October 2024: Special Moments

9 min readNov 8, 2024

Continuing to write monthly about my livemusic adventures…

ICYMI: all my FY2024 writing

October was a good one. I mean, they’re all good ones, but in terms of livemusic, last month had quantity (the most shows seen in a month in over a year) and quality. So much quality. I wish I had the time, energy, and wherewithal to write about all the great shows I saw in October 2024, but that’s not going to happen. What I do note, though, is that I caught a lot of special sets in October. I do believe, in my heart, that there’s something good/noteworthy/worthwhile about pretty much every livemusic experience. Even the truly awful ones have some redeeming quality, if only to remind you what makes a show good or bad. So, yeah, sure, they’re all special in some way. But then there are those livemusic experiences that elevate and transcend, maybe just for a moment, those that remind you more than just what makes the experience “good” or “bad,” but remind you why you do this at all, those special moments that you subliminally are seeking every time you leave the house to go see music. There were a bunch of those for me last month, so figured it might be nice to recap a few of them…

Early in the month, when outdoor music was still happening, I went to an afternoon of the “In Gardens” series which are held in a couple different public spaces/parks in the Lower East Side. These consist of extreme experimental music, the kind of “is this really music” sets that are quite incongruent to the free outdoor music in a park vibe. The first set was like this, featuring DeYeon Kim playing the Korean gayageum, backed by Mat Maneri on viola and Steven Jones on harmonium. An odd confluence of instruments played by a trio of avant garde musicians, Kim at times screaming vocals in her native Korean. It was so off-the-wall that some in the audience giggled at time, perhaps the only proper response. Still, I enjoyed it — I enjoy everything! I was actually going to call it a day after that, it was a lot!, but decided it was nice out and even though the next set would probably be just as challenging, I would take a walk, get a cold drink and return for a little more. You never know! By the time I got back, the next act — a duo of violinists, Gabby Fluke-Mogul and Charlie Burnham — had already begun their set. There’s always a question of whether these groupings at this concert series have ever played together or plan things out, it feels like it could go either way. But this set was different. These are two expert violin players who both are comfortable at the fringe and in the more mainstream. Burnham especially — he used to sit in regularly with Medeski Martin and Wood and then plays with Smokey Hormel’s country band weekly, occasionally reaching the outer limits and sometimes just singing a folk ballad. This set was something — it started off interesting and then went to a “something special” space. Each was showing their mastery of their instrument, using it in both traditional and non-traditional ways, they would pass themes back and forth, sometimes operating on their own, othertimes deeply invested in what they other was doing. Then Burnham started singing a recognizable folk song and country and folk and jazz and classical and the weird and the normal were all happening at once. The set was maybe 30 minutes, but it was a journey of high level improvisation for a small group of listeners that all seemed to enter the same silent trance on a beautiful fall afternoon. When they finally finished, I looked at the guy next to me and he looked at me and we both kind of smiled and laughed realizing we had just witnessed something special.

The next afternoon was a completely different brand of special. Earlier in the summer, when Live Nation offered $25 all-in tickets for a range of concerts, I had bought a single behind-the-stage cheapie to see Vampire Weekend at Madison Square Garden in a Sunday afternoon matinee. I mean, what do you got to lose? I am definitely a VW fan, but I actually had not seen them live in quite some time, so I was excited to see them and was excited to see a rare daytime show at MSG. The vibe inside was spectacular, the afteroon energy percolated in the concourse, with lots of families with kids intermingled with the regular concert crowd. It was just really freakin’ cool and that energy fed into the show itself which, to my surprise, was just a fantastic arena show in every way. The setlist was killer, the band was amazing, and they elevated it all with enough extra-curricular fun and weirdness to turn it into more than just a concert in a big room, but an actual event. It was one of those shows that hit just right, a perfect realization of so many of the things I love about going to see music. I mean, it was just a special show.

There were a trio of guitar trio shows the following week, including two in the same night, that were, on their own, fantastic shows. But within these shows were moments, many moments each, that kind of blew my mind. There was Thumbscrew (which is Mary Halvorson on guitar, Michael Formanek on bass, and Tomas Fujiwara on drums) at Jazz Gallery, Jon Madof Trio at The Stone, and Julian Lage Trio at Village Vanguard. Three amazing groups, all three played wonderfully beginning to end. Each of these groups would delve into high-end improvisation and the quality of the interplay left my brain fully cross-eyed and giddy with trying-to-follow dizziness. Halvorson has been more and more focused in her playing the last few times I’ve seen her, and this may have been the best of all, feeding off her trio-mates and leading them on loop-de-loops of ad hoc melodies and rabbit-hole adventuring. She wisely restrained from letting her characteristic effects-work get too weird, and so she was able to deftly drop in little bits here and there to drive her narrative. Highly impressive playing and the whole trio was right there with her. Earlier that night at the Stone, Madof more or less debuted his new trio. I’ve been following his playing for a while, starting with another guitar trio, Rashanim, which was a hair-raising rockjazz hybrid operating in the mystical Jewish realm. This new trio had a similar flavor and was built to jam. Jon led them through some masterful spaces, intensity matching intelligence. The Stone was a bit of a staid setting for such electricity, but I think the constraints may have helped the music find direction. The improv was fully entangling, the kind that you get lost in, something special, no doubt. I look forward to catching this group again. And, obviously, I don’t need to convince too many of you that Julian Lage is something special. He’s always a treat, but I have, in the past, found that his own trio is somewhat restraining for him. That was very much not the case when I caught him at the Vanguard last month. He used his solo material as a springboard for sublime, transcendent improvisation, taking his guitar to the outer limits. The dude is something special and when you catch him in the zone, it’s a bit extra. Actually, there was one more guitar trio show that made the leap from “special” to special and that was the final Subtonics show of the year, which also happened to be my 50th time seeing them play. Of course, this was at LetLove Inn in Astoria and the ever-shifting band featured Kevin Scott on bass and Josh Dion on drums, and it was those two guys that pushed htis into the next level. The Subtonics gig is quintessential “it’s always great, but when it’s great, it’s GREAT.” Well, this was one of the best I’ve seen in a while, guitarist Costas pushing as much as being pushed, pulling as much as being pulled, a masterclass on jamming jazzrock fusion.

One of the shows I had on my calendar for a while was Polish pianist Hania Rani at Warsaw in Greenpoint. Her albums have always struck a chord in my soul and I was looking forward to experiencing it live. Talk about transcendent! Rani played solo, surrounded by pianos and keyboards and synthesizers. She mixed expert composition with improvisation, creating a collage of sounds from each instrument, drawing from nearly every genre, from classical, electronic, ambient, jazz, and indie, pop, and beyond. The result was a total mindbender, a singular sound unlike anything I’ve experienced. And this set really was an experience as much as a concert, fully immersive and soul stirring… one of the best of the month/year.

Speaking of “experiences,” living in New York City affords so many cool and unique livemusic experiences, sometimes it seems like too many, that they’re easy to overlook. One that I had overlooked for years, but will not ever again, is the Ragas Live Festival at Pioneer Works in Red Hook. This is a 24-hour festival that starts at 7pm Saturday and goes until 7pm Sunday, one band playing after the other, all raga or raga-inspired or raga-adjacent music. This has been going on for several years and always looked cool, but I never motivated to check it out until last year, when I went for a bit at night and then some the following afternoon. This year, the way my schedule worked out, I got there after midnight, stayed until 5 in the morning, went home to sleep a bit, then returned for some more in the middle of the day. It’s like a sleepover for serious drone nerds. Some of the musicians I know or have seen and some are new. Some are legends from India and you quickly find out why. A couple of the sets blew me away, like broke my brain, including U. Rajesh on Indian “mandolin” who played longform improvisations that may have gone to another dimension, like serious what-the-fuckness. Seeing music in the middle of the night, when you should be asleep, is quite the experience, an out-of-body thrill ride. I am hoping to do the full 24 hours next year as many people do. Oh!, almost forgot to mention they had free 7th Street Burgers Sunday afternoon. What an amazing, special thing it was.

Scanning over all the amazing music I saw in October (much of it I won’t get into, but Osees! Donato! Liz Cooper!) there’s probably just one of the special moments that will be one I look back on years down the road. That would be Stevie Wonder at Madison Square Garden. I don’t need to convince anyone (I hope!) that Stevie is “something special” personified. A guy that “legend” doesn’t do justice to. I have seen him live only once before and it wasn’t quite like this show. Hit after hit after hit, his personality overflowing from the songs, a tangible love filling the arena. He’s clearly lost a step, but that made the show all the more endearing. There are few that rise to the level of Stevie Wonder, perhaps the best to ever do it. To see him play from the bridge at MSG, to sing along with thousands and the man himself, to dance to those songs, played one after the other — Living for the City > Sir Duke > I Wish was a mid-set triplet that probably can’t be matched by any other living artist, in my opinion — that was a special moment that I will never forget.

October Roundup:

39 shows = $78 donated as part of the #livemusicchallenge to the Brennan Center for Justice.

I started making weekly Spotify playlists — an hour’s worth of new music I was enjoying that week. Enjoy em!

Five Star Shows seen in October:

! Gabby Fluke-Mogul/Charlie Burnham @ First Street Green

! Vampire Weekend @ Madison Square Garden

! Thumbscrew @ Jazz Gallery (late)