Art

Holy crap. Yesterday evening was so jam packed with art I can hardly believe it.

After work was the monthly First Thursday art event in the city where many galleries are open to the public after hours to come see their exhibits for free, without appointment. And the public generally does - in droves. It's quite a scene. Lots of young artistic types, mixed with schmoozy money types go to pretend they know what they're looking at and run into people they know or pick up on someone new. Always a good investment in claustrophobia.

After that, we had some tickets to see Loop!Station at The Independent. The venue regularly has one or more opening acts of varying interestingness, and the headliner rarely comes on before 10. Very often I skip the opener and save my legs for the main event. But sometimes the openers are worth seeing.

Monica said she wanted to check out the first opener, Tim Bluhm, who sang with a group she used to like called the Mother Hips... so we got there early. They had set up jazz club-type tables on the floor that night, and we got one right up front.

Tim Bluhm came out and sat down in a chair with his guitar and set down an extremely engaging set of melodic, patient, deliberate songs that made a new fan out of me instantly. It was one of those rare times when it doesn't feel like a performance, but like sharing. He seemed very appreciative to be there playing songs for us. It made me curious about his past since he seemed like a person who had recently gained some kind of profound perspective. Or maybe he's just like that.

After Tim, some avant guarde film was shown with various random artsy images which I thought was somehow linked to the music set the guest DJ was playing between sets. But then the next band, Broun Fillinis, came out and stood on stage in front of the projection screen. We thought maybe they were annoyed that the film was still playing while they were on stage, but then they started their set, and it became clear that film was part of the show.

These guys' music was the exact opposite of Tim Bluhm. The patient melodies gave way to a new groove. One with greater tempo, and determined ambition in its complexity. The sax player mainly played straight ahead bop freak-out solos while the bass and drummer played hard-driving funk-rock grooves behind him. The interesting thing was that the songs seemed to boil down to a surf rock genre in my mind, which was reinforced by the lighting and projected art film going on during the show. All three musicians were impressively outfitted with chops and onstage effects equipment. I enjoyed the vibe they generated.

By the time Loop!Station came on, it was about midnight and we were pretty tired, but they were worth the wait. I had seen the singer, Robin Coomer, twice before in other groups, and she told me about Loop!Station after one of those performances while I was, no doubt, gushing to her about her singing. This group is difficult to describe. It's one of those things you definitely have to witness in person. But basically, it's her and a great cellist named Sam Bass who have written songs specifically to have their parts digitally sampled while performed live on stage and then played back as background parts later during the same song. So the cello will, at times, have several parts playing at once, maybe some plucked, some bowed, some with distortion effects, etc. The singer will also sample parts and then sing along with them in beautiful, haunting harmony. Combine all of this with the fact they are both easy on the eyes, she has a great stage presence, a great atmosphere and audience, and the film guys from the other group continuing their spooky lighting and images... and it made for a spectacular evening of art.

I really felt that these two were really pushing the boundaries of music right before our eyes. I wondered if we would see more music like this in the future... if all great musicians in the future will be expected to master technology this way in order to gain respect.

Just another day when I felt so happy to be where I was, when I was there.