nfl.com, my final day at ACL was what could be expected. First off, the reason that I love this type of festival presented itself. A band I’d never heard of rocked my socks off. DeVotchKa ripped into some roaring violins and various instrumentation. After that, beat from the weekend, I wandered around for about an hour between Bloc Party, Lucinda Williams, and whatever else before heading back to my car at the usual improvised-free-parking that is abound during the festival. I had to have some dinner and take a nap before the second of the two-night-Particle-minus-Steve-plus-Austinites band. This show had a turnout that could be expected for a Sunday night after one of America’s biggest music festivals that culminated with the fossil of Bob Dylan presenting itself on stage, but with specific instructions not to photograph Him or show Him on the big-screen tv as He played with His band this evening. Since the students had to catch up on the lost studying and everyone else was had to recover from a weekend of sun, beer, and music before going to work the next day, it was a very intimate setting.
Nevertheless, we delivered. The show was to start with an improv. Before the show, Eric asked Ben in which key it would be. Ben replied, F-sharp-minor. Immediately, a lightbulb went off in my head. I thought of a song that my Cleveland garage band wrote called Onomatopoeia, which was in the same key. I thought that the boogaloo/driving nature of the song would lend itself well to this outfit. So, we discussed the song backstage, which was to begin in F#m. Then, I’d cue Darren to do a build which would then change us to the next key, E major. After another build up, we’d change back to F#m and then go to Bm, then a drum-solo and back to F#m. Well, it sort of worked out that way. In fact, being the only one to play this song before, I was overcome by the collective consciousness to fuck up a lot. It’s really something how the collective consciousness plays itself out in bands. You can play one thing so many times with one group, but try to play it with others and the sound is totally changed. At the same time, I think I definitely over-compensated because I felt this need to lead the song, since it was, in essence, mine. It was a complete reversal of roles. This time, 3 out of 4 guys were totally improvising. However, the ending was as tight as could be expected, perfectly timed out by Darren, putting up four fingers to signifiy that the tune would end with four quarter notes (as opposed to four fingers down which meant four eighth notes).
We continued the set as written, jamming out a couple of Particle tunes until we brought up the keyboard player from the opening band of the evening and I got to whip out my tenor sax. We jammed a Miles Davis tune with which I wasn’t really familiar due to my to-date limited exposure. Nonetheless, as Miles would do, I improvised. At one point, I felt the need the need to give it my all and whipped out some loud, if not precise, tenor sax wailing. This was followed by a cover tune where I hopped off the stage for the first time all weekend. The keyboardist totally nailed it far better than I would have ever imagined. It was humbling.
Afterward, he took off and we finished the set as a quartet again. We were hoping for a return of the horns and there was a rumor of another relatively big-named Austin musician showing up, but it wasn’t to be, Sunday night and all. I still savored it and grooved into the night. Yet another thing I learned in my lifelong quest as a music student is that I need to get some better electronica sounds from my rig. Chez has been telling me for months, but it took this gig and a guy in the crowd at the end of the night telling me that my rig wasn’t big enough, even though it has a vintage Leslie cabinet.
At the setbreak, I managed to finagle a copy of Particle’s LP from a box that was found at Eric’s house. I told them I’d practice their songs for next time. Looks like I found my next car CD.
The second set was more of the same. It was another night of late-night music in Austin. Unfortunately, the final set was not captured in all its soundboard glory. This was due to the fact that James had to split with his girlfriend and left the internal mic on to pick up the conversations of the soundboard guy. I’ll chalk it up as yet another one of life’s lost jams. The night ended with me packing up my rig and giving each of the guys from Particle-minus-Steve a big hug and hoping to see them again.
