Two nights of guitar heroes. Three nights of great shows, 2 of which were mine (or at least, where I got to play). Four nights if you count Teavolve, but I don’t know that I get to be a guitar hero on a night where Jimmy Stewart is there as well. Gots to be cautious. Meg Bowen was stuck on a scooter because she’d broken her foot falling off a scooter, beatboxing was in the house, James Dalton was a bad-ass. Same ole same ole.
Thursday night I guess I had to be my OWN damned guitar hero, and I don’t think I did a half-bad job. One of those rare nights at Firestone’s where we held the audience in the palm of our hands – at least for a little while – predictably in a spot like that it took Rowan and I’s combined might on a particularly bad-ass rendition of LooseN to make it happen (hrm, that reminds me – I wonder how the video turned out?) but it was probably the most satisfying rob & Rowan moment I’ve had in a while, combined with being one of the most satisfying Firestone’ s moments I’ve EVER had simply because it was so hard won.
Friday night Kristen and I opened for our friend Kevin Jackson and his massive, beautiful, powerful and passionate jazz R&B funk monstrosity – he’s played with artists as broad as Sheila E and Wyclef and his awards tend to be for his smooth jazz offerings and I met him through the much more R&B / hip hop stylings of Marc Evans in Baltimore – I was beyond flattered to get asked to do it and then – what an immense show! Just SO good. I’d only ever really heard him acoustic before so to watch him truly just SHRED and CRY on an electric, not taking back seat to anyone, really leading a band of his own – it was just amazing. And though “smooth jazz” has got to be one of my least favourite recorded genres, Live – the musicianship and passion on display was undeniable – and Kevin swept through some FAVOURITE genres as well like true soul-metal and Go-go. Here’s a clip of one of his songs – most of the time I couldn’t sit still long enough to capture anything (plus, who wants to Live THIS kind of music through their fucking viewfinder?!) but I knew I’d want to capture a bit of his Go-go spirit because… because daaaamn.
Saturday Kristen took us to see Living Colour – a show that I was excited about but not aquiver over. I Loved them in the 90s and we went to see them about a decade ago as part of an Afropunk show at Black Cat – and though Vernon Reid’s playing was undeniable, it was kind of a rough night, plagued with sound issues and the feeling that the band was just NOT happy to be there. Poisoned a bit by that it took me all of 30 seconds to come around to the JOY of seeing them Live in an environment that seemed a bit more up-to-their-level (?). Still some sound issues, but they just were SO amazing – Reid’s guitar shreddery is always phenomenal but it was the first time I got to really appreciate what an amazing drummer Will Calhoun is (he’s sat in randomly with Kristen!!!) and how funkily innovative Doug Wimbish is (there were legitimately some bass sounds that were entirely new to me and he tapped and shredded every bit as much as Reid did) – but holy shit – Corey Glover’s voice – beyond being able to do what he did 30 years ago (this was the birthday celebration for their debut album Vivid and they played the whole thing!), here he is at age 60 with an even more incredible voice, as if he was the final resting place for the sonic souls of both James Brown AND Prince on TOP of his own talents.
Incredible show.
It’s been a damned good weekend of music.
Hwah.
