I need to thank Dan over at Future Perfect Radio for enlightening me to the existence of this show in a discussion a few weeks ago at the Bottle after the Viva Voce show. I am not sure how Thurston Moore playing Sun Ra songs with Avreeyal Ra and Jim Baker at the Hideout flew under my radar. Luckily, I was able to get ticket before the show sold out.
After a quick stop off at the MCA (free members night, can't pass up free food) and a continual battle with Chicago-style wind and rain, we pull up to the Hideout. We are equally excited to be in from the rain and to be one step closer to the event. I won’t lie, Thurston could play a show that consisted of one note of pure feedback and I would be there front row (I have records that are just that and they are GREAT!).
As an aside, I should also mention that I owe Sonic Youth a lot for enlightening me to free jazz. It was the summer between senior year of high school and freshman year of college. My first time in NYC, visiting a friend, and we went to see SY at Irving Plaza. The opening act was Milford Graves who came out dressed in a suit adorned with all manner of cymbals and bells. He proceeded to make the greatest racket while slowly progressing toward an equally tricked out drum kit. Once behind the kit, two sax players come out and for the next 40 minutes it is the craziest thing I had ever heard, non-stop chaotic noise. I think my friend had to pick my jaw up from the floor. Simply put, it was life changing. For the next few years, my friend would send me Village Voice clippings of various members of SY doing one-off shows with other jazz greats in small NYC clubs. I was so jealous. Where I was going to school the only jazz was of the smooth variety.
Ten years later, even with all the great jazz that happens here in Chicago (at places like the Velvet Lounge, Elastic, Hotti Biscotti, Hungry Brain, and probably many other smaller places I don’t even know about), I am still jealous of NYC in some small way. So this show was a nice fulfillment of all those clippings my friend would send.
I shouldn’t be jealous of NYC though because there were people that flew in from France and the West Coast for this show. Tim Tuten mentioned in his intro something to the effect, “people think that it all starts in NYC, but we know that it starts here in Chicago and goes out to the rest of the world”.
The first band on was called My Barbarian, dressed all in white handmade apparel with eyes painted on their foreheads. True to the spirit of the evening they were “out there”, playing a style of music that was everywhere as much as it was here. They opened with a short vocal chant making way for the glammy and bombastic “Gomorrah” with its talk of various ancient societies. This set the tone of their set, with the next songs “Osiris”, “Fantasy”, and “Mars” dealing with topics of the mythic past or scary future. They refused to be locked into any one style, varying between Beefheart-ish zaniness to straight up indie-pop. The band was tight and extremely entertaining. My initial worry was that this gimmick of weirdness (the costumes, make-up) would be something they would hide bad songs behind. That was simply not the case, they were great song writers and entertainers, closing the set with a skit about bringing the gay troops home from Iraq and then lastly a song about Canada.
The highlight of the in-between set music was hearing the original Sun Ra version “Nuclear War." Having only heard the Yo La Tengo version, coupled with the fact that I have been looking for this track for a while, it was nice treat.
Let’s travel back in time, and place our selves at the scene of the event. Tim and a person from the Hyde Park Art Center give their introductions and walk off stage. Thurston starts with some pick scrapes and slowly Avreeyal Ra begins to fill in some percussion while Jim Baker finds a few choice notes on the keys. The beast builds to heavenly proportions and we watch with mouths agape. Ten minutes pass and we still have no real sense where we are, the piece slims up a bit for what we think is the end of one piece but what is probably just a brief regrouping. This must be a new piece now as Jim Baker is over to his Arp synth creating these wavy drones that Thurston is floating some beautiful harmonics on and Ra is filling with plucks on a thumb piano kalimba. There is electricity in the air. It appears that Thurston has grabbed a large metal file and is running it across his strings of his guitar. Baker is back at the keys, playing them as if possessed. As quickly as it has started it ended. The set was a good hour plus, with all three musicians communicating on a mythic-solar plane. By the end of the set we had all transcended this earthly existence. A great kick off for the weekend long festivities that went down at Hyde Park Art Center. If you missed the lectures and shows this weekend there is still time to catch the exhibition of Sun Ra stuff, on display until January 14th.
Pics by Kirstie, click here for the complete photoset
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Posted by: Nike Shox Turbo | 09/27/2010 at 04:00 AM
umm..that is a no brainer..1) no computers were used in the making of any of the music that night. and 2) the performers were super animated (and did i mention that i got to stand about 3 feet away from thurston moore...i nearly melted)
Posted by: Jason Shanley | 11/21/2006 at 08:47 PM
Hmmm, something about this article makes me get the feeling I would have been better off at the hideout this night rather than at the metro watching hot chip.
Posted by: Rory | 11/21/2006 at 04:44 PM
thanks for comment and info. the article will be corrected.
Posted by: Jason Shanley | 11/21/2006 at 12:59 PM
Yeah, certainly no need to be jealous of NYC - Chicago has a more accessible scene when it comes to shows like this, in my opinion.
Also, what Avreeayl plays is a Kalimba - thumb piano is not the preferred nomenclature, dude.
Posted by: Dan | 11/21/2006 at 12:54 PM