Continuing to write monthly about my livemusic adventures…
ICYMI: all my FY2024 writing
ICYMI: October 2024: Special Moments
ICYMI: November/December 2024: That Time Then
Almost through February, but I’m going to take a look back at January before it’s too far down the memory hole. Specifically, I’m still thinking about two nights, both at the Brooklyn Bowl. These were not only two of the best shows I saw last month, but they shared a few other things in common, but mostly how my appreciation of the shows extended beyond just the music being played or my experience of being at the concerts. 90% of the time I take a night out seeing music at face value: between the musicians, the venue, the crowd, the music, my mood, there’s already plenty to keep my mind occupied. Occasionally, though, there is more than meets the eye to a livemusic experience. Sometimes there’s what I would call the subtext the details that aren’t obvious that contribute to the experience. The best way to explain is to just dive right in to the concerts in question.
The first one I’ll describe, although it happened second chronologically, was Taper’s Choice (and Friends). This was a show celebrating 50 years of Relix magazine. Like I said, it took place at Brooklyn Bowl. The thing about Taper’s Choice is that they are a jamband. But they’re a jamband that’s also a commentary on jambands. And the thing about jambands is that they’re all about the subtext. I mean, often the true story of a jamband’s show isn’t told in the setlist, but is told in the footnotes, literally the subtext of the setlist. You can look at a Phish setlist and have some idea what happened, but often it’s the little notes beneath that really let you know the deal. They played “The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers. Oh, that’s cute. {checks the footnotes} Oh, they played “The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers with Kenny Rogers, that’s a completely different story. The teases, the breakouts, bustouts, audience interactions, etc. it’s all part of the subtext, the “if you know, you know” portion of what makes a jamband so appealing. And if anyone gets that, it’s Taper’s Choice, the band that once played a Phish Dick’s preshow in Denver by spelling out “Twiddle” with the first letter of each song played. Either that sentence means something to you and you understand how fractally insider-baseball that move is or it means nothing to you and you’ll have to take my word for it. There are probably 100 examples of TC doing shit like this, it’s hilarious, it’s heaps of meta upon meta, it’s something I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed or experienced.
It’s a band that can be appreciated upon several levels and all of them are pretty fucking amazing. Because on top of all that, they are also a pretty great jamband! Or just band period! And so they were tapped to play the Relix party. At Brooklyn Bowl. With an array of announced guests that were a bit of a Relix-y who’s who of jambander’s including the old school like Mike Gordon, the old old school like one-time member of the Grateful Dead Tom Constanten, the in-betweens like Scott Metzger, and the new like Karina Rykman and Mikaela Davis. The song selection carried triple meanings like only Taper’s Choice can: Dead tunes with Tom C., a cover of Blues Traveler (!!), and then weird Mike Gordon solo selections that seemed halfway between trolling and genuine affection. It was a setlist and performance filled with subtext, hidden meaning and hidden meaning within the creases of the hidden meanings and self-referential turtles all the way down.
Heaped upon all this was the whole Wetlands = Brooklyn Bowl + Relix thing going on, Pete Shapiro and a room full of who’s-who’s from the jam and NYC world. There were about a dozen ways to enjoy the show, from straight dancing to the pretty sweet jams, to marveling at the covers, to catching up with old faces, to various and mindbending combinations of all of it. It kind of hurts my brain to think about all the winking and cues and clues going on, but it also made it kind of fun. The more you were aware of all the subtext, the more you got out of it… or maybe the less? I dunno. But we were swimming in it that night at the Bowl. I think I could write a long essay about this show. Maybe I just did? That’s the thing about Taper’s Choice, it’s like they’re writing an essay about themselves in real time.
Also, just to repeat myself, but it bears repeating: the show — ie the music, vibe, crowd — was fucking great. Even without all that shit. But that shit was also pretty fucking great.
Five days earlier, on my 51st birthday in fact, was another special night at the Brooklyn Bowl. Joe Russo playing with Nels Cline and John Medeski. Again, we had a night of very awesome playing, high-level jams and inventive improvisation and interplay from three of the best to do it. It was one of many in an ongoing series led by Russo, an ever-growing assembly of friends, mixing and matching and making rather remarkable music. And when I think about Joe’s career and shows like this and having witnessed the growth and arc, it’s that extra subtext that really elevates these shows to me.
This same trio played months earlier at Sultan Room and the show kind of blew me away and got me thinking about Joe Russo in particular. I wrote something up at the time about how I felt, but it struck me as over the top so I never posted it anywhere. After this show last month, I pulled it out and realized maybe I had actually understated things. I posted it to the NYC Freaks and I think I’ll do the same here, with some light editing and additions:
2/21/2024
I had and have a lot of thoughts about the show last night at Sultan Room, a LOT, but the main thing I kept returning to in my mind is the context of these shows in Joe Russo’s career arc. I somehow think he’s kind of underrated in what he does and can do as a drummer.
Here’s my personal perspective/history:
The first couple times I saw Joe Russo play was as part of a Wetlands “superjam.” This was back in 1999, 2000, 2001ish. If you know, you know, but these were events at Wetlands when random assortments of musicians would get on stage and just kind of jam on standard jam/funk tunes (if you didn’t hear “Cissy Strut” at one of these things, you left too early!). The artists ranged from members of national jam acts (Biscuits, etc), local somebodies, up-and-comers, etc. Sometimes there were 10 or more musicians on stage and you can imagine everyone took their shot at making an impression on the other musicians and the audience both. They were a lot of fun! Russo always stood out to me. One of the few that I would make a point to remember his name. FWIW, full disclosure: Scott Metzger used to participate in these as well and bug the fuck out of me at these things, which had me later than I should have been to Rana.
But Joe was clearly someone to watch and I did. He had a natural talent for deep-diving into freeform improvisation, being totally comfortable in the various styles a jam would take, and always, always making it better. This was obvious to me back then and I basically would see anything that Joe did. The summer of 2001, that took the form of jam sessions at the Lansky Lounge in the LES, a very cool cocktail bar attached to Ratners. These were amazing sessions I think were led by Justin Wallace of ulu and featured Joe and a rotating cast of characters. High-level groove-o-ramas late Thursday nights. Again, Joe stood out, straddling the line between pure freewheeling and structured groove. Lansky shut down and they tried to reproduce the vibe in other places, Tagine. Heck, Adam Rosenberg and I booked a couple of what we called “Summer Sessions” at Tribeca Rock Club, but they eventually went away. That fall I booked a show at the Knit Old Office and wanted to have Joe play with one of these thrown-together jam sessions. They would be on a bill with Next Tribe (iykyk). He told me a guy I hadn’t heard of would be in the band, Marco Benevento. I believe that was the first time they played the Knit together? Regardless, seeing Joe just jam was a delight above all delights.
Out of that ethos rose the Duo, which started as a stripped down version of these jam sessions, two guys improvising as much for each other as for the few who came to see them. To me, that was always what Joe was about, where his strengths were, perhaps better than anyone else I’d see do it. Ironically, the chemistry Joe and Marco had led them to become more focused on actual songs, centering their sound on Marco’s compositional voice and Joe’s unique improvisational talents were relegated to side projects. Even more ironically, the Duo’s focus on composition led to a chance to play with Mike and then with Trey and that led to Joe playing with Furthur which led to JRAD, and that kind of catches us up. The thing about Almost Dead is that it brought Joe’s brand of drum-led improvisation to the Dead catalog. This philosophy that made the most pedestrian of funk jams at the Wetlands something beyond interesting and compelling was now turning the Dead catalog into something more interesting and compelling than most anything anyone had done before… I mean as long as the Grateful Dead has been around there have been people trying to make their own compelling spin on the catalog, but precious few (none?) have had the success with it that Joe & Co. had and I attribute that all to all I’ve said above.
The success of JRAD has actually swung things around full circle, like the closing parentheses on a nesting of musical ideas. First a proliferation of sideprojects, some one-off, some persisting: Icy Bridge, Shitty Rainbows, the craziness of those Harrington/Zahn/Russo jams, Hola!, Infinite Jets, Boyfriend, plenty of unnamed jammers, etc. etc. The idea that I hear so often, that Joe is just a drummer in a Dead cover band obscures the unending fountain of amazing shit. Sure, there are musicians that create more, but few (if any?) have had the track record, both quantity and quality, from the drummer position. Kind of nuts to think about.
The latest incarnation is the “This is Going to be a Blast” series at the Sultan Room. Having been along for the ride for 25 years, there is no surprise in the music being made at these shows. Looking back over all this, it’s the most natural thing ever. The most natural thing ever that the best of the best would want to jam with Joe and that the results would be some of the most interesting, engaging, exploratory, groovy, exciting, awe-inspiring music we get to see. The show last night was just unreal on so many levels. There were moments where Joe sounded like Billy Martin and others where Medeski sounded like Marco Benevento, a wily two-part throwback to the Knitting Factory of yesteryear. And yet this was all in service to some of the best guitar playing I’ve seen in quite some time. Not even sure how to process it. I want to say this is the final phase on the full-circle journey, Wetlands superjams 2 decades later, but I’m not even sure we’re halfway there yet. How lucky are we? Can’t wait to see what’s next.
So, that’s the subtext (in my mind) for these Russo-led jams. I think the guy is pretty special.
The final bit of subtext to both of these nights, which I’ve alluded to, is that they are happening at the Brooklyn Bowl. Again, there is more to meet the eye with the venue which, on the face of it, is just a rock venue with a bowling alley and some pretty good fried chicken. But it’s also the current incarnation of the spirit of the Wetlands. Most of the time, the magic of the Wetlands can barely be felt inside, sanitized and laundered in the dog-eat-dog world of the modern live music industry (gag!). But every once in a while, that magic comes through, sometimes it’s just a glimmer and sometimes it’s a shiny disco ball. These two nights were bright beacons letting it shine, shine, shine, the subtext becoming context becoming just the text, the reality. Free-wheeling improvisation, jambands doing jambandy things, the freedom of music and livemusic encapsulated in a night with all the right people in the room celebrating the right things. The fact that these two nights happened days before the inauguration is probably not, in the grand we’re-in-a-simulation scheme of things.
We need more of them!
January Roundup:
37 shows in 28 nights of seeing music = $102 donated as part of the #livemusicchallenge to the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund.
Five Star Shows seen in January:
! Marta Sanchez/Chris Tordinin/Savannah Harris @ The Stone
! Chris Potter/Craig Taborn/Scott Colley/Marcus Gilmore @ Village Vanguard
! Joe Russo/Nels Cline/John Medeski @ Brooklyn Bowl
! Winter Jazzfest
! Taper’s Choice @ Brooklyn Bowl
! Pom Poko @ Baby’s All Right
! Scott Metzger/Jonathan Goldberger/Jordan Scannella/Josh Dion @ Nublu
! Jorge Roeder/Nels Cline @ The Stone
Reviews (for Bowery Presents) from January:
I have started a new Instagram account solely for recommending new under-the-radar releases including weekly new-music playlists on Spotify, Tidal, and Apple. It can be found here. Check it out!
